Time-travelling blog: 2005 - Lost s01e024 - Discussion - Artz and Craftiness

My head is still ringing from this final jungle-trekking, hatch-opening, character-exploding episode. We have a whole two-hours to muse over, so let's get straight to it.

We finally got to see the much-mentioned Black Rock, as the French Woman instructs the lostaways to march across the jungle to find the dynamite hidden within. It turns out it's an old boat, and not a rock at all, and it sits in the middle of the jungle. Quite how it got there is anyone's business. Either it dropped in from the sky, or the island itself moved somehow. I guess it's the vehicular equivalent of a Polar Bear in the jungle.

It turns out dynamite is a temperamental substance, a lesson that costs recently-introduced Artz his life. After seeming to become set up as a major character for the second season, the poor chap explodes all over Hurley, Jack and Kate. Whether this means we'll see other cast members knocked off so suddenly in future is the subject of much speculation. Despite being many viewers favourite, I'm pretty sure Locke will die early next series. He served his purpose being 'at one' with the island in this first series, but could we really endure another 24 episodes watching him turn slowly into some martyr?

Introducing characters in this show is always going to be tough. Surely Lost only exists as long as the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 do. If they try to introduce more characters in future seasons I'm sure the fans will be vocal in their anger. There's only so long they can promote background characters to regulars though, and it's not as if they're just going to have new folk rock out of the jungle every week.

The raft containing Sawyer, Walt and Michael sails out to sea, and for a moment I allow myself to think they'll find rescue. I'm aware that a second season has been commissioned already, but if Lost ended now I think it would stand as an almost perfect piece of television. Every character has gone through an emotional epiphany in these past twenty three episodes, and for them to return home changed people would be a wonderful sight to behold. Jack and Kate will probably get married, Charlie would re-release his album now he's escaped death, and Hurley will probably give them all a huge chunk of his millions! It would just have been a shame Boone didn't survive until the end of the series. Let's hope none of the other thirteen characters meet the same fate next series.

Instead of rescue the raft is met by a mysterious group of rag-tag bums on a boat. They are going to have to "take the boy", and whisk Walt off after blowing up the make-shift boat Michael had spent so long building, twice. Their small trawler chugs off out of sight, and the last we see of the our sea-bound suvivors is Michael yelling "Waaaaaaaaaaalllllttt". Quite who this group of people are is a mystery fans are obviously very excited about, and theories range from them being the much-hyped 'Others' to 'the 815 survivors but from the future'. Both these seem implausible though. Ethan was the leader of the Others, and had supernatural strength, whereas this bunch looked like they'd set off for a days crab-fishing. As for the idea of time-travel, I'm not sure even a show as rooted in fantasy would ever go fully sci-fi. Plus, I doubt Jack would could ever pull off a beard.

I do hope Michael survives though, as he's my favourite character. The others have family and other loved ones to get back to, but his devotion to his son is the most compelling storyline. If, as I said above, Locke takes a lesser role in the next season, I hope Michael steps up to become a challenger to Jack's 'hero' role.

On-land, after a convoluted idea to hide in it to avoid attack from these 'Others', Jack and Locke finally blow the lid off the hatch and stare down into the void. Rather than on any kind of revelation the first series of Lost ends with two men carrying torches shrinking away as our view falls slowly downwards. Fans are understandably a bit miffed. They've invested twenty four hours in this series, and at the moment the payout is as varied as anything that could possibly exist down a long tunnel. Theories therefore haven't changed from earlier in the series, and we'll just have to wait until September to see if any of them is even close.

Is the hatch a tunnel to the centre of the island, where a crazy old scientist is controlling everyone's mind? Is it the system of travel for the mysterious smoke monster? Is it a fallen space station, or an alien craft? Is it a Truman Show style window into the real world, and our survivors have just been partaking in an elaborate reality TV show? For all we know they'll just climb down on a rope and be greeted by some chap who's living there who doesn't know WW2 ended. Whatever it is, fans will be equally excited and annoyed I'm sure.

Bring on September.

Lost s05e04 - Discussion - Udder udders

This episode involved a lot of setting-up, moving characters around to be in the right place for future events. There's a lot to ponder and speculate over though, so I'll get straight to it.

On-island the survivors decide they're going to race back to the beach to ride the Zodiac dinghy around the coast so that Locke can kill himself travelling in time at The Orchid. Quite how they're so sure the little boat will still be there when time itself is falling apart around them I'm not sure. Apparently objects they had with them when Benry Gale moved that giant icy wagon-wheel around are travelling too, meaning that a gun, it's limited ammo, some hairspray and half a sandwich are also getting a whirlwind tour of the history of the island. Why didn't the camp move? What would happen if you held Richard Eyeliner's hand when the flash of light struck? Would you yank that from his never-aging arm and take it with you to 1988? What if Daniel would have followed through on his mother's assumption that he fancied her and made a move? If the sky turned white during would he literally have snogged her prim little face off?

On a more serious note, but still musing on the ludicrous idea that anyone could ever travel in time, how come Cindy isn't travelling along with the other survivors? Just to refresh the memories of those who don't browse Lostpedia as diligently as myself, she's the 815 stewardess who crashed in the tail section, was abducted by Others and was last seen staring at Jack in a cage. Her affiliation is now with that group, and not our plane-crash based 'Losties'. This might explain why Juliet is time-travelling whilst other Others aren't, since she officially joined their camp at the end of season three.

