Thursday, April 16, 2009

LOST: Some Like it Hoth

A sweet thing, for whatever time,
to revisit in dreams the dear dad we have lost.
- Euripides

So when I first heard the title of this episode, Some Like it Hoth my inner geek very quickly made the connection. For those of you who are not as big of a geek as me (though if you are reading this, then, come on, you're a pretty big geek), Hoth is the ice planet in Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back. You know, the planet where Luke gets hurt by the abominable snowman and then Han has to stick him in the guts of the dead llama/ostrich thing they ride and then later we see Luke floating around in Depends in a giant tank of water and then later he makes out with his sister? Yeah, that Hoth. I have to say, who better to appreciate the years of the original Star Wars coming out than geek du Jour Hurley? (PS, Hoth is also the name of a Norse god- see the mythology link in the comments below for more on that little darling). Hurley writing the screenplay to help out George Lucas. Ha! It was kind of odd they used something so pop cultury in the show, but its really kind of perfect, not just for Miles, but such a huge theme of the show is familial generations, and everybody on this dang show has daddy issues - what is a more classic and well-known example of daddy issues than Luke and Vader? In that story the child had to be strong and not give in to the power the father was offering, and in the end they came to a peaceful understanding and the father sacrificed himself for the son. Is that a foreshadowing of upcoming events on the show? Maybe not for Miles' story (why would the mother lie that his father was a heartless jerk if the truth was that he saved him somehow? Unless, A) he pretended to be a jerk to get them to leave for their own safety, B) he was taken over by Smokey and was not himself, C) the truth was far worse than what she told him and she didn't want him looking for his father) but maybe for the island and the Others and Whidmore's generation and now Miles'. New Theory: Maybe Richard really is the only one who doesn't age- he is somehow the guardian of the island who gets to assist in picking and guiding the chosen keepers of the island, the Others. Maybe every thirty or forty years the island needs a new group of people to provide that service. Maybe they prefer family connections when its an option, but the people who ended up on that original plane crash were the new chosen keepers. Maybe what used to be a simple task (we know the island has been around for a while and thousands of years ago when people weren't cynical and easily believed in things like the island it was probably easy to choose people and get them to the island) has become something the Island and the Others now have to take into their own hands. Maybe now that we are in such a fast, scientific, selfish world they had to get the people to the island and to have them go through all of these things to make them believe. . . or its just a sweet shout out from one iconic fantasy masterpiece to another. Rant complete. ;)

Poor little kid Miles. How scary would that be? Not only to be hearing dead people, but to have all of the adults think you are lying or crazy. At least his mom didn't think he was crazy. Sad story. I was diggin' punked out Miles though. Nice to have the confirmation that Dr. Chang is his father and also that a person can exist in the same place twice- modern day Miles could literally hold baby Miles if he wanted to. I feel like that has been what a lot of the last few episodes have been- finally confirming a lot of assumptions/suspicions that they had been leaving open-ended for a while. Its satisfying to get some answers. Miles, your dad is kind of a cad, but he does seem to love little you. Good question you posed him though, my friend, what did happen to the body? A sacrifice to Smokey?

So some intriguing after-the-fact back story with Naomi and also with Bram grabbing Miles and warning him. The dead guy that Naomi tested Miles' abilities on seemed to tell Miles stuff about empty graves and an old plane and seemed to confirm that Whidmore was in fact the one that faked the Oceanic plane wreck. Or, maybe they just wanted to remind us of that little tidbit and confirm to us a time frame for when the flashback took place. Bram is one of the guys working with Ilana on the island modern-time, and now we know that they are NOT working for Whidmore. Bram also seems to know quite a bit- are they Others then? That seems toe likeliest option at this point. "What team are you on?" "The one that's gonna win." Ooooh, are we going to get some sweet Armageddon war at some point of good vs evil? Or maybe evil vs evil?

I love Hurley. Wanting to prevent global warming and harassing Chang with questions. I love the weird camaraderie with he and Miles. "You're just jealous my power's better than yours." Oh, and I love the Captain and Tennille playing in the van! Ha! Sorry the numbers are back to haunt you though, buddy. Kind of surreal watching them build the hatch that plagued you. Er, plagues you ... its hard to get the tenses right with all of this time travelling going on!

Is it just me, or is Horace getting on everyone else's nerves with his hippy attitude? 'Circle of Trust' my bum. Yeah I said it. My very bum.

Sawyer is James to Juliette. He hates being called James, but that's what Juliette calls him. Maybe he will always be Sawyer to Kate, but with Juliette he can be confident being the self he was always running away from. What Juliette said after she made excuses to Ben's dad was interesting, 'well, here we go,' or something like that. I guess she knows the peace that was their lives for the past three years is over. Well, Sawyer/James, it was a good effort trying to keep your cookie cutter life after the Oceanic 6 came back into the picture, but as a treacherous Disney villain once said, "Things are unravelling fast now, boy!"

Hydra Island- have we heard them refer to the smaller island by name before this? Hydra is A) The name of a Greek island and also a city in Algeria, B) A Greek mythological serpent-like creature with many heads that Hercules slew, C) The largest of the modern star constellations, D) Small, predatory fresh-water animals known for their regenerative ability and because they appear to undergo senescence (aging) very slowly, if at all. (Interesting...) - now the mythology stuff would make sense since everything in the show seems to be drawn from Egyptian or Norse or Greek mythology, but Hydra Island is there they do the animal experiments and that little creature certainly seems like a candidate to use for experiments on quick healing and prolonging life.

