LOST: more on "Happily Ever After"

6.11: "Happily Ever After"

High points and bits of theory from this week's episode of Desmond Fever...

WIDMORE: I brought you back to the Island. I can't imagine how you must be feeling. But if you'll give me a chance to explain—

I love that Desmond takes a couple of seconds to let those first few words sink in and then, automatically, instinctively, he begins whaling on Charles with his IV stand— *love* that!

And once Desmond's subdued by Widmore's AIM agents...

WIDMORE: I can't take you back. The Island isn't done with you yet...

In previous posts, I riffed on that second sentence, but neglected the first. Did anyone else feel something... final, perhaps, about the way Charles delivers that? Almost as if its meaning isn't necessarily connected or relevant to the following statement? To me, it sounds like Charles may know that the reality outside of the showglobe is, at that moment, in flux, or perhaps, Wrong, aka LOST2.

In Widmore's office, we see a painting on the wall featuring a scale. In one pan, a black something or other, in the other, a white, a still life we've seen before, in the cliffside cave.

I like that Charlie feels the need to enlighten Desmond on just what consciousness-altering love looks like, but in fact, only hours earlier, Desmond spoke to this vision of love that Charlie speaks of. Classic LOST-ness, of course.

A few seconds before Charlie gives Desmond the choice of seeing what he's talking about or getting out of the car, they pass the marina, and the camera lingers for a moment after their car passes. I think this is the marina, and the view of it, that Desmond and Penny choose for their backdrop in the photo they took way back when in London. The photo that Desmond keeps with him on the Island. The photo found on Naomi when she parachutes in.

And I really like the way Charlie phrases his ultimatum to Desmond...

CHARLIE: I feel sorry for you, mate. [Desmond chuckles.] You think you're happy. You think you've got it all--this, your life. But, you don't.
DESMOND: Why, because none of it's real?
CHARLIE: All right, Mr. Hume. How about I offer you a choice?
DESMOND: What's that?
CHARLIE: I can either show you what I'm talking about, or you can get out of the car.
DESMOND: Why in God's name would I want to get out of the car?

Gotta say, I've never been happy with Charlie's death. It was, y'know, heroic, and undeniably heart-punching, but it was also just so frickin needless. He could've gotten outside the comm room and he and Des could've sealed it from outside. Or, once the room flooded, I think he could've wriggled out the porthole and floated up thru Mikhail's guts to the surface.

BTW, I'm really hoping we'll see a really messed-up-lookin regenerated Mikhail show up in the 11th hour. Hrmmm... whose side would he be on, eh?

Anyhow, despite my problems with Charlie's death, I hafta say, the car crash (no airbag deployment?) into the water triggering Desmond's flashovers to Charlie's last moments... that was Good. I mean, really button-pushing, powerful, moving. So much of this episode is great payoff on so many things that have come before it.

Desmond rules. =)

I wonder how many more times Jack will get to ask, "Wait, he was on our plane, and now he's here in the hospital?" That is, how many more fellow passengers will end up at St. Sebatian's. Would be fun for that fact to clue Jack in to fate, purpose, and destiny regarding the Losties in LOST2.

When Desmond lets Charlie leave from the hospital (after he tells Des he should be looking for Penny), where exactly do we think Charlie goes?

Eloise's double-brooch — two stars, one larger than the other.

Penny Milton. Have we ever met a Milton in LOST-dom? I'm thinking not, as the name would've sparked all manner of riffing on John Milton's PARADISE LOST and PARADISE REGAINED, which, of course, it sparks now. =)

I like Daniel's Michael Jackson hat.

I like how Eloise takes Desmond aside to straighten him out, as she did when Desmond bought the engagement ring at her pawn shop in LOST1. She refers to his behavior, his way of looking at/for things, as a "violation." How does Eloise get to know these things in LOST2? Her ability? Daniel's LOST1 journal? Is she in on the Rules, aware of a/the "reason" behind the existence of LOST2?

What does she mean when she says that Desmond is not ready? Is Desmond fated to meet Penny in LOST2 as well, just not as soon as this? Why would Desmond meeting Penny Milton later be "better?"

Interesting that it seems like Eloise has been granted backstage access, but not Charles. He seems to be dealing with everything and everyone on a surface level, workaday, matter-of-factly, concerned with his wife's fundraiser, his son's kooky musician, and Desmond getting the job done.

I dig Desmond's enlightened demeanor upon his return from LOST2. Tina is sharp enough to question his change in attitude, but Desmond doesn't offer any details, letting her believe that the super-sized electromagnets fried his brain good. I also dig how he rolls with Sayid's "rescue," too. I wonder how Desmond will react to and interact with undead Locke (Desmond wouldn't know or care that Locke died, right?), Sawyer, and Kate, assuming Sayid gets him safely back to Camp Esau.

