Lost - "S.O.S."

Episode Title: “S.O.S.”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: Although most people think that “S.O.S.” stands for something like “Save Our Ship” or “Save Our Souls”, it turns out that “S.O.S.” means nothing. It was simply adopted as the uniform distress signal at the Second Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference in 1906, since the three dot / three dash / three dot radio signal is easy to distinguish.



Basically, “S.O.S.” means to immediately stop doing whatever you are doing and to respond to the distress signal.

But here’s the funny thing: the distress signal is actually “SOS”, with no periods in it (for obvious telegraphic reasons). Our episode title definitely has periods in it. Meaning?

Our Lost-writers are not avid telegraph users, and didn’t do the research of the history of the term (like uber-nerd I did). So let’s just look at this from the commonly understood meanings of “S.O.S”:

1. The letters represented by the Morse Code signal used as an international distress signal, especially by ships and aircraft.
2. A call or signal for help.

Either way, it seems as though our Survivors are in distress, and need of help. The two ongoing storylines for this episode seem to be about Jack and Kate proposing a trade of HGI for Michael and Walt, and of Locke questioning the purpose of the Hatch (more on these later). The weird thing is, I wouldn’t classify either of these stories as being “in distress”… until you remember this scene we saw from the “Next week on Lost” preview:

By the looks of things, Jack and Kate are caught in some sort of trap set by the Others (or possibly CFL? Doesn’t it look like the same net that she caught HGI in?). If Jack (de-facto Survivor leader) and Kate (de-facto Island hottie) were suddenly captured, I would think both Jack / Kate and the other Survivors would be in quite a state of distress. But who are they going to send an “S.O.S.” to? Desmond? CFL?

Am I crazy to hope for a trip to the radio tower near the Black Rock (that has been often referenced, never seen?) where they could change CFL’s ramblings into a true “S.O.S.” signal that passing ships might pick up? Should I get my hopes up that our Survivors finally come to their senses and realize that they need to start working on getting off the Island? Probably not…

Given all the Latin we saw on the Blast Door, I went ahead and cross-referenced “S.O.S.” with “Latin”. Turns out it is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase “si opus sit” – which means “if needed”. But again, I can’t think of any character or situation that would reference this – another dead end.

Finally, this is also the Rose / Bernard flashback episode, so there must be some distress in their marriage as well. Look for a symbolic “S.O.S.” to exist in the marriage of Rose and Bernard… which leads us to…


TV Guide Description: Rose is surprisingly and vehemently opposed to Bernard's plan to create an S.O.S. signal; romantic sparks are rekindled between Jack and Kate when they trek into the jungle to propose a "trade" with "The Others"; and Locke begins to question his faith in the island.

TV Guide Breakdown: Why would Rose be so opposed to creating an S.O.S. signal? All I can think of is that she falls into the John Locke category of “happy on the Island, doesn’t want to get off”. But why? Rose and Bernard are the seemingly sickly sweet couple full of love for each other. But since no character ever seems to have a happy back story on Lost, there must be something bad in their past lives. The problem is, every single reason I can think of has already been done or has holes:

• Bernard spending too much time at work, making Rose lonely? Nope, already been done with Jack and Sarah.
• Bernard abusing Rose mentally or physically? Nope, the both are sickeningly sweet in love.
• Bernard or Rose having some disease / disability before they landed on the Island? Nope, too similar to Locke being able to walk / Jin being able to make babies (maybe).
• Bernard and Rose were criminals, who now have their freedom? Nope, been done with Sawyer / Kate.

For once, I’m out of ideas. I feel so embarrassed. I apologize.

Thankfully, the rest of the episode is much more clear to me. Although the Kate / Jack romance seemed to be dead in the water earlier this season, when she symbolically and literally chose Sawyer over Jack, it looks to be re-emerging. Why?

Since before the season began, I was expecting the Sawyer / Kate / Jack / Ana-Lucia “love rhombus”, and after a brief flirtation with pairing off Sawyer with Kate and Jack with Ana-Lucia, we seem back to our original Sawyer / Kate / Jack “love triangle”. What’s this mean? Is Ana-Lucia the next character to die? Or are they simply beginning to setup the Ana-Lucia / Sayid “love line”?

The trade with the Others is very intriguing, and the commercials showing Jack screaming in the rain for the Others to come and get him are pretty Jack-Bauer-esque in terms of awesomeness. But as HGI mentions, “They’ll never give up Walt”. Why? Have you seen Walt lately?

He is considerably older than the last time we saw him on the Island, even though in Island time only a few weeks have passed. The inevitable TV issue of kids growing up is exacerbated by Lost’s slow-moving episode timeline. Instead of each season being a year, each season is about a month – making such growth spurts unacceptable. As a writer, you only have two ways to deal with the Walt situation:

1. Make him appear, suddenly older, and have to explain how Dharma has some funky time-warp / instant-aging experiments going on.
2. Don’t show him on-screen. Either kill him or keep him “kidnapped”.

My money is on choice two. Doing the whole "time warp" storyline would be awfully tricky, and would verge on Lost becoming too "sci-fi" for the average American viewer. So the question is will Kate and Jack settle for just trading Michael for HGI? Will Michael accept being handed back over to Jack and Kate without Walt going with him? Doubtful, unless the Others have fed him some mind-bending drugs, a la Claire.

As for Locke questioning his faith in the Island, it’s the same point I touched upon last week. If entering the Numbers has no meaning, Locke no longer has his “greater purpose” on the Island. Again – I would anticipate this building up to the Locke vs. Jack showdown on Number entry later in the season.

I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty excited for this episode. It’s also the first episode in a long time where I feel like I have no idea what’s going to happen – which leads me to…


Spoilers. Knowing what’s going to happen on the show ahead of time. For me, it’s like finding your Christmas presents ahead of time and looking at them, or getting a DMB Setlist before the show – it’s just wrong and ruins the event.

The tricky thing is, in the past two months, I’ve twice stumbled across pictures that turned out to be considerable spoilers and posted them on the website. At the time of each, they were both “potential spoilers” that I wasn’t sure how would play out on the show – it gave me some new topics to discuss and points to ponder. However, that’s not what this Blog is all about.

In an effort to keep this place spoiler-free, I’ll be sure to sufficiently “hide” any potential spoilers in the future – or not post them at all. This is assuming I ever come across something like the Balloon Picture or Libby Picture ever again. In the two years I’ve been watching the show, I’ve only come across things like that twice – it just happened to be in the past few weeks on top of each other.

I ask the posters in the Comment section to do the same, and restrain themselves from posting spoilers as well. If I see something too spoilery, I’ll delete it. Everyone who has told me “I’m not going to read your website anymore, it ruins the show” can rest easy. Now the only way the show will be ruined is by me being smart enough to figure out what’s going to happen by using my brain. Sound good?


Comment Q and A! So this is another new section for the Blog, which I’ll try to make a regular section (assuming this first attempt doesn’t fail miserably). Basically, I notice that there are a lot of comments that are asking questions, or looking for input on different topics. Since it can be tricky to keep up and address the right people in the comment section (and some people don’t venture into the “scary comments section”), I’m going to post the comments (or the applicable portion of the comments) here, along with my responses (in fancy italics!). Let’s see how this works out…


Tsw: What about Libby?

Before the episode, I was all over the board on my thoughts for Libby. Is she just crazy? Is she really a Dharma sent to bring Hurley (and the Numbers) back to the Island?

But after watching it, I’ve narrowed my Libby thoughts down to one of the following:

She was crazy, and is acting like a psychologist. Her “craziness” is being a pathological liar. Once escaping / being released from the Mental Institution, she began telling people she was a clinical psychologist. Since she probably spent a good deal of time with psychologists who were trying to help her get over her lying, she could impersonate one quite well.
She was crazy, and became obsessed with Hurley while in the Mental Institution. Her “craziness” was actually Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and her newest obsession is one Hugo Reyes. She tracked him down following her release from the Institution and ended up on the Island with him, much to her delight. This explains why the semi-hot Libby would be interested in such a large mammal (Hugo) on an Island with limited deodorant.

Note the common theme being “Libby used to be crazy.” I’m basing this on the fact that she not only looked crazy, but was being administered medication during the episode. I’ve also eliminated the “She could be working for Dharma” possibility since she prevented Hurley from jumping. If she was an “Other”, who I theorize are outnumbered and threatened by our Survivors, you let him jump – lowering the number of Survivors by one.

Non-anonymous: Just a quick suggestion you forgot to talk about how no one saw a plane when the food "drop off" happened.

I’m just glad the Survivors at least called attention to this, unlike many of the other random occurrences they just seem to ignore. You have to think that if the Island can somehow “mask” itself from the outside world, they could apply the same technology to some sort of “stealth” airplane.

Anonymous:
1. Libby? Many possibilities exist for her 'back-story'. What do incidents from past episodes tell us about her (namely, she saying Hurley stepped on her foot while boarding plan and he apparently didn't, etc)?

This either means Libby is a liar (Option #1 above) or afraid Hurley will discover she’s a stalker (Option #2 above). Either way, she’s afraid of Hurley finding out the truth.

2. What is Eko building? Why is it a secret? Do we think it is a church?

I think a Church is the only logical answer, given Eko’s history. Why secret? Well, Eko’s a pretty secretive character, and he probably knows the non-religious of the group would be less inclined to help if they knew they were building a God House.

3. What about HGI comment to Locke about NOT having inputted any #'s into the computer? Do we believe him? How might this play out (trailer looks interesting in how Locke is trying to understand 'black light' chart)

As HGI has a history of lying, we are inclined to not believe him. But look at it from the point of view of “HGI’s Goal”: If it was to have the Survivors keep pressing the button, why would he have even told Locke that he didn’t push it? Clearly, he wants the Survivors to stop pressing the button. Why?

My theory remains that HGI is a Rebel Other, who’s discontent with Dharma and their experiments. He knows the button pressing is merely an experiment that keeps our Survivor’s focus off other things going on with the Island. Even though this means HGI is telling the truth, I think it’s the only logical answer.

Also – as I said before, it’s a great way to setup an argument between Locke and Jack about pressing the button, and will finally bring the issue to a head. This will be the event that causes our Survivors to finally stop pressing the button.

Julie B: Also, on the flipside, how do they know that this food isn't sent from the Others? If they are so frightened by the Others, who have killed/kidnapped/threatened quite a few of the survivors, wouldn't they be a little skeptical of food that arrived with Dharma logos on it? It could be poisoned, it could leave bizarre psychological effects on them. But instead they just take it. I know that this goes against the whole "survival" issue, as it's food and is needed to survive but I'd still be a little skeptical about its source.

