Thursday, February 07, 2008

Lost: "Confirmed Dead"
Wow, another nailbiter. This show is freakin' brilliant. I had my laptop with me and was jotting notes the entire time, and LOVED it. A couple of moments made me laugh out loud, and I gasped aloud more than once. Here we go...

We meet the “rescuers”... and find out who they’re really here for.

Previously on Lost...
Before I move on to this week’s episode, it turns out last week’s was FULL of Easter eggs that took fans several days to find. Here’s a list of my favorites:
• Abaddon might sound like “abandon,” as I pointed out, but it’s also a Hebrew word meaning “place of destruction,” or underworld. In Revelations, Abaddon is the Angel of the Abyss. Some fans are speculating he’s the smoke monster; when he leaves the room where he unnerves Hurley, there’s a weird shadow left behind him on the door.
• In Jacob’s cabin, the man sitting in the rocking chair was none other than Christian Shephard!
• The eye that appears in the window is up for debate. The general consensus was that it was Locke, but I think this week’s episode debunked that.
• When Hurley crashes his Camaro, you can see Randy (his boss from the Mr. Cluck’s and Locke’s boss at the box company) filming the crash off to the side of the scene.
• Hurley crashes into the Bonneville of Death, that weird car (that could just be a red herring) that Kate crashed into when she had Tom in her car; that hit Michael when he was crossing the street; that hit Locke when he was running through the parking lot of the store after spotting his mother.
• There could be a tie to the North Pole: When Hurley and Jack are playing HORSE, Hurley says, “That’s H-O.” Hurley sees Charlie standing next to the Ho Ho’s. (Think Santa.) H and O are the 8th and 15th letters in the alphabet. This links to polar bears; the guys at the end of season 2 in the blizzard; Desmond saying that they’re stuck in a “snow globe”; Desmond asking for the punchline to the code joke “What did one snowman say to the other snowman?”

Episode Recap:
Through flashbacks, we’re introduced to the four new characters who have been sent to “rescue” the survivors: Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume (ghostbuster... when he hooked up his dustbuster device I looked at my husband and said, “Who the hell is he? Dan Aykroyd??”), Charlotte Lewis (archaeologist), and Frank Lapidus (pilot). On the island, Charlotte is held hostage by Locke and Company, who are on their way to Jacob’s cabin on Walt’s orders, and the other three are with Kate and Jack, who appear to have abandoned the rest of the flock. Through the flashbacks of these characters and Naomi, we discover they’re not exactly there to rescue anyone, but instead are there to find Ben.

Highlights:
• Watching Dan’s landing from his point of view. You can feel his panic as he’s free-falling through the air, looks up at his parachute, looks down to see himself about to hit the trees... it was amazing.
• The looks on everyone’s faces when Locke says he’s getting his orders from Walt. They all look like they’re thinking, “Oh crap... I should have gone with Jack.”
• Locke tells Sawyer that Walt gave him orders to stop Naomi, and Sawyer says, “What, you didn’t ask any follow-up questions?” Ha!
• Ben’s reaction to Karl calling him Mr. Linus: “Karl, now if you’re gonna sleep with my daughter, I insist you call me Ben.”
• Jack telling Miles that they have friends with guns in the jungle, and Sayid and Juliet suddenly appearing.
• Sawyer: “Who are we to argue with Taller Ghost Walt?”

Biggest “GASP!” Moments:
• Locke announcing that if he’d had a kidney, the bullet would have killed him. Does this mean his whole destiny theory is correct? That he was meant to lose the kidney to Anthony Cooper so that he could later live? Did Cooper actually save his life?
• A polar bear in the desert? With a Dharma collar???
• Ben shooting Charlotte! That’s two people in just over 24 hours.
• Miles saying they’re here for Benjamin Linus!
• Locke asking what the smoke monster is... and discovering nothing. (That’s more of an anti-gasp moment, but it was fun anyway.)
• Ben knowing Charlotte’s life story before announcing he has a man on their boat... wha??

