Friday, April 17, 2009

"Some Like It Hoth" Analysis!

An episode analysis already? What's come over me? I'm actually ahead of schedule for the first time in forever! It's a beautiful day, so let's get right to it so that I can get on to more important things like drinking beers on my deck!

 

Faraday. It seems fitting to start the analysis with the "bombshell" of the week. Daniel Faraday is back on-Island, after apparently spending some amount of time off-Island. Logic would tell you that he left on the submarine that was the morning after our time-skipping Survivors ended up in 1974 - reason being, if Faraday had actually spent even a few weeks on-Island, I would think Pierre Chang would recognize him when he stepped off the submarine and be like "wait a minute - you're one of LaFleur's friends from three years ago!" However, if Faraday snuck off-Island the day after arriving at Dharma, the chances are good that he could have avoided most Dharmites... and wouldn't have interacted with any enough for them to remember him. That means that Faraday has spent the past three years off-Island. How did he fill that time?

 

Think back to Faraday's state of mind in 1974. He was a mumbling, bumbling mess, torn up over the death of his almost-girlfriend Charlotte, swearing "I'm not going to do it, I'm not going to tell her". Most of us assumed this meant Faraday wasn't going to warn Charlotte about coming back to the Island in an effort to save her - meaning, he was going to try and change the past (even though he's the one who continually told us this was impossible). If this guy leaves the Island the next day, what's he going to do? Obviously try to figure out a way to change the past. How is he going to do it? How about by going to Ann Arbor and working with the folks who are studying the "unique properties" of the Island in the first place?


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I'm guessing Faraday left the Island and joined the Dharma Research Team in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Armed with his journal full of years worth of time travely experiments that he conducted in the early 1990's (probably using technology and concepts that didn't exist in 1974), I can see Dharma welcoming Faraday with open arms, even if they are usually far more selective and secretive about their employees. He would certainly be able to quickly advance their research on the subject, all the while working on his own in determining how he could use this knowledge to save Charlotte or our Survivors. It might be due to Faraday that Dharma began building the Orchid and discovered the FDW in the first place... maybe Faraday even initiated this project as part of his master plan to return to the Island and use that FDW for his rescue mission. It would all make a lot of sense, and be a really cool way to tie all the time-travel stuff together. My favorite part of this theory is that before he left to return to the Island in 1977, Faraday could have made a copy of his journal and sent it to himself in 1990 (using the whole "Western Union Delivery Man" plot device from Back to the Future), creating a weird but possible explanation for how and why Faraday started studying all this time travel stuff in the first place...

 

I mentioned Faraday's state of mind in 1974 for a reason. Contrast that with the confident Daniel Faraday that stepped off the submarine in 1977. What would cause such a dramatic change in demeanor? Simply being three years removed from the death of a loved one? Maybe... but I'm guessing that Faraday succeeded in his mission - he used those three years to figure out a way to change the past (queue Brian's "Faraday is going to bring about the end of the world!" theory from weeks ago!). So what's the next step in his plan?

 

 

Pierre Chang. Wow, Lost wasn't kidding when they said "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" back in Season One. I guess we can add Miles to the list that includes Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Kate, Penny, Ben, Claire, Walt, Locke, Alex... wait - actually, maybe it would be easier to just list the characters who don't seem to have any issues with their fathers - but that list would mostly include characters whose fathers we haven't met yet like Juliet, Desmond, Frank, and Vincent. Odds are, if we ever do meet them, they'll also have issues. The important takeaway here is that the Lost writers apparently all hate their dads, and still have all sorts of pent-up rage inside them from their youth. He can't hurt you anymore, Lost writers! Take off the black eye-shadow, play sports, and join society!

 

However, in the case of Miles, I think his daddy issues are somewhat misplaced. Sure, according to his mother Pierre "never cared about us, never cared about you, kicked us out when you were just a baby", and "didn't want anything to do with us" - but I'm guessing this is more of a case of "tough love" that actually saved their lives rather than Pierre Chang "being a douche".

