Things We Learned From LOST Last Night

More funny from Lindelof and Cuse

2011-07-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened on the way to Room 5AB at Comic-Con this afternoon. Or rather, in Room 5AB. During EW’s Totally Lost: One Year Later panel, Lost exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse crashed the festivities in fitting Comic-Con style. (Cuse dressed as a stormtrooper; Lindelof was clad in a Dharma jumpsuit and Boba Fett helmet). Not only did they field all sorts of questions from fans, they unveiled a scene from the season 1 finale that supposedly never aired. Yes, the very one hinted at during their cryptic Twitter “feud,” which was resolved at the panel.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/07/22/lost-damon-lindelof-carlton-cuse-deleted-scen/

Damon Lindelof is funny

2011-02-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

I follow Damon's Twitter feed, and he only ever retweets the critical comments people have about Lost. He's more likely to showcase these tweets if they exhibit some talent, which explains this.

For all those who were convinced we were making it up as we went along. http://bit.ly/gxSPlN (Nice work @Hartter777

Nice.

Locke, explained

2010-08-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

The End

2010-05-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

So it's been a week since the series finale. There are two reasons why I haven't written an episode recap before now. One is that I feel like there are 300,000 different people out there who have posted their thoughts already and I'd just add to the noise.

The second is that I'm not quite sure how I feel about said finale yet. Before the last episode aired, Cruse and Lindelof essentially said that if you like Lost for the people and the relationships, you'd like the finale, but if you liked Lost for the mystery and you're expecting every single question to be answered, you'd be disappointed.

Put me in both camps. I loved the show for both of these aspects, and I feel if that Lost was missing either one it would be inferior to what it was.

Immediately following the finale, I felt that I liked it. As time has gone on, however, I've become more annoyed at certain mysteries were never addressed, let alone resolved. But then that annoyance is calmed as I realize that some of these questions just don't matter. And then I get annoyed because I feel like I'm being manipulated into thinking that.

This makes it hard for me to cohesively put down my thoughts on Lost as a whole. But today I figured I might as well give it a shot, so here goes.

Reality A

1. Desmond's ability to withstand electromagnetic power means he can remove the plug at the bottom of the Light well. Esau wanted him to do this so Esau could leave the Island. Jack wanted Desmond to this so that Esau could be killed. Turns out both were correct.

2. Kate kills Esau.

3. Lapidus is able to fly himself, Miles, Sawyer, Claire, Kate and Richard off the Island. They probably make it.

4. Jack is injured during his fight with Esau and is dying. He passes the Guardian position on to Hurley, and then replaces the plug in the Light well.

5. The ensuing electromagnetic energy shoots him out of the Light well, where he stumbles back to the bamboo thicket and dies. Vincent is there.

6. Hurley guards the Island for an unspecified amount of time. Ben is his second in command for a while. It's a good time.

Reality B

1. This entire reality is a place in the afterlife constructed by certain of the Losties so that they could find each other after they'd died. There is absolutely no precedence set in the Lost universe that deals with anything related to this concept.

2. Desmond gets the ball rolling for most of his buddies to realize where they are and get them prepared to leave the aforementioned construct.

3. Eventually, a lot of characters from the show end up in a multi-denominational church where Christian is in charge. The only three people there that were not on Flight 815 are Penny, Desmond and Juliet.

4. From Lostpedia: "Christian explains that they are real, Jack's life was real, the people in the church are real. Jack becomes upset, but Christian reassures him, explaining that "everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some before you, some long after you. When Jack asks why everyone is here now, Christian responds that 'There is no now, here', and that this is a place they all made together to find each other, because the most important part of Jack's life was the time spent with these people. They made it so they could find each other, remember, and 'move on."

5. They all move on.

I enjoyed the concept that, in the Lost universe, there is life after death, and you end up with your loved ones eventually. Seeing Penny and Desmond, Sawyer and Juliet, Sun and Jin, etc. was awesome and very touching. (The Sayid and Shannon relationship is dumb and I refuse to accept it.)

So on that front, I liked the finale. I liked that most of the people ended up happy and with the ones who mattered to them (but are we sure no family members were important to these people?).

I also believe that we have been given the answers to many of the mysteries of Lost, in a roundabout way that requires some work to decipher. For example, the Others.

We know the Others were formed as Jacob attempted to actively meddle in the affairs of those on the Island. Richard was his intermediary, and for a while, things may have been good. But eventually, the Others lost their way. Jacob's list of candidates were used to target new arrivals to the Island for kidnap, torture and other manipulation. Their actions are merely examples of how arrivals to the Island eventually succumb to evil and kill each other, as Esau and Kidnap Mom believed is inevitable.

Jacob likely became disenfranchised with "his" people and eventually abandoned them altogether, leaving them wide open for guidance and manipulation from Esau. In one way, Jacob caused his own death... as he neglected Ben, he created the conditions whereby Ben became angry and easily able to be controlled by Smokey.

Now, not all mysteries can be solved this way. Christian left Claire a music box in Reality B. This is never referred to again. It's a mystery with no answer.

Other questions in this category: why the infertility issues on the Island? What was the deal with Walt? What exactly was the deal with Sayid and Claire after they die and are "claimed" by Esau?

Now, if I think about it long enough, I become frustrated that the Lost writers clearly introduced mysteries without giving them an accompanying answer. I doubt even Cruse or Lindelof know the answers to the above questions.

Yet, I think I'm okay with this. Creating a network television show is far different from writing a book or filming a movie. The writers dealt with uncertainty as to whether Lost would exist past a single season. They had to work with actors leaving the show and cutting their character's storyline short. They wrote some episodes in as few as two weeks.

Yet, even with all these limitations, they set the bar really high. Higher than any TV show before them. And if they didn't quite clear this bar, they at least created a work that was highly entertaining and engrossing.

I'll take that. It was a good ride, and I don't regret watching a minute.

Over the next few weeks I'll tackle a few of the bigger mysteries that we've only recently been given the means to answer.

As always, feel free to contribute your own thoughts.

ESPN explains Lost

2010-05-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Muppets and Lost? Sign me up.

2010-05-17T17:30:00.000-07:00

Kimmell spoofs Across the Sea (kinda)

2010-05-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to www.docarzt.com.

Across the Sea

2010-05-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

Much better, Lost. I admit that my love for backstory probably inflates my opinion of this episode, but even without that, this was a pretty well-done story.

Dragging index: 1 out of 10. I was enthralled pretty much the entire time.

Learning!

Reality A

1. Jacob and Esau are twins, and I feel even more validated calling Esau Esau. Man in Black just makes me feel like Will Smith is around here somewhere, playing a Johnny Cash cover. It's a bad name.

2. Jacob and Esau were born to a Latin-speaking woman who shipwrecked on the Island.

3. Real Mom was unaware she was carrying twins, and only had a name ready for Jacob. After Esau is born, Real Mom asks, "Can I see him?" and not "Can I see them?"

4. Kidnap Mom kills Real Mom and raises Jacob and Esau as her own children. They are kept from even knowing the rest of the world exists, and for around 14 years they only have each other and Kidnap Mom as company.

5. Young boy appearing to Esau/Locke in the jungle? Jacob.

6. Jacob can't lie, and Esau is a natural deceiver.

7. Jacob and Esau discover the rest of their people, wrecked on the Island with Real Mom.

8. Kidnap Mom keeps to her xenophobic ways and asks them not to make contact with the men. She shows them the Light, which she says is the source for all Light in the world. No one can take anything from it, or it will be extinguished. Kidnap Mom has been the Protector of the Light for a long time, and one day she'll bestow that responsibility on one of her kidnapped sons.

9. Esau sees his dead Real Mom; Jacob cannot see her. Real Mom informs Esau that the men are his people, and that Kidnap Mom killed her. Having acquired this new information, he leaves, and wants Jacob to come with him. Jacob refuses, and a fistfight ensues. Jacob wins.

10. It's Kidnap Mom who creates the conditions whereby neither twin can kill the other.

11. Esau lives with the men for 30+ years. Jacob visits, and they play Esau's game, which looks more like checkers than backgammon. Lostpedia says it is Senet.

12. Esau is building the Frozen Donkey Wheel, and plans to harness the Light to get off the Island. The specifics of this plan are fuzzy, but Esau's convinced it will work. He believes he is special.

13. Esau and his people build the wells in the locations of electromagnetic weirdness.

14. Kidnap Mom finds out about Esau's plan to leave, and pleads with him to stay. After it's clear he has every intention of completing the Frozen Donkey Wheel, she knocks him out and somehow kills all of his people, burning the village. She also fills in the well.

15. She bestows the work of Protector of the Light on Jacob, who was under the impression that she wanted the job to go to Esau this whole time. She says it's always been for him, and he complains that he doesn't want it. In the end, he accepts, and drinks some wine that Kidnap Mom has blessed in Latin.

16. Kidnap Mom tells Jacob to never go down the tunnel to the light, and that doing so will bring a fate worse than death on him.

17. Upon discovering his men are all dead and the well is filled in, Esau wrecks Kidnap Mom's camp, destroying the tapestry she was weaving. She arrives at the scene and Esau stabs her in the back, killing her. Kidnap Mom thanks Esau with her dying breath.

18. Jacob arrives, refuses to listen to Esau's explanations, and a fightfight ensues. Jacob wins again. I'm seeing a pattern.

18. Jacob, knowing he can't kill Esau, and also knowing that going down the light tunnel is bad news, determines to subject Esau to this unknown fate. Messing with powers he doesn't fully understand? Great call, buddy.

19. Esau floats into the light. An earthquake happens. Smokey comes roaring out of the tunnel.

20. Jacob finds Esau's body not far away. It is dead for dead.

21. He buries Kidnap Mom and Esau in the caves. Lost explicitly tells us that they are the Adam and Eve Jack and Kate found in the pilot episode of the series. I feel really talked down to.

Reality B

1. Absolutely nothing.

Phew. That's a lot of questions answered. Some of my thoughts:

1. Jacob is really naive and trusting. I imagine this has changed since 1600-something, but it affects my perception of who he is.

2. How messed up are Jacob and Esau psychologically? They're raised by Kidnap Mom, only to find out she killed their real mother. That alone is enough to cause major issues for anyone, but then Esau kills Kidnap Mom and Jacob turns Esau into some smoke monster abomination. Good grief. Any therapist would see either one of these guys as a giant bag of money.

3. Was Smokey created from Esau's soul? Or had Smokey already been in existence, and merely combined with Esau's soul to become what he is now?

4. As Protector of the Light, Jacob is obviously allowed access to the Light to stay alive for a really long time and bestow the same gift on others (Richard). Also might have allowed him to bring Locke back from the dead after getting pushed out the window and falling like 20 stories.

That's it. One more episode before the series finale. My faith is restored, and I feel like these last few hours will be amazing.

Let's do this.

Smokey to star in Lost spin-off series

2010-05-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ah, The Onion. You are so brilliant.

BURBANK, CA—Executives at ABC announced Monday that the network will premier a new Lost spin-off series this fall based around that show's popular smoke monster character.

Enlarge ImageThe smoke monster, a fan favorite.

The new series, a half-hour family-oriented comedy called Where There's Smoke, is touted by ABC as the new anchor of its Thursday-night lineup.

"Somewhere between the smoke monster's first appearance on Lost— when it was depicted as a strange unseen force uprooting trees—and that episode in season three where it grabbed Mr. Eko and smashed him against the ground until he was dead, this character became the breakout star of the show," said Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment. "And that's exactly why we're so excited about Where There's Smoke. We get to see the monster's light comedic side in a show about life, love, and good friends having good times."

"Because after all, Where There's Smoke, there's laughter," McPherson added.

Just awesome. Captures everything stupid about spin-off shows and ABC comedies in general.

The Candidate

2010-05-06T13:21:00.000-07:00

I am annoyed. I was underwhelmed enough with "The Last Recruit" that I didn't even bother writing a post on it, and "The Candidate" was even worse, in my opinion.

Here's what we got from Tuesday's episode:

Reality A

1. Esau maybe really kinda does want to kill the candidates maybe.

2. Maybe he can't kill them directly so perhaps he's kinda hoping to get them to sort of kill each other.

Reality B

1. Locke is responsible for his paralysis and his father's vegetative state. Locke feels really, really guilty about it.

2. Christian left Claire a music box.

That's it? Really? With two episodes to go, that's what they give us?

The whole thing kinda cheapened Sun and Jin's deaths in my view. It's like the writers realized they'd written a crap for crap episode, so they threw in 10 minutes of Sun and Jin tragically dying just hours after being reunited to tug on our heartstrings and make us forget what we'd just watched.

Ugh.

In other news, the Lost series finale will be 2.5 hours long.

I'm hoping these last 4.5 hours of Lost will be mind-blowingly awesome. Abrams, Lindelof, Cruse, etc. all set the bar ridiculously high, and now they have to clear it.

Because no one wants to see this on May 23.

Response to "Everybody Loves Hugo" Post

2010-04-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, I started this as a direct response to Brandon's last post, but it got way too lengthy, so I'm putting it up as a post. Don't have a heart attack, Brandon. I am actually posting. :)

This sounds a little gruesome, but my favorite part of this episode was when Ilana blew up. She totally deserved it, with the way she was treating the dynamite. I saw it coming with her behavior, but was a little surprised when it actually happened.

I think Desmond is still alive in the well because Locke, like everyone else, still needs him for some reason. Just don't know what that is. As noted in an earlier post, though, Desmond seems to be pretty complacent to do what *anyone* asks him to, so maybe Locke's gotta keep him in a place that others perhaps won't find him? I'm kind of wondering if he is keeping him in the well so Widmore will have to search him out (thus allowing Locke to move more freely towards the plane?)... just thinking out loud here. Locke said something about the well making compass needles spin--what would Desmond's ability to withstand massive amounts of electromagnetism (or whatever it was) do to that/because of that? Very interesting stuff going on with Desmond, I think. Actually, now that I think about it, I think he's just hiding Desmond so he can use him if he needs to get past the electro-fence thing into Widmore's camp... doesn't that seem like something Desmond could withstand?

On that note, I think Desmond tried to kill Locke (succeeded? not sure) either because:
A.) He remembers the island, and what a jerk Locke was to him. Also, if Locke were to remember the island, like everyone else seems to be doing, the potential ramifications there are scary.
Or
B.) Maybe Desmond is trying to recreate his own remembrance (remember how Charlie nearly killed him and that's how he remembered?) to get Locke to remember his role? Again, not sure.

I'm confused about why all the candidates need to leave together. They got off before without everyone, and came back (though that time it was claimed that they all needed to be together, too...but Eloise seemed somewhat willing to make an exception?).

It kind of bugs me when questions are answered so bluntly (like the whispers thing)--we've been waiting for years for these answers, and then they just throw them in our faces? Lame. Also--why can everyone hear the whispers, but only Hugo *see* the dead people? Other people have seen the dead in the past, but they've always been the smoke, right? But Locke is stuck in his body now, so the dead people are something else? Also, Miles can hear people's last thoughts--what's with all the dead people gifts?

I don't hate Michael, either. My feelings towards him are similar to those towards Ben. I think part of the show is just the idea of how even the "worst" people aren't necessarily bad, and the good ones can be... Hugo being one of the few exceptions there (he does seem to genuinely be good... though his $$ definitely cursed a lot of people in Reality A). Just lots of shades of gray within the characters.

That being said, it seems like Michael may be working for Esau. Or at least he's working towards getting everyone off the island (since they all have to go together...). Does he maybe get to leave with them? And what would happen if they *did* make it off the island? Their existence is still continuing in Reality B while they're living in Reality A--what if they collided? I'm thinking that's maybe where the cracks in Reality B are coming from--the closer they get to leaving the island in A, the more cracks people are seeing in B. Also, does it seem like the dead (Libby and Charlie, specifically) break through the realities a lot easier? Perhaps because they're not on the island anymore?

Sorry this is so disorganized. I still have a lot of questions. Hope you guys don't mind me thinking out loud.

Go season go.

Everybody Loves Hugo

2010-04-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

First things first, and I have to say my favorite part of last night's episode was the 30-second preview for next week's episode. Not that "Everybody Loves Hugo" wasn't any good, but holy smokes was the preview brilliant.

Here it is (and for those of you who avoid these because of spoilers, there really aren't any):

Whoever had the brilliant idea to combine Willy Wonka's creepy tunnel scene with Lost should get a raise. As my wife pointed out last night, we all watched that movie as kids, and we were all terrified of the tunnel incident (and rightly so). Tapping into that part of our shared subconscious was genius.

Dragging index: 3 out of 10. As the episode title implies, I love Hurley and am never bored when he's around. The only problem was that at the end, I realized not much at all had really happened.

The learning:

Reality A

1. Messing with that Black Rock dynamite is never a good idea. Though the way Ilana was tossing stuff into the bag and throwing it around, you'd have thought she was suicidal. At least Arzt was being careful with his when he blew up.

2. The Island IS Purgatory after all! Kind of! Apparently if you did bad stuff on the Island and then died, you're stuck there. That's what the whispers are. Thanks for answering a question we've had since Season 1, writers!

3. Michael appears to Hurley with some unhelpful advice. "I'm here to keep you from getting everyone killed," doesn't do much to clear anything up. Stupid ghosts.

4. Esau ascertains that Widmore wants something from Desmond and promptly chucks Desmond down a well. After establishing that the well isn't deep enough to cause instant death, this plan seems weird for Esau. Why not just kill Des and be done with it?

5. That ghost boy keeps messing with Esau, though Esau is determined to just ignore him. I think this is hilarious. The boy seems to be older than he was the first time we saw him, and his arms are no longer covered in blood. Or it might be a different boy altogether. Who knows?

6. Richard's assertion that "Jacob never tells people what to do," was not entirely accurate. Jacob did appear to Hurley once already this season, and he gave Hurley a very specific set of instructions.

6. Hurley leads a group to join up with Esau's crew. Jack, Sun, Kate and Lapidus join him. Richard, Miles and Ben go off to destroy the Ajira Airways plane. Jack finally comes to terms with his savior complex through following Hurley's lead. Whether this is a good thing or not, we don't know.

7. Esau states that to get off the Island, the candidates all need to leave together. Assuming the plane doesn't blow up anytime soon, Esau is now most of the way there.

Reality B

1. Libby's Matrix is cracked by merely seeing Hurley on TV. Hurley's Matrix is cracked when she kisses him, though he feels something when they first meet.

2. Desmond is actively getting involved in the lives of passengers from flight 815. For some reason he feels pushing Hurley towards Libby is enough to help him see the truth, but Locke needs to get smashed by a car. Maybe this is because Locke doesn't have any romantic relationships in Reality A. Also, he's dead.

In other news, in talking with my wife last night I realized that the writers have done everything in their power to make us really like Hurley and really dislike Michael.

Hurley never does anything remotely cruel. He never hurts anyone, intentionally or otherwise. He only wants what is best for everyone. He is acutely aware of his own shortcomings, but isn't super emo about them. He even forgives Michael for killing Libby. In short, he's borderline unbelievably good.

Meanwhile, Michael's only focus while he's alive is Walt, to the detriment of everyone around him. And he even fails at being a good father. He betrays the Losties, kills two of them, loses his son and then tries to kill himself. Thanks to the direction of Mr. Friendly, he does manage to somewhat redeem himself by freezing the bomb on the Kahana for a while, but when he reappears, he only berates Hurley, further giving us a negative impression of him.

And the thing is, even with all that, I don't see Michael as a bad person. I see him as a good person who is forced to make terrible decisions (terrible as in extremely difficult) and recognizes that fact.

That's enough amateur psychology from me.

Feel free to chime in with anything I've missed. Go Willy Wonka boat go.

Lost fan art!

2010-04-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

Lost fans are nothing if not devoted and a little crazy. Here's a bunch of Lost fan art ABC has collected and put on display on the interwebs for all to see.

I'd post a couple here, but the whole thing is in Flash (so you iPad users can't view them).

Random thoughts on Lost in general

2010-04-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

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.

Happily Ever After

2010-04-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

At long last, Reality B starts to have some sort of relevance to the overall plot of the show. Did Tuesday's episode completely destroy my existing theory about what Reality B is? Yes it did. But I'm not upset, because whatever the truth is, it's more interesting than what I previously thought.

Dragging index: An impressive 0 out of 10. Great episode.

Learning!

Reality A:

1. Widmore wants Desmond for Desmond's magical "I can survive a major electromagnetic event" powers. Somehow Widmore found out about the Swan explosion incident and figures if Des can do it once, he can do it again. What usefulness this skill actually has, I have no idea.

2. Widmore is right. The very same experiment that fried poor Redshirt to death leaves Desmond with hardly a scratch, though it's hard to tell which injuries are from being beaten by Widmore's groupies, which are from breaking his chair against the door, and which are possibly from the experiment.

3. Widmore once again says that if his mission fails, everyone will be gone forever. These are some high stakes here.

4. After the experiment, suddenly Desmond is Mr. Cooperative. At first I thought this was because he'd traveled to Reality B and saw what would be missing/different if Esau gets off the Island, but then

5. Infected Sayid opens a can on Widmore's people (sparing Zoe McGeophysist) and tells Desmond to come with him. Desmond responds like a 3-year-old who has been offered ice cream, and happily trundles off into the jungle. What happened to helping Widmore? I argue Desmond is brain damaged thanks to the electromagnetism, at least temporarily.

Reality B:

1. Is the Matrix! Everyone is in a reality that should not exist, and cracks are forming in the "programming." It starts with Charlie's vision of Claire, then Desmond flashes back to Reality A Charlie's death and finally, Faraday (Widmore, whatever) is writing incredibly complex quantum mechanics in a notebook, despite being a musician with no expertise in this area whatsoever.

2. To backtrack a bit, Desmond is best friends with Widmore, but has no friends or family whatsoever. Charlie's accusation that Desmond isn't really happy rings true.

