Thursday, January 29, 2009

LOST: generations...

It's all coming together nicely. Pops Widmore and Moms Faraday were part of the Others in the 50s. Desmond is temporally special. Widmore may or may not know that, but only cares that he keeps Penny safe. Widmore's a grandpa and doesn't know it.

I think the first episode of the seventh season of LOST will open with Charlie, JiYeon, Clementine, and Aaron, all in their 20s, sitting down for a meal with a 30-something Walt in his luxury compartment on an Oceanic dirigible. The question is, will it be a flash back or a flash forward? =)

So, yeah! In the real world, "present day," Desmond and Penny have a baby boy! And, awww... they named him Charlie! Sweet. They've been hiding out from gramps (and incidentally, Ben) for three years on their boat, but now that Desmond's recovered this memory of Faraday, he's ready to go back to his other favorite island, Great Britain.

Desmond: This has nothing to do with your father, Penny. We are here because of Daniel Faraday.

As soon as he said it, you knew it was LOST-ironic. How mean of the writers! And when he goes back to Oxford and finds that they've done everything possible to sweep him and his work under the academic rug, the trail leads him to a time-sick ex-girlfriend, and ultimately, to Charles Widmore, who, of course, funded Faraday's wonky time travelling research for a decade before putting him on the freighter.

I'm assuming it's Daniel's girlfriend, cuz of the framed photo (Daniel next to a mystery blond =) in his locked up lab, but perhaps Theresa Spencer was just a fellow time travelling academic enthusiast? Could she have been the woman who asks him why he's crying when we saw Daniel watching the ocean floor images of flight 815 on the news?

In any case, once Widmore calls him to join the Fantastic Four, he leaves for America, and three years later, is never heard from again. Sometime after Faraday left, Theresa got timesick, and apparently didn't have anyone to help her contact a constant and recover her temporal equilibrium. Would've been nice to see Desmond stick around and do that for her.

But hey, wasn't that Theresa's sister who answered the door? Wouldn't she be a good enough constant?

Anyhow, discovering the Widmore was holding Faraday's purse strings leads Desmond to storm into Charles's office. Fun! Widmore somewhat grudgingly gives up the location of Faraday's mom—Los Angeles, where she's predicting the next "present day" appearance of the Island, and helping Ben coordinate the Six's return. Pawn shop Watcher's gotta be Moms Faraday, AND, I suspect, also the girl soldier (Elle?) back with the 1950s Others on the Island.

Once Widmore gives up this info, he implores Desmond to deliver his message and then go back to wherever he's been hiding. He knows that Ben's out for Penny's blood and whatever differences he might have w Desmond, he believes that he will protect her.

How much does Widmore know about/how much is he responsible for Desmond's special temporal abilities?

Speaking of 1950s and the Island...

That's when and where Locke, Sawyer, Juliet (ever since she was first introduced, I always think of Juliet Parrish =), and Dilbert, Charlotte, and Miles are wandering about. I was off by about a decade, thinking that they time-skipped into the 40s, and WW2, possible onto the Island as a Pacific battleground. Turns out, it's the Island as Pacific H-bomb test site. Kinda perfect.

Cute and funny and slightly FUTURAMAy that Dilbert says that she's so familiar, right after declaring her love for Charlotte, so that Elle takes it as if he's making a weak little pass at her. Heh. Luckily they didn't take it into "doing the nasty in the pasty" territory. =)

So, Dilbert checks out sick little Jughead and prescribes burial in lead and concrete as the cure. And his reasoning? Because in the future, the Island isn't soaked in radioactivity! Love that logic! =)

Elle: Are they from the future, too?
Sawyer: You told her?

Yes, Sawyer continues to rock. I don't think he got to say "Who the hell are you?" this episode, tho. =)

Interesting, tho. Cuz this means that there's an H-bomb buried somewhere on the Island. The mention of concrete and burial immediately got me thinking of the Swan. Could the bomb have been some unforeseen factor that led to the "incident?" Maybe... Could a leaky H-bomb actually become or create the weird EM thing under the Swan over 20 years?

Had a thought about the Swan in relation to the Orchid and the Island moving. Let's assume that moving the Island has worked in the past. That the Island, or at least, the Island's access point(s), has successfully been moved before Ben's turn at the donkey wheel. Anyhow, what's a big different between previous turns of the wheel and Ben's? The EM well or whatever it is/was that the Swan station tapped into. I theorize that that EM field somehow regulated the effect of the exotic particles in the Orchid, limiting a spacetime jump to just the dimensions of space, and so, moving the Island. Unfortunately, without that EM field, the jump is uncontrolled, and in four dimensions, and thusly, we have time-skipping.

So, Juliet, Sawyer, and Locke take a couple of punk soldiers prisoner. The cocky one kills his buddy when he talks too much Latin w Juliet and then runs back to Other basecamp, not believing that an old man could track him or know the Island better than he does. Heh.

Of course, Locke tracks him. In the meantime, Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles survive an awesome couple of 815 red shirt-wacking land mine detonations and are taken captive by the Others. Miles demonstrates concrete practical use of his speaker for the dead ability. Sawyer and Juliet move in to save Daniel from his pre-Mom, and Locke walks into Camp Others and asks for a meeting with the everyoung Richard Alpert.

Juliet: Richard's always been here.
Locke: How old is Richard?
Juliet: Old.
Sawyer: I hate to bust up your "I'm an Other, you're an Other" reunion...
Sawyer: ... Wanna stay here in crazy town or help me rescue the geek?

