Monday, June 02, 2008

Lost: There’s No Place Like Home, Revisited

I’ve been preparing my speech for my keynote talk in Arkansas this Friday at the Buffy conference (woo!) and I’ve now scrapped it three times and completely rewritten it. Somewhere around 9pm last night I finally got a version that I really liked, to the point where I could finally test it out on my critical husband, who loved it. So now that’s done and ready, and it’s just a matter of packing. Which means, I will postpone packing until the last possible second and think about Lost instead. :)

First of all, you guys are totally amazing. I’ve been reading every single comment posted to the original blog on the finale, and wishing I had more time to jump on here and discuss, but whenever I think of something, you guys say something before I can post it. So here are some of my thoughts, and favourite questions and comments from the forum so far. I’d love to keep discussing the finale and all of season 4 well into the summer (eight months until season 5, people, EIGHT MONTHS!) so let’s keep talking!

Jin:
Is he dead or is he not? Some people said they think he’s dead, others are convinced he’s not and are holding out hope. Some were confused by the episode “Ji Yeon” and thought he was already shown to be alive in the future. To clarify: What the writers did in that episode (and what some viewers thought was a little too manipulative) was they showed us a flashback of Jin in 2001, trying to bring a panda to a client who works for Paik, and a flashforward of Sun in 2005, giving birth to a daughter alone. Why was there a grave in that flashforward? It could have been one of a number of things: She put the grave there believing that he’s dead. Or maybe Paik or someone in the family put the gravestone in there when he thought both of them were dead (if you look closely, it’s a two-sided grave, with Sun’s stone beside it). Why do I believe he’s alive? Because I think it would make for a better story. First we’ve got Sun believing that he’s dead, and she’s angry at Jack for telling the pilot to leave, she’s angry at the pilot for leaving, she might be angry at Desmond for letting Jin stay behind and not bringing him up to the deck with him, she’s angry at Ben for putting them through all of this... she has a LOT of reasons to be pissed right now. In the finale, we see her approaching Widmore, as if she’s recognized the rest of the Oceanic Six have aligned themselves with Ben, so she’s choosing the other side of the battle. It would make for a better story to see Sun sort of go off the rails, maybe eventually being redeemed, only to find out that Jin was alive all along (and maybe finding him alive would be her redemption). I’m so intrigued by what her character could do now. (Does anyone else feel a sudden need to go back and watch those season 1 episodes again with the two of them? It must seem like a world away now.)

The Frozen Donkey Wheel:
What exactly was Ben doing? (If I could answer that, I think I’d be in the writer’s room right now and not sitting here typing away in my living room while the baby sleeps.) I think everything that happens at the Orchid will be tied into the Faraday stuff, the time travelling, and several of the flashforwards that we’ve seen. Ben knew about the Orchid. Ben knew about that tin that was lying in the dirt along the way. Ben has clearly been there before. He knew what was hiding behind the teleportation chamber. How? It was sealed up. Who sealed it? How had he been there before? Again, the timeline is what remains the fluid factor here... Richard Alpert does not age. Is that because he’s immortal, or is something else going on? Is Ben really as young as we think he is? Could Widmore actually be 400 years old or something? The more questions you ask, the deeper into the vortex you fall, and it seems like there’s no way out.

The last we see of Ben he’s crying and upset, because he’s moving the island, and he knows there’s no going back. Presumably, Widmore had been on the island and had been forced to move it in the past, and now he can’t go back. But something is drawing him back to that island and he would do anything to get back there. So, he sends out Desmond. He hates the guy anyway, so what does it matter if the guy fails at his mission? But something tells him he won’t. Somehow Des finds his way to the island, but it’s under some sort of cloud of electromagnetic energy. Penny stumbles onto what her father’s been doing, and all of his tracking systems, and discovers that he’s sent Des to find a mysterious island of eternal youth and healing. So she begins to watch it, and sends a couple of guys out into a wintery wilderness with some of her daddy’s equipment, and tells them to watch night and day until the island reveals itself. When the Swan station goes kaboom, the guys see it, call Penny, and she rushes to her father’s equipment to monitor things for the next couple of weeks. Perhaps she does it surreptitiously, rigging her father’s tracking system to a video monitor and alarm system in her own apartment, so when Charlie removes the thing that was jamming all signals from the island (which had been put in place by Ben to keep Widmore away), she gets an alarm, and rushes to the video monitor to talk to Charlie immediately. He tells her Desmond is alive, and she begins to put things in place to come and rescue Desmond. But so far she just has some British rock singer’s word for it, until three days later she gets a phone call from Des, and that proves he’s alive. She puts a team of people together on a boat, follows the coordinates from Charlie’s signal, and finds Desmond.

