No Summer Re-watch

Earlier this week, I was bored and thinking about Daniel's death and stuff. So, I decided to re-watch season 5 and get my thoughts together to start blogging again. Unfortunately, ABC had decided to take down all but Season 1 and half of Season 5.

Now, maybe I'm a little crazed, but I just can't watch part of a season. When I get the urge (and it is a strong urge) I want to watch beginning to end. I have only recently trained myself not to re-watch from the pilot episode... I LOVE that ABC always made Lost available to fans (i'm a late-blooming fan because of this). Loved it so much and appreciated it so much that I had no problems with buying S1-4. However, with season 5 not available until December and not shown on the web... What do I (legally) do?

My inner obsessive-compulsive is weeping bitter tears.

/rant over

Bye For Now

I think I'm giving up on the blog. I just am not getting enough readership to continue during the hiatus. I'll be back for the final season though.

What Happened, Happened

Although it was funny, I thought the scene with Miles and Hurley talked down to the audience. I'm still on the fence about changes to the island due to influences of the war to come (if it takes place pre-2007), but not about the actual time-line from the POV of the characters. If there are no stakes (Whatever Happened, Happened), why would Eloise Hawking say 'God help us all?' Speaking of this, we know that not everyone came back so... what's going to happen?

The island is obviously special in some way (it is a world created by writers who can decide what properties it has and what it can do). Perhaps this places us in a position where our knowledge of theoretical physics isn't completely on target in this one fictional place in space-time. After all, there is exotic matter there (which I'm sure points to a wormhole) and other properties that can take us into new realms of speculation.

Further, we have to understand that characters have their own motivations, pasts and flaws. Miles probably has his knowledge from his father (who I'm positive is Pierre) and Faraday, Faraday's theories are influenced by his mother (Eloise), Eloise certainly has her own motivations (if she really believed what she said to Desmond then why would she have to try so hard to convince him), Pierre Chang is severely limited by theoretical physics of 1977. Personally, I know exactly what I believe if this were taking place in the non-fictional world. However, I would like to facilitate more amicable discourse on the matter.

Most people I've talked to seem fairly adamant about their side in this matter; wouldn't it be great if this war in the forums is a antecedent to the war to come? Maybe, we are all taking sides in the war and don't realize it; it would be brilliant if the writers planned it that way.

Time Travel and Lost

Going back in time produces paradoxes if something happens to prevent the time-traveler from going back in time in the first place. If a time traveler goes back in time to prevent a disaster, stops the disaster, then the disaster will no longer exist and the time traveler would have no reason to stop it. The other one is the grandfather paradox which states that you can't go back in time and kill your own grandfather (before he impregnates grandma with your mother/father -after that have at the old coot). This one is closely linked to auto-infacticide - you can't kill baby you because big you wouldn't exist to kill baby you.

"But the producers said we won't have paradoxes!" I can hear you yelling at me.

Note that they said we wouldn't have time travel either. However, I believe we've already seen what I believe to be examples of the ontological paradox: Daniel's machine settings and the compass. For example, Daniel looks in his notebook and gives Desmond the settings for his machine. Desmond travels back and gives those settings to younger Daniel and they work! Then younger Daniel writes them in his notebook where they stay so he can give them to Desmond... who then goes back in time... There is no origin for the settings, they just ARE. By the way, if Daniel didn't actually teach Eloise the maze while Desmond was out of it then things are really wonky - or he has a teeny tiny defibrillator.

I would be careful about taking everything that Daniel or Pierre say as fact. First, Daniel could be influenced by his mother, who I believe has a definite agenda (the longest con on the show: 'course correction'); we haven't definitively seen any course correction first hand, so we are taking Eloise's word for it. I don't believe Charlie is a case of course correction, but rather a sacrifice made by Desmond to find Penny; Charlie and Desmond could easily have gotten out of the station before it was flooded. As for Pierre, he is limited by the science of 1977 and probably even less credible; there is a huge knowledge gap between 1977 and 2007 (in which lies the Novikov self-consistency principle, for one).

I can't shake the feeling that what we are seeing on Lost is a time-loop. If this is the case, something has to give (or already has) or we'll just see the loop begin to repeat as the final *boom* "LOST" hits our screens. In the end it doesn't really matter. The producers have created their own failsafe in Desmond and can turn the key if the storyline starts to blow (figuratively or literally take your pick).

