Destiny Calls

It’s time to get excited. It’s also a time to be very, very afraid.

 

It’s exciting because we are three weeks away from the start of a brand new season of Lost, which is the happiest time of the year (aside from Christmastime and NCAA Tournament time, of course). But it’s also a scary time because apparently the first two episodes of the new season have been distributed to the media. While the “official media people” are somewhat sworn to secrecy about the contents of these episodes, inevitably these episodes will find their way into the hands of the various spoiler websites in the world. Therefore, it’s time to go on high alert, avoiding any potential spoiler sites for the next three weeks in order to maximize the enjoyment of the season premiere.

 

But that doesn’t mean we should just sit idly and wait for January 21^st. There is still a TON of preseason hyping and speculating to do.

 

Over the past few months, there have been a number of officially released commercials / previews of the forthcoming fifth season of Lost, and a good number of them are worth discussing.

 

Before we get started, it’s probably a good idea to remind ourselves of exactly where we left things at the end of the fourth season. For those of you who own the Season Four DVDs, there is a “Lost in 8:15” feature at the start of Disc One, which tells the story of Lost in Cliffs Notes form, bringing you up to speed on the first three seasons before you start watching Season Four. It’s hilarious and informative. Thankfully, it looks like ABC released a similar video on the Internet last month, this time including everything from the fourth season as well.

 

So, before we get started, I present to you – 86 Lost episodes condensed down into 4 minutes and 51 seconds… even less if you take out the 20 seconds of ABC advertisements at the end. If you have randomly stumbled upon this website but have never viewed an episode of Lost in your life, here’s your chance to get the quick and dirty 100,000 foot view of the series:

 

 

 

Okay, so now that we are up to speed (as of May 2008), it’s time to review what’s happened since then. Let’s review the facts first, and then I’ll follow up with analysis at the end. It all started with this video that emerged from Comic Con over the summer…

 

 

A few notes from the video:

• Marvin Candle’s real name is Pierre Chang.
• He seems defeated, and is done with the “games”.
• He only has “one chance at this”.
• He was recruited to this “God-forsaken Island” to study the Kerr Metric solutions to Einstein's Field Equations – which is really complicated, but deals with funky forces acting on objects and black holes. If you are smarter than me, this might make more sense to you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerr_metric
• Mentions “if I can keep this pinhole open long enough, you should be receiving my message roughly thirty years…”
• Knows about George W. Bush, the Internet, and his death in the Purge (but is powerless to escape).
• Time is not just of the essence… it IS the essence.
• Hopes that we can find a way to save them – to change the past.

 

 

The Comic Con video, and a few others that emerged at the time, seemed to kickoff a new ARG for the fall – a terribly run ARG that unfolded far too slow, was far too uninteresting, and eventually died in a pretty embarrassing way. After the trainwreck, Damon and Carlton appeared to explain:

 

 

And shortly after followed it up with this, far more intriguing video:

 

 

The books they reference are:

 

Lancelot by Walker Percy – Sawyer was reading in Season Two’s “Maternity Leave”.

 

Lancelot is a novel that was written in 1977 by the author Walker Percy. The book is about Lancelot Lamar, a lawyer who, when he discovers that he is not the father of his youngest daughter, kills his wife by blowing up their house. He ends up being confined in a mental institution, where he then dwells on the memories of his frightful past. There is a surrealistic element, where reality blends with delirium.

 

Ulysses by James Joyce – Ben will be reading in the seventh episode of the season, which will be called “316” (or is it 3:16 – "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.")

 

I haven’t read Ulysses, but according to Amazon, it’s a book about “everything.” The author sees the universe in Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904, a day distinguished by its utter normality. In it, two characters go about their separate business, crossing paths with a gallery of indelible Dubliners. The result is that almost every variety of human experience is crammed into the accordion folds of a single day.

 

The Stand by Steven King – referenced by Damon and Carlton in previous interviews, the Stand is the ultimate story of a superflu killing most of the world’s population, culminating in the final battle of Good vs. Evil with the few survivors.

 

But perhaps more interesting is the logo that flashes at the end of the video:

 

 

 

To me, that sure does look like some sort of light, which I’ll call the “Lighthouse Dharma Logo” because it sounds like the name of a Dharma station.

 

With this next video, Damon and Carlton answer a little Q&A. While there answers are usually very vague, I’m a believer that they hand pick the questions that they answer because they want to remind us about things that haven’t been referenced on the show in a while – or minor things that we didn’t pay much attention to the first time.

 

 

The noteworthy items:

 

When Ben mentions, “you all have to go back”, it was worded intentionally ambiguous, but will be answered… I’m guessing in Act One of Episode One of the Fifth Season.

