The Fame and Lame of LOST

Sometimes you get good status updates:

(I especially love the advice!)


...and sometimes there's this:


Keep an eye out on Lamebook this week... TV finale updates might get interesting!

PhD Comic, the Lost editions

A Tale of Two Christians

While we now know more of Christian, there are some odd discrepancies as to his various appearances, to Jack and to other characters. The most intriguing one being his appearance to Jack at the hospital in LA.

Here are Christian's appearances to other characters - in chronological order!


WHO : EPISODE : WEAR : SOUND
SITUATION


Vincent : So It Begins : Suit and white tennis shoes : no sound
Called Vincent and told him "Listen. I need you to go find my son [...] I need you to go wake him up. He has work to do"

Jack : Walkabout/White Rabbit : Suit and w.t.s. : no sound
Jack saw different occurrences of Christian on the beach and followed him in the jungle. Saw a silhouette and heard ice tumbling and followed him to the caves.

Jack : A Tale of Two Cities : (voice only) : (voice only)
Heard Christian say "Let it go Jack." over the the shark tank intercom.

Hurley : The Beginning of the End : Suit and w.t.s. : no sound
Saw him in the cabin, sitting in Jacob's chair. Ran from the cabin then it appeared in front of him. He closed his eyes saying "There's nothing here" and after opening his eyes, the cabin was gone.

Claire : Something Nice Back Home : Dark blue shirt : no sound
Claire woke up to find Christian cradling Aaron and called him Dad. Miles admits to Sawyer of hearing them.

Locke : Cabin Fever : Dark blue shirt with boots : no sound
After Hurley finds the cabin, Locke goes in and asks if he's Jacob. Christian answers "No, but I can speak on his behalf." Eventually Locke says "I'm here, because I was chosen to be." To which Christian replies "That's absolutely right.".
He then notices Claire who tells him "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm with him." and after asking about Aaron, Christian tells him "The baby's where he's supposed to be, and that's not here. It's probably best that you don't tell anyone that you saw her."

Michael : There's no Place Like Home (2) : Dark blue shirt : whispers
When the freighter is about to explode, Christian appears to Micheal, tells him
"You can go now Michael."
"Who are you?"
BOOM!

Locke : This Place Is Death : Dark blue shirt with boots : no sound
Appear at the bottom of the well and helps Locke find the Dharmakackra and turn it.

Jack : Something Nice Back Home : Suit and w.t.s. : no sound
In the hospital (flash forward) when Jack was working late. He was on the couch and called "Jack." He leaned forward as Jack was walking towards him but the Jack got distracted.
-Given the information we were given in The Last Recruit, this is the most intriguing appearance of Christian. But are we to believe the White Rabbit occurrence of Christian was truly the smoke monster?

Sun & Frank : Namaste : Dark blue shirt with boots : tika tika AND whispers
When Sun and Frank land on the beach, they hear the 'tika tika' and see the trees moving. When they get to the processing centre, they can hear the whispers before Christian appears and shows them the Dharma recruits picture.


It seems like we have stumbled upon two different versions of Christian:
[1] Wearing a suit and white tennis shoes; and,
[2] Wearing simply a dark shirt and boots.

What to make of this?

The Package

This wasn't a GREAT episode by any length (especially following Ab Aeterno) but to me, it set the stage for the rest of the season. This was the beginning of the end; whether you consider Sayid's infiltration, Jack earning Sun's participation, Richard taking lead, the Widmore and Locke facedown. By the end of next week's Happily Ever After (also mentioned by Keamy), everything should have started unravelling.

FLASH-SIDEWAYS

Along with getting confirmation of Sun and Jin being unmarried, we also realize, sadly enough, that they are as they had always been, back to strict tradition and Jin being run by Paik. But only we are fooled into feeling such way. Sun and Jin really appear to have a different intimate relationship when in private, he'd rather be with her than go to the restaurant deliver the box. She is a priority this time around, not his job. He looks like a priority to her as well, intending on running away with him. This certainly shows hope for 'redemption' on the island.

