All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.
-J. R. R. Tolkien
So its been three years and Kate keeps going through that last day on the island and trying to make sense of it. What I'm trying to make sense of is how are they protecting the people on the island by lying? I mean, it makes sense to lie because who would believe them and because who wants to make Widmore (or whoever planted the shipwreck - is there another option?) a bigger enemy, but how is that protecting them? So I guess they decided to go along with the shipwreck story that everyone saw on TV and that's why then chose where to be found. Nobody can even find the island though, so how does that protect them? Sounds more like protecting yourselves. I guess if they tell the truth and someone does start an investigation into it all and goes after Widmore they are thinking he found it once so he could find it again and when he does ... but those chances don't seem high.
Who's still alive and on the island (besides the Others): Sawyer, Juliette, Charlotte, Miles, Rose, Bernard, Locke (at least until he gets killed) - will we see Michael as a specter? Jacob's representative Christian finally released him and let him die.
Who's futures are not perfectly clear: Claire - I suppose that the fact that she came to visit Aaron and Kate like the other specters confirms that she is dead and probably died in the house explosion that Sawyer 'rescued' her from, but still. She did seem different than the other specter visitors who always seem indifferent and condescending. I suppose it could have just been a dream after all ... Daniel - I am going to assume that he and those extras in the raft with him were still close enough to the island to vanish with it, but that's not for sure. Jin. Okay, so it seems a far stretch that he could possibly still be alive since the ship blew up and even if he did make it he had no island to swim back to. That was one of the most frustrating scenes - they totally had two seconds to wait for him. Kate tried to run in after him, Desmond and Sun were yelling to wait, bot noooo, Jack had to go. Sun's screams were heart-wrenching. I suppose they needed Jin to go to fuel Sun into the bold and calculating woman we saw in the future - I love it, but it will be very interesting to see how deeply she has let herself hate and what she is now capable of. Does she want to work with Widmore to destroy her father or for his help to find the island? Both?
Who has to come back to the island: Jack, Kate, Aaron, Sayid, Hurley, Sun, Walt (Poor, tall, ugly haircut Walt, who none of the 6 came to see). I presume 'all' refers to the flight members, not to Desmond or Frank. What is Ben's investment in getting them back - is it all about revenge and the game he is playing with Widmore? Does he want to get back into the Island's good graces? He claimed that whoever moves the island can't come back. Is this true? Perhaps by telling Locke that and by moving the island himself he keeps a certain degree of power/allegiance with the island. Now we know why he had the parka on and a cut on his arm, when he was cranking the gears in the Journey-to-the-Center-of-the-Earthesque ice chamber, but how did he get to Tunisia? When the island moved did it just teleported him to Tunisia by default? It doesn't seem to be a random location since he had been there before, his fake name was in the hotel records. Hmmmm, Ben, Ben, Ben... what is up your sleeve? PS, you were freaking me out when you went all Psycho on Keamy! (I wonder if we'll see Keamy in flashes next season.)
The Others do stick to their promises. Wasn't that a weird look between Sayid and Kate though when they saved Ben and fought Keamy? Was there more to the bargain than we heard?
The Coffin: the two biggest theories for who was in the coffin have always been Locke and Ben. I had always leaned towards Ben based on Kate's disdainful reaction to Jack when he asked her is she was going to go. The minute Ben walked into the room though, it had to be Locke. Who killed you Locke, and made it look like a suicide? Was it Sayid? I have to admit, I was extremely proud of myself for remembering the name Jeremy Bentham as the coffin guy from the finale last year. So, Locke, why the alias? Is it simply to be incognito because John Locke is supposed to be dead and because Widmore's guys are probably after you? -
"Jeremy Bentham was one of the founders of the Utilitarian philosophy in the 19th century - the path to goodness consists of finding or doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Bentham developed this philosophy with James Mill, whose son, John Stuart Mill, refined it (JS Mill argued, correctly I think, that there are qualitative differences between goods - saving someones life is worth much more than giving someone $100 as charity). Bentham is also known for devising the Panopticon prison - a design which allows the prison guard to observe all prisoners, who are unaware that they're being observed."
This name goes along with some of the other philosophical names chosen for characters on the show. So Locke/Bentham has been coming to see all of them. He came to see Walt, and by the fact that Hurley recognised the name he must have come to see him too (everyone else is coming to see Hurley, so why not?) and Jack confirmed that he had come to both himself and to Kate.
The islands wrath: Is it on Jack specifically or on all of them for leaving? Jack was certainly taking it personally, but if they all need to come back, then its really all of there faults that bad things have been happening since they left. Next season they will hopefully provide flashes of Locke's visits. Ooh, zinger on Jack when Locke said, 'If you lie to them half as well as you do to yourself...' Was it always meant to happen like this - for Locke to die because Jack was meant to be the leader? His tattoo says something like, "He is among them, but he is not one of them." Will that come into play again? Could Jack have been like Locke on the island if he had gotten over his cynicism and insecurity and let himself believe? It seems that Aaron is the chosen one who will end up the new Locke, though. That kid is a miraculous survivor like John.
Here's the thing though, we're getting some mixed signals from the island. All the visitors from the island are telling them we need you, come back, but then Claire comes and says don't you dare take him back. Are there two conflicting powers on the island? Is what Jacob/Christian/Claire wants different from what Richard/Locke/The Others want? It shouldn't be too hard to find everyone, its just a matter of convincing them. Ben knows how to reach Sayid who knows how to reach Hurley, in his new Sayid instigated witness protection program. Will Sayid be coming to collect the others - I presume they are all being watched.
Aaaaaaah Sawyer - could I love you any more? That was beautiful. Had to love Sawyer's grin when he came swimming out of the ocean and saw Juliette boozing it up and he was just as casual as ever. I guess they'll be assuming their friends are dead. It makes me even more frustrated with jerkface Jack for being such a bum about Kate following through with Sawyer's last whispered wish. (Which was most likely about his daughter Clementine.) I get that he is feeling guilty and confused... I think next season will be kind of a redemption season for Jack.
Best acting moment: No surprise, it goes to Michael Emerson as Ben. In the Orchid when Locke asks him if that's the magic box and Ben shook his head in frustration and said, 'no John, its not,' and then spoke to him like he was five ... classic. When brief conversation between Ben and Pretty Eyes Richard was also amusing.
Most satisfying episode moment: The Des and Penny reunion. Oh sweetness. I hope you are happy and I hope that you can avoid Ben and I hope to see much more of you both.
Most intriguing new character development: Charlotte - So she 'finally' got 'back' to the island and she is still trying to figure out where she was born. What? whas she born there? Is she somehow a key in the island pregnancy dilemma?
Biggest question in my mind right now: When they do finally find and get back to the island, wherever it may be, how much time will have passed on the island? The Orchid video said it was a study of space and time both, so when the island moved did it move both space and time? It would be nice to get some more history of the island itself.
See you in another season, Brotha.
Some other thoughts:
Was the lamp Ben lit before he moved the island a nod to the lamppost in "The Chronicles of Narnia" – the same lamppost that served as an axis mundi? In Narnia (at least in the beginning) you needed a parka, too – because it was always winter and never Christmas.
Practically speaking - how are they going to um... preserve "Jeremy Bantham" while they gather the gang for another trip to Mystery Island?
So the Oceanic 6's web of lies was Locke's idea to protect the island and those left behind; how heartbreaking that the lies failed to protect him!
What are all those flowers at the The Orchid station?? It makes me think of Anaconda, where the scientists were seeking this rare flower that contained the "fountain of youth" (Alpert, anyone????) or miracle cure (but Jack doesn't believe in miracles…….or does the fact that in the flash forwards he ends up lying about the island prove that John convinced him otherwise? As well as the survival of all when the helicopter crashed (Kate, re: Aaron: "He survived. It's a miracle…)………
- "You can go now Michael…."Is Christian the angel of death? Father time? The Grim Reaper? Some other concept of life being taken away?
Needing a dead Locke to get back to the island.....I wonder if Christian being dead and on the plane was an important part to crashing on the island in the first place?
So, why did Ben knock out the time travel portal? I noticed he did use the tunnel behind it, but did it need to be deactivated before moving? Was the tunnel placed there because it had to be knocked out? Or was that coincidence? Will there be a time travel portal at the new locale?
If Lapidus and Desmond stayed on Penny's yacht (different ship than the "Searcher" ship she chartered?), then who was the person we saw off camera last episode in the Oceanic plane that commenters here said she said HI to? (referring to the Oceanic representative who went back to prep the six for their mainland landing - on her way back to them on the plane she nodded to some unknown person off camera)
Where is "someplace safe" that Sayid took Hurley?Why does Echo suck so much at chess?The Others' whispers (through the phone!) in Kate's nightmare were freaky. So was all the electromagnetism/light/sound when the island got moved.
Didn't anyone else get the feeling when Ben said to Locke, "I'm sorry I made your life so miserable," he wasn't talking about his island life only – but Locke's ENTIRE life? That he was somehow connected to all of Locke's heartbreak before the Island? And to those who took offense when I said Ben was the devil last episode – I have one word for you: "So." That's just what the devil would say if he were told that everyone on the freighter had just been killed!
If John Locke has always been seen as a sort of "savior" or "prophet" to the Island... does this mean that he dies but is "reborn" three days later when the Oceanic Six return to the Island? Talk about fulfilling prophecies and proving you are truly a miracle!
I have an interesting observance on the 4-toed statue…I know it's been posited before that the island was connected to something else at some point. Like, a body of land. Curiously, there are no rocks or land under where the other foot of a completed statue would belong, just some sandy beach…. So something. at one point, was there to sustain the rest of the statue. But now that we know that the island is MOBILE … I can imagine in my mind's eye a point in time in which the island was very close to another body of land. Which leaves my mind wondering, imagining: If indeed our lost island was at once attached to another body of land, or was one large island rendered in two by some cosmic force, (creation narratives, anyone?) where is the other body of land? We don't have in our real world any parallel missing foot, though it could have been dismantled, I suppose, on our end. However, the whole time/space travel issues seem to negate that possibility. I don't think the island was ever "attached" in a literal sense, to anything in "our world." So, could there be another "Island" - a white to its black, a yin to its yang, a good to its evil, – a similarly hidden place that is in contention with it, or that completes it in harmony? This seems to fit seamlessly into the mythology of the show. It would seem that were this the case, there would be a very fitting world mythology that it would easily embody: the spring of eternal life, a place which if, could be physically found, would offer a cup of living water to those who partake? Regardless, if there is a second invisible land, who inhabits, controls, knows of its location? Does anyone? Does Charles Widmore know more than he's letting on or are he and Ben and even Jacob utterly clueless? Were the original Dharma Initiative's interesting experiments in effort to locate that other land, to rejoin them and thus "save the world"? Or is the world-saving power in a life-giving element of said land? The creators have mandated that the island is not purgatory, but they have never exposed whether AN "island" could be HEAVEN.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
LOST: There's No Place Like Home, Pt. 1
The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was, is lost ...
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Wow, so that was part one of the three part season finale. the last two hours are in two weeks, May 29th, because next week is the two hour Grey's Anatomy finale. Something about this episode felt more like a movie than just a television episode - more epic. Even the music was more melodic and not just the same old Jaws-like theme. It also felt different in that it was really a leading-up-to episode not an answer-some-questions-and-pose-some-new-ones episode and because it wasn't just flashed of one person. Its not just a finale, its a prequel to next season. The beginning of the end for what LOST has been up to this point. Though there will of course be a big cliffhanger ending, after this episode I am sure glad there are still two more hours! Widmore's guys have Ben, Locke has to sneak in and 'move the island' before Widmore can 'torch' it, the Others have Kate and Sayid, there's a big ol' pile of explosives on the freighter...
Oh Jack, your stubborn need to be the hero/martyr and be responsible for everyone is charming and noble and all, but sometimes its just exasperating! So Jack looks you in the eye while lying - I love scenes like that where they throw out little characteristics and things and then show it in action later on. Jack proved it on the Coast Guard plane and at the press conference while everyone else was looking down. On the plane they were all kind of looking at him like, 'how does this lying and leaving our friends come so easily to you?' (Or were they looking at him with a hint of disdain because he made some kind of bargain or did something shady to get them there? Or probably it was his idea to lie and he told them what to say.)
So the island of Mumbada led you to the village of Manukangga in Indonesia. I guess they're not going to find much if they search around Mumbada, cause the real island is outta there.
The arrival. How sad was Kate, all alone and clutching Aaron? Jack's Mom was darling. The Sayid/Nadia reunion was also very sweet and made me much more sad that she dies. I also love that they kind of all stuck close together when they first got back, being supportive. It makes sense for Kate to stick around because she literally doesn't have anyone else, but everyone else could have jumped back into their lives and tried to suppress the island. The coconut in Hurley's (or his parents, I guess) tackily posh house - I admit I was kind of disappointed when it was just an inappropriately themed surprise party and not the island messing with him. The numbers were still there to haunt him though. "Jesus Christ is not a weapon." Ha! Funny comment, but history would suggest otherwise. Sorry you had to find out about Claire that way Jack. The look you gave Aaron was devastating.
Two things were really in the back of my mind during all the flash forwards: 1, when did Kate's trial stuff happen? It must have been one of the very first things or else she would have been in prison, I would think, but based on Jack not wanting to see Aaron and then coming around later and based on the funeral Christian's funeral which would have been right away ... the timing seems off and I am trying to piece it together. (Some of Jack's frustration about Aaron seems more justified now though - not only is he feeling guilty about Claire, but now he knows that Aaron has a biological grandmother out there who should probably rightfully be raising him. Does Jack tell Kate the connection? That's unclear in the flashes we've seen, but I think so. If not, she certainly seemed close enough to hear.) 2, When does Hurley go and see Sun? Its after she has the baby, but presumably also after he starts his descent into insanity once more. When will they tell us what he meant when he asked her if anyone else was there and when she said no and he said good?
Moving the island is dangerous and unpredictable ... and yet you do know how to do it, Mr. Linus, because dangerous and unpredictable is your life philosophy. Ben is so fantastic in an I hate him but I can't help but respect him and can't wait to see what he does next kind of way.
Wow, on that first raft trip over when Sun and Jin got to the freighter I am sure glad we got those extras rescued. I was getting really worried about them. :P It does seem like the raft is coming and going between the island and the freighter a little too easily, but I'll let that slide. I also like that Daniel's word is good. That look that passed between him and Charlotte as he was taking the first group over was interesting. I know they stick together and he digs her and all, but it was a look that perhaps suggested that they still know more than we do about what's happening? I half expected her to insist on being in the first group. I didn't like it when the men ran into the ship and Sun stood there looking at the door - almost like it was going to be the last time she sees Jin or something. Sun! that's my girl getting all feisty and taking control and standing up to your dad! I've never seen you quite so vindictive. I like it. (Who was the other person besides your dad that is responsible for Jin's 'death?' Widmore? Jack? Yourself?) That must have been some settlement that Oceanic gave you guys. I can't help but wonder if, unbeknownst to you since your motives were purely bitter, you have bought into something connected to the island. All the other dad's are connected to the island! Or, does the future of the show simply need Sun to have a lot of money at her disposal and this seemed a practical way to do it?
Have I mentioned that I love Sawyer yet this episode? I know I'm just partial, but the more I watch these flashes I really kind of think that Jack and Kate got together in the future more because they needed that connection to hold onto than because Kate loves Jack more than Sawyer. KAte does have a tendency to love the one she's with, though. I am very anxious to see how they do the Kate and Sawyer parting ways scene. I can see it now, Kate bawling and shaking her head that she won't leave without him and Sawyer saying, 'You've got to go, Kate, and take care of Aaron. I want you to... to check on Clementine now and again and see that she's alright. Now get out of here, Freckles.' Sigh.
PS, I hope that the Others' holding Kate and Sayid means that we get to see the Temple.
Other thoughts:
The rabbits are back! Rabbit's foot keychains on the Coast Guard plane and Hurley's keychain for the Camaro. The rabbits were in the Orchid Station video, right?
I guess the bombs on the freighter are rigged to the detonator on Keamy's arm. If he blows up the freighter, how does he plan to get himself and his crew back to civilization? There must be another freighter or island nearby that the helicoptor can take them to.
I think Widmore concocted the "Official" story of the Oceanic 6. He of all people was desperate for a way to explain how these people who were confirmed dead suddenly pop up.How did Nadia find out about and get to the press conference on the military base? Was it Ben or Widmore? (Hmmm, good question. Maybe Ben, somehow. Maybe he needed to make sure that Sayid was very happy so that he could crush it because only a broken Sayid would work with him)
Did anyone else think the scene where the Oceanic Six first disembark was reminiscent of the mothership landing in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and the aliens slowly descending the open door? If so, what are the writers trying to say about the Oceanic Six? They're now strangers in a strange land? The Island has claimed them, and they will be "aliens" until they return? Is that why they all have so much trouble adapting?
Was anyone else thinking - Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure when Ben pulled his 15 year stash out? In the movie they went back in time and hid things they would need to help them beat the bad guys. What I want to know is... -Why 15 years earlier - what's significant about 1989? Except that's the year Bill and Ted came out. -Why are crackers in the stash - is that Ben's way of thanking Hurley for sharing his Apollo Bar? Last week Kate told Jack - You should eat some crackers. Crackers always make me feel better. (Hmmm, could crackers be truly important to the mythology of the show? Probably not, but it was a clever way to give us a significant date)
Did anyone else get a weird feeling when Sun looked back at the heavy, metal door swinging closed on the ship? it seemed eerie, like something horrible was going to happen to the people inside. i swear i thought the bomb was gonna blow, sending Sun and Aaron into the ocean as the only survivors.although, if this happened, then our poor boy Des would be dead and that would NOT be cool.
Daniel Faraday knew what the Orchid was and what it would do. I don't think he was talking about Keamy and his guys torching the island. I'm pretty sure he knew it would be used to move the island which is why he told Charlotte they needed to leave now.
I know that Ben "passed the baton" to Locke – literally, he gave him that black wand-like thingy, but I don't believe for a single second that Ben thinks he has been replaced as the "chosen" one. Fate may be a fickle b***ch, but Ben is a conniving b*****d.
Business men talking to Mr. Paik - "Whoever did this used five different banks"I assume they're talking about Sun and her purchase of the controlling interest in her father's company. She says it was the Oceanic money but could she be getting funded by ... Charles Widmore? (Ooh, I like it!)
The island Membata was mentioned tonight as the crash site or near the crash site. Just digging around and found the word "membata" is Indonesian for "ambivalent, doubtful, to be uncertain." So even if the Oceanic Six didn't land IN "Membata," they at least ARE "membata" now.The numbers (which it seems we haven't seen in quite some time) make a freaky appearance in Hurley's car. Question - his dad repaired the car as a memorial to his "lost" son. So could the numbers have been there before Hurley left for Sydney? Or was it the island "calling him back" the first sign of many - which when he ignored them, the island sent Charlie instead? Is it possible that other islanders survive as well? Ben clearly does somehow. Michael (or at least Walt) does. Perhaps Juliet did as well. She'd just be able to slip back into society because no one knew where she was to begin with. She could just be finished with her gig and finally reunite with her sister. Desmond too could return from sea and be reunited with Penny - she already knows he's alive and who else would have known he was missing?
