A Pearl of an Episode
Not much of a cliffhanger, but we found a new hatch, saw a new connection between the Losties and much more. Let's discuss "?"
posted by Germain at 9:36 AM
"We're not the only people on this island and we all know it."
posted by Germain at 9:36 AM
9 Comments:
Such an amazing episode and no one posts???
LAME!
Agreed -- One of those episodes that's so good that I don't really know what to say.
I don't really get why Eko wants to keep pushing the button. I see his point about having faith, but bottom line is, the button doesn't do anything. Unless all the tapes are fake.
What I'm REALLY curious to know about is the bright shining thing the losties are looking at on the beach in the previews for next episode. Do any non-spoiler readers have any speculation to offer?
Long time reader, first time post-er.
A nice analytical look at Wednesday's "?" episode at Matt Zoller Seitz's blog, which is being handed over to the fans while he is grieving. Andrew Dignan does a great job of breaking down the episode and enlightening what is so great and frustrating about the show.
http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2006/05/lost-season-2-ep-21.html
Just to throw this out there for some discussion... Is the Pearl station really the center of Locke's map? And, if so, did Eko and Locke really see the whole hatch?
Also, are any of you guys doing the whole HANSO FOUNDATION interactive thing?
Hey J --
I'm assuming for now that the Pearl is in fact the ? in the middle of the other five hatches (so they can observe the other five experiments, one of them being The Swan). But why then would the Pearl tape read 5 of 6? Shouldn't this station be 1 of 6, or 6 of 6? And if participants are to stay there for three weeks, there must be food and everything else in the Pearl station. Why didn't they explore?? Read through all the journals for any tidbits? Yes... the frustration of Lost.
Also, why was the Pearl Orientation tape a VHS tape, while the Swan's was a film? I get that the dude has a new name in the film, a lab coat and everything else, to make the subjects feel like its more authentic I guess, but why the format change of video/film?
The video's copyrighted 1980 - 16 years ago.
I'm loosley keeping up with the HANZO game, but not 100%.
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Sam,
The doctor is also noticeably older in the film, too. My hypothesis is that the video is actually newer than the film, though...
1980 is 26 years ago, my friend.
In one of the translated maps, the Pearl station is possibly in the bottom right hand corner (but labled Hatch #4). I believe this to be the case. I personally don't think it's the same question mark as the center of Locke's map. For one, it's too little. And, two, clearly it is not the central hatch. It is merely a data gathering station.
I side with Eko in that the hatches are important. The data gathering, though, is not.
A few of my ideas -
I think Eko wants to keep pushing the button because on the island, he needs to believe in something. Anything. He feels that continuing of the button push gives his time on the island meaning. Maybe.
As for the film vs. vhs - I think we can disregard almost everything on the original orientaion film. This was made so that the people who watched it though there was some biological incident right? So maybe the film technology was the only thing still available after some sort of holocaust type thing. But in reality, it was 1980, and VHS was just being invented so on the outside, they had those tapes. If there was a brand new technology like vhs in the swan hatch, the people inside might get suspicious that life continued on the outside.
Ah, some great comments guys. Good to see the blog still alive.
Thoughts:
Swan Station vs. Pearl Station. What I get out of the whole "one station monitoring another station" idea is that the whole experiment, all the Dharma stuff, is a ruse. What we're really studying here is human behavior, and how any one of us will follow instructions without knowing the finer details, simply because we wanna believe in something bigger. Eko said something to the effect of Locke pushing the button for many reasons, but none of them being because the film told him to do so. I think this is the key to what Dharma's purpose is -- a cell-like structure of experimentation where the labrats think they're performing the experiment and don't realize they themselves are part of it.
Additionally, the idea of the faceless boss that's supposedly reading all the notebook reports on the Swan Station is highly suspicious, fueling my assumption that one station monitoring another station is just a big loop of control. Also, who's to say that we can believe the Pearl Stations tape regarding the 3-weeks? We don't know how long Desmond and Kelvin were down in the Swan Hatch and they weren't supposed to be there as long as they were. Is Eko right, is everyone being "tested?"
As for the dates of the film and the video, at this point I'm not even giving that much thought because I think both are fake. They're so nondescript in their instructions, and there's no reference to the final application of these studies they're supposedly doing. What's the point of locking these people in underground hatches when they're already on a deserted island? What are they being protected from, or is that part of the experiment, to make them THINK they're being protected? And for what greater purpose do these "experiments" serve? If Dharma's still alive and kicking, why are all the hatches hidden away, seemingly unused for ages? If they're now defunct, why shouldn't we all assume that Locke's right, and continuing to push the button is meaningless?
Eko surprised me with his faith in Dharma. But we can't discount the fact that he (and Locke) are having such vivid, reality-referencing dreams, right?
I don't think the Pearl Hatch is the ? on the map either.
And when the hell is Jack gonna save somebody? Is it me, or has anyone else noticed that much of the death on the island has either been caused by the "monster" (which I assume we can all call the black smoke now) or the LOSTies/Tailies? And goddamn it are we gonna find out why Libby was stalking Hurley??
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