Now we are also told that Jin was supposed to deliver the watch and the money at the restaurant. To Paik's associate, Martin 'freaking' Keamy! (The first, though unofficial', connection to Widmore.) We unfortunately find out that the money was intended as Keamy's fee to take out Jin. Paik certainly has a knack for knowing things, and we know his attitude towards delivering messages. There certainly seems to have been karma in the air, and irony. Paik takes away the money that would have been used as replacement for the hit fee!

Mikhail remains exciting, no matter where he is... did they say 23 languages?
Mikhail getting shot in the eye... that's what he was destined for I guess.
Sayid definitely acted like an asshole... "Good Luck." What? That's it?

Oh shit... Sun getting shot! Saw that coming a little bit.
Oh shit... Sun is pregnant? Did not quite see that one coming! I expected her to say she was pregnant earlier in the episode. By then, I had dropped that idea, seem I shouldn't have.


ON-ISLAND

Locke seems quite intent on getting all the candidates together. Either he needs them for a specific purpose or it'll be easier to get kill them! Does he really need them to leave the island? Are they something like his passport off the island?
We are given a glimpse of Sayid still being present, his worried "I don't feel anything" suggests he is still 'in there' but just not in complete control - anyone think there might still be hope for him?
One thing that really hit me later in the episode is how Locke claims to be short 3 to get off the island? At that time, he's in 'possession' of Kate, Sawyer and Sayid. With Jin off with Widmore, this leaves Jack, Hurley, and Sun missing from his group. Does this mean that the candidacy still applies when claimed - read: Sayid.

While this is a Sun and Jin episode, there still isn't much Sun and Jin story development on-island. They are getting closer to each other but only end up further apart.

Locke sticks with his one choice motto: "They could have chosen to come with me."
It does not sound like a choice at all. The Abrahamic god says: "If you do not believe in me. You shall be in hell." That is certainly not a desirable choice.

Trip through memory lane as we visit Room 23 - which turns out was DHARMA brainwashing before being Others brainwashing. Was Ben just having fun with Karl or were they also using that room heavily? It's interesting to see how Jin was responsible for identifying EM pockets in the 70s. There's more and more reasons to believe Widmore is not on Locke's side. Widmore mention of him to Locke certainly shows disbelief, and disrespect: You're a combination of myths, ghost stories and noises through he night."

But given that Locke is being deceptive facing Widmore, there's certainly some animosity between the two. Locke claims to come in peace and, while HE may be doing so, but Sayid is lurking and scouting the for package, aka Desmond... the island is not done with him, or at least Widmore isn't.


With a faceoff between Locke and Widmore, and Richard leading the group to Hydra to stop Locke, a reunion between Ben and Widmore seems inevitable... will Desmond step in as well? Talk about a hate triangle!

Theory: Flash Sideways - Time Divergence - Branching

Where does it all start? [Only a Theory]

Sooooooo.... many viewers believe that the bomb detonating in 1977 created the universe we see in the flash-sideways. In other words, a branching of universes happened at the time of the incident: one where it didn't work and everything that we were told had happened had, indeed, happened; and the other where the island was destroyed and history starting in 1977 was altered.

This means that both 'universes' shared an identical past up to the point of detonation! Well, this is the reasoning I use to disprove that theory! Follow me.


Let's start by naming our original universe/timeline U0, the flash-sideways show UA.


BELIEFS
Assumption: The detonation of the bomb created the UA.
-Corollary: Both universes share an identical past up to the point of detonation of the bomb.
Proof of corollary: In the U0, Christian shows Sun and Frank a picture of the DHARMA recruits, indicating that they were at least in U0's past. If the detonation of the bomb created UA, then it follows they were also in UA's past, therefore U0 and UA share a common past up to the detonation.

