"Because You Left" and "The Lie" Two-For-One Analysis!

In many ways, Lost is like college.

 

It started out pretty easy in the beginning, and we were just focused on getting to know the people. Over the next few years, they slowly started to introduce some pretty heady concepts and hinted at things much more complex that would be coming down the road. Now that we’re in the fifth year of Lost, it’s like graduate study time. Really complicated stuff that if you weren’t paying attention for the first four years, there’s no way you’re going to understand it. But for those of us who have put in the time and dedication, it’s going to pay off big time – in what I anticipate will end up being “the greatest story ever told”.

 

Now, let’s get down to analyzing the first two episodes of the season…

 

Ground Rules. Before we start, we need to lay out some ground rules. Now that Lost has officially opened the door to some degree of “time traveling” on the show, it brings all sorts of crazy theories out of the woodwork – and you could also probably drive yourself crazy (like, Minkowski nose-bleed-brain-scrambled-style) by asking too many “what if” questions concerning with time travel. As Faraday said, he would have a hard time explaining what is happening to another physicist, let alone normal people like us (I apologize to all the physicists who read this Blog – you might be normal, but I’ve just never met one to prove it one way or the other).

 

Instead, he gave us simple, easy to follow rules:

 

“You cannot change anything. You can’t. Even if you tried to, it wouldn’t work. Time is like a string – you can move forward, or reverse, but you cannot create a new string. If you try to do something different, you will fail every time. Whatever happened, happened.”

 

So although it’s going to be difficult for us to accept, because like most people we were raised on the time-traveling principles of “Back to the Future” where any little thing you do will change the future – that isn’t the case on Lost. We could debate for hours about what happens to the people in the past that Locke killed at the end of the episode, or if Ethan would suddenly have memories about Locke once the plane crashed – but at the end of the day, I guess it doesn’t matter – because nothing can change.

 

(Note: there seems to be at least one exception to this rule, but we’ll get to that later)

 

On to the episodes…

 

The Opening. Great opening, in the vein of the Season Two opening with Desmond – featuring an unknown character starting their day, leaving the audience confused as to when and where we are, only to reveal it all as someone we know, someplace we knew, in a time we knew – but had never before seen. Well done.

 

However, there were a number of big questions raised during the brief three-minute opening…

 

Baby Chang. The first question many have asked is “who is the Pierre Chang's baby?” The Internets were all aflutter immediately after the episode with people predicting that the baby was none other than ghost-whisperer Miles, which would potentially tie another character to the Island. I think the timing would work – Dharma was building their various stations around 1980, and Miles looks to be about 25 years old. It might even explain why he has the weird ability to communicate with the dead – some residual Island power? But there are also questions – why is his last name Straume instead of Chang? How did he survive the Purge? Or are we all being racist by that he must be related since both Chang and Miles are from Asian decent?

 

The other question for me is how was Mrs. Chang able to have a baby on the Island? Is it simply because Baby Chang was conceived off of the Island? Or is the inability to have babies on the Island a more recent development that suddenly started after Ben took control of the Others after the Purge? Or maybe Island Natives could never conceive babies, but Dharma people had no problem with it?

 

At the end of the day, there’s not enough information to confirm or deny any of these theories yet, but we’ll keep them in the back of our minds as we progress through the season. We have bigger things to worry about from this episode…

 

The Orchid. This episode confirmed that when Dharma arrived, the FDW was buried behind a lot of rock underground – meaning that the Others were not actively using it for quite some time. They might not have even been aware that it existed. It also confirmed that the wheel itself was not a Dharma invention, but one that has existed for ages (maybe since the Black Rock days? It has a pirate wheel-esque quality to it). But since it’s so buried, how did Dharma find out about the energy contained in the first place? How did Chang know that if harnessed, they would be able to manipulate time?

Time for a crazy theory.

 

Did you ever wonder how the Black Rock journal ended up back in the “real world” for Widmore to eventually buy it at the auction? If the Black Rock ship ended up in the middle of the Island, the journal would have been with it at that point. What if the Black Rock Crew kept up with the journal, describing all the weird events that they experienced and everything they discovered on the Island – including an ancient tunnel that led to a frozen subterranean area under the Island. Maybe they were clever enough to figure out how adding a wheel to the wall could control it, maybe the wheel was there before even they got there – but either way, they documented it in their journal.

 

At some point, a person carrying the journal must have turned the FDW / fallen into the exotic matter (or they just chucked the journal through it in hopes that someone would find it and come to rescue them) – and that journal ended up in the hands of Alvar Hanso, who would go on to found the Dharma Initiative.

 

Once they arrived at the Island, they began digging to find this FDW area, which had since been filled in by rocks / land thanks to a volcano eruption on the Island / errant stick of dynamite tossed nearby. Thus, they knew exactly what they were dealing with and where to look.

 

(The conclusion to this story, of course, is that eventually Hanso dies, the journal goes up for auction, and Widmore buys it as a way to find the Island, which he intends to use for financial gain.)

 

But back to the scene we actually saw – Daniel Faraday, dressed in full Dharma garb, inside the Orchid Station around the year 1980.

 

Whoa.

 

There are only two possibly explanations for this scene:

 

1. Faraday was originally a member of the Dharma Scientists. This would help explain how he knows so much about Dharma Initiative. It’s possible that Faraday could have been the first Dharma Scientist to test the FDW, which shot him forward into the future a few years (similar to what happened to Ben). From there, Faraday settled into a nice little job at Oxford University – secretly dabbling in how to manipulate space-time since he knows that it’s possible thanks to his experiences on the Island.

 

2. The Island will eventually “skip” back to 1980, and while in that time period Faraday sneaks into the Orchid facility in a Dharma disguise to try and stop the skipping / bring them back to the proper “present” timeline. When he does this, perhaps it transports him off the Island, into the future a few years (from 1980) – where he could again settle into a nice little job at Oxford University and continue his life.

 

The cool thing about either theory is that they would indicate that Faraday had some prior knowledge of the Island and Dharma when we first saw the character introduced in the 2004 timeline last season – which could provide the explanation for why he was crying when he saw the footage of Oceanic 815 on the news.

 

Personally, I’m hoping for the second theory. Not only does it seem the most logical, but it has the most potential to be an amazing storyline.

