The Lost Bullet Points

The Last Mile

2010-05-22T14:48:00.001-07:00

So here we are at last, the final outing. Will it answer all of our questions? I doubt it, but it should answer more then a few.

First of all I have to apologise for my absence throughout most of this season. This season has been an unusual one, with the answers/new questions ratio finally tipping in favour of answers there has just been a whole lot less to debate and discuss and many of the pieces have fallen fairly neatly into place, pretty much where we expected (such as with Jack being the chosen one). However, I have really enjoyed this season and am looking forward to the finale, even though it means the end of an era.

At this stage we think we know a lot, but of course Lost is a show that likes to show us that we really know nothing. So what do I think we know? Well on the topic of Jacob, Adam (I’m going to refer to the current incarnation of the Smoke Monster as Adam as it’s the only name that character has ever been given), and the light:

The island is older then Jacob and Adam, so it’s story pre-dates theirs and we are yet to see it (and it’s possible we won’t).

The “Light” at the centre of the island is very important. Should it be destroyed it would be very bad for everyone. We don’t know why.

Should someone go into the light they become a Smoke Monster and are tied to the island (presumably by the light).

Being tied to the island inevitably leads a Smoke Monster to want to destroy the light and so the island needs a protector.

While the island has a protector only they and people they allow can find the light. This is why Jacob needed a replacement and why the island needed a protector even before Adam became a Smoke Monster. It also seems Smoke Monsters can’t harm the protector or potential protectors (not sure how that one works).

It seems very likely (given the ancient hieroglyphs) that Adam was not the first smoke monster. If that is so, then it seems it can be destroyed. Unless the non-Adam Smoke Monster was not sentient as such and could be controlled by the Protector (perhaps used to kill Adams camp). Perhaps the suggestion here is that it can be cleansed of the human spirit inhabiting it.

All that still leaves the big questions: When did all this start (the light, island and any proto-Smokeys) and how does it effect the outside world.

So how about how things will turn out on the island? Here are a few thoughts:

It seems to me that Ben wanted to know what Widmore knew and the only way to reliably get that info was to have him die and get Miles to use his ability to get the info. He knows he couldn’t trust Widmore to tell him, nor could he trust Widmore to tell the truth to Adam or Adam to tell him the truth. If there is one thing Ben knows really well it is deception after all! This suggests why they spent time making sure Ben could get in contact with Miles via the walkies.

Desmond is obviously key to both Widmore and Adam’s plans. He also seems to be key to what is going on with the sideways reality. So that suggests that the two are very much linked together themselves. Can Desmond be consciously active in both realities and working towards a goal tied in both?

We’ve all no doubt noticed that for most of the Losties the sideways reality is significantly better then the Island reality. Most notably for all of the ones that are dead in the Island reality. But will it turn out to be a way for the Island reality guys to have a happy ending or is it some kind of Devils Paradise? It could just be a side effect of damaging the islands light by nuking near it’s source (perhaps suggesting that if the island is destroyed it would un-write all of time?), but then why all the action over there?

To be honest I do not have a firm theory for this conclusion and that is really the way I prefer it at this stage. It’s also important not to forget while all the mysteries are being answered that there will be a number of personal stories concluding in this episode. Despite all the complexities and puzzles of Lost is has always really been about the characters. For the most part their personal stories could be considered concluded already, but I think we can still expect more.

Anyway, that is all I have. Like everyone else I will just have to watch and find out. So to everyone, good luck and Namaste.

The Desmond Factor

2009-02-25T13:37:00.001-08:00

Looking back at old episodes as well as following the new ones, something has been bugging me. I’ve wondered for a while just how much Desmonds past was manipulated for him. But now I am wondering who and why. Let’s look at a few things.

In his early life Des was little more then your average Scotsman. He liked to drink and he supported Glasgow Celtic (one of Scotlands better soccer teams). He was likely a Catholic. Liked the girls. Had trouble with commitment. He worked to support his younger brothers after something happened to his father and never had time to finish University.
One day that changes. He went out drinking and having doubts about whether his future lay with marriage to Ruth (his long term girlfriend). He woke to the face of Brother Campbell offering him help. Something in him told him to follow the brother and that he had a calling that at the time made him think that calling was to become a monk.
Now this is where things get interesting. The monks have a vow of silence which they use to initiate new members. This can last for a varying length of time. For Desmond it took such a long time that Brother Campbell thought he may never make it. We don’t know how long this was but the suggestion is that it was over a month (as a month was the standard time for those they were unsure of). Could it been as many as 108 days? I have often thought so.
The monks worked to produce wine, which they sell for just over £100. Again I’m thinking £108. By the time Des left, they had bottled 108 of them. The wine was named the wine “Moriah” after the mountain on which God asked Abraham to kill his son Isaac.

Could this be some kind of conditioning or was he merely there so that he could be led to the events that would follow it?

Upon being fired as a Monk he met Penny who had come to the monks to collect some of the wine. This moment set up Desmond’s life on the path which led him to participate in many pinnacle events in the Lost mythos, such as:

Reaching the Island and taking over the running of the Swan, pressing the button every 108 minutes
Being part of the incident that led to Flight 815 crashing on the island.
Being the one that turns the key to de-activate the Swan relatively safely.
Being a key person in the events that led to the Oceanic Six leaving the island.
Travelling in time twice, the second time meeting up with Daniel Faraday and helping him develop his understanding of time travel (as well as becoming his constant).

The head of the Monastery, Brother Campbell had a very curious picture on his desk showing him outside the Monastery with one Eloise Hawking.

Was he at one time romantically linked with her?
Were they friends?
Were they part of a secret organisation?
Did she act as a proxy for someone to help him set up the Monastery and/or wine making operation?

Now Eloise has an interesting number of links herself.

As well as being the resident expert on where and when the Island is, she is the mother of Daniel Faraday. A man linked with Desmond through time travel experiences and possibly the most knowledgeable person on time travel around.
She appears to have been on the Island as an Other in the 50’s along with Charles Widmore. She still has links with Widmore as he funded her sons research and knew where she could be found.
She was working with Ben to get the others back on the island giving her links to the current Others as well as Widmore.
The strangest thing though is her appearance in Desmond’s flashback. Was she manipulating Desmond all along? Did she tell her son about Desmond so that he knew Des was someone that could actually change events while time travelling?

So even back in Desmond’s earliest flashback to date it seems that Widmore, Ben, The Others and/or Eloise could have been manipulating his life. They could have been doing it on behalf of the Island or there own ends. Apparently the Island isn’t done with him yet, even though he chose not to come. But then Ben’s secret little side mission may have changed that. I am certain we will see more of Des and that this mystery will unravel itself. It will certainly be interesting!

UPDATE: With the events of Episode 5x07 and the revelation that one of Widmores employee's, Matthew Abbadon specializes in "getting people to where they need to go" I am even more convinced that Charles Widmore had similarly had a hand in Desmonds destiny. Especially considering that it seems Ben wasn't already linked up with Eloise beforehand.

Season Five and all that Jazz.

2009-02-18T15:16:00.001-08:00

So We’re back…finally. The season is in full swing and a lot of questions have been answered, semi-answered or replaced with twice as many questions. We’ve seen Charles Widmore with hair, Hurley throw away food, Locke leave the island, Jack join up with Ben, Sawyer give a man hug, Jin translating Korean for people, dogs and cat’s living together…chaos!

what do I make of it? Well with this season bouncing around the past and future of the island there has never been a better time to go back and look at older episodes and that is what I have been doing, both leading up to the new season and since it started. It’s given me a perspective on a few things that I would like to share.

Healing, Sickness and Vaccinations

When the Island heals someone does it share a deeper link with them? Is it possible that the Dharma vaccine was to prevent the islands healing powers and stop that link with people that it caused? This would explain why Kelvin did not heal while Patchy did. Speaking of healing why did it not heal the Marshall?

Is the sickness that Danielles group had after going to the temple the same as the one that the babies were vaccinated against and the same as the one the Dharma initiative was vaccinated against? I can understand the Dharma link, but why would the Others vaccinate a baby against the island seeing as it seems having this sickness is what makes an other an other.

Early in season one, Claire commented to Shannon that she hadn't felt the baby kick since the crash. This seemed to be about 24 hours of not feeling the baby. Which is not a good sign. Then a while later she felt it kick again. With everything else going on no one really took that much notice and of course as the baby was fine again by the time things started to settle (comparatively anyway) it seemed to become less relevant. However, I wonder if the island healed the baby. Perhaps even brought it back to life. That would make Arron special indeed.

The Kids are alright (apparently)

Speaking of Arron, We now have four children of survivors: Walt, Arron, Charlie and Ji. What is there destiny? Of course Charlie has spent no time on the island, but with genetic links to the Widmore family and the unique Desmond he would seem likely to be special.

Is there still relevance in the choice of name for Arron? Eko actually spelled out it's meaning and before that it had been asked about. Is Arron to be a spokesperson for “Moses”? Is he to be some kind of high priest? When the characters actually take time to talk about that kind of thing, it puts your suspicion levels high.

Back in season one, Walt had the comic he was reading burned by his father. The comic showed a heroic battle against a polar bear. I think perhaps Walt created the situation where the polar bear attacked him and Micheal had to save him, so his father would be just like the super hero in the comic that he burned.

He also mentioned about being attacked by a shark before they set out on the raft where they would eventually be attacked by a shark. Did he predict that?

Interestingly though, while he seemed to be foreseeing everything else, he didn’t say anything about the Others capturing him. Did he not see it, or did he on some level want that to happen?

Why did Walt see the opening of the hatch as very bad? This seems to conflict a little with the islands apparent desire to shut down the hatch. It's also easy to assume that he went on the raft because of the hatch, but was it actually because he needed the others to capture him?

The Swan

That brings me to the Hatch. By the end of season two it seemed the island wanted the hatch to be shut down. Walt appeared saying not to push the button and events seem to have conspired to make sure the hatch was shut down, including Eko being told in a dream about taking Locke to the the Question Mark, which led to him losing his faith and causing the hatch to be destroyed. I also think maybe Charlie, when he told Locke about Desmond, was actually the island in disguise. He seemed to be acting a little strange and far more purposeful then usual.

Did the hatch keep the islands moving/time travel in check? Perhaps the island couldn’t move while it was still there.

I know a lot of people now feel that the bomb which was seen this season was buried under the concrete at the Swan. This seems to be supported by stray comments by Sayid (who said the only time he had heard about this much concrete being poured on something with Chernobyl) and by Desmond (who commented that it would take a nuclear blast to get through the blast doors). There is also the links to the “Swan Device” which was part of a US test in 1956 (part of Operation Redwing).

I’m not 100% certain about this. With Alvar Hanso being involved in advanced weapons design for the UN around this time, it would seem that he would at least be aware of the weapon and probably wouldn’t build a station around it. Then again maybe Dharma felt that the island had had a strange effect on it and there was some way to harness it. The second doubt I have involves the fact that the Swan has imploded. It is likely we will see more of the bomb and if it is simply a thing of the (relative) past that reduces the possibility of it being involved in the (relative) future. Of course time travel can factor into countering this and I can’t think right now of how else the device will fit into the puzzle.

Latin

The others speak “Vulgar Latin”. That is a spoken form of Latin, not used in churches or for scientific writing (as Juliet suggested) but instead the Latin of the common folk of quite a large geographical area around the Mediterranean sea.

Carthage/Tunisia isn’t one of those countries. But perhaps the Others first came from one of these areas when the island was around there and their descendants eventually forgot where they got their language from.

If the Others originated from the period/area where Vulgar Latin was common then this means that they are not survivors of the Black Rock slave vessel (which left port much later), nor are they likely directly related to the ancient civilisation behind such things as the hieroglyphs and the four toed statue.

More on this season

Did the Island really want Locke to turn the wheel instead of Ben? Or when it said Locke needed to move the island was it talking about the second time, after Ben had moved it?

It seemed that Locke was in the past, before the Dharma initiative or whomever built the well turned up on the island. So that means a past island move was actually due to Locke. Did the island perhaps pop up right under a certain slave ship at this point?

Did Ben kill Locke? After all he said that he “went to see him” and yet he didn’t seem to get a lot of answers from him and why would Locke give him Jins watch?

Random Notes

Is there a significance to the fact that Eko's brother may have been dead already when he reached the island. Like Christian Sheppard and presumably like Locke will be.

In season two Hurley got Sayid to fix a radio. Briefly it picked up some Glenn Miller. Hurley joked that the radio broadcast could have been from "any time", maybe it was? Like we saw in that disappointing second (not-exactly-an) ARG.

On a side note apparently “Orchid” is Greek for testicle. Thank you QI. Lol.

I still find Desmond’s comments to Jack in the stadium where they first met a little creepy. Did he know Sarah’s surgery was successful?

Lord of the Flies

2008-07-21T10:57:00.001-07:00

The book Lord of the Flies isn't ever shown on the show, but it's referenced in conversation several times. One being the quote above from Sawyer in Season one's ...In Translation. Also Charlie, in season two's What Kate Did says, "They seem to have had a rough time of it. It looks like they went bloody Lord of the Flies out there."

I feel that the similarities between the plot and characters of this book and the show Lost are somewhat glaring. From the survivalist tactics, to the sheer denial of what is going on. So I'll have a go at what it all means.

The Characters:

I'm going to look at only three main characters here, Piggy, Ralph, and Jack.

Piggy is in most ways our Hurley. He is most similar to him physically, and his mental prowess is overlooked because of his physical image. Clearly not all parts of Piggy are Hurley-like. Where Hurley is liked by everyone, and the comic relief at times, Piggy is whiney and unliked by pretty much everyone. The thing that is important to note between the two though is that they both have great ideas, and they are often overlooked because of how they present themselves in the societies of their respective islands.

Piggy often has the best ideas and solutions for problems, and they most often get credited to others or ignored completely.
Hurley is looked at as the one everyone loves, and has only recently started gaining importance as a contributing member of the survivors. He saved the day on the beach with the Volkswagen Bus, he is now seeing Jacob's cabin which is a huge deal and has gained him a lot of value. He also (like Piggy) seems to have the best understanding of the personalities on the island, and how they mesh.

Ralph is the reluctant hero of the book. Although not the brightest or best under pressure (often being fed ideas by Piggy) he is gentle, kind, and has a rational head on his shoulders. Where others get caught up in games and madness, Ralph tries to remain rational and do what he thinks is the best for the group as a whole.

Jack is our most likely Ralph. As a doctor he was sort of made the leader of the Losties although he didn't ask for it. He tries to think ahead and do what he thinks is in the best interest of the group. When faced with impossible situations he tries to be rational and not get caught up in the madness that surrounds him.
As Lost progresses things seem to go for Jack as they did for Ralph. Jack ends up with his small group of followers who are trying to do the right thing, stay out of trouble, and just get off the island. Locke on the other hand takes his group to the barracks and battens down for a battle.

Jack is our wild child. He wants to hunt, kill, and have adventures. I feel that Sawyer is our most likely Jack candidate. While John Locke and Ben wind up as a close second. There are lots of reason why these characters reflect Jack and his wild unpredictable side.

His willingness to resort to violence, his ritual with the slaughters, etc. But one thing in particular stand out between he and Sawyer. Sawyer is a grifter, and he wants revenge for the death of his mother. In order to do this he masks himself and takes on the identity of the man who killed his mother. Jack, in the book, wants desperately to kill the pig, but he can't. However, once he covers his face in mud and ash, he is able to ritualistically hunt and kill the pig, and revel in the experience. Hiding who they really are behind masks and falsehoods make it possible for them to do things that perhaps they wouldn't normally be able to do.

This seems to be an ongoing theme of the island life on Lost. People there are not who they are in their real lives, the anonymity of the island allows them to shine as they couldn't before, or reveal sides of themselves that had until that point lay dormant. Everyone gets redemption and a fresh start on Lost Island for the simple fact that at first, no one knows who anyone is.

I do think though that is where the similarities between the two end. Where Jack is wild, violent, and irrational, Sawyer is calculating and compassionate. Jack would burn up the whole island to get his vengeance on Ralph, which is much more Ben or John Locke like.

The Lord of the Flies:

In Lost there have been plenty of instances where folks see things and hear things that aren't really there (or maybe they are...). This also happens in the novel. The heat during the day causes the boys to see mirages on the ocean, and think that they see and hear things in the jungle. The scene where Simon confronts The Lord of the Flies particularly stands out.

