In this world of change, nothing which comes stays, and nothing which goes is lost.
-Anne Sophie Swetchine
Aaah, Des and Penny, your kid Charlie is super cute! (And very sweet of you to name him Charlie- I assume its after rocker Charlie and not Penny's dad Charles). Please oh please stay together through everything and avoid googly-eyed Ben so he doesn't kill Penny! I'm a little bit nervous, because there was definitely a sense in this episode that Penny knows something, or has some foreboding- she was fairly somber throughout, ans yes she had reason to be, but it was at times that didn't always make sense like when Des was talking to Charlie about Scotland - "Also where he broke her (Penny) heart," and, "you forgot to tell him about his grandfather." Maybe she is more aware of what lies ahead than we know. Perhaps she knows what her dark fate will be if she goes with Desmond, but she would rather go then be without him. It seemed like more than just women's intuition or previous experience. I love how quickly she knew that Des was lying.
Never been a huge fan of Widmore, but I do believe the man really does love his daughter. It was cool to see Widmore so young on 50s island. I wonder if we will see him at different ages as the island jumps through time and I wonder if it is his apparent temper and issues with authority that got him kicked off the island, if that is what happened. From how well established he is off the island and Penny having no memories of the island (as far as we know), he must have been off it for quite some time. Really, I mainly just really want to know the Widmore/Ben connection. Widmore just gets more and more crucial to the plot: his funding of Daniel's work and paying for the medical expenses of the Teresa Palmer girl. I wonder if we will see more of that girl. Is she like Desmond and can exist in different times in her mind? Will we see her on the island at some point though her body is in Oxford? Daniel, as far as we know, doesn't seem the type to hurt someone intentionally, so if he was using her for an experiment like with the rats and tried to send her brain to another time, he must have been pretty sure of himself. We did see a little bit of a darkness in Daniel this week though, which I liked. I have been getting a little bored by his quiet, passive, I'm-super-smart-and-its-not-even-worth-trying-to-explain-things-to-you attitude. I wonder if we will ever find why/how was he involved with a hydrogen bomb in the 50s - 'You just couldn't stay away, could you?' and, 'I assume you've come back for your bomb.' - were they just assuming that he was one of the people who put the bomb there?
Wow, bold words with that admission about Charlotte there Dan. (Though if I were her I would be super annoyed with you not telling me what the heck was happening to me when you obviously know. Charlotte never seemed like the type who would just let something go, so I think she must really trust Dan.) I am fairly indifferent to her as a character, but I hope she doesn't die for your sake, because she did seem rather surprised and pleased by your declaration, and it appears that you have been unlucky in love in the past. Plus, we still need to find out her story of being born on the island.
That Other girl, Ellie, who Daniel said, 'looks a lot like someone he used to know,' is undoubtedly the younger version of Ms. Hawking. Is she then his mother and did he realize it? I don't think I will ever again be surprised by anything we learn that Dan knows. I wonder how long it has been since Daniel has spoken with his mother since he didn't know she was in California in real time. I also wonder how much he really knows about who his mother is and her connection with the island, assuming his mother is Ms. Hawking. Did she and Widmore gets 'exiled' or whatever at the same time? Maybe Penny and Dan are siblings. (I know, its stretching... ;)
I am digging the Sawyer and Juliette dynamic more than I expected to- they are both such smart asses. ;) I think it would never have worked if it was Sawyer from Season One and pre-island Juliette, but they have both changed so much, him getting softer and her getting tougher, that it might really work. Now we just need Jack to be himself again for Kate- getting rid of the beard was a HUGE step in the right direction there buddy. Also, the tripwire that Miles saw too late... is it super morbid of me that I get a wicked kick out of random survivor extras getting killed off ;) I want more Miles back story- creepy with him talking to the dead American soldiers in the grave they walked over. (Also, Daniel wasn't shocked by this, so I guess he is aware of Miles' skill- it was unclear before).
