Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Lost - "S.O.S."

Episode Title: “S.O.S.”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: Although most people think that “S.O.S.” stands for something like “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls”, it turns out that “S.O.S.” means nothing. It was simply adopted as the uniform distress signal at the Second Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference in 1906, since the three dot / three dash / three dot radio signal is easy to distinguish.

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Basically, “S.O.S.” means to immediately stop doing whatever you are doing and to respond to the distress signal.

But here’s the funny thing: the distress signal is actually “SOS”, with no periods in it (for obvious telegraphic reasons). Our episode title definitely has periods in it. Meaning?

Our Lost-writers are not avid telegraph users, and didn’t do the research of the history of the term (like uber-nerd I did). So let’s just look at this from the commonly understood meanings of “S.O.S”:

  1. The letters represented by the Morse Code signal used as an international distress signal, especially by ships and aircraft.
  2. A call or signal for help.

Either way, it seems as though our Survivors are in distress, and need of help. The two ongoing storylines for this episode seem to be about Jack and Kate proposing a trade of HGI for Michael and Walt, and of Locke questioning the purpose of the Hatch (more on these later). The weird thing is, I wouldn’t classify either of these stories as being “in distress”… until you remember this scene we saw from the “Next week on Lost” preview:

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By the looks of things, Jack and Kate are caught in some sort of trap set by the Others (or possibly CFL? Doesn’t it look like the same net that she caught HGI in?). If Jack (de-facto Survivor leader) and Kate (de-facto Island hottie) were suddenly captured, I would think both Jack / Kate and the other Survivors would be in quite a state of distress. But who are they going to send an “S.O.S.” to? Desmond? CFL?

Am I crazy to hope for a trip to the radio tower near the Black Rock (that has been often referenced, never seen?) where they could change CFL’s ramblings into a true “S.O.S.” signal that passing ships might pick up? Should I get my hopes up that our Survivors finally come to their senses and realize that they need to start working on getting off the Island? Probably not…

Given all the Latin we saw on the Blast Door, I went ahead and cross-referenced “S.O.S.” with “Latin”. Turns out it is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase “si opus sit” – which means “if needed”. But again, I can’t think of any character or situation that would reference this – another dead end.

Finally, this is also the Rose / Bernard flashback episode, so there must be some distress in their marriage as well. Look for a symbolic “S.O.S.” to exist in the marriage of Rose and Bernard… which leads us to…


TV Guide Description: Rose is surprisingly and vehemently opposed to Bernard's plan to create an S.O.S. signal; romantic sparks are rekindled between Jack and Kate when they trek into the jungle to propose a "trade" with "The Others"; and Locke begins to question his faith in the island.

TV Guide Breakdown: Why would Rose be so opposed to creating an S.O.S. signal? All I can think of is that she falls into the John Locke category of “happy on the Island, doesn’t want to get off”. But why? Rose and Bernard are the seemingly sickly sweet couple full of love for each other. But since no character ever seems to have a happy back story on Lost, there must be something bad in their past lives. The problem is, every single reason I can think of has already been done or has holes:

  • Bernard spending too much time at work, making Rose lonely? Nope, already been done with Jack and Sarah.
  • Bernard abusing Rose mentally or physically? Nope, the both are sickeningly sweet in love.
  • Bernard or Rose having some disease / disability before they landed on the Island? Nope, too similar to Locke being able to walk / Jin being able to make babies (maybe).
  • Bernard and Rose were criminals, who now have their freedom? Nope, been done with Sawyer / Kate.

For once, I’m out of ideas. I feel so embarrassed. I apologize.

Thankfully, the rest of the episode is much more clear to me. Although the Kate / Jack romance seemed to be dead in the water earlier this season, when she symbolically and literally chose Sawyer over Jack, it looks to be re-emerging. Why?

Since before the season began, I was expecting the Sawyer / Kate / Jack / Ana-Lucia “love rhombus”, and after a brief flirtation with pairing off Sawyer with Kate and Jack with Ana-Lucia, we seem back to our original Sawyer / Kate / Jack “love triangle”. What’s this mean? Is Ana-Lucia the next character to die? Or are they simply beginning to setup the Ana-Lucia / Sayid “love line”?

The trade with the Others is very intriguing, and the commercials showing Jack screaming in the rain for the Others to come and get him are pretty Jack-Bauer-esque in terms of awesomeness. But as HGI mentions, “They’ll never give up Walt”. Why? Have you seen Walt lately?

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He is considerably older than the last time we saw him on the Island, even though in Island time only a few weeks have passed. The inevitable TV issue of kids growing up is exacerbated by Lost’s slow-moving episode timeline. Instead of each season being a year, each season is about a month – making such growth spurts unacceptable. As a writer, you only have two ways to deal with the Walt situation:

  1. Make him appear, suddenly older, and have to explain how Dharma has some funky time-warp / instant-aging experiments going on.
  2. Don’t show him on-screen. Either kill him or keep him “kidnapped”.

