S1Ep20 - Do No Harm (Jack's third flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello everyone,

This episode, "Do No Harm," was Jack's third flashback, and most people felt the flashbacks were quite useless, just like with Charlie's second
flashback sequence. My friend Michelle and I watched only the last 20 minutes of this episode in her apartment in New York due to a Tivo snafu (I think she was seriously worried that I would bludgeon her)... but all that mattered was that last segment anyway. But I DID watch the whole thing in its entirety once I returned to Chicago and realized that the build-up of tension with Jack's attempts to save Boone really did make a difference in my enjoyment of the episode.

So here we go...

1) First and foremost: Two miracles happened during this episode:
a) I liked the show even though Locke wasn't in it

and

b) I didn't hate Kate for once

2) Actually, there was even a third miracle, I felt sorry for Boone. He had a collapsed lung that was then punctured by Jack so he could breathe again, Jack and Sun had to painfully reset his leg, he had a blood transfusion courtesy of an URCHIN SPIKE which didn't look completely legit, and then to top it all off Jack was about to get medieval on his ass by chopping off his leg with the door of the luggage compartment?!?!?!?! Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaa? Were the writers just sitting there thinking up new crazy things to do to Boone? I guess they really hated his character, too.

3) Many people on the boards noted that there was absolutely no argument from Sawyer about giving up all of his alcohol. Granted, we didn't see what Kate said to him off-screen, but still.

4) Everyone agreed that Sun was a good nurse to Jack's Psycho Doctor.

5) Furthermore, everyone liked Jin in this episode. He seemed to be able
to calm down Claire, keep Charlie at bay during the delivery, and all around seemed nicer than usual... even communicating with Sun in the emergency situation.

6) I said it earlier and will say it again... in general, Jack's flashback served no purpose.
Only a few lame things to note:
a) Most people didn't think he actually got married because they didn't say the whole "man and wife" bit. I think he did get married but then obviously something happened between that flashback and the crash because he no longer is wearing a wedding ring and the wifey was not in any of the other two flashbacks.
b) The wifey had a big number 44 on her black and white jersey... many people wondering if 44 has significance... like perhaps the number of survivors that will be left on the island at the end of the season? Who knows, I've lost count of how many there are now.


7) Michael is lame because when Jack asks Hurley to get Michael to help him with Boone, Michael comes to help move Boone. But then when Jack's about to cut off Boone's leg, Michael eagerly takes the suggestion that he leave. Wimp!


8) Sayid and Shannon's get-away: Talk about the worst timing for a date EVER. I am actually surprised that she told him the truth about Boone. It will be interesting to see what happens moving forward.

And now on to the two BIG EVENTS of the episode:

9) Birth of the Anti-Christ?
Seriously, I want a show of hands... how many of you thought some alien/freak/devil baby was going to pop out? You KNOW you did!

When Kate said, "I can see the head!" I said to the TV, "Does it have horns!?!?!?!?!"

While the baby KIND OF appears normal (I still think it's freaky-looking), many people noted that its eyes were black. I'm not too sure about that... I think if it was meant to be evil they would make it look very obviously evil.

It was cute to see Charlie in an expectant father-type of role... and even Sawyer smiled when seeing the baby at the end. Also, TONS of new peeps were shown in that last scene around the baby... expect them to all be introduced soon or next season.

10) The Death of Boone
If you are expecting me to show any sort of sadness about this, then obviously you have read none of my other recaps. I don't want to drag Michelle down with me, but I have to say that we high-fived each other at
the end of the episode. : )

Once again - if you knew the writers felt that someone had to die or else "the stakes of the island wouldn't seem real,"... is there someone else you would've rather it had been? No. So stop judging me for the high-five.

11) Locke

Hmmm, Locke is in big trouble now.

12) The Score

The music at the end scene when there was no dialog and just the camera showing Claire and the baby and the crowd, and then Jack telling Sayid and Shannon what happened, and then Shannon crying over Boone - well, it's an awesomely sad tune and many people love it and are asking how they can get it. Unless the producers are complete fools, then I expect that they will be releasing the score on CD sometime soon. Then we can all sing along with "You All Everybody!", too... yay!

13) Best Lines of the Show

There were several:

Jack: "Hurley, I SWEAR TO GOD, IF YOU FAINT...!!!!!"

Sawyer to Claire: "Hey, Mamacita!" and then after she leaves, "She likes
me."

Hurley to Jack after the blood transfusion: "Whoa, Dude, you alright, man?
You're looking kinda Goth."

And my personal favorite:
Charlie explaining to Kate why Jack can't come deliver the baby: "He's pouring his OWN BLOOD into Boone right now."


14) Freaky things

The issue of Entertainment Weekly with the Lost guys on the cover was issue # 815. No lie. Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!


POSTS FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- Thank god he's dead and gone! I was getting tired of trying to figure out how a dude stranded on an island manages to apply his make up so skanky. I mean damn... I kinda wished that they chopped the leg. I kept waiting for the door to slam accidentally. - Did anyone else notice that Boone and Rose used the exact same words when releasing Jack from his promise? "I'm letting you off the hook." Rose said it in "Walkabout", when she and Jack were talking on the beach.
- Yeah, and Jack used Locke's line, "Don't tell me what I can't do!"
- The luggage carrier seems like a safe place to sleep in. I'd sleep in there… as long as his leg isn't in there.
- I was seriously freaking out over the leg guillotine sequence. Wanted to look away but could not do it. Then Boone gives in and dies.
- I just noticed watching it a second time, Jack's tattoo is not there in the flashback, he is not wearing sleeves in the tux shop and there is no tattoo.
- As for Claire's baby, everyone seems to be all, "Oh, how sweet. Claire has a healthy baby boy. Let's all stand around googly-eyed and swoon b/c her baby is all of ours," or whatever. Don't forget, for all we know this baby is the Anti-Christ and could just as well slay them all with its demonic power.
- Why do people think Locke "sacrificed" Boone? He couldn’t move; they wanted to know what was inside the plane. I don’t recall Boone complaining about going to check it out. Locke was yelling at Boone to get OUT of the plane when it started to slip. Did your version of the episode have Locke stroking his black goatee going "Yessss Boone! Stay in the plane! It won’t fall! Good, my servant! Talk on the radio some more... YESSSSS!" Because mine didn’t. Locke would have gone up there himself if it weren’t for his paralysis. Oh wait... that was faked right? And to cover it all up, he staged the scene with the needle and hot coal to his foot to fool the viewers. Because he knows it’s on a TV show in an alternate reality. Seriously gang, the tinfoil hats are screwed on too tight.
- The numbers on the back of the jumper "44":
4 + 4 = :The amount of beers I consumed during the show
4 x 4 = :The amount of people I had over to watch the show
4 / 4 = :The position of Lost in the ratings
4 - 4 = :The amount of people who will care about this post

- e

S1Ep19 - Deus Ex Machina (Locke's second flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Seriously, where do I even begin?

Yes, I was in my glory during Locke's second flashback episode, Deus Ex Machina. However, I'm actually pretty overwhelmed now. There's so much stuff going on across the message boards that there's no way I will ever be able to summarize it all and I feel like a failure. But I will attempt to hit the major points, and have pasted in an excerpt from the boards as well.

So here are the new things to ponder:

1) Beginning flashback scenes

The game Mousetrap (that game rocks, by the way, does it not?) was most likely a not-so-subtle reference to what's going on with the survivors on the island or maybe specifically to what's going on with Locke - they are trapped and part of some larger game or phenomenon.

Many people think the young boy who came up to him in the store was Boone.
People think the timing of this flashback was about 15 or 16 years ago (based on freezing the frame when it showed the papers on Locke's mom's psych ward visits) and the boy looked around 9 so it could definitely be Boone.

Did you catch when the woman asked where the footballs were, and Locke mentioned they were in aisles 8 and 15? Even I missed that, so I won't yell at you if you did, too.

