Yes, I have named this post after a Lady Gaga song. Yes, I am comfortable with that. Moving on . . .
So I haven't posted in a while and I'm not entirely sure if anyone is still checking this blog, but on the off-chance that anyone is still interested in my thoughts and observations, I figured I'd post while I actually have access to the internet for a small amount of time. I'd like to start off by saying that this season has been a real rollercoaster. I am almost hesitant to speculate about anything because you really just don't know for sure what LOST is going to do next. They seem to have thrown out any attempt at restraint this year . . . I am half expecting a UFO to pop up at some point. Well, here are some ideas and theories I have:
- Okay, what is up with Miles insisting that he can't talk to ghosts? Does anyone remember that in one of his very first scenes, we saw him do exactly that? Yes, we've mostly just seen him crouch down near dead bodies, close his eyes and then he magically knows who this person was and how they died. So yeah, being able to intuit a dead person's thoughts is a totally reasonable explanation for some of his abilities. But in "Confirmed Dead," he quite clearly walked into a room that was supposedly haunted, spoke to someone who wasn't there, interrogated the invisible presence by asking where the money was, and then a shelf seemed to move on its own to indicate the location of aforementioned money. Uh, to the best of my knowledge, that kid's body was not there. So if the grandson wasn't there, and Miles was talking to an invisible presence, and an object in the room moved on its own, doesn't that sound lot like a freaking ghost? Most people I've talked to seemed completely content with the recent description of Miles' abilities, and then when I ask them to explain the scene from season four, they're like "Hey wait a second, that doesn't make any sense!"
So, what's really going on here? The two best answers I can think of are either that Miles is lying because he doesn't want anyone to know the full extent of his abilities (and the writers don't want to directly discuss the supernatural until later), or the writers just wrote that scene in "Confirmed Dead" without really knowing what Miles can really do, and the answer they've settled upon contradicts what they depicted previously. I really really want to believe it's the former, but I am terribly worried that it's going to turn out to be the latter. This is television, after all, and even the best shows like LOST can't get everything right. It's common on TV to be like "Let's show this really cool thing and then we'll explain it later," and then the ultimate explanation doesn't really fit with what you saw. Look at how many times THE X FILES would answer a question with a big "See? Isn't this answer mindblowing???" and you'd just be sitting there thinking, "Yeah, uh, that didn't explain anything because you've contradicted yourself so many times and this is no exception, so I still have no idea how this all fits together." I hope this isn't one of those moments. I guess we'll just see.
- R.I.P Libby. It has been confirmed that the explanation as to why Libby was in the mental institution is not something the writers will be bothering with. So Libby will remain an open question by the end of the series. I know Damon and Carlton had said there were extenuating circumstances about why they couldn't get around to answering that question, and I am very curious to one day know what those might be. They were originally gonna answer our Libby questions last year through flashbacks for one of the freighter characters, and they had concocted some kind of conspiratorial backstory for Libby, but all of that was flushed down the toilet by the writers' strike. I like how the damn strike means that some of our burning questions about LOST will never be addressed. Damon and Carlton have to be politicians when they do interviews, and so they're now saying "Well, that wasn't really a question we ever thought was that important," but the truth is, at one point they were going to answer it in a big way. Oh well.
- Damon and Carlton: I am willing to let this Libby thing go. But for the love of the island, please explain the whole Claire's implant/DHARMA vaccine thing from "One of Us." I will not be willing to let that one go if the series ends and this question isn't answered. I don't even care if the answer is a real brief "Oh, DHARMA had an experiment with implants, didn't we mention that before?" Just please address this before the end of the series.
- So what's the deal with Ilana, Caesar, Bram and these other characters? Who do they work for? My guess would be Widmore, who assembled a group of bad-asses to aid in his return to the island. Also, I am pretty sure Widmore knows Locke is going to be a problem, so they might be there to keep Locke in check.
- Does anyone really trust resurrected Locke? I absolutely do not. I want to trust him because he can be so Yoda-like, but he can also be so Captain Kurtz-like. The island is a manipulator and the people it chooses to represent its wishes are manipulators themselves. Locke seems to have a newfound clarity, but I don't buy his whole "Hey, I'm just like you" thing for a second. I've never fully trusted the guy and I especially don't now. Just my two cents.
- Okay, so Ben explained like three times what he knew/didn't know about Locke coming back to life, and I really didn't buy any of his explanations. He's still keeping what he really knows to himself. Looks like the island has had to resort to drastic measures to keep Ben in line.
- The Egyptian temple was amazing. That was definitely the freakiest scene yet involving the monster. It had a real "Raiders of the Lost Ark" feel to it. I still have no clue what the smoke monster really is, but I like that we're getting closer and closer to an answer.
- I am so glad Ben did not kill Penny. Even before Desmond (rightfully) beat the living snot out of him, Ben had lowered his gun after seeing little Charlie. I'm happy Ben still has a heart, somewhere in there.
- After seeing him in Ben's flashback, Charles Widmore sure is emerging as the villain of LOST. That may or may not ultimately be true, but Widmore has so far been a real creep by everything we've seen. And Richard Alpert clearly doesn't like him, and if Richard doesn't like you, you must be doing something wrong.
- Next week's episode is called "The Variable," which sounds a lot like it will have something to do with "The Constant." I think it's shaping up to being Daniel-centric. It's the show's 100th episode and it looks like it's gonna be a big one. The math-related title really makes me hope that someone might bother mentioning the Valenzetti Equation, which I've been clamoring to see referenced on the series for quite some time now. That's kind of a fool's hope at this point, but Daniel has been hanging around in Ann Arbor, which is the home of the Degroots and the DHARMA Initiative. So, I'd imagine he very well might have enough information to finally give everybody the skinny on DHARMA. That would sure be cool. My main guesses for the episode are that Daniel will try to change the future with some wacky time travel experiments, that he's the person who warns Chang about the Purge, and that he will turn out to be Widmore's son (which is why Widmore funded his research). If Valenzetti's research is discussed, I am guessing his equations are being used by DHARMA to predict various outcomes involving time travel, and that Daniel will have some useful information in this regard.
- I really liked the WATCHMEN movie. Just wanted to put that out there.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
I AM NOT LISTENING TO A SONG
Okay, I don't have a song to name this post after, so I am not going to bother coming up with a real title. Please forgive my lack of creativity. Anyway, last week brought us another great episode, though at this point it's redundant to refer to LOST as "great". So, I shall again just point out some thoughts and highlights and other things that will turn out to be wrong. Here goes:
- Okay, so we got to see Horace Goodspeed again, but where is good ol' Olivia? She sure seemed to be his wife in "The Man Behind the Curtain." I guess she either left him, or she's dead, or they just couldn't get Samantha Mathis back because she must be, um, busy starring in those hundreds of movies she stars in every year. Seriously though, I am guessing something bad must've happened to her. Perhaps Amy and Horace were able to relate to each other due to mutual grief. He certainly seems more distraught and world weary than he did last time we saw him (and he was dead that time!). Anyway, it's always good to see him again. I've been a fan of Doug Hutchison since he played the immortal liver-eating mutant on THE X FILES, and the totally evil prison guard in THE GREEN MILE. He was the second most evil prison guard, right behind the other evil prison guard from a Frank Darabont movie based on a Stephen King story: Clancy Brown/Brother Justin/Kelvin Inman from THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. But I digress.
- I like the new character Amy. So, she was able to give birth on the island. I am guessing we are pre-Disaster That Kills Pregnant Women, as Sawyer suggested to Juliet. It was mentioned that DHARMA tries to have children born on the mainland. I am guessing this means that being born on the island perhaps weds a person to its properties in a way that people who weren't born on the island typically aren't (wow, did that sentence make any sense?). I think we all figured that being born on the island changes a person in a significant way, but it's nice to see the series slowly inching towards that confirmation. I am still theorizing that Ben is the reason the island's healing power seems to malfunction when women are pregnant, but I will expound upon that later. Now, who is Amy and Horace's child? Is Amy the old woman Amelia from "A Tale of Two Cities"? Interesting questions . . .
- I was so happy that Juliet was finally able to deliver someone's child on the island. In fact, "LeFleur" totally paid off for Sawyer and Juliet in a big way. This episode really serviced their characters. And I totally buy the romance between them. It made so much sense. And the character arc of Sawyer slowly becoming a hero was finally fully realized, something they'd been building towards since "Left Behind". I am just so pleased with the direction all the characters are taking. These people really are on a journey . . . they've all become much different characters since their first appearances.
- GIANT EGYPTIAN STATUE! What god was it? I kind of don't care. I just think it's cool that we saw a giant Egyptian statue, however briefly. I think we can all stop wondering where the four-toed foot monument came from, whether or not that was the statue in question. I think it goes without saying we'll continue to see more and more Egyptian artifacts. So how did the Egyptians discover the island? Well, the same way a plane from Nigeria winds up on an island in the South Pacific: you find a portal in the middle of the Sahara desert. (Remember, we don't really know that's a one way door). Dammit, Charlotte would've been so useful for talking about this stuff! That was why she was introduced in the first place. I guess her death was effective because I'm still smarting over it.
- I loved the joke about Richard's eyeliner. And I loved seeing Richard as well. He looked mighty sick and tired of dealing with the DHARMA Inish. I know, I know. Awesome abbrev! In turn, Horace looked pretty sick and tired of dealing with the Hostiles and their weird ass rules. I guess it's easy to see why the Truce didn't last too long.
- Here is my theory for where the rest of the season is going. I suspect that the Incident is going to occur soon, and that it's not just gonna be a blast of electromagnetism. I think the space-time continuum is going to break down, and the characters won't skip through time, but various time periods are going to merge together awkwardly. This will create a complete catastrophe, and young Benjamin Linus is going to change big time. I think that this Incident is the reason women can't give birth on the island. My own personal theory is that Ben will become completely connected to the island's properties and his guilt over his mother's death then warps the island's healing power, causing the island to try to "heal" pregnant women and in turn killing them. But maybe women can't give birth simply because the Incident messes up the island in general. Charles Widmore will have to turn the wheel to restabilize the island, and he will blame Ben for his having to leave. I also think Daniel will put on his thinking cap and do some heroic science-y stuff. I think the event from 1984 referred to on the blast door map might be the sudden reappearance of the island. I am not sold on this idea by any means but it does tie a lot of disparate things together. I also still think we will learn the details of the Purge, and that Locke has something to do with it.
- In a recent interview, the actress who plays Ms. Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan, anyone remember her as the mom from THE EWOK ADVENTURE? Anyone?) was asked about Ms. Hawking's religious beliefs, seeing as how Ms. Hawking seems to enjoy surrounding herself with various spiritual symbols. She mentioned that she has learned a bit about Ms. Hawking's beliefs and that they are "not of this world and not of this planet". I know technically that most spiritual beliefs fit this criteria, but it's difficult not to wonder if this is opening the door for a certain extraterrestrial angle. We might wanna be readying ourselves for that. (The original Hanso Foundation website did have a project called the Quest for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).
And finally I just wanted to clear up some questions from my previous posts:
- I know if Widmore got off the island circa 1984, it seems like a stiff deadline to become a multibillionaire industrialist. However, the leaders of the island seem to be the most powerful people in the world. They have access to seemingly limitless funds and resources. We've all seen how crafty Ben is and how much he has, and he's no longer even the leader of the Others. I think if Charles Widmore left the island, he of all people could easily throw together a monolithic corporation.
- I don't think that Alvar Hanso was a bad guy who was taking advantage of some hippies in order to find the key to immortality. He certainly was interested in life extension, but I think his intentions were sincere. He seems to hold the DeGroots in great esteem, and in the Lost Experience game he seems genuinely sorry for any of the things that went wrong with the Hanso Foundation. He seems like a man with good intentions who unintentionally caused some big problems. So I really don't think he was a bad guy. No he's not a hippie, but I think he was trying to do something humanitarian and less military-oriented. The hippieness came from the DeGroots, but even they were very skilled scientists. As for Alvar's military connections, remember he was a munitions dealer in WWII. Between that and the UN, he could easily find out about the military's presence on the island in the 50's. I am pretty sure "Jughead" definitely took place in the 50's . . . the story wouldn't make any sense if it didn't.