- J.R.R. Tolkien
Wow, so that was part one of the three part season finale. the last two hours are in two weeks, May 29th, because next week is the two hour Grey's Anatomy finale. Something about this episode felt more like a movie than just a television episode - more epic. Even the music was more melodic and not just the same old Jaws-like theme. It also felt different in that it was really a leading-up-to episode not an answer-some-questions-and-pose-some-new-ones episode and because it wasn't just flashed of one person. Its not just a finale, its a prequel to next season. The beginning of the end for what LOST has been up to this point. Though there will of course be a big cliffhanger ending, after this episode I am sure glad there are still two more hours! Widmore's guys have Ben, Locke has to sneak in and 'move the island' before Widmore can 'torch' it, the Others have Kate and Sayid, there's a big ol' pile of explosives on the freighter...
Oh Jack, your stubborn need to be the hero/martyr and be responsible for everyone is charming and noble and all, but sometimes its just exasperating! So Jack looks you in the eye while lying - I love scenes like that where they throw out little characteristics and things and then show it in action later on. Jack proved it on the Coast Guard plane and at the press conference while everyone else was looking down. On the plane they were all kind of looking at him like, 'how does this lying and leaving our friends come so easily to you?' (Or were they looking at him with a hint of disdain because he made some kind of bargain or did something shady to get them there? Or probably it was his idea to lie and he told them what to say.)
So the island of Mumbada led you to the village of Manukangga in Indonesia. I guess they're not going to find much if they search around Mumbada, cause the real island is outta there.
The arrival. How sad was Kate, all alone and clutching Aaron? Jack's Mom was darling. The Sayid/Nadia reunion was also very sweet and made me much more sad that she dies. I also love that they kind of all stuck close together when they first got back, being supportive. It makes sense for Kate to stick around because she literally doesn't have anyone else, but everyone else could have jumped back into their lives and tried to suppress the island. The coconut in Hurley's (or his parents, I guess) tackily posh house - I admit I was kind of disappointed when it was just an inappropriately themed surprise party and not the island messing with him. The numbers were still there to haunt him though. "Jesus Christ is not a weapon." Ha! Funny comment, but history would suggest otherwise. Sorry you had to find out about Claire that way Jack. The look you gave Aaron was devastating.
Two things were really in the back of my mind during all the flash forwards: 1, when did Kate's trial stuff happen? It must have been one of the very first things or else she would have been in prison, I would think, but based on Jack not wanting to see Aaron and then coming around later and based on the funeral Christian's funeral which would have been right away ... the timing seems off and I am trying to piece it together. (Some of Jack's frustration about Aaron seems more justified now though - not only is he feeling guilty about Claire, but now he knows that Aaron has a biological grandmother out there who should probably rightfully be raising him. Does Jack tell Kate the connection? That's unclear in the flashes we've seen, but I think so. If not, she certainly seemed close enough to hear.) 2, When does Hurley go and see Sun? Its after she has the baby, but presumably also after he starts his descent into insanity once more. When will they tell us what he meant when he asked her if anyone else was there and when she said no and he said good?
Moving the island is dangerous and unpredictable ... and yet you do know how to do it, Mr. Linus, because dangerous and unpredictable is your life philosophy. Ben is so fantastic in an I hate him but I can't help but respect him and can't wait to see what he does next kind of way.
Wow, on that first raft trip over when Sun and Jin got to the freighter I am sure glad we got those extras rescued. I was getting really worried about them. :P It does seem like the raft is coming and going between the island and the freighter a little too easily, but I'll let that slide. I also like that Daniel's word is good. That look that passed between him and Charlotte as he was taking the first group over was interesting. I know they stick together and he digs her and all, but it was a look that perhaps suggested that they still know more than we do about what's happening? I half expected her to insist on being in the first group. I didn't like it when the men ran into the ship and Sun stood there looking at the door - almost like it was going to be the last time she sees Jin or something. Sun! that's my girl getting all feisty and taking control and standing up to your dad! I've never seen you quite so vindictive. I like it. (Who was the other person besides your dad that is responsible for Jin's 'death?' Widmore? Jack? Yourself?) That must have been some settlement that Oceanic gave you guys. I can't help but wonder if, unbeknownst to you since your motives were purely bitter, you have bought into something connected to the island. All the other dad's are connected to the island! Or, does the future of the show simply need Sun to have a lot of money at her disposal and this seemed a practical way to do it?
Have I mentioned that I love Sawyer yet this episode? I know I'm just partial, but the more I watch these flashes I really kind of think that Jack and Kate got together in the future more because they needed that connection to hold onto than because Kate loves Jack more than Sawyer. KAte does have a tendency to love the one she's with, though. I am very anxious to see how they do the Kate and Sawyer parting ways scene. I can see it now, Kate bawling and shaking her head that she won't leave without him and Sawyer saying, 'You've got to go, Kate, and take care of Aaron. I want you to... to check on Clementine now and again and see that she's alright. Now get out of here, Freckles.' Sigh.
PS, I hope that the Others' holding Kate and Sayid means that we get to see the Temple.
Other thoughts:
The rabbits are back! Rabbit's foot keychains on the Coast Guard plane and Hurley's keychain for the Camaro. The rabbits were in the Orchid Station video, right?
I guess the bombs on the freighter are rigged to the detonator on Keamy's arm. If he blows up the freighter, how does he plan to get himself and his crew back to civilization? There must be another freighter or island nearby that the helicoptor can take them to.
I think Widmore concocted the "Official" story of the Oceanic 6. He of all people was desperate for a way to explain how these people who were confirmed dead suddenly pop up.How did Nadia find out about and get to the press conference on the military base? Was it Ben or Widmore? (Hmmm, good question. Maybe Ben, somehow. Maybe he needed to make sure that Sayid was very happy so that he could crush it because only a broken Sayid would work with him)
Did anyone else think the scene where the Oceanic Six first disembark was reminiscent of the mothership landing in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and the aliens slowly descending the open door? If so, what are the writers trying to say about the Oceanic Six? They're now strangers in a strange land? The Island has claimed them, and they will be "aliens" until they return? Is that why they all have so much trouble adapting?
Was anyone else thinking - Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure when Ben pulled his 15 year stash out? In the movie they went back in time and hid things they would need to help them beat the bad guys. What I want to know is... -Why 15 years earlier - what's significant about 1989? Except that's the year Bill and Ted came out. -Why are crackers in the stash - is that Ben's way of thanking Hurley for sharing his Apollo Bar? Last week Kate told Jack - You should eat some crackers. Crackers always make me feel better. (Hmmm, could crackers be truly important to the mythology of the show? Probably not, but it was a clever way to give us a significant date)
Did anyone else get a weird feeling when Sun looked back at the heavy, metal door swinging closed on the ship? it seemed eerie, like something horrible was going to happen to the people inside. i swear i thought the bomb was gonna blow, sending Sun and Aaron into the ocean as the only survivors.although, if this happened, then our poor boy Des would be dead and that would NOT be cool.
Daniel Faraday knew what the Orchid was and what it would do. I don't think he was talking about Keamy and his guys torching the island. I'm pretty sure he knew it would be used to move the island which is why he told Charlotte they needed to leave now.
I know that Ben "passed the baton" to Locke – literally, he gave him that black wand-like thingy, but I don't believe for a single second that Ben thinks he has been replaced as the "chosen" one. Fate may be a fickle b***ch, but Ben is a conniving b*****d.
Business men talking to Mr. Paik - "Whoever did this used five different banks"I assume they're talking about Sun and her purchase of the controlling interest in her father's company. She says it was the Oceanic money but could she be getting funded by ... Charles Widmore? (Ooh, I like it!)
The island Membata was mentioned tonight as the crash site or near the crash site. Just digging around and found the word "membata" is Indonesian for "ambivalent, doubtful, to be uncertain." So even if the Oceanic Six didn't land IN "Membata," they at least ARE "membata" now.The numbers (which it seems we haven't seen in quite some time) make a freaky appearance in Hurley's car. Question - his dad repaired the car as a memorial to his "lost" son. So could the numbers have been there before Hurley left for Sydney? Or was it the island "calling him back" the first sign of many - which when he ignored them, the island sent Charlie instead? Is it possible that other islanders survive as well? Ben clearly does somehow. Michael (or at least Walt) does. Perhaps Juliet did as well. She'd just be able to slip back into society because no one knew where she was to begin with. She could just be finished with her gig and finally reunite with her sister. Desmond too could return from sea and be reunited with Penny - she already knows he's alive and who else would have known he was missing?
Friday, May 9, 2008
LOST: Cabin Fever
Queer little twists go into the making of an individual. To suppress them all and follow clock and calendar and creed until the individual is lost in the neutral grey of the host is to be less than true to our inheritance.... Life, that gorgeous quality of life, is not accomplished by following another man's rules. It is true we have the same hungers and same thirsts, but they are for different things and in different ways and in different seasons.... Lay down your own day, follow it to its noon, your own noon, or you will sit in an outer hall listening to the chimes but never reaching high enough to strike your own.
-Angelo Patri
Well, its nice to have the old faithful Locke back. I also love that they are getting back to the 'these people were chosen for a reason' thing with the discovery that creepy randomly recurring tall black man (Abaddon) put the idea of Australia in Locke's head. We always see him in flashes - I keep waiting for him to turn up on the island. Maybe he's at the temple, if we ever get to see that. Interesting to do a flash of before birth - the only other time they did that was with Ben's birth flash - a little Locke/Ben comparison? Interesting parallels with John and Ben. Are they saying that John could have been Ben except that personality and interests are so defiant of his 'destiny?' We may have fates but they are what we make them? "I'm not you." Ben didn't really seem envious (like he was when he shot Locke and dumped him in the pit) he just seemed thoughtful. For someone so crafty at manipulation, it certainly seems like he has accepted his 'fate' fairly easily.
Oooh, Richard and his ageless pretty dark eyes are back. So John was deemed special by the islanders from birth.Huh. He drew the smoke monster. The test - the bottle of sand (?) and the compass were his, but not the knife. It certainly seemed that little John just chose the knife because he wanted it, not because it was his. So, is Richard really dumb enough to wait from the day he was born (though I guess a few years isn't much to him) and then give up on him and think he's not special because he picked the knife? Or, did the fact that John picked the knife simply tell Richard that John doesn't follow directions and wasn't ready? Did the knife symbolically mean something bad for the island or just something about John's personality that didn't 'fit?' Defiant even as a child.
Horace? Dead for twelve years? Bloody nose just like the hemorrhaging for those who don't have their Constants. Hmmm. Its been a while since I've read Dante's Inferno - was there a level of Hell when you keep repeating everything or is it just Groundhog Day? Well, whatever its from, Horace and his unchoppable tree were freaking me out. I'm still not sure how the dead on the island thing works anyway - are they actually the person that died with their soul intact or are they some kind of manifestation portraying the person? did Horace just leave that repeating imprint of himself on the island? 'Help me John Locke, you're my only hope.' Horace was building the cabin when he died. So... is Horace Jacob? Why can't Jacob speak for himself? I like John the best the way he was in this episode, calm and trusting instead of frantic and careless, but it is worrisome when he follows things blindly because he likes to feel 'special.' I love defiant John ('Don't tell me what I can't do') but I can't say I agree with trusting the island just because it heals you and it 'chose' you. Does anyone remember Something Wicked This Way Comes? Its that old movie based off a book where this evil carnival rolls into town and wants peoples souls. the ringmaster grants gifts, but at a price. For instance, an old woman wants to be young and beautiful again. Her wish is granted, but she is made blind and can't see her beauty. When Ben was telling Locke about the island having consequences, that is what I thought of. On another note, all that time that Ben was the special one, was he just a fill in while the island was waiting for John to be ready? Maybe its a Harry Potter & Neville Longbottom kind of thing - could have been either?
Claire! What has Christian done to you? Don't be dead like Horace! I don't want her to be dead, but that seems all too likely. Oh, it was unnerving seeing her act like that. At first I thought, she's acting drugged, but then her odd, knowing grin and her, 'I'm with him' made it seem like she wasn't even Claire at all. Here's a question. At first I was automatically looking at Christian as the villain; that he must have done something to Claire. Is it possible that Claire died in that explosion at the camp and nobody, including herself, realized it? It is a fine line between life and death on the island - perhaps Christian was just bringing her to her peace. But then, when Jack was told last week that he wasn't supposed to raise Aaron, and with the psychic telling Claire she needed to raise him... if she's part of the island now does it all just mean that the island is supposed to raise him? Maybe Locke is the John the Baptist to Aaron's Christ. Sorry for the blasphemous analogy, but maybe the current chosen ones are just stepping stones necessary for Aaron to become what he needs to be to the island. Maybe Locke, Ben, Claire, Sawyer, Jack, Charlie, Kate... they've all just been needed to play a part?
Move the island? Well, whatever that means, I guess that explains Ben's conversation with Widmore when he tells him he'll never find it. Maybe in the next couple of seasons the next time we see the island it will be in the Atlantic instead of the Pacific. Or. maybe it will be in the year 2040 so it can't be discovered until then. Is it literally a floating island or are they going to time warp? the move has to be more than just magnetic or thunderstorm trickery.
Oregon again with the science place teenage John's teacher talked to him about in Portland. What is going on there? I mean, other than vampires and werewolves, of course, for those of us who've read the Twilight books.
A lot of previous theories thought that Widmore was after the island - that the competition between Widmore and Ben was over the island. He wants to torch the island - to completely purge it and make it his own or just to anger Ben? Seems like burning the island is probably against the rules too. How does Widmore know where Ben is going to go? Also, who is this Keamy guy? It seems like he is taking this whole thing a little too personally than a plain old hired thug would.
Oh captain, my captain. Poor chap. You redeemed your dissappointingness just in time to get killed off. Desmond. Will you truly find your Penny and avoid ever having to be on the island again? Will Penny come to the island to find you so you will have to go to the island to find her? Will you die to protect her from Ben? Do you still have visions now that you are off the island?
Best lines of the night: "We can see it cause we're the craziest." Ha- I adore Hurley! And then of course, "Fate is a fickle b***h." (Seriously,no one can pull a one-liners like Ben! Well, Sawyer can. Oh Sawyer. How I missed you this week, my love!)
Other thoughts:
I know Emily Linus and Emily Locke aren't supposed to be the same person – but it was interesting the similarities in the births of John and Ben – they were both premature and their mothers requested their sons' names – Name him Benjamin, name him John. (Both born three months early, too.)
Call me crazy - but I think Richard Alpert might be John's father - In the beginning - Emily's mother complains about her boyfriend - saying he is twice her age. Richard looks eternally in his mid 30s. Think about it - if you can't procreate on the island, go back to "mainland" and get someone pregnant, and bring the child back to the island. It would make sense because Richard has always seemed to take a special interest in Locke - he helped him behind Ben's back. (Ooh, I like this. Locke's grandma did seem like she was lying when Richard was standing there and she told the nurse she didn't know who it was.)I totally got the "game" feel tonight when Keamy opened up the red envelope. It reminded of the game Myst – it came with a sealed envelope with hints to open only if you got really stuck. The scene really had a feel of Widmore and Linus having played this game over and over – each knowing what the other would do. We'vewitnessed yet another instance where the island won't let Michael die when Keamy's gun jammed. I wonder what he is still needed for.
Well Locke's last comment about moving the island certainly explains why a drug plane from Nigeria and a slave ship in the pacific all ended up on the same island....the island has moved all over the oceans of the world for centuries to avoid detection from people who want to exploit its mysticism and technology...it's Atlantis! A people who were technologically advanced and spiritually evolved. They are the ones with the four toes (the statue) and why Richard Alpert never ages, he is one of them and the Atlanteans basically discovered how to remain immortal as evidenced in the Locke flashbacks. But they also can't reproduce. What a sucky side effect.
The knife is not supposed to be his, but he sure was drawn to it. one of these things is not like the others.....
The dead doctor's body somehow gets to the island last week before Sayid left the freighter, so the time disruption doesn't affect dead people (maybe).
Has anyone seen a push-me-pull-you? Because Dr. Doolittle's Island is the last one I heard about that could move. I'm just sayin-
Ben passing the torch to Locke reminds me of when Desmond passed pressing the button to Locke. It's all about belief in what you are doing.
Horace was an ancient Greek poet who coined the phrase "carpe diem," sieze the day. Hugo and Ben sharing the candy bar... priceless. Richard approached Locke, who failed, then Ben who succeeded? Claire was told there was a family who wanted to adopt her baby...Jack was told his fathers' body was in Austrailia...Locke was told he needed to go on a walk-about...Jin and Sun were told to deliver a watch...Hurley was told the answer to the "numbers" was in Austrailia...Michael was told he had to pick up his son...Sawyer was told the man who "killed" his parents was down under...
Martin Keamy just might be the scariest character we've seen on LOST so far. Not only does he makes the threats but he sure follows through with them. Who else saw the Dharma logo when he was looking through the second protocol? And what are they going to try to do? Shoot the smoke monster to death?Anyone else think the device taped to Keamy's arm is a detonater? Is the island already wired to blow?The fact that Charles Widmore knew where Ben would go if something happened tells me that he either has been to the island before or him and Ben have a close history, I'm guessing that Charles was Ben's mentor as has been mentioned before.
"John, which of these things belong to you ALREADY?"Why wouldn't it be the knife? Was he supposed to take the Mystery Tales comic book that says "What was the secret of the mysterious "Hidden Land!"? The picture on the cover appears to be buildings floating on clouds. Could the move be upwards?
I could not find "The Book Of Law" (one of the items that Richard put on the table for little John to choose from) but I did find The Laws by Plato on wikipedia. The connection to the the Cabin and the book can be made. The 3 characters on the island of Crete in search of the cave of Zeus.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_(Plato)The settingUnlike most of Plato's dialogues, Socrates does not appear in the Laws. This is fitting because the dialogue takes place on the island of Crete, and Socrates never appears outside of Athens in Plato's writings, except in the Phaedrus, where he is just outside the city's walls. Instead of Socrates we have the Athenian Stranger (in Greek, 'xenos') and two other old men, an ordinary Spartan citizen (Megillos) and a Cretan politician and lawgiver (Kleinias) from Knossos.The Athenian Stranger, who is much like Socrates but whose name is never given, joins the other two on their religious pilgrimage to the cave of Zeus. The entire dialogue takes place during this journey, which mimics the action of Minos, who is said by the Cretans to have made their ancient laws, who walked this path every nine years in order to receive instruction from Zeus on lawgiving. It is also said to be the longest day of the year, allowing for a densely-packed twelve chapters.By the end of the third chapter Kleinias announces that he has in fact been given the charge of laying down laws for a new Cretan colony, and that he would like the Stranger's assistance. The rest of the dialogue proceeds with the three old men, walking towards the cave and making laws for this new city.
-Angelo Patri
Well, its nice to have the old faithful Locke back. I also love that they are getting back to the 'these people were chosen for a reason' thing with the discovery that creepy randomly recurring tall black man (Abaddon) put the idea of Australia in Locke's head. We always see him in flashes - I keep waiting for him to turn up on the island. Maybe he's at the temple, if we ever get to see that. Interesting to do a flash of before birth - the only other time they did that was with Ben's birth flash - a little Locke/Ben comparison? Interesting parallels with John and Ben. Are they saying that John could have been Ben except that personality and interests are so defiant of his 'destiny?' We may have fates but they are what we make them? "I'm not you." Ben didn't really seem envious (like he was when he shot Locke and dumped him in the pit) he just seemed thoughtful. For someone so crafty at manipulation, it certainly seems like he has accepted his 'fate' fairly easily.
Oooh, Richard and his ageless pretty dark eyes are back. So John was deemed special by the islanders from birth.Huh. He drew the smoke monster. The test - the bottle of sand (?) and the compass were his, but not the knife. It certainly seemed that little John just chose the knife because he wanted it, not because it was his. So, is Richard really dumb enough to wait from the day he was born (though I guess a few years isn't much to him) and then give up on him and think he's not special because he picked the knife? Or, did the fact that John picked the knife simply tell Richard that John doesn't follow directions and wasn't ready? Did the knife symbolically mean something bad for the island or just something about John's personality that didn't 'fit?' Defiant even as a child.
