What we learned - The Missing Pieces and Find815

Hi all and welcome back to The Lost Bullet Points! Because I have been busy this week (with the wrapping up (or so it seems right now) of Oceanic Conspiracies/Find815) and because there is a lot to cover with this first Bullet Points. I won't even be moving on to the new actual Lost episodes this time around. Instead I'll deal with that this coming week (hopefully before I have three episodes to cover!). Right now I want to look at what we learned from Find815 and the Missing Pieces (mobisodes)! So without further ado:

FIND 815 - The Lost Experience II

First of all, if you want the full scoop on the Find815 experience then pop over to Oceanic Conspiracies and check out my Summaries. Okay, so what did we really learn?

• Naomi and Locke's father were not lying about 815 being found. This has been further verified by S4E02.
• The Widmore Group is somehow involved in this discovery. They may have already located the wreckage (which doesn't mean it is genuine) or they may have set up a fake wreckage for some reason.
• Nothing has been physically recovered from the wreckage (as it is supposedly too deep) and no one has seen it without the aid of computer equipment. This makes things look much more like a fake wreckage then a clone wreckage. This is even more likely now with the events of S4E02.
• The Maxwell group, a division of Widmore appears to be focused on things that relate to the works of James Clerk Maxwell. This relates to the Island and perhaps other "hot spots" around the world as alluded to by Isaac the faith healer.
• The Flight was declared lost and therefore the passengers declared dead before this discovery was made. It seems someone felt that wasn't enough to keep unwanted questions at bay.
• We have now seen these events cross over into Lost in S4E02. The cross over included no actual footage from the game, made no mention of Sam himself in the news stories and even had a voice over from the people that discovered the wreckage and it was pretty clear Sam was not one of those talking. It was always unlikely he would appear on the show, but I would say it is now definite.

My opinion on the Hanso/Widmore/Maxwell link up is that The Hanso Foundation has nothing to do with these events at all. But that it is through the links with Hanso that certain members of the Widmore group learned of the Island and it's power. They may even have sabotaged the Dharma Initiative to free the island up for their own exploits. It seems to me this group is most likely also behind Naomi's boat. We know at the time Find815 was set, the Hanso Foundation was active, but didn't appear to be involved in anything to do with the island. There focus has always been on the Valenzetti equation. Although I could certainly understand if they wanted revenge against Ben.

My opinion on how this ARG was played out is probably not something I should spend too much time writing about. Suffice to say I believe the story was good and the parts that give us background info in lost, but the rest of it.... well Joop could have written a better ARG. Half of it seemed to be dropping spoilers for Season 4 (in the form of character names, which of course leads to Google searches) and the way the ARG designers decided to post clues directly on the biggest Lost spoiler site on the Internet was frankly a disaster. There were also numerous errors that I can only assume was down to interns. Although the videos had better production values then the first ARG, I would say this one was inferior in that it lacked depth and appeared way to linear (that is we all knew where it would end from the very beginning).

The Missing Pieces

There were 13 mobisodes of "The missing pieces". These were short flashbacks to various moments both before the Lostaways arrived at the Island and during there time on the island before season four. If you have not watched these yet, I would advise you to do so before reading on. So what did we learn from these?