Locke gives Richard all the info he'll need to mess with him later in time. He gives him the compass (paradox! wack! =), which he'll present to boy Locke when interviewing him for his special school. Did Locke drop/leave other things of his behind when time skips again? Charlotte and Miles's hands are still tied up after the skip. Do the arrowed bodies of the 815 red shirts continue to skip thru time with the cool kids?

Locke also tells Richard when he'll be born, and tells him to check in on him at the hospital in two years (which he does). And of course, he explains that he's gonna need his bulleted leg treated in the wreckage of the Nigerian beechcraft. Good times.

Oh, and before he sits down w Richard, Locke discovers that punk ass Other soldier is none other than Charles Widmore!

Locke: You're name is Widmore? Charles Widmore?
Widmore: What's it to you?
Locke: Nothing, nice to meet you.

Circle of life, dude. =)

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. Was it just me, or did they have Desmond decked out just a little bit like a couple of other particular time travellers who are friendly to the British isles? =)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

LOST: crazy talk

Talked a bit of LOST w Larry yesterday and re-watched the season premiere w my sister and Row earlier this eve.

Larry hit me with the idea that when Keamy kills Alex in front of Ben, and Ben sorta cracks with shock and says, "He changed the rules," Ben is referring to more than just a code of conduct between honorable(?) foes, but to the rules as in physical laws. I was kind of skeptical of the idea at the meta level, y'know, of the writers choosing to go that way with a TV audience, but I had to agree that it really works, internally, story-wise.

Larry had the idea that Ben had some foreknowledge of Alex's life. That he KNEW that Alex would live to be an adult, and so, was confident that Keamy wouldn't, and couldn't, kill her (altho, of course, he could hurt her, and he would want to minimize that). It's a mean thing to say that Ben's reaction was out of proportion with the event, the death of his daughter, but y'know, so much of the best parts of LOST work on multiple levels.

After re-watching the premiere, and hearing the phrase "the rules" more than a couple times, I'm officially signing on to the theory that Widmore has, or at least Ben believes Widmore has, changed fate. He may not have done it with direction and a plan, but he's created and introduced an x-factor that makes it possible for time and destiny to be mucked with.

What x-factor, you ask?

Desmond, of course. =)

Faraday sort of confirms this when he talks to button-pushing Desmond during the time-skips, and apparently calculates/proves Desmond to be "special" in his notes.

And we've seen Desmond push fate. I mean, he managed to push off Charlie's final destination until he "came to" a death whose circumstances would lead to Widmore finding the Island. The pawn shop Watcher would say that the universe would get Charlie eventually, and the three attempts that death made that we saw, well, they would've taken Charlie out in pointless, tragic ways. But the fourth way that Desmond manages to get Charlie to, drowning in the Looking Glass, it lets the universe catch up to Charlie, but it also has Charlie DO Something Important.

The theory is likely gonna need some fine tuning, but assuming that Widmore is behind a change in the rules, and Desmond is the agent of that change, don't all the Widmore connections and meddling in Desmond's life paint a picture of manipulation that lands Desmond in the position of being the guy who blows the hatch?

Buying into this, it's not that Widmore somehow decided that Alex would die and thusly, it happened. Rather, Desmond's special spacetime status creates ripples that result in opportunities for fate to be changed, in unpredictable ways. These ripples would also ultimately allow for Desmond, the Oceanic Six, 815 survivors, and even the Others, to change something in the past that would result in their living on the Island for the rest of their lives, but also insuring that incidents like the Blackrock, Rousseau's ship, Desmond's boat, and flight 815 crashing on the Island never happen(ed) in the first place.

Hey, I warned you in the title—crazy talk.

Some other LOST droppings...

The Faraday we see at the beginning of the premiere is DEFinitely not of the time. I mean, that's the 70s, 80s at the latest, right? Faraday's got the facial fuzz he's sporting in present day. So, he must've taken advantage of a time-skip that we have yet to see, to infiltrate the DI construction crew for a closer look at the Orchid when it was being built.

I had a thought that the worker who gets bumped out of time by drilling into that wall might have been young Faraday, but I guess I take it back. Maybe it's someone else that we'll see or hear from bouncing thru time, tho?

Who the heck chops off a hand as the first order of business when taking a prisoner? In the past? Think Widmore might be with those soldiers on the Island in the past?

Jumping back to earlier episodes goings-on... Larry refreshed my memory about some episodes I might have actually missed or missed pieces of due to crapped-out DVR power or programming last year.

Mr. Abbaddon(sp?), remember him? I called him Mr. X in some earlier entries. He's the almost alienly proportioned African-American man who visits Hurley at Santa Rosa, passing himself off as a lawyer representing Oceanic. He's also the guy who assembles the Fantastic Four for Widmore's freighter. He's ALSO the orderly who plants in Locke's mind the seed of the idea to go on a walkabout, despite his disability. When he did that, was Abbaddon working for Widmore or Ben?

When Kate can't explain to Jack where she's been I'm pretty sure she's hanging out w Cassidy, Sawyer's con-girl ex (and Kate's one-time partner), and their daughter, Clementine. Guess that means that they've moved from New Mexico to somewhere in or near LA.