Great point! One would think that food emblazoned with the logo of the very group that threatens your life is something you should approach cautiously. However, I think that after 40 days on the Island without any processed snack foods, you pretty much throw caution to the wind and chow down. It would be like if I went without Skyline for 40 days, and then you gave me some that had a Steelers logo on it. I’d eat it without thinking twice about it.

(But something else to think about is that if this food is “poisoned” somehow, it would explain why Hurley is the first one of our Survivors to have the “Sickness”, seeing imaginary people and going crazy. He’s been eating the food the most in the past 40 days.)

Locke_D: Does anyone know all the number sequences in the flashbacks?

This is a pretty daunting task, one not even I am up for. Last year I found a website that listed every reference to the Numbers during Season One. This would be a good place to start:

http://home.comcast.net/~towhateverend/TLNS1.html
http://home.comcast.net/~towhateverend/TLNS2.html


Mike: What makes this somewhat confusing to me is that if the flashbacks are memories, how are people remembering things they were not aware of to begin with? Jack never saw the stair he tripped on, Locke had his back turned to the oceanic logo on the plane flying above the motel, etc.Either we're getting the island's "reading" of a person's past with the numbers getting picked up, or it's just a regular "omniscient" (that's a word right?) viewpoint of what has happened for the audience, without a direct correlation to what a character is thinking about at the moment.

You have to understand there is a difference between what the character sees from their point of view, and what we see from the camera’s point of view. In the case of Jack running up the steps, from his eyes he only saw the steps in front of him. But the camera is in the air above him as he’s running, so we as a viewer can see exactly what step he is on.

In the flashback, the character only remembers things from their point of view, but we are provided a full look at the scene from the larger eye of the camera.

Henryford: By the way, wasn't it an illogical argument that Libby made while convincing Hugo at the end? - the man with broken leg

I don’t think so. It really depends on how deep you want to get with the “It’s all in your head” debate.

If something is in my head, does that mean I already know it? There are all sorts of examples where I forget things from my past, or can’t remember things like someone’s name of phone number – Libby and the broken leg could be something like that.

But I think it works because even if it’s a bad example, there are events that continue to unfold on the Island that Hurley has no premonition about. You would think if it was all in his head there would be more “Wait a minute I’ve seen this before” moments, or other events would start bleeding in that he would identify from his past – besides the Numbers and Libby.

Rutkowskilives: So there we find Sayid, Ana-Lulu and HGI, with Sayid going Matlock on HGI, and HGI mentions a "he" or a "him" or something like that. And Ana-Lulu says something to the effect of "The guy with the beard?" and HGI says "He's nothing!"

...... (thinking)......

Waitaminute! What the heck is HGI talking about? We suspect due to Kate's finding that Mr. Friendly/Zeke wears a beard as a disguise (has Ana-Lulu ever met him? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. Did Sawyer mention him?). His comment tells me several things - first, he doesn't know that our Losties know about Zeke's game, and he is fine letting them believe the disguise (more on this later). Second, HGI knows all about the interactions between the Losties and the Others. Third, HGI has an understanding of the hierarchy within the Others. Fourth, the Losties knowing that Zeke isn't a hot shot is really not informational beneficial to them in anyway. Add this all up, and what does it mean?My guess is that HGI is in cahoots with Danielle. Pardon the scattered logic, but here goes...

So CFL has never really seen the Others, yet has intricate traps set up around the island just in case one comes by? I guess that's reasonable since, you know, she was alone and had to do something for 16 years, and she did manage to catch Sayid this way not too long ago. Oddly enough, shortly after trapping Sayid, she gets HGI, because HGI let himself get trapped. Why? Becuase HGI is a dealer and is all for exchanging to fulfill needs. He understands that CFL's need is to see/know about her daughter. He needs to be delivered to the Losties because DHARMA isn't nearly as strong as they are leading our Losties to believe, and they need to know how big a threat they are facing because their smoke and mirrors bearded Others act can only last so long. Plus, the Losties have only run into the grunt Others and they seem pretty freaked out by them as it is, and it would be good for the Others to know exactly how well the Losties understand them. CFL, considering the implications of this find, and the fact that she really has no loyalties to the Losties and probably figures that infected Aaron will kill them anyway, sacrifices her desire to take revenge on an Other in favor of the possibility of seeing her daughter. HGI of course gets what he wants under a very well planned disguise (he's trapped and has what he believes to be a solid fake ID). CFL doesn't want anything to happen to the Losties though, and despite a rocky relationship, does trust Sayid to handle HGI. CFL knows for sure that HGI is an Other, and thus explains to Sayid that she does indeed know him to be an Other, and that as such, he will lie. And lie some more. And so Sayid needs to be careful, and it seems like that is exactly how he is going about things. Because let's face it - Locke was the man in season 1, in season 2, it's all Sayid.

One other thing about Libby - I've been intrigued by her character since the beginning, and have been rooting for her ever since her conversation with Sawyer when he wasn't looking too good. She is a person that understands psychology, be it from study or because she herself is mental, I don't know. She also seems to possess a survival instinct beneficial to both herself (knowing when to stick with and then bail on Ana-Lulu), and to others, evidenced by keeping Hurley, Sawyer, Ana-Lulu (in the beginning) and to an extent Claire going. I will go on record as saying that I believe she has nothing to do with the Others. In fact, I think Libby is slowly emerging as an emotional leader of the Losties, and an extremely important one, because HGI has never had a chance to learn about her, and the Other that did, Goodwin, is dead.

Oh, and one more thing - even though they may be comfortable on the island, I like that Eko has taken on a construction project, whatever it ends up being. Building permanent structures is a great way to stick it to the Others. Anyway, I'm sure my thinking has all kinds of holes in it, but I'd love to hear some response to my ideas.

Okay. Wow. Longest Comment Ever. Very impressive.

First off, I just think that CFL is going to remain a “wild card” on this show. If she were in cahoots with HGI, why would she shoot him? If HGI wanted to be captured, why would he try to run away from Sayid when he was released?

I agree with you that HGI is a “grunt Other”. In fact, I think that all “Rebel Dharmites” are going to be people pretty low on the Other totem pole. I think it’s possible he let himself get captured, and it’s possible his “mission” was to do reconnaissance of the Survivors to see their interworkings.

As for Ana-Lucia commenting on “the guy with the beard”, since Sawyer, Jack, Locke, and Kate have all seen him – you would assume (although on this show you never know) that one of them mentioned him to Ana-Lucia at some point. I don’t think that Kate has yet made the connection between the fake beard and Zeke…

I still think Libby is crazy. I can’t see her being any sort of emotional leader for the group unless it benefits her well-being. As you mention, she seems to be looking out for her own well-being at all times, regardless of who that aligns her with.

Lastly, I think that HGI yelling “he’s nothing!” is more a product of him getting caught up in his emotions than any deeper meaning. It could be out of jealousy towards “Him”, anger towards “Him”, or fatigue from his three days of capture getting the best of him.


E other: thinks that this is going to be a recurring/cycle thingy? The cave that the losties 1st chance upon, there were people (or evidence of people) before them. They found the corpse, right?Like the losties entering and taking over the hatch and Desmond leaves. Before Desmond was there, there was another guy who died.So every group thinks of the other as the OTHERS?

Another good point. I wouldn’t be surprised. We’ve seen a few examples of things from the past that indicate the Island has been there for a while (Black Rock Pirate Ship, skeletons), but also things that reference time doesn’t pass normally on the Island (CFL equipment seeming far more than 16 years old, commenting “has it been that long” about how long she’s been there). There is also the intriguing line from Season One that got edited about how CFL’s team was “Studying time”.

Also – most characters on the show are wearing watches. Time really has no meaning once you’re on a desert island, so I view it as hidden symbolism that there is some sort of messed up time on the Island.

Julia: I was on IMDB two weeks ago. It says that Ian Sommerhalder is going to be back somehow on this episode.

Rule #1 of Lost – never trust ABC or their promos.
Rule #2 of Lost – never trust IMDB. Anyone can post “information” on it. It’s been way wrong in the past. It’ll be way wrong in the future. IMDB is a reference guide – meaning it’s a good place for things that already happened, not a good place for things yet to come.

Anonymous: Brian, I have a question for you. I found some info on thetailsection.com about the remaining episode titles and the centricness of each one...with the exception of the finale. I was wondering if you could confirm:

219- S.O.S. Rose/Bernard....duh

220- Two for the Road Ana Lucia

221- ? Mr. Eko

222- Three Minutes Michael

I can confirm the following schedule:

4.12 - “S.O.S” (Rose/Bernard-centric)
4.19 – No Lost (but Alias returns!)
4.26 – “Reckoning” (New “Recap” Episode to bring everyone up to speed on the season so far)
5.3 - “Two for the Road” (Ana-Lucia-centric)
5.10 - “?” (Centricity unknown)
5.17 - “Three Minutes” (Centricity unknown)
5.24 – Season Finale (Title / Centricity unknown)

Cas: Does anyone know what DHARMA stands for yet? Guesses?

Latest and Greatest Guess from Brian:

Degroot
Hanso
Association for
Rapid
Mankind
Advancement

But I’m not even content with that. Watch it be something that doesn’t even include Degroot or Hanso…

Steve Poke: sure you all have thought of this, and probably dismissed it, but what if HGI was a Keiser Sose-type figure? Any time he refers to "he", he's actually talking about himself...He was captured intentionally, to find out for himself who the Losties are and what they're doing in the hatch. Thoughts?

Truth be told, I totally would have called out HGI as being a “Keiser Soze” if I didn’t use the expression two nights earlier when we found out the President was behind everything on 24. Two Keiser Soze references in one week seemed excessive and made me think my mind went there just because it was fresh in my mind.

However, looking back, I like it – remember how angry HGI got when they called Zeke his “boss” and he snapped “He’s nothing!”, it sounded as if he was insulted that they thought Zeke was more important than him.

The big thing working against this theory isn’t that he said “He’ll kill me if I talk”(this could always just be another lie), but that I don’t think the leader of the Others would be walking around the Jungle by himself, or allow himself to get captured. Shouldn’t he have bodyguards or something like that? Shouldn’t the Others be attacking the Survivors right now in an attempt to get him back? They’re not – so I think he’s a Rebel Dharmite more than anything else.

Andi: CFL said that he would lie for a very long time and only then would he tell the truth.Can we surmise that he told the truth regarding the numbers? Or is he still in the lying phase?Or was CFL lying in the first place?

I wouldn’t take CFL’s comments literally. I think she was just trying to get the point across that “He will lie and lie, and then if you torture him enough eventually he might tell you the truth.”

He might have let a few morsels of truth slip out, but I still think he’ll lie all he can do achieve whatever his goal might be and try and save himself.


That’s all for this week!

"Dave" Analysis

Official “Dave” Review: My mind was blown… for a few minutes.