3. Charlie remains Charlie. Bassist for Drive Shaft, heroin addict, etc. etc.

4. Penny and Daniel are aware of each other's existence, though Daniel still refers to her as his half-sister, which is consistent with Reality A. Faraday is living his childhood dream of being a great pianist, while in Reality A, this dream is redirected/quashed by Hawking, who wants Daniel to be a physicist.

5. Eloise Hawking is still Eloise Hawking, except that she is openly married to Widmore. She is still obsessed with the status quo, hearkening back to her "what happened, happened" speech to Desmond in The Constant. She tells Desmond he can't see the guest list because he is not ready yet. More Matrix parallels.

6. And just like in Reality A, Daniel is insistent on proving his mother wrong. He believes he can change the timeline by detonating the nuke, despite Ms. Hawkings arguments that this is impossible. Here in Reality B, he essentially gives Penny to Desmond, in direct conflict with his mother's wishes.

7. From Lostpedia's recap: "[Hawking] says that [Desmond] should not need to look for anything, that he has the perfect life and has attained the thing he wanted more than anything: the approval of Charles Widmore." Major, major Matrix theme, there. The machines created a world to keep the humans happy, even if it wasn't real. Seems that is going on here.

8. Faraday believes he set off an atomic bomb and created this reality. This puts us square into the realm of concurrent realities where one has holes in it and just trying to get my head around the theory at large gives me a headache. I'm just going to wait until more is explained.

9. The major cracks in the Matrix are all centered around relationships. Penny/Desmond, Charlie/Claire, Faraday/Charlotte. Minor cracks exist in Jack's scar and possibly Sawyer letting Kate go at the airport. Major cracks lead to characters trying to learn more, willingly recruiting others, etc. Minor cracks just seem to be like deja vu. Something weird, but not enough for those who experience them to openly question the reality of their reality.

10. Considering Charlie's version of "showing" Desmond the cracks involved driving the car into the ocean, I wonder what Desmond has in plan for the other passengers of 815. I had a conversation with Amy about this last night, and we both thought it'd be humorous if Desmond contacted an 815 passenger who had died in the crash. "So, um, you should be dead. Just thought you should know."

11. I get major trap vibes from George, the driver. It may just be he's kinda sleazy, but I don't trust that guy.

That's it. Can't wait for next week.

The Package

2010-03-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

Things are ramping up as of late. Pieces are being moved into place, motivations are becoming more clear, and I hope we're in for eight more incredible episodes to finish off the show.

Dragging index: I rate this episode at 1. Sun's aphasia thing bugs me because I can't see what function it serves. She can still understand English. She can still write English. What's the point?

The learning, mingled with theory:

Reality A:

1. Widmore claims to be at the Island for the express purpose of keeping Esau from leaving the Island. His adversarial relationship with Ben led us to initially believe Widmore was working against Jacob, but more and more it seems he's definitely all about helping him. Apparently the Kahana and other attempts Widmore has made at invading the Island were more about dethroning Ben as leader of the Others.

2. The package is Desmond. Is Desmond somehow destined to do something great on the Island? Ms. Hawking sure thought so. Maybe this is why Widmore tried to keep Penny away from him... he knew Desmond was going to be mixed up in Island stuff (or possible die?) and didn't want Penny to be involved.

3. Widmore's people take Jin because Jin was fixin' to leave the camp. Interesting that Leader McGeophysicist Zoe tells Widmore maybe he should have used mercenaries to work for him, when that's exactly what he did with Keamy, and we all know how well that went, what with the collateral damage and all. Maybe Widmore is willing to sacrifice professionalism for a lower body count, that old softy.

4. Esau intends to use Kate to get others on the plane (translation: Jack and Sawyer. Maybe Hurley). Maybe that love triangle stuff I was bored to death with over the last few seasons did have a purpose, after all.

5. Esau also strongly implied that if Infected Claire wishes to kill Kate once all is said and done, she's free to.

6. Sayid complains that he doesn't feel any emotion whatsoever. Zombie!

7. Richard has a new purpose: to stop Esau from leaving the Island. I'm not sure this is what Jacob meant when he told Ilana Richard would know what to do. Ilana was already aware of Esau and his plans to leave and what that meant, I think. Hmm.

8. Widmore tells Jin that if Esau gets off the Island, "everyone we know and love would simply cease to be." Interesting concept that, if Widmore is telling the truth, might involve some time travel implications.

Reality B

1. Sun and Jin aren't married, but sleeping together. This angers Daddy Paik and

2. Paik sells Sun and Jin out. Is that what Reality A Paik was doing, too, when he sent Jin to LA with that watch?

3. Mikhail works for/with Keamy and speaks "like nine languages," including Korean. He gets shot in the eye.

4. Sun is pregnant, and catches a stray bullet.

A theory about that last one. What if Reality B is what happens if Esau leaves the Island? Somehow this causes some event in the past that adjusts everything to where Kate is still running from the cops, Jack has a son, etc. etc. In that situation, Sun and her baby's lives are at risk and they may die. Perhaps Penny is dead, as well, and Widmore's prophecy about all they (Jin and Widmore?) know and love will cease to exist means Reality B will take over if Esau escapes.

That's all I have. Getting good.

Ab Aeterno - Deleted Scene?

2010-03-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks again, Damon Lindelof's (probably real) Twitter feed (@DamonLindelof).

Ab Aeterno

2010-03-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

From Lostpedia:

Ab Aeterno is Latin for "from eternity". The phrase is used to mean "since the beginning" or "for long ages".
The phrase comes from the Latin translation of the Bible found in Proverbs 8:23 : "I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began."

Now that that's out of the way, on to my recap.

Dragging Index: 2 out of 10. They spent way too long on the "Oh no Richard cannot escape his chains" aspect of the episode, but other than that they were fine with the pacing.

Getting the backstory for Richard was very rewarding, in my opinion. We've only wondered where he came from and who he was since Season 3, for goodness sake.

Also, Richard's transformation from serene and confident representative of Jacob to wild-eyed, panicked deserter is pretty good. You can't get away from the Christ/Peter parallels here. I assume Jacob will return and Richard will be as stalwart as ever.

1. Richard's name is Ricardo (or Ricardus?), and he's of Spanish descent.

2. He originally came from the Canary Islands, which are off the northwest coast of Africa.

3. Old-timey Catholicism is great. "You have to pay penance to atone for the murder, but you have no time for that, so you're eternally damned. Have a nice day, my son."

4. Magnus Hanso died in the shipwreck.

5. Richard saw his wife, Isabella, on the ship after the wreck, even though her body is not on the Island. At this point, I believe she was Smokey. The rules as to who he can and cannot impersonate are not very restricted.

6. I think Esau/Smokey spared Richard because he saw the weakness of Isabella in him; she was away to get Richard to do his dirty work for him: namely, killing Jacob.

7. The instructions Esau gave to Richard are exactly the same as the ones Dogan gave to Sayid. "Here's a knife, stick it into his chest before he can say a word. If he speaks, it's too late." However, Jacob was killed by Ben waaaay after Jacob had said a few words, which lends credence to the idea that Jacob let himself die.

8. Esau tells Richard that Jacob is the devil, and that they are all in hell. This was the prevailing theory of Lost in Season 1 until the producers specifically debunked it.

9. Esau also tells Richard that Jacob stole his body and his humanity. There's some good back story there.

10. Jacob is fairly rough with poor Richard; in fact, he's the roughest we've seen him be with anyone so far. And why? It's not like Richard was a threat to him. Maybe it's just sheer frustration, as I discuss later.

11. Jacob says no one goes into his home without his permission. This further indicates he planned on dying.... Ben and Locke/Esau walked in no problem.

12. Jacob explains his philosophy as it relates to free will in a decidedly odd conversation with Richard.

a.) Esau believes all mankind can be corrupted because it is in their nature to be bad.

b.) Jacob wants to prove Esau wrong, so he brings people to the Island for... testing? Observation?

c.) Apparently Esau has a 100% win rate at the point that Richard arrives.

d.) This frustrates Jacob, but he wants people to choose right without him being there to educate them.

e.) Richard astutely points out that while Jacob may not interfere, Esau sure does, and what chance do people have with only evil influencing them?

f.) Jacob offers Richard a job. Whether this is just a way to keep Richard from joining Esau, I don't know. Richard is also the one who asked for immortality, something he curses later.

13. It seems odd Richard goes over to Jacob's side so easily. Esau is offering Isabella, while Jacob can only offer immortality. Hmm... a neverending life without your love, or the chance to be with her again. And Richard goes with Door #1? Maybe he sensed Esau was lying.

14. Esau is the king at finding what people want most and then offering it to them. He offers Nadia to Sayid, Aaron to Claire, leaving the Island to Sawyer. Esau doesn't even have to poke or prod through conversation to discover this desire... he just nails it and uses it as soon as possible. Quite a skill.

15. Esau says he will kill Jacob, AND kill whoever replaces Jacob. It makes me wonder why he isn't offing candidates left and right. Kill Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Sun and Jin, etc. and be done with it. With no candidates for replacement, no one can act as the cork. Yet he allows them all to live for some reason.

16. Hey look, Hurley speaking Spanish for the first time on the show! He relays a Ricardo/Isabella conversation that is very touching and sad. Can we assume he relays the whole thing, and that when suddenly Hurley is not doing so, it's just a mechanic to make the scene more poignant?

"She said you have to stop the Man in Black from leaving the Island. If you don't do that, we all go to hell."

So there ARE some overt religious elements to this show after all!

Also, huh? Literal hell? Is this a figurative statement? Ugh.

Now that Jacob has expressly stated his beliefs and desires for humanity, I have to think the Others are a supreme disappointment to him. Richard is a direct intermediary with them, so you'd think they'd be a.) informed of Jacob's will and b.) interested in doing good a little more.

Instead, they routinely kidnap, torture, brainwash, kill and otherwise terrorize newcomers to the Island. I doubt these actions are in line with Jacob's goals.

Hey, look, if you think of Jacob as God, these are yet more religious overtones.

Get out your Bibles, everyone. If I'm right, we're headed for some serious Armageddon stuff in these final episodes.

Recon

2010-03-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

Dragging index on this episode: 6 out of 10. Gave us some stuff, took too long to do it. Seeing as to how they specifically tell us how many episodes of the show are left, they're aware that there's not much time left to explain things, right?

Anyway.

Reality A

1. Widmore and Esau are not buddies. Considering Widmore and Ben are also not buddies, does that mean Ben has been working for Esau for at least since 815 crashed? Does this indicate that Widmore may be aligned with Jacob? Considering Jacob was trying to help someone find the Island and then almost immediately Widmore pulled up to the driveway in a submarine, I'd say the odds are good.

2. Sawyer is pulling the ol' triple-cross. I totally saw this coming, by the way. Leave it to Sawyer to let the two giants slug it out and slip away in the confusion. Or shoot, even if one side wins decisively, he's got a promise from both Charles and Esau of safe passage of the Island. Currently, Sawyer wins either way.

3. The way Locke/Esau reprimanded Claire for her attack on Kate was very father/daughter. Are the Infected essentially his children?

4. Esau had a mother. Or at least he tells Kate he did. Need backstory. Lots of it.

Reality B

1. Sawyer and Miles are detectives. Somewhat odd considering they each have counter-culture tendencies in Reality A, but as my wife pointed out, sometimes those people make the best law enforcement personnel.

2. Sawyer is still hunting Sawyer, though this time around it appears his Australia trip ended in him obtaining Anthony Cooper's name instead of him shooting and killing an innocent man.

3. Charlotte is a friend of Miles' who was rummaging around in Sawyer's dresser looking for something. I think she was looking for his Sawyer file and found it, her protestations of innocence notwithstanding.

4. Sawyer catches Kate, after letting her go at the airport. Him allowing her to escape despite clearly knowing she was in handcuffs is a much more interesting decision now that we know he's a cop.

5. Miles mentions his father, who works at a museum. If this is Pierre, how did he get off the Island before it sank? Was he ever there?

It seems to me that at this point, the object of Reality B is to show us that these individuals are still all being drawn together by some force even though the Island isn't around. There's some higher power at work. Is Jacob running around? If there's no Island, does that mean Esau is free?

So many questions. I might even try to answer them before the next episode. (Richard-centric! Woo!)

Dr. Linus

2010-03-10T12:56:00.000-08:00

One of the best episodes of Lost ever, in my opinion. Hopefully this is a harbinger of things to come.

Reality A:

1. Richard was "touched" by Jacob and now cannot die and/or be killed. Was Locke "touched" in the same way? How about Jack, Kate, Sawyer, etc.? Richard is also bitter about his role in Jacob's plans, and views his whole life as virtually meaningless now that Jacob is dead.

2. Christ parallels all over the place. Ben as Judas, but redeemable? Richard as Thomas? Jack as Peter?

Reality B:

1. This Ben has the same thirst for power as the one we're familiar with, but is unwilling to sacrifice an innocent to get it. (That said, Ben totally should have waited a couple weeks before confronting the principal. He knew Alex needed that recommendation.)

2. Arzt is Arzt. Not the most likable character, but he is who he is.

3. Ben's relationship with ~~Uncle Rico~~ his father is infinitely better than it is/was in Reality A. Somehow they both got off the Island before it ended up underwater, which places the submerging somewhere after 1964, at the earliest. Maybe Ben's mother didn't die giving birth to him.

4. Widmore's back! I've missed that guy.

Stuff I liked from this episode:

-Miles was great. From blowing Ben's story apart to retrieving Nikki and Paulo's diamonds, his Ghostbusting powers came into play a lot. His statement that "right up until the second the knife went through his heart, Jacob was hoping he was wrong about you," was powerful.

-Ilana's part was odd, yet I liked it. She reacts in no way when she finds out Ben killed Jacob, then is extremely angry, proclaims she will kill Ben, and has him start digging his own grave. Yet after Ben's pronouncement as to why he killed Jacob, she not only forgives him, she offers him redemption. Logically I don't quite follow that sequence of events, but it was compelling.

-Ben offering to help Sun with the tarp shows that for now, at least, Ben is content to be one of many, and not lead. Even after Esau/Locke offered Ben the thing he wanted most, he chose to go back to the beach. Something may have fundamentally changed in him. Maybe finally coming to terms with Alex's death was the key.

I like where we're going here. Nine more episodes.

Sundown

2010-03-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Better episode than last week's, and hey, improvement is what it's all about, right?

I even cared about the Reality B plotline. But maybe that's just because I think Sayid is a far more compelling character than either Jack or Kate.

Here's what I got from "Sundown."

1. Esau can apparently cross an ash circle if the Others' Temple leader is dead. Or something. This one is fuzzy.

2. Sayid was definitely dead. (Thank you, Miles, for taking so long to mention this fact.) That means Esau brought Sayid back... and this is the essence of "infected." I take this to mean Claire also died (in the barracks during the mercenary attack) and was brought back by Esau.

3. While Esau has a creepy influence over the Infected, he still needs to offer them something they really, really want to exert full control. Hence Claire asks about Aaron before going to the Temple, and Sayid is in after Esau basically promises him Nadia.

4. Dogen's baseball is a memento of his son.

5. Sayid is 100% in the tank for Esau now. His little smile after the temple cleansing said it all.

6. Dogen can beat Sayid in a fight, and rather easily. I was actually wondering this out loud about ten minutes before the rumble started.

And some thoughts:

-Dogen's reveal about why he is on the Island brings me back to the notion that Jacob and Esau are not Good and Evil, but rather two competing powers with different goals. Jacob manipulates just as much as Esau does... though Esau is known to kill people fairly often, so he's got that going for him.

-Things are not looking good for Jacob right now. The only Others on the Island who aren't dead or following Esau are Richard (if he counts), Ben (if he counts), Ilana and whoever is alive from her crew, and Cindy, Zach and Emma, who apparently fled into the jungle. I suppose more could have gone with Cindy, but we don't know for sure. Esau, meanwhile, picked up another minion in Sayid, and whoever of these Others are following him now. Include Sawyer in there and he's doing okay.

-Kate has gotta be freaked out. She finds Claire, and Claire is nutso. Smokey kills a bunch of Others, then Locke, who is dead as far as she knew, shows up.

-Notice that Ben is the only one left at the Temple at this point.

-Unaccounted for: Jin, Sawyer, Richard.

More to come, though I'm traveling for work starting tomorrow and might not get to it. Feel free to add your own.

The Lighthouse

2010-02-25T10:07:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling very meh about Lost right now, and here's why:

It's the final season of Lost. We've invested years into this show and have a million questions that need answering before this is all said and done.

And what do the writers do for this, the sixth and final season? They introduce an alternate reality, and spend at least half of every episode delving into this new world where Kate is still on the run and Jack has a son.

And you know what? I DON'T CARE. I don't care that Jack is somehow projecting his daddy issues onto a son I didn't know existed until Tuesday night. I don't care that Locke is working as a substitute teacher and that Ben teaches European History. I don't care that Rose works for Hurley's temp agency. What the heck does any of that have to do with anything? Why are the writers expecting us to put up with 20+ minutes each episode being devoted to a reality that has no meaning or significance to us whatsoever?

I fear the scenario I facetiously played out really happened. That this Reality B was created solely to mess with the Lost fanbase, and now Lindelof and the rest have no idea where they're going with it. Sure, it was kinda fun to see what would have happened if Flight 815 hadn't crashed on the Island, but it's not fun anymore. Now it's just annoying and taking time away from storylines I care about. We don't get anything from Locke and Sawyer in Tuesday night's episode? We don't even see the Temple last week?

In short, watching Dogen and Jack talk about the pressures parents put on their children is a waste of time and I'm a bit riled up about it.

Okay! On to the learning!

Reality A:

-Claire is definitely claimed, and is tight with Not Locke and Not Christian. Interestingly, it seems she knows Not Locke is not Locke. She's also under the impression the Others took Aaron. Apparently the Others got hold of her at one time and branded her like they branded Sayid.

-There's a lighthouse on the Island that none of the survivors had seen until now. Somehow it's used to draw people to the Island? Or spy on them? Or something?

-Jacob needs Jack to do something, but he knows Jack doesn't ever do what he's directly asked.

-Jacob sure loves keeping people in the dark.

Reality B:

-Jack is divorced and has a kid who is a piano genius and who also somehow kept this information from Jack for over a decade. The kid also suffers from the crippling fear of failing in front of Jac, though this fear appears completely and utterly unfounded. In short, this kid is both brilliant and stupid. Maybe he's suffering from savant syndrome.

-Christian left sometime to Claire in his will.

Theories to come.

Things we learned from Lighthouse/theories/random babblings/questions

2010-02-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

So, I haven't really had all that much to say in the way of Lost lately. Then this episode hit me and I've got the Lost bug again. And here we go.

Reality B: Jack’s a dad with a middle school-aged-ish son (we don’t know who the mom is) who is a prodigy at piano, basically, but afraid of failing in front of his dad, which is why the son didn’t tell Jack he was still playing piano. Wasn’t there someone else who played the piano amazingly well in a past episode? Was it Juliet? Does that have anything to do with anything? Dogan has a son who says Jack’s son is amazing. Also, Jack’s mom tells him that his son was devastated at his grandfather’s funeral and suggests that he’s scared of Jack which is why they don't communicate. Which, really, he’s not drinking or doing Oxycodone, so what is the basis for that? Afraid he’ll fail in front of him…since Jack’s so demanding. Sorry - I’m just not seeing it.

Reality A: Claire is CRAZY. Literally. I don’t know if it’s because she was blown up - or reinvented by Esau/Locke or whatever…why would she think the Others took her baby? She was the one who left Aaron, didn’t she? What the crackles is Jin doing lying to her? Trying to get back to the temple alive? Also, how does Esau/Locke reinvent/reanimate Claire? He’s in a body himself, so he can‘t be possessing her, can he? We learned that Claire’s “friend” is Esau/Locke and they’ve been living together in the woods. Has he been Locke the entire time? If not, how does Claire reconcile with his changing appearance? Oh, wait. Claire is crazy. Never mind. We also learn that the Temple People branded and tortured Claire the same way as Sayid so she escaped - although one of them tells her that’s not how it played out.

Jacob appears to Hurley and tells him to do a bunch of stuff. When Dogan catches Hurley, Jacob tells him to tell Dogan he’s a candidate and to not bother him. I love Assertive Hurley - he’s so awkward. So, Hurley takes Jack to the lighthouse, where they’re supposed to help someone who’s trying to get to the island. Jack sees places from his past, thinks Jacob’s been watching him and freaks out to the point where he breaks all the mirrors. If I were his son and had seen THAT moment, I think I would be afraid of him.

It seems that although Jacob tells Hurley to not go back for the others at the temple, Sayid’s the only one left there out of the Chosen/Candidates anyway, and he’s already mostly died like twice. So does Jacob want Sayid to die? Is Dogan doing the will of Jacob or himself in trying to kill Sayid? Is that why Jacob’s not so worried if Sayid’s still in the temple? So - was the reason why Jack and Hurley went to the lighthouse to get as far away as possible or to show Jack how important he is or both?

I love when Hurley’s like, “You could’ve just told me what was going to happen” and Jacob’s like, “Meh.”

Kind of like the writers in this show.

Theories on The Substitute

2010-02-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Some great comments on my recap post for Tuesday's episode:

Richard said:

Maybe Kate was brought to the island not to replace Jacob, hence no number, but to manipulate Jack and/or Sawyer. She seems to have had a lot of power over both, though her influence has diminished as of late.

An interesting point. She was the reason Sawyer jumped off the helicopter and stayed on the Island. She was also the reason Jack went through with the plan to blow up the ~~ocean~~ Island. I bet we could find a few other ways she moved Jacob's plans along.

Anna said:

So i thought that the whole knowing the rules can't kill him thing may have been referring to Richard Alpert...because wasn't "Esau" going to try to kill him when he refused to join him and then that little boy appeared?

