Saturday, March 10, 2007

"Enter 77" Analysis!

Something tells me this is going to be a long one (that’s what she said).

It’s amazing how with Lost, a single episode like “Enter 77” can drastically change so many of our assumptions of things that not only occurred in this season, but also in past seasons. It really makes me excited (and sad, of course) for the day that the series wraps up, and we’ll be able to go back and re-watch all the episodes in a new light, hitting ourselves on the head and proclaiming “of course! Now it all makes sense! How did we miss that?!” At least that’s my hope. My worst fear (besides clowns living under my bed) is that the exact opposite will be true – that upon learning more answers, we’ll go back and watch episodes thinking “well that doesn’t make any sense” and have to come up with illogical, intricate explanations to rationalize the actions and make them fit into the story.

But for now, I’m still riding on the optimistic high of the last episode. Let’s get analyzing…


CFL. Right off the bat, the episode started with two very strange things. First was CFL, making her claim that “I have never seen this place before.” Again, like so many of you, I just find it very hard to believe that CFL, living on this Island for 16 years, going so far as making maps of it, would have never stumbled upon a Dharma Farma in the middle of the Island. I know for a lot of people, this just adds evidence to the “CFL is really an Other” argument – but strangely, no part of me believes that argument. It’s possible that I’m totally wrong, but there seems to be a lot more evidence that she is NOT an Other than she IS an Other, and is lying about it.



Think back to last season’s “Maternity Leave”, where she helped a drugged up Claire escape from the Ethan and the Others, who clearly wanted her. If CFL is really an Other, why would she have done this? To keep up her charade with our Survivors? No – Claire was drugged and it took a lot for her even to remember that CFL was involved. After all the trouble that the Others went to in order to capture Claire, it doesn’t make sense that they would give it up in order to keep CFL as a “mole” among the Survivors – especially because it was probably just as likely that Claire would never even remember her involvement in the escape.

Instead, I look to CFL’s other comment as the writers’ explanation for how CFL could have lived on the Island for 16 years without stumbling upon the Flame Station - “I have survived this long on the Island by avoiding confrontations like this.” This statement allows me to suspend my disbelief about her lack of knowledge about the Island. It paints the picture of CFL as a crazy, skittish, scared woman who kinda went off the deep end after killing her crew and having her baby kidnapped. She built a bunker, (probably tapped into one of the Other’s underground power lines in order to provide the electricity), and kept to herself. She set traps to catch anyone who came into “her territory”, but didn’t actively journey outside of it – thus, her hermit-like existence kept her from ever discovering the Dharma Farma.

Does it make total sense? No. Is CFL lying about stuff to our Survivors? Likely. Is she an Other? I’m still saying no. The good news is that we should finally get an answer to this question in the next few episodes, as the search party makes their way to Otherland.


Compass. The other thing that made no sense to me was the compass that Sayid was using to follow a north route across the Island. In the first season, didn’t we establish that compasses didn’t work on the Island due to the “unique magnetic anomalies” there? If memory serves, Sayid’s compass always pointed North, didn’t it? If the compass is now working, it means one of two things:

  1. The magnetic mojo was localized to the area just around the Swan Hatch, and once you are outside this area, magnetism returns to normal and compasses work as advertised.
  2. The Implosion of the Swan Hatch destroyed this magnetic anomaly, and now compasses work anywhere on the Island.

Either way, with compasses now working, and Sayid and Sawyer having different maps of the Island, you kinda get the feeling that the whole Island is going to start opening up, and our Survivors are going to finish exploring the yet-undiscovered regions of it. Now that we’ve seen the final Dharma Station, and assuming we get to Otherland in the next few episodes, it’s excitingly possible that we’ll have seen all major areas of the Island by the end of the season!



Two more things before we get to the meat of the episode…


Cats. A lot of people seem to be questioning the cats that were seen in the episode, with people theorizing everything from Patchy’s cat being the same cat that Sayid saw in his flashback to the cat on the Island being another manifestation of Smokey.

I think it’s much simpler. Take a look at the two cats side by side:




Clearly, they are two different cats (check out the difference in fur coloring on the nose, and the general texture of the body hair), so I think you can rule out the cats being the same. Patchy had named the cat Nadia, which indicates that the cat has been with him for a while, and not just some temporary manifestation of something from Sayid’s past (like Kate’s horse) that our Survivors were now seeing.

The sad irony of course is that the name Nadia is not only the name of famous gymnast Nadia Comaneci – but also Sayid’s former flame, who he refused to torture, spent years trying to track down, and allegedly is now dead (based on Sayid’s comments to CFL last season).

As for the deeper meaning behind the cat in the episode? Symbolism. From the flashbacks, we learned that Sayid was spared torture (or possibly death) because one of his former victims did not want Sayid to suffer the same way that she (and her cat) did. By having Patchy with a cat on the Island, it triggered the memory (the way a good flashback episode should!) and helped remind Sayid of his actions, explaining why he isn’t going to kill or torture Patchy for information on the Others.

(Of course, this is a stark contrast to Sayid’s previous acts of torture on the Island thus far. He didn’t seem to have a problem with torturing Sawyer or Ben to get information from them… but I suppose that’s because he didn’t see a cat to remind him that he shouldn’t be doing those things. So it turns out cats can be a positive influence in your life!)


Sawyer. The other little thing I liked about this episode, which was easy to overlook, was that Sawyer continued to be pining for Kate. Last episode, we saw him come back from his “guy’s outing” and look for her to share his takes (and some beers) and rekindle their relationship. This episode, we seem him worried about her and missing her – and that’s what we in the business call “emotional continuity” between episodes – something that is often missing on Lost due to its sheer number of characters and storylines that it juggles week in and week out. Sawyer finally seems ready to move into relationship-ville with Kate, after resisting it for so long... but too bad Kate is moving (emotionally and quite literally) closer to Jack at the same time.