- I don't really believe that Locke's conversations with the O6 and Walt were continuity errors. I think they skipped all the "my name is Jeremy Bentham, you weren't supposed to leave, bad stuff happened after you left" stuff because it would've felt like the same conversation over and over again. I think it's implied we just got the highlights of the conversations. That might seem like a copout but the episode is already extended by 4 minutes, and I think it would've been boring and repetitive if Locke's various confrontations with the characters didn't stand out from each other.
- I don't think Daniel knows Charles is his father, nope.
- Okay, so we got to see Horace Goodspeed again, but where is good ol' Olivia? She sure seemed to be his wife in "The Man Behind the Curtain." I guess she either left him, or she's dead, or they just couldn't get Samantha Mathis back because she must be, um, busy starring in those hundreds of movies she stars in every year. Seriously though, I am guessing something bad must've happened to her. Perhaps Amy and Horace were able to relate to each other due to mutual grief. He certainly seems more distraught and world weary than he did last time we saw him (and he was dead that time!). Anyway, it's always good to see him again. I've been a fan of Doug Hutchison since he played the immortal liver-eating mutant on THE X FILES, and the totally evil prison guard in THE GREEN MILE. He was the second most evil prison guard, right behind the other evil prison guard from a Frank Darabont movie based on a Stephen King story: Clancy Brown/Brother Justin/Kelvin Inman from THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. But I digress.
- I like the new character Amy. So, she was able to give birth on the island. I am guessing we are pre-Disaster That Kills Pregnant Women, as Sawyer suggested to Juliet. It was mentioned that DHARMA tries to have children born on the mainland. I am guessing this means that being born on the island perhaps weds a person to its properties in a way that people who weren't born on the island typically aren't (wow, did that sentence make any sense?). I think we all figured that being born on the island changes a person in a significant way, but it's nice to see the series slowly inching towards that confirmation. I am still theorizing that Ben is the reason the island's healing power seems to malfunction when women are pregnant, but I will expound upon that later. Now, who is Amy and Horace's child? Is Amy the old woman Amelia from "A Tale of Two Cities"? Interesting questions . . .
- I was so happy that Juliet was finally able to deliver someone's child on the island. In fact, "LeFleur" totally paid off for Sawyer and Juliet in a big way. This episode really serviced their characters. And I totally buy the romance between them. It made so much sense. And the character arc of Sawyer slowly becoming a hero was finally fully realized, something they'd been building towards since "Left Behind". I am just so pleased with the direction all the characters are taking. These people really are on a journey . . . they've all become much different characters since their first appearances.
- GIANT EGYPTIAN STATUE! What god was it? I kind of don't care. I just think it's cool that we saw a giant Egyptian statue, however briefly. I think we can all stop wondering where the four-toed foot monument came from, whether or not that was the statue in question. I think it goes without saying we'll continue to see more and more Egyptian artifacts. So how did the Egyptians discover the island? Well, the same way a plane from Nigeria winds up on an island in the South Pacific: you find a portal in the middle of the Sahara desert. (Remember, we don't really know that's a one way door). Dammit, Charlotte would've been so useful for talking about this stuff! That was why she was introduced in the first place. I guess her death was effective because I'm still smarting over it.
- I loved the joke about Richard's eyeliner. And I loved seeing Richard as well. He looked mighty sick and tired of dealing with the DHARMA Inish. I know, I know. Awesome abbrev! In turn, Horace looked pretty sick and tired of dealing with the Hostiles and their weird ass rules. I guess it's easy to see why the Truce didn't last too long.
- Here is my theory for where the rest of the season is going. I suspect that the Incident is going to occur soon, and that it's not just gonna be a blast of electromagnetism. I think the space-time continuum is going to break down, and the characters won't skip through time, but various time periods are going to merge together awkwardly. This will create a complete catastrophe, and young Benjamin Linus is going to change big time. I think that this Incident is the reason women can't give birth on the island. My own personal theory is that Ben will become completely connected to the island's properties and his guilt over his mother's death then warps the island's healing power, causing the island to try to "heal" pregnant women and in turn killing them. But maybe women can't give birth simply because the Incident messes up the island in general. Charles Widmore will have to turn the wheel to restabilize the island, and he will blame Ben for his having to leave. I also think Daniel will put on his thinking cap and do some heroic science-y stuff. I think the event from 1984 referred to on the blast door map might be the sudden reappearance of the island. I am not sold on this idea by any means but it does tie a lot of disparate things together. I also still think we will learn the details of the Purge, and that Locke has something to do with it.
- In a recent interview, the actress who plays Ms. Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan, anyone remember her as the mom from THE EWOK ADVENTURE? Anyone?) was asked about Ms. Hawking's religious beliefs, seeing as how Ms. Hawking seems to enjoy surrounding herself with various spiritual symbols. She mentioned that she has learned a bit about Ms. Hawking's beliefs and that they are "not of this world and not of this planet". I know technically that most spiritual beliefs fit this criteria, but it's difficult not to wonder if this is opening the door for a certain extraterrestrial angle. We might wanna be readying ourselves for that. (The original Hanso Foundation website did have a project called the Quest for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).
And finally I just wanted to clear up some questions from my previous posts:
- I know if Widmore got off the island circa 1984, it seems like a stiff deadline to become a multibillionaire industrialist. However, the leaders of the island seem to be the most powerful people in the world. They have access to seemingly limitless funds and resources. We've all seen how crafty Ben is and how much he has, and he's no longer even the leader of the Others. I think if Charles Widmore left the island, he of all people could easily throw together a monolithic corporation.
- I don't think that Alvar Hanso was a bad guy who was taking advantage of some hippies in order to find the key to immortality. He certainly was interested in life extension, but I think his intentions were sincere. He seems to hold the DeGroots in great esteem, and in the Lost Experience game he seems genuinely sorry for any of the things that went wrong with the Hanso Foundation. He seems like a man with good intentions who unintentionally caused some big problems. So I really don't think he was a bad guy. No he's not a hippie, but I think he was trying to do something humanitarian and less military-oriented. The hippieness came from the DeGroots, but even they were very skilled scientists. As for Alvar's military connections, remember he was a munitions dealer in WWII. Between that and the UN, he could easily find out about the military's presence on the island in the 50's. I am pretty sure "Jughead" definitely took place in the 50's . . . the story wouldn't make any sense if it didn't.
- I don't really believe that Locke's conversations with the O6 and Walt were continuity errors. I think they skipped all the "my name is Jeremy Bentham, you weren't supposed to leave, bad stuff happened after you left" stuff because it would've felt like the same conversation over and over again. I think it's implied we just got the highlights of the conversations. That might seem like a copout but the episode is already extended by 4 minutes, and I think it would've been boring and repetitive if Locke's various confrontations with the characters didn't stand out from each other.
- I don't think Daniel knows Charles is his father, nope.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
ANOTHER POST IN THE SAME WEEKEND
What's this? Two posts in two days? Have I gone mad? No, just have unexpected access to the internet and couldn't stay away. I've been working on some theories this weekend and wanted to put them out there while I had the chance. Here goes:
1. THEORY ABOUT THE ISLAND'S PAST
Okay, I have some ideas about the island's timeline as it relates to its past. Let's see how this sounds. In the mid-1800's, Magnus Hanso and his illegal slaving and mining vessel the Black Rock set sail for some more illegal shenanigans. They head into the Indian Ocean where they conveniently disappear near the Sunda Trench, off the coast of Bali. They disappear because someone moved the island and it activated the wormhole located by the trench. The ship appears in the middle of the jungle. Magnus and his crew are never seen in the outside world again. However, an artifact from the ship does make its way to the outside world from the island: the journal of the first mate. This journal winds up in the hands of the Hanso family, and it alerts them to the fact that their relative wound up on magical mystery island. Hanso family is rightfully intrigued.
In the 50's, the United States military accidentally discovers the island in the South Pacific while doing nuclear testing. They set up a camp on the island. At this point in history, the island natives include Richard Alpert, Charles Widmore, and Eloise Hawking, who goes by Ellie in her teenage years. They politely ask the soldiers to take their hydrogen bomb and go blow up something else. Soldiers refuse. Natives kill soldiers and commandeer their camp in the event that more military people arrive. Ellie's (and perhaps Widmore's as well) son from the future shows up and offers some helpful advice on how to dispose of Jughead, the hydrogen bomb which is unfortunately leaking radiation. He disappears. They bury the bomb, and thankfully the military never relocates the island.
In the 60's, following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United Nations commissions Enzo Valenzetti to write an equation which predicts the date of the apocalypse. To everyone's shock and horror, he succeeds. The UN buries the equation, but through his contacts Mr. Alvar Hanso discovers its existence and decides to do something about it. Hanso was a munitions dealer in WWII, and because of that has many military connections. Through those connections he knows the military had recently discovered the island, and he intends to find it again. Hanso knows the island is special, and believes it to be the key in halting the prediction of the Valenzetti Equation. He meets two social scientists from the University of Michigan, Gerald and Karen DeGroot, and with them forms the DHARMA Initiative . . . man's desperate attempt to save himself from extinction. Through them he is introduced to physicist Pierre Chang, who realizes the key to finding Hanso's magical island is by predicting where and when it will appear next. The Lamp Post station is built above an electromagnetic anomaly in the Los Angeles area, and the location of the island is finally determined circa 1970.
Hanso and his scientists set up camp on the island and begin the long process of building stations, radio towers, homes, etc. By this point, Charles Widmore is the leader of the island natives, but he and his people stay out of DHARMA's way. By 1975, folks are being shipped to the island to man the various DHARMA stations. Unfortunately, DHARMA shoots itself in the foot early on by drilling into the electromagnetic anomaly and causing a leak in the event known as the Incident. After this, the original Swan station is closed off and a new Swan station is built around it. This event does not endear the DHARMA people to the natives, who realize that by messing with the island's properties, DHARMA is flirting with the apocalypse they're intending to prevent. Any positive relations between the natives and the DHARMA scientists, who never really understood each other anyway, break down, and the natives soon become known as the Hostiles.
Enter young Ben Linus. He arrives on the island with his father, and comes to soon find that he's special . . . that he has abilities that are enhanced when coming to the island. The Hostiles, particularly Richard Alpert, duly note this. At some point in DHARMA's history, at least Jin and Daniel, and my guess Sawyer and Juliet and later on Jack, Kate and Hurley, become involved in the DHARMA Initiative via fun and wacky time travel. Daniel senses trouble and warns Dr. Chang about the Purge which will one day occur. Meanwhile, Ben falls in love with his childhood sweetheart Annie. As teenagers they do what teenagers do and it winds up getting her pregnant. Unfortunately, pregnant women are now dying on the island due to Ben: his paternally-inflicted guilt over his mother's death is now manifesting itself by killing all woman who conceive on the island. Ben does not know he is responsible for this. Annie dies, and Ben vows to reverse this fertility problem one day. It becomes an obsession.
Around 1984, for some reason Charles Widmore is forced to move the island, thusly resigning as the leader of the natives/Hostiles/Others. When he turns the wheel in the frozen chamber, a polar bear winds up going with him. Widmore will spend the next 20 years trying to find the island again. At some point, Eloise leaves as well. Perhaps she took Daniel and Charles took Penny, assuming they were entangled in that sense. After Widmore leaves, the natives need a new leader. Ben is in line but is too young, and the natives aren't interested in a Golden Child-type scenario. Who emerges as the leader? John Locke, again via fun and wacky time travel. Locke even gets to know young Ben, and eventually Resurrected and Much More Confident John Locke makes Ben an offer he can't refuse: you can be one of us, but only if you kill your father. Young Ben doesn't realize Locke is getting him back for what will one day happen many years down the line.
The island may have moved, but DHARMA still knows where it is via the Lamp Post and continues to drop supplies. By the early 90's, Charles Widmore has become a powerful billionaire and industrialist. He has formed the Widmore Corporation, and is using his considerable resources and global ties to locate the island. In particular, he intends to apprehend Ben, the young "special" boy he remembers from the island who he blames for his ousting. Widmore infiltrates the Hanso Foundation, which gives him access to the DHARMA Initiative, which will in turn help him find the island. Back on the island, Locke becomes aware of this, and he entices Ben to help him with the Purge. If Ben says no, he can warn his people. If he says yes, Ben's decision will betray everyone he has known. Ben agrees, and helps the natives infiltrate the Initiative and overthrow DHARMA. Almost everyone is killed with gas released via the Tempest, though some are shot and, per Locke's demand, Ben personally gasses his father to death. Ben's gesture has earned him a future with the island natives. He finally belongs.