Excellent thought; I hadn't even considered the boy was talking about Richard. But it did seem like Esau was going to smack Richard around some, if not kill him outright, after Richard refused to go with him. The boy shows up, Esau's attention is diverted, and the boy says Esau cannot kill "him." Works for me.

Though why Esau would be allowed to kill Jacob and not Richard I don't know.

Some theories from the good folk who contribute to the Lostpedia:

1. Kwon is not Sun or Jin, it's Ji Yeon, their daughter. When Jacob touched them on their wedding day, it was at the moment that eventually led Sun and Jin to crash on the Island and Sun to become pregnant, as Jin was sterile off-Island.

2. The cave is not Jacob's, ergo the names are not Jacob's. We've seen where Jacob dwells: in the shadow of the statue. What if the cave is Esau's? What if he wrote those names, and he has plans for everyone?

3. Everyone who has a number but Sayid chose to return to and/or stay on the Island.

4-Locke, always very certain he was staying on the Island instead of going with Jack and other O6.

8-Reyes, Hugo decided after Jacob touched him in the taxi, saying "It's your choice Hugo", it could also be argued that he made a decision to stay when he didn't follow Dave off the cliff in Dave (episode) Season 2 and chose to stay with Libby on the Island

15-Ford, Sawyer chose to stay on the Island by jumping from the O6's helicopter.

16-Jarrah, Although Sayid did return to the Island with Ajira 316, this was not his own choice as he was being escorted by Ilana (Who we are now know was/is working for Jacob). In fact athough initially he appears to have been hell-bent on leaving the Island, he did have the opportunity to leave, but then returned voluntarily on the Kahuna dinghy to save others. Subsequently, when he returned to the island, he has been something of a martyr figure, atempting to change history by killing Ben, then dismantling the bomb, without any regard to his own safety. His motivation in dismantling the bomb for Jack was not to leave, but to save others, as he felt that he himself was not worth saving, and therefore it did not matter if he died.

23-Shephard, Jack decided a lot sooner than the other O6 that he wanted to return to the Island and played a fundamental part in bringing the O6 back to the Island. If Shephard refers to Claire (Which I doubt as she spent her whole life with the name Littleton) she still made a decision to stay on the Island and not search for rescue when she disappeared leaving Aaron, and when she was seen in Jacob's shack with Christian she seemed to be contentedly there by her own choosing.

42-Kwon, as stated above Jin made a conscious decision to stay on the Island when he didn't go with Locke but gave him his wedding ring, however Sun also decided to return to the Island herself to find Jin.

4. When Esau shouted after the boy "Don't tell me what I can't do!" exactly like Locke would do (and has done in the past), it may be evidence that Locke's persona still exists and is influencing Esau. For Esau to show such anger and fear is entirely out of character for him, in our experience, and for him to have the same neurosis as Locke by chance seems unlikely.

Anything else?

The Substitute

2010-02-17T10:18:00.001-08:00

While a better episode than last week's, The Substitute still made me feel like the writers are dragging their feet every bit as much as they have since Season 1. Anyway, here's what we found out:

Reality A:

1. According to Esau (a phrase that will be commonly used during this post), Jacob is searching for a successor, and has been for quite some time.

2. Also according to Esau, Jacob protects the Island... from nothing.

3. Jacob's visit to each of the (presumed) six "candidates" set in motion events that pushed them to the Island. Let's take a tangent and look at that a bit more closely:

Locke (4): Actively brought him back to life? While manipulative, I'm not sure how that convinced John to attempt a walkabout.
Hugo (8): Appeared to him and told him he needed to go back to the Island.
Sawyer (15): Gives him a pen to finish writing his letter instead of letting young James let the deaths of his parents go. Sawyer's lifelong quest for revenge brought him to Australia and put him on Flight 815.
Sayid (16): Essentially saves his life by keeping him from walking into the path of a speeding car that kills Nadia. In doing this, Jacob did not save Nadia, and Sayid ended up joining Ben on an assassination rampage that ultimately led to him being arrested by Ilana and brought back to the Island.
Jack (23): Gave him a candy bar. Seems insignificant.
Sun and Jin (42): Congratulated them on their marriage. Don't see anything manipulative about that.
Kate: Prevented her from getting into trouble for stealing the lunchbox. Did that push her into a life of crime (killing her father), while maybe getting busted by the store owner at age eight would have straightened her out, leading to her never running from the FBI and never getting caught in Australia?

Interesting that Kate doesn't get a number, though we specifically see Jacob visit her.

It appears Jacob worked to get these seven people to the Island in order to test them and see who should be his successor. That means every other passenger on 815 was unimportant and expendable.

More discussion on this concept tomorrow.

4. Richard is scared to death of Esau. He's panicky, wild-eyed and generally discombobulated by whatever Esau is.

5. Esau reiterates his desire to go home/get off the Island. He tells Sawyer he's trapped there, and has been trapped for so long he doesn't even remember what it's like to be free. Is Jacob his jailer?

6. A little boy appears to Esau. Richard cannot see the boy, but Sawyer can. The child tells Esau he "knows the rules" and "can't kill him." Whether this "him" refers to the child himself or Jacob... no idea.

7. According to Ilana, Esau is recruiting. He actively recruits Richard to join him, and Richard refuses.

8. Also according to Ilana, Esau is stuck looking like Locke. Is this forever forever?

9. Apparently Richard had no more an idea what Jacob was up to than Ben did. Jacob sure likes keeping people in the dark.

Reality B:

1. Locke is engaged to Helen, who left him in Reality A after Locke couldn't stop obsessing about his father. While Locke is still paralyzed, it apparently was not Sawyer who did it to him, as Helen mentions inviting him to the wedding. Maybe Sawyer isn't a con man at all here.

2. Locke gets fired by everyone's favorite boss, Randy. Hugo then gives Locke another shot at a job through a temp agency owned by Hurley. Hurley is supremely confident and optimistic in Reality B.

3. This Locke doesn't believe in miracles, but Helen sure does.

4. Ben is teaching European History at a high school. He seems like a nice enough guy, albeit somewhat fruity.

5. Rose works for Hugo's temp agency and is still dying of terminal cancer. She seems unchanged, personality-wise.

That's all I've got. Seems fun that most of the major actors on the show are playing essentially two characters these days.

Valentine's Day cards

2010-02-16T11:21:00.001-08:00

Maybe for next year.

Theories on What Kate Did

2010-02-11T12:51:00.001-08:00

Claimed, infected, possessed. All these terms refer to the idea of a body or person's identity being influenced, appropriated or even directly controlled by an outside force. Here are the instances where this has happened or seems to have happened:

1. Yemi appeared to Eko. Yemi had died years before, and we saw his corpse in the drug smugglers' plane.

2. Christian appeared to Jack, Claire and others. Christian had died recently, and we have never seen his corpse. The coffin carrying his body on Flight 815 is empty.

3. Walt appeared to Shannon, while Walt was off-Island, and alive. Spoke some gibberish stuff and freaked Shannon out.

4. Walt also appeared to Locke after Ben shot John. Again, off-Island, never been dead as far as we know.

5. Locke appeared after the crash of Ajira Airways 316. He had died recently. This is not merely an appearance, as this incarnation of Locke lived with the survivors for at least a day or two. Locke's body is still dead, and lying on the beach. Not Locke appears to be Jacob's Nemesis, taking on Locke's appearance.

6. Charlie, Ana Lucia, Jacob and others have appeared to Hurley after their deaths. All three have died on-screen.

7. Alex appeared to Ben, apparently as a direct apparition stemming from Smokey. Alex had died recently.

8. Horace appeared to Locke in a sweat-lodge-induced dream. Horace had died several years ago.

What does this show us? That there is not one set of rules governing this. All of these examples are not instances of claiming. Nor are they all examples of Jacob's Nemesis taking on the appearance someone else.

There have to be multiple things going on. What happened with Locke's image is not the same as what is happening to Sayid. Apparently what is happening to Sayid already happened to Claire. It took me a bit, but the day after the episode aired, I remembered Claire and Jack are children of Christian, making them half siblings. In the interest of staying current, let's discuss her a bit here:

Claire's situation closely mirrors Danielle Rousseau's. Both arrived on the Island pregnant. The Others tried to take their children. And now Claire has apparently been living in the jungle for the past three years, just like Danielle did. Did she set the bear trap and swinging bag o' rocks thing?

I still maintain she is dead. She was in a Dharma barrack that got clobbered by a direct hit during the mercenary attack and somehow came out of it looking just fine. Afterwards, Miles was very wary of her, and she took off into the jungle after Christian, leaving Aaron behind. No way she's alive and in full control of herself and does that. So apparently she died and came back just like Sayid did, and her soul/body has been "claimed" by the Nemesis.

So what does this mean? Apparently it means she'll shoot Others, and by extension, save Jin. Was the saving an accident? Does she know him? So much will be explained next episode.

Dogan wants to kill Sayid, but can't just shoot him, apparently. He has to willingly take a pill filled with kelp or something, and Jack's not about that.

In Reality B news, Ethan is still a doctor, and his last name has changed from Rom to Goodspeed, Horace's surname. Lot of intimation there, but nothing solid.

And really, isn't that what this show is all about? Watching Dogan stonewall Jack about what was going on with Sayid made me feel like the writers use the Others' reluctance to ever explain themselves as a way to keep the audience in the dark unnecessarily.

But we keep plowing on, even when they're throwing away half the episode on Kate and Sawyer crying. Never mind the fact that they've got 300 questions to answer and their last season is three episodes in.

Urgh.

What Kate Does

2010-02-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

After last week's jam-packed, two-part premiere, last night's episode seemed a little sparse in new information. I blame the writers' focus on the love square (Kate-Sawyer-Juliet-Jack).

On to the learning.

Reality A

1. The Others believe that Sayid is "claimed." Probably by Jacob's Nemesis.

2. Sawyer was going to ask Juliet to marry him. This is funny/sad because the only reason Juliet went along with the Faraday plan to blow up the ~~ocean~~ Island was because she thought Sawyer wanted to get with Kate.

3. Claire has been entirely claimed. (Christian is her father, making her Jack's half sister.)

Reality B

1. Ethan is a doctor, just like he was in Reality A before Charlie shot him to death. Is he an Other? Do Others exist, now that the Island is underwater?

2. Claire names Aaron long before she does in Reality A.

3. The husband of the couple that was going to adopt Aaron bugs out. We don't know if this is any different from Reality A.

4. Claire considers keeping Aaron, just like in Reality A.

5. Did the mechanic that helped Kate look familiar to anyone else?

That's it. As always, feel free to add to the list.

Theories up later.

Lost explained by people who have never watched Lost

2010-02-05T14:16:00.000-08:00

Thanks again, Damon Lindelof's Twitter feed.

Michael Emerson actually did play a pedophile on an episode of Law and Order: SVU.

Jack and Rose on 815

2010-02-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

@DamonLindelof: "Person who made this? You complete me."

Theories on LAX

2010-02-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

First off, let me say I can imagine Abrams, Lindelof and Kurtzman sitting at a table laughing their heads off right now.

LINDELOF: "Those saps spend nine months trying to figure out if the bomb reset the timeline or not! Hahahaha!"

KURTZMAN: "There's no way they saw this coming! Two alternate realities, both interweaved throughout the premiere? Stroke of genius, J.J."

ABRAMS: "I just figured if time travel made our fans' heads explode, adding in alternate concepts of the world would be enough to really drive them crazy. How's our stock in Strait Jackets R' Us doing?"

Jerks.

So here we are, experiencing two different realities, both hinging on the single event of Faraday's plan working or not. For all intents and purposes, the two realities are happening at the same time. Flight 815 landed in September of 2004, while Ajira Airways Flight 316 crashed on the Island in 2007. A three-year difference isn't enough to really construe time travel, at least not by Lost's standards.

For the sake of simplicity, we'll refer to the world where 815 crashed as Reality A, and the world where it did not as Reality B. Reality A is essentially the the standard timeline of the show. Flight 815 crashed, Cindy the flight attendant joined the Others, Ben kidnapped and otherwise harassed the Losties, Smokey rampaged throughout the jungle, etc.

As part of this standard timeline, the Oceanic 6 went back to the mainland and then returned to the Island on Flight 316. The ones who were left in 1977 after all the timeshifting madness ended (Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Jin, Hurley, Miles, Juliet, Sayid) are whomped back into 2007 with the regular timeline. What happened, happened. The work they did as part of Dharma is all part of the past. Jacob's nemesis put into motion the plan to kill Jacob, and succeeded.

After this point, things got fuzzy. Were Jack, Kate, etc. on the Island at the same time as Richard, Lapidus, Sun, Ben, etc.? Then Dogan set off the warning rocket, and it was seen at the beach just after Jacob was killed. This is an important event, as it ties the two groups together and establishes that they are sharing the Island at the exact same time. I repeat: that rocket was very important.

So that's the normal. On to Reality B, the abnormal.

Differences:

The Island is underwater, complete with the foot of Tawaret's statue, the Dharma barracks and who knows what else? This implies the Island sank after Dharma arrived, which makes its current state a rather new one. Insane.
Christian Shepard's body never made it onto Flight 815.
Boone was not successful in attempting to bring Shannon home.
Desmond is on Flight 815. Assuming everything prior to that is normal, he probably successfully navigated the globe in Libby's ship, passed over the Island instead of crashing into it, and made it home to marry Penny.
Hurley is the luckiest guy alive.
Sun and Jin are not married, as neither are wearing wedding rings, and the airport employee in Los Angeles calls Sun "Ms. Paik." Sun also appears to not understand or speak English.
Walt and Michael don't appear to be on the plane.

I'm not counting anything that would have normally happened had 815 not crashed, ie. Locke is still paralyzed. However, Rose's cancer is not healed because she never ends up on the Island. Charlie is also still a heroin addict, though presumably he'll get over that in prison or some rehab program. There are countless other examples of how this alternate reality will change things.

But back to Reality A, the reveal that Jacob's Nemesis, Smokey and New Locke are all the same was a big one. It seems to me that if Esau's view of humanity is pessimistic, it makes sense that Smokey would judge new arrivals and kill them if he found them unrepentant or unworthy of redemption.

Now as to what Esau wants, that's a little murkier. He tells Ben that unlike John Locke, he wants to go home. Is he held captive on the Island? Was Jacob his jailer? Esau does cut out a piece of the rug inside the statue. That may be significant.

Esau takes Richard prisoner and starts heading towards the Temple, we can presume. Once Hurley tells Dogan that Jacob is dead, the Others start spreading the ash around the perimeter, sending up the warning rocket, etc. I'm guessing Esau is heading straight for the Temple, with Richard as a hostage, in order to negotiate with them. He needs something they have.

"Hello Richard, it's good to see you without your chains," Esau says. Are these literal or physical chains? Is Richard from the Black Rock? Was he a slave? Are the chains representative of how Richard must serve the leader of the Others, and now that Jacob is dead, that subservience is absolved?

And then there's the Temple; As I wrote earlier today, this is the first time we've seen the Temple, and the first time we've witnessed a healing at the fountain. The murkiness of the water is probably due to Jacob's death... is it possible the water's color signifies who is in control of the Island? Esau: black and murky, Jacob: clear? And considering Sayid is, in fact healed, does that mean Esau saved him?

The Others at the Temple seem to be more multicultural than the Others we've seen before. Some look Indian, Dogan is obviously Japanese, etc. It is apparent that these Others live exclusively at the Temple, or we would have run into them before now. They had no part in Ben's living in the Dharma barracks, and had nothing to do with the kidnapping of Walt, Zach and Emma, etc. I wonder if Ben went rogue and a contingent of Others followed him, leaving the rest loyal to Dogan.

Sayid's death and subsequent resurrection are interesting. He is dead to the world when the Losties arrive at the Temple. After being fully submerged in the water, he wakes up and starts to fight and struggle. I'm not sure he has the strength to do that after losing that much blood... was the healing process working? Does the process require the full body to be immersed for that long in order for a part of Jacob/Esau to enter the person? After he's pronounced dead, Miles is checking him out with a weird look on his face. And then, an hour or so later (?) Sayid revives. Just weird.

Finally, this is the first time we've seen a list as a stamp of approval from Jacob. The Losties at the temple were dead before Dogan read that note and asked them to identify themselves. Since Jacob wrote the note, we can only assume it reads, "Don't kill the following:" And it also told them Sayid needed to be healed, or dire consequences would follow. That'll be interesting to watch.

Phew. Two-hour premieres are hard to tackle. I'll post more later this week as I think of more theories/ideas.

But bottom line, the premiere didn't disappoint me at all. Very interesting, good writing, kept my attention throughout. Here's hoping for an epic sixth season.

LAX

2010-02-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Good to be back writing about new Lost episodes instead of just theorizing and looking back. Without further ado, here's what we learned:

The biggest reveal is that the smoke monster, new Locke and Jacob's nemesis are one and the same. Jacob's nemesis killed the pilot of 815. He judged Eko and found him worthy of death. He took the form of Christian, Walt, Yemi and Alex. Everything the smoke monster/nemesis has done so far was in preparation to finally kill Jacob.
Faraday's plan worked and didn't work. Apparently we're dealing with two distinct realities, and it appears we're done with time travel for now. One reality is September, 2004 and Faraday's theory was correct. Flight 815 lands, none of the Losties remember their experiences on the Island. Jack has some kind of recognition when it comes to Desmond and some other stuff, but he clearly doesn't remember anything. The other reality is January 2005 (or thereabout) and Faraday's theory was wrong. The explosion didn't reset anything; it merely pushed the Losties in 1977 back to their correct time, and in general kept them in their original locations on the island.
There is a separate leader of the Others who lives at the Temple. While Dogan speaks and understands English perfectly, he prefers to communicate in his native Japanese and use a translator.
We see how the healing process in the Temple works... injured individuals are lowered into a baptismal font of some kind, and kept under the water for a specific amount of time. The water is supposed to be clear, but to the surprise of everyone, it was murky when the Others attempted to heal Sayid, I'm guessing because Jacob is dead. The effects of the healing are usually immediate, as evidenced by the Others' surprise when Sayid woke up after an hour or so of being dead. So while we seeing the healing process for the first time, it is far different than the typical experience.
Juliet believed Faraday's plan worked. Either that or Miles is lying.
We see what was in the guitar case Jacob gave Hurley: a giant ankh, with a note inside. It appears the note is a list of names, one of Jacob's favorite things, and the names are Kate's, Hurley's, Sayid's and Jin's.
Bram, Ilana and co. are Jacob's protectors. That said, if they're supposed to protect him from his nemesis, carrying those guns around seems a bit silly.

That's all I've got. Theories to post this afternoon.

Tuesday!

2010-01-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

When Season 5 ended last spring, it seemed like an eternity until Season 6 would premiere.

And now? It's four days away! And you know what that means... it's prediction time!

I'll post four or five predictions about what will happen this season. If other blog authors want to do the same, feel free. If readers want to post their thoughts in a comment to this post, feel free.

Here we go:

1. Flight 815 lands in LA, if just to tick me off. The timeline will, in fact, be reset; everyone will go their separate ways. Jack and Juliet can stop whining about lost love.

2. The universe will course-correct. Everyone will end up on the Island anyway, one way or another. Plane crashes, boat trips, temporal vortexes, whatever.

3. Jacob's death was part of some larger scheme... him dying allows him to finally persevere over Esau. Christ parallels galore.

4. By the end of Season 6, we'll be back where we were at the end of Season 5. Jacob will die, but this time, Juliet/Jack/Faraday won't work to set off the nuclear bomb and the timeline will continue as it was supposed to. Jacob's plan is revealed, and peace comes to the Island forever.

As I'm typing this, I find that I hope I'm wrong. This would be the lamest season ever.

Let the theories flow!

Ratings

2010-01-26T12:47:00.001-08:00

Click on the image for a bigger view.

Appears that viewership peaked around the end of Season 1, was good for the start of Season 2, and then has been steadily declining since. Season 5, especially, started out lower than any other season began or ended, and lost almost 5 million viewers by the end.

I wonder what makes people leave the show.

Theories?

The crash of Flight 815

2010-01-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

Over the five seasons of Lost, we've been given parts of the crash of 815 from many different perspectives and in different chunks. This guy pieced all those chunks together into this video.

And today, Damon Lindelof linked to it.

Cool stuff.

More Locke/Christ imagery

2010-01-19T16:11:00.000-08:00

US Weekly photo from TV Overmind via the Lostpedia blog. Click for a larger image.

Fun times with Locke ahead, I'm guessing.

The Onion comments on Lost season 6

2010-01-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

Final Season Of 'Lost' Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Protip: marry a fellow Lost fan. That way, you can both work on the paranoid schizophrenic chart and get more done.

Clues (maybe)!

2010-01-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

Fellow blog author John brought the above image to my attention. Click the image for a full picture for closer examination.

Here's what John had to say about it:

Check out the link, and look and see the cast of characters that are shown. Typically, these promotional posters/photos only contain the characters involved with the current season, so it could be that we get to better know some of those who have passed (i.e. Mr. Eko).

That is definitely an interesting aspect of this promotional poster. Upon closer inspection, I count the following dead characters present:

Boone
Shannon
Charlotte
Faraday
Eko
Ana Lucia
Charlie

And there are a couple whose identity I'm unsure of: the woman fourth from the left and the man fifth from the right. Anyone know who those guys are?

Anyway, there are a three established ways the Lost writers could involve dead characters in this season:

Flashbacks.
Time travel.
Hurley seeing dead people.

The most interesting part of this poster for me is Locke. Standing in the middle of the group, closest to us, but with his back turned. I had a discussion with my wife a couple days ago about Locke and his role in this last season. I was wondering if his currently dead status implied he wouldn't be all that involved.

Apparently I was wrong.

So that leaves us with some questions:

Who or what is impersonating Locke currently?