Okay, enough fluff. Time for the main course.


Patchy. Although his real name is Mikhail Bakunin (or is it?!). But from here on out, he’ll be referred to as the much easier to type “Patchy”, which also gives a teddy-bear like feeling to this seeming hardened Russian comrade.

I should also point out that there was a real life Mikhail Bakunin, who didn’t have a patch.

He lived in the 1800s and is considered one of the founding fathers of anarchism, famous for spreading propaganda, encouraging rebellion, and bringing down “the man”. He also denied the concept of free will (Juliet’s speech in the season premiere, anyone?), and spent some time in the Soviet Army.

Why do we care? Aside from the fun similarities and symbolism we can pull out from the real-life Bakunin, it’s another example of an Other taking on the identity of someone else – just like Ben was “Henry Gale”. Sure, it’s possible that Mikhail is the Russian equivalent to “John” and Bakunin is the equivalent to “Smith”, but if not - it raises the question (I almost wrote “begs the question” there, but thanks to FOB Alec, I now know how to use that phrase properly!) – why do the Others feel the need to come up with fake names in the first place? More on this later.

Probably the biggest question that needs to be answered before analyzing this episode is, “Can we trust what Patchy told us? Or, as CFL warned us long ago – do Others just lie and lie?”

Let’s look at precisely what Patchy told us:


  1. He spent time in Afghanistan with the Soviet Army
  2. After the Cold War ended, he answered a newspaper add to “save the world”
  3. He joined the Dharma Initiative and came to the Island 11 years ago
  4. The purpose of the Flame Station was to communicate with the outside world.
  5. The Dharmites died in a foolish attack (or “Purge”) of “the Hostiles”
  6. Patchy is the last remaining Dharmite because he didn’t get involved in the Purge and made a truce with the Hostiles, where he would remain inside the Dharma Farma Valley.
  7. The Hostiles were not interested in the satellite dish because it hadn’t functioned for years.
  8. The Hostiles were on the Island for a long time before the Dharma Initiative ever arrived.

Then, at the end of the episode, he claims he was never a member of Dharma, but that everything else he said was true.

Okay – so if that is the case, we would eliminate Statement #6, and take all the rest for fact. But should we?

The answer is yes.

While it is possible that Patchy is an Other, and lying about everything to Sayid – I think the writers did everything they could to eliminate that possibility. Think about it. You’re a writer on Lost – how are you ever going to convey any real information about the Others to the audience, when the audience has been trained to assume everything they see or hear from an Other is a lie? Even if you wanted to finally give some answers, the Internet Lost Fans would immediately question the validity of those answers, assuming they were just more lies. So what do you do?

First, you announce in a national magazine (Entertainment Weekly) that “the connection between the Others and Dharma gets revealed in Episode 11”. Then, you have the character flat out say “Okay, I lied about one part – but the rest of it is all true.” In my mind, that’s the best you can do to address the skeptics who don’t trust that we were actually given real answers. So, based on that, we can analyze the following statements:

  1. Patchy spent time in Afghanistan with the Soviet Army. If this statement isn’t true, and Patchy has lived on the Island his entire life, then why would Patchy be so “Russian” compared to the seeming bland-European-American culture of the rest of the Others? Doesn’t add up for me, so I’m saying it’s true – which means Patchy was “recruited” and brought to the Island. If he’s not Dharma, he wasn’t recruited as Kelvin was (which would have indicated some sort of “post-military” preference in Dharma employees) – but was probably brought in similar to how Juliet was brought in. Individually recruited and enticed to come to the Island.
  2. After the Cold War ended, he answered a newspaper add to “save the world”. You might throw this statement out as being a part of the “being a member of Dharma” lie – but it’s also possible that Patchy was recruited differently than Juliet – that the Others (under the guise of some corporation a la Mittelos) placed advertisements in the real world and held a formal interview process to determine who was “worthy” of coming to their Island home. But why? Juliet was brought in for her baby-making knowledge to address a very real issue for the Others. But Patchy? I’ve got a theory (that it’s a demon), more on that later…
  3. He joined the Dharma Initiative and came to the Island 11 years ago. Do we throw out the “joined the Dharma Initiative” part and keep the “came to the Island 11 years ago” part? I think so. You’ll see why in a minute…
  4. The purpose of the Flame Station was to communicate with the outside world. Agreed. It’s got a big satellite dish. Duh.
  5. The Dharmites died in a foolish attack (or “Purge”) of “the Hostiles”. Patchy’s pro-Other agenda is already creeping through here, calling the Purge “foolish” – since clearly the Others won that battle.
  6. Patchy is the last remaining Dharmite because he didn’t get involved in the Purge and made a truce with the Hostiles, where he would remain inside the Dharma Farma Valley. Falsch!
  7. The Hostiles were not interested in the satellite dish because it hadn’t functioned for years. Perhaps a half truth. Maybe the satellite dish didn’t work, but the Others did have some way to communicate with the outside world… at least they did until the Hatch Implosion.
  8. The Hostiles were on the Island for a long time before the Dharma Initiative ever arrived. Reaffirmation of the long history of the Island, furthering the mystery of the four-toed statue.

So what does this all mean? It’s time to start writing a history of the Island. The big assumption that we have to make before we start is that The Others = The Hostiles. Although I’m tempted to throw out my old “Experiment Rejects” being a third group on the Island of crazy animalistic people (whose feet we saw last season dragging a creepy teddy bear), and them being the actual “Hostiles”, I’ll refrain. While really tempting, there just isn’t enough evidence to back it at this point, at least not compared to the sheer number of connections we’ve seen among all the Others on the Island that would indicate they’re all the same group (Patchy --> Ms. Klugh --> Tom --> Ben --> Juliet --> Ethan, etc.) – and they’re the only other group on the Island.