My money is on choice two. Doing the whole "time warp" storyline would be awfully tricky, and would verge on Lost becoming too "sci-fi" for the average American viewer. So the question is will Kate and Jack settle for just trading Michael for HGI? Will Michael accept being handed back over to Jack and Kate without Walt going with him? Doubtful, unless the Others have fed him some mind-bending drugs, a la Claire.

As for Locke questioning his faith in the Island, it’s the same point I touched upon last week. If entering the Numbers has no meaning, Locke no longer has his “greater purpose” on the Island. Again – I would anticipate this building up to the Locke vs. Jack showdown on Number entry later in the season.

I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty excited for this episode. It’s also the first episode in a long time where I feel like I have no idea what’s going to happen – which leads me to…


Spoilers. Knowing what’s going to happen on the show ahead of time. For me, it’s like finding your Christmas presents ahead of time and looking at them, or getting a DMB Setlist before the show – it’s just wrong and ruins the event.

The tricky thing is, in the past two months, I’ve twice stumbled across pictures that turned out to be considerable spoilers and posted them on the website. At the time of each, they were both “potential spoilers” that I wasn’t sure how would play out on the show – it gave me some new topics to discuss and points to ponder. However, that’s not what this Blog is all about.

In an effort to keep this place spoiler-free, I’ll be sure to sufficiently “hide” any potential spoilers in the future – or not post them at all. This is assuming I ever come across something like the Balloon Picture or Libby Picture ever again. In the two years I’ve been watching the show, I’ve only come across things like that twice – it just happened to be in the past few weeks on top of each other.

I ask the posters in the Comment section to do the same, and restrain themselves from posting spoilers as well. If I see something too spoilery, I’ll delete it. Everyone who has told me “I’m not going to read your website anymore, it ruins the show” can rest easy. Now the only way the show will be ruined is by me being smart enough to figure out what’s going to happen by using my brain. Sound good?


Comment Q and A! So this is another new section for the Blog, which I’ll try to make a regular section (assuming this first attempt doesn’t fail miserably). Basically, I notice that there are a lot of comments that are asking questions, or looking for input on different topics. Since it can be tricky to keep up and address the right people in the comment section (and some people don’t venture into the “scary comments section”), I’m going to post the comments (or the applicable portion of the comments) here, along with my responses (in fancy italics!). Let’s see how this works out…


Tsw: What about Libby?

Before the episode, I was all over the board on my thoughts for Libby. Is she just crazy? Is she really a Dharma sent to bring Hurley (and the Numbers) back to the Island?

But after watching it, I’ve narrowed my Libby thoughts down to one of the following:

She was crazy, and is acting like a psychologist. Her “craziness” is being a pathological liar. Once escaping / being released from the Mental Institution, she began telling people she was a clinical psychologist. Since she probably spent a good deal of time with psychologists who were trying to help her get over her lying, she could impersonate one quite well.
She was crazy, and became obsessed with Hurley while in the Mental Institution. Her “craziness” was actually Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and her newest obsession is one Hugo Reyes. She tracked him down following her release from the Institution and ended up on the Island with him, much to her delight. This explains why the semi-hot Libby would be interested in such a large mammal (Hugo) on an Island with limited deodorant.

Note the common theme being “Libby used to be crazy.” I’m basing this on the fact that she not only looked crazy, but was being administered medication during the episode. I’ve also eliminated the “She could be working for Dharma” possibility since she prevented Hurley from jumping. If she was an “Other”, who I theorize are outnumbered and threatened by our Survivors, you let him jump – lowering the number of Survivors by one.

Non-anonymous: Just a quick suggestion you forgot to talk about how no one saw a plane when the food "drop off" happened.

I’m just glad the Survivors at least called attention to this, unlike many of the other random occurrences they just seem to ignore. You have to think that if the Island can somehow “mask” itself from the outside world, they could apply the same technology to some sort of “stealth” airplane.

Anonymous:
1. Libby? Many possibilities exist for her 'back-story'. What do incidents from past episodes tell us about her (namely, she saying Hurley stepped on her foot while boarding plan and he apparently didn't, etc)?


This either means Libby is a liar (Option #1 above) or afraid Hurley will discover she’s a stalker (Option #2 above). Either way, she’s afraid of Hurley finding out the truth.


2. What is Eko building? Why is it a secret? Do we think it is a church?

I think a Church is the only logical answer, given Eko’s history. Why secret? Well, Eko’s a pretty secretive character, and he probably knows the non-religious of the group would be less inclined to help if they knew they were building a God House.


3. What about HGI comment to Locke about NOT having inputted any #'s into the computer? Do we believe him? How might this play out (trailer looks interesting in how Locke is trying to understand 'black light' chart)

As HGI has a history of lying, we are inclined to not believe him. But look at it from the point of view of “HGI’s Goal”: If it was to have the Survivors keep pressing the button, why would he have even told Locke that he didn’t push it? Clearly, he wants the Survivors to stop pressing the button. Why?