2. THEORY ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE ISLAND
Through some more fun and wacky time travel, our key characters will all move through time yet again . . . this time into the future. Bye bye DHARMA, hello weird future. There will be a period of confusion because, this is just my guess, not everyone will be in the same time periods at the same time. Charles Widmore will finally get his wish and come to the island somewhere in the middle of all this, and I predict at least Desmond and maybe even Penny (assuming Ben didn't kill her) will arrive as well. So Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Juliet, Daniel, Locke, Ben, Charles and everyone else will all be thrust back into the same time period together. Hail hail the gang's all here. However, we now have Ben, Locke and Widmore all on the island at once, and each one of them thinks the island is rightfully theirs. Season six will be all about a battle between factions over who controls the island.
We'll get some new characters as well. I am guessing Aaron, Walt, Ji-Yeon, Clementine, Des and Penny's Charlie (if he doesn't come to the island with them) will all arrive on the island as adults for a little family reunion. Fate, or the island if that suits you better, isn't done with them. The importance of Aaron and Walt will come into play, Walt will get reunited with ghost Michael and finally forgive his dad, Claire can see Aaron again, and Jin and Sawyer will finally get to meet their respective daughters. Yay.
The island will go into meltdown, however, because all this key- and wheel-turning has made the island incredibly unstable. Cerberus/Jacob is going insane, and the properties of the island are getting more and more unpredictable. The island's volcano is reactivating because of this. Just as it wiped out the ancient Egyptians who once lived there, the volcano now threatens to not just destroy the island and everyone on it, but it will also further the meltdown of the island, which in turn will cause the apocalyptic event predicted by Valenzetti. The only way to stop the island from the process of melting down is a preemptive strike: to destroy the island in one swift blow. Enter Jughead, our favorite hydrogen bomb.
What will our characters do? I am thinking of a couple different endings for the series. In one, I could see the characters being kind of stuck in a time loop, where they've been through this before and are doing it all again. Each time, events progress in a slightly different fashion. Perhaps Ben and Charles seem to know everything because they've lived through all of these events before, they're just aware of it when everyone else is not. In that event, I would guess the final shot of the series would be Jack opening his eye at the beginning of the pilot.
Another weird idea I have for the ending of the series is, what if the entire series is a type of course correction? What if the plane found in the Indian Ocean is not a fake but the end result of what was supposed to happen in the first place? Maybe that's not Seth Norris in the pilot's seat because it's . . . Frank. One thing I love about time travel stories is they allow for insane ideas like this.
One more idea . . .
3. THEORY ABOUT THE ELECTROMAGNETIC POCKET IN LOS ANGELES
One thing I've always wondered is how the island communicates with people even when they're not longer near it. I find it interesting that Hurley, Jack and Kate all had weird hallucinatory experiences where the island beckons them to come back, and they are all located in LA when those experiences happen. If these electromagnetic anomalies connect to each other and form a webwork which interacts with the island, could the island continue to communicate with you if you were in close proximity to any of these "portals"?
1. THEORY ABOUT THE ISLAND'S PAST
Okay, I have some ideas about the island's timeline as it relates to its past. Let's see how this sounds. In the mid-1800's, Magnus Hanso and his illegal slaving and mining vessel the Black Rock set sail for some more illegal shenanigans. They head into the Indian Ocean where they conveniently disappear near the Sunda Trench, off the coast of Bali. They disappear because someone moved the island and it activated the wormhole located by the trench. The ship appears in the middle of the jungle. Magnus and his crew are never seen in the outside world again. However, an artifact from the ship does make its way to the outside world from the island: the journal of the first mate. This journal winds up in the hands of the Hanso family, and it alerts them to the fact that their relative wound up on magical mystery island. Hanso family is rightfully intrigued.
In the 50's, the United States military accidentally discovers the island in the South Pacific while doing nuclear testing. They set up a camp on the island. At this point in history, the island natives include Richard Alpert, Charles Widmore, and Eloise Hawking, who goes by Ellie in her teenage years. They politely ask the soldiers to take their hydrogen bomb and go blow up something else. Soldiers refuse. Natives kill soldiers and commandeer their camp in the event that more military people arrive. Ellie's (and perhaps Widmore's as well) son from the future shows up and offers some helpful advice on how to dispose of Jughead, the hydrogen bomb which is unfortunately leaking radiation. He disappears. They bury the bomb, and thankfully the military never relocates the island.
In the 60's, following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United Nations commissions Enzo Valenzetti to write an equation which predicts the date of the apocalypse. To everyone's shock and horror, he succeeds. The UN buries the equation, but through his contacts Mr. Alvar Hanso discovers its existence and decides to do something about it. Hanso was a munitions dealer in WWII, and because of that has many military connections. Through those connections he knows the military had recently discovered the island, and he intends to find it again. Hanso knows the island is special, and believes it to be the key in halting the prediction of the Valenzetti Equation. He meets two social scientists from the University of Michigan, Gerald and Karen DeGroot, and with them forms the DHARMA Initiative . . . man's desperate attempt to save himself from extinction. Through them he is introduced to physicist Pierre Chang, who realizes the key to finding Hanso's magical island is by predicting where and when it will appear next. The Lamp Post station is built above an electromagnetic anomaly in the Los Angeles area, and the location of the island is finally determined circa 1970.
Hanso and his scientists set up camp on the island and begin the long process of building stations, radio towers, homes, etc. By this point, Charles Widmore is the leader of the island natives, but he and his people stay out of DHARMA's way. By 1975, folks are being shipped to the island to man the various DHARMA stations. Unfortunately, DHARMA shoots itself in the foot early on by drilling into the electromagnetic anomaly and causing a leak in the event known as the Incident. After this, the original Swan station is closed off and a new Swan station is built around it. This event does not endear the DHARMA people to the natives, who realize that by messing with the island's properties, DHARMA is flirting with the apocalypse they're intending to prevent. Any positive relations between the natives and the DHARMA scientists, who never really understood each other anyway, break down, and the natives soon become known as the Hostiles.
Enter young Ben Linus. He arrives on the island with his father, and comes to soon find that he's special . . . that he has abilities that are enhanced when coming to the island. The Hostiles, particularly Richard Alpert, duly note this. At some point in DHARMA's history, at least Jin and Daniel, and my guess Sawyer and Juliet and later on Jack, Kate and Hurley, become involved in the DHARMA Initiative via fun and wacky time travel. Daniel senses trouble and warns Dr. Chang about the Purge which will one day occur. Meanwhile, Ben falls in love with his childhood sweetheart Annie. As teenagers they do what teenagers do and it winds up getting her pregnant. Unfortunately, pregnant women are now dying on the island due to Ben: his paternally-inflicted guilt over his mother's death is now manifesting itself by killing all woman who conceive on the island. Ben does not know he is responsible for this. Annie dies, and Ben vows to reverse this fertility problem one day. It becomes an obsession.
Around 1984, for some reason Charles Widmore is forced to move the island, thusly resigning as the leader of the natives/Hostiles/Others. When he turns the wheel in the frozen chamber, a polar bear winds up going with him. Widmore will spend the next 20 years trying to find the island again. At some point, Eloise leaves as well. Perhaps she took Daniel and Charles took Penny, assuming they were entangled in that sense. After Widmore leaves, the natives need a new leader. Ben is in line but is too young, and the natives aren't interested in a Golden Child-type scenario. Who emerges as the leader? John Locke, again via fun and wacky time travel. Locke even gets to know young Ben, and eventually Resurrected and Much More Confident John Locke makes Ben an offer he can't refuse: you can be one of us, but only if you kill your father. Young Ben doesn't realize Locke is getting him back for what will one day happen many years down the line.
The island may have moved, but DHARMA still knows where it is via the Lamp Post and continues to drop supplies. By the early 90's, Charles Widmore has become a powerful billionaire and industrialist. He has formed the Widmore Corporation, and is using his considerable resources and global ties to locate the island. In particular, he intends to apprehend Ben, the young "special" boy he remembers from the island who he blames for his ousting. Widmore infiltrates the Hanso Foundation, which gives him access to the DHARMA Initiative, which will in turn help him find the island. Back on the island, Locke becomes aware of this, and he entices Ben to help him with the Purge. If Ben says no, he can warn his people. If he says yes, Ben's decision will betray everyone he has known. Ben agrees, and helps the natives infiltrate the Initiative and overthrow DHARMA. Almost everyone is killed with gas released via the Tempest, though some are shot and, per Locke's demand, Ben personally gasses his father to death. Ben's gesture has earned him a future with the island natives. He finally belongs.
2. THEORY ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE ISLAND
Through some more fun and wacky time travel, our key characters will all move through time yet again . . . this time into the future. Bye bye DHARMA, hello weird future. There will be a period of confusion because, this is just my guess, not everyone will be in the same time periods at the same time. Charles Widmore will finally get his wish and come to the island somewhere in the middle of all this, and I predict at least Desmond and maybe even Penny (assuming Ben didn't kill her) will arrive as well. So Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Juliet, Daniel, Locke, Ben, Charles and everyone else will all be thrust back into the same time period together. Hail hail the gang's all here. However, we now have Ben, Locke and Widmore all on the island at once, and each one of them thinks the island is rightfully theirs. Season six will be all about a battle between factions over who controls the island.
We'll get some new characters as well. I am guessing Aaron, Walt, Ji-Yeon, Clementine, Des and Penny's Charlie (if he doesn't come to the island with them) will all arrive on the island as adults for a little family reunion. Fate, or the island if that suits you better, isn't done with them. The importance of Aaron and Walt will come into play, Walt will get reunited with ghost Michael and finally forgive his dad, Claire can see Aaron again, and Jin and Sawyer will finally get to meet their respective daughters. Yay.
The island will go into meltdown, however, because all this key- and wheel-turning has made the island incredibly unstable. Cerberus/Jacob is going insane, and the properties of the island are getting more and more unpredictable. The island's volcano is reactivating because of this. Just as it wiped out the ancient Egyptians who once lived there, the volcano now threatens to not just destroy the island and everyone on it, but it will also further the meltdown of the island, which in turn will cause the apocalyptic event predicted by Valenzetti. The only way to stop the island from the process of melting down is a preemptive strike: to destroy the island in one swift blow. Enter Jughead, our favorite hydrogen bomb.
What will our characters do? I am thinking of a couple different endings for the series. In one, I could see the characters being kind of stuck in a time loop, where they've been through this before and are doing it all again. Each time, events progress in a slightly different fashion. Perhaps Ben and Charles seem to know everything because they've lived through all of these events before, they're just aware of it when everyone else is not. In that event, I would guess the final shot of the series would be Jack opening his eye at the beginning of the pilot.
Another weird idea I have for the ending of the series is, what if the entire series is a type of course correction? What if the plane found in the Indian Ocean is not a fake but the end result of what was supposed to happen in the first place? Maybe that's not Seth Norris in the pilot's seat because it's . . . Frank. One thing I love about time travel stories is they allow for insane ideas like this.
One more idea . . .
3. THEORY ABOUT THE ELECTROMAGNETIC POCKET IN LOS ANGELES
One thing I've always wondered is how the island communicates with people even when they're not longer near it. I find it interesting that Hurley, Jack and Kate all had weird hallucinatory experiences where the island beckons them to come back, and they are all located in LA when those experiences happen. If these electromagnetic anomalies connect to each other and form a webwork which interacts with the island, could the island continue to communicate with you if you were in close proximity to any of these "portals"?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
WRONG
Okay, so my current blog tradition is to just name my posts after whatever song is stuck in my head, which at the moment would be Depeche Mode's awesome new single "Wrong". If I had the internet at my apartment I would so download it from iTunes. But I don't. Which is also why I am not updating this blog from my apartment, either.
Anyway, I meant to update after "316" but it might be better that I'm updating after seeing both new episodes, since they were a bit of a dynamic duo. Where to start? Again, I'll just list my observations and thoughts . . .