It’s like the writers decided to entice the average, non-Blog reading viewer with theories of Purgatory and “It’s All a Dream” by temporarily playing both of them up as true. But after some quick and easy analysis, both are easily dismissed, leaving the episode a bit hollow. Most had surmised that Dave was all in Hurley’s head way ahead of the episode’s reveal (since everyone has seen “The Sixth Sense”), and I partially ruined the big Libby ending twist (that’s my bad – and I’ve adopted a new policy to ensure it never happens again).

But it was a good episode. It exceeded expectations. There was a lot of intriguing things that happened. We’ll get to those. But first…


As much as I love Lost, there are a couple things about the show that really, really bother me. This episode started out with one of the main ones:



What the hell was that? Yes, I understand the symbolism of Hurley “kicking” his food addiction habit, but guess what? YOU ARE LIVING ON AN ISLAND WITHOUT A STEADY SOURCE OF FOOD. How about you think about a little thing called “survival” first, before worrying about how you have an overeating problem? I guarantee there are a bunch of people on the beach who would happily have eaten that food (and even instantly forgiven you for not telling them you had it all along).

Granted, we did have the magical Food Drop from the sky, but at this point in the episode, Hurley had no idea about it.

It’s just a small part of a much greater point I want to emphasize: The Survivors are far too content on the Island.

When’s the last time someone talked about getting off the Island? They all seem happy enough playing cards, hanging out, and building shelters. Gone are any of the fundamental “survival” issues, or any sense of urgency in wanting to get off the Island.

Why?

Because they found a Hatch? No, only a few seem to have ever set foot inside.

Because they think there are Other people on the Island? No, because these people seem pure evil and have killed fellow Survivors, which should make you want to get off the Island ever more!

Because their lives were all miserable prior to the Island? Possibly. This is actually the one answer that would give a lot of explanation to what we’ve seen thus far - they’re actually quite happy living on the Island with a fresh start, away from the troubles in their lives. Maybe they all just want to stay there, start over – start fresh – and build a better life.

For more on this theory, listen to the Guster song “Keep It Together” (which could basically be an outline for the entire series of Lost, in reality). At this point, it would be a plausible explanation for the lack of drive to get off the Island…


Sayid is awesome. He has single handedly proven HGI to be an Other at this point. No one else would have dug up the grave. No one else would have searched the body and found a $20 bill with writing in the wallet. Without Sayid, “Henry Gale” would have been exonerated of the “Other” claim and probably would be wrecking havoc on our Survivors… or escaping into the Jungle without helping answer any of the Lost mysteries!

I hope this point isn’t lost (no pun intended for once) on the rest of the Survivors, as I think this thrusts Sayid into a leader position in the group. His high level of cynicism and failure to blindly believe what he encounters is a welcome change from the desire to believe of John Locke and the slow-paced “don’t make waves” leading style of Jack. If I was Joe Schmoe Survivor, I’d be wanting Sayid making some more decisions… especially given his military training background.

(PS - I know this point isn’t lost (again, no pun intended – twice? I’m Johnny Serious tonight!) on HGI, who is probably sitting in his cell cursing Sayid. “I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those pesky kids… and that Iraqi!” Who wants to bet Sayid becomes Target #1 if target Sayid first if HGI ever escapes?)


Which brings us to HGI’s comment that I found very intriguing:

“God doesn't know....God doesn't know how long we've been here John....God can't see this island anymore than the rest of the world can..."

I know my first reaction to this was “Oh, they’re playing up the ‘Purgatory’ storyline again”, only to realize – of course God can see Purgatory, can’t he?

My second reaction was “Maybe there is some sort of magical cloaking device around the Island that makes it invisible to everyone?” But one would think God could see right through that anyways.

So what did HGI mean?

The quote isn’t meant to be taken literally. HGI feels abandoned – not just by his fellow man, but also by his God.

This manner of thinking ties in nicely to the quotes written on the Blast Door:

“It’s a bad plan that cannot be changed”
“I think therefore I am depressed”
“The wrath of the gods is great, but it certainly is slow”
“Save yourself from hell”

Here’s my newest theory on HGI – he’s not just an Other, he’s a desperate Rebel Dharmite. HGI has clearly had some interaction with whoever the “He” who is the boss of the Others, and knows him enough to fear him. But his quote about God not seeing the Island clearly means something going on the Island is at odds with his morals, as in “If God could see this place, he wouldn’t allow it to happen.”

(PS – doesn’t this remind everyone of Season 1 of Alias when they referred to “The Man” the whole season, only to find out it’s Sydney’s mom all along? If the “He” who is the leader of the Others turns out to be Jack’s Dad, I’m calling JJ Abrams out for copyright infringement of himself).

However he was originally ended up on the Island, whatever he used to believe in – he’s disenfranchised by it. He wants to get off the Island. He wants to end the experiments going on there. He wants to bring Dharma down. This desperation is a strong candidate for the explanation of why he got caught in the first place - HGI wanted to get caught. He was a prisoner to the Dharma life, and wanted to get out of it, no matter what it took.

But there’s still the other part of his statement, and I took this part to be quite literal – the rest of the world can’t see the Island. This could easily be explained by some sort of stealth technology / cloaking magical mumbo-jumbo I suppose, or they could fall back on the “Bermuda Triangle” theories that I was a pretty strong believer of last season – which help explain how different things from all over the world ended up there. Long time readers, remember this?



(Basically it’s the Super Mario Bros “Warp Zone” theory that there are 10 areas around the world where unexplained phenomenon occur due to some complicated scientific region. Could easily explain how the Nigerian plane, polar bear, etc. ended up there – and why no one can find it.)


So is the Island all in Hurley’s head? No. Although Dave’s explanation does neatly tie up the “Numbers” and strange activities (plus there was a picture of an Island in the mental institution!)



We’ve seen multiple instances of Hurley “learning things” on the Island that he should have already known if it was all in his head. Also, it would be the biggest cop-out of a storyline ever. Not something you reveal mid-season of Season 2. (Want to see a better example of how to play out the “Is this all in someone’s head” mind-bending storyline? Check out the Buffy Season Six episode “Normal Again”. Once again I’m reminded of the greatness of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)


So why did Dave say that? Besides providing the writers a chance to throw out a popular Internet theory and discredit it? Hard to say. In the end, he was just trying to get Hurley to kill himself. So here’s a thought:

If you believe that the Dharmites have the technology evidenced in the Smoke Monster to “scan” someone’s brain and pick up on their memories, it’s possible to think that they can somehow pick out fears or weaknesses through such a scan. They could then use this knowledge to exploit / trap / kill the Survivors. If you think the Others are outnumbered by our Survivors (like I do), this is a safe and easy way to pick them off one by one without risking another Other getting killed (Ethan) or captured (HGI).

I mean, think about what we’ve “seen” so far on the Island:

Jack – dead father
Kate – black horse
Eko – dead brother’s plane
Shannon – Ghost Walt
Boone – dead Shannon
Sawyer – person he killed in the form of a boar
Hurley - Dave

Each could easily be seen as a “worst fear” or “bad memory” of the character. Hmmm… I like this theory more and more…


So was Dave real? No. At this point, everyone knows everyone in our group of Survivors – especially with all the dangers of Others on the Island, any new person who suddenly shows up would have been noticed and immediately captured / interrogated. When Dave first shows up, it’s around the Supply Drop with a lot of other Survivors. Someone else would have seen him.

The tricky thing is that some of these visions have turned out to be “true” in the past. Sawyer saw Kate’s horse. Sayid saw Shannon’s Ghost Walt. Boone / Locke / Charlie saw Eko’s plane. Are these visions somehow becoming reality on the Island? I say “becoming” because they all seem to start out as something that only one person can see, but eventually end up being seen by someone else.

Only Kate saw the horse at first. Only Shannon saw Ghost Walt in the beginning. Locke originally saw Eko’s plane in a vision before actually finding it. It brings up some interesting possibilities about needing to have someone else believe you to make it real, or the things you believe you see eventually becoming real on this Island (somehow related to the “Mind’s Eye” ability that Walt had?)

So Dave could eventually become real? I guess... except he seemed to killed himself at the end by jumping off the cliff. I’m not sure how that would work with the “rules” of the visions.

So what was the point of Dave? In the end, the point of Dave is the point of the episode. We learned that Hurley indeed was in a mental institution, we learned he indirectly killed two people, (giving him something in common with most of our other Survivors), and it shows that Hurley is still kinda crazy.

He’s always been a “normal” one on the Island who provided comic relief and seemed above the drama that everyone else has had… but not anymore. As time goes on and we learn more about the Survivors’ pasts, they just keep having more in common.


Comment away! Please make up some sort of name instead of being “Anonymous”, if you don’t mind!

Lost - "Dave"

Episode Title: “Dave”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: Clearly this is another shout out to me from the Lost producers. First they play Dave Matthews Band's “Stay” earlier this season, now they title the episode after the frontman of the band. Once again my worlds collide and I am in danger of spontaneously combusting.

Or… I guess it’s entirely possible that the title refers to this guy:



I’ll go out on a limb and say his name is “Dave”. Why?

1. There aren’t any characters on the Island named Dave that we’re aware of, and he’s the new character that seems to be introduced this episode.
2. You can hear Hurley say “Dave?” at the end of the preview, and he’s clearly the only person seeing this guy.

So who is Dave? Based on his getup, he’s probably someone Hurley met during his time in the mental institution. (PS – can we please learn why Hurley was in the mental institution in the first place this episode? Please?)

But after last week’s triple layered deeper meaning, this week looks to be the least symbolic Lost episode title yet. Even Season One’s “Pilot” could be viewed two ways (the pilot episode of the series, and the Pilot of the plane who faced an untimely demise from the Monster).

Sorry to disappoint loyal reader, but I’ve got nothing for this one. I even tried searching the Net for some acronym of D.A.V.E. and found nothing.

It’s like the Lost creators are trying to put me out of a job.

TV Guide Description: Libby lends Hurley support when he begins to think the island is having a strange effect on him, and Locke's sense of purpose is shaken when the prisoner provides new information about the hatch.

TV Guide Breakdown: After a few simple interactions, it looks like the Hurley-Libby relationship is finally going to start being developed on the show. Libby once again looks to be donning the “clinical psychologist” robe to help Hurley, who thinks he’s going crazy when he starts seeing imaginary friends from back in the day. But why does Hurley seem to know her? More on that later…

Is Hurley going loco? Well, he has been eating more Dharma food than anyone else on the Island, thanks to his secret stash. If there is something fishy with the food (which, doesn’t there have to be? Otherwise why would they need Dharma-manufactured food instead of just buying name brand stuff off the shelf? Hello, product placement ABC!) he would be the first one to feel the effects.