Of course, while she had been talking to her guys in the tent in the blizzard, her father’s more sophisticated equipment had picked up the same signal, and he got Abaddon to put together a crack team of people to get to the island as quickly as possible and find Ben. He needs to put an end to the game they’ve been playing, and just wants to get back to the island. So the freighter folk and everything we see happen there was sparked by him. But only some of the freighter folk are loyal to Widmore – Keamy and his team of psychos are following his orders, but Captain Gault is wary of what is happening. He tells Sayid and Des what is up, and they try to help him.

This is what I can surmise so far, but there are so many questions left open by all of this. What is the history between Widmore and Ben? Are they immortal? Widmore flat-out tells Ben that he knows he can’t kill him... is that part of the game, or is it just not possible? Was Widmore part of the ancient civilization on the island? We know there was one – they built the four-toed statue, we’ve seen hieroglyphics all over the island, and usually wherever there are hieroglyphics, Dharma isn’t far behind. The frozen donkey wheel looked ancient.

What do you think the donkey wheel did? We see a bright flash and then the island disappeared. It didn’t sink. It didn’t float away, it simply disappeared. The donkey wheel could have been acting like something anchoring the island, and by turning the wheel, it pulls up the anchor, so to speak... but taken literally, that would lead us to assume the island would float away. But I’m thinking it’s a mystical anchor that’s holding it in one time-space, and by pulling it up, it moves to another. The island could be in 1880 now for all we know. MAYBE (and this one is for fb and all of us who were SO upset at her death) the island went back in time by 15 years, and Rousseau will be back? Maybe we’ll actually see her arrive? The possibilities are endless, really.

We do know that Ben is ejected to Tunisia. He’s been there before, as we know, but could that be any indication of where the island is? Most importantly, if he knew he was going to be ejected from the island if he turned the wheel, why turn the wheel? Ben always seems to think of himself, so what good is an island if he’s not on it?

Dharmic Preservatives:
One of the best questions asked in the comments section of my blog on this episode was by reader “Dogtown,” who asked, “Why were the 15-year-old crackers such a big deal? They got more air time than some of the characters. Are we missing something?” I read that comment, and my head began to spin with the possibilities. I mentioned in my original post that I’ve had some crackers in my pantry that go stale after a few months without ever being opened. Wouldn’t 15-year-old crackers be mouldy? Someone replied that if you put crackers in a tin, they stay fresh longer, but even that person admitted that 15 years is a bit of a stretch. My daughter found some crackers on the weekend that were unopened, and she opened them and started eating them and said they were “delicious,” but when I tried one I thought I’d gag. So how could Hurley keep eating them? I know they’re on a long trek, but 15-year-old crackers would be enough to choke anyone. Then I thought back to Tricia Tanaka and how Sawyer and Hurley find the beer, and Hurley says it’s probably from 1982. The beer would taste like aluminum and be completely undrinkable if Sawyer had opened it. I don’t care how thirsty you are – if someone hands you a pint of turpentine, you won’t drink it. Same goes for very very old beer.

I’m thinking both of these things are hints that we should be looking deeper. The crackers are 15 years old, according to Ben. The beer, about the same. (Hurley says the beer is over 20 years old, but we see Ben kill his father about 15 years ago, so he was off by a few years.) Did Dharma use wicked awesome preservatives? Or could the crackers and beer be existing on another plane? Is it possible that there are several different timelines happening simultaneously on the island? Could 2004 Locke be having a conversation with 1962 Alpert? They’re both in different times, but speaking in a neutral time zone, the island? Could the crackers exist in 1990, but 2004 Hurley could be eating them and they would SEEM fresh? Am I making any sense at all? (I’m starting to feel like I just drank 1989 beer.) It DOES seem like more than just an onrunning joke to keep coming back to those crackers.

Mister Locke:
So Locke is the guy in the coffin... (anyone else more intrigued by Sawyer possibly being there??) First he usurped Ben as the leader of the Others. Now he seems to have usurped Christian, and is in a coffin and being taken back to the island, just like Christian was. How did he end up in L.A.? Was he using passports like Ben was? If so, when he left the island, could he walk? Was his paralysis healed permanently on the island, or only while he was there? If the island really has curative properties, one would think he’s cured, not to get it again. But then again, Ben had a tumour on his spine. Could he have gotten it by one of his travels off the island? The island keeps him safe until he left it? Perhaps the island cured Locke of his paralysis, but made him susceptible to something else after he left.

My major issue with Locke being the guy in the coffin is the obituary from a year ago. I’ve seen prop errors in this show – too numerous to count – but was all the information in it manufactured to make us think one person when it’s really another?? If so, that’s a pretty crappy thing to do to the fans who spend all their time seeking out this information. Here’s hoping Locke discovers a long-lost teenage son. Ahem.

