An Observation That May Be Moot

Okay, I might just be flaking here, but why were Jin and Sun in Australia? I'm just thinking, couldn't they have flown directly from Korea? A quick search on Expedia and it's proved, yes, they can fly directly from South Korea. A connecting flight wouldn't make sense, why go so far south? What did they have to do down in Australia? Am I forgetting?

j.

The Dharma Initiative

For those of you who want to watch the Dharma orientation film again, go to the Hanso website:

DHARMA INITIATIVE

Underneath all the project names, there's a hidden link with the same title. FYI: it only works if you use Internet Explorer. I got a dead link when I tried it in Firefox.

Now, looking at this logo -- which we didn't see in the episode itself, I don't think -- am I wrong, or does that look like a rearranged swastika? Why is it crooked like that? Sure, maybe I'm just imagining it because I heard a rumor that the Nazis are behind the island mystery, but perhaps it's something to ponder...

Thinking more about the reason why Desmond would split so quick after failing to repair the "microprocessor" (or "computer," as we like to say), I got to thinking, maybe Desmond is well aware that there's no escape from the island. When he leaves, he packs only food. There's no reason to believe he has a way out. After all, if what he says is even remotely true, what makes him think he can escape the island and still be safe from the crazy world destruction that will ensue if the button isn't pushed? Desmond must have somewhere else to go to on the island. Maybe even someone else to report to. It's definitely not as simple as he's led Jack (and us) to believe. The more I think about it, the less I believe he got to the island by mistake. Remember, he says he on a "race around the world." It's obviously not something someone just goes out and does. There must be more to Desmond than we know.

There's also the thought that maybe all he needed to know was that someone else was prepared to take over the job of pushing the button. Having to do that every 108 minutes must drive a man crazy, especially if he knows he's only supposed to be doing it for 540 days, yet he's been doing it for 3 years, and most of that time he's done it alone. He may have assumed that that was the reason why Jack tracked him down after he left -- to get the code and continue the chain. That's certainly another possibility.

I really hate to guess about the "are you him?" comment from "Adrift," but I have a theory that he's referring to Jin. More on that after next week's episode. ;)

Looking at a bigger picture down the road, the big question is obviously the purpose of such an island/facility existing. The big question for now, however, is what the hatch is for. It's not simply to better humanity. But I do think that there's some truth in "protecting the rest of the world." Let's make some wild, unproven assumptions: maybe the island is surrounded by an electromagnetic field of some sort. Maybe that's how it's impossible to escape. Maybe living under this field makes you "sick" after prolonged exposure. Maybe the flight 815 survivors haven't been on the island long enough to experience it. Maybe that's how the plane got sucked in. Maybe that's why the animals are viscious. Maybe that's why anybody who's lived on the island prior to the crash of flight 815 is a little weird. Maybe the visions, the flashbacks, and the hallucinations are symptons of the oncoming "sickness." Please don't get mad at me for my lack of actual scientific knowledge, I'm just trying to make some broad strokes here!

Maybe -- just maybe -- the whole damn thing is a setup. We know flight 815 didn't just crash there by accident. We know certain people died and certain people survived for a reason. Maybe this flight wasn't so much a coincidence, and the people onboard were hand picked for this alleged experiment. Maybe the island really is a research facility like we've been told, and maybe that explains why we have 1.) weird, abrupt changes in weather, 2.) strange "monsters," 3.) tides and currents that move you towards the island, 4.) branded sharks that keep you from leaving, and 5.) planes and boats that crash with large numbers of survivors.

Here's the list of Hanso projects from the Hanso Foundation website:

The Hanso Life-Extension Project

The Hanso Foundation Electromagnetic Research Initiative

The Hanso Quest for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

The Hanso Mathematical Forecasting Initiative

The Hanso Cryogenics Development Imperative

The Hanso Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute

The Hanso Accelerated Remote Viewing Training Facility

Every single one of those "projects" relates, in some way, to the island's mysteries. I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on those project titles.

And then again, maybe it is all a coincidence, and what the survivors uncover and what we see isn't more than just random chance. But if that were true, we still wouldn't know the significance of Hurley's numbers showing up everywhere. That's beyond chance, beyond coincidence. Those numbers -- despite what people on the LOST forums have declared -- are not just coordinates. Hell, we don't know for sure if they even are coordinates.