The boys in the hunting group kill many wild pigs on the island. In one instance the head of a kill is set on a stake and left in the ground. Simon stumbles on this icon and hallucinates that it speaks to him.
- The head implies this it is evil, and that evil is inside everyone. It tells him that no matter what he does he will meet this evil, and if he tires to ruin the 'fun" it will be the end of him. Basically embrace the evil or die...he dies.
This speaks to when Eko confronts the smoke monster in the form of Yemi right before his death. Eko is supposed to confess his sins, but instead shows no fear and refuses to ask forgiveness.
- Eko feels that he did what he had to do with the life that was handed to him and nothing more. Further, he's made sacrifices to save his brother. He is then killed for refusing to acknowledge his 'evil' (repent or die) just as (it is implied) Simon is killed for the same reason.

Denial:

Whoa, is there a lot of denial going on in this book! Basically, no one is claiming any responsibility for their actions. Sound familiar?

Denial is also reflected in the novel where the boys do such things as blame the 'beastie" when littleuns start to disappear. As a matter of fact they aren't even alarmed when members of their survivors start to go missing. They seem to ignore this fact completely, almost like if they don't acknowledge it, its not actually happening. The boys, in a frenzy nearly kill Roger as part of their pig game. Then they laugh it off, in kind of an "Oops, sorry about that" moment. They KILL SIMON WITH THEIR BARE HANDS, and when the body washes out to sea, they claim they killed the beastie and nothing more. Piggy is killed for holding the conch and trying to restore order. But Ralph somehow tries to justify the brutality of basically letting Roger drop a boulder on Piggy because he can tell him to do anything he wants and he'll do it. There is no need for a conch or rules when he can do that!
In the world of Lost Ben can commit an extermination of the island and somehow justify this. He can trap people on an island for months, and use them as he sees fit without thinking twice about how wrong this is. John Locke can blow up the only supposed way off the island and claim he had a reason for it. He can also get Sawyer to murder his father for him and justify it as what the island wants. Charles Widmore can send a freighter crew out to kill the remaining survivors of a plane crash, and fake the wreckage to fool the world, but he has his reasons apparently.

It all comes back to the fact that being on these islands allows the survivors to act in ways that would just not be acceptable in society. With no one there to answer to but themselves, its much easier to justify or not think about what it is that they are doing and any consequences that may be involved.

Rescue:

The boys are eventually rescued, and with it comes shame, and tears. Rescue brings clarity as to just what they have become and what they have done. It shows them the truth, and as they embrace it they break down and sob as they realize they won't be the same again.

At one point during their rescue, the naval officer turns his back on the boys, not willing to watch them crying. He is unimpressed and humiliated for them. He can't seem to understand what actually has been going on since they crashed and just feels sorry for this emotional spectacle unbecoming of good British lads. He doesn't want to know the truth of the situation after all, not knowing is much easier to swallow.

For the Losties rescue doesn't bring with it the truth but rather more lies. There are lies as to what actually happened to Flight 815, how they were rescued, and about who survived. There is no moment of clarity for the Losties, no redemption or sobbing cleanse as they accept that things won't be the same again. Perhaps this is why they are all not doing so well with life off the island.

After they return to their homes, the world seems to embrace the Losties as heroes. The O6 are celebrities, and everyone seems willing to accept the story they tell no matter how little sense it makes. No one is looking for the truth because lies are just easier to embrace and far easier to play along with.

Final Bullets:

The boys are survivors of a plane that's crashed on a deserted island and no one knows they're there. The Losties are also crash survivors, and supposedly no one knows they're alive. Especially since they are 1,000 miles off course, and the world thinks that their bodies are actually at the bottom of the ocean.
When Simon is killed the boys decide that he was actually the beastie. The beastie can assume any form, and it doesn't die. In the world of Lost their beastie, being Smokey, can do this too. We've seen it, unless its all a massive trick designed to justify or influence the actions of those on the island.
The boys in the book become savages. Not really intentionally, they seem to get caught up in the game of it all. It's similar for our Losties, but it's survival, not a game. By the time season four arrived we saw our Losties go from hapless survivors to very much Other-like. Being suspicious of the freighties, holding them hostage, not trusting their intentions, and even seeing scene reproductions that were very reminiscent of when the others first encountered the Losties and interacted with them.
The term Lord of the Flies is a direct translation of Beelzebub.
Both in the book and on Lost we see the survivors split into two groups. Those who want to survive and get off the island (Ralph/Jack Shephard's group) and those that embrace the respective islands and hunker down for the long haul (John Locke/Jack's group).

Coming in August: The Tempest

The Lost Book Club: July Update

2008-07-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to put up a quick post and mention that Melissa Lossa has been working very hard and has come up with a stellar list for this summer's Lost Community Book Club. The first two selections for July are:

Of Mice and Men
Lord of the Flies

Since they are carry-overs from the hiatus reading list, I had already done a post on Of Mice and Men. It is HERE.

Also, ABC seems to have bellied up to the bar and come up with a sparkly, swanky, awesomely graphic-y, book club of their own. It is extremely well organized and full of goodly-goodness. Give it a look-see and see you in a few weeks!

Fenris Vs DJ Dan - The Ultimate Podcast video

2008-06-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

With a potential upcoming Lost ARG (remains to be seen if this is a full ARG or just some more straight forward viral marketing), I thought I'd bring back some nostalgia by providing you with a video for the "Ultimate Podcast" mash up I made during the first Lost Experience.

Enjoy:

Happy Birthday Fenris

2008-06-07T19:47:00.001-07:00

Before another year goes round on your frozen donkey wheel of time and space, remember to blow out your birthday candles!

Wishing you a year full of mystery, adventure, and amazement.

Happy Birthday!

Pre-Season 4 Finale: Some Things to Consider

2008-05-28T16:39:00.001-07:00

Seems we are about to reach the series finale of Lost season 4. Crept up on me a bit as I haven't been as prolific posting this season. Hopefully I'll have time to throw a few ideas out there between seasons (we have a long break after all). But anyway for now, before the finale is on I want to consider some of the things we may want to look out for. I am totally un-spoilered by the way, so if you haven't been able to avoid the clangers that have been dropped around other sites please try not to post anything about them in comments, no matter how wrong I may be!

Things all come back to the Orchid. We saw the orientation before the season start (I even sampled it and included it in a song). What we saw appeared to be a rabbit transported in time. Later in the episode we found the remains of a polar bear in the middle of a Tunisian desert, possibly part of a Dharma experiment, but then we weren't aware of them practicing projects outside of the island so was this a subject for the Orchid? Does it transport in time and space? Finally we have Ben turning up also in the desert, not aware of the year and perhaps not even sure of the location he would end up. So the big question is what will happen when the island is moved? For all intents and purposes it seems it *will* be moved, from what we've seen in the flash forwards. So will it be moved in space, time or both?

We've seen a lot of flash forwards now. The question here is will these intersect right now with two seasons more to come? It would fit in with the island moving in time as then time wouldn't have passed so much for those left behind when they inevitably end up back on the island. However, I can't see them dropping flash forwards just yet and/or splitting the team up drastically again.

Finally the Others are back in the game. Ben has been captured, but I would assume the others are planning to ambush them. Then again if Richard is going to turn on Ben this would be a good time. Of course their main goal is to protect the island so perhaps just keeping Kerny and co occupied will be their main agenda.

Since "The Constant" episode I have been thinking regularly about this factor. Is the reason Ben can't kill Widmore and vice versa (so it seems) because they are each others constants? I suspected for a while that room 23 was about creating constants for people by causing an emotional reaction and association to various everyday objects that link them to that room on the island. Are there other constants at work here?

Will we find out who is in the coffin in the final episode? My suspicion is Michael. The island hasn't let him die for a while, perhaps it finally will. Which means if something happens on the freighter he will likely survive. But will Jin be so lucky?

The four specialists that were brought to the island by Widmore seem to be lacking the required skills to apprehend Ben. Except for their ability to neutralise the gas and only Daniel was required for that really. So what is their significance and will it come in to play at this stage? I can see how their skills would be useful on the island but how does that fit in with Widmore's agenda? Also have they been under Widmore's employment for the long term or only recently?

One thing that seems a little out of place for me is that whole "Other woman" thing. Ben seems pretty focused on saving the island and avenging his "daughter". Plus Jack seems to be drifting more towards Kate then Juliet, so how does that all fit in? Ben was "exactly where he wanted to be", yet it would seem he would be much safer at this "Temple" location. So what was his motivation?

We still don't really have a good answer in my mind for why there is a fake wreckage. Seems a lot of effort to go to, for something that didn't seem to need covering up. Instead it seemed to be a catalyst for setting a number of things into motion. So was that it's intention and who really was it that created the "freckage"?

There are probably a lot of other questions that could be answered, but this being lost we know we will probably end up with just as many new questions. Whatever the case, it is going to be an interesting finale and likely leave us with a lot to talk about over the summer....and beyond.

VALIS

2008-04-02T18:12:00.001-07:00

"Right. It means my body is in two space-time continua simultaneously, or else my body is nowhere at all."

The book VALIS was seen in season four in two episodes, Eggtown and The Other Woman. It is given to Ben by Locke to, "...pass the time." The main character of the book is called Horselover Fat, who exists within the author Philip K. Dick. So in essence the main character throughout the book is two people but in the same body, however everyone addresses them as two different entities.

The Theory:

Horselover Fat has been shown things and his mind expanded when a ray of pink light beams things directly into his brain. He claims this beam came from God, who he calls Zebra, and planted information (about his son's hernia specifically) into his brain. He then goes on to tell how this beam of pink light changes his entire life beginning in 1974. These ideas are documented in his Exegesis, which is referenced throughout the novel.
Additionally, Horselover Fat thinks that he is two people living simultaneously in two different times and sometimes he can remember what his other self is doing. One of him lives in California in the late 1970s, and the other in ancient Rome.

Zebra:

According to Fat, the universe consists of one irrational entity into which has broken a high-order life form which camouflages itself by a sophisticated mimicry. This is Zebra, and Zebra is rational where the universe is not.
Zebra camouflages like a moth, its always there but only lets you see it when it wants you to but it can MORPH into things and people and act like them. It does this in order to consume the universe and turn everything into one thinking-alike entity (the Lord).

I thought this was exceptionally relevant to the idea of Smokey and what we now know about it. In the March 21, 2008 OLP, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confirmed that Yemi, the spider, and some versions of Walt are indeed manifestations of the monster.
So if you think about the theories of VALIS and that it is always there and sort of always changing, could our "Smoke Monster" be an actual higher form of intelligence that is trying to lead the Losties to salvation, or higher thinking, or even to a higher state of being?
The universe, seen as one vast irrational entity, I think applies to the island and how it seems to have a consciousness all it's own. It knows what it needs and seems to have gathered the inhabitants there for a purpose.

The movie above is the uncut version of the Room 23 film that the others are being shown. The ideas in it are similar to the ideas in the film VALIS, from the book. The film in the book is an enlightening experience for Fat and his friends, as it leads him to find others that have also been "beamed" information. It was also this idea that kept me jumping to the idea of the Room 23 video.

VALIS The Film:

VALIS stands for Vast Active Living Intelligence System.
Information in the film comes in images flashed throughout, and while there is a story going on, much of the information is subliminal. Examples would include a woman in a river on an ancient landscape (Roman), a satellite that appears in various forms in the film, a soda can, and a pot.
The film contains an electronic soundtrack that isn't actual music really, but more mind opening sound.
The film expands on the idea that human beings are all from a place called Albermuth, and that we are toxified by the atmosphere on earth. VALIS detoxifies people by "...fire[ing] rational instructions at us, to override the pathology caused by the toxicity of the atmosphere." VALIS has been doing this to all people since birth, and VALIS is rational while people are not.
An idea in the film is that people do not die, but are reborn, and will then remember the knowledge that we have been beamed on some level.

Room 23:

The music is like the VALIS music. I feel that when watching the film it is designed to illicit some sort of trance or hypnotic brain state.
The Room 23 movie may be used to help "awaken" the alien part of a person's brain so they can receive the "beamed information" so to speak.
Lights are strapped to the viewers face, and the images in the video flash and pulse. Fat's theory of Zebra is that when it's beaming data into the human brain, "At flash-cut speed you can load the right hemisphere of the human brain with a titantic quantity of graphic data." p. 71.
Some Key Phrases from Room 23:

Divest your ordinary nature and then Find your true nature
God loves you as he loved Jacob
We are the causes of our own suffering.
Also the backward "Only fools are enslaved by time and space" repeated throughout the video.
THINK ABOUT and then YOUR LIFE

Final Bullets:

The radiation from VALIS, if coming in too intense dose, can cause cancer. Ben has cancer, but technically you shouldn't be able to get cancer on the island.
Fat thinks that in order to see God or know God (Zebra), you have to try to kill yourself. We've seen a lot of self sacrifice/suicide mentions on Lost. Does this act lead to an enlightenment?

Jack tired to kill himself by almost jumping off a bridge.
Michael tries to commit suicide in his car and by shooting himself.
Tom implies that he has tried to shoot himself when recounting the experience with Michael.
Charlie ultimately kills himself through sacrifice when turining off the communication jamming device.
Eko faces Smokey and allows himself to be killed.
Mikhail may have been killed when he blows a grenade outside of Looking Glass.

While reading, the two characters that most came to mind were Ben and Locke, which makes it fitting that they were the two to actually handle this novel in the episodes.

Are Ben and Locke on a spiritual quest to find their Zebra? Are they seeing this "entity" on the island, or in the island, or have they been "beamed" information that they are just now recognizing?
Horselover Fat and Philip K. Dick are the same person. The catalyst in the break in personality comes when Fat's friend commits suicide. They are only rejoined when Fat meets God or Zebra in the form of a two-year-old girl. But for a time Horselover Fat was the main entity inhabiting the body, sort of overriding the rational P.K. Dick.

I felt like this was describing Ben. It seems that at one point he showed promise of being a normal, rational person, but circumstances sort of broke him apart. The death of his mother, followed by an abusive relationship with his father, and then being brought to the island where he may have begun to be "enlightened" seem to have led to a significant personality change. He "sees" his mother (the sophisticated mimicry of the island?) and is groomed to become the person we see now.

There is no time, there is no death ("Only fools are enslaved by time and space"). All time happens at once, we all live multiple lives, and sometimes you can be awakened and see all of these lives at the same time. Again, reflective of the island, how time there is different, and how people passing on and off can become unstuck in time.
Horselover Fat becomes unstuck in the book with his life from ancient Rome (there are Roman artifacts in the Room 23 video incidentally). "Horselover Fat is living in two different times and two different places; i.e. in two space-time continua; that is what took place in March 1974 because of the ancient fish-sign presented to him the month before: his two space-time continua ceased to be separate and merged." This passage from page 109 of the book describes what happens when upon seeing the ancient Christian fish symbol. Fat remembers all of his past life in Rome and it becomes superimposed over his 1970s life.
The "proof" of this, so to speak, is pointed out by Fat's friend Kevin. Within the film VALIS he notices a reoccurring "pot" which has a DNA double helix around it's rim which in turn resembles the Christian fish symbol.

I found this interesting because in Lost we see a reoccurance of a variety of themes such as the octagon, black and white items, eyes, and the numbers (which we see everywhere).
Could the numbers actually be sort of awakening this deeply embedded knowledge in our Losties, and that's how they all managed to be so connected yet strangers at the same time? Could this common symbol be the reason that they all ended up on that flight? Something in them awakened and told them to do it?

This book was very full of theory, religion, and concepts that could tie to Lost on so many levels, and with so many layers. It was hard to pick and choose some key areas to focus on, but for me at least, these were the ones that most stood out. And with that, we're back to watching the show, and looking less into dissecting the books from Ben's library :D. Counting the days until April 24th.

Carrie

2008-03-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

"What happens if there are others like her? What happens to the world?"

Stephen King's novel Carrie has been seen many times in the Lost series. In A Tale of Two Cities, it's the book club book chosen by Juliet. In Not in Portland we see it on a nightstand in Juliet's sister's home. Also, Ben is reading it on One of Us, in a flashback, in preparation for the book club.

Some Key Points in Bullets:

Carrie White is telekinetic.

Who on the island is telekinetic? It seems Walt is, and maybe even Jacob or Ben.
The novel purports that TK is genetic (p. 233) perhaps there is some sort of test for the gene, and this could be one of the things going on with the island.
In the Room 23 V-cast we see a load of dead birds on the ground after something Walt has done. What if the birds smashing into walls and windows is only a side effect from what Walt is doing with his mind. Sort of like the town's people just "knowing" Carrie is behind what's going on.

What if Jacob's cabin chaos is also a side effect of him using TK to try to communicate with Locke.