What we are left with is the following story…

Lost Island has existed for a really, really long time, and it’s been inhabited this really, really long time by a civilization we now term “the Others”. Somewhere around 1975, the Dharma Initiative discovered the Island and decided to setup shop there and conduct their experiments in an effort to change the values of the Valenzetti Equation and save the world. Since we’ve seen that they did some substantial construction on the Island (building all their stations, laying electrical and communications infrastructures in place) it’s safe to assume that they were aware of the indigenous people to the Island (aka “the Others”). Likewise, it’s safe to assume that the Others were watching this construction and invasion of their Island with a quiet fear and disgust. It almost feels like a Native American Indian vs. Colonial American situation, where the Others represent the Indians and Dharma represents Cowboys.

Since Dharma was aware of these strange, potentially dangerous people, they took the necessary precautions - setting up freaky electric “fences” around their barracks, hiding their stations as much as possible, and putting procedures in place should attacks ever happen – such as the video with Candle providing instructions for the Flame if it ever comes under attack. But surprisingly, for a while, it seems that the two groups co-existed peacefully on the Island. We know that Dharma was actively recruiting and sending fresh workers to the Island as late as 1991 (since we saw Kelvin was in the Gulf War before he was on the Island).



But then - for some unknown reason, since Dharma had been on the Island for nearly 20 years without major incident - in the early 1990’s, Dharma decided to finally wipe out those pesky Others. What they didn’t count on was the Others, when provoked, can prove to be quite the powerful enemy (remember Ethan kicking all sorts of ass in the rain during Season One? Or Ben dominating Sawyer in his cage earlier this season?) Potentially, the Others even decided that they would need more “recruits” to finish the battle, and brought in more outsiders who had “battle experience” – like Patchy!

After the battle was over, the Others pretty much gutted all the Stations or used them for their own purposes – except for the Swan Station. Why? Well, it’s clear that they were aware of this Station, because they could have viewed it from the Pearl – but maybe they didn’t know where precisely it was – or how to get inside of it (remember all the work it took Locke to crack that infernal Hatch?). There’s also the possibility that the Others knew that Dharma protocol called for entering the Numbers every 108 minutes to prevent some sort of disaster, but didn’t want to waste their time doing it, and thought it was best to leave it to some poor Dharma schmuck. Either way, this would indicate that Kelvin was actually the last Dharmite on the Island.

The food drops? Well, as we learned in the Lost Experience, those were setup to continue in perpetuity – so it wouldn’t matter if there were no Dharmites left, or if communication with the rest of the world was lost – they’d still keep coming, as we saw last season.

So the Others continued living their peaceful hippie-religious-cult existence for the next ten years – until Flight 815 crashed, which brings us back to the present.

It makes sense to me. The biggest hole I can find in this theory is that the Others clearly have images of Alvar Hanso and Tom Degroot in their brainwashing video that Crazy Carl was subjected to in the Rave Room. Why would those be included if the Others weren’t Dharma? Perhaps images of the enemy as a reminder of their past battle? Warnings about what happens if you don’t repent and lead an Other-approved life? I’m not sure. In my mind, this still remains either a pretty compelling argument that the Others are former Dharmites, or a product of a prop guy including some fun “easter eggs” in the brainwashing video without thinking through the consequences from a storyline perspective.


Flame. As for the Flame station itself, we learned that it indeed was the central communications hub of the Island with wires running underground to each of the other stations on the Island. Unbelievably, nearly two years after Sayid encounted the weird cable on the beach, we finally learned what it was – an underwater beacon that guides the submarine (which was originally used by Dharma, but has since been taken over by the Others), and would explain how the Others could come and go from the Island in relative secrecy. It almost gives you hope that the writers really do know what they’re doing, and maybe we (I) shouldn’t second guess them so much. The beach cable is a prime example of something I would view as a mystery that was referenced so long ago that most viewers have long since forgotten about it – so we should have gotten answers about it sooner.


Sayid needed to find the cable back in Season One to lead him to CFL (and explain how she had electicial power for her bunker). But we couldn’t have gotten answers about it until we got to the Flame Hatch, and we couldn’t get to the Flame Hatch until our Survivors went on a trip to the Otherland, and they wouldn’t go on that journey until Jack was captured by the Others – which really couldn’t have happened any sooner than the middle of Season Two. Maybe we are getting answers as soon as possible, but we just don’t realize it because we can’t see the big picture. Pretty exciting if you ask me.

We have now visited all 6 Hatches – The Arrow, The Staff, The Hydra, The Swan, The Flame, The Pearl. We’ve also destroyed 2 of them (The Swan and the Flame), seemingly permanently left one of them (The Hydra), and have seen 2 of them basically have nothing inside them (The Arrow and the Staff). I know the writers said that Season Two was about the Hatch, and Season Three was about the Others – but until now, I didn’t really feel like the Hatch story was complete since there were still outstanding Stations. Finally, I think we can somewhat complete the chapter on these Stations, and shift our focus to Otherland.



My big question about the Flame is – who planted the explosives, and what set them off? The first question is – did entering “77” actually set them off? Although Candle referenced the command in relation to “hostiles” attacking the Station – why would there be such a long delay between when the command is entered and when the explosions actually happen? Also – would it even make sense for Dharma to plant them in the first place? Okay, your Communications Station is under attack by the enemy – why would you blow it up? Wouldn’t that prevent the other Dharmites from re-claiming it via battle, and then signaling for more help / rescue?



