Lost: Season Four Wrap Up

Let's put the final stamp on Season Four.

As promised, here are some responses to the comments posted on my "There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 and 3" Analysis from a few weeks back.

jon said...
You think that the Island hasn't been moved during the last 15 years. I see the reasoning: the wall in the Orchid was intact. But maybe there are non-FDW ways to move the island. Maybe the hatch explosion caused such a move too.

Good point – and one that I considered it during my analysis. I was thinking that perhaps there is another FDW at “The Temple” that the Others used after Dharma cutoff their access to the one beneath the Orchid… but if that was the case, why wouldn’t Ben have just used that one instead of going through the trouble of getting past Keamy and Co at the Orchid? I decided that the only logical reason was that there was but one FDW – at the Orchid.


Stef said...
Remember, Frank was supposed to be the original pilot of Flight 815, right? So it *is* his destiny to be on the Island, I think.

Great thought – this could be a good way to ensure that the character of Frank continues to be on the show. It’s his destiny to be on the Island. It would also explain why Smokey killed the actual Oceanic 815 pilot in the Pilot episode of Lost – because he was never supposed to be on the Island in the first place!

More Frank, please!


gisele said...
I have a few thoughts I would like to share;

1. Locke's death. Could it be he appears dead? Remember the spider thing? Was it Vicky and her boyfriend who seemed dead but weren't when they were being burried alive? At the time this episode aired we were told that this story was important, yet it felt like a filler. Maybe Locke used the spiders to look dead? Would his death give his plea, for a return to the island by the Oceanic 6, more strenght? In the sense that he was willing to give his life for it.

I assume you are talking about Nikki (unless there is some secret Lost character you know about that I do not), but using the spiders to appear dead seems a little too gimmicky to me. I think the spiders were a one-time deal, used to get rid of Nikki and Paulo in the most cruel way possible. I can’t see them returning to the show.

2. About the others travelling to and from the island. There must be a way for them (or at least for Alpert) to do that. Dharma came to the island, what, in the 70s? But Alpert came to the States way before that to visit a 5 or 6 years old John Locke. If John is in his 50s that puts that trip in the 50s or 60s.

I agree – the Others were clearly able to travel to and from the Island… but I don’t think they were necessarily doing so via “funky space and time”. Instead, they could have simply been using traditional methods (boats, submarines, whales). Or – another cool thought – what if the FDW controls moving the Island in time, but there is some other FDW-equivalent somewhere else on the Island (like the Other’s Temple) that allows the person to move in time. After all, only fools are controlled by time AND SPACE. Surely that means more than the side effect of turning the FDW and ending up in Tunisia, doesn’t it?

3. If Windmore is, in one way or another, trying to be good, then why did he send the likes of Keamy and his army, and enough explosives to blow up a carriership? I have a bit of a problem with these explosives. Were their only purpose to give Keamy a "life insurance"? And why would Keamy think that blowing up the freighter would make his life safer? Why would Ben care if it blew up or not? Keamy was not supposed to know that Sayid went back to the island and brought people back to the boat. It all happened hush, hush with the Captain. So who was on the ship that would make it important to Ben? Michael? But if I were Keamy I would bring Mickey with me to the island and use him the same way he used Alex, only now Ben knows he is not bluffing. So what were the explosives for? Surely Widmore never wanted to blow up his own ship or the island or part of it. I am intrigued.

You know what, you’re absolutely right – the explosives on the ship make no sense as part of Widmore’s master plan… which seemed to be the capture of Benjamin Linus – unless they were originally intended to be used for some other purposes – like blowing up every living person on the Island once Ben was removed from it, to “clear the way” for Widmore to return without having to worry about an Others sneak-attack. Or maybe even as some “weapon” to be used against Smokey? I guess there are many options – including “it made for an exciting storyline and got rid of all the Frieghtors from a storytelling perspective.” Unfortunately, I’m guessing we never return to this storyline to receive any further explanation.


susa said...
Maybe the new show of J.J.Abrams is worth watching? Anybody heard of "Fringe", coming in August? Could be worth some post(s), what do you think, Brian ;-) ?
I think I would love to read and write about it if it´s worth!

Funny you should mention that, I just grabbed the pilot episode of “Fringe” this week, and fully intend to watch and post a review in the next week or two – including determining if it will be a “Blog-worthy” show for the fall!


Anonymous said...
Also, I'm having time line issues with the food drops? Was there a period where Widmore and Ben were still working together to allow his planes to know where to drop the food? Did he just have to wait for someone on the island to turn equipment off to allow Widmore to get back to the island?