 

The problem with the first theory is Daniel’s appearance. Faraday doesn’t seem to have aged much from his “Dharma Days” in the early 1980s to 2005, so unless at some point he jumped forward a LOT of years due to the FDW, it wouldn’t make sense – and even this isn’t really a possibility since we know that he was working at Oxford in the 1990s.

 

On the other hand, the second theory would indicate that Faraday is attempting to take matters into his own hands to stop the “skipping” and save our Survivors – way heroic and exciting, and it would totally be Lost’s style to have Season Five open with a “flashforward” of an upcoming scene that will actually be a “flashback” on the overall “timeline” of Lost. Tricky!

 

Skipping. I guess this is as good a time as any to address the skipping that is happening on the Island. Again, it’s best to approach it as logically as possible to try and figure out what’s going on. Here’s what we know:

 

Since our Survivors have been on the Island, it had not previously “skipped” until Ben turned the FDW. This means that Desmond imploding the Swan Hatch was something totally different, even though the sky went crazy with both.

 

Per Faraday, “The record is skipping. Whatever Ben Linus did at the Orchid station, I think it may have dislodged us from time… Either the Island is, or we are (moving through time). It’s just as likely that we are… (We’re) either in the past, or the future. We can’t stop it.” When asked who could stop it, we shifted scenes to Locke (a hint?).

 

Locke: “How did you know there was a bullet in my leg?”

Alpert: “You told me… you will.”

Locke: “When am I?”

Alpert: “That’s all relative. When the sky lit up, I didn’t go anywhere. You went. You’re going to be moving on soon. You need to clean out the wound; the Island will do the rest. Next time we see each other, I’m not going to recognize you. I wish I had more time to be sensitive. The only way to save the Island is to get your people back here. The ones that left. You have to convince them to come back. You’re going to have to die, John.”

 

Taking all that into account, it would seem as though our Survivors (non-Island Originals) are skipping – but the Island and its original inhabitants are not. However, we saw in last season’s finale that the Island itself did appear to move as well – maybe not necessarily in time – but definitely in space, since it vanished before the eyes of the Oceanic Six. Also, when you think about Yemi’s airplane (that left from Africa) crashing on the Island, it must have been located in the Atlantic (rather than the Pacific) during that time period for it to be possible.

 

Like Alpert said, it’s all relative. For an Island Original, they would be experiencing our Survivors suddenly appearing and disappearing, but they just keep traveling along the same timeline that they always have. Even if the Island’s physical location around the world changes, they may be oblivious to it since the Island seems to have its own unique weather patterns and protective bubble around it keeping it hidden from sight.

 

On the other hand, for our Survivors, they have become dislodged from the timeline, and are skipping from one point to another. If they appear to Island Originals at a point after their crash (2004), they will know them – like when Alpert recognized Locke to clean his wound. If they appear to Island Originals at a point before their crash (pre-2004), they will not know them – like when Ethan shot Locke in the leg.

 

A question that a lot of people are asking is “wouldn’t Ethan recognize Locke in 2004, since he shot him and talked to him pre-2004? Wouldn’t Desmond recognize Faraday in 2004 since he talked to him multiple times pre-2004?”

 

It’s pretty confusing, but I don’t think so – because that would change the past, which may change the future, which you can’t do. I think that the easiest way to understand it is to think about “The Constant”. Desmond’s consciousness was jumping between 1996 Desmond and 2004 Desmond. When he jumped from 2004 Desmond to 1996 Desmond, the 2004 Desmond didn’t disappear (a la “Back to the Future”). Instead, it was almost like both Desmonds existed simultaneously.

 

So – 2004 Ethan wouldn’t recognize Locke because he doesn’t shoot him until after Locke starts skipping in 2005. Perhaps, 2005 Ethan would suddenly have a memory of Locke from pre-2004 (if he were still alive) – but he didn’t start having that memory until that moment… just like Desmond didn’t have a memory of talking to Faraday (pre-2004) until after Faraday started skipping in 2005.

 

Does that make sense? It does in my head, but it’s really hard to put into words!

 

Back to the skipping.

 

I have to assume that the current skipping situation is an accident. Although it would be a sweet defense mechanism for the Island (turn the FDW and any non-Island Originals will spend the rest of their lives skipping around through time!), I think if this had happened in the past, we would have seen characters suddenly appearing – being all confused – and then disappearing within a few hours or days. I also think there is a risk that these skipping people could be dangerous. If Keamy and his soldiers were still alive and started skipping through time, they may suddenly appear in the middle of an unexpected group of Island Originals – and kill them all before they have a chance to react. I don’t think so.

 

Instead, I think that the FDW is “stuck” between spokes, and that is causing the skipping. I think the intended result of the turn was to permanently move non-Island Originals into the past or future, where they would be stuck for good. Did Ben screw up by not turning the wheel properly? Maybe – or maybe he’s actually so smart that he did this on purpose…

 

What if Ben knew that this would happen? He would know that the only way to stop the skipping would be for someone else to turn the wheel back to where it was, or at least solidly onto one spoke, instead of being stuck in between them. Perhaps he knew that Locke would be the one to do this (since he’s the only one of our Survivors who truly knows about it, thanks to visiting it with Ben in last season’s finale). This would send Locke off the Island, but if his destiny is truly to be on the Island, then Ben would be able to help him return to the Island, and tag along for the ride.

 

If Ben turned the FDW properly, the Island would have been protected, Locke would have been the leader of the Island Originals, and Ben would have spent the rest of his life off the Island.

 

However, by not turning the FDW properly, if Ben’s plan works, the Island will still be protected, Locke will eventually return to the Island to be leader (assuming he comes back to life in some fashion), but this way – Ben returns to the Island along with him.

 

Is Ben this smart? Who knows – but he’s outsmarted us all in the past, so it’s possible.

 

The other option would be for Faraday (the only other character who is skipping who has at least some knowledge about the Orchid) to turn the FDW to stop the skipping… which is precisely what we may have seen with the opening scene of the season - Faraday, having recently skipped back to 1980 sneaks down into the Orchid to try and stop the skipping.

 

Pretty cool stuff, either way.