When Locke is going to his car in the parking lot, some eagle-eyed viewers might have caught the flyer he pulled off of his windshield and briefly looked at. I missed this one, too! I'm losing it, man. But upon second viewing I saw that it was a flyer for a "Lost Dog." Various theories on what, if anything, this could mean, but Locke did tell a story to Sawyer about a dog who came to live with his family after his sister died and then vanished... but it seems like that would've been a lot earlier.

And no, it wasn't a poster for Vincent (Walt's dog) - he lived in Australia, remember?

2) Boone REALLY sucks

I was watching this episode in NYC at my friend Michelle's, as I will do again for the next episode, busily jotting down notes. In the first scene where Boone and Locke are building the trebuchet and Boone is asking stupid questions, I could not stop myself from blurting out, "BOONE SUCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSS!!!!" and then continued to scribble notes. Michelle looked over at me writing and wondered aloud incredulously, "Are you WRITING DOWN that Boone sucks???"
"Yes, I am." I reply.
It is my duty to keep reminding my faithful readers of just how worthless he is.

The trebuchet fails to break the hatch and Boone notices the big shard sticking out of Locke’s leg... the paralysis... is… returning!!!!!

3) Immaculate Conception = More Daddy Issues

Locke learns the mystery woman is his mother and goes to have lunch with her. There, her craziness becomes evident as she talks about his immaculate conception. I seriously thought for a while there that he WAS part of some government experiment a la The Bourne Identity/Supremacy and that was the reason he was such a great hunter and outdoorsman, etc., but alas, that wasn't the case.

A PI is hired to look into Locke’s birth parents. His mother is schizophrenic and has spent time in and out of psychiatric wards. Just WHAT psych ward, you may wonder? Oh, hmmmm.... let me think here a minute... yes, the EXACT SAME psych ward where Hurley went to hang with Lenny (and probably was also a resident himself at one point). The Santa Rosa psych ward. Some dorks on the board figured that out, so I can't take credit. But they had compared Locke's mom's files to the badge that Hurley had on when he visited Lenny and supposedly it's the same place though I have not done the research to confirm this. I don't doubt it, though.

Locke finds his father and when he tells his dad that his mom said he was immaculately conceived, the father says, "Well then I must be God!"
Later he is hooked to a dialysis machine, prompting many people to wonder if the title of this episode, roughly translated into God from the Machine, has to do with all of that.

Don't be too proud of yourself if you called that Locke was going to end up giving his dad his kidney because it was the most obvious thing in the world. Also obvious was the fact that his dad was going to bail after the operation.

No, the episode did not show why Locke became paralyzed. He was only paralyzed for 4 years before the crash and they went to great lengths to make him seem much younger than that in this flashback, so I think we have yet to see what ended him up in the wheelchair.

4) Locke's freaky dream

Even if you're a grown man it's OK to admit that you were at least slightly scared by Locke's dream sequence which looked like it was straight out of The Shining.

From this dream sequence have arisen many questions:
- Did Locke therefore KNOW that Boone was going to end up getting hurt?
He told Boone about the Theresa part to get him to believe that the dream was a sign that they go on the search for the plane... but he neglected to tell Boone the part about him appearing all bloody...
- Did Boone actually KILL Theresa? It didn't seem that way to me... he said she broke her neck. But obviously he is carrying around guilt about it.
- Why exactly were they meant to find the plane? All they found in and around it was drug-smuggling paraphernalia as well as the drugs themselves (watch out, Charlie! Go back to Hobbiton now!). So was Boone meant to send out the transmission, or was Boone meant to die? And was the light at the end in the hatch directly related at all with the events that occurred when they found the plane? I'm not sure. Theories are discussed in the message board section below.
- Supposedly Boone's tank top had the Chinese characters for 48 upside-down on them. Chapter 48 in Watership Down (that Sawyer was reading before) is also called Dea Ex Machina (similar to this episode's title). 48 was also the original number of survivors, I believe.

5) Locke and Boone

- People are debating whether or not Locke was ever REALLY paralyzed. They think that maybe it was all in his head. I think they are jumping to conclusions based on 1) the fact that we weren't shown that part yet on the flashback and people can't deal with it and 2) he could walk and then not walk and then walk again in this episode and that confused people. My theory is that the Island DIDN'T WANT him to go up into the plane, for whatever reason, and so his paralysis was temporarily brought back. Either because the Island knew the plane in the tree would crash and the people in it would be killed, or because it needed to test Locke again, or who knows.

- The whole "Locke is evil" theory is rearing its ugly head again and I will have NO PART OF IT. Just because your parents are really screwed up does not mean that you will be... and just because you wanted to take a chat line phone operator you've never met (from his first flashback) with you on vacation doesn't mean you're crazy... and just because you played war games and called your friends by code names in the break room at your lifeless job (also from Walkabout) doesn't mean you have delusions of being a secret agent or military hero... and just because you sacrifice the only person who completely trusts you in order to get what you want doesn't mean you are selfish, and just because you lie about how that same friend got hurt and then bail out after you drop him off back at camp doesn't mean... well... hmmm, I'm not making a good case for Locke here now, am I? I call that Jack and/or the rest of the camp goes AFTER LOCKE with a vengeance very, very soon... (by the way, nothing that I said above should lead you to believe that I think Locke is evil because I DON'T and I STILL LOVE HIM and he is THE BEST character EVER. End of tirade.)

- Will Boone die in the next episode? The boards are split. There have been many "spoilers" about this issue and I reveal nothing by saying that the spoilers could be read to both prove it's Boone who dies, or prove it's one of a few other people. So basically, no one really knows. I think he's outta here. And I will certainly be happy about it. Come on... if one of the main 14 HAS to go, are you saying you DON'T want it to be Boone? If you are saying that, then please reply immediately to this and you are forever banned from this mailing list. The people who think it won't be Boone are 1) 14-year-old girls who think he's cute or 2) people who think the writers wouldn't be that obvious and that the previews are intentionally tricking us (which could be right). So far the only people I know who don't WANT it to be Boone are the 14-year-old girls.

- Locke actually told Boone that he was in the wheelchair. It is quite significant that he opened up to Boone. Although, he might have told Walt in the pilot episode, no one knows. Did Locke tell Boone because Locke knows he's going to die anyway? If Boone does die, then only Locke knows about the hatch. And possibly NO ONE knows about the new transmission Boone made.

6) Sawyer

Poor Sawyer, overshadowed a lot in this episode. I do not believe his problems are related to his reading. But we will see if I'm right. Great scene with Jack asking him the STD questions - also something that probably came from the writers reading the boards, people have been talking about that for a long time.

He was reading A Wrinkle in Time again.

I'm a little worried that he mentioned his Uncle and the brain tumor.
Nothing is ever said on this show without a reason...

Will Sawyer, Jack and Sayid finally be friends now?

Best line goes to Hurley: "... Looks like someone steamrolled Harry Potter!"

Runner-up goes to Sawyer: "... My insurance just ran out."


7) The New Plane, Its Surroundings, and the Distress Call

I could write for HOURS about these topics. I will keep it short, there's just too much:
- What's up with the Nigerian fake priests smuggling smack and crashing onto the island? Read the message board section for more on the very overt religious undertones regarding this issue.

- One very bizarre idea: Some COMPLETE nerdy freak on the boards mapped Hurley's numbers onto the globe and guess what? They are in Nigeria. Then they mapped the exact opposite point on the globe and guess what? It's in the South Pacific. I don't have time to explain exactly how they did this, just trust them, they are the Ultimate Nerds and you must have faith. This has led many to speculate that the "hatch" is actually a portal THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, and that when "the light" came on it was actually the sun rising on the other side of the earth. Ummm... I don't know about that. I think it is NOT a coincidence that those numbers are those points on the globe, and I think that the hatch could be some sort of portal, but I do not think the light was the sun, especially since it had that weird orb-pulsing type sound accompanying it, and because it would have to be an exact straight tunnel for that to work anyway. But something is up with Nigeria.