But likewise, why would the Others plant the C-4? If they wanted to destroy the Station, they could have done it a long time ago. Unless the planting of the C-4 is a more recent development, something that the Others added in case our Survivors ever stumbled upon the Station. At least there is motive there – the Others not wanting our Survivors to contact the outside world, which might bring new Dharmites or some other group that would again invade their Island. Clearly, the Others enjoy their secret Island escape, and while they probably enjoyed a lot of the perks that the Dharma Stations gave them (satellite TV, cameras to monitor other Stations, sweet records), they would be all too willing to blow them up rather than risk their very way of life.

Which means… that entering 77 didn’t actually make the Flame explode. Think back to the episode – when Locke sat down at the computer, he looked up and there was a camera with a blinking red light – he was being watched, probably from the Pearl. The Others knew that the station had been compromised, and probably sent some command to set off the explosives and destroy it. But remember, the Others aren’t the malicious murderous people that we think they are – so they politely wait until everyone leaves the building, and then – BOOM.



What did entering 77 originally do, back in the Dharma Days? Probably send some sort of distress signal to the other Stations / mainland that help was needed. I guess it’s not important at this point, since it’s now blown up. But what is important is…


Locke. Once again, we see that Locke is a slave to a computer prompting him to enter numeric commands. Man, I bet he was an uber-video game nerd pre-Island, don’t you think? I know that in my initial reactions to the episode, I saw his actions as those of someone who wanted to stay on the Island forever and was intentionally destroying the Flame. But based on my thinking above, this isn’t the case. Maybe his intentions were good (thinking it would send a distress signal), maybe his intentions were bad (thinking it would destroy the Flame) – but either way, it’s really not his fault that the Station blew up.



I would still blame him for being totally weird and hanging out in a back room playing chess on the computer instead of reading those Dharma Training Manuals in the basement, but I don’t see his intentions as being malicious at this point.



(PS – as for how digital video was playing on such an old computer, or why you had to beat a game of chess in order to access any of the communication commands? No logical explanation for either of those, so I’ll chalk them up to “willing suspension of disbelief for storytelling purposes”.)


Ms. Klugh. How ironic. A character that seemed to be very important last season finally shows her face this season, and is immediately killed. Why? Well, it looks to be a product of Lost being a television show, dealing with real actors who have other responsibilities. I’ve read that Ms. Klugh was killed because the actress who plays her was busy with other projects, and needed to be “released” from work on Lost. I’ve also read that she was supposed to be killed earlier in the season, during “The Glass Ballerina” – but that the Other death was shifted to “Colleen” due to the fact that the writers also had to prematurely kill Eko (since the actor who portrays him also requested to be written off the show earlier than the show’s creators had intended). In an effort to not kill two African-American characters off the show over the course of three weeks, which I’m sure some crazy bleeding heart liberals would deem to be a sign of ABC being “racist”, Ms. Klugh received a temporary pardon… only to be killed as soon as possible down the road – which happened to be this episode.



It does raise the bigger question of – what is so important that it’s worth dying for? The Others are pretty hell-bent on keeping our Survivors away from their camp, or getting any information about them. Why?


In my mind, if you are the Others, you either want to kill our Survivors, kick them off your Island, or have them join you. Instead, they seem to want to keep them in the dark about the truth – but not hurt them or have them escape the Island. What would be the harm of Sayid, Kate, and Locke stumbling upon their camp and being immediately captured and thrown into a cell a la Jack? Is preventing this from happening worth dying for?

This leads me to believe that there is some greater secret to the Island that the Others are willing to die to protect. Time travel, Smokey, the Fountain of Youth – something that is so precious that the Others merely serve as guardians for it, willing to die rather than let any “outsider” find the truth and potentially spread it to the outside world. But they are also unfortunately guided by some religious principles that prevents them from simply wiping out these outsiders.

Needless to say, I’m quite anxious to see what this grand secret actually is. I get the feeling that once we find out (smart money is on this being revealed in the Season Finale, right?), our views of the Island, the Others, and the show in general will be rocked – and the plot line for the remaining seasons will no longer be about exploring the Island or understanding what is going on – but rather a battle to keep this secret. I don’t know if that means Others vs. Survivors, Others and Survivors vs. Penny and Island Invaders, Others vs. Survivors vs. Dharma, or some other wacky combination, but you get the feeling that there is going to be a confrontation – and it’s all going to revolve around this “secret”.




Russian. Lastly, we come to the translation Russian dialogue and documents from this episode. In the past, Lost has forced me to learn about Egyptian Hieroglyphics and advanced scientific theories. But luckily, my friend and co-worker Zabe majored in Russian in college (and is somehow applying this knowledge to a job in the field of banking? Weird) and hooked me up with some rough translations, which I’ve supplemented with additional translations found at Lostpedia.

First, the more straightforward of the two – the dialogue between Ms. Klugh and Patchy, pre-shootout:

Ms. Klugh: “Mikhail. Mikhail! You know what to do.”

Patchy: “We still have another way”

Ms. Klugh: “We cannot risk it. You know the conditions.”

Patchy: “There is another way.”

Ms. Klugh: “They captured us. We will not let them to get into the territory. You know what to do. That's an order.”

Patchy: “We still have another way!”

Ms. Klugh: “Just do it, Mikhail.”

Patchy: “Forgive me.”

This is exactly what I assumed the dialogue meant, so not a whole lot of surprises there. But it’s just another example of the Others being willing to die to protect their “secret”.