I wonder what Ilana, Richard, and Ben would make of Des's presence on the Island, eh?

I love that Charlie and George play Desmond's guides on his LOST2 journey, tag-teaming Virgils in Desmond's INFERNO. That's more Charlie than George, really, I suppose. In any case, cool to have Desmond's adventure feature all of the LOST2ers who were spacetimey in LOST1. Timesick George. FINAL DESTINATION Charlie. Watcher Eloise. Time-maker Daniel. Constant Penny.

I really don't think it's important, but it would be a nice bonus if Desmond's pedigree was revealed as connected to the Island somehow. What my brain would be happy to discover is that Desmond is Jack's half-brother. =)

But, like I said, not important, not necessary. Cuz I also like that Desmond is NOT connected, except as Penny's star-crossed love and a thorn in Widmore's side. Fits and reinforces his true x-factor status.

FLASHBACK.

Ben is surprised to hear that there's a sailboat on the Island. That tells me that Ben's Others have no idea that Desmond is on the Island. They just know that there are supposed to be a couple of Dharma operatives in the Swan pushing the button, preventing EM events that suck more people into the snowglobe. Widmore knows Desmond's there, tho. Perhaps because he engineered his abduction by the Island, and definitely thanks to Eloise and their son's journal.

POSSIBLE ENDGAME...

This is a stretch, even for me. I make some wild LOST-science suppositions, inconsistent ones, too, if I think about it, but I like the crux of it, cuz it hinges on the notion that Esau's being "stuck" in Locke's form is a weakness to be exploited.

What if Locke was somehow revived? Maybe thru Jacobean Island magic, but maybe thru the injection of Locke2's life force from LOST2, part of the save-the-world operation that Desmond jump starts with the other 815ers. The life force and memories of the other LOST2ers would also be assimilated by the LOST1ers.

So, Locke is revived in his doppelganger body. What happens to Esau, who's "stuck" in Locke's form, a form he's allowed to assume because Locke's actual, deceased, body, is somewhere on the Island? My best science tells me that the vessel of Locke's form could only accommodate one sentience, so I think that such a scenario would short circuit the Monster, ejecting his consciousness from the Locke shell, possibly killing him, but maybe possibly* bumping him across realities to LOST2, where Locke2 would be dead, so his form could safely host the Monster. But, with Locke2 and the other Losties2 transmigrating, and likely dead, what's happening to LOST2 at that moment? Why, it's collapsing, blinking out of existence in favor of the "return" of LOST1, perhaps rewound three years. So, the Monster is beamed over to LOST2, where he's free from the Island, but trapped in a reality that's about to die. Win!

* Note that the Smoke Monster body would be trapped or separated from Esau in Locke's form, either by a body of water (if that's an actual restriction on the Monster) or a sonic barrier. This would prevent Esau from becoming the Monster once he's forced out of his Locke doppelganger.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: The Island isn't done with you yet...

6.11: "Happily Ever After"

For a while there, I thought Widmore was doing what I'd hoped he'd been scheming to do for decades—use Desmond as a way to change the past. I mean, that crazy Big Mac electromagnet chamber is built to induce and trigger an astral jump in Desmondo. If only there was a way to tune and guide a jump. But it's just as well that the cosmos decides where he goes... or where he will have gone. Gotta love conjugating for time travel!

WIDMORE: I know how this looks, Desmond. But if everything I've been told about you is true, you'll be perfectly fine.

WIDMORE: That man is the only person I'm aware of, in the world, who has survived a catastrophic electromagnetic event, I need to know that he can do it again, or we all die.

Alas, Widmore "only" needs Desmond because of his apparent resistance to massive EM forces. He doesn't seem to be aware of Desmond's abilities beyond that, that he can bounce his psyche across time (and, we discover, across realities). Interesting, tho, that his consciousness leaves his LOST1 body, but doesn't "drive" his LOST2 one the way it does in time jumps. But, he returns with the experience of Desmond2, his encounters with George, Charles, Charlie, Eloise, Daniel, and finally, Penny, in LOST2. What's more, Desmond2 has no idea that Desmond1 was riding shotgun with him. What's more what's more, Desmond experienced a subjective day in LOST2 in objective seconds in LOST1. As Eloise humorlessly, but dutifully cheekily says, "It's about time."

Altho I wrote "Jin + Desmond" in an earlier post, I realize now that I was trying to do the math of Jin x Desmond. What they get us (and get Widmore and Tina and the nerd commandos) as Jin PLUS Desmond is, in Jin, someone who can pinpoint the location of an important resource, tool, or weapon, something vital to the defeat of the Monster, that happens to generate, or be located in the heart of, a deadly EM field, and in Desmond, the one man who can survive retrieving or activating it.