 

They respond to a question about the Others building the runway in Season Three. It’s either one of those things that they will never talk about again and pretend it never happened, or will be essential to plot of Season Five. Damon bets that it is irrelevant, but then follows up by making a bet with Carlton that the LOSER of the bet gets to punch the winner… meaning it’s probably pretty essential to the plot.

 

Confirm that the Smoke Monster came before the Dharma Initiative.

 

 

Initially, this appears to be a fun, throwaway video… but I picked up one very big possible point - Future Damon and Carlton tell us that it is impossible to change the future.

 

The video ends with one second shots of what appear to be two new characters for Season Five. We’ll worry about them later.

 

 

Two brief takeaways from this one:

 

The reason Christian Shephard is wearing white shoes will be answered this season – which is a good question, I suppose – and one that I personally never asked.

 

The four toed statue will be seen in Season Five, but more extensively in Season Six.

 

This video ends with an Ajira Airways commercial

 

Get Lost in the world.
Destiny calls.

Fly Ajira Airways.

http://ajiraairways.com/

 

Visiting the website, there are a few references to Lost (such as the hieroglyphics from the 108 counter in the Swan Hatch, Lost-relevant locations like Los Angeles, Portland, and Baghdad, and the phrase "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" hidden in the code), but so far nothing earth shattering has been discovered yet.

 

It is intriguing that Ajira is Hindi for "island" or "isle", or Arabic for "Eternal life after Death".

 

That brings us to the new commercials that have been airing over the past month, which feature some noteworthy scenes if you watch very closely.

 

 

• We see Juliet, Sawyer, and Locke shielding their eyes from a bright light.
• Locke is shown falling off those big vines / roots – like the ones near the Pearl, and later seen clutching a bloody compass.
• Someone uncovering a vine-covered hatch opening in the jungle.
• Sawyer and Juliet running from flaming arrows.
• Someone wearing a Dharma haz-mat suit (like Kelvin wore) pointing a gun at Faraday near what looks like the Swan entrance.

 

Next, there is what I deemed the “Freakout Trailer” that I posted on the Blog before Christmas…

 

 

Among the freakout-worthy scenes were:

 

• Strangers getting pulled through the jungle similar to how Smokey dragged Locke in Season One)
• A baby being born.
• Locke all alone asking “is anyone there? Anyone?”
• A pendulum swinging over funky charts / graphs / maps.
• A person writing all over chalkboard that reminds me of Faraday busily writing on his chalkboard when Desmond visited during Season Four… or is it Radzinski creating the Blast Door Map?
• Desmond leaving Penny.
• Claire telling Kate “you can’t bring him back” via telephone.
• Stuff blowing up in the water and on land
• A computer that looks similar to the one inside the Swan hatch.
• A man catching on fire in front of Charlotte and Faraday.
• Sawyer threatening Faraday since everyone he loved blew up on their boat.
• Person typing at computer that says “EVENT WINDOW DETERMINED”.

 

Finally, there is this commercial – just released last week:

 

 

In it, we see:

• Desmond and Penny WITH BABY!
• Sayid strangling someone.
• Sun pointing a gun at someone.
• Locke dodging the Beechcraft plane.

 

Okay, so add it all up and what do you get?

 

A lot of evidence that the Island “moved” back into the past.

 

I’ve been racking my brain and annoying my wife with philosophical questions about how this would all work for the past few days. Here’s my best guess, so far:

 

When Ben turned the FDW, he sent the Island back in time. Since it “disappeared” in the present to the Oceanic Six, I’m guessing the Island moved in space as well. I’m also guessing this is not the first time the Island has moved, which provides handy explanations for how the Black Rock and Yemi’s airplane ended up on the Island.

 

Since Chang referenced 30 years in his Comic Con video, that seems like a good estimate of exactly how far back in time it moved… although 23 or 42 would be more “Losty”. That puts the Island in the 1970’s, which conveniently is when “The Incident” occurs and the Dharma Initiative is created.

 

Here’s a crazy, mind-blowing thought: what if the Island moving back in time, IS “The Incident”? From what we learned from Kelvin and the Blast Door, the Incident dealt with a big electromagnetic blast. In the past, when we’ve seen one of these electromagnetic blasts (like when the Swan imploded), the sky filled with a bright light – just like we see Juliet and Sawyer shielding their eyes from in the previews.

 

We’ve all been hoping to someday see more of the history of the Island and the Dharma Initiative – what better way than to experience it firsthand through the eyes of our Survivors still on the Island? It’s totally genius.