Ooh, scientists from Anne Arbor, their mainland base in Michigan where Dharma was founded. So Daniel has been on the mainland - for how long and doing what? Was he on the mainland in the 70s then? In which case, time frame wise, he couldn't go and see his mom because she was one of the leaders of the Others on the island at the time. Of course, we know that the Others get to leave the island periodically, a courtesy that Whidmore abused, so I supposed a meet up is possible. Oh Daniel. So excited to see what you have been up to. Ummmmm, not thrilled that I have to wait TWO weeks for it though.

Other thoughts:

Mythological Connections, see: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20250233_20272495_5,00.html

FUN FACT FROM THE WORLD OF CONSPIRACY THEORY LORE! Time-traveling Miles is currently parked in 1977 — the same year that the Senate conducted an investigation into a secret CIA project called MKULTRA, which conducted research into brainwashing, mind-control, and even psychic powers. Heavy drugs were involved. And allegedly kids were used as test subjects. Very Room 23 (where they were going all Clockwork Orange on Carl), if you ask me.

Star Wars parallels: 1- Miles and Hurley are like C-3PO and R2-D2: They're delivering plans to their leaders. 2- Like Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, the Island may be the hidden rebel base of our heroes. This season may end with the discovery of the Island by whatever represents the Empire, 3- nice reference to Luke Skywalker losing his arm...like Pierre Chang will soon in the Incident. Can Miles redeem his dad before he dies a la Luke n Darth Vader?

Interesting how Ethan's whole life has been intertwined with Lost's motherhood/pregnancy themes. And in thinking through that idea, I remembered ''Not In Portland,'' which introduced Juliet's back story and showed how Richard Alpert and Adult Ethan were tasked with recruiting her to the Island. There was an odd, still-unexplained moment when Juliet passed Ethan in her sister's apartment hallway. She had not yet met the man she would ultimately help bring into the world. (I love that twist.) Was Ethan messing with Juliet's sister — giving her cancer or facilitating her pregnancy — in order to help manipulate Juliet to the Island? Not a new question, but one worth revisiting, as Ethan's significance is much bigger than we may have thought.

Remember when we all thought Smokey was attracted to fear the way sharks are drawn to blood? I think there's mounting evidence to suggest that what Smokey is really drawn to is guilt. I don't think the Monster's interest is in judgment or redemption. What it wants is control. That's why Mr. Eko had to die: He could not be manipulated. Smokey smoked out his great guilt, but when Eko basically said, 'Dude, I haven't done nothing wrong, I only did what I needed to survive,' Smokey threw up its hands like a director pissed at an uncooperative actor, said ''I can't work with this fool,'' and fired him. And by ''fired,'' I mean ''brutally pummeled him into jungle pudding.'' But Ben didn't rationalize his sin, and by submitting to Smokey's critique, he is now more useful than ever to the Monster's masters... or ... Ben suckered Smokey. Surely it must be possible that Ben knows exactly what Smokey is, knows exactly how Smokey operates, knows exactly whom Smokey serves. Did the Monster really crack Ben — or did Ben only show Smokey exactly what Ben wanted Smokey to see? Many have been speculating Ben was correct when he insisted to Sun that John Locke 2.0 isn't the resurrected version of Locke 1.0, but rather something terrifyingly inhuman. If that means Locke is actually (knowingly or unknowingly) an incarnation of Smokey (à la Yemi and Alex), or is a separate though similarly controlled Island avatar, that everything Ben did in ''Dead Is Dead'' was done to manipulate whatever it is that Ben suspects John Locke 2.0 might be. Blabbering about wanting to be judged, swiping the photo of himself and Alex from his old office, finally confessing to John that he was wracked with guilt for causing his daughter's death — all that could have been a big show, designed to manufacture the appearance of a guilty conscience and therefore give Locke/Smokey/the Island reason to believe that he could be manipulated. (Whoa, I can totally see this being the case)

Last year, Ben claimed he did not order the Purge — that it had been a choice made by the Others' leadership at the time. Presumably, he was referring to Widmore. So after finally liberating his own private Narnia of the pesky Dharma infestation, Widmore himself got usurped. ''Dead Is Dead'' didn't reveal Ben's power-grabbing trick (remember that Widmore said Linus ''fooled'' him), but here's a hypothesis: What if the Purge didn't really happen? Call it Ben's ''ultimate solution'' to getting rid of corrupt Chuck. How I see it: Widmore ordered the Purge; Ben faked the catastrophe with knock-out gas; and when all of Dharma awoke, Richard interpreted their faux resurrection as an Island miracle and proof that Widmore wasn't acting in accordance with its wishes. In the aftermath, Widmore was exiled, and Ben negotiated a permanent peace with Dharma that led to the Others moving into Dharmaville.

Another “Alice in Wonderland” reference: Li’l Miles finds the key to the dead man’s room under a WHITE RABBIT.

How great that the Dharma kids were learning about ancient Egypt! Under the hieroglyphics on the chalk board (that Jack was erasing) it said "Writing of the works of God."

is it possible that when people die their consciousnesses are absorbed by the Smoke Monster so that it houses all their unfinished business (goals or desires never fulfilled, revenge never exacted, etc.) and then it completes their unfinished business for them?: The episode where Shannon is shot and killed- what stood out was that Shannon has Vincent sniff Walt’s shirt in order to find Walt again (Sayid does not believe Shannon has really seen him). She shouts: “Go find WALT!” Vincent pulls Shannon through the jungle and takes her directly to BOONE’S grave. Later Sayid finds Shannon and says her grief over Boone’s death is causing her to see things. She insists it is not about Boone, and Sayid says, “Then why are you at his grave.” (Of course the answer is she is there because Vincent led her there, following her command to find Walt.) Later Sayid confesses his undying love to Shannon in the torrential rain (his trademark kiss of death), and the camera angle shows someone looking on. Shannon sees the vision of Walt again and runs after it, only to be shot by Ana Lucia. Chasing the vision of Walt is what put her into Ana Lucia’s line of fire.

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