Another Lost Blog

ABC's Official Recap Redux

2009-05-18T17:05:00.003-04:00

Reading through ABC's official recaps gives a little bit more info than I had before. What was previously a look turns into a "look of approval" or "an angry look."

As I am reading these I think that Widmore was not really in touch with Jacob either. I don't think a leader has been talking directly to Jacob for a long, long time. I think NotLocke has been manipulating the leaders to try to get to this outcome. NotLocke was the one who told Alpert to tell real Locke that he had to die. NotLocke was also the source of the info that the O6 had to come back to the island, most likely a ploy to get Locke off island so he could die and then be "resurrected."

I am also convinced that Silas is in cahoots with the smoke monster. Note that NotLocke and the smoke monster were conspicuously never in the same place. Nor have NotLocke and Christian been in the same place.

My new theory... The O6 were never supposed to come back. That information was all supplied by Silas. The thing that needed to be done to save the Losties was get the donkey wheel back on it's axis. I think the whole "we have to go back" thing was just to get Locke's dead body back.

So maybe Faraday was right and they don't belong there. But of course they are there and we know that whatever happened, happened. So either the things that happened there are "course correction," like Ben being saved by the Others, or this is always the way it happened.

This is all very confusing and I'm not totally able to organize it all yet. It's fairly clear that most of the events which culminated in these events were either manipulated by Jacob or Silas. It is not clear who is on which side or who was manipulated by who, or if some people were touched by both Jacob and Silas. It is also not clear what Jacob and Silas are fighting over, or whether history was changed, although I really have to believe that the past was not changed in any major way.

ABC's Official Recap

2009-05-18T14:25:00.002-04:00

I just stumbled across this and there are a few interesting things. First of all ABC confirms that the statue is of Tawaret, the goddess of fertility. Some fans are arguing about the details of the statue.

The second thing is that they describe Jacob meeting everyone in the flashback's and point out how Jacob physically touched them. In the Sayid flashback they say Jacob reaches over "but does he touch Sayid's shoulder?"

This sort of indicates that maybe Jacob did not touch Sayid, which might play into how Sayid dies, or why Jacob needed Ilana to get Sayid on the plane.

In describing the scene between Not Locke and Jacob a couple interesting points are made. When Ben stabs him, "Jacob does nothing to defend himself and doesn't even seem surprised." After Jacob whispers to Not Locke he "looks up fearfully." I totally hadn't picked up that fearful look. Next they confirm that Jacob dies in the fire pit.

Finally they confirm that the bomb goes off. That part I was able to guess.

Without this recap to point out some minor details they would have slipped by me. I may have to read these official recaps for the whole season.

The Incident - Afterthoughts

2009-05-14T16:12:00.005-04:00

I'm not going to go through my liveblogging from last night and try to avoid duplicating thoughts... I still plan on rewatching the episode as soon as possible.

In the opening scene what jumps out is that Jacob is in white and Silas in black. This tends to make me believe that Jacob is good and Silas is evil. Also - in every scene where Jacob appeared in a flashback he noticeably touched the person. I think this will become important.

I think that Jacob and Silas are two demigods or something and they are fighting a long battle. Jacob thinks that people are good and Silas wants those stupid people to stay off his island because everytime they show up they fight and ruin things.

The two of them have rules for how they interact, so they have been subtly manipulating events to try to win their fight by proxy. Jacob obviously guided the lives of the Losties, maybe more than just by showing up at key times. Silas was maybe the smoke monster (still some problems with that theory) and was most likely Christian. He has been manipulating Ben and Locke to get them to the point where he can pretend to be Locke and trick Ben into killing Jacob.

The cabin with the line of ash... Richard seems to know that Jacob lived in the foot of the statue, not in the cabin, so it would appear that Ben is the only person who thought Jacob lived in the cabin. My guess is that someone or something else was trapped in the cabin and was allowed to escape by the broken line of ash. This is slightly foiled by the fact that Ilana went to the cabin first and found a "note" from Jacob. Regardless, it seems fairly consistent that someone kicked Jacob out of the cabin and took his place as evil Christian misguiding Locke and Ben.

Talk about long cons... These plans must have been laid out of 50 or more years, starting with real Locke in 1954, and culminating with fake Locke in 2007.

I'm not sure what these loopholes are, but I think that Jacob has another plan in place even after his death, and it ties into the Incident. I don't think anything major in time is going to be changed, but we may have some minor changes. Honestly I am completely clueless about what the Incident means and what it did or did not change. But somehow the 1977 crew are going to be pivotal in the final war against Silas.

Who's side is Widmore on? I think he is on Jacob's. There is a chance he was corrupted by Silas, but I think Widmore is less corrupted than Ben was. I think Ben was a test case between Jacob and Silas to see what happens if you totally screw someone over. Silas won that one. Widmore got screwed but I think he wanted real Locke to be alive.

Ben is the bad guy, but he meant well. He's like a child... He did what he was told, he was promised a piece of candy, he did what he was told, he didn't get his candy and he throws a huge tantrum and breaks the good china. I'm still not sure what is up with Widmore. Maybe Silas is playing all of the Others and the Losties are Jacob's new pawns. Maybe the Others were corrupted by the island like Silas said and Jacob needed to bring in fresh blood.

I need to stop thinking about this or I'm going to drive myself nuts over the next 7 to 8 months.

ONE LAST THOUGHT - Maybe Widmore was plotting with Silas and the freighter was part of the plot to manipulate things to Silas's end game which we saw last night. I can't see Keamy ever being associated with anyone good.

First Thoughts on the Incident

2009-05-14T01:31:00.000-04:00

Some thoughts, then I go to bed.

If the bomb went off at the end it didn't change anything. It caused the incident and sends the Losties back to the future. The nuclear energy somehow interacts with the electromagnetism and they cancel each other out or something so the island doesn't blow up. You can't change the past.

I am very confused as to who is on who's side. We have Jacob and Silas, who are obviously in a long running feud. Silas doesn't seem to be able to kill Jacob directly, which is why he manipulated Ben.

What Richard said lies in the shadow of the statue is latin for "he who will save us all," which is most likely Jacob. Ben and Widmore also seem to be following some sort of rules. Undead Locke was really Silas.

On team Jacob he have Richard, Ilana, Bram and the Shadow of the Statue people, real live Locke. Most likely Widmore and Eloise and all of the Others.

On team Silas we have... Silas, apparently smokey, and... Who else?

Still not yet assigned are Christian, the Losties (although based on the flashbacks I assume they are on team Jacob), who else?

Christian told Locke how to hide the island from the freighter. We assumed that Widmore was the bad guy because Ben and Richard seemed to be opposed to his landing on the island. Based on new evidence it seems that Widmore was really just a little minor annoyance compared to Silas. Why go through all of the crap to hide the island from someone who is a good guy? Unless Silas converted Widmore? Or was Silas manipulating Locke and Ben to prevent Widmore from finding the island? If Widmore was a good guy why would he hire a psychopath like Keamy to kill everyone on the island? If Widmore was a bad guy why would Eloise be so civil with him outside the hospital? Why would he help Locke to try to stay alive? Why did Bram say that Miles was playing for the wrong team when he was trying to work for Widmore if Widmore was still aligned with Jacob? Did Silas corrupt Widmore when Widmore left the island? Tempt him with a return and power and all of that? That seems like a likely scenario.

I think Silas is the bad guy, he has been subtly manipulating events. After Ben lost touch with Jacob he started manipulating Ben... But with Jacob still in touch with Richard one would think that Jacob would let Richard know that Ben was a bad guy. Silas must have manipulated things to make Locke seem like a likely leader, even though Richard said that Locke was never special (duh!). But why would Jacob not be aware of this? Or was he aware and trying to fight back in the only way he knew how, by manipulating events so that things work out.

The one thing I am convinced of right now is that Jacob is good and Silas is bad. Silas thought that the people on the boat would screw things up like they always do, Jacob thought that there was hope. What was this loophole they kept referencing? Who are these people? What is going on? Why must I wait until 2010 to find out? Yesterday I accidentally dated a check with 5/12/08... 2010 is so far away.

The Incident Live Part 3

2009-05-14T01:09:00.000-04:00

Jacob is awesome! I don't know why anyone would ever want to kill Jacob!

On the other hand I have never disliked Jack so much. Right now he has nothing on Locke in terms of leadership skills and decision making, and that's saying quite a lot as Locke doesn't have much on my cat in terms of leadership skills. He is a really smart cat, but he could totally whoop Locke in a battle of wits.

I can't believe I didn't think of it before! Since Ben has never seen or met Jacob Ben was never really speaking for Jacob. The Others have drifted from Jacob and the Island and the Shadow people are supposed to restore things. Which leaves the question of who is telling Locke what to do and who evil Christian Shephard is really speaking for... Or is Jacob really orchestrating the whole thing? Is Jacob using Locke to wrest control away from the Others who have become corrupted? New theory!

As usual Miles is the voice of reason. I love Miles.

Well either the bomb did nothing or it caused the incident. And bye bye to my favorite female. Why couldn't it have been Kate instead? Why!!!!

OMFG! First of all what does lie in the shadow of the statue? I don't speak that language! Secondly I was right! Locke is not Locke, he's an evil manifestation of something! Eeeeviiill!!!! He is Silas!

Ben is going to kill Jacob because he's a pissed off little bastard! And he does it! Evil Locke/Silas wins... And Juliet sets up the bomb. All your bass are belong to her.

Holy shit, what does it all mean? Who is coming? What was the incident? What happens now that Jacob is dead? Does Silas take over? Do the Others and the Shadow people kill him? Locke never really was special! 6 months until I get some answers! What happens to the people in 1977? I thought the sky would turn purple and they would get sent back to 2008! Why couldn't Silas kill Jacob himself? Jacob was such a nice guy... He will be missed.

The Incident Live Part 2

2009-05-14T00:51:00.000-04:00

Vincent! And Rose and Bernard! Triple holy crap! Rose and Bernard are awesome! Adam and Eve?

My new theory... The Shadow of the Statue people are with the guy that wanted to kill Jacob in the beginning. If Jacob is the leader of the Others they are against the Others. I think my predictions of Widmore and Ben ending up on the same side are going to end up being correct.

OMG! My theory from two minutes ago was just thrown out the window! Ilana and Jacob are working together! Who are the bad guys then? Is it Locke and the Others who have been corrupted and turned against Jacob? Or is Jacob really the bad guy? My money is on Jacob. Locke is a dumbass. He's the kind of guy who would join with the forces of evil because he thought it would make him a cool kid.

My new theory... There are multiple spirits/forces like Jacob on the island. Silas is one of them. They are fighting amongst each other for control of the island. The mortals are not quite smart enough to figure out which ones speak for the island, if the island even needs to be spoken for. Undead Christian Shephard is evil!