Can Locke be brought back from the dead, or will he return as there is another major time shift on the Island?

Another reason I question Locke's prominence in this season is that his "special" quality was almost entirely manufactured. The reason Alpert and the Others were so interested in him is because Not Locke created that interest in 1977 by planting the idea that John Locke was special in Alpert's head. That's why Alpert was at Locke's birth. That's why he visited young Locke and tried to get him to the Island when Locke was a young adult.

The other thing that impressed the Others about Locke was that he was healed of his paralysis on the Island, and they'd never seen someone recover from such a damaging injury before. This evidence still stands, though it could just be they'd never seen a paralytic arrive at the Island before.

Locke without his higher calling, without his purpose, is a very depressed, bitter and hopeless man. Not exactly a leading character.

One thing my wife said is that Locke in Season 6 may be the embodiment of the good/evil black/white conflict that was established in the pilot. Good Locke and Evil Not Locke at odds for the fate of... the Island?

And finally, the phrase "Destiny Found."

"What happened happened. "It's our destiny." "What if everything that happened here, happened for a reason?" Charlie being fated to die in Season 3. There's a whole page on this at Lostpedia.

I'm guessing we'll find out exactly why Flight 815 was brought to the Island, and what Jacob wants from Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Juliet, etc. There's something threatening the Island, something worse than Widmore and the Kahana. I think it all boils down to the conversation Jacob has with his enemy sometime in the 19th century.

JACOB: I take it you're here 'cause of the ship.
HIS ENEMY: I am. How did they find the Island?
JACOB: You'll have to ask 'em when they get here.
HIS ENEMY: I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?
JACOB: You are wrong.
HIS ENEMY: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
[The gray-haired man stares at his compatriot.]
HIS ENEMY: Do you have any idea how badly I wanna kill you?
JACOB: Yes.
HIS ENEMY: One of these days, sooner or later... I'm going to find a loophole, my friend.
JACOB: Well, when you do, I'll be right here.
HIS ENEMY: Always nice talking to you, Jacob.
JACOB: Nice talking to you, too.

Shivers.

Less than three weeks!

This Means War!

2010-01-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

It’s somehow comforting to remember that all these characters are as lost as we are.

Alright, Amy didn't care for my puzzle when I posted it, but I've got news. Haha!

Someone figured it out. I completely quit working on it after the finale, and now I wish I didn't. Check the following excerpt from this post:

Page 105 solution:
In the recent LOST episode "The Variable," there is a quick shot of Wired issue 11.08 from August 2003. Scott Dadich's twitter hint led me to the time travel article in that issue. The part of the article on Thorne Plates refers to the "Casimir Effect," which was also referenced on LOST in the past. In order to USE LETTERS BACKWARDS FROM END, count the letters backwards from the end of the Thorne Plates portion of the article. So, count 4 letters back (the "t" in "trip"), then 34 letters back from that (the "h" in "happen") and so on. The final solution is:

T H E F O U
R T O E D S
T A T U E I S
T A W E R E T

which refers to one of the reveals in the Season 5 finale of LOST.

It was totally worth solving Amy! For those wondering what 'Taweret' is, she is an Egyptian goddess. She is believed to be the goddess of childbirth and fertility. You can read all about her on her Wikipedia page. I just want to point out two things in particular.

One, she was the protector of children.
Two, since she was considered the consort of Apep, Taweret was seen as one who protected against evil by restraining it.

Was Jacob, Apep, or was he the one keeping 'Taweret' alive? Now that he is 'dead', will evil be free to reign, or will there be peace for the children finally? Does it even matter? Did the bomb really reset everything? What does this bode for the future of the children in LOST? And not just the younger children, but also the adults who have daddy issues. I said it before, Egyptian Mythology could quite possibly reveal the rest of the story line, and all of these daddy issues will surface. With that said, I don't think the bomb did much of anything in the major scheme of things. I think the 'war' is finally here, and either Apep or Taweret now has the upper hand. It's just a matter of who.

My two pennies.

Pilot - Part 2

2010-01-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

As part of my ongoing quest to watch a few old episodes of Lost before Season 6 premieres (less than a month now!), I watched "Pilot - Part 2" today. Here are my thoughts:

-Is Charlie dead were it not for his heroin addiction? He was seated behind Jack on the plane, and Jack was pretty close to where the tail section fell off. Charlie ends up near the cockpit because he needed a fix and was running from the flight attendants. Only 22 people from the tail section survived.

-I am so glad Shannon and Boone are dead. Shannon being extremely flighty and just all-around unstable and Boone freaking out about her... not good times.

-Awww Aaron is in-utero. What's his deal? Come on, Season 6.

-Sun pretending to not understand Michael is looking for Walt.

-Walt is one brave kid, wandering off into the jungle to find his dog, just one day after they heard Smokey out there.

-He finds handcuffs.... are they Kate's? They're closed, and I don't think Kate took the time to lock hers after getting them off.

-Ha! Sawyer and Sayid fighting right off the bat.

-Sawyer says he saw Sayid on the plane with his hands in his lap and a blanket over them, accuses him of being a terrorist. I'm not sure the relationship ever really improves from there.

-And Kate manages to break it up, after Jack tries and fails. Of course, she does so because the topic of conversation is moving towards the handcuffs. She changes the subject to the transceiver. Ha.

-Sawyer's first nickname: "Lardo" to Hurley.

-Sawyer's come a loooong way. He's dead angry these first two episodes. While he's not exactly super social that first season, he at least gets to the point where he doesn't yell as much. And now he's positively domesticated. Good work, Juliet. Scoring points for women everywhere.

-So frustrating for Sun that she has to use Korean to communicate when she speaks and understands English perfectly.

-Kate seems awful invested in getting off the island. After Sayid tells her they need a high place to test the cockpit transceiver, she says, "How high?" all eager-like.

-Oh right Kate wants off because of Smokey. Still, I think she should be a bit more conflicted.

-Michael isn't so great at this dad stuff. "Get you another dog"? Really? Your kid is afraid his dog is dead and you act like he can just be replaced? In fairness, Walt was living with his mom the last decade or so.

-Another Shannon and Boone scene. Did I mention I'm glad they're dead? Oh but look, Shannon is showing humanity. She reminds Boone about the guy who kept them from sitting in first class... "He saved our lives" She feels bad for being mean to him. Still don't like her.

-Sawyer's letter!

-Little team building exercise in climbing the mountain. Everyone helping each other up over ledges and stuff.

-Locke playing backgammon. I didn't remember the game had been introduced so soon.

-Locke is good with kids because he treats them like adults. There is no difference between his tone with Walt than with Jack or Sayid or Kate.

-Jin runs around offering prepared fish to everyone. For such an ornery dude, he's pretty nice sometimes.

-Oh! And it's magic fish that wakes up Aaron!

-Polar bear! First and last one we see on the show. Well, except for the skeleton in Tunisia. How long has that guy run around the island? The Purge was in '92?

-Good man, Hurley. Assisting in surgery. And then fainted.

-"Saw a guy lying there with an ankle holster, so I took the gun. Thought it would come in handy. And guess what? I just shot a bear!" Gotta love Sawyer.

-Bam! Kate disarms Sawyer which helps Sawyer see what she is.

-Sawyer is fairly happy with the result of the conflict. The revelation that Kate has a bad girl side cheered him up a lot.

-As the plane is crashing, Kate puts an oxygen mask on U.S. Marshall guy, thereby establishing that she's a good person.

-And Rousseau's transmission. Poor Rousseau.

-"The others are dead... it killed them. It killed them all." How true is this? Were the crew members she shot and killed really her husband and coworkers? Fuzzy.

This episode seems dedicated to showing that everyone has some redeeming qualities. Jin is a jerk, but shares his food with the others. Kate is a fugitive, but doesn't want her captor to die. Sawyer is mean to everyone, but stands his ground as something big (could have been Smokey) charges him. Sayid was in the Iraqi Republican Guard, but gets the transceiver working and helps others.

Feel free to start posting again, everyone. Theories about Season 6, insights into last season, whatever.

It's almost time

2009-12-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

LOST returns in almost exactly two months, so I figured I'd brush up on my LOST knowledge by watching random (hopefully important) episodes from the previous five seasons.

Today: Pilot - Part 1

-Right off the bat, Jack is drunk. He does pretty well for himself, considering. Saves several lives.

-I am not convinced Jack fell from the plane. His location when he wakes up is a good distance from the beach, and he's in the middle of a bunch of trees.

-Locke helps Jack lift part of the plane off a dude. Interesting that the first time they meet, they're helping each other save a life. The relationship generally goes south from there.

-Jack saves Rose's life by giving her CPR. How ironic would it be for her to die minutes after being cured of her cancer thanks to the Island's healing properties?

-Kate is rubbing her wrists the very first time we see her. Big ol' clue.

-Kate seems more scared and vulnerable at this point (sewing up Jack) than any other time in the series.

-The first time we get a solo shot of Sawyer, he's smoking. Did he quit later? I don't remember him smoking at all. I guess being forced to go cold turkey over a few weeks thanks to no cigarettes would explain that.

-Kate says Jack doesn't seem afraid at all. Jack tells her the story of his first spinal surgery, where he messes it up and gives himself five seconds to be scared, then fixes the problem. I think maybe he's so calm because he's wasted. :)

-It's intriguing how tertiary Jack has become, considering he was the guy of the first couple seasons.

-Jack tells Kate "You're not running now," after she says she would probably run away if faced with the spinal surgery crisis Jack told her about. Impactful.

-Awww, Walt is little.

-Smokey is tearing around in the jungle 20 minutes in, even before the first commercial break. And we still don't know exactly what he is.

-There's a shot of everyone reacting to Smokey and the director manages to get only major characters in the shot, but made it look random. Nice.

-The very first flashback of the series is 21 minutes in, immediately after the first commercial break.

-Cindy, the flight attendant turned Other, gives Jack more booze on the flight.

-The pilot gets beaten to death (or whatever) by Smokey. Why? Far as I remember, Smokey doesn't kill anyone for a long time after the crash. Was the pilot judged and found so unrepentant he was irredeemable? Was he somehow a threat to the safety of the Island?

That's it. I'll get Pilot - Part 2 up sometime next week.

LOST on Egyptian Culture

2009-05-18T17:15:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I've had the hunch for the longest time, that Egyptian culture plays a big part in the storyline of LOST. In this interview from Alison Haislip of Attack of the Show she busts out the 'ole 'Word Association' trick. Of course, Damon Lindelof and Carton Cuse, are not ones to be easily fooled. Plus the fact that she flat out told them I'm wanting you to spill some beans didn't help. Anyways, we find something interesting about Egypt in that section of the video. Check it out.

Now, I do realize this was all done a few hours before the show, and that 'tapestry' may have just been about the tapestry that Jacob created. I like to think though, that with the hesitation and 'hmmm's, that Egypt has more to do with what is upcoming with LOST. It took them a second to make a decision on what word to associate exactly with Egypt in other words. Once again, I need to make time to do some research on this Egyptian stuff and how it can be associated with the LOST story.

Another thing were the comments on fathers. The man we saw in the beginning of the finale talking to Jacob, was he perhaps his son or vice versa? We know that Jack and his father have problems, Ben and his, John has problems with his as well, Hurley is another one, Charlie had problems trying to be the father of Claire's son, Ben with his daughter, and those are just some of the main ones. This I think is another large clue as to what may be coming.

The Incident, Parts 1 and 2

2009-05-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

Well, the writers of Lost cooked up another great season finale, as is their wont.

To start us off, how major a paradigm shift was the revelation that Jacob is who Jacob is? On Tuesday, he was a shadowy figure on the fringe (haha) of the show that we know little to nothing about, someone that we scour screencaps for a glimpse of, someone probably trapped in the cabin, someone Ben had never seen.

And now? He's a world-traveling, never-aging, healing-with-a-touch Cool Guy.

Who saw that coming? Not me.

Long list of What We Learned today:

1. Jacob is corporeal. He eats, he touches, he can be stabbed and killed.

2. Jacob is free to roam about the world.

3. Jacob has a nemesis, and we meet him. This nemesis cannot kill Jacob as of the late 1800's, though he desperately wants to.

4. The statue looks more like Sobek, another Egyptian deity, thanks to the crocodile head.

Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais, and in Greek,Suchos) was the deification of crocodiles, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River. Egyptians who worked or travelled on the Nile hoped that if they prayed to Sobek, the crocodile god, he would protect them from being attacked by crocodiles.^[1] The god Sobek, which was depicted as a crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile was a powerful and frightening deity; in some Egyptian creation myths, it was Sobek who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world.^[1] As a creator god, he was occasionally linked with the sun god Ra.^[1]

5. Jacob visited Sawyer, Sayid, Locke, Hurley, Kate, Jack, Sun and Jin at different stages in their lives and touched them. In Locke's case, Jacob's touch seemed to restore John to life.

6. Rose and Bernard are fine, and living alone. They've become pretty laissez-faire in the last three years, and Vincent is with them.

7. Roger shoots Sayid, justice for Sayid shooting Ben.

8. Juliet is convinced to help Jack after realizing Sawyer loves Kate. This lends actual plot relevance to the whole stupid love square, so good work, writers.

9. Jack actually goes through with Faraday's plan to blow up the ocean-ahem-the Island, and restore the timeline. Whether the plan actually works or not we won't know for a while.

10. We see how Chang injured and lost his arm.

11. Sun finds Charlie's family "DS" ring in Aaron's crib.

12. Locke convinces Ben to kill Jacob by telling him how wronged Ben has been. It was then that I became sure that this Locke was not Locke.

13. Locke's body is in the crate Ilana and Bram have.

14. Ilana and Bram, while unknown to Richard, are apparently followers of Jacob.

15. Richard Alpert responded to the question of "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" with "Ille qui nos omnes servabit" - “He who will protect/save us all.”

16. Ben stabs Jacob after essentially being told he was meaningless. "What about you?" is probably the harshest thing you could say to Ben at this point.

17. If you want to get technical, Locke/Nemesis is the one who actually pushed Jacob into the fire.

So much to tackle here. Just one note to end this post:

The show has increased in scope every season.

In Season 1, it's all about a small section of the Island. Then we move out to the fact that there are Others on the Island, and explore more. Then we discover the Hydra. And from there, the conflict between DHARMA and the Others on-Island, and then the conflict between Ben and Widmore off-Island.

And now all of that seems like the arguing of children compared to this conflict between Jacob and his Nemesis (some have taken to calling him Esau). The struggle between gods about the fate of man? For us, doesn't get much more epic than that.

Theories tomorrow.

WIRED and LOST

2009-05-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

Alright, so the other writers here have pretty much covered all of my theories as to what may come in the season finale. They just somehow found time to write it out before I did. Now the only thing I really have to input is this puzzle from last month's issue of WIRED Magazine. In case you're not a subscriber(like you should be), J.J. Abrams Co-edited this issue, and it was an amazing issue. About half-way through the issue, we find this little puzzle(Click for full-size):

If you take the first page of numbers, transfer them directly to their alphabetical counterparts(a=1, d=4, z=26, etc.), you get:

QAVPHFTKRRJNGGERVGEFXOLMAH

Plug that into a Vigenere Cipher, using the keyword WIREDMAGAZINE, and you get this:

USELETTERSBACKWARDSFROMEND

I came up with the keyword WIREDMAGAZINE because it has that at the bottom of the page after the page number. That's not like that anywhere else in the magazine. Now though, I'm stumped... The numbers on the next page obviously go over 26, the last letter in the English alphabet. I have yet to try wrapping and continuously counting them(27=a, 30=d, 52=z, etc.), I just haven't had a ton of time to mess around with this thing(School, grumble).

Why do I want to figure this out so bad? It obviously has a connection to LOST with the Lotto ticket on top. J.J. Abrams Co-edited this issue, and has a great article in it, which is also a puzzle in itself. Also, if you recall a few episodes back there was a WIRED magazine present. From August 2003, which has an article in it about the cure for cancer on page 108, which is as we know the total of the 'numbers'. This may not give anything as to what is to come tonight, or in the future, but so much is linking the two together that it would be awesome to figure it all out anyways. Also, at 'The End' of this issue, there is a piece of artwork, check it:

Remember, this show is a lot about Science vs. Faith. I wish I could have broken this before the finale tonight! Haha! I may be trying to see something here that isn't, but knowing J.J., WIRED, and LOST, I really don't think I am.

And that's my two cents I guess. I'm missing the finale right now, which is why this article has no real structure and is kinda' mumbo jumbo'd. So I'm going to wrap this up by asking you all one more time, to see if you can solve this puzzle. After the finale tonight of course. I think if we do crack it, we'll no doubt be rewarded in a fairly big way.

Season Finale Spectacular!

2009-05-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

So tonight is the two-hour season 5 finale for Lost. Titled "The Incident," this should be a good look at what Chang was talking about in the Swan orientation film so long ago.

I'm going to tackle the ideas posted by the other blog authors, then go into what I think will go down.

-Amy's theory that someone will get super powers - "Will Jack be Island Radioactive Man?" is interesting, but the incident where Desmond turns the key is not exactly equivalent to a nuclear bomb going off. I actually think the bomb is largely inert after all these years... the leak caused the nuclear aspect of the bomb to fizzle, but the initial triggering explosion may still happen. Large enough to destroy the Dharma compound, but not Island-destroying.

I also have a feeling Smokey will make an appearance, something dramatic, like sucking up the hydrogen bomb blast or something. Or maybe eating Locke or Jack, seeing as they're both setting themselves up for some major island controversy. Mmmm Smokey food.

I like it. Smokey seems to act as the Island's protector and Judger of Souls. As we don't know the limits or extent of his technology, swallowing a hydrogen bomb blast certainly makes sense.

Also, I think maybe Sun and Frank might make everything right in the island before John has a chance to blow up the bomb, thus making everything course corrected. Aaaaand scene.

Sun and Frank... apparently following Christian's instructions, and as we don't know where Christian's allegiance lies, their actions are a mystery.

I'm not on board with John's theory that Jacob doesn't exist. Locke has heard him speak ("Help me"), and Hurley saw him when he stumbled upon the cabin. Shoot, we've even seen him. Check it out:

If Jacob turns out to be nonexistent, it will be a major betrayal of trust by the writers, and I don't think they'll do that to us so late in the game.

Here's what I think:

I think Jacob is a prisoner of Richard and subsequently, every leader the Others have had for a long time. Locke, being in tune with the Island (and therefore Jacob), knows this, and knows the only way to free him is to kill him.

I'm still a proponent of "what happened, happened," so I don't think he'll succeed. I don't think Jack will succeed in setting off the bomb, unless the only effect is causing The Incident by releasing the electromagnetic energy through the explosion.

Everything will tie together in the end, and we'll start seeing some of the tying tonight.

Along those same lines, the show will not end with Flight 815 landing safely in Los Angeles. This would be a larger viewer betrayal than even making Jacob nonexistent... it'd be on par with what Life on Mars did. Everything we've seen in six seasons never happened? The character development, the storyline, the mysteries... none of it matters? J.J. Abrams is far too smart to go down that route.

Here's to an awesome season finale!

John's LOST finale prediction - are you watching?

2009-05-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

OK, so first off: here's to what I may call the finest season of LOST. Period. No season has done more than Season 5 to answer so many of the questions that we all had in the last ___ years. It also reminds me of why I love this show so much: the writing.

It astounds me that nearly all the questions I refer to as "biggies" have come answered (or partially, at least), in a way that progresses the story of the survivors while not being merely an addendum of the mythology. Sure the mythology of the island, et al. is cool, but without a gripping story with characters to care about, there's not much there.

Boo. Ya.

So without further adieu, my thoughts on the finale.

I think Jacob is non-existent (eek!). And John knows it. It could be some sort of cover up drawn up by Ben and Richard (one of my favorite characters in the show) to keep control over The Others. I'm not sure why, except that John's idea to "kill" Jacob means that he's going to show everyone that they've been duped by Ben and Richard. However, I don't think that Richard's participation in it would be nearly as sinister as Ben's; I think he would have a good reason for it, as he seems to be quite in tune with the island--though not to John's apparent closeness.

Other than that, I have no idea what will happen with the sub, besides that maybe something goes awry (vague, I know) and they need to head back. All I know is that something big will happen, as Brandon mentioned, involving Sun, Lipidus, John, Jack, Smokey, and the Island, which will make for some interesting theories until Season 6. The Final Season.

Bummer.

But, at least it'll be good. Happy watching!

Theories on the season finale

2009-05-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Oh, Lost. Believe it or not, I have been following along with the season, just not writing on this blog.

And the conclusion I've come to is we're in for yet another excruciating cliff-hanger at season's end. I have a feeling it'll be like season 2 when Desmond goes to turn the key, ending in a flash of light (or the flash of a hydrogen bomb in this case). Who's going to end up with super powers this time? Will Jack be Island Radioactive Man? That's totally what his ego needs - a little saving experience. I think that's the main reason Jack wants to blow up the hydrogen bomb - so he has something to do and his journey back to the island won't be for nothing. I see his savior complex coming back in a big way.

I also have a feeling Smokey will make an appearance, something dramatic, like sucking up the hydrogen bomb blast or something. Or maybe eating Locke or Jack, seeing as they're both setting themselves up for some major island controversy. Mmmm Smokey food.

Also, I think maybe Sun and Frank might make everything right in the island before John has a chance to blow up the bomb, thus making everything course corrected. Aaaaand scene.

Thoughts on "Follow the Leader"

2009-05-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

The Locke-Ben-Alpert relationship is really interesting to me right now. Something is clearly off with Locke, and Alpert's attitude around him only confirms my suspicions. Alpert was acting wary and almost jumpy when dealing with Locke... my current idea is that Locke is being controlled by Smokey. There is evidence for and against this, but the longer it's apparent that Locke is not exactly himself, the more I like it.