 

The intriguing thing is that the Island also seemed to “reset” somehow, and this is where it gets confusing. The videos seem to show the Swan Hatch rebuilt (and occupied) and covered by the jungle – the way Locke found it back in Season One. We also see our Survivors under fire (literally) with flaming arrows. Who could these be coming from? Would the Others, who have been in hiding at The Temple for more than a season, suddenly launch some huge offensive against our Survivors? Seems unlikely. It’s almost like they are just stumbling upon them for the first time – or it’s a different group of people attacking, who weren’t on the Island in 2004.

 

What better defense could the Island have than totally resetting itself back 30 years, before any of its current threats even existed?

 

But here’s where it gets sticky.

 

Our Survivors weren’t on the Island 30 years ago – but clearly they are now. How could some portions of the Island reset and others remain the same? I’m assuming our Survivors still have total knowledge of everything that has happened to them over the past few months, but it seems like potentially the Others do not. If someone is manning the Swan Hatch, that would mean either Kelvin or Radzinski were brought back to life with the move. Does this mean that people would revert back in age as well? What if they weren’t alive in the 1970’s? Would they disappear? What if someone was on the Island in both 2004 and 1974? Would there be two of them, a la Back to the Future?

 

These questions stumped me for a while, and delayed this post by a few days – but here’s my best guess:

 

Only the Island originals reset – any “outsiders” like our Survivors simply move along with it. This could be used to explain the seeming eternal life of Richard Alpert as well as the reason that the Island doesn’t allow babies to be born on the Island – getting older or younger when the Island moves – or having people suddenly appear or disappear would muck up the cosmos and create potentially impossible (and confusing) scenarios.

 

I still don’t know what this would mean for someone like Ben – if he goes back to the Island, will young Ben be there? That would be weird.

 

The other thing that this could lead to is our characters having some residual knowledge in the present about the past. Remember how Faraday was crying when he saw the video of the Oceanic 815 crash but didn’t know why? If he is now existing on the Island in the 1970’s, would his 2004 self know everything that already happened with him on the Island, since it “lived through it” thirty years prior?

 

Could a character like Ben return to the Island and suddenly be viewed as some sort of all-knowing God since he knows exactly what is going to happen before it does? Is this the reason why Ben always seems one step ahead of everyone? Or why Alpert was checking Locke out as a kid, since he knew that he would eventually end up on the Island as a potential new leader?

 

It gets really confusing really fast. But this just goes to show how critical Faraday is going to be for Lost at the start of this season. He’s going to be the one to explain this all to the Survivors and to us, the audience. Here’s hoping he can dumb it down enough for me.

 

The logical question to ask at this point is “how can the Oceanic Six possibly return to the Island, if it’s now in the past?” Would they actually travel back in time to get there, or would they arrive at the Island in 2005 and find our Survivors have lived 30 years on the Island waiting for them? All the shots of the pendulum swinging over weird lines and the phrase “EVENT WINDOW DETERMINED” makes me think they’re going to go back in the past, but who knows. It seems pretty clear that getting back is going to involve Ajira Airways – possibly landing a plane on the runway on Alcatraz - but from there, it’s a mystery. Maybe there that “Lighthouse Dharma Station” exists off the Island, and provides a way to reach to it? Maybe this is also how people like Alpert travel on and off the Island (and in time).

 

But one important takeaway for all this comes from Damon and Carlton – YOU CAN’T CHANGE THE FUTURE. It’s been a theme of Lost from the start – fate, destiny, things happen that are supposed to happen. Even if the Island “resets”, is there anything that anyone can do to prevent the same terrible things happening the second time around? This is precisely what Dharma was trying to do – solve the world’s problems before it’s too late – and being able to rewind thirty years and try again seems like a pretty handy way to keep trying even if you fail the first time. Chang seems to be pleading for us to try and change the past in his video, while noting that it may be impossible to do.

 

Okay – enough mindless rambling. Let’s wrap up my thoughts:

 

It seems as though Desmond will be involved in returning to the Island, since he is shown leaving not only Penny – but also a NEW BABY! This still doesn’t answer if people like Walt or Frank would need to go back, but as long as Desmond is still going to be heavily featured, I’m pumped (even though this puts Penny in big danger since Ben vowed to kill her if he could find her).

 

I’m hopeful that the shots of Sun with a gun mean that she is working with Widmore to return to the Island for his purposes, which would create an awesome counter to Ben and Sayid.

 

With the introduction of all this time-travel stuff, I’m pretty sure Adam and Eve will end up being Jack and Kate. I’m also thinking that we might go even farther back in time in Season Six, when we learn more about the four toed statue.

 

Okay – that’s all for now. We’ve got three weeks to discuss all this, and that is precisely what I’d like to do. Here’s an official Message Board post to kick things off:

 

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=354.0

 

I suppose my next post will be the episode previews for “Because You Left” and “The Lie” sometime in mid-January.

 

Get pumped! Destiny calls!