Hurley’s Numbers:
When you see the two ROVs underwater, the second one has a fuel reading of 64 (8 x 8); there are 4 team members in the helicopter; when Miles enters the grandson’s room, there’s a 15 on a football poster on the wall; when he puts his ghostbuster device on the table, there’s a coupon stuck to the board on the wall saying something is $15.00; if you add up the numbers in the Oceanic hotline, the sum is 48; the helicopter has the number NB42M on the side of it;

Did You Notice?:
• Zoe Bell is listed in the credits, but I couldn’t tell where she was in the episode. She was Lucy Lawless’s stunt double on Xena: Warrior Princess, and was Uma Thurman’s stunt double in Kill Bill. Perhaps she’s a stunt double in this show, too? Or could she have been Virginia, the woman on the phone who talks to Miles at the end? Virginia had a New Zealander accent, like Bell.
• If you played the Find815 alternate reality game, you would have picked up several references to the game in this episode. Among them: the salvage boat is called the Christiane I, which is the name of the boat in the game; the wreckage is found on the Sunda Trench, which is where Sam is told Sonya has been found; and the room where Miles does his ghostbusting looks exactly like Sam’s bedroom.
• Jeremy Davies’ character is named Daniel Faraday. One of the names the villain in Stephen King’s The Stand uses is “Russell Faraday.” Apparently the character on Lost was originally named Russell, but by the time they started filming they changed it to Daniel.
• Vincent’s gone with Locke’s group. That can only mean something terrible is going to happen to them.
• Locke predicts the end of the rain, a throwback to season 1. I love when they make us remember things that happened three years ago.
• Locke looks at Hurley with shock when he mentions the cabin, which means it wasn’t his eye last week looking out or he’d have known Hurley was there.
• Sawyer calls Locke Colonel Kurtz, which is probably the most apt nickname he’s ever given someone. Not only is Locke bald, but he appears to be deranged, and is now leading others down his dark path with him.
• Miles appears to have landed on the flats where Inman died.
• When Miles does his exorcism, the woman at the house is named Mrs. Gardner. In 1941, a skeleton was found on Gardner Island, and many believe it to have been the remains of Amelia Earhart. It’s widely assumed that the Adam and Eve skeletons of season 1 are based on Amelia Earhart and her male companion.
• It seems Sawyer’s gone with Locke’s group not because of his faith in John Locke, but in Hurley. When Locke insists that Sawyer not kill Ben, Sawyer looks at Hurley, who quietly shakes his head, and only then does Sawyer walk away.
• When we first see Frank’s flashback, he’s dropping a toy plane into an aquarium and it lands upside-down. It looks like he’s been doing this for a while, always with the same result, as if he knows the plane found on the ocean floor – right-side up – is a fake.
• All of the four crew members have some affiliation with the crash, ranging from major to minor: Frank was supposed to be the pilot of the plane, and calls Oceanic to say the body in the wreckage is not the actual pilot’s; Charlotte doesn’t believe the plane crashed, either, and uncovers a polar bear wearing a Dharma collar and seems to know the significance of it; Dan watches news of the fake crash on television and is inexplicably moved and upset by it; Miles simply hears the news on the radio of the crash site being found and turns the radio off.
• Frank is from Eleuthera in The Bahamas; eleuthera is derived from the Greek word for “free.”
• Naomi’s mission was to get them in, get them out, and prevent anyone from being killed. Looks like the mission’s already a failure.
• Charlotte is from Essex, England, and Dan is from Essex, Massachusetts.
• Charlotte Staples Lewis is clearly named after Clive Staples Lewis, a.k.a. C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series. That series of books is about stepping from one world into the next, as if the universe is a series of parallel realities. One of the favorite fan theories is that all of the action in the flashbacks, flashforwards, and island is happening at the same time, in parallel universes.
• Looking for Hurley’s numbers, I ended up finding the number 29 twice. At the beginning the second rover changes his coordinates to 137. If you subtract 108 from that number (the sum of Hurley’s numbers), it comes out to 29. Also, on the helicopter you see the letters N, B, M. Assign numbers based on their position in the alphabet (14, 2, 13) and they add up to 29.
• Lostpedia says this episode happens on December 24, 2004, which means we’ll soon be on Christmas. One can only imagine what will happen on that day.

So Many Questions...
• So why was Dan so upset when he watches the news?
• Did the magnetic anomaly bring the helicopter down?
• Why did they have scuba masks on board?
• How does Miles’ machine help him talk to ghosts?
• How did the polar bear end up in the desert, with a Dharma collar on it?
• Was that one of Mikhail’s cows that Frank comes face-to-face with?
• If Frank was able to set the plane down okay, why is he so beat up?
• Note the way Abaddon says to Naomi, “There were no survivors of Oceanic 815,” as if to say, “You will make sure there were no survivors of Oceanic 815.” Is it part of their mission to make that statement a reality?
• Why couldn’t George Minkowski come to the phone?
• Is Ben telling the truth when he says he doesn’t know what the smoke monster is?
• How the hell did Ben know all of that stuff about Charlotte? Who does he have on the boat?? This is the place where I’d usually ask if he’s telling the truth, but if he was looking to make believers out of us, listing off Charlotte’s entire life story pretty much did it for me.