The theory of Fate: From the very first season of LOST, it has become more and more apparent that the main characters of Oceanic Flight 815 were 'chosen' to end up on the island. Through the seasons we've discovered connections between the passengers that they don't even know about, and we've begun to learn more about the Others and the interesting fact that they know so much about all of the passengers. It seemed that our main characters were hand-picked by the Others, or some other group in some man-made plot and that the crash was an intentional thing by some group or other to get these people to the island. We have since learned it was in fact Desmond not pushing the button in the hatch in time that caused an 'electromagnetic buildup' that caused the plane to malfunction and crash. We have also met Jacob and the Smoke Monsters and learned of the islands healing powers and some of its mystical history and that it is sort of a living (and thinking?) entity on its own. As far as we are aware, during the first four seasons of LOST the island stayed in one Time until Ben turned the wheel. So for the Others to get knowledge of all of the passengers so quickly, did someone from the future come to them before the crash even happened and explain to them what was going to occur? Are they simply very well networked so that when people chance upon the island they can deal with it and protect the island? The more we learn about the Others, the less in control of things they actually seem to be- they don't seem to be calling all of the shots, they are assisting the Island which seems to be come kind of tool of Fate. We have learned that Fate cannot be changed (though Desmond is a wild card). Have The Others discovered a way to be one step ahead of Fate? Maybe the Others, by 'tracking' Fate, are helping it along to some degree. It doesn't run smoothly though because people make their own choices and emotions get in the way and can be affected by the choices of others. So, though Fate is 'fixed,' it can come about in a multitude of different ways. Perhaps the master plan of the world was thrown off somehow by the Dharma Initiative trying to harness the islands powers and now Fate has found a way to put itself right again with this particular group of people. Perhaps the island jumping around to different times isn't completely random- perhaps Fate/The Island is jumping to specific times so that the people can fix/change things and put everything back on track the way it is supposed to be. Perhaps it is jumping to times where things can be arranged to allow for the Oceanic 6 to return. Maybe all of our castaways are just tools of Fate. I don't think they were necessarily born into this destiny, but because of they way there lives went they became the people that Fate needed. Questions: If Fate is fixed, why is it so reliant on Ben and Others? Mrs. Hawking said that if Ben can't get them all back to the island in 70 hrs, 'God help us all.' Also, everything sort of came full circle with Locke in this episode and it seems he is really only the chosen one because he believes it and because he showed up in the past and made Richard aware of him for the future. That is awfully sneaky and frankly kind of lazy/ingenious of fate, letting Locke essentially create his own fate, though it was Fate's plan all along? Plus, Richard didn't seem to be aware of time travel- did they not know about it until Dharma discovered the wheel? Aaaaah, the mind reels.
Enough of my ramblings, here are some thoughts of others:
Could the Numbers ''4 8 15 16 23 42'' correspond to the length of the castaways' shifts in time? If the first shift sent the castaways from January 2005 to the day the drug plane crashed on the Island (presumed to be the late '90s or early '00s), that could be a four- or eight-year jump. If the second shift took them to a point in time after the Hatch imploded and drug plane crashed, that could be a 15- or 16-year jump into the future, and if the third shift took them to the Desmond era, then...uh...okay, I'm losing the math. But this is cool. I want it to be true!
Notice that Widmore says that everything Ben has, he took from him. In essence, in this confrontation, Ben represents the Dharma Initiative, and Widmore represents the Others. Dharma came to the island, unwanted by the original inhabitants, and one of them became the leader of the Others. Widmore apparently thinks Jacob's decision to make an outsider their leader was a mistake.
Hawking's son, Daniel Faraday, went to the island on Widmore's freighter. Charlotte Lewis, also from the freighter, claims she is on the island looking for the place where she was born, which almost certainly makes her parents Others as well. And a popular theory going around right now is that Miles Straume was the infant son of Pierre Chang and his wife that we saw in the season premiere. If these assumptions turn out to be true, that means that all three of our key Freighter Folk are the children of either Others or members of the Dharma Initiative. All three of them have past ties to the island. And all three of them are now traveling through time, putting them in the position to encounter their parents in the past. (Daniel met his mother in this very episode.) And let's not forget Penelope Widmore, another Other descendant, who now could be on her own path to the island alongside her husband. Widmore sent a freighter to find the island, but tellingly, he wasn't on it. He told Ben that he intends to take ownership of the island, but he never said anything about traveling back there himself. Hawking is helping Ben get the Oceanic 6 back to the island, but her language ("seventy hours is what you've got") suggests that she won't be joining them. Is there something preventing this older generation of Others from returning to what is presumably their place of origin? We saw a slightly new shade of Widmore in his warning to Desmond at the end of their encounter (easily my favorite scene of the entire hour; Desmond's barely contained fury practically jumped off the screen), when he asked him to deliver Faraday's message to his mother and then "get out of this mess." It felt to me like the one altruistic thing he's ever said to Desmond. Widmore wants to protect his daughter from Ben, of course, but there was also the way he described the situation as a "mess" that had a very long history. It felt like a man of war who's tired of fighting and wants to keep outsiders from getting caught in the crossfire.
