Lost Me

Awesome island map

2010-06-16T07:17:00.001-07:00

It's here.

There's an all-world map showing the island's location:

And one of the island.

Lost without Lost.

2010-06-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

What to do when Lost is over. When there is no more Lost. Of course the only thing to do is to rewatch old Lost episodes!

I've been watching S1, slowly but surely (still not through it all), and it is interesting to see those early days now that we know where everything ended up.

Jin and Sun were so far apart and estranged: their relationship had a wonderful arc on the show, even though both the actors were scandalously underused in later seasons.

Sayid as the go-to guy for fixing things and putting things together. He was such an instantly likable character: kudos to the show and Naveen for making an Iraqi former torturer one of the best characters ever on TV.
Kate and Jack are so obviously meant to be together by the show. I always thought that pairing made more sense than Sawyer and Kate: they had mad chemistry (Holloway has chemistry with everyone I swear, even Jack!), but they never trusted each other enough to feel totally safe with each other.

Charlie's neurotic, twitchy and hilarious contributions. Dom Monaghan is an excellent actor. Funny in a natural way, with a definite edge. I really hope he gets more work after Lost and now the cancellation of Flash Forward. He is really, really good.

Locke's instant acceptance of the island as a good place to be. But then who wouldn't love a place that made you able to walk again?

And right from the start, there was the show pushing the idea that sometimes we need to go through ordeals and trials to become the people we should be: Locke helping Charlie with his addictions, Locke guiding Boone to let go of his obsession with Shannon, Locke talking to Jack about them ending up on the island for a reason and Jack being the leader whether he wants to be one or not. See the pattern? Locke had it all right, from the start... but at the same time he is a sinister presence already: clonking Sayid on the head, setting Sayid on Sawyer knowing Sawyer was not the perpetrator of that attack... Definitely a troublesome man right off the bat, but with an instinctive connection to the island and a willingness to accept it as a place of "magic".

And Jack's dead father appearing just as a "monster" growl plays: that growl that accompanies all appearances of the monster in the early days is right there when we see Christian Shephard for the first time. VERY interesting.

Do I still have major questions about the island and the storylines developed over the years by Lost's writing team? Hell yes.

What did John Locke see when he meets the monster for the first time? "It was beautiful"? Did he see Smokey or did Smokey appear as something else?
What was the vaccine for?
How come Mrs Hawking was so all-knowing whenever people would meet her? Was she "enlightened" in the same way that Desmond was? In contact with her "afterlife self" somehow?
What was Jacob's cabin all about? Who was in it? Why did Ben appear shocked when Locke could hear a voice in the cabin? What was making all the ruckus when he took Locke there? Was that Jacob acting like a poltergeist for some reason? Why did he act like that then when he later appears to be a "normal" person living in the statue foot? Was that Smokey playing games? If Ben never saw Jacob and only took papers from Alpert... then why did he bring Locke to the cabin? He knew he couldn't bring Locke to Jacob because he'd never seen Jacob. So wtf was going on there? Had Ben been going to the cabin with Alpert and left outside while Alpert went in? Or had he discovered the cabin on his own and was somehow manipulated by Smokey when visiting?
Was Ben somehow manipulated by Smokey through the years? Is that how he knew how to summon Smokey and to turn the donkey wheel? Why wasn't he allowed to meet Jacob even though he was supposedly "leader" of the Others? Were any leaders ever allowed to meet Jacob, or did he always go through Alpert?
Is the caves that the losties live in (and where the skeletons were found) the same place where Jacob grew up once upon a time? It seems like it to me, but I'm not sure.
Was Smokey the first Smokey? Or was Mother a smoke monster too? This question REALLY is on my mind a lot and I am sort of hoping it may be addressed at some point on the DVD extras at least.

My main thought right now is that I will miss this show and the merry chase for answers that it took me on for all these years. It's a great show with so many awesome characters. Yes, the mysteries and questions kind of gained in importance and complexity over the years, but after watching S1 again I do totally understand what Darlton were saying when they talked about the show being all about the characters. THAT is the reason this show lived so long while many other sci-fi/fantasy shows fail: it built up an interest in these complex, flawed, human characters before dropping them into the maze of island mysteries. Wonderful show, and I already miss it terribly.

Lingering thoughts and questions...

2010-05-24T10:40:00.001-07:00

The day after and I still am totally rocked by that episode. It did leave a lot of "facts" unexplained, but I think answering everything in any kind of detail would basically end up like a lot of exposition and would end up mainly like: "because the island is weird".

My main remaining nagging questions have to do with Ms Hawking and with Smokey.

I think that Ms Hawking in the sideways did not want to let go, even though she knew she was dead, was because in the real world she had raised her son to do "what he was supposed to do", ie go to the island and get killed by her. What mom could ever really get over that? So no wonder she hung on to that place. I also think that, in the real world, she knew a lot about what was going on because Daniel told her: I think she must have met him during the time he was working for Dharma. I think Daniel is the one who built that pendulum station she was in when the losties went back to the island. BUT: the Ms Hawking who Desmond met when he flashed into his own past after blowing up the hatch, how come she was so enlightened and seemed to know exactly what he was up to? Was it because she had knowledge from Daniel about Desmond? I'd love more about the whole Daniel-Desmond-Ms Hawking connection.

And Smokey: what was he exactly? Was he the evil "corked" into the island somehow let loose when Jacob threw his brother into the glowy cave? Why/how did he turn into the monster then? AND: was Mother also a smoke monster? Is that how she killed all the villagers and filled in the well they built? Is that how she knew it was a fate "worse than death" if you went into the light? Was her "original" body one of the skeletons Desmond saw when he climbed down into the cave?

Also: what happened to Christian Shephard and Yemi's bodies? Why did those bodies disappear? As for the whole pregnancy danger thing: I think it was the "incident" in the 70s that somehow changed things. Because Ethan was carried to term on the island. In one of the Darlton interviews, they said something like: "We haven't spelled it out, but it seems children were born on the island in the 70s and then something happened. What could have happened???" I think they alluded to Jughead exploding/Dharma drilling into that pocket of energy.

I still wonder about the vaccine that they made such a big deal about in the early seasons. Was it to protect from radiation/energy damage from the incident? It seemed very important for Claire and Aaron to get vaccinated back in the day.

Why couldn't Widmore and Ben kill each other? I've wondered about that for a long time. Maybe it was because they had not fulfilled their destinies? They both had roles to play in Jacob's endgame: Widmore had to bring Desmond to the island and play his part there and Ben also had a part to play there. It was just not their time to go, so they could not kill each other just like Michael could not kill himself.

I think we got real explanations for the characters and what the island is: the island is sitting on top of some energy/metaphysical phenomenon that could be called hell, malevolence or whatever: just like Jacob told Alpert on the beach. Whatever that energy is, it gives the island strange powers.

When Jacob's brother turned into Smokey, Jacob didn't just have to guard the island, he also had to guard Smokey and that made his job a lot harder. The island wasn't good or evil, it is just strange and people who tried to use it for their own purposes (MiB, Dharma) ended up mostly causing trouble. Living there was fine, as Rose and Bernard's destiny shows: they were happy just to BE there.

In the end, Smokey's assertion that people are all selfish and corrupt was proved wrong: the losties saved the glowy light AND defeated Smokey because they worked together and because they loved each other and trusted each other. I would have loved to have seen some kind of scene of forgiveness/redemption with Jacob and his brother, but I guess it was really not part of the losties story.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

Thank you.

2010-05-24T00:13:00.002-07:00

Oh wow. What a way to go out. I cried so many times I lost count. When Jin and Sun remembered each other as they watched the ultrasound I was bawling. And then every time they all connected and remembered...

I still could not figure out what the sideways world was until the very end when Christian laid it all out: "How are you here?""I died too." Oh man.

Matthew Fox killed me over and over again in this episode. His confidence when he confronted Smokey, his fight with him on the cliffs, then the choice to go back and picking Hurley as his successor... And wow, his entire final walk back to the bamboo... Awesome stuff. Everyone absolutely brought it.

I loved Sawyer and Juliet, Charlie and Claire, Kate and Jack even. I loved Frank alive in the ocean. I loved Jack's dad just being there in his white tennis shoes. I loved Ben's look of gratitude when Hurley asked him to stay (he's the new Alpert!). I loved Ben having that damn walkietalkie in his pocket all the time when he hooked up with Smokey. I loved the look of worry and disbelief on Smokey's face when Jack said he'd kill him. I loved the look on Smokey's face when Jack punched him and he was bleeding. I even almost loved the damn cork stuck in the bottom of the island, holding hell-fire red-light at bay so that the good goldy-light could shine through. I loved that Rose and Bernard were allowed to live and stay alive on the island and live out their days with Vincent (because that's what I'm thinking happened).

And I think everyone online is on to something with that the sideways was a place for them all to "let go". And I don't think they all died close in time to each other: the whole wonky-time with the alt makes more sense this way. I know several places where people were trying to work out timelines for the alt and it would never jive: of course not, because it was all outside time and space. The only real-world reality this season was the island.

I wonder what setting off the bomb did. Did it somehow create the sideways, or would that place have existed anyway because of the losties connections? Was the purpose of setting off Jughead to throw the losties back into the regular timeline after being stuck in the 70s? They needed to get back to the present to help defeat Smokey.

I found this episode hugely satisfying. I still have a million questions, but this was emotionally satisfying in a way I had not totally expected. As for Ben's fate, I think he just was not ready to let go of Alex and Rousseau yet. And I really wonder how Hurley ran the island! I really need more time to process all this, but it was a beautiful, crazy episode. Awesome TV. I will miss this show but I will now enjoy watching all the old seasons again!

I'm sure the DVD and the post-finale interviews will have lots of tidbits about unanswered questions. Like what was up with Ms Hawking seeing Desmond in his timetravel-flashbacks when he wanted to change the past (Faraday told her somehow?) and who built the big pendulum thingie (Faraday going to the mainland in the 70s?) and who put the cork in the island? and WHAT THE HECK was the smoke monster??? And how did Jacob's brother turn into that when he went into the glowy cave?

But the show really DID wrap up the character storylines. And they stayed totally true to their mantra: "dead is dead".

"I died too." Beautiful. Well done. Now we can obsess over the details endlessly!

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

42 unanswered questions... answered?

2010-05-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 years ago, I posted a list of 42 unanswered questions. I thought now might be a good time to re-visit that list!

42 Unanswered Questions

What is the Smoke Monster? - Answer: it's Jacob's brother, turned into Smokey when he entered "the source", aka the glowy cave. Remaining question: was Mother who raised Jacob and his twin ALSO a Smokey? How else did she kill a whole village and fill in a well by herself?
Why can't women who conceive on the island carry the baby to term? Answer: This has not been explicitly spelled out, but it would seem that setting off Jughead and/or the explosion at The Swan-site is what caused the problem.
How come the island is so hard to find? Answer: Because it can be moved in space and time and is somehow "cloaked" from the outside world. Exactly how this works is still uncertain.
Why was it impossible for Desmond to sail off the island but seemingly so easy for the freighter to find its way there? Answer: the freighter knew what course to set. It seems there are "windows" that can be entered to access the island and the freighter found one.
What is Widmore's deal with the island? Answer: He was once the leader of the Others, was banished and tried to return for a loooong time. Was finally called back to the island by Jacob, only to end up being shot by Ben.
Is Daniel Faraday time-traveling somehow? Answer: He was, when all the losties time-skipped. Not sure about any other time travel he might have done.
How did the polar bear end up in Tunisia? Answer: It probably turned the donkey wheel.
How come Richard Alpert doesn't seem to age? Answer: Jacob granted his wish. Alpert didn't want to go to hell because of his "sins" so he didn't want to die.
How exactly does "the island" prevent people from dying a la Michael? Answer: none yet. Jacob won't let them maybe?
How did the Others get Juliet to the island? The submarine? Seems a long ride from Portland. Answer: It was probably the sub since that's how Widmore got there too.
Who is Abbadon? Answer: He worked for Widmore and his mission was to get people where they needed to go. (So why was he telling John Locke about walkabouts once upon a time? Was he working for Widmore or Jacob then?)
Who is Jacob? Answer: See Across the Sea. ;) Human, immortal, island guardian against his will (pretty much). Ultimate creator of The Others. Enemy and brother of Smokey/The Man in Black.
How come Jacob's cabin is seemingly hard to find? Answer: not sure. Why was the cabin moving? If it was built by the Dharma-guy Goodspeed, then why was it inhabited by Jacob... or was it???
What are Walt's special powers and why did the Others say they got "more than they bargained for" with him? Answer: Stop asking about Walt! He's too tall now!
Who are Adam and Eve? Answer: Mother, aka Jacob's foster mother, and Jacob's twin brother.
What is the Temple? A real temple or a hatch or what? Answer: It's a real temple with a healing pool and guarded by The Others. Then cleaned out by Smokey.
How did Yemi's plane get to the island? Answer: Because he flew into a "window" to the island I'm guessing.
How did the Black Rock get to the island? Answer: Thrown up into the jungle by a giant wave in a crazy storm.
Is Dr Marvin Candle (or whatever his real name is) still alive? Answer: Nope. Except in the Sideways universe of course.
Who/what made the food drop we saw in "Lockdown"? Answer: no idea.
What was the sickness that killed Danielle's crew? Same as what happened to the people on the freighter? Then why didn't Danielle get it? Answer: Danielle's crew was "infected" by Smokey and turned "evil". It is different than what happened on the freighter, since those people were getting the time-travel nose-bleeds.
Why was Juliet branded? What purpose did that serve? Just to make Jack pity her? Answer: who knows.
How exactly does the island make people sick when it seemingly cures some? IE how come Ben and Jack got sick? Answer: not sure. Jacob giveth and he taketh away?
What is the story with the four toed statue? Answer: It's Taweret. It was smashed by the Black Rock and the storm. Jacob lived in a hovel in the remaining foot.
What is the meaning of the whispers? Answer: They are dead people, trapped on the island and unable to move on. (Which is starting to totally remind me of Odysseus visiting Hades...)
What happened to Claire? Answer: She was infected by Smokey and turned a little insane and got really bad hair. But still managed to properly pluck her eyebrows.
How can Miles talk to dead people? Answer: He just can. Ok?
Who built the donkey wheel under the Orchid? Answer: Jacob's brother and the people who lived on the island back then basically thought it all up and then someone else ended up building it after Mother tried to stop construction.
What was the vaccine for that Desmond kept injecting himself with? Did it really help protect him from something or was it just a ruse of some kind? Answer: no idea.
What happened to Kelvin's body? Answer: no idea.
How come Dharma people seemed to be present at both Locke's and Ben's births? (Alpert in Locke's case and Goodspeed in Ben's.) Answer: Luck/fate/coincidence (in Ben's case) and manipulation (by Smokey in Locke's case).
What happened to Annie? Answer: She left the island when it was evacuated in connection with the Swan Hatch debacle.
Was Charlotte born on the island? Answer: Yes.
What's the origin of Alpert's people, aka The Hostiles? Answer: They're Jacob's band of helpers. And after the wiped out Dharma, they absorbed some of the people from that organization too.
How and why did Walt appear on the island, both to Shannon and Locke? Answer: Because he's special?
Why did the monster kill Eko? (Other than the fact that the actor wanted off the show...) Answer: He wasn't a candidate and he pissed off the monster... I think.
What was behind Charlie's weird visions of Aaron in danger from "Fire + Water"? Answer: No idea. Premonitions?
What happened to Christian and Yemi's bodies? Answer: no idea. Did Smokey take them?
Was the psychic who sent Claire off on the 815 flight a real psychic or a fraud? Answer: I think he was real.
What did Ben do to call up the Smoke Monster? Answer: Pull the plug in a dirty pool in an ancient tunnel under his house.
Who is Ms Hawking who turned up in Desmond's time-travel flashbacks? Answer: She is Daniel Faraday's mother, an ex-leader of the Others who now seems creepily aware of all time-line options wherever she is.
What's up with the Hurley Bird? Answer: I really don't care and don't know.

So you know what? They have answered A LOT of questions by now. No, not all of them have been answered in minute detail, but many have some form of answers. I'm surprised their batting average is this good!

Map it out

2010-05-20T22:22:00.002-07:00

Yes, it's Thursday night and approximately 72 hours until the Lost finale. You'd think it would be possible just to wait and let the answers come when the final episode airs, but nooooo.

JACOB: Do you remember that bamboo field you woke up in when you first got here?
JACK: Yeah.
JACOB: Beyond that field, across the ridge, is the heart of the island. That’s where the light is... That’s where he’s trying to go. And that’s what you have to protect.
JACK: Past the bamboo? There’s nothing out there.
JACOB: Yes, there is, Jack. And now you’ll be able to get there...

This was one of the most intriguing exchanges in an episode chock-full of intriguing exchanges. Jack was that close to the heart of the island, aka the glowy cave, when he first woke up after the plane crash. The glowy cave was right there somewhere, except he was unable to find it, yet. Just like with the lighthouse.

HURLEY: It's right there. It's a lighthouse.
JACK: I don't understand. How is it that we've never seen it before?
HURLEY: Guess we weren't lookin for it.

So I went and looked at some fan-made maps of the island and found lots of detailed work. This is probably my favourite: updated with Season 6 locations. And isn't it interesting that in that one area of the island where the losties originally crashed, there is just a barrel-full of awesome locations: the beach where the fuselage crashed, the first and second beach camps, the caves, the Swan hatch (with Desmond inside), the cabin, the crash-site of the cockpit where we saw the monster kill someone for the first time... it's all right there in a small section of the south-west corner of the island. Coincidence or fate? (Bwah!) And this is also where Jack woke up in the bamboo and where the glowy cave of ultimate light and stuff happens to be located.

The glowy cave HAS to be close by the caves, and the caves have to be close by where Mother's camp was. In Across the Sea, Jacob carries both Mother and his brother and lays them to rest in the caves. Was Mother's camp IN the caves? Maybe.

Will Jack meet his father, not as a Smokey-apparition but as a "real ghost" when he heads back to where it all began? In the old mobisode "So it begins" we saw Christian Shephard send Vincent off to wake up Jack: was that Smokey sending Vincent off or was it actually a different entity, aka "ghost Christian"? We still haven't seen Jack's dad this season: not dead OR alive OR undead... I'm betting he makes an appearance in the finale because this show is going full circle: back to the bamboo, back to the source and maybe also back to Jack's daddy issues. Can. not. wait.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media and Lostpedia.

My favourite Lost scene ever?

2010-05-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

At least it's on my Top 10 list.

It's Jacob and Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley.

What does go through Jack's mind after he drinks the water? He looks as though he's suddenly... enlightened. I can NOT wait for Sunday.

"Now you're like me."

2010-05-18T22:30:00.004-07:00

"Now you're like me."

Oh man, how I loved this episode and how I LOVED that scene and that line. Mark Pellegrino and Matthew Fox f-ing brought it. I usually think Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson provide the best moments in any episode they're in, but tonight they had to give it up for Jack and Jacob.

Yes I cried. Because dammit if this show isn't totally messing with our heads now. Giving us answers, giving us lines spoken previously by others to now be spoken by the remaining players... Kate saying Charlie's line "Terrific" really got to me for some reason, even though it wasn't even an important moment. "Don't mistake coincidence for fate." "What if all this is happening for a reason." And add in Jack's bleeding neck-wound and we're all in the maelstrom of time again.

Ben with Alex and Danielle was a beautiful moment. I wonder how much Ben remembered of his other life in the alt-verse... He seemed somehow changed there, almost as though he remembered having raised Alex before.

Jack standing up and taking the job and then drinking from the cup... man oh man... Matthew Fox totally brought it. Jack's arc from S1 to now is just blowing my mind. And to me, this whole episode absolutely played like a part 2 to Across the Sea: we saw the end of Jacob's story and heard him say "Now you're like me" (seriously, that moment took my breath away). I loved last week's episode and I loved this week's and f-ing LOVE how this show pushes us to the brink like this when it's on its A-game. Anyone who had reservations about Across the Sea should at least be somewhat placated now: it was NOT a stand-alone episode that had no connection to the fate of the losties. It was part 1 of what we saw tonight and I thought it was powerful, played like that.

The look on Jacob's face as Jack drank from the cup was so moving. Sadness, relief, empathy... Man, I need to watch this ep again just because of the scene with them in the river.

More thoughts:

The scene with Jacob when he explained why he picked them was very moving. I really love Pellegrino's way of portraying Jacob. There's no fake emotion there, no pretending to really care that he's dragged them to the island, no sugarcoating. You're all flawed, and you needed this place and I'm not even going to apologize for it. Harsh, but I like that. He isn't pissing around. He's not some goody-goody. He has a purpose and a mission and he needed someone to take his place. He's playing for keeps and has been from the start.

I also liked that the crossing out of names didn't really carry any magic meaning. It just meant he figured they didn't want the job (or were dead). I think now that the reason Sun didn't flash off the plane with everyone else to the 70s is because she was NOT the candidate: Jin was.

Seeing Ana-Lucia was awesome, and Hurley recognizing her was even better! Desmond is seriously freaking me out now: he's so zen it's unnatural. And how will remembering their "alternate" universe help in any way? Will it help the losties on the island?

I sure hope Richard is alive or that we at least get to see him dead. Don't kill the pretty already!

I was glad to see Zoe bite it but shocked that Widmore died already. So Desmond's the fail-safe and can presumably kill Smokey if the candidates should fail to do so. And Desmond turned the fail-safe in the hatch which made it explode... Smokey says he wants to destroy the island: as in put the C-4 into the glowy cave? Have Desmond put it in there maybe?

This was a hugely emotionally satisfying episode. My only complaint being that Richard's fate is still up in the air. Don't play with us like that at this point! If he's dead then show him to us dead. I had a bad feeling as soon as Richard stepped out of that door though... I'm thinking the monster just couldn't stand the sight of his hotness.

Sunday's show will be devastating I think. They squeezed me good today, but I think Sunday will just be hell. NTTAWWT!

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

So I figured out why Widmore brought Desmond

2010-05-17T07:57:00.001-07:00

Yes I did. I woke up this morning, and obviously my brain has been working in overdrive with Lost-related info, because when I woke up I had this lightbulb moment: "THAT'S why he brought Desmond!".

Desmond is not killed by electromagnetism.
Widmore is looking for electromagnetic anomalies on the island using a Dharma-map (that's why they kidnapped Jin).
We've now seen the weird light-cave that is the "heart" of the island and which turned Jacob's twin into Smokey.

Widmore needs Desmond to go into that cave and DO something. Not sure what. What can he do? Does he want to harness the light? Tap it? What? Could Desmond somehow liberate Smokey if he went in there?

Also interesting is a quote from Pellegrino, aka Jacob, that was in TV-Guide:

TVGuide.com: Why can Jacob leave the island, as he's done to visit his candidates, but the Man in Black cannot?
Pellegrino: This is a question that I've wondered about myself actually. I don't think the answer is directly provided in any episode, but it could be the fact that I'm a guardian of sorts and therefore have a certain power to exit when I want to. He can leave as long as it's directly for a certain purpose. After I threw the Man in Black in the pit, he's chained there. He's become incorporeal, and he's in something worse than hell.

Chained? Is that why we hear a mechanical, "chain-rattling" sound when Smokey moves? And could someone break the chain? "Nice to see you out of those chains" is what Smokey told Alpert after all...

Yes, my brain is imploding. Why do you ask?

Haters to the left!

2010-05-13T22:28:00.004-07:00

What an uproar. I can't believe the amount of "OMGWTFBBQ???!! I hate this show now and I wasted my life watching it and now I will rage bitterly against it on the internet until my keyboard breaks" kind of posts I've seen online since Across the Sea aired.

Seriously. What is going on? I LOVED the episode. Touching, well-acted, poignant story, lots of reveals, yes some cheesiness with the light but hey - we'd seen that before when Ben turned the donkey wheel... So why the rage? Not enough answers? Not enough f/x? Not enough naming of characters? Not enough Latin? Not enough about Smokey? Not enough midichlorians? What?

Of course it didn't contain all the answers. It wasn't the finale. Of course some things will never be answered. Of course it was frustrating and exhilarating at the same time: this is LOST we're talking about after all. Didn't your (murdering, people-hating, yet oddly lovable and tragic) mother tell you that every answer leads to more questions?