Carrie makes the things in the town happen by picturing it in her mind. Could this be what happens in Room 23? The flashes on the screen allow the viewer to make things happen according to what the pictures suggest?

Throughout the book, Carrie hears a constant inner voice. It drove her to practice her TK, it drove her to kill her mother, and it drove her to destroy her school and town.

The town "knew" that Carrie was causing all of the things going on without anyone telling them or anyone really seeing her do it. It was like she was in their minds telling them what she was feeling and doing. It was like they were able to hear her inner dialogue in their minds.

Could this be how Ben tells Harper what he wants her to do, or how he communicates with the others when he is captured?

The book has a lot of blood in it. It's all stemmed from blood, from Carrie's first period , to pig's blood flowing over her at the prom, to the blood of the town that flows when she begins her reign of terror and destruction. Carrie's blossom into womanhood and with it her ability to become pregnant is the catalyst for all that happened in the story.

Carrie's mother thinks that womanhood is dirty, conception is dirty, and as a matter of fact viewed her own pregnancy as terminal cancer before she knew better.
To Carrie's mother, sex as painful, sinful, bad, and dirty.

Ben feels that Alex (having sex) becoming pregnant would be catastrophic, as all pregnant women on the island die.
We see Kate struggle with having sexual relations with Sawyer as she thinks she is pregnant.
For the longest time Jin was very protective of Sun showing her body too much, as if it was sinful or shameful for a woman to do that.

The Prom was to be a new start for Carrie. Almost everyone viewed her differently (like Roger Linus and his new start on the island?).
The chaos in town was very reminiscent of the chaos in Jacob's cabin when he and Locke go there. Is Jacob like Carrie, and if so does he lose control of what he is able to do when he gets upset?

Losties Versus Carrie:

Juliet- She proclaims that Carrie is her favorite book. Is this because she identifies with Carrie on some level?

She was sent to the island as a new beginning. She was told by Ben that she was needed but was lied to about how long for, and also as to the circumstances of her stay. This is like Carrie, who was led to believe the prom would be wonderful, but was then subjected to pig's blood on her head and ridicule just like always, even though that was not what was intended.
The kids at the prom sort of adopted a mob mentality and in their hysterics resorted to laughter at Carrie because that's what they had known in the past. Is this what Juliet being branded was all about? She was just a victim of what the inhabitants knew to be the thing to do in crisis?

Walt- He seems to be telekinetic, and so was Carrie.

Is this what makes him special, or does it make him an outcast. Is his "specialness" what makes his step-father wary of him.
Is he unable to control the things that he is able to do (the birds), like Carrie was at the end of the book?

Ben- Like Carrie, he is the sort of person that would invite ridicule if he were in the real world. One of those strange, maniacal people that no one really gets. I wonder if he didn't take over power and make everything "his", would one of the bodies in the pit have been him, rather than he being a huge cause of all the chaos that went on the day of the purge.

In a way I wonder if the purge as an idea was fine for him, like Carrie making her mind stronger and practicing her TK (flex). As she got more upset though, it sort of got out of her control, until the chaos from the prom just really led to her destruction. It started happening and she just couldn't and wouldn't stop it. I wonder if the purge became like that? An ultimate revenge for Ben against his father that just sort of spiraled out of control, but he wouldn't and couldn't stop it.

Jacob- Like Carrie, it seems that whoever or whatever Jacob is, he has some weird abilities that allow him to do the things that he can do. Is he telekinetic?

He seems to cause all of the stuff in his cabin to fly around, and catch on fire. He makes his cabin hop around the island, and he can't be seen by everyone. I'm going on the idea here that it is indeed Jacob that is making all of this happen and not actually someone else like Locke or Ben (whether willingly or unknowingly by them).

Final Bullets:

I sort of want to say Carrie White is telekinetic and so is Walt...the end. I want it to be as simple as that, but I also re-read this book before Season 4 began. We now know there is a heck of a lot more going on on that island than people being able to move things with their minds.
What if it really is that simple though? Maybe Stephen King was onto something when he writes about TK being genetic. Maybe having the TK gene in combination with getting near the island, and being exposed to electromagnetism makes Desmond get unglued in time. Could this be what Ben is trying to get a handle on?

Wiki has quite a lengthy entry on Psychokinesis (aka Telekinesis), and often lumps teleportation into the theme and term of TK.

I'm also curious as to why this book in particular is Juliet's favorite. What about that story strikes a chord with her? Don't get me wrong, it's a great book, but in my experience for something to be your "favorite" you really need to identify with it on a deeper level.

Coming Soon: VALIS by Philip K. Dick

Constants and Inconsistencies.

2008-03-08T15:25:00.001-08:00

Okay so first let's have a look at the progress we have with the factions from last time.

The Maxwell Group is non-cannon. We don't know who was behind the exhibition of the Christian 1 or if it was indeed an accident they found the fake 815. However with Mr Widmore purchasing that journal it does look increasingly like that he was behind the search (although a far while after buying the journal it seems) and it is probably he was actually looking for the island itself. We have no reason to doubt Ben's word (aside from it being Ben's word) that Widmore is indeed behind the freighter. That would suggest he was probably not behind the "freckage" as it doesn't make a lot of sense unless that was what was required to flush out the specific people he needed for the expedition to the island. I find that kind of far fetched. On the other hand, it seems pretty obvious Michael is Ben's "man on the inside" so with him in contact with Widmore it doesn't make a lot of sense for either party to fake the wreckage.

The Journal was the property of the Hanso family. It seems likely it was what led Alvar Hanso to the island in the first place and it is likely Mr. Widmore was aware of this. So what this tells us is that there is a good chance that those involved in the Hanso Foundation are not in cahoots with Widmore and whatever scheme he is involved in. If they were, I'm sure they wouldn't have taken the risk of not winning that auction. The purpose of the Hanso Foundation, even under the influence of Thomas Mittlewerk (from the Lost Experience) was always focused on the Valenzetti Equation and saving the world, I can't see Widmore sharing this agenda.

Okay now let's talk Time Travel.

This is now officially part of our mythos. Although Penny never actually acknowledged that she had specifically kept that number or was expecting Desmond's call, it seems the events during Desmond's travel did indeed happen as he ended up in Daniel's journal.

The "Sickness" that Danielle talked about could well be this time jumping side effect. Perhaps when she says she killed them, she is confused or has been mislead (by Ben likely). Maybe that is how Ben got her to give up her daughter to him. Maybe she had been time jumping too but had an anchor, but it caused her a lot of confusion. Maybe she did kill them but it was while she was in a amnesiac state where she thought she was in her own past.

The events in the Orchid orientation video seem to suggest that physical time travel is also possible, if highly unstable. This could be where Jacob comes in to it. Perhaps the whole purpose of the Orchid was to try and achieve this by experimenting with this effect.

This brings me to Room 23. What if the purpose of Room 23 was to provide people with an anchor. There are a lot of images and some culty/religious stuff in there, could well be designed to cause an emotional reaction to various things that a time traveller may come across, this providing them a safe way back.

Digging up an old theory of mine on Room 23. Perhaps the others were subjected to this as Dharma volunteers. Now the effects of the brainwashing along with repeated time jumps could have left them unstable and with a warped perception of reality maybe forgetting their lives before the island.

Okay so what if this new form of time travel and physical time travel are not the only forms that people on the island are experiencing. I've theorised for a long time now that the flashbacks (and forwards) are not simply a plot device but that these are things that the Losties are actually experiencing at least sub-consciously.

The difference for some perhaps is that they are conscious to some degree of what is happening, in Desmond's case (post key turning) he was not only conscious but able to change things.Question is did Desmond need an anchor for his previous time jumping? If so what was it? That's easy - Charlie. Which could explain why his future sight ended up focused on him.

But then do other people have anchors? Well, yes in theory they could do. Kate has her horse, Locke and Sawyer had Sawyers father, Sayid had the cat of his torture victim, Jack has his father, Hurley had both the numbers and his imaginary friend, Shannon & Boone had each other, same for Rose and Bernard, Michael & Walt, Sun & Jin and Nikki & Paulo, Charlie had heroine, Ekko had Yemi, Claire had her child, Libby's would have been Hurley assuming she did have some kind of crush on him in Santa Rosa, Ana Lucia's constant may have been shooting someone, certainly emotional and something she'd care about. If true this certainly raises a lot of questions (great, more questions).

Anyway that is all for now. With this unfortunately short run of Lost soon to conclude I will try and get a weekly bullets up. They are certainly giving us a lot to talk about of late.

Taking Sides - Season Four Episodes 1-3

2008-02-21T10:45:00.001-08:00

Well, it took a while but I'm finally talking about the new season! I think the overwhelming theme we have seen so far is that of taking sides. Whether it is within the Lostaways, or the larger faction of Bens Others and the mysterious group from the freighter. We have a very complex picture. There are many factions, sub-factions and pseudo-factions. it may all boil down to black rock/white rock or it may be something far more complex, we do not know.

So I thought I would take a moment to look at the various factions we have encountered through Lost and it's associated media.

But first I want to talk about an old friend of ours:

I have for a long time had a theory that the creators of the four toed statue and original inhabitants of the island are the missing ancient civilisation thought to have been from the antarctic. What am I talking about? Well have you heard about the Piri Reis Map? Well to cut a long story short, it's an old map that was copied from much older sources (some suggest these sources may have been found in the great library of Alexandria). This map is curious for the fact that it shows the coastline of the Antarctic. That is the coastline of the actual land and not the ice. The accuracy of which would only have been possible had it been charted some time before 4000bc when it was last clear of ice (note, this involved the shifting of the poles. A hot topic in various current theories). The theory is that there may have been a civilisation based there. This civilisation mysteriously disappeared.

Also I noticed on the wiki of it (which incidentally is a terrible Wiki, lots of opinions lacking citations), that it mentions the mythical island of "Antillia" is also on this map. The Wiki on Antillia was a real eyebrow raiser. Is this our island? Did this ancient civilisation end up there?

Okay so now that is out of the way let's take a look at the factions involved in Lost:

The Original Others - They seem to refer to themselves as natives (although perhaps that is un interpreting things wrong, maybe the natives are the voices and are ghosts of the ancients, after all talking to the dead is part of the mythos now), while Dharma referred to them as the Hostiles, a word from the Latin word "Hostis", which means stranger/enemy. That could explain why Richard Alpert asked the young Ben "do you even know what that means". While Ben seems to have control of the Others these days, there are some that seem to be "traditionalists" and doubt Ben's leadership. Primary amongst these is Richard himself, despite the fact it was he who initiated Ben into the group.
Ben's Others - Although there is some doubt within the others camp, on the whole the majority of them seem to be loyal to Ben and his agenda. Ben supposedly takes his orders from Jacob, but as he claims only he can communicate with him, it is hard to say how much direction actually comes from Jacob. I have wondered for a while if Jacobs list was actually inverted by Ben so as to avoid any threat to his power on the island. In theory the Losties are NOT on the list, but they seem to be connected to the island which suggests the list the Others have been using is incorrect. Whatever other factions are involved on the island it's pretty safe to say that Ben has an agenda of his own. He may technically answer to Jacob and/or other people, but in reality he is out for himself. What we know of his Agenda is that he had no love for Dharma and he is actively trying to dispose of whatever group was behind the Freighter (if the bracelet link in the S4E03 is to be believed)
The Dharma Initiative - This it appears is no longer an active faction in itself. However Dharma has massive links with the island and their influence could still have repercussion. There is still a strong likelihood Dharma were behind the Black Smoke, the references to Cerberus on the blast door map point in this direction. It also seems there is a strong chance there is at least one more undiscovered (by the Losties at least) Dharma Station on the island, like "The Orchid". There may even be further Dharma survivors around or people with links to Dharma out for revenge for the mass murder of their comrades. It's also worth noting the numbers continue to come up and Dharma was all about the numbers. It is also worth noting that Alvar Hanso's knowledge of the island may have been the link point for several of the factions involvement. Magnus Hanso's Black Rock keeps coming up again and again and that can't be a co-incidence.
The Hanso Foundation (under Mittlewerk) - It's important to note that at the time Lost is set, Thomas Mittlewerk does appear to be in control of the Hanso Foundation (seems he was since Alvar Hanso disappeared in 2002). The Foundation was also having dealings with Paik shortly after Jin and Suns wedding (we don't have date, but it is likely under Mittlewerk control at the time). If Pail was up to something with Mittlewerk then there could be repercussions on the island. Now, we all know it's unlikely Thomas Mittlewerk himself will appear, but we have seen the direction the Foundation has taken under his control and so there is a chance of some kind of New Hanso faction being involved directly or indirectly.
The Widmore Group - This is a difficult one to look at. We have met Mr.Widmore and it is clear he is an ass. We also know Widmore as a company has links with the Hanso Foundation, Paik Heavy Industries and the Maxwell Group. It would be hard to consider that all co-incidence without something more to the group. The Maxwell Groups involvement in particular makes Widmore looks particularly shady. However, who's side they are on we do not know. The main people that appear to have a motive for the Freckage are the Others, so does that mean Widmore is working with the Others? At the same time there is a lot of theorising that they are behind the Freighter group, so perhaps they are playing both sides or it is such a big group that both sides are represented within.
Penny Widmore - This is obviously just one person, however she has much of the resources of the Widmore Group and a lot of cash at her disposal. We know she has people out in the Arctic scanning for the island (or something anyway) and she must have been attempting to make contact when she spoke to Charlie. There are likely to be people working for her, but likely not a lot or on anything huge as she would want to keep bellow her fathers radar. The fact that she seemed to know something of the island, if not a lot, suggests again the Widmore Group is in this very deeply.
Paik Heavy Industries - We don't know much about their involvement with everyone else, except that they are involved and they work is highly illegal (they seem to do a lot of knocking people off). I suspect we may get further clues to this when we find out who those watches Jin was given were meant for. We never saw who got the watch in Australia and we don't know who the other one was intended for in the US.
The Maxwell Group - We know this group is likely directly behind the Freckage. We also know the Maxwell Group is a part of the Widmore Group. It was strongly suggested the Maxwell Group is interested in magnetism and especially the works of James Clerk Maxwell. If they did set up the freckage it seems very likely they know all about the Island. It is possible they are aligned with the others as this would certainly explain the freckage. It is unlikely they are aligned with Abaddon (unless they were set up just the same as poor Sam, perhaps Talbot new they were being set up and that is why he was so anti-Sam) as it doesn't seem to make sense to set up the freckage and then shortly after make a mission to the island to find Ben. However if they are working with the Others, that could have made Abaddon smell Bens involvement and hence get him out looking. The question is, if Maxwell is working for the Others, what does that mean for Widmore and it's other associates.
UPDATE: It seems that Maxwell is totally non-cannon as is most of Find815. As John Lydon would say "Ever had the feeling you've been cheated?". Replace this with the mystery faction of whomever was actually behind the "Christiane 1" and it's mission.
Matthew Abadons/The Freighter - This is a very curious group. They seem to be direct enemies of the Others, or at least of Bens. What set Abaddon off to try and get to the island at that particular time? Sure the Freckage was just found. But why would that make him suddenly try and get to Ben. It doesn't make any sense for his group to be behind the freckage and then randomly set up a mission to the island. More likely something about the Freckage set up gave away to them something about the island or Bens involvement and so that is why they launched the mission. The other thing we seem to know about this group is that Ben see's them as a very real threat. Ben could have wiped out the Losties easily but he didn't see them as a threat it that way, however he has Sayid going around hunting these guys down. Well... That is if you believe the bracelet link. I do... currently.
Oceanic Air - Various theories have arisen over time about Oceanic Conspiracies. However as of yet we have no real facts that are anything other then an airline that just happen to be involved in the events of Lost. Personally I think even if they turn out to be more involved they will simply be directly under the wing of one of the other factions of the game. It is worth noting that even though Abaddon claimed to be a lawyer for Oceanic, he could produce the documents.
The Time & Destiny people - Okay time travel seems quite likely these days (what with the Orchid video and all). When it was just Desmond it was hard to say if these people were merely part of Des' subconscious, but now it seems much more likely they are a real group. Did they actually meddle with Desmond's past? Was his conscious flashback actually what happened? Was the head monk in the monastery involved with this group? Are this group only involved with Des or have they manipulated the destinies of other people to get them to the island. I have wondered for a while if they messed with all the Losties destinies to get them to the island. perhaps they were behind the change of pilot for 815. On the other hand maybe those four newcomers were meant to be on the island themselves and someone or something stopped that destiny going as planned (which would suggest these people have an enemy).
The Monster - What is the agenda of the black smoke? If it was created by Dharma does it have similar goals or did it go wrong? Did it start as a security system and then develop into something more sentient? It seems very judgemental of people and does not seem to be working with the others. Indeed the others seem just as in the dark with the Monster as the Losties. Lockes top question for Ben was about the Black Smoke, this seemed to take Ben by surprise. I think this secret will be fundamental to the story.
Jacob - We don't know a lot about Jacob, who he is, what he is, or what his goals are. He could be a one of those ancients or he could be part of a Dharma experiment, he could be a anthropomorphic personification of the island or the Monster in another form. We do not know. However he is powerful and knows more then anyone it seems about the island. We have recently learned that his cabin seems to move around the island. We don't know if it always did, but if I read the expression on Bens face correctly when Locke couldn't find the cabin (he seemed a little smug, more then usual that is), he wasn't surprised at this turn of events. It reminds me of the movie Krull, where the castle of the villain moved location every day. Seems to me the ash circle may have been simply to mark one of Jacobs locations.

