Saturday, April 28, 2007

D.O.C. In-Depth Analysis

I apologize for how long it took to get this post out. Let me just say by recent and painful experience that it is devastating when you finish your post, go to put it on the blog... and it disappears.

But fear not! This episode was just so good I couldn't possibly give up and not post a decent analysis. And aways we goes!

Mr. and Mrs. Kwon: Poetic that Jin was willing to do anything Mr. Paik required, and that Sun was the person that indirectly placed Jin in the servitude of her Father. Once again we see that Sun has the resolve to not only make a decision with unpleasant consequences, but isn't afraid to follow through on her threats. Observe:












We also learned that Jin is also a member of the Island group with military service. I had always been curious as to where Jin had learned how to fight, because his time as mob muscle just didn't seem to be able to account for all of his KO power. Props to xtine for commenting that in Korea, military service is mandatory. And hey Jin, you really are gonna be a daddy!

Timeline: As commenter Amber noted, the timing of Sun's pregnancy is coinciding with the expected timeline that the show has set for its conclusion. Making note of this is potentially a very big deal, as the show may take on an element of a race against time for the life of Sun and her and Jin's child. The clock is ticking.

Leadership, and the Lack Thereof: Take a quick look at Jack:












Compare what you see to your memory of Jack from season's one and two. You know, the leader. Does Jack's recent wardrobe choice look like something that a great man would pick out? Think too how easy is was for Sun to talk to Kate, questioning Jack's commitment to the cause of the survivors. Jack's leadership is slipping quickly, and maybe rightfully so. In the void Sawyer, with Hurley's help, has emerged and Locke when present was always looked for to provide some guidance. Desmond's unique ability has also positioned him into a quasi-leadership position. However, let's take a quick look at Desmond:












Does this look like a man that inspires confidence? Sure, at least he picked out a nicer shirt than Jack, but Desmond is beginning to take on the single-minded characteristic we associated with Locke from the first two seasons. Their single-mindedness is even following similar paths to redemption: Locke struggled with frustration as he fought to open the hatch, and was demoralized by his misunderstanding of pushing the button, whereas Desmond lives in regret of not changing his circumstances when he had the chance, and worries that once again his disobedience towards the universe has seperated him from Penny. Like Locke, who has always maintained the goal of understanding the Island, Desmond maintains his goal of reuniting with Penny. It remains to be seen whether Desmond will like Locke become a similar force working for better or worse to satisfy the desire he has to achieve his goal.

In short, the on-Island leadership rolls are changing, with some filling in past roles, and old roles being abandoned. How it will shake out is anyone's guess.

Communication: One interesting tidbit from this episode was our insight into how the Others communicate. This was hinted at when Paolo discovered a walkie in the Pearl, and confirmed when Juliette headed directly for the recorder after working with Sun. There will be interesting consequences if someone like Sayid ever learns about the Others' habit of dropping off communications devices with messages to be picked up at a later time.












Patchy: In my instant reactions, I noted that we just don't have many pieces to the Patchy puzzle. Here's what I've got so far, with one new idea:

- Patchy was recruited to the Island.
- Patchy speaks multiple languages.
- Patchy is some sort of communications/information gathering expert.
- Despite this, he doesn't always carry his walkie.
- Ben is leery of him.
- He's like the Others (able to lie and manipulate, has access to Island resources) but is also very unlike all of the Others we've met so far (he lives alone and apart from the community, seems to be following a different agenda).
- He is very much alive, and acknowledges the uniqueness of the Island
- He says things that are kinda funny, at least to him.
- He has medical knowledge as well.
- Even though we call him Patchy, his face is noticeably splotchy.
- When he sees a flare, he comes runnin'.
- He knew Radzinski.












Think about that last one. Remember the episode when Eko found part of the Swan orientation film reel in the Good Book? With a glass eye? At this point it seems safe to assume that the eye used to be Patchy's. Since we know that Radzinski edited the film, we can assume that Patchy and Radzinski were familiar with each other. Patchy knows a lot more about things than we can even begin to guess.

All that said, there's still a lot missing. Why did he come after the flare, alone, and why did he mistranslate the parachutist's words to the campers? Why try to steal the satellite phone? What are his motives?

Hot women falling from the sky: There's a lot to look at regarding this parachutist, and I don't just mean because she adds another pretty face to the Island population.