My theory remains that HGI is a Rebel Other, who’s discontent with Dharma and their experiments. He knows the button pressing is merely an experiment that keeps our Survivor’s focus off other things going on with the Island. Even though this means HGI is telling the truth, I think it’s the only logical answer.

Also – as I said before, it’s a great way to setup an argument between Locke and Jack about pressing the button, and will finally bring the issue to a head. This will be the event that causes our Survivors to finally stop pressing the button.


Julie B: Also, on the flipside, how do they know that this food isn't sent from the Others? If they are so frightened by the Others, who have killed/kidnapped/threatened quite a few of the survivors, wouldn't they be a little skeptical of food that arrived with Dharma logos on it? It could be poisoned, it could leave bizarre psychological effects on them. But instead they just take it. I know that this goes against the whole "survival" issue, as it's food and is needed to survive but I'd still be a little skeptical about its source.

Great point! One would think that food emblazoned with the logo of the very group that threatens your life is something you should approach cautiously. However, I think that after 40 days on the Island without any processed snack foods, you pretty much throw caution to the wind and chow down. It would be like if I went without Skyline for 40 days, and then you gave me some that had a Steelers logo on it. I’d eat it without thinking twice about it.

(But something else to think about is that if this food is “poisoned” somehow, it would explain why Hurley is the first one of our Survivors to have the “Sickness”, seeing imaginary people and going crazy. He’s been eating the food the most in the past 40 days.)

Locke_D: Does anyone know all the number sequences in the flashbacks?

This is a pretty daunting task, one not even I am up for. Last year I found a website that listed every reference to the Numbers during Season One. This would be a good place to start:

http://home.comcast.net/~towhateverend/TLNS1.html
http://home.comcast.net/~towhateverend/TLNS2.html


Mike: What makes this somewhat confusing to me is that if the flashbacks are memories, how are people remembering things they were not aware of to begin with? Jack never saw the stair he tripped on, Locke had his back turned to the oceanic logo on the plane flying above the motel, etc.Either we're getting the island's "reading" of a person's past with the numbers getting picked up, or it's just a regular "omniscient" (that's a word right?) viewpoint of what has happened for the audience, without a direct correlation to what a character is thinking about at the moment.

You have to understand there is a difference between what the character sees from their point of view, and what we see from the camera’s point of view. In the case of Jack running up the steps, from his eyes he only saw the steps in front of him. But the camera is in the air above him as he’s running, so we as a viewer can see exactly what step he is on.

In the flashback, the character only remembers things from their point of view, but we are provided a full look at the scene from the larger eye of the camera.

Henryford: By the way, wasn't it an illogical argument that Libby made while convincing Hugo at the end? - the man with broken leg

I don’t think so. It really depends on how deep you want to get with the “It’s all in your head” debate.

If something is in my head, does that mean I already know it? There are all sorts of examples where I forget things from my past, or can’t remember things like someone’s name of phone number – Libby and the broken leg could be something like that.

But I think it works because even if it’s a bad example, there are events that continue to unfold on the Island that Hurley has no premonition about. You would think if it was all in his head there would be more “Wait a minute I’ve seen this before” moments, or other events would start bleeding in that he would identify from his past – besides the Numbers and Libby.

Rutkowskilives: So there we find Sayid, Ana-Lulu and HGI, with Sayid going Matlock on HGI, and HGI mentions a "he" or a "him" or something like that. And Ana-Lulu says something to the effect of "The guy with the beard?" and HGI says "He's nothing!"

...... (thinking)......

Waitaminute! What the heck is HGI talking about? We suspect due to Kate's finding that Mr. Friendly/Zeke wears a beard as a disguise (has Ana-Lulu ever met him? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. Did Sawyer mention him?). His comment tells me several things - first, he doesn't know that our Losties know about Zeke's game, and he is fine letting them believe the disguise (more on this later). Second, HGI knows all about the interactions between the Losties and the Others. Third, HGI has an understanding of the hierarchy within the Others. Fourth, the Losties knowing that Zeke isn't a hot shot is really not informational beneficial to them in anyway. Add this all up, and what does it mean?My guess is that HGI is in cahoots with Danielle. Pardon the scattered logic, but here goes...