Okay that's it. It's a long one, but it's a good to have all this information in one place. There are so many elements involved in Lost now it's easy to be overwhelmed by it all. Anyway, I think my next posts will be down to a more sane length and more directly relating to the episodes.

What we learned - The Missing Pieces and Find815

2008-02-10T11:38:00.001-08:00

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?

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.
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"....

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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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".
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....
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.
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!

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.
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).

Special Message from the DI - (Unknown year)

2007-12-24T13:52:00.000-08:00

I dug this up recently as well as the lost Dharma Orientation (available at myspace), it's a special communication from Doctor Max Wax, research coordinator for the Dharma Initiative from some time in the past.

"Hello all, during this holiday season please spare a thought for those less fortunate then yourself. Those stuck in isolated Dharma stations endlessly performing tasks with no idea as to what they are actually achieving. Those survivors of commercial and scientific vehicles that have been drawn accidentally to the island, where they find they must dig deep into the darker parts of their soul just to survive. Those wretched Hostiles, who throw their lives away for the island without seeing the bigger picture of what we are trying to do here and of course those of the DI that are now face down in a ditch after the hostiles attack.

*Ahem*. I'm told that hasn't happened yet so please disregard the last bit. Anyway, let us also remember our friends, colleagues and bunny rabbits that have been sent hurtling through time and space as part of our experiments, often to never see the light of day again, or in some cases to see it multiple times simultaneously creating terrible paradoxical problems for everyone. Let us also remember those stuck in an endless time loop and those stuck in an endless time loop and those stuck in an endless time loop.

Yes, let us remember all those, but let us also not loose sight of the reason which we are here and that is to save the world from certain destruction by experimenting with things that have the potential to be the primary cause of that destruction in the kind of morale logic that only us scientists are capable of.

Thank you, Namaste and Merry Christmas."

Merry Christmas from us at Lost Bullets and look for a serious blog from myself soon.

Of Mice and Men

2007-12-17T17:51:00.000-08:00

Sawyer is seen reading this in his prison flashback in season two's Every Man For Himself. Also, Ben quotes the book (see below) when showing Sawyer the other island from the hilltop.

I haven't read it since high school, and this time around I was struck by how emotional I felt for all of the characters. From Crooks and how lonely he was, to Lennie and how simple it was to make him happy (and how easy it was for him to kill things). To George who had such a kind heart, and even Candy looking for a dream to share, and his poor old dog. The thing that did strike me however was that each and every one of them was lonely, and looking for somebody.

I have tried very hard to look for connections between the book and the show, and came up with some basic comparisons:

Rabbits. Lennie is pretty obsessed with rabbits and we see rabbits currently playing a role in whatever experiments are going on on the island. Not only did Ben use #8 to terrorize Sawyer, but we saw #15 in the orientation video released at Comic-Con.

The bunk house being a gang of rag tag workers all kinda thrown together by a common thread puts me in mind of the survivors. None of them have a reason to have anything to do with each other but all seem to have a certain small degree of separation in the world off the island as well as a common interest on it now.

Curly going around acting like a big bully and picking fights with everyone puts me in mind of Sawyer.

I could go on with the little comparisons, but I think like Turn of the Screw, it might be about the title of the book or maybe just the quote that is used from it.

"A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you. I tell ya, I tell ya," he cried, "I tell ya a guy gets lonely, an' he gets sick." (Crooks to Lennie in the Book, and Ben to Sawyer on Lost)

This quote could really represent many of the characters on Lost.

Many of the characters haven't really got anybody. If they do have someone, they either do something to push them away, use them for their own gain, or force them away to keep a secret. Has this made them sick? If so mentally sick, socially sick, lunatic sick, what?

Ben: He says this specific quote to Sawyer. Is there any significance to this pairing?

I think that Ben feels that he has no one. He is surrounded by people who follow him, but he is lonely.
He has/had cancer (sick), but also his mental state can certainly come into question. What sort of person can participate in/orchestrate a mass killing? What sort of person could kill, lie, and steal children? I think that Ben is looking so hard to find a purpose or a place where he fits, that it has just made him nuts. Either that or being so isolated, he just doesn't realize how maniacal his behavior is.

Sawyer: He has isolated himself with his quest to find and kill the real Sawyer. His loneliness comes from not allowing himself to care for people and just basically turning everything into a con. Until Cassidy, who turned on him in the end as well.

Sawyer could have had a chance to be someone new on the island, clean slate and all. However, he chose to continue being a horrible person pushing people away, and forcing himself to continue to have nobody.

Locke: He was so lonely in the real world. Thrown out of a window and paralyzed by his father, giving him a handicap that separates him from mainstream society. Being rejected by his father, lied to by his mother, and just pretty much getting the shaft from everyone he knows. Being rejected by Helen, etc... He is so lonely that he turns to a phone sex operator for friendship. His is heartsick, and he has nobody, certainly, and it's one of the reasons that he has embraced the island so much as his true place of belonging.

Kate: She has nobody in the real world because she can't let anyone know who/where she is for fear of getting thrown in jail. Her mother has rejected her for blowing up her husband and her house. She is responsible for the death of her best friend, and she just can't share this with anyone. She has nobody in the real world, but seems to have used the island to forge some real relationships based on who she really is rather than who she pretends to be.

Eko: He is like Ben in that he initially did what he had to do to survive, but became a murderous maniac with loads of people to do his bidding, but none being friend. He had isolated himself with his power, and like Ben sort of embraced the island to cleanse himself just in a spiritual way rather than a I-am-the-boss-of-you way.

Charlie: Well, he isolated himself with drugs. Basically drove everyone away and messed up his career, relationships, and life. The island helped him get over his sickness and find people that he truly cares about. Enough to sacrifice himself to make sure they survive.

So, as I wrote this, I realized; while many of the survivors were alone and isolated in the regular world, there were two camps on the island. Those that used it to make themselves new, less isolated and not so alone, and those who just became more isolated. Ben and Sawyer fall into the latter category, which makes it apt that they are the two speaking the quote from the book.

Final Bullets:

John Steinbeck is the author, and ROT used Steinbeck as the password for one of their clues.

The Pearl is a Steinbeck novel and it is the name a station on the island.

Ultimately the story of George and Lennie (even Candy and Curly) is of a lost dream. I think that can be applied to Ben as well. Whatever it is that he is hoping the island will give him, seems to be falling apart.

This could also apply to the DHARMA project as a whole. We have no where near the whole story, but it's implied at this time that the dream that was to be The DHARMA Initiative has been unrealized.

The idiom, The best laid schemes of mice and men means: The most carefully prepared plans may go wrong. Lots of plans have gone awry in the tales of DHARMA and the Losties, do I really need to elaborate? :D

Next Month: Stephen King's Carrie

The Turn of the Screw

2007-11-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

It was as if, at moments, we were perpetually coming into sight of subjects before which we must stop short, turning suddenly out of alleys that we perceived to be blind, closing with a little bang that made us look at each other--for, like all bangs, it was something louder than we had intended--the doors we had indiscreetly opened.

The Turn of The Screw makes its appearance in season one where it marks the hiding place of the Swan Orientation Film. There were two comparisons between the book and the show that I wanted to focus on, they each leave me with questions and they each get a bullet:

Juliet’s Story?

The first thing I was struck by was the way that the governess was hired and eventually was transported to Bly. To me it seemed to parallel Juliet’s story. The governess recalls the circumstances of her hiring as something that she, “…took a couple of days to consult and consider. But the salary offered much exceeded her modest measure, and on a second interview she faced the music, she engaged.” That was pretty much Juliet’s story. She was made an offer, the money would enable her to do so much and the research aspect of the position was hardly something she could pass up. Yet, she was hesitant to take the job on the island as she didn’t know what it entailed, and for the fact that she would be cut off from her family. Turn of the Screw even goes on to detail the travel arrangements of the governess which include long hours in a “swinging, bumping coach” to a stopping place where they are met by another vehicle that would take her to the house, This is very much like the plane ride and eventually the sub that took Juliet to the island.

When the governess arrives at Bly she instantly is struck by how perfect the children are. Even Miles, who was expelled from school for “something”, can do no wrong. She is quick to see small acts of "badness" as flaws in them and she thinks they are becoming corrupted by the ghosts she keeps seeing. I wonder if that’s how we’re meant to see the island, and specifically is how the island was sold to Juliet. It was meant to be her perfect haven for research. Is that one of the reasons this particular book leads to The Swan Orientation Film? DHARMA was billed as this perfect place, where research could be done without financial limitations or pesky regulations. A place where Juliet could do her research, or where Roger and his son Ben could start a new life and leave their hardships behind. All of the characters that have willingly (Kelvin) signed up for island duty seem to be under the impression that they are signing on to a place that is good, just, and the answer to what they have been looking for. Much like the governess taking the position where she finds the children to be perfect. She learns that Flora and Miles are not perfect, just as the DHARMA recruits learn the same about the island. The orientation films want try to paint us a rosy picture of perfection, while at the same time alluding to something being afoot indicating “the incident” and that the computers should not be used to try to communicate with the outside world. Nothing is as perfect as it initially seems…but we already knew that about the island didn’t we.

Ghosts or Madness?

The second thing that stood out was the ghosts, and seeing people that are not there. Throughout the book the governess sees what she thinks are the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel. We are never really certain if she actually sees the ghosts or not, as no one else seems to see them (maybe Miles and Flora, but we're never really sure). She thinks the children are being taken over by the ghosts who are causing them to be bad. It seems that indeed at the end Miles dies because of seeming otherworldly intervention.

I find it interesting that this character is haunted by the ghosts of people that no one else sees. How many times on Lost have we see the dead walking, and appearing to individual characters only? Jack sees Christian Shepard, Eko sees Yemi, Ben sees his mother. On another level Hurley sees Dave, and again we have the semi transparent shapes of Walt and Jacob. They certainly could be dead, but we don’t know for sure. Ultimately though, we have lots of characters seeing people that for all intensive purposes should not be there.

In the book it seems that the governess might be going mad. Is that what we are supposed to wonder about the characters on Lost? Are the things they think they are seeing (the impossible things) real, hallucinations, or their minds slipping into madness? Is there some kind of mass hysteria going on here, where like the governess, the characters are trying desperately to pull someone else into their delusions?

In the story Mrs. Gross and Flora eventually cast the governess aside. Becoming horrified at her behavior and delusions, as well as frightened of her. Flora and all of her things are removed from the bedroom of the governess and she is left by herself. Mrs. Gross, claims to believe the governess, then takes Flora away, but not before disobeying her direct order to keep Miles and Flora apart. I wonder if something is being hinted at here. Ben and Locke are the only ones that we know of that have seen Jacob. Up until now it seems the others are willing to accept Ben's word on Jacob. But what if this book is foreshadowing for us some things to come? Perhaps the others will begin to be less accepting of the idea of Jacob and will eventually think that Ben and Locke are going mad. Maybe they think that already, Like Mrs. Gross suspected early on that the governess was acting strange, but kind of went along with it because of her stature in Bly.

Final Bullets:

Is Ben Miles? Is he being bad because he can, and following ghosts or so it seems. Is Ben really as bad as we think he is, or are we just seeing him from the wrong point of view?

Is Sawyer Miles? Is he being bad because he can, not really following ghosts, but certainly making choices based on the ghosts in his past.

We were shown this book twice in season one. Were the writers trying to foreshadow Juliet and her story, and/or some sort of impending madness that will soon come to a head?

Later this month: Of Mice and Men

The Third Policeman

2007-10-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

"...a journey is a hallucination."
"Apparently there is no limit, Joe remarked. Anything can be said in this place and it will be true and will have to be believed."

This book was seen in the Season 2 premier “Man of Science Man of Faith”. It was being read by Desmond and is also seen on his bunk (this information is from Lostpedia). Lostpedia as well as other blogs and Lost media sources quote one of the shows writers, Craig Wright, as saying that the book was chosen for the show for a reason, and that there are key ideas that relate to the show. This is not really confirmed anywhere so I’m not sure how much stock I want to put in the ideas it presents us. That said, this book, while full of bicycles, has many concepts and ideas that tie in in such an interesting way. I literally had notes on every other page. So to avoid another big, long post a la AiWL I give you The Third Policeman in four bullets and a list…

Comparisons To Lost:

The road to Eternity compares to the way Lock and Boone had to run through the jungle to find the plane. Also when Eko and Lock find the big ? on the ground by following their dream.
The map…well it parallels the blast door map. I think that is pretty much cut and dry.
Omnium parallels Ben’s magic box if it is indeed a real thing and not just a metaphor.
The policemen who stay in Eternity don’t age when they are there, which reminds me of the constantly young Mr. Alpert.
De Selby attributes night to “black air” coming from volcanic activity. Our island has a volcano, and also our island has volcanic rock that may or may not be creating some kind of effect on the island.
Grey powder shows up in Eternity when the narrator asks for a weapon and is given a device that will turn an enemy into a gray powder (or other colors if calculated to do so). On the show we see a gray powder surrounding Jacob’s cabin. Maybe volcanic ash, maybe something else, but curious (not to mention outlandish) to ponder that it could be powdered enemies.
The policemen are constantly taking recording in their notebooks, checking instruments, and looking at numbers. Lost has numbers, yes it does, and they add up to 108, and they show up in curious places, and they need to be entered into computers so that things will not “happen”. So yeah numbers parallel the book and the show.
De Selby claims that there are only two directions on a sphere north-south and east-west...or maybe only one direction because, "...if one leaves any point on the globe, moving and continuing to move in any "direction", one ultimately reaches the point of departure again." (p 94). Could this be describing Michael and Walt on the boat pointing it in one direction and eventually getting home? Maybe they are just going to go in one big circle and end up at the island again.
De Selby also thinks that Earth is sausage shaped, and "If a way can be found, says de Selby, of discovering the "second direction", i.e., along the "barrel" of the sausage, a world of entirely new sensations and experiences will be open to humanity." Okay we know the earth is not sausage shaped really, but it is not perfectly a circle either, so, is this what DHARMA has discovered... a new direction and a new world? Is this where the numbers lead to? Is this the island?

Travel From Point A to Point B (pgs. 50-52)

De Selby says that, “…a journey is a hallucination.” He believes that wanting to move or get from one place to another one must begin, then rest at various points between when you begin and end, and finally rest when you are where you want to move to. Each separate rest, grouped by the “many millions” make up the illusion of motion. It even goes on to recount a time when de Selby wanted to get from Bath to Folkstone by locking himself in a room with pictures of where he wanted to go, and instruments to simulate change in time, etc…he believed that he had indeed traveled.
How does this relate to Lost? Well, there are two characters in particular that come to mind when I think about traveling without really going anywhere and they are Jacob and Walt. Both have appeared in season three (Walt in season two as well) in sort of semi-transparent states. So perhaps these characters are not really on the island but rather locked in a room somewhere with pictures of the island, and sort of willing themselves to be there. The result is them showing up in a not quite formed manor, as I would imagine flinging yourself into motion by constantly hallucinating and then grouping your "millions of rests" between two points may do. The question then is, will we see anyone else who is able to do this on a more formed level? Are there characters that are able to manifest themselves off the island and have interactions with other people that we don’t know are doing this? Maybe Desmonds monk, the ring lady, Nadia, etc… are all people who are sort of jumping about by literally thinking about it hard enough.

