Lost (and Gone Forever)

(Fun Fact: My most clever Email title ever.. and the closest to my heart. It will become the title of this website. Guster is for Lovers!)

Lost Episode Title: "Hearts and Minds"

Character Involved: Shannon and Boone (the brother and sister)

TV Guide Description: When Locke learns that Boone wants to tell their "secret" to Shannon, Shannon's life is placed in sudden peril, and the shocking truth about her past with Boone is revealed. Meanwhile, Kate is puzzled by Sun's mysterious behavior, and a hungry Hurley must repay a debt to Jin.

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Not too sure about this one. Since it involves both Boone and Shannon, perhaps one is the heart and one is the mind of the relationship (I would go with Shannon as the heart, since Boone seems pretty logical most of the time). However, it could be something altogether different, a more of a "head vs. heart" meaning. Should I do this? I want to, even though my head says this is a bad choice. Here’s the other thing. Word on the street is that this is a pretty racy episode. Lost won an award a few weeks back for being a "Family Friendly" TV program.

When they won, they somewhat laughed at the honor, saying "Wait until you see this episode and then you’ll take it away from us." The two things I think of here is that there is some sort of incestuous relationship between the two, or that they murdered their parents for their money.

TV Guide Description Breakdown: Shocking truth about Shannon’s past? I’m even more intrigued now. The previews showed Locke smacking Boone in the back of the head with a knife, but why would he do that? What does he have to gain by keeping the underground metal structure secret? Unless he is somehow in cahoots with whoever or whatever the metal thing belongs to, it makes no sense. I was so sure that Locke was a good guy last week, but now I wonder again. It’s amazing how many paradigm shifts his character has had thus far on the show! Why would Shannon knowing about the metal lair put her in danger? It also looks like she is getting carried away in the previews. By what? The monster? The ropes that were around her? The ropes were also around Boone in the preview. Does this mean that Locke tied them both up when they were getting too close to finding out some secret on the island? Or is evil Ethan (and the Others) back?

Is Shannon a goner? This would play very easily into the "The island is purgatory" theory, where a character is "removed" from the island when their secrets are revealed to others. It sounds like we’re going to find out Shannon’s deep dark secret, so she could be killed this episode.

Sun’s mysterious behavior might be caused by the fact that she heard Jack and Kate’s conversation last week. If she heard that Kate was a criminal, it might cause Sun to act differently around her.

I have no idea about what Hurley will have to do in order to repay a debt to Jin. Sun and Jin have been pretty absent on the show lately, so it’s interesting that they’re being mentioned twice in this week’s description. From the looks of upcoming episodes, Hurley will be the last one to have his backstory revealed, so you know it has to be BIG. Watch him very closely…

Last Week’s Episode Discussion Points:

THE PLANE. This small toy has been torturing me and consuming my thoughts since last week. I now have a small toy plane sitting on the top of my computer at work. Seriously. The problem is that I still have NO IDEA what the meaning behind it is. Let’s just hit the facts first:

1. The plane belonged to someone Kate loved.
2. The plane belonged to someone Kate killed.
3. Kate had the key to the safe deposit box, but not the signature card.
4. Kate setup an elaborate bank heist as a front to get this box.

And then here are my thoughts:

1. She knew about the box, but did she know she was going through all this to get a toy plane? If she did all that for sentimental value, I’d be surprised. Especially because if it was just sentimental value, why couldn’t she tell Jack and / or Sawyer what it was? She was trying to be VERY secretive about getting this little toy plane...

2. Who did the safe deposit box belong to? "Someone she loved" and "Someone she killed". Her husband? Her lover? Her father? Her brother? Her son? Due to the nature of how safe deposit boxes work, I think we can rule out her husband (if she is even married?) and her son (if she even had a son?) because Kate would surely be on the signature card in either of these cases. Did she kill to get the key to the box? Or did she accidentally kill someone and then came across the key?

3. The weird thing is that the whole bank heist happened in America, so this is before the whole "I’m an outlaw in Australia" story that we saw in week three. So this pretty much rules out anything about the plane giving her a message (like, "You need to be on this plane", "Avoid this plane", etc.) because the only reason she ended up on Flight 815 is that she got caught by the Bounty Hunter and put on that plane.