In short, she likes reading Heller, recognizes Desmond, speaks a bunch of languages, isn't alone (thanks to those able to translate the many languages that appear on the show), and knows that Oceanic 815 went down, was found, and no one survived.

Wait, what?

This is the thing that's weird to me: for all the speculation about alternate timelines and multiple flight 815s and whatnot, roughly three months have passed since the crash. In today's modern world where information travels quickly, and yesterday's news is the oldest news, doesn't it seem a bit remarkable that some random woman could parachute onto an island with plane crash survivors, and be able to share information pertinent to their particular situation? Why would she have information about that on hand?

My suspicion is that for Oceanic 815 to be in the parachutist's memory, she must be connected to someone that was on that flight and I would not be surprised to see her appear in a flashback with a close association to an Island inhabitant. As neat as that would be, it still doesn't do anything to determine whether what she has to say about Oceanic 815 is true. Lost does a great job of giving just enough of a hint of something weird to really allow the imagination to go to extremes. Thus far, the wildest ideas haven't panned out, but a good cliffhanger leaves you with the idea that it could. That's where we found ourselves at the end of this past episode, and I just have a hard time believing that the answer will end up being something where multiple worlds and realities are involved.

In the end we got a great episode with hints of things to come from all sorts of interesting angles (you know it was action packed when you feel like you analyzed a lot of things, and didn't even cover everything), and next week's preview looks to bring on another great episode. Brian will be back soon, and it's been a pleasure.

Happy commenting!






28 comments:

Ben said...

I suspect that the bit about the plane being found was just something that the others managed to make the mainstream media believe...if indeed they have that kind of influence. It's unclear whether they do

Stef said...

Nice post, and thank you for being patient enough to redo the whole thing after losing it once. :-)

Down with Jack! He's been my least favorite character since day 1, and I love that people are starting to doubt him.

Imagine Naomi's perspective. She was sent (we think) to look for one man who got lost on a sailboat. Suddenly now she's found dozens of survivors of a plane crash that were all supposed to be dead? I think she may have a hard time wrapping her head around that, just like us.

Alec said...

I think that a major plane crash with no survivors might last in the public consciousness for 3 months, though I like your idea that Naomi is connected to someone on the flight. That'd be very Lost-ish.

Anonymous said...

Great job on the post...Brian will be very proud of each of you! Especially for your commitment! THANK YOU!

I am not convinced that Patchy KNEW Rozinsky...but then again I doubt almost every word I say anymore!

I am sure the plane crash was staged and I think that it would deffinately be remembered by anyone, because...it was a transcontinetal flight with passengers from many countries, and NO survivors...they would have been having funerals last month if it were happening for real.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the ability to remember a crash 3 months after... from all we know, it sounds like Oceanic 815 was something like TWA 800 in the amount of media attention it garnered. I don't think it'd be all that surprising 3 months out for someone to recognize the name and make the connection.

Matt G. said...

Brian would have posted the translation...not everyone reads every comment....

Anonymous said...

Excellent analysis man. Gotta admit Brian made very wise choices to manage the blog while hes getting drunk and wild on Europe>> hint hint ;)

One thing: Why the parachute girl would say "Im not alone" in a lenguage that only Patchy would understand? coincidence or not?

Anonymous said...

I don't think Naomi was trying to hide anything from Desmond and Co., or that she's an Other giving a secret message to Patchy. My impression was that she was just delirious and raving, slipping in and out of various languages she knows - and then once she was starting to heal, she finally 'woke up' and talked to Hurley. Things don't ALWAYS have to have super-complicated explanations.
I suppose Patchy lied because he doesn't trust the survivors of the crash, or maybe because lying is a time-honored Other-tradition.

Renee' said...

Well done RutkowskiLives!
Thank you for taking the time to re-do your work. Did Naomi speak to Patchy because of his Dharma uniform he was wearing? (fish3k1's theory)

Renee' said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael said...

Deuce, it's true. Brian does a way better job at these than I can do, especially on a first try. It's a much different experience watching the show just to enjoy it, and watching the show to be able to competently analyze it. I have a much greater appreciation for the time it takes him to put these together and how dedicated he is to this blog and his readers. I'll admit that I could have done a better job, just don't forget that after finishing the post the first time it was zapped, what you read was my second effort after already investing a good amount of my weekend into the first attempt. I had to draw the line somewhere and felt confident that most would have already heard what the translations meant, and J. hating Ben wasn't all that big a deal.