So CFL has never really seen the Others, yet has intricate traps set up around the island just in case one comes by? I guess that's reasonable since, you know, she was alone and had to do something for 16 years, and she did manage to catch Sayid this way not too long ago. Oddly enough, shortly after trapping Sayid, she gets HGI, because HGI let himself get trapped. Why? Becuase HGI is a dealer and is all for exchanging to fulfill needs. He understands that CFL's need is to see/know about her daughter. He needs to be delivered to the Losties because DHARMA isn't nearly as strong as they are leading our Losties to believe, and they need to know how big a threat they are facing because their smoke and mirrors bearded Others act can only last so long. Plus, the Losties have only run into the grunt Others and they seem pretty freaked out by them as it is, and it would be good for the Others to know exactly how well the Losties understand them. CFL, considering the implications of this find, and the fact that she really has no loyalties to the Losties and probably figures that infected Aaron will kill them anyway, sacrifices her desire to take revenge on an Other in favor of the possibility of seeing her daughter. HGI of course gets what he wants under a very well planned disguise (he's trapped and has what he believes to be a solid fake ID). CFL doesn't want anything to happen to the Losties though, and despite a rocky relationship, does trust Sayid to handle HGI. CFL knows for sure that HGI is an Other, and thus explains to Sayid that she does indeed know him to be an Other, and that as such, he will lie. And lie some more. And so Sayid needs to be careful, and it seems like that is exactly how he is going about things. Because let's face it - Locke was the man in season 1, in season 2, it's all Sayid.

One other thing about Libby - I've been intrigued by her character since the beginning, and have been rooting for her ever since her conversation with Sawyer when he wasn't looking too good. She is a person that understands psychology, be it from study or because she herself is mental, I don't know. She also seems to possess a survival instinct beneficial to both herself (knowing when to stick with and then bail on Ana-Lulu), and to others, evidenced by keeping Hurley, Sawyer, Ana-Lulu (in the beginning) and to an extent Claire going. I will go on record as saying that I believe she has nothing to do with the Others. In fact, I think Libby is slowly emerging as an emotional leader of the Losties, and an extremely important one, because HGI has never had a chance to learn about her, and the Other that did, Goodwin, is dead.

Oh, and one more thing - even though they may be comfortable on the island, I like that Eko has taken on a construction project, whatever it ends up being. Building permanent structures is a great way to stick it to the Others. Anyway, I'm sure my thinking has all kinds of holes in it, but I'd love to hear some response to my ideas.

Okay. Wow. Longest Comment Ever. Very impressive.

First off, I just think that CFL is going to remain a “wild card” on this show. If she were in cahoots with HGI, why would she shoot him? If HGI wanted to be captured, why would he try to run away from Sayid when he was released?

I agree with you that HGI is a “grunt Other”. In fact, I think that all “Rebel Dharmites” are going to be people pretty low on the Other totem pole. I think it’s possible he let himself get captured, and it’s possible his “mission” was to do reconnaissance of the Survivors to see their interworkings.

As for Ana-Lucia commenting on “the guy with the beard”, since Sawyer, Jack, Locke, and Kate have all seen him – you would assume (although on this show you never know) that one of them mentioned him to Ana-Lucia at some point. I don’t think that Kate has yet made the connection between the fake beard and Zeke…

I still think Libby is crazy. I can’t see her being any sort of emotional leader for the group unless it benefits her well-being. As you mention, she seems to be looking out for her own well-being at all times, regardless of who that aligns her with.

Lastly, I think that HGI yelling “he’s nothing!” is more a product of him getting caught up in his emotions than any deeper meaning. It could be out of jealousy towards “Him”, anger towards “Him”, or fatigue from his three days of capture getting the best of him.


E other: thinks that this is going to be a recurring/cycle thingy? The cave that the losties 1st chance upon, there were people (or evidence of people) before them. They found the corpse, right?Like the losties entering and taking over the hatch and Desmond leaves. Before Desmond was there, there was another guy who died.So every group thinks of the other as the OTHERS?

Another good point. I wouldn’t be surprised. We’ve seen a few examples of things from the past that indicate the Island has been there for a while (Black Rock Pirate Ship, skeletons), but also things that reference time doesn’t pass normally on the Island (CFL equipment seeming far more than 16 years old, commenting “has it been that long” about how long she’s been there). There is also the intriguing line from Season One that got edited about how CFL’s team was “Studying time”.

Also – most characters on the show are wearing watches. Time really has no meaning once you’re on a desert island, so I view it as hidden symbolism that there is some sort of messed up time on the Island.

Julia: I was on IMDB two weeks ago. It says that Ian Sommerhalder is going to be back somehow on this episode.

Rule #1 of Lost – never trust ABC or their promos.
Rule #2 of Lost – never trust IMDB. Anyone can post “information” on it. It’s been way wrong in the past. It’ll be way wrong in the future. IMDB is a reference guide – meaning it’s a good place for things that already happened, not a good place for things yet to come.

Anonymous: Brian, I have a question for you. I found some info on thetailsection.com about the remaining episode titles and the centricness of each one...with the exception of the finale. I was wondering if you could confirm:

219- S.O.S. Rose/Bernard....duh

220- Two for the Road Ana Lucia

221- ? Mr. Eko

222- Three Minutes Michael

I can confirm the following schedule:

4.12 - “S.O.S” (Rose/Bernard-centric)
4.19 – No Lost (but Alias returns!)
4.26 – “Reckoning” (New “Recap” Episode to bring everyone up to speed on the season so far)
5.3 - “Two for the Road” (Ana-Lucia-centric)
5.10 - “?” (Centricity unknown)
5.17 - “Three Minutes” (Centricity unknown)
5.24 – Season Finale (Title / Centricity unknown)

Cas: Does anyone know what DHARMA stands for yet? Guesses?