I'm starting to think that the reason people are so mad is because we ARE getting answers but they're not the answers people had worked out in their own minds. I've seen the disappointment before. Locke seemed like he was an all-knowing superhero in S1, yet turned out to be a paraplegic box-company minion. Alpert seemed like he was an Egyptian exile (don't hate on Nestor because of his ravishing eyelashes!), and then turns out to have been some poor farmer sold into slavery. Jacob seemed like he was an omnipotent god or alien, and then turns out to have been a momma's boy with anger issues.

This is Lost. This is the show we've been watching from Day 1. This is a show that usually does NOT give you the answer you expected, and if it does, it just leads to another question you did NOT expect.

Over the years I've seen so many theories on what the island is and who Jacob is and what is the ultimate secret at the heart of the show. It's a wormhole, a space ship, hell, Eden, purgatory, gods, aliens, angels, demons, devils, genies... Has there ever been a TV-show that's created so much debate and theory-making and philosophy-spouting across the world? I love the show for it's intricacies and it's layers and it's answers and questions and for its multi-shaded characters, for its humour and heart. It has flaws, major flaws (the main one imo being how it treats female characters), but it is the most original and audacious show I've seen on TV in a long time. Maybe forever. And now as it's winding down we get the writers' answers to all those questions we've been pondering and making up theories about for 6 seasons: and you know what, I HOPE everybody else's theories were all wrong. I hope the writers do something else.

I like this take from Dan Fierman at GQ. He has issues with the latest episode, but he isn't writing the show off yet and he analyzes the outrage like this:

But more than that, Lost itself has been treated by the internet, by fans, by... US like a car that can be stripped for parts and put together however we liked. The groundbreaking criticism that came out of Lost wasn't from theorizers or recappers or TV critics, but from guys like DocArzt and Doc Jensen, who took the show apart every single week and reassembled it into something different, something to fit their peculiar intellectual whim. When all is said and done, it's this—not the return of Sci Fi or serialized storytelling—that is the great legacy of the show. One week we see an allegory for faith, the next a meditation on science gone haywire, the next on broken men and how they come back from the brink. But NONE of those interpretations were strictly textual, they were a secondary Lost game, the ultimate Easter Egg of the show. But at some point, that secondary "Lost game" became the primary "Lost game". And when that happened, the narrative slipped out of the control of the creators. We have all built the ending of this show in our minds to be what we want it to be, and therefore there is no way it could have been satisfying.

To those who want more answers I say: The show isn't even over! Keep watching.

To those who don't like the answers the creators of the show are providing, then maybe you should stop watching and write your own fan-fic ending. For 6 seasons the writers of Lost have kept me hooked. After reading and writing so many theories about what it all means and what it all is, I want to see THEIR ending and THEIR answers.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and DarkUfo.

Vozzek69's take

2010-05-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

As usual, Vozzek69 has an interesting take on the latest episode.

On the island, the likelihood of something happening has always seemed directly related to faith. Rose believed Bernard was alive. Eko believed he'd find his brother's plane. Hurley believed that 20+ year old Dharma van would start... and so it did, as ridiculously impossible as that scenario should've been. Even Locke's suicide note contained a very important phrase "I wish you had believed me."

So could the very act of believing in something make it true? And more specifically, could the firm belief in a set of rules actually bring those rules into existence? Jacob's brother even alludes to this, over a game of senet: "One day you can make up your own game, and then everyone will have to follow your rules." Is this what we've been seeing all these years? A game being played that's nothing more than a byproduct of Jacob's own design, with the MIB fighting for two thousand years to find a loophole in his rulebook? No wonder he's so pissed.

This basically goes back to Jacob's tapestry: May the gods grant you in all things your heart's desire. Do wishes come true on the island? Is that the secret "mechanism" operating on Lost?

Another interesting thought, which also crossed my mind when watching the episode, was that Mother actually PLANNED to have the boys share the guardian duties. She herself, I think, was both Guardian and Monster. When she ended up with twins, she was in a way in trouble because as she told them, only one of them would get the job of guarding the light. So, in the end, when her "special" son betrayed her she ended up splitting the duties between the boys: Jacob became the protector, while the other son became the monster. I know we didn't see Mother as the monster in the episode, but too many things point to this being the case. If you guard the light, eventually you might just wonder what it's like inside the light and you'll end up becoming the monster. But Mother wanted to spare Jacob that, and he was spared. At the price of his brother.

As Vozzek puts it:

The ceremonial chanting and sharing of wine seemed largely symbolic to me. It was as if mother needed to convince Jacob that once he did this, his path was forever bound to the island. Jacob's still gullible at this point. He drinks up, and he believes her. Whether or not this truly does etch his destiny in stone remains to be seen, but this is where mother does something really, really slick: she recruits both Jacob and his brother to guard the island.

Jacob is 100% right. His brother was always first choice. But what he doesn't know: mother is shrewd enough to recognize that as 'good' as he is, Jacob can't guard the island alone. Jacob's honesty and commitment needs to be tempered by his brother's willingness to lie, be deceitful, and do anything needed to get the job done. Alone, each of them is only half a candidate. But together, they make an ideal guardian for the island's shores.

Questions.

2010-05-11T22:32:00.002-07:00

"Every question I answer will simply lead to another question."

Yep, Damon and Carlton are definitely trying to tell us something!

And wow. What an episode. If you want to bring in a psycho-mother who can also appear oddly sympathetic after you just watched her bash a woman's head in, call Allison Janney!

So MiB was special and Jacob wasn't. Because he could see dead people? And because he knew things without learning them (like the rules of the game, and that he would be able to leave the island)? While Jacob's only specialness was that he couldn't lie.

What the heck is the light, that is also inside all people and can also give rise to the smoke monster? And how did Mother know what happens if you go into the light? Because she did it? Or watched someone else do it? Was she a smoke monster as well as the pre-Jacob guardian? Is that how she wiped out the people's village? How did she do that if she was NOT smokey?

It's probably important that even though she could have, Mother did NOT kill MiB. Because she really loved him or because she couldn't? Who knows. She didn't. She got him out of the well, filled in the well and killed all the people (she HAS to have been Smokey... or something...) and then went home, transferred her powers to Jacob and was thankful when MiB killed her. She let him live knowing he'd kill her?

Did Mother wish for a woman to wash ashore and provide "heirs"? Was she surprised that twins were born? Is that what screwed up her plans? Or was it her plan for there to be two? Did she foresee what Jacob would do to his brother? I mean, she must have known he wouldn't be happy if she was killed...

She told Jacob that they were the same after he drank from the cup. Obviously she set the ground rules for the game between MiB and Jacob: she made it so they couldn't hurt each other. Did she also lay down other rules that they only discovered later as they tried to kill each other? And what the hell was SHE?

I guess my basic question is this: was the monster created at the moment when Jacob sent his brother's body into the light, or did it exist previously? And will the conclusion of the show involve reuniting the monster with the light somehow? If we go by what Smokey has told characters on the show this season, then I guess he was created that day. So Jacob basically brought Smokey to life. Still makes me wonder how Mother wiped out all the people... maybe she just had some other mad psycho-mother-guardian skills?

Interesting point: when MiB killed Mother, he used the knife Dogen gave to Sayid to kill Smokey with. And she did not speak to him before he stabbed her. Is that why he could kill her? Or because she had passed her powers to Jacob? I loved the intercut scenes from S1 too: Locke, Kate, Jack. But back then, Jack said the bodies were only 40-50 years old or something... based on the deterioration of the clothes.

LOVED the acting in this episode. Stellar. Janney, Welliver and Pellegrino (as well as the kids who played the younger versions) just totally brought it. I felt heartbroken for both Jacob and MiB AND Mother. None of them came off as wholly good or wholly evil, just all flawed. Though I guess in the end, MiB inherited Mother's world-view while Jacob remained convinced that people could be good.

Interesting that even though it was MiB who killed Mother, and Jacob then sent his brother into the light to a fate worse than death, in the end it seems MiB was the one carrying out the guardian-mission according to Mother's rules. Jacob kept trying to bring people to the island while Smokey tried to kill them and get rid of them (while also trying to gather allies to help him leave).

So many more questions! How did Jacob travel off the island? How did he realize what Smokey was? HOW did Mother make MiB and Jacob immortal? Just by wishing it? WHAT is the light???

Where is that light now? I'm guessing we'll see it again?

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

Lost Council of Nerds

2010-05-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

After reading that GQ article yesterday, I discovered GQ's own Lost-recap guys who seem to blog every week and man, they are frikking hilarious. And they think like me!

All the Asians are dead. Kate isn't.

And from there, I found another article about Lost and how the show was shaped and has been a work in progress through the years. This one is from Wired. This subject of how the makers of the show MADE the show and how they thought and how things came together and what was pre-planned and what was made up as they went along is absolutely fascinating to me. I know already what I want for Christmas this year: the complete set of Lost DVDs with commentary!

How Lost was made

2010-05-07T20:48:00.002-07:00

Thanks to a poster at The Fuselage, I found my way to this great interview from GQ with some of the people behind Fringe and Lost where Damon and Carlton talk a lot about the early days of Lost and how they shaped the show's universe while trying not to freak out the network. Very interesting read!

Lindelof: Not to make this about Lost, but when we introduced Ben Linus in the middle of Season 2—I can't imagine the show without that.
Cuse: We were struggling, because we didn't have any force of antagonism. It wasn't the tenth iteration of a cop show, or a law show, or a medical show—and that was a real struggle, at the beginning of the show, to figure out every week, "What is the force of antagonism?"
Abrams: That's why I think your instinct, so early on, to bring the Others in sooner…
Lindelof: That was always the issue—when are we going to bring them in?
Cuse: And then once we'd brought in Benjamin Linus and established him as the leader of the Others, it kinda helped kick things into a higher gear. Because we were kind of out of the natural-disaster-of-the-week zone at that point. It's funny, because the networks always make you write out synopses of possible stories, and try to get you to pitch things out, and it's a completely ridiculous and ludicrous exercise. The only way to basically find a show is to make it. And hopefully, somewhere during the first season of the show, you start to figure out what the show is. But it's a process of trial and error. You do certain things and they work, you do certain things and they don't work. You have to treat the show organically, and the show will sort of tell you what's working and not working, and eventually you'll figure out, "Okay, this is what we need to make an episode." So now we have a paradigm for Lost episodes. We kind of know what the elements are that it takes to put together the cocktail that is a Lost episode.
Lindelof: It's like saying to a pregnant woman, "So you're having a girl—would you like to sign her up for soccer, or ballet?" And you go, "I don't know, all things being equal, ballet sounds great, I like ballet"—but you haven't had the baby yet. Until you get to know your kid, you can't really make any plans whatsoever. It's a farce. But you do it every time. My favorite story is that those guys who do 24 had to basically do this same exercise. Because 24 is a premise that everybody thought would never work in a million years, myself included. Like, how do you do a real-time show? And the pilot promises—someone is threatening to assassinate this presidential candidate, David Palmer, and Jack Bauer, Keifer Sutherland, has to stop the assassination, and the plan that they pitched the network was, in episode 24, he stops the assassination. And then they got into the writing of it, and they realized, "Because it's a real-time show, we have to move up our entire timetable." So he stops Palmer from being assassinated in episode 5 or 6. And then they had to wing it! They were only a quarter of the way through. That's why the Others thing is so interesting. Because the first day that Bryan and JJ and myself, and a couple other guys—Jeff Pinkner and [Lost co-executive producer] Jesse Alexander were there too—were talking about Lost, JJ pitched the Hatch. He said, "They find a hatch." We talked about the Others. We talked about Rousseau. We talked about all that, in the very first meeting. It's like you're a football coach, and you have these plays, but you don't know when to run the play. You're basically like, "Okay, when is the right time? When should they find the hatch? When do we need to bring the Others in? And how do we bring them in?" So the compromise was, Ethan starts farting around with Claire, and you realize he wasn't on the plane. Where did he come from? But that's all you get in Season 1. It isn't until the end of Season 2, or midway through Season 2, that you start to see the faces of these indigenous people.
Burk: I remember Damon doing that outline of what some of the episodes would be. And I remember the word "submarine" was on there. And I was like, "A submarine's gonna show up?" And it did—it just didn't happen in the first season or 2. But there were just these crazy ideas that would pop in.
Lindelof: And it's hubris to save it, too. Sometimes. Because you're like, "Let's hold that back." Like right now, David Goyer's talking about FlashForward, and he's saying, "Everybody sees six months into the future, so in our season finale, in May, they're gonna catch up with this vision that they saw." And I was like, "You might not want to be promising that, before you get into the show!" Because you might change your mind. Don't tell people what you're going to do-- because wouldn't it be interesting if, in episode eight, suddenly you decided to compress the time scheme and then figure out where you're going to go from there?
GQ: You're saying their finale might be too late to play that card, or too soon?
Lindelof: Well, who's to say they're going to get to May? I mean, y'know—that's the hubris, right there. It's like that show The Nine. It was all these hostages in a bank crisis. And they promised that at the end of the season, they would reveal the mystery of the crisis. It got cancelled after thirteen episodes! Good, they took their time—but it doesn't matter. We had a rare opportunity-- we were in the sweet spot. We were writing the seventh episode of Lost when the show premiered. And that was when we were engaged in our most intensive creative battle with the network. It was about how weird the show could be. Because Claire went and saw a psychic, and the psychic said, y'know, "Get on this plane," and the implication was that the psychic knew the plane was going to crash. And that was also the episode where we introduced Ethan. So they started freaking out. And then the show premiered, and we were able to kind of cram it down their throats.
Burk: I was on the dub stage doing—what was Sayeed's first episode, episode six?
Lindelof: Eight. "Solitary." Seven and eight, we were doing them at the same time.
Burk: I was on the mixing stage, finishing that. And as scripted, at the end of the episode, Sayeed is walking through the jungle, and he starts hearing whispers. And it's now seven o'clock, I'm an hour over, I gotta finish the mix. And I get a call from the network. "Under no circumstances do we want to hear the whispers."
Lindelof: And you've got Naveen Andrews onscreen going like this [looks around, terrified]
Burk: …for no reason! And I said "Guys, there's going to be wind, there's going to be other things, but here's the thing—if you don't hear the whispers, there's going to be an actor just looking around and acting crazy for no reason." But that was it. They were very nervous about how far we were going to push anything that seemed like science fiction.
GQ: It's funny, because stuff like the whispers in the jungle seems so bush-league now compared to what's happened since.
Burk: Sure.
Cuse: You have to take your territory inch by inch.
Burk: And in defense of the network, there had been a plethora of science fiction shows before that, that all failed, for a variety of reasons. So they were obviously nervous about what we were going to turn this into.
Abrams: And we were going to kill Jack, in the pilot. And they said "Don't kill Jack." So they have given us some good notes.

I love reading about how they worked the show out. I know many people think they've just been making it up as they go along, but I do think they had a game plan from the start. HOW you tell the story you want to tell may change depending on the actors you hire to play the characters (Desmond, Alpert and Ben worked out so well that their additions probably shaped the story differently) and what ideas catch on. But the fact that things like the sub, the hatch and the whispers were in the story right from S1 makes me think TPTB have always known WHAT story they're telling. Some heated (and bitter!) discussions about this right now at The Fuselage for example.

There's more behind-the-scenes goodness here, where we find out some inner workings of the writer's room and how a show is shaped not just by one person or one writing session.

a good example of how the writers room works in a series such as "lost"...is the creation of the story that eventually became [the] emmy-nominated episode "walkabout."

...an episode which is rightfully hailed as a turning point in the series and a signature moment of "lost."

however, like all episodes of this - and almost any television show - that story was "broken" in the writers room. it was discussed, conceived and divided into acts and scenes in an environment where a group of writers sat together, shared their best ideas and thoughts, and collectively filtered out the chaff to come up with the best possible version of that story...

the original conception of the final revelation of "walkabout" was that, after placing all of his hopes and dreams on a genuine australian walkabout vacation, john locke was crestfallen to find that his "genuine" aboriginal experience was indeed a tourist trap - a cheap and watered-down experience devoid of spiritual meaning.

in this version of the episode - which never got farther than the dry-erase board in the writers room - the final scene of the flashback would have been a profoundly disgusted locke, miserably sitting in the walkabout bus surrounded by screaming children... his life devoid of the meaning he has hoped to find.

this conclusion would have completely worked within the conceptual framework we had laid out for locke during the pilot phase of the show - that he was a profoundly unhappy office drone whose dreams of a grandiose destiny were continually dashed by cruel reality but given a new lease on the island. in our plan for the series, locke was always intended to be a man driven to faithful zealotry by a belief that the plane crash was predestined, and this formulation of his story would have served that theme well.

notice, however, that this version of the story does not include what many consider to be the "big twist" of the episode - the revelation of locke as wheelchair bound and healed by the island.

that's because it didn't exist until damon pitched it in the room as an idea to further push locke's misery into a physical reality that would play on film.

and there was strenuous opposition to this idea. some of the writers and producers of the show felt that it pushed us into too mystical a terrain - that it robbed "lost" of a crucial human dimension that was necessary to maintain an illusion of reality given all the fantastical things we had already established.

...other possibilities were discussed and entertained. we cut the guts out of the story to see if the wheelchair idea - and several other alternatives - held water.

it was ultimately decided that a wheelchair-bound locke was the way to go, and the show is better for it.

that's what the writers room does. it forces every idea, good and bad, to stand up to scrutiny and either live or die on its own merit.

after that, it's up to the writer to make those ideas come to life: and there is a big difference between a good story break that is well-executed by a writer and one that isn't.

It's more organic and more of a collaboration, which really is a cool thing imo. The idea that you could work out a show in detail seasons in advance is BULLSHIT. No one knows how long their show will last. Lost's writers finally did get their end-date which freed them up to set a better pace for the story and work out the mythology in peace. Lost is a flawed show, but imo it is the best and most original show I've seen on TV for a long time. Kudos to the powers behind it for making this weird and wonderful creation such a hit and slipping in all that wonderful weirdness under the noses of TV-company execs who would have balked at any and all time-skipping and alt-verses if they had known of them in advance!

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

A great recap of The Candidate

2010-05-07T19:16:00.002-07:00

Gatesy over at Doc Arzt's site has a great recap of this week's episode and his thoughts mirror mine pretty much exactly.

I know lots of people had trouble with the fact that Jin did not leave Sun to die, saying he should have gone to raise Ji Yeon. Neither Sun nor Jin mention Ji Yeon in their final scene together, but imo, the option is there and obvious to both of them but remains unspoken. They have just spoken of her before they go on the sub so they both know he could go to try to get to her... but his choice makes absolute sense for the character. Like Gatesy puts it:

At the time I thought Jin would leave, have to leave, Sun for Ji Yeon’s sake. And at first I couldn’t make sense of it – why leave her as an orphan? But as I’ve pondered it I now think it is the right decision. Consider Desmond’s words to Sayid….

DESMOND: So, what will you tell her?
SAYID: What do you mean?
DESMOND: This woman–when she asks you what you did to be with her again…what will you tell her?

What would Jin tell Ji Yeon? Could he ever tell her what he had to leave behind to be with her? And let’s remember Ji Yeon doesn’t know Jin and Jin doesn’t know Ji Yeon. It sucks to make her an orphan but it sucks to leave Sun to die alone. That is the point. Love is stronger than death. Death is not the worst thing for either them. Being apart is. And I like to imagine that Ji Yeon’s parentless childhood will prepare her for a Superman/Luke Skywalker/Harry Potter style heroic story that we will never see. Death is not the end but the beginning of another adventure, as Dumbledore would say.

Jin and Sun’s personal stories had taken a back seat since season 4. Their story was no longer of two individuals seeking redemption and reconciliation – that had been achieved. The story was of their marriage, their union, their devotion to each other. For them to die together after being apart for so long is a happy ending of sorts. They would have chosen to die in old age, surrounded by children and grandchildren but that was taken away from them. So they chose to die together. Die together or live alone….? The hardest choice to make.

Screencap thanks to Doc Arzt.

OMFG

2010-05-04T22:29:00.001-07:00

OMFG.

Lapidus, Sayid and Jin and Sun, all offed in the same episode. And yet I still thought the episode kicked ass. Maybe because we finally, finally know what the deal is, and so do the losties. Smokey doesn't want to help them, he wants to kill them. He has lied to them and tricked them and used them and manipulated them every single step of the way. He doesn't make deals, he doesn't bargain. I'm glad that all of that is obvious now: no more bullshitting around with the losties now. They have to fight him to have any chance of living or saving the world or whatever.

I cried when Sun and Jin died, and yes, Jin should have gone to raise his daughter but can you really blame him for staying with Sun? He just got reunited with her 5 minutes ago for crissakes! Damn you writers! And I actually appreciated Sayid's death in a way because he went out as a non-zombie, saving the others from Smokey after doing his bidding since being resurrected. This means that everyone, even "infected" people have a choice: they don't have to follow Smokey. Claire won't follow him blindly for much longer either I think.

And seeing Sawyer saved by Jack, and the two of them ALMOST having a moment this ep? Priceless. Of course, Sawyer then had to go and blow it by going all commando with the bomb, but I couldn't really blame him for that either. Losing Juliet and getting stuck with Kate again would piss anyone off, right? The con-man got played and played good. That's going to piss him off even more once he comes to I think. Maybe I will finally get my wish then: Sawyer and Jack uniting to fight a common enemy rather than wasting time fighting each other.

And when Hurley lost it on the beach, I lost it too. Miles, Alpert and Ben better show up SOON with some weapons and help these guys out. I need those guys to at least make it for a few more eps.

Jack trusting (or turning into?) Locke after doubting him and fighting him all that time is a very good twist to the story imo. I always thought that if those two had worked together instead of being at loggerheads all that time on the island, things would have worked out a heck of a lot better. Seeing their interaction in the alt-verse was both creepy and sweet: "I wish you had believed me". Dammit. Again with the chain-yanking! This episode yanked my emotions so much I was actually literally at the edge of my seat tonight.

And when Jack stood there crying in the water at the end, I expected his dead dad to appear before him. Of course he didn't, but I am betting we are going to see Christian Shepherd on the island again before long.

So very, very good to see Bernard again! Did it seem to anyone else that Bernard acted somewhat "Hawking-esque"? Like he knew what the deal is with the alt-verse? The fact that they were all on that flight seems to be starting to weird out the losties in the alt now, and I do think that's a good thing. Maybe they need Hawking to debrief them?

So if we now know Smokey's plan, what the hell is Widmore's plan? Killing Smokey? Replacing Smokey or Jacob? Hopefully at least Jack et al will help Desmond get out of the well now.

I was bummed that we didn't get to see Bernard and Rose on the island, though at this point I am almost certain that they are Adam and Eve from the cave. Just hoping to get to see them, and Vincent!, one last time.

Dammit, this show is picking up the pace now. I was wondering when people would start dying and tonight I got my answer.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media and Doc Arzt.

Christian Shepherd = Smokey?

2010-04-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

JACK: Look just like him.
LOCKE: Does it bother you?
JACK: No, what bothers me is I don't have any idea what the hell you are.
LOCKE: Sure you do.
[Jack kneels.]
JACK: Why John Locke?
LOCKE: Because he was stupid enough to believe that he'd been brought here for a reason. Because he pursued that belief until it got him killed. And because you were kind enough to bring his body back here in a nice wooden box.
JACK: He had to be dead before you could look like him.
LOCKE: That's right.
[Jack nods.]
JACK: Who else have you looked like?
LOCKE: Jack, what do you really want to ask me?
JACK: The third day we were here I saw... I chased my father through the jungle... my, my dead father. Was that you?
LOCKE: Yes, that was me.

After Smokey told Jack in the latest episode, The Last Recruit, that he was the one appearing as Christian Shepherd, aka Jack's dad, speculation on this already much-speculated mystery has gone into overdrive. Was Smokey telling the truth? The issue is further complicated since we know that a) Smokey can't leave the island and b) Christian has appeared OFF the island after his death: once to Michael before the freighter blew up and once to Jack in a hospital in LA.

So what's up?

The fact that Christian sometimes has appeared wearing the suit he was buried in and sometimes in other clothes has also been a subject of speculation. Are there two versions of Christian? I do seem to remember, way back in some thread at The Fuselage, that the Damon and Carlton had said that the choice of different footwear for Christian was significant somehow. (I know I've mentioned this several times in the past here.)