Locke spots Desmond's light, signifying that time-wise an angry season one him is sitting on top of the hatch banging his fists in anger. So rather than see another perspective on an already perfect scene, (and my personal favourite of the whole series) instead we get an all very convenient re-play of Kate helping her future adopted son being born. Sawyer watches on longingly, and a million female fans stop the fast-forwarding they've been doing since episode one where he took his top off. Lit by candlelight he's almost tearful, looking but not able to touch, like he's a customer at a particularly niche stripclub: 'Watch women pulling objects from each other's vaginas in a jungle'. Hang on, the next 'flash' is to 1988 right? Who's to say he doesn't steal Aaron, take his top off again and become the original Athena Poster man?

Later, he confesses to Juliet how affected he was by the whole ordeal. Although refreshingly frank for a show where none of the characters seem to discuss the amazing events that happen to each other, why are characters waiting until now to do so? Was Jack not equally shocked when he saw his father in the woods, both emotionally and because he's dead? Or when Jack met Desmond, a man he recognised from ten years previous whilst running up and down stairs at a stadium. Perhaps I've answered my own question there. Jack is a dick, and should be considered seperate to any theory about the show.

Off-island Jack is still being a dick, albeit one who's understandably in need of a drink. Quite how he's coping with keeping things together without falling back to his very recent ways I do not know. Amid the resuscitation and custody battles, I keep expecting him to turn to camera like in Airplane, saying "I chose the wrong day to give up prescription drugs and alcohol". He seems fine though, and sets off investigating who's trying to claim custody of Claire's toddler Aaron. I can't have been alone in assuming it was Ben all along. Claire's mother doesn't have the acting abilities to have more than a guest role, and we haven't seen that chap from The Wire at all this season. It all ends with everyone apart from Hurley at some docks, where the actors all stand around smugly realising their show is looking increasingly like an episode of 24.

On-island the survivors finally make it to camp, only to find that it's been ransacked. They find a bottle of a drink that they linger on far too long for it's name not to have some significance, and then head off on their 'outriggers' (canoes). Once at sea, a mysterious group behind them paddling on their own giant canoe starts shooting at them. This scene is mysteriously devoid of any real clues as to deduce who their attackers are, which leads to me to believe this is a significant new plot thread that the characters are just stumbling through. Like the sea-billies on the boat in season one we're only given a glimpse of these people, but they'll become hugely important in the large-scale story of Lost. There's a whole website about Ajira Airways for fuck's sake, so we know this is going to be big.

Briefly, here are some theories about where the survivors are, and who their attackers were:
-They're the older Oceanic 6, who've just re-crashed on the island on a flight from India. They're shooting at Sawyer, Juliet et al because they don't recognise them and think they've stolen their boat.
-It's the exact same boat only slightly in the future. They are shooting at themselves. Theory falls down on the difference in their canoes. Our chaps' one is a double, whilst theirs is a single.
-The crash is an alternative Oceanic 815. Because events in the past have been changed, the flight Sawyer and Locke boarded never crashes. This one from India does, and so it's passengers assume everyone on the canoe to be 'Others'.

The bigger issue that none of these theories seem to mention though is where did all the the canoes come from?

This all pales into insignificance compared with the first major character-related 'reveal' of the new series. After a further flash the survivors are greeted by an almighty storm, and paddle ashore. Our attention is suddenly turned to a small group of people on a circular raft, who appear to be speaking French. They spot something just out of reach, a figure on a piece of debris. Pulling him closer whilst facedown, (so as to delay seeing his face until the music kicks in,) we see that the man is Jin, who's been un-knowingly time travelling for the past few days. His rescuers are of course a lovely 1988 round faced Danielle and her team of scientist explorers, and it seems after four years of spouting mental stories from her little island shack we're finally going to see her backstory.

The details of her past, or that which we know about it, are quite sketchy. We know that her crew got the 'sickness', and that a chap called Montand lost his arm. Then apparently they all started killing each other. But this was way back in season one, where the details of the island's past and mythology hadn't been thought through yet. Since then we've got Purges and Incidents, Hostiles and Hatches coming out of our ears, and it was never quite sure how Danielle's vague story fitted in between them. More confusing was her relationship to Benry Gale, who seemed to be the father of her daughter Alex. In season four, before watching her get a bullet in the head, Ben confesses that he 'stole' Alex as a baby from an 'insane French woman', excusing the writers for some elements of the contradicting plot. Her story might be false, or elaborated. Whichever, it'll be interesting to see how they weave it into the rest of the island events. Are the whispers she hears in the woods our time-travelling survivors? Are our hero's somehow involved in Alex's kidnapping?

It was a nice comic touch to have Jin land on a beach again, not speaking the language of those around him. After finally learning enough English to discuss bomb defusal in season four, he's time travelled back to season two thematically. His understandable confusion, and from the way Montand was acting a bit agro toward him, leads me to think we're going to find the reason for the frenchman's arm falling off by the end of the next episode.