Why is Jack so spooked by Aaron? Just the realization that he's his nephew, and that Aaron mom, Jack's half-sister, died on his watch? A kind of haunted? Or is there something spookier? Does Jack's dad live inside of Aaron? Why doesn't Ben seem to care about Aaron? Maybe Aaron's got nothing to do w the Island? But why claim Claire if Aaron doesn't figure. And, if Claire was Claire, she would know better than to let anyone else raise Aaron. There was some point, when she was hysterical, where she cries that out, accepting her fate as given to her by the fortune teller. Something like, "I have to raise him!?"

I was certain that Claire died in the rocket-exploded bungalow in New Otherton. And that the Claire who shows up in the Cabin w her dad is an Island-animated Claire. Larry explained that she definitely traveled with Sawyer and Miles for a while before disappearing. I'd totally forgotten that, but it reminded me that Miles looks at her funny the whole time. Miles, Mr. Talks-to-the-Dead, y'know? There's something already odd about Claire before she disappears in to the woods w her dad, something like death.

We've seen the Island use people and bodies in dreams and waking visions/interaction (including Christian Shephard, Boone, Yemi, Eko, Anna Lucia), and we've seen the smoke monster do it (only once, with Yemi, Eko's brother). I don't quite know where the Walt visions fit in. I feel like those have actually been Walt, or an aspect of Walt, seeking to help his friends.

A correction to an earlier thought of mine... The Hostiles were visiting civilization in a regular way before Ben and Dharma. We've seen that Richard Alpert shows up at John Locke's birth, and then in his childhood, representing a school for gifted kids. The agents that Ben seems to have on tap around the world could have been part of the pre-Dharma Hostiles network in the real world.

That visit Alpert makes to young Locke, that's when he administers the Dalai Lama reincarnation-like identity test, apparently seeking the Hostiles' next leader. Locke is offered an adventure comic book, a knife, a vial of a soil sample, a compass, a baseball mitt, and a (maybe religious) book of laws. Alpert seems pleased when Locke chooses the vial and the compass, but when Locke chooses the knife, he believes Locke has failed and cuts the interview short.

Little John DREW the smoke monster as a kid. Richard recognizes it in the drawing. Did Locke inadvertently CREATE it?

Special abilities/gifts...

1. Hurley. Interacts with his dead friends in his waking life. They give him advice and help. He once told Locke that he believed that he and Locke were the only ones who could see the cabin cuz they were the craziest. When Charlie shows up at Santa Rosa, one of the other patients points him out. Communion w the Island does seem to involve or resemble a kind of craziness. In the institution, he was befriended by a snarky guy named Dave. This is the same hospital where Libby was for some time. Her husband, the man who bought her the boat that she ends up giving to Desmond, the Elizabeth, his name is David. Could Hurley have somehow "tuned in" to Libby's proximate madness and brought David/Dave to imaginary life?

2. Ben. He's a kind of manipulating social Karnak the Eternal. He can quickly suss out the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in others and turn almost any situation to his advantage. Also, as a child, he demonstrated the ability to interact with the dead (his mother) while on the Island. When Alpert encounters him as a child, he's impressed first that he's heard from his dead mother, but even more impressed when he finds out that his mother never set foot on the Island.

That's all I've got for now. Stupid show.

=)

Keep on keepin on~

Sunday, January 25, 2009

some LOST pieces...

Reviewing some LOST puzzle pieces in no particular order...

Desmond's "chief" Brother has a photo on his desk of himself with the pawn shop Watcher lady. Maybe she works upstairs at the monastery?

Claire seems to have joined her father as an Island insider. However, is she a living or undead Claire? I could've sworn she was killed (in New Otherton?). Her body disappeared, but was it under her own power, or the Island's? And if it IS still her, what happened to her that changed her so that she's so comfortable hanging around w her undead father?

The Hostiles, the original Hostiles, were on the Island before Dharma. They enjoyed the benefits of the Island without all the scientific muckymuck that Dharma built and began and Ben adopted after the purge. The Hostiles are naturally not a technology-loving people. Jacob is apparently the same way. Locke calls Ben's Others "cheaters" for having electricity and appliances and running water.

Visits/visitors to the Island...
1. The Black Rock
2. Dharma initiative
3. Rousseau's research ship (a bit over 16 years ago, and must have been AFTER the Hostile purge, as Ben adopted the abducted baby Alex—does that make sense?)
4. The Nigerian beechcraft plane (we see it during the time-skip, which would account for the geographical/distance challenge)
5. Desmond's boat
6. Oceanic 815 (thanks to Desmond and the Swan)
7. Henry's balloon (sucked into the snowglobe with 815?)
8. Widmore's freighter

Where did the first Hostiles come from? Are there any true Island *natives?*

Doesn't it make sense that the Hostiles didn't use conventional modern technology or recruit new Hostiles, until after the Purge, when Ben took leadership? Only after they took over Dharma's resources did they get access to the sub and the communication capabilities of the Flame and the Looking Glass. And in that time, Ben spread the Hostiles' reach out into the real world, apparently stationing Hostiles in mundane lives and jobs as pseudo sleeper agents, as well as maintaining the facade of the Dharma Initiative to recruit newbies.

Does the real Dharma Initiative not know that there was a purge?

Is there enough time for Kelvin to have finished his tour in Iraq, join Dharma, and start his Swan shift, before the Purge? Could he have begun AFTER the Purge, answering "smells like carrots" to one of the button-pushers before him? How long was a button-pushers shift, as prescribed by Dharma, anyhow?