- The distress call - perhaps the most hotly-debated topic on the boards.
Basically the issue is that Closed Captioning showed the transmission voice at the end replying to Boone saying, "There were no survivors from Flight 815." But then on ABC.com the next day they had up a clip and the audio had been changed and it definitely said, "No, WE ARE the survivors from Flight 815." So everyone is freaking out. If it was the first thing, that's more normal, and could either mean that 1) the FAA assumed the flight crashed and everyone had died but now they know there are survivors or 2) that they are in purgatory and all dead but yet somehow still able to contact the real world? Doubt it. If it's the latter quote then it could be that Boone was talking to people from the other end of the plane who are elsewhere on the island. Or some people think they are in a parallel universe and Boone was actually just talking to himself. Can you SEE why I am stressed out trying to recap this crap??!?!?!!?!? A definitive answer was given BY THE WRITERS and is in the message board section.


8) THE HATCH and THE LIGHT

Surprisingly, almost no one is talking about what the hatch is and/or what the light is. I think everyone's too preoccupied by other issues and quite frankly, we had all run out of brain power by the end of the episode. But what a great scene, no? First, I was just heart-broken when Locke was crying, "I've done everything you've asked me to do!!! So WHY are you doing this!!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY????" and his voice was breaking. Good Lord, the drama. Then a pause... pause... the light starts glowing. Locke stares mesmerized, all the hair on viewers' bodies stands on end.

Beautiful.

Did it remind anyone else of Pulp Fiction when people looked into the briefcase with the glowing light?


POSTS FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- On The Fuselage website, Damon Lindelof (screen name The Nomad, writer for the show) had this to say in response to a question about the transmission...The Nomad says: As to what Boone says, we purposefully put that CREAK over the first part of the transmission so you, dear fans, would go crazy. Therefore, I will NOT reveal (at least not today) what Boone actually heard. I promise this, though... We KNOW what Boone hears and we have plans to pay it off. And those plans? Are AWESOME So it seems to me we may as well stop arguing about what was said. We're not meant to know just yet.
- Why was the plane full of the dorkiest eye glasses possible? Great line by Hurley.
- I loved Jack's comment about if he tried to help Sawyer all he'd get would be a snappy one-liner and a new nickname! LOL!
- When Locke's mom called him "special", I thought, "hmmm.... now we know why Locke and Walt bonded." I had a weird feeling about the "instant relationship" between Locke and his father.... and as soon as I saw the dialysis (sp) machine, I just knew what was gonna happen next. I really felt for Locke. I hope Charlie doesn't find out about the precious cargo in the small plane... and how is it that Boone can survive a jet crash but not a small engine plane crash... hmmmm....
- The only explanation that was reasonable to me for why he could have been paralyzed and then walk again miraculously was if it was psychosomatic the whole time. The leg injury just got him doubting his ability to walk, so he became "paralyzed" but when it counted, he picked up his buddy and carried him back.
- So, the paralysis could be psychosomatic or maybe it could be from leaving the hospital too soon after the operation and bouncing around in a car.
- The heroin all over the ground - could Jack actually put that to GOOD use and maybe make some painkiller from it? And yet, it be kept away from Charlie?
- I think that Locke has "savior" issues... and he wants to be the one who finds something really hugely big which will help everyone get off the island... like not telling anyone about the hatch until he can get it open... and if he mentions the plane, everyone will swoop in and he'll lose some "power" over the situation. If he's weak (physically), he's not going to give up info which will put him in a submissive/dependent situation. Just my opinion. Even though Jack is the "natural" leader, Locke wants to be the savior. (more religious undertone, I know.) That's why I think he lied about Boone's injuries. If he said, "Oh, there was this plane...", that would be the focus and then there would be a bunch of "I thought you were hunting food for us?" type questions and accusations. I know a lot of people love Locke but I just don't trust the guy. I hope he proves me wrong but he holds back too much and is way too secretive for my liking. As for the light in the hatch... "let there be light..." Maybe it's hinting at a new beginning... of something.
- I also find it interesting that none of the survivors is all too stable, mentally speaking. Hurley has presumably been institutionalized at some point, Locke has a family history of schizophrenia, Jack's dad seemed to be an alcoholic, Charlie's a (recovering) junkie, and Sawyer and Kate seem to be haunted by the past (as are most of them).
- I agree with the psychosomatic idea perhaps what his "parents" did to him crippled him. Perhaps he needed something to make him special and it was not until the plane crash when something extraordinary happened that he forgot his "disability". So then as he tries to figure out the hatch and his continued failure brought his disability back to him. Maybe something as a weakness of a superhero. Failure and disappointment are his kryptonite.
- Just a pet peeve that's been annoying me: if there's no physical cause of Locke's paralysis, it's a somatic disorder (specifically conversion disorder, aka hysteria in Freud's time) not a psychosomatic symptom. Sorry if anyone's offended, but this is just my field of expertise and I wanted to set the record straight. (e: I just learned something!)
- If we want to see Locke's deception through rose-colored glasses, I guess we could say he thought that it was better not to tell the others about the second plane because they would be distracted by that and not be totally focusing on Boone. Of course there could be glass and metal fragments in Boone that Jack wouldn't be looking for if he simply fell off of a cliff.
- Good episode! There definitely seems to be a recurring theme of Daddy issues with the characters. I think Locke's dad would easily qualify as the biggest jerk of them all though. What a horrible thing to do. No wonder Locke has issues. I had a pretty good idea that Locke was psycho before, but after tonight I have no doubt. He was willing to just let Boone die to achieve his own goals. I say this because Locke knew that something bad was going to happen to Boone after his dream, yet he encouraged him to climb up to the plane anyway.
- A little bit about the mysterious hatch... I just get the feeling that nothing good will come out of that. Wouldn't it be deliciously grim and refreshing if it turns that by opening the hatch, Locke only unleashes the worst horror yet upon the survivors? I just feel that it would be beautifully ironic since, as far as I can tell, Locke believes that some sort of salvation lies beneath the hatch. There just seemed to be something unnatural and sinister about the light at the end of the episode... I don't really know how to explain it, other than that the way in which Locke used Boone was so cold... he -knew- something bad would happen, he saw the bloody vision. Then, instead of staying and trying to help Jack take care of Boone, and give him the right information as to what happened, he lies about it and runs back to the hatch. And then this light comes on as if to comfort Locke, as if to reward him... for his 'offering', his 'sacrifice'. There's just something twisted about Locke's obsession with it, I don't see how it can be a good thing. It could be that the source of the mysterious "sickness" that Danielle speaks of could be down there... And if so, it looks like Locke would be the first one to be "infected". But we really don't know what kind of sickness it is, and I think that it would be a good twist if Locke became infected by it. I say this because I assume that it does something to make the recipient "evil" in some way, similar possibly to Ethan... of course, the exact details are really up in the air. However, if Locke unwillingly became similar to Ethan, think of how bad that could be. Locke is probably the smartest/most manipulative person on the island. If he became infected like that, he would probably do a way better job of fooling the survivors and achieving whatever goals he would have than Ethan did.- With more of Locke's back-story revealed, he and Sawyer seem like similar creatures. The manipulatee (if that's even a word) becoming the manipulator. A con man ruined sawyer's life; he became the same kind of con man… Locke got screwed by his parents and he screws with everyone on the island, especially Boone, who he treats as a pseudo son … Also, neither of Locke's parents seem like sane, rational people and the apple can't fall that far from the tree (although we could do the nature/nurture debate.) I think he's got a one-way ticket to looney-ville and that hatch is making it an express trip!
- So we still don't know how Locke became paralyzed. I wondered at first if we'd see another flashback episode of Locke going to kill or attempt to kill his father and getting shot and paralyzed during the process, but I figured he'd be incarcerated if that were the case, so I discarded that theory...
- One could argue that Locke isn't exactly lying. The plane was on the edge of a cliff and fell, right? So Boone technically fell off a cliff. He just cut to the chase instead of saying:


Locke: "He crashed in a plane that was teetering off a cliff that we found because of a dream that I had that was directing us to the plane to help us open this hatch Boone and I found but never told you about and by the way there's tons of heroin on the plane that you might be able to use to help Boone with the pain, and oh, there was a radio on the plane and Boone got a transmission out before the crash and I'd love to talk more, but I have to go pound on the hatch and ask why this happened."