Where to Look:
If you’re looking for more Easter eggs, I think there are a few scenes that will be full of them. They’ll just need more time, and a LOT more screencaps:
• The ocean floor at the beginning where the two rovers are searching.
• The bedroom of the grandson.
• The place where Frank is watching the television.

Next week: We discover another member of the Oceanic Six.

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not going to make it to next week... IT'S GOING TO KILL ME.

Anonymous said...

Gee, those writers were good. You'd think they'd worked on Buffy or something.

Every episode seems to turn things on their heads again. And just when you think you're getting flashforwards - flashbacks of people you don't even know.

Loved the episode.

Who you gonna call?

Unknown said...

Ghost Busters!

Just a note, I kind of freaked out because Faraday is from Essex, MA which is RIGHT NEXT TO my home town. I think I got about 5 IMs and Text messages at the same time about it.

Anonymous said...

Awesome.
I like how they tied in the Find815 game with the show. Very nice.
Also, last part of the show was one wow after another.
I like how they made us think...for a split second...we were going to find out about ol' Smokey

Nikki Stafford said...

redeem: HA! That's exactly what I said to my husband when he pulled out that dustbuster thing: "who the hell is he, dan Aykroyd??"

Jeff: I enjoyed the Find815 references as well!

Brian Douglas said...

Great episode. Four intriguing new characters:

A Physicist: for studying electro-magnetic effects

A Ghost Whisperer: to talk to Jacob

An Archeologist: to unearth four-toed ruins an ancient temples. And she finds a Dharama-bear in egypt as if it is no surpise.

And...

A Pilot: with a personal tie to 815

None of them believed that 815 was really found, but why? The pilot is easy enough to explain, and the ghost whisperer could have had a psychic flash or whatever, but what about the other two? Do they have a personal connection as well?

Naomi is not to be trusted, but how much does she really know? But what about the other four? From what we've seen so far, I would think they weren't given the full story, but why?

And why are they looking for Ben? And how did they get a picture of him if he hasn't been off the island since he was a boy? Is Abaddon a "mainland" Other who's not happy with Ben, or does he have a spy in Ben's midst? Also, Milo seemed too emotional about Ben...is there a personal history?

Ben doesn't know what the monster is...just what Juliet said last year.

One question I have: why is Sayid so suspicious that they weren't surprised to see them? I mean, they knew they were survivors of 815 when when Jack radioed them, no?

Maybe Sayid thought they should have been more...sceptical maybe?

Note Ben's reaction when Hurley mentioned the cabin, and his reaction to Locke's reaction (whew!). That sneaky bastard is planning something. Maybe he's going to try to turn them against one another (could is this why Hurley was sorry he went with Locke?)

Anonymous said...

Redeem,

Drew Goddard and Brian K. Vaughn were the writers for this episode and they did work on Buffy Season 8.

Brian Douglas said...

Who's this Brian K. Vaughn character anyway? :-)

Anonymous said...

^ I'm pretty sure you're kidding, but if you aren't, you NEED to start reading his serialized comic book series Y: The Last Man. It's the LOST of comic books.

Anonymous said...

I just realized I said "serialized comic book series." Talk about redundancy... My bad.

Robbie said...

I like the Faraday reference (Michael Faraday was a real life physicist).

Next week we find out another Oceanic 6! (according to CTV)

Is the girl who was gonna be played by Kristen Bell?

Did i mishear a woman call "Dan" "Sam" at the beginning? I swear she said that...

I find it interesting how they now told us the Pilots name. Another way of proving that it wasn't the Pilot's corpse on camera was that his part of the plane not only didn't go back in the water, he was thrashed around by smokey :o

Brian Douglas said...

brian holmes,

Given my GL avatar and the fact that I used a smiley face, I think it's safe to assume that I was in fact kidding.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Matt P. I was kinda joking.

As Nikki would well know :)

K J Gillenwater said...

I'm seriously starting to believe this is about parallel universes. How could someone possibly manufacture a whole plane with bodies in it? I mean, I guess you could say Dharma did it...but really?

I am going with the theory (for now) that the magnetic anomaly on the island (wherever it might really be) is a door between two worlds...two parallel universes. There was another plane that switched places with the Oceanic flight that we know & love...and that is the one that crashed in the ocean.