So, some footwear related facts:

Christian was put in the coffin wearing Jack's sneakers.
He has appeared wearing Jack's sneakers but also wearing more hiking-boot like foot gear.
When John Locke was put into his coffin, Mrs Hawking made sure that Jack put his father's shoes on the corpse. Supposedly because Locke's corpse was a "proxy" for Christian's corpse on the original flight.
The show then made a point of showing us Smokey-Locke tying Christian's shoes on his feet when he had crossed over to the island from Hydra Island with Ben.

What's that all mean? Who knows? Hopefully we might, soon.

Now, I don't doubt that Smokey has been taking Christian's shape at times. The issue is if it's ALWAYS been Smokey. I don't think so. I think that sometimes it's been Smokey and sometimes it's been dead Christian appearing just like the other dead people we've seen appear: Michael, Jacob, Isabella and so on. Sure, Hurley seems to be the one who sees dead people most easily, on and off the island, but I do think it's certainly a strong possibility that Jack has this ability too, at least when it comes to his dad.

So much of the early days of Lost was all about Jack and his daddy issues. If that is going to be resolved in the show, it won't be through Jack talking to the being who faked being his dead dad. No, it will be by Jack talking to the dead dad himself. Damon and Carlton once said that Christian was "undead" (this was when they were classifying things as either Smokey-appearances, undead or ... whatever else it was). So I do still hold out a strong hope that while Smokey didn't lie to Jack, he wasn't telling the whole truth either. If Jack is going to resolve his daddy issues on the show, he needs to meet his real dad: and I'm guessing at some point he will.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

Rock/hard place = Smokey/Widmore

2010-04-20T22:18:00.003-07:00

I liked this episode. No, not the best episode ever or of the season, but definitely good. Jack getting all John Locke on everyone and swimming back to the island was great: I didn't see it coming either, but I definitely understood Jack's feelings. His actions have little or nothing to do with Smokey imo, and more to do with the fact that he already DID leave once and realized it was the wrong choice. And while Smokey calls Locke a sucker, I'm not so sure that is ALL Locke was. Jack saw the lighthouse and he knows now that the island is special: just like Locke always claimed.

I'm also not sure I 100% believe that the apparitions of Jack's dad were ALWAYS Smokey. Something in that exchange with Jack made me think that Smokey was lying about that. I do think he has been Jack's dad on occasion, but not always. And now they've set it up nicely so that if we ever see Christian Shepherd and Smokey at the same time we'll definitely know something's up!

I liked Jin and Sun's reunion and was so scared that one of them would get shot before they hugged! Or while they hugged...

The Zoe-creature with the fake glasses still bugs the heck out of me. So does Claire's "hair". And yes, Kate and Sawyer are OVER: just stop beating that horse already! Their interaction in the alt was terrible and it was almost as bad in the on-island timeline. Whatever chemistry was there once upon a time is spent and the storyline just needs to go away.

I did like that Kate convinced Claire to come on board. Nice touch.

Man, do the choices suck for the losties now: hanging out with Widmore or Smokey? Not great either way imo. Sawyer's about to find out.

So what are the chances that Sayid actually killed Desmond (nice fake-out with the previews on that btw, because they totally made it look like Sayid really did shoot him). And I thought there was a glimmer of old Sayid in the exchange with Smokey: could it be that Desmond is bringing people "back to their senses" in both timelines?

Favourite scene in the whole episode? Sun recognizing Locke when they were both wheeled into the hospital. Just one question: did she still remember it when she woke up after surgery?

The kid playing Jack's son is totally growing on me and I'm more convinced than ever that Juliet is his mom. We haven't seen Juliet in the alt (and we've even seen Ilana there now!) so I figure she's being saved for best and last when she will also get to meet up with Sawyer in the alt.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

So what was all that about?

2010-04-14T21:35:00.001-07:00

Still not feeling last night's episode, "Everyone Loves Hugo". Clunky dialogue, forced plot-points, over-the-top acting (did they just rush this episode through somehow?) and crappy music: everything was disturbing. But today I read one theory about why Hurley would want to go see Smokey, and if it's true then that kind of makes some things in this episode make more sense: Hurley looked through Ilana's stuff and found that pouch of Jacob's ashes. Hurley has also seen the ring of ash that once surrounded the cabin where Jacob or Smokey was playing house. So what if Hurley now has a super-secret plan involving that ash? Kind of like a long con I guess. Hopefully that's what's going on, because just having them all decide to go see Smokey on a whim seems lame.

Also: why did Desmond run down Locke in the alt-verse? Seems to be two main theories here. Either Des wants to do to Locke what Charlie did to him and make Locke remember the other timeline. Or Des KNOWS that Locke is bad news and is trying to kill him. The fact that Desmond told Ben that his (made up) son's name was Charlie is also open to interpretation. Does Des remember that he actually has a real child called Charlie, or did he make it up because he'd met the palm-writing Charlie Pace?

And what about that HUGE HUGE MEGA-HUGE reveal that the whispers (read the transcripts here) are actually whispers by dead people who "can't move on"? It was the worst scene in an already weak episode (Hey! I know what this great mystery is! It's dead people who can't move on! Now let's keep walking and not refer to it!) but I'm not really complaining about the revealed information. I'll have to go back over those whisper transcripts and see if they make sense in this new context.

I'm also wondering if this clumsy reveal was made so as to set up another, bigger reveal: namely the mystery of Jack's dad traipsing about the island for so long. Is there one "real dead dad" and one "Smokey sock-puppet-dad"? Maybe. Sure are a lot of dead people around right now. And Hurley can see the dead off the island and on-island, and on-island he can see people who didn't die there (and he can see people who died ON the island when he is OFF the island.... argh... complicated). But the whispers are then only people who died on the island and can't leave for whatever reason? Oy. I really do hope that more of this mystery will be revealed once we find out what Christian Shepherd is really all about.

I really wonder what Desmond is all about. Is he living in both timelines at the same time? Does he have full awareness of them both at the same time? He sure seems like a mega-enlightened being all of a sudden. Has he now become something akin to Ms Hawking/Widmore? Or like Jacob? Influencing events to push them a certain way?

I'm hoping for better dialogue and acting next week, but as usual, even a weak episode of Lost curls my brain in a way no other show could.

Finally, RIP Ilana. You looked like you had potential and you looked like you ought to kick some serious tail. You got one awesome scene with Ben and then you got to blow yourself up stupidly. The island, or at least this writing team, was done with you. RIP with all the other potential female kick-assers: Rousseau, Alex, Sun-who-talked-and-seemed-important-for-a-couple-of-scenes, Charlotte, Juliet, Naomi, Ana-Lucia... I won't belabour the point, but it is kind of sad to see so many potentially strong and important females written and written out in such unsatisfying ways. It's one of my few problems with this show. Missed opportunities and all that.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

What the...?

2010-04-13T22:18:00.002-07:00

Ok, I kind of hated this episode. And that makes me sad. I actually think it might have been one of the worst episodes of Lost I've ever seen. Not so much the plot developments in it, because I did like to see Jack explain why he's sitting back now, and wow even hearing Hurley explain the whispers in a throwaway sentence and Desmond meeting Locke (in both timelines) and then (kind of inexplicably really) Hurley deciding it's a good idea to hook up with Smokey. But I thought the acting sucked tonight, which is not something I usually think about ANY Lost episode. The whole episode felt odd and disjointed to me. Add to that that the music, at least on my TV, sounded totally f-d up and I was even more upset.

The whole scene leading up to Ilana's pathetic demise was just bad imo, with the characters all over-acting and acting out of character at the same time. And while I usually like Hurley, I thought he was the weak link for a lot of tonight's ep. And why oh why did Libby wear so much makeup as a mental patient? That bugged me, mainly because by then lots of stuff was bugging me.

I wonder if the weirdness of the episode partly came from that all of a sudden the characters had to go and meet up with Smokey. Now, imo, there is no reason why they would ever do that willingly. Why would Hurley think that? Michael told him not to blow up the plane but no one told him to go talk to Locke. It just felt like a forced plot-point. I'm kind of fine with it happening, but I just didn't think they sold the reasons for Jack et al to go along with Hurley.

Desmond and Locke saved the episode for me, but just barely and mainly because I think this part of the story will be hugely significant: why is Desmond willing to try to kill Locke in the alternate timeline, and why is Smokey trying to get rid of Desmond on the island?

My main questions after tonight are:

Did sideways Desmond and island Desmond switch places during that electro-magnetic shower? Or is Sideways Des just somehow "remembering" Locke from the other timeline?
Smokey is SCARED of Desmond, and he knows or suspects why Widmore brought Desmond to the island: whatever it is Des can do, it probably has to do with getting rid of Smokey.
What does it mean that Richard and his little gang have broken away? It'll be interesting to see where that all goes...

And finally:

Why oh why did Libby remind me of Britney Spears????

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

Des! Charlie! Hawking! Faraday! Penny!!!

2010-04-06T22:16:00.003-07:00

Holee frigging crap! Just excuse me while I cool off my over-heated brain.

This episode rocked the alternate and the on-island universe. Desmond was awesome as usual, and add in creepy Ms Hawking/Widmore as the all-knowing sphinx/mistress of ceremonies who make it sound as though she has personally organized everyone's life... and the flashes of Charlie's hand in the underwater and Des' flashes when having the MRI and Daniel's journal (now different). This was a truckload of really, really great WTF!

How does Ms Hawking stay aware of all different time-lines? Does it mean Widmore is informed of various time-lines too? At least in the alt? I have to say that it now seems way less likely that the alt timeline will be the eventually remaining one... though maybe not? Maybe the timelines can somehow merge in the alt and everyone can get a real happy ending with some consciousness of what went on on the island?

Did Daniel Faraday, back in the 70s, help Eloise to build the weird pendulum station we saw once upon a time? Did she somehow convince him, or he convince her, that "Whatever happened happened" was NOT necessarily the truth? We all know that when Daniel came back to Dharmaville, he was all convinced that past and future COULD be changed and that Jack should blow up the bomb etc etc leading up to what we have now. This has to tie in with what's happening now.

And how much is Widmore in on? Does on-island Widmore know about the alt? I don't think so judging by his surprise at Desmond's change of heart. Will Desmond now keep passing out/waking up in the alternate timelines?

Is the alt actually Ms Hawking's perfect world? Sure, she sacrificed (and killed!) her own son Daniel Faraday in the regular timeline. But because of his actions, the new timeline was created and in it, Daniel is alive and a musician. Was that her plan all along? Maybe even Daniel's own plan from the 1970s? But somehow it isn't "perfect", at least not yet: because they are still connected to the old "future" we see play out on-island. Does the alt need to be obliterated? Or does it need to merge with the on-island reality somehow? So that everyone is aware of what they all gained there, while still remaining alive?

What I'm wondering is basically: does Widmore really know what he's doing on the island? Is he doing it in collusion with Hawking or does she have alternate plans? And are they, separately or together, working for Jacob's side? Widmore sure seems partly to be less "evil" this season, but on the other hand he showed no concern for the death of his employee... There is a "greater good" for him for sure, but is he totally aware of everything that is going on with the alt too? Does Hawking in the regular timeline know about it?

This ep totally blew my mind. What a farking show. Even with crappy Zoe the fake-eyeglass wearer (why didn't Sayid shoot her???) it's getting awesome now. I think the tempo will definitely be cranked up from this point on.

Interesting that Des didn't mind going with Sayid: maybe he figures things will just somehow work out for the best? And is he now the only person on-island who is aware of the alt? What will that mean?

I liked having Charlie back, but his total change of character based on his near-death experience was a little much. He shed the entire junkie persona for some kind of born-again mentality? Does he just want to die now? Or does he want to find his perfect woman, aka Claire?

LOVED this episode. And harrowed, freaking out Desmond is so, so, SO much more attractive than calm, put-together Desmond... Like Viggo Mortensen, grime and stubble totally become him. :)

Finally, I did recognize Desmond's driver and knew we'd seen him before, but couldn't place him. Of course he was George Minkowski, who died from nosebleed-timetravel-syndrome on Widmore's freighter.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

The new alternate/sideways -verse

2010-04-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

DocArzt has an excellent point about what the new 'verse is and how and why it may be affecting the losties we know in the on-island timeline:

What is OtherLOST trying to tell us? The timespace for OtherLOST is 2004, while LOST Is taking place in 2007. Time travel has not stopped after all. If 2007 LOST is converging with 2004 OtherLOST, does that mean that a new past is being written? If consciousness is now skipping across time and space and theoretical multidimensionalities, then it’s not really a Schrodinger’s cat situation any longer. It’s not like the cat is both alive and dead until we make a final deciding measurement. It’s more like the cat itself is ping ponging through quantum states, interfering in the mechanics of its own hypothetical dilemma. I’m starting to get the real sense that the reason they’ve referenced Alice in Wonderland so often on this show is they want us to just shut up and bathe in the pure nonsense of it.

In essence, to me, this would mean that (for example) Sun's loss of her English is because in the new past, she never learned to speak it. So what will happen if she dies in the alt? Scary for her and Jin (and their daughter!) I think... And we've already seen the present affect this new past: Jack couldn't remember how he got his appendectomy scar for example.

I think in the end, that what Juliet said (according to Miles) in the season-opener is hugely important: "It worked." They DID change the past, but for some reason their present has not changed with it. How will that be fixed so Juliet and Sawyer can go for coffee again? Not sure, but I bet we'll see that scene!

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

Interesting thoughts by Vozzek69

2010-04-01T12:53:00.001-07:00

Vozzek69 over at Dark UFO always has an interesting take on Lost episodes, and I especially like his column this week. I wasn't crazy about the latest ep, but the more I think and read about it, the more I think it has a HUGE reveal in it about connections between the alt timeline and the island timeline. Vozzek analyzes this better than I could:

Before we talk about what happens here, we have to examine the circumstances leading up to this flash-sideways. On-island Sun is knocked out cold, and off-island Sun is just waking up. We've seen this happen time and time again, most noticeably when Jack gets put under for his on-island appendectomy and immediately wakes up in the Oceanic Six timeline.

How many times does this have to happen before it becomes more than just a convenient plot device? Unconsciousness has always been associated with enlightenment. It's always worked as a transition between scenes and storylines... but what if it also acts as a transition between worlds? Remember sleeping Claire waking up in her flashback car crash during Par Avion? Remember Desmond hitting his head on the freighter and waking up in one of his flashes? I could list dozens and dozens of examples here, but there's really no need. The link between unconsciousness and making these journeys is as plain as the big frosty glass of Orange Julius they made Desmond drink on the sub-ride over.

"See you on the other side..." - Ben's words, right before Jack puts him under. Think he's just being cute here? Do you really think, when Sun looks into the mirror this episode, that she's not actually looking into the other side? That she really doesn't start to remember her past self? Do you think it's coincidence that Keamy's knock conveniently and pointedly pulls her back into the 'real' world, exactly the way Juliet got pulled out of her own little mirror staredown by the island burning her cookies?

I said it a few weeks ago, and Sawyer said it again last night: "Of course not. Because that would be ridiculous."

Watch Keamy's reaction as he introduces himself to Sun: he cocks his head and squints a little bit, almost as if to say "Don'tcha remember me?" There's actually a lot off about Keamy this episode - much more than usual. As a criminal we can all agree he's creepy awesome... but as someone who potentially knows things, he's got some pretty odd knowledge. Much more of this gets revealed later on, during his encounter with Jin in the walk-in fridge.

"She hits her head and forgets English? Are we supposed to buy that?" No Miles, we're not. I mean, yeah, some people may be buying it... but not me. And if you're reading this, hopefully not you either, because the mental transition from island to LAX back to island again hasn't caused Sun some obscure medical condition where she can no longer speak English, no matter how deep Jack digs into his patient history. No, what we're seeing here is the first concrete evidence of the next major reveal:

BIG Answer #3: The ALT Timeline is Actually Bleeding Through To the Island's Current Events

We're seeing LAX_Sun's non-English speaking skills carrying over to island_Sun, and at this point there shouldn't be much of a debate about that. The more important question to ask is this: how long has stuff like this been going on? Is Sun losing English the same thing as season one Claire losing her memories? As post-Swan Locke losing his ability to speak? As Desmond losing his clothes? Is this what's been happening to characters we've seen reset or rebooted, and if so, when did it start?

So many questions get potential answers here, it's actually kind of frightening. Were Desmond's "flashes" really just him experiencing the ALT timeline, but we were thrown off by this because he was visiting a past version of it? And while we're at it, exactly how many different timelines exist? Just because our LAX characters seem to have blasted themselves into the "Jughead" universe, it would be ignorant to assume there's only one. Was the Oceanic Six season nothing more than another alternate timeline, one in which Flight 815 really did hit the Indian ocean? Did Ben/Jacob really cure Juliet's sister's cancer, or was Mikhail pointing the Flame's monitor at a different timeline, in a different universe, on a different playground where that cancer didn't exist?

If Sun's memories starts crossing over from the ALT universe, where will they stop? Will all of our on-island characters begin 'remembering' their LAX lives? If so, it makes sense that everyone on the island would end up enlightened by their own off-island experiences. This might be what drives them to make the right decisions - ultimately breaking the seemingly endless cycle of repeating their own mistakes, and thus being the cause of their own suffering.

And if the two timelines merge, will it go both ways? Will the LAX characters gain sudden knowledge of their on-island experiences, and use them to move on with their lives? Is this where everyone's consciousness ends up when they die? Is this how on-island Juliet and on-island Sawyer can eventually go out for off-island coffee?

These are all tremendous questions. The floodgates have been opened here, starting with Sun smashing her head into that tree branch. The possibilities are endless. The stories can wind in any virtually direction. The merging of character consciousness allows for both timelines to remain relevant, and for both timelines to mean something. It seems to be the answer as to where everything is going, and yet at the same time it also seems to be something that's always been there.

I love these ideas. Whether things will play out exactly like this I don't know, but I definitely think that Sun losing her English was WAY more than some goofy, soapy plot device (as has been suggested by frustrated fans in some places). I've always had the feeling that Desmond's "CTT" (aka Consciousness Time Travel) had to be a set up for something bigger coming along later. Could this "sideways universe" bleeding into the "island universe" be the final twist in what was set up with Desmond's CTT? Maybe. It is certainly a really intriguing thought.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

Jin and Sun get something to do

2010-03-30T22:22:00.002-07:00

Yea, Jin and Sun DID get something to do but I still was not crazy about tonight's ep, Of course the writers' rarely give Jin and Sun anything meaningful to do. At least they got a lot of lines tonight! And I kind of liked their chemistry in the sideways. I wonder: If Sun dies, does something happen to "real" Sun in "our" timeline? Or nothing... I don't think we've seen a sideways lostie die, and I seem to remember hearing Darlton comment somewhere that we should wonder about what happens if someone dies in the alt.

Big reveal tonight: Locke needs to bring all the candidates off the island. Guess he can't kill them and can't let them stay to replace Jacob, so taking them with him is the alternative.

I'm kind of liking Widmore, freaky as that is. Maybe it's the voice. Great voice. And the other big reveal of the night, that everything they know and love with "cease to be" if Smokey leaves the island - what's that mean? That the world ceases to be? Or that another timeline takes over? At least Widmore seems to pretty much know what he's up against and what he's supposed to do which makes a nice change.

Also: Jin is buff. Those arms... wow. Guy has been working out while he was in Dharma! And very cool to see old Radzinski (killer of Charlie) back, even though he had two eyes now (until the very end at least).

Very glad to see Desmond back. Now why the hell is he back though? Is he a candidate? Or just sufficiently time-jumping to be of use somehow?

Widmore's presence makes me really wonder. I initially thought he might be allied with Smokey, but now it seems that's not true. He used to be leader of the Others, then got booted... but obviously never gave up on finding the island again. So was he some kind of alternate plan Jacob had? Or did he end up making up his own plan when he was kicked off? And what role did Faraday and his mom play in all of this?

Finally: someone for the love of all that is holy get that DAMN HAIR off Claire's head. That thing bugs me more than Kate right now. Just get it off her. Pretend she has a hair cut, finds some conditioner, braids her hair... whatever. Just let that thing go. Release it into the wild.

Ab Aeterno quotes

2010-03-24T11:39:00.004-07:00

''Think of this wine for what you keep calling hell. There are many other names for it, too. Malevolence. Evil. Darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread. The cork is this island. And it's the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. That man who sent you to kill me thinks that everyone is corruptible because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter.''

And from EW:

Ricardo asked if others had been brought to The Island before him. ''Yes. Many,'' Jacob said. Ricardo asked what happened to them. ''They're all dead,'' he replied matter-of-factly. (Both Pellegrino and Titus Welliver as Man In Black injected their line readings with some knowing humor that lightened the mood while making their characters even more inscrutable and unsettling.) Ricardo asked a crucial question: How come Jacob doesn't take a more active role in shepherding his spiritual reclamation projects? ''Because I want them to help themselves. To be able to tell the difference between right and wrong without me having to tell them, it's all meaningless if I have to force them to do anything! Why should I have to step in?'' Richard's reply: ''If you don't, he will.''

Also, there's an excellent interview with Nestor Carbonell here. Definitely a good read.

And I'm in love with this recap/review from LA Times. I'll have to read there more often!

But none of this would work without the emotional core at the center of the episode, which is the story of Richard Alpert and the woman he loved and lost, and the way the Island could bring them together, but not really. We've talked about how the Man in Black gives you what you want, but there's always some sort of twist that keeps you from really having it, and how Jacob gives you what you want but in such a way that you can never really have it. And so, Jacob and the Island returns Isabella to Richard for a few moments more, but only a few moments. You can never really get what you want in this world or in the world of "Lost." Richard Alpert has spent a lifetime trying to get back a handful of moments, a silvery cross that proves ultimately worthless to everyone but him. Things slip through your fingers, and the Island, then, acts as a kind of repository, a place where you can live out those last moments one more time before getting on to the work you have to do. It's a hard life, but someone has to live it, over and over and over again.

Screencaps thanks to LA Times and Lostpedia.

A cork

2010-03-24T08:00:00.002-07:00

What a great episode. Nestor Carbonell got to show some serious acting chops, and we found out a truckload of stuff about the island and Jacob and Smokey and the statue (how it broke!) and The Black Rock. In the Lost-verse, this one was truly epic. Carbonell had me totally sold on Alpert, as usual.

Mirroring his despair when he lost his wife and almost his life with his despair after losing Jacob, and his faith in the island was very effective I thought. And Carbonell's eyelashes were truly ON last night! He is the god of eyelashes for sure.

All in all it was a beautiful episode. And it showed us a lot.

Jacob fighting like a champ when Alpert came to kill him, showing us that he could have stopped Ben if he'd wanted to.
Smokey using the exact words and the exact same knife Dogen did with Sayid when he sent Alpert out to kill Jacob. What's that mean? I'm not sure, but it's surely significant somehow.
Jacob's exasperation at people not doing their bit being good!
Alpert asking to live forever, just like I had suspected: "May the gods grant you your heart's desire" indeed!
Hurley talking to dead people again: his role is becoming more and more significant this year.
And the opening scene, with the losties actually sharing information at the campfire was as groundbreaking as anything: we've never seen that before.

And that whole analogy about hell (or whatever people call it, paraphrasing Jacob) and the island being the cork holding evil in and protecting the rest of the world: WOW. Smokey leaving is apparently Very Bad News.

This episode deserves lots of straight up quotes, and I'm hoping a transcript of the show will be up somewhere shortly!

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

What is that Smokey up to?

2010-03-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Even though I wasn't crazy about last night's ep, I am now mulling over it just as much as I usually do with Lost.

Why would Smokey send Sawyer to the other island? Maybe to show him the dead people there. If Smokey killed them, he might have figured that's what Sawyer would figure out too, and that's the threat: if you don't do what I say, all the people you care about will die too.

Why does Smokey need followers anyway? That's what I'm starting to wonder today. He needs them for something. Hostages maybe?

Also, Doc Jensen at EW has a good theory about Flocke's and Kate's conversation:

''My mother was crazy. Long time ago before I looked like this, I had a mother just like everyone. She was a very disturbed woman. And as a result of that, I had some growing pains. Problems that I'm still trying to work my way through. Problems that could have been avoided if things had been different.''

Kate wanted to know: Why was FLocke telling her this?

''Because Aaron has a crazy mother, too.''

We were left to wonder what exactly Kate was supposed to make of that story, and what she actually took away from it. To me, it sounded like FLocke was trying to convince Kate that Claire was an unfit mother. To me, it sounded like he wanted Kate to move off the dream of reuniting Clair and Aaron. To me, it sounded like he wanted Kate to think about saving Aaron from Claire lest he become a scary super-monster like FLocke. To me, it sounded like FLocke was… setting Kate up to murder Claire.