Then there's the possibility that Desmond, Danielle Rousseau, and Ethan Rom are all, well, bat shit crazy, along with those psycho "others" we keep hearing about. Maybe they've all been stuck on this consarned island for too long, and it's gotten to them. Maybe they're just guessing about things just as wildly as the survivors (and we) are. Maybe they don't know any more than we do. Maybe we can't trust a word they say. Remember: Rousseau claimed to have never seen the hatch before when they showed it to her in "Exodus" last season. Do we believe her? Does that mean she might have seen other hatches or man-made structures?

Delving deeper into the research facility idea, what do you guys think about the different "sectors" referenced in the orientation film? Do you think all the sectors are physically on the island? Or do you think some of them are scattered around the world? For the Alias fans out there, I think we can all agree that that would seem very "Rambaldi" of the creators to scatter all the facilities around the world. Personally, I believe all the sectors are on the island (I also don't think anybody will ever leave the island, and the island story will continue until the show officially ends). The orientation film references itself as "3 of 6," so my guess is that there are 5 other sectors of the island that have yet to be revealed. This could be: the weather sector, the animal testing sector (polar bears, weird birds, and sharks come to mind), the black smoke sector (the "monster"), the remote viewing sector (I'm going to guess this is where the radio signal is being broadcasted from, kind of like a headquarters for the island facility), and the button sector, AKA the hatch. Something to think about.

Like I said in my comments earlier today, I think we're being led astray on purpose. Look at it this way: you just created a hit show that lives and dies on secrets. Spoilers are your worst enemy, and with the popularity of the show and the predominance of nerds like me following it closely (that's an understatement -- we're obsessed), you, as the creator, have to protect your greatest asset -- your secrets. How do you do this? You can start by putting fake script pages on the show's official website. You plant seeds in the show that lead viewers away from the truth. You write in plot points and story arcs that make the viewers think, assume things that aren't necessarily true, things that haven't been proven. You manipulate what people actually see vs. what's real, what actually exists, what's possible within our physical realm. With that said, not only do we have to be wary of what we deem important, but also of what we may be overlooking given our own personal biases and beliefs. Abrams is notorious for turning stereotypical characters and predictable storylines into twists. If there's anything that's for sure on LOST, it's that nothing is as it seems. I definitely feel like we're being challenged by the creators of the show just as much as the survivors of flight 815. "Truth" is just a matter of perspective, and in the case of LOST, we have many, many varying perspectives. And I don't know about you guys, but in a lot of ways, these things just makes me like the show more.

Enough talk. I'm going home to watch this episode again. And again. And maybe again.

j.

"We're gonna need to watch that again."

In typical Lost fashion, we've had our questions answered with more questions.

Love that we've spent days, weeks, months speculating over the meaning of the hatch/bunker and we get our "answer" in a matter of seconds.

It's not an accident that Locke and Jack are continuing the cycle. I think we all know that.

It's unclear as to whether the six bunkers are on the island or all over the world. The tape refers to that bunker (bunker 3) being in a certain secter of the island... are the other 6 in other secters? Would make sense if the polar bear/zoology research bunker was on that island. What was the "malfunction" that was referred to in the tape? Could it be that the magnets pulled something to the island that it shouldn't have? The Black Rock, perhaps? The Black Rock was filled with slaves, right? Could the slaves have gone nutso and become DUN DUN The Others? And the button keeps them at bay? I'm just freestylin' now.

Personally I love Jack's theory that it's all a guinea pig experiment to see if someone actually would hit the button every 108 minutes but that explanation has some finality to it, so I don't really know where they would go after that reveal. And since all of Chang's peeps work together, I think it's very likely that Sun's father is involved with Dharma. Though I've never read it, did a little bit of research on "The Turn of the Screw" (the book Desmond referenced). Long story short, the major themes of the book deal with the corruption of innocence by evil and the belief that obsession leads to destruction. Certainly applicable here. Another great example of the writer's using every resource to further the story and themes at work.




Is it just me or does Alvar Hanso bear a striking resemblance to A) a mannequin, B) Locke's Dad, C) Leslie Nielsen or D) All of the Above.

Answer: D

And of course this exists already

For those of you who did watch the preview for next week and want to discuss the obvious "What the f*ck?!" moment, email me.

Ana Lucia and the rest of the back of the plane (so typical of coach isn't, it?) seem to have regressed into barbarians, as opposed to the civilized living situation that the front of the plane has enjoyed.