And the reason Jack says they need to go back to the island is because they are now in a parallel world where their counterparts are dead. A world they don't belong in. Which could also explain why Kate is not wanted by the police any longer...in this 'other' universe that Kate had a much different existence.

This show is just too fabulous for words. I LOVE it!!!!! I cannot wait for next week.

Eric said...

I wonder if our intrepid four freighters are from the other side of the door between two worlds? That could explain their interest in this whole thing. They are trying to get back to their side and need to find the gateway (the island) to do so.

Chris in NF said...

My only contribution here is to point to Charlotte's full name -- "Charlotte Staples Lewis." Any relation, we wonder, to Clive Staples Lewis aka CS Lewis aka creator of Narnia?

Those parallel world theories are looking more probably ...

Anonymous said...

Wow the show packed in a lot of new storyline with the four new characters! I really liked the show, I think I need to digest all the information overload!

One thing about Naomi not dying last week I wondered about. She was hit by Locke's knife in the back. We have a spinal surgeon in Jack who basically doesn't bother to rescusitate her or confirm if she is dead or not...HUH??? Did I miss something?

Favorite moments:
- Vincent running through the jungle with the transponder...I know its silly, they try this trick everytime, and everytime, stupid me, falls for it LOL
- I really liked the little mini flashbacks of the four new characters
- The beginning underwater sequence bringing Find815 into play

Questions:
- Where is Sam Thomas??? I too thought that Dan was called Sam by the woman in the flashback...I hope Sam comes on the show!
- Does anyone wonder like me that Abbadon is not the ring leader, that perhaps he works for Penny's evil dad?
- It crossed my mind again that all of this is in the delusional mind of Hurley (I hope its not a St. Elsewhere kind of situation, that would be disappointing)
- Do they keep needing to beat Ben to a pulp and have him vomit fake blood? It reminds me of Sawyer in the cage episodes. I know he is "evil" but give the poor guy a break!

All in all, I really liked the episode, not quite as much as last week's, but I think its because there was a distinct shift in the storyline and the new characters will need getting used to!

Anonymous said...

I got Nikki's book Finding Lost Season Three for Christmas. I am an avid fan of the show who is determined to figure out the clues and story behind Lost. I should have been a Detective because I can't stand to see clues pass me by, I just have to find out what is going on! Re last nights show I think I'm more confused than ever, I know the other "Others" want Ben, let them have the miserable sod, I say, but WHY do they want him? What was a Polar Bear doing in the deserts of Tunisia? What use is a Ghost Whisperer? How did Frank know that was not the Pilot of the plane? The picture didn't look anything like my memory of the Pilot that was battered by the Smoke Monster, or perhaps that was the co-pilot? I come here to find answers, so help me!!!

Brian Douglas said...

dansmot:

The picture was the same pilot (it's Greg Grunberg, aka Heroes' Matt Parkman).

Brian Douglas said...

Nikki's article is up on Wizard!

One quick note about Vincent: I wouldn't read too much about which group he's went with...Claire was taking care of him the last two episodes.

Now on to Nikki's questions:

• Did the magnetic anomaly bring the helicopter down?

Didn't killing the Swan station eliminate that anonmaly?

• Why did they have scuba masks on board?

Were they scuba masks? I thought they were gas masks for incase there was a purge.

• How does Miles’ machine help him talk to ghosts?

Did it? Or was it just a gimmick?

• Was that one of Mikhail’s cows that Frank comes face-to-face with?

Most likely.

• If Frank was able to set the plane down okay, why is he so beat up?

Um...oops?

• Why couldn’t George Minkowski come to the phone?

He had to go to the bathroom.

• Is Ben telling the truth when he says he doesn’t know what the smoke monster is?

I think he was. Juliet didn't know either. Plus, check out his face when Locke asks him what it is after going about how he had answers.

Nikki Stafford said...

Chris in NF: You totally rock! And make me feel like an idiot. ;) At 12:30 a.m. I'm typing in "Charlotte" "staples" and "Lewis" as separate words into separate search engines, and never putting them together, and the whole time I'm thinking, "I KNOW this is significant, and it's killing me, and it sounds so familiar, and we don't know any other middle names..." but I gave up.

I just emailed my editor and asked him to add that one bit. I'm a huge Lewis fan, and cannot BELIEVE I missed that.

Dansmot: I hope we help you find some answers here! You've come to the best place, with a great group of detectives who can always get to the bottom of things. :)

Anonymous said...