This week on Lost: Sayid Chokes the Chicken... Oh, and Tries to Kill a Little Kid Too!

First, my son came into the room when I was watching Lost and asked why Benjamin Franklin was stuck on Lost island; when I realized he was talking about Horace, I laughed myself silly. Just imagine Horace flying a kite in a tri-corn hat .... now on to the meat of the blog:

If you could kill Hitler as a baby, would you?

I'm not going into this too much because I know we've been making our own decisions all week and who am I to challenge your moral compass on a blog. But remember this, killing baby Hitler has it’s risks. Maybe, it will set worse things into motion. Say, for example, that someone Hitler murdered would have been the ancestor of a person who starts a global nuclear war that kills far more people than Hitler ever did. Time travel is a sticky subject; there is no definitive answer. Is one life worth less than the lives of many?

Anyway, what I'd rather talk about is "What Happened, Happened." Now, this line has been all over the comments on sites I go to all week and I'm starting to get sick of it. Let me just make an example of how this line means nothing to our theorizing one way or the other:

1. What happened, happened; therefore, what you did when you went back to 1977 happened and the future is changed now.

2. What happened, happened; therefore nothing you can do in 1977 will change anything in the future because it always happened that way.

If Ben, in fact, already knows that Sayid will shoot him, then he must want to be shot as a child. It must have some importance to him (maybe it facilitates his entry into the Others/ Hostiles). Obviously, Ben is priming Sayid for three years to be a killer. Unless, of course, Ben purposely was trying to keep Sayid Hostile to Ben enough to keep him off the plane. In which case, we could ask ourselves if Ilana was put into play by someone else to make sure young Ben was shot.

My Thought of the Day: Could the real "long con" on Lost be perpetuated by Eloise Hawking: That is, course correction could be complete bunk. Discuss...

By the way, re-check what I said last week about Juliet and who Ben thinks/ knows she is his in the future. I think we will see if I'm right this week.

Namaste!

Namaste: Subtle Clues to Ponder

Well, at first glance this episode seems fairly standard and character driven. But is it?

1. The numbers were playing on the plane. In the 2007 that we knew, that wouldn't be happening.

2. How did Ben and the Others know to build a runway in that location without knowing future events. On a side note, I'm glad that I finally understand why they had Sawyer and Kate building a runway.

3. Why haven't we seen the buildings surrounding the dock before? Were they even still there in our first time-line?

4. Does Sawyer's remark about Faraday mean that he's dead, lost in time, or just crazy? Since Pierre Chang is still around in 1977, I suspect that Faraday is also. After all, Chang still needs to lose his arm and I believe the two men still have to make the video from Comic-Con.

5. The island may not hate Ben anymore since it seems that his arm was healed after the plane landed. Maybe the island doesn't hate him in this version of time. Could this future be what he was trying to produce the whole time?

6. If 5 is true, is Sun correct in her assessment that she can't trust Ben? She may be the only hope to put things back to the way they were before.

7. Since Christian is helping Sun is he working with or against Jacob? By the way, what or who do you think the heavy breeze was that blew the door open when they were talking? Ask yourself this, if Christian is linked with technology hating Jacob then why turn on the lights in the bungalow and not have a Jacob-approved lantern instead?

8. The tree being moved ('probably just an animal,' my arse!) could give creedence to the theory that Christian is Smokey.

It's starting to look like our time-line has been seriously changed. But, we have yet to see what happens with Sun (and possibly Lapidus) that could have the effect of making everything go back to the way it was. I am thinking that this episode, which admittedly seems ordinary at first watch, is showing us something huge; could the future, in fact, be altered through time-travel?

We've had it drilled into our heads while watching Lost that the Universe course corrects. However, maybe this is just propaganda spread by one of the sides in the war to come.

Time Travel and Character Motivation

I've been re-watching Season 3 in my spare time. I am especially paying attention to Juliet's back-story and her time on the island.

Now, we all heard the "you look just like her" and other comments that many people took to mean Juliet = Annie replacement. Watching with new eyes, I see that Ben has a pained look when he tells Juliet that she can't leave the island in the episode "One of Us." Could it be that Ben already has memories of Juliet from his time as a child?

