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?