PREVIOUSLY ON LOST

I had promised myself that I wouldn’t watch the epilogue “The New Man in Charge” until the DVD finally came out down here. I did well, I didn’t read anything about it, and I resisted the urge to find/watch a copy online. Was it worth the wait?

On one hand, yes, it was worth it, because it was more new Lost goodness. On the other hand I kind of wish I’d just watched it a couple of months ago. Why? Well for starters I was expecting it to be 15 minutes long, not 10 minutes. I would swear that I’d read it would be 14-15 minute long. 10 minutes just wasn’t long enough, but maybe that’s just because too much Lost is never enough. And it wasn’t as “packed full of answers” as everyone was claiming it was/would be – not that I actually expected that it would be, and not that I found that aspect overly disappointing. After all, the best bit about Lost is the mysteries, in particular those that remain unresolved.

So, what did we find out. Ben is off-island wrapping up some Dharma business that’s no longer needed. We find out that two guys have been stationed in Guam for the last 20 years preparing the automated Dharma supply drops for the island, and now Ben is here to shut them down because they’re no longer needed. They weren’t even aware that the Dharma Initiative had been wiped out over 20 years ago, all they knew was that they kept getting the supply order. Why were they still getting the orders? Because it was an automated message coming from the Lamp Post.

Ben says that the Lamp Post hasn’t been occupied for a long time, which seems a little odd since that’s where Eloise Hawking was hanging out. Only reason I can think that she wouldn’t have turn off the automated orders was so that nothing appeared to have changed. After all stopping an automated order that had been running for so long is sure to raise questions.

They also didn’t know where the supply drones were being sent, just that co-ordinates they received were different every time – which as Ben explained is because the island moves. It becomes clear that these two have pretty much no idea who they are/were working for or why. One of the asks Ben why Polar Bear biscuits are part of the supplies if the destination is an island in the pacific, so Ben plays them an orientation tape from the Hydra station which explains a little about what was going on in that particular station and why there were polar bears, and also a bit about Room 23 and what its was used for.

At the beginning of the second act we head to the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, only to find someone playing Connect 4 (seems to be the only thing mental patients do in the Lost universe). Who was playing Connect 4? Well it was Waaaaaalt. This was no surprise to me, since Walt’s appearance in the epilogue was basically the only thing I actually knew about it. Why was Walt in the institute? He says that no one would believe him, so I presume he’s there because he started telling people about the island etc and they though he was nuts.

Fair enough. If you said that you were on a plane flying from Sydney to Los Angeles, and it crashed on an island with 48-ish survivors. And on this island there were polar bears, and ‘monsters’, and in addition the survivors there were ‘other’ people who already lived there before the crash. And that these ‘other’ people kidnapped you because you were ‘special’, only to give you and your father a boat and a specific co-ordinate to allow you to leave the island…. yeah, not hard to see why that could get interpreted as insane.

Anyway, Ben says he’s there because a friend sent him. That friend is Hurley, its not said at this point, but if you can’t work that out for yourself, then why are you even watching. Walt leave Santa Rosa with Ben and they get into one of the blue Dharma combi vans. And, dude, who should be sitting in the back, but Hurley. Hurley says that they need to go back to the island, because Walt is special and that’s where they’re meant to be, and then Hurley offers him a job, and they drive off into the darkness.

So, “a job”, can we assume that Hurley has had enough of being ‘Number 1’ and wants to hand over the reigns to Walt, or at least start preparing him for the handover when the time comes. Also how is the ‘new man in charge’, it could be (and probably is) referring to Hurley, but maybe its also pointing to Walt as being (or becoming) the ‘new man in charge’ in the future.

If Walt were to take over as the leader on the island then that also explains his non-presence at the church in the sideways/afterlife timeline, and Michael’s absence is explained by the fact that he (or his soul) is still trapped on the island.

Great to have one last little bit of lost, shame it wasn’t a little bit longer.

I’ve wanted to put this list together for a while, and I’ve tried numerous times but have always had trouble narrowing it down to 10. Again, my latest attempt failed at this too, so this is a ‘top 12’ instead, there are probably another dozen episodes that I could have included, not to mentioned the premiere and finales from each season which I’ve excluded from this list for the sole reason that they would occupy all the spots.

All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues (S1E11)

Hurley informs the rest of the survivors that Ethan wasn’t on Flight 815. Clarie and Charlie go missing, taken by Ethan. While searching Jack has a confrontation with Ethan, after which Ethan disappears again. Jack and Kate later discover Charlie’s body hanging from a tree, Jack revives Charlie and they return to camp, but Claire is still missing. In the jungle Locke and Boone accidentally discover the hatch after Locke tosses Boone his flashlight, which lands on the covered hatch making a clunk.