Or it could be that Hurley’s been a little nuts all along. Although they’ve never officially come out and say it, it’s been insinuated that he spent some time in a mental institution, but was released. I don’t think it would be unrealistic to see him lapse back to “crazy mode” due to the stress of the crash and life on the Island. He’s definitely a little touchy about the subject matter, since the previews show him literally jumping on Sawyer when Sawyer mentions something about “going crazy” to him.

So why is Hurley seeing Dave all the sudden? Well, think about the other visions we’ve had on the show:

• Jack seeing his father (who he wronged / drove to his death).
• Sawyer thinking a boar is someone from his past (who he killed).
• Shannon seeing Walt (who may or may not already be dead).

Based on this, I’ll go out on a limb and say Hurley wronged Dave in some way (possibly killed him?), and is now being haunted by his memories. Hurley is one of the few Survivors left who have a seemingly “clean” past, so it’s about time his gets muddied up with some sins to put him in the same boat as everyone else on the Island.

The more interesting storyline looks to be about Locke’s sense of purpose being shaken by Henry Gale (I can’t keep calling him that, so let’s call him Henry Gale Impersonator – HGI), when HGI tells him new information about the Hatch.

Ever since he discovered the Hatch, Locke felt that it represented his “mission” on the Island, the greater purpose for why he’s there and why he found it. Once he saw the 108 Timer and was told it was necessary to save the world, he had exactly that. So I’m betting that HGI tells Locke that entering the numbers is simply an experiment, and nothing will happen if he stops doing it.

Clearly this would shake Locke to the core, since his “purpose” on the Island would be gone. But this would bring up a very interesting scenario:

On the one hand, we’d have Locke – who would try to convince everyone else that HGI is lying and that they need to keep entering the Numbers.

On the other hand, we’d have Jack – who finally has some evidence that tells him what he’s suspected all along – that not entering the Numbers wouldn’t cause any catastrophe.

With all the Jack / Locke conflicts we’ve seen building up over the past few weeks, this would be a great way to bring them to a head. It would also be a way to force Locke to start telling people what he’s seen, to use as evidence of why they need to keep entering the Numbers (such as the hieroglyphics and the blacklight image).



ABC. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – never EVER trust anything you see from ABC. Last week’s preview promised “five revelations, each more shocking than the one before”… which didn’t really pan out. This week looks to show Hurley plummeting to his death from a cliff on top the Island… also probably not going to happen.

But this doesn’t just go for the TV commercials. Their website is also guilty. Someone commented that “The Real Henry Gale is Rose’s brother! There’s a letter on ABC’s website!” But here’s what Lost's creators have to say about that…

"It's on the ABC site, but we [the producers] are not necessarily generating nor fact-checking content. We are sort of aware of it, and we sort of pitched the concept, but it sort of went off the rails a couple of weeks ago, talking about Henry Gale being their brother, and you know, we were a little surprised."

Translation – we can’t come out and say “Stupid ABC is just making stuff up because they pay the bills that allow us to live and film in Hawaiian paradise”, but that’s clearly the underlying message.


Episode Prediction: Although we’ll be dealing with the aftermath of the Henry Gale fiasco, (and hopefully the Locke / Jack conflict over entering the Numbers I described above) I’m thinking this episode will be a bit of a “slow” episode compared to last week.

Expect some development of the Hurley / Libby relationship, and Hurley to be haunted by his past in the form of “Dave”. Hurley will think he’s going crazy again and will go off in the Jungle looking to clear his mind. Libby will follow and end up being the only one who can help him. At the moment of truth, when Hurley is about to jump / fall off the cliff, he’ll remember why he knows Libby.

Check out this promo picture that ABC posted, but quickly took down after realizing they were morons, yet again:



Bring your own booyah.

This brings up all sorts of questions, namely:

1. Is Libby crazy too? Certainly looks like it from the picture. Hurley clearly knows her from his time in the looney bin. So is she lying about this whole “clinical psychologist gig”? She seemed to know what she was doing when helping Claire out retrieve her memories. Which makes me think…
2. She’s undercover. Acting crazy to help her patients, who see her as one of them (former Lost episode title pun intended) instead of a “doctor”. Could it be that she was assigned to “monitor” Hurley, to the extent that the whole reason she was on Oceanic Flight 815 is because she’s following him?
3. If you want to get really crazy, you could hypothesize that she’s a Dharma employee hired to monitor crazy Leonard, who is repeating the Numbers over and over again? Once Hurley started using the Numbers, she began following him, with the mission of “controlling” these cursed Numbers to prevent them from affecting anyone else.
4. And if that’s the case, is Hurley the whole reason for Oceanic Flight 815 crashing? A way to “bring the Numbers back home”, eliminating the possibility of them spreading any farther?

Whoa. This is how awesome Lost would be if I was in charge of it…

Insane "Lockdown" Analysis

(Okay... here goes. It's rushed, it's probably somewhat incoherent, but in my mind, I've got it all figured out. So if this doesn't make sense, just let me know. Here we go...)

Official Review: I hyped it up too much.

Was it a good episode? Yes. Better than many recent ones we’ve got – and we got the most interesting thing to over-analyze yet on this show!

Was it a great episode? Not quite.

As fantastic as the last ten minutes were, the rest of the episode was pretty slow. The whole “poker” part seemed like filler and took us away from much more interesting storylines going on. Then at the end they threw so much at us that it was almost overwhelming. If I was writing, I would have spaced them out and filled them out. Give me the arguments between Sayid and Ana-Lucia about digging up the body. Show Charlie protesting and getting freaked out. Give me a scene showing Henry climbing through the duct, seeming to know exactly where he’s going. You can still keep his motives secret (more on that later), but in my mind, this deserved more of the camera’s attention this week.

But I digress. There’s so much to say. (Anyone seen the bridge?) Where to begin? Let’s start with appetizers, then we’ll move to the main course:

1. Locke was selling a house to Nadia. No, not Sidney Bristow’s sister (but the Alias commercial during Lost was pretty good last night)

Remember her? Here she is this week:

Here she is in Iraqi prison:

Sayid loved her in Iraqi prison, then ratted out his friends in hopes of reuniting with him. It makes it especially poignant when Locke mentioned “It’s a good house for you and your husband” and she replied “I don’t have a husband”. Sad. That should have been Sayid’s house!

Chalk this up to another “connection” all the Survivors seem to have made with each other in their past lives. Is there something more to this? At this point, I am leaning towards “yes”. I’m all for them just showing “we’re all connected to each other in everyday life but we don’t realize it”, but it’s getting pretty absurd at this point.

Someday I’ll have to make a diagram outlining them all. But not today. There’s more urgent analysis to be done…

2. Henry Gale is an Other!

That’s right – and it wasn’t this Minnesota ID that convinced me:

It was the way that Henry started freaking out early in the episode when the warning voice-over started talking. Here’s a guy who’s been in an (alleged) strange and mysterious “Hatch” full of strange people he’s never met before. Obviously, he’s going to hear a lot of different things, from the music Locke was blaring (Geronimo Jackson again?) to voices of the new Survivors who paid him a visit over the past few days. None of this gave him any concern.

Yet he suddenly hears some sort of announcement and he goes crazy? Not buying it. He knew exactly what was going on and was concerned (or perhaps curious?) about it. So what was going on?

3. The Warning.

If you listen closely, the voice in the speaker is saying something along the lines of “Lockdown… please proceed to… 29… 28… 27…” counting down to zero. But why?

The most logical cause and effect analysis ties this to the Supply Drop (more on that later). But it doesn’t quite add up.

You could easily surmise that the lockdown occurs to keep the people in the Hatch from either meeting or interfering with the Supply Drop. If you view the people in the Hatch as experiment test subjects, and part of the experiment is isolation – you can’t very well have them seeing other people involved with a Supply Drop. Likewise, if the test subjects were desperate enough, the Supply Drop people would be likely targets for an attack.

But here’s the thing – the Supply Drop seemingly was dropped from the sky via plane / helicopter / hot air balloon. Therefore, there’s no danger of the test subjects interfering with it, seeing another human being, or attacking. I suppose there could be a danger of the Supply Drop falling on the test subjects, so the Lockdown could be a way of protecting them… but:

Remember those “Quarantine” signs all over the inside of the Hatch? Clearly the people inside, who are injecting themselves with 4815162342 medicine are afraid of going outside – can you really see them doing it to gather these supplies?

So what caused the Lockdown? Seeing as how nothing special seemed to be going on inside the Hatch, at the Beach, or in the Jungle at the time, you have to think this is a scheduled event. Heck, they even tell whoever is in the Hatch that it’s about to happen, giving them ample time to get wherever they need to be. But why?

If you look at what got isolated during the Lockdown, it was the living area – not the area with the computer and not the area with the blocked off super-magnet. This eliminates any theories that the Lockdown is used to keep the “unique magnetic properties” of the Hatch from effecting the supply plane-helicopter-balloon, or any theories about “protecting the mission of entering the numbers on the computer from being affected by outsiders”.

Here’s my full theory: The Lockdown is used to re-supply the Hatch. New food. New equipment (when necessary – like the washer and dryer!). Perhaps even perform any maintenance, cart away waste, and get out of there.

Before the Lockdown occurs, the voiceover tells the test subject to make their way to their “stations” (i.e.- the computer) so that they can continue to work while the rest of their living area is sealed off. Then, behind closed doors, the Dharma employees collects the goods from the Supply Drop, delivers them to the Hatch, then leaves. The Blast Doors reopen, and all the test subjects know is that now they have enough food to continue their job for another 6-8 months (more on this later).

Is it a coincidence that Henry Gale was wandering around our Survivors camp (and the Hatch) two days earlier? No, he was waiting for the Supply Drop. His job was to replenish the Hatch. Is it a coincidence that Henry Gale started freaking out when the Warning went off? No, he knew exactly what it meant, and that it was time to do his job. Notice how the first thing he said when he woke up after being knocked out was “How long was I out?” Time is of the essence!

Oh, and there’s the potential “Henry Gale was sent to spy on the Others” scenario, which I think also comes into play.

4. Remember 5 Things:

So I’ve had some requests for what I think the “five revelations, each more shocking than the one before” were for this episode, as the ABC promo department famously promised. This is my best guess, in order:

1. Sayid, Ana-Lucia and Charlie finding the balloon and grave.

2. The Lockdown in the Hatch, (and perhaps Locke getting pinned underneath).

3. The revealing of the black light Diagram on the Blast Door.

4. The discovery of the Supply Drop in the Jungle.

5. The revelation that Henry Gale has been lying all along.

Again – the creators of Lost are on record of saying “Don’t trust the previews” and “We hate ABC for their misleading previews” (not those exact words – come on, they know who butters their bread – yes, I just used that expression – I think it’s hilarious).