Latest and Greatest Guess from Brian:

Degroot
Hanso
Association for
Rapid
Mankind
Advancement

But I’m not even content with that. Watch it be something that doesn’t even include Degroot or Hanso…

Steve Poke: sure you all have thought of this, and probably dismissed it, but what if HGI was a Keiser Sose-type figure? Any time he refers to "he", he's actually talking about himself...He was captured intentionally, to find out for himself who the Losties are and what they're doing in the hatch. Thoughts?

Truth be told, I totally would have called out HGI as being a “Keiser Soze” if I didn’t use the expression two nights earlier when we found out the President was behind everything on 24. Two Keiser Soze references in one week seemed excessive and made me think my mind went there just because it was fresh in my mind.


However, looking back, I like it – remember how angry HGI got when they called Zeke his “boss” and he snapped “He’s nothing!”, it sounded as if he was insulted that they thought Zeke was more important than him.

The big thing working against this theory isn’t that he said “He’ll kill me if I talk”(this could always just be another lie), but that I don’t think the leader of the Others would be walking around the Jungle by himself, or allow himself to get captured. Shouldn’t he have bodyguards or something like that? Shouldn’t the Others be attacking the Survivors right now in an attempt to get him back? They’re not – so I think he’s a Rebel Dharmite more than anything else.

Andi: CFL said that he would lie for a very long time and only then would he tell the truth.Can we surmise that he told the truth regarding the numbers? Or is he still in the lying phase?Or was CFL lying in the first place?

I wouldn’t take CFL’s comments literally. I think she was just trying to get the point across that “He will lie and lie, and then if you torture him enough eventually he might tell you the truth.”

He might have let a few morsels of truth slip out, but I still think he’ll lie all he can do achieve whatever his goal might be and try and save himself.



That’s all for this week!

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent. Right in time to read at work. I am afraid of falling off of the 24 wagon. I missed the last 3 episodes. I am watching tv and the commercial says something like "now that Jack Bauer knows the President is a traitor" or something like that I realized I am F'ed in the A. As a newbie to 24, can I pick right back up, or am I lost since so much happens in each episode?

Lost question, any word on when season 3 will start? When do tv seasons start anyways? September? November?
Gracias

Anonymous said...

Wow! You are certainly full of insight. Not to get all weird in the "don't get too personal world of cyberspace", but can I ask what you do for a living? You are able to read the episodes so well. I guess I'm comparing it to the fact I'm a kindergarten teacher and I the extent of my analysis is pretty superficial

Brian said...

pdiddy - Funny you should mention when Season 3 will start - the producers of Lost are as frustrated with the frequent repeats as we are, so here's what they recently proposed to ABC:

Air 7 new episodes, then have a month and a half of repeats, air 7 new episodes, then have two months of repeats, then air 8 new episodes.

Basically, they're looking to have a "three act" season, that keeps the momentum going when it should be, then takes longer breaks at better times.

From a storytelling and viewing point of view, it sounds great to me! We'll see if they can convince ABC of the same...

As for 24, if it's your first season, you're already probably missing out on a lot of stuff, so jumping back in now shouldn't result in too much lost. Just know that we found out the President is behind everything, and Jack has evidence of it.

Brian said...

beth - Don't worry, I lack all practical smarts that would ever be useful in the real world. You probably trump me in that area.

As for my job, I'm a writer for Lost, didn't you know that?

Anonymous said...

What if HGI is the other guy from the swan hatch? At one point, he bailed on Desmond. He would have known about the food drop, and if hungry somewhere on the island (hiding), would have hung out in the area waiting for it to occur. When he was trapped in the net, he made up his story to protect his identity.

Dunno...just another theory.

Anonymous said...

Brian, I have to take a look at one of the things you said in reference to the "it's all in Hugo's head" theory. You said: "If something is in my head, does that mean I already know it? There are all sorts of examples where I forget things from my past, or can’t remember things like someone’s name of phone number – Libby and the broken leg could be something like that." Well what if Hurley was just jumbeling things up in his head. Boone died, basically, from a broken leg. I mix memories up in my head -- especially when trying to remember them. I think this disproves (slightly) Libby's point that it isn't all in Hurley's head. While I don't really believe that as it just isn't that exciting to me (and why would the writers just serve it up on a platter like that?) I think that the point has to be looked at. But great work as always.

Marie-Claude said...

OK, you mentioned Bernard and Rose and their "unhappy" backstory, what about the fact that one is white and the other is black. They are both in their... 60s, Right? So maybe they had to go through a lot in their youth (meaning they would had met in their teens)Or even better, they met on a Dharma campus!!
I found couple of websites on Dharma, one that needs a password to get in, which is frustrating, since I don't know what it is...*bummer*
You have a great blog, I found it couple of days ago,I can't stop read it, it makes me 'smarter' about the show. You are showing me stuff I would have never seen otherwise. And I DO think you are a Lost writer! ;o)

Anonymous said...

