All right, I've got a good three months before I can fully analyze an episode of Lost, so indulge me and allow me to take a really close look at Lost's new official promo. You can see it here. First, it opens with several shots from season 4, including (yeah, I know I won't let this go) a shot of Jin over the words, "What they lived for." LIVED. Is Jin alive?
But onto the preview shots from season 5. The key line for me is Ben's, at the very end, "Well thank goodness for second chances." I'm going to suggest that season 5 will be about going back in time and living everything over again. If you pause the screen quickly as Jack tells Ben that Locke had told him bad things had happened on the island, you'll see the words "Dharma Initiative" flash over the screen. Is the DI the "very bad thing" that happened to the island? As in, did Ben move it back in time and the DI was back with a vengeance, trying to prevent the Purge from happening this time around? What are the chances that by moving things back in time, Ben's created a Groundhog Day effect where the people on the island have to relive events that have already happened? We see Juliet uncovering a window that was exactly like the Hatch window that Locke uncovered in season 1. We see the Beechcraft plane fall out of the sky again.
There's been some speculation about how Ben moved the island -- did he move it in space or in time? I was chatting with the time loop theory guy the other day and said to him I don't understand how he could have just moved it in time. After all, even if you move it back to 1996, doesn't the island still exist? But he said, what if you moved the island back to 1996, and through a war it was obliterated in 2003? In that case, the helicopter (which is in 2004) would watch it vanish, because technically, it no longer exists in 2003. Things that make you go hmm....
Do I want to watch the islanders re-enact season 1? No. But I don't think the writers do, either, and instead will just touch on certain things. The do-overs we see in the preview all apply to Locke: wouldn't it be nice to redo the Beechcraft scene and NOT kill someone? Or what about redoing the hatch scene? Maybe it could play out differently this time and someone would keep pressing the button? We also get a shot of Locke lying on his back and looking up at something. Could it be a repeat of the smoke monster scene? Would it be the one in "Walkabout" where he "looks into the eye of the island and what he saw was beautiful," or the "Exodus" scene where the monster grabbed him by the leg and dragged him down a hole?
Meanwhile, off the island, Aaron has gotten a little bigger (and finally gets a line), Kate seems to have been won over to the "Hey, let's go back" camp, Hurley's running around and brandishing a gun (still wearing his outfit from the institution, which makes me think when Sayid came to break him out they didn't just walk out the front door, and instead we'll watch some craziness happen on their way out). Sun is being detained in a room -- where, at the airport? In Korea? Why is she locked in a room? Jack shaved the beard (YES!); Sayid's beating the snot out of someone.
Daniel is wearing a yellow space suit and walking through caves... could he have entered the Swan station if they've moved the island back in time (therefore the station is once again intact) and he's going to find out the real source of the electromagnetic energy? I guess this answers our question about whether Dan got sucked into the island being moved or if he was going to be left floating in the water with a bunch of background characters.
What are your thoughts?
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11 comments:
Looks to me like it shows Jin when it says "Died For" not "Lived For."
I'm not sure I'm crazy about the do over idea, but I did have this crazy notion the other day that the Island moved back in time the same amount of time Ben moved forward when he turned the wheel (approximately 9-10 months). Then I wondered if the O6 return will those left on the Island know them or will they not because they went back to a pre-crash date.
But I'm in no way wed to such a notion. I just can't wait to see what TPTB come up with for us. Late Jan/early Feb can't get here soon enough.
If the island moved back in time, wouldn't the state of the island and the things on it remain unchanged from the moment it moved? In other words, the drug plane couldn't fall because it's already on the ground, and Juliet couldn't find the hatch because it's been blown up real good. So assuming those two events aren't flashbacks or being taken out of context, it would seem that the people on the island have gone back in time, not the island itself.
Nikki: "Is Jin alive?"
Me: Yeah, probably. (sigh)
Look, I know it's part of the appeal of the show for some, and the whole "No One Can Die" thing may well be a crucial part of the PtBs' overarching story, but it just frustrates me how cheaply this show treats death now. I mean, death, in real life, is a very big deal. So when a show with pretensions of seriousness fails to remember that, and instead goes off on weird tangents (Claire, Christian, probably Jin now, too) I find it a little off-putting.
I know, I know, this is a show with time travel and tropical polar bears. Death is different, though, and I love it when fiction (including Lost, inthe case of Charlie and others) treats it with the gravity it deserves.
"So when a show with pretensions of seriousness fails to remember that, and instead goes off on weird tangents (Claire, Christian, probably Jin now, too) I find it a little off-putting."
This seems a bit unfair, considering we don't know if Jin is dead or not, and in the case of Claire and Christian we have no idea what's happening with them. You're making it sound like this is Heroes where people come back from the dead every third episode. Fact is, the vast majority of dead characters on Lost stay dead.
memphish: CRAP. Why do you always have to be right? ;) Sigh. You're right, it said Died for. Wah. But, um... he's still alive. Heeeee....