Horace? Dead for twelve years? Bloody nose just like the hemorrhaging for those who don't have their Constants. Hmmm. Its been a while since I've read Dante's Inferno - was there a level of Hell when you keep repeating everything or is it just Groundhog Day? Well, whatever its from, Horace and his unchoppable tree were freaking me out. I'm still not sure how the dead on the island thing works anyway - are they actually the person that died with their soul intact or are they some kind of manifestation portraying the person? did Horace just leave that repeating imprint of himself on the island? 'Help me John Locke, you're my only hope.' Horace was building the cabin when he died. So... is Horace Jacob? Why can't Jacob speak for himself? I like John the best the way he was in this episode, calm and trusting instead of frantic and careless, but it is worrisome when he follows things blindly because he likes to feel 'special.' I love defiant John ('Don't tell me what I can't do') but I can't say I agree with trusting the island just because it heals you and it 'chose' you. Does anyone remember Something Wicked This Way Comes? Its that old movie based off a book where this evil carnival rolls into town and wants peoples souls. the ringmaster grants gifts, but at a price. For instance, an old woman wants to be young and beautiful again. Her wish is granted, but she is made blind and can't see her beauty. When Ben was telling Locke about the island having consequences, that is what I thought of. On another note, all that time that Ben was the special one, was he just a fill in while the island was waiting for John to be ready? Maybe its a Harry Potter & Neville Longbottom kind of thing - could have been either?
Claire! What has Christian done to you? Don't be dead like Horace! I don't want her to be dead, but that seems all too likely. Oh, it was unnerving seeing her act like that. At first I thought, she's acting drugged, but then her odd, knowing grin and her, 'I'm with him' made it seem like she wasn't even Claire at all. Here's a question. At first I was automatically looking at Christian as the villain; that he must have done something to Claire. Is it possible that Claire died in that explosion at the camp and nobody, including herself, realized it? It is a fine line between life and death on the island - perhaps Christian was just bringing her to her peace. But then, when Jack was told last week that he wasn't supposed to raise Aaron, and with the psychic telling Claire she needed to raise him... if she's part of the island now does it all just mean that the island is supposed to raise him? Maybe Locke is the John the Baptist to Aaron's Christ. Sorry for the blasphemous analogy, but maybe the current chosen ones are just stepping stones necessary for Aaron to become what he needs to be to the island. Maybe Locke, Ben, Claire, Sawyer, Jack, Charlie, Kate... they've all just been needed to play a part?
Move the island? Well, whatever that means, I guess that explains Ben's conversation with Widmore when he tells him he'll never find it. Maybe in the next couple of seasons the next time we see the island it will be in the Atlantic instead of the Pacific. Or. maybe it will be in the year 2040 so it can't be discovered until then. Is it literally a floating island or are they going to time warp? the move has to be more than just magnetic or thunderstorm trickery.
Oregon again with the science place teenage John's teacher talked to him about in Portland. What is going on there? I mean, other than vampires and werewolves, of course, for those of us who've read the Twilight books.
A lot of previous theories thought that Widmore was after the island - that the competition between Widmore and Ben was over the island. He wants to torch the island - to completely purge it and make it his own or just to anger Ben? Seems like burning the island is probably against the rules too. How does Widmore know where Ben is going to go? Also, who is this Keamy guy? It seems like he is taking this whole thing a little too personally than a plain old hired thug would.
Oh captain, my captain. Poor chap. You redeemed your dissappointingness just in time to get killed off. Desmond. Will you truly find your Penny and avoid ever having to be on the island again? Will Penny come to the island to find you so you will have to go to the island to find her? Will you die to protect her from Ben? Do you still have visions now that you are off the island?
Best lines of the night: "We can see it cause we're the craziest." Ha- I adore Hurley! And then of course, "Fate is a fickle b***h." (Seriously,no one can pull a one-liners like Ben! Well, Sawyer can. Oh Sawyer. How I missed you this week, my love!)
Other thoughts:
I know Emily Linus and Emily Locke aren't supposed to be the same person – but it was interesting the similarities in the births of John and Ben – they were both premature and their mothers requested their sons' names – Name him Benjamin, name him John. (Both born three months early, too.)
Call me crazy - but I think Richard Alpert might be John's father - In the beginning - Emily's mother complains about her boyfriend - saying he is twice her age. Richard looks eternally in his mid 30s. Think about it - if you can't procreate on the island, go back to "mainland" and get someone pregnant, and bring the child back to the island. It would make sense because Richard has always seemed to take a special interest in Locke - he helped him behind Ben's back. (Ooh, I like this. Locke's grandma did seem like she was lying when Richard was standing there and she told the nurse she didn't know who it was.)I totally got the "game" feel tonight when Keamy opened up the red envelope. It reminded of the game Myst – it came with a sealed envelope with hints to open only if you got really stuck. The scene really had a feel of Widmore and Linus having played this game over and over – each knowing what the other would do. We'vewitnessed yet another instance where the island won't let Michael die when Keamy's gun jammed. I wonder what he is still needed for.
Well Locke's last comment about moving the island certainly explains why a drug plane from Nigeria and a slave ship in the pacific all ended up on the same island....the island has moved all over the oceans of the world for centuries to avoid detection from people who want to exploit its mysticism and technology...it's Atlantis! A people who were technologically advanced and spiritually evolved. They are the ones with the four toes (the statue) and why Richard Alpert never ages, he is one of them and the Atlanteans basically discovered how to remain immortal as evidenced in the Locke flashbacks. But they also can't reproduce. What a sucky side effect.
The knife is not supposed to be his, but he sure was drawn to it. one of these things is not like the others.....
The dead doctor's body somehow gets to the island last week before Sayid left the freighter, so the time disruption doesn't affect dead people (maybe).
Has anyone seen a push-me-pull-you? Because Dr. Doolittle's Island is the last one I heard about that could move. I'm just sayin-
Ben passing the torch to Locke reminds me of when Desmond passed pressing the button to Locke. It's all about belief in what you are doing.
Horace was an ancient Greek poet who coined the phrase "carpe diem," sieze the day. Hugo and Ben sharing the candy bar... priceless. Richard approached Locke, who failed, then Ben who succeeded? Claire was told there was a family who wanted to adopt her baby...Jack was told his fathers' body was in Austrailia...Locke was told he needed to go on a walk-about...Jin and Sun were told to deliver a watch...Hurley was told the answer to the "numbers" was in Austrailia...Michael was told he had to pick up his son...Sawyer was told the man who "killed" his parents was down under...
Martin Keamy just might be the scariest character we've seen on LOST so far. Not only does he makes the threats but he sure follows through with them. Who else saw the Dharma logo when he was looking through the second protocol? And what are they going to try to do? Shoot the smoke monster to death?Anyone else think the device taped to Keamy's arm is a detonater? Is the island already wired to blow?The fact that Charles Widmore knew where Ben would go if something happened tells me that he either has been to the island before or him and Ben have a close history, I'm guessing that Charles was Ben's mentor as has been mentioned before.
"John, which of these things belong to you ALREADY?"Why wouldn't it be the knife? Was he supposed to take the Mystery Tales comic book that says "What was the secret of the mysterious "Hidden Land!"? The picture on the cover appears to be buildings floating on clouds. Could the move be upwards?
I could not find "The Book Of Law" (one of the items that Richard put on the table for little John to choose from) but I did find The Laws by Plato on wikipedia. The connection to the the Cabin and the book can be made. The 3 characters on the island of Crete in search of the cave of Zeus.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_(Plato)The settingUnlike most of Plato's dialogues, Socrates does not appear in the Laws. This is fitting because the dialogue takes place on the island of Crete, and Socrates never appears outside of Athens in Plato's writings, except in the Phaedrus, where he is just outside the city's walls. Instead of Socrates we have the Athenian Stranger (in Greek, 'xenos') and two other old men, an ordinary Spartan citizen (Megillos) and a Cretan politician and lawgiver (Kleinias) from Knossos.The Athenian Stranger, who is much like Socrates but whose name is never given, joins the other two on their religious pilgrimage to the cave of Zeus. The entire dialogue takes place during this journey, which mimics the action of Minos, who is said by the Cretans to have made their ancient laws, who walked this path every nine years in order to receive instruction from Zeus on lawgiving. It is also said to be the longest day of the year, allowing for a densely-packed twelve chapters.By the end of the third chapter Kleinias announces that he has in fact been given the charge of laying down laws for a new Cretan colony, and that he would like the Stranger's assistance. The rest of the dialogue proceeds with the three old men, walking towards the cave and making laws for this new city.
Friday, May 2, 2008
LOST: Something Nice Back Home
Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.
-Washington Irving
I am so emotionally attached to these characters! I watched the majority of this episode with my hand over my mouth and my eyebrows lowered in either worry and concern or else because I was so moved by the scene. Damn you LOST writers for snaring me so completely! these last couple of episodes really have been satisfying in that they have filled in of some of the future blanks. They've done a great job of showing enough to let us know how things came to be while still being vague and not losing the speed of the storyline. Jack and Kate. Sigh. I think they were cleverly ambiguous with the way they had Jack say, 'you're not even related to him' - couldn't quite tell by his inflection whether he knew that HE was related to Aaron or not. I think he did. I'm so torn! I love Kate when she's with Jack and I love Kate when she's with Sawyer. I know its likely to be Jack and Kate in the long run, and the proposal was sweet. Sawyer, like Juliette, is just kind of a tragic character that I can't really see ending up with a real and happy future. Poor Juliette. Poor Sawyer. Well, poor Jack to - can't be easy to feel like you are competing with a memory, and poor Kate for being trapped in the middle. Kate! Who was on the phone, and what are you doing for Sawyer and why does the whole thing break my heart a little bit when I don't even really understand what is going on?
Most interesting single phrase of the night to me was near the end when Jack and Kate were fighting about Sawyer and Jack said that Sawyer chose to stay. So there will be an option, eh? Hmmm. but not an option for everyone perhaps? Jin: "I will get you and our baby off this island." Oh Jin, but not yourself?
Well these freighter folks are sure full of surprises. Charlotte is fluent in Korean (so maybe finding the polar bear in Tunisia isn't the only reason they chose her?) and Miles really does hear dead people. Looks like they are starting to realise that this little 'mission' isn't exactly what they were led to believe it would be. Miles seemed sincerely shook up, as much as that guy can portray emotion. So I guess Rousseau really is gone! Not that she couldn't turn up in spirit, I suppose. It would have been an interesting Fast Forward to see her trying to survive back in the real world when she's so crazy - holding knives to peoples throats and freaking people out.
"People get sick, Rose." "Not here. Here they get better." I'm glad they had the characters bring this up. Jimmy Kimmel recently interviewed the writers and they said this:
Kimmel: The island heals some people and doesn't heal others. For instance, Ben needed an operation from Jack to beat cancer, but it seems like Sawyer gets injured every sixth episode and by the next, he's fine. Is that just a TV thing?Carlton Cuse: Wow. [Laughs] Where are the softball questions, Jimmy? What about the warm-up?Damon Lindelof: The short answer is, it's not arbitrary. Yes, there is a certain degree of compressing story. The idea that everything you've seen has really happened in 110 days of real time feels fantastical, but that's the convention of the show. However, who gets sick and how fast they heal is something we talk about. In the second episode back [airing May 1], that becomes a major issue in the story. One character gets sick and another who has had experience being healed voices exactly that question: Is there any rhyme or reason to it?Cuse: The healing is related to the degree to which you are in communion with the island at any given moment. Perhaps Ben getting sick and needing surgery had to do with the fact that he had fallen out of favor, that his connection with the island was maybe not what it had been in the past. To go along with that, there was a really good article with Michael Emerson and he said:
Let's say that Ben was able to manipulate the smoke monster, but on the show everything is a binary system, everything is in balance, morally balanced or economically balanced, so for Ben to make a thing happen like that, there is also a price, I think, that he had to pay. We don't know what Ben paid yet to make the smoke monster come. We don't know that he… "Is he allowed to do that?" and everyone who has power also pays a price. John Locke is going to pay a price. Ben has paid a price… Nothing is for free in terms of power or morality on the island and I'm beginning to see that the writers are more interested in that pattern, too, of this living ledger book system.
So perhaps there is something to Bernard's joke about Jack angering the island Gods.
Aha! I had been awaiting the return of Christian Shepherd. Reaching out to his offspring. Creepy. Is Claire now dead? Brainwashed? In limbo? Given a lobotomy and being set up on a thrown at the Others' Temple to be worshipped as a beautiful, mindless island Goddess? Being sacrificed to the Black Rock? Curious that Claire was so blase when she said 'Dad?' and went with him so easily when she didn't even want to know his name when she met him before. Also curious that he took Claire but left the baby, and what did he do to Claire that she would leave him! Stupid Miles, why didn't you speak up?! So I guess Kate maybe takes the baby because they all presume Claire is dead but maybe she's not - looked like she was in the preview for next week though. Only as a spirit? If she's not dead, and they all eventually go back to the island in the final season, that could be some painful baby mama drama between Claire and Kate and Aaron. So Charlie is haunting Hurley in behalf of Jack now, eh? All comes back to the psychic telling Claire that she needed to be the one to raise Aaron. Why are only Jack and Hurley being haunted? I guess Michael is too, by Libby. Maybe there will be a flash forward where Kate sees her horse standing in her front lawn :)
Some other wiser and more amusing thoughts:
You're not supposed to raise him? Charlie is sending Jack on a guilt trip for leaving Claire behind.
Jack Shepard is the anti-Norris. Jack Shepard doesn't sleep, he cries! Underneath his stubble, there isn't a chin, just more tear ducts. (Ha ha)
Aaron has a Millennium Falcon. This could mean something. (Did you all know right away what the Millennium Falcon is? Did I just show my nerdiness a little bit because I know the name of Han Solo's ship?)
I don't think Jack had appendicitis. I think Juliet did something to him to make him think that, then wouldn't allow him to watch the surgery so she could plant some sort of tracking device or something inside him. It's like Rose said: people just don't get sick on that island. . . More evidence that Juliet wasn't really doing an appendectomy - Jack pointed out that she was shaving two inches too high where the incision should be.(Interesting theory. Unlike some, I really, really like Juliette and think that if she IS deceiving it is because she has to be but that she really is a good person. If we discover she is actually deceitful then I still like her for being so clever and believable! "I know you're awake." Sad! I love how honest she was with Kate though - she's not vindictive and going to try to be manipulative about emotions. But maybe this will make her 'stop pining over Jack and get back to work for Ben.' When Juliette was first introduced I secretly had hopes for her and Sayid, but I'm pretty sure that's out)
Hurley (playing Risk) in last episode: "We're all going to die."Hurly (talking to Jack) in this episode: "We're all dead."
(I have to say, for the writers being so adamant that purgatory is not what is going on here, since that has always been a favorite LOST theory, the idea certainly comes up rather frequently)
Jin rocks! I love the way he's kind of been flying under the radar all this time because of the language barrier, but in reality, he's been observing everything all this time. He totally has Charlotte's number and called her out. He's my hero!I found the conversation between Rose and Bernard interesting. Did Jack do something to make the island angry? Maybe since he's trying so hard to get everyone off of the island, the island sees that as a betrayal, therefore Jack has to pay a price.So Miles, in addition to Claire, Jack, and Hurley, can see Christian. What does the island need Claire for? She said she had a headache and was seeing things when they were walking. I wonder what she saw.Creepy Hurley was almost too much to bear. "You're not supposed to raise him Jack." Jack seems to be turning into his late father, drinking and abusing prescription drugs. Seems that he's just as crazy as Hurley. Effects of the island? (Jack is in a worse spot than Hurley, if you ask me.)
Was that a new tat on Jack's back or has that been there? What was it of?? (I remember wondering that as well. We have heard the story about the big That tat on his shoulder, but it seems like they sort of purposely made sure we saw that little tat on his back as well)
Jack is turning into his father. With the pills and drinking that he succumbs to off the island. not that Christian popped pills, but i have said for a while now that the reason Christian drank so much and was so messed up before he dies was because he had some connection to the island. As in, perhaps he had been there before and couldn't get back!
Thoughts as to what Kate was doing for Sawyer? Maybe visiting his daughter?? Now that Kate's a mommy perhaps she's more sensitive and would do something like that for Sawyer. (Could be why Sawyer has been so overly protective of Claire lately - maybe all this 'Kate might be pregnant' business has him thinking about his own kid, Clementine)
Claire still has to fulfill Desmond's vision in the helicopter. But it WAS a vision. She could be dead and was "seen" on the helicopter.
The only ones that we've seen get sick on the island are now Ben and Jack. I think there is some connection there.
With the appearance of Christian both on and off the island to his offspring, I'm thinking there's an element of the Hero's Journey that is coming into play now. The Hero's Journey – ala Joseph Campbell, fleshed out in the Star Wars sagas and other mythologies (even Harry Potter) – always CULMINATES in some sort of RECONCILIATION WITH THE FATHER. That may be the story here, and the reason behind all the daddy issues. I'm guessing we have yet to encounter the mother of all daddy issues (pun intended), but there were certainly some hints in that direction tonight.
Another reference to "Alice in Wonderland" tonight. Jack was reading it to Aaron, just as his Dad read it to him as a kid.
Here is my new theory on why some people on the island are cured of their sicknesses while other are not: The ones who have not been cured by the island like Ben and Jack are the ones who are alive. The ones who have been healed by the island like John and Rose are actually dead. But you can't tell the difference by looking at them so really anyone could be dead.
-Washington Irving
I am so emotionally attached to these characters! I watched the majority of this episode with my hand over my mouth and my eyebrows lowered in either worry and concern or else because I was so moved by the scene. Damn you LOST writers for snaring me so completely! these last couple of episodes really have been satisfying in that they have filled in of some of the future blanks. They've done a great job of showing enough to let us know how things came to be while still being vague and not losing the speed of the storyline. Jack and Kate. Sigh. I think they were cleverly ambiguous with the way they had Jack say, 'you're not even related to him' - couldn't quite tell by his inflection whether he knew that HE was related to Aaron or not. I think he did. I'm so torn! I love Kate when she's with Jack and I love Kate when she's with Sawyer. I know its likely to be Jack and Kate in the long run, and the proposal was sweet. Sawyer, like Juliette, is just kind of a tragic character that I can't really see ending up with a real and happy future. Poor Juliette. Poor Sawyer. Well, poor Jack to - can't be easy to feel like you are competing with a memory, and poor Kate for being trapped in the middle. Kate! Who was on the phone, and what are you doing for Sawyer and why does the whole thing break my heart a little bit when I don't even really understand what is going on?
Most interesting single phrase of the night to me was near the end when Jack and Kate were fighting about Sawyer and Jack said that Sawyer chose to stay. So there will be an option, eh? Hmmm. but not an option for everyone perhaps? Jin: "I will get you and our baby off this island." Oh Jin, but not yourself?
Well these freighter folks are sure full of surprises. Charlotte is fluent in Korean (so maybe finding the polar bear in Tunisia isn't the only reason they chose her?) and Miles really does hear dead people. Looks like they are starting to realise that this little 'mission' isn't exactly what they were led to believe it would be. Miles seemed sincerely shook up, as much as that guy can portray emotion. So I guess Rousseau really is gone! Not that she couldn't turn up in spirit, I suppose. It would have been an interesting Fast Forward to see her trying to survive back in the real world when she's so crazy - holding knives to peoples throats and freaking people out.