The show still hasn't accounted for a patch of "lost time" in Desmond's past that happens between his bailing on his first fiance and getting the call to join the monastery. I want to believe that hits blackout was more and better than just the result of a pre-wedding-cold-feet-fueled bender, y'know? And it would be a perfect time for his future self to muck with his younger self, cuz when he wakes on the street or whatever, a monk helps him up. This leads to him joining the monastery, which leads to him "failing out" of the monastery, and then meeting the love his life, Penny Widmore. Kind of an important introduction, no?

In Desmond's hatch time-jump, he tells his story, which would logically include time travel, his shipwreck on the Island, the hatch, and the fate of Oceanic 815, to his academic/physicist buddy. He tells him this story in the past. So, that physicist buddy, and mutual friend of Penny's, is walking around w that information from that day thru to the present. Which to my mind means that if Penny were to mount a search for her missing-at-sea Desmond, this physicist buddy would step up and provide her with everything he could remember about their conversation.

In Desmond's freighter time-jump, he meets Faraday at Oxford, and tells him his story, but given the sporadic jumps, with much less detail about things like the hatch and other survivors. But Faraday would know and remember his name, right? And pay attention when he hears that this guy was lost at sea in a round-the-world boat race, right?

Of course, due to his own messing about in the timestream Faraday suffers from some missing time of his own. So, he apparently doesn't actively/consciously remember Desmond for years before meeting him again on the Island. Lucky for him, tho, his notes don't seem to be as easy for the universe to wipe away as his memories.

That's a little maddening. The idea that the universe (and the writers), in its interpretation of "course correction," might be allowed to give people a "selective" memory when it comes to interacting with time travellers. Which would explain how Charlie doesn't remember Desmond accosting him during his busking session on that rainy day he was called a hero. Of course, that works on a couple of levels. As a busker, he might honestly not remember another insistent wacko he meets on the street. Also, the universe might have put him in a place to save that woman (Sayid's love?) from a mugger, just so that encounter Desmond would not have been the most important thing to happen to him that day.

A couple of Others have demonstrated unique gifts or abilities...

1. Alpert doesn't age.

2. Mikhail seems able to recover from the direst of injuries. He survived the "non-lethal" setting of the sonic fence. He took a crossbow arrow well enough, and also survived a close-proximity underwater grenade detonation.

3. ?

Alpert seems like a genuine native, or at least a very early (accidental?) immigrant. Mikhail seems like he might be a Ben-era recruit.

Ben claims that he's the only survivor of the Hostile/Dharma purge. Technically, tho, Kelvin and maybe Raszinsky, down in The Swan, survived as well. Could there be any others in some hermetically sealed corner of the Island?

The Swan went into lockdown once since the crash, and a plane managed to drop a pallet of Dharma supplies. The implosion is probably responsible for ending that practice for a number of reasons, but that means that there's still some aspect of Dharma still in operation out in the real world.

Desmond told Charlie that if he pushed that button, Claire and Aaron would get on a helicopter and off the Island. Did Charlie do it wrong or different? Did Desmond change something that changed that outcome? Or... was that vision of a farther off future? That takes place after the Six return to the Island and the survivors are rescued all together, without any lies? Of course, that means that the Aaron that gets on the helicopter is a three year old boy, right? OR... Once the Six get back to the Island, they FIX things so that the last three years never happened, and maybe the plane never crashes, and Claire getting on a helicopter with baby Aaron happens in LA, and she's on her way to being (re)united with her half-brother Dr. Jack.

Or something.

At the meta level, LOST loves introducing new mystery blonds. Women with long blond hair, usually tall, too, I think. They appear, unidentified, and then can be "filled in" later with details, y'know? Like when Jack's dad goes on his bender in Australia and attempts to home-invade Claire's place. The woman at the door there, mystery blond (at least so far as we could tell, right?). Claire's mom? Claire's aunt? And hey, how about the introduction of Juliet, another mystery blond. And why does Ben seem to be so smitten with her? Because she resembles another mystery blond, Ben's dead mother. And why does Ben choose to use Juliet to soften Jack up when he needs his spinal surgical help? Because she resembles another mystery blond, Jack's ex-wife. Ultimate mystery blond? How about Penny Widmore?

Not at all plot-relevant, but in my head, Desmond and Penny seem like an alternate universe version of Jack and his ex.

Sun and Jin were on the plane because Sun's father was going to "release" Jin after he delivered a watch to an LA business partner or colleague.
Jack was on the plane to deliver his dead father, Christian, back to LA.

Claire was on the plane to go to LA to have her baby and hand it over to the adopting couple.

Anna Lucia was on the plane because she'd quit playing bodyguard to Christian Shepard in Sydney.

Eko was on the plane leaving Australia after investigating a supposed miracle, the resurrection of a young girl after death by drowning. The young girl happened to be the daughter of the fortune teller that Claire visited, the one who arranged for her child to be adopted by a couple in LA. That young girl also had a message for Eko from his dead brother, whose body was deposited on the Island years ago in the crashed beechcraft from Nigeria.

Wack.

Why were Sawyer and Kate smashing those rocks?

More, no doubt, as the season goes on...

Keep on keepin on~

Saturday, January 24, 2009

LOST: Lies are bad.

Part 2 of my minute-by-minute-ish experience of the LOST season 5 premiere...

On board the Searcher, Penny Widmore's ship, sometime after the Oceanic 6 were picked up and before they were "discovered." The six are having a discussion and vote about whether they should lie about what happened to them. This is a really good conversation to let us in on, cuz it shows that they're not all so willing to join in the Big Lie, particularly Hurley. Lapidus says he'll go along with whatever they decide. Good ol' Lapidus.