Kate: "A plane?"


Jack: "A radio?"


Charlie: "Heroin?"



- e

S1Ep18 - Numbers (Hurley's first flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello my friends,

4 8 15 16 23 42

Oh, MOMMY!!!!

Where to begin? This episode was chock-full of information so I will cover it in chronological order.

1) Jin/Sun

At the beginning of the episode, Jin has reversed his usual MO and is now being nice to everyone EXCEPT his wife. He is helping the gang rebuild the raft and shows no signs of forgiving Sun for "embarrassing" him by knowing how to speak English.

2) Walt the Evil Child

Is Sawyer on to Walt? Sawyer was reading by the raft site and when Walt asked what he was doing, he replied, "I am helpin', Short Round... keeping watch for arsonists." Even if Sawyer WASN'T really on to Walt, then I bet Walt is now suspicious of him and has Sawyer on his you-know-what list, which probably isn't a good place to be.

Another important thing to note from that scene is that Sawyer has now moved on from Watership Down and is reading A Wrinkle in Time. If any of you remember this book from back in the day, then you know that the characters in it prove the existence of a "tesseract," a way to time-travel. There are also many other themes in this book that may prove important but I will spare you until I feel they are emerging. It could've been shown just because ABC was also airing a made-for-TV movie of the book around the time the episode aired, in which case Sawyer is a total sell-out.

3) Danielle's Map

When they were re-examining Danielle's map, she had marked the area where she lived as the "Dark Territory," once again reinforcing the whole "light vs. dark" theme.

4) Who's Your Daddy?

In Hurley's flashback his father was conspicuously absent, adding him to the list of characters with Daddy Issues:
Walt - Raised by a step-father who was afraid of him and is now back with his birth father who he doesn't really know and thinks is too strict.
Locke - Mentioned in past episodes that his father was "not cool, not cool at all." He also mentioned he had a foster mother.
Sawyer - His father killed his mother and then himself.
Claire's baby - Claire's unborn child's father left them 4 months into her pregnancy. Now that we know something is strange with this baby, many wonder if that guy was some sort of demon.
Hurley - No father present.
Jack - Clearly had issues with his alcoholic father and is now seeing a zombie version of him running around the island.
Sun/Jin - Sun's father was some sort of evil mob-ish type character and Jin was trying to escape from him.
Kate - Kate has mentioned her father a few times... no bad issues raised yet, but he has definitely been mentioned.

5) What wasn't shown

Clearly we are going to need another Hurley flashback, my guess is it will be in the finale. There are a lot of clues from this episode that show things were not well in Hurley's life even before he used the cursed numbers. Proof:
- While on the couch before the numbers air, his mom yells in... "You're gaining weight AGAIN!!!"
- To which he replies, "If you WANT ME livin' here..." which leads me to
believe it's not necessarily his choice that he's living there, and his mom wants to keep an eye on him for some reason.
- After he wins and is in the press conference, he says to reporters, "I put my family through a lot recently..."
- It is clear that he was in the psychiatric ward himself before. He knew the doctor he ran into in the hall who asked why he was BACK, he had known Lenny from being in there, and now the question is WHY was he in there?
- Throughout the episode he got really mad when anyone insinuated, even in a clearly joking way, that he was crazy.

Also, everyone is just assuming that the reason he was on Korean TV was that he had won the big lottery. The titles in Korean did read "The lucky winner" or something along those lines, and he appeared to be in a shirt that he was in during his flashback.

6) The Cord

When they were trying to find Danielle again, they followed the same cord Sayid had originally found. This time they followed it all the way until it went into the ground. Hmmmm, what else is in the ground that other survivors have found... ??

7) Connections to other survivors

Shame, shame on you if you didn't catch Hurley's financial advisor talking about the "box company in Tustin" that Hurley owned... no doubt the same box company where Locke worked. He also mentioned a shoe company in Canada where a fire killed 8 people but they were over-insured for it... many people think that Kate is from Canada and that there may end up being a connection there, too. I wouldn't doubt that Kate set the fire, maybe that's how she ended up killing "the man she loved," but we'll see.

8) Lenny

Lenny in the psych ward was repeating the numbers over and over, the numbers that Hurley ended up playing in the Lotto. Did those numbers cause Lenny to go insane? It wasn't totally clear but I think it was implied.

When Lenny learned that Hurley used the numbers and then got all upset and they started hauling him away, he shouted, "You've opened the box! It won't stop! You've gotta get away from those numbers!!!!!"

What box was he talking about? Was it literal... was he talking about the hatch in the ground where the numbers were imprinted on the side at the end of the episode? Or was he talking more like "Pandora's Box?"

Notice that Lenny was playing "Connect Four." That could have been a sign that the characters are all indeed connected in some way, but it could've also had to do with the number sequence itself... 4, obviously... and then there are 42 slots in the Connect Four board (no, I am not a nerd enough to know that, it was on the boards. I only know that kind of trivia off-hand about Lord of the Rings stuff).

9) Sam Tooney

To recap how the numbers came to Sam and Lenny...
They were in the Navy together (Lenny worked for Sam), stationed at a listening post in the Pacific, monitoring long-wave radio transmissions.
Sixteen years ago (coincidence? I think NOT) they heard a voice repeating
the numbers. Sam decided to use those numbers to guess the amount of
beans in a huge jar at a county fair once he returned home. He won. On the way home he and his wife got in a crash and he was untouched but she lost her leg. Ever since then, he felt that bad things happened all around him and that they were his fault. Then four years ago (coincidence again? um, NO) he killed himself in the hopes of stopping the "curse." When I watched the episode I felt that that last part did not bode well for our friend Hurley.

We do not know how Lenny "used" the numbers but I'm guessing he did something similar and ended up in the psych ward. Now Hurley has used them...

10) Locke - The Good/Evil battle wages on

You all know that I love me some Locke, but I must say that my previous confidence that he is a "good guy" is starting to wane. Locke was clearly digging for info from Claire while building her the cradle for the baby/her birthday. First off, he KNEW it was her birthday, no doubt, just like he knows everything about everyone else. During their talk he asked her: what she remembered/how her memory was doing and what she was naming the baby. She also told him that she was going to give the baby up, and that it was her birthday. He said to her "I'm good at putting bits and pieces together." I can't help but wonder if he wants to know what she remembers from the kidnapping in order to help himself and the other survivors, or if he wants to be sure she DOESN'T remember it.

Also, I hope you all remember that in Claire's flashback "Raised by Another," that episode started off with a freaky dream Claire was having which featured a bloody baby cradle (not the exact same one Locke ended up building, though). And Locke was also in that dream, with the black and white stones for his eyes, and he said "He was your responsibility but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now." Ominous.

11) The French Chick

Danielle's "camp" was destroyed by an explosion she set to go off once Sayid and Jack got near to the old site. Sayid at least found his pic of Nadia again, though.

When Hurley encountered her, I just want to let you know that his "rant" to her was totally a shout-out to the nerds on the message boards. You will see in the message board section below that people were quite excited about it. But the writers have always said that the character of Hurley was written "for the audience" and when he went off about how he wanted to know what the monster was and that he "wanted some freakin' answers," that was to let the fans know that the writers have heard loud and clear that many people are frustrated about the lack of any closure to the tons of issues raised so far in the show. Specifically, when Hurley wondered if the monster was just a "pissed off giraffe," that was an obvious wink to the boarders because that has been an ongoing joke on the boards since the beginning. All respect the power of the nerds!

Also with the Danielle encounter, since no one else saw her, part of me still wonders if she's actually real. Clearly she's real to some extent because she did have a camp and all of the others with Hurley saw the remains of it, Sayid's old pic was there, she shot at Charlie and Hurley, etc. But I feel like Sayid needed Danielle to come to terms with his past, and then before they left each other Hurley hugged (bear-hugged, actually) Danielle and said that she was the only one who said he wasn't crazy. I just have this feeling that only one survivor is ever going to see her at a time because she is some sort of figment that will help characters make a turning point or something. Who knows. She seemed much more chilled out when she was talking with Hurley than when she was with Sayid.