Two literary references I pulled from the final minutes of last night's episode. The first is from the book of Exodus in the Old Testament. Moses has freed the Israelites from the Egyptians and they are now in the wilderness. In chapter 19, Moses prepares the people to meet God.

And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

Very similar to the idea of Locke taking the Others to meet Jacob. It's important to note that the Children of Israel never actually meet God, as they are intimidated and would rather not deal with that experience.

Then Locke discloses his plan to kill Jacob. This is very similar to a major plot point in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. You are familiar with the first book in the trilogy, The Golden Compass. I read all three books a couple summers ago, and they are essentially a thinly-disguised rant against the Catholic church, and to a lesser extent, organized religion in general.

In the final book, our young protagonists kill "The Authority" (the god of their universe), by freeing him from the prison The Authority's right-hand man had placed him in a long time ago.

Jacob's "help me" to Locke. The circle of ash around Jacob's cabin. Locke's assertion that Ben has never actually seen Jacob. It all works.... Locke is going to the cabin to kill Jacob, thereby freeing him. Big time stuff is about to go down.

The undercurrent of Ben still wanting to kill Locke, but fully aware that Smokey will destroy him if he tries (not just kill, destroy) puts Ben in a tough spot. If Richard supports Ben's plotting, that may give Ben a sense that the Island approves, but in the end, Smokey supports Locke, and Smokey is the true power on the Island. Smokey has been on-Island for centuries or even millennia... I doubt anyone has any kind of control over him.

Shaping up for an intense season finale.

Follow the Leader

2009-05-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

What struck me most about last night's episode was how lost and confused Alpert and Ben seemed at times. These two seemed the most confident and competent of anyone on the show, and now that's shot. On to the learning:

1. Daniel is dead dead. No taking him to the temple for saving.

2. Jack is sold on Daniel's theory of "blow up the Island and everything reverts back to the original timeline."

3. Richard says he watched Jack, Kate, Hugo, etc. die in 1977 (or somewhere after that point).

4. Locke gave Alpert the first aid kit and instructions on what to tell time-skipping Locke.

So not a whole lot of questions answered, but a few new ones have been posed. Good ol' Lost.

Theories on "The Variable"

2009-05-02T10:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the better theories on Wednesday's episode from Lostpedia.org.

On Daniel's age:

Daniel would have to have been born by 1977. He was a professor at Oxford in 1996, which would be impossible at less than the age of 19. This raises a question as to why he didn't have a nosebleed before Miles earlier in the season, however. it's possible the writers have mixed up their own time line again, as they did with Charlotte.
While I agree with this, Daniel says he's the youngest doctor to ever graduate from oxford, so who knows how young. If he was already as much of a genius as he seemed as a kid, he could've gone to college at 12 or 13, and been a doctor by 20 or 21.

-On the Comic-Con video

Provided that Daniel's prediction about the massive energy discharge about to pass from the Orchid Station to the site of the Swan Station is correct (which will become known as "the Incident"), then the video Dr. Chang recorded must have been taped shortly after the Incident. The Incident would prove that Daniel Faraday really was from the future and already knew that such an event was going to happen. Somehow Dr. Chang will find out more about the time period from which Daniel originates (including information about the current president and the internet) though of course not from Daniel himself.

Most importantly, Pierre Chang will learn of the Purge, and seeing how Daniel was unable to change the past, Dr. Chang will figure that his future cannot be changed either. Therefore he makes this video to be shown after the Purge has already occurred, Pierre himself is dead (and missing an arm somehow) and the DHARMA Initiative is inactive. However, he makes sure that the video is not played until 2008 because that is after Daniel's time loop with the past has ended.

The Dharma Booth Video was filmed after Daniel was shot and after the Incident. Based on Sawyer comments in 1977, it seems Daniel has been off the Island for awhile. When Daniel returns to the Island, baby Miles is a few months old. Daniel doesn't die from the gunshot because Young Eloise takes him to the Temple to be healed like Ben. While Daniel's in a coma or passed out, the Incident takes place. Baby Charlotte left the Island before the Incident but not baby Miles. The Incident is what gives Miles his psychic ability and causes Dr. Chang's arm to be amputated. The video was filmed shortly after the Incident. In the video, Daniel's voice is heard behind the camera, baby Miles is heard crying in the background and Dr. Chang clasps his hand/arm as if in pain.

-On Eloise's seeming ability to see into the future:

Eloise can't see into the future. She got her information from Daniel, Jack, Kate, Sayid and anyone else who flashed to the 70's and came into contact with her. They tell her everything. In her scene with Penny in 2007, she said she doesn't know what's coming next and it's the first time she doesn't know what's coming in a really long time. The reason is, that they can only tell her what happens between the time they meet in 1977 and the time she sends them back to the island in 2007.

I like that last one. Makes sense. Your thoughts?

Significance of Daniel's death

2009-04-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

To start off, you need to realize that Eloise is fully aware that she is the reason her son is dead. She might not understand it right away (ie. in 1977), but by the time Daniel is an adult, she has to know what will happen.

Yet she sends Daniel to the Island (in 2005) anyway. She is the reason he accepted Widmore's offer, and this is what she is talking about when she angrily tells Widmore that he knows nothing of sacrifice.

The question is why does she do it? He's her son!

There are two options here, in my opinion.

A.) The "course correction" theorem is inviolable. She knows she kills Daniel, and also knows she can do nothing to stop his death. She must simply live with the consequences.

B.) Daniel has gone rogue, and is disregarding the laws of time travel. Hawking's role in The Constant seems to be one of a Time Cop of sorts. She exists to stop Desmond from changing the timeline by proposing to Penny, among other things. If Daniel is now working to change the timeline, then it is her duty to stop him, and the way she does that is by convincing him to return to the Island and his certain doom (at her hand).

Tragic.

It also lends more meaning to Eloise writing "I will love you no matter what" (paraphrased) in the journal she gives Daniel.

Of course, if Daniel survives being shot in the back, then none of this is valid. But I'm 99% certain that he's gone.

The Variable

2009-04-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

This episode was packed with stuff, I suppose to make up for that lame clip show last week. Let's get into it:

1. First of all, The Return of Faraday was a trap. Writers had Miles overreact a bit to make it seem amazing that Daniel was getting off the sub, when really, it was no big deal. We didn't know where he was, but Miles and everyone else did.

2. Lots of Daniel information here. Obviously, the big reveal is that Widmore is Daniel's father (probably). While Eloise's slap at the pronouncement indicates it's not that clean-cut, I'm taking the statement at face value for now. My guess is that Penny is Widmore's daughter with another woman (a mainlander), making Daniel and Penny half-siblings.

3. Daniel is entirely unaware that Widmore is his father. I wonder who he thinks his dad is.... All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues.

4. Widmore personally recruits Daniel to go to the Island. The main reason is to help Widmore gain control of said Island, and the secondary reason is that the Island will heal Faraday. It explains the scene with Charlotte and Daniel and the memory cards last season, and explains why Faraday has gotten progressively more lucid.

5. The nature of Faraday's illness is explained. He retains some level of base knowledge; he knows who he is and know his mother. He knows he used to be brilliant, and knows he's forgotten things. But he is unable to remember specific information from his past, and anything new he learns will be forgotten by the next day.

6. This is the result of the experiment he ran on himself at Oxford, presumably the same experiment he ran on Eloise the rate and Theresa, his lab assistant. If you remember, the experiment with Eloise (that Desmond witnessed) was transferring the rat's future consciousness into the present animal. The rat then successfully navigated a maze that Daniel would not teach it for another five minutes. The rat died as a result of this expirement, and we assume the same experiment put Theresa the lab assistant in a coma.

7. Daniel believes his mother was wrong in sending the 316-ers back to the Island. We're not sure why.

8. The Incident Chang referred to in different Dharma orientation videos was the result of Dharma workers drilling into the ground at the Swan site and releasing a ton of energy. Daniel confronts Chang not to prevent the Incident from happening, but to make Pierre worried enough to send the women and children away. This is presumably how Charlotte and her mother get off the Island and maybe how Chang is separated from his wife and Miles.

9. Faraday is currently on a mission to try and "change things", even though he previously believed he could not. I think Charlotte is the catalyst for this. He believes that if he stops the construction of the Swan, then Charlotte will never return to the Island, and she will survive. This ignores Hawking's "course correction" speech to Desmond in The Constant, in which she teaches that the universe will fix any attempts at changing the timeline. Daniel may prevent Charlotte from returning to the Island, but then she might die in a car crash around the same time anyway.

10. Daniel is shot (and killed?) by a young Eloise Hawking in 1977, as he threatens to shoot Alpert. I will get into this in my analysis post.

Good episode. Seems like the writers are ramping up for a great season finale in four or five episodes.

Commentary and theories on "Some Like it Hoth"

2009-04-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

-Faraday. Like I mentioned earlier, it seems that Miles is astonished to see him. Last we saw Daniel, it was within hours of Sawyer snowing Dharma into thinking he and the other Left-Behinds were legit. Daniel is distraught over Charlotte's death. Next thing we know, it's 1977 and Sawyer is telling Jack that Daniel is "not with us anymore."

So here are my theories:

1. Faraday somehow managed to sneak off the Island without anyone in Dharma noticing, get back to the mainland and get recruited into Dharma as a scientist working out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

2. OR 2008 Faraday died in 1974-ish, and his consciousness was transferred to 1977 Faraday, leading him to want to return to the Island, and therefore seek out Dharma.

We've seen consciousness be transferred through time and space before, both in "The Constant", with Desmond and Eloise, the rat.

Or 2008 Desmond just went on a trip and came back, and Miles is overreacting. Trap by the writers.

Of course, we've seen Daniel in the Orchid, dressed a construction worker, hiding from Pierre. This could indicate he's with Dharma as a scientist, but not allowed to see the Orchid or Swan, so he has to infiltrate the sites.

-Miles shows his human decency for the second time by refunding the money of the dad of the dead football player. He did a similar thing when Ghostbusting the room of that grandma the first time we see him.

-What the heck does Pierre want with a dead body at the Orchid?

-Hurley writing The Empire Strikes Back is awesome.

-How dumb is Phil? "Have you told anyone else about this?" Any time ANYONE asks you this question, watch out for a gun to the head or punch to the face. Or crowbar to the back of your head. Sheesh.

And what are they going to do with Phil? Either they keep him locked in a closet forever, kill him, or bring him in on their secret.

-Miles was recruited to help find Ben, but never exactly gets to do that. Kinda weird.

Some Like it Hoth

2009-04-16T08:50:00.000-07:00

On to the learning:

1. Pierre Chang is definitely Miles' dad. This has been the speculation since Miles was introduced (go go racism?), and now it's confirmed.

2. Hence, Miles was born on-Island and left it at a very early age. Either that or Pierre left.

3. Miles' powers are explained. He doesn't hold conversations with the dead, he is only able to glean impressions and feelings off a body (not ashes) as to who the person was. (I assume he'd have an equally difficult time reading someone who'd been eaten by a lion.)

4. Dharma is currently building the Swan and Orchid stations (1977).

5. Bram tries to convince Miles to not accept Widmore's offer. That allies him with Ben, right? Making him an Other? So is Ilana an Other?

6. Pierre really does care for lil' Miles. Why Miles never knew him growing up is a mystery. The Purge doesn't happen until 1992, and Miles was 15 then.

7. One can get very, very close to one's past self while time-traveling and there do not seem to be any negative effects.

8. Faraday is not dead. Miles seems very surprised to see him, indicating that Daniel has not merely been on an extended trip to the mainland.

Some Like it Hoth - Questions

2009-04-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Since I'm an author on here, I figure I need to make some contribution. So for all those anticipating tonight, some questions that I'm pondering.

Some Questions to Ponder Tonight

1.) What is Miles' role in the Lostie's "destinies?" Is it a coincidence that a man who talks to dead people lands on an island where dead people randomly appear?

2.) In 1977, does Pierre Chang already know "the truth?"

3.) Where is Faraday? Is he still alive, is he planning something? Has he gone all "Anakin Skywalker" in a misguided quest to prevent the death of his love, Charlotte?

4.) "Some Like it Hoth?" Let me guess: The Empire finds the Island, only after Admiral Ozzel (in a mistake that costs him his life) brings the fleet out of lightspeed too early, alerting the DHARMA of their presence in time to raise their shields, putting the Imperials in the position of having to wage a costly ground battle with AT-AT Walkers.-- (OR maybe they just talk about Star Wars for a few minutes and make a metaphor poignant enough to give the episode its name. Whatever.)

Let's hope we get some answers tonight. (And if we know Lost, likely more questions.)

Smokey stuff, cont'd

2009-04-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

-Does anyone else thing Ilana and her followers are being controlled by Smokey, just like Rousseau's crew? "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" sounds like a question to see who is under Smokey's control and who is not.

-The painting in the underground room at the Temple showed what I think is Anubis summoning Smokey. Anubis is the jackal-headed Egyptian god associated with death and the afterlife. One of his jobs is to weigh the hearts of men to see if they are worthy of continuing to the afterlife, as depicted here:

The hearts are weighed against a feather. If your heart is lighter, than you are good to go.

Now, the question is... was Smokey created by the Egyptians, or was he merely worshiped/used by them? It seems that the Island, at one time, was home to Egyptians... either they crashed there or the Island was very close to Egypt at some point in its history and was actually part of the kingdom.

Question for Monday

2009-04-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

What appeal does being leader of the Others hold? I understand that for Locke it means being special and having a purpose in life, but what is so attractive about it to Widmore or Ben?

Widmore, especially, didn't find everything he wished for on the Island; he went off and got a wife and started a family.

You don't get a nice car or more money or anything. Your decisions are always subject to Jacob (Alpert), and you spend most of your time doing what he says. It's not like you can be promoted to the new "Jacob" one day, is it?

John's Late-in-the-Week Post: "Dead is Dead"

2009-04-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, Losities.

"Dead is Dead" was awesome. Do doubt one of my favorite LOST episodes eva.

So this week's post is a bit different.

Here's a potential convo Ben and Charles, who in the following script will be known as Widmore.

Because it's his last name.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ben: (sitting in the shadow of "the statue") So, uh, Charles..

Widmore: Yes, boy?

Ben: Why were you so mad that Richard allowed the island to save me?

Widmore: Oh Ben, I don't--

Ben: --Seriously, that really sucked, old man. Did you want me to die? My father basically left me for dead...at least emotionally.

Widmore: Listen, Ben, all I want to do is finish carving this blasted statue so I can get on my merry way and be judged by the island. I don't have time to hear the daddy-son issues of your soft underbelly.

Ben: (widdling a piece of wood) I mean, I just thought you might--you know--learn to love me the way I know and you know the island does. The island loves me, Charles. I guess that's why I feel so attached to it. I kind of attach myself to anyone that shows interest in me. Honestly, I don't know what I would do if I found a smart, doctor-like blonde with a penchant for delivering babies....ooh, that would be nice. Oh, and check out this book that washed up on shore.

(Hands Widmroe a copy of The Dark Tower)

Widmore: Stephen King? Please. Canterbury Tales only, boy.

Ben: So why are you carving this gigantic statute? And what is judgment?

Widmore: Dear Dummy, This statue has been erected since before 1965 and is more than 20 feet tall. It is a near impossibility that I, or someone like me, erected it. It most likely came from aliens, since it is the only science fiction subject yet to be established in the mythology of our island. Signed, The Guy Who Just Can't Seem To Rid Himself Of You.

Ben: And the judgment?

Widmore: The island is mad because I've been carving "Charles + Ruth" in trees all over the place. Apparently there is some destruction of chattel and property statute that prohibits such defacement. What a load.

Ben: Rats.

Widmore: Well, I guess I'm going to hop in the sub, jet-set around the U.S. for a while, skip on over to Jolly Ole' for a bit, then have a baby with someone who is not one of us. See ya round, Boy.

Ben: Don't worry, if you're ever banished for breaking so many rules, I won't gloat. But I will consider killing your future daughter as revenge for your hand in the killing of my daughter. But it will probably be my own fault that she dies anyway.

But I don't think in judgment Inchoate Offenses are really considered. I might be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

Widmore: Bummer.

Ben: Yeah.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, so I'm not sure where all that came from, but a couple of unanswerables so far: What is the statue? What happened in its shadow? How does Smokey know exactly what is in the minds of those it judges? And why did Widmore try so hard to find the island (and says himself to have failed), if he "understood" so much that what the island wants cannot be changed? He makes reference of that to Ben just before his banishment and is yet driven completely.

Also, if anyone doesn't know yet, I did not see James in the scene when Claire has Aaron in Season One.

Alas.

A treatise on ye olde "smoke monster"

2009-04-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

Last night's episode made me think about the smoke monster a bit, and here's what I came up with:

Smokey manifests in four separate ways, at my counting:

1. As smoke.

2. Taking the form of a person. See: "Walt" appearing to Shannon, "Yemi" appearing to Eko, "Alex" appearing to Ben. In these situations, Smokey makes little to no effort to mimic the individual; he takes on the form to evoke an emotional response in the person he's working with.

3. Altering people, ie. Rousseau's group. Also potentially with Ilana and the 316-ers following her.

4. A theory, but Smokey may be able to use dead bodies to engage in face-to-face conversation. Christian is the main reason for my theory... we have no idea what he is, and "puppet of Smokey" makes as much sense as anything else. This form differs from number 3 in that Smokey works harder at passing himself off as the person he's masquerading as. Either that, or the person retains a level of their own personality and control? This is getting creepy.

Now, assuming my last theory is correct, does Locke fit here? The writers are doing their darndest to make us think it's a possibility, anyway. Locke leaves Ben before Smokey arrives and then returns after Smokey is gone, Ben calls Smokey and Locke comes out of the jungle, etc. Locke also questions Ben about his choice to move the Others to the barracks, and knows as much about the temple as Ben does. In general he's not acting like your typical pre-death Locke.

Last night's episode also solidifies the Island's endorsement of Locke as Ben's replacement (insofar as Smokey speaks for Jacob). "I know you're already planning on trying to kill John again," Smokey says. "I recommend against it." In this case, why allow Ben to live? If he is no longer the leader of the Others, and he's a threat to the current leader, what purpose does he serve?

The scene also solidified Smokey's role as judge. He judged Eko for Eko's past sins, found him unrepentant, and killed him. He judged Ben for Alex's death, found Ben sincerely repentant, and spared him.

This ties nicely into the Anubis theories, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

Dead is Dead

2009-04-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed the Ben/Locke interaction last night. I hope we get more of it in the coming weeks.

Here's what the LOST writers gave us:

1. Charles from last week's episode is Widmore.

2. Ben is the one who took Alex. I guess that makes sense, but I never put it together. Also, Widmore ordered Ben to kill Rousseau (and assumed he'd kill Alex?).

3. "When you hear whispers, run." That was interesting.

4. Widmore was booted from the Island for having a separate life off of it. This also explains that...

5. Penny was born off-Island.

6. Desmond is the one who beat Ben up on the docks.

7. Ben was unable to go through with killing Penny after seeing lil' Charlie, and thus Penny, Charlie and Desmond are most likely still alive.

8. Christian told Sun to wait for Locke if she wanted to find Jin.

9 We learn how Ben summons the Monster.

Posts to come.

Theories on Whatever Happened, Happened

2009-04-02T11:13:00.001-07:00

-Time travel clarification based on what Miles said: if you're traipsing about in your past (ie. you left 2008 to go to 1977), you have no guarantee of surviving. This is your present self in 1973, and since you never existed past 2008, you can die without negatively affecting the timeline.

However, people who are in the time they're supposed to be in (ie. lil' Jack in 1977 or lil' Ben in 1977) cannot die unless the original timeline has them dying at that moment, anyway. You can't kill JFK, Jr. as a time traveler unless you get him from the grassy knoll.

Clear?

- I'm intrigued by almost everything in the scene with Alpert. First off, Ben will be changed forever, and be an Other from that time on. His innocence will be lost. Is this part of the process of becoming an Other? Did Juliet do this? Widmore? Ethan? It does seem like the one defining characteristic of an Other is undying loyalty to the Island and the willingness to do just about anything to protect it (though Juliet sort of defies that stereotype).

Also, one of the Others mentions the fact that "Ellie" and "Charles" won't like Alpert taking Ben. Charles has to be Widmore, right? And could Ellie be Ms. Hawking? Her first name is Eloise.

And then there's the fact that Sawyer basically goads the Others with the fact that they don't want war any more than Dharma does. The Others live in an uneasy peace with Dharma for almost 20 years... and then in 1992, the Purge takes place. What changed between 1977 and then?

-Do you think Locke is ticked at Ben? Ben was honestly surprised to see Locke alive... he can't pull off a "I killed you so you could get back, it was the only way" argument. Or at least, if he does, I hope Locke isn't so gulliable as to believe it.

-It turns out that Ben's dad really is a good guy at heart. He just allows his grief for his wife and the bad situation he's in control how he acts towards his son. That said, Ben still kills him in cold blood in 1992. If Roger had some kind of change of heart after Ben's shooting, is it possible that he tries to reconcile with Ben, but New Ben won't have any of it?

-Jack refuses to save Ben, thereby causing Ben to become who he is in 2004. I think this is just another object lesson on Whatever Happened, Happened. Acting won't change the timeline. Not acting won't change the timeline.

-Someone on Lostpedia made an interesting observation comparing the kings of the Old Testament to the leaders of the Others:

A good comparison for Alpert might be in the Old Testament, where the prophet Samuel picked the first couple of kings of Israel (Saul and David), but had no real power himself. Does, then, Charles = Saul (the rejected/banished king), Ben = David (the one who fully vanquishes his people's enemies), and John = Solomon (king of the "golden age")?

Interesting theory.

That's all I've got. As always, your thoughts welcome.

Whatever Happened, Happened

2009-04-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

To get started, my favorite part of this episode is when the writers used Miles and Hurley to take out their frustrations on the (apparently) stupid LOST fanbase.