I agree, excellent insight! However, after finding a website that has deciphered the 'whispering' in particular scenes, it punches some holes in theories on HGI. With DHARMA psychic experiments in mind, it seems that HGI was indirectly guided in some of his actions and responses. You can read up on these 'whispers' here: http://www.lostlinks.net/whispers.htm

Any thoughts on this?

CeCe said...

I'm going to write two separate comments, 'cause you might get mad and call this one a spoiler!

A few weeks ago, it was all over the 'net that Michelle (Ana-Lou) was being a major diva-bitch and that the writers were going to kill her character off asap.

Just another rumour?

CeCe said...

So, did I miss something? I mean, did Kate and Claire tell anyone about the hatch they found? Shouldn't someone else be checking that out? There were hallways that lead places and stuff!!
Why doesn't Claire talk to Jack about what happened? He's a doctor! And isn't there some of that vaccine stuff in their hatch?

If Locke is looking at the wall again in the next episode, then doesn't that mean that it's the non-pressing of the buttons that causes the lock down, and not the food drop? Wait, that doesn't make sense.. Maybe the food got dropped that time because of the OTHER time they let the timer run out...

I don't know. This stupid show is messing with my head!

Anonymous said...

I was thinking to myself tonight about all the possibilities that LOST could be taking. What this means, or what that meant. And I happened to think to myself...Self, what if most of the stuff we "knew" on LOST was fake..was..made to look a certain way.

Take an example of our Other friends. At first we thought them to be these savage island people who are uncivilized and evil to the core. But then we supposedly find out that it's all a costume? An act? Why would this be? And if so, what else that we "know" of could be fake?

These are just thoughts to make you think deeper, or maybe more outside of the box(like we don't do that already for LOST!). In the beginning of season two we are in the hatch, and we get to see a video that was made for those in the hatch. What if that video was fake? What if it was made to look like was from the 60's or so? What if it was made no more than 5 years ago? What exactly would that mean in the big picture of things.Are we to expect that a "company" like DHARMA, with all the ability to do what they have done, is going to use a crappy 40 year old video to explain to the viewers what to do?? Along that same line...what if the writings and drawings on the blast door were fake? What if it was all put on there at once to look like it was written at different points in time? ...your thoughts?

Another thing...if you don't mind me thinking "outloud" here. The video in the hatch. It's purpose is to tell the inhabitants of the hatch what to do, what their job is. If that is so...then we can conclude that the inhabitants did NOT know why they were there to begin with. And who would these people be going in there with no idea as to why they were doing so? Why wouldn't they be told ahead of time? Just thoughts to make you think. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of this if you have any Brian :) Keep up the great work man!

Anonymous said...

It's great to see all the ideas coming out and without spoilers (Thank You). I keep thinking there is more to the Good vs Evil motif.

-The "List" the others used, when taking people from the crash sites
-Claire's psychic reading stating her son would need his mother's influence.
-The importance of the children, aside from a survival bases it could represent a sort of innocence.
-Eko's communion with the smoke entity (Cerberus?)
-HGI professing that he is not a bad person and the bullet missing him. I know, I know, Lucia pulled Sayid's arm but with some other things that have been said it seemed worth mentioning.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Terrific job! Some other comments/observations:

the trailor shows HGI smiling (scarey look!)....what would he possibly have to smile at while incarcerated? Looks very evil to me.

yeah, how did Locke get the 'black light chart' to illuminate again? is this a function of a 'drop-off' or more likely a result of not inputting the numbers (more likely)?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for including my super long comment in your response section. Funny how these things can run away from you when you're bored in your office. Looking forward to tonight's episode. Keep the solid analysis comin' my man!

Anonymous said...

I just realized now that there are more people reading this and many of them don't know what Skyline is. I'm from Cleveland and didn't grow up around it and still love it. I even looked online at the possibility of buying some chili and shipping it out here to Vegas but it is super expensive. I'll just have my mom go to the store and mail it to me.

Anonymous said...

A couple of thoughts:

1 - As mentioned by someone else, I also thought Sayid and Ana were doing the Good Cop/Bad Cop thing to Faux Henry. I am guessing they will follow this a bit more in the next episode.

2 - I think Libby is not in Hurley's head because of how the last scene was presented in the "Dave" episode. In that scene, we see the Dr taking Hurley's picture with Dave being imaginary, and not there. This means that the scene is not from Hurley's point of view, but either someone else's, or an 'omnicient' camera type view. In this scene we see Libby. This means to me that Hurley is not imagining her.

3 - I think the Lost writers were giving a pop culture reference to the old Cheech and Chong bit 'Dave's not here' with the name of the character and episode.