 

So when have our Survivors been so far? Here’s my best guess:

 

Skip One – back to when Yemi’s plane crashed on the Island (roughly late 1990s)

 

Skip Two – after the Swan hatch imploded. Most likely this was back to “the present” (2005) since Alpert knew Locke, and referenced him skipping

 

Skip Three – the biggest clue here is that Locke looks up and Yemi’s plane is still smoking, which would make you think it was the same time period as Skip One (late 1990s). However, after the scene break, we see a flash from the Sawyer / Juliet / Faraday perspective – which appears to be the same flash. We then see the Desmond-Faraday scene. Since Desmond arrived on the Island in 2001, Yemi’s plane crash might have actually taken place in the early 2000s instead of late 1990s.

 

Skip Four – as Faraday is telling Desmond the name of his mother, another flash occurs. The only evidence we have for this timeframe is that none of our Survivors’ supplies are on the beach, and there are some new soldier-type people on the Island who threaten to cutoff people’s hands. So it could be anywhere pre-2004.

 

Soldiers. So who are these mystery men who temporarily capture Juliet and Sawyer at the end of the episode? They’re wearing uniforms with names on them (Jones, Mattingly, and Cunningham), but have no Dharma logos on them. They have guns and talk with British accents. Their propensity to cutoff hands reminds me that Pierre Chang (who had two functioning hands when we saw him in this episode) did seem to have a prosthetic hand when we saw him in the Swan Hatch Orientation Video.

 

So if they aren’t Dharma, and they aren’t Island Originals (since guns and nametags don’t seem like their style), who are they?

 

I suppose anything is possible, but if I had it my way, they would be Widmore’s men – on their first attempt to takeover the Island from Hanso / Dharma back in the 1980s. Remember, Miles said that Widmore had spent “20 years looking for the Island”, which would be around 1984. Since he told Ben that he stole “his Island”, it makes me think that either he has been there before, or he has sent his mercenaries there before. It would also help explain how he knew so much about the Island (giving Keamy the “Secondary Protocol”).

 

Maybe back during the Dharma days, they were not only under attack from the Island Originals, but also from Widmore’s men trying to claim the Island for themselves. Remember, Chang was very generic during the Arrow Station Orientation Video when he said “the purpose of this station is to gather intelligence and devise defensive strategies against the Island's hostiles.”

 

It’s a fun thought – and one we hopefully should be able to confirm or deny with next week’s episode. As for Widmore, it seems as though he has recruited Sun to his side in his quest to takeover the Island. Their meeting in the airport showed that they shared a common interest – killing Benjamin Linus – but Sun’s later meeting with Kate showed just how far she had gone. Remember the Sun we met in Season One? The meek girl who would do whatever her husband said? Suddenly, she’s manipulating her former friends (the meeting with Kate – probably about 75% lies) in an attempt to exact revenge upon the man she holds responsible for her husband’s death… and has pretty much become a cold hard bitch. It could be that Widmore’s first two attempts to claim the Island failed (in the 1980s and 2004), but now that he has a partner in Sun, his odds just got a lot better.

 

Compass. One of the other items this episode that caught a lot of fans’ attention was the compass that Alpert gave to Locke, saying “Next time we see each other, I’m not going to recognize you.” Most people remembered the scene from “Cabin Fever”, where we saw Alpert visit a young Locke and lay out items for him to chose “which are his”. One of the items looked like this very compass, leading to a lot of speculation about some connection between Alpert giving Locke the compass this week.

 

I don’t see it. For me, it’s a fun easter egg-type item showing storyline consistency, but not one that holds any huge deeper meaning. Remember, 1960s Alpert wouldn’t even “know” Locke yet (which is why he warned that he would not recognize Locke the next time he saw him), and in the end – isn’t the compass actually Alpert’s? If you rewatch “Cabin Fever”, you’ll also see that Alpert isn’t overly excited when Locke goes for the compass – but rather when he goes for the “Book of Laws”.

 

I think the curious thing here is that Alpert seems to know where Locke is going to “skip” to next, which may indicate it’s not as random as we all are assuming. From what Faraday told us, it’s a pretty random process, which is why he needed time to figure out “when” they were. But if Alpert knows that he won’t recognize Locke, he must know that they are going to skip back to the past, rather than the future – which is way more convenient for us, the viewers, since it means we’ll get more insight into the history of the Island!

 

But does this mean that this skipping has happened previously? So that the Island Originals know how it works? Or is this another example of Jacob / Christian Shephard / The Island Spirit telling Alpert something that he otherwise would have no way of knowing? I’ve got no good answers for this one… yet.

 

Charlotte. As for Charlotte, her nosebleed and memory loss these episodes were strangely familiar to symptoms we’ve seen from other characters over the years.

• We saw a Dharma worker bleeding from the nose and “freaking out” after drilling too close to the FDW.
• We saw Desmond bleeding from the nose and slowly becoming “unstuck in time” after leaving the Island.
• We saw Minkowski bleeding from the nose, becoming “unstuck in time”, and dying on the Freighter.
• We saw Horace Goodspeed bleeding from his nose when he appeared to Locke in a dream, telling him that he’s been dead for twelve years.
• We saw Faraday becoming visibly upset about not being able to remember three cards.

 

Is there a common thread between all these?

 

I think we can throw out the Horace Goodspeed example because all the members of Dharma who died in the Purge seemed to be bleeding from the nose as a result of whatever the toxic gas was that was released on the Island. But all the rest seem to be variations / varying degrees on the same overall symptoms.

But what is the cause? Here’s my best crazy theory, so far:

 

It all has to do with the bearings used to come and go to the Island. Faraday kept emphasizing to Frank how important it was to fly on the 305 bearing, or else there would be “side effects”. Perhaps it doesn’t matter what bearing you enter the Island on, but you have to leave on the same bearing you came in on – or else there will be consequences ranging from nosebleeds, to memory loss, to becoming unstuck in time.

• Desmond felt the effects because his boat crashed on a different bearing than 305.
• Minkowski and friends were taking the Zodiac Raft to and from the Island to get a closer look at it while docked offshore on the Freightor, taking random bearings each time.
• If Charlotte was born on the Island and left at some point, it may have been a different bearing than when she returned to the Island.