WHAT WE KNOW
In 1977:
-Ben was still recovering when the bomb went off on Day 3 of the Oceanic 6's arrival (Whatever Happened, Happened, Dead Is Dead). The incident happened on Day 4. It's not clear whether Ben was returned to DHARMA (Widmore tells him soon, but how soon) and made it on the sub.
-Roger was still in the camp a mere hour or two (estimate) before the bomb detonated (The Incident). He wasn't with his son and it doesn't give him much chance to evacuate.

In 2004:
-We are told that Roger and Ben did spend time on the island as part of DHARMA in UA. This is irrelevant as it coincides with what we already knew of U0. What is relevant is what Roger says to Ben:
"Imagine how different our lives would have been if we'd stayed. [...] Who knows what you would have become?", (Dr. Linus).
This suggests that they left out of choice and not through an evacuation and leaves the possibility of having stayed on the island, which is contrary to the bomb sinking the island. According to what they know, the island had at least a short term future when they left.

RECONCILIATION
Given that both Ben and Roger are alive and seem to have left the island out of choice at a time where the island was still in good health (figuratively), this contradicts the corollary that U0 and UA share a common past and therefore contradicts the starting assumption.


--PROPOSED ALTERNATIVE THEORY--

I propose an alternative theory in which not only is the bomb not, itself, directly responsible for the island sinking and also aligns with the whatever happened, happened school of thought.

Let's start with what we know.

WHAT WE KNOW
In 1867:
-Jacob
-Year when the statue was destroyed (Ab Aeterno) in a storm that brought the Black Rock inland through the statue itself.
-Corollary: Sawyer, Jin, Juliet and Miles jumped as far back as 1867 and possibly earlier as proven by the full-body statue (This Place Is Death, LaFleur).

Pre-1867 (let's call it Tx):
-there is a random rope sticking from the ground (This Place Is Death),

and since Sawyer let go of it before the next flash (LaFleur) the rope remained in Tx.

In 1974:
-The well that Locke used to lower himself down to the Dharmacakra chamber was filled by DHARMA times (LaFleur).
-Corollary: The well was dug prior to the DHARMA Initiative and after Tx - no time known.

At any given point:
-A giant Tawaret statue has been on the island for a long time
-An elaborate Temple occupies a section of the island
-Ruins have been found on different occasions on the island dating back to 1867 and Tx.
--The dense presence of cultural symbols and artifacts suggests the presence of one or more civilization dating possibly as far back as Egyptian times, at least significantly further back than 1867.

THEORY
Here, I posit a theory suggesting there is a branching happening at Tx - when the rope was left into the ground.

I assume that everyone is aware of the butterfly effect (with respect to time travel) that the smallest change can alter history, as small as a rope sticking from the ground as opposed to no rope. But how do I think it happened?

Assumption: Tx is significantly earlier than 1867. The presence of the statue only proves it was earlier, it does not suggest it was soon before.
Assumption: Tx happens during or between the presence of civilization(s) on the island.

Once Sawyer's group left the rope in the ground, it was laying there for a member of an existing group to find it and try to dig it out. They eventually found the cave, and possibly the Dharmacakra wheel, and ultimately released the smoke-monster/MIB -- and... maybe Jacob? (no confirmation)

This would result in the conflict between Jacob and MIB taking form and controlling all aspects of life on the island from this point forward, leading to Hanso and Richard ending up on the island, the conflict with the US army and DHARMA, the bomb creating the incident, leading to the Swan issue with Desmond and Oceanic 815 crashing and everything we've seen since the beginning of the show.

The absence of time travel, the rope is never left in the ground. Preventing the escape of the smoke monster, there would never have been this conflict and ultimately no time travel. Ben would never have been recruited by the Others and Roger angered by the hostiles - they may have left earlier. DHARMA would have created the incident as normal that would have possibly resulted in the island sinking.

This opens the possibility that an earlier civilization had imprisoned the smoke-monster (with the help of Jacob?).

There may obviously be some holes in this theory, but hey, I'm just having fun!