- Well, not to gloat, but I was right about a lot of things in my last post. I'm only excited because I am very rarely ever verging on 100%, but this one time I touched the stars! (Jesus, I need a life). One thing I was happy about is that Ms. Hawking finally confirmed that there are electromagnetic anomalies all over the world, and they can connect to the island. This not only explains the location in Tunisia, but possibly also Ayers' Rock in Australia, the Sunda Trench, and perhaps other places as well (apparently there is one in LA, since the Lamp Post was built above a pocket of such energy).
- We get a new DHARMA station! The existence of the Lamp Post, plus the info shared by Ms. Hawking, fills in a lot of gaps. Magnus Hanso must have wrecked on the island, disappearing completely along with the rest of the Black Rock, and then Alvar either knew about the island because of his ancestor's disappearance or through his military connections. Then Hanso must've hired the unidentified scientist who built the Lamp Post. Who do you think it was? I wonder if this person's identity will be revealed later this season, or if it's even relevant at all. Update: I think it was Dr. Pierre Chang. He taught at the same university as the DeGroots and Hanso would've met him through them.
- The return of Frank was one of the best moments in the entire series. It made so much sense, and it actually gave me chills. He was almost the pilot of 815, and now he's the pilot of 316. Too cool. I also loved it when he asked, "We're not going to Guam, are we?" I love Frank's everyman, "oh shit" type of attitude.
- I dug all the parallels between 815 and 316: Jack has to clear the coffin at the check-in counter, first his father and now Locke; Sun shows up behind Jack at the check-in counter . . . the first time she had to choose whether or not to leave Jin, this time whether or not to go back to the island, and both times she chooses her husband; Hurley brings a guitar in honor of Charlie; Sayid is escorted onto the plane in the same way as Kate was by the Marshal; Locke experiences a rebirth after the crash, etc.
- A lot of material has been left for future flashbacks. What did Kate do with Aaron? What made Hurley change his mind? Why is Ilana escorting Sayid onto the plane? As for the first question, I am guessing Kate leaves Aaron with Cassidy. Everyone and their mother has figured out that Sawyer's favor was for Kate to visit Clementine, and we all know she did and reconnected with Cassidy. I think Cassidy becomes Kate's one real friend, and that Cassidy is the only person in the world who Kate would trust with Aaron.
- So the new characters are Caesar and Ilana. Caesar was curiously searching through the office on Hydra island, as if he was looking for something specifically. Okay, are these two just people who happen to have survived a plane crash, or were they on that plane because they knew it would crash on this island? I find the idea that at least one of them is some type of spy to be very possible. On that note, was there a spy on 815? Could that have been the reason Nathan was "not a good person," because he was there for Widmore?
- Another thing waiting to be addressed via flashback is what Ben's "favor" was for his old friend? I think it's fairly certain that this was his attempt to make good on his promise to Charles Widmore to snuff Penelope. Ben's beaten and bloody appearance at the docks is extremely alarming in this regard. So, did he kill Penny? If he did, I think most people will never like Benjamin again (I know, I know, I'll get to what he did to Locke in a minute). He will seem pretty irredeemable at that point. But it could also be a misdirect. For instance, what if he went to Des and Penny's boat, and fought some of Widmore's people (does Charles truly not know where his daughter is?), and perhaps created a situation where it would look like Penny had been killed. That way, Penny and Des would genuinely be free of her father--until their houseboat winds up on the island, right? Think about it: Ben's goal is not to hurt Penny, it's to hurt Charles. I could see Ben delighting in making Widmore think his daughter was dead. It's a very Ben thing to do. Or maybe Ben just kills her. That also seems like a Ben thing to do.
- Locke's resurrection is all kinds of spooky. I like how they mentioned he was standing in the water in his suit, just like Jack's dad in "White Rabbit". However, there are some differences between Locke and Christian. Jack's father appears often in ghostly situations where only certain people can see him, and he can disappear as suddenly as he can appear, and we truthfully have no concrete evidence that he is ever actually physically "there" (just like with Yemi). However, Locke is not some apparition or spectre or projection of the island . . . he is very clearly brought back to life. Also, Christian seems to be Jacob's emissary. Such is not so far the case with resurrected Locke. I do think that this reborn John Locke is going to be somewhat different from the Locke we've known. Every season we see a new side to Locke's character, and I'm excited about the direction he'll take.
- "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" offered lots of new information. For the first time, Charles Widmore came off as likable. This worries me, because I can't bring myself to trust either Charles or Ben and whenever one of them is likable I can't help but feeling they're selling their latest pitch. We now know he was once the leader of the Others, which I think became a pretty likely scenario after his appearance in "Jughead". Ben and Locke and Charles all have an almost karmic connection, and I think this trio of characters will continue to intertwine. We also finally learned more about the mysterious Matthew Abaddon, whose number seemed to come up in the middle of the episode. However, I am fairly certain that we'll see him again in some fashion . . .
- RIP Helen. :(
- It's funny that in "There's No Place Like Home" everyone knew Locke was calling himself Jeremy Bentham, but he really didn't mention it to many people in the actual episode. I think this was because it would've gotten really old if he kept explaining to everyone that his codename is Jeremy Bentham.
- Locke's brief reunion with Jack was yet another terrific scene between the two characters. You could just see how Jack was a broken man, and Locke's words broke him further. But his observation about Locke was also true: Locke is a lonely old man desperate to believe his life has meaning. It's that wonderful mix of wise and gullible that has always defined Locke.
- Okay, onto the big moment, which would be Ben's murder of Locke. First of all, I think this was one of the best scenes of the show. Both Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson deserve some type of award for this scene, which had about a billion different emotional cues for their characters. I can't tell if this scene was meant to be ambiguous. Anytime Ben does anything it's hard not to think he has an ulterior motive, and this was no exception. Did he murder Locke because Locke mentioned Ms. Hawking? Did he murder Locke because he just wanted the satisfaction of finally taking Locke out of the equation? Did he murder Locke because he knew Locke was supposed to die and be resurrected, but that John also wasn't meant to take his own life? This could have been anything from revenge to an attempt to keep Locke on the right path. Ben is such a slippery little weasel it really is hard to know. Ben did seem to make a tremendous effort on keeping Locke's body preserved. If he did know Locke would be resurrected, then he also knows returning to the island won't make him leader of the Others. If he didn't know, then he just might get an ass-whuppin' from Mr. Locke.
- It was cool to revisit Hydra island. I think it's a neat touch having 316 not crash on the main island. Here's a big question: if the left behind characters are now back in the days of DHARMA, as Jack, Kate and Hurley also seem to be, then why is it that there is no one on Hydra island? Shouldn't DHARMA be, like, conducting experiments there and stuff? Why did Jack, Kate and Hurley disappear from the plane as it was crashing? I can't help but wonder if 316 has not gone to the same time period as the other characters, but has gone to a later time period. Now that would be wild.
Anyway, I meant to update after "316" but it might be better that I'm updating after seeing both new episodes, since they were a bit of a dynamic duo. Where to start? Again, I'll just list my observations and thoughts . . .
- Well, not to gloat, but I was right about a lot of things in my last post. I'm only excited because I am very rarely ever verging on 100%, but this one time I touched the stars! (Jesus, I need a life). One thing I was happy about is that Ms. Hawking finally confirmed that there are electromagnetic anomalies all over the world, and they can connect to the island. This not only explains the location in Tunisia, but possibly also Ayers' Rock in Australia, the Sunda Trench, and perhaps other places as well (apparently there is one in LA, since the Lamp Post was built above a pocket of such energy).
- We get a new DHARMA station! The existence of the Lamp Post, plus the info shared by Ms. Hawking, fills in a lot of gaps. Magnus Hanso must have wrecked on the island, disappearing completely along with the rest of the Black Rock, and then Alvar either knew about the island because of his ancestor's disappearance or through his military connections. Then Hanso must've hired the unidentified scientist who built the Lamp Post. Who do you think it was? I wonder if this person's identity will be revealed later this season, or if it's even relevant at all. Update: I think it was Dr. Pierre Chang. He taught at the same university as the DeGroots and Hanso would've met him through them.
- The return of Frank was one of the best moments in the entire series. It made so much sense, and it actually gave me chills. He was almost the pilot of 815, and now he's the pilot of 316. Too cool. I also loved it when he asked, "We're not going to Guam, are we?" I love Frank's everyman, "oh shit" type of attitude.
- I dug all the parallels between 815 and 316: Jack has to clear the coffin at the check-in counter, first his father and now Locke; Sun shows up behind Jack at the check-in counter . . . the first time she had to choose whether or not to leave Jin, this time whether or not to go back to the island, and both times she chooses her husband; Hurley brings a guitar in honor of Charlie; Sayid is escorted onto the plane in the same way as Kate was by the Marshal; Locke experiences a rebirth after the crash, etc.
- A lot of material has been left for future flashbacks. What did Kate do with Aaron? What made Hurley change his mind? Why is Ilana escorting Sayid onto the plane? As for the first question, I am guessing Kate leaves Aaron with Cassidy. Everyone and their mother has figured out that Sawyer's favor was for Kate to visit Clementine, and we all know she did and reconnected with Cassidy. I think Cassidy becomes Kate's one real friend, and that Cassidy is the only person in the world who Kate would trust with Aaron.
- So the new characters are Caesar and Ilana. Caesar was curiously searching through the office on Hydra island, as if he was looking for something specifically. Okay, are these two just people who happen to have survived a plane crash, or were they on that plane because they knew it would crash on this island? I find the idea that at least one of them is some type of spy to be very possible. On that note, was there a spy on 815? Could that have been the reason Nathan was "not a good person," because he was there for Widmore?
- Another thing waiting to be addressed via flashback is what Ben's "favor" was for his old friend? I think it's fairly certain that this was his attempt to make good on his promise to Charles Widmore to snuff Penelope. Ben's beaten and bloody appearance at the docks is extremely alarming in this regard. So, did he kill Penny? If he did, I think most people will never like Benjamin again (I know, I know, I'll get to what he did to Locke in a minute). He will seem pretty irredeemable at that point. But it could also be a misdirect. For instance, what if he went to Des and Penny's boat, and fought some of Widmore's people (does Charles truly not know where his daughter is?), and perhaps created a situation where it would look like Penny had been killed. That way, Penny and Des would genuinely be free of her father--until their houseboat winds up on the island, right? Think about it: Ben's goal is not to hurt Penny, it's to hurt Charles. I could see Ben delighting in making Widmore think his daughter was dead. It's a very Ben thing to do. Or maybe Ben just kills her. That also seems like a Ben thing to do.
- Locke's resurrection is all kinds of spooky. I like how they mentioned he was standing in the water in his suit, just like Jack's dad in "White Rabbit". However, there are some differences between Locke and Christian. Jack's father appears often in ghostly situations where only certain people can see him, and he can disappear as suddenly as he can appear, and we truthfully have no concrete evidence that he is ever actually physically "there" (just like with Yemi). However, Locke is not some apparition or spectre or projection of the island . . . he is very clearly brought back to life. Also, Christian seems to be Jacob's emissary. Such is not so far the case with resurrected Locke. I do think that this reborn John Locke is going to be somewhat different from the Locke we've known. Every season we see a new side to Locke's character, and I'm excited about the direction he'll take.
- "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" offered lots of new information. For the first time, Charles Widmore came off as likable. This worries me, because I can't bring myself to trust either Charles or Ben and whenever one of them is likable I can't help but feeling they're selling their latest pitch. We now know he was once the leader of the Others, which I think became a pretty likely scenario after his appearance in "Jughead". Ben and Locke and Charles all have an almost karmic connection, and I think this trio of characters will continue to intertwine. We also finally learned more about the mysterious Matthew Abaddon, whose number seemed to come up in the middle of the episode. However, I am fairly certain that we'll see him again in some fashion . . .
- RIP Helen. :(
- It's funny that in "There's No Place Like Home" everyone knew Locke was calling himself Jeremy Bentham, but he really didn't mention it to many people in the actual episode. I think this was because it would've gotten really old if he kept explaining to everyone that his codename is Jeremy Bentham.