Lost s05e03 - Discussion - Lock, Stock and a funeral

I think we can call them 'flash-middle-backs', these leaps back to three years previous that make up the third narrative timeline in season five of Lost. The gap between 2005's rescue and 2007's imminent returning excursion is being filled in much the way Flashbacks did for all characters' lives pre-crash. So now we get to see that Desmond knocked that Penny up pretty sharpish on his return, and that the island's magnetism hasn't harmed his plentiful scottish seed. Cue plenty of 'I love you Penny's, and a happy audience. As I've said before, Desmond has become the stable heart of the show. Where others have dabbled in prescription medication or become a hired mercenary, he's still just trying to be 'a great man'.

Desmond sets sail to Oxford via London, as obviously it's a suburb of the city. He parks his boat on the Thames, and before you can say 'cor blimey Mary Poppins' he's amongst the worst English accents television has to offer. What is it with Lost and the British? It seems an intelligently constructed show, but does no-one British live in Hawaii at all to give them some advice? If you use the word 'honour' in a poster for the Scottish army, there's a 'u' in it for fucks sake. Pubs don't look like 'Irish' pubs in the US, and certainly don't have Union Flags draped over the walls unless it's good old BNP meeting-place. Desmond does suffer from National stereotyping in that being scottish he's earthy, honest and a drunk, but certainly isn't written as shamelessly hammy as the people he encounters, who appear to be either cockneys or horribly toitey posh people. I hate to reciprocate in stereotypes, but are American scriptwriters and casting agents' entire knowledge of the UK based on watching Richard Curtis and Guy Richie films?

The woman Daniel seems to have left comatosed, and presumably drifting in time, is named Theresa. Is this the same Theresa that was Boon's nanny during the 90s, who died going up and down the stairs? He might have only briefly mentioned that back in season one, but as I've said previously this season is aimed purely at the eagle-eyed nerd. If nationality and hair colour are significant hints at character backstory I'm sure their actual names are moreso.

On-island the survivors are mistaken for the US army-men who have apparently confronted the 'native' islanders recently whilst trying to carry out Hydrogen bomb tests. This explains why their rifles and knives have been knocking about on the island since season two. Goodwin's knife was 'US army standard', back when we gave a fuck about the tail section survivors. It also explains pretty much all of that season's 'hatch' plot in a couple of lines of dialogue. The bomb dangling precariously on string must be buried as it has a leak. It will best be contained behind concrete and underground, and be released periodically every 108 minutes to the music of Mama Cass.

It'd be funny if during these 'flashbacks' they try to explain away other long-standing mysteries of the show very quickly and dismissively. Imagine if we stumble upon the primitive 'hostile' colony that communicates between tribes using smoke signals. Daniel Faraday Quantum Leaps into the scene and drops something scientific into the fire. Explosions occur, and he creates the smoke monster!

I'm being cynical of course, which is inappropriate for Desmond episodes because he's by far the most genuine and lovely character in the show. When watching this installment I was chopping onions at the time, which explains the odd 'time-displacement' occurrence that happened near the end of the episode where my eyes began producing water. Whilst arguing with Penny, Des reveals that he named his child Charlie after our favourite Hobbit Martyr. He died so that everyone else could survive, let us not forget. However, part of the premonition that lead to his death involved Claire getting on a helicopter too. Desmond not only carries guilt, but the knowledge that his involvement in this story is far from over.

On the island Locke is once again taking matters into his own hands, marching into mini-Otherville to demand to speak to the never-aging Richard Eyeliner. Just as he said himself in the future, Dicky doesn't remember Locke at all. He needs more convincing of Locke's leadership skills than the old 'Your future self told me' line. Locke tells him to go and witness his own birth in two years, and hands over the compass future-Rich gave to him. This means the compass is officially stuck in a time loop! Richard will keep it for the whole fifty years before handing it to Locke again, soon after which he'll hand it back again. Whatever that things made of it too doesn't age. Perhaps it's ability to last forever will at some point lead to an explanation about Alpert.

The chap called Jones is indeed a young Widmore, as predicted last week. He's a very angry young man who's not afraid of snapping a comrade's neck for the good of Otherdom. This also gives an explanation as to why Locke couldn't shoot him, if we are to believe their time-travelling adventures can never interfere and alter things they know to happen in the future. Locke doesn't say anything to Widmore of significance about his future though, perhaps because the news he has to endure fifteen years playing playing Jim Robinson before getting a decent acting role will cause him to snap his own neck.

The origin of more familiar characters are revealed when Daniel gets escorted off to the bomb site by an austere tight-lipped English-accented Other. She says he looks familiar and comments on his continual stares in her direction. Turns out Daniel's not demonstrating his lack of commitment to his just-revealed love Charlotte, and that it's a family resemblance he's checking the girl out for. She's his mother, the one-day Ring lady and basement-dwelling scientist friend of Ben. This being Lost, I'd hazard a guess that his father is somewhere on-island currently too. My money is on him being Widmore, for the following reason.