She also gives characters vital information. She told Sayid about "the others," the black rock, her child Alex, the sickness, the original expedition she was on, and he got the maps she drew.

She told Hurley that her crew had heard the numbers on a radio transmission and changed the course of their boat to investigate. Then they crashed. There was a radio tower, up by the black rock, that the transmission was coming from. The crew became obsessed with the meaning of the numbers, and then "the sickness" came. She said after the team was gone (as in, she killed them), she went and changed the transmission to the distress signal that the survivors heard in the pilot episode. Danielle confirms to Hurley that the numbers must be cursed as they caused her team to land on the island and she's lost everyone she cared about ever since. Hurley replied, "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for someone to agree with me."

When Hurley re-joined the others, he now had a battery from Danielle.

12) Timing

I am still confused about the timing of things. When Hurley was about to tell Charlie why he was acting so weird, right before Danielle starting shooting, he began, "A year ago..."

I am not sure if it was a year ago that Hurley won the lottery, or if whatever else was going on with him to send him to the psych ward started a year ago. Remember that his flashback ended with him in Australia (hence the reason he was on the flight back to the US), so typically the flashbacks don't cover a full year. I have a feeling the lottery thing was just a few months before the trip.

13) The NUMBERS

More on this in the message board section, but the numbers and their POSSIBLE significance are below:

4 - Four has been mentioned several times in the show, the most notable being that Hurley's grandpa got his pacemaker 4 years ago, Locke was crippled 4 years ago, Sawyer mentioned he'd been "waiting 4 years" to kiss Kate, Sam Tooney killed himself 4 years ago... etc, etc.

8 -

15 - 815 was the flight number, Kate's bank lockbox number, and supposedly the time the flight was supposed to land (HOW people know that, I have no
idea) in the US, and the number of the series of copy machines Charlie sold in his flashback (even I missed that one!!!). Other possibilities for 8 and 15 are in the message board section.

16 - The transmission was heard by Sam and Lenny 16 years ago, right before Danielle supposedly changed it as Sayid had figured it had been repeating for 16 years.

23 - This is the one no one can figure out really. Jack was in seat 23A.
Kate's capture reward was $23,000. Some people said this is an Illuminati-related (if you don't know, don't ask) number.

42 - No one really knows this one either, although in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, 42 is supposedly "the answer to everything."
Perhaps it's the number of original survivors who will remain at the end of the series? Right now they're at 46. 42 is also the number of spaces on the Connect Four board, mentioned above.

Finally, the goose-bump-inducing, hair-raising shot at the end of the episode showed that the hatch Boone and Locke have been uncovering has the series of numbers imprinted on its side, like a serial number or something. But note that the audience saw these numbers, none of the characters have yet...

14) Is there such a thing as luck?

Luck was a big theme in this episode. Sam Tooney's wife was still convinced that the numbers weren't cursed and all of the bad things that happened after her husband used them would've happened anyway. She stated: "You make your own luck."

Locke told Claire that it was lucky that her baby's birthday was going to be close to her own. She asked him, "Do you believe in luck?" to which he replied, "I believe in many things."

At the end, Hurley and Charlie had their big heart-to-heart, during which Hurley told Charlie that he thought the crash was his fault. Charlie went off that bad things happen to everyone, and asked if Hurley also thought he was responsible for the fact that Charlie was an addict before the plane crash, etc., etc. But Charlie walked off angry because he thought Hurley was just joking about winning the lottery.

15) And finally, Memorable Quotes

The best line of the episode goes to Hurley with, "I can get out of the way. I'm SPRY!" before leaping away from the booby trap.

A close runner-up is Locke, when asked by Claire how he got glue: "I MADE it... out of rendered animal fat."

Second runner-up is when Hurley tells Sayid that he ran into Danielle and
that: "She says 'hey.'"


POSTS FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- Three Indiana Jones references in this episode. Can you name them? OK, I’ll tell you: Replacing Hurley's weight so as not to set off the booby trap. 2. "Short Round." 3. The rope bridge.
- What a great episode!!! Fantastic one liners from Hurley and we found out more! That rope goes into the ground and Danielle was on a boat. Was it just me or did it seem that Hurley was adopted? I was almost crying when Locke revealed that it was a cradle for her... that was so unexpected and sweet of him. And he raised a few questions that I had been waiting for someone to mention (naming the baby being a big one) Those numbers on the hatch freaked me out!!! Overall, I'd say that this episode was wonderful. We got another interesting back story and it explains a bit why Hurley has kept to himself (he doesn't want to hurt people).
- And I loved it when Hurley was talking to Danielle and saying something like - "Hey there is a monster in the jungle and we aren't looking for it....it could be a giant giraffe or something but I am not saying anything about them not going after it." He was just verbalizing what WE fans have been saying on the message boards...it was great!!!! And I LOVED the Locke and Claire scenes. Especially with the cradle. especially for her birthday. That was great. Locke is so wonderful!
- As for the ending w/ Charlie, I don't think it was at all a waste of screen time. Hurley believed that the plane crash was his fault (and I for one can understand why), but Charlie's confession proved that not all bad things that happen are related to the "curse" Hurley seems to have over him. I mean, how could the "numbers" cause bad things to people that Hurley, until he got on the plane, had never known existed? It's like blaming him for...well... Jack's lousy relationship w/ his dad Sawyer's parents and their untimely end Jin and Sun's disintegrating marriage Michael's uphill custody fight w/ Walt's mom Walt's mom dying Claire being knocked up and tossed by that loser ex of hers Charlie's addiction Locke's paralysis and the bad things that seem to haunt Kate. The point was, as Charlie put it, "bad things happen". No curses, witchcraft, or voodoo required.
- This was a nice comedy ep; not a great ep, but a nice one. While much of it was, again, predictable, it achieved the same thing for Hurley that "Raised by Another" did for Claire: it propelled a previously secondary character to center stage and made us rethink Hurley's whole role on the show. Far from being just comic relief, he could possibly be the reason the plane crashed on the island. I loved his mother (but note, no father), his grandpa was cool too. And we have another Catholic on the island (poor Father whatever his name was, being hit by lightning at the funeral!). Locke is still a psycho. The crib proves nothing. Did you see how he went fishing for info on how much Claire remembered? It's all part of his sick plan, gaining her trust and manipulating her into confiding in him. He is taking a very unhealthy interest in her baby, if you ask me. He's also getting one more person, and a key one at that, into his cadre. Also, I loved when Hurley hugged Danielle. Great moment.
- I seriously bet that there will be a record number of people using those numbers for whatever lottery is in their area. I am totally serious. I wonder if something like that would make the news.


- e

S1Ep17 - ... In Translation (Jin's first flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello once again my friends -

This episode was one of my favorites. I can't put my finger on it, but I loved it. And the funny thing is that "House of the Rising Sun," (Sun's flashback, early in the season) was one of my least favorite episodes.

On to "the issues":

1) The eye
SEVERAL episodes have started with a close-up on someone's eye, and this one did it again with Jin's eye. Maybe there will be some sort of significance to this later.

2) Sun's dad runs some sort of car company or car manufacturing company. I will bring that up again later...

3) When Sun slapped Michael and then came back to talk to him later, she said "I was protecting you from Jin, you don't know what he's capable of!"
After seeing the entire episode and seeing that, at least in what they showed us thus far, Jin did NOT actually kill anyone and seemed to be a good guy at heart, it makes me wonder if Sun thinks he IS a killer since she saw him with all the blood all over him.