I think for some reason, one of the most important things in the big scheme of things will be that Claire did not raise Aaron in this timeline. And now maybe Smokey's trying to make Kate think it's better if Aaron is not raised by Claire. But that is a lie imo. It was pounded into us from S1 that it IS important and I think it will be this season too. Kate will have to make a choice, and the only right choice will be to reunite Claire and Aaron, even if it means terminating this timeline where that did not happen.

Also, it's interesting now to think that in the ep The Brig, Sawyer killed Locke's dad aka "Original Sawyer". Locke was supposed to do it but couldn't, so he got Sawyer to do it for him. Wonder when that confrontation will happen in the alt too? I'm betting it will.

Recon: so over this Sawyer

2010-03-16T22:19:00.002-07:00

This was my least favourite ep of the season, even though I do like Sawyer and even better: Miles with Sawyer (Sawyer just seems to couple up nicely with a lot of people, like Hurley, Juliet and Miles).

Fake Locke talking about his crazy mom was interesting. I think he was telling the truth, but that his purpose was partly to try to manipulate Kate in some way. I'm surprised Claire didn't flip her lid on Smokey for lying to her about who had taken Aaron. Either she will later, or she's so nuts she has totally gone soft in the head. I do have a feeling that Smokey rarely lies. He just chooses to tell a part of the truth and spin it in a way that serves his purpose.

So now it seems we have Sawyer back to where he was when he was going to leave the island with Juliet: willing to leave without rescuing anyone else (Jin, Claire, Sun, Miles, Jack, Hurley...). I'm kind of over that Sawyer. I've seen him before and I hope that its all part of a cover or his grief and that it will wear off soon. He did after all tell Jin that he'd like to save him and Sun too... though who knows when that'll happen the way they're keeping the Kwon's apart.

Will this all end with time-skipping Juliet from last season shooting at someone in another canoe when people are headed over to Hydra island? That scene from last season always seemed like a set up for a future re-visit to me. Juliet shooting at someone in another canoe and hitting them, and then another time-flash took everyone to some other time all together... Who did she hit? Wait and see, like everything else!

Interesting that it seems Widmore is not working for Smokey. Is he working for Jacob? Or is he, maybe, in it for himself? To exploit the island or whatever? Is Eloise Hawking with him? Is Desmond? Penny?

More and more I'm getting the feeling that The Others and Jacob weren't so much protecting the island from Smokey (because let's face it, he seemed to roam there as he pleased pretty much), but that their purpose (maybe Jacob's purpose?) at least partly was to prevent Smokey from getting OFF the island. I really do think that if that's what Smokey wants, it's probably NOT a good idea for most everyone else. Not sure why, but there you go. It's Lost after all...

Sawyer and Charlotte hooking up felt really odd and random btw. Just... weird.

Did Smokey kill the passengers from the Ajira plane?

Finally: did Evangeline do something to her lips? I just thought her upper lip seemed bigger than usual, but maybe it's just my usual Kate-venom that clouded my vision... ;)

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

Doc Arzt may be on to something...

2010-03-10T20:46:00.002-08:00

I like the way he thinks here. Not sure it's 100% correct, but there is something to it. The alt is the timeline without the donkey wheel and the time traveling Locke. That has to mean something.

Redemption and other things to mull over

2010-03-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

Last night's episode, "Dr Linus", was a magnificent episode. Not because of any "answers" it provided or any myth development (though there was some of that too). No, it was magnificent because of the acting and the characters in it. It showcased Ben and Michael Emerson at their absolute finest. Also, it showed us that Ilana, who has basically been a mysterious dark-haired maybe-know-it-all, has the capacity for something we don't see a lot of in the Lost-verse: forgiveness.

There has always been a strong undertow of redemption in Lost. People have speculated since season 1 whether the island is some kind of purgatory or a place where the lost, troubled souls of the 815 passengers have a chance to, yes, redeem themselves. The makers of the show have said again and again that it's NOT purgatory of course, but that doesn't mean the island doesn't have elements of purgatory and redemption.

Sawyer's changed from a selfish con-man bastard to a good man and lately, maybe, back to a bastard again (though I doubt it). Jin and Sun are on better terms than they ever were before the island. Rose was cured of her cancer. Desmond's life was saved by Locke finding the hatch (and maybe finding Desmond also saved, and cursed, Locke as well). But no single moment in the entire show has been so cathartic and redemptive and brimful of grace as the scene in the jungle between Ben and Ilana.

When Ben was tempted by Smokey to run, grab the gun and kill Ilana, I was sure Ben would at least try it. And he did. Kind of. Except that he didn't pull the trigger and neither did she. And then Ben did what he never does: he spilled his guts for real: in desperation yes, but also I think because he was exhausted. He's seen Alex killed, he's killed Locke and he has killed Jacob. In hindsight he regrets every one of those deaths. And Miles revelation that Jacob was hoping Ben would NOT kill him seemed to wound him as well. Like it had been a test and he'd failed.

So he spills his guts to Ilana and ends it with the pathetic confession that he's only joining Smokey because no one else will have him. No one else will have this twisted, self-serving, manipulative, lying, murderous bastard. Ben, the man who killed his own father, killed his friends and colleagues in Dharma and threw them in a pit to rot, killed Locke in cold blood, killed Jacob, stalked Juliet's every waking moment... that Ben. The Ben who watched Keamy kill Alex instead of offering himself in her stead. But Ilana says the magic words. She says "I'll have you." It was maybe the most religious moment ever in Lost, and I mean that in a good way. It was absolution for Ben, forgiveness, grace... And the way the two actors played the moment it was brilliant and heartbreaking and just right.

Ben grew up as the child who was not wanted, as the child who was blamed for his mother's death, who must always on some level have felt guilty to be alive. It is to Michael Emerson and the writers' credit that I can see that pitiful child in Ben, even when he's at his very worst and that I feel sorry for him even when I want people to whack him over the head.

Some other thoughts:

When Ben said "He changed the rules" in the episode The Shape of Things to Come, I used to assume he meant that Widmore changed the rules and allowed Keamy to kill Alex. Now I wonder if he meant Jacob. Did he think Alex was protected somehow by Jacob and then felt betrayed when she died? That would make the act of summoning Smokey as revenge even more interesting.
What does Jacob's touch do? According to Alpert, he has not aged because he received a gift/curse from Jacob. Also, he can't kill himself. He can die and he can be killed, but he can't kill himself. Just like Michael couldn't kill himself because the island wouldn't let him. Just like Widmore and Ben couldn't kill each other. Just like Ben couldn't kill Locke (at least not on the island). Just like all the losties survived a plane crash that should have killed them. Just like the dynamite did not kill Jack. Does Jacob's touch mean that you are somehow drawn to the island and also protected on it?

Is Jack now a man of faith? He seems to be. All that time the original Locke was telling him they were there for a reason and he didn't believe it. Remember Locke's note to Jack "I wish you had believed me." It's taken Jack this long to actually believe it and he needed to see the magic mirrors for it to really sink in. I am going to very interested in seeing this new Jack handle things on the island now.

And finally: when will we find out wtf is up with Claire? She's gone from cupcake sweet to feral squirrel and in between we got her abandoning Aaron in the jungle and oddly content in the cabin with Christian. Smiling when the fact that her baby was NOT on the island was mentioned.

CLAIRE: Hi, John.
LOCKE: What're you doing here?
CLAIRE: Don't worry. I'm fine. I'm with him.
LOCKE: Wh--where's the baby?
CHRISTIAN: The baby's where he's supposed to be, and that's not here. It's probably best that you don't tell anyone that you saw her.
LOCKE: Why? Why is she--
CHRISTIAN: We don't have time for this. The people from the boat are already on their way back, and once they get here, all of these questions won't matter one bit. So why don't you ask the one question that does matter?
LOCKE: How do I save the island?

It does not compute for me yet. Did she forget all that? What? I wish they'd address it because it is seriously annoying the crap out of me that she is now so mad at people for taking care of the child SHE left in the jungle.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

Dr Linus

2010-03-09T22:18:00.001-08:00

Michael Emerson rocked the house tonight in one of the most touching episodes of Lost in a looooong time. I was actually tearing up when Ben told Ilana his story.

No matter what terrible evil things he's done, there's always that little, broken boy inside of him that always feels as though he's on the outside looking in. What a fantastic character and what a fantastic actor. All these years after he got caught in Rousseau's trap and called himself Henry Gale, and now we have this Ben, this horrible, broken, pitiful, scheming little man who will make you want to slap him and hug him all at the same time.

As for Alpert, I think he might have asked for immortality or asked not to age, and Jacob granted it in exchange for his service. Just like he saved Dogen's son in exchange for his service. But I am interested to find out how Jacob's touch changed the other people he touched: I don't think it means immortality. Even for Alpert, he didn't say he couldn't die, just that he couldn't kill himself.

And Widmore's on the way. To the Hydra station presumably. I wonder if his deal with Smokey is to take over the island: kind of the position Smokey just offered to Ben. Maybe there will be a new Smokey and a new Jacob in the end? Locke and Jack butting heads for all eternity?

I was giggling when Miles actually got out the diamonds! That stupid ep with Nikki and Paolo... I was wondering if that would ever come back to haunt us.

In the enhanced version of Sundown, it said at the end that Kate knows Locke is "on the wrong side". So I guess Smokey really, really is evil then. I know some people have speculated that the roles would be reversed with Jacob turning out to be the bad guy.

Now I can't wait for the Alpert-centric ep!

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

I've got a new theory

2010-03-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

I've got this new theory rolling around in my head right now, one that's based on my growing belief that the alternate timeline we're seeing this season might actually have been created by Jacob pushing events.

We all know Smokey manipulated people and events so that it would seem that Locke was meant to be leader of The Others. All so that he could take Locke's place and get Jacob killed: his "loophole" since he couldn't kill Jacob himself.

But I've come to believe that maybe the creation of the alternate timeline when the bomb went off was Jacob's "doublecross" or his own version of the loophole to save the losties (and maybe the whole world?) from Smokey. If he did this, then he did it totally on the sly and would have to be very careful not to let Smokey know that he was aware of his loophole-plans.

What I'm wondering tonight is if Alpert has somehow been helping Jacob along. Is that why he seemed to support Locke's candidacy as leader of The Others? I know he was intrigued by time-traveling Locke and his assertion that he'd be the leader one day, but he didn't seem at all convinced by Locke's performance as a child when he did that test. Yet he helped him along: gave him Sawyer's file when Locke couldn't kill his father (which lead to Locke getting Sawyer perform the murder), welcomed him as leader etc. Was this his way of playing along with Smokey's plan while he (and Jacob) were also making other arrangements?

After all, he did help Jack get the bomb they needed to try to "reset" the universe so they'd never crash on the island.

In essence: Has Alpert been pretending not to know about Smokey's plans for a loooong time, just so that Jacob's alternate timeline could happen?

Maybe. We'll see. As long as I get to find out more about Alpert, I'll be happy (or happier anyway... since this is Lost and every answer is usually followed by more questions...). For example: will we ever find out where that compass came from? The one Locke gave to Alpert in the weird little time-loop that happened there with Smokey and the time-skipping after the donkey wheel was turned.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

Smokey: what do we know so far?

2010-03-05T21:50:00.001-08:00

Ever since we first heard Smokey tear through the jungle near the beach in season 1's Pilot episode, the monster has been one of the most fascinating mysteries and characters on Lost.

Lately we've learned a lot more about him. I won't say "it" anymore, since he's told us that he is not a what, but a who.

It's a person. At least it once was a man. Someone who experienced love and betrayal. Or so he claims...
Can't be killed by bullets or even a magical looking knife. Yet The Others keep trying. Are they slow learners?
Can take the shape of dead people. I wonder if his human form with Jacob on the beach is his "original" shape or just one he used for a while after someone died on the island?

He's wanted to kill Jacob for a looooong time.
Jacob described Smokey to Hurley as "an old friend who became tired of my company".
It can (or at least could) assume various forms, appearing as Alex, Yemi, Christian Shepherd (I presume) and Locke.
After Jacob's death though, Smokey is (according to Ilana) stuck as John Locke but it can still appear as the smoke monster.
Smokey is (was?) a security system of some form. According to an "infected" Robert, it is specifically a security system for the temple. Rousseau later repeated told the Losties that it was the island's security system. Robert's assertion seems odd after we've now seen Smokey stomp on people inside the temple.

It's old. Ben saw a carving depicting the monster below the temple and they seemed to be ancient Egyptian in origin.
Even though it seems to be totally opposed to The Others more recently, it doesn't seem to have always been the case. Ben was able to summon Smokey from his house in Dharmaville. And when Ben returned on the Ajira flight, he told Smocke (aka fake Locke in Smokey's guise) that he needed to go to the temple to be judged by Smokey. The way he talked about that made it seem that this was the "usual procedure" in an Other had broken "the rules". Why would The Others submit to judgment by their "enemy"? Why would they be able to summon it like Ben did? This is really puzzling now that we've seen Smokey lay waste to the temple. But maybe those were his jobs while Jacob lived? And now he's free to do what he wants? Or almost...

Ben summons Smokey after Keamy kills Alex. Ben's line here is: "He changed the rules." In the context of what happens later it would seem that it's Widmore how changed the rules, since Ben doesn't know at this point that Smokey is actually a man... The only other "he" I can think this might refer to would be Jacob himself. And what rule? That an Other may not kill another Other? Or not kill children? Children are seldom or never killed as far as I can tell. Maybe the fact that Aaron ended up off the island was actually for his protection somehow? The Others have not killed any children. Is that a rule? (And is this connected to the pregnancy difficulties on the island somehow?)
Dharmaville had a sonic fence that kept Smokey out. He seems unable to "jump" the fence.
Ash seems to either repel or contain Smokey: it would appear he's unable to cross a line of ash (regular ash? or some special stuff?), though in "Sundown" we found out that it was the death of Dogen, the temple leader, which actually seems to have allowed Smokey to enter the temple.

Yikes. I really wonder how Smokey's powers and appearance will be explained. It's still my favourite island mystery and now there are only a few more episodes to tell us all we want to know.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

Alpert

2010-03-04T12:48:00.003-08:00

We are finally going to find out everything there's is to know about Alpert, or at least as much of it as Lost's creators deem necessary!, in an upcoming episode called "Ab Aeterno" ("From the beginning of time": such an awesome title!).

Of course, one of the main mysteries with Alpert is: why doesn't he age?

After seeing the last few episodes, I have a theory: Alpert is ageless because he once made a request of Jacob that he would not age. And Jacob granted his wish. Like it said on Jacob's tapestry: "May the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires". Both Jacob and Smokey seem to make these kinds of deals with people: do what I ask and I will grant you something you desire.

Maybe some sort of deal was made even with Ben once upon a time: he was healed in the temple but maybe when that happened, something happened to him or he had to give something up for that to happen. Or did the process of being healed there automatically make him Jacob's man?

And as "good" as The Others sometimes seem. we've seen them kill all the Dharmites with gas and ask Locke to kill his father in order to become their leader. Of course, Locke got Sawyer to do it instead. Kind of like Smokey got Ben to kill Jacob...

We'll see if I'm right March 23!

When Smokey saw Kate

2010-03-03T08:00:00.003-08:00

At the end of the episode when Smokey saw Kate at the Temple he gave her the evil eye for sure. Why? Because he didn't know she was on the island maybe?

She came on the Ajira plane with Ben and Sun, Ilana and the rest but was flashed off the plane with Sayid, Hurley and Jack to the 1970s. That was NOT part of Smokey's plan. In the 70s, they set off the bomb that created the new timeline which, imo, was Jacob's "double-cross" in response to Smokey's machinations. Smokey doesn't know this has happened!

So maybe seeing Kate unsettles him because he doesn't know what her role is now. More proof, imo, that he doesn't know about the bomb being set off in the 70s and the new timeline coming into being. Jacob tricked him. That's why Jacob seemed resigned to his fate: he had found another "out". Also explains why Jacob wanted to get Hurley and Jack out of the temple.

Or not. LOL.

One problem with my theory: Sawyer and Miles were also stuck in the 70s and flashed out of there when the bomb went off. Does Smokey know how they got out of the 70s? He certainly hasn't seemed surprised at the presence of either Sawyer or Miles. Did he know Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid were on Ajira? Did he think they died? Did Jacob flash them to the 70s? So many questions...

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I'm starting to think that the whole point of the stupid love-triangle with Kate/Jack/Sawyer is going to come down to some sort of choice Kate will have to make in the struggle with Smokey/Locke. If he wants to offer her her heart's desire, then is that Jack or Sawyer or neither? Is it Aaron? Is her heart's desire to see Aaron with Claire? I don't think it will be easy for Smokey to offer her something she will accept. But maybe the triangle will come into play here... somehow. I've always wondered if it had a purpose beyond fanning the fandom flames!

What does it do to Smokey's plans for Sawyer that Kate now seems to be tagging along with his "followers"? I don't think she's a recruit yet.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

Sundown - in which Sayid turns out to kill people everywhere

2010-03-02T22:46:00.004-08:00

Wow. What an episode. Poor Sayid, he seems to end up committing crimes no matter what the timeline. Maybe that's the point? He can't be saved regardless of what anyone does or what happens?

Dogen's story about how Jacob came and offered to save his son if he came to work for Jacob on the island... I wonder, does that mean that Jacob saved the son in that timeline, or that Jacob needed Dogen ON the island in order for the alternate timeline to be created by the losties? It reminds me of how Ben told Juliet in S3 that Jacob had cured her sister's cancer. Another bargain.

It certainly seems that both Jacob and Smokey are offering people "their heart's desire" in return for service. At the end of last season, that is what it said on the tapestry in Jacob's house inside the statue, a quote from The Odyssey: "may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires". There's more on tapestry:

Across the top of the tapestry is emblazoned a quote from Homer's Odyssey in upper case ancient Greek: ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΕΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΕΝΟΙΝΑΣ. The original sentence, modified to lower case, is σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τόσα δοῖεν ὅσα φρεσὶ σῇσι μενοινᾷς (transcribed as theoi tosa doien hosa phresi sēisi menoinais), belongs to Book 6, line 180 and means, "may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires". [1]
Another passage is woven into the middle of the tapestry. In full, it reads, ΘΕΟΙ ΔΕ ΤΟΙ ΟΛΒΙΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ. The original sentence, modified to lowercase, is θεοὶ δέ τοι ὄλβια δοῖεν (transcribed as theoi de toi olbia doien), which means, "may the gods grant thee happiness". It occurs twice in the Odyssey: Book 8, line 413 and Book 24, line 402. [2] [3]

A third passage is at the bottom of the tapestry. The part that can be seen reads, ...Σ ΜΟΝΟΙ ΤΟ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΕΟΡΑΚΑΣΙ (sic). In lower case, it should read ...ς μόνοι τὸ τοῦ πολέμου τέλος ἑωράκασι (transcribed as "...s monoi to tou polemou telos eōrakasi") which seems to be the following quote misattributed to Plato: "Only the dead have seen the end of war." If so, the word missing could be ΘΑΝΟΝΤΕΣ or ΤΕΘΝΗΚΟΤΕΣ, in lower case, θανόντες (transcribed as thanontes) or τεθνηκότες (transcribed as tethnekotes), meaning "those who have died".

So can Smokey actually bring about the things he promises his recruits, or is he just evil and a deceiver? I think it is fairly safe to assume that Jacob's role wasn't just to protect the island (like Smokey told Sawyer), but to contain Smokey.

And Dogen's explanation to Sayid about the scale, and good and evil inside every person... sounds a lot like the Egyptian version of judgment after death, which was discussed a lot over at the Fuselage last season: weighing the dead person's heart to decide if they should live on in the afterlife or "really" die.

In the Hall of Two Truths, Anubis weighed the heart of a person against Ma'at, the goddess of truth, who was sometimes depicted symbolically as an ostrich feather. If the heart was judged to be not pure, Ammit would devour it, and the person undergoing judgement was not allowed to continue their voyage towards Osiris and immortality. Once Ammut swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever; this was called "to die a second time".

I wonder what will happen to Kate. I doubt she'll end up siding with crazy-killer Claire and Locke and Sawyer. What would Smokey offer her? Jack? Sawyer? Sayid??? ;) What is her heart's desire? I hate that triangle crap with a vengeance, but maybe that's how this will somehow play out for her: she has to "choose" not just sides but men. Finally! Just stay celibate!

A showdown between her and Claire should be interesting. And btw, what will Claire think now about Smokey? If she believes Kate took Aaron, then that means that Smokey lied to her about The Others taking him.

I also wonder where Sawyer is. Still in that cave?

What was up with the knife Dogen gave to Sayid? Did he really think it might kill Smokey or was it a ruse? But then why have the knife hidden away?

How will Smokey bring Nadia back? Or was he talking about Shannon for Sayid? Shannon died on the island after all...

Another thing: is Smokey in a hurry maybe? Maybe he can leave the island now, since there is no Jacob. But what if someone steps up as the new Jacob? Is he trapped again then?

Poor Sun. She's reduced to a prop these days. Jin gets a bit more to do, but Sun is just scenery. Too bad. Last season when she was badass for like 10 minutes I had high hopes for her character.

Thought of the day: does the island exist outside time and space as we know it somehow? Is that why it still exists even though the bomb blast created the alternate reality? We know there's something funky with light, time and space on the island and how you can get to it. We know there's a pocket of weird energy. And we know there's a donkey wheel on it that makes it move and skips some people through time. Is the possible redemption of ALL the losties and ALL the people on the island ONLY available in that new timeline? I am starting to think so.

Can Smokey also create another timeline? Is he even aware of the alternate timeline the bomb created? Maybe not. Maybe his machinations with tricking Locke (and through him Alpert) means that that version of the timeline is doomed to be "bad". But maybe he hasn't understood that Jack and Juliet and the losties actually made a new reality where the island is drowned and none of his machinations ever took place?

In essence:

The timeline we've followed since the beginning of the show is Smokey's doing. He created it by manipulating Locke and Alpert and others.
The new timeline created after the bomb is somehow Jacob's "doublecross". He knew Smokey was looking for a loophole and would do anything to find it or create it, and instead he manipulated other events to cause the Losties to set off the bomb and create a timeline where the island is drowned and most likely neither Jacob or Smokey has manipulated them.

One final thought: What if the whole creation of the alternate timeline means that there is no way off the island for Smokey or anyone else? They exist there like in a bubble, but there's nowhere to go unless you are in that alternate universe? And that will be "closed" to Smokey?

Whoa. What a damn show. Can't wait for next week.

Screencaps thanks to Wikipedia, Lostpedia and Lost-Media.

Claiming Aaron?

2010-03-01T18:56:00.001-08:00

What's up with Aaron? For a loooong time he seemed so important to the storyline of Lost, what with all the pregnancy problems on the island, The Others being after Claire, the "vaccine", Kate taking him off-island, and not to mention Kate having a vision of Claire at Aaron's crib, telling her not to bring him back to the island.

And this season? Nothing. Except that Crazy Claire definitely wants Aaron back.

So what is up with Aaron? He's another Shephard clan-member who has spent time on the island (living and/or dead) of course: Jack, Christian, Claire, Aaron. He was born on the island. The psychic Claire met said he should not be "raised by another/an other". Smokey in the guise of Christian (we presume) or some other "apparition" of Christian, in Jacob's cabin and accompanied by Claire, said that Aaron was where he was supposed to be: off-island. So did Jacob and Smokey want Aaron off the island? Or just one of them? And why in that case?

Waaaay back in the Pilot part 2, there's the scene when Jin offers Claire some shellfish he's just caught. Claire hasn't felt the baby move since the crash, but as soon as she eats the shellfish, Aaron kicks. She also calls the baby "he", as though she's suddenly decided it's a boy. Reminiscent of the scene in this season's "What Kate Does" when Claire calls the baby Aaron when he moves during the ultrasound.

After watching Sayid "die" and then get "healed" and also "claimed" by something I have to wonder if Aaron was "claimed" too at that very moment when Claire felt him kick. Did Jacob claim him or Smokey? Or was it just the fresh food that made him move? And if a claimed Aaron is now off the island, what does that mean?