All three 'freightees' were born on the island. Miles was indeed the baby in Chang's crib in the first episode, and Charlotte stated she was in the season four finale. Seeing as in 2004 no-one's able to live through pregnancy on-island I'd guess these characters were the last babies that did. Their significance is the same reason the Oceanic Six must return to the island, as there must be some rules in the universe about not being able to 'create' life on an island that moves in time. Anything that's created has to stay within the crazy little world of the island, and so these three must return.

Charlotte's got a nosebleed now though, which doesn't look good. She's just been told by Daniel that he's very much in love with her, which is normally indicative that her plot loose-ends are being tied up and she's ready to be being bumped off.

Lost s05e02 - Discussion - Who Framed Hugo Rayes?

The second episodes of seasons of Lost are often hugely disappointing. After the jaw-dropping-ness of seeing they've crashed on the island/someone lives in the hatch/they've been captured in cages/they're going to be rescued the story must quickly address the lesser plotlines of the show and tell us what the B-Team are up to. So in the past we have had to endure such excitement as two men stranded on a raft, more about Kate being a fugitive and finding out that Sun once dropped an ornament. This time around though the 'B' team is full of 'A' characters, except they're in the less-fun future/present day. Story-line wise they're invincible, and so make it less thrilling viewing. I'm pretty sure no-ones about to die on the island either, but their predicament seems more dire and therefore, sadly, more awesome. Let's hope this way of thinking doesn't overflow into 'real life' and I end up going base jumping.

To summarise the off-island action, Hurley ends up taking the blame for Sayid's murderous actions under the instruction of Ben. He's confessed to the cops now and so we're going to have to endure a whole episode of plot-diversion where they break him out or there's a big trial. They'll dismiss his conspiracy theories as the mutterings of a madman, stealing whole chunks of dialogue from Terminator 2. "You're the one living in a fucking dream, Widmore!" Sayid nearly dies, but clearly won't. He's got the doctor with the worst track record in successful surgery looking after him, and this time he's coming off drugs'n'booze.

Ben's been visiting mysterious folk, carting Locke's body around in the boot. They stop off at a butcher just so that for a moment viewers think he's going to have ole Jeremey Bentham turned into chops. Perhaps if the island will cure Locke of dying anyway, being in pieces isn't much more of a challenge. It does mean it'll be easier carrying him around though, as the whole Oceanic Six could share the load. Plus, if they ate him it'd be a great way of smuggling him through customs. Ben ends his discussion with the Ladybutcher by pointing out again that "This is really fucking important as if we fail we're all dead", unnecessarily reminding the viewer that whilst not-fun or interesting, the off-island plot is the most important one. I'm getting tired of his speeches frankly. He tries to imbue the end of every scene with huge gravitas and grave significance, but ends up over-egging that particular plot-pudding. He also fetches a mysterious package from the airvent in his hotel room, which I'm only mentioning for it's reminiscence to a scene from a popular film of last year and the picture I got to mock-up: No Country for Old Ben.

On-island the remaining survivors get significantly reduced in numbers as they're attacked by various unknown groups. Neil Frogurt, mentioned in previous episodes and seen once pre-season five here, does a brilliant impression of Artz from season one and gets killed just one episode into his Lost career. He too dies whilst being annoying and shouting at a cast regular, a crime that must be considered on a par with getting caught drink driving by the shows producers. Other 'redshirt's die too, and run into trees burning. Sadly, the show stopped bothering with funerals way back in season two, and so the scene serves only to cull this fast-paced fifth season of it's unnecessary baggage. It's kind of like when people start to leave a workplace with increasing regularity. At first they get a card, a gift, a dinner and drinks, but by the time half the staff have fucked off people haven't got the energy to make a fuss. I'd wager they'll be an official "We're the only ones left" in a couple of episodes once Rose and Bernard finally die.

Their assailants weapon choice suggests our survivors could be being attacked by the earliest inhabitants of the island, and that they've slipped back into the very-past. are these the 'Hostiles', much referred to but never really seen? Well, no. Or at least we're not in Black Rock-era past just yet. The appearance of some Dharma-esque uniformed chaps in the woods suggests this isn't the early 1900s. They appear to have bad British accents, an affliction the show normally inflicts on off-islanders. Taking into consideration last week's posting about new character accent/skin colour judgements, many assume this chap to be a young Charles Widmore. He did claim it was his island after all, which suggested he'd been there before Ben ever had. Is he one of DHARMA's founders, or The Others/Hostiles? His jacket says 'Jones', but could be standard issue attire for someone who gets recruited and wants to remain unknown. Anyway, we barely have time to contemplate this because Locke turns up with a knife, again. Like Ben with his speeches, this is getting tired. His routine at the moment is to spend four or five episodes having a 'walkabout', then rock up in the middle of a crisis to kill someone. Perhaps it's the writer's get-out clause for difficult plot strands or awkward situations.

Another character who's being judged by their accent is the old lady who turns up at the end of the episode. She's using some exciting science tool that draws lines just to prove she's a scientist, and then walks upstairs to greet a familiar face, Benry Gale. Keen readers will instantly recognise her as Mrs Hawkings, the 'ring lady' from Desmond's first time-travelling episode. But this is Lost, and so every facet of her being is a clue as to her connection to characters or events in the show. She's a scientist, and in England.