 

If you are someone who has been exposed to high levels of electromagnetism or radiation, not only could it make you go crazy – but also become unstuck in time... which is where the whole “having a Constant” thing comes into play. If you are a normal person, who doesn’t mess around with wacky science experiments or play around the nuclear power plant, you simply go crazy and die. Faraday, knowing that he had a high level of exposure to radiation over the years, had a Constant before he went to the Island (Desmond). Unfortunately, he didn’t know that Charlotte had been to the Island before, and thus is surprised when she starts to exhibit the nosebleed symptoms.

 

So if you only go to the Island once, or only leave the Island once – you appear to be fine. But coming and going multiple times is what requires you be very careful about the bearings involved, or else the unique electromagnetic properties of the Island can mess you up in a variety of ways.

 

Here’s the big hole in this theory – upon finding out that Charlotte is in trouble, Faraday bangs on the Swan Hatch backdoor and talks to Desmond, telling him:

 

“You’re the only person who can help us because the rules don’t apply to you. You’re uniquely and miraculously special. If the helicopter made it off the Island, you made it home. My name is Daniel Faraday. Right now, me and everyone else you left behind are in serious danger. Go back to Oxford University, where we met. Find my mother – her name is…”

 

Remember, Faraday has just told all of our characters that they can’t go alter the future by changing the past. Likewise, he showed no urgent concern for their time skipping until Charlotte got the nosebleed. So the question is – is Charlotte simply the first to show the symptoms, and all our Survivors on the Island are doomed? Or, is Faraday sending Desmond on a mission to simply save Charlotte – and if all the others end up being saved along with her, added bonus? And who is Faraday’s mother? And how could she possibly be able to help the current situation?

 

Ms. Hawking. I have to say, I didn’t see this coming in a million years. I always thought Ms. Hawking would be one of those “throwaway characters” that we wouldn’t see again, even though we never really understood who she was or why she knew so much. For those who don’t remember, she was the woman working in the jewelry store during Desmond’s trippy “Flashes Before Your Eyes” episode in Season Three. She told Desmond that he wasn't supposed to buy the ring for Penny, because not buying it would lead to his original fate of ending up on the island and turning the fail-safe key. She also states that "if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead."

 

Now, she appears to be working in the basement of some church – using the world’s oldest computer and a series of pendulums to determine when and where the Island is going to appear again. Seeing as she was the only new older female character introduced in the episode, a lot of people are assuming that she is Faraday’s mother.

 

It would make some sense. She was feverishly writing on a chalkboard; just like Faraday would do and she seemed like a big science nerd. Also, she’s probably the only person that would make sense visiting to save the Survivors on the Island, since she seems to be one of the few people who actually knows what is going on with the Island. Even though Daniel told Desmond to go to Oxford to find her, we saw this week that she was currently meeting Ben in Los Angeles. While at first this seems to be a problem, I think it’s more of a great plot device to have Desmond travel to Los Angeles and reunite with the Oceanic Six. He goes to Oxford, finds out who she is and where she is, and then travels to America. If we go with the theory that Faraday, Charlotte, and Miles each have some connection to the Island, it would also provide Faraday’s connection. I’m not sold on her being Faraday’s mother – but it’s the best guess we’ve got at this point.

 

But who is she? How could she have appeared to Desmond within his flashes? How is she able to find the Island? I’m putting her in the same category as Abaddon – someone very mysterious, who seems to know a lot more about EVERYTHING than anyone else, Ben included, and who is working for some greater purpose.

 

God Help Us All. This phrase was uttered twice in the Lost season premiere, once by Chang at the beginning of the episode (“There are rules. Rules that cannot be broken. Risk releasing that energy – if that were to happen, God help us all.”), and once by Ms. Hawking at the end of the episode:

 

Ben: “Any luck?”

Ms. Hawking: “Yes.”

Ben: “Really?”

Ms. Hawking: “Really. What about you?”

Ben: “I’m having some difficulties.”

Ms. Hawking: “Well you better get busy – you only have 70 hours.”

Ben: “What? No – that’s not enough time.”

Ms. Hawking: “What you need is irrelevant. 70 hours is what you’ve got.”

Ben: “I lost Reyes tonight. What happens if I can’t get them all to come back?”

Ms. Hawking: “Then God help us all.”

 

So here’s the thing – we’re not simply concerned about the fate of the Survivors left on the Island, or the Oceanic Six, who have miserable lives since leaving the Island. There’s something much larger at play…

 

Desmond. How important is the character of Desmond? Well, if he's the only person that can actually change the past - he could have the power to save lives, stop Hitler, and make the world a better place… he’s a wild card. The rules of space and time apparently don’t apply to him thanks to his extra large blast of electromagnetism when he turned the failsafe key in the Swan Hatch. I don’t think Faraday wanted to resort to using him, but found himself “forced” to do so when the girl he likes was in trouble… and this is a very bad thing.

 

Remember how pretty much every movie / television show that has ever dealt with time travel has told us about how risky it was? How the slightest wrong move could rip apart the fabric of time, ruin the space-time continuum, and pretty much bring about the end of existence? I don’t think Lost is any different.

 

If we believe what we have been told, the universe will course-correct itself, which means it will get the Oceanic Six back to the Island. Apparently Locke was right – it was their destiny, their fate, to be on that Island – and them being off the Island is “breaking the rules”.

 

Unfortunately, with the Island “skipping”, it’s much harder to get them back to the Island – maybe making it so hard that even the universe can’t course correct it… and unless Ben is able to get them all back when the event window is opened in 70 hours, they won’t get another chance. It’s kinda like in the movie “Dogma”. If you prove God wrong, existence undoes itself. If you prove universe can’t course correct, God Help Us All.

 

As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts in play here – and a lot of big bad consequences if they don’t all work out perfectly. So who are characters like Abaddon and Ms. Hawking? I think they are characters who understand it all – maybe former Island Originals now living in the “real world”, people who have mastered time and space, and are now doing everything in their power to make sure that people don’t screw it all up and accidentally end the world. They’ve been putting the pieces in place for years – putting the thought in Locke’s head to go on the walkabout, making sure Desmond didn’t propose to Penny so he would turn the failsafe key, and helping Ben to get the Oceanic Six back to the Island.