Jacob helped Locke after he fell out of the window! Who is on who's side?

Maybe I should stop writing my thoughts after every scene and just post if I think of something really important. My theories are debunked every 30 seconds.

Three hour delay for the West Coast, maybe one more post halfway through part 2 of the finale, and then a brief thoughts afterwards and more detail tomorrow!

The Incident Live

2009-05-14T00:46:00.000-04:00

Holy crap! I rewound that first scene four times. I was wrong about Jacob aging, I don't know who that other guy was but I'm guessing that he and Jacob fought over the island and it's pretty clear who won.

The statue was still standing as recently as the 1800s, which means it must have been destroyed by people in sailing ships. The other old dude said they come, they fight, they get corrupted... My guess is that cycle has been repeating for hundreds if not thousands of years. Dharma, the Others, they all came with good intentions but ended up corrupted and bad.

I still have no idea what's in the shadow of the statue box but Frank's reaction was awesome. Or terrific. I'm going to delay this post by three hours so as not to spoil anyone on the west coast. If you are in Hawaii you are on your own.

This episode is awesome so far!

The Incident

2009-05-13T16:09:00.000-04:00

Now onto the Incident, my most anticipated two hours of TV ever. I think much of this may be rehashing stuff I have already written, but let's go anyway.

It's pretty obvious to me that Jack is going to be unable to blow up the energy pocket. If he did it would lead to all sorts of confusing paradox and alternate timelines and I think the writers want to avoid that sort of stuff. You can not change the past. I am sticking to that no matter what.

So what is up for debate?

Who is Jacob and what is his relationship to the island?
What is the Incident and what are it's ramifications?

I think these two questions will become intertwined, in typical Lost fashion, so we end up with one main storyline for next season, instead of following a dozen different stories in a half dozen different time periods.

Oh I forgot another question which will play into this episode - who are the Shadow of the Statue people? Many theorize that they are the "children of dharma" but I say no way. They have nothing to do with Dharma.

I had predicted the major points of last year's finale pretty closely by halfway through the season, but this year I am clueless, and it feels great.

My wild guess... The incident makes the sky turn purple and the Losties jump back to present times where they are all reunited. The incident has something to do with Jacob. And the shadow of the statue is part of the war. What the teams are in the war, and who is on each team? My guess is the shadow of the statue is one team, the Others are a different team. Whose side is Jacob on, whose side are the Losties on, and most importantly whose side is the Island on?

I can't wait... As I said being in the dark has never been so exciting. I have no idea what is going to happen and I hope to not be disappointed. I will be sorely disappointed if 815 lands in LA, because then they will have to spend Season 6 explaining away the paradox.

My guess is that the bomb contributes to the incident, the Others now have information on 815 crashing which Jacob uses to track the Losties from 1977 through 2004, and that Jacob ends up in whatever state he is in due in part to the Incident.

We will see tomorrow!

Fringe Finale

2009-05-13T16:07:00.001-04:00

The finale is on tonight! Before I get into that I have to post a little note about the Fringe finale last night. I am hearing how everyone was blown away by it. My reaction at the end was "we knew that, like, forever ago."

The alternate universe thing had been spelled out many episodes ago, when the ZFT was first introduced, so that was nothing new. It was pretty obvious that Bell was hiding out in an alternate reality several episodes ago, when Nina said he was unavailable. And I guessed that Peter was snatched from an alta-verse before halfway through the episode.

Was anyone really blown away, or was this all as obvious as it seemed to me to be?

Timelines

2009-05-08T14:26:00.001-04:00

Some of the timelines just don't make sense.

Based on a teaser for the finale Eloise is pregnant in 1977. That makes Daniel born in 77 or 78. This makes him 18 or 19 when he meets Desmond in 1996, and 26 or 27 when he is in the freighter in 2004. The actor is 40.

We know about the Charlotte error. The actress is 29, they used her actual birthdate when Ben reported Michael's intels on the freighties. But it turns out she is actually 4 or 5 in 1977 making her in her mid 30s in 2004.

According to ghost Horace's comment to Locke he has been dead for 12 years in 2004. This means the Purge happened in 1992. Rousseau arrived on the island in 1988, when Alex was born. This confirms Alex's age as 16 in 2004.

So Faraday was a professor at Oxford at age 19? In order to do that he must have graduated high school by age 13 or so. Then done college in 2 years, grad school in 2 years, and his PhD in 2 years. That is potentially possible, although would be difficult even for a genius. But a full on professor at age 18? Teaching graduate students? That's a bit harder to swallow.

I'm not even going to get into Faraday being 6 years younger than Charlotte because that is just absurd.

I've been wondering about the timeline of the Purge for quite a while now. My hope is that the 12 year comment was a throwaway continuity error because that makes everything else make a lot more sense. If the Purge actually happened in 1992:

Ben was doing a double agent thing working for Dharma during the day and the Others at night for at least 4 years.
Ben spent at least 4 years raising Alex while working as a janitor for Dharma during the day
Widmore was exiled from the island no earlier than 1992 - by this time he was a full-time leader of a large corporation. And Penny must have been in her 20s.
And what was Dharma doing for the 15 years between the Incident and the Purge? 15 years is a long time.

The first two items above are the issues that make the least sense to me. Unless the Others had super nanny I don't see Ben being able to raise a daughter, skulk around the jungle by night, and work as a janitor during the day, and still sleep and eat.

And how did Danielle manage to live on the island for four years without ever even encountering Dharma? She was told to run when she heard whispers, but I don't know how she could live for four years and not run into people driving VW buses all over the place.

A more logical timeline is that the Purge happened before 1988, which makes everything make sense. The Others would have to have continued living in the Jungle for a while before moving into New Otherton, but I can swallow this a lot easier than the alternatives.

A lot of the timelines we've seen don't really make much sense. We know the Charlotte thing was an error, are the rest of these errors? Are they the writers saying things before they have planned out future seasons enough to make sure the years match up? The Faraday thing was pretty obviously because Davies was a perfect actor for the role... But couldn't they have adjusted the timeline so the character was closer to the actor's age?

What's Up With Locke?

2009-05-07T15:45:00.000-04:00

Ever since Locke started blowing stuff up in Season 3 I haven't really liked him. He seems to me like the dorky kid in high school who is so desperate to be liked that he goes through a wacky escapade in an 80s high school comedy. Only unlike the John Hughes movie, in Locke's case he doesn't learn that he can be liked for being himself, he gets killed and comes back extra creepy.

I am more and more convinced that resurrected Locke is different than old Locke. He says he has "a purpose," but to me he just seems extra crazy. The loser-ish part of Locke that just wanted to be one of the guys has died and been replaced by a crazy dude who I have no idea what he wants to do.

He does seem determined to maintain the timeline, which coincides with my view of that being one of the main purposes of the Others (as per the previous Eloise post.) I am not sure what is up with the killing Jacob thing, the telling one story to Sun and another to Ben, and the whole upsetting Richard thing. I do think that the Island's ability to directly tell him things is related to the fact that as a dead man he is now a manifestation of the island rather than a normal human being. I am convinced that Jacob is real so am not sure what will happen to Locke in the next episode.

Is Locke on the side of the island, if so has the island turned against Jacob? Or is Locke a renegade on a mission to destroy the island? Widmore says that Locke needs to be on the island for the right side to win the coming war, how does this fit in with Locke's seeming opposition to Richard, who up until now has been a voice for the Others.

Follow the Leader

2009-05-07T10:18:00.000-04:00

I really need to rewatch this episode, I don't know if I was overly tired or what but nothing really jumped out at me as mythologically significant.

I do have one big thought as sort of a prediction for "The Incident." In this episode Eloise seems more than willing to go along with her dead son's plan to alter the timeline. She's the one strong-arming Widmore into allowing the Losties to try to detonate the bomb. I'm not sure how they think they will survive if they detonate an h-bomb on the island, but let's ignore that for now.

Whatever happens - if they are successful in detonating the bomb or not - that is going to be a contributing factor to the Incident. Whatever happens next week is going to convince Eloise that she needs to guard the timeline rather than attempting to alter it. I have no idea what that could be, but something major is going to happen which will put her on the path she will be on for the rest of her life.

RIP Daniel Faraday

2009-05-04T12:49:00.000-04:00

Some people had hopes that Faraday was still alive after being shot. I never even entertained any such notion. I absolutely loved the character, he quickly became on of my top 3 characters on the show, but that death was great. It was totally unexpected, the ABC promos weren't even talking about someone dying like they usually do. It seemed like his story was just getting started and then "Boom!" shot in the back by his own mother.

People were speculating that maybe he survived, maybe the island healed him, etc. I never bought into any of that. I don't think he died at the very end of the show, he has to live long enough to impart some of his knowledge to other people (his mother, Jack, Kate, etc.) and probably give his diary to someone.

Here is an article that confirms that the death is real. Jeremy Davies was a great actor in the role, he made the character totally awesome, I loved him and I will miss him greatly. But the show must go on!

Bravo to lost for giving us another shocking death without hyping it beforehand.

What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue?

2009-04-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

Is it Jughead, maybe? Maybe the SOTS people want to finish Faraday's plan?

Time Travel and Changing the Past

2009-04-30T11:10:00.001-04:00

To expand on the free will versus this has already happened, people do have free will, but that is already accounted for in what has happened. Say I am trying to decide whether the number at the end of this post will be 1 or 7. I have free will to decide that, but whatever I choose is what I choose. The free will of people is already accounted for in the past.

This is kind of a paradox because while people have free will they can't change time. This is because all of the information and factors that contribute to their decisions led to that decision and unless you change the inputs the outputs won't change. So unless you can go back and change history history won't change. Since you can't change the past since it already happened you can't change the past.

To use an illustration - in getting the O6 back to the island Ben had to go through a lot of stuff. One could say that since the past has already happened he could have just sat on the beach and the O6 would have gotten back anyway. However with the information Ben had the only choice he could make was to try to get them back. His free will created the present, which created the past, both of which creates the future. If Ben had chosen to not do what he did and the O6 didn't get back to the island history would have been different, but he did and that is how it is.

Free will exists, but it is also an illusion. Our brains are basically giant computers and if you give the same inputs with the same parameters the output will be the same.

First Thoughts on The Variable

2009-04-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

Holy crap... I haven't been too thrilled with this season so far. It's been good, but I much prefer new questions to getting answers. This episode makes me feel like I did back in Season 1.

Based on their actions in the future it seems pretty clear to me that Eloise, Charles and the Others are going to be trying to preserve the original timeline. I have to believe that the Losties are going to fail to change it because if they do paradox arises. If their plane never crashes then they are never on the island to go back to change time and prevent the plane from crashing. Not to mention that what would the last season be about.