As for the manuscript that was on the desk inside the Hatch, it’s a little trickier – mainly because we can only see the second half of each line, making it hard to understand the greater meaning of the document. But here’s what was visible:



...there were losses/casualties in this country and one should
…by force, and if necessary, after full social
…(someone) alienated/antagonized Andrea. Nadji wasn't
…Afghan resistance, however he was excellent
…he was an influential second cousin
…inspected one of the north-west
…specialist helping
... Mujahideen used against Soviet
… fundamentalist. Just like all radicals of that time, Nadij
... at his madrasah believed that they are holding back the West and
... preparing the way for Allah, so that he could erase the infidels from the face of the Earth, whereas Andrey believed that the fall of Afghanistan will become an impulse for a new worldwide revolution
... "The Pakistanis arrived today", Nadji reported with a strong accent
... We knew that the ISI would be involved. And you
... say this?" Andrey knew that
... "I thought that you

The writing in red seems to say:

“My name is also Andrey.” And “I have forgotten so much about Afghanistan.”

So what does it all mean?

Well, it clearly seems like Patchy is reading this document and making notes (in red) on it. The document itself is some type of description of the Soviet battles in Afghanistan, maybe even some sort of letters from someone involved in those battles. At any rate, Patchy seems to be reading them and remembering his past involvement in the conflict. It also has hints of the anarchy of Bakunin interspersed – heck, maybe it’s even a document written by Bakunin!

Huge clue that gives us some greater understanding of the mysteries of Lost? No.

Another example of Lost’s blatant “pro-communism” agenda? Probably not.

Something the creators threw in the episode to give us another thing to over-analyze, obsess about, keep us busy and prevent us from going outside and exercising or being social? Likely.

Well this guy isn’t going to fall into their trap! It’s a beautiful day and I’ve already spent three hours analyzing this episode. I’m not going to waste any more time on this Communist document. In your face, Lost!

41 comments:

Unknown said...

Bah! Popular usage! Don't listen to the logical prescriptivists! Otherwise you might as well go back to saying "heels over head".

Anyway, I'm surprised you didn't consider that CFL might be a Dharmite.

Stef said...

I have a CFL theory that just came to me.

What if, 16 years ago, some incident occurred where she had to make a choice? She was alone, scared, worried about this "sickness," feeling guilt over killing her whole crew, and just had a brand new baby. What if the Others, and particularly Ben, came to her with some sort of negotiation, that they would take the baby and raise her (because Others believe they give children a better life) and in exchange CFL would get, what? Her life? And that as part of the bargain, she had to agree to never engage with the Others, to not seek them out, and to not come trying to find Alex.

That would explain her line about Ben being able to "lie for a long time," and it could explain a lot of her strange reactions about not knowing people or places and wanting to avoid interactions. It could also explain why she seems so tortured about hearing about 16-year-old Alex but still acting weird about being involved.

What do you all think?

Anonymous said...

You're off on the Compass assumptions. The problem was that the compass obviously didn't point north. It pointed north, but they could tell by the sun that it was off... When Locke read Eko's stick, it said JOHN 3:05

If you ever nagigate with a compass, what you do is point the compass to magnetic north, then follow the numbered berring in degrees to reach the direction you desire. And actually, magnetic north is not true north anyway..it's in northern Canada, so depending where you on on the globe, you need to adjust your berring accordingly.


The mangetic source on the island is thowing off magnetic north... so in this case.. Magnetic North would be 000, or 360.. same thing.. because of the magnetic reasing on the island, the they didn't know the correct berring to follow. Ekos stick told them that a berrying of 305 would take them true north.. or that's what John believes.

This still doesn't make sense to me, as you could have easily discovered this same berring by waiting to night, finding the north star(provided it's visible from that lattitude) and adjust the berring accordingly. You could also guestimate north by the sun, moss on tress, etc.. but that's why they're using the compass.

Anonymous said...

hey. just a great, great analysis again there again, brian. ta.

i mostly agree and saw you re-thinking my thoughts about this episode except for one thing.
namely that Locke really did trigger the explosion for the flame. of course i understand your reasoning to question it, because we don't really get to know, but i think that you can assume that "Enter 77" triggered the C4 to explode just because of the writers' (damon&carlton) designed the reaction to the explosion by Sayid: "What did you do, John", bla h, blah. Just the whole set-up.

This resembles how you are assuming that we can believe the reveals of Patchy (which i thought of in the very same way, that makes two = true!? ;D)

please consider. :-) cya

Anonymous said...

Perhaps because the Flame was the communications station, it held a lot of important information about Dharma and their goals that the Intiative didn't want anyone else getting ahold of. That could be one reason to explain the presence of the C4. And maybe the delay was meant to allow the Dharmite station worker to escape a fiery death, give him or her a chance to run and take refuge in another station?
But altogether your theory sounds more likely, Brian. Espeically since if the Flame really were being attacked by "the Hostiles" anyone trying to run would probably be caught right off the bat.

Anonymous said...

I agree with your analysis for the most part. One thing that doesn't add up to me though is this: You contend that the others are not malicious or murderous. What about Pickett? He seemed to be as fundamental an other as any of them. He was set to execute Sawyer until Tom interrupted. What gives? He was going to shoot Sawyer down in cold blood. They might have an eye for an eye mentality, but Sawyer didn't kill Colleen.

Renee' said...

Brian,
Oh my gosh! I am freaking out...
I just saw the movie 300 today...
King Xerxes the baddest and freakiest guy ever....is...Paolo!
I can not believe it!!!!!!!

Brian Leonard said...

Brian, I have the same reaction as Joe D. Throw Ethan into the mix: he was a surgeon who presumably had taken the Hippocratic Oath, yet he almost killed Charlie. And the "rafties"--Sawyer, Michael, and Jin--could all have easily died because of the Others' actions. Actually, I've been wondering about this paradox for a while now--it seems that The Others are sometimes murderous and sometimes merciful and honorable. Of course, so is humanity in general.