You know a show's in good shape when it can introduce five new characters in the span of two episodes and make it difficult for me to determine which is my favourite. Daniel? Abaddon? Miles? Charlotte? Jeff friggin' Fahey? Who knows.

Matthew D said...

Just some thoughts to start the day:

I think the dustbuster is a gimmick to make money. Miles can sense or hear from the dead but he probably doesn't "bust" them. My guess is he finds out why they're still around and then figures out how to get them to leave.

The helicopter was bouncing all around, it makes sense the pilot hit is head trying to land it.

There are two big theories floating around out there I haven't heard much discussion of here.

First: Abbadon and the people on the freighter are what's become of the Dharma group (possibly now run by Penny's Dad). They're after Ben because he destroyed their work and has been keeping them from the island. My guess is that several of them have both business & personal issues with him. Could the island's magnetical properties actually be something nations would go to war over? Is there something there that would give its controlling group a dominating international power? My guess is yes and I bet it has to to with Hurley's numbers!

Second Big Idea: If you've not taken the time to read some of the blogs on the www.fuselage concerning the artic/magnetic poles theory, you should. When I first read it I said 'no way' but as I read more and thought back about all the references to snowmen, santa, snowglobes, polar bears, igloos, penguins, etc. I am now a firm believer. Its way too long to post here, but you have to read about the 'hollow earth' theory and the scientific theory behind wormholes (hence a polar bear in Tunisia). Might the island be a "snowglobe" magnetically protected in Antartica somewhere at the mouth of a wormhole to multiple places around the world? The surrounding ice would explain the need for a submarine, the winter coats on the 'others' in the raft hijacking etc. I could go on forever.

The polar bear last night with a Dharma collar in the middle of the desert is totally explainable by a wormhole. How else?

I don't think the four new characters are the bad guys. I think the bad guys are locked and loaded on the freighter ready to take the island. These four are a recon team although Miles had pretty violent feelings towards Ben. Maybe his parents were part of the Dharma group Ben killed.

You think that Richard is the guy Ben has on the boat? He seems to be able to go anywhere.

I still think the 'others' are remnants from the Black Rock boat and the Island is using them, Ben & Smokey to protect itself from those who'd use its power for evil.

Loved last night's ep! Can't wait for next week.

Nikki Stafford said...

obscure: I'm with you... I kept moving between Frank and Miles as my favourites, but it could also be that I love the actors. And I love Abaddon because he was on The Wire! ;)

MatthewD: I'll definitely check out those threads... I've read a lot about them, and will read more. (You can never read too much!) I would love for Richard to be the guy on the boat, but I remember reading that because Nestor Carbonell went over to Cane, he can no longer appear on Lost. Do you know if Cane's been cancelled? I don't think he was able to be in the first 8, at least... but I REALLY hope that was wrong. :)

Matthew D said...

One more quick thing: Does it seem weird to anyone else that everytime the new 4 talk on their phone they talk like they're having a casual conversation with a friend? There's a lightness to their speech as though they really have no idea what is really going on.

It could be faked to give the losties a false sense of comfort. I loved how Dan instantly turned from serious panic to "fun guy" as Jack and Kate walked up.

Jury's still out on them. They might all be bad guys just playing innocent scientists. They could have an entire act figured out in advance.

Maybe some of them know lots more than others. Charlotte didn't let on she knew who Ben was. Dan was willing to freely talk too much and Miles had his little fit about Ben.

Anonymous said...

I love how incredibly awkward Daniel is. He was great.
Also, Jeff Fahey is awesome. I love him.
Here's my insane theory...what if Ben's 'man' on the boat winds up being Michael?
And THAT'S how they bring him back to the show.
That would totally blow my mind.

Crackedout said...

Anybody else think that Ben's "man on their boat" is Michael?

Nikki Stafford said...

Jeff and crackedout: WICKED theory!!! I would LOVE for Michael to be the man on the boat! I never thought of that, but I would bet that's exactly who it is!

Jeff: I agree about Dan's awkwardness. When I do these columns I've been asked to focus on Easter eggs and point form stuff and not to go on too much about other things, so I couldn't say that I LOVE Jeremy Davies, and was really excited when I heard he was going to be on this. The guy is an amazing actor, and last night he was brilliant. I also thought Ken Leung always does "right on the edge" really well (if you watch The Sopranos, you'll know how he was that way when he was hangin' with Uncle Junior). They were all fantastic.

MatthewD: I agree about the casualness. Last week when Dan landed and said, "Are you Jack?" he looked so calm and collected, but this week we saw he was a basket case.