Michael said...

Renee, I tend to side with the idea that she was just trying to communicate with anyone any way she could, and since Patchy was giving her some medical attention, sshe spoke to him.

Anonymous said...

Well Done! Excellent Analysis.

People with critisisms of those filling in while Brian is gone are annoying me.

Anonymous said...

I'll bet the ranch that Naomi is helping the Others on their attack which takes place in a week. That is why she is not alone. It comes back to "Enter 77" Larry

Anonymous said...

I must have missed something ... can someone fill me in on why you think Makhail knew Radzinski? Just because they were ostensibly both part of Dharma? My sense is that Dharma had many cells and not everyone would have known everyone else ... or did I miss a crucial bit of dialogue?

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

i suggest the timeline as to when flight 815 crashed and the "present" (3 months or so) would be plausible for someone NOT connected to the incident to remember it occurring.

The next episode (Locke"centric") should be killer...huh?

Michael said...

Eric, it goes back to finding the edited part of the Swan orientation video and what we suspect to be Patchy's glass eye together. I don't know if it was confirmed that Radzinski edited the orientation film, but I vaguely recall that it was alluded to. It might be a stretch, but if those two did know each other...

Anonymous said...

GREAT JOB!

That connection with Radiski was astute.

But... why would Patchy leaver his eye? Maybe he lost it in a struggle with someone.

Whether they were working together, I don't know, but it would make sense that Patchy may want to remove the line about using the computer for communications... as he can probably monitor all communications sent by these computers. So it's possible that it was in his, and the Others best interest to have it removed, but why Radiski?

Could Radinki have been an other? Or at least be sharing info with someone?He was there more recently.. post 1991 after the fall of Dhamra.. or so we think. Maybe he was just trying to get off the island. Just because someone wears a dhamra jumpsuit doesn't make them dharma.

We also have to remember that certain items in the old hatch were very recent makes(washer/dryer/stovetop) and others were old(Turntable, no CD/VCR/DVD.) So its possible that Dharma was still replacing this stuff.

heliopath said...

lets not forget the food drops.
do you think those will stop know the hatch has imploded?
were those random or 'other' controlled.

Anonymous said...

Mikhail and Radzinski are both "russian" names. Or Eastern European, at least.

Jason said...

It's a great theory but Patchy and Radzinski are not the same person.

Kelvin told Desmond that Radzinski put a shotgun in his mouth and blew his brains out. He also showed desmond the brain stain on the roof of the swan station.

Kelvin said the real pain was he only had 108 minutes to bury Radzinski because of the button.

Despite the amazing healing properties of the island I doubt it could fix the gapping hole in his brain and head the shotgun would have made.

Anonymous said...

could Kelvin be lying for some reason when he said Radzinski shot himself?

Jason said...

Sure he could be lying but he did show desmond some sort fo blood stain. If it's not Radzinski's then whose is it? Plus we know the hatch was full of guns. Which makes me think of another question, Why would a research station have enough guns to start a war? You don't even need that many for protection from animals. Also how did Dharma lose "The Purge" with all that ammo and guns and indestructible bases to defend from?

Anonymous said...

Jason....you raise another excellent point that I believe was never asked until now.

JacobUSA said...

If you look at the arc of the show and the conflict that needs to be created, pitting Jack against the other survivors right now plays perfectly. I cannot imagine that Jack isn't playing Juliet. Jack has been the center of the show since day 1 and I do not for a second believe that he is going to let anyone down. He is playing Juliet "keeping his enemies close."
If the public believes the plane has crashed, then Desmond is TRULY the key to the show because without him getting lost, his girlfriend would never be searching for him.
Another big deal was the healing power of the island. Patchy goes dead and the island brings him back to life... will more of the "dead" people who aren't buried start showing up? We know of 2 who won't but maybe Ms. Klugh?

Rebecca said...

Excellent Post!! thanks.. xxoxo

Matt G. said...

@RutkowskiLives:

Great point - getting a post zapped must be been very frustrating! I'm glad you still stuck with it.

Adam said...

naomi wasn't there for desmond. she was there for patchy. the flare was supposed to be fired by naomi to signal patchy... but she got hurt. Instead, Hurley fired the flare. When patchy came, he had to think fast. He pretended not to know the woman... but they speak the same language. Methinks they're in cahoots.