Now that we know the Others killed these U.S. military men who came to the island to test a hydrogen bomb, it's obvious that the Others took their uniforms, guns, tents, and other equipment and used them as their own. So none of the names on any of the uniforms the Others are wearing are their own names. They're the names of the soldiers they killed. We've seen the Others take possession of the things outsiders have brought to the island before, such as the Barracks built by the Dharma Initiative. This appears to be a longtime practice.
The janitor told Desmond that he wasn't the first person to come poking around in Daniel's old lab, trying to find out about his work. So who else has been there? (Ben?)
Richard told Locke that they have a very specific process for selecting their leadership, and that process begins at a very young age. We've already seen Ben undergo part of this process, and Richard's travels off the island to visit young John Locke were also parts of it. I can't help wondering who else has undergone this process. Anyone we know? Or maybe someone who lived a long time ago, and had only four toes?
Why was Alpert present when Locke was born? Because Locke told him when it would happen, and Alpert went there as a way to determine if Locke was telling the truth. This must have semi-blown Alpert's mind, since he continued to visit Locke over the course of his youth - and this helps explain why the Island Originals all thought he was so special... because he is a freaking time traveling, future predicting "old guy"! mean that Locke really isn't that special or "chosen"? If the Island Originals only think he's special due to his time skipping, is he really the best choice for the future leader of the Others? (They haven't addressed it for a while, but it always seemed to me that perhaps Aaron is the one who is supposed to be the future leader- maybe Locke is just the guy they need right now to help make that happen since Aaron is to small to understand it yet)
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
LOST S5 Premiere: Because You Left & The Lie
It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
-Chuck Palahniuk
Sigh, well, we're back, and better than ever. Holy schnikeys, all over the spectrum with the scene jumping! Not just flash backs and flash forwards, oh no, now the whole island has to literally jump through time! They could go anywhere with this now. I mean, the British WWII era looking soldiers coming after Sawyer and Julliette in the night? I hope we get to see Rousseau again, and I hope at some point we will meet some Greeks building a certain statue... So last season was- island time: them getting off, present time: what has happened to the lives of the Oceanic 6 to get them to this point. This season seems to be- island time: what happened to them after the 6 left, present time: getting back to the island. Maybe the new surprising twist next season, as the final season, will be that there are no flashes and it is all just done in real time on the island. It would be very interesting (boring?) to watch LOST not jumping all over.
Interesting intro with Daniel spying on the original Dharma. (Or is he somehow actually a part of the original Dharma, dun dun duh!) Dr. 'Candle,' (who goes by different names in the different videos we've seen of him) had a wife and a baby on the island. Was the baby conceived and born on the island? Was having babies on the island not a problem until the Dharma Initiative did something to mess things up? Is the baby we saw Miles or related to him? If so, perhaps Miles wanted to stay there to try to find the ghosts of his lost relatives or finish their work.
Riddle me this: With the island jumping around to different times, say they jump to a time when Juliette is in the camp with the Others- would she vanish from the camp and be where she is with Sawyer, assuming that a person can't exist in two places at once? When we saw Desmond, he wasn't physically in two places at once because they were in the past on the island and he's a wild card anyway. Also, why don't Richard and his people also move when the island moves? "I didn't go anywhere John, you did." Why? Because he already existed in all of the times they go to? If they bring Locke back to the island will he become alive again or be a ghost like Christian Shepherd?
Uh oh, Charlotte needs a Constant. Why can't Daniel just be her Constant since they have been together in all of her 'times.' Maybe if the polar bear isn't dead yet in one of their time jumps it can be her Constant (The first flash we had of Charlotte was her with a group who discovered a polar bear in the Tunisian desert where Ben got spit out after turning the wheel. Oh well, different polar bear anyway ;) Wouldn't all of them need Constant's though? If whatever is happening to her is NOT a Constant issue, then what is it Daniel isn't telling her? We know that she was born on the island and is sort of there to discover her past, but not whether she was conceived on the island. If she was in fact conceived there and some how cheated death when she was born, maybe now that she is back it (fate, death) is catching up with her. She mentioned forgetting her mother's maiden name, but did she know her mother or did her mother die when she was born? Maybe she is more affected than everyone because she has been to the island before. What is the connection between Daniel and Charlotte anyway? I always simply thought that he was a little enamoured of her, but right when he realised what was happening to her he told Desmond to find his mother- are they somehow related?