"Orientation" thoughts

Wow. Awesome three-episode opening to the season. *NOTE* I didn't watch the "next week on LOST" preview, so try not to spoil anything for me.

A few thoughts:

- So Desmond could be just a "Skinner's Rat," himself being tested psychologically, or is he really overseeing preventative measures to ensure the world's safety?

- Why didn't we get a look at the "front door" of the hatch?

- Did Locke, during his time prepping for the walkabout, find a phone sex girl with the name of Helen as tribute to the character we saw tonight?

- Is there... well, of course there must be... a connection between the Dharma Initiative, its Korean project leader, and Sun & Jin?

- Are the tribe members (led by "Shaft" dude) refugees from the Dharma Initiative? Or are they others from the tail that Analucia found who'd already gone savage?

- If the latter, could "Shaft" be Rose's husband?

I have a Locke problem.

The time is almost upon us...

I leave you with this slightly ridiculous albeit interesting theory about how Lost is actually a sequel to two other past series' (one called "Millennium" and one calle d "The Others" -- have you guys ever heard of these shows?) The similarities are pretty striking and also the fact that Terry O'Quinn was in BOTH shows.

Here's the thread

Again, totally bogus, but it's enough to light that Lost match under your asses in preparation for tonight. Yessssssssssssss!

WHO?? I know who.

Who's your favorite character on LOST?

THE "GOOD" GUYS

My favorite episode from season 1 is Walkabout, and up until the end of season 1, Locke was my favorite character. Mysterious, not quite good but certainly not evil or malicious; "The Great White Hunter" as Charlie calls him. I loved how he sprung into action when the boars showed up (revealing the knives in his briefcase is definitely one of the top "holy shit!" moments of season 1 for me), and more importantly, the bridge to the pilot episode, when Jack calls him over to help get one of the survivors (was it Steve or Scott? LOL) out from under some jet wreckage.

But since then, the Locke train has obviously gone off the tracks. He's now technically responsible for Boone's death, even though I could care less about Boone. FYI: in the commentary for the pilot episode, Lindelof and Abrams say that Boone's introduction is basically the character in a nutshell -- useless. Ironic, considering how many times we've heard "Captain America" blast his sister about being just that. Further, Locke's questionable faith and dedication to the island is suspicious as all hell, and why is it that he has yet to tell anyone --in detail -- about his first encounter with the "monster?" What did he see? And is it similar to the "pillar of black smoke" that was revealed in season 1's finale? Can he "speak" to the island, or is he just talking to it for shits and giggles? Furthermore, Locke's impatience in entering the hatch is also a hasty decision that jeopardizes the safety of the flight 815 survivors. Although we naturally feel for someone who was at one time in a wheelchair, there's a hint of uncertainty about Locke that makes me -- and likely others as well -- distrust him entirely.


So with that said, I've since sided with Jack and his logical, scientific justifications. But even still, Jack's not my favorite character. How many people has this guy saved? He saved Rose in the beginning, which made us all recognize that he's, at the very least, a decent doctor that knows CPR. He did save Charlie when Ethan kidnapped him, and he saved his future fiance -- but did he do that, or did fate? How does Desmond connect with Jack's medical abilities? Jack also failed to save the girl that was drowning, failed to save the marshall, failed to save Boone, and most importantly -- failed to save his father. He even got himself stuck in that cave after convincing everyone to move there, and I don't remember seeing him ever help out with the construction of the raft, unless you count the time when he helps them shove off. Is Jack really that great a guy, or is he just as incompetent as any of the other islanders?

With that said, it's obvious that no one character on LOST has a perfect track record, hence making them more interesting characters than the usual TV sterotypes. My new favorite character -- or I should say characterS, are...

THE "BAD" GUYS

Take two people who have lived their entire lives on the run, put 'em on an island where there's nowhere to run to, and that makes for some interesting TV. I find myself more and more fascinated by the "good deeds" of these bad people as the story progresses. Sawyer's sympathetic -- albeit stubborn -- reflection of the raft explosion was a good opportunity to see that he's not as cold and uncaring as he likes us all to believe. Here's a man that, although he feels the need to always be packin' heat, actually sympathizes with his fellow survivors to an extent. He may be frustrated with being stuck on the island, he may hoard all the goods and be really bad at shooting people, but the only real, tangible concern he has is punishing himself, which is, in a lot of ways, more redeeming than anybody else's concerns on the show. Note that he generally doesn't partake in any "island activities" unless Kate's involved. Which leads me to...