"People get sick, Rose." "Not here. Here they get better." I'm glad they had the characters bring this up. Jimmy Kimmel recently interviewed the writers and they said this:
Kimmel: The island heals some people and doesn't heal others. For instance, Ben needed an operation from Jack to beat cancer, but it seems like Sawyer gets injured every sixth episode and by the next, he's fine. Is that just a TV thing?Carlton Cuse: Wow. [Laughs] Where are the softball questions, Jimmy? What about the warm-up?Damon Lindelof: The short answer is, it's not arbitrary. Yes, there is a certain degree of compressing story. The idea that everything you've seen has really happened in 110 days of real time feels fantastical, but that's the convention of the show. However, who gets sick and how fast they heal is something we talk about. In the second episode back [airing May 1], that becomes a major issue in the story. One character gets sick and another who has had experience being healed voices exactly that question: Is there any rhyme or reason to it?Cuse: The healing is related to the degree to which you are in communion with the island at any given moment. Perhaps Ben getting sick and needing surgery had to do with the fact that he had fallen out of favor, that his connection with the island was maybe not what it had been in the past. To go along with that, there was a really good article with Michael Emerson and he said:
Let's say that Ben was able to manipulate the smoke monster, but on the show everything is a binary system, everything is in balance, morally balanced or economically balanced, so for Ben to make a thing happen like that, there is also a price, I think, that he had to pay. We don't know what Ben paid yet to make the smoke monster come. We don't know that he… "Is he allowed to do that?" and everyone who has power also pays a price. John Locke is going to pay a price. Ben has paid a price… Nothing is for free in terms of power or morality on the island and I'm beginning to see that the writers are more interested in that pattern, too, of this living ledger book system.
So perhaps there is something to Bernard's joke about Jack angering the island Gods.
Aha! I had been awaiting the return of Christian Shepherd. Reaching out to his offspring. Creepy. Is Claire now dead? Brainwashed? In limbo? Given a lobotomy and being set up on a thrown at the Others' Temple to be worshipped as a beautiful, mindless island Goddess? Being sacrificed to the Black Rock? Curious that Claire was so blase when she said 'Dad?' and went with him so easily when she didn't even want to know his name when she met him before. Also curious that he took Claire but left the baby, and what did he do to Claire that she would leave him! Stupid Miles, why didn't you speak up?! So I guess Kate maybe takes the baby because they all presume Claire is dead but maybe she's not - looked like she was in the preview for next week though. Only as a spirit? If she's not dead, and they all eventually go back to the island in the final season, that could be some painful baby mama drama between Claire and Kate and Aaron. So Charlie is haunting Hurley in behalf of Jack now, eh? All comes back to the psychic telling Claire that she needed to be the one to raise Aaron. Why are only Jack and Hurley being haunted? I guess Michael is too, by Libby. Maybe there will be a flash forward where Kate sees her horse standing in her front lawn :)
Some other wiser and more amusing thoughts:
You're not supposed to raise him? Charlie is sending Jack on a guilt trip for leaving Claire behind.
Jack Shepard is the anti-Norris. Jack Shepard doesn't sleep, he cries! Underneath his stubble, there isn't a chin, just more tear ducts. (Ha ha)
Aaron has a Millennium Falcon. This could mean something. (Did you all know right away what the Millennium Falcon is? Did I just show my nerdiness a little bit because I know the name of Han Solo's ship?)
I don't think Jack had appendicitis. I think Juliet did something to him to make him think that, then wouldn't allow him to watch the surgery so she could plant some sort of tracking device or something inside him. It's like Rose said: people just don't get sick on that island. . . More evidence that Juliet wasn't really doing an appendectomy - Jack pointed out that she was shaving two inches too high where the incision should be.(Interesting theory. Unlike some, I really, really like Juliette and think that if she IS deceiving it is because she has to be but that she really is a good person. If we discover she is actually deceitful then I still like her for being so clever and believable! "I know you're awake." Sad! I love how honest she was with Kate though - she's not vindictive and going to try to be manipulative about emotions. But maybe this will make her 'stop pining over Jack and get back to work for Ben.' When Juliette was first introduced I secretly had hopes for her and Sayid, but I'm pretty sure that's out)
Hurley (playing Risk) in last episode: "We're all going to die."Hurly (talking to Jack) in this episode: "We're all dead."
(I have to say, for the writers being so adamant that purgatory is not what is going on here, since that has always been a favorite LOST theory, the idea certainly comes up rather frequently)
Jin rocks! I love the way he's kind of been flying under the radar all this time because of the language barrier, but in reality, he's been observing everything all this time. He totally has Charlotte's number and called her out. He's my hero!I found the conversation between Rose and Bernard interesting. Did Jack do something to make the island angry? Maybe since he's trying so hard to get everyone off of the island, the island sees that as a betrayal, therefore Jack has to pay a price.So Miles, in addition to Claire, Jack, and Hurley, can see Christian. What does the island need Claire for? She said she had a headache and was seeing things when they were walking. I wonder what she saw.Creepy Hurley was almost too much to bear. "You're not supposed to raise him Jack." Jack seems to be turning into his late father, drinking and abusing prescription drugs. Seems that he's just as crazy as Hurley. Effects of the island? (Jack is in a worse spot than Hurley, if you ask me.)
Was that a new tat on Jack's back or has that been there? What was it of?? (I remember wondering that as well. We have heard the story about the big That tat on his shoulder, but it seems like they sort of purposely made sure we saw that little tat on his back as well)
Jack is turning into his father. With the pills and drinking that he succumbs to off the island. not that Christian popped pills, but i have said for a while now that the reason Christian drank so much and was so messed up before he dies was because he had some connection to the island. As in, perhaps he had been there before and couldn't get back!
Thoughts as to what Kate was doing for Sawyer? Maybe visiting his daughter?? Now that Kate's a mommy perhaps she's more sensitive and would do something like that for Sawyer. (Could be why Sawyer has been so overly protective of Claire lately - maybe all this 'Kate might be pregnant' business has him thinking about his own kid, Clementine)
Claire still has to fulfill Desmond's vision in the helicopter. But it WAS a vision. She could be dead and was "seen" on the helicopter.
The only ones that we've seen get sick on the island are now Ben and Jack. I think there is some connection there.
With the appearance of Christian both on and off the island to his offspring, I'm thinking there's an element of the Hero's Journey that is coming into play now. The Hero's Journey – ala Joseph Campbell, fleshed out in the Star Wars sagas and other mythologies (even Harry Potter) – always CULMINATES in some sort of RECONCILIATION WITH THE FATHER. That may be the story here, and the reason behind all the daddy issues. I'm guessing we have yet to encounter the mother of all daddy issues (pun intended), but there were certainly some hints in that direction tonight.
Another reference to "Alice in Wonderland" tonight. Jack was reading it to Aaron, just as his Dad read it to him as a kid.
Here is my new theory on why some people on the island are cured of their sicknesses while other are not: The ones who have not been cured by the island like Ben and Jack are the ones who are alive. The ones who have been healed by the island like John and Rose are actually dead. But you can't tell the difference by looking at them so really anyone could be dead.
Friday, April 25, 2008
LOST: The Shape of Things to Come
For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks-not that you won or lost-
But how you played the game.
-Grantland Rice
Ben is so bewildering. So cut-throat and deceiving and clever, but I can't help thinking that if we knew his real motives.... There were at least two moments in that episode that I found myself with my jaw dropped: 1 - the death of Alex, and 2 - the summoning of Smokey, looking larger and fiercer than ever.
With the first it wasn't really shock so much as irritation and distress that they actually did it. I understand why though - to show just how cold and determined Ben really is, and also Widmore's group, for that matter. Just like when they had Michael kill Libby. If he had only killed Anna Lucia, everyone wouldn't have cared all that much because she was not a really likable character, but to have him kill Libby as well, who was sweet and seemed to have more story to tell, made the crime truly horrific. It was a brilliant moment when Ben stood at the window convincing himself aloud that Alex didn't matter to him. It even broke my heart a little when he kissed her on the head and cried. When they shot her he looked truly shocked - is that the 'rules of the game' that were changed - why Ben was so certain they wouldn't really kill her? Widmore made it personal?
Kirsten and I were watching together and as this was all happening we wished that Rousseau would have crawled out of the jungle with one last outstretched hand and yell, 'Nooooooooooo!' just as Alex gets shot, and then die herself. (I had secret hopes that she wasn't really dead still, since she kind of went out in a pathetic way, but I think that the writers just needed to close that chapter and move on.) I also, in my dark and twisty head, almost thought that Ben would have cut off Alex's foot or hair or something and had it hanging from his belt when he met up with the rest of them in the trees. Weird, I know, but Ben gives me this serial killer vibe and I always think he's going to do and say things that I've seen serial killers do in movies. I maybe watch too many movies.
As for Smokey. What?! Because of the flashes in this episode where he ends up in Tunisia (so I guess that poor polar bear that Charlotte found either accidentally got sucked through the portal or else it was a test subject...) I thought that when Ben ran back to that hidden room he was maybe going to jump through the portal and leave everyone else. Nope. Just had to summon his..... pet? His creation? Seriously, what is the craziness? So, all the times we have seen Smokey is it because Ben sent it or can it act of its own free will as well? I had thoughts that Smokey was connected to Jacob, but since he summoned Smokey and they still need to go and see Jacob, I am not so sure anymore, and I'm wondering if Jacob isn't as omnipotent as I thought. We'll see next week, I guess. Also, who made the call about Code 14-J? Do his 'Others' at the Temple have a phone or does it automatically happen when the electric fences are breached? did Alex trigger it to warn them when she opened the fences? Poor Alex, pleaded for them not to hurt them.
Widmore: Well, interesting. (I really liked Widmore when he made the comment about Ben's creepy, googly eyes) Though I do think that Ben loved Alex as much as he is capable of the verb, in his manipulative and possessive way, that is not the real battle between the two. Very curious to discover that Widmore has been involved with the island for a long time - it was his first and Ben took it? Explains why all-knowing Ben is so aware of who he is. Hmmmm. So did it used to be easy to find but Ben jammed the frequencies and now its nearly impossible? Or does he say, "you'll never find it" referring to something we haven't seen happen on the island yet? I am glad that Penny was brought up - where is she and how much does her father know about her rescue mission? I'm guessing he knows and is pretending he doesn't and is letting her. So help me Ben, if you hurt Penny... Also, I can't help feeling that Sun's dad is still involved somehow as well - who's going to come after his daughter? Its this whole generation thing again - so is Christian Shepherd still alive too? Will his daughter die by the end of the season?
The washed-up doctor and the Morse code deception: Despite Daniel's lie, I don't think that he is a cruel or deceptive person. I think they were told certain things and given certain instructions, and are confused about who to trust. The message was odd though. If it was true, then wouldn't that make things backwards from how they are? My thoughts on the time issue have been that the island is behind real time. If the doctor is alive and well on the boat and dead on the island, does that suggest its the other way around? Inconsistent! This time difference thing is confusing the heck out of me! Yep, the whole heck. When Jack collared Daniel and made him admit that they never had intentions of rescuing them, there was a shot of Juliette's face for just a second, but it said so much. It was almost a shrug - she wasn't surprised because she has been disappointed so many times. I seriously think that Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliette) and Michael Emerson (Ben) both deserve Emmy's.
Sayid: So he finally found Nadia and now she is gone for good. Sigh. So his heart is broken and he wants revenge. Seems like a good bet that Ben killed Nadia and not Widmore's group. Sayid usually has a clearer head and was too heartbroken to question Ben's true intentions. Ben had to come across as the good guy. His manipulation skills are amazing. I still don't understand the whole fake bomb they had Michael set off on the freighter though. What if he hadn't? Was the point just to see if he actually would? With Sayid, if Widmore's group really DID kill Nadia, was Ben just hoping that Sayid would join him or is there some necessity of free will involved? Does the island need 'willing' servants or is it just Ben being Ben? I guess Ben doesn't want his portal secret to get out either. I wonder were all and when all it can go.
Declaration of affection: Sawyer. I love him a little bit. Albeit I wish they would trim up his hair just a tad. He acts like such a jerk because that is where he is comfortable and what he is in the habit of doing, but in stressful situations he shows his true colors and is courageous, straight-forward and takes charge. Risking his life to save Claire and then threatening Locke in behalf of Hurley... I guess I'm guilty of the ages old female habit of falling for the bad boy with the heart of gold. Sigh. :)
Oh, and nice shout out by Hurley when they were playing Risk or whatever saying, 'Australia is the key to the whole game' - hmmm.
And what's with Jack's belly? I do hope our boy scout is okay. (Also, Kate, could you be any less obvious in your sassy glances and 15-yr-old teasy comments? I love ya girl, but please. (Maybe its just the Sawyer lover in me ))
Some other thoughts:
'I guess the whole Danielle back story will never be told after all - maybe a victim of the writer's strike? Everyone is blaming that for everything bad with this season already, why stop now? How bout a special in Memoriam for Nadia and that blond extra who always wore the handkerchief on her head who got shot by the freighters? I think I remember seeing her in the background of most of the Lost gatherings, but she never spoke a word. I guess Penelope deathwatch begins now.'
'I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am routing for Ben. I think that is the real goal of the writers. By the shows end the Losties will be the others and they will have us cheering for "the good guys".'
'Maybe the reason for the Doc's slit throat is because Sayid, Desmond, and Michael took over the freighter now that all the big guys with guns are on the island...'
'Did anyone else get a distinct deja vu feeling during this episode?The way Ben says "change the rules" makes me feel like he's been through this scenario before and is reliving it.'
'Here is the real question of tonight: Ben kept saying that he (Charles) had changed the rules. What are these rules and when did Ben and Widmore decide on them?'
'He was time travelling at the beginning. His head did that little shake. I got this feeling that somehow at the very end we would see him come too in the hatch while he was a prisoner and that it had all been planned early on. But we didn't. Curious that he was wearing a parka like he had been someplace cold.'
'Widmore! Oh man, so these two have a much, much deeper history than we ever imagined. Ben took the island from Widmore? Does that mean that Widmore was in charge of Dharma all along? And what happened so he can no longer find it? I'll state my theory now. I got the feeling that Ben and Widmore are related in some way from the way they interacted with each other and Widmore calling Ben, "boy".'
'Did it seem like there was something to what Ben said to Charles when asked if he was here to kill him. "You and I both know I can't do that." Is it impossible to kill Charles or not in the rules of the game?'
'Did anyone catch the name on Ben's jacket when he showed up in the Sahara Desert - I think it said Halliwax. Edgar Halliwax is one of the many aliases of the Orientation video guy (Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund). Was that his jacket? Did he help Ben teleport?'
'How can Widmore be so sure Ben won't find Penny when he's handing out her number in public restrooms..?' - (Maybe like Alex to Ben, she's dispensable - a possession)
'I started to think after the last episode before the hiatus that the war between Ben and Charles was akin to the Michael Douglas movie "The Game," where the main character's life is turned into a live-action game. Or even a nefarious take on "Trading Places," where two men manipulate the lives and fortunes of others for their own sick pleasures – striving to be one chess move ahead of the other. I was even more convinced of this direction tonight, especially when Ben manipulated Sayid into being a hit man (I'm sure Ben killed Nadia himself). He had Sayid begging to work for him! If it's all a game, why did Ben grieve over his daughter? He did express sincere emotion, BUT it was a secondary, delayed response. His first reaction was shock. I thought he was shocked his manipulation failed for the first time in his life, but instead the shock was: He changed the rules. He even referred to Alex as a "pawn," another chess term. Makes me look at the all the game-playing in "Lost" in a new light: chess, backgammon, Connect 4, even the war game Locke, Hurley, and Sawyer were playing tonight. Remember what Hurley said: Australia is the key to whole game.'
'wow, looks like Jack gets really sick in next weeks episode...i wonder if he's pregnant.'
'Interesting that Ben's alias was Dean Moriarty - a character in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, which was about travelling and "finding one's self," and all around craziness. In addition, Dean's dad was a hobo and essentially he ran away or was abandoned (can't quite remember...read the book a long time ago!)... fits in with our losties' common theme of having daddy issues.' - 'Cute..CANDLE, WICKmund, HalliWAX...but does it mean something, or does he just like candles?'
'From what we know, i would surmise the Island is objective of the game. i would think Hanso is the gamemaster, Ben and Charles are the players and everyone else is a pawn. like any game there are rules. you can't win a game of Risk by pulling a piece and shooting your opponent. i think the world is the game board.the sad thing i am thinking is, someone will win in the end and new players will be chosen. what if the new players end up being Jack and Locke?'
'Forget Ben's parka in the desert -- what I'm wondering is where Bernard the dentist mastered Morse code ...And for some reason I keep trying to connect Ben's sickness at the beginning of the episode with Jack's sickness at the end of the episode, even though they may not be related at all.'
'What was the black thingy Ben was holding while time travelling – in the desert and in Chuck's penthouse? Several episodes back I mentioned the WAND in the 1871 novel "The Coming Race," which harnessed a life force based on Michael Faraday's electromagnetic findings. The WAND could be used to heal, destroy, induce sleep, communicate thoughts, and erase information from the brain of the receiver. It seems like Ben was manipulating the doorman (messing with his objections) when he was trying to gain entrance. Can that thing in his hand be a conduit for this life force, a byproduct of the electromagnetism harnessed from the island?''Kimmel: The island heals some people and doesn't heal others. For instance, Ben needed an operation from Jack to beat cancer, but it seems like Sawyer gets injured every sixth episode and by the next, he's fine. Is that just a TV thing?Carlton Cuse: Wow. [Laughs] Where are the softball questions, Jimmy? What about the warm-up?Damon Lindelof: The short answer is, it's not arbitrary. Yes, there is a certain degree of compressing story. The idea that everything you've seen has really happened in 110 days of real time feels fantastical, but that's the convention of the show. However, who gets sick and how fast they heal is something we talk about. In the second episode back [airing May 1], that becomes a major issue in the story. One character gets sick and another who has had experience being healed voices exactly that question: Is there any rhyme or reason to it?Cuse: The healing is related to the degree to which you are in communion with the island at any given moment. Perhaps Ben getting sick and needing surgery had to do with the fact that he had fallen out of favor, that his connection with the island was maybe not what it had been in the past.'
To write against your name,
He marks-not that you won or lost-
But how you played the game.
-Grantland Rice
Ben is so bewildering. So cut-throat and deceiving and clever, but I can't help thinking that if we knew his real motives.... There were at least two moments in that episode that I found myself with my jaw dropped: 1 - the death of Alex, and 2 - the summoning of Smokey, looking larger and fiercer than ever.
With the first it wasn't really shock so much as irritation and distress that they actually did it. I understand why though - to show just how cold and determined Ben really is, and also Widmore's group, for that matter. Just like when they had Michael kill Libby. If he had only killed Anna Lucia, everyone wouldn't have cared all that much because she was not a really likable character, but to have him kill Libby as well, who was sweet and seemed to have more story to tell, made the crime truly horrific. It was a brilliant moment when Ben stood at the window convincing himself aloud that Alex didn't matter to him. It even broke my heart a little when he kissed her on the head and cried. When they shot her he looked truly shocked - is that the 'rules of the game' that were changed - why Ben was so certain they wouldn't really kill her? Widmore made it personal?
Kirsten and I were watching together and as this was all happening we wished that Rousseau would have crawled out of the jungle with one last outstretched hand and yell, 'Nooooooooooo!' just as Alex gets shot, and then die herself. (I had secret hopes that she wasn't really dead still, since she kind of went out in a pathetic way, but I think that the writers just needed to close that chapter and move on.) I also, in my dark and twisty head, almost thought that Ben would have cut off Alex's foot or hair or something and had it hanging from his belt when he met up with the rest of them in the trees. Weird, I know, but Ben gives me this serial killer vibe and I always think he's going to do and say things that I've seen serial killers do in movies. I maybe watch too many movies.