4 - Libby's hair color in the hospital was different than on the island. If it was her natural color in the hospital, why are we not seeing roots on the island? This makes me think that her hair was dyed in the hospital. This would make her appearance there staged. Then again, maybe the sun is just bleaching it on the island?

5 - Maybe the title S.O.S. is another cultural reference. This time to 'Same Old Stuff'. I find this thought depressing because it means that the Losties will be doing the same annoying things, like not telling eachother about important developments and discoveries. And we will find ourselves (again) with more questions than answers.

Anyway, thought I'd throw in my 2 cents again.

Anonymous said...

Did you notice the expression change on Libby's face at the end when they turn around to walk away from the cliff?

Anonymous said...

"If it was her natural color in the hospital, why are we not seeing roots on the island?"

Uh, you are seeing her roots. Blonde ends, dark roots.

"Did you notice the expression change on Libby's face at the end when they turn around to walk away from the cliff?"

Yes, and upon re-watching that scene, she is the one having the final flashback, not Hurley. Check what happens right after she makes "the face".

And finally, Brian, I love your blog, but your commment about Libby falling for Hurley was "sizist" and uncool. How much more believable is it that Shannon hooked up with Sayid? Let Hurley have his lovin'. Crazy, crazy love!

Anonymous said...

Well you were totally wrong!

Wow that was a kick-back smooth kissy kissy episode.

You gotta relax man you read too much in this stuff ;P

Brian said...

Chill Bill, not to be a jerk, but...

"Bernard or Rose having some disease / disability before they landed on the Island? Nope, too similar to Locke being able to walk / Jin being able to make babies (maybe)." - Turned out to be true.

"So the question is will Kate and Jack settle for just trading Michael for HGI? Will Michael accept being handed back over to Jack and Kate without Walt going with him? Doubtful, unless the Others have fed him some mind-bending drugs, a la Claire." - Looks to be true.

"If entering the Numbers has no meaning, Locke no longer has his “greater purpose” on the Island. Again – I would anticipate this building up to the Locke vs. Jack showdown on Number entry later in the season." - Looks to be true.

It was a mediocre episode. I'll get some comments up in the next few days.

Honorest said...

Brian, I appreciate your theories, and are very entertained by your witty humor. I have a couple of comments that I hope you might have the time to ponder.

I noticed tonight Bernard and Rose had the discussion, nobody wants to leave. I also reiterate your statement, that its to peaceful. I began to think back with the past survivors, mainly the leads and thought to myself, what if its true. They all just want to stay where they are. They have all lost something that was a burden to them. Here are few of them, I wish you more time then I had, to review them and maybe add your own.

Kate Vs. the Criminal- the Criminal side of Kate has "died" because of the plane crash.

Rose vs. Illness-The Illness is gone because of the crash

Locke vs. Paralyze-His handicap was gone after the crash.

Claire vs Adoption-She has ultimately kept her baby, because of the plane crash.

Eko vs. Society-Eko's violent past, was deminshed after the plane crashed, because he was away from those that influenced him.

Charlie vs. Drug Abuse-Even though he relapsed on the Island, he seems to be doing better, and has kicked the habit, regardless that he has the Statue's hidden in the Island.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was a pretty good episdoe. It was a little slow, but it was a necessary build up for the later shows.
-Rose's illness and cureness
-Rose knowing Locke's secret
-Michael coming back
-Locke getting a clear head
-Jack going against Sawyer for the guns
-Possible battle for the season finale

I'd say it fed the addiction to hold us over for 2 weeks.

Question. How come none of us even thought about the fact that someone may have remembered Locke in a wheelchair? True, you don't remember everyone like that and he got on the plane first, but still. Everyone on that flight had to at least see some people waiting in the same area of the airport. Just a thought.

Brian, are you going to post that chart on how everyone is connected (Sayid and Kate's dad, etc)?

Anonymous said...

Firstly, I liked that the writters finally gave acknowldgement (thru Bernard) that the Lostie's are not and have not made real attempts to leave the Island. The love story between Rose and Bernard was well written and leads to an interesting storyline in how they really wish to remain ON the island.

Question....how did Michael turn up? Did the Other's give him to Jack/Kate? If so, why? HGI in fact was not present to make any exchange.

Also, why did HGI smile when Locke expressed frustration in not knowing if he did or didn't enter the numbers? Apparently, he wishes to mess with Locke's head and is succeeding...but for what reason?

Future episode indicates that you Dave were right and the Others may be limited in numbers and fighting power. Should be interesting to see.

Anonymous said...

Just to make a point here that I'm sure you picked up on Brian. In season one when lock is playing games with Walt, he talks about black and white, the two oposites and all that. Well, could it not have been more obvious last night? Rose and Bernard, black and white, man of science, woman of faith. This whole two sides deal (science camp, faith camp) is really getting explored heavilly. And I liked Eko's comment, "people are saved in different ways." Just my insight.

Anonymous said...

Yay! Kate finally said something about the medical hatch! Lame excuse for waiting to talk about it though...