 

Why? Because I think Pierre Chang knew that the Purge was coming, and knew that forcing his wife and child to leave the Island was the only way to save them.

 

I'm guessing that at some point over the next four episodes, Faraday is going to approach Chang and start talking - telling him exactly how the Orchid needs to be constructed, how it will work, and some of the potential dangers. I don't know if he'll actually come out and admit that he's from the future as well - but if not, Chang is going to figure it out. From there, he's also going to find out about the Purge and his unavoidable future nickname of "Lefty". How do we know all this?

 

Remember this video from Comic-Con this past summer?

 

 

Me neither, so I went back and read my post from earlier this year when I first addressed it (which is actually worth a re-read, if for no other reason than to convince you that you should stop reading this Blog immediately because I basically spoiled the entire plot for Season Five in my pre-season guessing... or maybe I'm really a writer on Lost after all): http://lost-and-gone-forever.blogspot.com/2009/01/destiny-calls.html

 

Revisiting the video now, a few things jump out:

  • Chang is sending the video from roughly 1977-1978, right around when our Survivors are still living among Dharma. That's roughly 15 years before the Purge will take place - yet he has already determined that there is nothing he can do to prevent it. The only way he could know this is from someone else telling him that "whatever happened, happened"... like Faraday.
  • Chang looks down at his arm (not yet prosthetic) and seems sad. It seems that he knows he's going to lose an arm - what a double whammy of depressing news from the future. No wonder he is so defeated.
  • Chang begs the viewer of the video to rebuild the Dharma Initiative and try to find a way to change the past... which means that even if Faraday thinks that he has found a way to change the past, he hasn't revealed that information to Chang.

 

Many have speculated that in fact, it's Faraday himself filming the video.

 

Having said all that, what is the purpose in filming the video in the first place? The only thing that I can think of is that Faraday knows that Dharma is going to be wiped out... but that doesn't mean that its intentions for the Island were all bad. During his three years spent with Dharma in Ann Arbor, perhaps he actually started buying into the underlying purpose of Dharma (which was to make the world a better place... and prevent the end of the world by manipulating the Valenzetti Equation). Even though his main concern is to save Charlotte - or possibly our Survivors - he also eventually wants Dharma's work on the Island to continue. The world still needs saving, and this magical Island might be the best way to do it. Even though the ARG involving Dharma recruiting people and starting back up failed miserably, without real ending, that doesn't mean that the plotline is dead. Perhaps Chang sending the video is the first step to a "hopeful future", that even if Lost doesn't address this storyline in its final 21 episodes, we can hope that someday Dharma will rebuild and return to the Island to continue their research to prevent Armageddon.

 

(Queue the forthcoming terrible fan-fiction that will start popping up after Lost's Series Finale involving Dharma returning to the Island!)

 

So, based on all this information - I could very easily see Chang deciding that although his fate seems sealed, perhaps he could save Lara and Baby Miles by getting them to leave the Island as soon as possible... either by telling them the truth about the future and the Purge... or by acting like a jerk and getting them to voluntarily leave. But either way, I think we saw the true Pierre Chang reading his book to Baby Miles.

 

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Back to the Faraday. So what's his next step? I think we saw it in the first scene of this season. However, he's actually not "sneaking into the Orchid" - he's Dharma, probably fully able to move around inside their various stations without question. This opens the door for Faraday to have access to a lot more than I first suspected. However, it's also probably time for us to start thinking about what precisely he is going to do.

 

Initially, it seemed logical that Faraday would simply turn the FDW again to get our Survivors back to the proper time period... but based on what we know about the FDW, one would think that turning it again would not only skip our Survivors to a different time period, but also any other "non-Island Originals"... which would include all of Dharma. We know this can't happen because Dharma is on the Island in 1992 when they get Purged. In fact, we know that the FDW still exists as "normal" in 2007, and that Dharma has built a full station around it where they are studying its properties. So any theories about Faraday "blowing up the Orchid" seems to be out of the question as well.