 

…and this is why Lost makes my head hurt. Okay, let’s wrap up this insane theory. In summary:

 

It’s really important for everyone that the Oceanic Six make it back to the Island.

 

Faraday, in trying to save his girlfriend (who isn’t even that cute), might accidentally destroy all of existence.

 

 

Phew. I think I’m spent. Discuss the insanity below! I must say, I’ve been super excited by how intelligent the conversations and discussions have been so far this season. Keep up the good work!

 

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=367.0

"Because You Left" and "The Lie" Instant Reactions!

Brian's Two Word Review: Information Overload.

Wow. I did not see all that coming. In my head, I was feeling pretty confident going into this season that I had an idea about where it was going. In my head, I was trying to keep the concepts of time travel fairly reasonable (and as pseudo-sciencey as possible). In my head, it was complicated but manageable.

Leave it to Lost to totally blow my confidence out of the water and present us with one of the most complicated episodes of television ever produced.

Let's just start to wrap our minds around what happened in these two hours...

• Characters on the Island traveling back and forth in time unpredicatably.
• Some characters on the Island remembering things, others not so much.
• The audience having vague concepts of the general timeframe of each jump, but not specific enough to know if we just saw the characters visit two, three, or four different time periods.
• No one being clear on the rules of these time jumps, aside from Faraday and perhaps Richard Alpert - neither of which had time to fully explain this episode.

So what are we left with? A lot of analyzing to do!

The crazy thing is that I think we got enough information to work through a lot of answers, including some answers to questions that have been posed over the first four seasons of the show. I need some time to digest, but here is the traditional spewing of random thoughts to tide you over and pique your interests for the next few days...

• Is Charlotte suffering the same "sickness" that killed Minkowski (and almost Desmond?) Is it because she was on the Island before (as a child) and left, but returned on a different bearing? Or is it because she doesn't have a Constant? Could this be the same "illness" that killed all of CFL's crew? But CFL was somehow spared because she had Alex to act as her Constant?
• If Desmond is the only one immune to the effects of the Island jumping in time and wiping out memories, is he screwing up the space-time continuum by suddenly having the ability to actually change the past?
• Who the F is Ms. Hawking? I definitely got the vibe that she is some type of "The Matrix"-esque Oracle character who is trying to prevent the end of the world, mucked up by Desmond changing the past. Is this why she was so adamant about him not marrying Penny and just staying put on the Island?
• Who was the Jill character that Ben left Locke's body with? An Other that he is BFF with from back in the day? Or someone in the Ms. Hawking clan who are just working on preventing the world from coming to an end?
• Even with Hurley potentially being arrested, it's pretty hilarious how simple the Oceanic Six storyline is in comparison to the Island one. Every time they would jump to an Oceanic Six scene, I would feel slight disappointment on the inside. 
• What are the odds that the opening scene of the season, featuring Faraday inside the Orchid as it is being built, was actually a "flashback", and that at some point this season, the Island will "jump" back that far in time, allowing Faraday to enter the Orchid to try and sort everything out? Will this lead to throwing him into the future? Is this why he was crying when we first met his character last season? Does he have this residual memory of everything that happened, and everyone that dies (Charlotte in particular), but can't quite remember it? Will he be exposed to high levels of radiation like Desmond rendering him able to remember things outside of the "jumps"?
• Locke ends up with the compass that Alpert gave him, which seems like the object that Alpert wanted him to choose as a child when he visited. However, the knife is actually what was Locke's - the compass is Alpert's. So wouldn't that mean that Locke chose correctly?
• Is this how the Others knew that Locke was going to be their future leader? Did 1970's Locke tell them all sorts of stuff that had not yet happened and they figured that he was seeing into the future and must be some all-knowing being / witch?
• My early assumption is that Island Originals are immune from the effects of the Island moving - but any outsiders are not. This would explain Alpert knowing what was going on, but Ethan and the early Dharma folks not. But there are still all sorts of questions about what this means for characters who are alive vs. dead in the different timelines. Could this be why we see characters like Christian Shephard walking around?

My head hurts.

I will say this - these two episodes probably effectively turned off any "casual viewers" of the show. It's probably going to take 100% brainpower from people to be able to keep up and appreciate how awesome this show is getting. After teasing the "sci-fi" angle for the first four seasons, it jumped in head first into the deep end with the start of Season Five. Thus far, I'm quite impressed. It takes a lot for a show to challenge me, but Lost gave me all the challenge I could ask for and more.

Time to get analyzing...

For now, discuss!

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=365.0

Lost - "Because You Left" and "The Lie"

It starts…

Looks like we’ve got a first-ever double episode preview to kickoff Season Five! Even though the first two episodes of Season Five are airing back to back as part of a three hour Lost bonanza on January 21st, it seems pretty clear that the Lost writers originally envisioned them to be individual episodes, as each episode has its own title and episode description. So, to stick with tradition, we’ll deal with each individually, but interspersing some overall analysis within both. Take a deep breath – here we go!

Episode Title: “Because You Left”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: The traditional pre-episode Google search of the title revealed little in terms of books / movies / songs with this title. Instead, it returned thousands of sites talking about the Season Premiere. But that’s okay, because I don’t think the “deeper meaning” of the title comes from some outside source. In fact, for the first time ever in the history of Lost, we know exactly where this episode title will come from before the episode airs.

If you actually watched all the video clips I included with my previous post, you’ve already seen it:

For those unable to view the video clip (like all my co-workers), here’s the quote:

Jack: “How did all this happen?”

Ben: “It happened BECAUSE YOU LEFT, Jack.”

 

I’m guessing that this scene is one of the very first ones of Season Five, since it looks like it takes place immediately after the last scene of Season Four with Ben and Jack inside the Hofs Drawler Funeral Parlor (but not the very first scene of Season Five, of course – more on that later).

So in this situation, the deeper meaning isn’t really the symbolism of the words, but what the words themselves actually mean. It’s the question that we’ve all been asking ourselves since last season’s finale, where we found out that some very bad things happened on the Island after the Oceanic Six left – but it wasn’t simply just that these bad things happened, but because they happened DUE to the Oceanic Six leaving.