DEAR LOST VIEWERS: WHAT HAPPENED, HAPPENED. PLEASE WRAP YOUR HEADS AROUND THIS VERY SIMPLE VERSION OF TIME TRAVEL WE HAVE CHOSEN TO USE ON OUR SHOW. YOUR OVERLORDS THANK YOU.

Good times. Without futher ado, here is what we learned from LOST last night:

1. Kate told Cassidy everything. I'd forgotten that she and Kate were tight, but remember how Kate helped her out after Sawyer left Cassidy and Cassidy was trying to make a living conning people? Well, she did. And then Cassidy helped Kate get in touch with Kate's mother. They are tight.

2. The reason Kate returned to the Island was to find Claire, whose status of "living or not living?" is not exactly clear. But good luck with that, Kate. Oh, and Aaron is with his grandma. Why Kate couldn't just tell Jack that, I dunno.

3. Jack didn't return to the Island to save the left-behinds, but instead came back for his own, more selfish, reasons.

4. We learn for sure what Sawyer whispered to Kate in the helicopter, but come on, we already knew it was about Clementine.

5. Ben is taken by Alpert to go through a process that will change Ben forever.

6. My theory as to why Ben messes with the 815-ers is temporarily out. If lil' Ben will lose all memory of "this" (the shooting?), then he won't remember it was Sayid who shot him. I suppose later on he could find out the truth, but it doesn't seem good.

Theories to come.

LOST as an 80's TV show

2009-03-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

I don't have speakers here at work, so I'm not quite sure what the music here is like.

Enjoy!

John's Late-in-the-Week Post: "He's Our You"

2009-03-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

So my wife has begun watching LOST again from the beginning, as she missed a few episodes that were vital in leading us to where we are now.

(No need to panic; I've seen every single episode).

Currently, she's nearing the middle of Season One, and Claire's (bring her back, Christian!) about to have her baby (Kate you dimwit! Only Claire is supposed to raise Aaron!). I'm looking forward to the episode when she actually does have it, as I'm excited to see whether James "I used to call myself Sawyer to fool people; now I call myself LaFleur to fool people" Ford is visible at all as an Easter egg.

I'll keep you posted.

But watching the episode "Confidence Man" leads me to rescind some of the character changing that I've seen James go through.

The example I'm considering:
In "Confidence Man," Sawyer is taken by Jack and Sayid as they "inquire"about the inhalers James supposedly has stashed away (no one ever asks for them, and he never says that he has them). Their inquiry includes hitting him over the head, tying him to a tree, and shoving bamboo slivers under his finger nails to get him to talk. In a word: torture.

Of course, James is innocent, though allows Jack and Sayid to do this partly to lead others away from who he really is.

(In a darker "revelation" I had, I feel James in this episode is a lot like The Joker from The Dark Knight in that he also seems to be allowing his own torture to ruin the hero complexis of Jack (Batman) and Sayid (Harvey Dent). Remember that The Joker was mostly interested in seeing how far he could push Batman and Harvey Dent. Dent was the only that broke (think Sayid). I know--I'm a nerd.)

This brings me "He's Our You." James leads Sayid to the Dharma "psychopath," where the roles are reversed, to allow his to give Sayid a magic sugar cube in order for him to talk. In a word, I call this sort of interrogotory: torture.

And yet, James allows it to happen. Why? To keep people believing that he is someone other than himself.

And though he seems to have changed, and I believe he has, some unwanted characteristics will be much harder to overcome.

But to do that, he did the right thing; he stayed on the island.

Theories on He's Our You

2009-03-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

It's interesting... the episode title seems to indicate that the pivotal moment this week should be when Oldham drugs Sayid, right? This Oldham guy is set up to be one scary dude, but all he does is put LSD or something onto a sugar cube and force feed it to Sayid.

I mean, sure, there's something about Oldham that creeps me out... part of it is that he lives in a teepee in the middle of the jungle. Do the Others not bother him? Are they afraid of him? Do they respect him?

But when we boil it down, the drugging scene was meaningless. Sayid told them the truth and Horace and the others didn't believe it. Sure, they (especially Radzinsky) were freaked out that he knew about the Dharma stations, especially the Swan, but other than that, no harm done. They just figured they'd given him too much of the drug and decided to kill him, just like they wanted to in the first place.

And we find out how Illana captured Sayid and who she is. My only question here is: how did the family of golfer guy find out Sayid did it?

But on to the meat of the episode. I've been saying since last week that Sayid was thinking about killing lil' Ben. There are two main points here:

1. Either the timeline is all shot to kingdom come, or lil' Ben isn't really dead. That's what it comes down to. Note that Sayid did not stop to check for a pulse or make extra sure lil' Ben was dead by shooting a few more rounds into the body, so I'm leaning towards "lil' Ben will be saved by Richard and/or healed by the Island powers" right now. It makes the most sense and we don't have to deal with the aftermath of the timeline falling apart.

2. Sayid shoots Ben because he believes lil' Ben will grow up to be a manipulating, lying, evil man, responsible for a lot of the suffering he and the other 815-ers have gone through. He probably suspects Adult Ben had Nadia killed in order to turn Sayid into his personal assassin.

Now here's where it gets fun. Adult Ben makes life hard for Sayid and the other 815-ers (including probably having Nadia killed) because Sayid shot him when he was 12.

And Sayid shot lil' Ben because Adult Ben made Sayid's life hard from 2004-2007.

The whole thing is a time-travel revenge circle.

See why I hate time travel? Ugh.

This is also the basis for the conversation Ben and Sayid have in the Dominican Republic. Ben believes Sayid to be a stone-cold killer, because Sayid shot him, an unarmed boy who had just helped him escape from Dharma, in cold blood.

This theory contradicts another theory floating around: that people don't develop memories of "altered timeline events" until they happen. For example, Desmond never met Faraday (outside the Swan during the jumping phase) until the Island disappeared and the time skipping began. This makes no sense to me in light of Faraday's "one timeline" theory, so I'm going with the idea that Adult Ben already knows Sayid, Jack, Kate, Hurley, etc. in 2004, and knows Juliet before he recruits her in 2001. He doesn't suddenly develop memories in 2008 of knowing them as a child in 1977 when this is all "happening" along some parallel timeline. Does that make sense? I need to draw a chart.

Other stuff: lil' Ben is probably responsible for the burning van. He was waiting outside the holding area and sprang into action the moment Phil was gone.

And the writers were worried we wouldn't feel bad watching lil' Ben get shot, so they included a "remember how his dad is an abusive jerk?" scene. Oh Uncle Rico, where did you go wrong?

What will Sayid do now? He's alone in the jungle in 1977. I doubt the Others will let him join them, and Dharma sure as heck want him dead now.

Good episode.

He's Our You

2009-03-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Things we learned from last night's episode:

1. Sawyer really, really likes his life with Dharma. He's all hooked up with Juliet, he has a position of some power, it's a fairly comfortable existence, etc. He likes it so much, he won't risk losing it to help a fellow 815-er. That said, I wonder if he'd react the same way if it was Kate or Hurley locked up and suspected to be a Hostile.

2. We see who Illana is and how she captured Sayid. See where sexual promiscuity gets you?

3. We meet Oldham.

4. Oh, and Sayid decides to kill lil' Ben.

As always, let me know if I missed anything. Theories up next.

Namaste re-re-revisited (Tired of talking about this episode yet?)

2009-03-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

Since John Gagnon's posting on the blog now, I'm somewhat rethinking my comic relief role...I'll let you know what happens there.

In the meantime, I have some questions that weren't answered in the three posts about Namaste so far:

Number A: Can Ben not meet himself in the past? Is that why he didn't time jump?

Number B: Why didn't Sun time jump? Because someone from the Oceanic Six needed to fix the island and not time jump? Is this really the first time Sun learns about Christian?

Another one: Why did the Others build the runway? So when planes are about to crash on the island, they'll land semi-safely (sorry redshirt copilot) and they'll have more people to choose from? Or to land their own planes for supplies and transport? I thought the only way off the island was the sub - although, Ben could have been lying. He probably was.

Juliet almost gets Kate hosed - does anyone else think that's a great moment? Is it all part of Juliet's plan? Or just to show Kate who's in charge and how much power Juliet has?

Theories on Namaste

2009-03-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

-I think the big question I had after watching this last episode is this: when are Ben, Sun, Lapidus, etc.? The show labels the time as "30 years earlier," which would put them at 2007. However, Sun and Lapidus end up in what look like Dharma barracks.

Now, we know the Others lived in the Dharma barracks for an unspecified amount of time, and when they moved in, they removed all traces of Dharma. They are there from at least 2001 (when Juliet is recruited) to 2005 (when they abandon them after the mercenaries land on-Island).

The Purge occurred in 1992 (Horace Goodspeed tells John he's been dead for 12 years in 2004), so that means there is a time period of about nine years where Dharma is gone, and we're not sure if the Others have taken over their compound or not.

This puts Sun somewhere between 1992 and 2001.

Unless, of course, this isn't the barracks, and is instead a part of the Dharma Initiative that was never used by the Others. We don't know for sure that the Processing area and the living quarters are in the same place. It doesn't seem to me that the barracks are so close to the ocean, and Sun and Frank only walked a few feet before finding the Processing building.

-Did anyone else notice, during the scene with Christian, that there was a few seconds where the camera centered on an open door with smoke coming in? It jumped out at me because the focus was not any of the characters, and the smoke didn't seem like Smokey smoke... it was more like there was a campfire outside and the wind was blowing smoke from that in.

-To echo John's sentiments: where is Faraday? The way Sawyer said he'd left was a bit ambiguous. Is he insane? Did he leave the Island somehow? Is he off living with the Others?

-I think Sawyer's moved past the "con" phase of his relationship with Dharma and is now firmly entrenched in an "identifying with them" phase. Count how many times he uses the phrase "my people." That's going to be a problem.

-I mentioned to my wife while watching that Christian is much more specific about what he wants to get done than Jacob is. Whether Christian IS Jacob for all intents and purposes is another discussion, but I am leaning more and more towards the idea that they are competing forces on the Island. Jacob has his lists, which have an unknown purpose. Christian tells Locke to move the Island (though to be fair he didn't tell him how). I get the feeling he'll tell Sun exactly what she needs to do if she wants to find Jin.

-There is good reason to believe that Ben manipulated Sun into going to the Processing center. Remember, every time he appears vulnerable or beaten, he comes out on top somehow. This guy seems to be the king of the Xanatos Gambit.

-I believe that in 1977, young Ben is tight with Alpert and the Others. When he asks Sayid if he is a Hostile, what he's really saying is, "because I don't recognize you." In a related tangent, if we believe Faraday's "one timeline and one timeline only" theory, this means Ben knows Sayid when they "meet" for the first time in the Swan in Season 2. It also means he knows Sawyer, Juliet, Jack, etc., which adds layers upon layers to the previous seasons. How did he have such large files on people like Jack and Kate when they'd only been on-Island for relatively short period of time? I believe it is because he'd been working on them for years beforehand.

-To beat a dead horse, I believe if you're going to get into time travel as a writer, the only feasible way to do it without screwing up or going crazy is by using Faraday's "one timeline" theory. As long as LOST stays here, we'll be good. As Gagnon said, the first five episodes of this season were overwhelming enough, and we're using the simplest form of time travel theory there is.

And to conclude, boy do I not care about the Jack/Juliet/Sawyer/Kate love square. Just pair off and do your thing. I don't need 10 more episodes of furtive looks and hurt, tortured expressions. Ugh.

"Namaste" revisited

2009-03-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

OK, so I'm going a bit ga-ga over the last couple of episodes, merely because it is producing more and more story, and less time travel craziness. Don't get me wrong, I dig the time travel mythology of the show, but it had been a bit overwhelming the first five episodes or so.

And does anyone just love Sawyer---er, LeFleur---right now? From season one to now, I can't think of anyone that has had such a change in arc than James Ford. And he's probably pulling the biggest and coolest con of his life.

One thing that I'm not sure of (among many) after Wednesday's episode:

Is Faraday gone from Dharma, or is he just out of his mind (hence James' indication that he isn't here anymore)? Either way, I'm curious to see what has become of Daniel. His "aptitude test" would probably be off the charts, and remember that he was seen in a mine that Chang was inspecting in "Because You Left." So I'm not sure what Faraday has up his sleeve.

Cue Twilight Zone music.

That was my biggest question. Lots more to come as I stir theories in my mind.

Namaste

2009-03-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

DO NOT CARE ABOUT RELATIONSHIP ANGST

Okay, with that out of the way, here's what we learned from Namaste.

1. Radzinsky is an overbearing, arrogant jerk, and a hothead. While Kelvin claims Radzinsky committed suicide, I lean towards believing Kelvin offed him after an extended period of being stuck with him in the Swan.

2. Ben is already on-Island. This sort of bugs me, because if he has been on the Island for a while, why aren't Sawyer, Juliet, etc. more freaked out?

3. Ethan is the son of Amy and Horace.

4. Faraday is no longer with Dharma.

5. Ilana and Caesar did not know each other before the flight.

6. Dharma on-Island does not communicate with Dharma off-Island in regards to recruiting. The Islanders check the passengers' names against the sub manifest, but that's it.

In my opinion, meh. I still feel like the writers are dragging their feet.

Theory to come later.

The Numbers

2009-03-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

No new LOST episode last week (boooo), hence no new posts her for a few days. Since I can't think of anything new to discuss, I'm going to tackle The Numbers today.

For a quick rundown of every time they are brought up, see the Lostpedia article.

From the same article:

It has been revealed in The Lost Experience that these six numbers are the core values of the Valenzetti Equation, a mathematical formula designed to predict the end of humanity. The numbers in actuality are said to represent human and environmental factors in the equation (given numerical form), though their precise meaning is uncertain. One purpose of the DHARMA Initiative was to change the factors leading to humanity's demise, which will be indicated by an alteration in at least one of the human/environmental factors - i.e. the numbers. However, in all its years of research, the Initiative failed to reach its goal. Despite much research and manipulation of the equation's values, the end result was always the numbers.

If anyone can translate what that all means, I'd be appreciative.

Bottom line, The Numbers are the highest-profile, least-explained mystery in the show. It seems that Hurley's entire character is based on The Numbers. The Swan hatch (and subsequently all of Season 2) was based around The Numbers.

And then the Swan blew up, and it seems they disappeared.

Sure, random numbers show up from time to time, but that just seems like the writers messing with us.

To cap off the frustration-fest, here is a long quote from Damon Lindelof (one of the LOST producers):

There are some questions that are very engaging and interesting, and then there are other questions that we have no interest whatsoever in answering. We call it the midi-chlorian debate, because at a certain point, explaining something mystical demystifies it. To try and have a character come and say, "Here is what the numbers mean," actually makes every usage of the numbers up to that point less interesting.
You can actually watch Star Wars now, and when Obi-Wan talks about the Force to Luke for the first time, it loses its luster because the Force has been explained as, sort of, little biological agents that are in your blood stream. So you go, "Oh, I liked Obi-Wan's version a lot better." Which in the case of our show is, "The numbers are bad luck, they keep popping up in Hurley's life, they appear on the island." ... But if you're watching the show for a detailed explanation of what the numbers mean—and I'm not saying you won't see more of them—then you will be disappointed by the end of season six.

Well. I wish the producers would give us a list of mysteries they aren't going to bother explaining so I can stop worrying about them.

And the problem with the mitochlorian thing, Damon, is that it is terrible. Lucas didn't make fans mad merely because he explained the Force, he made them mad because the explanation was totally lame.

Foreshadowing of your own future? :)

Theories, comments and questions on "LaFleur"

2009-03-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

Good ol' LOST. Just when you think they'll start answering questions you've had for years, they switch focus and start creating even more puzzles.

*I'm talking, of course, about the four-toed statue mystery. The Left-Behinds get skipped to a time when said statue is standing tall, in all its glory, and then three seconds later they're in 1974 and it's gone. My wife's initial reaction to seeing it was that it was Anubis, Egyptian god of the afterlife.

However, a Lostpedia contributor posted this picture to support his/her theory that it is in fact Taweret, another Egyptian goddess.

Here is what the Wikipedia has to say on Taweret:

Consequently, Taweret became seen, very early in Egyptian history, as a deity of protection in pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnant women wore amulets with her name or likeness to protect their pregnancies.

Pregnancy, eh? This theory seems very likely, given the focus of the episode and the ongoing theme of pregnancy for the show.

*Next we have Sawyer, back to his old conman ways. I realized that it's been a while since we've seen him try to manipulate anyone. Seems like he's gone entire seasons just reacting to other people and trying to get what he wanted through aggression and sarcasm. In a weird way, it was kinda nice to see him work his trickery on Horace.

*For those who don't remember, Horace shows up a few times in LOST prior to this. He is the friend of Ben's dad who gets Roger the work on the Island in the first place. In short, he's the reason Ben is on the Island. He also shows up in the episode "Cabin Fever" in one of Locke's dreams. It's an interesting encounter.

*Where the heck are Rose, Bernard, and the other redshirts? You'd think with Sawyer, Jin, etc. looking for them for three years they'd have found them. Different time skip, somehow? I haven't seen a satisfactory explanation for this.

*Where is Faraday? The rest of the Left-Behinds seem to have assimilated well into the Dharma culture. And speaking of Faraday, it's highly unlikely the red-haired girl he saw was Charlotte. The math doesn't add up.

*If there was a truce, why did the two Others kill Paul and appear to be ready to off Amy? My guess is that the couple was "trespassing" on a part of the Island they weren't allowed on. Maybe the deal is that if you trespass you are killed, and killing Others in retaliation was against the rules.

*Along those same lines, why did Richard want Paul's body? Does it have anything to do with the ankh he wore? And why did Amy accept this so quietly? Does she know something?

*Why does Richard portray himself as a regular dude to Horace, but appear as a stereotypical "hostile" to young Ben?

*Ben is either on the Island already in 1977, or very close to arriving. As a Lostpedia writer put it:

Ben Linus is stated to have been born in the early 1960's. Sterling Beaumon, the actor who portray's Ben as a child is 13, so it's safe to assume that's the age Ben is at the time he arrives on the Island. Going by this, he is already there, or, if he had been born in 1964, he has yet to arrive, but will very shortly. I'm going with this, as it would make a great episode seeing how Sawyer and the gang respond.

*Remember when we first meet Juliet, and Harper tells her that Juliet "looks just like 'her'"? What if Juliet looks just like Juliet?

*And finally, something a lot of people seem to be misunderstanding: THE TIMELINE IS FIXED. As Faraday says, what happened, happened. So Juliet saving Amy's baby did not change anything. Sawyer becoming a fairly high-up in Dharma did not change anything. Saving Amy from being killed did not change anything. They did these things the first time through the timeline, and any "changes" they made are already manifest in the 2004-2008 timeline. The Left-Behinds were always part of Dharma from 1974-1977.

*What does the Star logo on Jin and Sawyer's jumpsuits indicate? Security of some sort?

And that's all I've got. I still see this episode as a filler; all it answers, really, is "how did the Left-Behinds get into Dharma and how long were they there before Jack, etc. returned?"

LaFleur

2009-03-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

I still feel like the writers are dragging their feet right now, but we did learn some interesting stuff in last night's episode.

1. The "women who get pregnant on the Island die" issue was not present in 1977 or whenever Amy gives birth. This further lends evidence to the idea that this problem did not show up until around 2002, (or three to four years before 815 crashes) when Ben recruited Juliet.

2. The four-toed foot was once an entire statue, and it looked kinda like Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. This Egyptian theme is furthered by the fact that Paul wore an ankh, which Amy kept after he died.

3. We learn how the Left-Behinds managed to infiltrate Dharma.

4. We learn that the sonic fence cannot keep the Others out. Of course, we could have inferred that from the episode "The Man Behind the Curtain," where young Ben is in the middle of a "Hostile" attack and there's apparently a real chance the fighting could reach the school.

5. We further established that while Alpert is special in some ways, he doesn't know everything, as he doesn't recognize Alpert.

6. We learned that you can get through the fence (as a non-Other) if you are wearing special earbuds, and that Dharma definitely built it.

7. And we know for sure that Locke fixed the time-skipping issue (apparently) caused by Ben.

I miss anything?

Reality subtext as applied to LOST

2009-03-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

The website tvtropes.org discusses a concept called "reality subtext," which essentially means real-life events cause certain things to happen on-screen. An actress becomes pregnant, so the show has her character become pregnant (Samantha Stevens in Bewitched), have her take a leave of absence (Sculley in the X-Files), attempt to hide the baby bump (Angela in The Office), or use a combination of any of the three (Benson in Law and Order: SVU).

The point is, writing angles can be entirely changed by stuff like this. In LOST, the actor who played Eko, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, requested to be let off the show after the death of his parents.

Bottom line, that means the smoke monster killed Eko because of the reality subtext, not because of to any planned storyline from the writers. (I always knew the "he refused to repent so he died" explanation seemed off...)

Maybe this was already obvious to everyone else, but the concept kinda cracks my perception of what I thought the show was. I believed the writers had a fairly intricate vision of where they were going, and their job was to keep the train on the tracks, so to speak.

Of course, I knew about the Nikki and Paulo thing, but I never made the connection that we could see more of that. The writers made a mistake, the viewers hated the two, that was that.

But now... now I know. Shoot, major plot lines could be entirely dismantled by one hissy fit thrown by a star. And the writers have enough to deal with as it is, seeing that they have around 25 more episodes to resolve this whole thing and the 23,000 loose ends that are dangling in the breeze like the cherries in Amy's car James.

This discovery, combined with my recent realization that nothing is answered in J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield (good movie nonetheless) is making me very worried that the LOST experience will end badly.

Conversation on "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

2009-03-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Brandon: so like I said, better episode than I thought it would be.

Amy: Mmm hmm

Brandon: big question of the day: why did Ben kill Locke?