4) Hurley being shown on Korean TV.
If right now you are saying to yourself, "What?" ... then there is just no hope for you. Two of you on this list (you know who you are) have already admitted to me that you did not catch the fact that when Jin first went to "deliver the message" and the guy said "Not in front of my daughter!" and they both turned to see the little girl with the dog watching TV, that HURLEY was on the TV shown getting into a car with some Korean words also on the screen. Now, if you did NOT see this, then I feel like a total failure, because I have obviously not done my job in TRAINING YOU to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be looking in the background and peripheral view of scenes for things just like this.

So of course those people on the boards who do NOT read the spoilers were all freaking out about why Hurley was on TV. I know why, but I'm not going to say, as you will find out soon enough. And yes, of course some nerd on the boards translated the Korean subtitles, but I'm not going to tell you that either, because it will ruin it. The one thing I will say, because I don't know if this is significant or not and therefore isn't a spoiler, is that some people were wondering that if the fact that Hurley was shown getting into a car was important because Sun's dad owns a car company. The other thing everyone was wondering, even those of us who know the spoilers, was why Hurley would be shown on KOREAN TV.

5) Can I just say once again how much I cannot stand Boone? Seriously, every time he comes on the screen I just start yelling. Now he was wearing some other lame tank top with some symbol on it that I'm sure signifies something, but no one on the boards has brought it up because, like me, they just don't care about him.

6) HUGE theme of "starting over" in this episode. Locke straight up says it to Shannon: "Everyone gets a new life on this island." Jin says to his father in his flashback near the end that he wishes he could start over, and that's when his dad tells him that he should just cold bust out once he gets to the U.S. and never come back.... At the end Sun also says "Can't we just go back... to the beginning?" Michael tells Walt that he wants to rebuild the raft. And then Shannon tells Sayid that she's ready to start over before they start sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

7) I could've done without Sawyer's obvious Lord of the Flies comment. I mean, they are literally turning into that, and we savvy viewers don't need it spoon-fed to us, thank you very much. But really, were you not seriously disturbed when Michael was going all berserker on Jin and everyone else, including Sun, was just STANDING there, watching it? I know Jack tried to stop it, but it was a fairly lame attempt that was easily deterred by everyone else. Very creepy. Also, some people thought maybe Jin does speak English. I don't think he does. They made of point of doing that weird thing where they showed everyone fighting on the beach and focused in on his ear and then you heard them all just sound like gibberish, as he would hear them. Also, even though she spoke English to him at the end... I think she was doing that because she still didn't have the guts to tell him in Korean that she was going to leave him (so he would really understand). We'll see. He obviously knows one English word, see #10 below.

8) Locke once again is rocking the hiz-ouse: his speech to Shannon about starting over and not giving Boone "exactly what he wants... your attention," and his "Everyone knows we are not the only people on this island!?!?!?!?!!" tirade, to his HUGE reveal (I think it will be very key) that his dad was "not cool," to him YET AGAIN knowing everything that's going on (both with Shannon and with Walt at the end). Yes, I'm starting the Locke Fan Club this weekend. Who's with me?

9) Something that didn't make sense to me: After all that, and learning that Jin also wanted to escape Sun's dad and start over, why would he tell her "It's too late?" when she was trying to reconcile? That I do not understand.

10) What I will say is that I think Jin and Michael have a lot more in common than meets the eye. Despite the fact that they are both obviously not perfect, they have both been shown in their flashbacks to be "good at heart." Michael didn't do anything wrong in his flashback and always loved Walt and wanted him back. Jin did EVERYTHING for Sun and even now doesn't want to tell her the truth about her father since he knows it will hurt her. If the island does divide into two camps, I am guessing they will both be on the "good" side. And Jin wins for best line of the episode when he tried to make peace with Michael at the end: "BOAT." Hurley is the runner up with "Didn't see that coming..." when Sun started speaking English.

11) So of course the huge twist was that Walt burned the raft. Which leads to many more questions: 1) Why did Locke cover for him? Despite the fact that Locke wants to stay on the island, too... typically Locke tries to steer people in the right direction. Maybe he was just trying to prevent Jin from getting any more of a beat-down and so he blamed it on The Others. Or maybe he feels that he needs to keep growing the bond he has with Walt for a bigger reason. 2) Did Walt start the fire the normal way, or ev-eeel-young-pyrokinetic-Drew Barrymore-in-"Firestarter"-style? 3) In that scene, did you notice that right before they had the deep talk, Walt once again rolled the dice the way he wanted? If you didn't notice that, seriously, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!?! 4) When Walt says, "Did you have a dad? Was he cool?" and Locke replied, "No... no, he was not cool," we now have a picture of a not-so-good childhood for Locke. His dad was mean, we don't know what happened to his real mom, but he was living with a foster mom, during which his sister died and then that resulted in his foster mom spiraling into a depression for 5 years before she ended up dying. Several people wonder if the fact that he probably lost a parent leads to his connection with Walt. But it seems like he has a lot in common with Sawyer, too? More to ponder. 5) Walt still gives me the creeps and I think he is a little selfish brat. Many people think he can't stay on the show since each season, only a month or two is supposed to have passed, so if it goes like 5 years, he will age more obviously than the adult actors, and so therefore he can't stay on the show. That has never been confirmed or denied and I'm sure the writers can find a way around that, but since I don't like him, I hope it's true. I am not a big fan of evil little kids (e.g: The Ring, Children of the Corn, etc).

12) And last, but not least... It was incredible the number of posts asking what the song was that played at the end before Hurley's walkman batteries died out. If those peeps had been hangin' with me for the last YEAR then they would know that that was the song "Delicate" by Damien Rice. For those of you who had seen the previews for (or the movie itself) "Closer," another song by Damien, "The Blower's Daughter" was in that. The bottom line is that it is an awesome CD and you should all get it. Also, an issue that has been discussed on the boards for a very long time was how Hurley could keep listening to his walkman 1) when it seems like the batteries could/should have been put to better use and 2) because it was so cheesy with the closing scene montages. I truly believe that him finally running out of batteries was a little "wink" to all the nerds on the boards. Triumph of the Nerds!

13) Speaking of nerds... if you think *I* am a nerd, then you have no idea. Seriously, I came across some crazy crap on the boards this time around, ranging from "Shannon and Sayid's kiss is a statement on the war" to people fighting quite viciously over whether Sun is "hot or not." But the Geek of the Week prize goes to the dude who made a diagram depicting all of the relationships on the show. Enough said.


POSTS FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- Was that Hurley on the korean guys TV???
- Definitely him. Nice episode tonight. At the end I wondered aloud how many batteries he had for that CD player. Sure enough, it died right on cue.
- Locke totally coerced Walt into burning the raft. There's no way he isn't trying to keep everyone on the island.
- I agree, his reasoning for burning the raft was lame so I'm guessing there was another reason. If Locke knew why he wouldn't have asked. But he knew, perhaps suspects why. Remember, Walt is special. He's telekinetic in some way. Perhaps he has an unknowing psychic tie to whatever is manipulating things on the island. I'm guessing he and Claire's baby were brought there on purpose. No way is the island letting him leave. Burning the boat a test of some sort?
- Did anyone think that way his CD player just gave out at the end was a bad omen or something? I really hope he doesn't die. Without Hurley on that island everyone would just drown in their own drama.
- I laughed out loud... at the ending. I was rather disappointed - playing us out with insipid music and character montage? Is this "Lost" or "Dawson"? Run a little short on plot this week, did we? How clichéd. Then the batteries died and I realized I'd been played. Sweet!
- And I totally missed that he was on the television. I must be blind. Perfect ending this week. Absolutely perfect. And next week looks like some hardcore Lost "mythology" stuff. Combined with the Hurley back-story this one could wind up one of the best eps of the series. And how come no one's commenting on Sayid finally gettin' sum?
- I have a feeling Hurley was on the news for being a computer hacker/ virus creator. I have no evidence to back this up other than he looks like a computer geek.
- The scene where Locke yelled at everyone was much needed. The Hurley in the TV scene was cool. I was expecting Jin to already know English, which to me would have been better, but maybe he's going to learn from someone else. And Jin has a good heart, maybe he saw the kid burn the raft and he did not want to say anything.
- I'm starting to believe the theory that I've heard from a few others that this is all some big experiment -- there is no island. The main characters only THINK there's an island. Some characters aren't even real (like the pilot who died, like Ethan, maybe others) they're just manifestations of the experiment, like the Monster, like the polar bears, etc. Anyway, until proven wrong, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. I think the writers have been pretty good with everything if that theory holds true.
- Does anybody else think that Michael and Walt are named for Michael Eisner and Walt Disney, and that that might say something about their relationship?
- I never thought that until you pointed it out, and you may be right... The LOST producers have admitted that Hurley is inspired by our own Harry Knowles. Then there's the name "John Locke". Claire's name may be symbolic too (i.e. clairvoyant). So I wouldn't put it pass them that Michael and Walt were named after Eisner and Disney.
- Wow, that’s so weird. Last night I was talking to my friend about the exact same thing. I think it’s a possible stab at that contrast between the two. I mean if you think about it Walt is special and "magical" and Michael is just a hot head trying to gain control. Abrams isn’t an idiot and this is an ABC show and I don't have to say it, but I will, Disney owns ABC.
- Has anyone thought of the possibility that the island is actually a small un-submerged portion of the lost continent of Atlantis? Or being that they're in the Pacific, perhaps Lemuria? Both were supposedly highly advanced, and some legends claim that these were actually lands teeming with not only highly advanced scientific technologies, but also practical forms of magic. I myself would love for the series to take this direction, seeing as how I believe the characters have already been using magic since their arrival on the island, whether consciously or unconsciously (Locke's ability to walk, Claire's fear of having her baby "raised by another," heck...more here than I care to mention right now?) To me, it feels like they're subconsciously manifesting the things they desire, the things they're afraid of, or the past that they've left unresolved. Sorta like the novel "Sphere" somewhat...maybe. Okay, not at all.