In the very dream-creepy episode "Fire + Water" , Charlie was freaking out because he thought Aaron was in danger. It ended with Aaron being baptized. Interesting to think that it seems that Jacob is associated with water (the healing spring), while Smokey seems associated with fire (the temple others put out their fire when they found out Jacob was dead and hey, no smoke without fire!).

That episode seemed full of clues and hints, and I've always wondered if we'd find out more of what it did mean. Maybe this season?

I've read speculation that Aaron is Jacob (who then ends up time traveling to the past), or is Jacob's son and that Jack's son David in the new timeline could be the Man in Black... But I'm not sure. I just hope that Aaron will end up being significant and important somehow. Because the show sure built him up as such!

I just read Eric's column on "Lighthouse" at Get Lost Podcast and he mentions Malkin the psychic's predictions/warnings about Aaron:

It is crucial that you yourself raise this child.
This child parented by anyone else, anyone other than you — danger surrounds this baby…
Your nature, your spirit, your goodness, must be an influence in the development of this child.
There is no happy life — not for this child, not without you.
It can’t be another. You mustn’t allow another to raise your baby.

Maybe, maybe, maybe the island-timeline we've seen develop since S1 will actually result in Aaron being in danger or sick or dying somehow because the warnings were not followed. Will this be the catalyst for a decision by the losties (one or many of them) to "finish" that timeline? Maybe Aaron's life will play out as it is "supposed to do" in the new ALT timeline instead?

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media and Lostpedia.

Love this picture from Lighthouse

2010-02-26T21:02:00.001-08:00

It's such a cool shot. Jacob and Hurley in the background and Jack sitting there, still completely confused and crushed after what he has just seen, watching the ocean like has so many times before on the show.

I know a lot of people don't like Jack. I don't even like the character at times, but I do think he is one of the most flawed and complex "heroes" on any TV-show. Yes, he acts like a stuck up moron and he's obnoxious and full of himself and overbearing at times. But he is also so very, very broken (just like he acknowledged in this episode) and trying so very hard to be a good man and do the right thing.

I find him fascinating and infuriating. And I can't wait to see what happens to him at the end.

Screencap thanks to Lostpedia.

Back to Egypt

2010-02-25T22:10:00.000-08:00

With all the hieroglyphs and Egyptian architecture seen on Lost (the four-toed statue and the lighthouse have strong Egyptian/Alexandrian influences), it's always been interesting to look at Egyptian mythology to get another angle on the show. Now, I don't think anyone on the island is an Egyptian deity. However, I do think it's possible that within the context of the show, what Egyptians experienced on the island may have influenced their mythology. Or, maybe, their interpretation of what they found on the island was influenced by their existing mythology.

Anyway. The scale we saw in the cave recently reminded me of how Egyptians imagined judgment after death:

It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit.

And:

Once Ammit swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever; this was called "to die a second time".

Sound familiar? Someone judging, and consuming (claiming?) a person who is then "restless forever". Very Smokey-ish if you ask me...

The ancient Egyptians didn't think we had just one soul, rather it was made up of five parts:

The Ren, which was a person's name
The Ba, which was similar to a person's personality
The Ka, which was a person's spiritual essence and what made you alive - when you died your "ka" left the body
The Sheut, which was a person's shadow and also contained something of a person's essence
The Ib, which was the heart and the most important part to the Egyptians - it was the seat of a person's will, emotion and intelligence

I wonder if the strange behaviour of Sayid and Claire who have supposedly been "claimed" means that somehow a part of their "soul" (or whatever the show chooses to call it) is affected while other parts are not. Even Smokey seems to be assuming some of John Locke's characteristics and one-liners! "Don't tell me what I can't do!" The fact that Smokey can seemingly "remember" what John Locke's last thoughts were, is very interesting to me.

Also, the suspected existence of TWO Christian Shephards, and however they are connected to the original Jack's dad, hints at the same thing. Is there one version (Jacob?) who helped Jack along the way, and one other version (the one with Locke at the donkey wheel for example) who was actually Smokey? In the latest episode, Claire's statements seemed to mean that she had met Smokey (and knew he was NOT Locke) as well as her dad. Was Jacob "impersonating" her dad? Or is some part of Christian Shephard (or his soul?) actually alive in some form on the island?

In S4 Claire thought she saw her dad by the fire, holding Aaron. That version of Christian seemed very touched to be holding his "grandson". Would Smokey have acted like that? Or was that actually some form of "real Christian" or even Jacob? And who was the Christian we later saw with Claire in the cabin? That Christian wanted Aaron off the island and wanted Locke to "move the island". Which means it had to be Smokey... I think... Argh.

I really want the mystery of Christian Shephard to be resolved. However, I do think it's a key to the central mystery of everything on the show, so it will be some time yet I guess...

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media, Lostpedia and Dark UFO.

Crazy thoughts post-Lighthouse

2010-02-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's episode, Lighthouse, was fantastic and so loaded with everything that I am still kind of reeling from it.

Lots of people at the Fuselage and elsewhere are now wondering if what will happen in the end is that SOME losties will disappear/die in the alternate timeline, while some will remain there and that that timeline will end up being the "real" one. At the same time, there's lots of speculation that maybe some of the losties on the island will (willingly?) sacrifice their lives in that alternate timeline to stay on the island. So that in the end, there will be only one version of each individual, not two as seems to be the case right now. (Is that why the people seem a little mixed up in the new universe? Like Jack forgetting when he had his appendix out?).

I've also seen a lot of people predicting that Jack's ex, and his son David's mother, will turn out to be Juliet. And maybe they're right. IF that is the case, and IF indeed the losties will end up having to choose between staying on the island and giving up their possible lives in the alt-verse (or the other way round), then I have this insane prediction:

Sawyer will become David's stepfather. Yes, he'll meet up with Juliet in the alternate reality and they'll fall in love and then Jack will some way or another have to sacrifice himself ON the island (maybe just by staying there), meaning he has to give up his place in the alt-verse. Leaving Juliet and Sawyer to raise David. I think that would be an oddly fitting end to the relationship between Jack and Sawyer. And it would also be a nice arc for Sawyer, since I think he will end up OFF the island (finally) and actually choosing/ending up with a good life there. (I'm betting there's a coffee date with Juliet and Sawyer somehow, like what she mentioned as she was dying "we'll go dutch".)

What will Kate do? Will she end up raising Aaron in the alt-verse too? Maybe. Because I'm thinking that maybe anyone who ends up on Smokey's side is doomed to lose their place in that new timeline. Meaning Locke, Claire and probably Sayid will somehow disappear from that new version of the world.

Yea, it's all nutty and far out and wtf, and I would NOT be surprised if all these theories are way off, but I kind of like the symmetry of it.

Going back to the idea of backgammon as a template or symbol of what is happening again: is the island the "bar", ie the place where stones are placed when they're knocked off the board? Or is the island the whole board? Or is it just part of the board, as I speculated earlier, with the outer world being the outer board?

One other thought that struck me was that the idea of balance seems to be heavily hinted at this season, with the scales in the cave. Maybe when there are only two people/forces on the island (Jacob and Smokey) there is some sort of balance or equilibrium. But when other people arrive, the game starts and the two sides have to play out their game. Time will tell what the "inside joke" was that Smokey mentioned to Sawyer as he threw the white rock on the scale into the ocean.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media, Lostpedia and Dark UFO.

The Lighthouse. Brain continues to spin.

2010-02-23T22:22:00.008-08:00

I loved this Lost episode, but man, it was so stuffed full of info (Claire has a friend who is Locke/Smokey and talks to her dad regularly!) and hints (appendix scar!) and reveals (the numbers = degrees when turning the mirror at the lighthouse) and flashing back to old things (the caves! Christian's coffin! Shannon's inhaler!) that I'll have to digest it for a while.

Like Kate's number being 51, the reverse of Sawyer's 15.

I'm pretty sure Jin didn't mean to imply that Kate was evil for taking Aaron, though I'm sure the writers made him say "Kate took Aaron" so we could have maximum freak-out and misunderstanding from Crazy Claire. Once Jin realized Claire is not really functioning as the Claire he knew, it seems he's trying to get her to the temple in hopes of neutralizing her.

I think Jacob wanted the mirror broken. Or at least didn't really care if it was broken. I don't think Hurley and Jack were ever really brought to the lighthouse to light it, but for them (especially Jack) to see the mirrors. If Jacob JUST wanted the lighthouse fire lit, he could have just sent Hurley. But he wanted Hurley and Jack specifically out of the temple because someone, Smokey, is going there.

I still can't believe Jacob will turn out to be all evil like some people are speculating. Hurley's the only totally "good" character on the show as far as "good" goes on Lost, and if he's been duped by evil all along, I would think that would be quite lame. I'm not sure Smokey or Jacob are all good or all bad, but I'm pretty sure Jacob won't turn out to be some evil mastermind out to destroy the losties or the world. Or is he? LOL.

Loved the appendix scar scene with Jack. That episode when Juliet had to operate was so useless when it aired, but maybe they are trying to make it pay off now.
Loved Hurley trying to lie to Dogen. The man just can't lie convincingly to save his life! Also cool that Dogen can't see Jacob. And then Dogen turns up in the Alt!
Loved Hurley writing Jacob's new to-do list on his arm.
LOVED the scene with Jack and Hurley at the caves, talking about Christian's coffin and Jack finally telling someone how he actually found the caves. TPTB are obviously reminding us of some old key plot points before giving us the payoff in this final season.

I take it Claire did not timeflash to the 70s? Instead she seems to have stayed put in the "regular" timeline... Because she's infected? or undead? or just too damn frizzy for her own good?

I love this show, but geez, I have an easier time believing in the magic mirrors than Claire being able to manhandle anyone... Or even getting passed-out Jin to her hideout!

The mirror scene at the lighthouse was fantastic. Magic, spooky mirrors are one of my all-time favourite creepy horror-movie moments, and the way the flashed those landscapes and buildings in there subtly was giving me goosebumps.

But hey, who is number 108? Who was Jacob dialling into? Desmond? Widmore?

Oh look, they screencapped 108! It's someone called "Wallace":

Who is that? Just a decoy?

And who, WHO the heck is coming to the island? Widmore? Is that when the war really starts?

Lostpedia has a list of all the names from the dial, and some great screencaps of Hurley's arm and the dial and other things are also at Dark UFO's site.

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

An Uncommonly Good Year For Sci-Fi

2010-02-20T18:41:00.007-08:00

I love science-fiction movies. Alien, Starman, Blade Runner, The Matrix: to me, these are great movies, not just great sci-fi movies. But loving this genre means sitting through a lot of flicks that are either mediocre or turkey-fodder.

Many (maybe most) science-fiction movies fall short somehow. Either the special-effects are poor (an added difficulty for the genre), the acting is bad, the story is weak, or there’s just a general lack of originality.

However, in 2009 I saw four exceptional science-fiction movies. That's a lot of sci-fi goodness in one year. They were all very different from each other, and each could be said to represent a common sci-fi movie sub-genre: Deep Thought, Creature-Feature, Space-Adventure, and Special-Effects Spectacle.

…

Moon

Sub-genre: Deep Thought
Sub-genre characteristics: troubled humans wrestling with existential questions in a high-tech setting
Example: 2001

Story:

Sam Bell has been overseeing a mining operation on the Moon for three years, helped only by an advanced computer system. Just when he is about to go home, he has an accident and things get seriously weird.

Why I like it:

Because it’s a perfect movie.

The role of Sam Bell was written specifically for Sam Rockwell and his performance is flawless. I loved Rockwell in the very funny Galaxy Quest, but here he shows some serious, dramatic acting chops.

The story is original, intelligent and suspenseful. And while it moves at a slower pace than more action-oriented science-fiction fare, it’s never boring.

Finally, on a 5 million dollar budget, director Duncan Jones (aka Zowie Bowie) and his crew have crafted a completely believable world that pays homage to old-school sci-fi like 2001, Silent Running and Solaris, without being derivative.

I really cannot emphasize enough how good this movie is. Just see it. Please.

…

District 9

Sub-genre: Creature-Feature
Sub-genre characteristics: alien critters, gore
Example: Predator

Story:

In 1982, a group of disheveled aliens become stranded on Earth near Johannesburg, South Africa. They are confined to a ghetto (District 9). Years later the government tries to evict them and problems arise: especially for Wikus, the man in charge of the operation.

Why I like it:

Because it manages to say something about xenophobia, corporate greed and human nature while splattering lots of blood and goo.

District 9 has a raw, documentary feel that is rare in sci-fi movies. The gritty setting, the dark humour mixed with horror, the fabulously icky alien “prawns”, and the fact that it’s set in South Africa (with its shadow of apartheid) make this movie stand out.

Also, newcomer Sharlto Copley as Wikus is a real find: he plays an uncommonly unlikeable main character that convincingly goes from racist buffoon to anguished victim of circumstance.

…

Star Trek (2009)

Sub-genre: Space-Adventure
Sub-genre characteristics: lots of space ships and space battles
Example: everything Star Trek and Star Wars

Story:

A strange, Romulan ship appears and wreaks havoc in the Starfleet universe. 25 years later it's up to Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew (all just out of school) to save the day.

Why I like it:

Because it's an excellent action movie with a talented, sexy cast.

Everything in this movie looks great, from the rejuvenated crew to the space ships. Plus, it’s filled with stunts, space shoot-outs and phasers. And even with all that going on, there’s still room for sharp dialogue and good acting.

The story isn’t groundbreaking, but there are some clever twists and unlike many older Star Trek movies, this one manages to be a lot of fun without being campy. Bonus: it’s 100% William Shatner-free!

…

Avatar

Sub-genre: Special-Effects Spectacle
Sub-genre characteristics: eyeball-popping visuals.
Example: Terminator 2

Story:

In the future, humans have found an extremely rare and valuable metal on a far-off moon called Pandora. But Pandora is inhabited by the Na'vi: intelligent, fierce blue creatures who don’t want their world to become a mining pit. The humans interact with the Na'vi using “avatars”: human-alien hybrids that look like the Na'vi but are controlled by humans.

Why I like it:

Because it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before.

Pandora was created almost completely using computer graphics, and it's such a beautiful world that you might randomly start blurting out words like "dazzling", "spectacular" and "wow".

While the graphics are definitely the star of the show, the acting is solid too. That goes for both the human characters and the Na’vi who were created by blending computer graphics with the performances of real actors.

The story is not all that original, pitting nature-loving natives against big guns and a big corporation, but it is told well. And it has enough romance, strong female characters, floating mountains, giant flying lizards, and Sigourney Weaver to make it a must-see. Especially if you’re a sucker for director James Cameron’s movies like I am.

Smokey, is he really just evil?

2010-02-18T21:10:00.000-08:00

Ever since this season started, and maybe even before that, I have somehow taken for granted that Smokey, the Man in Black, Jacob's enemy is bad or evil, if you will. Sure, part of me always considers the possibility that the show is playing with us and that it's really Jacob who is "evil", but since Hurley believes in Jacob I have a hard time thinking that Jacob will turn out to be the devil in disguise.

And then, tonight, I looked at the quote here on my blog.

BLOND MAN: I take it you're here 'cause of the ship.
GRAY-HAIRED MAN: I am. How did they find the Island?
BLOND MAN: You'll have to ask 'em when they get here.
GRAY-HAIRED MAN: I don't have to ask. You brought them here. Still trying to prove me wrong, aren't you?
BLOND MAN: You are wrong.
GRAY-HAIRED MAN: Am I? They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
BLOND MAN: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.

That doesn't sound like a man who is necessarily evil. He sounds weary and maybe even disgusted with the fighting and the destruction and the corruption he thinks people bring to the island. If Smokey was once a man, he now sounds more like a tired deity (or alien? or would that mean the show totally jumped the shark?) here, someone who has no faith in humans. Someone who is tired of whatever the game is that is being played out with Jacob. And that was a few hundred years ago!

More and more often I've read the idea on the Lost boards at The Fuselage that the conflict between Smokey and Jacob somehow have implications for the entire world, not just the island. Hawking told Desmond the whole world was at stake if he didn't go to the island to push the button. Maybe she told the truth.

Hawking also told Jack that the dead Locke had to go back to the island on the Ajira plane as a "substitute" for Jack's dead father on the original flight. And The Substitute was the name of this week's episode. Does this mean that maybe Hawking has always been working for Smokey? At least since she left the island? Maybe. I can't wait to see her on the show again.

Backgammon and The Rules

2010-02-17T20:57:00.005-08:00

Over at The Fuselage, a poster reminded me of something important: backgammon. Way back in The Pilot, part 2 in season 1, Locke explained backgammon to Walt.

[Shot of Locke with the Backgammon pieces. Walt approaches, curious.] WALT: What is it, like checkers?
LOCKE: Not really, it's a better game than … checkers. You play checkers with your Pop?
WALT: No. I live in Australia with my mom.
LOCKE: You have no accent.
WALT: Yeah, I know. We move a lot. She got sick. She died a couple of weeks ago.
LOCKE: You're having a bad month.
WALT: I guess.
LOCKE: Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That's older than Jesus Christ.
WALT: Did they have dice and stuff?
LOCKE: [nods] Mhhm. But theirs weren't made of plastic. Their dice were made of bones.
WALT: Cool.
LOCKE: Two players. Two sides. One is light … one is dark. Walt, do you want to know a secret?

(I'm still wondering what secret Locke told Walt: that he'd been in a wheelchair?)

Two sides. Smokey and Jacob. One light, one dark. Playing a game.What if backgammon is somehow a template for how that game plays out? Not that it's ACTUALLY a game of backgammon, just that it somehow resembles it.

So what is special about backgammon? And how might we have seen its rules played out in the show?

Two players.
Each player has 15 stones.
The stones are moved around the board according to the rules.
Chance plays a part since dice are used, but strategy is crucial.
The object of the game is to move all your stones off the board.
Your stones can get "captured" by the other side, but can then also re-enter the board at the beginning.

A very interesting thing to note is that if one stone sits alone on one of the board's points it is very, very vulnerable.

In the course of a move, a checker may land on any point that is unoccupied or is occupied only by a player's own checkers. It may also land on a point occupied by exactly one opposing checker, or "blot". In this case, the blot has been hit, and is placed in the middle of the board on the bar that divides the two sides of the playing surface. A checker may never land on a point occupied by two or more opposing checkers; thus, no point is ever occupied by checkers from both players simultaneously.

One stone alone is in danger. Like Sawyer in this week's episode? Like Ben when he went to the temple with Smokey? How many other times has Smokey targeted a man alone? When he looked like Christian and showed himself to Locke? Eko and Yemi.

Then consider Jacob. According to Alpert, only one person at a time is allowed in to see Jacob. And when that rule is broken, when Ben enters with Smocke, Jacob dies.

The rules for killing others (Others?) are still kind of mysterious to me.

Ben and Widmore can't kill each other, but they can kill other people.
Jacob and Smokey can't kill each other, but can manipulate others to kill for them.
Michael wasn't allowed to kill himself until "the island" let him.
Smokey couldn't kill Locke it seems, but Ben could kill Locke.
The Others seem VERY reluctant to kill any of the remaining Losties, probably because they are "candidates".
The boy who appeared to Smokey reminded him that he couldn't kill him, which I took to mean that he couldn't kill Sawyer.

Considering backgammon again:

You can only move your own pieces off the board. If you knock the other player's piece off, that piece can still re-enter the game:

Checkers placed on the bar re-enter the game through the opponent's home board. A roll of 2 allows the checker to enter on the 23-point, a roll of 3 on the 22-point, and so forth. A player may not move any other checkers until all checkers on the bar belonging to that player have re-entered the game.
You win by moving all your pieces/stones/men off the board.

Is this somehow the object of the game between Smokey and Jacob? To safely move their own pieces off the board? By killing them? By making them leave the island? How do you get "off the board"?

Again: In backgammon, you can't get rid of your opponents stones. You can only "capture" them. After that they can re-enter the board at the beginning. Stones can only be moved "off board" by the player owning those stones. Is this a parallel to Smokey and Jacob not killing each other or the main players/characters/stones?

From Wikipedia again:

Each side of the board has a track of 12 long triangles, called points. The points are considered to be connected across one edge of the board, forming a continuous track in the shape of a horseshoe, and are numbered from 1 to 24.

Players begin with two checkers on their 24-point, three checkers on their 8-point, and five checkers each on their 13-point and their 6-point. The two players move their checkers in opposing directions, from the 24-point towards the 1-point.

Points 1 through 6 are called the home board or inner board, and points 7 through 12 are called the outer board. The 7-point is referred to as the bar point, and the 13-point as the mid point.

So bear with me for some insanity:
What if the island is one part of the board (inner board) and the world outside is another part of the board (outer board)? What if Smokey tries to get everyone OFF the island, while Jacob somehow needs to bring people TO the island to win? I'm not sure if that can make any sense at all... but Smokey seems to be trapped ON the island, while Jacob was able to move off it.

I have no idea if this is part of the endgame on Lost, but the backgammon reference HAS to mean something.

Think of Adam and Eve in the cave and their stones: one black, one white. Were these stones part of a backgammon set? (Still wondering if Adam and Eve will turn out to be Rose and Bernard somehow...)

Are all the Losties stones on the board? To be claimed as dark or light and then moved around the board, until they can be knocked on to the bar to sit out, or until they can be safely brought off the board? I feel like backgammon could be seen as a representation of what is going on on and off the island, and of what Smokey and Jacob are doing and HAVE been doing for a long time.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

Smokey and Jacob and the island

2010-02-17T12:29:00.001-08:00

Smocke told Sawyer in last night's episode that Jacob, and whoever is the new Jacob, has the task of protecting the island. He then mocked that idea, basically saying that "it's just an island"... Yea, just an island with smoke monsters, visions, healing waters and donkey wheels! Anyway. What if Jacob isn't protecting the island as much as protecting the world from Smokey? Or protecting the world from the island?

This is all speculation about something that will be the absolute end-game on the show, so who knows. But my mind is working overtime today when it comes to Lost!

And what's with all the rules about not killing certain people? Ben and Widmore couldn't kill each other for some reason. Michael couldn't even kill himself until Christian/the island "let" him. Smocke can't kill Sawyer or Jacob. But he can kill a load of other people... Smocke couldn't kill Locke either, but did manage to con Ben into killing him... so apparently Ben could do that, just not kill Widmore.

Holy crap.

2010-02-17T10:48:00.003-08:00

That's about all I can say about this episode: Ho-ly Cr-ap!

At this point, it seems rather useless to try to figure anything out. Everything is being played out for final answers now, and we're not really getting clues as much as set-ups that will pay off rather more quickly than we're used to on Lost. But the questions! Wow, they're just swirling in my head after each episode, and especially this one which was so so so SO heavy with Lost-mythology.

Richard knows nothing about "candidates"? But Ilana and now-dead Bram mentioned that Frank might be one last season. And Smocke explains to Sawyer that it's "candidate" for being the new Jacob!
Jin OR Sun is a candidate. Candidates apparently are not to be killed (or can't be killed?). This must have been why the two Others last week had the argument over killing Jin: "He might be one of them."
Who is the blond kid running around, scaring even Smokey? Young Jacob? So Sawyer can see Jacob? Or is the kid someone else?
Who makes all the flipping rules? Like that Smocke is now "stuck" and can't change his face? Or that candidates can't be killed? The island?
And Smocke saying the island doesn't need a protector? Me thinks he's lying or at least withholding information. It really seems that Smocke is not as powerful as he wants to be: he definitely seems to need someone's help to get the hell off the island.
And he wanted Richard to join him. And he accuses Jacob of manipulating people: as if HE himself didn't manipulate as well?
The numbers! They all refer to people. But why the specific numbers?
I farking love this show.
And seeing Ben with Locke in the alt? Awesome. And AltHugo is cool. And the fact that Rose works for him? Cool. And Locke is with Helen and wants to invite his dad to the wedding?
AND: how long ago did Jacob write down those names????

Does Smokey need to find a replacement too, just like Jacob does? And is Smokey's original personality actually a person, or is he just a machine/creature/thing that has "absorbed" various people over the years.

That cave... I could see Jacob and Smokey sitting there, and Jacob talking about a balance between dark and light with the rocks on the scale. But the names! Why no Kate? Is she a bodyguard/Ilana type character? Or is she a hidden card for Jacob to play?

And what about the kid? The one with the bloodied arms? Jacob? They sure picked a kid who looks like he could be a young Jacob...

What will I do when this show is over? There is nothing like it and I doubt there will be again.