Matthew D said...

Michael was my other thought for the man on the boat. What if the room Miles "dustbusted" was Michel's room and that was his Mom. She still think's he's dead which would explain the ghost. And if being alive but caught on the island allows him to send back some kind of messages, she might intrepret them as being a ghost.

I'm trying to remember back if Michael ever had any drug or criminal issus?

Maybe Michael wanted Miles to find the money to help fund the mission? I wouldn't dislike him so much for taking the money then. Miles almost knew he was looking for money before he walked into the room.

Nikki Stafford said...

MatthewD: Interesting, although the woman said the man was her grandson, not her son, and the photos of him on the wall didn't look like Michael at all, if that was indeed the guy he was there to ghostbust.

Brian Douglas said...

Michael is Ben's man on the boat? BRILLIANT!!!

As to Miles, if the grandmother didn't know her grandson was mixed up in drugs, maybe it was better off she didn't find the money? Yeah yeah, a bit of a stretch, I know, but I bet that's what Miles is telling himself. He looked rather guilty in his flashback.

Does anyone remember if they ever mentioned if Michael had any brothers or sisters?

Crackedout said...

Alright, my brain is working on hyperdrive! Whether he's Ben's "man on the boat" or not, I believe that Michael is on the crews' Freighter! And, I believe that he has supplied them with information on the survivors, the others and the isalnd! Did anyone else find it weird that Miles just knew who Kate was? Maybe I missed something but didn't he just call her Kate without being told who she was? And Faraday, with his, "are you Jack?" and "these are good people" or "guys" or whatever he said to Miles (I can't remember that exact wording) like he knew more about them then he was letting on. Think back to season three and Naomi. She has that picture of Desmond and says she's working for Penny, looking for Desmond. Granted, that's a cover story, but how'd she know Desmond would be on the island? Coincidence or did Michael tell her that he was there? And, if Michael is Ben's "man" then he could be Bristowing it! As in Sydney and Jack....double agent status! This crew knows more than their letting on and I think Michael has something to do with it.

Brian Douglas said...

Did Michael know Desmond was there? He spend most of Season 2 in his sailboat, and didn't return until the finale, at which point Michael was trapsing through the jungle with Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sawyer.

Crackedout said...

He may not have known who Desmond was but I'm pretty sure he saw him. And remember that Jack and Sayid came up with their plan at the end of season two with Desmond's boat in mind so he was there before they left to find the others.

Anonymous said...

Here's my take on how the freighter people know about Desmond:

Abaddon represents either the Hanso Foundation or the remnants of Dharma. After the purge, they vowed to take back the island any way possible. Ms. Hawking, who Desmond met when he traveled back in time, is a member of this group. She was something akin to a Dharma time cop, for lack of a better term, and her job was to ensure that none of Dharma's time travel shenanigans ripped apart the space-time continuum. So she ensures that Desmond still makes it to the island because that's what's supposed to happen. After meeting with Desmond, Hawking than returns to what's left of Dharma and tells them about this encounter, which is how the freighter people know Desmond is on the island.

The less complicated theory is that Penny knows Desmond is on the island and Penny's father is funding the freighter people, which is how they know. But time travel theories are more fun, dammit!

Brian Douglas said...

Some interesting notes on Faraday:

Michael Faraday was a physicist whose work formed the basis for ELECTROMAGNETIC fields. Among his work were the effects of ELECTROMAGNETISM ON LIGHT.

Daniel certainly seems to be living up to his namesake.

Anonymous said...

I must say that I am humbled by everyone on the board here. You guys notice things that would take me at least 3 or 4 viewings to notice! And here I thought I was a Lost fan...I bow to the masters of the Lost Universe!

K J Gillenwater said...

But if it is Michael on the boat, what happened to Walt? Are we supposed to believe that Michael made it back to 'civilization' and then somehow got onto this freighter within a few weeks of arriving back in the real world?

I'm still wondering about the very first season when they showed Walt having these weird powers. They never fully explored that or explained it. Why? We haven't really seen anybody else with similar powers, I don't think. Unless we are talking about things appearing on the island to certain people being the same 'power.'

How does that fit in with what we have learned over the last 2 seasons?

Brandon Kotowski/ job: fan of LOST said...

I love the theories of who the spy is! George Minkowski? Michael Dawson? But I was thinking about who we've seent that could be the spy, and though I'd love it to be Michael, I don't believe he would betray his friends again. Also, George is a good guess, but would that be too obvious for the show? I've been looking and no one has had this idea yet.