 

The next thing that comes to mind is doing something in the Swan Hatch. Perhaps Faraday has found a way to tap into the huge pocket of electromagnetic energy behind those thick concrete walls of the Swan that could get people back to their proper time period. It would make sense that "the Incident" take place near the Swan Hatch, since that is where the new procedures about pressing the button every 108 minutes takes place. This would assume that the FDW is somehow "tied into" the same electromagnetic energy that is in the Swan Hatch, since both result in time travel. Since the Orchid and Swan are a good distance apart, this seems unlikely - unless the "core" of the Island is where this electromagnetic energy resides, and the Island has a really, really thin "crust" that only requires digging a short distance down before you hit the core.

 

As you can see, based on everything we know right now, there just doesn't seem to be an easy explanation with how this is all going to happen without introducing some new concepts about how and why this time travel stuff works - because neither the FDW or the Swan Station seem to be able to logically accomplish what needs to happen - getting our Survivors back to 2008.

 

But here's what I'm thinking... what if Faraday attempts to "go Desmond"? Meaning, he intentionally exposes himself to the unique electromagnetic properties of the Swan Hatch to make himself a wild card. We know that he can't implode the Swan Hatch like Desmond (since it still exists in 2004), but what if "The Incident" involves him blowing a hole into the pocket of electromagnetic energy below the Swan and jumping in? It seems like this would cause "The Incident", require Dharma to cover the hole with a TON of concrete, and maybe even need to release that pent-up energy every 108 minutes to prevent another huge release of energy. But more importantly, this would potential allow Faraday to become "The Variable" (the episode title of the next new episode in two weeks) that could actually CHANGE THE PAST.

 

Whatever happened, happened be damned! Faraday could suddenly start doing things that would change the past! What would be the first thing that he would do? Aside from gambling on sports and buying every share of Apple stock, it's saving Charlotte. Oh boy, here comes a crazy theory...

 

From the start, I've theorized that having the ability to change the past would make the space time continuum tear apart, bring about the end of the world, and generally be a really, really bad thing. But all the sudden, I'm thinking crazy thoughts like maybe it won't quite be so bad. If someone changed an event from the past, what if the universe would simply "course correct"? Remember that theory from Ms. Hawking a season ago? Basically, it's "whatever happened, happened" with a twist. Whatever end result happened, happened - but the details along the way are variable, and can change. (Yes, this immediately brings up the question of "what determines an end result vs. just a step along the way that can be changed?", but pretend you didn't think of that and stick with me here).

 

Let's just pretend that Faraday does something that creates a paradox. How would the universe course correct this action? I don't have the logic or details worked out in my head yet, but perhaps the universe would do something like "resetting" everyone back to where they are supposed to be to prevent them from causing any more problems. Then, it could resolve the paradox without fear of the "wild card" interfering again. It's crazy talk, I know - but it's the best I've got right now. In summary, I'm thinking Faraday causes the incident, becomes a wild card, and messes with the past... and somehow this causes everyone to get back to where I belong. I think we'll have a lot more information to flesh out this theory after the next new episode, which is Faraday-centric. But for now, I'll go with this.

 

Wow, that was a tangent. What was this episode about again?

 

Miles. Oh yeah, this guy. This week gave us some great insight into Miles' powers to communicate with the dead. He needs to be in close proximity to the body, ashes don't talk as well as bodies do, he mostly seems to be able to pick up what that person was thinking and doing at the time of their death, and to him, it's like they are actually talking to him. But the episode failed to answer the biggest question - how did Miles get these powers in the first place?