Hurley wants to tell the truth. A couple of the others insist that they will lie, and his truth will sound crazy. Hurley looks to Sayid to back him up, but Sayid tells him he'll tell the lie with the others. Then Hurley says the most un-Hurley thing I've ever heard from him...

"Someday you're gonna need my help, and I'm telling you right now, you're not getting it."

It sounds ominous, but he can't possibly mean it, can he?

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Hurley is wanted for three murders that the tranqilized Sayid is actually responsible for. He's driving around w the unconscious Sayid beside him and he gets pulled over by a cop. This seems like a moment for a visit from a dead friend, donchathink?

Anna Lucia! =)

She's giving him the benefit of her know-how...

"What if I were real?"

Ha! Awesome!

Sad, but here, in this episode, she looks better undead than she did alive.

This might be Hurley's "power." Access, uncontrolled, but timely, to the experience, direction, and advice of his dead Island friends. Maybe his pre-Island imaginary friend Dave is more than an imaginary friend? I usedta think that Dave might have been Libby's husband, but I haven't seen anything since the Dave episode to support that. Maybe Dave was Libby's imaginary husband...? Nah.

"Oh yeah, Libby says 'hi.'"

Awwww...

Whilemean, back on the Island, Faraday rejoins the time-skipping Losties on the beach.

Sawyer: Welcome back, Doctor Wizard.
Miles: I think it's *Mister* Wizard.
Sawyer: Shut up.

Sawyer continues to rock.

Miles takes off, telling everyone that he's going to find them something to eat. Dead people will tell him where to find food? Could dead people tell him when he is?

Back to Hurley, in WEEKEND AT SAYID'S. (I actually thought we'd be seeing something more like WEEKEND AT LOCKE'S. =) He's taking Anna Lucia's advice and stopping for supplies. He's gotta dress up the still unconscious Sayid, tho. Ha! The sunglasses! =)

In the Kwik-E-Mart he picks out a T-shirt... "I [heart] my Shih-tzu" =)

Cut to Aaron and Kate.

Aaron: Mommy, I wanna go home.

I wonder where Aaron means when he says that.

Hrmm... Ben told Jack that he'd help him to convince the other Oceanic 6 to join them. Did Ben send those lawyers (or "lawyers") to spook Kate into running?

Who could be calling Kate? Someone visiting LA... We saw Sun being delayed by Widmore earlier... How about Sawyer's old girl? Clementine's mom? No, that was New Mexico, wasn't it?

Is Locke not really dead? Is he Medusa Spider bitten?

Ah... Papa Cheech! Sitting down to lunch in front of the TV. And hey, what's on the tube? EXPOSE! Barbie's (of Island Barbie and Ken, aka whatzherhead and Paolo, the buried alive LOST Rosencrantz and Gildenstern) TV show, in which she guested opposite Lando Calrissian! =)

Hurley tries to explain the situation to his pop and Cheech tells him they've gotta take Sayid to the hospital. Hurley *knows* they can't do that...

Hurley: Like in THE GODFATHER. The hospital. It's the last place you go, and everybody knows it.

He's right, of course.

Back to Aaron and Kate, going to meet Kate's friend.

Aaron: Can I press the button?

A reference to the saving-the-world hatch? Just for the heckuvit?

Hey, look everybody, it's Sun! Yay!

Meanwhile, Ben's looking for a place to keep Locke's body. It's gotta make the trip back to the Island with the six and can't be left sitting out, donchaknow. So, where do you take a body to be preserved, off the radar? Why, you take it to your friendly neighborhood Hostile butcher-agent! In her short conversation w Ben, the butcherette mentions other Others, but the only name I caught was Gabriel. Do we know Gabriel?

A thought about the six (and those left behind)... Maybe they have to be on the Island in the past, in the Island's history, to witness, or participate, in the creation of the Island, or some aspect of it. A little MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW, y'know? Regardless, the six hafta get back on the Island and it's popping in and out of existence in their present day flow of time. So, someone has to know or figure out when the Island will be accessible as part of present-day reality in the near future. Faraday? Locke? Maybe in a time skip forward on the Island, Locke witnesses the six (and his pseudo-dead body?) returning, and learns the date. Then he gets carried to other times, and eventually to a time when he can leave the Island and then go all Jeremy Bentham on the six in the real world.

Maybe.

Whilemean, back on the beach, frogurt's being a whiny frickin bitch. Man, they gotta Arzt frogurt boy...

Yay! ARROWED!

Wow. So many arrowed! =)

Back to Kate and Sun.

Sun: They just want Aaron.

A guess? No... Sun knows something about Aaron, or his significance to the Island and/or the likes of Widmore. Interrresting... Did we see Sun LEAVE that room Widmore met her in? Or did we just see the start of a conversation that might have included info about Aaron...?

Sun: We probably all would have died... instead of *just* my husband...

Yowch. Sun's gone dark. Or at least she's playing it that way, and very well. This was something I was afraid of. That she would team up w Widmore to go after people who were directly responsible for getting Jin onto the Widmore freighter and then leaving him on it while the helicopter took off. I vaguely thought it was Desmond who left Jin last, but it turns out it was Kate, but that Kate left him because Jack convinced her to, which, if to dark Sun, would mark Jack as a target of her wrath.

Sun: I don't blame you. So... How's Jack?