As for Smokey. What?! Because of the flashes in this episode where he ends up in Tunisia (so I guess that poor polar bear that Charlotte found either accidentally got sucked through the portal or else it was a test subject...) I thought that when Ben ran back to that hidden room he was maybe going to jump through the portal and leave everyone else. Nope. Just had to summon his..... pet? His creation? Seriously, what is the craziness? So, all the times we have seen Smokey is it because Ben sent it or can it act of its own free will as well? I had thoughts that Smokey was connected to Jacob, but since he summoned Smokey and they still need to go and see Jacob, I am not so sure anymore, and I'm wondering if Jacob isn't as omnipotent as I thought. We'll see next week, I guess. Also, who made the call about Code 14-J? Do his 'Others' at the Temple have a phone or does it automatically happen when the electric fences are breached? did Alex trigger it to warn them when she opened the fences? Poor Alex, pleaded for them not to hurt them.
Widmore: Well, interesting. (I really liked Widmore when he made the comment about Ben's creepy, googly eyes) Though I do think that Ben loved Alex as much as he is capable of the verb, in his manipulative and possessive way, that is not the real battle between the two. Very curious to discover that Widmore has been involved with the island for a long time - it was his first and Ben took it? Explains why all-knowing Ben is so aware of who he is. Hmmmm. So did it used to be easy to find but Ben jammed the frequencies and now its nearly impossible? Or does he say, "you'll never find it" referring to something we haven't seen happen on the island yet? I am glad that Penny was brought up - where is she and how much does her father know about her rescue mission? I'm guessing he knows and is pretending he doesn't and is letting her. So help me Ben, if you hurt Penny... Also, I can't help feeling that Sun's dad is still involved somehow as well - who's going to come after his daughter? Its this whole generation thing again - so is Christian Shepherd still alive too? Will his daughter die by the end of the season?
The washed-up doctor and the Morse code deception: Despite Daniel's lie, I don't think that he is a cruel or deceptive person. I think they were told certain things and given certain instructions, and are confused about who to trust. The message was odd though. If it was true, then wouldn't that make things backwards from how they are? My thoughts on the time issue have been that the island is behind real time. If the doctor is alive and well on the boat and dead on the island, does that suggest its the other way around? Inconsistent! This time difference thing is confusing the heck out of me! Yep, the whole heck. When Jack collared Daniel and made him admit that they never had intentions of rescuing them, there was a shot of Juliette's face for just a second, but it said so much. It was almost a shrug - she wasn't surprised because she has been disappointed so many times. I seriously think that Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliette) and Michael Emerson (Ben) both deserve Emmy's.
Sayid: So he finally found Nadia and now she is gone for good. Sigh. So his heart is broken and he wants revenge. Seems like a good bet that Ben killed Nadia and not Widmore's group. Sayid usually has a clearer head and was too heartbroken to question Ben's true intentions. Ben had to come across as the good guy. His manipulation skills are amazing. I still don't understand the whole fake bomb they had Michael set off on the freighter though. What if he hadn't? Was the point just to see if he actually would? With Sayid, if Widmore's group really DID kill Nadia, was Ben just hoping that Sayid would join him or is there some necessity of free will involved? Does the island need 'willing' servants or is it just Ben being Ben? I guess Ben doesn't want his portal secret to get out either. I wonder were all and when all it can go.
Declaration of affection: Sawyer. I love him a little bit. Albeit I wish they would trim up his hair just a tad. He acts like such a jerk because that is where he is comfortable and what he is in the habit of doing, but in stressful situations he shows his true colors and is courageous, straight-forward and takes charge. Risking his life to save Claire and then threatening Locke in behalf of Hurley... I guess I'm guilty of the ages old female habit of falling for the bad boy with the heart of gold. Sigh. :)
Oh, and nice shout out by Hurley when they were playing Risk or whatever saying, 'Australia is the key to the whole game' - hmmm.
And what's with Jack's belly? I do hope our boy scout is okay. (Also, Kate, could you be any less obvious in your sassy glances and 15-yr-old teasy comments? I love ya girl, but please. (Maybe its just the Sawyer lover in me ))
Some other thoughts:
'I guess the whole Danielle back story will never be told after all - maybe a victim of the writer's strike? Everyone is blaming that for everything bad with this season already, why stop now? How bout a special in Memoriam for Nadia and that blond extra who always wore the handkerchief on her head who got shot by the freighters? I think I remember seeing her in the background of most of the Lost gatherings, but she never spoke a word. I guess Penelope deathwatch begins now.'
'I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am routing for Ben. I think that is the real goal of the writers. By the shows end the Losties will be the others and they will have us cheering for "the good guys".'
'Maybe the reason for the Doc's slit throat is because Sayid, Desmond, and Michael took over the freighter now that all the big guys with guns are on the island...'
'Did anyone else get a distinct deja vu feeling during this episode?The way Ben says "change the rules" makes me feel like he's been through this scenario before and is reliving it.'
'Here is the real question of tonight: Ben kept saying that he (Charles) had changed the rules. What are these rules and when did Ben and Widmore decide on them?'
'He was time travelling at the beginning. His head did that little shake. I got this feeling that somehow at the very end we would see him come too in the hatch while he was a prisoner and that it had all been planned early on. But we didn't. Curious that he was wearing a parka like he had been someplace cold.'
'Widmore! Oh man, so these two have a much, much deeper history than we ever imagined. Ben took the island from Widmore? Does that mean that Widmore was in charge of Dharma all along? And what happened so he can no longer find it? I'll state my theory now. I got the feeling that Ben and Widmore are related in some way from the way they interacted with each other and Widmore calling Ben, "boy".'
'Did it seem like there was something to what Ben said to Charles when asked if he was here to kill him. "You and I both know I can't do that." Is it impossible to kill Charles or not in the rules of the game?'
'Did anyone catch the name on Ben's jacket when he showed up in the Sahara Desert - I think it said Halliwax. Edgar Halliwax is one of the many aliases of the Orientation video guy (Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund). Was that his jacket? Did he help Ben teleport?'
'How can Widmore be so sure Ben won't find Penny when he's handing out her number in public restrooms..?' - (Maybe like Alex to Ben, she's dispensable - a possession)
'I started to think after the last episode before the hiatus that the war between Ben and Charles was akin to the Michael Douglas movie "The Game," where the main character's life is turned into a live-action game. Or even a nefarious take on "Trading Places," where two men manipulate the lives and fortunes of others for their own sick pleasures – striving to be one chess move ahead of the other. I was even more convinced of this direction tonight, especially when Ben manipulated Sayid into being a hit man (I'm sure Ben killed Nadia himself). He had Sayid begging to work for him! If it's all a game, why did Ben grieve over his daughter? He did express sincere emotion, BUT it was a secondary, delayed response. His first reaction was shock. I thought he was shocked his manipulation failed for the first time in his life, but instead the shock was: He changed the rules. He even referred to Alex as a "pawn," another chess term. Makes me look at the all the game-playing in "Lost" in a new light: chess, backgammon, Connect 4, even the war game Locke, Hurley, and Sawyer were playing tonight. Remember what Hurley said: Australia is the key to whole game.'
'wow, looks like Jack gets really sick in next weeks episode...i wonder if he's pregnant.'
'Interesting that Ben's alias was Dean Moriarty - a character in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, which was about travelling and "finding one's self," and all around craziness. In addition, Dean's dad was a hobo and essentially he ran away or was abandoned (can't quite remember...read the book a long time ago!)... fits in with our losties' common theme of having daddy issues.' - 'Cute..CANDLE, WICKmund, HalliWAX...but does it mean something, or does he just like candles?'
'From what we know, i would surmise the Island is objective of the game. i would think Hanso is the gamemaster, Ben and Charles are the players and everyone else is a pawn. like any game there are rules. you can't win a game of Risk by pulling a piece and shooting your opponent. i think the world is the game board.the sad thing i am thinking is, someone will win in the end and new players will be chosen. what if the new players end up being Jack and Locke?'
'Forget Ben's parka in the desert -- what I'm wondering is where Bernard the dentist mastered Morse code ...And for some reason I keep trying to connect Ben's sickness at the beginning of the episode with Jack's sickness at the end of the episode, even though they may not be related at all.'
'What was the black thingy Ben was holding while time travelling – in the desert and in Chuck's penthouse? Several episodes back I mentioned the WAND in the 1871 novel "The Coming Race," which harnessed a life force based on Michael Faraday's electromagnetic findings. The WAND could be used to heal, destroy, induce sleep, communicate thoughts, and erase information from the brain of the receiver. It seems like Ben was manipulating the doorman (messing with his objections) when he was trying to gain entrance. Can that thing in his hand be a conduit for this life force, a byproduct of the electromagnetism harnessed from the island?''Kimmel: The island heals some people and doesn't heal others. For instance, Ben needed an operation from Jack to beat cancer, but it seems like Sawyer gets injured every sixth episode and by the next, he's fine. Is that just a TV thing?Carlton Cuse: Wow. [Laughs] Where are the softball questions, Jimmy? What about the warm-up?Damon Lindelof: The short answer is, it's not arbitrary. Yes, there is a certain degree of compressing story. The idea that everything you've seen has really happened in 110 days of real time feels fantastical, but that's the convention of the show. However, who gets sick and how fast they heal is something we talk about. In the second episode back [airing May 1], that becomes a major issue in the story. One character gets sick and another who has had experience being healed voices exactly that question: Is there any rhyme or reason to it?Cuse: The healing is related to the degree to which you are in communion with the island at any given moment. Perhaps Ben getting sick and needing surgery had to do with the fact that he had fallen out of favor, that his connection with the island was maybe not what it had been in the past.'
Friday, March 21, 2008
LOST: Meet Kevin Johnson
Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.
-Sophocles
If they were trying to make us feel sympathetic towards Michael, it didn't quite do it for me. Him being all suicidal just makes me think of him as a coward - I don't feel like he's suicidal from guilt, I feel like he is just kind of 'poor me.' Burdening his kid with that and all. Also, I used to kind of like Tom the Other, but now that I have seen him with his slicked back hair and calculating demands and 'indulgences,' I feel pretty good about his season 3 demise. Overall not one of my favorite episodes this season (and it would have been a lame finale if they hadn't gotten to make the five more episodes that start in a few weeks) but we needed to get the Michael story. The most intriguing part of the episode to me was:
"The island won't let you" ...Does 'the island' mean Jacob? Is it simply symbolic of Destiny? It takes us back to the question of, did the island pick these people, and what are the qualifications for being on Jacob's list? Is it really the island or just manipulation and a faulty gun?
Parallels with other LOST episodes: Cemetery in Thailand - it always comes back to Thailand. Michael's car wreck - I know his was intentional, but there are an awful lot of car wrecks in this show.
Even thought I don't care for Miles as a person, I would like to see a childhood flashback of him that describes his psychic ability and why he is so awkward.
Oh, so, phony plane by Whidmore confirmed, I suppose? When Michael said, 'and I'm supposed to believe this?' I was with him. Its Whidmore's folks and Ben's folks playing the Losties from both sides. Maybe Whidmore's group is assuming Ben's group faked the plane wreck and Ben's group is saying Whidmore did it to protect the truth of the island and its time warp phenomena. There's still the issue of very trusting Frank recognising that the body wasn't right though... It really has turned into a Who-Done-It.
Sayid is so smart, I wonder what he expects to get out of turning in Michael. He can't honestly trust the freighter folks, but maybe he thinks he can at least get them to trust him? It wouldn't be the first time that he did something that I thought was, un-Sayidish, but I hope he has an ulterior motive. The 'captain' didn't look super surprised - he doesn't have the right presence of authority that a leader should have and it throws me off.
I wish they would have addressed the odd pipe tapping (Morse code?) from last week. Also, my theory about Walt acting as the in between communication to Ben is out, so how is he still getting in touch with Michael and his Temple people now that he is 'captive?' Jacob?
Is Libby the angel or the devil on Michael's shoulder? Also, his whole, 'I'm here to die,' comment was odd. How can you be so sure that if you do this mission for Ben the island will let you die? Michael makes thoughtless decisions and he is willing to take more lives without knowing the truth. He's a little punch drunk; one too many hits with the snake, if you ask me.
Ummm, Ben won't kill innocent people? Huh. Sending a fake bomb on the boat with Michael was his way of showing him he was better than Whidmore? Why even bother? What if Michael hadn't tried to set it off? If he hadn't. and Ben was like, 'don't worry, its not a real bomb, it was just an elaborate show so you know how clever and awesome I am,' I don't think he would have bought it. Although, Michael is very unhinged right now. Did they just want to see if he is still willing to die? Would the island have even let him die? Maybe they figured it was worth a shot if it worked, but if it didn't then that note was the backup plan.
Ben, you jackass, killing off Alex's mom and boyfriend. Guess they weren't innocent. If he can't have her no one can, and all that. I have to admit, I kind of rolled my eyes when poor, forgettable Karl said he had a bad feeling. At first I was a little disappointed in Rousseau for buying the plan, but I actually think she knew the danger for her was coming and that her only concern was for her daughter's safety and that, though not safe for herself, this maybe is technically the safest place for Alex. I think Juliette should adopt Alex and they should be the ones who get to kill Ben. :) (Though I secretly hope Rousseau will heal - she is such a survivor to just go out like that and she needs a flashback).
Question: if it is the other Others who were shooting up the place, wouldn't they recognise Alex without her having to scream, "I'm Ben's daughter!" like a pansy?
Some other interesting thoughts:
I guess now we know why Kate wasn't Tom's type! (ha!)
Michael is told the island won't let you kill yourself. We also see that with Jack in trying to jump off the bridge and Hurley and his high speed chase and reckless driving.
Arturo (Tom's luva) totally looks like the guy gettign beat up in Ben's video of Whidmore.
The preview for the next episode confirmed that Aaron is in fact one of the Oceanic 6, along with Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sun, and Sayid. (True, they didn't show Ben in the preview but did show Aaron and they said all 6 were revealed. So how does Ben get off the island?)
So the leaving the island makes you suicidal but incapable of committing suicide? (Talk about catch-22)
Was Michael dreaming in the hospital or flashing-back? The hospital monitor was old and then when he woke up it was technologically more sophisticated. Could he have been flashing-back? (I know that's not a word, but you know what I mean.) He did have a car accident before his flight on Oceanic 815 – and Libby was in med school for a year before she dropped out to become a psychologist. So maybe it wasn't a Libby-haunted dream but a flashback in which Libby really was working at the hospital at the time of Michael's car accident. And maybe he was being jerked back and forth through time as the island attempted to save his life – or at least keep him from killing himself. (Interesting... I remember thinking it was a flashback at first as well, until I saw his reaction to Libby, but maybe that was just to mess with us?)
Except for the absence of flashing lights, wasn't the scene with Ben at the mic reminiscent of Professor Marvel/the Wizard of Oz at the mic manipulating others behind his curtain?
The Compass Bearing of 325 that Ben told Walt to go on at the close of Season 2 is the same bearing Faridy told Lapidis to fly the chopper in the "Eggtown" episode: Is that the only bearing where you can get on/off the island.Whidmore got the coordinates to the island. Did that happen in the Season 2 finale? Those two guys in the mountains called Penny, not daddy Whidmore. But… she could be working with him OR he could be listening in on her.
Who is funding the "Others" and Ben's group to stop Whidmore, how are they living it up in Penthouses with benefits, sending people to Fiji, transporting from island to island, stopping people from killing themselves, etc? Hanso? Just wonder how they are bankrolled and have people everywhere at all the right times. I wonder if Sayid just cost everyone on the island their lives or if he did the right thing in the end?
I'm still intrigued that the writers chose to name a character Captain Gault because the writer who created the original literary character – William Hope Hodgson – is also well known for a book about a group of survivors shipwrecked on an ISLAND after a TEMPEST. There they find the survivors of anOTHER wreck, stuck in the island's weeds, who have built a PROTECTIVE SUPERSTRUCTURE to shield themselves from the island's MONSTER. Apparently at the time the novel was written, scientists were discovering "the cellular parity of all things," so that the monster and the survivors were thought to be all part of the same "protoplasmic unity" (which is what made the novel so frightening). And maybe that's why our SMOKE MONSTER has access to the thoughts of the Losties: man and monster are one. Just seems to me that with this story (by the author who invented Captain Gault) and the Jules Verne book Regina was reading last week, the writers are giving us clues (or taking their cues) from the science fiction of the 19th century. (And I still think the germ of the entire series will turn out to be the 19th-century sci-fi thriller "The Coming Race.")
-Sophocles
If they were trying to make us feel sympathetic towards Michael, it didn't quite do it for me. Him being all suicidal just makes me think of him as a coward - I don't feel like he's suicidal from guilt, I feel like he is just kind of 'poor me.' Burdening his kid with that and all. Also, I used to kind of like Tom the Other, but now that I have seen him with his slicked back hair and calculating demands and 'indulgences,' I feel pretty good about his season 3 demise. Overall not one of my favorite episodes this season (and it would have been a lame finale if they hadn't gotten to make the five more episodes that start in a few weeks) but we needed to get the Michael story. The most intriguing part of the episode to me was:
"The island won't let you" ...Does 'the island' mean Jacob? Is it simply symbolic of Destiny? It takes us back to the question of, did the island pick these people, and what are the qualifications for being on Jacob's list? Is it really the island or just manipulation and a faulty gun?
Parallels with other LOST episodes: Cemetery in Thailand - it always comes back to Thailand. Michael's car wreck - I know his was intentional, but there are an awful lot of car wrecks in this show.
Even thought I don't care for Miles as a person, I would like to see a childhood flashback of him that describes his psychic ability and why he is so awkward.
Oh, so, phony plane by Whidmore confirmed, I suppose? When Michael said, 'and I'm supposed to believe this?' I was with him. Its Whidmore's folks and Ben's folks playing the Losties from both sides. Maybe Whidmore's group is assuming Ben's group faked the plane wreck and Ben's group is saying Whidmore did it to protect the truth of the island and its time warp phenomena. There's still the issue of very trusting Frank recognising that the body wasn't right though... It really has turned into a Who-Done-It.
Sayid is so smart, I wonder what he expects to get out of turning in Michael. He can't honestly trust the freighter folks, but maybe he thinks he can at least get them to trust him? It wouldn't be the first time that he did something that I thought was, un-Sayidish, but I hope he has an ulterior motive. The 'captain' didn't look super surprised - he doesn't have the right presence of authority that a leader should have and it throws me off.
I wish they would have addressed the odd pipe tapping (Morse code?) from last week. Also, my theory about Walt acting as the in between communication to Ben is out, so how is he still getting in touch with Michael and his Temple people now that he is 'captive?' Jacob?
Is Libby the angel or the devil on Michael's shoulder? Also, his whole, 'I'm here to die,' comment was odd. How can you be so sure that if you do this mission for Ben the island will let you die? Michael makes thoughtless decisions and he is willing to take more lives without knowing the truth. He's a little punch drunk; one too many hits with the snake, if you ask me.
Ummm, Ben won't kill innocent people? Huh. Sending a fake bomb on the boat with Michael was his way of showing him he was better than Whidmore? Why even bother? What if Michael hadn't tried to set it off? If he hadn't. and Ben was like, 'don't worry, its not a real bomb, it was just an elaborate show so you know how clever and awesome I am,' I don't think he would have bought it. Although, Michael is very unhinged right now. Did they just want to see if he is still willing to die? Would the island have even let him die? Maybe they figured it was worth a shot if it worked, but if it didn't then that note was the backup plan.