In my head, yes – there was a time when both Widmore and Ben were working together on the Island. I think the Periodic Ration Drops started back when Dharma first started messing around with the FDW – as a way to ensure that no matter when the Island ended up, there would be food available to them (assuming the Island moved into the future, and didn’t change locations, I suppose).

Think about it – if the Island suddenly moved 100 years into the future and Dharma was no more, the people would have no contacts on the outside world to bring new supplies. By setting up the PRD to run forever, it ensured the Island would always have supplies, no matter what… unless it moved to a totally different location – which seems unlikely at this point, doesn’t it?


VictorC said...
Why do you think there was fire in the other side of the FDW?

I don’t know that it was fire as much as light or steam coming through – almost like “energy” coming through – which would be consistent with the bright light in the sky.


Anonymous said...
Other questions include: why exactly did Ben put metal objects in the unit? It seemed to be that he was attempting to blow open the wall to the other side. Thoughts?

Bingo – it provided a simple way to blow a hole in the wall and get to the FDW.

What, if anything can we learn from the hieroglyphics shown when Ben walked down the stairs towards the FDW?

They are probably ancient “instructions” or “warnings” about the FDW from the ancient civilization that lived on the Island. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any good translations for the symbols on the Internet… or maybe scholars have not yet deciphered the hieroglyphic equivalent to “Frozen Donkey Wheel”.

What thoughts does anyone have related to what the origin of the FDW is? Who put it there? How old is it? What exactly is happening as the FDW is turned? Why does the person turning it get thrown off the Island?

Again, I’ll go with the hieroglyphic-writing Island Originals creating and placing the FDW as a way to attempt and control the power of the exotic matter on the Island. Maybe the area used to be some type of “black hole” that fellow Islanders could fall into. It’s probably as old as the four-toed statue.

In my head, when the FDW is turned, it’s temporarily allowing a large amount of the energy stored behind the wall (in the “exotic matter”) to escape. A byproduct of being so close to that much energy is having the FDW-turner being thrown through space and time, a la some type of wormhole.

No idea if any of that is possible per science, but that’s how it works in my head and I’m happy with it.

Why does Sayid want to make Hurley safe? Safe from who? If Sayid doesn't plan to take Hurley back to the Island, where is he taking him to?

Safe from Widmore assassins who are monitoring him. I think this is actually Ben putting thoughts in Sayid’s head. I don’t necessarily think that they are monitoring Hurley because they want to kill him – but rather to see if they can get any information about the Island from him if he ever leaves.

Why did Jack wig out? Will we see flashbacks with him and his dad or whatever may have caused him to tank?

Jack wigged out because he was on drugs, realizing he made a terrible mistake, and having visions of his dead father telling him he made a terrible mistake and needed to go back to the Island – which is something he can’t figure out how to do. He’s going crazy.


Steve said...
Brian, didn't you catch that bit? Weren't they on Penny's boat? Unless I misread what i was seeing, and we were watching the rescue group, I saw Hurley and Sayid on Penny's boat.. and with Sayid working with Ben... that could be part of the group getting together. ALL of them.. including Desmond.. but only Ben, Jack and maybe Sayid know this plan right now?

I don’t follow. Sayid and Hurley got onto Penny’s rescue boat along with the rest of the Oceanic Six. Ben was not there.


Anonymous said...
Do we know for sure Locke is the "chosen one" -- maybe he is just a temp chosen one until Aaron is old enough to take over (like you suggest Ben was just a temp chosen one). Maybe that is why he did not pass Albert's test -- he is close, but not the one.

Another good point – that would be pretty fitting given how Locke has been screwed by everyone in his life up until this point. He’s being led to believe he’s the chosen one, only to find that he’s just holding a place for Aaron / Walt. But then why not just keep Ben around for a few more years rather than going through a temporary leader change to Locke?


Helena said...
Hi guys,
Has any of you read the time loop theory? http://www.timelooptheory.com/ . It really blew me away and now I can’t stop thinking about it. It just seems to piece everything together and explain A LOT of the weird things going on, especially since the finale. I would love to hear people’s opinion of it since I tend to swallow most things without much analysis…
Helena

The Lost Time Loop Theory does a really good job at tying together a lot of different elements from the Lost story into a semi-plausible story that addresses certain plot points very well... but in the process, also ignores some pretty big ones. I admit, it's a very creative theory - but unfortunately, I don't think it's one that holds up given everything we know about Lost thus far.