One thought that occurred to me when the alt universe appeared this season: is this somehow the "real" timeline? Is this the timeline that we will be left with at the end of the show? One where the island is sunk and the Losties lead very different lives than in the show we've followed for so many seasons? Will the endgame involve wiping out the island timeline and sticking with the "new" timeline? I am still keeping my options open...

Screencaps from Lost-Media.

Hawking and Smokey?

2010-02-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a thought that struck me the other day: it was Hawking who insisted that dead Locke be brought back to the island, right? And she told them to put Jack's dad's shoes on him as well. Does this mean that she is/was in league with Smokey somehow since Smokey needed Locke's body on that plane?

I hope we find out what she was doing, or thought she was doing!, giving those directions.

I'm actually thinking that the off-island influential people: Hawking and Widmore, will have to figure into the final season somehow. Maybe they'll even influence the alt timeline?

Can't wait for the episode tonight!

Kate. Ugh.

2010-02-11T12:22:00.004-08:00

Didn't love this episode. Too much Kate who is always just... too much. The writers make her so ridiculous.

Of course the man at the wreckers yard helps her! Of course she horns in on Sawyer's grief and starts crying because everything's about her! Of course Claire likes her even though she points a gun at her and steals her bag! Of course she's rude to Claire when she goes back to pick her up after threatening her WITH A LOADED GUN! Of course no one catches her while she's driving around in a stolen cab! Grrr. Yes, I can accept time travel and smoke monsters and non-aging Alpert, but the fact that no helicopters were looking for Kate in LA still bugs me!

I liked the reveal about Sayid being "claimed". I'm guessing this is what happened to Rousseau's crew. This also means that, probably, Jack's dad was claimed as well. Remember the scene with Claire and Christian in "Jacob's cabin", telling Locke to move the island? Yea, they looked awfully chummy together, like they were [i]definitely [/i]on the same side. And normal Claire wouldn't leave Aaron in the jungle, so it would make sense that something really bad happened to make her do that.

Recapping: Dead-Christian in a coffin was claimed, knocked-on-the-head Claire was claimed and now shot-and-drowned Sayid's been claimed? But does "being claimed" mean that they're the same as Smokey Locke? Somehow I don't think so... Wonder what is going on there.

There's been a lot of speculation that there are actually TWO versions of Christian Shepherd on the island. (Different shoes for each supposedly, and remember all the stuff about putting Christian's shoes on dead Locke?) Trippy for Jack if he ends up running into two versions of his dead dad: one "claimed" and the other... what?

And is it my imagination or did Holloway put on some pounds? Having a new baby at home might have cut into his gym-time...

Dogen the Other-leader actually seemed open to answering some questions, finally. But the whole cloak and dagger with the pill for Sayid... ugh. Why would a poison not work if Sayid didn't take it willingly? Maybe look in to some other poisons... And Darlton must be chuckling a lot these days, since the oft-joked-about zombie season seems to be actually here already!

More thoughts after this so-so episode:

I'd be very interested to find out who among The Others have actually met/seen Jacob. Has Dogen seen him? We know Ben never actually saw Jacob. We assume Richard has seen Jacob, but we've never actually seen him see Jacob. We know several Losties and Ilana saw Jacob OFF the island.
It's interesting to me that when we finally got to see Jacob's "house" in the statue's foot, Richard did not enter. Only Ben and Smocke entered. Ben, who had never been able to (allowed to?) see Jacob before now saw him. No one else saw Jacob at the statue. Only Smocke and Ben. I wonder if everyone would have been able to see Jacob had they entered?
Richard recognized Smocke from what he said about the chains (and I guess from the fact that he had assumed Locke's shape). What I wonder is: would Jacob look the same all the time? Or is he also capable of shapeshifting/taking a new host-body?
I can't wait for Richard's flashback to see what he's seen!
I am saddened that the writers do not seem to want Jack and Sawyer to work together, ever. The two actors are brilliant together imo, especially when they get to something other than just glower at each other...

Screencaps thanks to Lost-Media.

Nestor Carbonell, eyeliner-guy and... Khan?

2010-02-04T22:52:00.002-08:00

I love Richard Alpert. Who doesn't? Nestor Carbonell recently did a great interview with Movieline. Lots of goodies for us Losties. Among other things, there's this about shirtlessness:

Now that you’ve done The Tick, Lost, and The Dark Knight, you’ve cultivated a geek army that’s touting you for Khan, should they include that villain in the next Star Trek sequel. Have you seen that?
Well, it would be tremendous, it would be amazing. I know that the show has already opened many doors for me, and that’s the great thing about this business, that you never know which job you do will help you out with other jobs. This show has given me and my family so much, so if that were to happen, it would be tremendous.
I think the question, Nestor, is whether you have the pecs to play Khan.
[Laughs] Listen, all modesty aside, I’m pretty shredded right now. Richard may not get to flex his muscles, but he’s not averse to taking off his shirt. Should it happen, the fans will know.
Wait, spoiler alert! We’re getting a shirtless Richard scene soon?
I can neither confirm nor deny. [Laughs]

Oh yes. Having the geekdoms collide like that, with Alpert playing Khan, would be awesome. I hope it does happen.

Screencap thanks to Lost-Media.

And we're back!

2010-02-03T21:04:00.006-08:00

Yep, we're definitely back and definitely still LOST.

The first ep of the season rocked and melted what was left of my mind. Alternate universe/timeline? Jack acting all weird and having some kind of cut on his neck? Desmond on the f-ing PLANE? The island UNDER WATER: like some drowned Atlantis with Dharma sharks and Otherton. Smokey/Locke showing his full awesomeness: "Sorry you had to see me like that."

Just wow. W-O-W.

What's it all mean? Who the hell knows? The writers are playing the end-game with us now, and we're getting into the metaphysics of the island and the time-weirdness and the destinies. Everything is up for grabs I think.

Some of my questions:

Is the alternate timeline actually a BETTER version? Could it be a version of the world where the losties redeem themselves without ever having to go to the island? Jack fixes Locke's legs, prison straightens out Charlie, Jin goes to jail and Sun is free to... yea, wait a second. How good could that be?
Where is Smokey's home that he wants to get to? The Temple?

How come Smokey couldn't kill Jacob but can kick Alpert's ass? (Don't hurt the pretty!)
Why is Kate still annoying as f- all? And why does she look so weird with makeup on? Evangeline just doesn't take well to make up I suspect. And for the love of all that is Lost, please let the damn love triangle/square/whatever just DIE. Kate can finally get her own storyline instead of always reacting to Sawyer or Jack.
I am tired of Jack and Sawyer being at odds. Just kiss and make up already.
Ash really DOES protect against Smokey! So was Jacob hiding out in his cabin then all that time, and then moved back to the foot because... ?
Is Sayid alive or possessed by Jacob?
Did Juliet realize that the bomb created an alternate timeline just as she died? "It worked." And will we see her talking about coffee and going dutch at a later date in alt uni?
How cool is Hurley, talking to dead people?
Jacob's list!!!!!

Terry O'Quinn RULES. Just rules. The world. Or whatever he'd like. He was brilliant both as alt uni Locke in a wheelchair and as Smokey in man-form. His scenes with Ben and with Jack were the best of the episode. O'Quinn is just the heart and head of this show for me. And the fact that Smokey seems to have a Locke-fascination intrigues me.
Was Jack's dad on the island Smokey? Is the fact that there seems to be two versions of Christian Shepherd (wearing different shoes) going to be addressed? Did Jacob AND Smokey impersonate him?
Did what happened to Sayid somehow also happen to Claire? Did Jacob heal her?
Is the alt uni a legitimate reality, or will it "fragment" somehow: like with Jack bleeding, Desmond seemingly appearing and disappearing...?
Finally: what the heck will I do when this show is over??? There is nothing like it and I doubt there will be again.

Images thanks to Lostpedia and LostMedia.

Rewinding Season 5: The Little Prince & This Place Is Death

2009-06-02T19:46:00.007-07:00

The Little Prince had two of the strongest time-skipping scenes: Locke seeing the light from the hatch the night Boone died and he banged on it and saw the light Desmond shone from below. And Sawyer witnessing Aaron's birth, with Kate helping Claire.

We also got to see Rousseau and her team arrive on the island and find Jin.

And we got the weird outrigger scene when the Losties find their Zodiac raft gone from the beach. Instead the two outriggers we now know were brought over from Hydra Island by Ilana and Bram's crew are there. And while the Losties paddle away to get to the Orchid (where Locke is now convinced he should turn the wheel himself) they are shot at by somebody. We still don't know who. Crazy options include:

The losties themselves will eventually time skip to this time after the incident and end up shooting at themselves.
Ilana and Bram are shooting at them in some scene we have yet to see.
Jacob's nemesis or his allies are shooting at them.
Fake Locke is shooting at them with Ben at his side.

Whoever is shooting, their identity is big enough of a reveal to be saved for next season.

There's also a lot of "shipper" stuff going on in this episode. We see some beginning movements of closeness between Sawyer and Juliet when Sawyer talks to her about what he saw in the jungle. Imagine that! Two people on Lost actually talking about what they experienced and how they felt about it! Will wonders never cease!

Off-island at about the same "time" (I think... lol), Kate and Jack have a heart to heart about Aaron aboard Penny's boat. Kate says that she wants to keep Aaron for her own. Jack goes along with it. She goes along with lying about what happened to 815. And this is the significant exchange:

KATE: After everyone we've lost--Michael, Jin, Sawyer... I can't lose him, too.
JACK: Sawyer's not dead.
KATE: No. But he's gone. Good night, Jack.
JACK: Kate... If we're gonna be safe, if we're gonna protect the people that we left behind, tomorrow morning, I'm gonna have to convince everyone to lie. If it's just me, they're never gonna go for it. So I'm gonna turn to you first. Are you with me?
KATE: I have always been with you.

Ok. Right there, she totally sounds like she immediately gives up on Sawyer and professes that it's really Jack that she is "with". Of course, later in the season, we get the psycho babble about her keeping Aaron to get over Sawyer. And then Kate sleeping with Jack because she's "so angry" at him for making her go back to the island. Is it any wonder I, and many others, think the writers are wrecking Kate as a character? Vacillating that much is just ridiculous imo.

Yes, the triangle/square/shape from heck just will not be put down by the writers. They keep flogging it and flogging it, and I can only imagine that they do so because they KNOW it matters to a lot of people. Yet it drives me nuts. JUST PICK ONE KATE! And stick with it. Or rather: writers, let her pick one and stick with it. The way they just HAD to stick her into the Juliet/Sawyer pairing this year and have everyone make evil eyes/googly eyes at each other was ridiculous. But anyway.

On to This Place Is Death. The episode where we got to see Rousseau's buddy Montand have his arm ripped off as the monster tried to drag him into its lair. And then we got to see what Danielle meant when she said her crew got "sick". It seems they came out of Smokey's lair altered in some way which made them willing and able to kill her. It's Jin who stops Danielle from entering just before he flashes out again.

Then, Jin gets dumped into Danielle's confrontation with her husband, Robert:

DANIELLE: Laisse-la! Pose-la! Pose ton arme! [Leave it! Put your gun down!]
ROBERT: Danielle, fais pas ça, c'est moi! [Danielle, don't do this, it's me!]
DANIELLE: T'es pas Robert! T'es changé! Cette machine t'as changé! [You're not Robert, you've changed, that thing has changed you!]
ROBERT: Danielle, je t'en prie. Pose ton arme. Je t'aime, pourquoi tu agis comme ça? [Danielle, please, put down your gun. I love you, why are you acting like this?]
DANIELLE: Parce que t'es pas Robert. T'es malade. Ce monstre t'a rendu malade. [Because you're not Robert, you've changed. That monster changed you.]
ROBERT: Mais il n'y a pas de monstre. C'est un système de sécurité qui garde ce temple, c'est tout. [There is no monster. It's just a security system that guards the temple, that's all.]
ROBERT: Maintenant, pose ton fusil. [Now put down your gun.]
[Danielle hesitates.]
ROBERT: Je t'aime, Danielle. Je ne veux que rien nous arrive. A toi, et à notre bébé. Je t'en supprie - fais pas ça. [I love you, Danielle. I don't want anything to happen to us. To you, or to our baby.]
[Danielle slowly lowers her gun. Suddenly, Robert cocks his gun and fires, but it does not work. Danielle shoots Robert in the head.]

Great scene. I loved this "flashback" to get Rousseau's backstory, which also gives us some things to chew on when it comes to the monster. Getting up close and personal with Smokey seems to change people. Or is it that the people really aren't themselves anymore, but impersonated by Smokey somehow. And further: did something similar happen to young Ben when Alpert takes him into that same area we saw Danielle's crew at, but this time to "heal" him? Did Ben get "infected" then in the same way Danielle's crew was "infected"?

Robert seems to have aquired some new knowledge too: he tells her the monster is just a "security system" tied to the temple. Is that what it is? We still haven't seen the temple itself on the show, but Alpert told Locke some of the Others live there. What is the temple (I know I've asked this many times)? A real temple? Something high tech that "makes" the monster? What? The fact that we haven't seen it yet has to mean that it is a pretty huge reveal.

The other absolutely myth-drenched scene is Locke, falling down the well (which Charlotte somehow knew would be there), breaking his leg and meeting Christian Shephard. A Christian dressed NOT in his funeral suit and white sneakers. A Christian who won't help him up. And a Christian with very specific instructions:

CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD: Hello, John.
LOCKE: [Amazed] You! What are you doing down here?
CHRISTIAN: I'm here to help you the rest of the way.
LOCKE: I... I don't understand.
CHRISTIAN: You came to see me in the cabin. You asked me how to save the island and I told you you had to move it. I said that you had to move it, John.
LOCKE: But Ben said he knew how to do it! He told me that I had to stay here and lead his people.
CHRISTIAN: Since when did listening to him get you anywhere worth a damn? The good news is that you’re here now. You ready to go?
LOCKE: I don't... I don't... I... I don’t know... what to do once I get there.
CHRISTIAN: There's a woman living in Los Angeles. Now once you get all your friends together--and it must be all of them, every one who left--and once you've persuaded them to join you, this woman will tell you exactly how to come back.
LOCKE: Who is she?
CHRISTIAN: Her name is Eloise Hawking.
LOCKE: What if I can only convince some of them to come back?
CHRISTIAN: I believe in you, John. You can do this.
LOCKE: Richard said I was going to die.
CHRISTIAN: Well, I suppose that's why they call it sacrifice.
LOCKE: All right. I'm ready.
CHRISTIAN: Good. Now, on the other side of this column here is a wheel, slipped off its axis. All you have to do is give it a little push.
LOCKE: [Winces in pain as he attempts to stand] Could you help me up?
CHRISTIAN: [Bluntly] No. Sorry. I can't.

Whoever Christian is or is working for at this moment, he knows about Eloise, he knows about the pendulum in LA and he wants the O6 back on the island. He wants Aaron to come back too imo. IF this Christian is Jacob's nemesis, then I think that the plan is this:

The time skipping has given Nemesis his chance at crafting the loophole. Time traveling Locke has gotten Alpert interested in checking out Locke for possible recruitment and leadership.
Locke needs to be off the island to die.
Locke to know about Hawking because she can get him back on the island. And Locke has to die to bring everyone back, because then Nemesis can take Locke's place somehow and get Ben to kill Jacob.

But I'm still not sure about any of this. Why would Nemesis need all the other Losties back on the island? To make sure no one with a connection to the island remains in the outside world? Jacob too seems to want the losties all back on the island. And the huge question: WHAT made time start to skip? Ben turned the wheel and time went wonky. This gave Nemesis the chance he needed to open up the loophole and give instructions to Alpert who gave them to Real Locke who then gave them to Alpert again. Yea. Totally in a little loop of its own there. I really hope we get some sort of explanation of this in S6!

Christian Shephard and Hawking seem to want the same thing. Is that what Jacob wants? Both Ben and Locke are following the orders of these people, yet neither seems fully aware of what is going on. Like Desmond so succintly puts it later:

These people--they're just usin' us. They're playing some kind of game, and we are just the pieces.

This I think, is at the heart of what has been going on throughout S5. Someone is playing a game, and we still don't quite know the rules, the desired outcome or who the is using what playing pieces.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia and lost-media.

Rewinding Season 5: Jughead

2009-06-01T18:28:00.003-07:00

The main thing I got from this episode has to do with Alpert: he seemed genuinely surprised about the whole time-travel thingie. By all accounts he's been on the island a looong time and he himself doesn't seem to age. Yet the possibility that Locke and the losties are skipping through time seem to utterly bewilder him. Maybe he's faking it? Maybe the way the actors play these scenes doesn't really matter because they haven't been told everything. But Alpert really, truly does not seem to know about time travel in the way that Locke is experiencing.

Does that mean that Alpert didn't know about the donkey wheel? Or didn't know the donkey wheel could cause time skipping? Were the others not aware of the donkey wheel until Dharma found it? Because Ben sure seemed to know about it!

Does Jacob know about the donkey wheel? Who built it anyway?

Now, it is possible that once Alpert had been made aware of time-traveling, that the Others then started looking for reasons for it and eventually, maybe through Dharma, they found the donkey wheel. Still, Alpert's incredulity over the donkey wheel initiated time-skipping intrigues me. Especially since it seems Jacob's nemesis has specifically used the time-wonkiness the wheel create the loophole he needed to kill Jacob. What is going on with all that?

Is it possible that just like the compass, knowledge of time travel and the donkey wheel are in some kind of loop?

Locke and the losties time skip because of what Ben does to the wheel.
They end up in the 1950s and the Others become aware of time travel as a possibility.
This leads to The Others researching the matter, and eventually to Dharma becoming aware of it.
Then the wheel is uncovered and then Ben knows about it and tells Locke.... and so on.

More mind-bendiness in the episode: When Desmond goes to Oxford searching for Daniel's mother, a lady at the university helps him look on the computer for Faraday. This woman is played by the same actress who also played one of the airline employees checking people on to flight 815. Does she work for Widmore? Was she part of the conspiracy to get the losties on that plane?

Meeting young Widmore in this episode is interesting. He's arrogant, brutal and violent. But Richard totally orders him around.

Also interesting is the exchange with Locke:

LOCKE: I expect you to tell me how to get off the Island.
RICHARD: That's very privileged information. Why would I share it with you?
LOCKE: Because you told me that I had something very important to do once I get there. And because I'm your leader.
RICHARD: You're my leader?
LOCKE: That's what you told me.
RICHARD: Look, I... certainly don't want to contradict myself, but... we have a very specific process for selecting our leadership, and it starts at a v--very, very young age.
LOCKE: All right. All right. What year is it right now?
RICHARD: It's 1954.
LOCKE: All right. May 30, 1956--2 years from now--that's the day I'm born--Tustin, California, and if you don't believe me, I suggest you come and visit me.

Right here we see a lot of things coming together. We understand why Richard went looking for baby Locke, and why he subjected kid Locke to some testing. We also understand why Richard was later somewhat inclined to think that Locke was supposed to be important. Also interesting: leaders are selected starting at a young age. Which means Widmore and Ben as well as Eloise went through this process?

Also, Alpert knows of a way to get off the island. How? Submarine? Or something else?

And this is also in some ways the start of the con, the con perpetrated by Jacob's nemesis. Right here seeds are sown that will eventually lead to Locke becoming the leader of the others and then ending up dead, with Ben as a willing tool to dispose of Jacob.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

The sickness and the vaccine

2009-06-01T10:41:00.002-07:00

I've been re-visiting Season 1 and 2 a lot lately, and wondered more and more about the mysteries that were introduced back then. One mystery that has yet to be explained is the vaccine. Desmond kept injecting himself, then seemed to eventually think it was all some kind of ruse. Yet we later saw Charlie quite convinced that Aaron needed it when he got sick. And after testing it on himself, Aaron was injected.

Ethan also injected Aaron in the womb when he had abducted Claire.

Then there was the whole weird ruse of Claire getting super sick and bleeding and Juliet claiming then that it was because she needed the vaccine. Yet the truth was revealed to be that Claire had been fitted with an implant controlled by The Others and that's what triggered her illness.

But the question remains: What was the vaccine for?

Now, the one "sickness" that has been referred to throughout the show was the sickness Danielle said her crew contracted on the island. We no know that her crew was sucked in by Smokey and somehow altered. After that they looked like themselves yet wanted to kill Danielle.

One sickness, one vaccine?

What if the vaccine actually WAS to prevent this sickness? What if the injections somehow prevents "tampering" by Smokey, or whatever else it was that "infected" Rousseau's people? Is this why Charlie was sent visions to get the vaccine for Aaron? To prevent anyone tampering with him?

Or, was the vaccine somehow related to other dangers of the island, like protection from radiation? Or protection from time-related weirdness?

Anyone else have any thoughts about these issues? I really do hope we get an explanation of some kind for the vaccine, but since it seems to have been mostly forgotten, I am starting to worry that it won't be addressed at all.

Who was injected with the vaccine on the island? As far as we know:

Aaron
Charlie
Desmond
Kelvin
Claire

Re-winding Season 5: The Lie

2009-05-31T20:30:00.003-07:00

The exchange between Hurley and his mother in this episode is a classic Lost-moment.

HURLEY: We lied, Ma!
CARMEN: What do you mean you lied?
HURLEY: [Voice cracking] All of us--the Oceanic Six, we lied about what happened after the crash.
CARMEN: And what did happen?
HURLEY: Okay. See, we did crash, but it was on this crazy island. And we waited for rescue, and there wasn't any rescue. And there was a smoke monster, and then there were other people on the island. We called them the Others, and they started attacking us. And we found some hatches, and there was a button you had to push every 108 minutes or... well, I was never really clear on that. But... the Others didn't have anything to do with the hatches. That was the DHARMA Initiative. The Others killed them, and now they're trying to kill us. And then we teamed up with the Others because some worse people were coming on a freighter. Desmond's girlfriend's father sent them to kill us. So we stole their helicopter and we flew it to their freighter, but it blew up. And we couldn't go back to the island because it disappeared, so then we crashed into the ocean, and we floated there for a while until a boat came and picked us up. And by then, there were six of us. That part was true. [Whispers] But the re...
[Hurley's voice breaks. He takes a second to regain composure.]
HURLEY: But the rest of the people... who were on the plane? They're still on that island.
[Carmen puts her hand on her son's wrist.]
CARMEN: I believe you. I don't understand you, but I believe you.
HURLEY: A lot of people died, ma. And now this bad stuff is happening because... well, um... [sighs] we shouldn't have lied. [sighs]

It can't be coincidence that many of the classic Lost-moments do seem to involve Hurley, so maybe this is foreshadowing his importance. Jacob sure seemed to treat him as a VIP in the season finale!

We got to meet a young Widmore who turns out to be a ruthless bastard even back then, and we got to see Hawking as well in her pendulum room, making some time for Ben. After killing Locke and finding her, he's been charged with gathering up all the O6. The one reason I can think of him doing her bidding is that it is his only chance to get back to the island. Why does she allow him to help her though? Does she want him back on the island too? To help Jacob's nemesis kill Jacob? Or for some other reason? What exactly is Hawking's allegiance?

She is working in a Dharma station... seemingly the very station that helped Dharma's founders to find the island (if we believe her later information).
Ben meets up with Jill at the butcher shop who is taking care of Locke's corpse, and everything here hints at that The Others have a lot of people working for them off the island: is that what Hawking is doing? Working for the Others but off-island? Would she be able to do that even though she left the island and seemingly gave up her leadership there?
What is her motivation for working so hard to get the O6 back to the island? Is she doing this work for Jacob? For his nemesis? For Daniel somehow?

Hawking seems to really, really want the O6 back on that island.

BEN: I'm having some... difficulties.
SHROUDED WOMAN: Well, you better get busy... [chuckles] because you only have 70 hours.
BEN: No, no, that's not enough time. I need at least--
SHROUDED WOMAN: What you need is irrelevant.
[She turns, revealing her identity.]
MS. HAWKING: 70 hours is what you've got.
BEN: Look, I lost Reyes tonight. What happens if I can't get them all to come back?
MS. HAWKING: Then God help us all.

But if "whatever happened, happened", and nothing can be changed is all true, then why is she so worried? This same question applies to why she was previously so set on convincing Desmond to do what he was supposed to do: not propose to Penny and eventually end up on the island to push the button (and then fail to push it, bringing 815 down).