Eternity:

To get there you take a hidden road that is overgrown. Once inside, you travel underground and end up in a series of tunnels and passages that basically all connect into one big circle. Off of these are doors that open into different things, but mainly through the use of omnium, can give you anything you want. Anything at all…poof just like that. The catch is that while you’re there you can play with the stuff you get, but you can’t take it with you. So yes, this sounds exactly like Ben’s magic box, that he proclaims can give you anything you want.
Also, while in Eternity you don’t change. You don’t age, grow hair, etc. Even the cigarettes that are smoked don’t burn down. On the island Hurley never gets any thinner (and yes I am actually LOLing at myself for writing that), people become whole again and then don’t seem to change (Rose and Locke), Richard Alpert seems to not age, and no new babies are carried to term (from people at least). So, it could be said that the Losties are in some sort of “Eternity” of their own and just don’t know it. There are loads of holes in this idea beginning with the birth of Aaron, if things didn’t change he would just stay in Claire forever I guess. Also with Sun’s pregnancy, and maybe even Kate’s if she is indeed pregnant.

The Punchline:

There is this third policeman who we don’t see until the end of the book, but through the whole thing has been in the walls of Mathers’ house (the murdered man) in his own little police barracks, and he has been messing with the readings, numbers, and data of the other two policemen. Thusly he has saved our narrator from a hanging. BUT then our narrator goes to seek out his box of omnium, which is at his co-killer’s home only to find that he is dead, and has been through his whole odd adventure. He then walks back out to the road and starts the whole thing all over again.
I’m not going to lie, I am becoming more and more alarmed at the number of book club books that are ending as dreams or as after-death adventures. So I am going to pretend that the Losties are not dead, or in purgatory (ugh I can’t believe I wrote that), or in a mass hallucination/coma, or in a snow globe, and just say…at the end of the book, Flann O’Brien’s letter to his friend appears. In it he states, “…all the queer ghastly things which have been happening to him are happening in a sort of hell which he earned for the killing.” That idea is interesting. I totally forgot as I read the book, that this narrator has brutally killed a man. I actually sort of like the guy, as I do most of the characters on Lost. But let’s review; there are loads of people on the show who have indeed killed someone before getting to the island, we all know this, and there are loads of lists posted so no need to make this one any longer. But I do like the idea that Hell is this cyclic thing and that it keeps going round and round and actions earn you a journey there.

Final Bullets:

Here is where my brain is going into overdrive. Okay so we have the idea that there is this place where you don’t change while there. Couple that with the idea that Hell is cyclic and weird and full of two dimensional police barracks where everyone is obsessed with bicycles, taking measurements, and omnium. Add in the idea that you can have whatever you want but you can’t take it with you, and the fact that the main character is stuck in a loop that he has earned himself by being a bad murdering dude.
Desmond is holding/reading the book on the show, and he is the one that we know is doing some sort of looping. Maybe it's a clue that with this book we are on the right track. (Thanks for the reminder on this Jess.)
What if our Losties are stuck in some sort of cyclic place, where they have unwittingly earned themselves a spot? What if while they are there nothing changes, and time outside of where they are is moving slow or not at all (ie: pgs 142-143 where the narrator emerges from Eternity after 2-3 hours and it seems only minutes has passed. Or when he makes it to his partner's house and it is 16 years later while it has only been 3 days for him)? They have been there for months, but maybe things off the island are moving like a day for every month they have been there.
Now add to that the looping idea where things are running in a circle and not all in a consecutive manor. Is there a way that our Flight 815 crashed, and everyone ended up in an “Eternity” but somehow in the whole big loop of things they are also back at home, at some point in the past or future. There is another crash of Flight 815, one in which the bodies are located with undersea cameras and played for the news shows. All the while the other “survivors” are just out of synch with the world. When they get out of Eternity will they actually have to loop around to another point in time and crash again? Is that what Jack is looking for? Is that why they need to stay on the island, to avoid their deaths? I know somewhere, somehow this makes a little bit of sense.

Next Month: Turn of the Screw and Of Mice and Men

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

2007-09-11T22:21:00.000-07:00

"If there's no meaning to it," said the King, "that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn't try to find any."

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
This book is nonsense! This is also a very long post, but keep in mind it includes two books and SUPER SKINNY Blogger format makes it look longer. There was so much to include, that it became overwhelming, so I decided to look at each book separately and just sort of compare and contrast things from the show. Also, I will look at some of the larger themes present.

Themes:
Let me begin by saying that I am a big supporter of the idea that Ben could well be a twin. So I found it quite relevant that throughout the book there was this theme of Alice thinking that she was someone else (Mabel, her sister, even the cat Dinah) and also that the White Rabbit thought she was someone else as well (he mistook her for his maid).

This quote in particular stood out for me, "...for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.”But it's no use now," thought poor Alice, "to pretend to be two people! Why there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!""

It begs the question, is someone on the show pretending to be two people...or perhaps two people pretending to be one person.
As I said, I am of the mind that Ben is perhaps doing this. His back healed awfully fast...maybe his twin is acting as Ben until the other half is healed. Also I feel that Ben has two distinct sides. One seems stammering and unsure, while the other is cold and maniacal.
I also tend to think that the pretending to be more than one person applies to Kate, Sawyer, and even Sun and Jin. Kate and Sawyer literally taking on different identities and acting as if they are someone else. Jin and Sun on the other hand, are acting toward each other. Jin acting like he is not the hired muscle that beats and kills people for her father, and Sun acting like she is not in love with someone else.

Along with the dual person theme we see a huge theme of change in the story, both size and shape. Alice is constantly growing and shrinking, the baby literally becomes a pig, the white roses are painted red, and the Cheshire Cat is always going through various states of visibility.

I think that the characters on Lost are certainly going through huge amounts of changes. Some have been healed, and that is a huge change. But there are subtle ones as well:

Charlie has kicked his drug habit.
Claire has become a mother
Juliet has become an accomplice
Danielle has become a recluse
Hurley is finding his purpose
Michael became a true parent
Locke is becoming part of the island

Observations:

Throughout the story questions never seem to get answered and distraction is used to divert Alice from further pursuit.

Much like Ben or Richard Alpert and their answers to the others and Locke about just what is going on on the island.

The whole book is just nonsense and Alice is trying to make sense of what is going on throughout it.

In truth there really is no sense to make. The characters have no idea that they live in nonsense, so really there is nothing there for them to figure out. It only seems abnormal to Alice because she is an outsider.
The Others I think have gotten this way. They have been on the island for so long that they have just sort of accepted what goes on there to a degree, as normal. They really no longer question things because it's just the way it is. Things like a plane falling from the sky and infiltrating the survivors, taking children, and watching someone who is supposed to kill their father all seem normal to them at this point because daily life is just that bizarre.
Alice seems to have trouble remembering verse that she should know. It ends up coming out all wrong and she can't make sense of it. I wonder if the island has that effect on people. Maybe the flashbacks we have seen could be memories that are remembered wrong. OR maybe the island simply makes you forget what the right thing is. Things you were supposed to know are now replaced by nonsense, and it’s somehow normal.

Food makes Alice shrink and grow throughout the book. Could this idea be reflected by the food drops and the DI food that the survivors are eating? Could there really be drugs in the food that are making things happen to the people who eat it?

Who on Lost is most like the Cheshire cat?

I think Jacob is a good choice because he is literally transparent. However, Ben is also a good candidate as we haven't really seen all of him yet.
Also, Danielle as she sort of pops in and out it seems when the time is convenient.

In the end, even though Alice wakes up, Wonderland is still with her (the idea spreads to sister and to her children later in life). This certainly sounds like Jack to me, now that we have seen flash forwards to his life off of the island.

"...Alice began to remember that she was a Pawn, and that it would soon be her turn to move."

Through the Looking-Glass:
While reading this book I felt very much like Alice must have when she was running with the Red Queen. Rushing and running so very fast but only to find you're running to stay in the same place. There were so many things in this book that could compare to Lost, but I'm struck again by the nonsense, as well as the fact that again, Alice dreams the whole thing.

Themes:
Like in the first book, we find Alice is again involved in a game. In AiWL it was cards, and in TtLG it's a large game of chess. Both games of skill and process, however playing cards is more a game of chance and diversion where chess is a game of skill and strategy. She has moved from luck of the draw to skill and thinking.

The Losties have had fate and chance deal them their hand in the first two seasons. Falling on the island, it seems by chance, and sort of just playing the hand they have been dealt.

Later they meet The Others and are learning strategies to survive, beat them at their own game, and get off the island. No longer so much chance as strategy and skill being put to better use.

Alice keeps progressing through the Looking-Glass world, following the game and going forward. At one point she gets frustrated because she keeps coming back to the door to her house, and she doesn't want to go back until the adventure is finished. "I'm NOT going in again yet. I know I should have to get through the Looking-glass again--back into the old room--and there'd be an end of all my adventures!" (Chapter 2).

I think this is the embodiment of Locke. He sees the island as his adventure, his purpose. He is not going back home (off of it) until he sees the end of the adventure.
This could also embody Ben, in that he is home on the island (and even lies about being born there). He really has nowhere to go if he leaves the island (that we know of) and seems eager to stay and do what Jacob needs him to do.

Throughout the book Alice is reminded by many characters (the gnat, The Red Queen) to remember her name. She even encounters a forest where she forgets who she is, but remembers as soon as she walks out.

I think that this is one of those things that ALL of the Losties are experiencing. The island is giving them the opportunity to remember who they really are, or at least remember circumstances that have gotten them to the places they are in life. The island is giving them the freedom to recover their names and be rid of the parts of themselves that they are not happy with.

Observations:
When Alice first stumbles on the King and Queen chess pieces, she picks them up and puts them on the table. They can't see her and somehow reason that she is a volcano picking them up. Says the Queen, "Mind the volcano!...Blew-me-up," panted the Queen, who was still a little out of breath."

This season we've been speculating about the volcanic properties of the island, whether it is doing something to the water, whether it's ash is being used somehow, and weather it is spewing these magnetic black-rocks all over the island.

Alice wanders into a talking flower garden where a tiger lily tells her that flowers can always talk but only "when there's anybody worth talking to." Other flowers eventually chime in and Alice describes it as..."shouting together, till the air seemed quite full of shrill voices."

This made me think of the whispers and how they seem to come from the forest. They begin as an almost rustle of the trees, and evolve into voices, much like the flowers.

Are we experiencing a hallucination, on the show, of plants and animals sounding like voices, or is something much larger and unexplained going on? OR is someone integrating parts of the island into a sort of lucid dream (like Alice)?

The Red Queen takes Alice up on to a hill to look over the Looking-glass Land and view the chess board.

This really made me think of when Ben took Sawyer for a walk and showed him where they actually were in relation to the Lostie's camp.

Could Tweedledee and Tweedledum represent a set of quarreling twins on the island (going back to my favorite Ben is a twin theory :D)

Smokey-isms:
"Here she checked herself in some alarm, at hearing something that sounded to her like the puffing of a large steam-engine in the wood near them, though she feared it was more likely to be a wild beast." (Chapter 4)

At one point Tweedledee and Tweedledum are fighting and Alice wishes a crow would come and stop them. A crow does come and she describes it like a large black cloud descending upon them. To escape it, she runs into the woods rationalizing that the crow/cloud is far too large to squeeze between the trees to get at her.

This is very reminiscent to when Juliet and Kate are handcuffed and running from Smokey. They hide in a tree and Smokey goes away.
The crow comes because there is a conflict happening and/or Alice has willed it. It seems that Smokey has a way of showing up when some of the Losties are experiencing a conflict or commotion (the crash, Kate and Juliet yelling, etc.) or even when willed to arrive like with Locke and Eko.
The Lion and the Unicorn call Alice a "monster" just because they don't know what she is. Are we and the Losties doing that with our smoke "monster"?

Final Bullets:

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (info here and here) is a real for honest thing!

People who suffer from it see objects as smaller/larger or up-close/far-away at the same time (micro or macropsia).
This syndrome can be caused by migraine, schizophrenia, psychoactive drugs, epilepsy, viral mononucleosis or Epstein Barr.
Sufferers also experience distorted movement of time and distorted sound perception.

So could this be "the sickness" or part of it?
Could this be where the sounds of the whispers come from?
Could there be psychotropic drugs in the food (alluded to in TLE with Apollo Bars) that are making their normality slightly skewed?

Both stories end with Alice waking from a dream. I don't even want to speculate that THIS will be how Lost ends...I get light headed and nervous just thinking about that, but I will end with this quote from TtLG describing The King, as Alice comes upon him sleeping on the grass:

Said Tweedledee, "Why, you're only a sort of thing in his dream! If that there King was to wake, you'd go out--bang!--just like a candle!"

The Wizard of Oz

2007-08-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."

This, I am ashamed to say, is the first time I have ventured to read The Wizard of Oz, and not just look at the movie. It seems to be the theme of the summer; reading books I probably should have long before now! So, hooray for Lost and the book club, and new horizons.
I really liked this book, and can say that even though it didn't actually appear on the show, it certainly has a lot of ideas that are relevant. For reference I am using the book The Wizard of Oz~ L. Frank Baum (complete and unabridged) ISBN 0-812-52335-0. I'm going to look at a few key themes here: Comparisons to the Losties, Comparisons to Ben and the Others, and Comparisons to Jacob.

The Losties:
The first idea to look at is that any of the flight 815 survivors could be compared to Dorothy, as she literally came into Oz by falling from the sky.

Her house crash landed and ended up killing a not-so-nice witch for which she is congratulated. Flight 815 didn't necessarily fall on top of anyone and rid the place of an evil, but there were certainly people aboard that probably had questionable morals, and were cleansed (for lack of a better word) of them by the crash. The survivors didn't have a house fall on them, but in their fall from the sky, something in them changed. We can see an examples of this in Kate, Charlie, and Eko (just to name a few).

Kate, until the crash was really out for her own survival and took whoever was in her way down or got them killed. She is now very much worried about the well being of those around her (specifically Jack and Sawyer). Charlie, through the crash and island survival, was able to conquer his drug addiction. Eko was able to confront his brother, his past, and move out of the world not apologizing for anything, but being cleansed in a way by accepting his faults and knowing that he has not led a good life.

On the flip side, the island seemed to make the bad side of others come out, like Ben, Locke (could be argued, but I think he's up to no good), and any of The Others really. Take your pick. While not technically bad people, since coming to the island they have been encouraged to do bad things in the name of science, and survival.

Ben and The Others:
The character of Ben is reflected throughout the book in several areas. Firstly, when we meet him on the island he calls himself Henry Gale and purports to have fallen onto the island in a hot air balloon. I'm pretty sure I don't need to delve into that much further as it's cut and dry right out of the book.

Right in the story it mentions that the wizard can see all that goes on in the land of Oz. I thought that this particularly related to Ben as he sees all through his monitors and cameras.
At one point in the story Dorthy is granted an audience with Oz because she has been marked by a kiss from the good witch. Are Ben and Locke somehow marked and that is why they are allowed to see Jacob? Perhaps killing your own father marks you in a way which allows you to meet and/or see Jacob?
From chapter 11: "Everyone seemed happy and contented and prosperous." Ben has created a strange vibe in his version of Otherville. Almost like everyone is going through life with this illusion of happy. Carrying on with a book club, keeping a community. Even Jack, when he briefly joined Otherville was somewhat included in this with his infamous game of football.

Jacob:
The character of Oz pretty much screams Jacob. There are just blatant flat-out comparisons that can be made, and I think the easiest way to look at them is to just go ahead and list them:

(p. 13) No one knows what Oz is, no one sees him. As far as we know, only Ben has seen Jacob, and now Locke as well.
(p. 68) Oz never lets anyone come into his presence. It's the same with Jacob and the others.
The actual Emerald City is all an illusion. Nothing there is really emerald colored, it's just an illusion put on by Oz when he makes everyone strap on green glasses. Otherville is also an illusion. Especially the rugged, ripped up clothes, tent city that we first think is Otherville.
(p. 71) To those who are not honest, Oz appears terrible. Could honest translate to good? Perhaps that is where the whole good and bad lists come from in Lost. Only the "good" can see Jacob for what he is and not something terrible?
(p. 120) Oz is a ventriloquist and can imitate bird and beast. Could this be where Smokey is coming from? The mind of Jacob, or some sort of projection (either from his mind or from a machine) that he controls?
(p. 132) Oz can't go out because people will know that he has deceived them. Could this be why Jacob is holed up in a shack in the woods? Is Jacob the illusion, and the real controller is hiding, and afraid of being discovered?