**Puts on investigating hat**

Scientist.
Woman.
English.
Old.
Mothers are old.
She's someone's mother who's a scientist.
She's someone's mother who's a scientist that lives near(-ish) London.

Daniels Mother is the woman Desmond is looking for.
Case. Closed.

C+ Lost. Must try harder.

Lost s05e01 - Discussion - "Great Scott!"

Or "Oh Boy", the catchphrase of Back to The Future's televisual cousin Quantum Leap. That's right folks. After years of being teased with characters who could maybe or possibly have travelled a little bit in time, even if it's just their consciousness, we now have full blown Delorean driving, Phonebooth riding, Crater-in-the-carpark leaving TIME TRAVEL! If the labyrinthine plot of Lost events on and off-island so far wasn't enough to cope with, they've now opened up a forth dimension for potential mind-fuckery.

Bringing this aspect to the show comes with it's consequences though, as I'm sure it'll lose ratings as it slips one further step from a drama the casual viewer can watch and enjoy, and one closer to it's hardcore following of nerds. Notice that I didn't make a distinction in sex there though, which the producers of the show apparently do. The decision to have Sawyer topless for the first two episodes was to try to maintain the female audience's interest during these romance plot-lacking times. I don't know about other males reading, but when I'm worried women might not be paying attention, the first thing I do is take off my cardigan. I often do presentations in just my vest and socks, especially when talking about the more technical aspects of my work. Perhaps they should have got Jennifer Aniston to arrive on the island instead, so that she could just whisper 'This is the science bit, concentrate' before each time Daniel speaks.

Regardless, all that I'm concerned about is how the time-travelling process has made Sawyer put on weight. I guess that Davidoff money buys a lot of pies. Either that or there's a plot-hole, and we won't get to see how he was diverted to the time-travelling DHARMA bakery until Season six. Anyway, I feel I'm jumping in time in myself with this account of the episode so let's start at the beginning.

We finally get to see Mister Wickmund/Candle/Halliwax rendered at a better quality than crackly Super8 or cine-film can achieve, and learn his real name: Pierre Chang. Hardly exciting stuff, but what follows definitely is. After a nice sequence showing how his breakfast routine on island isn't as perfect as Desmond's in the season two opener, we see his filming of an orientation film, complete with Sawyer-alike cameraman, interrupted by some kind of disturbance at the Orchid station. Upon arriving there Chang gets to show audiences that he's not employed as the face of DHARMA just for the 'alternative medicine' baggage his ethnicity brings with him, and gets to prove his scientist worth yelling about the possibilities of time travel to a burly man digging the DHARMA Tunnel.

Chang Wickdlewax has a baby, the suspected identity of which demonstrates Lost's fanbase's lazy habit of always jumping on race as a method of grouping characters. In the past we've had the black child in the house that's visited by Miles being the son of also-black Mister Ecko, and Walt himself being a younger Ecko somehow. There's even been suggestions that Sun and Jin are related to Chang previously, or that he is a rival or her father's company. Maybe it's because the show does often make huge assumptions about stereotypes, or that they know that they've got an audience that will. In this instance, many assume the baby will grow up to be also-asian Miles, and his mother is obviously being considered a sister/mother/clone of Sun. I'm in no way suggesting the writers have some hidden agenda with the show though, the characters' other physical qualities also define other tangible aesthetic groups. Back in season one when the then-monikered 'Sea-Billies' stole Walt from the raft, the origin of the blonde woman who threw the device that blows up their raft was under much speculation, but it never really amounted to more than scouring the cast for other yellow-haired folk. 'Molotov woman' was rumoured to be an older Shannon, or Claire sans baby.

Whether or not all these connections made by fans will ultimately turn out to be true, the show is definitely made with the understanding that these things are implied. When Juliet turned up in Season 3 looking similar to Jack's ex-wife, she tells him that it's no coincidence that Ben sent a blonde that is reminiscent of her to try to win him over. Similarly, the producers deliberately cast ever actor because of their ethnicity, hair colour, height, weight and age because in a show where the minutiae of each episode is poured over, these factors are as legitimate as a prop or some incidental music, and as important as a line of dialogue.

Good grief, I'm seven paragraphs in and the opening credits haven't even run yet. Chang talks about 'rules that can't be broken', echoing Ben's discussion with Jim Robinson about the murder of his daughter by tiny-mouthed Keemy, and shoots down the DHARMA-driller's suggestion of killing Hitler. Seeing as none of the cast of Lost have moustaches we can assume that we won't be able to knock-off any of his descendants, clones or younger-versions-of either. Or at least not till Season six.

But we knew all this, and nothing so far is a great revelation. My jaw is very much shut. I'm hoping to get more than someone just talking about time travel this series, and so far nothing particularl... HANG ON! Isn't that DANIEL from the freighter and now island? HOW DID HE? WHA? Is this this the present or the past? To echo Charlie's series premier closer, "Guys, where the fuck are we?"

It's all quite simple. It seems the Islanders are now floating in time, or that the island is. But not the Others. Locke is, despite being an Other. Richard is at some points, and apparently not at others. There are rules about it that mean nothing can be changed, except Desmond is exempt from this and can. Perhaps it's his game, like when people play Monopoly and everyone has to accept the ridiculous variations by which everyone plays it. Do you have to auction up a house if you land on it and don't want to buy it? Or it's his birthday, and so no-one minds if he sneaks a few extra houses on Old Kent Road. They're shit anyway, and there's no way he's going to win. It's like that, but time-travel. Simple.