Ben, you jackass, killing off Alex's mom and boyfriend. Guess they weren't innocent. If he can't have her no one can, and all that. I have to admit, I kind of rolled my eyes when poor, forgettable Karl said he had a bad feeling. At first I was a little disappointed in Rousseau for buying the plan, but I actually think she knew the danger for her was coming and that her only concern was for her daughter's safety and that, though not safe for herself, this maybe is technically the safest place for Alex. I think Juliette should adopt Alex and they should be the ones who get to kill Ben. :) (Though I secretly hope Rousseau will heal - she is such a survivor to just go out like that and she needs a flashback).
Question: if it is the other Others who were shooting up the place, wouldn't they recognise Alex without her having to scream, "I'm Ben's daughter!" like a pansy?
Some other interesting thoughts:
I guess now we know why Kate wasn't Tom's type! (ha!)
Michael is told the island won't let you kill yourself. We also see that with Jack in trying to jump off the bridge and Hurley and his high speed chase and reckless driving.
Arturo (Tom's luva) totally looks like the guy gettign beat up in Ben's video of Whidmore.
The preview for the next episode confirmed that Aaron is in fact one of the Oceanic 6, along with Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sun, and Sayid. (True, they didn't show Ben in the preview but did show Aaron and they said all 6 were revealed. So how does Ben get off the island?)
So the leaving the island makes you suicidal but incapable of committing suicide? (Talk about catch-22)
Was Michael dreaming in the hospital or flashing-back? The hospital monitor was old and then when he woke up it was technologically more sophisticated. Could he have been flashing-back? (I know that's not a word, but you know what I mean.) He did have a car accident before his flight on Oceanic 815 – and Libby was in med school for a year before she dropped out to become a psychologist. So maybe it wasn't a Libby-haunted dream but a flashback in which Libby really was working at the hospital at the time of Michael's car accident. And maybe he was being jerked back and forth through time as the island attempted to save his life – or at least keep him from killing himself. (Interesting... I remember thinking it was a flashback at first as well, until I saw his reaction to Libby, but maybe that was just to mess with us?)
Except for the absence of flashing lights, wasn't the scene with Ben at the mic reminiscent of Professor Marvel/the Wizard of Oz at the mic manipulating others behind his curtain?
The Compass Bearing of 325 that Ben told Walt to go on at the close of Season 2 is the same bearing Faridy told Lapidis to fly the chopper in the "Eggtown" episode: Is that the only bearing where you can get on/off the island.Whidmore got the coordinates to the island. Did that happen in the Season 2 finale? Those two guys in the mountains called Penny, not daddy Whidmore. But… she could be working with him OR he could be listening in on her.
Who is funding the "Others" and Ben's group to stop Whidmore, how are they living it up in Penthouses with benefits, sending people to Fiji, transporting from island to island, stopping people from killing themselves, etc? Hanso? Just wonder how they are bankrolled and have people everywhere at all the right times. I wonder if Sayid just cost everyone on the island their lives or if he did the right thing in the end?
I'm still intrigued that the writers chose to name a character Captain Gault because the writer who created the original literary character – William Hope Hodgson – is also well known for a book about a group of survivors shipwrecked on an ISLAND after a TEMPEST. There they find the survivors of anOTHER wreck, stuck in the island's weeds, who have built a PROTECTIVE SUPERSTRUCTURE to shield themselves from the island's MONSTER. Apparently at the time the novel was written, scientists were discovering "the cellular parity of all things," so that the monster and the survivors were thought to be all part of the same "protoplasmic unity" (which is what made the novel so frightening). And maybe that's why our SMOKE MONSTER has access to the thoughts of the Losties: man and monster are one. Just seems to me that with this story (by the author who invented Captain Gault) and the Jules Verne book Regina was reading last week, the writers are giving us clues (or taking their cues) from the science fiction of the 19th century. (And I still think the germ of the entire series will turn out to be the 19th-century sci-fi thriller "The Coming Race.")
Friday, March 14, 2008
LOST: Ji Yeon
But all lost things are in the angels' keeping, Love;
No past is dead for us, but only sleeping, Love...
-Helen Hunt Jackson
It's a girl! So Jin's was a flashback and Sun's was a flash forward? Tricky devils. I hate the flippin' future. Do they get Jin's body off the island then? Does he die after they get off or is that just a symbolic grave? Is he dead? In any case, as I am not really certain that Aaron or Ben (by whatever means) are Oceanic 6, and we don't know when Jin died, we have officially five: Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and Sun. On the stand at Kate's trial Jack mentioned that there were eight and two died. Is Jin one of the eight then? Will Claire be the other of the eight and they thought it better that Kate keep Aaron instead of foster care so they pretended he is hers because they wouldn't let a fugitive have him otherwise? Did Juliette not read enough of their files to know that Jack and Claire are siblings? Tell them!
Sooooo sad, in hindsight of knowing that Jin was gone, that Sun was pleading for him to be there at the hospital. :( (PS, I was at first suspicious when the doctor came in and said her regular doctor was 'at a conference,' but then they didn't seem to go anywhere with that. Still...) Sweet 'ol Hurley. I guess that was before he started seeing Charlie and got tossed in the loony bin. I thought it was interesting that when Sun called for an ambulance she didn't say, 'I'm in labor,' or, 'my water just broke,' she said , 'I'm pregnant and I think there's something wrong.' Does the time difference speed up/affect pregnancy somehow? Will the child be 'special' somehow for being conceived on the island?
DON'T TRUST THE CAPTAIN - Really? That's all your going to give us?! Thanks, buddy. Michael is Johnson. Not a surprise at this point, but a nice confirmation of suspicion. Where is Walt? That is always what Ben has over Michael. Captain Gault sure looks like a younger version of Charles Whidmore to me. Relation? Is there any way that in some far fetched time warp he IS Charles? Unlikely, but could be fun! I was actually kid of disappointed with the captain. Not sure if I wanted him to be someone we knew or if I just didn't think the actors presence was great, but I don't know if he's the real captain. What 'errand' did the helicopter have to run, I'd like to know?! (Also, at this point, I am still thinking that Walt is the in between guy who is letting Ben communicate with his people and with the boat)
Who's freaky head blood is on the wall? Did somebody do that to themselves since everyone is literally going suicidally crazy on the boat or does it suggest torture/murder? Who was tapping on the pipes? Was Sayid deciphering Morse code?
Black Box from Oceanic 815. Captain suggesting that it was Ben who faked the plane crash. I don't think he did. I don't trust Ben at all of course, but I am leaning towards thinking that Ben and his folks didn't anticipate the plane crash. Don't trust the captain. They want you to help them get Ben or whatever they are after. I kind of like the theory of the plane crash being real because they were split into two different realities or versions of themselves or whatever. Although, when Frank saw the crash on the news he was automatically suspicious and he knew the pilot. Unless you were really positive about something being amiss, I don't think you would jump directly to foul play. Hmmm.
Favorite one-liner: Everyone loves a panda. Second favorite: I need the panda! Also, would you really get in a taxi with a big stuffed animal and not notice it and try to find out who's it is?
Wow Sun, way to just lay it out to Daniel and start making quick decisions. I guess that mother lioness instinct is kicking in. It is so refreshing how honest and straightforward Sun is compared to everyone else. Ummm, wow Juliette - do what you have to do to save the girls life, I guess! Wasn't her place and did deserve a slap, but Jin also deserved to know the truth. Who's the 'other woman' now?! (though technically, I guess Sun's affair was a matter of 'the other man')
Other thoughts:
Could the 324 bodies on the plane discovered in the ocean be the people Ben and the Others "purged" from the original Dharma initiative? Could Ben have had something to do with the staged crash?
the headstone - it has his date of death as 9/22/2004 - so maybe he's not really dead - maybe he's still on the island, but "dead" to the world because he's not one of the oceanic six. OK, so is that the date Lost premiered, and thus the date he would have died in the plane crash (had he died)? Since the Oceanic Six are telling people that only a few of them survived initially...Sun said she missed him, didn't say he was dead and was looking for him while in labor.
you've really got to assume (pray?) that jin is alive on the island. the gravestone says the date of the crash, meaning it was probably created when the fake wreckage was found (as it probably was for many of the losties--kind of cool). the writing very carefully avoids language of death. (Ooooh, good thought!)
I have two thoughts regarding Jin: (1) he is being presumed dead possibly so Sun and baby can have life insurance and otherwise be taken care of (Oceanic settlement) and visiting the grave was a public gesture, or (2) he's in the biz with Sayid and Ben. I'm not convinced that Jin's scenes were flashbacks, but rather flash forwards.
I think Jin is alive also because I think it's going to be vital that everybody have somebody on the island that they want to go back for - Sun for Jin, Kate for Sawyer, Jack for Juliet, etc.
The "reveal" of Micheal on the boat in no way answers the question of whether or not he is Ben's man on the boat. To me, it looked like Micheal didn't even know he was Micheal. So my guess is, Ben's man is someone else and the Micheal story is a whole different can of very juicy worms.
* Why did Hurley say "good" when Sun said no one else was coming?
If all 324 passengers of the plane were supposedly in the faked wreckage, how do they justify the Oceanic Six and their return? Wouldn't their survival suggest that the bodies on the plane were someone other than who they were supposed to be considering who they were supposed to be is alive and well?
Regina chained herself and jumped overboard. Anyone think it's all a put on for Sayid and Desmond? That along with the giant blood stain on the wall in the room they were going to stay in? I think it's all a set up to freak them out and throw them off of the trail of the real motivations of the captain and crew (and Charles Whidmore).
This whole "Who should I trust" triangle is as bad as one of Zach's love triangles on Saved by the Bell. (Ha!)
The island needs to get its mojo back and start threatening and/or killing again. May I suggest "freighties meet smokey!" The smoke monster finds Charlotte, grabs her off the beach, pulls some Eko moves on her, and leave her bloodied body for all to see. Maybe then the freighties would know what they're up against and remind the losties why they want off the island. Come on island; reestablish who's really in charge. The island rules!
(This next one is long, but pretty awesome...)
I was trying to find out more about the literary character Captain Gault and ended up stumbling upon a bunch of papers presented at a conference sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) on science and literature in 19th-century Britain. I didn't' find out much about Captain Gault, but I did find this. It absolutely BLEW my mind. Read this description (which I've heavily clipped) of the novel "The Coming Race" and its links to Michael Faraday, Jurassic animals, and maybe even the smoke monster! If the writers did not have this novel (and especially the scientific interpretation given below) in mind when they created "Lost," then I give up! Here it is (I know it's long, but try to wade through. Everything fits!):
"The purpose of my paper is to discuss E. Bulwer-Lytton's "The Coming Race" (1871) in the context of the 'scientific bent' of Victorian Utopian fiction. Universally regarded as the first post-Darwinian prognostic utopia, it is characterized by the heavy stress on biological and social evolutionism, but also hints at a wide range of contemporary interests. Its scientific as well as pseudoscientific material includes suggestions from geology, electromagnetism, linguistics, phrenology and psychology. The subterranean world where 'the coming race' lives has a markedly oxymoronic quality, with its display of Jurassic animals and plants and its futuristic mechanical inventions. Likewise, the inhabitants combine animism and use of radioactivity. Philogenetically, however, they are several mutations ahead of ordinary mankind. Their touch provokes a sort of electric shock, of variable intensity. It can heal or kill, induce sleep, communicate thoughts, but also erase all information from the brain of the receiver. The origin of this power is a mysterious agent, Vril, that gives the name to the Utopian race, the Vril-ya. Vril is declaredly the fictional interpretation of Michael Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction. 'VR' is the transliteration of the Sanskrit word-root indicating the life force. It is the life principle in the Vedas, the equivalent of the Stoics' pneuma, both merged in the concept of the magnetic field. Vril is the modern version the philosophers' stone, the life principle that Bulwer-Lytton claimed Faraday had revealed. The mythical pattern of the descent into the underworld is here employed to convey a message for contemporaries and posterity. It is a strongly self-protecting message, in keeping with the Utopian fixations (all Utopian communities are exceedingly exclusive and self-protective). Will a superior race have the upper hand? The novel voices the fear of some imminent danger, a theme in Victorian scientific plots: extinction is at hand, possibly self-inflicted through the abnormal development of technology."I haven't had a chance to read any of "The Coming Race" yet, but I was really struck by the fact that the author used Michael Faraday's scientific findings/theories to construct an exclusive, self-protected Utopian society that combines the highest technology with the basest forms of spiritualism. And Vril, the mysterious agent derived from electromagnetic induction with the power both to kill and to cure? Is that the smoke monster?There is a lot of info on Wiki about VRIL, the fictionalized life force based on Michael Faraday's electromagnetic findings (mentioned in my previous post and based on the 1871 novel, "The Coming Race"). The potential connections to "Lost" are amazing: Eko's stick? Richard's youthfulness? Walt's telekinetic powers?Here are some highlights:- Vril, a latent source of energy which the spiritually elevated hosts are able to master through training of their will, to a degree which depends upon their hereditary constitution, giving them access to an extraordinary force that can be controlled at will.- The powers include the ability to heal, change, and destroy beings and things--the destructive powers in particular are awesomely powerful, allowing a few young Vril-ya children to wipe out entire cities if necessary.-Vril can be changed into the mightiest agency over all types of matter, both animate and inanimate. It can destroy like lightning or replenish life, heal, or cure.-Vril can be harnessed by use of the Vril staff or mental concentration. A Vril staff is an object in the shape of a wand or a staff which is used as a channel for Vril (to heal or destroy). The staff is about the size of a walking stick but can be lengthened or shortened according to the user's preferences.-The destructive force is so great that the fire lodged in the hollow of a rod directed by the hand of a child could cleave the strongest fortress. It is also said that if army met army and both had command of the vril-force, both sides would be annihilated.- They use Vril to take baths: It is their custom also, perhaps four times a-year when in health, to use a bath charged with vril. They consider that this fluid is a great sustainer of life; but used in excess, when in the normal state of health, rather tends to reaction and exhausted vitality.
My theory: Ben is part of the Hanso Foundataion and this all comes down to Hanso versus Widmore! The Hanso Foundataion was behind the fake wreckage. Hanso purchased Oceanic Airlines (http://www.hansoair.org/), took one of their planes, filled it with bodies, and dropped it in the Indian Ocean. (Where did they get the bodies?) They give false info / forged documents to the salvage vessel looking for the Black Rock as to its location. This did two things: First, the salvage team would be looking for the Black Rock in the wrong ocean, and second, by finding 815, no more searching in the Pacific or questions about its whereabouts. Meanwhile, Charles Widmore buys Hanso's old Black Rock log and learns the island's power and its approximate location. Whitmore hires Matthew Abbadon to find Ben and the remains of Hanso's Dharma initiative. Anyway, Penny (being part of team Widmore) is also looking for the island for all the right reasons; and her team enables the Oceanic 6 to escape. Hanso's fake wreckage story is revealed. And Charles Widmore gains control of the island and its secrets. The 6 concoct an elaborate story about being the only survivors in order to protect those that were left behind. And Ben, Syid, and team Hanso goes after the Widmore's to regain control…
No past is dead for us, but only sleeping, Love...
-Helen Hunt Jackson
It's a girl! So Jin's was a flashback and Sun's was a flash forward? Tricky devils. I hate the flippin' future. Do they get Jin's body off the island then? Does he die after they get off or is that just a symbolic grave? Is he dead? In any case, as I am not really certain that Aaron or Ben (by whatever means) are Oceanic 6, and we don't know when Jin died, we have officially five: Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and Sun. On the stand at Kate's trial Jack mentioned that there were eight and two died. Is Jin one of the eight then? Will Claire be the other of the eight and they thought it better that Kate keep Aaron instead of foster care so they pretended he is hers because they wouldn't let a fugitive have him otherwise? Did Juliette not read enough of their files to know that Jack and Claire are siblings? Tell them!
Sooooo sad, in hindsight of knowing that Jin was gone, that Sun was pleading for him to be there at the hospital. :( (PS, I was at first suspicious when the doctor came in and said her regular doctor was 'at a conference,' but then they didn't seem to go anywhere with that. Still...) Sweet 'ol Hurley. I guess that was before he started seeing Charlie and got tossed in the loony bin. I thought it was interesting that when Sun called for an ambulance she didn't say, 'I'm in labor,' or, 'my water just broke,' she said , 'I'm pregnant and I think there's something wrong.' Does the time difference speed up/affect pregnancy somehow? Will the child be 'special' somehow for being conceived on the island?
DON'T TRUST THE CAPTAIN - Really? That's all your going to give us?! Thanks, buddy. Michael is Johnson. Not a surprise at this point, but a nice confirmation of suspicion. Where is Walt? That is always what Ben has over Michael. Captain Gault sure looks like a younger version of Charles Whidmore to me. Relation? Is there any way that in some far fetched time warp he IS Charles? Unlikely, but could be fun! I was actually kid of disappointed with the captain. Not sure if I wanted him to be someone we knew or if I just didn't think the actors presence was great, but I don't know if he's the real captain. What 'errand' did the helicopter have to run, I'd like to know?! (Also, at this point, I am still thinking that Walt is the in between guy who is letting Ben communicate with his people and with the boat)
Who's freaky head blood is on the wall? Did somebody do that to themselves since everyone is literally going suicidally crazy on the boat or does it suggest torture/murder? Who was tapping on the pipes? Was Sayid deciphering Morse code?
Black Box from Oceanic 815. Captain suggesting that it was Ben who faked the plane crash. I don't think he did. I don't trust Ben at all of course, but I am leaning towards thinking that Ben and his folks didn't anticipate the plane crash. Don't trust the captain. They want you to help them get Ben or whatever they are after. I kind of like the theory of the plane crash being real because they were split into two different realities or versions of themselves or whatever. Although, when Frank saw the crash on the news he was automatically suspicious and he knew the pilot. Unless you were really positive about something being amiss, I don't think you would jump directly to foul play. Hmmm.
Favorite one-liner: Everyone loves a panda. Second favorite: I need the panda! Also, would you really get in a taxi with a big stuffed animal and not notice it and try to find out who's it is?
Wow Sun, way to just lay it out to Daniel and start making quick decisions. I guess that mother lioness instinct is kicking in. It is so refreshing how honest and straightforward Sun is compared to everyone else. Ummm, wow Juliette - do what you have to do to save the girls life, I guess! Wasn't her place and did deserve a slap, but Jin also deserved to know the truth. Who's the 'other woman' now?! (though technically, I guess Sun's affair was a matter of 'the other man')
Other thoughts:
Could the 324 bodies on the plane discovered in the ocean be the people Ben and the Others "purged" from the original Dharma initiative? Could Ben have had something to do with the staged crash?
the headstone - it has his date of death as 9/22/2004 - so maybe he's not really dead - maybe he's still on the island, but "dead" to the world because he's not one of the oceanic six. OK, so is that the date Lost premiered, and thus the date he would have died in the plane crash (had he died)? Since the Oceanic Six are telling people that only a few of them survived initially...Sun said she missed him, didn't say he was dead and was looking for him while in labor.
you've really got to assume (pray?) that jin is alive on the island. the gravestone says the date of the crash, meaning it was probably created when the fake wreckage was found (as it probably was for many of the losties--kind of cool). the writing very carefully avoids language of death. (Ooooh, good thought!)
I have two thoughts regarding Jin: (1) he is being presumed dead possibly so Sun and baby can have life insurance and otherwise be taken care of (Oceanic settlement) and visiting the grave was a public gesture, or (2) he's in the biz with Sayid and Ben. I'm not convinced that Jin's scenes were flashbacks, but rather flash forwards.