- e

S1Ep16 - Outlaws (Sawyer's second flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello my dear friends,

I was disappointed in this episode, having had high hopes after it was being touted as one of the best three episodes of the season. However, it was chock full of good information, so here is the recap:

1) The whispers

Before this episode, people thought the whispers were: 1) People watching the castaways, who are actually in some sort of virtual-reality game, 2) Voices from the present trying to wake the characters up from a real-life coma, 3) Government figures talking about the experiment going on on the island that the castaways are unknowingly a part of, 4) A sign that someone has come down with "the sickness" and is going crazy, 5) Some sort of sound trick... they are actually people talking somewhere else on the island.

In this episode, Sawyer heard the whispers on separate occasions when he was alone in the jungle. It was clear that one of the things he heard was "It will come back around," which we learned at end were the dying words of the man Sawyer killed. While in the past there have been many different theories on what the whispers actually are, to me this episode makes it clear that the whispers are specific to the person hearing them (as in, Sayid is going to hear different things than what Sawyer hears), and that they are related to things that are haunting that person (as in, they are not happy childhood memories). Some people think now that only characters who have killed people will hear the whispers ... we know that Danielle (French woman), Sayid and Sawyer have all killed people, and so far they have all heard them. This theory can be built upon or trashed depending on if anyone else hears the whispers in future episodes. Also, on the "killing people" topic, we now know that at least 5 people on island are killers: Danielle, Sayid, Sawyer, Charlie and Kate. And Ethan if he's not really dead. That's kind of a lot of people. Someone said on the boards, 'Was this Oceanic Flight 815 or Con Air?"

2) I loved Terminator 2, so was happy to see Robert Patrick in the role of Hibbs. It was interesting when he said to Sawyer, "We both know you ain't
the killin' type..." he said this kind of sarcastically, and BEFORE
Sawyer killed the shrimp guy, so it leads me to believe Sawyer has killed someone else before that? Not sure.

3) The woman Sawyer was messing around with in the beginning is Michael's (Walt's dad) wife in real life.

4) In Homecoming, everyone on the boards wondered, "Now that the guns are out, do they go back in?" and at least THAT question was answered... the guns ALL went back into the case.

5) Jack made an interesting comment to Kate - "I don't want you to owe him anything." Jealousy because he likes Kate, or hates Sawyer, or a little of both?

6) MANY people on the boards think Ethan is NOT DEAD. He was CLEARLY still breathing in the shot of his body where Hurley and Charlie were burying him. However, I think this was just the fact that he was a LIVE actor and had to breathe. Hello?!?!?!!? Anyway, everyone was like, "Why wouldn't they BURN his body to be sure?" Point taken. I did like Hurley's comment about "I know how this is going to end, with us running and screaming through the jungle, and he'll catch me first."

7) Some good lines in the episode: ... Kate to Sawyer after she learns he's bothered by the boar: "Go tell Locke and he'll kill it!" Sawyer to Kate after her diatribe on boars not trying to seek revenge, "Thank YOU, boar expert." Sawyer to Kate after the I Never question about one-night stands, "I gotta drink for each one???"

8) Things learned from the I Never game: Kate was MARRIED. Was this the "man that she loved, the man that she killed?" The thing that has bothered me IMMENSELY about this scene is that Sawyer said "I never killed a man" and Kate drank. What is bugging me is WHY Sawyer would say that. Because remember, ONLY Jack and Hurley know that Kate was the criminal on board the plane, Sawyer did NOT know this. Is it just me, or is that a really strange thing to bring up in I Never? They go from wearing pink to having one night stands to being in love to KILLING someone? The only thing I can think is that he is on to her because in the pilot episode she pretended to not know how to use a gun, but then in ‘Homecoming’ they gave her one of the guns and she all of a sudden knew what was going on. But it still seems like a stretch. No one has brought this up on the boards that I can tell. Anyone have any ideas? If the time warp theory is correct and they actually are reliving a period of time over and over and some characters realize it and others don't, then this could make sense. Sawyer could've found out in a previous time loop that Kate killed someone.

9) Some more info revealed about Locke: His sister Jeannie died when he was young, and he had a foster mother. Once again, Locke seemed to appear right at the perfect time and tell Sawyer the story about the dog who his mom thought was his sister reincarnated. Ending with a "it's not your fault" sort of moral to his story. Although I was confused by this, because by the end of the episode when we see that Sawyer killed the WRONG person, I didn't understand what Locke's point with that story was. It wasn't Sawyer's fault for killing some innocent guy? Or it wasn't his fault that his dad killed his mom and then himself, so Sawyer just needs to let it go now? If it was the latter, then I guess it kind of makes sense. Regardless, Locke still rocks.

10) We learned Sawyer's real name MAY be James. At least that's what he called himself to the guy he thought was the real Sawyer.

11) So... the big twist near the end was that Sawyer had met Jack's dad in the bar. And they both kind of led to each other's demise... Sawyer helped Jack's dad drink himself to death (remember, Jack's dad died later that same night... was found in an alley by the police), and Jack's dad encouraged Sawyer to take care of whatever he needed to in order to be at peace. Obviously Jack's dad didn't know that entailed killing someone, but he was the one saying, "What are you sitting here for? Go do it!"

12) And finally, Sawyer had several chances during this episode to redeem himself and turn over a new leaf. He could've actually told Sayid that he also heard the voices, but then got all snotty again. He was mean to the little baby boar (even though he didn't end up killing the big one), and at the end he clearly started realizing, if not fully realizing, that he was talking to Jack's DAD. But yet he chose to end the conversation and not share with Jack the things that his dad said about him before he died. Unlike other characters such as Charlie and Sayid who have faced demons in their flashbacks and then kind of shed them, Sawyer hasn't.


There has been a big theory on the boards about the fact that since we are finding out that all of the characters have some sort of "six degrees of separation" thing going on before the crash, that perhaps they each hold the key to another's "redemption" and that that is the way off the island/out of purgatory/out of the game/to stop the time loop/choose your own theory.

Charlie needs Claire to prove he can take care of someone, Sawyer can help Jack get over his bad relationship with his dad if he tells him the stuff his dad said when they talked, Sayid can make Shannon see that she is not totally worthless, etc., etc. But it doesn't really work so well for a lot of the other characters, so I'm not sure how deep this theory can really go. However, I do think it may become more obvious as time goes on.