So why the name change? My husband wondered if it was always his real name, and we’ve been led to believe John Locke is his name, when it never was. Does that mean the flashbacks were all phony? I think the writers would have a mutiny on their hands if it turned out all the background stuff was misinformation as well, so I doubt that would happen. But I really find it hard to believe that he would suddenly change his name and the Oceanic 6 would refer to him by his new name, when they only knew him as Locke beforehand. I know someone who went by a fake name all throughout university, and post-university he finally told his friends what his real name was, and those friends STILL call him by the old name, 7 years later. It’s just not something you can easily break out of; you think of someone by that name, and that’s their name.

How did his information get out at all? Who put him in that funeral home? Presumably it was Abbadon or someone who desperately needs the Oceanic 6 back on the island... the only way to do it is for Locke’s obit to bring them all back together again, and they knew one of them would see it. Will Locke come back to life if he returns to the island? Will he become a spiritual guide like Christian?

How will the Oceanic 6 be able to find their way back to the island? Ben’s still looking, Locke’s dead... is it Aaron?

Claire and Aaron:
Darlton have said Claire is most definitely not dead. (UPDATE: Turns out I was misinformed; someone told me Darlton said in a recent podcast that Claire was not dead, when in fact they said she wasn't GONE and we'd see her again... not the same thing. So let's go back to talking about how she's probably dead.) So how could a mother of a new baby just serenely let him get taken from her? Again, Darlton say it’s because she’s been told he’s where he’s supposed to be. What does that mean? What is Aaron’s importance to the larger story? Way back in season 2, in my first book, I suggested he’s the most important person on the island, and it’s starting to look that way again. What is his role? Remember, the camera lingers on Penny holding Aaron and cooing and talking about how amazing he is, and she’s the direct connection to Widmore... could there have been some significance in that scene? Why would Claire appear to Kate and suggest she shouldn’t bring back Aaron? Was her happiness in knowing he was going to leave the island? Does BEN need the Oceanic 6 to return, and not Jacob, and that’s what is causing the rift?

What have I missed?

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post. So much to think about! Here's one thing you didn't mention. At Christian's memorial service, Jack says that he first thought about what he'd say there *10 Months* ago while at the Sydney airport.

But can this be right? This would have been in early Sept 2004, yes? Then they get rescued in late Dec/early Jan, Yes? That makes Aaron, what, two months old? Anyway, whatever Aaron's exact age, if Jack's time at the airport really was 10 months ago, Aaron would be *much* older than he is shown to be at the memorial serivce. Right?

Lisandro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Hi. i'm Oz, from Argentina. It is the first time I post in your blog, which, by the way, is great! I'm sorry if my english is not that good, I'll try to do my best.

There is something that's been bothering me for a long time and I'd like to know your thoughts about it. I think it's clear by now that the losties were meant to crash in the Island, that everyone's fate was to meet there, and thtat they're now meant to go back.
But, was everyone in that plane meant to be there? I mean, Boone, for instance, was he supposed to get to the Island only to die there? And what about Ana Lucia or Eko? Some deaths, like Michael's or Charlie's really mean something and seem to have fulfilled some sort of mission, but other seem to be just random, so that's my question. Were all of them meant to fall on that island or were some of theme just casualties?

Thanks! Oz.-

Jan said...

I just thought Locke had to change his name because John Locke was presumed dead. The Oceanic Six are supposed to be the only survivors. So, in order to keep the island a secret, he had to assume a different identity.

Anonymous said...

MAYBE (and this one is for fb and all of us who were SO upset at her death) the island went back in time by 15 years, and Rousseau will be back?

oh, if wishing made it so! i would LOVE to see rousseau's beginning, so to speak, and exactly HOW ben stole alex from her, and how her crew all suddenly died (we never did discover the cause of the mystery illness, did we? and we never saw it occurring with anyone else, either ...).

one thing that's interesting ... pregnant women cannot give birth on the island; they usually miscarry in the second trimester, if i'm remembering correctly. clare -- though she got pregnant off the island -- DID give birth on the island, so aaron is, indeed a special "chosen one", so to speak. he defied the odds. there's got to be some sort of reason for that.

best of luck at the buffy conference -- i know you'll knock 'em dead! any chance you will post your keynote speech for us to read afterwards? :)

Brian Douglas said...

Re: Jin

I don't accept that he (or anyone else) is dead until I see the body. Except for Michael. And maybe Clair. Well, forget that thing about anyone else :-)

Now the question I have is that if Jin, or anyone else on the freighter, survived, where they taken along with the island too? They were further away than the helicopter, but maybe the helicopter wasn't taken because it was in the air?

Re: The Frozen Donkey Wheel

I think the wheel was attached to some ancient machine that opened a wormhole the swallowed the island. Or something like that.

I wonder if the air/water was replaced by the air/water where the island displaced it. Or maybe a wizard did it.

Dharmic Preservatives:

Maybe whatever it is on the island that causes injures to heal kept the food fresh longer? Although Ben didn't seem to think they were still good. Of course, this is Ben, and he could have just been messing with Hurley for giggles.

Nikki Stafford said...