- Locke's brief reunion with Jack was yet another terrific scene between the two characters. You could just see how Jack was a broken man, and Locke's words broke him further. But his observation about Locke was also true: Locke is a lonely old man desperate to believe his life has meaning. It's that wonderful mix of wise and gullible that has always defined Locke.
- Okay, onto the big moment, which would be Ben's murder of Locke. First of all, I think this was one of the best scenes of the show. Both Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson deserve some type of award for this scene, which had about a billion different emotional cues for their characters. I can't tell if this scene was meant to be ambiguous. Anytime Ben does anything it's hard not to think he has an ulterior motive, and this was no exception. Did he murder Locke because Locke mentioned Ms. Hawking? Did he murder Locke because he just wanted the satisfaction of finally taking Locke out of the equation? Did he murder Locke because he knew Locke was supposed to die and be resurrected, but that John also wasn't meant to take his own life? This could have been anything from revenge to an attempt to keep Locke on the right path. Ben is such a slippery little weasel it really is hard to know. Ben did seem to make a tremendous effort on keeping Locke's body preserved. If he did know Locke would be resurrected, then he also knows returning to the island won't make him leader of the Others. If he didn't know, then he just might get an ass-whuppin' from Mr. Locke.
- It was cool to revisit Hydra island. I think it's a neat touch having 316 not crash on the main island. Here's a big question: if the left behind characters are now back in the days of DHARMA, as Jack, Kate and Hurley also seem to be, then why is it that there is no one on Hydra island? Shouldn't DHARMA be, like, conducting experiments there and stuff? Why did Jack, Kate and Hurley disappear from the plane as it was crashing? I can't help but wonder if 316 has not gone to the same time period as the other characters, but has gone to a later time period. Now that would be wild.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
ARE WE HUMAN OR ARE WE DANCER?
Okay, the title has nothing to do with LOST. I just got the new Killers album and this is like the catchiest song ever. It makes me happy. Onto our favorite show! I hope everyone has been enjoying the new season. I for one am loving it. The time travel verges on corny at times, but in a good way. LOST is letting the sci-fi flag fly and having a damn good time doing so. I just hope the next time the characters jump through time, one of them goes "Oh boy!"
Looking over my list of theories from a few weeks ago, I was clearly right about a few things and wrong about a few others. Locke gets off the island by turning the wheel (though I still think he didn't blow up the freaking submarine; not sure why I am so convinced, but I am). Widmore was an Other . . . who saw that one coming??? I didn't until that episode, when I starting quietly hoping the snappy British guy would turn about to be Widmore.
Well, let me just list off a few theories and observations:
- Can you believe they offed Charlotte? What was that about? We barely got to know her. At least her death set up her eventual return as Young Charlotte, so her story will be told in some way, shape or form. I actually felt really bad for her near the end there. She was a mix of sad and creepy. Poor Daniel! Did anyone else feel like Charlotte's symptoms were eerily similar to what happened to Claire in "One Of Us"? I am wondering if Charlotte died sooner because she had one of these mysterious implants. Clearly they have something to do with the DHARMA Initiative and the vaccine. Since it looks like a given we'll be spending some time in the days of DHARMA, I hope this question gets answered.
- Rousseau! I was so happy to see all of those moments so cryptically mentioned by Danielle so many seasons ago finally come to fruition. We finally saw Montand lose his frickin arm! I find the idea that Robert, Brennan and LaCombe were changed in some negative way by venturing into Smokey's lair to be incredibly creepy. Kind of a scenario straight out of the THE THING. I wonder what it did to them. The part where Montand is kind of calmly convincing everyone to come help him was seriously spooky. One thing everyone is talking about has to do with whether Rousseau would remember Jin or not. I think that, at the moment, it's a moot point. The woman spent 16 years by herself on the island. She clearly went wacky and is a somewhat unreliable narrator. If the timeline is being changed, that's cool too, but right now I'm not too worried about it. Time travel obviously swiss cheese's people's brains (look at Daniel and his memory loss). The actress who plays young Rousseau is quite cute too. I feel bad knowing what's gonna happen to her.
- I am nervous about the introduction of Jughead into the story. LOST is not a show where you introduce something like a hydrogen bomb and then forget about it. So there is now a hydrogen bomb, a volcano, and a time-warping electromagnetic anomaly which could theoretically destroy the planet, all on the island. Why do I see a bad moon rising?
- Okay, so Daniel's mom is none other than Ms. Eloise Hawking. I think most of us figured that out after the first two episodes but it was still a cool reveal. I notice a lot of people think that the girl Ellie who was with the Others in the 50's is a young Ms. Hawking. Well let's see, Ellie can be a nickname for Eloise, they both know Charles Widmore, they're both British, they both know all about the island, and Daniel told Ellie he recognized her. Yeah, I'm pretty much thinking that was Daniel's mom. I'll go one further and speculate that Charles Widmore just might be Daniel's father, though I think Daniel might be unaware of it. We know Charlotte was born on the island, and a lot of folks are suggesting Miles is Dr. Pierre Chang's son and was born on the island as well (and the show is clearly implying Miles has been to the island before). That's two out of three. Daniel might as well have born there too. That would make it clear why Widmore insisted on those three people comprising his science team, and why Widmore has been supporting Daniel's research.
- Loved the Ana Lucia cameo. Speaking of the tail section, the producers have said that they want to tell Libby's story, but that it's "contingent on factors beyond our control." I am assuming they mean they only have a small window to tell that story now, and if they miss it because Cynthia Watros is unavailable, Libby will be one mystery left open by series end. I just hope their time window is more than 70 hours.
- Alright, why wouldn't Jack's dad help Locke to his feet? I can only think of two reasons. The first is that Jacob won't help Locke because Locke needs to find his own strength. Kind of an Ayn Rand version of Yoda. The other is that Jacob/Christian can't help Locke, because in some sense he is there but in another sense he's not. I mean, we know the island projects images into people's minds at times. Maybe that's what is happening in that scene, and therefore Christian cannot physically interact with anything. Maybe the lantern and all of that wasn't really there. Just a thought.
- So it looks like Ben moving the island caused the wheel to slip off its axis, henceforth causing the characters to be unstuck in time. Methinks the island has stabilized and returned to the days of DHARMA.
- I have a theory about how the characters will return to the island: they have to crash there. I'm thinking they have to board Ajira Airways flight 316 (which is the title of the next episode) because it is going to crash. We've already seen Ajira Air water bottles, so I think this holds water. Bing! Why, let's not forget the Sunda Trench in the Indian Ocean has a weird electromagnetic anomaly. A connection to the island, perhaps? And yes, I still do suspect the wreckage of 815 is not a hoax but an artifact from a seriously screwy timeline. The characters who survived the crash were given a second chance at life, because in another way they all died (Jack even says "Three days ago we all died" early in season one). Another freaky thing that's crossed my mind is that Jack's dad was in a coffin on 815; this means that Locke would be in a coffin on 316. If he is resurrected, will he become the new Christian Shephard?
- I am also thinking that if Locke comes back, he is not going to be the same person. I strongly suspect he will take on a more antagonistic role, at least for a while. I am definitely still leaning toward the idea that he authorizes the Purge. If the remaining 815ers wind up taking shelter with DHARMA or are at least not part of the Others, this means Locke will decide to kill his friends. And under the right circumstances, I can absolutely see him doing that.
- And speaking of the number 316 (which also references John 3:16, the famous Bible passage), we've seen an awful lot of variations of the number 3 the last few years. Michal gets 3 minutes with Walt, Ben gets 3 with Juliet, Juliet and Desmond have both been on the island for 3 years when we first meet them, Clementine is 3 years old when the plane crashes, Ji-Yeon and Aaron are 3 now, the Oceanic Six have been away for 3 years, there were 324 people on flight 815, the compass bearings 305 and 325 get you away from the island, Eko had John 3:05 on his stick, etc. Six has recurred: the Oceanic Six, the six official DHARMA stations, there are six of the Numbers. There are other numbers as well. The plane crashed on September 22, there is the episode "Catch-22," the number 22 is stamped on the toilet in the Pearl. The plane was a Boeing 777, and on the 77th day on the island, Locke entered 77 at the Flame. And let's not forget Ben was born 32 miles from Portland, and Miles demanded 3.2 million dollars. 3, 6, 22, 32, 77 anyone?
- When and if the characters get back, my guess is that we now have a lot of material for more traditional flashbacks as well as more flashforwards and time travel. The writers very smartly left most of the three years the Oceanic 6 spent off the island untold, so that creates lots of interesting stories to tell.
- What will happen with Aaron after Kate leaves? Does anyone else suspect that adult Aaron, Ji-Yeon, Walt and maybe even Clementine and Charlie will be playing a role in the series at some point? With the time travel it's a complete possibility, and we know that Aaron and Walt are important. All of these children seem to have been introduced for a reason.
- Cerberus. While I do believe in a supernatural aspect to LOST (for instance I think the ghosts that Miles can communicate with are quite real), I still lean towards the black smoke monster being some type of technology. I think we have three possibilities for where it came from: the ancient Egyptians, scientists from the future, or aliens. I've been rambling on about option #2 for two years now, and lately have been very open to #3. I am a little iffy on #1, but it does seem to be a possibility raised by the series. I'd like to clarify that if it does turn out to be aliens, I don't think we will see them or anything like that. I am thinking they left this technology behind thousands of years ago and are long gone. Think of TOTAL RECALL. Sort of like that.
- Desmond's whereabouts are now known to Ben, which means he can find Penny easily. Let's not forget what Ben promised Charles Widmore last season.
Okay, those are my thoughts for the time being. Here's looking to "316" this week!
Looking over my list of theories from a few weeks ago, I was clearly right about a few things and wrong about a few others. Locke gets off the island by turning the wheel (though I still think he didn't blow up the freaking submarine; not sure why I am so convinced, but I am). Widmore was an Other . . . who saw that one coming??? I didn't until that episode, when I starting quietly hoping the snappy British guy would turn about to be Widmore.
Well, let me just list off a few theories and observations:
- Can you believe they offed Charlotte? What was that about? We barely got to know her. At least her death set up her eventual return as Young Charlotte, so her story will be told in some way, shape or form. I actually felt really bad for her near the end there. She was a mix of sad and creepy. Poor Daniel! Did anyone else feel like Charlotte's symptoms were eerily similar to what happened to Claire in "One Of Us"? I am wondering if Charlotte died sooner because she had one of these mysterious implants. Clearly they have something to do with the DHARMA Initiative and the vaccine. Since it looks like a given we'll be spending some time in the days of DHARMA, I hope this question gets answered.
- Rousseau! I was so happy to see all of those moments so cryptically mentioned by Danielle so many seasons ago finally come to fruition. We finally saw Montand lose his frickin arm! I find the idea that Robert, Brennan and LaCombe were changed in some negative way by venturing into Smokey's lair to be incredibly creepy. Kind of a scenario straight out of the THE THING. I wonder what it did to them. The part where Montand is kind of calmly convincing everyone to come help him was seriously spooky. One thing everyone is talking about has to do with whether Rousseau would remember Jin or not. I think that, at the moment, it's a moot point. The woman spent 16 years by herself on the island. She clearly went wacky and is a somewhat unreliable narrator. If the timeline is being changed, that's cool too, but right now I'm not too worried about it. Time travel obviously swiss cheese's people's brains (look at Daniel and his memory loss). The actress who plays young Rousseau is quite cute too. I feel bad knowing what's gonna happen to her.
- I am nervous about the introduction of Jughead into the story. LOST is not a show where you introduce something like a hydrogen bomb and then forget about it. So there is now a hydrogen bomb, a volcano, and a time-warping electromagnetic anomaly which could theoretically destroy the planet, all on the island. Why do I see a bad moon rising?
- Okay, so Daniel's mom is none other than Ms. Eloise Hawking. I think most of us figured that out after the first two episodes but it was still a cool reveal. I notice a lot of people think that the girl Ellie who was with the Others in the 50's is a young Ms. Hawking. Well let's see, Ellie can be a nickname for Eloise, they both know Charles Widmore, they're both British, they both know all about the island, and Daniel told Ellie he recognized her. Yeah, I'm pretty much thinking that was Daniel's mom. I'll go one further and speculate that Charles Widmore just might be Daniel's father, though I think Daniel might be unaware of it. We know Charlotte was born on the island, and a lot of folks are suggesting Miles is Dr. Pierre Chang's son and was born on the island as well (and the show is clearly implying Miles has been to the island before). That's two out of three. Daniel might as well have born there too. That would make it clear why Widmore insisted on those three people comprising his science team, and why Widmore has been supporting Daniel's research.