Okay, time for the main course.

5. Fun with Maps!

Black lights – they’re not just for haunted houses and skating rinks anymore. They now reveal insane images on Blast Doors inside secret Hatches on mysterious Islands!

Here’s the original image we were presented with:



So many questions. We’ll do this logically:

Who? Who made this? Or should I say “whom”? (Seriously, I’m asking, I always get this particular idiosyncrasy of the English language confused). My guess? It wasn’t written by Hatch inhabitants like Desmond or Kelvin (Hatchers), but by Dharmites (my new name for members of Dharma). Think I belong in a mental institution with Hurley and that bald guy from the preview? Let me explain…

Back in the day, when Dharma started out, there was a master plan for everything that was going on on the Island – reasons for the experiments, goals they hoped to accomplish, the meaning behind it all. But this information was only fully known by a select few key people (such as Hanso and the Degroots).

They simply would give tasks and commands to other Dharmites (believers) who blindly followed and completed their mission (wow – this keeps sounding more and more like Scientology – what if Lost turned out to be an elaborate metaphor criticizing the “religion” of Tom Cruise and John Travolta?)

Then there are two options:

1. Over time, Degroot and Hanso died (perhaps in “the incident”?) without passing along the original aims of their mission to Others, leaving the remaining Dharmites to try and figure out what the point of it all is. All they knew is that their menial tasks (such as restocking the Swan Hatch) needed to continue to ensure the mission succeeded (which had been preached to them as being the most important thing). The map shows how much they’ve figured out so far (outlining the Hatches they are aware of).
2. Frustrated by this lack of knowledge, some Dharmites became disenfranchised, and began trying to figure out what was going on in hopes of getting out of the Dharma Cult or to understand the meaning behind it all. The map shows the extent of the knowledge of what they know.

Why does it have to be the Dharmites?

1. It’s on the Blast Doors. Assuming the protocol is when they are down, the Hatchers should be at the computer on the other side of them, they couldn’t have written it. If my Blast Door theory is correct, the only people who are ever on the other side are Dharmites restocking the Hatch.
2. It shows knowledge of the other Hatches, located all over the Island. The map itself even notes “estimated travel time incompatible with 108. Do not attempt to survey.” If this was the case, how would a Hatcher ever have gotten to the Arrow Hatch on the other side of the Island to document it, when they can’t even get half way there without the 108 Timer going off? Especially when they’re afraid of going outside anyways due to the Quarantine?
3. There are references to “Known Final Resting Place of Magnus Hanso”, “Stated Goal Accelerated De-Territorial of Ursus Maritimus”, and “Geological Composition Likely to Cause Magnetic Interference with Weather Project” which wouldn’t be known to just random people on the Island like Desmond who are simply test subjects. The writing demonstrates a greater knowledge of all the projects going on, but not quite 100%.

It also is clear that more than one Dharmite has written on this. There are phrases like “I think we’re on the same wavelength” that seem to indicate more than one person was working on it, but not at the same time.

Could there be “shifts” among the Dharmites in tending to the Supply Drop? If so, those Dharmites who are “rebels” simply developed a secret code (flip on the black light) that no “by the book” Dharmites would ever discover. Each time they are down there, they add any new information they have learned, and can communicate without their superiors finding out.

Based on what we’ve seen from Alex in “Maternity Leave", there are definitely some Others that dissent from the “master plan”. I would put money that she has drawn part of this map (note the similarities between this and the other drawing on the wall of the Hatch, looking to be done by a child). Like-thinking Dharmites clearly contributed over the years.

What? There is a ton of information on the Blast Door. The most obvious being the location of the six Hatches:

Starting at 11:00, working counter clockwise:

“The Staff” = Hatch 1 of 6
“The Flame” = Hatch 2 of 6
“The Swan” = Hatch 3 of 6
“C4” = Hatch 4 of 6
“C3” = Hatch 5 of 6
“The Arrow” = Hatch 6 of 6

There is also a mysterious “?” at the heart of it all. What is this? The mysterious magnetic core of the Island? If they Island is mechanical, as some have speculated, it would probably be “the control center” – possibly the key to getting off the Island. (The rumors of the May 10th episode of Lost being titled “?” excite like no other, if it means the possibility of our Survivors attempting to find a way to this creamy middle!)

As for the words, here they are (starting from the top left corner and working counter-clockwise around the picture), along with meaning / guesses:

• Following AH / MGD Incident – “AH” probably stands for Alfred Hanso” – what was the “incident” he was involved in? The abbreviation is MGD! Miller Genuine Draft? Did Hanso become an alcoholic? Not enough clues here…
• But Could Be #6 – A seeming early piece of the puzzle, when still trying to find all Six Hatches…
• Confirmed Site of Cadeceus Medical Station (The Staff) – which eventually is updated with this comment, when confirmed.
• Sursum corda – “Lift up your hearts” in Latin. The one “upbeat” latin phrase on the whole map, perhaps written in jest, or perhaps written from one Rebel to another, to try and keep their spirits high during the hellish life that is being a Dharmite.
• AEG Exit – AEG is the symbol for some airport in Albuquerque, but no clue on this one.
• Montendo – not an English word. No idea.
• Cerberus Station believed to have been abandoned due to AH / MDG incident of 1985 or Possible Catastrophic Malfunction of Cerberus System – another reference to the Alfred Hanso incident, apparently occurring in 1985. In Greek mythology, Cerberus was a vicious beast that guarded the entrance to Hades and kept the living from entering the world of the dead. According to Apollodorus, Cerberus was a strange mixture of creatures: he had three heads of wild dogs, a dragon or serpent for a tail, and heads of snakes all over his back. Another piece of evidence for the “They’re all in purgatory!” theorists? Or just a code name for some other security device… like the SMOKE MONSTER!
• Estimated Travel Time incompatible with 108. Do not attempt to survey. – the one piece of evidence that doesn’t seem to fit with my theory of the Dharmites being the authors of the drawings. Why would they care about the timer going off in travel between the Swan and the Staff?
• Malum consilium quod mutari non potest – “It's a bad plan that can't be changed” in Latin. Clearly whatever the aims of Dharma were, whoever is writing this disagreed with them, but felt it was too late to do anything about it. So all they can do is keep on with it, although they disagree with it / feel it will bring about their downfall.
• Alleged Location of #4 – The Flame but unlikely due to Cerberus activity – more supporting evidence that Cerberus is the Smoke Monster. It seems to be “guarding” the location of the Flame, preventing confirmation of the site.
• Alleged Location of aborted #7 Large Number of Underground Springs / Heavy Water Table – the rumored “Underwater Hatch” that some have mentioned in interviews. But it’s “aborted”. I take this to mean the writers originally had an idea to do this, then abandoned it – and this is just a hilarious reference to it tucked away on the wall.
• Cogito ergo doleo – “I think therefore I am depressed “ in Latin – strong evidence that this was created by Rebels – if they could just blindly go along with the Dharma plans, they would be mindlessly, blissfully happy. But since they think and question the actions, they are depressed at the realization of them.
• Activity Unsuitable for DIHG – DIHG is used many times around the map and seems to reference the Dharmites. I’ll guess something like “Dharma Initiative Hanso Group”?
• CV I Highly unlikely – it seems at one point all the Hatches were referred to as CV I – IV. This could be taken as the Roman Numeral (106), but I think it’s more likely to be another abbreviation. If we stick with the Latin kick, it would stand for Curriculum Vitae – which lists someone’s history, achievements, and skills. You could stretch this meaning to be the “purpose” of each Hatch…
• No safe location for Dharmatel Servers / Hub / Cabling or Infrastructure – “Dharmatel” seems to be the telecommunications arm of Dharma, responsible for wiring and computer nerdery, but there seems to be no good place to put a hub in this area of the Island.
• Possible recreational area for D.I.H.G. survey teams – straightforward, a potential “safe zone” on the Island where DIHGs can relax?
• Low priority zone for exploration - Possible site for above ground – it seems that they are much more concerned with things underground than aboveground, thus little interest in this area.
• Relevance to Valenzetti-related research activity – Valenzetti must be someone’s name, because it doesn’t exist anywhere else on the Internet.
• Multiple Escape conduits blocked after incident – refers to the Swan. After the “Incident”, they clearly put the clamp down on this Hatch – probably referring to burying the true “hatch” exit that Locke found last season.
• I AM HERE – the reference point to the entire map, perhaps used to familiarize any new people with the layout?
• Ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta ira deorum est – “The wrath of the gods may be great, but it certainly is slow” in Latin – incredibly depressing, almost hinting at a torturous existence on the Island… waiting for Cerberus to come and take them away (again the Purgatory thing seems to fit right in!)
• The Swan: (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) – some sort of numbers, I don’t think we’ve seen them on the Island before?
• Home of H. G. Delegation inspection of 12.07.81 – whatever the “HG” in “DIHG” stands for, here it is again. This inspection took place before “the incident” in 1985.
• System wide failure of Dharmatel Intranet 4.08.00, 8.15.01, 01.06.06 – the Dharmatel system seems to keep crashing. I wonder if these “system crashes” are what cause things to get pulled to the Island… such as Desmond’s boat, the hot air balloon, or Flight 815 – January of 2006 would seem to fit in with the timelines, wouldn’t it?
• Complete Shutdown in Effect – something bad eventually happened (“the incident”?) that caused them to shut down operations.
• P.R.D. Every 6-8 Months – “Periodic Ration Drop” every 6-8 months. Another clue that the Supply Drop wasn’t triggered by any action, but is a scheduled action put in place long ago, and one that will continue in the future regardless of what is happening on the Island.
• Fatalities: 5 – Are these Dharmite fatalities? Test subject fatalities?
• No Connection to E.E.P. Network – EEP is clearly an abbreviation, but for what? Einstein Equivalence Principle” is a good guess – the theory that everything is accelerating towards the Earth’s core – since all the Hatches are seeming trying to get to the “core”.
• Possible CV II – Inactive Since Accident – A Hatch shut down after an “accident” – is this the same as the “incident”? Not likely, otherwise they would have called it the “incident” as they do everywhere else on this map. Another accident. I think the experiments started falling apart with time, and as they did, more issues arose.
• Primary Nexus of Cerberus Related Activity – the central location of the Smoke Monster? Probably the “Dark Territory” CFL referred to, where you do not want to be!
• Known Final Resting Place of Magnus Hanso / Black Rock – ancient Hanso relative who was a pirate? Or some sort of nickname for Alfred?
• Sightings coincide with emergency shutdown of intranet services of heightened security – what are these “sightings” they refer to? Sightings of other people on the Island, like our Survivors? Or “sightings” like seeing things on the Island (like Jack, Hurley, and Kate)?
• Activity minimal during lockdown and restocking procedures – ties the Lockdown to the “Restocking”, per my theory above.
• Rev – 4.2.02 possible location of Zoological research facility – Zoological research for sharks and polars bears and black horses, oh my?
• Stated Goal accelerated de-territorial of ursus maritimus through gene therapy and extreme climate change – clearly they were doing some experiment on the polar bear (ursus maritimus) on the Island, allowing it to survive in the extreme heat of the Island through some sort of DNA splicing – so does this mean it wasn’t brought about by Walt’s “powers”?
• Z4, Y8, Z15 – three dimension number coordinates.
• Subterranean conduit – underground pipe
• CVIII – Third Hatch (Swan)?
• Hic sunt dracones – “Here be dragons” in Latin - English mapmakers formerly placed the phrase "here be dragons" at the edges of their known world – except this only appears on one map in the world. Could it simply be referring to the “dragon” that is the Smoke Monster? Or does it truly stand for the edge of the known Island (the fringe of the “Dark Territory”?)
• The Pearl? – sounds like a good name for the water Hatch, doesn’t it?
• CV IV? – The fourth Hatch – the Pearl?
• High Potential for R.V.S. – Recreational vehicles? No idea on this abbreviation
• Interference might also prevent location from use as listening station cryptography research or analysis – is this the same interference Sayid found when trying to use his transponder? Wasn’t that just caused by the radio tower (which, PS – they should try and find – HELLO?!), or does the “unique magnetic property” of the Island make it impossible to try and use some sort of “sonar mapping technique”
• Geological composition likely to cause magnetic interference with weather project – “weather project” could be related to the freak rain storms that seem to come and go on the Island.
• Why so many Dharmatel Relays in such an untenable location? – If Dharmatel is the telecomm company of Dharma, relays could be used to signal warnings when certain conditions are met. But why so many here? There must be something important, as this seems to indicate a sort of security system…
• Mountainous terrain most likely used by D.I.H.G. for meteorological research due to… - no idea about this
• Suspected shutdown date: 10.28.84 – a suspected shutdown date prior to the incident – odd… were they "forecasting" the eventual "incident"???
• Or other route of travel?– it seems as though they were looking for alternative ways to get around the Island, rather than on foot, perhaps to avoid the Smoke Monster? Or avoid being seen by the “By the Book” Dharmites?
• With light industrial equipment – seems to be related to one of the Dharma Experiments...
• Credo nos in fluctu eodem esse – “I think we're on the same wavelength” in Latin – another sign that these Rebels don’t get the opportunity to communicate with one another directly, but only through the writing – a sign that they seem to be in agreement with what they’ve captured thus far.
• Designation uncertain? Purpose unknown? Relation to D.I.H.G. unknown – it seems as though our Rebels don’t know what’s at the center of it all (the “main purpose” of everything), but they know it’s there.
• Nil actum reputa si quid superest agendum – “Don't consider that anything has been done if anything is left to be done” in Latin – the main theme of it all – basically “keep trying to get to the center, no matter how many times you fail”. I think this is the reason there are so many hatches. Each reperesents a failed attempt. Likewise, Mus uni non fidit antro (“A mouse does not rely on just one hole”) seems to repeat this theme.