It seems to me that maybe things CAN be changed, but that Hawking and others (The Others?) believe that change is not a good thing. In Hawking's case she doesn't even want to change her son's fate! Or so it seems... All this has to be part of something larger that will come back to the surface in S6. It just seems that Hawking and Widmore have been manipulating people through various means... kind of like playing pieces. Backgammon anyone?

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

Re-winding Season 5: Because You Left

2009-05-31T19:19:00.008-07:00

Interestingly enough, this episode starts pretty much where the season eventually ended, with Faraday and Chang in the Orchid, and my main thoughts in this episode have to do with the Orchid too. At the beginning of the episode we see Pierre Chang there with a dead worker, explaining to the foreman about energy, time travel etc. But at this point, the donkey wheel is still inside the wall, in a chamber they have not yet reached. At other times we've seen both Locke and Ben turn the wheel, so I'm guessing that it was Dharma who dug the wheel out.

Does this mean The Others and Alpert didn't know about the wheel? Or had they hidden it?
Ben seemed to know exactly what to do to turn the wheel and what it would do, even though it was sealed up when he and Locke headed into the Orchid. Where did he get all that knowledge? From Dharma?
In Some Like it Hoth, when we see Miles bring a dead body to The Orchid: wtf were they doing with those dead bodies? Time travel experiments? Chang's purpose with the Orchid seems to have been to explore time travel, so this is what makes the most sense. But how would dead bodies be used? Were they doing something like what we've seen happen on the island: dead people appearing again? Or were they using them in some other way: we did see a polar bear with a dharma collar in Tunisia and it was thousands of years old, buried in the sand! Still haven't had that explained properly to us.

Crazy theory regarding the Orchid: Remember the video with the two bunnies? How freaked out Chang was when they were both there together? The same bunny right there in two "version". This was a result of the experiments at The Orchid. Darlton have said that something similar would explain the Dharma bear in Tunisia that Charlotte found. Does everyone who turns the wheel end up "duplicated" somehow? Would one of them get kicked off the island while the other was "left behind"? Are there now 2 Bens and 2 Lockes? And wth would that mean? Does that play into what happened in the finale?
In this episode we also get to see the very important scene when Alpert helps Locke when he's been shot and also gives him the compass. Of course, we now know that Alpert's message to Locke, that he needs to: leave the island, get those who left to come back and that he has to die to achieve this, was a message not from Richard but from Fake Locke. Mind-twist. From the transcript:

RICHARD: Sorry. The first thing, okay?
[Locke groans.]
RICHARD: You're gonna need to clean out the wound every couple of hours and keep as much weight off the leg as you can, all right? The Island'll do the rest, John, all right?
LOCKE: But I don't--
RICHARD: Second thing--no, no, pay attention. Next time we see each other, I'm not gonna recognize you. All right? You give me this. All right?
[Richard hands Locke something small, something we've seen before.]
LOCKE: What is this?
RICHARD: It's a compass.
LOCKE: What does it do?
RICHARD: It points north, John. Look, I wish I had time to be more sensitive about this because it's a lot to swallow, but you need to know it in order to do what you gotta do. So I'm just gonna say it, okay? [Sighs] The only way to save the Island, John, is to get your people back here--the ones who left.
LOCKE: Jack, Kate... The chopper was headed for the boat. The boat--
RICHARD: No, they're fine, John, and they're already home, so you have to convince them to come back.
LOCKE: How--how am I supposed to do that?
RICHARD: You're gonna have to die, John.

This is what Fake Locke wanted Locke to think. Does that mean it was all a lie? Or could it be that actually both "sides" wanted the O6 back, but for their own reasons? Is this what somehow caused the losties to split up in time when they came back on Ajira 316? Some went where Jacob wanted, some went where the other man wanted them to go?

Also in this episode, we see Daniel go and talk to Desmond while Desmond was still in the hatch. This makes Desmond "remember" the episode in his present, even though he didn't remember it before. Later on, in Jughead, Des goes to Oxford to find Daniel's mom, finds Daniel's abandoned research lab and then asks Widmore where Daniel's mom is: and Widmore tells him where to find her. As we now know, Widmore and Hawking are Daniel's parents. Were Widmore and Hawking working together? Bram told Miles that Widmore was "the wrong side". Which seems to imply that Widmore is NOT working for Jacob at least.

Why did Widmore tell Des about Hawking? Is this all to do with manipulating events so that some desired outcome will occur? Has Widmore always been manipulating Des this way? And what did Daniel mean about Des being "special"?

FARADAY: Yeah... in a way. But listen, that's not important. What is important, Desmond, is what I'm about to say to you. I need you to listen. You're the only person who can help us because, Desmond... the rules... the rules don't apply to you. You're special. You're uniquely and miraculously special.

Does this mean that Desmond can change things while no one else can? And will all the losties who were there when the "incident" happen, now be just as special? I really hope we get to see more of Desmond next season to find out what role his specialness will play.

This episode showed us Sun getting together with Widmore and he pretty much enlisted her to kill Ben. Kind of like Jacob's nemesis enlisted Ben to kill Jacob at the end of the season, though Widmore's "loophole" didn't quite work out since Sun forgot all about killing Ben rather fast. Her storyline this season was pretty much turned into nothing anyway once she got back to the island, except for the great moment when she clonked Ben on the head with an oar of course.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

Re-visiting S1, again

2009-05-28T21:52:00.002-07:00

Continuing my theme of re-visiting old posts with thoughts about even older seasons, I'm going back to last year's post about S1 mysteries. Do we know anything more about these mysteries after S5?

So here is last year's entry, with new information added:

I always figure that the basic mystery of Lost is: What is the island? Sure, there are other mysteries: Dharma, Widmore, Smokey... but in essence, everything comes back to and is grounded in the nature of the island. There is something about the island that makes Smokey possible, that makes time weirdness possible, that made Dharma build their hatches and start their research and makes Widmore want to find it so badly. And to me, season 1 of the show has to be key when it comes to clues, hints and mysteries that are majorly important to figuring out what the island is all about.

Why? Well, I figure that when the show started, tptb didn't know how long they had to tell their story. Maybe they'd only get one season. So it stands to reason that they'd put enough information into the show's beginning that they could have, somehow, cobbled together some kind of ending. Yes, it would probably have been rushed and unsatisfactory and we'd have missed out on Alpert, Ben and Desmond, Juliet, Miles and Daniel... and that's a whole lot to miss! But anyway, S1 has to have some serious goods in it. Which is why I went back and read up on the eps (watching them all will have to wait a while) to refresh my memory as to what came first.

Smokey
Smokey the "monster" (or whatever it may turn out to be) was introduced right from the start in The Pilot. We saw it chase Kate and Charlie and Jack, we saw it kill 815's pilot and generally make noise and misbehave. Since then we've seen a lot more of it, but I'm guessing it will be S6 before we get any big answers here. S5 additions:

We know Smokey can be "summoned" by pulling the plug in Ben's basement.
Smokey seems to "judge" people, or at least be able to show them part of their thoughts and past. The ancient Egyptians even built a special chamber where they interacted with Smokey it seems.
Smokey seemed to assume Alex' form (a dead person whose body was on the island) to interact more directly with Ben. Similar to what the monster did with Eko and Yemi.

The Black Rock
How did the ship get to be way up on an island mountain side? What happened to the people on it? This also ties in with how Yemi's plane could have reached the island. Do Alpert and/or Richard have a connection to The Black Rock? Does Widmore? S5 additions:

We saw Alpert building a ship in a bottle that was similar to the Black Rock.
We saw a ship like the Black Rock in the opening scene of the finale with Jacob and his nemesis.

Polar bears
These seem to have gotten their explanation once we saw that the Others had cages for polar bears. But I'm not convinced that totally explains it. Charlotte found a several thousand year old polar bear skeleton in the Tunisian desert wearing a collar with a Dharma symbol. How did that happen? Turning the donkey wheel bumped Ben into the future, not the past. And how did the bears get there anyway? Maybe the island was in a polar region at some point? Season 5 additions: Nada.

Walt's powers
Walt is special, that much the show seems to have confirmed early on, but we've never really gotten an explanation as to what he's capable of doing. The Others interest in him was not just because they can't procreate and therefore would need children, as was shown in the mobisodes, they were doing something to him and what he did in turn freaked them out. We've seen birds fly into windows a lot when Walt is upset. And later there's his whole turning-up-soaking-wet-and-talking-backwards-to-people schtick. And even more recently turning up all grown up to tell Locke to get a move on. Clearly, Walt can appear in places where he is not physically present. Clearly he can affect his environment somehow. Hopefully he'll be back in the cast for next season so we can find out what the heck is really going on there. Season 5 additions:

Not much.
Locke talked to Walt off-island and it seems Walt is still having visions or something. He saw Locke surrounded by people who wanted to hurt him. Premonition of UnLocke's fate after Jacob was killed? Perhaps. I really hope Walt comes back somehow next season.

Vincent
After seeing the mobisode "So It Begins", I'm convinced that Vincent may actually feature a lot more in the last two seasons of the show. If he was "communicating" with Christian every time Walt and Michael were looking for him, then what were they communicating about? I want a Vincent flashback ep that shows us everything he's been up to when he was off in the jungle! Season 5 additions:

Nothing much. Except that Vincent is alive and hanging out with Rose and Bernard.

Dead man walking
Very early on we saw that dead people can be seen by the living on the island. Christian showed himself to Jack in "White Rabbit", seemingly to guide him to water and the caves. Just like we later saw with Yemi, his body disappears but he sure doesn't. Is he a manifestation of Smokey? A zombie? The island somehow projecting itself? The theme of dead people being able to interact with the living and communicating with them seems to run throughout the show and the addition of Miles to the mix this past season makes me think we might finally start to find out what that's all about. Season 5 additions:

We saw Christian talking to Sun and Lapidus and even adjusting a picture on a wall: very corporeal.
We saw Christian talking to Locke after he'd fallen down the Donkey Wheel well and in that case, Christian made a point of NOT touching Locke. Was Christian actually Jacob in that particular scene? And did he choose not to touch Locke because he had already touched him, after his fall in the past off the island? Since Jacob's touch seems important, perhaps a second touch does something other than a first touch? Jacob's first touch when it came to Locke seems to have brought him back to life.
Are there two Christians? One Jacob-related and one Nemesis-related? And what significance does it have that Jack put his shoes on Christian's dead body, and then put Christian's shoes on Locke's dead body when both of those people seemed dead, but are now walking the island?

Adam and Eve
Jack and Kate find the two skeletons at the caves. On the bodies is a pouch with one white and one black stone. According to tptb, once we find out who Adam and Eve are, we'll know that they knew where the story was going right from the start. Some people say that Adam and Eve will turn out to be Desmond and Penny. However, I find it more likely that they are two people we knew from S1. Jack and Kate? My own favourites are Rose and Bernard. Season 5 additions:

It seems increasingly likely that it is Rose and Bernard, though the specifics of how their bodies end up in the caves are not clear. And what about the stones??? No idea there.

Healing
The island heals Rose's cancer and fixes Locke's legs. The island's "energy" may be responsible in some fashion, but then how come Ben gets a tumor and Jack gets appendicitis? Because the island is "displeased" with them? Just like when it won't let them die, but, you know, the opposite? Is it the island actually, actively healing them (as in: it's acting like a person), or is it more that it's properties and fate and destiny and time somehow make these things happen "naturally"? Ben tells Juliet that Jacob cured her sister's cancer. Is Jacob somehow able of making people sick and healthy? Is he the island? Ugh. Just another one of the mysteries that seems like you have part of it figured out but when you think about it some more, you really don't know anything... Season 5 additions:

We do know a lot more about Jacob. He did seem to heal or even resurrect John Locke.
Richard Alpert said he is the way he is because of Jacob (eternal life? or what?).

Whispers
I already wrote about them. Some of them may be the Hostiles/Others communicating but a lot of them have to be something more. Dead people still able to make themselves heard? That's what I'm starting to think after S4 and seeing Miles in action. Season 5 additions:

Ben warned Danielle Rousseau to stay away from the whispers if she heard them. Does this mean the whispers are "just" the Other's way of communicating somehow? Or maybe related to Smokey? Not sure.

The vaccine
What the heck was the vaccine all about? Ethan was injecting Claire with something. Much later we saw Claire get sick and bleed, and this was somehow triggered on Ben's orders. So was it a vaccine or just part of that ruse? Charlie worked really hard to get Aaron and Claire vaccine in one episode and we know Desmond used it too... We've never gotten a satisfactory explanation about the vaccine and what it actually was supposed to do. Season 5 additions:

Nothing.
At all.

Aaron
Claire's psychic told her that her child should not be raised by another/an other. Then said she should give the baby up for adoption in America, basically putting her on flight 815. And in "Raised By Another", Claire has a very weird and possibly prophetic dream about Aaron:

Claire wakes up in the night. A baby's cry is heard. Claire sits up with a confused and concerned expression on her face; she looks down and feels her stomach, noticing that she is not pregnant. She hears a baby cry again and starts off into the jungle in a daze, apparently looking for the source of the crying. Claire sees a light in the jungle and walks toward it, where she encounters Locke sitting at the table at which she received her psychic reading (in her flashback later in this episode); the psychic's electric lamp is also present. As she approaches, Locke is drawing what appear to be the psychic's cards from a deck one by one as he stares down at the table (the first one making the sound of a metal against metal, like a knife being unsheathed); they exchange a few brief words:

CLAIRE: What's happening?
LOCKE: You know what's happening.
CLAIRE: But I don't understand. Why --?
LOCKE: He was your responsibility but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now.

As Locke finishes saying this, he looks up at her with a creepy expression on his face and has one black eye and one white eye.

Yep. Something is up with Aaron. Not sure what yet. I guess he has to go back to the island in S5, but I really wonder how they'll make that happen. I just don't see Kate taking a little kid back there. Season 5 additions:

Aaron is with grandma.
Kate went back to the island to try to find Claire and reunite her with Aaron.
That's it.

The numbers
I don't think these will ever be totally explained. The possibly canon explanation of The Valenzetti Equation is probably as much as we'll ever get. Season 5 additions:

We heard the numbers spoken as Ajira Airways went down.
We saw the number being entered on the hatch door. Hugo didn't like that.
Other than that, nothing.

Conclusion
My conclusion is that we really don't know a hell of a lot more about the island than we did in S1. Yes, we know more about what's been going on there, but no real answers about what it really is and why it's so special. Lots of hints (Daniel talking about light refracting oddly, donkey wheels, Dharma, hatches) but nothing concrete that actually explains what it is and how it does what it does. I guess this is because the actual nature of the island is the key to all of Lost, and we won't find out until the very end. Hopefully we will find out then at least! Season 5 additions: Darlton have stated that they won't necessarily explain everything about the island, to avoid a "midichlorian" debacle. I applaud that. I do however hope we get some kind of explanation for the Donkey Wheel, Smokey and Jacob as well as all the rampant Egyptianess. Sometime soon. You know, like next season.

All screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

Jacob as the constant?

2009-05-24T10:29:00.003-07:00

Today's new theory:

I'm starting to think that we will have a Desmond-like situation for all the 1977 losties when S6 rolls around. Their minds will flash into their pasts (after the crash on the island perhaps) and maybe they will be able to change/understand things in a different way then they did the first time around. Since they are at the source of what threw Des "out of time" when the Incident happens, they may experience the same thing he did when the hatch blew up. And that would also mean that Desmond's experience was a kind of set up for what is to come now. Could it be that Jacob made himself their constant by touching them all? So that the time travel they will now experience a la Des will not kill them by nosebleeding them to death?

And then their bodies and "whole selves" will somehow end up with the "now" timeline. One last time-skip after their minds have traveled back to the past? So that they arrive in our now with more info than previously? Will they also be able to tell the future like Des could? I do think that somehow what happened to Des will be what happens to them, if slightly different in some respect.

This would make Desmond's entire "Flashes before your eyes" storyline hang together with the overall storyline of the show in a much better way than it currently does.

Old questions - answered?

2009-05-23T20:13:00.005-07:00

Way back in June last year, I posted a bunch of unanswered questions about Lost. Last night I was reading through that list again, and thought it was interesting enough to re-visit.

42 Unanswered Questions, revisited and even answered

What is the Smoke Monster? - Well now. We don't know what it is yet, but we know the temple seems to be it's "lair" and we know it can be summoned by pulling that plug in Ben's basement, and that the Egyptians made offerings to it at some point in time. Or knelt down to be judged by it. Or something. It's old anyway.
Why can't women who conceive on the island carry the baby to term? - No idea. Is it because the statue is/was Taweret the fertility hippo and when it was damaged the problems started? Or is it because there was a nuclear incident and that's screwing things up? All speculation.
How come the island is so hard to find? - Because it's always moving, as Mrs Hawking told us in "316".
ELOISE: [Sighs] All right. I apologize if this is confusing, but... [To Jack, who is still staring at the photo] Let's pay attention, yes? The room we're standing in was constructed years ago over a unique pocket of electromagnetic energy. That energy connects to similar pockets all over the world. The people who built this room, however, were only interested in one.
SUN: The Island.
ELOISE: Yes. The island. They'd gathered proof that it existed. They knew it was out there somewhere, but they just couldn't find it. Then a very clever fellow built this pendulum on the theoretical notion that they should stop looking for where the island was supposed to be and start looking for where it was going to be.
[Pendulum whooshes]
JACK: What do you mean, "Where it was going to be"?
ELOISE: Well, this fellow presumed, and correctly, as it turned out, that the Island was always moving. Why do you think you were never rescued? Now while the movements of the Island seem random, this man and his team created a series of equations which tell us, with a high degree of probability, where it is going to be at a certain point... in time. Windows, as it were, that while open, provide a route back. Unfortunately, these windows don't stay open for very long. Yours closes... in 36 hours. [She hands the binder to Jack]
Exactly why it keeps moving we still don't know.
Why was it impossible for Desmond to sail off the island but seemingly so easy for the freighter to find its way there? - Presumably the freighter knew where the window was. Just like flight 316. So did they use the pendulum and Eloise too? Don't know that yet.
What is Widmore's deal with the island? - Answered! He used to be leader and then Ben/the Others kicked him out for having a child off the island and being a bonehead. Or something.
Is Daniel Faraday time-traveling somehow? - Well, he did this season. And he had used himself in his time travel experiments at Oxford.
How did the polar bear end up in Tunisia? - Not sure. But it probably has to do with the donkey wheel.
How come Richard Alpert doesn't seem to age? - Because of Jacob. Not sure what that means. It's kind of like the answer "42" in Hitchhiker's Guide. It's an answer, yet doesn't tell you much!
How exactly does "the island" prevent people from dying a la Michael? - Hmmm. Does Jacob do it? Fate? Not sure.
How did the Others get Juliet to the island? The submarine? Seems a long ride from Portland. - Sub. I think. Still not sure about the specifics of submarine travel to the island though!
Who is Abbadon? - He's dead. He worked for Widmore. His job was to get people where they were supposed to go. Yay
Who is Jacob? - He doesn't age. He touched the losties in their past. And he's dead too. Or maybe not. And we still don't really know who or what he is. But at least we know he exists! Or at least existed...
How come Jacob's cabin is seemingly hard to find? - No idea. And now we're not even sure it was Jacob's.
What are Walt's special powers and why did the Others say they got "more than they bargained for" with him? - Will we ever know?
Who are Adam and Eve? - No idea. But I'm betting it is/will be Rose and Bernard.
What is the Temple? A real temple or a hatch or what? - The outskirts of it seem very temple-like. And some Others live there.
How did Yemi's plane get to the island? - No idea. Through a window in time/space?
How did the Black Rock get to the island? - Sailed there. Brought there by Jacob. I think. If it was the ship we saw in The Incident anyway. Still not sure how it ended up on top of the island...
Is Dr Marvin Candle (or whatever his real name is) still alive? - He was in the 70s! Probably not anymore though...
Who/what made the food drop we saw in "Lockdown"? - No idea.
What was the sickness that killed Danielle's crew? Same as what happened to the people on the freighter? Then why didn't Danielle get it? - Answered! They got pulled into the ground/temple by Smokey and came out looking the same yet all killing-crazy and very island-knowledgeable suddenly...
Why was Juliet branded? What purpose did that serve? Just to make Jack pity her? - Because she was banished I guess. Though we never saw this matter brought up again.
How exactly does the island make people sick when it seemingly cures some? IE how come Ben and Jack got sick? - No idea. Jacob seemingly has healing powers though... and maybe the electromagnetic energy plays a part.
What is the story with the four toed statue? - Well. Jacob lives in the foot. Lived I mean. And it was Taweret. So say we all. Even though it still looks like a croc to me!
What is the meaning of the whispers? - No idea.
What happened to Claire? - No idea.
How can Miles talk to dead people? - He just can. And has been able to since he was a little kid.
Who built the donkey wheel under the Orchid? - No idea. It was there when Dharma investigated anyway.
What was the vaccine for that Desmond kept injecting himself with? Did it really help protect him from something or was it just a ruse of some kind? - No idea.
What happened to Kelvin's body? - Taken by Smokey? By Jacob's nemesis? No idea.
How come Dharma people seemed to be present at both Locke's and Ben's births? (Alpert in Locke's case and Goodspeed in Ben's.) - Hmmm. Well, not sure abour Horace. But Alpert was at Locke's birthplace because Locke had told him to be there while time-traveling.
What happened to Annie?- No idea.
Was Charlotte born on the island? - YES!
What's the origin of Alpert's people, aka The Hostiles? - People brought by Jacob and their decendents?
How and why did Walt appear on the island, both to Shannon and Locke? - No idea.
Why did the monster kill Eko? (Other than the fact that the actor wanted off the show...) - Because it felt like it and he wasn't sorry like Ben was? Maybe.
What was behind Charlie's weird visions of Aaron in danger from "Fire + Water"? - No idea.
What happened to Christian and Yemi's bodies? - No idea.
Was the psychic who sent Claire off on the 815 flight a real psychic or a fraud? - No idea.
What did Ben do to call up the Smoke Monster? - Pulled the plug in his basement.
Who is Ms Hawking who turned up in Desmond's time-travel flashbacks? - Answered! She is Daniel's mom. Ex-leader of the Others. And one tough cookie with a lot of knowledge about a lot of stuff.
What's up with the Hurley Bird? - No frikking idea.

Lots of answers! But a lot of them are answers that just lead to more questions. Oh well. Maybe next season all of them will be answered. Even the Walt stuff? Even the Charlie stuff? Perhaps. Hope springs eternal.

Screencaps thanks to lostpedia, lost-media and lost.cubit.net.

My prediction!

2009-05-21T07:14:00.003-07:00

So yes, I'm obsessed with Lost. Why do you ask? Sure, it will fade a bit before the last season starts up, only to flare up again when it does.

Anyway. I was thinking about this past season and that tptb probably put in a lot of stuff that will have payoffs somehow next season. One scene I remembered that we have yet to see explained, was from The Little Prince when the time-skipping Losties on the island flashed to a point in time where they found the outrigger canoes at their old beach camp. And an Ajira bottle... Yep, that's right: they were in the same time as FakeLocke and Ilana et al at the end of the season! And they got shot at when they took one of the canoes. Who shot at them? We still haven't found out. Which is weird really, since we've seen the interconnections of other moments in time-skipping time already.

What I wonder is this: what if they're shot at by themselves? What if the Losties in 1977 flash to 2007/present day storywise. And what if they're still at the same place. And what if they run from there to the beach and get a canoe. And for some reason I don't know yet, they fire at the people they see in another canoe?

I could be wrong. Hey, with Lost I'm wrong a lot. But whoever it is that fired/fires on them, I do think it is a big reveal. It will either be themselves or some new group perhaps that we haven't seen yet.

Interesting point about that outrigger chase: at that point, there were three Locke's on the island. Dead Locke, Fake Locke and Time-skipping Locke. And they all existed in a time frame when Fake Locke was intent on going to see Jacob, or had already managed to get him killed.

Screencaps thanks to lost-media.

Tapestry update!

2009-05-20T14:34:00.003-07:00

Thanks so much to poster Tarquinius over at DarkUfo, who has now read the last line of text on the tapestry.

Hey, our guess was not wrong after all.

It goes: μόνοι τὸ τοῦ πολέμου τέλος ἑωράκασι '...only they have seen the end of the war'. There

By the way: this quote is not from Plato. It is a translation into Ancient Greek.

Poster Calliope at The Fuselage pointed out previously that the quote may be from George Santayana and is often wrongly attributed to Plato. I looked up Santayana, and there are some interesting things mentioned on his wiki page:

O world, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world, and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul’s invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.