Final Bullets:

(p. 34) We meet the tin man and he tells the story of how he came to be made of metal. His story begins with the removal of his legs, which he replaces with tin ones. Eventually his whole body is replaced and he is left without a heart. This story reminded me of Locke and how his legs were repaired. Also, for Locke, it seems that the more he goes through the more jaded his heart becomes.
(p. 80) Dorothy is told by Oz that she can go home if she kills the wicked witch. She becomes disheartened because she can't kill anything. I thought this also reflected the story of Locke and how in order to see what he wanted, he had to kill his father. He was also unable to and so was Dorothy. She only succeeded because she accidentally killed the witch. Lock was similar in that he just got someone to do the dirty work for him.
(p. 96) Dorothy could have become a slave because she doesn't know the powers that she has (ie. the hat that calls the winged monkeys and the silver shoes). I thought this was very reflective of Walt, in that he seems to have extreme abilities but has no idea of this until the others take him and poke at him for a while.
(p. 150) When Dorothy encounters the China Country she discovers that if she's not careful she will break everything there including the people. One little china woman says, when asked if they just couldn't be mended, "...but one is never so pretty after being mended you know." This really made me think about all of the Losties that have been mended in different ways, and really haven't been the same since. This is certainly not all of them but just a few that come to mind:

Locke (legs)
Jack (Kate stitched up his back)
Sawyer (shot)
Charlie (hanged/drowned)
Ben (tumor removal)

Final Final Bullets :D :

Each character in the story eventually got what they wanted because of Dorothy (Lion=courage, Tin Man=heart, Scarecrow=Brain, all of them ruled lands, even the munchkins got rid of the wicked witches). All if their desires were filled by this stranger that fell from the sky. I think that Ben is hoping, even though he fears the Losties a little, that all of his desires will be filled by the people that fell from the sky in flight 815.
Throughout the story Dorothy just wants to go home. Even though home is very depressing, and not really that happy at all. Her entire journey is to leave this beautiful land where she could live like a queen if she wanted to and get back to dreary Kansas. Some of the Losties are reflective of this. Jack in particular, really hasn't got that much to go back to, yet his desire to return home seems to drive him into loads of trouble and sticky situations.

Next Month: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

2007-08-12T09:48:00.000-07:00

"He had no wish to perfect his escape--was content to remain in that enchanting spot until retaken."

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge appears in full text here. The book appears in the episode The Long Con, and was shown being held by John Locke when he is arranging the books in the hatch. This story doesn't really have any hugely obvious plot-to-plot parallels with the show, unless you would like to speculate that the show will end in a way similar to this story. I did however, find many interesting points that parallel between the book and the show.

Point 1- The Men on the Bridge:

"It did not appear to be the duty of these men to know what was occurring at the center of the bridge."

This line is used to describe the sentries on the bridge at the execution of Peyton Farquhar.

This reminds me of the Dharma recruits when they first come to the island (per Ben's flashback) where they seem to have no idea what they are even doing there.
Roger Workman doesn't seem to know that he is to be a "workman" and has apparently signed up for this island without really knowing what it's all about.
Cindy and the others who are there to watch (Sawyer in the cage, and Locke who is to be killing his father), also put me in the mind of this idea. You get the feeling they aren't even really sure what they are supposed to be watching, just doing that they're told.

Point 2- The Banks of the River:

"He dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it. It looked like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; he could think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble. The trees upon the bank were giant garden plants; he noted a definite order in their arrangement, inhaled the fragrance of their blooms. A strange, roseate light shone through the spaces among their trunks and the wind made in their branches the music of Æolian harps."

This description is almost hyper detailed and tells how Peyton Farquhar sees his world after feeling he's almost died. It's as if he's seeing things in a new way.

The world he describes reminds me of the island with it's huge green plants, strange arrangements of trees, and beaches.
This made me think about when Sawyer and Michael finally washed ashore after the debaucle with the raft when Walt was taken.
This put me in mind of the trees that Kate and Juliet hid in when they were running from Smokey.

Point 3- The Whispers:

"--he distinctly heard whispers in an unknown tongue."

I'm pretty sure you know exactly where I'm going with this. WHISPERS! In an unknown tongue! Well, how about whispers that we can't quite hear?

On a simple straight forward level, perhaps the whispers he hears are simply the plants, animals, and water around him gurgling and rustling and what-not.
Maybe the whispers are actually what's really happening in the world while his mind is having his escape from the gallows fantasy. Maybe the whispers he hears are the voices of the soldiers on the bridge.
The whispers could also be his subconscious sort-of flashing his life before his eyes.
On a spiritual level, maybe the whispers are the voices of dead loved ones who are calling to him as he prepares to die.

All of these ideas tie in nicely with Lost, as we do know from Ben's flashback for one, that some of the whispers could indeed be loved ones that have died (his mother). We also know that they are people speaking or at least voices, as in one instance Sawyer can clearly hear the phrase, "It'll come back around," when he hears the whispers. Also, we have seen Losties encounter loved ones on the island, that are not there, or are supposed to be dead (Christian Sheppard, Dave, Shannon, Walt, and Yemi).

Point 4- Home and The End:

"As he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the veranda to meet him. At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity. Ah, how beautiful she is!"

At the end of the book, we discover the escape has all been the wishful fantasy of a man who is in the process of being hanged. It probably occurs in the seconds he is falling at the gallows. The last part of this fantasy is HOME, of being home and seeing his wife.

Many of the Losties have this fantasy, of getting home to their loved ones. So in essence the ending of his fantasy is much the same as it is for all of the flight 815 survivors.
Not all of the Losties want to get home. Locke for one, and perhaps even Rose as her cancer may come back if she does. But the ones that do certainly are willing to chance death in trying to get there. Peyton Farquhar was willing to chance death to get home, and as a matter of fact, started seeing the world as wondrous the more he ran. Having survived each thing made him see the world slightly differently and become more appreciative of what's around him.
When Sawyer and Michael wash up on shore in Adrift, sawyer proclaims, "How 'bout that. The current brought us back. We're home."
Peyton's survival fantasy is wrought with running, being shot at, nearly drowning, etc. All things that the Losties encounter on the island. If the Losties are having a survival fantasy, will they die as they finally arrive home?

Final Bullets:

Payton's crime was attempting to sabotage Owl Creek Bridge, much like we see Locke do time and again on the show. I find it interesting that this was the case in the story, and it was Locke who was holding the book when it appeared on the show.
Peyton was sort-of tricked into sabotaging the bridge by a man disguised as a Confederate Soldier. The Losties are constantly being run around in circles and persuaded to do things by people who are pretending to be things they aren't (Ben, Juliet, Michael, Danielle, etc...).
I personally hope this isn't how Lost ends. It'll be a bit of a "Timmy Westphall" moment for me if it does. I do however, think this is a great story, and has been interpreted well through the various movies and television episodes that have used it as their plot. I certainly see how Lost could be like this book, but I just really hope it's there as more of a Red Herring than as something we should be looking at as a possible ending.

Coming Soon: The Wizard of Oz
Next Month: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

Day of the Orchid

2007-08-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a long break for me at the Lost Bullet Points. Fortunately, Ange has been doing a fantastic job with the book club information and keeping the site alive. However, we now have a nice juicy bit of information to digest and discuss thanks to the special orientation video revealed to the public at this years Comic-con. The back story is that this is footage that was discovered in a warehouse and so is not the complete orientation but gives us some hints about the nature of this, the sixth Dharma station. There is a lot to discuss here, so first let's start with the movie.

Okay, now the facts:

In this video we have our usual orientation scientist, this time using the alias of Doctor Edgar Halowax. Another Candle related alias.
Doctor Halowax does not appear to have a prosthetic arm in this video.
The doctor is uncomfortable with this non-scientific part of his role. It seems he would much rather be working out of the lime light.
He is wearing a Swan station lab coat. He has also worn this for the orientation for the Barracks and of course the Swan (He wore a brown suit jacket for the Pearl orientation and a Flame lab coat for the chess computer video).
Those recruited for this station were not informed of it's purpose before arriving there and they were asked to tell friends and family the official line of it being botanical research. This was apparently done for their security, so it seems that even knowing what this station does can be dangerous for people.
The true scientific field researched at the Orchid is something "Highly volatile" and "Potentially dangerous". The suggestion is that it is safe enough providing the "elaborate safety measures" are observed.
Both rabbits in the video are "number 15", which as we know is one of the numbers of the Valenzetti Equation. We know that if they could change a number in the equation they would have succeeded in the goals of the Dharma initiative.
Having the two rabbits come into contact with each other would be very very bad. In what way we do not know.
When the second rabbit is spotted the doctor asks, "When did you set the shift?" the answer to this is, "Negative 20," and it seems this was either done for a duration of "9 minutes" or it was done 9 minutes ago at the point that the doctor asked, "How long?" to the lab assistant. The lab assistant pleaded that, "...they are still learning."
The unique properties of the island created a "Kind of Casimir effect". This is a biggie and we will look at it in more detail later. It is worth noting that the doctor seemed to be using the term as a way of describing things to other scientists, the effect may be Casimir like but it isn't necessarily what we are dealing with.
The additional scenes in the video not actually from the location shoot of the orientation included what appeared to be a clip of the barracks video (in which the doctor had a very still arm but it can't be confirmed it was prosthetic). There is also a clip from the brainwashing video which had the "God loves you as he loved Jacob" on it. Which suggests that did have an origin with Dharma, for some reason.

Before I move on there is one curious thing I want to bring up about the recruitment for the Orchid. If they are claiming it is botanical research, wouldn't it be difficult to get the right people for what they are actually doing? I expect the family of a quantum physicist would probably question why he was jetting off to a secret location to take part in a botanical study. So what kind of field would be both believable for the cover story and also useful for the genuine purpose of the station?

Okay, moving on, at the start of the video you will notice a mix of voices creating what is called a "cocktail effect", that is to say it's hard to make out what any one voice is saying. I took a sample of this and messed about with it a bit to try and make some sense. The clearest voice is a woman's whisper. There is also a short bit that appears to be in reverse. Here are the links to the files, see if you can make any sense of them. I will not yet post my opinions on what they say as I don't want you to be listening for anything in specific. If there is something important here I expect it is in the woman's whisper. Note that because there was a big sigh over the top of the end of her whisper it may not be a complete sentence you're hearing.

Here is the Full Audio
Here is the whisper slowed down
Here is the potentially backwards bit reversed
and finally here is what is left, basically some guy mumbling.

So what of our good doctor and his various bits of film?

He continues to use Candle related aliases. Is one of them his genuine name? It seems a little foolish if your going to use aliases to use ones that hint at your real name. However it does kind of depend on why he's using the aliases and how much he really needs to protect his identity. The names could instead hint at his role in the initiative. Candles provide light, but then a lot of things provide light. However candles are also used as a way of telling time and are often part of ceremonial practices and rituals.
What 's the deal with the Swan lab coat? Could it be that he was based at the Swan (at least pre-incident), but as one of the most senior scientists he was chosen to do these orientation videos?
With the various sci-fi possibilities on the island it is impossible to get a time line on our doctors videos. We know that there are two videos where he seems to have two functional arms, but with the islands healing capabilities that doesn't mean they were the earliest of the videos. He could have started off with one arm and had it grow back. You never know.
It seems unlikely that the doctors arm flickers in and out of existence but what complicates things is the Barracks video. His left arm is very still, but that doesn't mean it is a fake arm. Yet frames of that video ended up mixed with the Orchid video. Of course this video was "recovered" recently, so that doesn't mean that the spliced in bits were recorded around the same time. Logic would seem to suggest that the Barracks, Swan and Flame recordings were done post incident as they have an extra element of outside danger involved in them. The Pearl and Orchid would then be the earliest videos.
For those people wondering about the Pearl being on VHS while the swan is on reel to reel, the answer is that the reel to reel wouldn't be effected by the magnetic field generated at the swan and was therefore a superior storage medium.
The Pearl video is interesting though. If the doctor was working at the Swan then it would seem silly for him to be on the Pearl video if indeed the pearl was designed to monitor the Swan. That suggests three possibilities 1) The lab coat is a coincidence, maybe they just made too many Swan coats. 2) The Pearl wasn't intended to monitor the Swan, many stations may have had ping pong tables and showers and it is likely Ben knew how to change what was being monitored to the Swan so as to keep an eye on the Lostaways. 3) The Pearl was the very first video and was shot before the doctor began his work at the Swan. I have always wondered about the Pearl experiment. Perhaps it was just to test loyalty more then anything else (i.e. if they went back to the barracks after their 8 hour shifts and started telling people about the "fake" experiments).
Whatever his main role it does seem clear that Candle is a senior scientist for Dharma, he is well aware of the goings on at the Orchid as he was bossing people around when things started to go wrong and he really wasn't impressed with the problems brought up.

What's the deal with the name?

Well, aside from working well with the stations cover story it is again something from Greek mythology. The name Orchid comes from the Greek word for testicles. Yep, you heard that right. This is the testicle station.
In Greek mythology Orchis was the son of a nymph and a satyr that succumbed to his lustful urges during a feast of Bacchus (the god of wine) and attempted to rape a priestess of his temple. Bacchus had him torn to pieces by wild animals and his body scattered around the world. From these parts came the Orchid plants. His genitalia were thrown into the ocean, which then in turn gave birth to Aphrodite.
Greek women thought they could control the sex of their unborn children with Orchid roots. If the father ate large, new tubers, the child would be male; if the mother ate small tubers, the child would be female. This doesn't entirely fit with the other facts we have so far about this station, but it definitely fits in with the fertility themes of the island so it may be something to go on. It should be noted however that so far the names of each station have not had enormous relevance to the stations purpose as we currently understand them.

What about this Casimir effect?

This has a huge amount of possibilities and it should be noted once again that we may not be talking about an actual "Casimir effect" but instead something that could be compared to it as a way to describe it to another scientist.
According to Wiki: This is a physical force exerted between separate objects, which is due to neither charge, gravity, nor the exchange of particles, but instead is due to resonance of all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening space between the objects. It get's a lot more complex too.
The actual Casimir effect has only been observed on a very small scale, which is probably why the islands properties create only a "kind of" version of it. There are a few articles flying around that talk about how the Casimir effect relates to Nanotechnology. However because this is something that has been brought up and dismissed several times by the writters of lost it is probably not worth getting too involved in.
There is a lot of reference to electro-magnetic energy within the literature about this effect. So if we take into account the islands natural field and add the field created by the swan perhaps we have a Casimir effect on a much larger scale. Of course the Swan and Orchid station existed simultaniously (as we can tell from the logo on the lab coat) so that would still leave us wondering what that has to do with the Orchid station or rabbits.
One of the other things the Casimir effect relates to is "Zero point energy", which is something that will be VERY familiar to sci-fi nerds like myself. Some scientists (and a lot more writters of science fiction) believe that tapping zero point energy would open the doors to powerful perhaps limitless energy sources. This is kind of the holy grail of scientific energy research. Most scientists don't believe this is possible but it hasn't stopped a few from trying to harness this energy. As many of you probably already know, this is a central element to the technology of the sci-fi show "Stargate".
Another interesting point is that the quantum mechanics of the Casimir effect can be used to produce a locally mass-negative region of space-time. This is where the science all starts to go way over my head, but if we are talking science fiction and an effect that is only similar to the Casimir effect then we are opening a lot of doors with this. We have seen two rabbits with the same number that cannot come into contact with each other. So it could be that the effect can create a kind of negative version of an object. This pressumably isn't an actual anti-matter version as in theory it would just destroy itself by comming into contact with the matter surrounding it. But it could be maybe some kind of "bad twin". Can you say, "I'm captain Kirk!"
Following on from the above, the negative mass concept and the mention of a "negative 20" shift could relate to some method of trying to offset the Valenzetti numbers with this effect. We are heavily into sci-fi by that point however.
The other thing to note about this locally mass negative region of space time and the Casimir vacuum is that this is a big part of a theory about potential faster than light travel (the idea being that within the field of effect of the Casimir vacuum the speed of light increases and thus bends Einstiens laws on such things). This is complex, but essentially what it could mean is that you could send information back in time by using the effect. I left this until last as it seems the most likely link. However it should be pointed out that recent studies have ruled out this effect. But given that we are in a realm of highly theoretical physics here it could certainly be a plausable basis for the function of the Orchid.