I think Jin is alive also because I think it's going to be vital that everybody have somebody on the island that they want to go back for - Sun for Jin, Kate for Sawyer, Jack for Juliet, etc.
The "reveal" of Micheal on the boat in no way answers the question of whether or not he is Ben's man on the boat. To me, it looked like Micheal didn't even know he was Micheal. So my guess is, Ben's man is someone else and the Micheal story is a whole different can of very juicy worms.
* Why did Hurley say "good" when Sun said no one else was coming?
If all 324 passengers of the plane were supposedly in the faked wreckage, how do they justify the Oceanic Six and their return? Wouldn't their survival suggest that the bodies on the plane were someone other than who they were supposed to be considering who they were supposed to be is alive and well?
Regina chained herself and jumped overboard. Anyone think it's all a put on for Sayid and Desmond? That along with the giant blood stain on the wall in the room they were going to stay in? I think it's all a set up to freak them out and throw them off of the trail of the real motivations of the captain and crew (and Charles Whidmore).
This whole "Who should I trust" triangle is as bad as one of Zach's love triangles on Saved by the Bell. (Ha!)
The island needs to get its mojo back and start threatening and/or killing again. May I suggest "freighties meet smokey!" The smoke monster finds Charlotte, grabs her off the beach, pulls some Eko moves on her, and leave her bloodied body for all to see. Maybe then the freighties would know what they're up against and remind the losties why they want off the island. Come on island; reestablish who's really in charge. The island rules!
(This next one is long, but pretty awesome...)
I was trying to find out more about the literary character Captain Gault and ended up stumbling upon a bunch of papers presented at a conference sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) on science and literature in 19th-century Britain. I didn't' find out much about Captain Gault, but I did find this. It absolutely BLEW my mind. Read this description (which I've heavily clipped) of the novel "The Coming Race" and its links to Michael Faraday, Jurassic animals, and maybe even the smoke monster! If the writers did not have this novel (and especially the scientific interpretation given below) in mind when they created "Lost," then I give up! Here it is (I know it's long, but try to wade through. Everything fits!):
"The purpose of my paper is to discuss E. Bulwer-Lytton's "The Coming Race" (1871) in the context of the 'scientific bent' of Victorian Utopian fiction. Universally regarded as the first post-Darwinian prognostic utopia, it is characterized by the heavy stress on biological and social evolutionism, but also hints at a wide range of contemporary interests. Its scientific as well as pseudoscientific material includes suggestions from geology, electromagnetism, linguistics, phrenology and psychology. The subterranean world where 'the coming race' lives has a markedly oxymoronic quality, with its display of Jurassic animals and plants and its futuristic mechanical inventions. Likewise, the inhabitants combine animism and use of radioactivity. Philogenetically, however, they are several mutations ahead of ordinary mankind. Their touch provokes a sort of electric shock, of variable intensity. It can heal or kill, induce sleep, communicate thoughts, but also erase all information from the brain of the receiver. The origin of this power is a mysterious agent, Vril, that gives the name to the Utopian race, the Vril-ya. Vril is declaredly the fictional interpretation of Michael Faraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction. 'VR' is the transliteration of the Sanskrit word-root indicating the life force. It is the life principle in the Vedas, the equivalent of the Stoics' pneuma, both merged in the concept of the magnetic field. Vril is the modern version the philosophers' stone, the life principle that Bulwer-Lytton claimed Faraday had revealed. The mythical pattern of the descent into the underworld is here employed to convey a message for contemporaries and posterity. It is a strongly self-protecting message, in keeping with the Utopian fixations (all Utopian communities are exceedingly exclusive and self-protective). Will a superior race have the upper hand? The novel voices the fear of some imminent danger, a theme in Victorian scientific plots: extinction is at hand, possibly self-inflicted through the abnormal development of technology."I haven't had a chance to read any of "The Coming Race" yet, but I was really struck by the fact that the author used Michael Faraday's scientific findings/theories to construct an exclusive, self-protected Utopian society that combines the highest technology with the basest forms of spiritualism. And Vril, the mysterious agent derived from electromagnetic induction with the power both to kill and to cure? Is that the smoke monster?There is a lot of info on Wiki about VRIL, the fictionalized life force based on Michael Faraday's electromagnetic findings (mentioned in my previous post and based on the 1871 novel, "The Coming Race"). The potential connections to "Lost" are amazing: Eko's stick? Richard's youthfulness? Walt's telekinetic powers?Here are some highlights:- Vril, a latent source of energy which the spiritually elevated hosts are able to master through training of their will, to a degree which depends upon their hereditary constitution, giving them access to an extraordinary force that can be controlled at will.- The powers include the ability to heal, change, and destroy beings and things--the destructive powers in particular are awesomely powerful, allowing a few young Vril-ya children to wipe out entire cities if necessary.-Vril can be changed into the mightiest agency over all types of matter, both animate and inanimate. It can destroy like lightning or replenish life, heal, or cure.-Vril can be harnessed by use of the Vril staff or mental concentration. A Vril staff is an object in the shape of a wand or a staff which is used as a channel for Vril (to heal or destroy). The staff is about the size of a walking stick but can be lengthened or shortened according to the user's preferences.-The destructive force is so great that the fire lodged in the hollow of a rod directed by the hand of a child could cleave the strongest fortress. It is also said that if army met army and both had command of the vril-force, both sides would be annihilated.- They use Vril to take baths: It is their custom also, perhaps four times a-year when in health, to use a bath charged with vril. They consider that this fluid is a great sustainer of life; but used in excess, when in the normal state of health, rather tends to reaction and exhausted vitality.
My theory: Ben is part of the Hanso Foundataion and this all comes down to Hanso versus Widmore! The Hanso Foundataion was behind the fake wreckage. Hanso purchased Oceanic Airlines (http://www.hansoair.org/), took one of their planes, filled it with bodies, and dropped it in the Indian Ocean. (Where did they get the bodies?) They give false info / forged documents to the salvage vessel looking for the Black Rock as to its location. This did two things: First, the salvage team would be looking for the Black Rock in the wrong ocean, and second, by finding 815, no more searching in the Pacific or questions about its whereabouts. Meanwhile, Charles Widmore buys Hanso's old Black Rock log and learns the island's power and its approximate location. Whitmore hires Matthew Abbadon to find Ben and the remains of Hanso's Dharma initiative. Anyway, Penny (being part of team Widmore) is also looking for the island for all the right reasons; and her team enables the Oceanic 6 to escape. Hanso's fake wreckage story is revealed. And Charles Widmore gains control of the island and its secrets. The 6 concoct an elaborate story about being the only survivors in order to protect those that were left behind. And Ben, Syid, and team Hanso goes after the Widmore's to regain control…
Friday, March 7, 2008
LOST: The Other Woman
Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.
-Jean Jacques Rousseau
Oh ho ho! Juliette is the other woman! Despite that, I really love her. Don't trust what she is going to do, but love her. So witty - what did she say? , 'it's hard being an Other, Jack.' What a great character and what a really wonderful actress, Elizabeth Mitchell. They got me all befuddled with feelings that Kate can just have Sawyer and let Juliette have Jack! Ben is like Alfred Hitchcock - obsessed with his muse. Also, Hitchcock had an odd interest, which was one of the recurring themes in his movies, in necrophilia which also resembles Ben's little obsession with our poor, sweet, broken Juliette. I presume the 'her' that Juliette looks just like is his old girlfriend Annie and hopefully not his dead mom. Eeew. Very Hitchcockian AND a little Greek! I have a very painful feeling that she might not survive the series - may end up a martyr - because her fate, sadly, is sealed with Ben's. Sigh. Maybe Jim Caviezel can time travel & save her like he did in Frequency.
"What's Ben gonna do?" Hmmm, interesting that his own people didn't realise what he was capable of. Wow Ben, for being such a clever and conniving man, you are sure fairly transparent emotionally and I almost feel bad for you're awkward lack of social skill. I guess this emotion is a weakness that can be manipulated later? I think he is so awkward and confused socially/romantically that if Juliette tried to seduce him and pretended she cared for him he would fall for it - maybe he wouldn't really believe it, but he would let his guard down a little.
I feel like this episode didn't move the story along as fast as some of the others, but I loved that it was more focused on characters. I mean, the show would be intriguing regardless, but without the great character development, if I wasn't so personally concerned for them, I wouldn't be so hooked. I would like to see more flashes between the time of Ben's mass homicide to the time that Juliette arrived.
The whispering voices are back ... It made me realise that I kind of missed the focus on the mystical/paranormal aspects of the island; they have been a little more focused on the 'scientific' aspects of the island and how some of them get off the island. The voices of 'others' past?
Ben wants to be a prisoner and he can communicate with his people somehow. Hmmmm.Is he somehow communicating with his 'man on the boat' (Michael: I feel like they pretty much confirmed that this episode and we'll see him next week it looks like - now I almost hope it isn't him so I can be shocked!) who then communicated to his people at the Temple which we have yet to see? (What if when Ben's group had Walt they got to him more than we thought and HE is the 'man' on the boat? Or maybe Michael is on the boat, and Walt and his abilities are how Ben is communicating to him and to his other people! Ooh, I like it!)
Well, well, well, Mr. Charles Whidmore. I thought that they would have waited a little longer to confirm his part in all this. Not that we can necessarily believe/assume that he really is just out to exploit the island like Ben said. Perhaps Ben really does believe all he wants is to monopolize the island for commercialism. Either way, crazy Locke is a great ally in this situation since he had a tendency to, oh, blow up submarines and throw knives into strangers backs and what have you to protect this island that he doesn't even understand himself.
Daniel: "What if I can't do it?" Do what? Also, Charlotte is pretty feisty for an archaeologist. Although, just because that is what she seemed to be in that flashback it doesn't mean she is. I think she has a spoiled, wealthy family prep school upbringing and was a wild child and broke away from her family to be a treasure hunter/adventurer to make her own name for herself at ANY cost. I feel like if we see a flashback of her she'll be wearing an English riding helmet at some point. That is my professional character analysis.
Wow, nice to see Claire finally speak up to Locke with an actual opinion, even though it was brief.
So Locke really was killing a chicken last week :) What did Ben mean when he asked if it had a number on it? I guess whatever testing they were doing, it is still okay to eat? (Maybe just not safe to eat the eggs) So.... is Miles still just sitting in that shed with a grenade in his mouth?
Favorite creepy moment of the night: Ben and Juliette at Goodwin's body, Ben screams "How can you possibly not understand that you're MINE!" Then, two seconds later, serene faced and indifferent, says, "take as long as you need." Whoa, Michael Emerson, you're kind of awesome.
Anyway, here are some other thoughts:
I really think that Charles (Whidmore) is using the Penny/Desmond relationship to find the island. Even to the extent that he set Desmond up to get there. Think about it - it was on a race to impress Charles (and get permission to marry Penny) that Desmond got wrecked on the island. What an impressive coincidence that happened - with Widmore's future son-in-law. Especially given that - his daughter is Desmond's constant. And that whole bathroom scene in the last episode. (How much can Charles really know?)
I'm thinking about Desmond and Mr. Whitmore. Des was told by the old lady that if he married Penny, "they would all die." Maybe Mr. Whitmore knew that and that is why he denied Des' request to marry Penny. he had access to the future and had to prevent the marriage proposal. And he manipulated Des to the Island so he could someday find it and exploit it.
Ben has a bit of a David complex reminiscent of the Bathsheba incident - sending Goodwin into "battle" so he could have the woman.
How did Daniel and Charlotte know about the gas on the island, where to go to find it, and what to do to disable it? (Again, how much does Charles know, since he is their source on info, I presume)
So we kinda suspected Widmore was in on all this, does he maybe have cancer or some other dreaded disease he needs a cure for?
Ben's man on the boat. . . what if he's playing for both teams? In other words, what if it's someone who has been on the island (and Widmore's people know it) but there is a bit of a triple cross going on? We know from Alias that the creators of Lost are pretty into the whole double, triple, back and forth-cross plot lines. I am going to go way out there and predict that it's not Michael, even though that would be interesting. I think it's someone we really would never expect to see again. . because they died on the island. Like Ana Lucia or Boone or some crazy thing like that.
My money's on Sayid being the man on the boat. Why couldn't it be? Maybe when Ben said he had a man on the boat, he was bluffing....But by now...Sayid and he have already struck a deal that will carry over to life off the island...and Sayid's on the boat...so...makes sense to me
I think it's Locke on the boat--in another time period. I'm still not sure the island and the boat are in the same time period. (Hmm, I don't know about it being Locke, but it could be that the time difference is how they will explain how the Walt actor is so much taller so fast :)
Juliet:Do you like me?_ Yes_ No_ MaybeCheck one (or Goodwin dies).Ben
Did they call the power station the Tempest? As in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," a play about a sorcerer and his daughter stranded for 12 years on – um – an island?
The power station was called the Tempest, but I think the actual Dharma station is the Orchid.
Decided to look up "Stanhope" on Wikipedia and found someone interesting. Charles Stanhope was a scientist who studied electricity. He was also famous for a response to an essay written by Edmund Burke. Sounds like Burke and Stanhope didn't get along. Coincidence….I think not.
hey, that was a neat trick Ben did ... In the safe ... when it was opened, the ONLY THING IN IT WAS THE TAPE ... then, they play the tape, go back to the safe ... and whoa ... a folder appears? What?
I wonder if the reason some people see dead people on the island is because these people are time traveling (ex: Charlie appears to Future Hurley; Mr. Eko saw his brother; etc.).
Several people mentioned the light the doctor used on Des as a trigger for time travel. I wonder if it served a different purpose. Maybe the doctor was trying to gauge Des's ability to track a moving object (in this case the flashlight) with his eyes, which is one way that psychiatrists diagnose schizophrenia. You can determine mental disorders by how eyes track a moving object because it reflects problems in the neural circuitry of the brain. It could be the time travel mixes up the brain circuitry and therefore causes – or at least mimics – schizophrenia. And the symptoms of schizophrenia are problems in perceiving reality, auditory hallucinations, delusions, even catatonic behavior. This lends credence to those who suggested time travel/time-jumping caused the "sickness" Rousseau alluded to. It just made me wonder if this is the information (gauging the damage) the doctor was really after when he shone the light in Des's eyes. (Especially since - I noticed this tonight during the enhanced episode - Des later tried the flashlight on himself and nothing happened.) It's interesting too that schizophrenia means "to split the mind," because this is the very thing time travel does – well, at least it splits the consciousness.
Safe #'s - 36 15 28
-Jean Jacques Rousseau
Oh ho ho! Juliette is the other woman! Despite that, I really love her. Don't trust what she is going to do, but love her. So witty - what did she say? , 'it's hard being an Other, Jack.' What a great character and what a really wonderful actress, Elizabeth Mitchell. They got me all befuddled with feelings that Kate can just have Sawyer and let Juliette have Jack! Ben is like Alfred Hitchcock - obsessed with his muse. Also, Hitchcock had an odd interest, which was one of the recurring themes in his movies, in necrophilia which also resembles Ben's little obsession with our poor, sweet, broken Juliette. I presume the 'her' that Juliette looks just like is his old girlfriend Annie and hopefully not his dead mom. Eeew. Very Hitchcockian AND a little Greek! I have a very painful feeling that she might not survive the series - may end up a martyr - because her fate, sadly, is sealed with Ben's. Sigh. Maybe Jim Caviezel can time travel & save her like he did in Frequency.
"What's Ben gonna do?" Hmmm, interesting that his own people didn't realise what he was capable of. Wow Ben, for being such a clever and conniving man, you are sure fairly transparent emotionally and I almost feel bad for you're awkward lack of social skill. I guess this emotion is a weakness that can be manipulated later? I think he is so awkward and confused socially/romantically that if Juliette tried to seduce him and pretended she cared for him he would fall for it - maybe he wouldn't really believe it, but he would let his guard down a little.
I feel like this episode didn't move the story along as fast as some of the others, but I loved that it was more focused on characters. I mean, the show would be intriguing regardless, but without the great character development, if I wasn't so personally concerned for them, I wouldn't be so hooked. I would like to see more flashes between the time of Ben's mass homicide to the time that Juliette arrived.
The whispering voices are back ... It made me realise that I kind of missed the focus on the mystical/paranormal aspects of the island; they have been a little more focused on the 'scientific' aspects of the island and how some of them get off the island. The voices of 'others' past?
Ben wants to be a prisoner and he can communicate with his people somehow. Hmmmm.Is he somehow communicating with his 'man on the boat' (Michael: I feel like they pretty much confirmed that this episode and we'll see him next week it looks like - now I almost hope it isn't him so I can be shocked!) who then communicated to his people at the Temple which we have yet to see? (What if when Ben's group had Walt they got to him more than we thought and HE is the 'man' on the boat? Or maybe Michael is on the boat, and Walt and his abilities are how Ben is communicating to him and to his other people! Ooh, I like it!)
Well, well, well, Mr. Charles Whidmore. I thought that they would have waited a little longer to confirm his part in all this. Not that we can necessarily believe/assume that he really is just out to exploit the island like Ben said. Perhaps Ben really does believe all he wants is to monopolize the island for commercialism. Either way, crazy Locke is a great ally in this situation since he had a tendency to, oh, blow up submarines and throw knives into strangers backs and what have you to protect this island that he doesn't even understand himself.
Daniel: "What if I can't do it?" Do what? Also, Charlotte is pretty feisty for an archaeologist. Although, just because that is what she seemed to be in that flashback it doesn't mean she is. I think she has a spoiled, wealthy family prep school upbringing and was a wild child and broke away from her family to be a treasure hunter/adventurer to make her own name for herself at ANY cost. I feel like if we see a flashback of her she'll be wearing an English riding helmet at some point. That is my professional character analysis.
Wow, nice to see Claire finally speak up to Locke with an actual opinion, even though it was brief.
So Locke really was killing a chicken last week :) What did Ben mean when he asked if it had a number on it? I guess whatever testing they were doing, it is still okay to eat? (Maybe just not safe to eat the eggs) So.... is Miles still just sitting in that shed with a grenade in his mouth?
Favorite creepy moment of the night: Ben and Juliette at Goodwin's body, Ben screams "How can you possibly not understand that you're MINE!" Then, two seconds later, serene faced and indifferent, says, "take as long as you need." Whoa, Michael Emerson, you're kind of awesome.
Anyway, here are some other thoughts:
I really think that Charles (Whidmore) is using the Penny/Desmond relationship to find the island. Even to the extent that he set Desmond up to get there. Think about it - it was on a race to impress Charles (and get permission to marry Penny) that Desmond got wrecked on the island. What an impressive coincidence that happened - with Widmore's future son-in-law. Especially given that - his daughter is Desmond's constant. And that whole bathroom scene in the last episode. (How much can Charles really know?)
I'm thinking about Desmond and Mr. Whitmore. Des was told by the old lady that if he married Penny, "they would all die." Maybe Mr. Whitmore knew that and that is why he denied Des' request to marry Penny. he had access to the future and had to prevent the marriage proposal. And he manipulated Des to the Island so he could someday find it and exploit it.
Ben has a bit of a David complex reminiscent of the Bathsheba incident - sending Goodwin into "battle" so he could have the woman.
How did Daniel and Charlotte know about the gas on the island, where to go to find it, and what to do to disable it? (Again, how much does Charles know, since he is their source on info, I presume)
So we kinda suspected Widmore was in on all this, does he maybe have cancer or some other dreaded disease he needs a cure for?