 

I can't help but assume it's tied to Miles being born on the Island. We have seen very few people actually be born on the Island, which would explain why we haven't seen more people with "special powers" - but I think back to Aaron being born on-Island, and how the Others were so concerned about that, thinking that he would be "special" for some reason. On the other hand, you have Ethan being born on-Island, who never really demonstrated any special powers (other than potentially being able to perform surgery without any real schooling) - and Aaron really doesn't seem so special anymore, at least not compared to someone like Walt (who clearly has some magic mojo, despite not being born on the Island). Still, it would be a heck of a coincidence for Miles to just happen to have these powers when he was born on an Island full of mysterious powers. Oh, and there's Bram's comment to Miles: "There's also Bram's comment to Miles: "You'll know who you are, Miles - why it is you have a gift - and most of all, you'll know about your father."

 

 

Bram. Damn. Sidetracked again! But I can't logically complete my Miles analysis before first diving into my Bram analysis. Who is this guy? If you recall last week, I theorized that The Shadow of the Statue (which currently includes Ilana and Bram) either had to be working for Widmore or not working for Widmore. Pretty specific, huh? After this week, it looks like the second theory is the correct one, but now there's another contender:

  1. They are Island Ancients (pre-Other Others).
  2. They are Dharma.

 

The second theory came out of nowhere, but seems to have some strong supporting documentation. Bram tells Miles that he has the ability to tell him about his father - the most logical way for him to know this information would be if he had access to old Dharma files, or knew people that knew Chang. Also, remember Chang's video (to someone in the future) that asked for Dharma to be rebuilt? What if Dharma did get that video and decided to return to the Island? They could have spent years building up forces and strategizing how to "take the Island back" so that their research could continue. The continued existence of Dharma would go a long way in explaining things like why the Periodic Ration Drops continued on the Island years after Dharma left... maybe they did stop, but started back up again in preparation for a Dharma return. You can almost make this theory work... almost.

 

But the first theory still makes more sense. I talked about it pretty extensively in last week's episode analysis, so I won't rehash it here, but I still think it's viable one week later. It's an easy way to introduce a "bad guy" for the final season, give the audience a door to the more ancient history of the Island, and show us that the current "battle for the Island" isn't something new, but something that has been going on from the start. Bram is clearly not working for Widmore since he tries to talk Miles out of joining his "team", which means he's either working for Ben, or a third party.

 

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I suppose it's possible that The Shadow of the Statue are working for Ben, but it doesn't seem probably. When Ilana tells Sayid that she doesn't recognize Ben on Ajira 316, she seems earnest about it. One would also think that if Ben had all these "henchmen" on the Island, he would have used them to help him kill Locke again (which he wanted to do, as confirmed by his Smokey visit), or at least provide leadership to them. I have a hard time believing that Ben would have gone through the trouble of being judged before Smokey if he had all these Shadow of the Statue reinforcements already. It's more likely that Ben went through the Smokey Judgment as a way to win back the favor of the Others, not as something to kill time before he and The Shadow of the Statue engage in battle with them.

 

That only leaves a third party, and the only third party I can imagine knowing about the Island is someone who has been there before... the Island Ancients.

 

Revisiting Bram's comments to Miles, one of the last things he said to him was "all the money in the world isn't gonna fill that empty hole inside you, Miles". It's a very spiritual comment, one that would come from someone who believed in the power of peace and tranquility that comes from being "one with the Island". When Bram says that he'll learn the truth about his powers and his father, it isn't because he has some dossier filled with this information - but that he can help lead Miles on the path to "enlightenment" that comes from being "one with the Island".

 

Miles Part II. Where did Miles' ability actually come from? Perhaps it is tied to being born on the Island, but maybe he was just lucky and born "special", similar to Walt. I don't know that we'll ever get a firm scientific explanation for it, but I'm okay with that. We did learn that the reason why he was recruited by Widmore / Naomi wasn't to communicate with Jacob (which was my theory last season), but instead to simply help track down Ben, who had killed a lot of people on the Island - all of whom would probably have information that would be useful in tracking and capturing him. When Miles told Ben "I know who you are" and demanded $3.2 million dollars to not turn him in, it didn't have any deeper meaning - it simply meant that Miles knew that Ben had killed a LOT of people by listening to the dead... and the $3.2 number was simply twice the amount that Widmore paid (the same amount he requested from Bram). Miles is a money man.