WIDMORE: I hate to resort to forcing this upon you, Desmond. But once it's over I'm going to ask you to make a sacrifice. And I hope for all our sakes you'll help me.

So, Widmore intends to send agent Desmond into some kind of EM minefield on the Island to do or retrieve something. What would his sacrifice be? The most straightforward one would be his life, and he would no doubt gladly give it for Penny and Charlie. As far as Widmore knows, at least. The act of sacrifice might provide a loophole of an escape hatch, unknown to Widmore, via an ultimate form of Desmond's time-jumping ability. Remember the Vault? The chamber in the Orchid station next to the well down to the Wheel? What happened to that rabbit? It was (supposed to be, we never got to see it on the video) PHYSICALLY removed from reality in an instant, and then returned a short time later, right? I think that will be how Desmond gets an extra guy in this game. =)

DESMOND'S SACRIFICE...?

Widmore briefs our man Desmond on his part of the master plan. While one team assaults the shield generator on the surface, and another engages the new Death Star in orbit, Desmond will confront his father in a remote Island location...

Well, y'know, figuratively. But y'know, this being the finale of finales, perhaps not that figuratively. =) Anyhow, in this Island location, Desmond will have to flip some switches, push some stones, turn a Wheel, or do the Hokey Pokey. A location that happens to be soaking in EM that would fry any other human being (any?*), but thanks to his green Vulcan blood he—whoops, wrong universe—but with his Implosion-tested resistance, he does what he has to do, all the while watching as his life really and truly flashes before his eyes—or maybe, for drama's sake, he completes almost every part of his mission, leaving one last bit for someone else to heroically volunteer for—and ends up being consumed by the radiation, vanishing in a flash without a trace. Then follows a bunch of denoument, mourning, taking stock, the last dance, and everyone leaves the Island, some on the plane, others on the sub, except of course, for the new protector and Vincent who see them off, and...

Epilogue. One month later... The site of Desmond's disappearance. Wild energies arc and crackle and build up to a massive discharge. When the flash of white fades, Desmond stands. Maybe the protector is there, waiting. Hopefully, Desmond's clothes aren't all black.

=)

How can there be only six episodes (with a 2-hour finale, so 7 hours) left?!

TIME ZONES, LOVE, EITHER/OR REALITY...

I'm now thinking that there is no issue of "sync" or simultaneity as far as time and moments in time between LOST1 and LOST2, demonstrated by Desmond's experience of a Narnian time differential between realities. There is just connection, and perhaps instances, events, or portals of... convenience, or weakness in integrity, y'know? Near-death experience and reflections are natural meta/physical weak points allowing deja vu-like glimpses into LOST2. And, as corny as it sounds, love, aka the fifth element, is strong enough to bust through and deliver actual memories.

It totally sounds corny, but thru Desmond's story the show has made it not. That's a pretty amazing feat.

Given what I've just written above, here's a confusingly phrased question... WHEN does LOST2 unfold...? Assuming Desmond2 and all the other mark-twos get together on their end to collapse LOST2 and revive LOST1, does LOST2 really only live for the 27 years between 1977 and 2004 (or 30 years from 1977 to 2007, if it takes Des 3 years to collect everyone on the manifest)? I had a flash to the idea that that 27 (or 30) years happens in the duration of the Incident, in the instant or three that it takes for Sawyer and company to jump from 1977 to 2007.

I discard that particular notion because I like my inside/outside the snowglobe (LOST1 / LOST2) model of the LOST universe, and it still works for me.

What's currently outside the snowglobe? Jack saw his childhood home reflected in the Lighthouse mirror. There is A reality out there, off the Island, but which one? Widmore is certain that Penny and Charlie are somewhere safe, but impresses upon Desmond that in order to keep them safe, or even existent, he must help him.

WIDMORE: My son died here for the sake of this Island. Your wife, my own daughter, hates me... And I've never even met my grandson. But if you won't help me, Desmond, all of it will be for nothing. Penny, your son, and everyone else, will be gone forever.

Serious science nerds, please forgive my possibly playing fast and loose with terms and ideas, and bear with me while I try to spell this out... I think that reality outside the snowglobe is currently like Schroedinger's cat in the box. It exists in a probabilistic state, a question mark that will resolve to LOST1 or LOST2 once the Losties on the Island can observe and/or return to it, once everything that's gonna happen happens.