Ben's man on the boat. . . what if he's playing for both teams? In other words, what if it's someone who has been on the island (and Widmore's people know it) but there is a bit of a triple cross going on? We know from Alias that the creators of Lost are pretty into the whole double, triple, back and forth-cross plot lines. I am going to go way out there and predict that it's not Michael, even though that would be interesting. I think it's someone we really would never expect to see again. . because they died on the island. Like Ana Lucia or Boone or some crazy thing like that.
My money's on Sayid being the man on the boat. Why couldn't it be? Maybe when Ben said he had a man on the boat, he was bluffing....But by now...Sayid and he have already struck a deal that will carry over to life off the island...and Sayid's on the boat...so...makes sense to me
I think it's Locke on the boat--in another time period. I'm still not sure the island and the boat are in the same time period. (Hmm, I don't know about it being Locke, but it could be that the time difference is how they will explain how the Walt actor is so much taller so fast :)
Juliet:Do you like me?_ Yes_ No_ MaybeCheck one (or Goodwin dies).Ben
Did they call the power station the Tempest? As in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," a play about a sorcerer and his daughter stranded for 12 years on – um – an island?
The power station was called the Tempest, but I think the actual Dharma station is the Orchid.
Decided to look up "Stanhope" on Wikipedia and found someone interesting. Charles Stanhope was a scientist who studied electricity. He was also famous for a response to an essay written by Edmund Burke. Sounds like Burke and Stanhope didn't get along. Coincidence….I think not.
hey, that was a neat trick Ben did ... In the safe ... when it was opened, the ONLY THING IN IT WAS THE TAPE ... then, they play the tape, go back to the safe ... and whoa ... a folder appears? What?
I wonder if the reason some people see dead people on the island is because these people are time traveling (ex: Charlie appears to Future Hurley; Mr. Eko saw his brother; etc.).
Several people mentioned the light the doctor used on Des as a trigger for time travel. I wonder if it served a different purpose. Maybe the doctor was trying to gauge Des's ability to track a moving object (in this case the flashlight) with his eyes, which is one way that psychiatrists diagnose schizophrenia. You can determine mental disorders by how eyes track a moving object because it reflects problems in the neural circuitry of the brain. It could be the time travel mixes up the brain circuitry and therefore causes – or at least mimics – schizophrenia. And the symptoms of schizophrenia are problems in perceiving reality, auditory hallucinations, delusions, even catatonic behavior. This lends credence to those who suggested time travel/time-jumping caused the "sickness" Rousseau alluded to. It just made me wonder if this is the information (gauging the damage) the doctor was really after when he shone the light in Des's eyes. (Especially since - I noticed this tonight during the enhanced episode - Des later tried the flashlight on himself and nothing happened.) It's interesting too that schizophrenia means "to split the mind," because this is the very thing time travel does – well, at least it splits the consciousness.
Safe #'s - 36 15 28
Friday, February 29, 2008
LOST: The Constant
Love is a desire for that lost half of ourselves.
-Milan Kundera
Well, merry Christmas Eve, Losties! You're three years late. Okay, I am loving every second of LOST this season, but it is just moving so fast and I am trying to keep it all together! There are so many time gaps that don't seem to correlate. There was the whole 31 minute time gap that Daniel discovered, and now there is like a half a day time gap from the island to the boat during the chopper ride- Sayid: 'how is it that we left at nearly dusk and arrived at mid-day?' (so did they lose or gain time?) And now Desmond has lost eight years of his life as he jumps from 1996 to 2004. Why then? It would have made sense if he like, didn't remember anything from the moment he got trapped in the magnetism of the island, but why this? Super creative way to do flashbacks!
Conscious vs physical time travel, hmmmm... Why does it only happen to some people, this whole 'mind' travel thing? How can it be controlled?
Poor George McKowski and his brain aneurysm. I wonder where (and when, for that matter) the Ferris wheel was that he was riding on. Sigh. Question though: Right before he died in luscious-locked Desmond's arms, he said 'I can't get back!' So he was trapped in between? Was he talking to someone on the 'other side' about trying to get back to the boat? Is there a skill of controlling or at least understanding it that Desmond will learn with time? Also, the guys on the boat asked if Des had been affected by radiation, magnetism.. and Sayid kind of stared at them blankly, but I seem to recall a button pushing incident that brought down a plane and also a big explosion that knocked Desmond's clothes off and caused him to start having visions... so then what is George's reason... ( If anyone was trying to place where they know "George" from, by the way, hisname is Fisher Stevens and the only things I know him from are that 90's TV show Early Addition and the movie Only You with Robert Downey Jr and Marissa Tomei. Also, that guy who played the Doctor showed up on that Eli Stone show after LOST. Weird. )
So if Penny didn't send these people and therefore didn't give Naomi that picture of Desmond and Penny, did Daniel then give it to them? Is Desmond visiting him in the past what drew him to the island? Is the reason he was so emotional when he saw the news sequence of the plane wreckage - because he knew finally that it was all true and that his past was finally catching up to his future?
Oh, sweetness, Penny is Desmond's constant. Like a phantom limb. :) Is Desmond in the clear now and safe from dying because he made the link to his constant? And Daniel's planned for Des to be his constant. How much does he know? I think he should have had Eloise stuffed and brought her to be his constant. 'I know about Eloise' is my new catch phrase.
Okay, I admit that I got emotional and thought it was such a beautiful scene with Desmond and Penny talking swiftly back and forth to each other at the end of their phone conversation. I really thought in that moment after the phone call when he said to Sayid, 'it was enough,' I really thought they might have Des die right there and then. Except for Libby whose character had way too many loose ends, it seems like there has been a kind of correlation of people coming to a certain degree of peace before they die. When Boone died he had finally gotten over his sad obsession with Shannon and when Jack was trying to kill save him he was at peace and told Jack it was okay and to let him go. When Shannon died she finally had someone who truly loved her and believed her. When Echo died he had sort of come to a peace with his guilt over his brother, yelling at Smoky that he didn't regret shooting that man as a kid because it saved his brother. Charlie knew his death was coming and made his list and got to be the hero. Even Anna Lucia kind of gave in after all her anger and toughness and handed the gun over to Michael and said, 'I'm done.' I don't know if these things mean anything or if the writers just want to give their characters strong and emotional sendoffs, but still interesting. Anyway, enough tangent - I really hope Penny and Des get a happily ever after.
Equipment sabotage two days ago - so Michael! I wonder how Michael and Ben are communicating. Also, how is Michael hiding on the boat, and Walt with him? Don't you love how I am talking with such confidence that the inside man is Michael? Just watch, its somebody we haven't even seen before. Blah, I just hope its not Patchy. In the words of Miss Jordan Lynn, woof.
How did Desmond find Daniel so quickly when he doesn't remember meeting him? Did he really have time to describe himself that well over the futuristic yet somehow oh so 80's phones that they were on? Just me being picky again :)
Now some favorite insights of others, but not The Others, thought I would love to get that! :)
Why did Penelope's dad put the stopper in the sink, leave the water running, and then walk off? Did he want it to overflow? Does he know something about Desmond, time travel, and the future? Since he's buying the journal that a Hanso owned about the Black Rock, it's obvious he knows more that's going on. (I totally didn't catch this Hanso connection in this ep!)
So...Mr. Widmore buys the diary that likely talks about the island and that is how Penny "knows about the island"!
Black Rock Painting and journal. Jovard Hansel…was that the name of the Black Rock Captain? Couldn't catch the first name but Hansel was definitely the last name. Is Hansel a Hansel and Gretel reference maybe… bread crumbs anyone?
This whole episode reminded me of Desmond's first flash. Remember the lady who knew something Desmond needed to know. . does this mean she was once in the island, since she was able to have experienced the time jumps as well? It seems like if that's the case, then Desmond has a ray of hope – because she seemed ok, and thus it may be possible for some people to control their consciousness travel experiences. Since he got his anchor, does that mean he's saved from the jumping back and forth? For good? What will happen if/when he has to pass the island barrier again? (Good thought about the lady. I didn't really ever take her seriously because I thought it was just a plow to get him to the island for some reason since we saw a photo of her and the head priest or whatever at the monastery where Desmond went when he met Penny the first time)
This is the first time since watching this show I've had a tiny tiny feeling that they're going to go in a direction I don't want them to. I know many of you are big time travel fans- I'm just not one of them. The episode was done well, and I am really enjoying daniel faraday's character and the fact that the desmond/penny love story continues to play a central role in all this. I just feel that the writers are opening this up to a place where they can do anything and get away with it, including unresolved plot lines and inconsistencies...maybe I'm wrong. (Hmmm, I find the time travel interesting and not surprising, but this is a valid concern)
Did Penny say the Desmond's friend Charlie told her that he wasn't crazy? Desmond approached Charlie when he was playing his guitar on the street in his alternate past last season and told him they were on an island together. Desmond was able to change the future (Penny remembering, Daniel writing a note in his journal). The time traveling wasn't just a state of mind like Daniel theorized when he first met Desmond in 1996.
And given the Pandora's Box of time travel opened up tonight (flash-sideways?), I went back to some of the books referenced on the island (mostly read by Sawyer). One of them was "A Wrinkle in Time." I know most of us had this book on our sixth-grade required reading list, and I just reread it a couple of years ago. Here are some plot elements that might prove significant in decoding this newest "Lost" riddle:"Meg's missing father was working on a secret government project to achieve faster-than-light travel through a tesseract and accidentally wound up on Camazotz, an alien planet inside the 'Black Thing.' …"The children travel to Camazotz and rescue Meg's father, who has been imprisoned by an evil disembodied brain with powerful telepathic abilities, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call 'IT.'" (IT... Jacob...)More info on this book can be found at Madeleine L'Engle's site or on Wiki.
Numbers, numbers everywhere!The setting: 2.342 (23/42)Penny's address: 423
Does anyone else thing that what is happening to Desmond and Fischer Stevens may be what Danielle Rousseau considers "the sickness"? They all went crazy.
last week's ep: Is it just me or did Faraday call Charlotte 'Charlie' during the card/memory scene??
Anyone notice tank top guy's (I think his name started w/ a K) tattoos? The one on his right shoulder looked like a serpent (as in Ms. Hawking's prominent pin in one of the past Desmond-centric eps) or swan (as in, the swan station) to me… but I didn't get that good of a look at it. The one on his left shoulder looks tribal-esque and perhaps is a bird. Could be some sort of symbolism or could be me just reading into it too much.
- Why doesn't island Faraday recognize Desmond?- Are the flashbacks random or set off by something? - Why is time so splintered (days, years, etc.) with the 'side effect' that some people suffer going to/from the island?- What did Ray inject into Minkowski?- Is this how Charlie appears to future Hurley ("I'm here, but not here.")
The time difference is obviously different depending on the route taken to or from the island. (31 minutes with the rocket, 2 days for the helicopter) Maybe the real CONSTANT goes back to the words of ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus - "the only thing constant is change"?
I do seem to remember the producers saying something about the overall theme of this show not being time travel...I'm thinking that time travel/wormhole is just one of the many many special features of the island (duh, right?) so that it's true that it isn't the main theme...one more thing i remember them saying way back in season two...they said that it's really just a love story about two lovers trying to be reunited...interesting.... (so maybe the Adam and Eve skeletons aren't Kate and Jack like I have often heard, but Desmond and Penelope? Aaahhh)
-Milan Kundera
Well, merry Christmas Eve, Losties! You're three years late. Okay, I am loving every second of LOST this season, but it is just moving so fast and I am trying to keep it all together! There are so many time gaps that don't seem to correlate. There was the whole 31 minute time gap that Daniel discovered, and now there is like a half a day time gap from the island to the boat during the chopper ride- Sayid: 'how is it that we left at nearly dusk and arrived at mid-day?' (so did they lose or gain time?) And now Desmond has lost eight years of his life as he jumps from 1996 to 2004. Why then? It would have made sense if he like, didn't remember anything from the moment he got trapped in the magnetism of the island, but why this? Super creative way to do flashbacks!
Conscious vs physical time travel, hmmmm... Why does it only happen to some people, this whole 'mind' travel thing? How can it be controlled?
Poor George McKowski and his brain aneurysm. I wonder where (and when, for that matter) the Ferris wheel was that he was riding on. Sigh. Question though: Right before he died in luscious-locked Desmond's arms, he said 'I can't get back!' So he was trapped in between? Was he talking to someone on the 'other side' about trying to get back to the boat? Is there a skill of controlling or at least understanding it that Desmond will learn with time? Also, the guys on the boat asked if Des had been affected by radiation, magnetism.. and Sayid kind of stared at them blankly, but I seem to recall a button pushing incident that brought down a plane and also a big explosion that knocked Desmond's clothes off and caused him to start having visions... so then what is George's reason... ( If anyone was trying to place where they know "George" from, by the way, hisname is Fisher Stevens and the only things I know him from are that 90's TV show Early Addition and the movie Only You with Robert Downey Jr and Marissa Tomei. Also, that guy who played the Doctor showed up on that Eli Stone show after LOST. Weird. )
So if Penny didn't send these people and therefore didn't give Naomi that picture of Desmond and Penny, did Daniel then give it to them? Is Desmond visiting him in the past what drew him to the island? Is the reason he was so emotional when he saw the news sequence of the plane wreckage - because he knew finally that it was all true and that his past was finally catching up to his future?
Oh, sweetness, Penny is Desmond's constant. Like a phantom limb. :) Is Desmond in the clear now and safe from dying because he made the link to his constant? And Daniel's planned for Des to be his constant. How much does he know? I think he should have had Eloise stuffed and brought her to be his constant. 'I know about Eloise' is my new catch phrase.
Okay, I admit that I got emotional and thought it was such a beautiful scene with Desmond and Penny talking swiftly back and forth to each other at the end of their phone conversation. I really thought in that moment after the phone call when he said to Sayid, 'it was enough,' I really thought they might have Des die right there and then. Except for Libby whose character had way too many loose ends, it seems like there has been a kind of correlation of people coming to a certain degree of peace before they die. When Boone died he had finally gotten over his sad obsession with Shannon and when Jack was trying to kill save him he was at peace and told Jack it was okay and to let him go. When Shannon died she finally had someone who truly loved her and believed her. When Echo died he had sort of come to a peace with his guilt over his brother, yelling at Smoky that he didn't regret shooting that man as a kid because it saved his brother. Charlie knew his death was coming and made his list and got to be the hero. Even Anna Lucia kind of gave in after all her anger and toughness and handed the gun over to Michael and said, 'I'm done.' I don't know if these things mean anything or if the writers just want to give their characters strong and emotional sendoffs, but still interesting. Anyway, enough tangent - I really hope Penny and Des get a happily ever after.
Equipment sabotage two days ago - so Michael! I wonder how Michael and Ben are communicating. Also, how is Michael hiding on the boat, and Walt with him? Don't you love how I am talking with such confidence that the inside man is Michael? Just watch, its somebody we haven't even seen before. Blah, I just hope its not Patchy. In the words of Miss Jordan Lynn, woof.
How did Desmond find Daniel so quickly when he doesn't remember meeting him? Did he really have time to describe himself that well over the futuristic yet somehow oh so 80's phones that they were on? Just me being picky again :)
Now some favorite insights of others, but not The Others, thought I would love to get that! :)
Why did Penelope's dad put the stopper in the sink, leave the water running, and then walk off? Did he want it to overflow? Does he know something about Desmond, time travel, and the future? Since he's buying the journal that a Hanso owned about the Black Rock, it's obvious he knows more that's going on. (I totally didn't catch this Hanso connection in this ep!)
So...Mr. Widmore buys the diary that likely talks about the island and that is how Penny "knows about the island"!
Black Rock Painting and journal. Jovard Hansel…was that the name of the Black Rock Captain? Couldn't catch the first name but Hansel was definitely the last name. Is Hansel a Hansel and Gretel reference maybe… bread crumbs anyone?
This whole episode reminded me of Desmond's first flash. Remember the lady who knew something Desmond needed to know. . does this mean she was once in the island, since she was able to have experienced the time jumps as well? It seems like if that's the case, then Desmond has a ray of hope – because she seemed ok, and thus it may be possible for some people to control their consciousness travel experiences. Since he got his anchor, does that mean he's saved from the jumping back and forth? For good? What will happen if/when he has to pass the island barrier again? (Good thought about the lady. I didn't really ever take her seriously because I thought it was just a plow to get him to the island for some reason since we saw a photo of her and the head priest or whatever at the monastery where Desmond went when he met Penny the first time)
This is the first time since watching this show I've had a tiny tiny feeling that they're going to go in a direction I don't want them to. I know many of you are big time travel fans- I'm just not one of them. The episode was done well, and I am really enjoying daniel faraday's character and the fact that the desmond/penny love story continues to play a central role in all this. I just feel that the writers are opening this up to a place where they can do anything and get away with it, including unresolved plot lines and inconsistencies...maybe I'm wrong. (Hmmm, I find the time travel interesting and not surprising, but this is a valid concern)
Did Penny say the Desmond's friend Charlie told her that he wasn't crazy? Desmond approached Charlie when he was playing his guitar on the street in his alternate past last season and told him they were on an island together. Desmond was able to change the future (Penny remembering, Daniel writing a note in his journal). The time traveling wasn't just a state of mind like Daniel theorized when he first met Desmond in 1996.
And given the Pandora's Box of time travel opened up tonight (flash-sideways?), I went back to some of the books referenced on the island (mostly read by Sawyer). One of them was "A Wrinkle in Time." I know most of us had this book on our sixth-grade required reading list, and I just reread it a couple of years ago. Here are some plot elements that might prove significant in decoding this newest "Lost" riddle:"Meg's missing father was working on a secret government project to achieve faster-than-light travel through a tesseract and accidentally wound up on Camazotz, an alien planet inside the 'Black Thing.' …"The children travel to Camazotz and rescue Meg's father, who has been imprisoned by an evil disembodied brain with powerful telepathic abilities, which the inhabitants of Camazotz call 'IT.'" (IT... Jacob...)More info on this book can be found at Madeleine L'Engle's site or on Wiki.
Numbers, numbers everywhere!The setting: 2.342 (23/42)Penny's address: 423
Does anyone else thing that what is happening to Desmond and Fischer Stevens may be what Danielle Rousseau considers "the sickness"? They all went crazy.
last week's ep: Is it just me or did Faraday call Charlotte 'Charlie' during the card/memory scene??
Anyone notice tank top guy's (I think his name started w/ a K) tattoos? The one on his right shoulder looked like a serpent (as in Ms. Hawking's prominent pin in one of the past Desmond-centric eps) or swan (as in, the swan station) to me… but I didn't get that good of a look at it. The one on his left shoulder looks tribal-esque and perhaps is a bird. Could be some sort of symbolism or could be me just reading into it too much.
- Why doesn't island Faraday recognize Desmond?- Are the flashbacks random or set off by something? - Why is time so splintered (days, years, etc.) with the 'side effect' that some people suffer going to/from the island?- What did Ray inject into Minkowski?- Is this how Charlie appears to future Hurley ("I'm here, but not here.")
The time difference is obviously different depending on the route taken to or from the island. (31 minutes with the rocket, 2 days for the helicopter) Maybe the real CONSTANT goes back to the words of ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus - "the only thing constant is change"?
I do seem to remember the producers saying something about the overall theme of this show not being time travel...I'm thinking that time travel/wormhole is just one of the many many special features of the island (duh, right?) so that it's true that it isn't the main theme...one more thing i remember them saying way back in season two...they said that it's really just a love story about two lovers trying to be reunited...interesting.... (so maybe the Adam and Eve skeletons aren't Kate and Jack like I have often heard, but Desmond and Penelope? Aaahhh)
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