At first, this seems totally logical – whatever happened when Ben turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel (FDW) caused the Island to jump in space and time (in theory), which suddenly thrust our Survivors into a new, suddenly dangerous situation (like going back in time, putting them under attack from the Others). If Ben hadn’t turned the FDW, everything would have continued to be happy-go-lucky on the Island for our Survivors, aside from the occasional Smokey or Others attack.

But it’s not quite that easy.

If this were the case, Locke would have a serious, legitimate grudge against the Oceanic Six for indirectly causing all the very bad things to come about, but why would he need them to come back to the Island to make it right? This is the question I wrestled with after last season’s finale, and didn’t get very far:

http://lost-and-gone-forever.blogspot.com/2008/06/theres-no-place-like-home-parts-2-and-3.html

Looking back, my original theory doesn’t hold up very well now because based on the episode previews it isn’t a slow decline from Good Times to Very Bad Times, but something that is almost immediate based on the flaming arrows and explosions.

On the other hand, maybe we’re approaching this all wrong, and need to look at the two points totally separate from each other. Yes, Locke came back looking for our the Oceanic Six to return to the Island as part of some wacky scheme to save the Island (in his head, Locke probably thinks that the Oceanic Six coming back would help since it was their “destiny” to be there in the first place – and their leaving caused the Island to become “unbalanced” or something) – but maybe Ben wasn’t even talking about the Island in his conversation with Jack.

I’m reminded of the last few lines of Season Four:

Jack: “He told me that after I left the Island, some very bad things happened. And he told me that it was my fault for leaving. And he said that I have to come back. Why are you here?”
Ben: “The Island won’t let you come alone. All of you have to go back.”
Jack: “I don’t know where Sayid is. Hurley is insane. Sun blames me for… and Kate she won’t even talk to me anymore.”
Ben: “Perhaps I can help you with that. This is the way it has to be. This is the only way. You have to do it together, all of you.”
Jack: “How?”
Ben: “I have a few ideas. Jack – I said all of you. We’re going to have to bring him too.”

It looks like Jack’s question of “how did this all happen” has nothing to do with the Island – but rather, with all the terrible things that happened to the Oceanic Six after they returned to the “real world”. Think about it:

• Sayid lost the love of his life, and is working as a hit man for Ben.
• Hurley is right back in the mental institution, seeing images of dead Islanders.
• Sun lost the love of her life and has potentially turned evil and sided with Widmore in the race for the Island.
• Kate lost both of the loves of her life (Jack to crazy town and Sawyer to the Island), and is being haunted by images of her fake son’s real mother.
• Aaron is being raised without a father, by a known criminal (albeit hot).

 

So if you add it all up, each member of the Oceanic Six would have been better off if they had stayed on the Island. I have to think this fact is not lost on Jack, someone who was more determined than anyone to make it off the Island – but also someone who more than anyone wanted to help / “fix” people. Unfortunately, the two goals seemed to be at odds with each other. And through a cruel twist of fate, accomplishing the first goal made the second impossible – all because they left.

  

Episode Description: The remaining island survivors start to feel the effects of the aftermath of moving the island, and Jack and Ben begin their quest to reunite the Oceanic 6 in order to return to the island with Locke's body in an attempt to save their former fellow castaways.

Guest Cast: L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Sam Anderson as Bernard, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, William Mapother as Ethan Rom, Francois Chau as Dr. Marvin Candle, Sonya Walger as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis, William Blanchett as Aaron, Sean Whalen as Neil Frogurt, Tom Irwin as Dan Norton, Michael Dempsey as foreman, Stephanie Smart as ticket agent, Leslie Ishii as woman, Cindy Paliracio as TV anchor, Brad Berryhill as anxious guy, Sven Lindstrom as crew member, Chantal Boomla as counter girl, Jeremy Colvin as security guard.

Guest Cast Breakdown: This year, I’ve decided to give a dedicated paragraph or two each week to the guest stars for each episode – because they often offer as many clues to an episode as the Episode Description, if not more.

This week, we’ve got two guest stars that jump out at me – Ethan Rom and Marvin Candle. First up, we’ve got Ethan Rom, the Claire-kidnapping Other who was killed in Season One courtesy of multiple gunshots from Charlie. His inclusion in the episode means one of two things:

1. We are going to see a flashback to before Ethan was killed (probably pre-Oceanic Flight 815 crash)
2. When the Island went back in time (which I am assuming based on my previous post), it truly “resets” in every way, bringing people who have died since that time back to life, Ethan Rom included.

Both explanations seem pretty reasonable. As I argued in my “Destiny Calls” post, the most logical explanation for why the Others would suddenly be attacking our Survivors would be if the 1970’s Others have no memories of the 2004 Others – and if that’s the case, the space-time continuum seems like it would get out of whack really quickly if you had people die in 2004 and suddenly no longer exist in 1974. As insane as it sounds, bringing dead people back to life would be the easier and more logical way to deal with this proposed time jump.

On the other hand, I was racking my brain to figure out how this season is going to start. A quick refresher down memory lane:

• Season One – started with Jack’s eye opening, having no idea what was going on until we realized he was a survivor of a plane crash on an Island.
• Season Two – started with Desmond waking up and going through a daily routine, having no idea what was going on until we realized he was the man inside the Hatch.
• Season Three – started with Juliet hosting book club, having no idea what was going on until we realized she was living with the Others in a totally normal appearing Island neighborhood.
• Season Four – started with Hurley leading the police on a wild chase, having no idea what was going on until he screamed “I’m one of the Oceanic Six!”

 

So as you can see, the Lost writers seem to love putting us in situations where we have no idea where (or when) we are at the start of the season, only to have us finally realize what the heck is going on right before the big black LOST hits the screen. (Okay, Season Four was a pretty weak example of this – and broke the trend of introducing a new character, but let’s play the odds).

Keeping all this in mind, here’s a thought for the Season Five opener – what if we see what happened when Ben turned the FDW, only this time from the perspective of the Others in the 1970’s? From their perspective, what if the sky suddenly went white and all the sudden there were all these new people (our Survivors) on their Island? I’d probably start shooting flaming arrows too! Or – what if the jump in time correlates with roughly the time that Dharma came to the Island for the first time? The Others would be in full-fledged “attack mode” for these newcomers to the Island.