I have a suspicion that the LOST1 Good Guys will tragically fail within LOST1, but, thru Desmond's action/intervention in LOST2, the LOST2ers will save the day. So, Esau's victory actually plants the seeds of his retroactive defeat. Crazy? Perhaps, but hey, it's LOST. =)

*DESMOND UNDERSTUDIES...?

Who has survived close proximity to a catastrophic electromagnetic event? Maybe one of these Losties can help Desmond do what needs to be done within a deadly EM field.

Hatch Implosion:
Desmond
Locke
Charlie
Eko

Wheel turns:
Ben
Locke

Time skips:
Locke
Sawyer
Juliet
Faraday
Charlotte
Miles
Jin
Rose
Bernard

Ajira 316 Flash to 1977:
Jack
Kate
Hurley
Sayid

The Incident:
Juliet! She visits LOST2 for a short/long visit like Desmond!
Jack
Sawyer
Kate
Hurley
Sayid
Jin
Miles

GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER...

If Helen and John's wedding is the big meetup, perhaps the ceremony takes place at the chapel above the Lamppost in L.A. Remember, the Lamppost was built above a pocket of exotic energy, too, and all such pockets are connected. The heart of the Lamppost could be a less potent version of the power sources of the Swan and the Orchid on the Island and I propose that its energies could be harnessed or discharged to collapse the new, alternate reality.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: The Island isn't finished with you yet...

6.11: "Happily Ever After"

For more theoretical riffing on "Happily Ever After," check out the follow-up post.

I LOVE tonight's episode! How dare they finish this up in 7(?) episodes?! All about Desmond. I've said it before and I say it again, it can be all about Desmond and I will be VERY happy! Just like I hoped, he's gonna do it—he's gonna round everyone up and show them and they will have to figure out what to do about it. How will the truth divide them? It's not necessarily a better world for everyone. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Locke, and Ben have certain things better, and Eloise gets to keep her son, but Charlie, Daniel, Desmond... They've all survived electromagnetic events, some better than others, and love they didn't know they lost touches each of them from another reality. Even timesick-in-LOST1 George Minkowsky is kind of tuned in from LOST2.

How will Desmond get everyone together? Using his pull as Widmore's main man? Will Eloise fight him on it? When does LOST2 happen? Could it be in the instant of the Incident? A whole universe in an instant—why not? But that doesn't quite jive with Juliet's vision. Maybe I'm still good with LOST1 inside the snowglobe and LOST2 outside. And if everything goes well, the Losties on the Island who can leave the Island will return to the world they came from.

Desmond is Waverider! =)

Or... can they consciously fix things? Keep or bring back or protect those who died in the first iteration, like Charlotte and Daniel, like Anna Lucia and Libby, like Michael...? Maybe the endgame win for the good guys will result in a retroactive rescue from the Island before the freighter ever shows...?

I just watched the episode after the late shift at league volleyball, so I'm still a bit overtiredly high on it. Gotta settle and let it percolate.

It really is a classic Cosmic Cube-ical scenario and I LOVE seeing it happen with these characters! =)

Man, I'm gonna miss this show hard...

*sigh*

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: A wise man once said that war was coming to this island, I think it just got here.

6.10: "The Package"

(Read on for some scattin' and bee-boppin' on events and revelations inside the snowglobe, aka in LOST1/the original timeline on the Island. Our visit with the not-Kwons outside the snowglobe, in LOST2/the alternate timeline just didn't do much for me. Foo.)

LOSTAWAYS HEADCOUNT...

So, what exactly is up with Esau's trade-and-collect mentality regarding our Losties?

ESAU: I know you and I haven't had time to talk, but I was wondering if James had filled you in on what I showed him at the cliffs?
JIN: You mean the cave? The one with the names on the wall?
ESAU: Most of the names have been crossed off now. There are just a few left. Kwon is one of them.
JIN: Does that mean me or Sun?
ESAU: Well Jin, I'm not sure. But what it does mean is that the only way we can leave the island is if all the names that haven't been crossed off go together.

CLAIRE: So... was my name on the wall?
ESAU: No.
CLAIRE: Then it doesn't matter if I get on that plane then. I mean you don't... You don't need me—
ESAU: No. That's not true, Claire. I need you. And there's plenty of room on that plane for all of us.
CLAIRE: Now when we go home, Aaron's not going to know me. Stranger to my own son. He thinks Kate's his mother. Was her name on the wall?
ESAU: No, Claire, it isn't. Not anymore. But I need Kate.
CLAIRE: Why?
ESAU: Because I'm three people shy of getting off this island, and Kate can help me get these people on that plane. But... once she does... then, whatever happens, happens.