Deus Ex Machina (S1E19)

Locke meets his biological Mother and Father, and is promptly conned by both into giving up a kidney for his Father. Locke tells Boone that the island will give them a sign as to how they will open the hatch. Locke has a dream/vision of a small plane flying overhead crashing into the jungle and sees his mother point in the same direction. His dream ends with a blood-covered Boone. They both head off in the direction of the plane to see what they can find. They find the Nigerian drug plane. Locke sends Boone up to investigate the wreckage. Boone discovers the plane is full of Virgin Mary statues filled with heroin, but he also finds the planes radio. He makes contact with other people and says that he is a survivor of Oceanic 815, to which the voice on the other end replies the same. Then the plane crashes down from the cliff crushing Boone. Locke takes the badly injured Boone back to camp telling the others that he fell of a cliff while they were hunting. Locke returns to the jungle, and bangs on the hatch door pleading for answers when a strong beam of light comes shooting out from inside the hatch.

Continue reading 12 of my favourite episodes so far →

Ever wonder why Jeffrey Lieber’s name appears at the beginning of every episode of Lost? Well this is why, or at least the bit that doesn’t involve legal matters.

Back in early 2003 Lieber wrote a TV pilot based around the survivors of a plane crash, it was titled ‘Nowhere’. The story, as far as I know, is that ABC didn’t really like the concept that he had put together and subsequently gave him the boot. The idea, and presumably Lieber’s original script, were handed over to JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof who, with a few key changes turned it into the ‘Lost’ that we know and love.

I’ve had a copy of the ‘Nowhere’ script (download at the bottom of the post) sitting on my desktop for a couple of months, I can’t remember exactly where it came from, but I think it was posted on DarkUFO’s blog. A couple of nights ago I actually sat down and read it. Immediately it feels like your reading a missing ‘Lost’ episode, but at the same time somethings just not the same.
Continue reading From Nowhere they ended up Lost →

Took me a while to get around to rewatching the finale and writing my notes, but I was never going to not write about the finale. Remember it was a double episode so this post is bound to lengthy.

It’s Jacob!

When does this opening sequence take place? Mid to late 1800’s presumably since that is when the Black Rock apparently went missing. What’s more interesting though is the suggestion that Jacob in fact brought the ship to the island, if that’s the case did he play more of a part in bringing Oceanic 815, the Nigerian drug plan and Henry Gale’s hot air balloon to the island as well?

Who is Jacob’s enemy?

Jacob wasn’t alone in the open sequence, there was a second, unnamed, character on the beach with him. Who was he? There is some suggestion that he could be Esau, the biblical brother of Jacob. Also interesting to note that his clothing is black/dark and the complete opposite to Jacob’s white/light clothing.

It only ends once, everything that happens before that is just progress

Interesting quote form Jacob, hinting that here is some ultimate end-game that we are on the path too, and perhaps we haven’t even seen any indication what this end game may be yet.

Continue reading The Incident →

It’s building up, I can feel it, the two hour finale (three if you include the clip show) just a few hours away, the incident looming, it’s going to be awesome… and then we have to wait for months until the final season starts. Lets start with a crackpot theory.

Are/were there two Dans on the island?

I originally based this on the assumption that Dan would have been older than Charlotte (and Miles), and that the Eloise we see with a young Dan playing the piano looks no much older than the Eloise on the island, meaning it would have to have been reasonably soon after leaving, and also we know that Charles is the father, and he remains on the island for longer than Eloise.

According to Lostpedia Dan was born in 1978 but there doesn’t appear to be any references for this date, its also suggested that if he were, then the scene with young Dan (approx. 10) would have been around 1988, then when we see Dan graduate from Oxford in 1996 (which would in theory make him 18 – not impossible) the character of Eloise has aged a lot in those 8 years, yet doesn’t age much at all between 1996 and 2007.

From this I believe there must be a baby Dan toddling around the hostiles camp, plus if she already had a son named Dan it would explain why Eloise was fairly quick to accept Jack’s explanation of things about them being from the future etc. I’m probably way off, but its fun to theorize a little.

Is Richard building a model of the Black Rock?

Maybe. It is a large ship with sails and a hull…

How did Locke find the others’ beach camp so easily?

I’m guessing “the island told him”, or maybe he just traipsed along the beach until he found them.

Alpert the Adviser

Sun asks Ben who Locke is talking to, he explains that his name is Richard Alpert and that he serves as an adviser of sorts, a role which has had for a very, very long time. Ok, we get it, he’s old, but how old? Did he help build the Statue? Is/was the Statue of Alpert? Does Alpert come from a time/place where man only had 4 toes?