Amy: And the teaser wasn't as revealing as I thought it was

No kidding

Why didn't he let Locke kill himself?

I have two theories in that way:

Brandon: something vital changed

Amy: Either Ben wanted to know what he knew and then found out he knew too much (how cliche) and therefore killed him

Or something with him being able to come back to life means he can't kill himself...

Why did Ben look so angry at the time, though?

Did he find out later that he actually needed Locke to get back on the island?

And he's like, "Crap. I killed him. Oh well, I guess I'll just steal his body with this van I have..."

Brandon: ok one thing at a time

Amy: Ha ha ha

Sorry

Brandon: Option A: Possible. The only thing that changed was that Locke revealed he knew of Hawking.

Amy: But why would that upset him so much?

Brandon: you think Ben looks angry as he kills Ben? Or is it just the extreme focus needed to strangle someone to death?

Amy: I think he looks at least a little angry

Brandon: we'll get back to that

Amy: Kay

Brandon: Your Option B: No, because I don't think Ben expected Locke to resurrect.

Amy: Huh

Brandon: He says "I'm really going to miss you, John."

Amy: Hence the Thomas story to Jack

Brandon: why say that if he anticipates seeing him again on the Island in like a day?

Amy: That's true

Brandon: ooh but I forgot about the Doubting Thomas stuff.

Amy: Yup

I think it was a story about himself

Brandon: Maybe Ben is just the writers' vehicle for setting it up... he doesn't know about it himself.

a good possibility

Amy: Right

Brandon: and re: why bring Locke back to the Island...

Amy: He found out something later that changed his mind - I'm guessing Eloise talked to him

Brandon: the prevailing thought right now is that Ben killed Locke after Locke revealed he knew about Hawking either because A.) Ben did not know about Hawking before that moment, and once he knew she was the key to getting back he had no use for Locke OR B.) Locke was not supposed to know about Hawking, and once it is revealed that he did, Ben had to kill him, as a rival for control of the Island.

Amy: Huh

Brandon: also: Ben then decides to use Locke's body as the "Christian" on the flight, HOWEVER there's a good possibility he doesn't know that Christian was raised somehow into some vague sense of living. He's never seen him.

Amy: Ah

That's true

That makes sense

Brandon: so I'm guessing he'll be shocked when he wakes up from his plane-crash injury coma and sees John staring at him.

Amy: No kidding

Talk about nightmare coming true

But if Locke is a proxy for Christian, why did he resurrect rather than come into the sense of being that Christian is?

Brandon: Locke is a chosen Island protector like Richard, Christian, not.

also: Ben says once you turn the wheel you can't ever go back. He and Locke do go back... but end up on the Hydra island. Does the Hyrda not count, or is Ben lying (again)?

Amy: But why can Christian come back as a ghost or whatever?

Or the island changed its mind

It would kind of make sense that the Hydra kind of doesn't count -

Brandon: no idea why Christian was raised like he was. Maybe the Island can do freaky stuff with bodies that are dead upon arrival.

but the Hyrda moves with the main Island.

Amy: And is considered part of the island by Dharma, at least

Brandon: but they aren't Island

Amy: That's true

Brandon: and as my latest poll discusses, who is the good guy here? Widmore, or Ben? Each of them are excellent at at least playing the good guy, even when you know their body of work doesn't point to that being the case.

Amy: I think they both have agendas and do what it takes to get it done, whether being good or bad goes with it at the time or not

Brandon: right, so if you're Locke, who do you want to help? Whose agenda more closely mirrors your own?

Amy: Do we know what their agendas are?

I think they both want control of the island

Brandon: ok but to what end?

Amy: Widmore wants to commercialize it, I think, and just have sheer power of the island

I think Ben has more respect for the island and keeping it safe, but he likes the power, too

Brandon: so you go with Ben?

Amy: I'm going to say yes, even though he's super manipulative and we see his true colors, which are a bit freaky

Brandon: also, he kills Abbadon, which GRR

but I guess we found out all we needed to? He works for Widmore. He wanted to get Locke on the Island. The end.

Amy: Ha ha - because he was answering questions?

Pretty much - that seemed like his purpose

Brandon: so Widmore wants Locke on the Island, Ben doesn't.

doesn't that make Widmore the one to follow if you're John?

Amy: I though Widmore just doesn't want Locke to die

Brandon: well, he gets Abbadon to send Locke on the Walkabout, remember?

and he says something about helping Locke convince the others to go back, Locke included.

Amy: The walkabout thing is true - but how does Locke know Widmore is telling the truth this time?

Brandon: he doesn't

but he fixes his leg and gives him the means to go anywhere in the world

Amy: Yup

I guess what it comes down to is: do you stick with the person who wants the best for the island or the person who will get you there?

Brandon: turns out, Locke kinda waffled between both and ended up back there anyway. :)

Amy: Yup

Lucky for him

I felt bad for him again - I haven't felt that for awhile

Brandon: when he's all despondent before he tries to off himself?

Amy: Mmm hmm

Brandon: Mandi and I disagree on that one.

Amy: And how he's just trying to do what's best for everyone

But no one will listen to him

Brandon: is he sad because he feels like he's failed and decides to just end it all? Or is he just at the end of his rope (haha) and decides to follow Richard's advice because he feels like there's nothing else to do?

Amy: Yeah - I think he's trying to fulfill what Richard tells him, but I also think he's truly despondent

Brandon: fair enough

and then there's Walt

Amy: Random

Doesn't feel like he's part of the story anymore

Brandon: I know

all that time spent where the Others kidnapped him, and now no one cares if he lives or dies.

Amy: Nope

Brandon: did we talk about this already? About how Walt is special, but not like the Others thought he was?

Amy: I don't think so

Brandon: I think that's a big thing. The Others in Season 2 or whenever find out that Walt is special.

so they kidnap him, thinking maybe he should be their leader?

then later it shows them all being COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT by the kid, which means they had no idea what he could do.

and he was definitely not what they hoped he was.

Amy: Which makes me laugh

Nope

Brandon: exactly

so this brings up the question: what is the deal with Walt?

Amy: Which is ironic, considering it was kind of the island that wanted him

Brandon: was it, though? Did Jacob want him or did Ben or Richard do it on his won?

own

Amy: I dunno - does Locke know something everyone else doesn't, or did he really just want to visit Walt?

Somebody's going to have to take over when Locke or Ben dies

Brandon: yep

Amy: Which makes me want to ask why Alpert isn't in charge all the time

Brandon: Walt just represents all of the thousands of loose ends the writers now have 1.5 seasons to tie up.

Amy: Yup

Brandon: Maybe Alpert isn't special (beyond his ability to remain 28)

Amy: Ha ha - yeah, that's nothing

Brandon: Mandi and I have commented more than once that his function is much like an old noble in a kingdom where the new prince is in charge, but doesn't know what he's doing.

the noble acts in an advisory role as much as he can, because he knows how to take care of the kingdom, but the power all resides with the spoiled new kid.

Amy: Why does he continue to do it?

Because he's not royalty?

That seems dumb because he's ageless

Brandon: *shrug

Jacob has not deemed him to be the leader, so he can't be the leader.

but he is loyal to the Island

so he stays

Amy: He is the one who is always talking about destiny and not trying to change it - maybe his old age has helped him realize his place and to be find with it

Brandon: right

of course, then we go back to the idea that Jacob is a prisoner.

Amy: Of Alpert?

Brandon: his "help me" and the theory that the volcanic ash around his cabin makes a cage of some sort.

of someone. Usually theorized to be Ben.

Amy: But then Ben says the island is displeased with him and he has to leave - that doesn't free him?

Brandon: maybe it did. We haven't seen or heard anything about Jacob since.

Amy: Again - I think it's pointless to have so much power and yet allow yourself to be confined

Brandon: allow himself?

1. We don't know what power Jacob has.

2. We don't even know who or what Jacob is.

Amy: That's true

Brandon: one last thing

Penny

Amy: Kay

Brandon: so Widmore says he was the leader of the Island for more than three decades

say 1954-1992

he's what... 50-something?

Amy: Okay

Yeah

Penny was born on-island

Brandon: 50 when he gets off Island, 70 or so now

yeah, bottom line, Penny was either born on Island

adopted, like Alex.

Amy: She's not his?

Yup

Huh

Brandon: also, if you look at Penny with a "she was born on-Island" lens, she appears to know more than she lets on.

Amy: Yes - she found the island, after all

And is pretty against Desmond having anything to do with it

Brandon: exactly

Amy: Makes sense

So she's like Charlotte

Except not wanting to really find the island again

Brandon: possibly

anything else?

Amy: I don't think so

Brandon: ok

The Big Picture

2009-03-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

I was catching up with an old coworker/friend of mine tonight, and mentioned he used to watch LOST and then stopped. After finding out I watch the show religiously, he then asked me where I thought they were going with it.

That put me at a bit of a loss.

I get so caught up in all the "little mysteries" that I haven't really thought about what the point of the show is. What is the worst-case scenario here? What is Ms. Hawking (and Ben and Widmore?) trying to prevent? The closest thing we have to an answer here is The Numbers (Valenzetti Equation), which "predict the time of human extinction."

Of course, as my previous paragraph shows, we don't even know who the "good guys" are, let alone what their end goals are.

The show strings us along with all of these concerns like "Who is Richard, really?" and "what is the smoke monster?" that we can't spend much time on what the overall story is here, and even if we did spend a ton of time on it, we couldn't figure much out thanks to the plethora of unexplained smaller questions.

Well played, LOST writers.

Theories on "Life of Bentham" tomorrow.

Locke

2009-02-28T11:16:00.000-08:00

Did anyone else think the entire time Locke was at the cemetery: "Hey! Locke! Widmore faked an entire plane crash site, so I don't know that you should take this little tombstone seriously."

Also, when he was fashioning his noose, did anyone think: "Ah, it's nice to see Locke working with his hands again. I mean, really, how long has it been since we've seen him kill a boar?"

An insane look at Episode 7

2009-02-26T20:43:00.000-08:00

If I would've been on the ball last week, I would've blogged about the "Christ" characteristics of Mr. John Locke and how I didn't think he was going to stay dead. Unfortunately, I was lazy and now I can only parade around like I have any sort of clue what I'm talking about. So much for credibility.

If Brandon's responsibility on this blog is to expressly state the facts, and Amy's is to be the comic relief, I suppose that mine is the role of the insane conspiracy theorist. I wear this hat with great pride.

We know that Hurley talks to dead people. He and Charley hang out, and I'd like to think that is the reason that Hugo brought a guitar on to the plane. For whatever reason, Locke's mortal appearance freaked out our fine, flubby friend. Insane theory #1: Dead people have been telling Hurley to go back for quite some time. Hurley likely ignored them, because they were dead and he was in an asylum. It wasn't until Locke showed up that it got too real for him. It also explains why he was onboard the plane.

I still would rather jump blindly into the arms of Benjamin Linus than Charles Widmore, because I still think that Locke is a nutbar. Charles Widmore said that Locke didn't have to die, and Ben took the liberty to fulfill the prophecy of Richard Alpert (Regardless of whether or not he knew that was what he was doing). I think that Ben is under the control of the Island, and Chuck wants to control the island.

Ms. Hawkings is an interesting figure. She is intriguing enough that Ben kills Locke simply for knowing her name. Also, as evidenced in "316" she seems to have Ben's subservience. She is a puppet master, and this bothers Ben.

I'm still dying to know what the hell is with the four-toed statue foot that they found at the end of season two. I'm guessing that J.J. Abrams had those writers dragged behind the studio and shot, because we've left a lot of the original weirdisms behind. Or perhaps the weirdisms are just sitting dormant, like a rare jungle disease, waiting to spring up on us without warning. I mention this because ancient Egypt is popping up. First on the map that Caeser finds in the Hydra and second when Hurley is seen painting the Sphinx. I'm going to go out on my crazy limb and say there's a connection to Egypt coming up.

This has turned into a frightful ramble. I'm going to stop. Hope that Charley can follow the trend of Locke and mysteriously come back to life.

The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

2009-02-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

Here's what we got from last night's episode:

1. The names of Caesar and Ilana.

2. The 316 passengers who actually crashed (instead of being flashed off the plane) landed on the Hydra, while it appears Jack, Kate and Hurley (and probably Sayid and Sun) are on the main Island.

3. Abbadon works(ed) for Widmore.

4. Widmore left the Island the same way Ben and Locke did, and has been watching that spot in the Tunisian desert ever since.

5. Ben killed Locke after convincing him to not hang himself.

6. Hurley is more frightened of a visit from a corporeal Locke than one from a non-corporeal Locke.

7. Both Widmore and Ben seemed to share the goal of getting Locke back to the Island along with the rest of the 6, at least until John mentions Hawking.

8. Locke's old girlfriend, Helen, is apparently dead.

9. Walt is fine, and has dreamed of Locke, on the Island, wearing a suit, surrounded by people trying to kill him.

This episode was better than I thought it'd be. Am I missing any important points?

More thoughts and theories to come.

Teasers or revealers?

2009-02-23T15:54:00.000-08:00

It feels a little odd to be an author on this blog - mostly because there are other authors. Not that that's bad, it just makes me feel a little more like big brother is looking over my shoulder. *ba dum bum chih!

Sorry, Brandon. I just felt the need to break the ice a little. I feel the need to be the comic relief on this site - and also to not talk so much about theories, but random other aspects of the show.

That being said, I've kind of noticed a trend in Lost teasers for the next week, shown at the end of the newest episode. It used to be like, "What's going to happen? Why does Sayid have that polar bear on a chain? (no, this never happened - it's just an example)" but now that the layout of the show deals with showing us what happens and then spending the whole episode to see how they get there, it's given huge things away in less than 30 seconds.

I mean, the teasers used to mostly tickle the brain, and give fodder to those who wanted to talk about what might happen the next week. Now, it seems everyone knows and it's common knowledge. "Well, we saw that Locke's alive in the next episode, so that mystery is gone. Although we probably knew that was true before they told us, now we pretty much know for sure. Oh- and he kills himself and Ben is there."

If the episode teaches us too much more, I'll be surprised. Has anyone else seen this happen lately with teasers, or is it just me?

Character connections

2009-02-23T09:44:00.001-08:00

One of the more interesting parts of LOST is the fact that everyone seems to be connected to everyone else somehow. Our friends at the good ship Lostpedia have created a giant flowchart that shows how this works (as far as we know, so far).

Click image for a larger view.

We haven't discovered many (if any) of these in this season, so you tend to forget just how weird it all is.

What is the significance?

General theory/parallels

2009-02-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

New blog reader lilvolks has some questions/theories about the origins of the Island:

Ok...here are my thoughts...1) E. Hawking talked about the Dharma's focus on the Island while also mentioning that there were other energy hot spots. Is this a reference to the energy power vortexs (like Sedona Az? There is a whole metaphysical mind set about energy vortexs and what they represent.) Which brings me to my next question...My BF and I were talking about this last night...the wheel in the cave...was that there from the beginning of the existence of the island? Because if the island came with the wheel, then wouldn't that imply that the Resistanc of the island is because someone and something put it there? And if it is ancient, who?

Now this would tie into the energy concepts I mentioned above because some of those energy theories suggest that these "power spots" have a connection to the lost city of Atlantis...which brings me back to the wheel, ancient island, energy...other beings??? or do you think that is too much of a leap, and I'm adding to the many other things that need to explain.

Interesting questions. If the Donkey Wheel was added by a people after the Island's creation (whenever that was), then the Island itself may be bucking against a kind of control, yes. Hmm. The Atlantis theory has been discussed, and I think discounted, though the similarities are there.

Lost is knee-deep in many religious doctrines, especially Christianity. So, we have the mysterious Jacob of Lost, but, the Jacob who is in the bible has 12 sons and one daughter. The last born son to Jacob in the bible is Benjamin. There is a story of Joseph, Jacob, and Benjamin in the bible...and there is also the story of Jacobs Ladder. And then, of course, the story of Doubting Thomas which Ben summerizes for Jack. I don't remember the stories but thought I would throw them out there as there may be threads that have connections to Lost.

Excellent finds. I especially like the Jacob's Ladder parallel. I'll have to look for more now.

Theories on "316"

2009-02-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I took most of these from the Lostpedia article on the subject. That said, I read them all and only took the good ones, saving you valuable time and energy. Here are the ones I found interesting:

Jack needed to read the letter because Sawyer was reading his letter to "Sawyer" when the plane started going down.
A young Charlotte Lewis will learn to speak Korean from Jin. She will then grow up and need it. This is relevant to the episode because this is the episode where we discover Jin was around during the time of the Dharma Initiative.
Seventy-eight, the number of available seats on Flight 316 that Hurley bought is a reference to 78 A.D., the base year (year zero) of the Saka era used by some Hindu calendars. Namaste!
In The Lie, Ana Lucia said Libby says hello. This is not a throw-away comment. We shall soon see Libby visiting Hurley in jail, convincing him to return to the island.
Kate gave up Aaron to Sun, who has people watching after both him and Ji-Yeon. She doesn't know where for his own safety, and doesn't want to talk about with Jack because a.) it's painful and b.) she's afraid of compromising his safety if anyone else (especially Jack, whom she most recently saw working in concert with Ben, who was trying to take Aaron in the first place) knows the situation.
Desmond has to go back most of all, because, since the rules don’t apply to him, he is the only one who can change the past/future and many lives depend on him. As before, he tries to avoid his destiny, but the island will bring him back and he will do the great thing and change the past/future.
Ben had Desmond followed, realizing that Penny would be with him. Ben left the church with the intent of killing Penny. Charles Widmore, aware that Penny would go to LA with Desmond, thus placing herself in danger due to the likelihood that Ben might then find them and attempt to kill her, has been keeping tabs on Ben (which is also Sun's source for the surveillance photos). When Ben approached Penny's boat, he was apprehended, beaten, and thrown into the wharf by agents of Charles Widmore.
Ben did say he had to "keep a promise to an old friend" and that he just had to "tie up a loose end." And with Widmore's encounter with Desmond, I bet he was either keeping tabs on Ben or had Desmond followed.
Yes, Ben killed Penny - that's why he was at the docks. Desmond will team up with Widmore (maybe - out of shared Wrath) and will be drawn back to the island by this and his own guilt for feeling responsible (heeding Faraday's warning in spite of Penny's opinion). Desmond could have chosen to go willingly and maybe without the sacrifice of Penny; because he didn't the island "caused" drastic circumstances to convince him.
Widmore kidnapped Aaron to blackmail Kate into returning to the island. Widmore threatened her not to tell anyone or she'd never see the kid again. Kate will work as an agent for Widmore on the island.
Ilanna parallels US Marshal Edward Mars, helping to recreate the conditions of the original crash.
One character may be the proxy for several other characters. For example, Hurley stands in for himself, Charley (the case), Walt (the comic book), Libby (Santa Rosa), and Sawyer (released from police custody).

And this was my favorite:

The Oceanic 6 must return to the island is because they should have never left it in the first place. Let's retrace circumstances that allowed them to escape: 1. Penny's boat finds them floating around on the life raft -> 2. The chopper runs out of gas, so they use the life raft -> 3. The chopper is brought to the island by Lapidus -> 4. Lapidus finds the Island as a result from the call with Naomi's phone -> 5. The phone call is only possible because the signal that was jamming the communications was stoped by Charlie. However, we know that Charlie was supposed to be dead by that time, but Desmond kept on saving him. If Charlie was dead, as he was supposed to, the Kahana crew would have never found the island in the first place.

Not bad. Which ones do you find plausible? Which ones are just way off the mark?

Conversation on "316"

2009-02-19T10:31:00.000-08:00

Amy: Um - I mostly have questions about Lost
It's not what we know - it's what I want to know

Brandon: ok hit me. We can post the conversation on the blog

Amy: Kay
So - first off, who was the "smart man" who figured out how to find the island?
Chang?

Brandon: Mandi says Widmore

Amy: Hmmm

Brandon: he at least A. Knows it exists and B. wants to get back

Amy: That's true
Did Faraday figure out how to find the island, or did Widmore?

Brandon: Photo on the wall of the Lamp Post is a 1950's style shot of the Island with US Army labeled on it

Amy: Right

Brandon: Right, Widmore doesn't seem very technology-savvy... remember how he uses a Pager in The Economist?

Amy: Ha ha - yes

Brandon: but if he had the theory and hired Daniel to find it, he'd still be responsible, right?

Amy: That's true
Desmond doesn't feel the need to go back - why does everyone else?
How did someone get Hurley and Kate to go?

Brandon: Someone kidnapped Aaron and told her the only way she'd get him back is by returning.
Hurley... no idea.

Amy: That's what I thought - but she seems ashamed

Brandon: And what law-enforcement group wants Sayid in Guam?

Amy: Yeah...
Seems like an Oceanic/Widmore coverip
*coverup

Brandon: bottom line is this: The Island wants them back, and so they're all going back.

Amy: That's true

Brandon: As Sayid shows, it doesn't even require your cooperation.

Amy: Ha ha
No kidding
All Ben would have to do is call in some info on Sayid's jobs he did for Ben

Brandon: but Guam?

Amy: I dunno

Brandon: maybe he's being sent to a Guantanamo-type place.

Amy: That could be true

Brandon: he sees the other 6, realizes what's going on, and accepts it when compared to the alternative.

Amy: So, the island takes only the people in first class?

Brandon: and Lapidus? Good work, writers, putting him there. The intended original pilot for 815.

Amy: Yes it was
It looks like it's the Oceanic 6, plus Frank and the random police person who make it on the island

Brandon: My guess. And Hispanic Guy.

Amy: Have we seen him before?

Brandon: no

Amy: He seems vaguely familiar
...
Okay

Brandon: I'll double check

Amy: He talks to Jack in line like he knows him
Or of him

Brandon: more plausible

Amy: Could it be Widmore, putting more people on the island, like the original team sent to find the island?
And why did the first group parachute/freighter in, rather than take a flight?