Final Bullets:

Precognition, and messing in the timelines is an ongoing theme of Lost. We haven't seen any actual time travel, but we have seen the transmission of information from the future into the present and perhaps from the present into the past. For a long while I've suspected that they Lostaways were needed to come to the island and had their destinies manipulated by forces unknown (perhaps even themselves) to end up there.
If the Swan station was part of this large scale Casimir effect, that could explain (kinda) why Des got his precognative abilities by being at ground zero when the station was taken offline.
It occured to my while writting this, that we do not know that the conclusion of season 2, the events off the island, actually happened at the same time as the events on the island. It could be that the anomoly actually appeared to the outside world later then we thought and it was only after the events of the Season 3 finale that Penny was actively looking for Desmond like that. Although why Penny was at the other end of that communication I do not know. It could simply be that the station was set to communicate with Mr. Widmore as he may have been involved with Dharma, and it just turned out it was Penny that picked it up.
If there is a physical time travel element, then that could explain what the negative 20 shift was about. It could be that the rabbit itself was sent back in time 20 minutes and so it is the same rabbit and the reason they couldn't touch was due to Doc Brown's law of time travel (as seen in Back to the Future 2). I think understanding the language used between the doctor and others when the second rabbit appears is important to understanding the purpose of this station. When was the shift set = -20, for how long = 9 minutes. It does make an amount of sense for the rabbit to be sent back in time 20 minutes for a duration of 9 minutes. If this was the case then obviously they messed up as this rabbit didn't appear 20 minutes in the past of where they set him, but instead into the future.
If a person was to be shifted to a negative mass, perhaps he would appear somewhat like Jacob does and perhaps have an amount of precognative ability or capability to time travel in some form.
I am really not sure about proper time travel in Lost as I think that may be too science fiction based, but sending messages through time or having some kind of sensory perception that sense the future perhaps that is more digestable to the general public.

That's all folks. Hope that hasn't caused more confusion then before you read it. Feel free to comment with your own observations and theories. I will return later on with a summary of what we learned from the Comic-Con panel and the conclusion of season three and where it may lead us for the next season and don't forget to check out Ange's fantastic book club posts. Until then...

Namaste and good luck.

A Wrinkle in Time

2007-07-19T07:02:00.000-07:00

"Do you think things always have an explanation?"
"Yes. I believe that they do. But I think that with out human limitations we're not always able to understand the explanations. But you see, Meg, just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist." (p. 47)

Admittedly this book was not as cut and dry a comparison structurally to what the groups or events on the island look like (like Watership Down was). You can't read this book and have an "Oh yeah" moment where you relate the group behavior to the others or the Losties, but the theories and ideas in this little book certainly do apply to some of the things that we have been shown on Lost. In an attempt to keep this from becoming a rambling mess of paragraphs I am going to forgo a summary (but you can read one here at Wikipedia if you like). I'm going to look at three specific parts of this book; The character of Charles Wallace, a tesseract, and finally, The Black Thing.

Charles Wallace:

He is a precocious and alarmingly brilliant little boy. As we read the story we learn that he can sort of read minds and he can understand an inner language that they use "inadvertently" (p. 34). In the same way he is able to know when things aren't right, and also sense things about people that he hasn't been told. For example, he knows that the three random women that he encounters in the woods are meant to find him and mean him no harm. He knows that Calvin, although an unlikely candidate, is meant to be part of the adventure he and Meg are about to embark on. He also knows that on Camazotz there is an unseen presence sort of running the show (p. 115).

Although these little strange bits are reminiscent of a few people we know from Lost island (Walt, Des, Locke, Ben, even Charlie on some level) the thing I find the most interesting about Charles Wallace is that he felt that in order to save his father and be successful in what he was destined to do, he had to give himself completely over to this force that was running things. He had to literally look into it's eyes ("...and focused his clear blue eyes on the red ones of the man in the chair.") and let it take him over. Sound familiar, "But I've looked into the eye of this island. And what I saw was beautiful." John Locke had his looking into the eye moment, and I believe it was at that point that he completely gave himself over to whatever force he thinks is running things and is allowing it to lead him to what he thinks he is supposed to be doing.

The Tesseract:

"Well, the fifth dimension's a tesseract. You add that to the other four dimensions and you can travel through space without having to go the long way around. In other words, to put it into Euclid, or old-fashioned plane geometry, a straight line is not the shortest distance between two points." (p. 75)

In the book a tesseract (or tessering) is the ability to travel by folding time and space on to itself. Meg and Charles Wallace's father has mysteriously disappeared and we come to find out that he has been working on a way to travel using a tesseract. However his experimentation has gotten him trapped on the planet Camazotz which is currently within an evil black cloud.

While I don't think that the Losties have "tessered" or traveled to another planet, I do find the theory interesting and see many ways it can apply. This season we have seem some odd happenings with time, things that might be time loops, glimpses of the future, and the seemingly ageless Mr. Alpert. What if somehow the Others or DHARMA have found a way to harness/fold time, or travel through time in some way (even Memphish, in her blog explores this with the similarities of genetic time travel from The Time Traveler's Wife)? What if flight 815, or even the submarine that they use to get to the island had to travel through a tesseract of some kind to get to the island?

The Black Thing:

"It was a shadow, nothing but a shadow. It was not even as tangible as a cloud. Was it cast by something? Or was it a Thing in itself?" (p. 69)

Yes, it is literally a black thing. A cloud of pure evil that has taken over the planet of Camazotz and has even begun to cast a shadow over Earth. What we learn is that this cloud is being actively battled by the stars in the universe, as well as some of the great thinkers on Earth.

There are two things that I find interesting about The Black Thing:

The first being the glaringly obvious comparison to Smokey on the island. Smoky being literally, a black thing, or black cloud too. Although at this point I am not perfectly clear on the purpose of Smokey (See Fenris's ideas on Smokey here) or if, in fact, it is an evil presence or just security and data collection run amok.

The second is that the stars (Mrs. Whatsit being one of them) are sacrificing themselves to battle this thing. Also, Charles Wallace gave himself over to IT in order to save his father, Meg, and Calvin. On the island we are not really seeing anyone sacrificing themselves to Smokey, but we have certainly seen self sacrifice. Charlie most recently, willing to drown himself in order to complete the prophecy that he will turn off the communication blockers. Mr. Eko also, I feel sacrificed himself in a way by confronting Smokey and also his demons. While this didn't seem to accomplish anything other than his death, the fact is that he gave himself to the black thing. Locke also is a perfect example of this. He sacrificed his father, Boone, his alliance with the Losties...for what? To see what he thinks is in the heart of the island, to get some sort of power, to keep his ability to walk? Even he doesn't know what he is giving himself over to, much like Charles Wallace or even the people of Camazotz, who blindly do what they are told by IT in order to keep order and peace.

Final Bullets:

The complete mission of the children in this book is to save their father and bring him back home. Father issues are always an underlying theme in Lost.

IT or The Black Thing, is seated in a chair having taken on the form of a man with red eyes. It is this man that Charles Wallace gives himself over to. Much like Jacob in his chair waiting in the cabin for Ben and Locke.

Charles Wallace at one point tells Meg, "You're not ready for IT yet." (p. 127) That screamed Ben and Locke to me the moment I read it.

Towards the end of the book Meg is forced to confront IT, where she encounters a light that was, "...pulsing with a light that seems to Meg to be insane. Again she could feel the light, neither warm nor cold, but reaching out to touch her, pulling her toward IT." (p. 185). That passage very much put me in the mind of Room 23, and Karl with his pulsing light glasses and images on the wall. Perhaps Room 23 is a way to open your mind to some sort of tesseract ability or even just allowing your mind to be given over to the inner force of the island.

As always, I am pretty certain that the writers of Lost have not gone through the book A Wrinkle in Time and plucked thing from it to include on the island. The fact is though, that they did include it in the show, and I feel that we are meant to look at it in reference to some of the ideas that we are presented with. Regardless, I'm always happy to have an excuse to read this book again.

Next Month: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Hooray, my favorite short story of all time!)

Watership Down

2007-06-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

During the break from Lost the folks over at The Lost Community have decided to create a book club. The first book was Watership Down (view synopsis at Lostpedia). So I decided to post my thoughts on the book, and how it relates to the show.

Conceptually the book Watership Down reflected many many ideas and themes that carry over to the show Lost. The first that really stood out for me was the different warrens and their places on the down:

The original watership warren, which were semi-forced to leave their burrows because of some unseen danger that was coming. The danger being "seen" or predicted by Fiver in a jumbled vision. (Flight 815 survivors)

The white-lighters, who have a near utopian society, tons of food, does, and wonderful cavernous burrows. The big BUT here is that they could be snared by the men at any time, and it seems this is an unspoken danger. A quid pro quo, utopia for death at any moment. (DHARMA Initiative)

Efrafa, led by the brutish Woundwart, was a dictatorship of sorts. Rabbits were marked and separated by these marks. It was overpopulated, the does were unable to have litters, and everyone did what they were told. (Ben's Others)

All three, it could be argued, represent some faction of groups on the island.

An underlying theme throughout the entire book was the search for does, so that litters could be produced. That is the main reason that the rabbits were in contact with other warrens at all, and didn't just go off on their own. Just another theme that is present on the show with the constant fertility issues and Ben's "project".

Another theme falls to the secondary characters, specifically the mouse, and the gull called Kehaar. Both of these animals would not normally connect with a bunch of rabbits, but a relationship was formed where they all helped each other out using their individual skills. Kehaar was the most helpful to the warren, telling them of danger, where to travel, and finding them does.

I felt that Kehaar was a counterpart of Danielle's character (right down to the accent) from the show. She is an outsider (as far as we know) to all of the groups, yet seems to be helping our Losties with her knowledge of the others and of the island.

The mouse, who was significantly less helpful, but did his best, could represent an Alex or a Karl character. Useful but only to a certain extent as they don't really have a lot of experience to draw from.

There are so many points that are similar between the book, and the show, but in an effort to keep this blog relatively short-ish, the last I'll look at is precognition.

On the show we see Desmond having these sort of visions or loops. It has also been speculated that perhaps he isn't the only one on the island experiencing this.

In the book Fiver and Hyzenthlay have visions, that eventually lead the rabbits from danger and to their new society. Neither can really explain what they see or even why, but they know that they must take heed of it. This is very similar to Desmond's situation, in that he feels what he sees is canon and needs to be followed, although he tends to keep this information to himself.

In the book, Fiver is very vocal about his visions, and is not afraid to share them. Perhaps if Desmond was more like Fiver the Losties would believe his visions and figure out a way to utilize them. That is the one thing that is always a constant on Lost, no one communicates with each other, to the detriment of some of our heroes. In the book, we do see a lack of communication illustrated within the white lighters. They don't talk about the fact that their food and utopia comes from man, and that they are basically living a death sentence...it's only a matter of time. All of the rabbits there know it, but they just don't discuss it. Similar to the Losties, they all know they are in a strange situation and no one really talks about it or shares their experiences. Perhaps if they did, there wouldn't be so much conflict within the groups.

Final Bullets:

I didn't love this book. I know I was supposed to, but I just didn't.

Ultimately, the book connects to the show in many ways, and I can see why the writers chose to incorporate it into the scenes with Sawyer, etc... I just wonder how much of this was thought out as a plot point or "easter egg" or if we (obsessed fans ;) ) are just looking at everything with Lost colored glasses.

Next month: A Wrinkle in Time

Happy Birthday Fenris

2007-06-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

Here's to another year of celebrating, thinking, and theorizing!

“All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.”~George Harrison

Pre-Season 3 Finale: Some things to consider

2007-05-23T15:19:00.001-07:00

Tonight is the series finale of Lost season 3. I intended to keep speculating between seasons, but before the finale is on I want to consider some of the things we may want to look out for:

The Losties unexpected guest tell them there were no survivors of the flight. Obviously there are survivors and the writers have again debunked the Purgatory theories so I think it's safe to assume they are not dead. So does this mean Naomi is lying? Possibly. Although it seems she isn't on the side of the Others, or at least not Ben anyway. Naomi's story is very strange. I researched this a bit and it seems that it would be likely that the flight would be declared as having no survivors with just the recovery of some wreckage. Especially the tail section which was lost at sea as that usually has the flight recorder (black box) in it. They wouldn't expect to find all the bodies and that would seem quite unusual to have them all accounted for. It's possible that the finding of the bodies was set up or the truth about what was found was covered up for some reason. So the question is, what will be waiting for them on this boat?

I had a theory before that to get to the island you had to either dive really deep in the sub or fly in (I did speculate that Naomi had halo jumped in, but now that seems unlikely). But now it seems there may have been another reason for Juliet's drugging and arrival via submarine. The Looking Glass hatch would be easily accessible via the submarine, so perhaps Juliet was brought there first, unconscious, before arriving on the Island. Why would they do that? We were shown only two women in that hatch and it seems that was intentional. Perhaps the women are part of the fertility mystery of the island. I am wondering if they are pregnant, perhaps as surrogates. Could it be Juliet had an unborn child she was unaware of removed when she visited that hatch (if that is indeed the answer)? If there is a secret project there that those brought to the island from the outside are unaware of (perhaps excluding those that were there as part of Dharma like Ben and maybe Mikhail). That part seems likely, but what the project was is the question. Seems we may find out tonight.

Des looks likely to dive in and aid Charlie. The two are linked, at least on the island via his visions. But there is a lot of strange things going on with his flashbacks. I am not convinced that they are genuine anymore, or at least if they are he has been set up from day one. I suspect his vow of silence to have last a lot longer then one month. 108 days maybe? Also note that the 108 bottles of wine sell for just over £100? Just over? That wouldn't be £108 then? That would be pushing the co-incidences too far, and that photo frame with the woman from his freaky lucid flashback in that is just too much. Not to mention how he seems to have been set up with Penny. Perhaps that ties in with Naomi's story about the crash. Is there a second group with an interest in the island manipulating events to take down the others? Bringing people to the island, including Des? I don't know, but this is all very strange.
If Ben and the Others are going to confront the Losties on their way to the communication tower, that suggests that Ben will be coming face to face with Danniell. So we there is a good chance we will be finding out their history together. Is she Annie? Well if they don't tackle that in this episode and she does meet Ben then the answer is probably no.
It is quite likely that there will be some sort of treachery in this episode. Either from within the Others, maybe Alpert turning on Ben or from the losties. Is Juliet on the level? Is Naomi? My money is on the Others having internal issues. Perhaps Locke will turn up and challenge Ben. I suspect if that happens there will definetly be a split within the camp. That doesn't mean they will be any less hostile, but it may give the Losties a chance to get away. Though not off the island. Unless the last few seasons are not here.
Will we have a fatality? The chances are it will be amongst the shooters if that is the case as they are in the most dangerous position. I have a bad feeling for Bernard, he's looking more and more like a "red shirt" these days. Plus he's the last member of the tail section that hasn't either died or changed sides. Not a position I'd like to be in that is for sure!
Finally, one idea I had that could throw a spanner in the works for Ben and co. is that the Black Smoke could turn up during their confrontation. It's been acting even stranger then usual this time around and with it's apparent interest in Juliet, who at that point appeared to still be an other, we don't know what it's own agenda is going to be.

Remember the Future.

