new LOST takes

These come courtesy of popcandy's LOST discussion...

So the leaving the island makes you suicidal but incapable of committing suicide?

Once leaving the island Hurley sees dead Charlie, Michael sees dead Libby – some kind of connection by guilt? They both felt guilt over the deaths – inadvertently in Charlie’s case and advertently in Libby’s?

And not yet another LIST!

Except for the absence of flashing lights, wasn’t the scene with Ben at the mic reminiscent of Professor Marvel/the Wizard of Oz at the mic manipulating others behind his curtain?

Did anyone else think that Mr. Friendly's "friend" Arturo looked a lot like the guy getting beaten up in the video that Ben showed Locke?

Mr. Friendly also stated "I don't make it back to the mainland too often" - - sounds like Ben isn't the only one to make trips off the island...

Tonight's 'flashback' is the first one in memory where the character has been telling a story to another character. As we all know, the Losties have not been very good at sharing their pasts with one another, or else Jack and Claire would be having sibling bonding time, etc... All other flashbacks/forwards thus far have been taken by the audience as truth because they've simply been memories/foretellings of events. Tonight Michael was telling Sayid his story. This makes me wonder about the credibility of the story, and whether this may be the first flash that is a lie, or is a half-truth. Doesn't it seem odd that Michael would omit the whole portion of his story that involves what happened when they followed that 325 bearing? Are we (and Sayid) to assume that Michael and Walt just magically flew back to Manhattan?

LOST chat for season 4, episode 8

A great show to take us through the strike hiatus. A double cliff hanger with a double homicide involving Rousseau, Karl and Alex, and Sayid stupidly blowing Mike's cover to the captain of the freighter.

What's wonderful about the show right now, IMHO, is the duality of blame between Ben and Widmore, with each side's henchmen blaming the other for the fake Flight 815 found earlier. This leaves us a dilemma as viewers: is there a good v. evil situation here, with heroes and bad guys, or is the show similar to life, in that everyone has aspects of good and evil in them, revealing them at different times?

Some interesting reveals during this episode include:

Holy cow! The man in the hospital bed next to Michael (on the ventilator) is Alvar Hanso!
Check out http://getlostpodcast.com to see for yourself!
Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Now if I could only remember what Hanso has to do with the island. Hold on a second while I run to the Lostpedia.....Talk amongst yourselves.....Oh yeah, he founded the original outpost on the island, and he supposedly disappeared from public view...

Also -- was Michael time jumping? Check it out:

1. Libby calls him Mr. Dawson when the other nurse says he was not carrying any ID.

2. Michael asks Libby, "What happened to me?" and she tells him he was in a car accident. He wants to know how badly he is hurt. He doesn't ask the second nurse this question because he of course knows what happened: he was trying to kill himself.

3. There is a Christmas tree in the background when the second nurse comes in, but not when Libby comes in.

4. Libby is wearing hospital gear (scrubs/ID), but later on the freighter when she appears to Michael, she is in her island duds. I mentioned earlier that she did spend a year in med school, but left to become a psychologist. So it is possible she actually worked in a hospital.
The revelation of Tom as a gay man. I never saw that coming, although some have hinted they knew it to be the case. He told Kate once "You're not my type..." I think there should be a spinoff series "Mr. Friendly in The City".

The revelation that the island does not allow you to kill yourself. Could that explain why Jack was wet on the bridge in the first flash forward? Does that mean you're immortal if you spent time on the island? Would that make Sayid a better assassin?

Michael's character continuing self-pity. It was what caused him to split from Walt in the first place.

And how tight is the time frame that allowed Michael to get home, get in an accident, recover, find Tom in an alley, get to Fiji and get on a slow moving freighter back to the island. Hard to swallow, considering how messed up they made him look in the hospital, which had Christmas decorations up, to indicate it was sometime close to where they are now. In the meantime, Tom had to get on and off the island and back again before the sub was destroyed (is that their only way on and off the island?) and in time to be killed. Now figure into that equation the time difference between the island and the real world is roughly thirty one minutes. (Ouch!)

According to the LOSTPEDIA:

Michael's flashback is suggested to have taken place sometime between Days 68 (the day Michael and Walt leave the Island), as Michael is estranged from Walt since he revealed what he did on the island, and Day 82 (the day the Others leave the barracks), as Ben is shown at his barracks house.

* Likewise, Tom's appearances would seem to have been set between Day 74 and Day 80 as he was at the Hydra before Day 74 and at the Barracks on Day 80.

Why is Michael haunted by Libby and not Ana Lucia? Once leaving the island Hurley sees dead Charlie, Michael sees dead Libby – some kind of connection by guilt? They both felt guilt over the deaths – inadvertently in Charlie’s case and advertently in Libby’s?

Is it just me, or did the captain not looked troubled by Sayid's revelation, as if he knew who Michael was all along. How weird would it be if the whole Widmore v. Ben thing is an elaborate ruse to fool the survivors of 815, because they don't want the secrets of the island, least of all its location, revealed.