Esau does not call them Candidates, even tho he called them that when he spoke to Sawyer in the cave. Here, he refers to names on the wall that have not been crossed out, which means the Numbers, minus 4 - Locke. If it IS the Candidates that he's after, that works for me, because in order to "win," since he can't kill them, he'd need to them to leave the Island before or with him, and, in accordance with the apparent Rules, voluntarily.

Or, could he be referring to a different collection of Losties? Is his escape plan based on another voodoo/proxy situation, like mapping the Ajira 316 flight to Oceanic 815? Does Esau need to recreate the scenario of the helicopter leaving the Island three years ago? Who was in the chopper? Let's see...

Compare the Oceanic 6 and friends on the chopper...

• 8 - Reyes
  
• 16 - Jarrah
  
• 23 - Shephard
  
• 42 - Kwon
  
• 51 - Austen
  
• 131 - Littleton (meaning Aaron)
  
• (Lapidus)
  
• (Hume)

... to the Numbers...

• 4 - Locke
  
• 8 - Reyes
  
• 15 - Ford
  
• 16 - Jarrah
  
• 23 - Shephard
  
• 42 - Kwon

Esau says that he's three people short. Is that with or without Jin? Currently in his camp are...

• Ford - Candidate, not crossed out on the wall
  
• Jin Kwon - might-as-well-be Candidate, not crossed out on the wall
  
• Austen - Candidate?, name not seen on the wall, not crossed out on the Lighthouse dial
  
• Littleton - Infected, crossed out on the wall
  
• Jarrah - Infected, but not crossed out on the wall, still technically a Candidate by the Rules?

... and absent are...

• Reyes - Candidate, not crossed out on the wall
  
• Shephard - Candidate, not crossed out on the wall
  
• Sun Kwon - might-as-well-be Candidate, not crossed out on the wall

Interesting... Collecting these absent three would complete both the Numbers set AND the chopper set.

Maybe Jacob's set Esau up to fail, trap, or destroy himself by keeping certain names off his list. If Esau attempts to leave before or without all of the Candidates, the Rules might deliver a harsh penalty, eh?

My money's on pilot Frank Lapidus. =)

MILES: Play your card, captain.

INFECTED.

Infection manifests itself differently in different individuals.

SAYID: I don't feel anything.
ESAU: Excuse me?
SAYID: Anger. Happiness. Pain. I don't feel it anymore.
ESAU: Maybe that's best, Sayid. It'll help you get through what's coming.

Claire certainly feels things, tho, eh? I think Infection interacts uniquely with each host's personality, morality, and if there is an actual pathology to it, brain chemistry. In broad strokes, it has turned Sayid, a passionate and robust man of action, into an emotionless and insensate one, and Claire, a modest, unassuming young woman, into a fiery, aggressive, and antagonistic scrapper.

THEY TAKE JIN...

Tina Fey—Holy crap I just realized that she's that annoying LA LAWyer that I might've crushed on just a bit way back when—right? Wack!—wants Jin's help with an old DI map of EM pockets on the Island. Apparently she needs Jin to get some details that the maps themselves don't readily provide. The revelation of the location of a potential weapon against or weakness of Esau? Part of a reality-bending or snowglobe-shattering strategy?

Apparently Tina jumped the gun on grabbing Jin. Widmore refers to a timetable that didn't have Jin joining them for days. So, we know things are not quite going as planned, that Widmore's designs and forces may be rushed into a final conflict, cuz, how much fun would it be if it all went by the *ahem* numbers, right?

Nice of Charles to give Jin Sun's digital camera w the pics of Ji Yeon. Would love for one of the photos to unwittingly hold a secret or revelation, but I won't hold my breath.

Kind of kooky to realize that Sun's gone toe-to-toe with Widmore off-Island, while Jin was living on the Island as part of the DI while Charles was Leader of the Others. Wheee!~

The last we see of Charles and Jin, Widmore is going to take him to see the package, our man Desmond.

This seems Important. But why?

I mean, what do you get when you do the math: Jin + Desmond?

JIN + DESMOND = ?

Their team-up interaction so far has been very limited. Granted, they'd make a formidable team-up, but why are Widmore, Tina, and the nerd commandos so keen to grab Jin, specifically (they scheduled his abduction), and introduce him to the Package, brother Dez?

The most time Jin and Dez spent together, the most significant LOST time, was on Widmore's freighter. Together with Michael, they figured out how to slow down the detonation of the C4. Desmond and Jin attempted to disarm the bomb while Michael supercooled the battery. But... so what?

Desmond + Jin. They are new fathers, of Charlie and Ji Yeon. They are unwanted but suffered suitors of the daughters of powerful men. Desmond is a spacetime x-factor. Jin... He is half of the Kwons... Remember his vows...?