- Loved the Ana Lucia cameo. Speaking of the tail section, the producers have said that they want to tell Libby's story, but that it's "contingent on factors beyond our control." I am assuming they mean they only have a small window to tell that story now, and if they miss it because Cynthia Watros is unavailable, Libby will be one mystery left open by series end. I just hope their time window is more than 70 hours.
- Alright, why wouldn't Jack's dad help Locke to his feet? I can only think of two reasons. The first is that Jacob won't help Locke because Locke needs to find his own strength. Kind of an Ayn Rand version of Yoda. The other is that Jacob/Christian can't help Locke, because in some sense he is there but in another sense he's not. I mean, we know the island projects images into people's minds at times. Maybe that's what is happening in that scene, and therefore Christian cannot physically interact with anything. Maybe the lantern and all of that wasn't really there. Just a thought.
- So it looks like Ben moving the island caused the wheel to slip off its axis, henceforth causing the characters to be unstuck in time. Methinks the island has stabilized and returned to the days of DHARMA.
- I have a theory about how the characters will return to the island: they have to crash there. I'm thinking they have to board Ajira Airways flight 316 (which is the title of the next episode) because it is going to crash. We've already seen Ajira Air water bottles, so I think this holds water. Bing! Why, let's not forget the Sunda Trench in the Indian Ocean has a weird electromagnetic anomaly. A connection to the island, perhaps? And yes, I still do suspect the wreckage of 815 is not a hoax but an artifact from a seriously screwy timeline. The characters who survived the crash were given a second chance at life, because in another way they all died (Jack even says "Three days ago we all died" early in season one). Another freaky thing that's crossed my mind is that Jack's dad was in a coffin on 815; this means that Locke would be in a coffin on 316. If he is resurrected, will he become the new Christian Shephard?
- I am also thinking that if Locke comes back, he is not going to be the same person. I strongly suspect he will take on a more antagonistic role, at least for a while. I am definitely still leaning toward the idea that he authorizes the Purge. If the remaining 815ers wind up taking shelter with DHARMA or are at least not part of the Others, this means Locke will decide to kill his friends. And under the right circumstances, I can absolutely see him doing that.
- And speaking of the number 316 (which also references John 3:16, the famous Bible passage), we've seen an awful lot of variations of the number 3 the last few years. Michal gets 3 minutes with Walt, Ben gets 3 with Juliet, Juliet and Desmond have both been on the island for 3 years when we first meet them, Clementine is 3 years old when the plane crashes, Ji-Yeon and Aaron are 3 now, the Oceanic Six have been away for 3 years, there were 324 people on flight 815, the compass bearings 305 and 325 get you away from the island, Eko had John 3:05 on his stick, etc. Six has recurred: the Oceanic Six, the six official DHARMA stations, there are six of the Numbers. There are other numbers as well. The plane crashed on September 22, there is the episode "Catch-22," the number 22 is stamped on the toilet in the Pearl. The plane was a Boeing 777, and on the 77th day on the island, Locke entered 77 at the Flame. And let's not forget Ben was born 32 miles from Portland, and Miles demanded 3.2 million dollars. 3, 6, 22, 32, 77 anyone?
- When and if the characters get back, my guess is that we now have a lot of material for more traditional flashbacks as well as more flashforwards and time travel. The writers very smartly left most of the three years the Oceanic 6 spent off the island untold, so that creates lots of interesting stories to tell.
- What will happen with Aaron after Kate leaves? Does anyone else suspect that adult Aaron, Ji-Yeon, Walt and maybe even Clementine and Charlie will be playing a role in the series at some point? With the time travel it's a complete possibility, and we know that Aaron and Walt are important. All of these children seem to have been introduced for a reason.
- Cerberus. While I do believe in a supernatural aspect to LOST (for instance I think the ghosts that Miles can communicate with are quite real), I still lean towards the black smoke monster being some type of technology. I think we have three possibilities for where it came from: the ancient Egyptians, scientists from the future, or aliens. I've been rambling on about option #2 for two years now, and lately have been very open to #3. I am a little iffy on #1, but it does seem to be a possibility raised by the series. I'd like to clarify that if it does turn out to be aliens, I don't think we will see them or anything like that. I am thinking they left this technology behind thousands of years ago and are long gone. Think of TOTAL RECALL. Sort of like that.
- Desmond's whereabouts are now known to Ben, which means he can find Penny easily. Let's not forget what Ben promised Charles Widmore last season.
Okay, those are my thoughts for the time being. Here's looking to "316" this week!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
SEASON PREMIERE
Well, a little less than a week until the first two episodes of season five are aired back to back. Who's excited? This new season looks to be a real mind blower. With the approaching new episodes, I'd like to offer a few theories (not necessarily about these two episodes in particular but the show in general) . . .
1. BEN AND WIDMORE HAVE A BIG MISUNDERSTANDING. Maybe neither Ben nor Widmore are necessarily the bad guys, maybe they just resort to villainous actions because each perceives the other as a threat. We don't really know that Widmore told Keamy to kill Alex; Keamy could just as likely have been suffering from the cabin fever that was affecting all the crew of the Kahana, or he could have just been a sonofabitch in general. They each seem 100% convinced the other staged the 815 wreckage, but the wreckage is in a place with the same weird type of electromagnetism that we've seen on the island. Coincidence? I bet when we understand the actual relationship between Ben and Charles, the concept of one of them being the Bad Guy might change quite a bit.
2. LOCKE INITIATES THE PURGE. I'm betting that when the island moved, it moved through time and possibly even space to another location. The ComiCon video with Dr. Pierre Chang all but announces that our characters will meet the DHARMA Initiative face-to-face (though I don't know if all island time travel wackiness would exclusively show us DHARMA, since there are so many other eras of island history we need to see) and warn at least the one-armed doctor about what was to come. I am betting that if Locke really does remain the leader of the Others (if he is in fact their leader), it will be his decision to wipe out DHARMA. In "Cabin Fever," Ben insisted he didn't initiate the Purge:
BEN: It wasn't my decision.
HURLEY: Then whose was it?
BEN: Their leader's.
HURLEY: I thought you were their leader.
BEN (looking down in the pit at Locke): Not always.
I at first assumed he was talking about Jacob but more and more I am thinking Locke. It would make a lot of sense, especially considering Ben seems to know in advance how badly Locke is going to mess things up.
3. FARADAY IS THE PERSON BEHIND THE CAMERA IN THE PIERRE CHANG VIDEO. If what I suggested in the previous paragraph is true, I'm guessing it's Daniel that would try to warn Chang about the Purge. After all, they're both physicists, and I bet Daniel has a very scientific understanding of how the island works. Chang would trust him. I'm at a loss, however, as to the identity of the crying baby in the video, though my guess would be baby Alex. Don't ask me to explain how in the hell it could possibly be Alex, though. My mind might melt.
4. WE WILL SEE ROUSSEAU'S STORY NON-FLASHBACK. If the above theory is true, we'll probably get to see Rousseau's tale firsthand through the main characters, or at least see it as a present-tense tale as opposed to flashback. I am guessing all time periods are going to become present-tense, since we're playing around so much with time. I bet Rousseau and her team were studying the island's properties, possibly for Widmore, when everyone began to go mad due to the side effects of time travel (just like Minkowski). This would explain Rousseau's kookiness and paranoia.
5. SAWYER'S FAVOR IS FOR KATE TO VISIT CLEMENTINE. I think this one's a no-brainer. And imagine the look on Kate and Cassidy's faces when they recognize each other. Probably will be as good as when Jack realized Claire was his half-sister.
6. THERE IS STILL "OCEANIC 6" MATERIAL TO BE COVERED. I wouldn't assume the days of last year's flashforwards are entirely replaced with the days of "we have to go back." There's a bunch of stuff still to see . . . Kate visiting Clementine, Locke visiting the gang as Bentham, Sayid's adventures working for Ben, Jack's troubled past (note that Sarah asks him "Are you drinking again?" in the third season finale, indicating he's been through a fair amount of stuff we haven't seen). I'm eager to see some of those blanks get filled.
7. LOCKE USED THE SUBMARINE TO GET OFF THE ISLAND. I am almost 100% certain that Locke did not actually blow up the submarine. Like a lot of folks, I think he hid it somewhere and merely blew up the dock, saving the sub for a time when he or someone else would really need it. Well, considering he swore he'd never leave the island and then he left to beg Jack and the rest to come back, I'm thinking the sub would've come in handy for that.
8. MATTHEW ABADDON IS THE RICHARD ALPERT OF WIDMORE'S PEOPLE. I don't think this is really news, but I thought it would be worth mentioning anyway. My guess is that during Abaddon's walkabout in the outback, he went to Ayers' Rock (where Bernard took Rose to be healed) and either found a door to the island or was at least affected by its properties. I think he is desperate to find the island because it so profoundly changed him, and this is why he is working with Widmore. On the other hand, Alpert seems awfully manipulative in some ways. Is Abaddon blindly loyal to Widmore or does he have his own agenda?
9. DESMOND IS STILL UNSTUCK IN TIME. Does anyone really believe that just because Desmond found his constant that his time traveling abilities are kaput? The man has relived his past and seen the future, not to mention that in "Catch-22" there were more blackout periods suggested than what we've seen so far in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "The Constant." I don't think being away from the island will prevent Desmond from stepping outside of time. (And remember he had water in his lungs and almost drowned in the finale. His time traveling abilities tend to emerge and disappear based on severe traumas).
10. SAWYER IS THE LEADER OF THE 815ERS. Come on. This seed was planted in "Left Behind" and they've been moving towards it ever since. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Juliet let go of Jack and Sawyer let go of Kate and we saw some Juliet-Sawyer action. Imagine if the O6 come back and find out that, gee, everyone's moved on in life. That would be a moment of drama that I would love to see.
Well, enjoy the premiere! I am so confused by things that I've heard that I pretty much can't make sense of anything, so I'm eager to see just what actually goes down this season.
1. BEN AND WIDMORE HAVE A BIG MISUNDERSTANDING. Maybe neither Ben nor Widmore are necessarily the bad guys, maybe they just resort to villainous actions because each perceives the other as a threat. We don't really know that Widmore told Keamy to kill Alex; Keamy could just as likely have been suffering from the cabin fever that was affecting all the crew of the Kahana, or he could have just been a sonofabitch in general. They each seem 100% convinced the other staged the 815 wreckage, but the wreckage is in a place with the same weird type of electromagnetism that we've seen on the island. Coincidence? I bet when we understand the actual relationship between Ben and Charles, the concept of one of them being the Bad Guy might change quite a bit.
2. LOCKE INITIATES THE PURGE. I'm betting that when the island moved, it moved through time and possibly even space to another location. The ComiCon video with Dr. Pierre Chang all but announces that our characters will meet the DHARMA Initiative face-to-face (though I don't know if all island time travel wackiness would exclusively show us DHARMA, since there are so many other eras of island history we need to see) and warn at least the one-armed doctor about what was to come. I am betting that if Locke really does remain the leader of the Others (if he is in fact their leader), it will be his decision to wipe out DHARMA. In "Cabin Fever," Ben insisted he didn't initiate the Purge:
BEN: It wasn't my decision.
HURLEY: Then whose was it?
BEN: Their leader's.
HURLEY: I thought you were their leader.
BEN (looking down in the pit at Locke): Not always.
I at first assumed he was talking about Jacob but more and more I am thinking Locke. It would make a lot of sense, especially considering Ben seems to know in advance how badly Locke is going to mess things up.
3. FARADAY IS THE PERSON BEHIND THE CAMERA IN THE PIERRE CHANG VIDEO. If what I suggested in the previous paragraph is true, I'm guessing it's Daniel that would try to warn Chang about the Purge. After all, they're both physicists, and I bet Daniel has a very scientific understanding of how the island works. Chang would trust him. I'm at a loss, however, as to the identity of the crying baby in the video, though my guess would be baby Alex. Don't ask me to explain how in the hell it could possibly be Alex, though. My mind might melt.