When Desmond woke and suddenly remembered that Daniel talked to him at the hatch 'front door,' I assumed that the time travel memories only kick in after we see it happen in real time. However, this assumption may be very wrong. Desmond, as we have heard, is special. Perhaps, the meeting is suddenly in his memory because it was not really supposed to happen at all and did not happen in the original time line.

Our heroes going into the past, however, always happened. Therefore, Ben has always known what is going to happen. He is in an almost (I kind of remember a line that a few Dharma people changed sides) unique position to be alive and still remember DI Juliet.

I don't think Ben remembers Jin though; perhaps the message to Desmond resonated through time to save Jin, which made the French chick's crew go to the Temple instead of the Black Rock (remember the epi when Doc Arzt blew up? She mentioned that her crew got "sick" at the Black Rock), and maybe also changed some other details we've yet to see or realize.

Now, what if Ben is trying to re-create all of this because he believes that things have to happen in just the way they did originally? What is the point of letting Juliet go if she still has to become part of the crash survivors and go back in time to Ben's childhood (and maybe do something important to save his life?). Ohhh, that little tizzy fit when he says "you're mine" sounds like a childhood crush to me.

In fact, could the island mother deaths be something hatched by Ben just to intrigue Juliet enough to take the red pill (erm, drink the drugged juice)? The whole 'mothers who get pregnant off-island are safe' could be a Ben-ism to cover for Claire or other successful island births. Perhaps, had Claire not gotten away, Ben would have done something to harm her after all. I've never been fond of the purge gas being used as a reason for mothers and babies dying for a number of reasons. First, because there are other mammals on island who seem completely unaffected. Second, because gas used for such a purpose should have dissipated and should either affect or not affect new women (post purge) on the island no matter where they became pregnant.

In short, if we take what we know now and look to the past of the show, the possible motivations of all of our characters change. I think we may be on the brink of discovering something key to Ben's personality and motivations. Perhaps, he's not a bad guy after all - but don't tell him you heard it from me!

Meet Taweret

Taweret is my guess as to the statue on the island. Note the four toes! She is a goddess of maternity and childbirth. Hmmm, pregnant women...need for protection... that sounds oddly familiar... Oh yeah, this is Lost. Opet is the more human looking goddess that replaced Tawaret later on and is another possibility, although the ears and hat make me think differently. I'd also keep a sharp eye out for Sekhmet (the bringer of disease and curer of ills). I think I'll be disappointed, but not surprised, if this turns out to be a more obvious god. I'm looking at you, Anubis.

My only problem with my theory is that Egyptian goddesses are traditionally shown with longer gowns and gods are shown with shorter skirts. We'll see...

On a more practical note, statues of this size were rarely (if ever) made to be freestanding on two legs. I'll have to look it up, but such technology would point to this being built at least during the later quarter of the ancient Egyptian time-line.

I can't stress enough the difficulty of constructing something of this size with separated legs and no drapery, base or throne behind the legs to keep it standing. For example, the 10-story Colossus of Rhodes (280 BC) was made of Bronze, probably used drapery or a cape for stability, surely did not have the legs separated across the harbor entrance (despite popular images), and was still toppled within 80 years. If our Lost island statue existed it would truly be the ultimate wonder of the ancient world.


While researching, I was checking out the dimensions of the Eye of Horus and came across this:



As you can imagine, I was excited to find many of the numbers, but unfortunately not all of them. Check out the article here.

Readers Come Out Of the Closet!

I have a great deal of traffic through this site, but nobody comments! C'mon people, I want some comments! Otherwise I feel as though I'm talking to myself (not that that's a bad thing, I do it all the time!)

For good or bad, leave a mark that you were here. Even if you think I'm full of crap ;)

What is Neither Good nor Bad? Read and Find Out...

If you ever play RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons; I would place the island in the true neutral range. For a simple explanation see this page. True neutrality would certainly make a person (or island) seem to have a bit dissociative disorder/ split personality.

Let's say that the stakes are the extinction of the human race; would killing to try to avoid this outcome then be good or bad? A true neutral would say kill the few to save the many. Tough decision when you really think about it.

It's a question that has been pondered by philosophers ad nauseum. However, I think that is exactly where we are being asked to consider on Lost. Therefore, there will always be those who see the actions of different characters as good, and others who see it as evil. I prefer to consider everyone within the spectrum of neutrality (especially Ben/ Widmore/ the island -if it has really has a consciousness and is not just a "machine" that responds to current events/ leaders) until I have all the facts as to what is ultimately at stake.