Because it's so complex, you have to be real fan to even grasp the basic events that take place in this episode. With every time the survivors end up in, the surroundings they find themselves in denote different periods of the show and it's mythology. If there's a hatch they could be in any time from the 1970s. If it's got Desmond in it it's 2001-2004. If it's uncovered it's 2004. If it's blown up it's post 2004. If there are barracks it could be any time since the 60s, but if the people living there aren't wearing DHARMA uniforms it's post-purge and therefore post 1993. If the barracks are empty it's post 2005. If you're still reading and haven't just skimmed through my listing of dates and events, thanks very much.

This all makes figuring out what's going on on-island quite difficult, but for the possibilities in the storytelling I think it's worth it. If the islanders are taking part in events we've previously seen from other perspectives, and bearing in mind the much-mentioned point that 'nothing can be changed', who's to say they've not been seen previously, creeping about so as not to be seen in the background. Remember back in season 2 when the tail-section survivors considered The Others to be mysterious, almost ghost-like beings that walked barefoot and didn't leave tracks? That didn't turn out to fit with how the Crazy Cult Member Others turned out to be, but what if it's because there were Other Other's? If the time-traveling survivors have to be careful so as not to be noticed, what better way to creep around than barefoot?

This also puts a different perspective on other events in the show's past. If the survivors succumb to the obvious want to change the fate of some 815-ers, who's to say they're not related to the whispers that are heard in the show, often around times of dramatic incident? Maybe it's Sawyer, Juliet etc standing behind trees going "Pssssssst!!! Shannon! Someone's coming to fucking shoot you!" But, you know, a bit more mysterious and etherial. Maybe when past characters re-appear in what we have generally dismissed as imaginary or dream sequences, it's an actual message from the future and not just another day of paid-work for Boon.

Someone who seems to have moved from a guest start to cast regular is Richard 'Eyeliner' Alpert, who turns up during Locke's travels to pull a bullet out of his leg. Locke's journey seems to have similarities with Desmond's in previous seasons, as it is hinted that there's some connection to his consciousness as he jumps through time. He appears to be affected by 'other' Locke's, at different time periods or locations. When he approaches the crashed drug-plane and gets shot in the leg by Ethan, is this the reason his legs failed back in season one when he was in the same location? Were those wounds echoes from the past? When Alpert hands him a compass it links their encounter up with the one he had/will have/is currently having as a child when he is offered the different items and asked "Which one do you already own?" Are these events happening simultaneously, or will Locke end up regressed to a child as his next destination in time?

As for the off-island activity, I couldn't really give a fuck. Just as last season some of the cast were untouchable once we realised they were destined to leave the island, now that they have to go back we all know they're going to have to survive. No matter how many awesome killer washing-machines Sayid can kill people with, it's never going to be exciting seeing the characters run around like a sub-plot from 24. I'm sure it'll be thrilling in parts, but this feels very much like the 'let's lock them in cages for six episodes' plan from the beginning of season three. Plus, Jack should have kept that beard.

Lost - Pre-Season 5 Recap - There's probably no Jacob, now stop worrying and enjoy your life

There is just over a week before Lost returns to our screens for it’s 5th season, so I thought I’d get my giant icy cogs turning and crank up this email group for another year of theories, rumours and commentary.

**Takes a deep breath**

When we last saw our heroes, six of them were living miserable lives in the future (our past) having escaped the Awesome Magical Island (in the ‘quite past’) on a rubber dinghy. After much deliberation and debate amongst this group it was revealed that one of them was baby Aaron, and the others were Kate, Jack, Sun, Hurley and Sayid. Benry Gale escaped the island too, but that was by time-travelling from the ‘quite-past’ 2005 to the ‘relatively recent past’ 2007, which means he’s not one of the Oceanic 6 as no-one knows about him. Besides, he wasn’t on the plane and time-travelling is cheating.

Also not on the plane, Desmond has returned to his beloved Penny, who in the 6 months off-screen is probably now pregnant with a son who everyone will assume to be Jack. Or Desmond himself. Somehow.

Sayid is a big fat murderer, working for Ben killing all the people in connection to a chap called Jim Robinson Widmore. Quite why ‘he’ isn’t the one in hiding seeing as he’s running around shooting people escapes me. Perhaps him and James Bond can form a duo of Very Famous People Who do Secretive Jobs.

Sun is pissed off because her husband was blown up on a boat by Widmore’s people. She’s also pissed off at her Dad because he made her husband a really nasty piece of work who went around threatening people in return for money. She vows to solve all these problems by blackmailing her father with threats and making friends with Jimmy Widmore. I’m pretty sure she has a plan but we know nothing about it.