But this is Lost so who knows... The last scene might just be the plane safely landing in LA.

One of the things that excites me the most is that the rest of the season has to take place in the next 3 or 4 hours after this episode. I am disappointed that Daniel seems to be dead. He was a great character and he will be missed.

Radzinksy continues to be the king of the douches. Every week I think I can't dislike him any more and then he proves me wrong. And unfortunately I know he can't die now because he has to shoot himself in the Swan in a decade or two.

So my predictions - the Losties are going to find the bomb in the temple. To do this they have to make friend with Widmore and son-killer Hawking. Chang is going to evacuate most, but not all, of the people from the island. Maybe one subload is all they can do in the available time. The Losties are going to try to detonate the bomb but will either chicken out or fail, the Incident happens and who knows what consequences that has. The Swan's purpose changes from a research hatch to a containment hatch and this is the beginning of the end for Dharma.

Now my crackpot theory - the Incident changes time and reunites the Losties. The people in the 70s go back to the 2000s to reunite with everyone else. The next season is the battle for the island where the Others and the Losties fight against the Shadow of the Statue. I still don't really have a good idea who the Shadow of the Statue are, but they are not Dharma, not Others... They are a new group we have never heard of, probably descended from the Temple Builders. And without Locke for the others to use as cannon fodder they will beat the Others (I don't know what else Locke can contribute).

Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

2009-02-26T17:28:00.000-05:00

I was a bit confused by the Ben/Widmore conflict after last night's episode in which they appeared to be pursuing the same end. Why did Ben kill Locke just to bring him back to the island?

I just had a thought... What if the war is irrelevant to the Ben/Widmore conflict? What if Ben is pursuing his own goals, as it seems he always is? Why did Ben kill Locke and then go ahead and complete his mission?

My guess is that Ben wants to get back to the island and wants to get back into the islands good graces. Maybe Locke was supposed to die, maybe Ben served fate by killing him. It seems that Ben was triggered by something Locke said. So it follows that what Locke said was either a new piece of information to Ben or a piece of information which he felt would be dangerous for Locke to have.

Widmore was the leader of the Others and he was exiled by Ben? It must have been Widmore who ordered the Purge in that case. That's when Ben became the leader. Maybe Ben had Widmore move the island to avoid retribution from the Dharma Initiative, or maybe Ben persuaded Widmore to order the Purge against Widmore's original decision.

I think the Ajira plane crashed in the "present," meaning 2007. All of the files they were looking at could be explained by the fact that the O6 and the freighter people had been in the past interacting with the DI. Daniel has his journal with him, we know he was in the past then, that page could easily have ended up in the files of the DI. So I don't think there is any mystery to them being in the future or anything.

As for how Locke came back to life I don't know. I had predicted that he would be a Christian like figure. Not alive, but there. It appears that he came back to life completely, which stretches the imagination when one considers what happens to dead bodies. They are opened up, pumped full of preservatives, embalmed, cut, sewed. They are in no state to be coming back to life.

And Ben seemed to expect that something like this would happen as he wanted extra care taken with Locke's body. Is Ben serving the island/fate or is he just serving himself? Same question goes for Widmore. My guess is that one of them subtly said something or did something to interfere with fate and the other tried or did correct it.

Maybe Ben just wants to get back to the island and doesn't care who is in charge, as long as he is there. What about this war that Widmore predicted? It probably has something to do with the end of the world with the DI and the Valenzetti equation and all of that.

This episode raised some interesting questions. While Cuse and Lindelof say that the show is in "answer" mode it clearly is still raising questions, while answering some. And that is the way I like it.

Jughead

2009-01-30T15:46:00.000-05:00

While Jughead was a great episode with a lot of answers and even more questions I didn't really see it as raising any huge questions. Some thoughts:

Ellie is definitely someone we know, however I don't know if she is Mrs. Hawking or if Mrs. Hawking is Daniel's mother. That seems kind of obvious but Lost has a way of playing with expectations so that when you think something is too obvious to be true it ends up being true.
Charles Widmore was on the island. Duh. He seemed kind of cocky. I wonder if he was the "chosen one" at the time and was then replaced by a more chosen one.
What happened to the bomb? Is it under the Swan? Is it sitting there waiting for something to happen?
Locke told Richard about himself. That is a bit odd because Daniel's talk with Desmond altered the time stream, but it seems that Locke's had always happened.

That's about all I have right now. It was a great episode but it didn't really raise any big mythological questions. It raised some issues which may become big questions but I didn't really think there were any major points from here that created or changed any existing theories.

For the record, my theory is that the O6 are the constants for the survivors, Desmond can change the past due to the failsafe thing, and that's about all I can figure out right now. I'm sure the bomb will play a prominent role, but what the island has to do with the surivival of manking is still cloudy.

Because You Left Thoughts

2009-01-23T13:23:00.000-05:00

I've been reading boards and blogs and theories about the first two episodes from Wednesday. Instead of posting the same responses on these other pages I'll post it here. This is not a recap or a full theory, just random thoughts...

The survivors on the island are jumping through time. The island is not moving, nor are the rest of the others. The Others are not moving because they are linked to the island in some way, maybe they went through an previous "move" and found their constants... Whatever it is they are stuck in real time on the island. I am a bit perplexed that Richard seemed to know where John was jumping to next, maybe John told him?

The reason the O6 need to go back is because they are the only thing that can be constants for the rest of the survivors. The survivors are jumping all over the place and we saw Charlotte starting to get sick already. I assume the rest will follow with Minkowski-like symptoms. The O6 are the only possible constants for all of these people. They all know each other. And the key is that the O6 were not involved in the time jumping so they are still constant.

I believe there is another reason that the O6 need to go back because of Mrs. Hawkings predictions of apocalypse if they didn't get back to the island. I would assume that the death of the 815ers would not be sufficient to trigger the type of consequences she was hinting at. So I am not sure what that part is about yet.

Desmond is immune from the whole time travel thing because of his experience with the Swan hatch implosion. He is somehow special and is the only person who can change the past or the future. When Faraday met him in the past and Desmond suddenly remembered that in the present it wasn't just a coincidence that Desmond suddenly remembered one night. That memory only got planted in his head when Faraday changed the past. So this makes Desmond pretty critical to the plot, as has been hinted at, because if the past or the future somehow needs to be changed Desmond is the only one who can do it. Maybe it's because he jumped through time, found his constant, and wasn't on the island when it jumped. So he's already partly dislodged in time. I think the Swan thing is a more likely explanation though.

Why does Locke have to die? I think he has to be a martyr to prod the other O6 to return. I do not think he will be coming back to life, although Ben's care of his body seems to indicate otherwise. I just don't see Lost making as big a leap of faith as resurrecting the dead. They asked us to buy the time travel, which we did, but they provided a pseudo-scientific framework for that. I can't see any scientific justification for raising the dead, unless it's one of those Nikki and Paolo spiders.

That's it for now!

Is Locke Dead?

2008-06-19T08:12:00.001-04:00

I really think Locke is dead. The writers haven't been afraid to kill off major characters before, and this happens several years into the future, so it's not like he is dead right now, in show time.

If Locke were to be transported at the end of the season it would make sense if he did it purposefully, knowing that he had to go back in time to get the O6 back to the island, but that results in serious paradoxes which the writers have said they try to avoid.

The way to avoid time travel paradoxes it to only let people go forward in time. If we examine all occurrences of time travel we will see this is the case. Desmond had flashes into the future. Ben was thrown into the future. Even in the constant 1996 Desmond was the mind traveling ahead, 2004 Desmond never went back.

The only instance of backwards time travel was the doctor washing up on shore before he was killed and this could be reframed as the island moving ahead in time and then waiting for the outside world to catch up to it.

There is also pretty reasonable scientific backing for the theory that time travel to the future is possible while to the past is not.

The island may have moved in time but it was absolutely not backwards. If it was backwards it would not have disappeared, it would have stayed the same but things on it would have changed. To disappear the island must have moved into the future, or moved in space.

Back to the point I really hope that they don't resurrect Locke or something like that. It would be a really easy way out, I would consider it a cheap way to avoid following through on the story they have set up, and I don't think the writers have any problem killing off major characters.

Locke is definitely around for next season and will probably be in the last season in some shape or form as well. I wouldn't worry about seeing him. But I do think he is dead.

Thoughts on the future of Lost

2008-06-10T10:43:00.000-04:00

My reply to a post on thetailsection.com:

What he is saying doesn't seem that difficult to me. Everyone expected the series to end with everyone getting off the island. That has now happened and as Damon and Carlton says, people are going to wonder how they can continue to tell the story in the same way. The answer is they can't.

The show is no longer "Lost", it is now "Found (and trying to get Lost again)." The finale was a complete game changer. Through the Looking Glass was a minor game changer, it changed the way the story is told. No Place Like Home changes the way the story needs to be told as well as the story to be told.

The first three seasons, and even season four if you want to count it, are about people on a mysterious island trying to figure out what is going on. Seasons 5 and 6 are going to be about something entirely different.

It's a very bold move for a show as popular as Lost (and despite the declining ratings, it's still pretty consistently in the top 10) to completely change course like this 2/3 of the way through.

They probably will lose more viewers by doing something like this, but my wife always hated when I watched Lost, but No Place Like Home she actually was interested in and she even tried to stay awake to watch the whole episode. And when that failed she wanted to make sure I had saved it on the DVR. And at this point what do the ratings even matter? We know we have two seasons left, its guaranteed, why worry about the ratings?

The original post:

hortly before the series finale (Yes, I mean series finale) of LOST last Thursday I mentioned that if I saw someone move the island by crank I'd stop watching the show. And while it seems I was remarkably close to the truth, I have decided that there is no need for me to stop watching the show, as the show has already ended. Before I continue, let me say that I loved the "series" finale.

However, LOST, the show we knew, is over. The Oceanic 6 got back. Those who wanted to leave, left, and those who wanted to stay, stayed. That is how this show was supposed to end. What is coming back in January of 2009 is something completely different. Our characters have changed, their roles have changed, and ultimately their goals have changed as those off the island now seek a way back, and those who used to be in power now seek purpose. When I saw Benjamin Linus pushing that ancient ship wheel and I saw the pain and the sadness on his face I knew that like the turning of the wheel, this cycle of the show was over. The wheel has turned and it is time for something new.