4. WE WILL SEE ROUSSEAU'S STORY NON-FLASHBACK. If the above theory is true, we'll probably get to see Rousseau's tale firsthand through the main characters, or at least see it as a present-tense tale as opposed to flashback. I am guessing all time periods are going to become present-tense, since we're playing around so much with time. I bet Rousseau and her team were studying the island's properties, possibly for Widmore, when everyone began to go mad due to the side effects of time travel (just like Minkowski). This would explain Rousseau's kookiness and paranoia.
5. SAWYER'S FAVOR IS FOR KATE TO VISIT CLEMENTINE. I think this one's a no-brainer. And imagine the look on Kate and Cassidy's faces when they recognize each other. Probably will be as good as when Jack realized Claire was his half-sister.
6. THERE IS STILL "OCEANIC 6" MATERIAL TO BE COVERED. I wouldn't assume the days of last year's flashforwards are entirely replaced with the days of "we have to go back." There's a bunch of stuff still to see . . . Kate visiting Clementine, Locke visiting the gang as Bentham, Sayid's adventures working for Ben, Jack's troubled past (note that Sarah asks him "Are you drinking again?" in the third season finale, indicating he's been through a fair amount of stuff we haven't seen). I'm eager to see some of those blanks get filled.
7. LOCKE USED THE SUBMARINE TO GET OFF THE ISLAND. I am almost 100% certain that Locke did not actually blow up the submarine. Like a lot of folks, I think he hid it somewhere and merely blew up the dock, saving the sub for a time when he or someone else would really need it. Well, considering he swore he'd never leave the island and then he left to beg Jack and the rest to come back, I'm thinking the sub would've come in handy for that.
8. MATTHEW ABADDON IS THE RICHARD ALPERT OF WIDMORE'S PEOPLE. I don't think this is really news, but I thought it would be worth mentioning anyway. My guess is that during Abaddon's walkabout in the outback, he went to Ayers' Rock (where Bernard took Rose to be healed) and either found a door to the island or was at least affected by its properties. I think he is desperate to find the island because it so profoundly changed him, and this is why he is working with Widmore. On the other hand, Alpert seems awfully manipulative in some ways. Is Abaddon blindly loyal to Widmore or does he have his own agenda?
9. DESMOND IS STILL UNSTUCK IN TIME. Does anyone really believe that just because Desmond found his constant that his time traveling abilities are kaput? The man has relived his past and seen the future, not to mention that in "Catch-22" there were more blackout periods suggested than what we've seen so far in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "The Constant." I don't think being away from the island will prevent Desmond from stepping outside of time. (And remember he had water in his lungs and almost drowned in the finale. His time traveling abilities tend to emerge and disappear based on severe traumas).
10. SAWYER IS THE LEADER OF THE 815ERS. Come on. This seed was planted in "Left Behind" and they've been moving towards it ever since. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Juliet let go of Jack and Sawyer let go of Kate and we saw some Juliet-Sawyer action. Imagine if the O6 come back and find out that, gee, everyone's moved on in life. That would be a moment of drama that I would love to see.
Well, enjoy the premiere! I am so confused by things that I've heard that I pretty much can't make sense of anything, so I'm eager to see just what actually goes down this season.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
I HAVE RETURNED FROM THE ISLAND
Hello, whoever may still read this blog. It's been so long that the answer to that question might very well be "nobody," but if anyone is still visiting I apologize for the lack of posts. See my previous entry for the rundown of various obstacles that rendered blogging about LOST not very high on the To Do List. While I am still without a car and living in a neighborhood that gets exponentially more dangerous by the hour, things are actually working out quite well. I've been employed for the last two months with my new job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car (yes it's true, I work for a company that deals exclusively in cars and yet I have to take the bus. Go figure), and for once I can say that I'm not in danger of being evicted! Ha.
Now onto our favorite topic, that little show that goes by the name of LOST. With the imminent release of season four on DVD and season five on TV, naturally I've been in full-on LOST mode lately. I am especially excited to see season four in color, since I watched most of it on a crappy little black and white television with bad reception. But anyway, I'd like to use this opportunity to offer some potentially bad LOST-related news, a new theory, and a discussion about the most recent trailer for season five.
First off, the bad news. This has already sent waves of discontent through online LOST fandom. In a recent roundtable discussion to promote the upcoming DVD for season four, Carlton Cuse is asked a question about whether we'll get to see more of Rousseau, Walt and Libby. Cuse goes on to say that although we'll be getting more of Walt and Rousseau (remember we still have to see her backstory), he considers Libby's story "pretty much told." Um. Uh. Huh? When? When was her story told? Was there some mini-season that I missed? I'm sorry. Although I normally defend the writers of LOST and give them the benefit of the doubt, I am gonna go ahead and call absolute bullshit on that one (pardonnez mon francais). I mean seriously, I hope he made that comment because he was having a stroke at that particular moment, because otherwise I am not happy about this one.
You see, it would be one thing if they had said, "Yeah, you know, we couldn't come up with a good story for Libby, so we wrote her off." But that's not the case. First of all, there are the tantalizing hints dropped throughout the second season: Why was she in a mental institution? Why did she just happen to be there to give Desmond that boat? What happened to her husband exactly? Is she lying about her past and identity? At the end of season two, the writers promised we'd get to see her story. At the time, they indicated it would be told through someone else's flashback. Now, while at first they said we just need to see why Libby was at Santa Rosa and what happened between then and when she met Desmond, by the end of 2006 they were saying that Libby plays a bigger role in the overall picture of LOST than any of us could possibly expect. Wow, I thought, this is gonna be awesome. Season three goes by, no Libby flashback. Okay, fair enough. There was a bit too much going on in season three to really fit in a Libby flashback. That summer, Damon Lindelof mentions that the theory of Libby working for DHARMA is "not barking up the wrong tree."
Then it's announced Cynthia Watros will be back for multiple episodes in season four. Everyone gets very excited, only for the writers' strike to kill that plan and reduce her return to a brief ghostly cameo in "Meet Kevin Johnson." Well fine, that wasn't anybody's fault. But then we have Mr. Cuse here saying Libby's story is told, so don't worry about it. Sorry but that's like the lamest thing to pull on fans who've been waiting to see this much-ballyhooed backstory for Libby. You can't promise that kind of thing and then take such a bold-faced 180. My hope is that the writers do have a plan for Libby (possibly they've already filmed it, who knows), they just don't want to give anything away because it's coming up. That's my hope. I would hate to see them do such a disservice to the character of Libby (and to Cynthia Watros). It's unlike the writers of LOST to take the easy way out, so let's hope they don't. They can get away with not answering minuscule stuff like who built the bridge seen in "Numbers" or what's up with the Hurley bird or why Jack can't stop nodding whenever he speaks, but not explaining just what the hell is going on with Libby is a big old cheat in my book.
Okay, that's my rant. Back to loving LOST. So, I promised a new theory back in the spring, and it's one I've continued to advance since then. I'm going to start off by saying one word. Okay, are you ready? Aliens. Wait, wait, come back! Don't go yet. I promise, I'm not going to start going on about the Others coming from outer space and Walt being an alien-human hybrid bred by the Cigarette-Smoking Man and Charles Widmore. Trust me, I'm remaining grounded on this one, and by no means am I saying I definitively believe in this idea. Just hear me out . . .
I've already done a lot of theorizing about how the island/Cerberus/Jacob is some type of system combining electromagnetism and parapsychological principles--essentially, the system is a kind of neural network that acts as the "brain" of the island, which in a sense gives it a consciousness. I'm suspecting that after so many years of collecting/downloading thoughts and memories, the system itself developed a personality called Jacob and began believing itself to be a godlike being and forgetting or ignoring its technological roots. The only question is who built it. An ancient culture like the Egyptians? DHARMA? Time-traveling scientists from the future? Well, what about extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings? What if the weird symbol the Others use is actually a glyph from an alien alphabet? (It seems weirdly similar to the symbol from the UMMO hoax). What if these beings used a numerical system where 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 and 108 were core numbers in their technology? That would explain why the island seems to "emanate" these numbers.
Now, I'm not saying we'll be seeing UFO's flying around and little grey people arriving CLOSE ENCOUNTERS-style (though I'm hoping most people caught the CE3K shout-out during Charlotte's flashback in "Confirmed Dead"). I'm talking an ancient race of visitors who are long-gone and left behind this weird technology, a la TOTAL RECALL. Think about it: one theme of LOST is how we attribute spiritual/mystical properties to things we don't understand, when there are in fact more pragmatic explanations. That doesn't mean there are no spiritual or mystical aspects to be had, it's just that not every event falls under one category. Of course, aliens aren't exactly a "pragmatic explanation" in real life, but this is LOST we're talking about here, and the show has pretty firmly announced we are in the Land of Science Fiction. We have psychic clouds of black smoke and teleporting polar bears in Africa and time traveling bunnies and tropical islands which can be moved by turning a wheel in a frozen chamber. I don't think aliens are particularly far-fetched in this regard.
What exactly has made me start thinking of an alien origin? Well, the show is getting increasingly nuts, so some outlandish theories are proving not quite so outlandish any longer. And let's look at some of LOST's inspirations. We have SOLARIS, first the novel by Stanislav Lem and then the movies by Andrei Tarkovsky and Steven Soderbergh, respectively. The story concerns an alien organism which appears as a giant green ocean. This ocean planet is a living thing which contains a consciousness. It can read minds and take the form of people and places from the memories it collects. The story raises questions about man facing the unknown as well as the parallel between alien life and God. I don't think I need to mention the connection to LOST.
Then look at the book ROADSIDE PICNIC by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, also adapted by Tarkovsky into a film entitled STALKER. The story tells of places called Zones, regions where alien technology left behind many years before has created distortions in the spacetime continuum. The rules of time, space, the weather, geography are all bent by these alien artifacts. The most significant Zone, known as the Golden Sphere, can supposedly fulfill any human wish. In the movie STALKER, this place is called the Room, and is a mysterious location at the center of the Zone. It is said that whatever you want most to appear in the Room will appear, any miracle you want most will be made manifest. Make you think of anything on LOST?
Then of course we have the recent references to Philip K. Dick, with his novel VALIS appearing in two episodes this past season. In both PKD's work as well as his life, VALIS stood for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, a kind of giant information collection system which is in some sense alive and was left behind by an alien race to communicate with us. Yet again, remind you of anything you've seen lately? Even when I first proposed my theory about the island/monster/Cerberus being a machine that has forgotten that it's a machine, people told me how much that sounded like PKD's writings. And in truth, I've been thinking of him since I first started watching LOST: the sci-fi elements with a religious bent, the surreal bureaucracy of the DHARMA Initiative, time-bending episodes like "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (Desmond is a classic PKD character and reminds me a lot of Dick's THE WORLD JONES MADE). So the alien angle would just make things even more in the vein of his writings. Not to mention, the movie I used as an example was TOTAL RECALL, which was based on PKD's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale."
Lastly, Damon and Carlton were recently asked by Jimmy Kimmel if all of the characters on the show were born on Earth. They had to think long and hard before they answered a cautious "yes." They told him that was the best and most difficult question they've ever been asked. So you tell me, does this alien theory have some weight behind it? Again, I'm not saying the answer to the show is "oh, it was aliens." I'm saying some of the phenomena we've witnessed may have an extraterrestrial origin. But that still leaves bizarre human phenomena like psychic abilities, and then bigger questions such as course correcting, fate, destiny and free will, which leads to bigger questions about God and the universe which I don't think have anything to do with aliens and which I don't think the show will fully answer. Anyway, that's my current theory.
And finally, has everyone seen the latest trailers? If you have, you've no doubt seen a couple shots which probably proved to be downright shocking. I am now going to make the type dark, because if you don't even wanna know what was in screencaps from the recent trailers, this is technically spoilery. But if you've seen the trailers and know what I'm talking about, highlight below to read . . .