But, Sun told Widmore they have common interests. Is Jack really a common interest/target of Charles Widmore? Maybe due to cabal/cartel business? I feel like there's definitely some generational stuff going on here. Potential passing-of-the-torch and/or sins-of-the-father kinda action. With the first generation including the likes of Widmore, Paik, and Shepard, and the second generation counting Penny (and Desmond), Sun, Jack, and Claire. And even further, a third generation of Ji-Yeon and Aaron.

Hopefully, Sun's playing at this to get in w Widmore. Friends close, enemies closer, donchaknow. Or maybe it's fer real, and ghost Jin on the Island will turn her around? Or maybe Ji-Yeon?

Hey, what about Walt? And Mr. Oceanic X?

When Mama Reyes shows up, Hurley finally gives in and the truth comes tumbling out. A pretty good recap, in Hurleyspeak, y'know?

Hurley: We did crash, but it was on this crazy island... I was never really clear on that... The Others didn't have anything to do with the hatch, it was the Dharmans...
Moms Reyes: I believe you. I don't understand you, but I believe you.

Whilemean, back on the Island, Sawyer and Juliet run into some new meanies. The arrows came when there was no camp on the beach, so, it's before the 815 crash.

Soldierguy: What are you doing on our island?

Some kind of accent. British? World War 2? Pacific theater? Hanzo? Hanzo apparently made his money as an arms developer, right? He'd have ties to the military. The Allies, and maybe the Axis, too, could've accidentally discovered a way onto and off the Island and passed the info on and up to Hanzo, who would eventually fund Dharma to research/exploit the Island's resources.

But, WTF? What kind of Allied soldiers START with hand-chopping? Maybe they've been on the Island for a while already and have had to begin using savage measures to fight off the Hostiles? Altho, that kid's uniform looks pretty frickin clean for having been in the jungle for more than a day, no? The guns seem old, but guns' designs are pretty timeless, right? Hrmmm...

Back to Hurley.

Ben: Hello, Hugo.

Hugo chucks his Hot Pocket at him! Awesome. =)

Awww... Hugo takes Sayid's advice, to always do the opposite of what Ben wants, and he's real pleased with himself for getting himself arrested. Pretty cagey strategery, if misguided. : (

Still, that's Hugo Hurley defeating Ben Linus right there, that is! =)

Check out the old lady working at the chalkboard and w the computer and the crazy pendulum. Guess we know who might know where and when the Island will resync with reality. Faraday's mom at Oxford?

Whoa. But now she's in chapel-like space lighting candles w Ben? So... Not Oxford, but LA? But... there's no telling when Desmond set course for Oxford. That could've been years earlier, which would allow him to have met Mama Faraday, Mama Faraday to get in touch w Ben (or vice versa), and them to set up shop in LA. So, yeah, I think it's Mama Faraday.

And looky who she is! Future-telling pawn shop lady! The one Desmond meets in London (so we know she's been/based in England, right?) and explains cosmic course correcting!

Damnit, this show makes me giggle. =)

Keep on keepin on~

Thursday, January 22, 2009

LOST: When are we?

Going thru tonight's (AWESOME) episode "chronologically" as best I can...

Begins with a flashback to the Dharma barracks (not New Otherton yet), and... who could it be, but... Mr. AKA Candle (AKA cuz he's taken different names in different orientation films)! And, whaddyaknow? He's shooting an orientation film! For station 2, the Arrow. That's the one that the Tailies took over, right? We never saw a film for that one, did we?

Dharma is constructing the Orchid station, the one with the time machine that's built next to the chamber/deposit/whatever of negatively charged exotic particles. Which happens to have a "donkey wheel" (thanks, Ellie =) that can apparently "move the Island." Anyhow, a worker have accidentally drilled into that deposit and was rewarded with, what? His hand being burnt? I kinda missed the details on that.

But, hey, who's that among the Dharma minions? Daniel Faraday! Only... How old would he have been then?

Okay, now we get to see Ben moving the Island from the POVs of people still on the Island. After the flash, Locke remains, but the Richard and the Others/Hostiles have disappeared, the Losties remain, but their camp is gone. Juliet remains as well. Faraday and the last load on the Zodiac were "within the radius," so they're still around, too. And what's going on? Why, time travel, of course!

Ben did say that moving the Island was a last resort, but he didn't mention that it would be an uncontrollable process. That kinda sucks. But, since he knows that it's do-able, doesn't that mean that it's been done before? When? By whom? I thought that the timing and geography of the Nigerian plane crash was a clue to a previous Island move. (But it turns out that it's part of THIS Island move... Pretty ingenious.)

Charlotte seems to have a clue about a previous move as well. At least, if you put together that Tunisia is where the Island discards those who turn the moving wheel (that's where Ben is deposited after moving the Island), and that's where Charlotte discovered the remains of a Dharma-tagged polar bear, and Miles has heard, apparently from Island ghosts, that Charlotte has been on the Island before.

OK, back to "present day." Ah... lawyers show up requesting a DNA test for Kate and Aaron to test maternity. Not often you hear "maternity test," eh? I'm happy to see the lawyers, tho. It fits in with my notion that for any mastermind, or cabal, or cartel, or whatever, to successfully manipulate so many people's lives across the globe (and across time, instructions left w law firms can outlive generations), you want to have a really old and established law firm at your disposal, and I'm pretty certain that we'll find that a single law firm has helped influence and facilitate important turning points in our Losties' lives... Claire's LA adoption arrangements, Walt's custody, Kate's "present day" defense (thx J), maybe even Jack's divorce and Hurley's estate. I remember seeing the same conference room architecture in meetings involving Claire's adoption plans and Walt's custody battle. Not sure if those meetings happened in different locations (Australia and LA?), but I don't think it's a coincidence.