I'm with you. I'm one of those people who tends to avoid speculation (especially in my books, since it's usually debunked by the first episode of the new season) but I thought it would be fun to throw some ideas out there, whether or not I like them (and rewatching certain things is not necessarily something I'd like, but of course I put my complete faith in the Lost writers at this point). But I'm with you: I CAN'T WAIT.
anonymous: Hm. Good point. However, if we accept the island is a living, breathing thing, like Locke and Ben think, then by moving it back in time, certain things would be restored and the island itself would get the do-over. Does that make any sense? It would pretty much have to follow whatever it is we believe to be true about the island.
JJ: Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm with you on that. When shows like Heroes resurrect every living creature on it -- "hey look, that worm they stepped on in episode 3 is better!!" -- it lessens the effect of any future death. Someone shoots Peter Petrelli in the head and we say, "Oh well, no biggie. He'll be alive again in about 3 episodes." Whereas on a show where someone dies and stays dead, we mourn them.
But Lost is different. Death is different, for one thing. I believe that Charlie is dead, but his spirit is appearing to Hurley to give him a message (or he's not... he could be the island manifesting Charlie to appear to him). So when he died, I cried. If Lost had a Heroes track record by the end of season 3, I wouldn't have cried. Eko is dead, Michael is dead. Christian is probably dead, but there a million possibilities as to why we're seeing him. As for Claire, we don't know if she's dead. I'm still on the fence for that one.
I think a lot of it will come down to what the overarching story is. On Heroes, they've never come up with a good enough reason for why these people are suddenly alive again, other than actor contracts. But with Lost, there could be a very good reason. And if it's actually part of the overarching storyline, then it's necessary.
Jin could very well be dead. But he could also be alive, in that he didn't die and come back to life, but he never died. He could have jumped off the freighter or something. There's a line where Sun screams, "We're too far away, we can't see anything, how do you know he's gone?" or something like that. It might have been important.
How could Jin have survived even if he HAD jumped off? Wouldn't he have died in the explosion? Well, shouldn't Michael have been able to shoot himself in the head? Set off a bomb and die? Ram into a disposal bin with his car and die of internal injuries? The island had a mission for him and he couldn't die. Aaron survived a helicopter crashing into the ocean where it flipped through the air over and over and did cartwheels. Yet he didn't fly out of Kate's arms, which he should have done, didn't drown, didn't have a scratch on him. The island clearly has a mission for him. And if it needs Jin for something, then it will keep him alive.
I think because they've spent a LONG time establishing this much, it wouldn't be a cheap thing for him to still be alive. Imagine Sun going away and believing he's dead and mourning him and letting her anger fester for 3 years, only to return and find him alive! I, for one, would LOVE that scene.
These are all just suggestions, however. But I agree with you 100% that I HATE when shows keep bringing people back alive. In fact, I was going to name a show in here and say, "See, in that show when someone died, I knew they were dead" but I couldn't come up with one. It seems to be a "thing" these days. ;)
If you're not from the island, please stick to your own personal life and stay out of the island's whereabouts, history, etc.
Anonymous: LOLOLOL!! OK, that's the biggest laugh I've had from one of these comments in a long time. (And by the way, I think I know who you are, you crazy person). ;)
And for anyone else who's scratching their heads, you'll understand it better after reading the comments on my most recent Sarah Palin SNL post.
Har Har! Good one!
Nikki, I bet you anything that the toy truck in "Further Instructions" belongs to Aaron. The chances of Aaron living on the island before the plane crash seems possible with time travel. I think the Shepard clan is the key to this whole mystery (due to Clare and Christian appearing in the Cabin). I always theorized that Jacob could be either Jack (pay attention to that tattoo)or Aaron. What do you think?
I believe "Adam and Eve" are two losties that died when the island went back in time, so their bodies decomposed long enough for when Jack and Co. go to the caves for the first time.
Maybe Juliet and Sawyer? Nah..lol.
But the writer's have clearly said they put Adam and Eve in that episode to show that they were planning to do ____________ all along, and it wasn't just made up on the spot. If _________ was going back in time, there ya go.
"Hm. Good point. However, if we accept the island is a living, breathing thing, like Locke and Ben think, then by moving it back in time, certain things would be restored and the island itself would get the do-over. Does that make any sense? It would pretty much have to follow whatever it is we believe to be true about the island."
I still think the island would retain the properties it had at the point Ben turned the wheel. You say it's a living thing, but imagine it's LITERALLY a person. If a person travels back in time 20 years, they don't look 20 years younger. They're still the same age, but the world around them is 20 years into the past. Of course, it's possible for them to run into their past self, who WOULD appear 20 years younger. Which brings me to...
The only way for this to work is if the island moves through time and space to the 1970s and appears nearby the 1970s version of the island (similar to the rabbits in the Orchid outtake video), in which case there would now be two islands -- one with our characters on it which has destroyed hatches and whatnot, and one version without our characters where Dharma is still around. Faraday winds up on the Dharma version because he's out in the water and sails to the nearest landmass, not realizing what's occurred.
This is of course extremely outlandish, even by Lost's standards, and I doubt it will happen.
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