Anonymous said...

Brian~

Great blog, keep it up.

I just wanted your opinion now that this episode seemingly shored up your 2 biggest frustrations with the show:

1) Why are they seemingly content to not be found? Rose directly answered this question, and we can take it that most of the Losties are more than happy to disassociate with their sordid pasts. We now know that Rose, Locke, and probably Jin have received some sort of 'healing' from the island, and there may be more to follow.

2) Why don't they talk to each other about their discoveries? While not a full explanation, Kate did sort of give Jack some flib-flab about feeling left out.

You happy with how these 2 issues were handles? .. and isn't it somewhat eerie they did so at the same time?

Brian said...

hobnail_boot - You're right... it's almost as if they're reading the Blog and answering me.

I'm content with the "We're all happy to be on the Island, why get off?" storyline. I'll get more in-depth on that with my post, which honorest already started on in the Comments section here.

I'm not satisfied with "We didn't tell you about the Medical Hatch because you were keeping secrets from us". No. Not at all. Even if you're happy to live on the Island, you still should be trying to figure it out, not playing third grade games with each other because someone has "secrets".

Also - how about the previews for next week where Michael says "There aren't that many of the Others, we can take them!"

I've been predicting that about the Others for a few months. Maybe the Lost writers should stop stealing my ideas :)

Anonymous said...

I finally got my answer to the history of Rose and Bernard. Both Rosie and Locke know the island has magical powers of curing the sick. It was a good episode.

Did you notice how both Vince and Michael finally appeared in this episode. We know where Michael has been but where in the world has Vince been??

Ang

Anonymous said...

So, I could be totally off base, but I think that the Libby/Hurley thing is taking a page from "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Urban Legend". She was somehow connected to one of the people that Hurley "killed", and is now stalking him, w/ the idea of revenge.

Or maybe I'm overthinking it. :)

Anonymous said...

ugh just posted a translation of the book locke was drawing the map on in the "dave" blog post, move here if possible

Anonymous said...

brian: i was just teasing... you did call the Bernard/Rose thing, and I was nitpicking because you said it was unlikely and you were wrong on that :)

Anonymous said...

Brian,
I just saw your post in the Dave posting area. I am the immortal Pat Gaughan. By immortal I mean lazy. I discovered your link through the ancient art of killing time by reading away messages. If you wonder how I have your screen name, it is because that was one of my questions I asked everyone during my pledge interviews. A nice thing that came from that was that I knew what you brothers were up to.

Anonymous said...

I was going to wait for the analysis post to comment on this, but it's on my mind now. Is anyone else annoyed and bothered by the other losties. And I don't mean the "others". I mean the extras hanging out with the losties crew. What is the purpose of that? I think they were particularly obvious in last night's episode. They hang around here and there, never speak, and are just creepy. Why even have them at all. Since they seem to have no purpose, why not just have the survivors be the regular characters? Some of them even look like they are wearing the same DHARMA jumpsuit that Desmond was wearing in the hatch. How creepy is that?

And, Brian, I knew you would make a joke about being a lost writer when I asked you about your occupation. You crack me up!

Rachel said...

I am intrigued by this whole "island healing people" thing. Because it doesn't heal everyone. Boone died, Shannon, Scott (or was it Steve?) died. My first thought was that it doesn't heal violent or more traumatic injuries or problems, and helps with more internal, slower, genetic sorts of problems. But, Rose seems to be assuming that Locke's leg will be cured by the island, and that was a quick traumatic injury, more in the realm of Boone and Shannon's injuries. Do you think that Locke will have accelerated healing with his leg injury, or was Rose just saying that only as her way of letting him know that she is aware of his previous island healing?

Anonymous said...

http://www.widmorelaboratories.com/

Anonymous said...

Anon,

That URL is a hoax.

Check it, yo:

Domain Name.......... widmorelaboratories.com
Creation Date........ 2006-03-24
Registration Date.... 2006-03-24
Expiry Date.......... 2007-03-24
Organisation Name.... adrian brisee
Organisation Address. po box 273
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Irwin
Organisation Address. 51446
Organisation Address. IA
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

All domains that are officially part of the Lost universe are registered to ABC/Disney. I'm surprised that this person used contact information (as seen in the full WHOIS record) instead of anonymizing it. Spam city, here we come!

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, Rachel. Remember when Locke led Boone to the plane? Locke's legs seemed to "re-paralyze" on him, and he couldn't enter the plane himself, so Boone climbed up to it, which led to Boone's death. What's up with that?

Anonymous said...

Grey's Anatomy's doing a recap episode this week too, and it's on ABC as well. isn't that weird?

Anonymous said...

You said:

"But the girl we saw help free Claire from the Medical Hatch was clearly working against the Dharmites. Does that mean they were no longer brainwashing / drugging her? Or did she become wise to their methods and somehow outsmart them to gain her mental freedom again?"

Perhaps she was Alex? She kinda looks like Rousseau and might be the right age..

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