I think it would be a pretty cool opening scene in the same vein as past seasons’ openers.

What about Marvin Candle’s appearance in the episode?

Well, if we assume it’s early Dharma days then it’s logical to think that Pierre Chang himself would be walking around on the Island, filming Orientation videos and coming up with fun candle-related pseudonames for himself. On the other hand, one of my other cool thoughts for the Fifth Season would be if Radzinski was alive and well operating the Swan Hatch, pre-Kelvin and Desmond. I think it would be fascinating to see a glimpse of Radzinski learning about the Swan Hatch for the first time, watching the Orientation video in whole, and starting on his whole invisible ink Blast Door Map.

The other fun cameo this episode is Neil Frogurt, a Survivor who has been mentioned a few times in the past, but has only appeared in one of the Webisodes before last season. Given the scant number of Survivors left on the Island, it’s kinda cool that they are finally putting a true face to his name for consistency’s sake, rather than just having new random background characters in the Island scenes. Although, with all the people on fire and things blowing up, we may see him for only a moment before he is quickly killed – irony!

Episode Breakdown: On to the episode itself.

The first thing that caught my eye was the word “effects” – it’s not just one side-effect to the aftermath of turning the Island – but multiple ones. I have to think the first one is that the Island went back in time. As for the others? They could range from anything like being under attack from the Others to losing their memories similar to Faraday’s apparent memory loss.

It makes you wonder – does this put all the Survivors on the Island in the same boat as Faraday / Desmond? Do they need a Constant now to be able to keep “in touch” with 2005, even though they now exist in the past? That could really escalate things quickly.

Wait a minute, that could also provide the perfect explanation for why the Others would “forget” about the Survivors! If they spend their whole lives on the Island, they wouldn’t have anyone in the outside world to become their Constant, and would be victims of losing their memory every time the Island jumps!

At any rate, I’m expecting the Survivors to suddenly be in very bad shape – totally confused as to what’s going on, under attack, and possibly experiencing weird side effects like memory loss. Thank God Faraday is there to explain everything to them. Here’s hoping we get a few minutes of exposition before the episode is over so that we, as the viewers have an understanding about how this is all happening in “science terms” (good luck).

The other main storyline obviously will focus on Jack rounding up the Oceanic Six in their effort to return to the Island and save the Survivors they left behind. As Jack mentioned in his Season Four Finale speech, this seems like a much more difficult task than one would think, since everyone’s lives are in shambles post-Island.

If we were being realistic about this – it would take Jack years, if ever, to get the Oceanic Six to all agree to return to the Island. But in TV world, I sure hope it doesn’t take more than a few episodes. I think that there is a risk of a number of unnecessary scenes of Jack trying to convince the Oceanic Six to see his side of things, work with Ben, go back to the Island, etc – when as viewers, we’re all going to be thinking “okay, okay – just do it so we can see what happens!” The Lost writers have never let me down in the past (except for portions of the first half of Season Three), so I have faith that we can get this storyline resolved in four or five episodes – then the real fun of the season can begin.

As for Locke, the only possible reason to bring him back to the Island is because he’s going to come back to life, right? As insane as that sounds, I don’t know that Ben would insist on bringing him along for the ride if it was something as poetic as “burying him in the place that he belongs”. If not truly back to life, then at least becoming a Jacob-equivalent on the Island – but this should be even more entertaining to see Jack try and pull off. How do you lug around a dead body without people taking notice?

Lots to think about – and we’re only half done. On to the next episode!

 

Episode Title: “The Lie”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: Another episode where the “deeper meaning” is pretty light – in fact, the episode title is referenced in the episode description itself! Those Lost writers are getting lazy in their old age…

Episode Description: Hurley and Sayid are on the run from the cops after stumbling into trouble at the safehouse; the island survivors come under attack by unknown forces; and an old friend offers some shocking advice to Kate in order to ensure that "the lie" remain a secret.

So who is this “old friend” that is offering Kate shocking advice? Let’s check the Guest Cast for potential candidates!

Guest Cast: Michelle Rodriguez as Ana Lucia, L. Scott Caldwell as Rose, Sam Anderson as Bernard, Sonya Walger as Penelope "Penny" Widmore, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Lewis, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, Lillian Hurst as Carmen Reyes, Cheech Marin as David Reyes, William Blanchett as Aaron, Sean Whalen as Neil Frogurt, Tom Connolly as Jones, Mary Mara as Jill, Dana Sorman as Darlene, James Jeremiah as police officer, Stephanie Conching as nurse, Matthew Allan as Cunningham, Todd Bryant as Mattingly.

Guest Cast Breakdown: Ana Lucia?! Could this be the “old friend” that offers the advice to Kate? I wouldn’t call Ana-Lucia and Kate “friends” by any means – they were both fighting over Jack in a way back on the Island, but she jumps out as the most likely candidate from the guest list. We’ve seen Kate having visions of Claire warning her about not “bringing him back” (which we all assumed meant Aaron – but thinking about it now, could have meant anyone from Locke to Ben), so seeing a vision of the dead Ana-Lucia also seems possible.

However, looking at the other Guest Stars this episode, it seems pretty clear that it’s a Hurley-centric outing (since his mom and dad are guest stars). Keeping in mind that Jack is working on rounding up the Oceanic Six, could it be that Hurley himself is the “old friend” that comes in contact with Kate and offers her shocking advice to keep “the lie” secret?

I guess it all depends on what “the lie” actually is. With the Oceanic Six, there are a number of strong candidates, since their whole lives have been a lie since returning from the Island, but if we’re talking about Kate, my money is on “the lie” being about Aaron. The lie is that Aaron is actually her child. So what is the shocking advice that someone would give to keep this lie a secret? What if someone figured out that Aaron isn’t Kate’s child? It really shouldn’t be that hard. Anyone who saw her pre-flight could confirm that she didn’t look pregnant. Any DNA evidence would confirm that he is not her child. In that case, what could Kate do to ensure that Aaron wouldn’t be taken away by the authorities?