1. The Watch - Christian gave Jack a watch to celebrate his marriage to Sarah.
   • Presumably the watch is still with Jack.
   • Christian seemed to show a lot of regret as to how he raised Jack.
2. Hurley & Frogurt - Frogurt tries to get all macho on Hurley and threatens to move in on Libby.
• Frogurt is an ass, doesn't like Hurley and did like Libby (well, sexually at least). Good job he's only a "redshirt"....
3. King of the Castle - A conversation between Ben and Jack, while Jack was looking after him as part of there deal.
   • Ben suggests "The Island" may not let him leave, although he intends to honour his agreement. This seems to show his faith in the island.
   • However, his talk also leads to Jack making an aggressive move in the game, which Ben seems prepared for. It's pretty clear Ben knows how to manipulate Jack, but then we already knew that.
4. The Deal - Shows what happened when Michael made his deal with Juliet to free Ben in exchange for leaving the island with Walt.
   • This is particularly interesting when considered with some of the future missing pieces (see below).
5. Operation: Sleeper - Juliet comes clean to Jack about still following Bens orders (back at the Losties camp). She says after finding out about Suns pregnancy she has decided she is done following Ben.
   • As always we have to be suspicious of Juliet's motives. Although so far she seems to be legit with it. Perhaps she just didn't have the heart to go through with it once she found out there was indeed a pregnant woman amongst the Losties.
6. Room 23 - While in room 23, several birds crashed into the wall outside the room.
   • Seems Walt has some crazy "gifts".
   • Juliet seems particularly wary of him. Perhaps she jumped at the chance to trade him for Ben. Given what happened in Episode 4, The Deal (above) it looks like Juliet did indeed take the opportunity to get rid of Walt. This would also explain why Ben seemed a bit annoyed about the arrangement.
   • All the others, even Ben seemed a little afraid of Walt. But apparently he put his faith in Jacob and the Island.
7. Arzt & Crafts - Not much to this one. Set early on, Doc Arzt doesn't want to move to the caves, but changes his mind after hearing roaring noises.
   • Arzts expressed doubts in Jacks leadership. Of course this was early days, but given recent events I think there has always been a fair amount of doubt in Jack from some of the other Losties.
8. Burried Secrets - Sun buries her California driving licence to hide it from Jin. However she is interrupted by Michael and things get complicated...
   • Seems there may be something between Sun and Michael. However they are interrupted (on this occasion) by Vincent before they can kiss. Did something happen on another occasion?
   • It's worth remembering that "things on this island have a way of not staying buried".
9. Tropical Depression - Michael asks Arzt about the weather for launching his raft. But Arzt admits to being full of it and only saying about monsoons to speed things up. He also talks about his love life.
   • Arzt met someone on the Internet that dropped him on the first date after he flew to Australia. This just seems to show us how sad the guy was, but you never know....
10. Jack, Meet Ethan - Ethan speaks to Jack while Jack is searching for medical supplies (early on). He gives him some medical supplies and talks to him about Claire and losing his wife in childbirth.
    • The medical supplies and the interest in Claire could be put down as ulterior motives. Perhaps even the extent of the supplies and Ethan confiding about his own loss could have been part of his plan. But there was some underlying level of morale support which does seem to suggest a level of sympathy towards the Lostaways.
11. Jin has a Temper - Unsurprisingly Jin is under a lot of stress. He breaks down on a golf course. Jin does indeed have a temper.
• Now that Jin has a better relationship with his wife and has learned some basic communication with the other Losties I wonder if he would still be driven to such a break down. Then again - it is golf!
12. The Envelope - Immediately prior to the Others "book club" meeting (moments before the crash of 815) Juliet shows Amelia an envelope stating "I think we are in trouble"
    • Seems Juliet feels she can trust Amelia.
    • We don't know what is in the envelope (although I doubt it was a Macbook Air).
    • Although Juliet is quite a manipulator herself, her discussion with Michael, which takes place after this certainly suggests that the envelope wasn't directly about her sister. Of course we don't know for sure, with her apparently wanting rid of Walt she may have just talked about her deal as a way to get Michael to do what she wanted.
    • There is a chance the document was about the coming freighter and their search for Ben. That would make Juliet's choices in later episodes very interesting.
    • I was reminded in the comments (thanks everyone) it's also possible that the envelope contained Bens X-rays. Because of the timing Juliet had recently received the X-Rays and hadn't yet been appeased by seeing her sister on the monitor at the Flame station. We also know she was upset about them. This actually seems the most likely answer to this question.
      
13. So it begins - Immediately after the crash, Vincent saw something which he appeared to perceive as Christian Shepard telling him to help his son.
    • Vincent doesn't appear afraid of "Christian". He seems to understand his request. Although he does run for it when he see's Jack wake up.
    • This makes you wonder if Vincent was sent around on other occasions by something/someone. He often seems to appear at key moments (E.G. interrupting Michael and Sun in Episode 8 and when he appeared with a bone from Bens father).