The creators of this amazing show have always said LOST is like a book, in that each season is a chapter. I would now like to disagree. LOST is like a series of books. The first three seasons of this show have been completely connected with each other. There was the story of the hatch, which got wrapped up and is close to being completely figured out. There is the story of the Others, whom we have learned about and found out about. But most importantly it is the story of the survivors of Flight 815 and their friends, and how they decided to come to terms with their fate. Some accepted it and embraced it, others rejected it and left. Now that these fates have been chosen and have been carried out, that show is over.

Now Locke is in charge of the Others, Jack must lead his people back, Ben must enact his revenge on Widmore, Kate must discover her heart, and Desmond must accept his fate. I can't wait for this second book, and I fully expect it to exceed the quality and emotional range of the first.

Some comments in response to this were people not understanding what he was saying.

Lost on the Daily Show

2008-06-04T11:57:00.000-04:00

Where did the island move to?

2008-05-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

There was been extensive speculation on where the island went... into the past, the future, or if it just moved geographically.

The island can not have moved to the past. If it had it would still be there today, just with different people on it. Additionally it would be difficult to move an island into the past when there is already an identical island existing in the same location.

The future is a possibility, especially with the additional information about the time traveling bunnies. However in the experiment they were only moving the bunny forward 100 milliseconds, the island was gone for much longer than that, and presumably even longer if no one can find it now.

Ben apparently was sent into Oct of 2005 when he woke up in Tunisia. My guess is that if the island was sent forward it ended up in the same time as Ben did. It must also have moved geographically as well.

The whole point of moving the island was so that Widmore wouldn't be able to find it again. He obviously knew where it was to send the freighter there. Moving it forward in time wouldn't solve that and Ben apparently knows how to get to and from the island at its current location.

Ben was confident that Widmore would never find the island. That would only be realistic if it was moved in space as well as in time.

Finale After Thoughts

2008-05-30T08:19:00.000-04:00

Looking back at my predictions I was pretty close to dead on for most of it. The parts I got wrong were who was in the coffin, which I didn't even guess at; how the O6 got from the island and the boat to the middle of the ocean. Other than that my predictions were pretty spot-on if I do say so myself.

While this was a great episode there was no real "WTF" moment for me. The frozen donkey wheel turned out to be well, a frozen donkey wheel. I never thought it was meant to be taken literally. John Locke in the coffin at the end wasn't a huge shock. The main options were Ben, Michael and John and since Michael was already dead and Ben was apparently alive that left one major possibility we know. I was half expecting it to be Richard Alpert or Abaddon or some other peripheral character.

The part about them all having to go back to the island together was pretty predictable. I am not sure what terrible things happened on the island as a result of Jack leaving, or how they were able to tie said terrible things to Jack's departure.

The biggest question I was left with was regarding Sun and Mr. Widmore. Is he the other man she blames for Jin's death? If not who is? Regardless why is she trying to approach him to discuss island matters. He appears to think that she wants to help him. My explanation is that Ben is the other person she blames, since he directly killed Keamy, even though he had no idea Jin was on the boat or who was on the boat or what. Who else could be that second person?

More thoughts as I think of them.

finale instant reactions

2008-05-29T23:08:00.000-04:00

OMFG. I was actually pretty dead on with my predictions. Other than who was in the coffin which I didn't even take a guess at. I'd been saying that Penny rescues them for months.

questions:
what happened to faraday and the people in the zodiac?
what does sun want from charles widmore? is he the other person to blame for Jins death or does she blame Ben?
what terrible things have happened on the island since they left? if the island can jam guns in nyc why can't it prevent a few people from leaving?
why do they need to get back? what will happen when they do?

that's it for me for now. more bright and early tomorrow.

More thoughts on the finale

2008-05-27T13:16:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure about all the time tripping people seem to think happens. I think it's much rarer than that. If everyone could do it it would cause havoc and paradoxes galore.

As for Jin I thought he would live until No Place Like Home Part 1. Sun was genuinely upset about his death - as in he is dead, not they are pretending he is dead.

My favorite TV death scene was Omar on "The Wire." They didn't dramatize it or make it poetic or anything. It was real. He's standing there and then blam. Out of nowhere. I hope they do something like that. Another extended background musiced death scene like Charlie's would seem repetitive and would be lacking. My guess is that things will happen to quickly for a protracted death sequence.

I'm not sure that Jack is the other person responsible for Jin's death. Sun seemed at least somewhat friendly to Jack on the plane. My guess is it's someone else who was more directly responsible for his death. Mr. Paik, however did arrange for Jin to be on the plane for a reason.

I can't wait for the finale. To recap my guess as to what happens, including information from the promos, but no spoilers as I have not read any:

Jack and Sawyer make it to the Orchid. They get Hurley.
Ben's plan for Keamy involves the other others who have Kate and Sayid.
There is a big violent shoot-out. Most of the freighters are killed.
On the boat Jin and Michael send everyone else back to the island.
Jack, Sawyer and Hurley escape back to the helicopter.
Frank takes them to the boat. They discover the explosives and leave to go back to the island.
Keamy reveals his dead man's switch.
The helicopter lands back on the island.
How they get off the island I am not sure. I expect from interviews it will be rather complex and convoluted.
They kill Keamy regardless.
The boat blows up.
Michael dies. Maybe Jin as well. I hope Jin isn't Charlie's Death Part 2.
The O6 escape. Others are left behind, either by choice or necessity.
Locke moves the island.
Cliff hanger moment.
Black screen.

Theories

2008-05-16T09:17:00.000-04:00

More theories and predictions, many hinted at previously...

The explosives on the boat are tied to the device on Keamy's arm. If he dies, the boat blows. Why he did this I can't say.

On the boat, Jin will send Sun back to the island after discovering the explosives. Jin and Michael will stay to try to disarm them.

Ben will have Richard and the other Others surround Keamy and his men. They will pick all of them off other than Keamy. Keamy reveals the switch. They kill him anyway.

The boat blows up killing Jin and Michael and anyone else left aboard.

The survivors still have the Zodiac which can fit 6 people. Those people are Jack - because of his wound, Sun because of her pregnancy, Kate and Aaron, Hurley and Sayid. If Desmond is still alive he maybe goes as well. Whether they end up there as a decision with the other people who decide to stay on the island, by coincidence or by necessity I do not know.

Locke moves the island. No one can find it now.

Penny will show up with her own boat or helicopter or something. She rescues the people on the Zodiac who are either leaving the island's new location or are adrift where the island used to be.

She takes Desmond home with her and drops the others off on an island where they will come up with their story and be "rescued" by the US military/Oceanic.

Some theories

2008-05-16T08:07:00.000-04:00

Who was the other person Sun claims is responsible for Jin's death?
Jack. Jack is responsible for whatever scheme to get off the island either ends up leaving Jin dead or stranded. After this episode based on Sun's reaction I assume he is really dead, not alive on the island like I had previously thought.

What will happen if they attempt to move the island using the Orchid?
They will successfully move it. Nothing majorly bad will happen, except that people can't find the island anymore.

What's Ben's master plan this time around?
I would guess it has to do with some power or threat he has against Keamy. Maybe the Others are out in the jungle with guns pointed at their heads. Ben reveals this and Keamy reveals that he has a device that kill explode the boat if removed from him or if he dies. This is probably what he was saying with the mirrors.

Why weren't Kate's parents waiting for her when she returned?
Um... Because her mother hates her for killing her father.

What happens to Jin and the red shirts that made it to the freighter?
Either they die or they end up back on the island. I suspect that the bomb plays a part in either killing them or scaring them off the boat.

Why is there an abundance of C4 on the freighter?
It's tied to the thing on Keamy's arm which is tied to his heart rate. If he dies, the boat blows up. Not sure why he does this, unless it's to use as leverage against the Losties, but he doesn't know they are on the boat.

Why was Jack so ready and willing to lie to the press?
Jack was the ringleader in the scheme that got them off the island. I am 99% sure they do not get off on the freighter. The freighter probably blows up and kills everyone aboard. My previous theory had been that Penny rescues them, but whether it is from the island or the wreckage of the boat or somewhere else I have no idea. I am also not sure why only 6 are allowed to escape.

No Place Like Home Part I

2008-05-16T07:50:00.000-04:00

Wow. No answers, but sure as hell a lot of questions. More later.

LostFan 108 is back

2008-05-15T09:56:00.000-04:00

LostFan108 is back with spoilers for this year's finale. For those of us too impatient to wait another 12 hours. Granted the two week lag between tonight and the finale won't be easy, but I am going to do my best to avoid reading the spoilers.

Last year I read them and I didn't believe it and the finale, while good, wasn't shocking at all. I am going to avoid that this year. So far I haven't read a single episode synopsis before it aired. I have read some minor spoilers, but all of the "speculation" variety - not of the "confirmed full episode synopsis" variety.

I encourage others to do the same. However if you do want to read a full episode synopsis go to DarkUFO or his Lost Spoilers site to find it. I am not going to link it from here. I don't want to give any indication of encouraging or even condoning this type of spoilers.

Predictions for Finale

2008-05-13T16:35:00.000-04:00

The finale is nigh upon us already. This season has gone by so quickly, especially since we've been back from the break. It seems like it's only been a few weeks. Well actually it has only been a few weeks.

My predictions for the finale:

We find out that Claire is dead, or something.
We see Widmore on the island at some point.
We find out who is in the coffin from last year. My guess - Michael. He couldn't be one of the Oceanic 6 because there would be too many questions raised. So he goes home using an alias. His depression continues.
Kate didn't go to his funeral because she was still mad at him for killing Ana Lucia and Libby and that whole betraying everyone thing.
Penny comes in and rescues the survivors. The freighter people do not.
I have no idea what happens to the freighter. According to my theories above Michael must get home. It seems like most of the other boat people are either dead, on the island, or are going to die. Maybe Michael explodes the boat?
Desmond goes home not as part of the O6.
Locke is successful in "moving" the island. How this gets rid of the people already on it I am not sure. But it certainly will prevent other people from finding it in the future.
We find out who Jacob is. I have previously dismissed this theory, but I now think it may well be a time shifted version of someone we already know.
Who lives and who dies:

The Oceanic 6 get off the island.
Keamy and his men die.
The freighter scientists stay on the island.
The other Lostaways stay on the island alive.
Ben - I think he stays on the island or he jumps away to Tunisia. The reason I am not sure is because when he appeared in Tunisia he had a bullet wound in his arm. If he stays on the island I can't imagine who would be shooting him almost a year later.

Matthew Abaddon

2008-05-12T12:14:00.000-04:00

A question has been raised by Cabin Fever about who Matthew Abaddon works for. Previously it was surmised that he worked for Widmore, because of his relationship to the freighter people. Now I suspect that the mercenaries on the boat work directly for Widmore, and Abaddon was able to get his people placed there under Widmore's radar.