Anonymous: Ah! I knew I was forgetting something. Yes, I'll do a post specifically on that, along with trying to sort out the timelines. :)

Oz: I think your English is great! I do believe there were some casualties on that plane. After all, the "socks," or background characters, were all just blown up on the freighter without ever fulfilling any missions. I think the core group of people were on that plane together, but they didn't necessarily need 324 of them, and had to fill up the plane with "disposable" characters, so some people died just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jan: I agree with you: I believe Locke changed it because he was presumed dead. Ben travels the world using various names, and I think Locke is doing the same thing. My question, however, is why does everyone else refer to him as Jeremy? I can understand if someone is listening in on Hurley and Sayid, so they use it as a code word, but Kate and Jack are alone and not being listened to, and they refer to him as Jeremy, which seems unrealistic.

fb: It seems that women who become pregnant on the island die, but if you become pregnant off the island, you can give birth without trouble. It's why Juliet did the ultrasound on Sun: If Jae Lee had been the father and she'd conceived off-island, then she would be fine, but when they find out she conceived on the island, the fear was she would die by the second trimester.

Dharmic: Hmm... the island even has stay-fresh healing abilities? Good point... now I'm thinking my refrigerator crisper should be on that island. ;)

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

I was talking with my boss who is a big fan of the show, and we were thinking of the possibility that the island is not purgatory, not heaven, not hell, but HEAVEN ON EARTH!

I think it is possible, but I'm not 100% sold on it, but I am keeping the option open. Think about it: a place where miracles happen? The dead appear? "Survivors" die once they redeem themselves (Michael, Boone, Eko)

Anyone else agree that this is a pretty fair guess?

Jason and Alicia Halm said...

Nik and the gang - HI!

I had a few thoughts - and I have to say Nik, I think you're onto something concerning the timelines being blurred on the island. I don't think time has meaning there. I think it's fluid and it gets confused. It lets those who have been there jump backwards or forwards - once they understand the island. Think about Christian and his attire. Anyone else think that what he wears while he walks around on the island is pretty casual attire for a dead man in a coffin? Or does it look like something you'd wear if you were on a tropical island?

John Locke and his name... I don't think he has a different name, but I do think he's taking on a new identity. I still stand by my theory from all those months ago that John Locke IS Jacob. Every first name fits into the letter J as its first letter. Also, the way Jacob has revealed himself to Locke thus far has been mysterious. Who would know how to press Locke's buttons better than himself?

Finally, think about this. Could everyone on the island - it's original inhabitants (which are not Dharma Inititive) be survivors from the plane? Everyone that survived who were kidnapped were people that were SUPPOSED to live and live on as inhabitants of the island. That's why their names were on a list. Perhaps they could have children as one point, and these people are the offspring of the survivors. The reason Jack and some of the Losties were left behind is because they were supposed to die on the island.

Last thought. Why do I have a feeling that Kate is meant to end up with Sawyer? I think everyone knows that's why she wants to go back. Where does that leave poor old Jack then? Well, why haven't we had a storyline about his ex-wife in awhile. In seasons 1 and 2 quite a bit of time was spent on her. I am not saying she's meant to be with him - because that could be Juliet. However, her character has all but disappeared from Season 4.

Anonymous said...

RE: Claire and Aaron

Could Claire appearing to Kate be a big misdirection for next season. If my memory is correct, Claire says 'Don't bring HIM back to the island'. We all assumed that since she was sitting with Aaron, she was talking about Aaron.

What if she really meant, don't bring Locke back to the island. Bad things happened, apparently, on the island once Locke was in power. What if the island banished him as well? What if the island is trying to keep Locke away?

On the other hand, we have Jack, who has fully fallen apart by the time Locke dies. Everybody but Jack seems to know that, in order for Jack to be truly happy, he needs something to 'fix'. Maybe Locke has faked his own death, and planted stories about how things on the island have gone sour. This would give Jack something to fix, and might explain why he wants to get back there so badly.

And what about Ben? He is thrown through time, yet seems to form a pretty solid plan for the future. He knows where to go, who to contact, and what actions to take. Did he have this plan laid out before he turned the frozen donkey wheel...or is he just that good?

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

Could Sun be so angry that she is contacting Widmore so she can tell him where Jack is in order for his men to kill Jack? She'd have to be pretty over the edge for that. Or is she so desperate with the thought that Jin may still be alive?

On the other finale post, I had a theory of Charlotte being either Jacob's or Richard's daughter, or just another native's daughter. Anyone agree that this could be the case?

Keep on blogging!

poggy said...

Nikki (or whoever can answer this), can you cite a source for Darlton claiming that Claire is not dead? I'd like to have it as future reference - damn, right when I was starting to be sold on the theory that she was, in fact, gone ;-)

Re: Jin's grave - I've been told that in Asian tradition, wealthy families/couples get their graves ready in advance, and get their name painted red when they actually get buried. Here is a screencap:
http://gallery.lost-media.com/displayimage-1392-570.html
We get only Sun's date of birth (1980! Wow, she's just one year older than me XD) and Jin's name is not painted... perhaps because the body isn't actually there? In a nutshell, the double grave is probably just a traditional Korean thing rather than the family thinking that Sun was dead, too.