2007-05-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what the deal is with the flashbacks? Sure there is speculation that they could be implanted memories or the black smoke monster extracting them. There is also the theory that they are just simple plot devices to move on character development and add to the general mystery of the show. Okay there is some truth in that last one. But is there more to them? I think maybe there is a lot more going on than it seems. I have a theory that ties the flashbacks and various other events on the island with the island's unusual properties and perhaps even the Valenzetti Equation. Consider the following:

The Lostaways always seem to have relevant flashbacks to whatever is going on. One could easily presume that these flashbacks are memories triggered by events that are happening. But then think about the timing. Almost every time the flashbacks happen just before the event that could trigger them. Take the most recent one for instance. Charlie is thinking about his own "greatest hits" before Naomi mentions the album to him and before he was told that he had to die. Of course he may have been thinking on his mortality anyway. But is it a co-incidence that he thinks about learning to swim and seconds later he is told he is going to drown? Had this happened once you may call it a co-incidence, but this happens all the time.
What about Desmond's precognitive ability? He sees "flashes" of things that are going to happen. What this establishes is two things, firstly that there is some kind of capability to see into the future within the show. Secondly it establishes Desmond's conception of it. Humans aren't really designed to deal with precognition, but like any sensory perception it is all about how we perceive it rather then what it actually is (consider for instance how different creatures perceive the visual appearance of the same things differently). Desmond sees flashes of the future. Perhaps it is a bit like dejavous, which may trigger memories from the past, but in Desmond's case it triggers some from the future. What if everyone on the island actually has some precognitive ability, while on the island. Like the island helps channel it. Desmond is now heavily in touch with it, but other people are only able to process the information in very basic ways. Triggering a more traditional sense of dejavous, where they can only conceive future events based on their own past experience.
A lot of people have speculated that "Jacob" looked a lot like Locke. Considering that we were seeing him from Locke's perspective, what did we really see? Locke saw someone that looked like himself and heard a voice saying "help me" just after that he was shot by Ben and said those exact words (although quoting Jacob, which creates a strange paradox in that theory). What if Ben also sees someone that represents himself in that hut? Perhaps what Jacob really is, is the center of the islands precognitive influence. People see themselves in Jacob and through that image they can view the future, but only if they are truly sensitive to it. That makes you wonder what Desmond would see in that hut!
How does Ben stay one step ahead of the Losties so often? Perhaps that is via Jacobs hut too. If he see's the future there then he would be able to manipulate events to suite himself. Which interestingly could be why the island is turning on him. Perhaps the reason that Lockes father ended up on the Island was because Ben saw his car crash when visiting Jacob and sent some of his operatives out to pick him up. That way Ben can say the island/Locke brought him to the island and go on about magic boxes, where as in reality he just knew when an unfortunate event would happen and be there to take advantage of it. Perhaps he also saw Juliets ex being hit by a bus and so knew that Alpert would be able to recruit her. It could also be that Juliet has some natural precognitive skills too.
The whole purpose of the Dharma Initiative was based on the concept of being able to predict the end of the world. While the Lost Experience may not intertwine heavily with the Lost show but we cannot ignore this very important fact. For a start it again emphasizes that it is possible to see into the future in the Lost world. In this case it's a mathematical equation. This brings up two important questions. The first is did Dharma set up on the island because of these unusual precognitive effects? Perhaps they thought it would be a good way to find a back door to changing those core values.
The second question about Dharma is sort of the reverse. But ties into the apparent effect that the dead seem to have on the island. We have heard things that sound like the voices of the dead and we have seen Smokey take the form of the dead on a regular basis. What if the deaths of so many of the Dharma Initiative on the island, and apparently close to Jacobs hut too, had an effect on the islands "mentality" (or something similar). Even ignoring the deaths, what if having so many alive on the island at one time that were investigating the future and trying to change it had an effect on the development of the strange properties of the island.
We have heard that the show will be based on scientific possibility rather the outright fantasy (with Smokey perhaps the sole exception). So where does precognition fit in? Well read this article (Credit to Ange on that one). It seems that it is entirely within the character of the show.
The subconscious manipulation of oneself based on knowledge not consciously available to you, could perhaps be the answer to why the Lostaways all ended up on that plane with people they are deeply tied to but are not consciously aware of. Perhaps they are all coming to the island for an event they have seen in their subconscious but are totally oblivious to.
The article linked to above quotes something from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. The Red Queen says, "It is a poor sort of memory that only works backwards." That is an interesting quote in many ways and made me think about Chaos Theory. In Chaos theory even a small event can cause massive repercussions. A good example is the lazy blacksmith not fitting a new shoe to a horse. The horse is unable to take a kings messenger to a point in a battle in time to give vital directions. Thus, a whole kingdom falls. Just because of a lazy blacksmith. So what if this can work in the other direction too? One event that is yet to happen leads out from the center of a massive web. This event causes repercussions through everyone's pasts that work when viewed in a forward direction. A series of intertwining events pushing people towards a central point. That links in with the subconscious influence. Everyone is actually aware of it yet they are not conscious of it. Could this be mathematically plotted? The whole concept is mind blowing and the big question is, can you avoid the "cause" if you are already suffering the "effect"?

So there you have it. To finish, I leave you with a quote:

"I believe that we can 'sense' the future, we just haven't yet established the mechanism allowing it to happen." - Nobel Prizewinning physicist Brian Josephson.

Healing Powers

2007-05-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

If the power of the island is such that it can heal all but the worst injuries that raises a few interesting points:

There is some clear significance in Bens condition, it also explains why Ben may not have sent out for a surgeon because he didn't want anyone but his closest allies amongst the Others to know the island had "turned it's back" on him. If this "Jacob"'s influence can heal cancer off of the island then perhaps it is Jacob that Ben is keeping this a secret from. Having said that, we still don't know if Juliets sister really did regress so Jacob could still be a non-existant character and there could be no healing influence outside of the island.
The islands healing was nothing to do with the Swan station. I think we can count this as definite fact.
I had always assumed that Lockes regression with his legs was psychological, but perhaps the islands healing is only tempory after all and can be turned off at any time. Did it make some kind of judgement on Locke?
Our friends that were buried alive (Paulo and Nikki) may be being sustained by the island. So Locke's comment about things not staying buried on the island may be hinting at their eventual return. This could just be a bit of a teasing red herring (Zombies anyone?), but I suspect that their burial will come back to haunt the Losties in some way, even if they aren't sustained indefinetly.
Having examined the list of fatalities on the island (from Lostpedia, but it's not the most detailed list and has some debatable info like Gary Troup being the jet engine suckee is included, ) it seems that there are a good number of injuries the island should have been able to cure. For example "Donald" of the Tailies dies from an infection due to his leg wound. Surely that wouldn't be any harder then curing cancer. So that seems to suggest the island is very selective, which again exposes how much of a problem it must be for Ben not being healed.
Juliet seemed to accept Bens talk of no one getting cancer on the island, yet in such an apparently small population it would seem cancer would be unlikely (Credit to Ange on that one). So have people on the island, specifically the Others been up to something that would increase the risks of cancer? Have they been testing the islands healing powers to see how far they can push it? Perhaps even room 23 is just to test this, to see if the island can heal whatever damage that kind of apparent brainwashing can do.
Is the islands healing effects both the cause of the increased sperm count and the complications that arise from pregnancy? If the body is trying to heal from the baby like it was a cancer that would make sense, that only happens (apparently) when conception is on the island, so if there has been any growth outside the island the body knows not to reject it.

The Cerberus Theory

2007-04-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Cerberus may have been partially designed as a weapon. Either as a side project as Hanso may have continued his weapons research partially to fund his Dharma project. Part of cerberus' design may have been that it could have uploaded itself with genetic code and/or memories from various species that would enhance it's function as a weapon. This would likely include Polar Bears and Sharks as they are such skilled hunters (this could also explain why the Polar Bears were required to adapt to the local conditions first).
Following on from the above, there are two questions. Firstly was the project outside of the DI or was there a need for such a destructive thing inside the DI? If it was part of the DI then the answer to that could be that there was a need to eliminate life forms with a specific DNA component, like in Mittlewerks plan to eliminate 30% of the population. If the "Others" were in the target group perhaps these measures were taken because they refused to leave the island and turned hostile to the DI. Perhaps Cerberus was actually dormant and shut off until the Purge of the Others of failed and the DI activated it, with a new mission, before abandoning the island (save, perhaps for the Swan station).
The second question is what went wrong? To me that seems likely to be part of the absorption process. If what Rousseau suggested about a virus turning people crazy is true then Cerberus may simply have caught this sickness or absorbed it from someone. Alternatively it may have simply absorbed too much. If Cerberus learned to upload DNA to itself then it may have just started uploading from all kinds of sources (including those paralysing spiders, which would explain why it was around with the swarm, if the first spider put out some kind of "call") and eventually turned generally hostile. Then again if it was a last ditch effort from the DI to stop the Hostiles, perhaps nothing went wrong at all.
The Dharma Initiative project is a very volitile one. It requires a lot of logging and something has to store all the data tracking what goes on on the island. What the island really needs is a black box. Perhaps one of Cerberus' roles (or maybe it's main function) was to store information that would otherwise be lost, by scanning and storing the memories and perhaps the DNA of things that have died on the island. Remember that Dharma was very genetic concious, and don't forget that Dr. Mittlewerk wanted "The bodies of the Dead" to be scanned with his project as well.
Okay now for some specifics. The smoke monster appeared to take the form of Yemi. But then Yemi was physically on the island. That would explain why Smokey seemed to recognise Eko and perhaps was what that supposed video footage of Eko's life was about. Notice that there seemed to be a flash of Eko in there. If it was Eko's mind being scanned, why would Eko have an image of himself in his own memory? Okay, it could be a mirror, but I don't buy that. More likely those were Yemi's memories.
The way it acted toward Eko was like a confused creature and not a simple scanning judgement machine thing. Maybe it was the Yemi part that wanted to communicate with Eko, but another part that wanted to destroy him for not wishing forgiveness.
More specifics. Remember how the whispers seemed strangely like they were the voices of people that had died on the island? Perhaps it is because Cerberus had absorbed their DNA and memories. Perhaps Cerberus can only upload from the dead.
If Christian Shepard is actually dead, then it could be that Cerberus uploaded from him. Actually in truth I couldn't say if the subject needs to be dead to upload from and if Christian was in a "zombie" state then perhaps that was enough. So this doesn't have a bearing on that argument. But we do know Christian was almost certainly on the island and as such could well have been scanned and so his appearances to Jack was almost certainly Smokey and fits with this theory.
Meanwhile there doesn't seem any reason that Sayid's cat or Kates horse would be scanned. This I still believe is a seperate mystery (along with Locke's father).

S3E16: One of Us - General comments.

2007-04-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

Richard Alpert seems to be running the US side of things. He didn't go to the Island with Juliet and was apparently still out there the day of the crash. But now he is on the island at Ben's request. What is his interest in there being new people on the island?
Why wouldn't they even let Juliet's sister onto their US base? Was it just to avoid her knowing anything? If so why not make her leave after reaching the main building. Is it perhaps that they in their racist way didn't want someone not on Jacobs list to go onto Other soil, like they consider that base to be an embassy and therefore under Others law.
Jacks a bit heavy handed in protecting Juliet. Is he really just giving her 100% trust? Or is he just faking it and doing things in his usual headstrong way in which he aproaches everything else.
Juliet can't have been convinced just by the absense of cancer, unless there are a lot more Others. But she must have witnessed something of the island's healing powers. She must also believe that this Jacob has healing powers and I doubt Juliet would take it on faith. Jacob is starting to seem more and more like some kind of ancient god. Probably a stone face that shoots flames and speaks with a booming voice.
While it is true that sometimes a spade is just a spade, I'm not totally convinced Juliet is 100% on board with her role as a plant. Plus I would have to admit to being a little disapointed that someone that appears to be obviously a plant actually turned out to be a plant. I think we all called the Claire thing would be her supposed way in to the group (though I don't think anyone thought it was orchestrated via implant, that suggests they had it planned a long time back).
I suspect that to get to the island without disruption the sub has to dive really deep and that people who's bodies aren't used to the high pressure may suffer an amount of discomfort. Perhaps part of the apparent super strength of some others (Ethan) is just an indicator of some kind of high pressure strength training. Or at least the strength is why they can sit around playing cards while at such pressures. Ethan did comment about "the last leg of the trip".
An alternative to the above may be that some kind of surgeory was performed on Juliet, but personally I think it is to do with the journey at this time.
I can't take credit for this one but it is a good catch. In the Lost experience, Mittlewerk apparently cured Pete Thompsons cancer. That was something they never really gave us all the details on during the experience. That doesn't mean this is all tied to Mittlewerk, but it does make it likely that this fact was a secret Easter Egg from the experience.

s3e15: Left Behind - What is the deal with Kate?

2007-04-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

Is it just me that thinks this? To me it seems the FBI's worldwide long term manhunt for Kate is a bit excessive for a single murder (as a crime of passion) and insurance fraud (although that probably rates higher then murder to the FBI). I mean there were a *LOT* of FBI guys staking out Kate’s mums house for over two months (and remember this is a long time before she robbed that bank). Weird. Okay it could be Ed Mars’ private crusade but how big a loser would that make him?
I am wondering if perhaps Kate’s dad was a much more important person then he first seemed. Perhaps an Other. The way Locke said they told them what she did and “they are not very forgiving”. Which when you consider Locke killed one of the Others earlier, Kate must have killed someone pretty damn important to them to be that unforgiving.
Random sidenote: The Marshall chasing Kate was named “Ed Mars” after a character in a Raymond Chandler novel. That character turns out to be the big bad guy incidentally who is suspected of having someone killed and keeping his wife concealed (almost captive) to cover it up. In the book he actually wasn't the killer (The killer was the sister of the main female character). In the film he was (well the Bogart one anyway). But anyway, I don't think there is a clue in the name.

s3e15: Left Behind - Where did the Others go?

2007-04-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Where have the others gone? Well I suspect they have gone back to Island no.2 to continue whatever it was they were working on before. Whatever needed the stone shifting that Kate and Sawyer did, was what Cindy and co went to watch and is what set the time limit for Kate's stay on that island (according to her conversation with Ben on the beach), that is what they've gone back for. I think this relates to this supposed "archeological theme" we were told to expect in Season 3. Perhaps they had uncovered something and the real reason they went back to their village was because they expected the Losties to come look for them and didn't want them to go to that island (if they indeed could). Perhaps the brainwashed kid they took with them was a plant in that instance.
I don't believe the Others have or use tunnels to travel around the island generally, but that doesn't mean there aren't tunnels. I suspect there were tunnels at some point but that most were blocked up. But it is possible there are still some people/things using the tunnels. For a start there are those Cerberus Vents and I have to suspect there are tunnels between those, but who wants to go down there?. It is also possible the others have dug up some tunnels that they wish to explore or they expect to find something in there.
The use of the gas masks could have been because they were going into one of these tunnels and were expecting to need to filter the air. They probably wouldn’t need them just to gas Kate and Sayid, although I wouldn’t put it past the Others to just be cautious.
·On a side note, it’s an odd thing with Ben and his schemes, that he seems to rely a *lot* on luck. I mean I have to assume he didn't plan on any of his people getting killed, but he certainly used it to his advantage.

s3e15: Left Behind - The Smoke Monster

2007-04-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

I have said before that I suspected the fence was to stop Smokey. But what that suggests is that Dharma knew about Smokey and created the defense system to stop him getting close. The lack of surveillance makes sense if the only threat at the time was Smokey and they were certain there would be no breach. But here is an interesting question: Did Dharma create both the sonic wall *and* Smokey (as the Cerberus defense unit) and if so why create something so dangerous that they need a defense against it?
It could be that Cerberus went a bit nuts and so they erected the defense area later, which also means that it went nuts before the Others took over as they don't seem so aware of what it is.
It could be that the DI themselves became the others due to this virus that Danielle was talking about (increasing speculation that she is Dharma) and that Cerberus is partially organic and was affected by the same virus. But perhaps Cerberus turned first and they erected the sonic barrier before they all went ga ga themselves. The other possibility is that it was on the island before the DI (meaning it even had "vents" if it is indeed Cerberus).
According to those puzzle things, which I assume are cannon, the CV's on the blast door map are Cerberus Vents. Now the other notations about Cerberus do seem to suggest it is our smoke monster, or at least that is what Dharma called it (I had always thought Dharma had created it, especially as they know the locations of the vents). It seems to fit name-wise. Multi-headed guard dog? I think we may be seeing the multi-headed aspect recently where we've been talking about Smokey’s different roles. Cerberus had three heads I believe (although sometimes depicted with more).
So perhaps we have:
1 - Watching/processes (taxi ticker noise etc),
2 - interacting (in shape shifted form),
3 - Eliminating threads (Roaring noise and obviously killing things).
Cerberus' brother was - Hydra. He also had one further brother Chimera. Three camps of "Other"?
As for the vents, well I'm assuming they are entrance/exit points for whatever Cerberus is. Perhaps an underground facility that is automated (maybe it's where the food drops come from too? -----Oooh maybe Smokey was the plane that dropped the food?). It could be that Locke was almost sucked down into one when Cerberus grabbed him.
I think the smoke monster has a base that is rooted to the ground, but it can raise itself up from it like a snake. I don't think it could maneuver this well enough to go over the fence.
"After the War, Hanso became the leading purveyor of high-technology armaments for NATO." - That was from the old THF website. We know for a fact Hanso knew about the island before the DI was there, due to Magnus Hanso. He almost certainly had checked it out and so with its special properties it makes sense he used to as a site to develop his weapons. So what if Smokey was one of those. A legacy from those days. Perhaps a lot of things were due to a legacy from those days. Or alternatively he continued the weapons work alongside the DI research.
It appears that Smokey has "Flashed" Julliet, Eko and perhaps Locke. What do they all have in common? Well it seems they are all on that list that the others are always going on about (Jacobs List). Don't forget Eko was meant to be capture from the Tailies camp but he fought off his captors. So given that Smokey seems to act aggresively to those on the list, making some kind of judgement this seems to add further support to my suspicion that Smokey/Cerberus is Dharma Created. As for why Dharma would want to kill people on the list, I'd have to point you back in the direction of the Valenzetti Equation and Mittlewerks plan to purge the whole of humanity of people on his list. Could it be the smaller percentage rebelled and decided they were the chosen ones of a new world?