When Abaddon was asking Hurley in episode 1 of season four "are they still alive?" I now think he was referring to his scientists, and maybe all of the survivors. Apparently he doesn't know what happened there which is an interesting sign of what happens to the boat.

We know that he placed Naomi in charge of watching over the scientists. Naomi had a military background. If the whole thing was orchestrated by Widmore one would think she would have been with Keamy and his people, not part of a seemingly separate group of people on the boat.

And then Abaddon shows up in Locke's flashback urging him to go to Australia. That part I can't explain.

My guess is that Abaddon is part of yet another group of people, who have interest in the island, and somehow got in with Widmore. I am not sure how they did that or what their goal's are, but I suspect their goals are scientific in nature and do not correspond with the goals of any other known group so far.

Cabin Fever First Thoughts

2008-05-09T08:57:00.001-04:00

Hot damn! So much happened in this episode. Where do I start...

Some people weren't sure what the test Alpert gave to 5 year old Locke was. This is a big part of Tibetan Buddhism. When the Dalai Lama dies the Pancha Lama goes out to find his reincarnation. He presents the children with a bunch of objects and asks them which belong to them. The child that picks right is the new Dalai Lama.

Who is Locke's father? I suspect it is in fact Anthony Cooper. It could be someone else but that would make things a lot more convoluted. Cooper was a con man, got an underage girl knocked up, and then manipulated her to get his son's kidney. If they are not related it becomes a huge mess. Occam's razor wins in this case.

Christian Shepherd in the cabin? With Claire? So many questions. I do think Claire is dead now. I didn't until last night. Miles comment from last week "I wouldn't be so sure about that" makes a whole lot more sense now. The question remaining is how dead Claire thought she was still alive and how she convinced everyone else that she was as well.

Horace and his relationship to the cabin? This has me totally baffled. If Jacob lived in the cabin then I would think it predated Horace by a long, long time. That part makes no sense to me.

And finally, move the island? WTF? This answers a lot of questions, like how Ben is so sure Widmore won't find it again. But how does it save the island? The freighter people are already there. One would assume that if they are on the island they would be moved with it.

Some people think we got a lot of answers last night. Maybe we did, but they were answers that raised a hell of a lot more questions than they answered. I love Lost.

Ben and Widmore

2008-05-08T15:57:00.000-04:00

Just heard an interesting theory. Ben and Widmore are each other's constants. That would explain why they can't kill each other but not why they can't harm family members. Interesting but I think there's more to it than this.

I am dying to find out what "the rules" are...

Who rescues the O6?

2008-05-08T11:50:00.000-04:00

It seems pretty clear that the freighter people are not going to rescue the Oceanic 6, so who does? The answer came to me in a dream last night... Penny. Who else has knowledge of the island and a way to get close to it?

Why can only 6 be taken off the island? It could be that those 6 are the ones who were far enough away from the hatch implosion to not go crazy when they go off the island. But Jin and Sawyer were also far away enough and Aaron was not. This question I have no answer to yet.

Does Ben control smokey? I say no. He wanted to make sure that everyone was far away when smokey came, so I think he invited Smokey in, or let him off of his leash, or something like that. Smokey came in and killed the worst people, but Ben wasn't sure who he would attack which was why he wanted everyone else far away. We know Smokey judges people and kills them accordingly.

How did Keamy and most of his men survive an attack by Smokey? That I am not sure about at all.

And what is Ben's secret room in his secret closet with the hieroglyphs on the door from where he summoned Smokey or whatever he did? That will hopefully be revealed.

Shape of Things To Come

2008-04-25T08:59:00.001-04:00

Wow. I was blown away. Of all the amazing things that happened two really stick out in my mind:
Ben has some sort of control over Smokey, and he and Widmore have (or had) some sort of set of rules.

The latter is the more interesting idea to me. Widmore says that everything Ben has was stolen from him. Is that how Ben got all this money and everything? How is the island rightfully Widmore's? And what are these rules of which they speak? They obviously involve not having the right to kill each other or kill each other's families. How Ben can assign the blame for Alex's death to Widmore, when it was Keamy who pulled the trigger, I am not sure. Widmore didn't give the direct order and didn't necessarily even approve that act. But I guess not conveying the rules to Keamy was enough of a violation. So now Ben is after Penelope. Things just keep getting more complicated.

The smoke monster came and "killed" Keamy and his men. "Killed" because we know from previews that they are not all dead. Did Ben call the smoke monster? Or did Ben just do something that allowed the monster to come and then do what it does, which is punish people for their sins. Why did smokey not kill Keamy and all of his men?

And some ancillary questions, still interesting, but not as critical in my opinion as the above:
How did Ben teleport to Tunisia? If he can teleport himself how come he can't find the island? Or does he know where it is but Widmore doesn't?

Why did Keamy kill Alex when she was his only leverage against Ben. That is just plain stupid. If you have one hold on someone you don't execute your threats and remove your high card. While Keamy is obviously a violent man, that seems a bit excessive and more than a bit stupid on his part.

I can't wait for the next episode. I am no longer worried about Lost keeping its power when it goes off the island. I think we've been amply reassured that it will be as compelling as ever no matter where the action takes us.

I am still mulling over Ben and Widmore's rules? Is this some sort of game to them?

Constant

2008-04-24T11:45:00.000-04:00

From a TV guide list of questions about Lost:

Are you buying this "constant" nonsense? Stuck in a time travel loop, Desmond is headed for a Minkowski-style aneurysm, but after a little chit-chat with Penny, his "constant," he's fine? Does this make sense?

My response - yes it totally makes sense. The problem with the time travel is not the loop but the fact that the mind has nothing to hold onto. Minkowski was trying to get back and forth, never really sure where he was. Desmond was confused because his 1996 mind had no idea what was going on in 2004.

By finding a constant Desmond has something to hold onto. Something that bridges both time periods. It might be a bit of a stretch but to me it makes sense.

Meet Kevin Johnson

2008-03-24T17:06:00.000-04:00

This episode was pretty good in that it gave a lot of information, but kind of seemed like a filler. Like here is everything you need to know to continue on with the story.

There are two very interesting questions raised by this episode, however, regarding the islands powers and the identity of the blow dart snipers.

The blow dart snipers killed Karl and possibly Rousseau and spared Alex. They are either Others, which seems unlikely, or are freighter people, which also seems unlikely. Maybe there is another group of people who snuck onto the island while everyone was distracted and are moving in to collect Ben or kill him or something.

The helicopter was missing from the freighter, but the people there had machine guns, not blow darts, and there were only a few people who seem to be able to fit the role of a sniper. I am also not sure that Lapidus would take these commandos in camouflage carrying lethal blow darts onto the island without a decent explanation, or at least trying to warn the survivors.

This also raises another question, previously alluded to. If the island has enough power and control over the world to jam a gun in NYC why can't it keep its enemies off of it? It would seem to be easier to sink a boat, or make a storm, or shut off the engines than to go through all sorts of contortions to try to keep someone alive who is trying to kill themselves. If the island is so powerful why can't it protect itself?

While I am looking forward to the next batch of episodes I have a feeling they will be a bit rushed as they try to cram 8 episodes worth of story into 5. And I am also not looking forward to the survivors getting off of the island. I guess I had hoped that the action would stay on island with the future told in flash forwards, possibly including the return to the island. But having these people get off the island in real time and have the action split between LA and the island? Not so crazy about that idea.

They say that the next season will be about why they want to get back to the island and the last will be how they get back. I'm not sure what the other season will be about. I really enjoyed this show a lot more when it was piling up mysteries. I don't like answers, they are often disappointing. I prefer questions because the possible answers are endless.

Recap of Season So Far

2008-02-29T13:33:00.000-05:00

Episode 1 - The Beginning of the End - neatly recapped last season's finale and gave us some new information, most notably about the Oceanic 6.

Episode 2 - Confirmed Dead - gives us some backstory about the freighter people as well as a very expensive fake plane crash.

Episode 3 - The Economist - this has some meat to it. Sayid is working for Ben as an assassin in the future. Ben!

Episode 4 - Eggtown - no big surprises here. Who wasn't expecting Kate to be raising Aaron.

No deeper analysis for now. Maybe later.

More on the Constant

2008-02-29T08:19:00.000-05:00

From Vozzek's recap:

The biggest shock to me was how innocuous the freighter turned out to be. The crewmembers weren’t bristling with guns, nor were they even overly hostile. In fact, there seemed to be a complete lack of discipline or direction on the ship. My opinion of Minkowski turned from evil overlord to strapped-down radio operator in the blink of an introduction. I saw no chain of command. You’d think if someone from (drumroll…) The Island had made their way back to the ship, there would be some kind of serious interrogation. Instead there was a perfunctory examination of Desmond’s pupils and a general dismissive feeling overall. Even Lapidus seemed to get into it, tossing an obligatory Baghdad reference along with the satellite phone to Sayid.

This would seem to indicate that the freighters either are not as organized as one would think giving the amount of funding they seem to have, or that their primary objective is Ben and they don't really care about much else. Maybe only Naomi and the other team members know about Ben and everyone else is there is a supporting role. I suspect that those who do know what the real mission is don't care at all about the 815ers and are single-mindedly focused on getting Ben (or at least Miles is). I also suspect that whoever funded this mission knows enough about the island that they don't really care to ask the 815ers any questions. Hanso/Dharma? Who else could it be?

I think we also have an explanation for why they drugged Juliet on her way to the island. My guess is that unless you are awake the time travelling doesn't effect you. This was detailed in a Stephen King story based on La Jete - the Jaunt was maybe his title for it?

This brings me to my own personal conclusion: LOST history has got to be alterable. Because if it weren’t, Ben (and now Locke) wouldn’t be going through all this trouble to finally get the event scenario correct. If whatever happens is truly going to happen anyway, regardless of what is done to prevent it (course correction), then wouldn’t Ben just grab some a box of Dharma wine and go fishing? I mean why bother, right? If the future can’t be changed, just what the hell is Ben doing?

Because someone still has to do it to make the future happen. The universe has a way of course correcting, which makes things work out the way they should, but people still need to do what they need to do. If Ben wasn't doing it the universe would have to find someone else who can.

I think that the past is unalterable, that is the only way to avoid paradoxes, as is the present by changing the past. The future is alterable of course but what they are showing in the flash forwards is what actually happens, not a possibility. I think that has been made abundantly clear by Damon and Carlton.

As for whether Faraday is a time tripper, I am not sure about that. He was having difficulty remembering the cards, which would seem to indicate that he is suffering the same problems as the others. He also had written in his journal: "IF anything goes wrong Desmond Hume will be my constant." This seems to indicate that he does not yet have a Constant and therefore is not unstuck in time. He told Desmond that the only way to stay alive and maintain sanity while time tripping is to have a constant and Faraday is alive and not totally insane.