I watched them all die

Sun asks Alpert if he met Jack, Kate, Jin etc in 1977, he tells that he remembers them well because he watched them all die. So I’ll assume they didn’t die from the detonation of the hydrogen bomb because you would expect that that would take Alpert too (maybe). When he says “them all”, who is he referring to? Does he mean everyone on the island, or everyone in the Dharma Initiative, or just Jack, Kate, Jin and the other losties? And for any of those groups, how did they die?

The bomb is under Dharmaville

Eloise tells Jack that the bomb if underneath what is now Dharmaville. To get to the bomb they go through an underwater tunnel into another mysterious, hieroglyphic laden chamber which Alpert refers to as “the tunnels”. Tunnels? interesting. Could these be the same tunnels that Smokey uses to makes its way to all parts of the island? I’m guessing that the “magic room” Ben goes into to summon smokey is also connected to the tunnels. Are these tunnels the same thing, or at least connected to the “cerebus vents” that were marked on the blast door map in the Swan station?

I really hate Phil and Radzinsky

Just saying.
Continue reading Follow the Leader →

I know, I’m several days late, sorry about that, but I’m not going to get this close to the end of the season and give up posting my thoughts. Hopefully I’ll find the time to get my “Follow the Leader” post up before this week’s finale.

Des is alive

After being shot by Ben he’s rushed to hospital, while in surgery Penny meets Eloise who explains that she thinks its her son’s fault that Des got shot. Later on we find out Des is in recovery and going to be ok.

Why is Dan back?

He tells miles that its because he saw the 1977 recruit photo with Jack, Kate and Hurley in it. However the real reason is that he knows about the incident and he wants to prevent it from happening.

Destiny? no.

Dan tells Jack and the others that they don’t belong here and that his mother was wrong when she told them it was their ‘destiny’ to go back to the island. Is destiny a faith thing and is that why it doesn’t sit well with Dan, a man of science?

You need to order the immediate evacuation…

When Dan finds Chang at the Orchid (he also notes that he arrived ‘right on time’… did Dan already know that he’d be there at that exact time…) he tells Chang to evacuate the island immediately because there is going to be a massive incident in 6 hours at the swan and he knows because he is from the future. Chang isn’t amused and thinks he’s joking. When Dan tries to explain that Miles is his son and also from the future Miles just flatly denies it.

Do what he’s supposed to do?

Dan tells Miles that he’s trying to make sure he gets Chang to “do what he’s supposed to do”. What is that exactly? I’m assuming that he just means evacuating the island?

Shall we stay or shall we go

The Losties convene at Sawyers place, to discuss what they are going to do now, they’ve basically got two options, try and take the sub and leave the island, or flee back into the jungle and start from scratch again. General consensus is that they spent too long trying to get back only to leave again so soon.

One of them is my Mother

Dan tells the other he needs to find the Hostiles because one of them is his Mother and she’s the only person that can help them get back to where they are supposed to be. Sawyer protests, but after he calls Kate ‘freckles’ Juliet gives Kate the sonic fence codes so that Jack and Her can take Dan out to the hostiles (she’s probably also hoping that Kate doesn’t come back…)
Continue reading The Variable →

Miles has had his “talk to the dead” thing since he was a kid.

When he discovers his “power” it freaks him out, which is fair enough he’s just a kid, but also freaks his Mother out. She mustn’t know why he can hear the dead, and we still don’t know why either. Is it just a side effect of being born on the island? Or did Pierre volunteer his own son for some weird experiment?

Grid 334

Miles is told to go to Radzinsky at “gird 334”, which Miles says is ‘hostile territory’. It also appears to the be the site where the construction of the Swan station is taking place. It being in hostile territory would be why Radzinsky was so worried when Sayid saw the Swan hatch model. Radzinsky, and the other workers are wearing jumpsuits with the Swan logo on them.

Here we go

After Roger discovers that Ben is missing goes says he’s going to tell security, Juliet looks at Kate and says “here we go” but that’s really the last we see of it apart form seeing Roger boozing it up on the swing set and then later talking to Jack. Maybe he never got to security, or when he did there was no-one there (Sawyer off in the jungle and Miles somewhere between the Swan and the Orchid)

Hurley is writing “The Empire Strikes Back”

I don’t even like Star Wars, but I though this was hilarious. I really enjoy the banter between Hurley and Miles especially when it delves into the mysteries of time (which it didn’t really this time) and they each try their best to debunk each other theories.
Continue reading Some Like It Hoth →

Another great episode, filling in some more missing pieces, opening up a few more questions. This one was big on the mythology side of things, and the only thing we saw from the 1970’s Dharma storyline was a healed Ben still in the hostiles camp.

Ben healed by the temple

It would appear that he’s all healed, and with no memory of what happened, but we still don’t know how exactly the temple healed him, or what the temple is. Ben tells Charles that he doesn’t want to go back to Dharmaville, but Charles says that he can go back and still be “one of them” (the hostiles).