Okay, so the trailers have had two things which really caught my attention. One is a shot of Daniel standing outside of what appears to be the backdoor of the recently imploded Swan station. Except the station isn't imploded; it's there again. And the person pointing the gun at Daniel is wearing the same type of biohazard suit that Kelvin and Radzinsky were instructed to wear when going outside. Now how does that work? And then the other, possibly more shocking, screencap depicts Locke having a rifle pointed at him by . . . none other than Mr. Ethan Rom himself. I will tell you, Ethan doesn't look too dead in this shot. He seems quite alive. Now just what the hell is going on here? I think most people who've seen these images have figured it out: The island has traveled back in time to the days of DHARMA. It's been four seasons and we've had one Swan station flashback and one general DHARMA flashback. So when were they gonna tell us the DHARMA story? I guess this is it. We'll watch it unfold along with the main characters. I am assuming this how we'll see Rousseau's story, as well. And if Libby was involved with the Initiative, this could also signal her return (*fingers crossed*). This also explains the video from this summer featuring Dr. Marvin Candle, who reveals that his real name is Pierre Chang and that someone has come to him and explained that the DHARMA scientists will all be killed in a great Purge. I think we can now safely guess that this source of information is none other than one of our main characters.
I remember a few years ago theorizing that perhaps there was some cataclysmic spacetime event that resulted in the Others and the DHARMA people suddenly being thrust together on the island at once. As in, each group was originally alone, and then WHAM! Suddenly two time periods merge and there are two groups on the island. But I thought that theory was perhaps too out there at the time. While I'm not sold on it, it's been made a lot more possible now, so if anything I was on the right track. This also adds a lot of credit to the idea that the Adam and Eve skeletons are in fact two of our characters. If Ethan can be alive and dead on the island at the same time then that could theoretically happen to any character. Hell, this makes it even more likely that the Bali crash site is real, that it was planted by neither Ben nor Widmore but is an artifact of spacetime distortion. Think of all the characters we can revisit, all the things we never thought we'd see but now will get to witness firsthand. This is just an awesome twist and totally makes good on all of the DHARMA teasing we've endured for the past three seasons.
I hesitate to speculate how wild season six is going to be.
Now onto our favorite topic, that little show that goes by the name of LOST. With the imminent release of season four on DVD and season five on TV, naturally I've been in full-on LOST mode lately. I am especially excited to see season four in color, since I watched most of it on a crappy little black and white television with bad reception. But anyway, I'd like to use this opportunity to offer some potentially bad LOST-related news, a new theory, and a discussion about the most recent trailer for season five.
First off, the bad news. This has already sent waves of discontent through online LOST fandom. In a recent roundtable discussion to promote the upcoming DVD for season four, Carlton Cuse is asked a question about whether we'll get to see more of Rousseau, Walt and Libby. Cuse goes on to say that although we'll be getting more of Walt and Rousseau (remember we still have to see her backstory), he considers Libby's story "pretty much told." Um. Uh. Huh? When? When was her story told? Was there some mini-season that I missed? I'm sorry. Although I normally defend the writers of LOST and give them the benefit of the doubt, I am gonna go ahead and call absolute bullshit on that one (pardonnez mon francais). I mean seriously, I hope he made that comment because he was having a stroke at that particular moment, because otherwise I am not happy about this one.
You see, it would be one thing if they had said, "Yeah, you know, we couldn't come up with a good story for Libby, so we wrote her off." But that's not the case. First of all, there are the tantalizing hints dropped throughout the second season: Why was she in a mental institution? Why did she just happen to be there to give Desmond that boat? What happened to her husband exactly? Is she lying about her past and identity? At the end of season two, the writers promised we'd get to see her story. At the time, they indicated it would be told through someone else's flashback. Now, while at first they said we just need to see why Libby was at Santa Rosa and what happened between then and when she met Desmond, by the end of 2006 they were saying that Libby plays a bigger role in the overall picture of LOST than any of us could possibly expect. Wow, I thought, this is gonna be awesome. Season three goes by, no Libby flashback. Okay, fair enough. There was a bit too much going on in season three to really fit in a Libby flashback. That summer, Damon Lindelof mentions that the theory of Libby working for DHARMA is "not barking up the wrong tree."
Then it's announced Cynthia Watros will be back for multiple episodes in season four. Everyone gets very excited, only for the writers' strike to kill that plan and reduce her return to a brief ghostly cameo in "Meet Kevin Johnson." Well fine, that wasn't anybody's fault. But then we have Mr. Cuse here saying Libby's story is told, so don't worry about it. Sorry but that's like the lamest thing to pull on fans who've been waiting to see this much-ballyhooed backstory for Libby. You can't promise that kind of thing and then take such a bold-faced 180. My hope is that the writers do have a plan for Libby (possibly they've already filmed it, who knows), they just don't want to give anything away because it's coming up. That's my hope. I would hate to see them do such a disservice to the character of Libby (and to Cynthia Watros). It's unlike the writers of LOST to take the easy way out, so let's hope they don't. They can get away with not answering minuscule stuff like who built the bridge seen in "Numbers" or what's up with the Hurley bird or why Jack can't stop nodding whenever he speaks, but not explaining just what the hell is going on with Libby is a big old cheat in my book.
Okay, that's my rant. Back to loving LOST. So, I promised a new theory back in the spring, and it's one I've continued to advance since then. I'm going to start off by saying one word. Okay, are you ready? Aliens. Wait, wait, come back! Don't go yet. I promise, I'm not going to start going on about the Others coming from outer space and Walt being an alien-human hybrid bred by the Cigarette-Smoking Man and Charles Widmore. Trust me, I'm remaining grounded on this one, and by no means am I saying I definitively believe in this idea. Just hear me out . . .
I've already done a lot of theorizing about how the island/Cerberus/Jacob is some type of system combining electromagnetism and parapsychological principles--essentially, the system is a kind of neural network that acts as the "brain" of the island, which in a sense gives it a consciousness. I'm suspecting that after so many years of collecting/downloading thoughts and memories, the system itself developed a personality called Jacob and began believing itself to be a godlike being and forgetting or ignoring its technological roots. The only question is who built it. An ancient culture like the Egyptians? DHARMA? Time-traveling scientists from the future? Well, what about extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings? What if the weird symbol the Others use is actually a glyph from an alien alphabet? (It seems weirdly similar to the symbol from the UMMO hoax). What if these beings used a numerical system where 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 and 108 were core numbers in their technology? That would explain why the island seems to "emanate" these numbers.
Now, I'm not saying we'll be seeing UFO's flying around and little grey people arriving CLOSE ENCOUNTERS-style (though I'm hoping most people caught the CE3K shout-out during Charlotte's flashback in "Confirmed Dead"). I'm talking an ancient race of visitors who are long-gone and left behind this weird technology, a la TOTAL RECALL. Think about it: one theme of LOST is how we attribute spiritual/mystical properties to things we don't understand, when there are in fact more pragmatic explanations. That doesn't mean there are no spiritual or mystical aspects to be had, it's just that not every event falls under one category. Of course, aliens aren't exactly a "pragmatic explanation" in real life, but this is LOST we're talking about here, and the show has pretty firmly announced we are in the Land of Science Fiction. We have psychic clouds of black smoke and teleporting polar bears in Africa and time traveling bunnies and tropical islands which can be moved by turning a wheel in a frozen chamber. I don't think aliens are particularly far-fetched in this regard.
What exactly has made me start thinking of an alien origin? Well, the show is getting increasingly nuts, so some outlandish theories are proving not quite so outlandish any longer. And let's look at some of LOST's inspirations. We have SOLARIS, first the novel by Stanislav Lem and then the movies by Andrei Tarkovsky and Steven Soderbergh, respectively. The story concerns an alien organism which appears as a giant green ocean. This ocean planet is a living thing which contains a consciousness. It can read minds and take the form of people and places from the memories it collects. The story raises questions about man facing the unknown as well as the parallel between alien life and God. I don't think I need to mention the connection to LOST.
Then look at the book ROADSIDE PICNIC by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, also adapted by Tarkovsky into a film entitled STALKER. The story tells of places called Zones, regions where alien technology left behind many years before has created distortions in the spacetime continuum. The rules of time, space, the weather, geography are all bent by these alien artifacts. The most significant Zone, known as the Golden Sphere, can supposedly fulfill any human wish. In the movie STALKER, this place is called the Room, and is a mysterious location at the center of the Zone. It is said that whatever you want most to appear in the Room will appear, any miracle you want most will be made manifest. Make you think of anything on LOST?
Then of course we have the recent references to Philip K. Dick, with his novel VALIS appearing in two episodes this past season. In both PKD's work as well as his life, VALIS stood for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, a kind of giant information collection system which is in some sense alive and was left behind by an alien race to communicate with us. Yet again, remind you of anything you've seen lately? Even when I first proposed my theory about the island/monster/Cerberus being a machine that has forgotten that it's a machine, people told me how much that sounded like PKD's writings. And in truth, I've been thinking of him since I first started watching LOST: the sci-fi elements with a religious bent, the surreal bureaucracy of the DHARMA Initiative, time-bending episodes like "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (Desmond is a classic PKD character and reminds me a lot of Dick's THE WORLD JONES MADE). So the alien angle would just make things even more in the vein of his writings. Not to mention, the movie I used as an example was TOTAL RECALL, which was based on PKD's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale."
Lastly, Damon and Carlton were recently asked by Jimmy Kimmel if all of the characters on the show were born on Earth. They had to think long and hard before they answered a cautious "yes." They told him that was the best and most difficult question they've ever been asked. So you tell me, does this alien theory have some weight behind it? Again, I'm not saying the answer to the show is "oh, it was aliens." I'm saying some of the phenomena we've witnessed may have an extraterrestrial origin. But that still leaves bizarre human phenomena like psychic abilities, and then bigger questions such as course correcting, fate, destiny and free will, which leads to bigger questions about God and the universe which I don't think have anything to do with aliens and which I don't think the show will fully answer. Anyway, that's my current theory.
And finally, has everyone seen the latest trailers? If you have, you've no doubt seen a couple shots which probably proved to be downright shocking. I am now going to make the type dark, because if you don't even wanna know what was in screencaps from the recent trailers, this is technically spoilery. But if you've seen the trailers and know what I'm talking about, highlight below to read . . .
Okay, so the trailers have had two things which really caught my attention. One is a shot of Daniel standing outside of what appears to be the backdoor of the recently imploded Swan station. Except the station isn't imploded; it's there again. And the person pointing the gun at Daniel is wearing the same type of biohazard suit that Kelvin and Radzinsky were instructed to wear when going outside. Now how does that work? And then the other, possibly more shocking, screencap depicts Locke having a rifle pointed at him by . . . none other than Mr. Ethan Rom himself. I will tell you, Ethan doesn't look too dead in this shot. He seems quite alive. Now just what the hell is going on here? I think most people who've seen these images have figured it out: The island has traveled back in time to the days of DHARMA. It's been four seasons and we've had one Swan station flashback and one general DHARMA flashback. So when were they gonna tell us the DHARMA story? I guess this is it. We'll watch it unfold along with the main characters. I am assuming this how we'll see Rousseau's story, as well. And if Libby was involved with the Initiative, this could also signal her return (*fingers crossed*). This also explains the video from this summer featuring Dr. Marvin Candle, who reveals that his real name is Pierre Chang and that someone has come to him and explained that the DHARMA scientists will all be killed in a great Purge. I think we can now safely guess that this source of information is none other than one of our main characters.
I remember a few years ago theorizing that perhaps there was some cataclysmic spacetime event that resulted in the Others and the DHARMA people suddenly being thrust together on the island at once. As in, each group was originally alone, and then WHAM! Suddenly two time periods merge and there are two groups on the island. But I thought that theory was perhaps too out there at the time. While I'm not sold on it, it's been made a lot more possible now, so if anything I was on the right track. This also adds a lot of credit to the idea that the Adam and Eve skeletons are in fact two of our characters. If Ethan can be alive and dead on the island at the same time then that could theoretically happen to any character. Hell, this makes it even more likely that the Bali crash site is real, that it was planted by neither Ben nor Widmore but is an artifact of spacetime distortion. Think of all the characters we can revisit, all the things we never thought we'd see but now will get to witness firsthand. This is just an awesome twist and totally makes good on all of the DHARMA teasing we've endured for the past three seasons.
I hesitate to speculate how wild season six is going to be.
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