More as it comes...

Ben at the Auction?

2008-02-29T08:11:00.000-05:00

OMG! From the Misfit comes this picture of the auction:

Is that Ben in the back row on the left or am I hallucinating? Freaky!

This episode was definitely the best of the season so far. I am so glad I didn't read any spoilers for this one. For the Economist I did because I was away and figured I would hear what had happened before I got a chance to see it, and I wish I hadn't for that episode.

The Constant

2008-02-29T07:34:00.000-05:00

I haven't really posted much this season because I didn't feel I had much to add in light of the great work being done by people like Dark UFO, Doc Arzt and J. Wood.

I have some theories and I have been posting on the boards and comments of some of these other blogs. But this episode I felt I had to write about.

First of all - Minkowski died? All this hoopla about Fisher Stevens and he dies with only 15 minutes of screentime? Well played, Lost.

Second of all - Desmond was "unstuck in time." Exactly as I predicted and apparently exactly as the character is Slaughterhouse-5 was. He can't change anything but he can shift his consciousness around, not voluntarily apparently. This is actually a bit disappointing to me as this takes Lost well beyond the confines of science it was initially supposed to be explained by. We already knew this as Miles' ghost talking took us to a place where consciousness is more than the electrical activity in your brain, but this seals the deal.

Third - Faraday. He is turning out to be my favorite new character, followed closely by Lapidus, and this episode just shows off this brilliant character a bit more. He was used more as an expository tool in this episode than as a character who added something to the story but it still came off very well.

Fourth - the freighter people... What is up with them? For a mission as allegedly well funded as they are supposed to be they are awfuly disorganized and disjointed.

This was a great episode, it gave some answers without giving too much. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the answers are disappointing compared to the questions. It reminds me of every Stephen King book I've read. The first half or two thirds is great as a mystery is laid out for you, and then the last half or third is terrible as the mystery is completely explained. I don't see Lost being that bad, but I do prefer mysteries and unanswered questions to ridiculous answers to those questions.

More later today on my thoughts on the rest of the season so far.

Test 2

2007-11-02T16:14:00.000-04:00

Eric Scuccimarra kicks ass!

Hurley's Blog

2007-08-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

Jorge Garcia tried to start a blog but was apparently stymied by the powers that be. It didn't seem like he was going to leak any spoilers anyway, but I guess the producers don't want to take any chances after the rattlesnake was let out of the mailbox early.

There's been some minor spoilers, enough to keep things interesting, but nothing substantial. I think this radio silence is going to be pretty impenetrable going forward.

Implications of the new Orchid Hatch

2007-07-31T10:38:00.001-04:00

The Orchid Hatch video has some interesting implications, most of which are covered here. This pretty much covers my theory except I don't know about all that time loop stuff. I think it's probably just overlapping dimensions.

Long Time, No Post

2007-07-18T13:25:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted. My much anticipated recap of Through the Looking Glass never happened. Honestly I don't know what to say. The finale was incredible and it blew my socks off. It was the bee's knees.

The future path of the show is probably pretty well laid out right now. Next season we will deal with Minkowski and the boat people, who are almost certainly up to no good, and hopefully learn more about the temple and Jacob. The season will consist of flashbacks as well as flashforwards. The Cuse/Lindelof analogy about rooms in the house obviously meant that he were seeing the past and the present and the extra room is the future. In retrospect that seems kind of obvious.

The use of the name Minkowksi is a pretty clear indicator that only fools are constrained by time and space, or that we will be playing with spacetime and the timelines. How they will resolve the many problems that arise when we start messing with timelines and time travel and all that remains to be seen. I personally would have preferred that they not go there, but they did. And I will follow wherever they go.

Some people have speculated that Desmond's flashes will stop but I don't think that is the case. The basis for this is that Desmond did not have a flash right before Charlie died. Why would he tell Charlie "yes, I did have a flash and you are still going to die." That would just be mean. If Desmond is "unstuck in time" then he will continue to have the flashes possibly for the rest of his life. Certainly until he gets off the island.

Ben sort of redeemed himself to me in this episode. While he was doing a whole lot of lying it is pretty clear that he has good intentions, at least as far as protecting the island. How he planned to talk the Lostaways into not calling the boat I don't understand. These people probably desperately want to get back to civilization - I don't think you can talk anything into people like that.

I can't wait until next season. Only 6 or 7 more months to go.

More on Greatest Hits, Anticipating Finale Tonight

2007-05-23T16:42:00.001-04:00

I watched Greatest Hits again and I noticed quite a few little things, but the episode mostly seemed to serve as set-up for this week. The major questions that arise from it in my mind are regarding Desmond's premonitions. He must have known Charlie wouldn't drown, and he apparently thinks he can help Charlie if he is going to swim down there tonight, so why did he tell Charlie he would drown? Because Charlie wouldn't go otherwise?

Through the Looking Glass is tonight (!!!) I am extremely excited. My guess is that the Looking Glass refers to both the underwater station as well as the metaphorical looking glass the game changer tonight will bring. Maybe the Looking Glass is how people get to and from the island. The schematics Sayid had showed a submarine docked there. So why would people need to stop at the Looking Glass on their way onto or off of the island?

If we follow this logic regarding the title and give it a bit more literal meaning, that means that the Island is on one side of the Looking Glass and the outside world is on the other. So Through the Looking Glass implies that either someone goes onto or off of the island. Or maybe both.

I also hope we will have some sort of resolution regarding Ben and Locke. I heard an interview with Michael Emerson from this morning where he said that he thought that Ben had planned the whole thing out, as I have been speculating, and is not losing his grip. However he also confirmed some major points of the opposing theory, and it all could have been foilers anyway.

Speaking of foilers, InsiderScoop, who typically provides a detailed and accurate recap of the episode before it airs, today said that he had only seen clips of the show but that the lostfan108 spoilers seemed pretty accurate. Most of the stuff from lostfan108 seems to be based on trailers so if the spoilers are not legitimate, it could just be someone who saw the trailers early and made some guesses based on that.

I will be extremely surprised if the episode goes exactly as he predicts. I have also heard people who seem extremely confident that while some of the details might be accurate, the reported game changer is not. This would seem to me a typical Lost thing to do. Switch the ending at the last minute to confuse and frighten the unwashed masses.

I am sure I will have lots of comments tomorrow, although I may be a bit late to work, what with being up late tonight with all the excitement! I hope everyone gets to watch the episode and no one loses power for 2 days and has to watch it online this weekend when they finally get power back. Damn you, ConEd!

On the death of Charlie

2007-05-18T17:12:00.001-04:00

First off - the theories on Richard's aging. The DHARMA people aged so the theory that the island doesn't let you age doesn't hold water. What I think is that Richard is the CHILD of people who crashed on the Black Rock and people who are BORN on the island don't age past a certain point. This would keep everything consistent.

As for Charlie I have been saying he will not die for quite a while now. It would be too obvious, they've been foreshadowing this all season and to just kill him like everyone expects seems a very un-Lost-like thing to do. However if it was put in the context of how fate can't be changed it might work. Desmond could try to save Charlie and fail and we are reminded of the universal course correction mechanism.

As for the character of Charlie, like many other people I grew indifferent to him somewhere in Season 2. He just kind of faded into the background and was at times very annoying. This last episode was a phenomenal acting job on Monaghan's part and really redeemed him to me. Charlie is pretty central to the survivor's, but that doesn't mean he won't die.

Greatest Hits Reactions

2007-05-18T11:59:00.000-04:00

Actually I missed this episode because our power went out for over 24 hours. I was extremely upset, but thank god for ABC.com having the shows online so I didn't have to spend hours searching for a torrent.

Watching Lost on a computer is always a bit different for me than watching it on TV. I'm at work most of the time so am distracted and I often miss a lot of stuff that I see when I watch it on TV. In this episode, however, I am not sure that there was all that much to be missed.

I do have a few key points I want to address:

Desmond - I think he knows what will really happen to Charlie. You could see it in his face when he was telling Charlie how he will die. So if he knows that the hatch is not really flooded why didn't he offer to go down himself? Why did he lie to Charlie? I suspect we will learn the answers next week when Desmond goes down after Charlie.
The Looking Glass - this hatch confuses me. It's underwater, attached to the island by a cable. People got to and from it by submarine. How do people get to and from it now? Mikhail will go there next week and those two women obviously have food and supplies... Where is it all coming from without the sub?
Ben - I did not expect him to be like that after returning without Locke. I don't think Jacob really told him to do anything differently, so why did he seem so spooked and why did he want to rush things so much? Does he really know what is going on and this is all part of his plan or is he really losing it?
Jack - taking charge again. However he seems to be more concerned with revenge than with protecting his people.

I may have more thoughts when I watch the episode again - either on TV or online. That's it for now though. I am happy to have not said anything that came from the spoilers leaked last week. I do want to make one comment though... The spoiler for Greatest Hits was dead on. However some episodes are released days or weeks before they air to critics and some are probably not. The previews for next week don't really match up with the spoilers all that much so my guess is that lostfan108 saw this week's episode and made up the stuff about next week. We'll find out in a few days... I am very excited!

Greatest Hits Pre-Show Thoughts

2007-05-16T15:51:00.000-04:00

First of all there has been quite a firestorm of controversy this week on the internet about some possible spoilers that were released. And when I say spoilers, I mean "the entire plot to this episode and the finale." There was a synopsis of Greatest Hits released that matched the first spoiler, but the spoiler still has a lot of holes in it. The synopsis is usually pretty accurate. Most of the info from the spoiler could have been taken from previews and trailers and such, however.

I'm going to disregard those spoilers for the purposes of this post.

From the previews - we know that a new hatch is called the Looking Glass is underwater and is where the Others are jamming all transmissions. We also know that the title is a reference to the Driveshaft's Greatest Hits album that was released to celebrate the presumed death of the great rock star Charlie Pace. We also know that Desmond's prediction may finally come true.

I have way too much work to do right now to write out my thoughts about this episode but I can't wait to see it and will post a summary of my thoughts tomorrow.

Deaths Confirmed (Or so we are told)

2007-05-11T17:30:00.000-04:00

Three of the five deaths which remain to occur this season have been "confirmed" by some anonymous source.

http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/2007/05/3-of-deaths-confirmed.html

My comment on this follows:
This all makes sense to me. I wasn't expecting Charlie to do as this seemed rather obvious, and Lost is usually not obvious. I expect a couple of the Others to go, and Tom is a major-ish character who could be considered a fan favorite. I know he was one of my favorites and I will certainly miss him on the show. Charlie not so much. And Pryce even less as I don't even really know who he is.