So Ms. Hawking, the mystical old lady that we saw in a couple of Desmond flashes, is back. Is she Daniel's mom that he told Desmond to find? He told Des to find his mom at Oxford, which is also where Des found Daniel in the past when he had to make Penny his Constant. In the recap episode before the premiere, Damon and Carlton (the show writer/producers) reminded us of the fact that all of these people are interconnected, and said that there are still more connections to be revealed, so that is all I could think when the mystic lady showed up again. I suppose she could be related to Charlotte. Who are these other off-island people like the butcher lady (who's name I can't remember) that follow Ben anyway? Are they like Ben and have been sort of kicked off the island but are still connected to it and, like Ben, want to get back?
70 hours left Ben? Really? They've been off of the island for three years and all of a sudden you have 70 hours left to get everyone back and save the island? It is a little unnerving seeing Ben sort of frantic and not calm and collected like usual. Has the island been jumping around through time for the whole three years that they've been gone and its going to implode or something if they don't stop it? Was Ben wasting valuable time all of those years by using Sayid and exacting his on revenge on Whidmore's group? Ooh, or, if they are going for the whole, Locke is a Christlike figure and has to die to redeem/save them all, then its been a day since he died, 70 hours is about three days... rising in three days... how long has he been dead already though? Even though he knows he has to die, I still have a hard time seeing Locke killing himself. Maybe we will see him change a lot by the time he leaves the island.
Are Hurley's visions getting more elaborate? Anna Lucia had a whole car. Sweet scene. 'Thanks Anna Lucia,' 'Libby says hi' ;) Its interesting that Hurley sees his ghosts as they were before the island, not how he actually knew them. I wonder if the spectres get to choose their guise or if its just Hurley's subconscious. PS, Anna Lucia distinctly told you to avoid the police, Hurley!
Does Sun have it in for Ben and Jack? (And possibly still Kate, despite what she said?) I kind of like seeing Sun as the Ice Queen. Did Ben sick the police on Kate to get her willing to go back or did Sun do it as some kind of vengeance? I'd really like to know what Sun knows and discover her true motives if they are more than retribution. Question: If when they go back it has to be forever, what about Sun's baby girl? (Who, by the way, looked way too little in that photo- shouldn't she be like 2 1/2 or so my now? Maybe Sun is away too much to have a recent photo? Hmmm. Maybe, if we want to be morbid, the child died and Sun has lost even more than just Jin... perhaps with her grief she has become a dangerous combination of both crazy and calculating, like Ben)
(What did Ben take out of the vent at the hotel and stick in his bag?)
Hated Neil, the new island castaway extra. All I could think of when he got shot with the fiery arrow was, 'about time.' I almost wonder if the writers threw him in there and made him especially annoying as sort of a funny ode to the whole Paolo/Nikki incident. ;) Also, about the flaming arrows- what time was that in? Seems a bit of an archaic weapon choice. Also, why do these people just start shooting instead of trying to be friends or at least just take hostages or something.
Favorite lines of the night:
Ben- That's the spirit
Sawyer- Shut it Ginger!
Hurley- You know maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn't have to go around shooting people Richard- It points North, John
Miles - I think its Mr. Wizard
Hurley- I like Shih Tzus, Register girl- It looks like you heart them
- And I love, love, love Hurley's island recap to his mom! (And Hurley throwing the hot pocket at Ben ;)
Below are other thoughts, by much more clever people (with my two cents thrown in here & there) :P
Two warnings from two spectral entities about a specific person never referred to by name, only the deliberately unspecified pronoun ''him.'' In both cases, the ''him'' would seem to be Aaron. But what if they were referring to someone else? Look again at the warnings, but ignore the ''he'' and instead note the verbs:
''You're not supposed to RAISE him. Don't BRING HIM BACK, Kate. Don't you dare BRING HIM BACK.''
My theory? Jack isn't being dissuaded from raising children. And Kate isn't being beseeched to keep Aaron away from the Island. No, both of these characters are being told the same thing: They are being warned against resurrecting a dead man.
You're not supposed to raise him ... FROM THE DEAD. Don't you dare bring him back ... TO LIFE.