Another take on the preservatives matter: Dharma stuff looks a lot like astronaut food, designed to resist in abnormal conditions, so what if they simply took into account the possibility to be cut off from the real world for a long time/have timeline anomalies occurring? Let's not forget the food supplies mysteriously falling from the sky! Someone had quite a few things planned in advance...

Nikki Stafford said...

Hey poggy: Confession time: I'm going by what someone else told me was in the Darlton podcast a couple of weeks ago.

Brian: I think you might have been the one who posted and said Darlton said Claire was definitely not dead? Or am I remembering that wrong? If so, do you remember what podcast it was in? Was it in Cabin Fever?

Robbie said...

In regards to Claire:

"Q: Claire better not die!

A: Don't read too much into her disappearance. We'll see her again before the end of this season."

source: Official Lost Podcast/May 8,2008

that is all that was said about her current status

Anonymous said...

Hey Nikki
I also recall that Darlton said something to the effect that its not whether or not Claire is dead or not, its whats happened to Claire? Another enigmatic response...
I personally think that she got killed in the explosion and she is a manifestation of the island/Jacob. She was way to psycho in that cabin to be alive. I hope she's still alive but they have some explaining to do!

Anonymous said...

This is from last night's Daily Show. Why the Democratic race is boring and not enough like Lost.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=1E5TPafClzo

Rewatching season 3 - Sawyer says the beer is flat and smells horrible - so it hasn't stored well at all, he's just desperate for a beer.

Emilia said...

But apparently it's still drinkable. And the crackers are still "pretty good." After 15 years, I think even that is impressive. I think we're onto something with this never-ending food thing, especially when you consider all the food they've been eating from the hatch and the food drop. I just don't know what it is.

Wawa said...

Random thought I had last night on the importance of Aaron -- maybe the Adam and Eve ones are Aaron and Ji Yeon?

Don said...

Hi, your friendly neighborhood Dimensional Island-Hopper here.

anyway i was wondering something...the island seems to have an awareness, an mystical like energy in tune with the others and the smoke monster and all the other crazy shyte that happens there, but there's been more than one reference that the island "chooses" people.

so, ok, why?

why has the island chosen those it has? and who came first? was it ben? that old guy from the OC? was Christian there before heading off to Australia to die or was he there long before, prior to his own son and daughter's births? Christian almost HAS to play a much much bigger role in things given his speaking for Jacob and his sudden popping in on the freighter and telling Michael not to worry about coming back next season. and then there's the fact that Claire appeared in the cabin with him. and that his son, Jack is pretty much the savior of everyone, including Ben and the others, on the island. Jack saves people and Claire was the only one to give birth on the island not die from it. and they are directly related to Christian who i think is a bigger deal than has been revealed to this point.

but why has the island chosen these individuals? hurley is obviously tied in with the numbers somehow (and there must be MORE to those numbers than anyone's guessing right now, but whatever it is, i bet it's very very KEY to the whole she-bang.

kate? it can't be because of aaron because Claire was supposed to raise him. so why did the island choose kate? is the island into playing matchmaker for those it HAS chosen? like Jack? other than the fact she's a convicted killer on the run, what's her deal?

Sawyer? why him? well, he's tied to locke and ben with the father killing thing, so that looks like it might fit. and he's really a good guy underneath all that romance novel exterior.

locke has been on the island's radar since day one, so i won't even go there.

jack? has to be because of daddy christian. maybe the island knew that jack would come to Australia to get his pop's casket and plotted the whole crash scenario then. was the crash plotted? we know the island "caused" it with the EM burst after the fail safe was triggered in the hatch. does the island know what it's doing? jeez....did it pick who survived the crash? (oh, and if the dead come back to life on the island, then when are we gonna see all the passengers come back and those two that got the more lethal Peter Parker treatment? or mr. eko? or ana-lucia? or that blonde chick hurley saw in the nuthouse and was totally falling in love with?

maybe the island can't raise the dead. maybe it can only harness the spirits of the dead? or bring the dead back from a time when they were alive? and what happened to the dog? and why doesn't anyone ask about how locke's dad got on the island? and how is HE connected?

ouch, my brain be hurtin'...i'll leave it to you guys to sort some of this stuff out. there is just SO much to remember and wonder about!

that is why i LOVE me some LOST!!

humanebean said...

Excellent post and comments, as always on this site! I had to watch the finale a second time before commenting on it as I found myself a trifle disappointed after my first viewing. For some reason, the events didn't seem that revelatory as they unfolded and some topics I wanted to see explored weren't really mentioned.

