Constants and Inconsistencies.

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

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.

Day of the Orchid

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.