Ab Aeterno

what we've been waiting for 'since the beginning'


First off: reaaaaally emotional scene with Richard and Isabellae

ON ISLAND

{FLASHBACK: Ilana was waiting for Jacob and they already know each other,
he tells her about the remaining candidates}

Jacob's been keeping Richard in the dark but also tells Ilana he will know.
Conflicting, or Richard forgot ?

Hurley's step in for Isabella was awkward at best.
But seems like he definitely managed to turn him around.
And Locke doesn't look too happy about it!


RICHARD FLASHBACK (standard flashback sound)

Nice scruff Richard. Scruffy Richard (calling it!)
This may have been the Canary Islands, but it was in 1867, birth year of Canada, the Canadian connection continues!

The start of Richard's backstory really starts off morose! Poor with a dying wife and a doctor who won't accept his compensation for medicine. Killing the doctor and coming back to a deceased wife and gets sentenced to hanging!

So Richard was indeed a slave, this continues the series of unfortunate events in Richard's life leading to the island.
PAUSE... Captain Magnus Hanso... [note to self remember to breathe]

It's funny how the Egyptian goddess is perceived as the devil by the crew.
Note, this was a kick ass kill by the smoke monster, through the grate!
Neat recall to the boars.

This is an interesting story plot. Is this Isabella? Or rather a manifestation perpetrating the myth of Hell so that the black smoke can easily recruit Ricardo. This would make sense from the smoke monster hovering in front of Ricardo and reading his mind rather than killing him. Able to use him as a pawn, appearing as his dead wife and claiming hell. Now he need to kill the devil (assumedly Jacob)
"I want to be free too"

CALLBACK: "It's good to see you out of those chains."
My question: what happens when you die in hell?
[they're still playing hard on that name aren't they?]

Now we officially know what happened to the statue. But this raises an interesting discussion topic: pregnancy issues. There were still good pregnancies on the island in the 70's, so what happened between 74/77 and the 1990s?

It seems MIB learnt the speech well, it's the same one Dogen gave to Sayid.
It's also interesting how he declares they could argue all day "about what is right and what is wrong", this is really at the core of many fan discussions and echoes our thoughts well.

Jacob's not playing with Ricardo's story and tries to convince him otherwise rather than using it. He's got mad fighting skills but also mad philosophy skills, attempting to 'kill' Ricardo to make him see he's not dead (goes back to my question).

The discussion with Jacob and the birth of Richard as the intermediary is FILLED with great imagery and analogies. Richard's role is almost entirely explained in this discussion, including why he is kept in the dark on many issues.
-The island is the cork to hell;
-"He believes it's in their nature to sin";
-"Their past doesn't matter";
-"I want them to help themselves", "I can't intervene";
-"If you don't, he will", this one struck a chord with Jacob, leading to Richard's role;
-Jacob's brutal honesty to Richard "I can't do that" seems contrary to his vague ways we've known before.
-We now know the origin of Richard's longevity: I never want to die.

The discussion between Richard and MIB is really respectful, MIB doesn't even try to kill him or hurt him or anything. Just as Locke did in present day island. His was also clue of Richard's overall importance in both Jacob's and MIB's plans.
The discussion between Jacob and MIB was more revealing. The colour associations and stated intents (coupled with Isabella's message) seemed like placing the sides in order.

As for the hell-in-a-bottle analogy, it seems MIB will no longer be looking to uncork it, but break it all loose!

A Revisit of My Previous Work!

So...... little time left before the final season of Lost begins and with many viewers now turning to the online community, most notably Nik@Nike, I thought I would bring back some of the documents I've worked on over the course of last season. There are three such pieces of information created using the top of the line graphic technology of 1995 in Paint! Keep in mind that these documents have remained untouched since their original publications nearly a year ago and therefore could be brought up to date, either through information from the show or personal learning.