I'm happy to say that a second viewing (in HD, online) cheered me up and prompted me to respond to the questions you raised, Nikki:

1) Frozen Donkey Wheel (best code name EVER) - clearly, the last time this was used was before Dharma built the vault over the cave entrance and, while Ben seemed to expect what he would find there, it didn't seem to me that he had been to the end before. He felt his way along the cave and down the ladders tentatively and appeared to decide what to do when he got there. Perhaps he was the one who remained behind last time, as Locke does this time around? I do think the wheel unmoors the island in space/time ... leading to Ben's comment to Widmore, "you'll never find it". There has been a lot of speculation out there that part of the Swan Station's mission was to somehow reinforce the barrier between the island and the outside world - that, too, manipulated the electromagnetic force the island possesses. I think we will learn next season how this force was discovered by the Dharma Initiative and the start of their attempts to harness this force. (sorry, expecting actual ANSWERS to these questions ... I went completely off the rails there, didn't I?)

2) I was really hoping to learn more from the finale about the time differential between on-island and off-island events. Perhaps because everyone coming and going from the island in this episode is following the right bearing, the issue didn't come up much. The only time that this differential may have appeared is when Sawyer emerges from the surf to find Juliet in her cups on the beach. If she started drinking after she saw the smoke from the boat, she has gotten drunk pretty quickly ... unless by the time Sawyer makes it back to the island, some time has elapsed. Too, I think the time lapse opens the door for the people fleeing the freighter (Jin, front and center!) or on the Zodiac raft to return to "safety" on the island. More Jin! More Faraday! Just two more reasons to go on breathing till next January.

3) We are always in danger of reading too much into a particular event or comment, only to find that later disclosures completely change the focus of that instance. Still, there's no way the 15 year old crackers are insignificant! Rousseau's team - dead for 16 years. Purge - 15 years ago. These events are related to the last time Ben trekked through the jungle and visited the Orchid. I'm betting that after the Purge was complete, they moved the island to avoid the inevitable search and destroy mission that would follow. Here's a wild thought: perhaps Abbadon was the one who turned the wheel last time and now is guiding events for a rediscovery of the island? Out there, I know ... but, hey, this is LOST!

4) Nikki, I'm sure you are familiar with J. Wood's excellent LOST blog at www.powells.com/blog/?author=104 He has written quite a bit on the ideas of mirror/twinning in the LOST mythos. Is it possible that the "Locke" we see in the coffin is yet another manifestation of the island, in the way that Christian Shepherd is now "speaking for Jacob" or a pseudo-Yemi once summoned Mr. Eko to seek absolution? As J. Wood and others have written, "Jeremy Bentham" was in some ways the philosophical opposite of John Locke. In the now, Jack is the proverbial "physician" who can't heal himself, Kate is the endless runner now at rest and Sayid is the reformed torturer turned hired gun. What has transpired on the island to change "Locke" - has he tried to move the island AGAIN? And sought out the Losties to help him find redemption by bringing them all back? God, I love this show.

5) Lastly, I cannot wait for next season to see what develops with Juliet's character. It is likely that she and Sawyer are now the opposition to Locke's Others for the "bad things" that we know will happen after the O6 were "rescued". And, I keep coming back to the scene in "One of Us" where Juliet begs Ben to release her at the end of her initial 6 month commitment. After he tells her of her sister's cancer and tries to bargain with her to stay, he answers her doubts by saying that Jacob has promised to heal her cancer himself, "unless you've lost faith in [Jacob] as well?". What did Juliet learn about Jacob in her first six months on the island to establish her "faith" in Jacob's ability to work miracles? Particularly in light of Juliet's inability to solve the fertility issues? These and many more revelations to come ... on the next season of LOST .....

Six months, six months, six months ... it's only six months .... let's see ... that's only 185 days or so ... hmmm ... 8 ... 1 .... 5 ..... God help me.

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

Hey guys,

I was discussing the finale with my brother, and he seems to be on to something pretty legit.

His theory is that the last person to move the island was in fact Charles Widmore, and this was done just as the Black Rock was passing by, so therefore it got teleported as well and ended up in the jungle.

This would explain why Widmore is collecting Black Rock artifacts (he is trying to pinpoint where the island is), and why it's so hard for him to get back and locate it (whoever moves the island can never return).

Anyone think he's on to something? I do. Keep on blogging!

Anonymous said...