As for the female deaths I would guess one is Rousseau, the other is probably an Other, or maybe Claire or Kate. Claire seems pretty useless and Kate is just annoying these days. Either one of them could go and I wouldn't really miss them. I would miss looking at Kate but the character, not so much. I will put money on Rousseau being one of the female deaths, if this information is even in fact correct.

More thoughts on Man Behind the Curtain

2007-05-11T15:58:00.000-04:00

There are two possible scenarios involving Ben, Locke, Jacob and the Others...

1) This is all part of Ben's master plan. Everything that has happened has been planned out by Ben like the grand wizard chessmaster we know him to be. What his final plan is we are not yet sure of.

2) Ben is slipping. He is getting distracted by the challenges to his power made by Locke, Richard and others. Richard's going behind his back to Locke with info about Sawyer was probably the first step on Ben's road of death.

In this scenario we have to assume that some of the Others really are disenchanted with Ben's leadership and are looking to Locke as some sort of savior or messiah. This is why Richard went directly to Locke and why no one tried to stop Locke when he was beating on Mikhail.

Jacob used to have trust for Ben but he has become disenchanted with Ben as well. This is why he stopped talking to Ben and started talking to Locke. When Ben shot Locke he really did intend to kill him but just didn't do a very good job of it.

Now to analyze these two scenarios... 2) implies that Ben will die in the finale. He has lost favor with Jacob, with his people and there is no where for him to go but to die. This is the primary reason I have against scenario 2). This episode gave us a lot of history for Ben but there is still a LOT more than can be told and in order to get those stories Ben would have to live. Ben is the only one who was there during the DHARMA initiative, and was a part of it. Richard was on the island but probably has no knowledge of exactly what DHARMA was doing.

Of course, we can use clues from the show as evidence to weigh these competing theories.

We know Ben is a master manipulator and every mistake he seemed to have made so far has turned out to be part of his master plan.
Ben seemed genuinely surprised that the tape recorder was missing, which means he did not intend Locke to take it, which means he did not expect Locke to go back to the Lostaways with the information he gave Locke about Juliet.
Juliet appears to have turned against Ben, Richard appears to be doing so, and the rest of the Others seem to be losing faith in Ben.
Ben has done crazier gambits, like the being kidnapped part. Assuming that was part of his plan, which I think it was, why did he need to get kidnapped to get the Lostaways to come to them? He could easily have just sent Michael to bring them back. In that scenario everything appears to have gone according to his plan, although there were hundreds of opportunities for things to go awry.

I suspect we'll have more information next week and a resolution to this question by the season finale. I personally am rooting for Ben. While I think Terry O'Quinn is a fabulous actor and is doing a great job with Locke, I hate the character of Locke. He was bad-ass in Season 1, semi-cool in Season 2, but this season he just constantly gets on my nerves. With his smarmy one-liner replies that seem like they should be witty but are not. "I guess there's a first time for everything," "I hope the box is big enough to imagine yourself up a new submarine." These were delivered like hilarious one-liner replies but are really just stupid, inane comments.

I think Locke is no good, he obviously only cares about himself and would sacrifice everyone else for his own well-being (though he apparently would not kill anyone himself). This goes contrary to the whole theme of the show.

However, as much as I dislike the character, I don't think Locke is done yet. He has a much too important role to play in the story to die now.

Man Behind the Curtain Reactions

2007-05-10T08:54:00.000-04:00

Whoa... What an incredible episode. It gave a lot of information but didn't give away too much... Some thoughts:

Ben - was not really born on the island. Richard must know that, I'm not sure if any of the other Others do. How Ben became such a smart, manipulating guy is left unexplained. He starts off as the quiet, almost mute, son of a janitor and ends up being a chess master? What happened in between? Oh... And apparently he did not intend for Locke to take the recorder. He seemed surprised that it was missing. Unless this is all part of a triple con or something crazy like that, which we would totally expect from Ben.
Locke - is not really dead. He got a shot to the gut. Naomi had a pierced lung and she is fine. I say that Locke is not dead and Ben did not intend to kill him. If Ben really wanted him dead he could have shot him in the head. You don't shoot someone in the gut on an island with mysterious healing power and expect them to die. Ben also said "maybe Jacob will help you." I assume that this is all part of his master plan.
Jacob - I have no idea what is going on with this. I didn't notice it but if you have a DVR and look at the scene of Jacob in slow motion apparently you can see Jacob a couple of times. So I think he is real but what he is, I have no idea whatsoever. I found it unusual that Ben appeared surprised that Locke couldn't see Jacob but then seemed more surprised when Locke couldn't hear Jacob. I hope we get some answers to this soon, this is a mystery I'd like some more information on.
Batmanuelle (Richard) - apparently hasn't aged in like 30 years. Ben said that he brought most of the Others to the island... If they don't age what happened to the original Hostiles?
DHARMA - we finally get some info on DHARMA, although not very much. We have no info on what they are doing, why they are doing it, or anything like that. We know they wanted to "live in harmony" but that's just about all we know.
The Hostiles - really did "Purge" DHARMA, and it looks like they did it in cold blood - not in response to a Purge initiated by DHARMA. That's pretty hardcore. Richard was one of the original Hostiles, and they look a lot like the hillbilly Others did. That's about all the info we get on that. It seems like they took over from DHARMA but why did they feel the need to wipe out DHARMA? Why are they carrying on DHARMA's mission (if that is what they are doing). And where did the Hostiles come from? My guess is if they are "island natives" they are descendants of people who crashed on the Black Rock. That's the only plausible way that European looking people could be natives on an island in the Pacific.
Food Drops - why is DHARMA still delivering food to the island? That part confuses me... Judging from what we know of DHARMA it was pretty well organized and I am confused as to how and why they do not know that DHARMA was "purged." Or maybe the Others informed them about that and they decided to keep delivering food and supplies because they have no choice?
Mikhail - gave a simple explanation for why he is still alive. Why did no one intervene when Locke started beating the crap out of him, though?
Hatches - in the purge did they wipe out everyone in the hatches as well? If so why did they not attack the Swan hatch? And how were the people in the Swan unaware of what had happened? Maybe the Purge was the incident and that is why they said to not use the computer for communication, so that the Hostiles would not know that there were still people there. But if everyone in DHARMA was dead that is impossible. Did the Hostiles want the Swan people to continue entering the numbers? If so why did they let them stop or did they want them to stop? This continues to be a big mystery.
Babies - why are the Others so concerned about making babies? Were the Hostiles able to have babies before the Purge, or are they all people who crashed on the Black Rock and didn't age?

Also - some updates to my finale death list...

I don't think Locke will die. I am no longer sure about Ben. Ben seems to have a LOT more story left in him but I wouldn't put money on Ben living.
Evangeline Lilly has said that she is signed for another 3 years, but is that just foiler or is that true? Kate has been a pretty pivotal character, as annoying as she can be, so my odds are on her not dying.
The "fan favorite" - who qualifies as a fan favorite? Hurley, Sayid and Desmond are my only candidates who are not central characters. Of them I think Sayid will die. Which is unfortunate because he is the only person on the island asking real, valid questions.
Rousseau - will probably die. Just because.
Charlie - will probably not die. It is too obvious, in my opinion. However we do know that someone will "sacrifice" themselves and based on the trailer for next week it seems like Desmond is telling Charlie that he must sacrifice himself. I would put even odds on Charlie.
Juliet - I hope will not die. She is an awesome character.
Tom, Richard, Alex, Karl, etc. - at least one or two of them will probably die. If we have a big showdown between the Lostaways and the Others I expect quite a few of the others will be blown up or something.

My predictions for the rest of this season:

Locke will be healed and will come back and be put into a leadership position with the Others. This seems pretty obvious but if we assume that Ben is planning everything that happens out 10 moves beforehand this would have to be part of his plan. So why would he want someone else to take over?
Locke vs. Jack - it is pretty clear to me that Locke will be "with" the Others and Jack will not be. I have no more ideas on this one yet.
Lostaways vs. The Others - either this is all part of Ben's plan or Ben did not intend for Locke to warn the Lostaways. If the latter is the case then Richard must be going behind Ben's back and is just a good a strategist and manipulator as Ben is. It seems virtually guaranteed that some of the Others will get blown up.
Penny and the boat - will probably play a part in the finale. Mikhail seemed very concerned with them being there and possibly being found.
The Snake in the Mailbox - will be something in Jack's history. In order to qualify as the huge "game changer" we've been promised it has to be something really huge. Like a connection to the Island or the Others or something. This part also remains a mystery to me.
The origins of the fake 815 plane will not be explained.

Two more left and then nothing until January... I hate it and love it at the same time.

Update - something I forgot to mention... Based on the aging of Ben and Ben's father we can estimate a timeline. It looks like they arrived on the island in the late 60s or early 70s. Ben was about 10 years old and his father looked to be in his 30s. By the time of the purge Ben was probably in his 30s or 40s and his father looked to be in his 60s. This implies the passage of 20-30 years, which puts the purge in the 90s somewhere.

Update on Who Dies

2007-05-08T13:04:00.000-04:00

I have added Rousseau to my list of people who die in the finale, freeing up one slot. Why Rousseau? She is a disposable character, has no real place in the story, and would leave too many questions unanswered if she is not eliminated. My guess is she will blow herself up trying to blow up some of the Others.

We have been told that a "fan favorite" will sacrifice themselves to save the Lostaways. I don't know if Rousseau counts as a "fan favorite" so who does? Locke, Hurley, Sayid, Ben and possibly Juliet are the only characters I would call fan favorites. Sawyer may be too important to the story to wear that label and Jack definitely is as well.

We will also meet Jacob in Man Behind the Curtain, contrary to some rumors circulating, Lindelof and Cuse have conclusively said that we will meet Jacob and he will be to Lost as the emperor is to Star Wars. Not sure what to make of that yet...

Another interesting comment - that the finale will end Lost as we know it. My previous theories about the Others being wiped out and the Lostaways taking their place sort of fits this. However, my official guess is that something happens off island that brings the outside world into the picture. This could be the "jump the shark" moment that Lindelof and Cuse have warned us about. I think a lot of fans would be upset if that were to happen, as to date the entire story has revolved around what is going on on the island, and bringing the outside world into the equation would be a total game changer. But that is what I have come to expect from Lost.

The End is Set

2007-05-07T10:05:00.000-04:00

Today ABC announced that Lost would do three more seasons of sixteen episodes each. Lindelof and Cuse also got eight figure packages for signing on for all three remaining seasons. This is both good news and bad news...

This is good because now there is an endpoint set and the story can be mapped out from here to the end.