Christian Shephard

Christian was very spectral at the start of the show and seems to become more substantive as time goes by. Either that or there are two Christians - one being an island specter (appearing and disappearing, etc) and the other being the "now alive" Christian. The spectral Christian (for lack of better name) appears in Jacob's cabin to Hurley. He is clearly not the same as the Christian who appears to Locke later at the real cabin.

Now, bear with me, Christian has changed substantially in the past two seasons. The change happened around the time when he met with Claire. When Locke met him in the cabin, the first thing I noticed was that he was dressed differently - no suit and white tennis shoes (note that this was also the real/physical cabin and not the spectral-Jacob-moving cabin). He seems to be able to hold things (the baby) and also seems more human.

Am I reading too much into this or do you think that there could be something that splits the real and the spectral of those brought back by the island? Perhaps we'll see a disappearing Locke at some point also.

Locke, Locke and more Locke!

I am preparing a longer post, but here is one thought I had:

I was wondering why Ben killed Locke. First, I think he needed to know all of Locke's instructions (the last being to see Eloise). Second, it is possible that the island wouldn't have taken Locke back had he committed suicide. The island doesn't like loss of faith and Locke's suicide would have been that. Maybe Ben was saving Locke by killing him so the island would accept him back and resurrect him.

I have to go think and maybe watch this episode a hundred more times to wrap my mind around everything. For some reason, this one threw me for a loop. I am about a half a percentage point more certain that my faction theory is in the ballpark of what is happening here.

Cheers!

Destiny or Free Will and other thoughts

- I now think that Widmore is involved in "helping" Theresa because he is using her as a guinea pig to test vaccines against the "sickness." Who knows what kinds of chemicals the man is having her injected with or what kind of experiments he is ordering with her blood.

I wonder if those vaccines somehow went back in time to Dharma days - maybe Desmond taking the vaccines is why he survived turning the failsafe (relatively unscathed albeit naked)? The very idea that there is already a vaccine on the island for the "sickness" opens up many doors and answers many questions.

- Desmond saw the white flash! I repeat, Desmond could see the white flash! Nobody else is able to see it. Whenever a flash happens the others who aren't moving in time have no idea of what is happening. However, when Faraday goes to talk to Desmond, it is extremely obvious that Desmond is watching and hearing the flash. Remember, this was before he turned the failsafe and became the variable/ special person.

- I now believe that the factions warring for the island are representative of destiny vs. free will.

Desmond certainly changed the destiny of the islanders when he put off Charlie's death long enough for Charlie to be able to get the message "Not Penny's Boat" across. If Desmond hadn't tried to keep Charlie alive then that message would never have reached the group and events would have unfolded very differently.

Think about it; Hurley would not have gone to Locke's side (and everyone loves Hugo despite the title of a certain episode). After Hugo makes his decision then others follow. I still think Hurley is really the special person to the island, but that is for another post (one that I've been trying to put into coherent words for a while now).

What would have happened if everyone had stayed at the beach (minus Locke of course)? Would they have been easily slaughtered or some still alive? Would Ben have been captured by Keamy without the help of our group at New Otherton? Would Claire and Aaron still be together? Maybe Claire and Aaron would have been on the plane if Desmond had followed his first vision and allowed Charlie to die (was it the arrow in the head first)?

The problem with Desiny and Free Will is that there is no real answer; no way to tell if something was meant to be or not -if your actions to change destiny actually help to create the very outcome you are trying to avoid.


Destiny

• Mrs. Hawking
• Ben - I think Ben's absolute belief in destiny is what makes him so cold toward the fate of others.
  
• Locke

Free Will

• Faraday (not only does he give Des the memory, but apparently he also warns Charlotte not to come back to the island).
• Jack (He may have gone to the other side now)
• Probably Widmore
• Desmond (although he believes in destiny beacuse of his time with Mrs. Hawking, he works on the side of free will).

Theresa Spencer

Just a short note on Theresa Spencer. Everyone seems to be missing one spectacular fact about this woman; that is, she is still alive and has yet to die of the time travel sickness! That is quite amazing since even the people on Widmore's freighter don't know the secret; knowing the danger they would be in, you would think that he would have told them if it was something repeatable -if only to help his mission succeed.