But what if, perhaps, Matthew Abbadon is Ben's inside man? How crazy would it be if the man "behind the whole rescue operation" was Ben's man leading the freighter people into a trap? My final thoughts on they spy?

It has to be either George Minkowski or Matthew Abbadon.

Matthew D said...

Did anyone catch how interested Dan was in the way the light scattered on the island. I've read a theory that the magnetic forces of the Island have created a bubble over the island keeping the antartic cold away and also filtering the light in a way as to produce a jungle like climate.

There's a reason they had Dan talking about the light. Nothing in this show is 'filler'.

Crackedout said...

I don't think Michael ever made out to the real world. I think that his boat was intercepted by this freighter, that it had already been out in the ocean. The Others ahd to use a friggin' submarine to go back and forth.....how far do you really think Michael got in that dingy little boat!

I don't think that that Abaddon guy is on the freighter. He seems like a behind the scenes kind of player. Like a handler!

It can't be Richard. Whoever it is has been there long emough to gather a lot of intel and last we saw Richard he was with the Others heading to the Temple (It was the Temple, right?). There's no way he had enough time to ingraciate himself in the crew and learn all of this information.

Patchy!!! Here's a far-fetched theory....he can create clones of himself. Like the Multiple Man of Marvel Comics. Explains how he keeps dying and coming back to life. Plus one of his clones could be on the freighter. Hey...I said it was far-fetched!!

Ms.Hawking and the timecop theory. I love it. Only thing is I believe that she's just another manifestation of the island. Like Jack's dad, Eko's brother, Walt, Boone, Jacob's cabin, etc.

Here's one....it's Charlotte Lewis!!!! Why'd Ben shoot her in the chest and not in the head? Was it because he knew she was wearing a vest? Is that why he knew all that info pertaining to her? She seemed to reconize that Dharma tag in the desert...remember? Like she'd seen it before and knew what it was. It's always the person you least expect!!!!!

Nikki Stafford said...

Kristin: I agree; there's no way they can just drop the Michael storyline... there's just too much that was introduced there to drop it, and the writers don't put things in there for no reason.

Brandon: Good theory on Abaddon!! Then maybe last week when he asked if "they" were still alive, he was talking about the Others.

matthewd: You're right; everything is there for a reason, and we'll be expected to remember that line 23 episodes from now. :)

crackedout: I don't believe Michael ever left, either. Your other theories are great, including the Charlotte one. It would be interesting for Ben to say he has a man on the boat, and by man, he means woman. Though... she did look REALLY unnerved by him telling her life story, but she could be as good an actor as Ben is.

Brian Douglas said...

matthewd: The reason Daniel was talking about the light being scattered by the island's e-m field is because it is known as the FARADAY effect.

Emilia said...

Aside from the timeline issue and the fact that he should be dead, I'm going to have to say Patchy is the man on the boat. He was the last person we've seen speak to Ben directly, and he was already in the water.

As for Michael, I think we'll be seeing him make his way back to the island, but this time on his own terms. It's possible Michael made it back to the real world, but came down with the same "we have to go back" syndrome that we've seen in Hurley and Jack.

I hope the Find815 game ties in thoroughly with the show. I'd like to see Sam Thomas again, find out Sonya's story and understand who planted a fake plane at the bottom of the Sunda Trench and sent Sam Thomas to find it (I'm betting it's Hanso and/or Widmore). Can't wait for next week's ep--another from the Oceanic Six!

Matthew D said...

Brian D - so just an inside joke for those smart ones? That's funny. I knew Farady was a scientist (isn't something, maybe wavelengths, even measured in Farads?) I just didn't know he studied light.

So maybe more funny than important. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Matthew Abaddon is quickly becoming my new favourite villain.

My weekly quest for the meanings behind the Lost episodes usually takes me to Wikipedia. The entries on Abaddon are interesting. According to Wikipedia, Apollyon is Greek for Abaddon. The passage in the Bible that describes Apollyon/Abaddon could have some meaning to the Lost universe.

(I don't know if I can make fancy quotes...so)

"Rev. 9:1-3 "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power."

Bottomless pit, maybe the hatch. Black smoke, plagues. Again, maybe I'm reaching too far.

But then I saw this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Christianandapollyon.jpg

A picture of 'Christian's combat with Apollyon' A man fighting a devil who is surrounded by black smoke.

Jacob's others (who may just be Christian's Others), are being set up to battle Abaddon's team from the freighter.