It is bad because it sounds like ABC got one more season than the producers had originally wanted to do. They said earlier this year that we are about at the midpoint now. They also said that they thought about 100 episodes would be a good number. With the 48 left that brings the total to 120. I was hoping for 108 for the mythological significance but this is 20 episodes more than Lindelof and Cuse had thought the story could bear.

I guess it's good news for everyone that they were able to reach an agreement and I think that all Lost fans should be happy about this. Of course the eight months with no Lost between the seasons will be difficult, but the four straight months of Lost a year will be nice, and hopefully the story will be as good as it has been lately this season.

The Brig Reactions

2007-05-03T09:12:00.000-04:00

This was an incredible episode, if not the best then surely in the top 10. Some thoughts...

Cooper kept insisting that this was hell. Carlton and Lindelof have on numerous occassions definitely said that this was not purgatory. However they did not say that the survivors were not dead. However I don't really buy this theory. The plane crash was probably staged by someone else and who can really check up on a plane 4 miles under the sea? If DHARMA/the Others did not stage the crash maybe they just made up reports that they had found it.
How did Cooper get to the island? He said he was in a car crash and woke up on the island. Unless the others kept him drugged and asleep for two or three weeks he must have arrived shortly before he saw John. However there is no way onto the island since the fail-safe was triggered. So either Cooper was brought by the others, which means he was on the island before the fail-safe was triggered or they are lying about their ability to travel; or he was magically brought there by Locke, as Ben said; or it wasn't Cooper at all, it was Smokey or some manifestation of the island.
Richard Alpert - is he Jacob? It would not surprise me. He has been shown to be one of the key people involved in everything we have seen about the Others and he was the only person Ben trusted enough to say that he wanted the submarine destroyed in front of. Tonight he either had some sort of plan worked out with Ben or he went behind Ben's back to help Locke. Either way he is a master manipulator and certainly did pull the strings. I would not be remotely suprised if he turns out to be Jacob.
Ben - has magically been healed. He said it started when he first saw Locke but I'm not sure about that. I think it may have had to do with the Others leaving the barracks and visiting whatever ruins they visited.
Locke - is apparently some sort of messiah to the others, or at least has the potential to be. It seemed like Richard wanted him to be but Ben did not, hence the public humiliation and denouncement. Cuse and Lindelof have said that the island selectively heals people based on their "nature." However we have not really seen anything great out of Locke other than his survival skills from Season 1. In Season 1 he was totally bad-ass and awesome. Since then he has become a bit of a self-absorbed, snivelling, whiny destroyer of submarines in my opinion. So did the island see something that we did not see? Does Locke really maybe have a greater purpose or a destiny? And does this imply that the island is sentient in order for it to decide who gets healed and who does not?
Sawyer - killed the original Sawyer. A lot of people think that this means that Sawyer will die before the end of the season because his story has been "resolved." However I must disagree with that. I think he was close to getting resolved or redeemed as he became more thoughtful and considerate but this act takes him right back to who he was when he first landed. I seriously doubt Sawyer will be killed.
Jack and Juliet appear to have some sort of plan that they are keeping secret. Like a true idiot, Kate spilled the beans to Jack. I was expecting Sayid to tell her a different story, not the truth, so maybe Sayid has some sort of plan to try to trap Jack in his lie. Sayid is too smart to think Kate could keep her trap closed. As for Jack and Juliet I think that they are on their own now and their plan is for the two of them and they will betray the Others and possibly the Lostaways in order to try to get off of the island. Of course Jack expects to come back to rescue everyone else, but that won't be possible, hence their plan will not succeed. I expect we will learn more of their plan next week.
We got double confirmation that everyone on 815 was killed from Naomi (see above for more details) and we got some other interesting information from her. The key pieces were that she was hired by Penny Widmore (which we knew) and that they had a ship out there in the ocean. She also said that there was no land around where the ship was so the island must be completely concealed from the outside world. How she made it there I am not sure about. I expect she will die before she can reveal too much new information.
Who dies this season? My bet is that Jack lives, Sawyer lives. The people that I am not sure about are Ben, Locke, Juliet, Richard, Naomi. I would actually put money on Naomi dying before the end of this season, which leaves three deaths (counting Cooper tonight as the first). We know there will be a showdown between Locke and Jack in the finale and we know an other will blow up in said finale. My guess is that Jack and Locke both live, but one of them takes over as leader of the Others as Ben is killed. Juliet would be a likely suspect but she is a great character and doesn't have any other flashbacks this season. Charlie will most certainly not die in my opinion. That would be too easy and simple for Lost. That leaves Kate, Sayid, Desmond, Tom, Richard, Jin and Sun as major characters who may or may not have targets on their heads.

Synopsis of the Brig

2007-05-02T14:09:00.000-04:00

A synopsis of the Brig is out... This comes from a source that has never been wrong with an episode synopsis before. I am dying to read it but trying to hold out. With everything I've heard about this episode I don't want to ruin it. But I also don't want to fall asleep before it's over (or even before it starts) and miss it. I would watch it first thing in the morning but it's not quite the same.

If anyone wants to read it it is available here.

The Brig

2007-05-02T09:05:00.000-04:00

Tonight should be a great episode. We know that Locke is going to try to recruit Sawyer into getting rid of a "common nemesis" which I must assume is Cooper, who is probably the "original Sawyer." I am guessing that Cooper will be the first of the five deaths we have been promised for the remainder of the season.

But that is all secondary to what I am really looking for tonight - more info on the island and the Others. I assume that we will learn a bit more about where the others went after leaving Othersville and why they left. There has been much talk about tonight not using flashbacks at all or not using them in the conventional method. I have to assume that the flashbacks will be recent flashbacks that will explain what happened after Locke was shown his father. Exciting stuff!

Hopefully we will also get more info on what Naomi knows, why she is there and what really happened to 815.

More tomorrow after the episode...

On the Alternate Timelines Theory

2007-05-01T08:36:00.000-04:00

The alternate timeline theory has basically been confirmed as true by Carlton and Lindelof in the podcast but it still seems a bit far-fetched to me. The big clincher is supposedly something Desmond found on Naomi at the end of Catch-22, which one has to assume is the photo. Ignoring all of the obvious ways it could be duplicated this is not something new. Desmond has had a copy of the photo since he was introduced and Penny had one on her night table in the Season 2 finale. So I am not sure why this is supposed to be huge breaking news.

I believe that the theory is that in one timeline Desmond took the photo and in the other Penny took it. The island must be isolated or separated from the normal flow of time somehow to allow it to remain unaffected by changes in the timelines.

This whole theory seems kind of farfetched to me and if that is what they end up going with I will be very disappointed. All of this can be more easily explained by more realistic methods and parallel timelines is a huge can of worms. Once it is opened there will be so many little questions and details that need to be resolved that it would be impossible for the writers to do it all in another 3 or 4 seasons if the show just consisted of a monologue explaining the answers.

The podcast said that the answers to the show are rooted in the intersection between the "supernatural" and "pseudo-science." Even this lends itself more to explanations other than the Pandora's box of quantum physics that would be opened by using the alternate timeline theory.

Hopefully we will have some more answers in the next few weeks...

Some Spoilers / Foilers Regarding the Finale

2007-04-30T13:27:00.000-04:00

Today some spoilers / foilers / theories were released regarding the season finale of lost. These include:

We'll find out that "Ben Linus", along with Richard Alpert and Jacob, were once workers for DHARMA who also doubled as human test subjects for various DHARMA projects on the island.
We'll see the overthrow of DHARMA scientists by the workers led by Jacob, who was the instigator of the revolution and the saviour of Ben. Unfortunately, Jacob was unable to save Ben's family which we'll see.
We'll come to understand that the mysterious (this name is a spoiler until it is told to us in an ep) wasn't the only traveler on the expedition flight to the island (hint: a male was with her who'll wash ashore later), but is in fact a spy of the DHARMA Initiative who's come to investigate exactly what happened on the island.
The triggers for her visit were the meltdown of the Swan Station and the loss of contact with the Flame Station. A series of "secure" codes had to be input from the Flame to give DHARMA the green light that everything was fine, and to continue the food drops the same way the numbers had to be input in the Swan. The Others (hostiles) were successful keeping up appearances with Mikhail's help until Locke destroyed it.
Cerberus, aka "The Smoke Monster" was a DHARMA experiment in both nanotechnology and neural networking which was used to guard the perimeter of various stations intuitively, but was damaged during the purge of DHARMA controllers, It has since gone rogue and become self aware.
The "Others" as we've come to know and love (or hate) are truly the good guys who gained their own freedom and were actively attempting to reverse the effects of experiments performed on them by DHARMA, and the effects of the island on unprotected humans until Flight 815 interrupted them.
Ben confides in Locke that they were basically slaves to DHARMA and they must keep up the ruse that DHARMA is still in control or they will all die from a common enemy. Jacob is the head "inmate" who orchestrated the revolution, and who remains hidden in plain sight but is still the one they must answer to.
We find out that Penelope Widmore has been a member of DHARMA all along, and the station in Antarctica is run by DHARMA. Desmond has a vision of Penelope which is frightening and reveals new, truthful memories about how they really met at the monastery.
Ben dies in the finale along with a few Others, as does Kate and Sayid. Sawyer and most of the Losties blame Jack and Juliet for Kate and Sayid's deaths due to his plan. Jack is forced to go with the surviving Others, and we see Tom by his side as he protects his new leader. From the sky we see images of the island as if from the viewpoint of a coming aircraft. It seems DHARMA has sent someone (or something) to the island and it's not nice.

Some of these can be discarded off hand, like the nanobot theory of smokey which has been debunked numerously and unequivocally in the official ABC Podcast.

The parts about the relationship between DHARMA and the Others seems pretty obvious. The Others were either test subjects or janitors and they rebelled and this led to the purge. I have also been speculating that the coming "war" between the Lostaways and the Others would be reminiscent of the "purge" and I think that it will follow the same dynamics. The Others will instigate a purge of the Lostaways, the Lostaways will win and will somehow have to take over the work the Others were doing, which they took over from DHARMA.

The stuff about DHARMA still being active, and Penny being a member, I don't believe that at all. In the Lost Experience they clearly said that DHARMA failed and I would think that if DHARMA was so powerful they might be able to figure out that all of their people were wiped out and replaced by the janitors. Having said that the fact that the food drops continue throws a bit of a monkey wrench into that theory. It also appears that the Others are well financed and have strong ties to the outside world. I am not sure how the janitors or test subjects would secure such powerful backing being inmates on the island.

Intro

2007-04-30T13:25:00.000-04:00

Yet another blog discussing my theories on the TV show Lost. I've been posting a lot as comments to various other blogs and boards and thought I would consolidate my theories here... More to come soon.