He must be in on the secret or totally baffled by it since he is providing all the funding. So, we have two possible questions to ponder:

What makes Theresa special/ different?
What is the secret to stabilizing someone mind traveling without a constant?

Can't Sleep - So I'll Obsess About Lost

I have such a bad case of insomnia. It's a good thing I have Lost to think about! I have a few thoughts rummaging in my head. These are mainly notes to myself, but why not share with all 2 readers of my blog. . . *wave*

One came to me as I was commenting on DarkUFO:

I think she [Ellie] may be Eloise Hawking (and possibly Daniel's mum as well).

Somehow I see Ms. Hawking as a neutral character (representing destiny and the absence of free will) who is as likely to help Ben as she is to help Widmore; no matter what she does or which side she takes, she believes that things will "course correct."

Daniel could be her son and could also represent free will. He shows his willingness to change things by contacting Desmond and creating a new memory and by trying to find loopholes in the "rules" of time. I believe he will start taking this even further in future episodes, especially with Charlotte's life on the line.

His slowness in recognizing her could be related to how much time they actually spent together; he may have grown up only seeing her occasionally.
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I'm also thinking about the idea that Locke was shot in the leg near the drug plane and that is the exact spot where he has trouble walking when we see him go there for the first time with Boone.

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Could the voices (one of my personal favorite mysteries) be the time travelers? One voice heard occasionally sounds like Sawyer. The only thing that makes me think this is incorrect is that there is an obvious "Hi Sis" that sounds like Boone right before Shannon is shot. Boone is, obviously, dead at the time and not part of our current group.

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Does there have to be a dead person along for the ride when people crash on the island (Jack's Dad, Locke, probably dead slaves on the Black Rock, etc)?

I said before that the coffin Jack finds and beats to pulp in Season 1 looks a lot like Locke's coffin (white interior, same wood, etc). How would that fit into what we know about island physics and time "rules?" Could some of the debris near the cave be from them coming back to the island?

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Thoughts on Jughead

I just finished watching Jughead and some answers are starting to jell in my brain. Ellie, possibly the same person as Eloise Hawking, is almost certainly Daniel Faraday's mother. I suspect he could be Charles Widmore's boy too.*

Well, things on the island are certainly getting convoluted, that's for sure. Somehow I thought Jughead would be scarier than an atomic bomb - like something that could destroy the world and not just the island... or maybe, it is. Perhaps a blast of that magnitude so close to the island's special properties (exotic matter especially) could cause catastrophic devistation.

I think there is a special clue is Charlotte forgetting her mother's maiden name. Has something happened during the time travels that may have made Charlotte's existance/ birth precarious? Is that even possible? If we are to believe Mrs. Hawking it isn't. However, some people seem to be above the rules (such as Desmond). Certainly Charlotte was in no special position relative to the other castaways during the initial incident of the island moving. If anyone, Faraday was closest to the edge of the island "bubble." I suspect something happens in the past that hasn'thappened in the past yet to Charlotte (if you understand that sentence you are watching too much Lost).

Well, off to watch a second time and see if I can solidify my thoughts.

* On a side note, I'm not discounting Claire's boyfriend/ Aaron's father as Ben's boy either - they look so damned much alike. He could be Widmore's too though since Charles seems so fond of his artwork.

Maybe Alpert Ages After All

Alrighty, Here are some random thoughts about my favorite character (Alpert) after watching the Season 5 premier:

I think it's possible that Alpert ages just fine, but we have only seen present-future Alpert keeping an eye on Ben and John through most of the show. To Ben and John, Alpert would seem not to age much at all. Think back on the test he gives little-Locke:

Which of these already belongs to you?

The compass - it would already belong to Locke if Locke's consciousness had traveled to his younger self. It belongs to Locke only after Alpert gives it to him (which we just saw happen). It is possible that this scene, although in Locke's past, has not happened to Alpert yet?

In fact, maybe that's why Alpert says for Locke to give him the compass next time he sees him, so he can find when Locke is in time. Maybe Adult Alpert and young Locke scene IS the next time Alpert will meet John but not recognize him and Alpert is giving a heads-up on the right answer?

I'll admit, I'm probably not right about this. I just thought I'd share because the idea of it seemed intriguing to me. Now, with time travel in mind I plan to go back and watch previous episodes for clues. I think they have been showing people showing up in different times than they belong in for a while now; we just did not realize it because we thought only the consciousness and not the physical form could move. Wooohoo!