Aww, Sawyer... When Juliet asks why he jumped out of the helicopter...

"Wanted to make sure she— wanted to make sure they got back to the boat..."

But y'know, can't have a vulnerable moment without a good bit of smack, right? So when Charlotte steps up when Sawyer smacks Faraday, he gives her...

"Shut it, Ginger, or you're getting one, too!"

Ha! Double points for that one in my book, cuz, GILLIGAN'S ISLAND Ginger, and, hey, red-haired girl, ginger! I really disliked her last season, but this season, knowing that Faraday's crushing on her, I'm already feeling a little less hateful.

Interesting that only the Losties, AND Juliet, are getting to ride the record skips. Those people, along with the clothes they were wearing and items they were using at the moment of the first skip—convenient mojo—and the Island itself, maintain their temporal frame of reference while jumping to different times on the Island.

I *think* Faraday says the Island is jumping, too. I hafta believe that's the case, tho, cuz the Island did, in fact, disappear when Ben turned the wheel. So now the Island, and the displaced Losties, are like that ghost city or something? The one that only appears once every hundred years? Is that from an old Gaelic/Celtic legend? Frack. I can't remember. Also, a ghost pirate ship, right? Frack. Can't remember the name of that, either. It's, like, a ride at Disney, isn't it? Nuts.

Anyhow... Back to Locke, who's trying to get his bearings. And hey! Wow! The Nigerian heroin and priest party plane! So his vision could've actually been sort of a Desmondian flash-forward. I wonder if there's anything he can retrieve from the plane that will help him right then, in the past. Or... anything he can LEAVE in the plane that he can pick up later, in the present or future...?

Locke tries to climb up to the plane. Someone starts taking shots at him, puts one in his leg, and down he goes! Who could be shooting? Could be anyone...

Ethan!

And what does he tell Ethan? He tells him that Ben Linus has named him his successor as leader of the Others/Hostiles. And before he can really explain any more, and before Ethan can put another bullet in him, he's time-skipped away.

Very interesting, that little exchange, tho. If you were Ethan, what would you do? You discover a guy at the crash site of a plane. He tells you that he's your leader, appointed by your current leader, and then disappears. I think I'd check out the wreck, make sure everyone on it is dead, do a bit of inventory, and then head back to Other Village and report. I'd tell Ben what this John Locke said, and then Ben would tell me to forget it, he understood what happened and would take care of it when the time came.

From Ben's POV, this would be a mean kick in the head. He knows that he's going to hafta hand over leadership to this John Locke character, which means that at some point in the future (from the time of the Nigerian plane crash) Jacob and the Island would find him to be lacking, and cause Locke to be named the new leader of the Island's people, the new speaker for the Island. And no doubt, he would resent it to the nth degree. And whenever he finally encounters his successor, he would do his best to make things hellish for him.

One of the last things Ben says to Locke, before going into the "donkey wheel" chamber, is something like, "I'm sorry for making your life so miserable." Perfect, no?

Back in the real world. Hurley's wanted for killing some guy outside his institution, who was actually wacked by Sayid, cuz the guy was armed and likely there to watch and kill Hurley. On the run, Hurley has them stop to get some chicken, cuz he loves chicken! =)

"Maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn't have to go around shooting people."

Sayid takes Hurley back to a safe house that's not all that safe. I'm not exactly sure what it is he checks (tape or a cover to some wire? has power or phone to his room been cut there?) but Sayid figures out it's a trap and goes all special forces on the two guys waiting for them, taking a number of tranq darts in the process. One guy goes over the rail. The other guy—dishwasher knives! Awesome! =)

And now *cellphone camera shutter click* Hurley is wanted for three murders! Ha!

Back on the Island, when everyone is skipped to a time after the hatch imploded, Sawyer and Juliet consider taking advantage of possibly jumping into the recent past to warn their friends not to get on the helicopter.

"That's not the way it works. You cannot change anything. Even if you try to, it wouldn't work..."

Faraday gives his class a metaphor for the rules about time travel. Basically, time is like a string, and you can jump to any point along it, but you can't ever create a new string by changing anything. Everything that happens is/was/will have been meant to happen.

That's what I hate most about time travel... verb tense. Blerg.

This seems consistent with everything we've seen so far (despite some annoying details), and I hope that he speaks for the writers. That, combined with the explanation of fate and causality provided by the pawn shop Watcher we met in Desmond's jump-back (the pawn shop lady refuses to sell Desmond his engagement ring), explains how the Losties can/can't change events at any point in time.

Faraday reveals that he has detailed notes on Dharma's activities and capabilities on the Island, apparently from first-hand experience. Now, I'm wondering when that Faraday we saw at the beginning of the show is from... Was that a young Faraday (probably very young, to be at the construction of a station), or a time-skipping "present day" Faraday...? BUT, he has that journal with him on preeent day... So, a slightly younger version of him that time-slipped on his own...?

Nah, that's probably too twisted. Assuming that it IS his younger self that we see during the construction of the Orchid station, that means he infiltrated or worked with Dharma, that he might have even been there when Roger Linus and Ben Linus showed up to join the Initiative...