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I also think it seems like they're setting Locke up to be a Christ-figure – sacrificing his life to save the others and then his body being taken from the tomb/funeral parlor. I'm just waiting for him to be resurrected.
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When Richard was explaining to Locke that he needed to get the Oceanic 6 back to save the island, I started to wonder why the island needed them. But the island is jumping time back and forth, much like Desmond was before he made contact with Penny. Are the Oceanic 6 the island's Constant? Or at least the people who are time jumping? (if this is the case, would that make them Jacob's Constant since he represents the island?)
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I think we know how Richard knew Locke was special and visited when he was a kid. Locke must have visited him in the distant past and spiked Richards curiosity in Locke causing him to follow Locke his entire life.
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Since Locke has to die to help the island, according to Richard Alpert, Locke is probably a messianic type character who will rise again in three days. That is why Ben did not confirm it when Jack asked in the funeral home if Locke was really dead. Also, when Ben went to the butcher shop, the discussion never mentioned that Locke was dead.It seems that the island controls time for everyone (people in the world and on the island) and if it gets completely screwed up, it will affect everyone as the old woman (who is probably Daniel Faraday's mother and is also the creepy woman from the bookstore that Desmond met in season 2 and is the person that Desmond has to find in Oxford) told Ben "god help us all." The Oceanic Six have to go back to the island to make everything right again with the space-time continuum. (Hmmm, so not just to save the island but to save the world? Is this LOST or Heroes?)
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Did you notice that the compass that Richard gave to Locke is the one Locke will give him in the past, which Richard will in turn question Locke about as a child...although kid Locke makes the wrong choice.
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If the man behind the curtain is a woman (Ms. Hawking, the real Mr. Wizard), is she pitting all the survivors from different time periods against each other?
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Looks like the mechanics of the island and its connection to time travel were in fact in place before Dharma came to town, if that scene with Faraday and Dr. Candle/Chang and the wheel is true. And Dharma just wanted to harness that power?In any event, it looks like Faraday has traveled in time before. So that's how he understands this whole thing. And not just because he's studied it. So does that mean he came to the island to study time travel intentionally (before this) or does it mean the island came to him?
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Charlotte mentions that for a moment, she couldn't remember her mother's maiden name. Now, we know that the comment, combined with bloddy nose, was to let us know she is having the same issue that Desmond had last season. But, her mother must be involved. Combined with Charlotte's previous comment about trying to find out where she was from, I still think her mom is...Annie, Ben's childhood bud (Ooh, I like this- I always hoped that Annie would pop back up at some point since she seemed so important to childhood Ben, and is probably the woman who Julliette 'looked so much like,' and she was very purposefully NOT shown as dead when Ben whiped out Dharma...)
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So, Dan was on the island before the hatch was built or was it some type of time travel that he was there when they were drilling? It would explain how his brains got scrambled (remember when we first met Dan he was crying over the plane crash but didn't know why). He was probably messing around with the "energy" on the island and cooked his brains. He would no longer be of use to them and that could be why they let him go home and why they wanted him to go back. Also, seems like now we see that Dan has a prior connection to island, we think Charlotte does and my guess is we will find out what …. 's is too. That is why they chose those three to go on the mission back to the island on the freighter.
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I was thinking back to Desmond's flash where he saw Claire and the baby getting on a helicopter and getting off of the island. Since we have been told many times that you can't change events, then this must be the end when they all get saved. Desmond told Charlie that through his sacrifice they would all be saved.
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YOU CAN'T ESCAPE YOUR FATE — BUT YOU CAN CHANGE THE DETAILS. This was dramatized by Desmond's repeated attempts to save Charlie's life. Desmond would get flashes of the future. He'd see how Charlie was going to bite it — by drowning; by lightning strike; by booby trap — and he would intercede. But eventually, Fate brainstormed a scenario that could kill Charlie. So Fate is both fixed and flexible. Again, it's like Lost. The unchangeable master plan consists only of major milestones. But the route that connects these markers can be found along the way.
So here's my theory. There is a war being waged among various people that have knowledge of Fate's master plan. They know they can't change the unchangeable events — but they're not trying to. What they're trying to change are the details that facilitate those milestones. And those details can include the shape and form of entire lives. The Island is the central battleground for this war, and a final conflict is looming, one which will determine the singular, settled shape of history itself. Many things are at stake, including the very existence of a man who has always lurked in the jungle shadows — a dead man who might yet live again: Jack's father, Christian Shepherd.