Kate, who's past has yet to be divulged in detail. What I find especially interesting about her -- other than the fact that she's smoking hot -- is that she hasn't 1.) gone crazy being stuck in one place for longer than a day, and 2.) she didn't try harder to get on the raft last season. Her curious nature and boldness make her a great candidate for voluntary island exploration, allowing her to be around whenever the crazy stuff happens. Unlike Sawyer, she's involved with anything and everything, which makes her the tentpole between Jack, Locke, and Sayid.

Has anyone noticed how information is filtered through Jack, Kate, Locke, and Sayid? Even Sayid is kind of "out of the loop." Isn't it funny how even though they've only been stuck on the island for a month or so, they've already divided up in terms of leadership? The select few know all the secrets, and the rest of the survivors only know bits and pieces. What could possibly be going through their minds?

j.

MAP

Where, exactly, is the island? And how do those pesky numbers play into it?

THE MAP

Do those coordinates look familiar?

In other news, I heard from a coworker that Howard Stern had someone on this morning from the insider LOST camp that revealed the island is an old Nazi facility of some sort. Makes sense, given the location, but I have a feeling that even if it is true, there's a lot more to it than just the Nazis. Surely the Nazis didn't show up on the Black Rock...

Thoughts?

j.

Happy Lost Day!

Come on guys, I know that I'm not the only one thinking about Lost all day long. I know we're just waiting for tonight's episode but there's plenty to talk about.

I just added more links, including a gigantic list of all the numbers references, which you've probably all seen, and also Channel 4's amazing Lost site, which is like that old Donnie Darko site, a full puzzle with really neat graphics.

My question for you guys is how much time, if any, have you spent on oceanicflight815.com? Another puzzle site that it seems one could spend lots of time with. Apparently there are passwords, etc etc. What kind of material can you unlock here? This is the site that has the white pillar of light from the hatch, and has had this image since before we even knew about the light.

Also, has anyone been able to find any mp3s of Giacchino's score? I'm surprised a soundtrack isn't out yet. Chang?

Enjoy,
Sam

F O R S A M .

Per your request, Sam. Not sure if the moving .gif file will work, if not, go to:

http://media.lost-media.com/4815162342.gif

Also, found a couple good sites to check out:

http://thelostnumbers1.greatestjournal.com/
-This site has anything and everything related to Hurley's numbers -- in-sane.

http://lost-media.com/
-Good place to find screencaps and other media.

And here's something from season 1 that I'm sure we all remember...


Ah, back in the days when we didn't even know what was in the hatch...

j.

I know it's public knowledge by now that Dom and Evie are doing the nasty, but I also know you boys can't resist a little Kate in bikini bottoms.

(Despite my penchant for celebrity gossip, I vow that this won't turn into a shameless Lost-gossip blog).

**Courtesy of PinkIsTheNewBlog.com

"You have to lift it up."

Testing this out myself. I tried finding the picture of the soccer team in the airport but couldn't. Personally, I hate to be the naysayer, but I'm not a fan of this format, and I'd much prefer we have a normal message board like yahoo's groups for this kind of discussion, just simple text threads that are easy to follow. If someone wants to just post one little thing, they have this entire page devoted to it, and it just seems like too much. But I'll follow along with whatever, these are just my 2 cents.

Sam

Testing This Sucka Out

I'm sure this blog will stay dead until this week's episode airs, which, from what I've heard, is a Locke-centric episode -- always the best.

Found this on thetailsection.com:


"An obscure independent book will be featured at a pivotal moment in s02e03: Orientation. The expected surge in interest prompted Amazon.com to stock up; so this is a great time to get your mitts on a copy so you can try to find out the significance of the book to the Lost storyline.

A 1999 reprint of the comic novel "The Third Policeman" by Flann O'Brien, an Irish writer who died in 1966 -- "will be prominently featured at a key moment" in Lost: ORIENTATION (S02E03) this season of "Lost," says Craig Wright, who wrote the script with Javier Grillo-Marxuach."

Here's Amazon's summary:

"Fiction. The last of O'Brien's novels to be published and now reissued by Dalkey Archive, THE THIRD POLICEMAN is Flann O'Brien's brilliant comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botche d robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where he is intruduced to 'Atomic Theory' and its relation to bicycles, the existence of eternity (which turns out to be just down the road), and the view that the earth is not round but 'sausage-shaped.'"

Interesting. Have a good week!

j.