 

The other juicy tidbit we picked up thanks to Miles' powers this week was that someone named Felix was killed on his way to deliver papers, pictures of empty graves, and a purchase order for an old airplane to Charles Widmore. If you recall, we've heard two sides to this story. Tom told Michael that Widmore was the one who dug up the empty graves and planted the fake Oceanic 815. Captain Gault tells Desmond and Sayid that Ben was responsible for doing it, and must have "a lot of resources" to be able to pull off such an operation.


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Does the information from Felix tilt the scales in one direction or the other? Not really. I think it's equally likely that he was delivering the information to Widmore to prove that the job he paid for had been completed vs. delivering the information to Widmore as proof about what Ben was doing. The question is, was Felix gathering information on Ben's actions for Widmore or gathering confirmations for Widmore of his own actions? I don't see anything conclusive either way.

 

In addition to learning about Miles' powers this week, he also proved that it's possible to see one's self in the past without causing the world to blow up. However, he stopped short of actually having any real interaction with himself in the past. Again, I can't help but remind you of the video we saw of Chang freaking out when time traveling rabbits got too close to each other:

 

 

So even though we've proved that a person could see themselves in the past, we still don't know what would happen if they were to interact with themselves (which sounds dirty). Hmmm - I wonder if the "paradox" that Faraday creates is having Miles baby-sit himself? Could that cause some seismic universe course correction that gets all our Survivors back to 2008 before Miles can undo existence?

 

Alvarez. Lastly this week, I wanted to touch on Alvarez, aka the dead body that Miles had to take from the Swan to the Orchid. I don't know why there was such confusion about what happened to Alvarez, because they flat out explained it in the episode. But for those who missed it, here were the important lines:

 

Miles: "His name's Alvarez. He was digging a hole and thinking about some chick named Andréa. Then he felt this sharp pain in his mouth, which turned out to be a filling from his tooth being yanked right out of its socket and... blowing through his brain. Then he was dead."

 

The ol' Death By Filling. Gets 'em every time!

 

The bigger question for me was why the body needed to be taken to the Orchid. We got hints from Horace during his conversation inside the Security Station:

 

Horace: "Pierre, if it was caused by the electromagnetism, we need to know. You wanna see it now? Yeah, he just got back. I'll send him out with it right away. Okay."

 

So it wasn't so much that the body needed to be taken to the Orchid to be "resurrected" or as a test subject for the FDW - but rather, it was simply where Pierre Chang was, and he needed to investigate if it really was electromagnetism that caused the death of Alvarez - both in order to protect other Dharma workers from suffering the same fate, but also to potentially gauge just what kind of electromagnetic power they were dealing with (from a science perspective) to help refine their experiments on the Island.

 

This concludes the episode analysis for "Some Like It Hoth". Please remember to tip your waiter.

 

As a Blog Service Reminder (BSR), I'm around through Wednesday of next week, then on vacation out west until Thursday. Why do you care? Because it means I'll be posting my "The Variable" preview THIS WEEK since I won't have time to do it before the episode next week, which means you'll have over a full week to read my predictions about the episode and get extra jacked up for it... setting you up for what will surely be a huge disappointment when the episode doesn't live up to my hype. Or, you could display some self-control and wait to read the episode preview until the day before the episode (like usual), to only have normal-sized hype built up. It's really up to you.


http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=447.0

30 comments:

Dree said...

I listened twice, and he doesn't say "Jennifer." He says, "Damnit, Lara." At least that's what I hear... Anyone else?

Brian said...

Noted and corrected!

eB photography said...

Wow I think my fillings are about to go through my brain after pondering Faraday's possible actions to change the past.

No mention of Hurley's Star Wars analogy or script improvements in relation to Miles and his father's relationship? Both sides of the analogy end up with a missing forearm no less!