Ben awakes to the ‘land of the living’

He tells Locke that he knew that he’d be alive. When Locke asks him why he’s so surprised if he knew, Ben says its because he could really believe it until he actually saw it for himself.

Why did Ben come back to the island?

Ben claims that he came back to be judged by “smokey” for the things that he’s done. I’m not sure I totally buy this, I think he has other reasons, which is probably why he probably wasn’t expecting Locke to ‘help’ him achieve it, and why he was rather nervous about the whole thing.

The French Acquisition

Ben was sent (along with young Ethan) to kill Rousseau, however Ben wasn’t aware she had a baby, so he kidnapped Alex and threatened, but didn’t kill, Rousseau. When Ben got back to camp, Widmore told him he should have killed the baby. So it appear Widmore wanted Alex dead from the beginning, guess he got his way in the end.
Continue reading Dead is Dead →

Yes this was a Kate episode, which aren’t always the best (think Eggtown from last year) but in-between the slow bits were some good sections of time travel talk and jungle meetings with the hostiles.

Ben isn’t dead

Ok, not surprised at all. Miles said that he wouldn’t die, and Faraday said you can’t change the future so unless Sayid unlocked some magic puzzle allowing him to change the future Ben was never actually going to die.

Kate visits Cassidy

Couple of points here, first up why does Kate so openly tell Cassidy that they’ve been lying about everything? Probably because it was the only way that she would have believed that Sawyer had asked her to find her. And why was Cassidy not more shocked to find out that the random woman who helped her with a small con at a service station way back when just happened to be on the same plane with the guy that is the father of her daughter, and that they would both survive the plane crash and he would then tell Kate to go and visit her to take care of his daughter. Come on, seriously, tell me that you wouldn’t be asking a hell of a lot of questions.

Back to the Future

Hurley sitting at the dining table starring at his hands, waiting for them to disappear Back to the Future style because he think that if Ben dies then he’ll cease to exist. Awesome.

Hurley and Miles discuss time travel

In the absence of Faraday (why on Earth is he?) Mile attempts to explain the complexities of time to Hurley, with quite entertaining results. I’m going to search for a transcript of their discussion because it worth trying to understand, but the general idea is that for the Losties the 1977 they are in is their present its occurring after their previous time on the island, for Ben and the Dharma folk this 1977 is their present. Miles explains that Ben can’t die because he’s still alive in 2004, but the Losties can die because this is happening after 2004 for them… you got that?

After Miles explains all this, Hurley asks why it is then that if this is Ben’s past that he doesn’t remember that Sayid shot him when he was a kid, when they meet again after Oceanic 815 crashes in 2004. We get his answer from Alpert.
Continue reading Whatever Happened, Happened →

It looks like we’re going back to character-centric stories, and hopefully finding out why each of the Oceanic 6 (apart form those reasons we already know) was on Ajira 316.

Sayid’s “mission” is completed

In Russia Sayid assassinates another supposed threat to the Oceanic 6 at Ben’s direction, and when he reports back Ben tell him that they’re finished, that they’ve eliminated all of Widmore’s people that posed a threat to his friends. He tells Sayid to o and live his life. I don’t know about this, Sayid has seemed fairly agro of late with regards to Ben, I think there has to be more to it than them just ‘parting ways’. If his hatred didn’t come from how their working relationship ended, it was probably more to do with the work which begs the question why did he continue to do it (apart from the fact that Sayid is a natural born killer).

Who’s their him?

When Sayid refuses to talk, Horrace takes him to see Oldham, who lives in a tent somewhere away from the barracks. I wonder if the reason he’s out there has something to do with the reason that Sawyer refers to him as a ‘psychopath’. When Sayid asks Sawyer who this guy is, Sawyer tell him “he’s our you” ie. the village torturer.

“I am from the future”

Oldham drugs Sayid which they hope will make him talk. When Sayid starts talking, he spills everything, how he’d been to the island before, arrive vis Oceanic 815, lived there 100 days, got off the island, then returned via Ajira 316. He tells them to “ask Sawyer” nodding toward him, luckily Radzinsky interrupts before they notice. Horrace askes him what he knows about the stations, and Sayid tells that that the Flame is for communications, the Pearl is for watching other stations and the Swan is centered around electromagnetism. Radzinsky believes the only way he could know this is if he were a spy, because they haven’t even built the Swan yet. Sayid then tells them that they are all going to die, and when they ask how he knows this he says its because he’s from the future. Needless to say that at this point the seem to believe that Oldham has simply given Sayid too much of whatever crazy drug he was using and what he’s been telling them is just nonsense. Sayid begins to laugh telling them that they gave him just the right amount.
Continue reading He’s Our You →