I just had an awful question pop into my head, like when Jack Nicholson asks "What if this is as good as it gets?" in the like-named movie. What if none of our questions are ever answered? What if we wonder, for decades, about what it all meant? What if it's like that season of "Dallas" that ended up being a dream? I was only a kid when that aired and I couldn't understand why all of the adults were all gathered in front of the tv on that Friday night, and I really didn't understand why they were all so pissed off when the show ended. If we end up speculating for 6 years about what it all means, and it turns out that it was caused by Hurley being overmedicated in the looney bin, and when they change his dose, he snaps out of it, only to be sitting in day room, in the middle of all the island folk, who are also patients of the looney bin, I'm going to smash in the front of my expensive HD tv, cancel my cable and never pick up a remote again. I've already been shortchanged by HBO, with Carnivale, Deadwood, and John From Cincinati. I got invested in all of these shows, and all of them ended with more questions than answers. And don't get me started on the last scene of the Sopranos. I thought there was somthing wrong with my cable until the credits rolled. If Darlton reads these posts, as I suspect they do, I am begging them to please be as faithful to the fans as we have been to their brainchild. There are so many directions that they could take this storyline, that it kind of boggles the mind. The religious, scientific amd philosophical over- and under-tones that I often get a thumping headache trying to wrap my mind around them. Is it a coincidence that the main apparition on the show is named Christian Shephard (or Shepherd as it has appeared at times)? Could he be the mouthpiece for an unseen form of god, named Jacob(son of Isaac, sired the 12 tribes)? Aaron is Christian"s grandson, but in the bible, he was the brother of the more famous Moses. I'm not a religious person in the least, but all of this has made me do a little research. The philisophical connections are a whole other ballgame.
On a side note, is it just me or is it really hard to explain what this show is about to people who don't watch it? They seem to look at me as if I've "lost" it, and the conversation usually ends abruptly when they say "Jeez, it's only a tv show". I get that a lot :)
Sorry but I just had to get all of that out. There's more in there, but my fingers hurt from typing.

Anonymous said...

Sorry about the typos, run-on sentences and a couple of somewhat unfinished thoughts. Frantic...FRANTIC...six months...aaaaarrrrrggggghhhh!!! Damn tv.

Anonymous said...

Locke: Body is dead as a doornail, yet the spirit/soul is functioning at a different level just like Charlie, Christian, Ecko, Hurley's girlfriend. The body is just a shell to the island. This opens up the possiblity that Locke is Jacob or even that Jacob is a compsite of many spirits/souls. Hence the whispers/dreams/phonecalls (a group activity?). Each individual is confronted by the island because it can see the true soul of the individual and the problems/conflicts/desires that exsist witin the individual. The island is a conduit to leads the person to a diffenet level or destroy the soul that is not useful. (Nikki/Paulo) Hurley is not part of the Jacob composite due to seeing the eye when he found the cabin. Yes, he saw Christian but so did Locke but no eyeball. Yet, Hurley is a soul with a purpose that can move itself to a different level of enlightenment. Locke could hear Jacob but not see him because I think that it would melt his brain (soul couldn't handle it) or cause an "incident" where two of the same matter from a different time spaces cannot occupy the same space. Seeing Locke in the coffin has confirmed that Locke has moved the island himself. Why else would he be in the future?

Ben is coated in slime and smoke but he rocks! His character has so many different layers he makes a dali painting look like it has only one dimension. Eight months is a real long time to go without a ben-fix. Namaste

Unknown said...

I just love this blog!!! Nik thank you to all the .... everything!
I was just re watching the show and we still have never found out what the whispers fully are. They keep teasing us with it even with Hurley back home as an O6. In the finale when Keamy's team is attacked we here the whispers again. Did you or anyone get the transcript of what was being said. Is it just whispers or do they have a spiritual purpose with the Others crew as it seems to just always happen not as a communication but as something else. It needs to be answered unless I missed it, do you have any new insight into thw "whispers"?

Unknown said...

Dangit I forgot, also a question about Walt. How is he able to re-establish himself in to life as he is considered dead. No new social security number , he cannot go to school, The only person who would know anything is his Grandmother who is now in on all the secrets of the non-drowned all dead flight. Why do we not hear more of why she gets to know what is going on. There is no way a Grandmother will just accept that her son and grandson are safe from a crashed plane with no question.

Anonymous said...

I may be missing something, but didn't Desmond say that he saw, in his viosn of the future, Claire getting on the helicopter with Aaron. Did something change to prevent this from occuring? If, so, hasn't it been established by both the lady in the Desmond episode in season 3, and Farraday, that the future can't be changed due to course corrections. I was thinking that this could happen when they return to the island, but Aaron is a lot bigger now and how would Desmond know that it was him? I don't know why but this bothers me.

poggy said...

Dk, re: Desmond's vision, there are three theories that keep coming up since the S3 finale.

1) and most unpleasant: Desmond lied in order to get Charlie to fulfill his destiny, because he actually saw himself on the helicopter. Pros: we never saw Desmond actually experiencing said vision, so he could be making that up. Cons: I'd say it's WAY out of character for Des to manipulate someone so successfully.

2) The vision didn't become real because things didn't work out *exactly* as planned, and that was enough to change that bit of destiny.

3) The vision simply was a plot device that will have no resolution.