Jack and Kate went out for a bit in the gap between the ‘quite past’ and the ‘middling past’, but he got hooked on drugs’n’booze by the time we saw him again in the ‘relatively recent past’. Plus he grew an awesome beard, but she still wouldn’t take him back. She’s probably still in love with Sawyer, who sacrificed himself, kind of, so that the others could survive and escape on a helicopter. She’s bringing up Claire’s baby, who disappeared with Jack’s and her’s dad. Claire isn’t in this season though, as she’s probably doing The Hills Have Eyes 3 or something, so all we’re going to see of her is ghostly apparitions come the finale. The baby saw far too much of his surrogate mother looking hot for him to not have serious oedipal issues come puberty, so I’m putting my money on him somehow growing up to be Jacob. Or Jack’s dad.

Hurley went proper mental, so now he lives in the same institute he was in prior to the crash. He sees dead people all the time, which is a brilliant ruse to get dead ex-cast members to do guest spots. Walt came to see him and he was considerably taller than before, and his voice had broken, but this was okay because this is the ‘relatively near past’ and people are a little older there.

Locke turned up in the ‘relatively recent past’, but he was dead and no-one went to his funeral. His name is apparently Jeremy Bentham, which could either have been something they’d planned to do for years, or something they had to pretend they knew about when high-res images of the article detailing the at that time ‘unknown’ man in the coffin’s name started appearing on the internet. Regardless, he died after having visited everyone and telling them about the really bad stuff that’s going on on the island to their old friends.

So now they have to go back. All of them. And I know I’m repeating my write-up of the finale here but if that includes Locke does it include Walt? Also, does it include all the people who are blown up in the ocean? Is Walt going to have to go and sift his father’s remains from the sea before returning with it in a sack on his back, C3P0/Chewbacca style?

On the island Locke is still alive and the head of The Others. He doesn’t know it yet but one of his flock, the perpetually eye-liner-ed Richard Alpert, has been following him his whole life. He’s still convinced that the island is his destiny, and that he’s it’s Jesus/Obama, so doesn’t intend to leave anytime soon. Likewise for Charlotte, who we don’t really care much about as they had to cut episodes explaining her backstory from the last season due to the writer’s strike. It turns out she was born on the island, and is back looking for her home, so her ‘C.S.Lewis’ name and Narnia connection wasn’t a coincidence. She’ll probably turn out to be Ben’s daughter, from that girl he was in love with as a child. Not that they had baby when she was a child. That’s just wrong.

Other than that there’s constantly nervous Daniel and angry Miles. Miles can speak to ghosts, which will be useful when the dead characters are making guest appearances with slightly longer hair. Daniel can travel in time, kind of, but his most useful asset is bringing a sense of panic and stress to the group with his wobbly voice.

I forgot to mention Frank, the least interesting new member of the team and the one most unlikely to be in Season 5. He rocked up on a boat, landed on the island, rescued seven people, got on another boat and probably won’t be seen again. I hope this is because he’s signed up to star in Planet Terror 2, as I saw the first one the other day and he was the best thing in it.

So now, the new season will fill the gaps between the ‘relatively recent past’ and the ‘present’ and the ‘wherever the fuck the island went’.

**Breathes out**

Here’s the trailer:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=VinrDDWPIjg


Namaste!

Lost s04e13/14 discussion - Titanic 2: I'll take Korea Sun!

We’ve now all had about two weeks to watch, re-watch and generally digest the 2 hour (if you watch it being broadcast) finale of Lost, so here’s my final despatch of the Season, and year. First off, in general I loved it. Not as awesome as previous finale’s, but I’ll get to that later on.

Every Lost finale has to be the most action packed of the season. Whether it’s Artz/the hatch/the raft blowing up, hatch explosions, or all the shooting, dynamite and car collisions of last year... They’re always going to resort to the most easily crowd-pleasing events at a time when our cinema screens are doing likewise. And now, it seems, we get a one-man-fighting-machine every year too! After showing us “that break dancing thing you do with your legs.”, as Hurley put it, we now get a three minute punch up between old torture-hands Sayid and Keamy small-mouth. Pretty awesome stuff, were it not for the fact that ultimately he loses the fight and has to be helped out by the one male cast member who wears eyeliner. I foresee the very last episode of Lost consisting of nothing but three hours of Sayid going all ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ on a bunch of Widmore minions.

Another character who similarly has a dubious past that seems to have been rectified rather hastily is Sawyer, who this episode finally commits the act of martyrdom needed to push him fully into ‘acceptable poster boy’ for all the teenage girls watching. Aside from the future episode where he cradles a baby whilst riding a white horse along a beach away from the burning orphanage, I don’t see what more he could really do to stir get the chicks’ loins a-stirring, frankly. Juliet was drunk already when he Davidoff-ed his way out of the ocean. All he has to do is explain how he sacrificed his own survival for the good of his friends, and hey-presto, more island pregnancies! Oh, and in case you don’t have super-hearing he whispers “I have a daughter in Albuquerque, you need to find her. Tell her I'm sorry" to Kate. I quite liked the way this scene tied into the Flash-forward where Kate obviously goes to see the baby, to Jack’s annoyance. Having said that, on the helicopter, I think it would have been a funnier solution, and a return to the ‘badass’ Saywer, if he were to whisper to Kate, snog the face off her and then push Hurley out.