Even more importantly, finding out that Aaron is not Kate’s child would basically prove that the Oceanic Six were lying about the crash, the Island, and the Survivors – and would immediately put all of our Survivors back on the Island in great danger (even bigger than the danger that they are facing anyways). How would Kate be able to keep this lie a secret to protect Aaron, the Oceanic Six, AND the Survivors back on the Island?

She would need to run and hide.

What better place to go than BACK TO THE ISLAND?

Out of all the Oceanic Six, Kate seemed like the one least likely to be able to be convinced to go back to the Island. But if it meant protecting EVERYONE, I think she might be able to be convinced. It might be the only way to keep “The Lie” intact.

Back to the Guest Stars – the other truly noteworthy guest this episode is none other than Frank Lapidus. As I mentioned during my Season Four wrap up last spring, I had some real concerns about Frank ever appearing on the show again. He seemed like a character whose storyline might be sufficiently wrapped up, especially with less than forty episodes remaining. However, his inclusion gives me hope that he’ll continue to be an integral part of the Oceanic Six’s return to the Island – flying the plane they use to get there, or maybe when Ben said “you all have to go back”, it meant every single person who has ever set foot on the Island. Either way, I like Frank, and am happy to see him back.

Episode Breakdown: If you remember last season’s finale, Sayid went to the Mental Institution to “rescue” Hurley, killing a man stationed in a car outside in the process. The assumption was that the man in the car was one of Widmore’s people, keeping an eye on Hurley, seeing if they could gather any information from him (or those who visited him).

I have to assume that Sayid was taking Hurley back to his “safehouse” – a place that would be safe from Widmore’s spies. I’m guessing the “trouble” is that Widmore discovers the safehouse and has his men attempt to kidnap / murder Hurley and Sayid. My money would be on Sayid kicking ass and taking names using his sweet break-dance fighting style… but gunshots will be fired, drawing the attention of the police. From there, they’ll stumble upon the dead bodies and assume that Sayid and Hurley are criminals (which to some extent, they are).

Unfortunately, this adds an extra degree of difficulty to Jack’s mission to bring everyone back to the Island. With Hurley and Sayid on the run from the cops, not only do the Oceanic Six have to worry about Widmore’s hit men, but also the regular police. The good news is this should expedite the time it takes the Oceanic Six to get back to the Island, since there won’t be time for everyone to sit down and talk through the pros and cons of trying to go back. All the sudden, almost everyone has a reason to get back to the Island as soon as possible:

• Jack – life is a wreck because he left
• Kate – needs to protect the lie that Aaron is her son
• Sayid – on the run from Widmore’s people and the law
• Hurley – on the run from Widmore’s people and the law
• Sun – working for Widmore to find the Island?
• Aaron – is able to be picked up and carried to the Island, so he doesn’t get a vote

But even if they all agree to return to the Island, I’m still wondering how exactly this can happen. Will they go back into the past? That seems pretty unlikely. Even if they do find some type of Dharma Station in the real world (the Lighthouse logo referenced in my previous post?), it having the ability to send them back in time seems outside the realm of pseudo-science… because the station exists off of the Island. On the Island, it’s easy to explain something like “jumping back in time” thanks to the “exotic matter” and “unique properties” there. But if Dharma could create a station that could send people back in time, that’s straight up inventing time travel – and while it could explain some of the happenings we’ve seen on Lost, it’s a little too far out there for me. Also, it seems like it could have been used last season to solve some problems, rather than resorting to turning the FDW.

The other alternative seems to be waiting until the Island catches up to the present – but that also seems really unlikely since the Survivors are under immediate danger and probably wouldn’t survive for 30 years on the Island – and it also brings up the pesky aging issue of the characters which creates a messy situation for all the love triangles on the Island. Kate making out with old man Sawyer? Gross. Jack hooking up with Grandma Juliet? No thank you!

So what’s left?

The only thing I can think of is that the Island somehow finds it way back to the present (2008). I don’t know if this would involve Faraday figuring something out, or our Survivors making their way to the Dharma Lighthouse station (if it exists on the Island), but it seems to me that the only way for the Oceanic Six to find the Island is for the Island to find them – at least from a timeline perspective. This would go along with Ben’s comments that once you leave, you can never go back… unless the Island wants you to come back, because the Island – or those on it – would have to proactively do something to make it happen.

The last part of the episode description is also quite intriguing. The Island Survivors come under attack by “unknown forces”. I was operating under the assumption that the flaming arrows and explosions attacking the Survivors in the preview were coming from the Others or possibly Dharma… but both of these are pretty well-known by our Survivors. Is it possible there is some new entity on the Island back in the past that existed pre-Dharma? Or does this comment simply refer to the fact that our Survivors are puzzled because the Others / Dharma are suddenly attacking them, tied to the fact that suddenly they don’t remember / know about our Survivors?

I guess I’ve always thought that in the grand history of the Island, it’s been the Others… and then Dharma, and then our Survivors. Sure, there might have been some other random visitors here and there (the Black Rock pirates, Henry Gale, Yemi), but I never thought about any other large group spending time on the Island – but if there are “unknown forces”, maybe that’s exactly what we’re going to find. However, that would mean the Island jumped back more than 30 years, which would contradict some of the other clues we’ve received via the Comic-Con video. Confusing.

Of course, I could just be getting caught up in the wording – and the “unknown forces” are simply unknown to our Survivors at the time because they don’t know who is attacking them – and it ends up being Dharma or the Others. I suppose I’ll settle on that for now since it’s the least confusing possibility.

 

Wrap Up. Okay, between that post, and my “Destiny Calls” post, I think I’ve pretty much thrown all my thoughts out for how the first few episodes of the season. In summary:

1. The Island went back in the past. This has put the Survivors on the Island in danger, because they are suddenly strangers to the 1970’s Island inhabitants (Others / Dharma).
2. The Oceanic Six all have various reasons to go back. The tricky part will be figuring out how to do it.
3. We are all relying on Faraday to explain all this using pseudo-science.

 

The tricky part is going to be in the details. I’ve got a feeling that after the first two episodes of Season Five, our heads are going to be about to explode, trying to digest the time jump concepts, and what it might mean for the Others, the history of the Island, and some of the yet unanswered questions we still have.

 

It should be a fun season of analyzing.

Happy Losting! See you back here for Instant Reactions Wednesday night!

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=361.0

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!