Ewoks suck.

Brian said...

Yeah - maybe you missed the memo, but I'm apparently the only person on Earth who has never seen Star Wars. Those references meant nothing to me...

Annabella said...

Sounds to me like Miles' voice (instead of Faraday) when Pierre is shooting the Comic Con video. Anyone hear it that way?

Unknown said...

Not to get too technical, but I don't think fillings contain any magnetic metal. Of course, for Lost, I am willing to suspend disbelief.

Another thought - the "Shadow of the Statue" people, especially when talking to Miles in the van, have a cultish feel about them. I'm thinking that may be they follow the original island religion, or something like that.

mark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mark said...

i think your three word analysis of this episode (picking up speed) is exactly right. now that faraday is back, there's definitely more time travel craziness in store... i can't wait!

Ben's return to Dharma
We know from back in Season 4 that Ben is living among the Dharmites as he betrays them during the Purge. How is he going to return from being with the Others and explain where he's been and what happened?

Sawyer's coverup
I was surprised to see Sawyer knock out Phil after learning he had seen the surveillance tapes. I thought it was hilarious that Juliet didn't even seem to blink. She probably finds him as annoying as the rest of us... How are they going to take care of this? Maybe bring him to Richard as a new recruit for the Others? Or feed him to Smokey?

Megan said...

Don't worry Brian, you're not the only one who's never seen Star Wars - I haven't either.

I, like Mark, am anxious to see how Ben reintegrates himself back into Dharma as well. I don't think it'll be too difficult for him to do though, as long as the Others don't wait too long to send him back. It'll be easy enough for him to make up a story about escaping from the Others and bringing back "secrets" about them. Or maybe the Others will even drug him up and leave him at the fence, as if they found him in the woods or something.

Anonymous said...

The first "NONE OF THAT MATTERS" sounds like Miles... and I think when Chang is going off on the please PLEASE SAVE US rant, I can faintly hear someone/Miles say "DAD!" which makes him look up and stop talkng

Anonymous said...

Im surprised NO ONE even LostPedia hasn't mentioned the reference to the Hatch Imploding/Season 2 Finale... said by Sawyer.

"Ya ever have one of those days where you feel like the little dutch boy with your finger in the...[dyke/dam]"

Which is about the same as Kelvin asking Desmonde if he has the courage to take his finger OUT of the dam and left the whole thing blow to hell.

In other words the writers are implying that everything is JUST about to unravel, and "THE INCIDENT" that is right around the corner.

-----------------

OH AND ONE MORE THING ABOUT THAT VIDEO OF CHANG!!! To this day,... what is the ONLY Dharma orientation video in which Chang has the fake arm??? The one in which he mentions "THE INCIDENT"... meaning its PROBABLY the only video we've seen taken AFTER THE INCIDENT Occured... You see what I'm saying...

Pre-Incident = Arm
Post-Incident = No Arm

TheycallmeVic said...

Awesome episode and great analysis, Brian.
Enjoy your vacation, man!

borg, many people don't know this, but fillings contain quite a lot of mercury, and especially back in the day, when we didn't know how bad it is for the body.

Unknown said...

VictorC, I think you are referring to the amalgam fillings, which are an alloy of mercury, silver, and some other metals (copper, tin, or zinc). These are still used today, and they are not magnetic. Mercury is not a magnetic material. From what little I know, none of the metals contained in these types of fillings are magnetic.

Lisa said...

I don't know if fillings are that magnetic, but I will say this: I have one amalgam filling in one of my rear molars. The first time I ever had an MRI, the filling/tooth started to hurt a little bit. I haven't noticed it during any of my other three MRIs though.

timcourtois said...