JIN: I wrote mine down. We will never be apart, because being apart would be like the sky being apart from the earth. With this ring, I make my promises.

A stretch, but does their union keep some cosmic force in harmony? Was their separation a "cause" of the time skipping phenomenon? I *love* that his vows so poetically describe what eventually happened.

Tina produces maps from the DI with Jin's signature. That fits if it's a map of the grid search, but would a security officer need to sign off on surveys of exotic energy and weird phenomena? Or was the grid search done under the guise of the EM survey? Isn't THAT what they'd be interested in, if anything? Or maybe they're interested in what they DIDN'T find in their grid search? Rose and Bernard? I can imagine their bodies, living or dead, possessing spacetime anomalous abilities or energies, having been displaced for so long. That would be something, if people and items dropped into the timestream without returning became Special... Hrmm...

Jin was displaced for three years. Maybe he's collected some kind of exotic energetic residue. Maybe combined with Desmond's spacetime X-factor, they can read or influence time, use Jin's exposure to trigger or tune Desmond's ability...?

ESAU LEAVES SUN...

While Sun is in her garden, Esau approaches her to explain that he can take her to Jin. She runs from him and ends up knocking herself out, suffering a form of aphasia in the process. The condition mirrors her linguistic predicament from when they first arrived on the Island, understanding English, but unable (by her own decision), to speak anything but Korean.

It's interesting, and a kind of consistent, that Esau leaves her to recover and rejoin Ilana's group, when he could easily have carried her off and back to his camp.

ESAU: Those people were confused. They were lied to. I didn't want to hurt them. Any one of them could have chosen to come with me. And I'm giving you that choice, Sun... right now. I would never make you do anything against your will. I'm asking you. Please. Come with me. Jin is waiting.

With the Rules governing everything, intent and consent matter. So, his recruits must CHOOSE or CONSENT to join him or their help may be useless, ineffective, impotent.

THE MONSTER CAN'T CROSS WATER...?

SAWYER: What do you need a boat for? Can't you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?
ESAU: Do you think if I could do that I would still be on this island?
SAWYER: No, 'cause that would be ridiculous...

From this lovely exchange, it sounds like the Smoke Monster can't cross over water, a fun undead/ghost-like restriction of yore, eh? But I'm thinking that it may mean that Esau, according to the Rules, can't turn into the Monster when he's not on the main Island. What do you think? And what does that mean for his existence, post-escape? Or will the Rules break down completely once he breaks out of the snowglobe?

Does this mean that while Easu's on Hydra Island, in Locke's form, he can be hurt? Well, maybe not hurt, but, y'know, disabled? Like, drawn and quartered? Unable to jump into his Monster form, Esau would be physically helpless as long as he couldn't reunite his dismembered self, right?

Awesome. =)

WIDMORE MEETS A MONSTER.

WIDMORE: Obviously you're not John Locke. Everything else I know is a combination of myth, ghost stories, and jungle noises in the night.
ESAU: I think you know more than that judging by these pylons.
WIDMORE: Why did you come here?
ESAU: You took one of my people, Jin Kwon.
WIDMORE: I have no idea what you're talking about.
ESAU: A wise man once said that war was coming to this island, I think it just got here.

I love that Esau draws on Locke's memory to quote Widmore regarding the war. It's too bad he didn't follow up with some remark about the "wrong side" winning, tho.

So, if we're to take Charles at his word, it seems like many Others could live their whole Island life without encountering the Monster, or at least, KNOWING they've encountered the Monster (I can imagine the Monster appearing to Others in borrowed bodies to mess with them, perhaps before the Others had learned some or any of the Rules). Esau was like the Others' boogedy man. =)

How about that sonic fence, eh? Widmore's people replicating DI technology. Given his resources, not big whup. But I like to think that it's a sign that he played a part in the DI's presence on the Island in the first place, using his Other Leadership position and his developing off-Island network and cred to make it happen.

Pylons, heh. I still love that that word crossed over from LAND OF THE LOST so readily. =)

WHAT UP WITH KATE?

It's a little thing. But it's ANOTHER little thing...

SAWYER: Where'd you go?
KATE: What?
SAWYER: Looked like your brain took a little stroll.

Where DID she go? Into the tunnel with Choo-choo?

I haven't sussed enough out to even make a decent crazy talk theory, but Kate's in on Something. Off the top of my head, there's "Catch A Falling Star," "Choo-choo," and now this astral projection or whatever it is. Was she in contact with her half-brother Jack via the Force?