This is the answer to the Mystery of the Empty Tomb — er, the Empty Coffin: Christian Shepherd, the man with the Jesus pun name, is not dead. He's not quite alive, either — not yet. It all depends on the final battle, one that will be settled, no doubt, by a choice that will be made by Jack. If he chooses one way, the timeline takes a form in which Christian remains dead. Jack will go to Australia to rescue his father from a drunken bender and find him in a morgue. If he chooses another way, the timeline takes another form — one in which Jack goes to Australia, finds his father alive, and brings him back... on Oceanic 815.
Until this issue is resolved, poor Christian flickers between existence and non-existence, much in the same way video game characters do right after they get killed but just before they re-enter the game with new life. Of course, if this theory is correct, and if Jack chooses Door No. 2, then it begs the question: How might Lost be different if Jack's father was among the surviving castaways?
-Chuck Palahniuk
Sigh, well, we're back, and better than ever. Holy schnikeys, all over the spectrum with the scene jumping! Not just flash backs and flash forwards, oh no, now the whole island has to literally jump through time! They could go anywhere with this now. I mean, the British WWII era looking soldiers coming after Sawyer and Julliette in the night? I hope we get to see Rousseau again, and I hope at some point we will meet some Greeks building a certain statue... So last season was- island time: them getting off, present time: what has happened to the lives of the Oceanic 6 to get them to this point. This season seems to be- island time: what happened to them after the 6 left, present time: getting back to the island. Maybe the new surprising twist next season, as the final season, will be that there are no flashes and it is all just done in real time on the island. It would be very interesting (boring?) to watch LOST not jumping all over.
Interesting intro with Daniel spying on the original Dharma. (Or is he somehow actually a part of the original Dharma, dun dun duh!) Dr. 'Candle,' (who goes by different names in the different videos we've seen of him) had a wife and a baby on the island. Was the baby conceived and born on the island? Was having babies on the island not a problem until the Dharma Initiative did something to mess things up? Is the baby we saw Miles or related to him? If so, perhaps Miles wanted to stay there to try to find the ghosts of his lost relatives or finish their work.
Riddle me this: With the island jumping around to different times, say they jump to a time when Juliette is in the camp with the Others- would she vanish from the camp and be where she is with Sawyer, assuming that a person can't exist in two places at once? When we saw Desmond, he wasn't physically in two places at once because they were in the past on the island and he's a wild card anyway. Also, why don't Richard and his people also move when the island moves? "I didn't go anywhere John, you did." Why? Because he already existed in all of the times they go to? If they bring Locke back to the island will he become alive again or be a ghost like Christian Shepherd?
Uh oh, Charlotte needs a Constant. Why can't Daniel just be her Constant since they have been together in all of her 'times.' Maybe if the polar bear isn't dead yet in one of their time jumps it can be her Constant (The first flash we had of Charlotte was her with a group who discovered a polar bear in the Tunisian desert where Ben got spit out after turning the wheel. Oh well, different polar bear anyway ;) Wouldn't all of them need Constant's though? If whatever is happening to her is NOT a Constant issue, then what is it Daniel isn't telling her? We know that she was born on the island and is sort of there to discover her past, but not whether she was conceived on the island. If she was in fact conceived there and some how cheated death when she was born, maybe now that she is back it (fate, death) is catching up with her. She mentioned forgetting her mother's maiden name, but did she know her mother or did her mother die when she was born? Maybe she is more affected than everyone because she has been to the island before. What is the connection between Daniel and Charlotte anyway? I always simply thought that he was a little enamoured of her, but right when he realised what was happening to her he told Desmond to find his mother- are they somehow related?
So Ms. Hawking, the mystical old lady that we saw in a couple of Desmond flashes, is back. Is she Daniel's mom that he told Desmond to find? He told Des to find his mom at Oxford, which is also where Des found Daniel in the past when he had to make Penny his Constant. In the recap episode before the premiere, Damon and Carlton (the show writer/producers) reminded us of the fact that all of these people are interconnected, and said that there are still more connections to be revealed, so that is all I could think when the mystic lady showed up again. I suppose she could be related to Charlotte. Who are these other off-island people like the butcher lady (who's name I can't remember) that follow Ben anyway? Are they like Ben and have been sort of kicked off the island but are still connected to it and, like Ben, want to get back?