Brandon: ok so the guy's name is Caesar.

Amy: Aaaahhh

Brandon: but we've never seen him before. How we know his name, no idea.
your above questions are good ones

Amy: Yeah - that's weird
Maybe Widmore has an idea about how to find the island - but he doesn't have the flight book anymore, considering he had to leave the island
So he has to find other ways
ie - Faraday

Brandon: the flight book?

Amy: The random book Eloise looks up the flight in and shows to Jack

Brandon: well that's just a list based on the results of the research at the Lamp Post cross-referenced with flight plans.

Amy: Oh

Brandon: Also, nice work with Lamp Post.
Go Narnia.

Amy: Yay!
They get the best book references in there
Okay - so Locke dies

Brandon: Ben is read The Odyssey

Amy: Does he come back alive - or join the Order of Dead People of the Island?
Ah - I was wondering what book he was reading
I could read "yss"

Brandon: he's going to resurrect. They set it up hardcore with Ben going all Christian theology on us.

Amy: That's true

Brandon: the book says "Ulysses," the Latin spelling of Odysseus.
so it could be the Illiad.

Amy: What was the loose end Ben ties up?

Brandon: the one where he's beat to a pulp?

Amy: Yeah
Sayid?

Brandon: I'm thinking a Widmore agent.

Amy: Does Aaron have to go back to the island? If so, has someone kidnapped him and taken him there?
Hmmm

Brandon: the "loose end" is probably "going to get my broken arm set"

Amy: Ha ha

Brandon: Aaron has always been considered one of the Oceanic 6, right?
and he's got that "special" thing going.
I think he's got to get there eventually.

Amy: Right
And that's probably what they told Kate
Why does Kate not want to talk about it, though?

Brandon: that bugged me. Jack's like "Okay!"

Amy: I mean, it's painful and all, but she seems ashamed, not in pain
I know - the classic Kate "I'm going to sleep with you to make you stop talking"

Brandon: haha she's nuts

Amy: Yes she is

Brandon: hmm ashamed... but why?

Amy: Maybe she thinks it's her fault they took Aaron from her
Even if it's not

Brandon: fair. But doesn't answer why she wouldn't just tell Jack.

Amy: Or the fact that she made that promise to Claire to not take Aaron back or go back herself
Right

Brandon: 1. She didn't promise Claire anything.
2. Claire only cared that Aaron not return.

Amy: Hmmm

Brandon: 3. Claire was some kinda hallucination. :)

Amy: Ha ha
Or on the side of the island that doesn't want them to come back

Brandon: right
The heck is with Jin?

Amy: I have no idea
How could he be around long enough between jumps to put on a dharma suit and get a dharma van?

Brandon: no kidding
like I said in my post, he acts 100% Dharma
even alone
which means he's bought into the Dharma context of "There are hostiles here, anyone not Dharma is a threat."
which means he's probably experienced a hostile attack?

Amy: Yeah
How did he have time in between jumps?
Or maybe when the Oceanic 6 come back, the people are stuck in the time period they've jumped to?

Brandon: assume the jumps come at random intervals... maybe they're stuck in a really long one

Amy: That could be true

Brandon: because the 6 have been back for like 5 minutes.

Amy: But I thought the problem was they were moving too fast

Brandon: me, too, and maybe they still do
just this is an abnormally long one

Amy: Hmmm

Brandon: once it's done, back to quick skips

Amy: Does it seem like Jin knows them/
?

Brandon: yes
he's surprised and recognizant
but how would the Losties and Freighter folk infiltrate Dharma?
do any of them have contacts with the organization?
Juliet might could fake it....

Amy: Didn't you think they recruited people from crashes and such?
Pretend you've crashed and you're golden
But all we saw was Jin who infiltrated Dharma

Brandon: no, the Others do that.
Dharma brings their people in on boats, apparently.

Amy: Maybe Dharma does it, too

Brandon: Ben and Roger

Amy: Hee hee
Roger Workman

Brandon: we saw Jin and Faraday acting Dharma.
not a leap to assume the rest get in, too

Amy: Faraday looked like he was just sneaking in, though

Brandon: true
the Jin thing comes from just about nowhere.

Amy: Yup

Brandon: annoyed at the "Hey look, Jack, Hurley, and Kate made it back! Now let's show you how they did it!"
meh

Amy: Ha ha - you didn't care that much?
Except they DON'T tell you how they make it back, really - what lead up to Hurley and Kate going back

Brandon: much like next week's "Hey here's what Locke did from Locke's perspective! You already know he spent a lot of time trying to convince the others to go back, then killed himself, but here it is live!"

Amy: Yeah

Brandon: it just feels like they're wasting time

Amy: Maybe it's vacation time
;)

Brandon: when Jack is sitting there with Locke's suicide note for like five minutes before he opened it I got annoyed

Amy: Or it was when it was being written
Ha ha
No kidding

Brandon: I wish you had believed me? Really?
lamest note ever

Amy: Were those the magic words, or did he just happen to read them right when the window opened?
Ha ha - especially a suicide not
*note

Brandon: super obvious

Amy: Not "Say these magic words and drink a bottle of vodka:"

Brandon: Mandi did theorize that Ms. Hawking represents the fusion of science and faith. A Locke/Jack hybrid.

Amy: Huh - it's true
Although it kind of seems the church is a front for the Lamp Post

Brandon: Hawking believes.

Amy: That God controls the island?
Oh - she believes in SOMEthing, not necessarily faith in God
Gotcha

Brandon: just believes. It's like in Serenity where Book tells Mal to just believe in something.

Amy: Right

Brandon: Ms. Hawking controls the Lamp Post. Was it forcibly taken from Dharma, or is she part of them?

Amy: Good question
I think she took it over after everyone from the Initiative dies

Brandon: lots of Dharma on the mainland.

Amy: It seems she was part of the original Dharma initiative
Yeah

Brandon: so part of the original... but Dharma seeks to exploit the Island, contrary to the goals of the Others.

Amy: That's true - I think she's kind of a cross and set apart from it all
She doesn't trust Ben completely, but helps him get back to the Island
I like the "Keeper of Time" theory

Brandon: haha that was the best. "Is he lying?" "Probably."

Amy: It was awesome

Brandon: note he lies about his mother teaching him how to read
and about knowing Locke killed himself.

Amy: Right - but I think he's just tongue in cheek about the reading thing

Brandon: he was, but it's still a lie

Amy: Yeah

Brandon: a meaningless, compulsive lie

Amy: I think he's a compulsive liar

Brandon: me, too.

Amy: Sometimes it just comes out

Brandon: right.

316

2009-02-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Things we learned from the episode "316."

1. Dharma built a station in L.A., the Lampost, before any of the ones on the Island (Swan, Flame, Tempest, Orchid, Pearl, Arrow).

2. Locke killed himself (and by virtue of "next week on LOST," we learned that Ben was there for the suicide).

3. The Lampost was built to help Dharma find where the island is in time, and it still functions.

4. To return to the Island, you need to be on a plane flying over the geographic location the Island is during that time. However, actually crashing said plane on the Island is not required.

5. Faraday tells Desmond to find Ms. Hawking. Desmond does. This accomplishes nothing.

6. Jin ends up driving a Dharma Initiative van, wearing a Dharma Initiative uniform, carrying a Dharma Initiative rifle, and acting like a Dharma Initiative member. This is similar to Faraday's apparent position as a Dharma construction worker in the season premiere.

Anything else?

Interpretations later today.

Ret Con-ing

2009-02-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

One of the main aspects of LOST (and something that makes the show interesting) is that things we saw in previous seasons can suddenly make sense in light of new revelations. Here's a simple example: Minkowski the radio guy on the Kahana starts getting nosebleeds and eventually dies. We have no idea why until the episode The Constant, where it's all explained. Other examples are the polar bear Sawyer kills and why Kate is rubbing her wrists just after the crash in the pilot episode.

There are two ways to look at this phenomenon; the first is that the writers had it planned all along. When they introduce Charlotte at the beginning of season 4, they have her smile at finding the polar bear skeleton because they've already written that she spent a lot of her childhood on the island and is trying to find her way back.

The other is that these are Ret Cons, or examples of Retroactive Continuity. The writers use a new revelation to explain something unexplained in the show history because it works, not because they had it planned out the whole time.

I think there are examples of both on LOST.

How do you see it?

LOST conversation

2009-02-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

My sister Amy and I had a LOST conversation over Google Chat Thursday afternoon. Here's what happened:

Amy: I read your post
That pretty much sums things up
Except - why was Juliet being so affected by the time jumps?
I thought Farraday said that the time you spend on the island correlates with how well you take the jumps

Brandon: yes
and she's been on the Island longer than the Losties

Amy: But she seems to be more affected -
Or about the same

Brandon: no way
she's been working for Ben for at least a couple years
we don't know exactly how long

Amy: I know - but she seems to be affected more

Brandon: um
because she has spent more time on the island
I'm not sure we're on the same page

Amy: I thought the MORE time you spent on the island the LESS you're affected by the jumps

Brandon: no no
it's the opposite
that's why Charlotte is dead

Amy: Ohhhh

Brandon: and why Miles is so interesting

Amy: Interesting?

Brandon: he was the next one to get a nosebleed after Charlotte
which means he's spent a lot of time on the island at some point. Chang's baby?

Amy: Yeah - he was
I'm pretty sure he is
But when/how did he get off the island if it showed Chang as being under fire and basically planning to die?

Brandon: an excellent question
maybe Faraday got him off?

Amy: Hmmm

Brandon: maybe Chang sent his wife and kid off before the Purge

Amy: Maybe
That would make sense
When did they have the sub?
Dharma Initiative?
How does Charlotte know about the well?

Brandon: yeah, but Charlotte made it sound like getting off was easy with Dharma

Amy: Yeah
She did

Brandon: remember her and her mom packed up and took off no problem

Amy: Right

Brandon: Charlotte spent anywhere from 5 to 20 years on the island
that's a lot of time to learn about it
still a chance she's Ben and Annie's kid

Amy: Yeah - but no one else knew about the cave
That's what I was thinking, too

Brandon: what cave?

Amy: The wheel cave

Brandon: Locke told her they were looking for the Orchid
she'd know where that was, and that there is a well nearby

Amy: Maybe someone might have fallen in the well - but how would they know to turn the wheel and then how would they come back?

Brandon: the well's a fake
it was an early way to get there
camoflauged entrance

Amy: Huh

Brandon: I still think the most important stuff we learn is during Jin's experiences with Rousseau

Amy: I think so, too
But Smokey was acting completely different than usual
Why didn't he make Eko a guard?

Brandon: also: Jin's English is kick-awesome after like two months of informal training.

Amy: Or the pilot?
Ha ha - no freaking kidding

Brandon: make Eko a guard?

Amy: And yet, he starts speaking in Korean
I mean - change Eko and send him back out among the Losties

Brandon: he starts speaking in Korean because the concepts discussed were a bit obscure and too important to miss and because Charlotte was there

Amy: What would be the point of Smokey doing that?
Wight wight
And he knew Charlotte spoke Korean?
Or the audience needed to know?

Brandon: yes he knew she spoke Korean

Amy: How?

Brandon: on the way to the baby station, he notices that she understands him talking to Sun

Amy: Oh yeah

Brandon: and calls her on it

Amy: Wight wight

Brandon: But re: altering, why not change Jack? Or Locke?

Amy: Yeah

Brandon: but
how do we know he hasn't? :)

Amy: Woh...
Dun dun dun
I pretty much love that Eloise is like, "You need everyone to go back to the island" and then only half show up and she's fine
uh
Huh

Brandon: yeah exactly

Amy: She made it sound dire
Maybe they can go through time and snatch the others somehow
;)
Brandon: well, the preview for next week shows that Kate is in, somehow

Amy: Yup - Jack pours on the charm and she's gone

Brandon: heck no

Amy: Ha ha

Brandon: he's poison to her
something else has to happen

Amy: But it shows them kissing
Kay - whatev

Brandon: true. Kate's messed up.

Amy: Sooo true
My guess is she gets into more trouble with Aaron and Jack comes to save her and tell her he'll be a dad to Aaron

Brandon: and then she's like "Sweet deal, let's go back to the Island!'
not seeing it. But I guess it could happen.

Amy: Yeah - okay, no
But I
'm pretty sure the only way she'd go back is if Aaron was in mortal danger

Brandon: agreed
but re: Robert and Danielle....

Amy: Okay
I was like, "No wonder Danielle's all messed up!"

Brandon: what the heck is the point of Smokey altering Robert, sending him back to convince Danielle that it's really him, and then shooting her dead?

Amy: Exactly

Brandon: just take her if you want her dead
seems overly complicated

Amy: No kidding
I agree
Unless Smokey's just playing
Or there are the conflicting powers on the island - again

Brandon: yep

Amy: One side wants her dead, the other wants her alive
Smokey doesn't get her because he's controlled by one power -

Brandon: but he's altered Robert to do it, right?

Amy: And something else weird altered Robert

Brandon: possible

Amy: Just because it's so out of character for everything we've seen for Smokey

Brandon: so there's mind-altering equipment at the Temple?
:)
and Smokey merely retrieved the Frenchies to be altered by The Others?

Amy: Hmmm - that's an interesting thought
Except...Juliet turns the fence on to keep Smokey out -
Maybe during the purge - or other types of battles - Smokey changes sides
Or gets pissed with everyone
Or Jacob loses control of everyone

Brandon: it's incentive to keep Recruited Others from exploring the Island? Because Ben certainly can control him

Amy: He can?
Has Ben every come up against Smokey?
*ever

Brandon: he releases Smokey on the mercenaries after they kill Alex

Amy: Oh yeah

Brandon: and they leave him alone
I mean Smokey does

Amy: We don't know that for sure...
Do we?
Doesn't he just disappear?

Brandon: he goes down into an ancient cave, and seconds later Smokey's wreaking havoc
he has to control him

Amy: Right
Or someone else in the cave does

Brandon: right after Alex dies? It's waaaay too conveninent that Smokey randomly shows up and starts pwning mercenaries at that money
moment

Amy: Then, why don't they just have Smokey kill those not on the list?
I like money better
;)

Brandon: ha

Amy: Seems like if he can figure out who to kill and who to keep alive, then it would be much easier than the Others snatching the ones on the list
And the kids

Brandon: yeah, Smokey seems to be a bit out of control
somehow

Amy: And pregnant women
Yeah
But seems incredibly in control in Rosseau's time

Brandon: like he's been on the Island longer than anyone, even the Others, and they know his tendencies and can take advantage of them, but they don't control him

Amy: Right
Or Ben made some sort of sacrifice/deal with Smokey to get him to do what he wanted that onc
*once

Brandon: maybe

Amy: Why does Ben fall out of favor with the island?
Could that be why?

Brandon: he used Smokey for his own purposes?

Amy: Right

Brandon: I think it's a general thing... like with Widmore.
just started being selfish and thinking you know better than Alpert/Jacob

Amy: Huh - right
How does Rosseau die?

Brandon: shot taking Alex and Carl to the Temple
mercenaries

Amy: Oh, wight wight

Brandon: tragic, tragic figure

Amy: Yes sir

Brandon: has to kill her crew and her husband

Amy: She looks so happy and pregnant at the beginning

Brandon: gets her baby stolen

Amy: Yeah

Brandon: spends the next 18 years being hunted and entirely alone

Amy: Has to give birth alone

Brandon: yep

Amy: Finally meets her daughter again, and then dies trying to save her

Brandon: well, that's actually good in comparison to the rest of her time on the island

Amy: That's true

Brandon: what mom wouldn't give her life for her kid?
at least she saw her again

Amy: True

Amy: So - were Rosseau and Carl and Alex going to the Temple - like, the cave where Smokey dragged them?

Brandon: must be

Amy: Have we ever seen it before - besides Ben going in there before Smokey kills the mercenaries?

Brandon: where the Others were chilling during the mercenary attack

Amy: Huh

Brandon: not sure Ben actually goes in there

Amy: So Smokey must know enough to not kill others

Brandon: Juliet sure seemed afraid of it
but was it all an act?

Amy: Yeah- that's the weird part
Maybe - or Ben kept it under his hat until the Others really needed to hide out

Brandon: kept what?

Amy: The fact that Smokey wouldn't kill Others and they have some control over him

Brandon: or he can

Amy: True

Brandon: another annoying thing

Amy: Shoot

Brandon: we were introduced to Smokey before anything else Island and we know little to nothing about him

Amy: Nope
Then, all of a sudden, his entire character seems to change with Rousseau

Two theories

2009-02-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

Here are two theories I've come up with while watching this season of LOST.

1. We don't know where Christian's allegiances lie. He definitely dislikes Ben, and he does appear in Jacob's cabin, but we have no reason to believe he speaks for the Island or Jacob. What if there are two competing forces on the Island, each with its own agenda? Jacob represents one, and Christian represents the other. Remember, the only thing we've ever heard Jacob say is, "Help me." Something is going on there.

2. The thing that gets me the most about LOST, I think, is that they introduced The Others very, very early in the first season, and we still know little to nothing about them.

My theory is that the only "true" Other is Richard Alpert... he's tied to the island in some magic way (the no aging, etc.). Every other Other is recruited. There are varying accents, skin colors, etc. When people crash on the island, Jacob tells Alpert (or Ben or whoever) to take those who are "good" (whatever the crap that means) and kill the rest. Non-Alpert Others can die (and be booted from the Island, ie. Widmore) and recruitment is how they replenish their numbers.

On a related vein, it seems the Others that are off-island don't know that Ben has lost his "favored son" status. The lady in the butcher shop and the lawyer who's working to get Hugo out of jail still follow him unquestioningly. Are they loyal to Ben moreso than they are to the Island? What is their function?

And in general, I have no idea what the Others are all about. Obviously they function as Defenders of the Island, but beyond that... there have to be other goals. I just don't know what they are.

Thoughts?

Let's get to it: Season 5, Episodes 4 and 5

2009-02-12T09:20:00.000-08:00

I started this blog as a place for all my fellow LOST addicts to gather and bounce theories and ideas off each other. The basic premise is exactly as the blog name sounds: I'll start a list of Things We Learned From LOST Last Night (along with some commentary) and everyone else can add their two cents; whether that's adding to the list, proving me wrong, or injecting a new theory.

So without further ado...

Episode 4 - The Little Prince

To be honest, I found this episode to be disappointing. First off, it has such a promising name... The Little Prince is a weird book, and I figured there'd be some interesting stuff here as a result. But no. Here's all we learned:

1. Jin is alive. Meh, that has been suspected all along. He was on the deck of the Kahana when it blew up, and explosion originated from the other side of the ship, below decks. Odds were good he'd survived.

2. The more time one has spent on the Island, the quicker the time jumps kill them. Charlotte leads in that department, then it's Miles, Juliet, and then the 815-ers.

One boring development, one fairly interesting development. Not a lot to show for a 42-minute show where there are 6.4 million loose ends to tie up and only about 25 episodes to do it in.

Last night's episode was better.

Episode 5 - This Place is Death

Much more interesting than Episode 4.

1. We learned that Charlotte spent some time on the Island as a child, as her parents were part of the infamous Dharma Initiative. We don't know whether she was born there or not, but she left the Island forever with her mother at an undetermined age. After this explanation, she dies. This is somewhat disappointing, as we'd been wondering what her story was since she was introduced in the second episode of Season 4, Confirmed Dead. Now we know the backstory and she ceases to be relevant. Meh.

2. Faraday at some point travels back in time to Charlotte's childhood and tries to warn her to never come back to the Island. This despite his claim that you can't change the timeline in Because You Left. It appears Faraday has some way of time traveling other than the Island's time jumps; he is in the Orchid at the time of Dr. Pierre Chang (1970's?), and seems to be the cameraman in a video Dr. Change records later on.

3. We see what happens to Rousseau. Sayid is initially suspicious of Danielle's claim that her crew became sick and she was forced to kill them, but Jin witnesses important parts of the storyline and it appears she is telling the truth. This introduces three new aspects of Smokey we hadn't known before:

He can apparently alter people in a creepy and unclear way. Danielle's husband, Robert, was not an apparition like Yemi was when he appeared to Eko, as Danielle's bullets killed him and the other "altered" members of her crew. Yet Robert was definitely changed, as he convinced Rousseau to let her guard down and then attempted to kill her.
After Smokey dragged one of the Frenchies down one of his holes, we heard plaintive yells for help coming from said hold. We've never seen that before. Either a.) Smokey really let the dude go, meaning Frenchie would yell for help and lure the others down there as well, or b.) he had already altered the guy and was using him like a puppet, or c.) he had created a Yemi-like apparition and was using that as bait. Regardless, it was a very unsettling moment and shows what lengths Smokey can and will go to to achieve his (generally vague) aims. Speaking of aims...
Smokey specifically guards the Temple, in addition to filling his role as generic Island protector. What function the Temple serves, I have no idea.

(Just a random rant: I find it highly improbable that a human could retain a hold on another person's arm with enough strength to tear the arm from the body. I mean, come on... your fingers would slip way before it got to that point.)

4. The Temple the Others use is covered in what look like Egyptian hieroglyphics, much like the ones we saw in the Swan after Desmond and Locke decide to not enter the Numbers.

5. Locke was definitely supposed to turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel, not Ben, at least according to Christian. (I'll get to Christian in a minute) The Wheel is off its axis for some reason. Is this why the Island is skipping?

6. Ms. Eloise Hawking is definitely Faraday's mother, despite the fact that she has an English accent and he does not. Theory confirmed.

7. While Ms. Hawking is insistent that Ben gather every one of the Losties who got off the island, when Ben returns with only Jack and Sun, she doesn't seem that perturbed. "Well, let's get started"? That's it?

That's all I could come up with. Again, let me know what stuff I'm missing.