That song that was playing in Michael's car...where else have we heard that??
It appeared to be a Mama Cass song, which is the same artist (different song) that desmond was jamming to in the hatch when they first found it. Is Mama Cass in a time warp somewhere?

Ben telling Michael he doesn't kill innocent people. Huh? He told Mikhail to kill the girls in the underwater station. He told Locke to kill his father (granted, that man was no innocent!).
Not to mention, we know Ben killed the Dharma population. Were they not innocent? Half of them were children. Ben, influenced by the Hostiles or not, detonated the gas that killed his father and all of the Dharmas. We know that him saying he doesn't kill innocents could be true as of right now, but in the past, it certainly wasn't. Ben kills innocents, but according to his own qualifications.

QUICK QUIZ:
Shortly after the ships heads out, Naomi and Frank have a brief conversation on deck with Michael nearby. After they finish talking, Namoi steps up from the deck to go through a door.
What do Naomi's low waist jeans reveal on her backside?

A. A whale tale.
B. Plumbers crack.
C. A tramp stamp.

Will Rousseau gunshots heal like Locke did?

As always, feel free to comment...

LOST sneak peeks for this week...

Need help with LOST? Get it here.

LOST ponderings...

I love a good Jin/Sun-centric episode because I rarely get a chance to brush up on my Korean. It was a very romantic episode that revealed not only Jin's undying love for Sun, but also Juliette's undying desire to be an ass. She rubs me the wrong way, even though I know what she pulled on Sun may have saved both her and her child's life.

Or is it the Ben Linus rule: when in doubt, throw a complete mindf&*% on them.

Before we start, can I just say that the lady who played the therapist in last week's episode scared me to death. I'm still having nightmares about her eyebrows.

What we learned:

Sun carries her baby to term. The Ocenaic Six will be off the island shortly.

In one of the most anti-climatic moments in show history, Michael is revealed to be Ben's spy on Charles Widmore's boat. His fake name is "Kevin Johnson". He may have been slipping Sayid and Desmond notes about not trusting the captain of the ship they are being held on.

The boat's captain points out that Ben is behind the fake wreck site of Oceanic Flight 815.
(Last week, Ben pointed out that Charles wants to use the island for financial gain. Is this a case of the lesser of two evils?). The trust issues on this show are as shaky as a Michael Mancini themed episode on "Melrose Place."

A boat crewperson named Regina commits suicide shortly before this scene by wrapping a heavy chain around her and jumping off the ship. The captain makes no attempt to rescue her, and indicates morale on the ship is low. The ship's doctor also appears to order "Kevin" to clean up a suicide scene in one of the boat's cabins. It appears something (the force of being close to the island?) is causing unusual behavior on the boat.

In a parallel flashback/flash forward, the producers make it appear that Jin is buying a stuffed panda for Sun's baby. He is not, for in his segment, a toy store employee suggest it is "the year of the dragon". The last year of the dragon according to Chinese astrology was 2000. At the end of the segment, Jin appears to be giving the panda to the Chinese ambassador in honor of the birth of his grandson. He does so in the name of "Paik Automotive", Sun's dad's business.

In the flash forward, Sun calls out for Jin during birth, but he never appears. After giving birth to a daughter, she is given the name, Ji Yeon, a name Jin gave her during a tender moment in front of the camp fire. It is in this scene that Jin also reveals a pretty good command of English.

Only Hurley shows up to celebrate the birth of Ji. Apparently there is some kind of rift amongst the "Ocenaic Six".With the exception of Hurley and Sun, all meetings between the Six are stilted and awkward. When Hurley inquires if anyone else was coming, Sun said no, and Hurley responded "Good." By the way, Hurley looked super hot in his new suit.

Hurley accompanies Sun to a grave site that is supposed to be Jin's. The grave indicates that Jin died in "September 2004", which means they believe he died the fake wreck of Oceanic 815 and that he may be still alive on the island.

According to http://www.losteastereggs.blogspot.com/, the show playing on the TV when Sun was in her room packing before she went into labor, was "Expose", starring our late Lostie, Nikki.

The Oceanic Six as it stands:

1. Jack2. Kate3. Hurley4. Sayid 5. Sun

On the bubble: Sawyer, Walt (where the hell is he, anyway?), Locke.

The preview states that someone is going to die next week, and then it shows Michael saying he's sorry about something before hitting a scary-looking red button that says "Execute". Does he blow up the freighter or something, sacrificing himself for Walt's survival? Obviously he and Walt aren't in the clear with Ben yet, and Ben probably somehow has custody of Walt and is using him as leverage for Michael to do something for him, like disrupting the freighter people from getting to him.

What say you?

LOST questions

I'm back. I was away for a bit, and then the conversion to Daylight Savings Time always jacks me up, so I'm back and ready to get up to speed. Heres the sneak peek previews for this week:

LOST bracket

The Washington Post is having a competition where you vote for your favorite LOST characters in a March Madness style bracket. Vote here.

Highlights from the popcandy LOST board

Does anyone else think that what is happening to Desmond and Fischer Stevens may be what Danielle Rousseau considers "the sickness"? They all went crazy.