70 hours left Ben? Really? They've been off of the island for three years and all of a sudden you have 70 hours left to get everyone back and save the island? It is a little unnerving seeing Ben sort of frantic and not calm and collected like usual. Has the island been jumping around through time for the whole three years that they've been gone and its going to implode or something if they don't stop it? Was Ben wasting valuable time all of those years by using Sayid and exacting his on revenge on Whidmore's group? Ooh, or, if they are going for the whole, Locke is a Christlike figure and has to die to redeem/save them all, then its been a day since he died, 70 hours is about three days... rising in three days... how long has he been dead already though? Even though he knows he has to die, I still have a hard time seeing Locke killing himself. Maybe we will see him change a lot by the time he leaves the island.
Are Hurley's visions getting more elaborate? Anna Lucia had a whole car. Sweet scene. 'Thanks Anna Lucia,' 'Libby says hi' ;) Its interesting that Hurley sees his ghosts as they were before the island, not how he actually knew them. I wonder if the spectres get to choose their guise or if its just Hurley's subconscious. PS, Anna Lucia distinctly told you to avoid the police, Hurley!
Does Sun have it in for Ben and Jack? (And possibly still Kate, despite what she said?) I kind of like seeing Sun as the Ice Queen. Did Ben sick the police on Kate to get her willing to go back or did Sun do it as some kind of vengeance? I'd really like to know what Sun knows and discover her true motives if they are more than retribution. Question: If when they go back it has to be forever, what about Sun's baby girl? (Who, by the way, looked way too little in that photo- shouldn't she be like 2 1/2 or so my now? Maybe Sun is away too much to have a recent photo? Hmmm. Maybe, if we want to be morbid, the child died and Sun has lost even more than just Jin... perhaps with her grief she has become a dangerous combination of both crazy and calculating, like Ben)
(What did Ben take out of the vent at the hotel and stick in his bag?)
Hated Neil, the new island castaway extra. All I could think of when he got shot with the fiery arrow was, 'about time.' I almost wonder if the writers threw him in there and made him especially annoying as sort of a funny ode to the whole Paolo/Nikki incident. ;) Also, about the flaming arrows- what time was that in? Seems a bit of an archaic weapon choice. Also, why do these people just start shooting instead of trying to be friends or at least just take hostages or something.
Favorite lines of the night:
Ben- That's the spirit
Sawyer- Shut it Ginger!
Hurley- You know maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn't have to go around shooting people Richard- It points North, John
Miles - I think its Mr. Wizard
Hurley- I like Shih Tzus, Register girl- It looks like you heart them
- And I love, love, love Hurley's island recap to his mom! (And Hurley throwing the hot pocket at Ben ;)
Below are other thoughts, by much more clever people (with my two cents thrown in here & there) :P
Two warnings from two spectral entities about a specific person never referred to by name, only the deliberately unspecified pronoun ''him.'' In both cases, the ''him'' would seem to be Aaron. But what if they were referring to someone else? Look again at the warnings, but ignore the ''he'' and instead note the verbs:
''You're not supposed to RAISE him. Don't BRING HIM BACK, Kate. Don't you dare BRING HIM BACK.''
My theory? Jack isn't being dissuaded from raising children. And Kate isn't being beseeched to keep Aaron away from the Island. No, both of these characters are being told the same thing: They are being warned against resurrecting a dead man.
You're not supposed to raise him ... FROM THE DEAD. Don't you dare bring him back ... TO LIFE.
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I also think it seems like they're setting Locke up to be a Christ-figure – sacrificing his life to save the others and then his body being taken from the tomb/funeral parlor. I'm just waiting for him to be resurrected.
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When Richard was explaining to Locke that he needed to get the Oceanic 6 back to save the island, I started to wonder why the island needed them. But the island is jumping time back and forth, much like Desmond was before he made contact with Penny. Are the Oceanic 6 the island's Constant? Or at least the people who are time jumping? (if this is the case, would that make them Jacob's Constant since he represents the island?)
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I think we know how Richard knew Locke was special and visited when he was a kid. Locke must have visited him in the distant past and spiked Richards curiosity in Locke causing him to follow Locke his entire life.