4. The big thing is that there has to be some importance to the plane. My best guess is below…
KATE. So, is she really a bad guy? She was reluctant to kill anyone in the bank robbery, shooting people in the legs and not allowing the bank president to be killed. Was this the first crime she committed? She must have at least done SOMETHING else either before or afterwards in order to have a bounty on her head, that would be posted in multiple countries around the world (i.e. - Australia) and be worth having a bounty hunter come after her. Did she lead a life of crime until coming upon the toy plane? Or did the toy plane lead her to a life of crime?

BEST GUESS. I’m leaning towards getting that plane to being a turning point in her life. It made her see the error of her ways, which caused her to run and try and start over with a simple life in Australia. I’m still not 100% clear on it, but this is my best guess. The only problem being who the box belonged to? Someone she loved - but then why did she kill them? Was she that driven by money, thinking that someone with a safe deposit box would be rich? The plane would then serve as a simple reminder that money is not everything in life… and also serve as an ironic twist to her current situation.

THE SONG. The song that was all over CFL’s maps, the one that Shannon finally recognized is "La Mer", written and recorded at the close of World War II by French music idol Charles Trenet. Most Americans know "Beyond the Sea" as Bobby Darin’s 1960 hit. This is the song which plays during the closing credits of Finding Nemo (the animated fish movie she refers to). So what’s the deeper meaning behind the song? Is it being used as some sort of map? What is it leading them to? Is it just CFL being crazy and writing something that is familiar to her to prevent her from getting crazier? Here’s the info on the song:

"La Mer" is generally performed with all the solemnity of a national anthem.

The song describes the fluctuating moods of the ocean, finding in the depths of the waters "the sea shepherdess of infinite azure," "pure angels," and "white sheep." It’s a kind of a mood poem about the different moods of the sea, and how the sea affected him-the tides reflecting the skies, sometimes the clouds-and how the sea could be happy or sad. The American version was made into a love song. There’s somebody standing on the shore waiting for their lover to come back, never to sail again, so they can be together.

The sea
which one sees dancing along the clear gulfs
to sparkles of silver.
The sea
Of changing sparkles
Under the rain.
The sea
Confuses the summer sky's sheep
With angels so pure.The sea
Shepherdess of blue infinity.
Look!
Next to the ponds
Those tall wet reeds.
Look!
Those white birds
And those rusty houses [cabins of boats?]
The Sea
Has rocked them [like a baby]
Along the clear gulfs.
The Sea
Has rocked my heart for life.

There are lyrics in there that could suggest the whole "they are all dead" theme - "angels", "blue infinity", but I think the more relevant lyrics will be the ones concerning "Look next to the ponds, those tall wet reeds", which could be a reference to the pond that Sawyer and Kate swam in where they found the briefcase. What if the song lyrics, coupled with the mathematical equation on the papers, makes a map of sorts? Start at the pond, go this far in this direction, "rusty houses" = the metal thing Boone and Locke found???

NUMBERS. The flight number of the plane they were all on was 815. The safe deposit box that Kate got the plane out of was 815. That’s weird. There were also some numbers written on the one wing of the plane (5205, I believe) - a flight number?

ROSE. She seems so confident that her husband is alive. There could easily be another "tribe" somewhere else on the island. But here’s another theory - what if she knows that she is dead, but her husband is alive? Maybe all the "survivors" on the island are really the ones who died, and everyone else is alive. It would be very Nicole Kidman in "The Others", but it would be interesting. There’s more to Rose than we are led to believe. They’ve had her specifically say "My husband is alive" too many times for nothing to come from it.

After last week’s somewhat slow, but very puzzling episode, I expect this week to be a great episode. Of course, stay tuned for Alias afterwards. Last week, Lost received it’s highest ratings ever, and so did Alias. Good work, people. Let’s keep shows like this on the air instead of reality TV.

On a personal note, I’ll be unable to attend the traditional Wednesday night gathering at the Delta House tonight. Unfortunately, I’ll be in Wyomissing, PA for work. If my flight there is 815, I’m not getting on…


PS - did anyone understand the title of the Email?