When, Sawyer-less, they landed on the freighter, it was nice to see that Hurley didn’t even get out to help with the re-fuelling. He is a fat bastard, which to some degree, must have come from being a bit lazy, so it’s nice to see that when it comes to a situation of helping-out-all-your-friends-or-you-may-all-die, he sticks to the character he’s developed for four years and stays put.

There’s no way Jin is dead. Michael is dead, and there’s a link about that later on, but no major cast member gets to leave on Lost without the audience getting to see it happen, or the internet becomes all a-flap with ‘theories’; the currency that keeps the show alive during these long summer months. He’ll pop up in Season 6 with Claire, in Jacob’s crackers cabin, or up Jacob’s ladder, or in his Creek.

Keamy is dead, his small mouth breathed it’s final breath and the boat blew up. Was anyone else surprised by this ‘revelation’, about that being the explanation for the iPod Nano attached to his arm? I think we predicted this three emails ago, and it seems sloppy for the show’s standards for them to think it wasn’t quite obvious. What I thought they would do was have the timing between Keamy dying and the boat explode lead to some big revelation about the differences in time between the island and the boat. I know people are saying ‘but wasn’t he miles underground, wouldn’t that signal have stopped as he went down in the lift’, which is a valid point. But in the world of SCI-FI, which is much more important than radio signals as it is MAGICAL, the two places were supposed to have been existing in some exciting way regarding time that Daniel just ‘ummed’ and ‘you see’-ed about all season.

Regardless, he’s dead, and Ben killed him, which was jolly dramatic. What I don’t get though, is Ben’s change of heart that the people on the boat are no-longer anybody to care about. Wasn’t he warning Michael four episodes previously about how ‘innocent people’ don’t deserve to die? I don’t buy it. It’s almost like he’s been built up now as this oddly moral character in the show, like Locke has but from the other end of the good/bad spectrum. So now the writers just think it’s great complex character development to have him do morally questionable things, as they know we know he’s on the road to salvation as A. Good. Person. and so every act of ‘bad’ he does on the way will have people theorising furiously. I just think it’s shock for shock’s sake, and that he’s just a bit selfish and a dick.

Ben does move the island though, and even has a little cry while he does so. As I mentioned in my last email, he did indeed ‘leap’ straight from The Orchid to the desert in 2005, at the cost of apparently never being able to return to the island. He spins the ridiculous giant Wagon Wheel one notch, and the whole place disappears from view in a way not dissimilar to dropping a new Widget into dashboard in Mac OS X. Is this possible in real life? No. Does it fit into any kind of theory, storyline or theme of the show so far? No. But I’ve been watching this show avidly for four years now, and have long since given up on any hope of some kind of logical, sensible all-encompassing solution it. It’s very silly, and it could well be marked as the final jump over the shark that the show makes.

For many viewers, I can see this being the point from which they lose complete interest in Lost. As far as they are concerned the main characters have gotten off the island. The island itself has disappeared. What more is there to say or do? Two more seasons of megalomaniacs using their huge multi-national corporations to chase down a few Oceanic 6 fugitives across the globe? I can imagine when the show does return in Spring 2009 there will be a huge further drop in ratings, as the ‘mysterious air crash survival’ show just starts to look like any other high-gloss crime and espionage drama on US screens. And then there’ll be a huge resurgence of interest when in 2010 they do go back to the island, at which point critics will probably point out that it’s just replicating the raw, exciting mystery of the first season...

But let’s keep positive. We don’t know how and when the next season will even be set. I think it would be foolish to continue the ‘now’ narrative on-island as when the island is moved. So much has been said in the flash forwards about the off(, and briefly on,)-island events that it seems we need to jump forward and pick up the story at Grizzly Jack recruiting everyone to return. That way we can have NBA Walt rejoin the cast, get to see what the Locke-lead Others are up to versus the army of children Sawyer has fathered in the three years past. Then I guess we’ll find out about Jeremy Bentham, Widmore etc in flash ‘back’s explaining more about the huge global conspiracy that keeps Jim Robinson in acting roles.

Because. They. Have. To. Go. Back. All of them. Even Walt. And Locke’s body. What about Jin’s exploded body? Is someone going to have to carry his parts on their back for Season 5, a la Chewbacca and C3P0, until they return and the island ‘cures’ him of being blown up? What about Michael? Jesus, I don’t want to be the one who has to sift through the ocean to piece enough of his remains to chuck into a DHARMA rucksack before their return.

Some links
Michael is not happy about his short return, and calls ‘racism’. Finally, my two obsessions meet:
http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/05/30/harold-perrineau-not-happy-about-his-stint-on-lost/

They shot an extended scene of the Oceanic 6 Press meet-and-greet:
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/2008/05/extended-oceanic-press-release-scene.html

They also shot multiple reveals of ‘who is in the coffin’, to prevent spoilers:
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/2008/06/3-lost-endings-in-better-quality.html


Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed these 13 emails picking through the minutia of a television show that probably should have ended after it’s first season. I’ll be back in January 2009 to do the same with the 17 that air from then. If anyone has any suggestions to keep this Lost thread alive during the summer months, feel free to send anything.

See you in another life brothers and sisters.


PS - Thanks Tom for the Jacob jokes. And Michelle for the ‘Davidoff’ thing, as being a heterosexual man I really don’t know what it is.