And then there's the one you mentioned, with the vision occurring far into the future, after the O6's comeback to the island. I don't see that as totally unlikely (except that I believe Claire is dead, but who knows) - after all, if Desmond saw Claire getting on the chopper with a blond small boy, he might have decuted it was Aaron. Perhaps there - he might have omitted it was a much older Aaron. Or maybe his visions weren't so literal. I don't know; I surely wouldn't be surprised if the writers work it out this way, it would be better than not having closure at all.

Austin Gorton said...

The talk of the frozen donkey wheel pulling up something like an anchor, combined with the image of the island-less ocean (the water pouring in to the fill the space the island once occupied) has me thinking "drain."

As in the donkey wheel doesn't lift up an anchor, it lifts up a drain cap (like on old bathtubs) and allows the island to slide down into all the crazy electromagnetic energy/dark matter beneath it. The purple sky and loud whine the island-bound characters observed as Ben turned the wheel (not unlike when the hatch exploded) was a result of that energy submerging the island as it moved down the "drain."

It gets washed down the drain and then emerges somewhere else, a few months in the future (since Ben was cast into the future as a result of the wheel, I'm assuming the island will be too. And Ben doesn't know where the island ended up, no more than anyone else would know where an object washed down a drain ends up. Just a thought

I'm still curious about why Hurley regrets going with Locke? I can come up with a few answers (the carnage he witnessed when the mercenaries attacked, perhaps?) but that hasn't been made very clear.

Is it possible that Locke (as Bentham)adopts Walt? He always had a certain affinity for the boy (and probably sensed his "special-ness") and Locke likely knows that Michael was killed, so perhaps when he begins to journey off the island he adopts him, which would make Walt the teenaged son referenced in the obit.

Maybe Walt didn't attend the funeral because he was still living in NY w/his grandma and couldn't make it to LA. (Locke would still be a "island resident" after all, so Walt would still be with his grandma, and Locke likely used whatever sources Ben did to make fake passports to draw up the adoption papers).

Or perhaps Locke told Walt how to behave in the event of his death, for fear that Widmore would get to Walt through Locke.

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much Nikki and everyone - loving all the discussions.

Here's my 2 cents worth...

The crackers – to me it just indicated the end of Dharma time 15 years hence, and a continuing joke by the writers about Hurley and food – how he’ll eat anything, anytime and somehow always finds the food! (The writers DO waste time on silly things)

Claire appearing to Kate – what bugged me is Claire spoke with a strong north American accent instead of her usual Australian. This must be deliberate – indicating she is a bad spirit disguising herself as Claire?????

Aaron must be important – his name indicates this – AAron – would put you at the top of a list alphabetically everytime.

Christian - Why did Christian replace Jacob???? (Just a way the writers could bring that actor back into the series? (probably)) OR story-wise remember Jacob saying feebly to Locke last season ‘Help me’ – was Jacob taken over somehow???

Thanks for reminding me - Juliet’s sister – here’s an example of healing OFF the island – it’s Jacob that heals and NOT the island??

Walt’s grandmother – why wasn’t she contacted by Oceanic and given condolences/ payout?

Still waiting for more on Hurley’s Dave – did Dave get the numbers in Australia (where Abaddon’s life was changed) or was he an ex-Swan station operator?

Here’s one we could discuss ALL summer:
Mrs Hawking said to Desmond he must push the button and turn the fail safe otherwise ‘every single one of us is dead’. What has been the result of the turning of the fail safe so far – Penny found Desmond; Widmore’s mission failed??; the O6 escaped?? BUT how has this stopped everyone being dead?????

Anonymous said...

I was just re-re-re-watching Episode 4x10, "Something Nice Back Home"...

Does anyone think that Miles didn't leave the island because of Claire? This might also mean that she is dead... Because, correct me if I'm wrong, Miles said he saw Claire walking off into the jungle with her Dad... And given the fact that Christian is actually (supposed to be) dead...

On a side note, in 4x02, when Miles 'ghostbusters' the room upstairs, he eventually says to the ghost: "You can go now". And... guess what Christian says to Michael? Coincidence? :)

By the way: Nice to meet you, this is a fantastic crew. Enjoy my broken English, I'll stick around!

MH said...

I read a really interesting theory in the comments on another board.

Someone pointed out that when Sawyer was in the Polar Bear cage it appears they were being trained to work the "donkey wheel". If the person who moves the island disappears and then materializes elsewhere, they probably trained the bears to do it so nobody would have to leave. That's how a polar bear ended up in the desert, like Ben did. I do remember Sawyer had to figure out how to do some stuff in the cage to get the cookie, but I don't have any DVDs to go back and check it out.

I have been wondering if "move the island" means moving it in time rather that in location. Or maybe it just disappears for a while. An older theory of mine was that the island operated like "Brigadoon", which disappears for a set amount of time then reappears. That could explain the age discrepancies we find. And the xrays Richard showed Juliette of what he said are a 25 year old woman, but she thought were of a woman in her 90's.