Does she have an Ability that she's successfully hidden from everyone? Or employs so instinctively that it doesn't register as an Ability to anyone else, or even herself? Is she... lucky? Maybe not necessarily Good lucky, but against-the-odds lucky, y'know, in a Scarlett Witch sort of way? That would be pretty interesting. I mean, an Ability like that would help her, instinctively, get out of all kinds of jams. But as soon as she was in a situation that was the least bit comfortable and stable, that same luck would also lead to upsetting it. Hrmm...

Maybe she's Infected. Maybe she has been for some time. I like it, but... I don't like it, cuz I really don't like the idea of an Infected individual walking around off-Island without leading to a seriously bad Big Bad... unless... Maybe you can be a non-contagious host to Infection? Unless you have some kind of psychic ability, you can be Infected but not spread Infection. Hrmm... OK. If we allow for that (which I guess I sorta did when I was theorizing about Aaron's Infection), then yeah, okay, I like it and I like it. Maybe Kate's Infected and has been for a long time.

Maybe she's playing host to someone else's psyche, riding shotgun with her since, oh... Locke's death?

TOMATO?

JACK: That's one stubborn tomato. Guess no-one told it it was supposed to die.

A clunky unknowing allusion to Ji Yeon?

ANOTHER MIRROR IN LOST 2...

Again with the mirror, and the cuts. On the plane, while looking in the bathroom mirror, Jack tends to what seems to be a shaving nick. At home, he seems mystified by his appendectomy scar. In the LAPD locker room, Sawyer smashes a mirror in frustration. This time, in her hotel room, Sun seems caught by surprise by something in her reflection. It almost seems like a reaction to the cut she gives herself in LOST1, in the snowglobe, while pulling weeds from her garden.

The lighthouse mirrors. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. Through a glass, darkly...

RANDOM BITS.

I forget if I mentioned this, but I would love to see an EVIL DEAD 2 scene play out in the midst of the final conflict. In EVIL DEAD 2, Ash is taken by the evil dead for a while, but when he finds the weird monocle pendant he gave to his girlfriend, his love for her purges him of evil deadness. Now, substitute Infected Claire for possessed Ash and Charlie's DS ring for the girlfriend's pendant. Kind of a stretch, as Claire never found the ring that Charlie left for her and Aaron, but hey, what does love care about details and continuity, right?

What would happen if Esau, in Locke's form, turned the wheel? What would happen if any Candidate turned the wheel?

What if Desmond's LOST1 time jumps are actually time jump-overs into LOST2? I started trying to trace the possibility, but it kind of falls apart pretty fast. It's too bad, cuz that would help explain some of the inconsistencies, aka writers' conveniences, in the ripples that we would expect, but don't see, as a result of Desmond's droppings in the time stream. O well...

With Desmond back on the scene, I'm looking forward to more of him (SOMEhow) in the reality of LOST2, hopefully interacting with Libby, Jack, Kelvin, Penny, Widmore, and maybe Daniel and Eloise. What would he be in a better of all possible worlds? Supermodel-adventurer and self-help guru? =)

I like Jack's true believing 'do.

Keep on keepin on~

FLASHFORWARD: ten down...

Over the past few weeks, thanks to Hulu, I've succeeded in knocking off the first ten episodes of FLASHFOWARD. I am digging it. I read the novel by Robert Sawyer and the show made some very smart televisionally strategic moves in the scope, POVs, and details of its story. The show is many layers removed from the novel, and in fact, it looks like the show's writers must have changed "the answer" to the mystery of the novel. I do like that. That the show even has me thinking that is a real treat. At most I expected some decent stories that might have taken place in the universe of the novel's story, y'know? But this is a new universe altogether.

Except for some odd accents that slip into dialogue by supposedly lifelong English-speaking Americans and Los Angelinos, I dig the cast, which features Shakespeare In Love, Juliet Widmore, rock star scientist Charlie Pace, and young Sulu and Cyborg. Also *random!* a cameo by Seth MacFarlane?! Wack.

O, I *do* wince every time I hear Juliet call Shakespeare "babe." That is really reserved for Desmond, y'know?

*BEWARE* Beyond here, there be *SPOILERS* If you haven't watched the first... five episodes, I think, the rest of this post will spoil a plot thread, so skip accordingly, please.

There is something that I'm waiting to see, a clever trick that exploits the flashforward phenomenon. The thought occurred to me when I suspected that we might have already seen one instance of it, in the Nazi's story. The idea behind my trick requires that someone has foreknowledge of the flash, and knows which 137 seconds of the future everyone will see. Knowing this, this mastermind can then stage an event to occur during that time, and event that will be witnessed six months earlier, and presumed by most, if not all, to be an actual event.