Even if I'm wrong, which I probably am...the act of simply researching and searching for answers is enjoyable. I wish there were more shows like Lost on TV.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if my image link worked. Lets try again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Image:Christianandapollyon.jpg

I guess cut and paste that, put it all on one line.

The internet is hard sometimes...

Brandon Kotowski/ job: fan of LOST said...

I finished "Confirmed Dead" for the third time (alright!), and finally have come to a possible conclusion for the reason behind the gas masks.

Perhaps the "rescuers" knew of the Purge, and thought that the Others may still use chemical warfare to defend themselves and Ben. Hence, they take precautions, as Daniel so nicely puts it.

Also, what is UP with that Dharma collar and polar bear being in the desert? If it was dug up, it must've been there a LONG LONG time ago. Does this mean that the Dharma Initiative was existent many many years back? If so, then how does that tie in with Season 2, since the Hanso Foundation was founded in the 1980's, and since they funded the Dharma Initiative, then it possibly couldn't be as old as that polar bear fossil.

Perhaps this supports the "parallel universe/time travel" theory. I like sci-fi as much as the next guy, but I would prefer to see the show from going TOO far from reality, since so far it has done an amazing job of blending the two.

Finally, excluding the thought of a parallel universe, what is UP with the fake plane in the ocean? Did the Dharma Initiative, Hanso, or some other organization put it there? If so, are the bodies fake, or did they seriously perform a cruel task of killing hundreds of innocent people in a staged crash to cover up whatever is really going on?

So many questions!

My highlight of the episode: Jack, Kate, and Sayid looking at the helicopter. The looks on their faces of finally seeing a plausible and visible way off the island was so fulfilling, and one can only think if it is indeed rescue at last or if doom awaits them in the episodes airing soon.

Let me know what ya think, and keep on searching for those survivors! Can't wait to see if anything significant occurs on Christmas for the group!

pete said...

Was it just me, or were there two pictures of young Eko on the walls of grandmother's house when Miles went "dust-busting" for spirits? If so, perhaps grandma had the pictures because she paid some money to sponsor a poor child from Nigeria? Interesting connection with the drugs / money. Or perhaps the pictures were not boy Eko. Anyone see this? Great, intriguing episode....

Brian Douglas said...

brandon: the polar bear wouldn't need to be that old to be buried in the desert. A sandstorm could have covered it up maybe 10 years ago. Also, the collar wasn't just a DHARMA collar, but it was a DHARMA Hydra station collar.

pete said...

I thought there might be a nice anagram in the name Miles Strom. However, the name could be a homonym for "maelstrom." A maelstrom is like turbulance, chaos, upheaval, bedlam - more specifically related to the sea (i.e. whirlpool, eddy, vortex).

The literary association to maelstrom is Charybdis (according to my dictionary). From Widipedia, "In Greek mythology, Charibdys was a sea monster, daughter of Poseidon and Gaia. She takes form as a monstrous mouth. She swallows huge amounts of water three times a day and then belches them back out again creating whirlpools....The myth has Charybdis lying on one side of a narrow channel of water. On the other side of the strait was Scylla, another sea-monster. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range of each other, so that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis will pass too close to Scylla and vice versa." The common phrase "between a rock and a hard place" originates from this Charybdis-Scylla connection.

Maybe a far-fetched thread, but ain't we got fun!

Anonymous said...

I think the next episode will be about sawyer or sayid. It seems likely that they will get off the island because sawyer has Kate, and even though he went with locke, it doesn't mean he won't get off the island(for example, Hurley). Sayid is with jack and he wants to get off the island. Also, what happened with Desmond, and Sun and Jin. They practically dissapeared. Did they go with Locke or Jack?

Crackedout said...

I'm pretty sure that Jin, Sun and Desmond all stuck with Jack. We really didn't see a lot of Jack's group as he and Kate were off with Faraday and Miles. That's probably why we didn't see Jin, Sun and Desmond. Locke's whole group was featured throughout the episode and Jin, Sun and Desmond were definitely not with his group.

I beleive that Claire will be one, two if you count Aaron, of the Oceanic Six. You also gotta figure that whoever was in that coffin at the end of season 3 will be one as well.

Here's another thing to ponder....we're all assuming that since Hurley said Oceanic Six that only six of the survivors got off the island. This could be a referrence to something else. Maybe these six people are responsible for getting the survivors rescued or are famous for some other reason. Jack apparently is famous, since he's signing autographs and all. Remember that the writers like to make us think and can pull the rug out from under us at any time.