The Others are immune because they've been on the island forever, Losties are immune because most of them haven't been exposed to electromagnets and radiation but Desmond and Faraday have so they are more open to receiving the illness. Plus I think it has something to do with how they got to the island. Faraday and Ben were both very particular on what degree they would need to leave the island from.

On another note, I'm so happy that Desmond and Penny got to connect! This was one trippy episode.


A thought: When we first saw Naomi with the Penny/Desmond picture and she said she was looking for Desmond, we thought she was working with Penny. Then we found out she wasn't. Now we find out that Desmond is Faraday's constant. So, maybe Faraday got the picture somehow, and that's why they were looking for Desmond. So that Faraday could connect with his constant. Because obviously he was picked for the freighter crew for some reason (the crazy island physics and his vast physics knowledge), so it would be to the benefit of this expedition's financier to have Faraday alive, hence he would have to have contact with his constant. And I guess if Widmore is the backer of this expendition, he could have gotten the picture of Desmond for the crew. Make sense? Yeah, I'm not sure it does to me either!

I guess this episode explains all of Desmond's "visions" from past episodes. His exposure to the electromagnetism from the hatch explosion has allowed him to travel to the past and future subconsciously, but not physically. This is how he knew Charlie was going to die. On the island he sees the future. Off of the island he sees the past.

Also, a central theme of the show has always been EYES. In tonight's episode, the pupils of Minkowski's and Desmond's eyes dilate while they are time traveling. In the pilot episode, I remember it beginning with a close-up of Jack's eye with the pupil constricting quickly. Coincidence?

I’m still scratching my head about Ben’s role in this whole thing. Does anyone else find it strange that, as powerful as he appears to be (and Miles confirms him to be), he keeps turning up someone else’s prisoner – first as Benry and now as Locke’s ward? How could someone so powerful let things get so out of control? How does that fit into the other control issues on the show? (I thought it was strange that Penny’s dad used a washcloth to turn on the faucet. At first I thought it was a hygiene issue – like people who flush toilets with their feet – but then I wondered if it had to do with fingerprints. He never shut the water off once he washed his hands …).

As far as Ben goes, maybe what makes him so powerful is mind control, and he is doing a crazy rendition of the Stanford prison experiment. In the experiment normal college students were put in a mock prison in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford and given roles as either guards or prisoners. The guards turned into sadists in a frighteningly short period of time, and some of the students had to be released from the experiment early. The experiment has been repeated – in one setting with good kids from religious homes – and the results were the same: those with authority over the “prisoners” turned into abusive, power-wielding sadists. The study is said to expose the darker side of human nature. Is that Ben’s mind game for Locke? To turn him into something he’s not, to make him see he too has a dark side? Already Ben has provoked Jack to violate his professional oath (“Do no harm”); now he’s turning Locke into a tyrant.

So the 'numbers' of 4 8 15 16 23 and 42 are all retired New York Yankees numbers, and there are of course the references to the Red Sox winning the World Series, and now tonight Mr. Widmore's auction paddle is #755, which is the famous record number of career home runs that Hank Aaron finished with that Barry Bonds eclipsed this past season. I'm not saying any of this explains anything about the show, other than the fact that methinks the producers may be baseball fans--just thinking out loud here.....



Sorry if this is posted elsewhere, but I think this episode explains the Asian "ghost whisperer"'s abilitities. He is not communicating with spirits when he turns on his machine; rather, he has set the machine to a certain electromagnetic frequency to enable him to travel through time. In the lady's house, he went back in time and watched where something was hidden. Once on the island, he dialed hmself back in time and watched Naomi's death, that's how he confirmed how she died.

!. Not sure about significance of water showing up in various eps, but in THIS ep it seemed to be one of the triggers that sent Des back & forth. The other trigger was changes in light.

2. Smoke monster goes back to Mirror Matter Moon ref (you'll have to Google it - I'm not sure of web site). I suspect the "storm" they passed thru to get to the freighter may have been the MMM's portal/alignment with its elliptical orbit. Again, check out MMM to understand the reference.

3. Again, a constant is something />significant<>

4. I think Lapidus may be Ben's "man on the boat." He seems very helpful & cooperative with Sayid. And where was he when the door to the sick by opened mysteriously? He's the only one of the four boaties who is doesn't appear to be hiding something, perhaps in an effort to ingratiate himself?

5. Also, keep in mind that Faraday said that not everyone is suseptible to the "side effects," so wondering why so-and-so wasn't affected is pointless.

6. Someone mentioned that Ben cannot take passports and money through his portal. I think that's incorrect. Ben knows the island, its secrets, and its intricacies, and he can obviously move back and forth with ease (when he's not locked up in some room). I'm sure that in all his years there, he has learned how to move comfortably back and forth. THAT'S the secret that Hanso/Widmore/Dharma are all seeking. Charles Widmore is trying to learn the secrets of the island so he can harness its power for his own ends. He knows, or suspects, enough to spend 350,000 pounds on a diary thats over 150 years old. A businessman doesn't spend that kind of money without expecting some kind of return.

Sneak peeks for week 6

Sawyer's nicknames