IslandofFaith - I think you're right! I think the first off-camera comment is Miles! Never noticed that before. Sounds to me like Miles is making the tape in an attempt to prevent the Purge & save his dad, & Faraday is there saying, "don't do it; you can't change anything; nobody's going to see this.
----
Regarding the "shadow of the statue" folk - Haven't heard anyone suggest this, but I think the simplest explanation is that the "ancient" island people and Dharma are the same people. Remember: It was Magnus Hanso on the Black Rock, & Alvar Hanso who started Dharma.

p.s. - check out the hanso foundation's website: Apparently Hanso has gotten himself out of prison. Interesting... (Maybe that's been on there for forever? I don't know.) Anyway, I think it's Dharma.

glf said...

RobRose - I always thought that the Swan(?) orientation film looked like it was edited with bits from different times.

Shadow of the Statue dudes:
DI is the obvious choice re these guys given Comic.Con call for revival of DI etc. but........ DI were academic scientific hippies not cult types and Bram & Co. do seem cultish. The Seychelles golf course guy also looked horrified/scared to see O6 (like Sayid might 'know' his big hidden secret = secret society??)- a DI or Other wouldn't have been so taken aback would they?

Has anyone noted the physical look of Ilana & Bram (and the guy on the Seychelles) - big boned and dark curly hair - descended from Egyptians/north Africans???? (just brain storming here).

If what you think is right Brian (and I think you are) that Shadow dudes are pre-Others then the war would be pre-Others (Egyptian descendents) v. Hanso (Black Rock descendents - given jacob look)??? According to Jacob wants Locke as leader on island because the war is coming (Again just brain storming)

Anywayz this Shadow business certainly is the most intriguing thing at the mo.

Bon vacances

PS How DID freighters know about the DI purge and Ben's part in it (as indicated by Naomi this week) - time will tell....

jack said...

Excellent point how the "Shadow" people all appear of perhaps middle-east (Egyptian?) decent. This would seem likely to support theories that they represent 'island originals'.

As for why Chang needed the dead body brought back to him....could it be that Chang, like his son Miles, can communicate with the dead and wanted to find out first hand what had happened?

As for the dead guy (Felix?) that Naomi had in the bodybag for Miles to chat with.....why do you think Naomi had possesion of his dead body? Was he trying to extort Whidmore and Naomi took him out?

Dharma Mayonnaise said...

I guess that weather really did put you in a good mood. Entertaining review! I wonder if the clip show this week will reveal anything?

Steve said...

Great job, and an even better one at the season preview back in January!

I'm thinking about the fillings, fillings aren't made of material that would be affected by electomagatism, or any magnatism.

Which is either:

1 - a mistake by the writers

2 - this is more than electromagnatism that can affect ANY metal... which then woudln't be electromagnatism but may be some other force?

Hmmm

Dharma Mayonnaise said...

I think the Lost writers must get a kick out of us. We accept the premise of time travel, a monster made out of smoke, a 'frozen donkey wheel' can transport people through space and time, and multiple interactions/reincarnations with dead people. "But we're supposed to believe that a metal tooth filling has magnetic properties??" lol.

jack said...

I find myself agreeing with J-Bos....I would certainly think this is a total non-issue. the precise material of tooth fillings, and if it is or isn't, in reality magnetic, will not prove to be substanitive in the plot and is just something the writers expect us to accept.

Dave Harty said...

In the Com Con video, Chang says that he knows of the purge from a reliable source. That is when he is interupted by Daniel (Miles?). The source is obviously one of the two and they must have been very convincing.

I'm guessing that Chang forced his wife and child to leave the island to save them from the purge, but did not tell them why. That's why she thinks he didn't care, but knows that he died a long time ago. However, he must have come to that decision rather quickly to have done it while Miles was still a baby.

This leads me to what Brian mentioned about the course correction of the universe. We know Daniel tried to get Charlotte off the island as a child. And now it seems that maybe Daniel or Miles had something to do with Miles and his mother leaving the island.

Without that interference from the future, both would have probably died in the purge. Maybe they both were supposed to die on the island and that is why they had to come back. Charlotte has already died on the island, should Miles be on death watch?

glf said...