(Phew. I’m exhausted. Sorry for the scattered thoughts. Here comes my half-assed race to the finish...)

When? It looks as though this has been going on for a while, at least 20 years. I think the discovery of the different Hatches was probably a slow process, along with the other random bits of information strewn about the borders of the drawing.

Where? Is this Island truly the “edge of the world”, or perhaps Purgatory? Too hard to say at this point. If anything, I think these are red herrings, and the show will continue to be based in reality and science.

Why? As I said before, it looks like these Rebel Dharmites are using the secret Blast Door drawing as a method of sharing ideas and knowledge about the Island and the purpose of the Dharma experiments. I envision the By The Book Dharmites as being the type of people who would quickly squash any type of rebellious movement or thinking that differs from that of their leader. It needed to be secret. Perhaps they are planning some master coup, or just trying to find a way off the Island? Either way, they’re doing something that is going against the Dharma Status Quo.

How? I don’t know – I guess Dharma has black light chalk lying around somewhere, and the Rebels stole it? Stealing chalk – talk about rebels!


Okay. I’m exhausted. Hopefully these scattered ramblings help you digest the information from the diagram below. I’ll try and put together a “Cliff’s Notes” version in the next post of the main themes once I’ve had time to digest them all.

Disagree? Feel free to argue via the Comments section. Or you can shower me with praise. Whatever you feel is appropriate :)

A picture so big it ruins all my Blog's formatting - but totally worth it!




PS - here are the mega-heady translations of the Latin...

• Nil actum reputa si quid superest agendum = Don't consider that anything has been done if anything is left to be done
• Aegrescit medendo = The disease worsens with the treatment. The remedy is worse than the disease
• Sursum corda = Lift up your hearts
• Malum consilium quod mutari non potest = It's a bad plan that can't be changed
• Cogito ergo doleo = I think therefore I am depressed
• Credo nos in fluctu eodem esse = I think we're on the same wavelength
• Ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta ira deorum est = The wrath of the gods may be great, but it certainly is slow
• Liberate te ex inferis = Save yourself from hell
• Hic sunt dracones = Here be dragons
• Mus uni non fidit antro = A mouse does not rely on just one hole

Lost - "Lockdown"

Episode Title: “Lockdown”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: Wow – this is perhaps the deepest meaning on Lost ever. Where to begin? The most obvious place, of course – check the dictionary meanings of the word!

Lockdown:

1. The confinement of prison inmates to their cells as a security measure following a disturbance in the prison.
2. A prison, especially a high-security one.
3. A device that secures a piece of equipment, especially a computer, so that it cannot be moved or stolen.

Interestingly, each of these could seemingly apply to our world inside the Swan Hatch.

1. Clearly the Hatch is our “prison”. Not only is it the only place with seal-you-in-against-your-will “blast doors”, but there’s also been the whole “use-a-room-as-a-jail-cell” deal with Henry. In fact, one could view the whole Henry Gale situation as a “disturbance” that causes the Lockdown in the first place, as described by the definition. Everything seemed to be going fine inside the Hatch (seemingly) until he showed up. Coincidence?
2. A simpler version of explanation one, missing the whole “disturbance”. Again, could apply to the Hatch, it would just mean that Henry Gale has nothing to do with the Lockdown.
3. This is a definition I was personally unaware of – but is quite intriguing. Could it be that the Lockdown is caused by someone using the computer inappropriately? Remember that the Orientation video explicitly states to not use the computer for anything other than entering the Numbers, lest another “Incident” occurs. It’s not crazy to think that using it for some other purpose (Internet porn, Fantasy Football) would trigger this security feature and “Lockdown” the entire Hatch so that no one can leave. The only thing is, I’m not sure who would use the computer for something else. Michael was our most likely candidate, but he’s now MIA. Perhaps if Henry Gale is given more freedom inside the Hatch, he could trigger something. That would sure make it seem like he was an Other, sending a “distress signal” of sorts to his Other brethren.

Regardless of which scenario plays out, a literal “Lockdown” of the Hatch is a given. However, this isn’t “Brian’s Literal Meaning Guess”, it’s “Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess”.

When I first read the title, before even thinking of a prison-esque Lockdown, I looked at the two words in the title and saw “Locke” and “Down”. Even in writing this post, my fingers are tempted to write “Lockedown” each time. But what would that mean?

John Locke is going to lose his ability to walk.

How? Not sure. Perhaps his ability to walk is somehow tied to the huge magnetic core of the Hatch, and when the blast doors come down during the Lockdown it blocks these magnetic waves from reaching him. Or vice versa, perhaps the doors closing increase the intensity of the magnetic field and cripple him.

I was also originally thinking perhaps a Blast Door could come down on his legs, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case in the previews…

At any rate, that’s my guess for the real reason Locke loses his reason to walk. But John isn’t going to see it like that. He’s going to view it as the Island punishing him, probably for their capturing and holding of Henry Gale. Locke views the Island as magic, and this magic gave him the ability to walk. He thinks that if you give something to the Island, it gives you something in return. Now he’s going to think that if you take something from the Island, it takes something from you. They took Henry Gale. Now the Island is talking John’s legs.

The one thing I can’t get a read on is how “Lockdown” could apply to the flashback. It’s a Locke flashback, so perhaps something sad happens and causes him to be emotionally or spiritually “down”? But there haven’t been any clues to that so far. But we’ve got enough deeper meaning for one week just on the Island, so I’ll let the flashback part slide…


TV Guide Description: When the hatch suddenly takes on a life of its own, Locke is forced to enlist the help of an unlikely ally. Meanwhile, Ana Lucia, Sayid and Charlie go off into the jungle to find out the truth about Henry.

TV Guide Breakdown: The interesting part of the “Hatch suddenly taking on a life of its own” is the word “suddenly”. One would think that if the Lockdown was a result of not entering in the Numbers, it wouldn’t be considered “sudden”, but rather an almost expected result. However, in the previews, you can hear a siren going off while the Blast Doors are coming down – the same siren we heard when the Numbers weren’t entered (and is that Desmond’s voice I hear?!).

(PS – speaking of Desmond, we all wondered where he ran off to early this season. It turns out he went to Los Angeles to work undercover for the German government. Of course! Great twist, Lost writers!)

I’m on the fence, but I almost think it would be more exciting if the Lockdown wasn’t a result of the 108 timer going off – but rather put a blast wall between John Locke and the computer, causing him to freak out as the timer ticks closer and closer to expiration. Imagine that suspense!

Moving on, Locke being forced to enlist the help of an unlikely ally (Henry Gale) goes hand in hand with my “Locke loses his ability to walk” theory. With just the two of them trapped inside the Hatch, he’ll need Henry to scope a way out… like through the heating ducts for example:




But can Henry be trusted? Given everything he’s been through, wouldn’t you think if he did find a way out, he would ditch Locke and just go running off? Is this the start of an alliance of Locke and Henry?

Lastly, the preview takes us all for old people (or Will Riley) who fall asleep halfway through episodes of Lost. Because we clearly saw Ana-Lucia, Charlie, and Sayid going through the jungle in the second half of last week’s episode. This episode will show them discovering the Balloon, and wondering about the repercussion of this discovery. But I’ve already discussed that in detail below. That’s right, I got my “The Whole Truth” analysis done ahead of time this week. What, you weren’t checking the Blog daily for updates? For shame!