Anyway, great analysis. When you talk about the Others' "secret" being the lynchpin of this season, my gut says "of course!" Now things are **really** getting interesting...

Brian L. (about twice as old as you and maybe half as smart--in case people can't tell us apart...)

P.S. I agree with whoever said that Patchy (who seemingly breaks away and runs through the "fence"--he's not pushed by John) will be killed by Smokey. Bets, anyone?

Anonymous said...

Well from the POV of the Dharma Initiative (DI), I've been thinking about what purpose it would serve to destroy the main source of mainland communications.
If the Hostiles were to make an "incursion" on the Flame station without the it being destroyed, they could conceivably also fool the mainland into thinking the status quo has gone untouched and that everything is hunky-dory.
However if someone on the mainland (a listening post) were to completely lose communication (ie, no more food drop orders a la the Flame got blowed-up with a fail safe dose of C4 - "Blowed-up Reeaall Good"; for all you SCTV fans) then they would know something was up with the DI and could proceed to the next level of protocal (assuming to investigate the island and find out what happened to the Dharmites; initiate a Rescue Protocal perhaps?)

But having said this, it begs to question (with you on that one Salvar) shouldn't the incident at the Swan hatch in theory (since the implosion knocked out communications anyway) have set those (mainland) protocals (albeit hypothetical) in action regardless of Locke blowing the Flame up.

hmmm?

Great post Brian. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Wait a second, I may be wrong, but didn't Sayid refer to himself as Nadij in the flashback? I mean when he first met that woman's husband. Or maybe I just heard wrong.

Anonymous said...

"You're off on the Compass assumptions. The problem was that the compass obviously didn't point north. It pointed north, but they could tell by the sun that it was off... When Locke read Eko's stick, it said JOHN 3:05

If you ever nagigate with a compass, what you do is point the compass to magnetic north, then follow the numbered berring in degrees to reach the direction you desire. And actually, magnetic north is not true north anyway..it's in northern Canada, so depending where you on on the globe, you need to adjust your berring accordingly.


The mangetic source on the island is thowing off magnetic north... so in this case.. Magnetic North would be 000, or 360.. same thing.. because of the magnetic reasing on the island, the they didn't know the correct berring to follow. Ekos stick told them that a berrying of 305 would take them true north.. or that's what John believes.

This still doesn't make sense to me, as you could have easily discovered this same berring by waiting to night, finding the north star(provided it's visible from that lattitude) and adjust the berring accordingly. You could also guestimate north by the sun, moss on tress, etc.. but that's why they're using the compass."

Is it possible/plausible that they're following a compass bearing of 305, not because they want to hed true North, but just vecasue that's what it said on Eko's stick? John Locke being John Locke, he's not going to question anything and accept it on blind faith instead (well, now he's back to mysterious Locke anyway). I guess what I'm trying to say is that maybe it doesn't matter if the compass is pointing to true north (or magnetic north) and it just matters that they follow a bearing of 305 in relation to what the compass DOES point to.

Although I must say it'll take a hell of a convincing explanation to put this down as anything other than coiincidence that this led them to the flame (I'm not a believer in divine providence, and for a quasi-scientific show, that would be one hell of a cop-out.)

"Wait a second, I may be wrong, but didn't Sayid refer to himself as Nadij in the flashback? I mean when he first met that woman's husband. Or maybe I just heard wrong."

I heard Najeev, but my hearing isn't great... and I have to say that on seeing the name Nadji on the post in conjunction with Afghanistan and all the rest certain triggers started to go off in my head... until you think that he only called himself Nadji/Najeev AFTER the war.

Also, probaly unimportant point, but did anyone else notice that Sayid's torture was in Paris? When/why was he there? And how did me and both my flatmates miss it (twice) - it took a friend watching it at my place with us the secind time to pick up on the Eiffel tower in the bacjground as Sayid is walking to the restaurant just before he's captured.

Anonymous said...

Looking back at the 'Lockdown' episode and the map on the blast door, would it be worth going back to put back what we now know, since that map always attracts my eye no matter how often i see it. I'm guessing the ? is in fact the barracks we're heading to now.

Anonymous said...

Sayid did refer to himself as Nadij, he later confessed it wasn't his real name during his integration / almost torture. He never explained precisely why he was in Paris, but presumably he was there to escape his past or the Republican Army or both.

Anonymous said...

ha that was awsome but so intense, love it!.. 42 minutes and 13 seconds just isn't enough!..
whats up with cfl? she said "...i'll wait for you, for those of you who survive" which indicates she knows all about the supposedly wiped out dharma crew, she's obviously got a history with these people. r there still hostiles? you know, like other others?!? patchy was an awsome charactor! this ep was written by the masters of lost themselves, so it had to be good. The fans of lost have such massive expectations, for them to deliver an episode that can still shock, excite and totally blow the minds of their biggest fans, Lost is still the best tv show.. EVER!

Anonymous said...

Locke is innocent until proven guilty!

I'm not convinced that entering 77 caused the explosion directly. I'm not convinced that Locke acted maliciously or knowingly to destroy The Flame. I think that he did what he did playfully – and whoever was watching (a la the blinking red light) lit the place up.

Anonymous said...

ya know, it would make perfect sense if the ? in the middle of the blast door map was in fact the barracks.

Marking it with a ? would mean that the author of the map didn't know what was there.

Why wouldn't he know what was there? The security fence kept him from exploring it.

Rebecca said...

I still think there is something going on with Locke, not sure if it is good or bad.

Anonymous said...

I have watched that preview over and over and I am convinced that Locke is throwing Patch Adams into the security fence.

DCrowley said...

A dancing demon? No, something isn't right there..

Anonymous said...