And intriguingly in the context of the tapestry:

Happiness is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment.

That life is worth living is the most necessary of assumptions and, were it not assumed, the most impossible of conclusions.

Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

I'm so glad there are people who know how to read Ancient Greek!

More pics of the tapestry

2009-05-19T15:31:00.003-07:00

There are several more screencaps of the tapestry available now. They're part of the promo pics for the finale.

That last line of Greek text should be readable now!

Screencaps from ABC.com, thanks to lost-media.

Ripped tapestry

2009-05-19T07:03:00.003-07:00

Great job by poster dylan_1200 at The Fuselage, photoshopping the tapestry and the piece from the cabin together.

It's definitely a match. Now we just need to find out who ripped it or cut it off the tapestry and who left it in the cabin!

Image thanks to dylan_1200.

Lost Latin

2009-05-18T21:14:00.006-07:00

It's interesting that while the question Ilana's group was asking (What lies in the shadow of the statue?) was posed in English, the reply from Richard was in Latin. We've already seen it mentioned on the show that The Others speak Latin: at least when they don't want outsiders to understand what they're saying. Like when young psycho Widmore and his flunky ran into the time-skipping losties. Juliet knew right away that they were Others just because of the Latin. I wonder if the question was supposed to be, or once was, in Latin too?

The use of Latin by The Others is interesting. From Wikipedia:

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Latin survived as the lingua franca of educated classes in the West, and this survival was reinforced by the adoption of Latin by the Catholic Church. In this milieu, it survived as a mother tongue at least into the second millennium A.D. and is referred to as Medieval Latin. The Renaissance briefly reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken language, through its adoption by the Renaissance Humanists. After the 16th century, the popularity of Medieval Latin began to decline. Few people still speak it in the present day.

So it could be assumed that The Others as we know them on the show came into being sometime between the fall of the Roman empire and say, 18th century.

On a more personal and shallow note, I am definitely hoping for more Latin spoken by Alpert. That man knows how to make even the smallest phrase sound... pleasing.

Screencaps thanks to lost-media.

The tapestry

2009-05-16T10:40:00.004-07:00

The tapestry from the finale is so gorgeous that I will make another post about it. Some interesting tidbits from Lostpedia:

His tapestry depicts a pair of wings outstretched from an encircled Eye of Horus, and what appear to be seventeen long arms emanating like rays out from the eye. The hands at the ends of the arms grope for human figures who appear to be at the mercy of the hands, while on either side a king sits in a throne and observes.

Across the top of the tapestry is emblazoned a quote from Homer's Odyssey in upper case ancient Greek: ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΣΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ ΟΣΑ ΦΡΕΣΙ ΣΗΣΙ ΜΕΝΟΙΝΑΣ. The original sentence, modified to lower case, is σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τόσα δοῖεν ὅσα φρεσὶ σῇσι μενοινᾷς (transcribed as theoi tosa doien hosa phresi sêisi menoinais), belongs to Book 6, line 180 and means, "may the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires". [1]
Another passage is woven into the middle of the tapestry. It can be only partly seen, but the passage in full reads, ΘΕΟΙ ΔΕ ΤΟΙ ΟΛΒΙΑ ΔΟΙΕΝ. The original sentence, modified to lowercase, is θεοὶ δέ τοι ὄλβια δοῖεν (transcribed as theoi de toi olbia doien), which means, "may the gods grant thee happiness". It occurs twice in the Odyssey: Book 8, line 413 and Book 24, line 402. [2] [3]
The tapestry also depicts numerous other figures laboring to harvest wheat, and Ancient Egyptian sailboats along the bottom.

And this trivia note is really interesting: the writers sure do weave little details in!

The first line is similar to the start of Psalm 20:4, "May He grant you your heart's desire...", and Psalm 20:1 starts out "May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!"

Jacob's loom...

This tapestry is surely one of the most beautiful props ever seen on Lost. I really hope it becomes available as a poster!

Screencaps thanks to darkufo and lost-media.

Wild theory about Ben

2009-05-16T08:41:00.003-07:00

Several posters at the Fuselage have mentioned that in the Bible, Jacob has a son called Benjamin. Could that be the relationship between the show's Benjamin Linus and Jacob? Sounds nuts, but it made me think of something that has always bugged me about The Others. When Locke was going to become leader, he had to kill his dad first. They even brought his dad all the way from the mainland to the island so he could do it. So, it seems that to become leader of The Others you first have to kill your father: horrific right?

We saw Ben kill Roger in the Purge. But it's intriguing to speculate: what if Roger wasn't his dad? What if Jacob was his father? What if this is Jacob's loophole: he is killed but at the same time Ben becomes the true leader of the Others because he has now, finally, killed his real father? Maybe this has something to do with Ben being saved by Alpert/The Others when he was a child: whatever happened then may mean that even if Jacob wasn't his biological father, he is his "real" father somehow?

Ben never got to see Jacob before, because he hadn't fulfilled the requirements of leadership. It would make the scene with Jacob at the end of the finale really poignant in a way: Ben meets his father for the first time and kills him.

Not sure I even want this theory to be true, but I can't help thinking about it. The requirement to kill your father always seemed so harsh and barbaric to me. And whether Jacob is Ben's father, the scene when Ben kills them was in many ways a patricide regardless: Ben had followed this "invisible father" for so long, and their confrontation was in many ways like a confrontation between a father and son.

Screencaps thanks to getlostpodcast.

The Incident of My Blown Mind

2009-05-16T07:31:00.008-07:00

So I'm still totally blown away by Lost's season finale. The implications and hints and revelations and questions are crowding my brain in a way that makes it almost impossible for me to do anything I'm supposed to do!

Some thoughts rushing through my brain:

Good catch by a poster at The Fuselage: the piece of cloth Ilana found in the cabin had been torn off from the tapestry Jacob had made and that was hanging on the wall inside the statue. Who put it there? And was the cabin Jacob's or not? Was the ash to keep him in, or someone else in, or was it to protect it from something entering it?

Btw, that tapestry is gorgeous. I want it for my very own. Can I put in an order with Jacob I wonder?

Maybe Ilana was looking for Alpert at the cabin? Though why she would, I don't know since I don't think he ever lived there. However, once her party got to the statue, it's him she asks for quite specifically and without hesitation, not Jacob (though maybe she knows it's bad form to do so, and that you have to go through Alpert to get in to see Jacob?).

Why did Jacob seemingly accept his fate so readily? His "What about you" (a wonderful scene and so intense at fraught with emotion and meaning that I can't get it out of my head) to Ben did not try to placate or soothe at all. Is this an Aslan-moment followed by resurrection? A Judas-moment of betrayal for Ben? Certainly Fake Locke looked less than pleased to hear that "they are coming".

How has Jacob been leaving the island? Physically traveling off it or transporting himself off it in another way?

Is the NotJacob man Smokey? Or at least tied to him. Is he able to only take the shape of people who are dead and whose bodies are on the island? When Ben met Alpert for the very first time, they have an interesting convo about Ben's vision:

BEN: Mom..? Mom? Mom! Mom! Mom!
[Ben hears the whispers, and then turns to see a long-haired Richard Alpert standing behind him]
RICHARD: Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. Whoa, hey, hey, whoa, I didn't mean to scare you. Wait, wait! Are you lost? Wait!
BEN: Are you one of them?
RICHARD: One of whom?
BEN: A hostile.
RICHARD: Do you even know what that word means? What's your name?
BEN: Ben.
RICHARD: Ben? So you wanna tell me what you're doing in the middle of the jungle all by yourself?
BEN: I left home, and...I'm looking for my Mom.
RICHARD: You think she's out here?
BEN: You wouldn't believe me.
RICHARD: Try me.
BEN: She's dead.
RICHARD: Did she die here, on the Island?
BEN: No. When I was a baby.
RICHARD: Did you see her, out here, Ben, in the jungle?
BEN: She talked to me.
RICHARD: What did she say?
BEN: That I couldn't come with her. She said it wasn't time yet.
RICHARD: You should go home now, your people will be looking for you.
BEN: I don't want to go back there! I hate it there! Take me with you.
RICHARD: Maybe that can happen, maybe. But if that's what you really want, Ben, if that's what you want, I want you to really think about that. And you're gonna have to be very, very patient.

If Smokey/Esau can only take the shape of people who died on the island (and/or if their bodies are there), then Alpert is basically asking this to find out if Ben is really having visions of dead people (sent by Jacob?) or if he's being lured by Smokey. Seems Ben's was the real deal at this point.

Could it be that Jacob also uses the shapes of dead people to contact people? His convo with Hurley in The Incident seems to hint at that. Maybe Hurley's visions are "true" visions also: maybe they are even communications from Jacob? Jacob does call his ability a "blessing"...

Anyway, Ben seems to have had true visions as a child. Was his murder of Jacob a necessary act, something Jacob knew was coming and did not try to stop? Kind of like Judas and Jesus? Or has Ben been manipulated by Esau into betraying Jacob? Or has Ben maybe unwittingly (or not) been serving Esau's side all along? He did kill Locke, and that was something Esau/Smokey wanted.

I still think there might be more to Ben, just as I think there might be more to dead Locke.

In some ways, Ben's situation right now is the same situation Locke found himself in when he lost faith in the hatch. First Locke spent all that time believing it was the right thing to do to push the button. Then, after Ben lied and told him the button didn't do anything, Locke started to lose faith in it and ended up causing the whole exploding hatch debacle.

This time, because of FakeLocke's manipulations, Ben loses faith in the one thing he had believed in blindly, even though he'd never seen him: Jacob. And Ben ends up killing him.

Ben is a liar, but he didn't lie about serving Jacob all those years. And I don't think he lied to The Others about seeing Jacob: that lie was for Locke only. Alpert obviously knew that Ben couldn't see Jacob and didn't even know where he was. It's interesting to go back and read the transcript of The Man Behind the Curtain, considering what we know now.

And what about Jack's dad? Are there two manifestations of him as has been long speculated, set apart by their shoes? One "good" wearing the white tennis shoes, and one "sinister" version wearing dark shoes. And then we also have Dead Locke wearing Jack's dad's shoes. Weirdness!

I loved the scene with Ilana and Alpert at the statue.
The relief on her face when he said the right words, and the surprise? worry? on Alpert's face as though he was retrieving a long-gone memory, a memory of something he learned long ago and had almost forgotten... wow. It was powerful. Ricardus is still a major player and I hope we get to see WAY more of him next season. His line that "I am the way I am because of Jacob" was another gem.
I really got the feeling Alpert had a VERY bad feeling about the whole thing with Locke and Ben going in to see Jacob. His comment to Sun about wishing he had some booze was telling. He was severely rattled. Was he rattled because he knew that something bad or at least tragic was going down inside the statue? Or was he starting to suspect that he had been played by FakeLocke?

By the looks of things,NotJacob did pull a very elaborate con on Richard, Ben and Real Locke to maneuver them all into the position of "betraying" Jacob. But is that what actually happened? Jacob seems to have been aware that something was up: asking Ilana for help, resurrecting Locke (if that's what happened) after his fall, and maybe maybe also healing Ben once upon a time when he was a child. Does Ben remember what happened when he was healed I wonder?

So many things to think about. And the statue: is it Sobek or Taweret or something else or just an invention for the show? At this point, I think it's Sobek or a variation of him. How come Jacob's enemy didn't seem to know where Jacob was btw? Was that just part of the ruse? After all, at the very start of the show, Jacob told the other man that when he found his loophole, he (Jacob) would be right there. And where were they: yes, at the statue.

That opening conversation between the two of them was short but so heavy with meaning. "They come, they kill, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same." "It only ends once. Everything that comes before that is progress." (With excuses for it not being word for word exactly what they said. Still waiting for Lostpedia's transcript.) I really hope both actors are back next season because they were both spectacular. I also got a heavy brother-vibe from them. Enemies tied together very close somehow.

I think for me, this was Lost's best ep ever. Especially if I could erase all the Kate and triangle/quadrangle nonsense.

Can't wait to see what Hurley's role is next season and what the heck is in the guitar case! Talk about a MacGuffin!

Screencaps thanks to lost-media, lostpedia and DarkUfo.

It's Taweret

2009-05-14T15:53:00.001-07:00

According to the recap at ABC.com, the statue is Taweret.

Amazing that it can still look so much like a male body with a croc head. LOL.

Odyssey and Lost

2009-05-14T13:18:00.003-07:00

Very cool stuff:
It's from Audibly Lost:

The line, translated as "May heaven grant you in all things your heart's desire," is part of what Odysseus says to Nausicaa as he is thanking her for clothing and food.

"And now, O queen, have pity upon me, for you are the first person I have met, and I know no one else in this country. Show me the way to your town, and let me have anything that you may have brought here to wrap your clothes in. May heaven grant you in all things your heart's desire - husband, house, and a happy, peaceful home; for there is nothing better in this world than that man and wife should be of one mind in a house. It discomfits their enemies, makes the hearts of their friends glad, and they themselves know more about it than any one."

Black and White

2009-05-14T11:03:00.004-07:00

Locke's statement from S1, when he talked about backgammon with Walt now seem to pretty much explain the basics of the show: two sides, one black and one white.

LOCKE: Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That's older than Jesus Christ.

WALT: Did they have dice and stuff?

LOCKE: [nods] Mhhm. But theirs weren't made of plastic. Their dice were made of bones.

WALT: Cool.

LOCKE: Two players. Two sides. One is light … one is dark. Walt, do you want to know a secret?

It's interesting to me that S1 Locke was more like Fake Locke than the Locke we've seen before the island, or in his later days on the island. Was he always under Bad Guy's spell? Even though Jacob touched him/resurrected him?

How long have Jacob and Bad Guy been around? Since Egyptian times? Longer? Are they Jacob and Esau like some people speculate at The Fuselage?

Brain. Melting.

Remember how Walt told Locke he'd seen him in a vision with people wanting to hurt him? Did we see that yet? Or is that coming up in S6? So did Walt then see Fake Locke in his vision?

How ironic is it that it now seems that Ben was one of the "good guys"? He was working for Jacob all that time. He was carrying out his will. He had faith in Jacob. Only to be tricked by the Fake Locke into killing Jacob at the end. Except, maybe, Jacob knew that would happen? Was the "What about you?" moment a Judas-moment? Jacob knew Ben would kill him and that was why he had asked Ilana to help him. Something more is going on here than "just" Ben and Locke being used as dupes by Jacob's nemesis.

The Incident Blew My Mind

2009-05-14T07:17:00.002-07:00

OMFG.

What an episode. That's almost all I can say tonight. That and: DIE KATE DIE! Jack won't ask her for a date but will blow up the island to get her to forget she hates him? Ummm... yea...

Other than that this was frikking awesomeness!!! So much just ... wow... I can barely speak because the show completely blew my mind last night.

The opening scene was classic Lost. They gave us Jacob, just like that: here he is! this is what he looks like! and he's like totally old! BUT at the same time they give us Frenemy Black Shirt and we don't know his name and we have no f-ing idea who he is or what his agenda is, except that it seems he doesn't want people coming to the island.

Was the loophole the Frenemy had looked for, was that Ben? Unhappy, neglected Ben who had never been allowed to see Jacob? Did "all the stuff he went through" to kill Jacob have to do with "creating" this Ben: this unhappy, manipulating liar who lost his daughter? Well that and convincing people that Locke should be leader but then taking Locke's place by getting him to die and be shipped to the island? And then getting Ben to kill Locke and listen to him and take his orders? Did Smokey Alex/Monster know that Locke was not really Locke when it told Ben to listen to him and obey? Because either the monster is on Jacob's side and was fooled, or the monster is on Frenemy's side and always has been...

I wonder if Frenemy can leave the island? Maybe he can't. And how does Jacob leave the island anyway?

And Richard knew Ilana's password! And she was "recruited" by Jacob! So it would seem she works for Jacob in some capacity. Who was she looking for in the cabin surrounded by ash? Frenemy? Because Jacob didn't live in the cabin, so maybe whoever Hurley and Locke saw there was the Frenemy? Did the ash keep him trapped and then someone let him out? Christian maybe? But then Christian is probably the Frenemy, because I don't know how he could be Jacob...

And I think Hurley is going to play a huge role. Jacob recruited him too: and left the guitar case. Whatever is in there was from Jacob imo.

The whole "I blow everything up for Kate" stuff was so f-ing lame and stupid and WEAK that I will try to wipe it from my mind. The rest of the ep was brilliant, but that was DUMB! So dumb I wanted to slap people. And the Radzinsky character was like some B-movie villain of dumbness too.

However: Richard. Oh my. His hotness in this episode was astounding. I swear the man is ageless sex on a stick. "I am the way I am because of Jacob". I want my Alpert flashback dammit!

Did anyone else thing Locke was dead when he fell out the window and that Jacob brought him back to life?

The ep absolutely rocked, apart from the Kate crap and Juliet dying. But I kind of knew that was coming.

More when my brain cools.

Follow the leader: entering WTF territory

2009-05-06T22:09:00.001-07:00

Alpert making a Black Rock in a bottle. How cool was that? But...

Kill Jacob? WTF? Add to that the fact that New Locke is the person who told Alpert to tell Old Locke to a) get off the island, b) get everyone back and c) he'd have to die. Wha? What the hell does that mean?

I'm starting to wonder if perhaps there has been a feud between two factions on the island for a looooong time and one side is headed by Jacob. The other side has tried to get rid of Jacob for a loooong time, but has not been able to find him, for whatever reason. (Whatever it is that's possessing or informing New Locke, it doesn't know where Jacob is.) Now that side has managed to "take over" Locke and since he's leader of the Others, that side now has a chance to find Jacob and take him out. As to who is good and who is evil, I've got no idea at this point.

Interesting that Locke thinks Ben was never able to see or hear Jacob. That's what I've always suspected myself, and Ben didn't deny it. Was Ben faking his connection to Jacob all this time? I think he might have been.

If Locke wants to kill Jacob, then that would mean that the Smoke Monster also wants Jacob dead, since Smokey told Ben to do whatever Locke told him to. So is Smokey involved with the other side? I have no clue. I feel totally mindblown at the moment, but as long as there's Alpert, I'm alright.

Btw, how weak is Sun? All she does is spout off about Jin and show pictures. At the beginning of the season she seemed to be all kick-ass, but now she's more wimpy than ever before.

Btw, the pic above here and the conversation it shows, seems to indicate that Eloise is pregnant: with Daniel? I'd say he'd have to be older, but tptb seem to have the age thing totally mixed up: Charlotte is older than Daniel? Eh...

Funniest scene: Chang interrogating Hurley! LOL. As for the Sawyer/Kate/Juliet stuff... less said the better. Though I do think Phil better watch his back if Sawyer does come back to the island. And Jack's exchange with Kate: "Enough of it was." HA! Burn Kate, BURN!

This show's nuts. Totally frakking nuts now. But with Sayid and Alpert to look at, I think I can handle it.

Screencaps thanks to getlostpodcast.com.

The Hunt For Gollum: World Premiere!

2009-05-03T21:13:00.003-07:00

It's out and I've seen it, including the behind the scenes segment. What an amazing accomplishment! This movie looks so good, it's impossible to imagine that it was made for a nothing-budget of 3000 British pounds. See it. That's all I can say. See. it.

Click here.

Congratulations to my friend Julianne who worked so hard and so long on this project. I hope this brings you and the rest of the crew many great opportunities!

More thoughts on The Variable

2009-05-02T15:42:00.006-07:00

The more I think about The Variable, the more I think it is one of the most crucial episodes of Lost this season, maybe ever. I've seen a lot of disappointment around the Lost-verse that the ep didn't deliver, that it didn't have more Desmond or what not, and I kind of understand it a little bit. Mainly I think the episode failed to knock it out of the park because the acting was a little iffy at times: Daniel Faraday crying was not a good thing as acting goes. And Daniel Faraday the grownup on the swings with Charlotte the child was kind of icky, at least to me. I knew they'd show us that scene eventually, but it played out very awkwardly imo.

Still, The Variable has stuck in my mind like few episodes have. It hinted at so many big, nay HUGE, things: game-changing things even. And it also managed to finally humanize the odd character of Mrs Hawking. Up until now I've felt that she's been an odd duck. She kind of worked as Desmond's mysterious time-oracle, but when we saw her in LA with the pendulum, she just seemed... weird. Too school-marmish, too heavy on the hair and accent and too imperious and mysterious. I love Fionnula Flanagan, and I wonder if some of the awkwardness of the character came from her not knowing the most important fact about her: that she had killed Daniel, her own son. Actors on the show often don't know stuff like that until it's in their scripts. And maybe the weirdness and non-realism of her character was increased because the writers kept a tight reign on her so as not to reveal her true past.

Because Hawking's past introduces a MAJOR new puzzle piece. And I mean major. As in game-changer. She has had the most horrible life I could imagine: raising a child you KNOW you are destined to one day kill, even though you don't want to. Either she thinks that the past and future can not be changed, or she thinks that changing things would be worse than even shooting her own child. In either case, it sucks. But does she really think it's all fixed and "whatever happened, happened"? Why then was she pushing Des so hard to not change his mind about Penny? Why was she pushing Daniel so hard? If there is only one way for things to play out, then why work so hard making them go a certain way? Her behaviour instead seems to hint that it IS possible to change the way things play out, but that she is convinced it should NOT change. Even at the price of her son's life.

She told Desmond that he had to get to the island and push the button "to save the world". Maybe that was the truth? Maybe that is what she still thinks she is doing? Is she sacrificing her son to save the world?

The wider implication of The Variable is this:

Eloise Hawking knew from 1977 that she would kill her son. She will also see his journal, and probably take possession of it. She will read it and find out everything Daniel will work on in the future. She will know Desmond is his constant. I think both she and Widmore will be working from the 70s onwards to make things happen the way they happened. Whether they do so in collusion or separately. That is why Eloise raises Daniel the way she does, and that is why Widmore treats Desmond the way he does.

But it doesn't stop with Des and Daniel. Probably Eloise in 1977 will meet at least Jack and Kate, if not all the losties. She knows they have a part to play too. Will she manipulate their lives too? Will Widmore? Did Widmore and Hawking manipulate ALL the losties lives so that they would all end up on flight 815 and crash on the island? And how does Jack's reason for being on the flight - the death of his father - figure into that? Was that also a manipulation? And what role does "the island" play/ed?

I think what The Variable hints at is that there might have been a long-standing conspiracy to get not just Des and Daniel to end up on the island, but the other losties as well. It also hints that things CAN be changed because of the way Daniel managed to "send a message" to Desmond by talking to him in the past, telling him to contact his mother. Was that a new twist? It certainly seemed to be something Hawking had not counted on.

Hawking is now a majorly important character. I hope we get to see more of her. This more human and tragic version of Eloise is a lot more compelling than the mysterious oracle, and I hope to see more of her both in her on-island incarnation and in Fionnula Flanagan's off-island Hawking. Hawking's and Widmore's roles have suddenly jumped to the forefront. And so has Des. He might not have gotten a lot of screentime in The Variable, but he is still vitally important I bet.

Screencaps thanks to Lostpedia.

Desmond and Daniel

2009-05-02T07:15:00.002-07:00

Thinking more about this week's ep, The Variable. It seems to me that the whole tie-in with Desmond in the hospital hints heavily at something very important. Hawking raised Daniel knowing what would happen to him. I'm betting she will have access to his journal on the island in the 70s, maybe she will even take possession of it. That means she will be able to read about all the things Daniel will find/found out. Like Desmond being his constant. Which means that, just like we have seen before on the show, she is bound to push Desmond into performing HIS role on the island just so that he can be Daniel's constant.

Is this why Widmore treated Desmond the way he did in regards to Penny and other things? I'm betting the answer is yes. Hawking and Widmore have been manipulating these two for a looooong time. Considering that Hawking will now probably meet up with at least Jack and Kate on the island, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that she (and Widmore?) will be attempting to manipulate their lives too. I can't wait to see how all this plays out!

What if...

2009-05-01T21:57:00.003-07:00

Thinking about what will happen next on Lost. What if Jack and Kate, with the help of The Others, try to set off the bomb like Faraday wanted. But maybe instead of preventing the "incident", it causes another "incident"... say, like creating Jacob or at least putting whoever Jacob is into that predicament. Totally throwing someone "out of time", while also creating the fertility issues on the island.

Next week can NOT come fast enough!