Frack. I dunno if that works out. Maybe a time travelling Faraday in the Dharma Initiative is not so twisted after all. I'll hafta watch again and pay more attention to how old he looks in that scene.

Meanwhile, "now," Locke is bumped to a time after the plane has fallen (and been burned?). Richard Alpert shows up, expecting him, and his wounded leg. Hrmm... this could be before Locke's told to kill his father. I wonder if Alpert makes any reference to meeting Locke before that time, or maybe walks off on his own with a medical pack...? Dammit. Will hafta go back and watch the old eps.

Richard is forever young, remember, so you wouldn't know what year it was by looking at him. Ha! Richard talks about Locke telling him about this situation in his own past and Locke's future. That's some time travel fun, right there. BILL & TED style fun. =)

Richard gives John a compass. Apparently it'll mean something to the younger Richard when Locke produces it. But... geez, if it's because it's Alpert's favorite compass from when he was a little immortal kid, that means there will be TWO compasses. OR... if Locke materializes next to Richard in the past in a situation where they need a compass to survive, Locke can produce it and tell him that Alpert's future self told him they'd need it. And then Locke would give that very compass to the younger Alpert who would hold onto it for so many years until he grew into the older Alpert who would show up and dress Locke's bullet wound and give him the compass to give to his younger self. Fun w paradox! An infinite loop compass. Wheee!~

Eh, what's safest is for younger Alpert to have a compass, then Locke produces the same compass to prove his story, and then The one that Locke has gets destroyed.

Or, actually, maybe he needs the compass for himself. Cuz Locke eventually gets off the Island and back to the real world as Jeremy Bentham. So, he must get bumped to a time when there are vehicles available on the Island, and now that he knows the magic compass bearing, he can safely navigate out of the snowglobe. I wonder if he has to go back during a time that precedes the 815 crash. Sets up a life in the real world that is just about waiting and waiting til the Oceanic 6 arrive and then become reachable. Sounds like he visited everyone over a span of time, and it seems like months, or even years, might've passed between him visiting Jack and Jack seeing his obituary and looking up his funeral.

And, in the next flash, John is sent back in time to when the Nigerian plane is still up on the cliff. Is it still actually smoking from the crash? Just after Ethan's left the area?

Throughout the episode, I'm hoping that a time jump happens that will allow the Losties to witness themselves. Like, maybe Sawyer gets to actually see Jack and Kate literally "caught in a net," or maybe Locke gets to see Eko face down the smoke monster, fun stuff like that.

Also, would be happy to see the smoke monster at all, and OK, maybe a hot young crazy Rousseau.

Say, Rousseau's not an Other or an Island native. Is she getting pushed around in time as well?

Meanwhile, Faraday and company experience the skip as well, and find themselves in a time when the hatch was still intact, before Locke discovers/uncovers it. Sawyer gets the most excellent idea to go knock on the front door/hidden entrance, and grab some supplies. Faraday's telling Sawyer it's impossible to change anything. Sawyer doesn't care, he's banging on the hatch doors. Faraday insists that he never met Desmond before the crash, so they can't meet now...

I think that's kinda bullstuff myself. As Desmond has experience, you can interact with people, but the universe will find a way to smooth out the ripples. But... maybe that's not even a factor, cuz, just how far back in time is this? Maybe it'll be pre-skullcracked Kelvin or pre-shotgunned Raszinsky who answers the door, right?

But alas, no. No one answers. And the field trip stomps off toward the beach. Just cuz. Faraday stops Charlotte for a second when he notices that her nose is bleeding. She says it's nothing and moves on. Faraday, however, recognizes it as a side effect of time jump madness, which left un-treated results in brain burnout. Charlotte is gonna need a constant to anchor her. Faraday lingers, consults his journal, apparently finds something, and begins banging on the hatch doors alone.

Yay! Desmondo!

"Do I know you?" Like when he met/meets Jack! =)

Apparently, Desmond is a wild card time travel-wise. His hatch implosion experience makes him an anomaly who is apparently allowed to remember and interact with people in time jumps forward and back, altho there's apparently some universe-smoothing memory blockage/time-release involved.

In the past, Faraday tells Desmond that he has to go (return) to Oxford and seek out his mother. Before we can hear her name, he's taken away in another flash.

Cut to, Desmond, beside his Penny, waking up from a memory-dream of his conversation with Faraday. He gets up and sets course for Oxford...

(Did I mention... Yay! =)

Blerg. That only gets me thru half of the two hour premiere. I've gotta figure out a better way to go thru this stuff. I'll try and cover the second half tomorrow evening.

All in all, AWESOME! I love me some good time travel fun. If you do, too, I hafta push an upcoming Brattle screening at you—TIME CRIMES. It played at the IFFB last year—a small, clever, crafty story about an average fellow, who, when attempting to evade a masked stalker, accidentally travels thru time—it's a lot of fun to watch. Full of surprises that aren't really surprises. Gotta love time travel, donchaknow. =)

Keep on keepin on~

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

some LOST thoughts

A couple of last minute percolating thoughts on the cusp of LOST season 5...

I think the polar bears were being trained to operate the "donkey wheel" in the cold room. Charlotte Lewis found the polar bear in the same place that Ben appears after turning the wheel, Tunisia.

I hope that Sun isn't genuinely interested in teaming up with Widmore to hunt down someone else who's responsible for Jin's death. Cuz that COULD be Desmond. And I really like Desmond.

Keep on keepin on~