Random thoughts on Lost in general

Today I listened to Chuck Klosterman discuss Lost with Bill Simmons on a podcast for 20 minutes, and I also read EW.com's Doc Jensen's take on the latest episode. Here are a few disconnected things I learned and/or thought were interesting.

Klosterman is apparently buddies with a few of the writers for Lost, and he said that there are two separate camps in that group: Camp 1 wants to focus on the soap-opera elements of the show, while Camp 2 really likes the sci-fi aspects, including time travel, the Swan Hatch, etc. Apparently Camp 2 won the battle during Seasons 2 and 3, which perfectly explains what the heck was going on with the show spending so much time on love triangles and Hurley getting the Dharma van working and stuff like that.

Simmons heard that Lost was initially created because some ABC exec loved Tom Hanks' Castaway, and wanted the network to produce a show along those lines. Therefore, the pilot was thrown together really, really quickly, and Simmons doesn't believe there's any way the writers/producers planned the entire show, or even important aspects of it, in advance.

Klosterman generally agrees with that premise, and is virtually certain that the writers are reverse engineering stuff now to fit with earlier episodes, which explains continuity issues that occasionally pop up.

That said, Klosterman said he consciously chooses to watch believing they know what they're doing until the end, and that the entire show is written well enough that everything is part of one great whole. He said if the final episodes are crap and don't resolve anything, he may change his mind. :)

And from ew.com:

Jensen notices two discrepancies in Tuesday's episode when you compare them to earlier ones this season.

1. Claire tells Desmond she doesn't know Aaron's sex, when she clearly tells Kate that she's having a boy.

2. Desmond is wearing a wedding ring on Oceanic 815 when he is sitting next to Jack.

So either these are just mistakes the show has made, or there's some weird convergence of realities taking place from the time Oceanic 815 takes off until it lands safely, and maybe even after that. Maybe Reality B is something that is gradually forming, not something that solidly exists. Which kinda goes along with all of my Matrix theories.

In other news, the driver I get creeped out about is George Minkowski, the Kahana's radio operator who got unstuck in time and died last season. In my own defense, the guy was referred to and not pictured about 50 times before we saw him, and he almost immediately died at that point. I'm good, but apparently I'm not that good.

And something else Jensen noticed is that Desmond and Widmore have a meeting in Reality A where Widmore specifically tells Desmond he's not good enough to drink the scotch in his office.

However, [Widmore] only pours whiskey into one glass, saying that one swallow costs more than Desmond would make in a month, and sharing it with him would be a waste because he will never be a great man and as such will never be worthy to marry his daughter.

Just makes the moment when Widmore offers Desmond a drink in Reality B that much better.

Finally, a great find by Jensen:

I was reminded of what Young Daniel Faraday told his mother in the episode entitled ''The Variable'' when she informed him that she wanted him to stop studying piano and start focusing his genius on physics. He could do both, he insisted. ''I can make time,'' he said. Eloise sighed. ''If only you could,'' she said. And it sounds like he did — if you believe Dan's Lost theory.

A good find. I don't agree with many of Jensen's theories, but he's an entertaining read and he does his research.