I’m not going to lie, I’m mega-pumped for this week’s episode – probably as excited as I’ve been for any Lost this year. The commercials hint at “Five Revelations” this episode, each more shocking than the one before. If I were writing the episode, here would be my five revelations (coincidentally, if these happened, it would be the best hour of Lost ever):

1. The Blast Doors come down, the 108 Countdown runs out (and whatever happens after that!).
2. Desmond returns (at least in voice, over the speakers in the Hatch).
3. Locke loses his ability to walk (and thus, we learn how he could walk in the first place).
4. Henry Gale’s whole story checks out (and our Survivors are forced to grapple with the repercussions of their actions).
5. After helping him escape the Hatch, Locke forms a pact with Henry Gale - and becomes a spy for the Others.

(and if I could have #6, it would be “Kate finds a piece of luggage full of bikinis and has a fashion show for the other Survivors” – but I won’t get greedy…)

Caliente!

The one thing that worries me is that the commercial almost hypes it up too much. I hate it when my expectations are too high and I inevitably walk away disappointed (see: every DMB concert I attended from 1998 to 2001).

Let’s hope this isn’t the case. Happy watching!

Dress Up Henry Gale!

Per request, here is the comparison between Henry Gale and the medical surgeon who was about to do the baby extraction of Claire in "Maternity Leave".

If this were true, it would lend credence to my "there aren't really that many Others, so each one has to wear many hats (literally), and they can't overpower the Survivors by sheer force" theory.

If nothing else, it's fun to pretend!



Thoughts?

"The Whole Truth" Discussion Points

Well I was close. My guesses about this episode were pretty much dead on, aside from one item. Here are the discussion points:

1. Here’s where my prediction for the episode was incorrect (see, I told you I’m not really a Lost writer!) - Sun didn’t cheat on Jin. However, the episode really teased you along to make you think that she did.

First, they introduce the bald English tutor character (Baldie), who she has been seeing in secret. Then we find out that Jin isn’t able to make babies (remember my fish in the Tigris analogy below?). Finally, Sun gives this weird look after telling Jin she had never been with another man:

So all signals point to Sun being a hussie, right? Wrong.

Exhibit A: I’m no girl, but I’m pretty sure they get some sort of “signal” each month that tells them if they’re pregnant or not. As it’s been established that they have been on the Island for two months, even if she was hooking up with Baldie the night before they left, you would think she would have known before now.

Exhibit B: She tells Jack “I can’t be pregnant.” Since she knew Jin was the one with reproductive-issues, if she had been with another man, there could have been a chance she was pregnant.

Exhibit C: That look at the end? It’s not a “I’m lying to my husband” look. It’s actually a “Great, now I have to have a baby on this Island – full of baby-stealing Others with no pain medication”, coupled with the acceptance that “Jin and I are tied together forever, even though I was about to leave him prior to Flight 815”, and with an added touch of “Seasons Four through Eight are going to suck, filming in Hawaii with a 40 pound pregnant suit hanging on me in the heat.”

So where does that leave us? With a terrible, terrible storyline. It’s almost like the episodes ran out of order. Shouldn’t we have had this episode before the “Charlie fake kidnaps Sun”, which would have neatly gotten rid of the storyline? Or are we due for an Alias-esque “time jump” on Lost, where the next season will start a few months in the future?

2. Sun is hot. Good work Lost producers…

but Kate is still way hotter, looking particularly good this week, I must say!

3. I thought showing Bernard and Sawyer’s conversation from Jin’s perspective was great, if only to make viewers think they were going crazy for the first few seconds. In case you were curious, they just had the audio playing backwards, and here’s what they said:

Bernard: Well, how do you know?

Sawyer: I got my sources

Bernard: Aren’t you going to tell him?

Sawyer: Not my place

Bernard: You should tell him.

Sawyer: Hell no! Let Sunshine tell him.

4. I meant to comment on this last week, but got distracted. The book that Henry’s been reading is The Brothers Karamazov. It’s a pretty long and unwieldy book, but here are the themes we should note:

The central philosophical conflict of The Brothers Karamazov is the conflict between religious faith and doubt.

“Man of Science” (Jack), “Man of Faith” (Locke) anyone? We’ve gone over this too many times before. But it comes up yet again!

The novel argues forcefully that people have free will, whether they wish to or not. That is, every individual is free to choose whether to believe or disbelieve in God, whether to accept or reject morality, and whether to pursue good or evil. The condition of free will may seem to be a blessing, guaranteeing the spiritual independence of each individual and ensuring that no outside force can control the individual’s choices with regard to faith. But throughout The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky portrays free will as a curse.

Sound familiar? Like the Survivors who are forced to decide if Henry is good or evil, knowing that if they’re wrong, the actions could lead to either the death of an innocent man or the deaths of some of their own?

One of the central lessons of the novel is that people should not judge one another, should forgive one another’s sins, and should pray for the redemption of criminals rather than their punishment.

This also screams “Henry Gale!”

So what’s the deal with this guy?

Choose Your Adventure, Henry Gale Edition!

A. He’s telling the truth.
B. He’s an Other.
C. Both A and B.


A. He’s telling the truth. He withstood a beating from Sayid, cross examination from Jack and Locke, and a big scary black man with a huge knife – all sticking to his story. We’ve seen from the clips from next week (or below in My Most Controversial Blog Post Ever) that there indeed is a hot air balloon crashed on the Island, looking exactly like Henry described it:

So if this is the case, Henry Gale’s purpose on the Island is to serve as a wakeup call to our Survivors – letting them know, “You’re all going crazy with fear and distrust!” which would play nicely into the Brothers Karamazov theme. If they’re going to go this route, they really need to have a Survivor kill Henry, which would really hit everyone hard in a “We’re like Lord of the Flies, what have we become?” sort of way.

But if this is the case, why is he playing everyone against each other so hard? Why is he stirring the pot, making speeches about leading people to traps? Why does he sometimes have pure evil looks?

B. He’s an Other. The Balloon thing is a cover story. All the Others know it since they know the Island like the back of their baby-grabbing hands. Maybe they even know to use it as their cover if they ever get caught. They’re trained on it. Just like there’s a black horse and a pirate ship, there is also a Balloon on the Island. No big deal.

Henry’s intentionally turning Jack against Locke, Locke against Jack, and both of them against Ana-Lucia in an attempt to destroy the Survivors / weaken their relationships. In fact, as the Others are so savvy in the Jungle, he must have gotten himself captured on purpose. Why?

Well, after last week’s episode, seeing that the whole “rustic Others” thing is just an act, I got to thinking – why would you want to look like a derelict unless it’s a new fashion line from Mugatu? Why the smoke and mirrors? Well, during my recent viewing of “Wicked”, I noted the similarities between Oz and the Lost Island. Besides the obvious themes of bad (Others) being good (Survivors) and vice versa (which I’ve already discussed in my Locke Manifesto), in both cases everyone thinks there is some huge powerful leader / group behind it all, but in reality, behind the curtain it’s just a small old man / group.

In a nutshell – I don’t think the Others are all that and a bag of chips. I think they are a smaller than we think group of Scientists who use these costumes to make them seem more mysterious, more crazy, and more desperate than they really are (polo shirt, khaki-wearing logical people). The 815 crash put a lot of people on the Island (like 50, some of them quite strong).

Remember what Zeke said about “not crossing the line” and “you’re still here because we left you alone”? This might be partially true. But I think it’s also true that the Others couldn’t really launch a full scale assault on all of them and succeed. Thus they send in Henry Gale to do some recon and try and shake things up…

C. Both A and B. The most dreaded of all multiple choices because it makes you analyze every possible solution realizing that more than one could be true.

How did the Balloon get there? Because Henry Gale’s story is true. It crashed on this Island, he and his wife lived there for a while… and eventually she died (from the sickness? From the crash of the Balloon?) He buried here and wandered around, eventually being “captured” by the Others (since he was “good”).

At this point, the Others did whatever the Others do to these “good ones” they capture – but in my mind it’s something like a Scientology brainwash. Thus Henry Gale becomes an Other – and has a sweet story if anyone ever questions him on it.



I really could see any of the three being true. Time to put this up to a democratic vote. Use the comment area, people!

Lost - "The Whole Truth"

(I’m back! Sorry for the lack of posts lately, I was dealing with a pesky medical condition for the past two weeks - a double hernia if you must know, stalker fans out there - that rendered me unable to move, let alone spend multiple hours researching and analyzing television programs. I’m finally on the mend now, but far from 100%. Therefore, this will be a shamefully short Blog post, but should serve to get you prepped for the first new episode in a few weeks.

I think the real question is – this medical condition mysteriously pops up the week I post that Balloon picture on my website. Coincidence? Or have I been discovered by Dharma (ABC)? Did they actually implant me with something during the operation to make me less able to skillfully analyze and track down information about this show, or was this a failed murder attempt to silence me? Intriguing…)

Episode Title: “The Whole Truth”

Brian’s Deeper Meaning Guess: The “whole truth” likely refers to two characters on the Island – Sun and Henry Gale. First of, let’s examine Sun…

Since this episode is Sun-centric (how do you know it’s Sun-centric and not Jin-centric? Well, traditionally Jin-centric eps have clever plays on the word “Lost” – see “…in Translation” and “…and Found”, whereas the only Sun episode we’ve gotten was titled “House of the Rising Sun.” Still a pun, but a different kind of pun. But I digress…), there must be something about Sun’s past that we (and Jin) don’t know about. As he learned of her English-speaking last season, the title refers to the fact that there is still something else about her he doesn’t know… but will learn this episode, finally giving him “the whole truth” about her.

However, the far more interesting truth I’m curious about is concerning Henry Gale. It seems that things are coming to a head with him, and the Survivors are going to find out if his story is true or not very soon. I’m thinking this is where the “whole truth” part comes into play. We’ve seen the picture of the balloon. Seemingly, this would prove Henry’s innocence… except this isn’t the “whole truth”. I’m thinking it’s part of an elaborate scheme to cover his tracks, although all of our Survivors will think otherwise – and have some huge moral debate about how they captured and tortured someone just because he was different, they’re becoming animals, etc., etc.

TV Guide Description: Sun wrestles with the thought of telling Jin a newfound secret that threatens to upset the entire balance of the survivors' community. Meanwhile, Locke enlists Ana Lucia to interrogate the prisoner in order to extract more information than he, Jack or Sayid could.

TV Guide Breakdown: In what could take the honor for “Worst Storyline Idea Ever for Lost”, the previews seem to be hinting that Sun is pregnant. Here’s why this is crazy:

1. Each episode lasts a day or two. Season One was 40 days. At this rate, assuming Sun were preggo, it would be Season Four before she started showing, and Season Nine before the baby would be born. Not a good storytelling vehicle for Sun.
2. They already had the “pregnant Survivor” storyline with Claire… and it was pretty dull. I don’t need Sun yelling “they’re after my babay!” every episode for the remainder of the series.
3. I’m all about Willing Suspension of Disbelief… but Sawyer is going to have a pregnancy test on the Island? Really? Okay – perhaps some people travel with medicine and other assorted toiletries – but pregnancy tests? Not bloody likely.