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Since Locke has to die to help the island, according to Richard Alpert, Locke is probably a messianic type character who will rise again in three days. That is why Ben did not confirm it when Jack asked in the funeral home if Locke was really dead. Also, when Ben went to the butcher shop, the discussion never mentioned that Locke was dead.It seems that the island controls time for everyone (people in the world and on the island) and if it gets completely screwed up, it will affect everyone as the old woman (who is probably Daniel Faraday's mother and is also the creepy woman from the bookstore that Desmond met in season 2 and is the person that Desmond has to find in Oxford) told Ben "god help us all." The Oceanic Six have to go back to the island to make everything right again with the space-time continuum. (Hmmm, so not just to save the island but to save the world? Is this LOST or Heroes?)
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Did you notice that the compass that Richard gave to Locke is the one Locke will give him in the past, which Richard will in turn question Locke about as a child...although kid Locke makes the wrong choice.
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If the man behind the curtain is a woman (Ms. Hawking, the real Mr. Wizard), is she pitting all the survivors from different time periods against each other?
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Looks like the mechanics of the island and its connection to time travel were in fact in place before Dharma came to town, if that scene with Faraday and Dr. Candle/Chang and the wheel is true. And Dharma just wanted to harness that power?In any event, it looks like Faraday has traveled in time before. So that's how he understands this whole thing. And not just because he's studied it. So does that mean he came to the island to study time travel intentionally (before this) or does it mean the island came to him?
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Charlotte mentions that for a moment, she couldn't remember her mother's maiden name. Now, we know that the comment, combined with bloddy nose, was to let us know she is having the same issue that Desmond had last season. But, her mother must be involved. Combined with Charlotte's previous comment about trying to find out where she was from, I still think her mom is...Annie, Ben's childhood bud (Ooh, I like this- I always hoped that Annie would pop back up at some point since she seemed so important to childhood Ben, and is probably the woman who Julliette 'looked so much like,' and she was very purposefully NOT shown as dead when Ben whiped out Dharma...)
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So, Dan was on the island before the hatch was built or was it some type of time travel that he was there when they were drilling? It would explain how his brains got scrambled (remember when we first met Dan he was crying over the plane crash but didn't know why). He was probably messing around with the "energy" on the island and cooked his brains. He would no longer be of use to them and that could be why they let him go home and why they wanted him to go back. Also, seems like now we see that Dan has a prior connection to island, we think Charlotte does and my guess is we will find out what …. 's is too. That is why they chose those three to go on the mission back to the island on the freighter.
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I was thinking back to Desmond's flash where he saw Claire and the baby getting on a helicopter and getting off of the island. Since we have been told many times that you can't change events, then this must be the end when they all get saved. Desmond told Charlie that through his sacrifice they would all be saved.
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YOU CAN'T ESCAPE YOUR FATE — BUT YOU CAN CHANGE THE DETAILS. This was dramatized by Desmond's repeated attempts to save Charlie's life. Desmond would get flashes of the future. He'd see how Charlie was going to bite it — by drowning; by lightning strike; by booby trap — and he would intercede. But eventually, Fate brainstormed a scenario that could kill Charlie. So Fate is both fixed and flexible. Again, it's like Lost. The unchangeable master plan consists only of major milestones. But the route that connects these markers can be found along the way.
So here's my theory. There is a war being waged among various people that have knowledge of Fate's master plan. They know they can't change the unchangeable events — but they're not trying to. What they're trying to change are the details that facilitate those milestones. And those details can include the shape and form of entire lives. The Island is the central battleground for this war, and a final conflict is looming, one which will determine the singular, settled shape of history itself. Many things are at stake, including the very existence of a man who has always lurked in the jungle shadows — a dead man who might yet live again: Jack's father, Christian Shepherd.
This is the answer to the Mystery of the Empty Tomb — er, the Empty Coffin: Christian Shepherd, the man with the Jesus pun name, is not dead. He's not quite alive, either — not yet. It all depends on the final battle, one that will be settled, no doubt, by a choice that will be made by Jack. If he chooses one way, the timeline takes a form in which Christian remains dead. Jack will go to Australia to rescue his father from a drunken bender and find him in a morgue. If he chooses another way, the timeline takes another form — one in which Jack goes to Australia, finds his father alive, and brings him back... on Oceanic 815.
Until this issue is resolved, poor Christian flickers between existence and non-existence, much in the same way video game characters do right after they get killed but just before they re-enter the game with new life. Of course, if this theory is correct, and if Jack chooses Door No. 2, then it begs the question: How might Lost be different if Jack's father was among the surviving castaways?
Friday, May 30, 2008
LOST S4 Finale: There's No Place Like Home, Pt. 2 & 3
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.
-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 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.
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