Sunday, February 03, 2008

Lost: The Beginning of the End, Revisited
So Lost fans have had a whole three days to digest the episode... which means we've pretty much dissected every single second of the episode, have done all the research, and are ready for the challenges of the next one.


If you haven't been reading the comments on my posts below, I thought I'd highlight some of the awesome catches of some of my readers, or the links that some of them have posted to other sites with revelations.


First, I asked a seemingly innocent question: "Did anyone catch what Hurley says after telling Jack that he wouldn't look good with a beard? Does he say, "S.H.O.? I'd say sho? Like Saint Joe?" and Kathy posted that he says, "That's H.O." because they were playing horse. That then spawned an entire discussion about the significance of H.O. Saza pointed out that it's the 8th and 15th letters of the alphabet, and reminded us that Hurley sees Charlie standing next to the Ho Ho's. Then downthehatch posted: "I am starting to think the Ho Ho Ho is a big clue. We keep getting hints of them being in the arctic somewhere...polar bears, penny's people, "snow globe", the snowman joke and now Hurley drawing an eskimo and an igloo. The North pole has an magnetic anomoly. So is the Ho ho ho a hint of Santa, who lives at the north pole? It's also Dec 24 as I pointed out. I am not sure what it means or if it's all red herrings, but I feel it's might mean something."




There certainly does feel like there's some significance to Hurley drawing the igloo, to seeing the guys in the blizzard at the end of season 2, to Desmond asking, "what did one snowman say to the other snowman," etc. Christemple went into even greater detail in his comment:



Don't dismiss this absurd subject so quickly. Ho Hos figured prominently in last nights episode, it was where Charlie was standing in the store when Hurley freaked out, AND the letters "HO" appear briefly in the background when Hurley flips out at Matthew Abaddon. While chocolate cake may have nothing to do with the secrets of Lost, the element the letters 'Ho' represent may!
Originally dubbed "Element X" by Jacques Soret and Marc Delafonatine, who discovered it, Holmium (chemical symbal HO) is said to possess "the highest magnetic moment (10.6µB) of any naturally-occurring element and possesses other unusual magnetic properties."
Did the light bulbs just go off? Of course this is not common knowledge enough to be something meant to be revealed, rather this clue was injected with the idea that the brainier members of our community (like KeepingAwake, who tipped me off to this) would disseminate it for the rest of us numb-skulls. What does it mean? Speculate away.
So far, including the addition made by the nimble brained Theory 156 below, we have:
Charlie stands by the Ho Hos when Hurley sees him in the store. (KeepingAwake)
The chemical symbol for Holmium in the background at the sanitarium (KeepingAwake)
Jack ending his game of 'Horse' at 'Ho' (Theory 156)
As pointed out below, H is the 8th letter in the alphabet and - you guessed it - O is 15! HO=815! (Trevor)
HOLM is Greek for island. HOLMIUM is the Latin word for Stockholm, based on the Greek for Island. (KeepingAwake)
I got this from DocArzt's website. It sounds more logical.


Whew! I think some of my brain just came out of my ear. And when it comes to Lost, I LOVE that feeling. :)


Abaddon. As many people have now told me, Abaddon is a Hebrew word meaning "Place of destructrion." From Wikipedia:


Abaddon (Hebrew אבדון Avaddon, meaning "destruction"). In Biblical poetry (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11), it comes to mean "place of destruction", or the realm of the dead, and is associated with Sheol. Abaddon is also one of the compartments of Gehenna.[1] By extension, it can mean an underworld abode of lost souls, or hell.
In Revelation 9:11, it is personified as Abaddon, "Angel of the Abyss",[1] rendered in Greek as Apollyon; and he is described as king of the locusts which rose at the sounding of the fifth trumpet. In like manner, in Rev. vi. 8, Hades is personified following after death to conquer the fourth part of the earth.


Someone mentioned in my comments that there's a shadow left behind when Abbadon leaves, which has sparked some discussion that he might be the smoke monster:

Of course, it could just be the light in the hallway outside... ;) Note also the chess game that sits on the table between him and Hurley, suggesting this is a game, they're all pawns, and they're all being moved around the board by some higher power.


When flipping through screen caps I also noticed this, which I'd missed when watching the show:





Check out the chalkboard in the background, with the shark, the palm tree, and the boat. All things we've already seen, or will any of these things be involved in the future rescue?


Few things have generated more discussion than the scene with Jacob's cabin. Check out the screencap of the window, which looks like an evil face. The rips in the curtains look like mirror images of each other, like a J and a backwards J (or an L). Hmm... J and L are mirror images of each other... like Jack and Locke. Or Jacob and Locke.


The painting of the dog was sitting on the floor in the corner of the cabin in "The Man Behind the Curtain" and here it is on the wall, seen very prominently by Hurley. Is it important? Or was it just an innocuous detail in TMBTC, and when fans jumped all over it the writers began giggling and decided to put it on the wall? I'm thinking it's important... few details on Lost are there for no reason.