The promo, on ABC's website, for this weeks episode is freak'n killer. Patchy is apparently 'all knowing' about each of our survivors background. For those of you uptight about spoilers, no need to say more here....check on the website and see if you want!!!

Brian said...

DCrowley - Well played.

Alec said...

Hey, if you all want to misuse "begs the question," more power to ya. But, though ignorance is bliss, willful ignorance is lame.

Brian -- what does "FOB" mean?

Anonymous said...

Ok Alec (as in Smart?) you are right.

I've copied this from a WSU website.


"BEGS THE QUESTION

An argument that improperly assumes as true the very point the speaker is trying to argue for is said in formal logic to “beg the question.” Here is an example of a question-begging argument: “This painting is trash because it is obviously worthless.” The speaker is simply asserting the worthlessness of the work, not presenting any evidence to demonstrate that this is in fact the case. Since we never use “begs” with this odd meaning (“to improperly take for granted”) in any other phrase, many people mistakenly suppose the phrase implies something quite different: that the argument demands that a question about it be asked—raises the question. If you’re not comfortable with formal terms of logic, it’s best to stay away from this phrase, or risk embarrassing yourself."

But then again I have no shame. I still say culinary with emphasis on "cull" rather than the proper usage "kyoo-luh-ner-ee."

I'm going to hell now aren't I? :)

Alec said...

in a handbasket, hobbes ;)

Anonymous said...

I could care less (I couldn't care less), Spitting image (Spit and Image), etc. Isn't this a Lost blog???

Anonymous said...

Also intensive purposes (intents and purposes)

Brian said...

Kids, kids, kids - enough with the grammar lessons. It really doesn't matter. I write things that are grammatically incorrect all the time - the fact of the matter is, due to how out of touch most people are with proper grammar, writing properly often results in clunky or weird sounding sentences, which just slows down the whole reading process.

In my mind, the point of writing is to get a message across to someone. And if using improper grammar gets the job done, then great. If the writing errors start to hinder this process, then it's a bad thing.

End of Story.

Alec - "FOB" is my new abbreviation for "Friend of the Blog". FOBs include frequent readers, posters, or well-wishers, as well as any famous people who I pretend read the Blog.

Alec said...

Phew. I thought it meant "F-in' Old Bastard" or something...

Anonymous said...

Question, can someone look back to when we first saw Patchy on the closed circuit feed fom the Pearl and see if we can tell by looking at the background of the video feed if it was the same room as the camera watching Locke? Would be interestign to know if thats the same camera or not. If it is the same camera, it would be safe to assume the only way someone could have been watching Locke was to be at the Pearl station.

Alec said...

Hmmm. The blogger posting system is freaking out on me. Here's a URL in parts for a picture of Patchy from the closed-circuit feed:

http://photos1.blogger.com

/blogger2/6380/3581

/1600/patch2.jpg

Stitch the parts together...

Myriam said...

I've been a long time FOB. I live in Puerto Rico and I really look forward to reading your analisis. You do know how to get your point across. I can't thank you enough :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link Alec. I think we can safely assume that angle is different from where Locke saw the camera in the dharma farma.

I know that equipment in the background is pretty generic but does anyone remember seeing anything like it in the farm?

I also wonder if Locke assumed that was the same camera they saw and therefore paid no attention to it. Like he looked at it and thought "oh, thats the pearl camera, no ones watching, i'll goof around on the computer."

PHG said...

Nothing to contribute, just wanted to make a post. I went to my second and third ever concerts this weekend. Makes me want to go to concerts now. Hey Brian, when I was there I saw Dave will be out here in 2 weeks.

Anonymous said...

I like it when Brian smack's his gavel down.
Lol, well I least we know we can all be jovial. I think it's all in good jest. Regardless of when the topic wonders at the end of the week (a Lost week which I consider to begin on Tuesday with Brian's DMG and ends on Monday). It's not like were grading papers here, so no pressure at the end of the day. Feel free to write what must be written (within Brian's guidlines of course). After all it is a very friendly and insightful blog. Way back when, I found it looking for an image of the blast door map and have been hooked ever since. Thanks for always being on it Brian. We, your fans, appreciate it. Google's loss for being overly persnickety.

Joe D. I rewatched the preview and wow you are right it totally looks like Locke is giving Patchy the ol'heave-ho into the Tesla coil. At first I thought he was trying to hold him back and stop Mikhail from sacrificing himself. But with Locke's hand on Patchy's coller it gives it a more of an intent to kill situation. Perhaps the "history" (as suggested in the Canadian clip) between them will explain if John is being malevolent for a particular reason.

Not to be confused with the big reveal on a connection between two of the survivors. My vote is between Jack and Claire (finally maybe?).

Anonymous said...

I had so much to say...
I have been off for a couple days (WORK! how dare they!) and then I come back to this thinking people will have so many theories and thoughts and Brian of course will have fresh looks the rest of us seem to not be involved in at all. BUT...there was so much here in so many different ways...so much that I forgot what I was going to say.

Brian, your thoughts on the Enter 77 threw me off. I can not say for sure why, but I feel you have just gone overboard on that one. The 'history' of the island was a a lot of assumption that we have NO FACT for. I am so very afraid to assume on this show...

All in all, many theories again...IT IS SO NICE TO BE BACK TO THIS...far an away from what we have been accustomed to recently. I enjoy the banter, the back and forth from each of you and wasted lots of time reading EVERY comment and so on! WHAT JOY...Lost IS back!

Now, I am not so naive as to expect it will remain this amped for too many episodes. I am sure we have two good ones left before we snooze again...ENJOY IT WHILE IT LASTS...that is why i WILL over anaylize everything...

Just my two cents on a couple points though...