From the start, there is some questionable logic. The author suggests that the Black Rock was carrying large amounts of metallic minerals while passing the Island, which caused some super magnetic effect and pulled it into the middle of the Island, creating the "hole" in the bubble at bearing 305. Definitely interesting, and a cool visual if you think about it (the ship being pulled ashore and through the jungle by this huge magnetic force) - but we've seen no such evidence of any metallic materials on the Black Rock... only slaves and explosives. I'd be willing to let this slide were it not for the next leap of faith... that the Black Rock leaders, including Alvar Hanso begin studying the magnetic aspects of the Island and later form Dharma. Perhaps these slave runners were true renaissance men, and were also aspiring scientists in their former lives - but it's not likely. I have a hard time believing that upon crashing, these men from the 1800's would decide to start studying and understanding the magnetic properties of the Island... especially without any sort of equipment / resources with which to conduct the tests.

For the next few paragraphs, the author brings up some very logical points regarding building the time machine, the theory that you can only go back to the point when the time machine was created (sure, why not?), and testing using Polar Bears - but then gets a little wacky when suggesting that the time machine also grants a pseudo-invincibility, proposing that the Dharma Polar Bear was in the desert because they were testing its ability to survive there. Rather, we've seen that the polar bear skeleton was in the Tunisian desert because that's a side effect of turning the wheel. The same thing happened to Ben when he turned the wheel.

Knowing this, a lot of where the author goes with his theory loses its footing. The time travelers aren't invincible or unable to be killed until a certain year arrives. Instead, the far more logical (albeit harder to explain) argument is that the Island is controlling who is allowed to die and who isn't. Take Michael for example. He clearly never visited the Orchid Station or time travel, yet was unable to kill himself until the Island was ready.

But my favorite theory proposed - and by favorite, I mean the one that made me laugh the most - was that Dharma intentionally created a virus for the purpose of curing it in the future and proving the time machine had a benefit to society. Really? What benefit would that be? Getting back to the same starting place that you would have been at if the disease had never been created in the first place? How would that provide any societal benefit? Not likely.

Unfortunately, it's all downhill from here. Soon, the author has proposed that CFL and her crew were actually opposing forces to Dharma sent on a mission, that Ben's mother was on the Island before giving birth to him, and creates a dual-timeline scenario to find a way to explain everything that we have seen on the Island thus far... which feels like a cheap way to work around the open questions. Instead of finding one storyline that would answer them, he creates two - resulting in a confusing mess that could never be explained easily over the course of the final two seasons.

Man, I sound like a total jerk. I don't mean to come off that way, so I'll stop ripping the theory apart here and just leave it with "there are some considerable holes and illogical jumps that seem unlikely to be true." It was a good effort, and I always enjoy reading other theories since there are often nuggets of intriguing ideas within (in this case, the thought that arriving to the Island returns the body to the state it was in in the past - which could explain Locke being able to walk, Rose being cured of cancer, and maybe even the Doctor's healed cut on his face re-opening when his body washed ashore) - but it's clearly not the "end all, be all" theory for explaining Lost.


Ryan said...
I don't know if anyone will read this post since season 4 ended a few weeks ago. There is something I want to share that I noticed in one of the Season 1 episondes. I started watching Lost during Season 2 so I'm watching the first season online. There is an episode where Claire has dreams about her baby being taken away. In the first one she walks up to Locke who is at a desk and asks him what is going on. He tells her she knows what is going on and says, "He was your responsibility but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now." Could this dream have been a foreshadow of the future. Maybe the trouble on the island is a result of Claire letting Aaron leave the island with Kate.

Wouldn’t that be ironic? The reason for the “bad things” happening on the Island is that the Others are furious that Aaron is no longer there, and Locke has already failed them as a leader before he even began? It’s a pretty good thought, and another way to tie-in the whole Aaron storyline that was so important in Season One. I like it.


Anonymous said...
Watch Star Trek!

I can’t – that would make me a nerd. Instead, I'm a cool guy who obsesses about TV and runs a Blog. Wait...


Okay, consider this the last post about Lost Season Four. If you’ve got anything else on your chest you need to get off, this is the Comments Section to do it. Otherwise, we’ll start moving the Blog on to other things – namely a sneak review of “Fringe”, the annual Emmy Rant, the Fall TV Preview, etc. (all the “…and Gone Forever” sides of the Blog while we patiently wait for Lost to return).

The good news is that fresh Lost information is less than a month away! Much like last year, we’ll almost certainly get something to talk about from the nerd oasis of Comic-Con on July 24-27.

But rather than sit around and wait, it’s the summertime – go outside and play!