But how would this “threaten to upset the entire balance of the survivors’ community”? Well, if I was a betting man, Sun isn’t sure who the papa is. Jin? Michael? Alfred Hanso? The prospect that someone other than Jin might have been getting to know Sun (in the Biblical sense) would be enough to turn Jin back into the axe-wielding watch-conessuier we saw in last week’s repeat.

(Note: although I didn’t get around to posting about last week’s episode, the obvious intent of airing it was to remind us about Sun and Jin, mainly their turbulent relationship that almost drove Sun to leaving Jin. The two of them have been very lovey-dovey in recent weeks, so this episode served as a stark contrast and reminder of how things between them used to be…)

Then there’s a scene from our last new episode (“Maternity Leave”) that kinda stuck with me.

Claire (in a typical crazy-Claire angry mood): “I’m sorry – are YOU a mother?”
Sun (looking sad): “No. I am not.”

Could it be that Sun had actually been attempting to make babies with Jin before the crash, but was unsuccessful? I’m fairly certain that would add some stress to a relationship, maybe enough to make one person learn a foreign language and try to run away.

Stick with me here. I have a rambing epiphany coming…

So, before the crash, Sun can’t get pregnant. I’m betting that Jin blames Sun for not having a fertile crescent. It’s always the woman’s fault, right? Suddenly, on the Island, she gets knocked up? That means one of two things: either she magically got transformed by the crash (in a Locke-can-now-walk sort of deal), or she cheated on Jin (either with someone on the Island – but I really don’t think the timing for that works out – or before Flight 815) and her pregnancy makes Jin realize two things:

1. It’s not that Sun's crescent wasn't fertile, it's that the fish weren't swimming in his Tigris.
2. His wife cheated on him.

Now that should be enough to drive any man crazy. Thus the upset balance of the Survivors. The end.

Oh wait – there’s still the pesky “Ana-Lucia interrogates Henry Gale” part of the description. Well, we’ve already had a trained Interrogator, a Doctor, a Priest, and a Box Factory Worker talk to Henry without success, might as well bring in a Cop too, right?!

Actually, I think it’s more that Ana-Lucia is already a perceived “outsider” to the group, much like Henry Gale is. She can empathize with him and understand what he’s going through. She probably will believe his story and work to prove him right, whereas everyone else seemed hell-bent on proving him wrong, outing him as “An Other”.


So what’s going to happen? I’m predicting a sub-par Lost episode, a “light episode”, if you will given the intensity and revelations of some of the recent episodes. We’ll learn more of Sun and Jin’s relationship, there will be misunderstandings between them, Ana-Lucia will begin to get a map from Henry Gale and head out with a search party to find it (I think the previews showed Sayid going with her). Predicted ending scene? Finding the balloon! LOST.

However, other than a pesky two week break around Easter, the good news is that we have new Lost now until the end of May. Hooray!

(…and in other Blog news, all my pictures are back! New readers to the site, bask in the glory of technicolor images of previous episodes!)

Lost - "Whatever the Case May Be" Revisited

Another Lost repeat this week. I find the outrage that people express whenever Lost is a repeat to be pretty funny. It's almost as if these people have never watched a serialized network drama before. For the uninitiated, there's something like 40 weeks of programming during a typical network "season". Traditionally, a full season of any program is 22 episodes. Therefore, there are always 18 weeks of repeats each season- or 18 weeks when the show is not on. That's right, almost 50% of the time. (We're actually lucky with Lost - it was a full 24 hours last season, and the same looks to be the case this year.)

Granted, some networks are moving towards more of a "year-round programming" concept, and doing "non-stop seasons" a la 24 - but most TV shows are going to have repeats in the months of October, December, January, March, and April (and all summer). They're not sweeps months. It's the nature ofthe industry. Get over it.

Honestly, as cool as it is to watch new episodes of 24 each week, for a show like Lost, I prefer having it last as long as possible. Since there is so much to think about and research on the show, it's downright mentally exhausting to watch, analyze, predict, and write about each episode week in and week out. If nothing else, repeats give me a chance to rest up... and forget about how quickly the show likes to drop and ignore promising storylines (but I digress).

It's like a bye weekduring the NFL season. Without them, I would probably die from exhaustion. Which brings us to this week - another repeat, this time of Season 1, Episode 12: "Whatever the Case May Be".

As I've said before, I'd like to think that there is some master plan, and they pick the repeated episodes for a reason. It might be to remind us of characters we haven't seen in a while. It might be to remind us of a storyline that hasn't been referenced in a while. Or it might be picked at random by network executives who mock my overanalysis. Either way, here are a few points to ponder this week:

1. Kate's Criminal Past. Granted, she is uber-hot and most of her crimes are easily justifiable - but deep down inside, she's a badass who knows how to wield a gun and use people for her advantage. She's feisty. We were very recently reminded that Sawyer isn't all cuddly when he stole the guns - will we soon get a reminder that Kate is also somewhat of a wild card on the Island?

(Note: The real highlight of the episode...)





2. CFL's Notes. Yes, CFL (Crazy French Lady to the new reader outthere, because typing "Rousseau" is too hard) scribbled The Numbers a lot, but there looks to be a considerable amount of other information on her papers that have never been explained. Finding Nemo song lyrics. A map of the Island showing a boat that looks very similar to the Others'. Strange mathematical equations that even Sayid can't figure out. Will any of these ever come back into play? Or do we write them all off as CFL being crazy?



3. Tide Rising. In the end, I think this small scene is the main reason for repeating this episode. Freakishly, the tide suddenly rises very quickly and the Survivors are forced to gather their belongs and move up the beach. This is a very important point that hasn't been mentioned in quite some time. This is also the only episode that ever referred to it. Why? Yes, there is the practical excuse that it gave the set crew an "out" for not having to put up the crashed Fuselage on the beach every week. But it also seems to indicate that this Island isn't just your run of the mill Island full of crazy people. There's something crazy about the Island itself. Like, is it even an Island? Our foolish cast still hasn't ventured around the entire perimeter. Is it somehow mechanical? We've seen Hatches leading to a very developed underbelly, holes appearing for "The Monster" to spring from, and trees flying out of the ground as if shot out. Is this Island somehow a living, breathing thing?

Let's see how long these pictures will stay up!

Aftermath

So a funny thing happened last night. I'm not sure how, but lots of people looked at the Blog - like, over 20,000 people. Apparently someone posted a link to it on "digg.com" or something, but I've also found links to it on a few other TV / Entertainment websites.

Long story short - all the visits quickly exceeded my bandwidth in my Photobucket account, making all my pictures disappear until the 20th of the month (when the bandwidth counter will reset).

Part of me is excited all these strangers have read my site, but we all know the only reason they came in the first place is because of one particular picture in the post below.

Which brings me to my moral dilemma. According to some of the comments on the post below, the whole "Make a Wish" story is true. They also claim that this kid basically had the picture stolen by his friends, who posted it on the Internet. After finding out what happened, he felt bad about it and requested that websites take it down... to which they all obliged (I mean, who's going to turn down a terminally ill kid?!)

So here's the question: do I have a moral obligation to take it down as well? I could see both sides of the argument:

1. Yes. Although I didn't obtain it through any shady means, it was originally obtained that way. I shouldn't make the situation worse.

2. No. At this point, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. I could take it down, but we've all already seen it. Others have saved it, hosted it elsewhere, and passed it along to their friends. I wish we could go back and erase our memories of the whole thing, but that technology is still years away.

As I easily succumb to peer pressure, I'll let you all vote via the Comments section. Majority rules.

My Most Controversial Post Ever

(So I stumbled across this picture on a French Lost website the other day. The alleged story is that there was some terminally ill kid from Australia who did one of those "Make a Wish" things. Much like if I was about to die, he requested to visit the set of Lost... and took some pictures with the cast and crew. He then uploaded them to the Internet to share with some friends. No big deal until we were introduced to Henry Gale. Then one of his pictures became very interesting...)



A couple of things:

1. Every website that has posted this has taken it down literally hours later. I searched on the Internet for any trace of this last night and couldn't find it anywhere. There's no mention of why it's gone, but it's gone. This could be a good test to see how closely Big Brother is watching me. If it's gone tomorrow, you know why! (Note: Part of me thinks it would be pretty fun to get some "official legal letter" threatening my little Blog site. I would probably frame it and proudly display it over my mantle.)
2. This doesn't prove Henry to be an Other or not. This could be Desmond's balloon from his "race around the world" story that Henry just stumbled across at some point and decided to use as his story. (Except, how would he know if Desmond had already told Jack and Co. he was in a hot air balloon? Then they would be like "Nice try Henry, heard that one before." Hmmmm...)
3. This whole story surrounding the picture could be fake. The picture could be photoshopped. The picture could have come from anywhere, in relation to anything... but it has the smiley face on top, as Henry said. It's crashed in a jungle, looking like the Island on Lost, and weirdos on the Internet even confirmed (before their writings mysteriously vanished) that this would be the type of balloon that could travel across the ocean. But I leave it to you, faithful reader, to make your own judgment.

I'm such a rebel.

"Maternity Leave" Discussion Points

Ten points to ponder...

1. Who is the "he" that Zeke and Ethan were referring to during their little conversation? Clearly some sort of boss. Does that make "he" Tom Degroot? Alfred Hanso? Someone else?
2. What's up with the costumes? It seems as though the Others are trying to make everything think they are living in these wilderness conditions as derelicts, when in reality they seem to all be very educated, clean cut, and have a very organized society on the Island... hello scientists!
3. So Ethan and Zeke are on the same side... I'll assume Goodwin is also on the same side... so there's just one group of "Others" on the Island!
4. Henry Gale seems innocent now, doesn't he?
5. Ethan was working on a list similar to Goodwin's, but didn't get a chance to finish yet. Does that mean they never got a chance to take "the good ones" from the Fuselage camp?
6. When / why did the Others abandon the Medical Facility? It was completely cleared out as if a bomb had gone off in there - except for the costumes... which Zeke was wearing just days ago.
7. Where is Claire getting all this new eye makeup? She looks really good - but come on...
8. How long until Claire realizes that there is 4815162342 medicine inside the Swan Hatch? Have they not investigated what this stuff does yet? Jack, you're a doctor - get on it!
9. What's the symbolism in Eko cutting off his beard? Why confess to this guy, when there are probably 20 - 30 other people on the beach that you don't know either... unless he gets the feeling Henry is an Other, and since he killed Others, he needs to apologize to Others?
10. No new episodes for two weeks. Thankfully, March Madness is right around the corner.

Comment away!