Someone posted a comment that they were disappointed that we didn't see an eye on the flashforward. I don't think we saw an eye on Jack's, either, so it would suggest the flashforwards won't have them, but instead, check out how beautifully Hurley's eye is framed by the broken glass in this shot. It's foreshadowing the much creepier eye we'll see right after, but it's still a gorgeous shot.





And speaking of that eye, here it is again. Several people think it could be Locke, while others say they don't see the resemblance. I looked at it, and if you look at the arch of the eyebrow, it looks REALLY similar to Locke's. But another option could be Mikhail. When I first saw it in the episode, I immediately thought of Mikhail, but I haven't seen anyone speculate that. Someone posted a comment last week that on the DVDs, the producers say that Mikhail really did die in the grenade blast, but I'm not so sure about that. Notice we don't see the guy's right eye, and Mikhail has rather narrow eyes, and a similar eyebrow arch. And his nose seems to cast the same kind of shadow that the eye above does... and the deep bag he has under his left eye would cause that curving underneath, but the puffiness isn't there (that could be explained by the fact the eye is so wide, and we almost never see Mikhail with his eyes wide open). It's probably a stretch, but then again, we've been discussing the significance of Ho-Ho's, so I don't feel very silly bringing it up. :)

So what have I missed?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The name Jacob is the same name as James (my father was a James, my father-in-law a Jacobi, which isn't relevant but I find it interesting. My new grandson is a James too :) )

Sawyers name is James.

Brian Douglas said...

JL are the initials of John Locke.

Also, the newest Lost Missing Pieces is quite...interesting and can be seen here:

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/missingpieces/index?pn=index

Note that Christian refers to Jack as "my son," as opposed to Yemi saying to Eko "you speak to me as if I were your brother."

Also, Christian says "He has work to do," which is just what Walt said to Locke in the season 3 finale.

So is Christian Jacob? If so, how come Jacob was around before the plane crash? If not, and this is Jacob (or smokey, if they are not the same) in Christian's form, why does he refer to Jack as "my son?" (he could have meant it figurtively, like a priest says to a parishoner perhaps?)

SO...MANY...QUESTIONS!!!

memphish said...

Nikki, my first thought on the eye was Mikhail as well. You are not alone. But now I think it's supposed to be Jacob, whoever Jacob is. Damon and Carlton point out his eye in TMBTC several times on the DVD commentaries.

You might want to listen to Jay and Jack's Monday podcast. They interview Jorge and he discusses the cabin scenes complete with info. from his script that wasn't included in the episode.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for mentioning me again Nikki! It's like I'm actually contributing to the show... well maybe not. LOL The more I visit this site the more I love it!

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear that you're going to be getting the discussion started early this week. Last week was a long wait until 1pm.

Christian is Jacob, I'm convinced. His back story is such that he could have been behind the scenes for years manipulating things. We know Christian was an often absent father. We've seen how he's travelled to and from Australia several times. Was his 'final' trip to Australia taken to put the last stages of his grand plan into motion?

He brought Ana Lucia with him, tried to meet with Claire, crossed paths with Sawyer. We seriously need a Christian Shepherd flashback.

I think Jacob's painting deserves a closer look. Symbolically, the dog can represent guardianship. Often dogs are associated with priests and considered watchdogs against the devil. (http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp/keyword.dog/qx/symbolism_details.htm) Who is this dog watching over?

According to Lostpedia and other internet sources, the dog in the painting is an Airedale Terrier. Airedale's do display herding, characteristics.

So the dog in the painting is a shepherding dog. And we saw Christian Shepherd briefly in Jacob's cabin. And the Lost writers love to play with names...

Is that a clue or am I just reaching?

Adi said...

Good to see you are learning some Hebrew (אבדון) :-)
The Arctic theory seems a bit wild to me.

Anonymous said...

They are also going to be re-airing the season premier right before episode 2 so if you missed some stuff you can try to catch it the second time.

Semaj said...

great stuff, I never noticed the shadow on Abbadon's departure.

I always figured that he was working for DARMA or the another group wanting to find the island.

I think the Charlie we saw in the future was smoke monster, but I'm Abbadon isnt

Anonymous said...

I've changed my mind...it's not Christian Shepherd who is pulling the strings...it's Randy Nations, Hurley's and Locke's old boss.

Check out who was filming the car chase from last episode.
http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Image:RandyFFfilm.jpg

Anonymous said...

Also, was I the only one who thought that Ben and Rousseau were a little too familar with each other? There better be a Rousseau flashback this season!

Jazzygirl said...

No, I too sensed some weird closeness or connection between them. Clearly he kept Alex from her but when he said to her "I need you to do something...take Alex.." it seemed like he was talking to someone he knew quite well.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm just going to throw this out there, but ... I think the eye in the window belongs to Roger, Ben's father.

I think that's why Ben talks down to him when he's in the cabin and then after "Jacob" has his little fit and throws Ben against the wall, Ben walks out of the cabin and looks at Locke in that embarrassed way like when your Dad yells at you in front of your friends.

Also, I think it was Ben who trapped him in the cabin with the ash.

Anonymous said...

The eye in the cabin...I think you can see the outline of hair around the face...like an afro. And the face looks too dark to be Locke.