YES, I think John blew it up. It is called the FLAME so i think the C4 was protocol for Dharma and I also believe what WAS (the initiative and experiments and all DI stuff) has been over for a while...otherwise why wasn't a new person ever sent to Kelvin? Surely they saw his partner kill himself. Basically, hostiles was a part of the 'lingo' for the two Dharmites in the swan hatch so it seems to me that is part of the welcome speech you receive when hitting the island. Also, the red blinking light should be examined...I didn't think it was on, but I could be wrong (happened one time a long time ago- HA HA)I was thinking that our OTHERS have been watching the goings on of the island in various ways up until the 'sky went purple' and since can not watch unless in closed circut situation...ie the cages outside the hydra.
So my thoughts were that the viewing stopped. Then, with some technical help from Syaid, we can see Patchy and off they go. So then someone was watching the Pearl maybe and saw the losties in there? OK...now I am rambling...I will stop now!

Drudo said...

I'm going to side with Brian so far. I don't think the C4 was originally part of the enter 77 response. I don't know why, but that's the impression I get.

I don't post often, but I read your blog every week. One more thought. Brian writes:

>But then - for some unknown reason, since Dharma had been on the Island for nearly 20 years without major incident - in the early 1990’s, Dharma decided to finally wipe out those pesky Others.

What if this wasn't so much of a waging of wars as a field test. In the "Lost Experience", doesn't the guy from Dharma mention injecting "Natives" with what they think is a Vaccine, but is really a disease? Could the Others be those they were injecting? Maybe the natives figured it out and fought back. I could be way off. Please, someone correct me if I am. But it's an intriguing idea.

Drudo said...

I just watched the video again. It mentions 2 villages that believe they have a disease and are being given a vaccine. Neither village name sounds like any real place I've heard of. Maybe this also accounts for the theory of 2 groups of Others. Maybe one village became the others we know and love and the other Others are the grubby feet we saw in the jungle. Any feedback? Anyone?

Anonymous said...

David...

Well, yes, that is possible. But when though a 'native' people, the others don't appear as you would expect 'natives'. They're not blindly going to take the stuff. They're obviously well educated people. However, it's not outside the possibility.

As for the Lost experience.. the producers have said that while some of the mythology.. such as the numbers and the equation are part of the mythology, it's hard to say how much is actual mythology.. though I do think that this would fall into the mythology area.

Let me suggest something about the 'disease'. Lets suppose that the 'others' are a long standing guardian of something... they have a purpose as a group to save the world by this function. Dharma comes and starts digging around, and in some way, perhaps the medication/virus caused them to become sterile. Now they're desparate to reproduce... or they'll lose their group who's purpose is to save the world?

Think about it.. these guys want to stay on the island, they obviously have a mission, a secret, that they only share with 'select' individuals. This secret is so important that they're taking the 'good ones' and willing to die to protect it, and even recruit off island to sustain it.

This could help to explain the others... perhaps the Monster is part of this thing that they're protecting against? But what about the time issue? The magnet?

My overall theory: The "others" are in a long line of people who save the world by maintaining/protecting something. Dharma came in and mucked with their environment. They posed as 'hostiles' or primitives, which led Dharma to think that they were weaker than they were. When Dharma attacked, the 'others' took them out. However, Dharma had done damage.. they've not only affected their aging/immorality/whatever, but they've endangered what it is that the others are doing. They can no longer reproduce themselves, so they're trying to recruit from the outside. Somehow, the others were exposed to whatever it is that the others and Dharma were taking the treatment for.

What this doesn't explain is the Buhdist influence on Dharma and the 'others'. The Dharma hints in the 'others' video. How the others communicated with the mainland before the Dharma technology.. or what it is that they're protecting the world from.

Anonymous said...

How can the "Others" be natives of the island. Born and bred there and yet have clothes and homes with backyards, records, furniture. Hell and speak english for that matter instead of a native jibberish. Also, If I am not mistaken, you need heavy machinery to build homes. It doesn't make any sense. I think the Others were all brought there from Dharma as experiment rats. Constantly being watched and observed.
About this Smokey dude:

Smokey kind of ruins this show for me. It is just too unrealistic and unbelievable. I would believe it more if you tell me there was a huge smoke machine or mechanism of some sort. Place in the sky or on top of the highest mountain on the island that can blow black clouds down to scare people. There is a dharmite sitting watching the whole island and at the right time presses a button and this black cloud comes out and terrifies people. Props.... That would be more realistic to me than a freak spirited thing. I never was a fan of science fiction and thats what this seems to be.
However, Still love this show. I tivo it and start waching 1/2 hr into it so I can fast forward all the commercials. THere are way to many commercials.

Anonymous said...

ok there are a lot of posts, so idont kno if anyone has said this already but...
the entire "others as hostile that lived here forever" bothers me. if you look at them now, they got ppl on the mainland, boats, and all the stuff we have today. but if they lived on the island forever, and have remained hidden, i highly doubt they would be in contact with the rest of the world. using ur native american reference brian, it makes sense that thes eothers would be backwards when the dharmites got to the island. i think a better explanation would be that the dharmites took the natives in, and used them for experiments or to do other stuff, and in return, gave them technology. then the native realized they wanted theior land back, and kicked the dharmites out, and now all thats left are the natives, dharma-enhanced with all of the dharam technology, aka the others.

its out there, but im trying to making things fit logically...

Anonymous said...

We need to think outside of the box... just because they've been on the 'forever' doesn't mean that they don't have technology, education, or communication with the outside world. They could have a role to play.. don't think of them as Natives, because they obviously aren't. They have a task.. a resposibility... guardians possibly? And perhaps Dharma mucked things up and make this thing they're guarding a lot more dangerous.

There is something else big here, other than Dharma.