For instance, let's say a flashforward happens at noon on Monday, March 29, and gives a one minute glimpse of the future beginning at noon on Friday, April 2. Knowing that people will be flashingforward to noon on Friday, I arrange to have myself kidnapped while walking in Davis Square to get some lunch. At noon on Friday, a van screeches up over the curb of the sidewalk on Highland Street. Out jumps a couple of my friends in ninja outfits who bag and tag me and shove me into the van and zoom away. All this in front of dozens of bystanders. These bystanders, unconscious at noon on Monday, precognitively witness these events, and when interviewed, all will tell the story of a handsome young devil, the world his oyster, women want to know him, men want to be him, basically, a super awesome guy, being abducted by superpowered ninjas who only managed to subdue him with superior numbers, as he demonstrated himself to be a skilled and powerful combatant as well. Yes, exactly. That flashforward vision, taken to be real and genuine, can now be used to manipulate people to do things in anticipation of this terrible event.

Maybe police will be assigned to that location at that time of day, leaving other bank-ful parts of Somerville conspicuously vulnerable to criminal activity with reduced risk of police interference. Maybe we intentionally use the van of someone we don't like, a politician, perhaps. All those precog witnesses will pretell the van's plate number and thusly connect it to and discredit this person. Maybe I actually hire a look-alike to play me in the kidnapping, giving me a future alibi, allowing me to engage in some shadowy scurrilous something or other on my own.

Hrmm... I didn't think this example thru very thoroughly and am having trouble coming up with ways to exploit it in a flashforward, potentially future-manipulating and self-fulfilling, way.

The most successful incarnation of this would be to have alternate versions of my friends and myself commit the hoax kidnapping, freeing our prime versions to do whatever we want at that time when we actually live those 137 seconds. This means that the flashforwards are actually also flashOvers, and so, do not muck with our native spacetime continuity.

OK, how about that Nazi's story? In his flashforward, he sees himself at customs in an airport, apparently free and allowed to travel. There are a handful of other people in the vision, but only one that he can identify by name, the customs agents who processes him, and he knows who he is by his name tag or plate. So, Nazi gives up this customs agent's name to the FBI and the FBI track him down to corroborate. Turns out the guy has just applied for the job, and his vision DOES match the Nazi's, only fron his point of view. When I saw this, I realized that Nazi guy, once free, could STAGE this scenario for the 137 seconds of the flashforward. Show up before a customs agent in an airport and go thru the motions of being processed, and back in the past-present, customs agent-to-be would think of his vision as genuine, and the vision itself, staged, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Nazi uses his vision as leverage to get himself freed, see?

It's not LOST, but it's got some fun potential.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: Compasses!

VL pointed me to this delicious unbelievableness as a kind of real world piece of the LOST puzzle—Check it out! Scientists discover moral compass in the brain which can be controlled by magnets. And it *is* dated March 30, not April 1 =)

The notion of personal morality being tunable via powerful magnetic fields certainly seems like an uncanny "solution" to some tasty slices of LOST, eh? And beside that, I gotta say, the article did spark a few fun LOST associations and reflections. I'm gonna crib from email with VL here and explain.

I actually haven't thought about the compass as a metaphorical element in LOST in a serious thematic way, but it's come up a few times that I remember, and in connection, and AS connection, between characters. Looking back, they resonate pretty strongly.

Way back when, maybe season 1, even, Sayid attempts to make a compass by inducing magnetism in a needle. But once he succeeds, he discovers that compasses cannot be trusted on the Island. Locke, who seems to get around the Island so easily so quickly without any disorientation, gives Sayid his own compass to use. The Encyclopedia Browny assumption would be that Locke's compass works fine, right? But Sayid discovers that it is broken, or just as malfunctioning as the one he created. When Locke first offers to give it up, Sayid asks if he's really okay giving it up, and I'm pretty sure Locke tells Sayid, "I don't need it anymore."

In light of what's become of Sayid and Locke (in death and doppelganger) this season, compass as moral compass is difficult NOT to see. Sayid and Locke's experience with and exchange of compasses seems like a map of their futures, describing ideas of being lost in a moral sense, being above Good and Evil, and maybe even Infection.

I wonder how often the word comes up in banter when our Losties are doing their cross-Island trekking, eh? I'll bet that four out of five times it's means more than a dial with a magnetized needle.

And, of course, there's my *favoritest* LOST compass ever—the temporal paradox, the compass that Locke gives to Richard so that Richard can give it to Locke. A compass that is never made and never destroyed. Feel free to assign to it all significance that you can think of that pertains to Richard, Locke, and Esau, and the balance and influence of Good and Evil within and between them.

And try not to think about how soon we'll be hearing that the U.S. military has been sewing magnets into the helmets of their soldiers for decades. Heck, they don't even have to conceal them anymore. All they need to do is not-so-well-shield their comms, right?

Keep on keepin on~