I just took the death by filling as a funny reference for the fans back to Season 2 when Desmond? said his fillings hurt when he walked past some wall in the Hatch.

Back to my Shadow dude obssessing - DIs wouldn't be wanting to kill Locke (as per Walt's dream). Also we've been given alot of exposure to ancient Egyptian-like art and writing - must be a reason for that.

Smaelb said...

I had to tell you this : I'm gonna see Michael Emerson for an interview this saturday in paris, and maybe Carlton & Damon... No Lost this week, but i'll get my fix anyway ! I know, i know , I'm sooooo happy !!

Steve said...

I thought the comicon video said "damn it lefleur"

Steve said...

A star wars geek actually said this to me, and he's right... but it's a detail that really doesn't matter...

"Luke did not know that Vader was his father until after he left his hand, then he didn't believe it. So the Ewoks were inevitable."

Miles knows he's his father. Difference... and we didn't have the risk of running into your younger self to deal with.

It must have been creepy for miles to hear about his own birth.... right? He was on the island before his mom was even pregnant with him! That had to be hard to deal with.

A star wars k

Steve said...

Hmmm... I just caught a flaw...

Swan orientation video said Swan was station 3 of 6, pearl was 5 of 6. Yet, Chang had his arm in the Pearl and not in the Swan. We also know that the Orchid was probably being build just prior to the Swan...

We also know the stations are:

The Swan (3 of 6)
The Pearl (5 of 6)
The Flame
The Tempest
The Hydra
The Orchid (6 of 6)
The Arrow
The Lookinglass
The Lamp Post

Did I miss any?

I'm also thinking.. whatever happened to Alvar Hanso? And where does HE fit into all this? What about Joop and the life extension project?

CFL had mentioned that the sickness came from a visit to the Black Rock, but she knew exactly that it came from the Temple. They haven't been able to explain this away with 'running away from whispers'. And speaking of the Black Rock... and Hansu... wow.. I really REALLY hope they're not dropping the ball here.

I wonder though... We know the Black Rock was Magnus Hanso's ship, we also know that Widmore used Magnus' journal to try find a hint to the island(WHY.. if he knew the Lamp Post existed).

Could it be.. just bear with me, that this is a clue to 'statue' people? Not that they were from Hanso's boat, but maybe the black rock was the source of people who mixed in with the 'others'... creating the widmores and Hawkings.. people who DO age. Maybe Hanso was also on this island, maybe he was cast 'out' like widmore, and tried to come back through Dharma. Regardless, we DO know that people were looking for the black rock, and we do know that Hanso somehow was off island despite his grandfather being laid to rest on the island(as per the blast door map).

My thoughts are all over, but maybe the statue people are more like Richard in not aging, either that or they could be the "hanso" sect.. so maybe Hanso is the third person in the battle 'triangle'.

I find it hard to believe they'll just let Alvar and Magnus drop like that.

rockin robyn said...

I thought Ilana may have been an other, like you first theorized weeks ago. Then I thought not. Then I thought maybe her and Ceasar were... Maybe there are ancient Richard Rivals... Maybe she is Richards former queen or some Egyptian/alien big shot. Maybe they had a falling out and she left but she is back now.

I also think Juliet knows more about everything than we have seen, than she is letting on. She knew about the runway... she spent 3 years with Richard and the Others. I'm sure she head of Locke like the rest of the Others had. The Runway. Cmon! She knows whats going down.

Anonymous said...

has anyone mentioned anything about "jughead" & faraday telling the others/army to bury it and it was very unstable. i think building the hatch they will dig it up/ dig into jughead and that will add to the magnetic whatnot and the incident. i believe jughead will comeback into play somehow., and faraday said to bury it in a lot cement. any comments ono this theory/ question.

TEZ said...

Why do we think the purge happened in 1992? A lot of timelines would make more sense if it was earlier than that.

I don't remember where that year originally came from... Was it based on the age of the characters in the episode that showed the purge or is there some other evidence?