The first piece emerged as we were discussing the episode He's Our You: Who was Sawyer going to see? The second was a short essay stemming from the Season 6 teaser at the very end of the season, the one with the shot of an opening eye at the end! The last piece was written as a technical work of mathematics and probabilities with respect to time travel: can a paradox be avoided?


1. Whose house is it? Who was Sawyer really going to see?

In the episode He's Our You, after trying to free Sayid, Sawyer feels angry and decides to go seek advice/answers from one of his friends. As Kate opens the door, his demeanor changes. Many argued he obviously was going to see Kate and asked why she came back only to come face to face with the one he loved and seeing her changed his attitude. Another camp was arguing that Sawyer was looking for help in how to approach Sayid and therefore was heading to see Jack and ask his help and was surprised at finding Kate in his house.

The purpose here is not to restart the debate. We obviously all know Sawyer still has feelings for Kate, this has always been undeniable. Also, the question I attempted to explore was never explicitly answered on the show itself, leaving the two camps at a standstill. After the exciting season and the long wait, it becomes clearer that some aspects of the show are better left unanswered, creating different perspectives for different viewers and ultimately different experiences.

The original document on the subject can be found here.

After the original posting, some people commented that the end map I had 'painted' was inaccurate and pointed to this one here:


Focusing on the bottom group of houses and with some rotation, one can easily see the likelihood of my own designed house schematic:


Perhaps at four (4) days before the start of the ultimate season, this document has only one purpose: showing our obsessiveness and geekiness with the Lost phenomenon!


2. The EYE teaser!

At the end of the season 5 finale, ABC had pre-prepared a teaser for season 6 (they were on TOP of that!) This is the teaser in question:



Remember this? Some pointed to the smoke in the lettering which could represent wither the smoke monster or an explosion. Others focused on the eye opening at the end, some said it was Juliet waking up; others posited it could be Jack, or Desmond; and there were even some fans praying to Jacob for Charlie (and there were other theories).

While completely pointless, my goal here was to prove without a doubt that this was, unquestionably, Jack's eye. Not only did I stop there, but I also wanted to suggest it was identical to the opening shot of the series, you know the poignant opening shot from the Pilot? While we may very well have an answer this coming week, focusing on such details was somewhat moot, use of archived footage would be common and proving the shot was a specific one had no substance in determining the plot.

Regardless, enjoy these results!


3. A survival guide to avoiding paradoxes when time traveling.

The final piece is one of my favourite and probably the more serious document of the three. It is akin to a short mathematical essay in theoretical time travel (don't squirm yet!). It started of as a page or two on rational for changing the past while still avoiding paradoxes.

When the plan to detonate a hydrogen bomb to cancel the energy source and therefore preventing 815 from crashing, many fans jumped on the web and exclaimed how this was impossible and therefore suggesting with near guarantee that they were going to cause the 'incident'; they were citing the oft discussed grandfather paradox.

The name (if you are not familiar with the concept) comes the following scenario. Imagine that you invent a system that allows you to travel to the past. You decide to head back fifty, seventy, one hundred years into the past and accidentally/purposely kill your grandfather before your father is conceived. The result is that your father never gives birth to you, therefore you do not exist to invent a time machine and kill your youngling grandfather. This re-establishes the timeline in which you do travel into the past and kill your ancestor... and so on! The result is a paradox.

This argument is the one often cited in the case of Lost and is occasionally used in line with the statement "whatever happened, happened." (For fans of Futurama, remember how Fry becomes his own grandfather?) This chain of thinking seemed to conclusive and removed the a big part of the doubt heading into season 6. Therefore, I set out to write some short equations suggesting that changing the past was possible without creating such paradoxes.

The document eventually grew by a few pages into this. I do not believe it to be too technical and it certainly does not prove any plot development, it only suggests that no one can prove where the plot has been heading by the end of season 5. So I certainly hope you can enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing.


Hopefully, these documents will re-ignite (if not already done from Nik's Rewatch blog) your thinking cap and maybe even give you a new way to look at the mystery of the Island.