No posts from the message boards this week as there really wasn't anything too earth-shattering being debated regarding this episode, and because it's late Monday night and I am severely pressed for time to do the other recap!

- e

S1Ep15 - Homecoming (Charlie's second flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello friends -

I didn't like this episode, and neither did most people on the boards. Probably because we all guessed what would happen and were therefore bored. But that is our own fault.

Anyway, here is a recap of the major things that happened and/or things to think about:

1) Does Jin suspect that Sun knows English? Many people thought that he was acting fishy by asking her all of those questions about what was going on, like he was on to her. His flashback is next week, so I'm sure they're setting that up.

2) The guns have come out. Will they go back into the case or stay out? And how does JACK know how to use a gun? Everyone else made sense.

3) Where exactly did Claire come from? Had she escaped or was she sent back for some weird reason? How could she actually ESCAPE from the likes of Ethan anyway? Also, I noticed that at first her face looked all beat up-ish but then half-way through the show she looked perfect again.

4) The fact that we got to hear "You All Everybody" when they played it at the bar in the flashback was awesome. That song is so bad, it's good.

5) When Ethan came out of nowhere and took Jin out in the woods with a little stone (or whatever that was) and then choked Charlie, when he was first approaching it sounded like weird noises were coming at them from all sides, similar to what happens whenever the "monster" appears. But I think I was the only one who noticed that, it wasn't brought up on the boards.

6) Seriously my favorite part of the whole thing was when in the flashback that girl Charlie was dating said, "My father's off buying a paper company in Slough" ... in case you aren't down with the BBC America channel, that was a reference to the hit BBC show "The Office," about a paper company in Slough, England, that is run by this horrible boss who thinks everyone loves him (they're making a US-version this year which is also supposed to be good). It's one of my favorite shows. This was similar to in Locke's flashback when they referenced "TPS Reports" from the movie "Office Space."

7) It was VERY obvious in this episode that Jack and Locke have emerged as the two leaders. I thought the exchange they had about if they should tell the rest of the survivors about Ethan's threat, and whether or not to move everyone to the caves, was very interesting. Jack seemed kind of defensive that Locke had a plan and didn't think Jack's plan was well thought out.

8) Boone was once again in his 4 aces shirt, though no one brought that up on the boards. I seriously can't stand Boone and want him GONE. He was so lame falling asleep during his watch. LOSER.

9) So the dear Scott, I believe seen only once on the show overall, is gone. And yet Hurley still had to bring up always calling him Steve by mistake in the eulogy. Since every bone in his body was broken, this leads me to believe once again that Ethan is some sort of "super soldier." But then it still doesn't make sense that 1) Claire escaped and 2) Jack was able to beat him down at the end. A lot of people on the boards commented that Ethan had a bunch of scratches on his face and looked increasingly weak as the episode went on, so maybe he was losing his powers for some reason.

10) Three other overall comments: 1) I thought once again that Locke was awesome in this episode. 2) Charlie throwing up in the copier was the favorite scene of everyone on the boards. 3) Sawyer's comment about the polar bear thinking he was a "good shot" was also up there.

11) Overall I thought this episode was weak because the Charlie flashbacks were SO OBVIOUS ... it was like, gee, do you think they're trying to show us why he's so adamant on being able to "take care of" Claire? And I called Charlie picking up the gun and shooting Ethan as soon as I saw the previews two weeks ago. People were very annoyed because we all thought we would learn WHY Ethan wanted Claire and we didn't.

However, the next episode is supposed to be great, in the top 3 of the season, it's Sawyer's second flashback. I'm not holding my breath as I keep being disappointed lately, but I do know at a high level what it's about and I do think it will be good.


FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS

- Oh my god, how sad was it when Charlie said "yea, we are friends"!!! sniff sniff
- I think those scratch marks on his face look like they come from a FEMALE....I think Claire fought back.
- Way to go Charlie!!! Woot! Woot! I think he was right, Ethan would not have told them anything. Since Claire is starting to remember maybe we will learn from her in one of the upcoming episodes what he wanted and where he was from.
- Oh CHARLIE!!!.... oooooooooo, she remembers peanut butter!!!! Are anyone else’s eyes starting to get misty???
- Can anyone see what Jack's tattoo is?
- Great episode .Way to go Jack for kicking his butt and Charlie for the great finishing move. Ding Dong the witch is dead, or is he......
- I don't think this is the end of it. I would not be surprised if someone else comes along and wants Claire's baby too.

- Will there / should there be repercussions for Charlie executing Ethan?

- I forgot to mention Locke! And nobody else in this whole post has! Jack asked Locke if he knew how to assemble a gun and Locke put it together as if he had been doing it his whole life! A box salesman would *definitely* not know how to do that.

- And I know that the flashback for Charlie was kind of weak but his story is just that he is a one-hit wonder rock star who did drugs - how far can his story go? His flashbacks just showed how he wanted to "care and protect" a girl and she turned him down. It was kind of a parallel to Charlie and Claire how he wants to protect her and care for her. His obsession for caring for Claire is probably derived from that past experience from Lucy.

- And Boone is a dud. And I'm not quite sure why Sayid would like the so un-Nadia-ish Shannon. She and Boone - yes. But she and Nadia - no.

- I think Locke was a box-company employee the same way Steven Seagal was just a cook in "Under Siege."
- In the scene where Jin asks Sun about what is going on... he asks Sun about "the baby", and it seemed to me he was looking at Sun's torso area, NOT at Claire. Could Sun be pregnant? The survivors have been on the island for just about a month now, so if Sun were pregnant, she wouldn't be showing yet, depending on how far along she might be. And it could easily be part of the reason why Sun had a "change of heart" about leaving Jin. Yet another weird theory...
- Locke and the gun issue: clearly, Locke had a history as a hunter and adventurer... that may even be how he was injured, who knows? Even, in a wheelchair, he had a case full of rather impressive knives. Being a box salesman doesn't mean he can't have outside interests and hobbies, however off the grid.

- There are two reasons why Charlie might have killed Ethan. Either he was distraught about the violence that had been done to him, Claire, and Scott ... or he was making sure that Ethan would not talk to anybody. Charlie and Claire both returned from their kidnapping with "amnesia." Maybe they have been programmed to protect the island's secrets.
- I am glad they killed the bad guy, but am wondering if that opens the gates for more Bigger and Badder guys....

- No questions got answered last night by Ethan, or by anyone else, and a new can was opened...the guns came out. Now they will be asking for them to come out every time something bad happens. The good thing - Teamwork was shown last night. Did anyone see that? They worked TOGETHER, more then they had before, watching the perimeter and playing on each other strengths and using what they knew about each other to support the whole group. That was a few brief moments of fun.
- I don't think Ethan would have talked, even if tortured, and it's pretty likely that the others would at least come looking for him, even if they didn't make a full-blown rescue attempt. And that could potentially put all of the survivors in danger. So I probably would have shot Ethan, too, though I might not have used so many bullets--that seemed a little excessive but probably true to the emotions behind the action. But Jack beating Ethan seemed a bit excessive too--near the end there were 4 people with guns on Ethan, so why'd he keep hitting him? Rage? Frustration? Vengeance? And during Jin & Sun's conversations, I was struck by two things: Jin seems to understand English also--I think he's testing Sun to see if she'll finally come clean. I think he knows that she speaks English--if he was involved in some sort of mob work, he probably knows that she took the classes. The second thing was during their talk about Claire's baby, I noticed a certain attitude between them that I thought of as poignant. Maybe they lost a baby at some point? She could be pregnant, too, but it seemed more wistful/sad to me.
- Alright, I can see Sayid using a gun, being in the Republican Guard and all. I can see Kate using a gun, being a con-artist. Locke...he's a hunter, 'nuff said. Sawyer... see Kate. But what I want to know is how in the Seven Circles of Hell's name does Jack know how to use a gun!?! This is the third death in the rain. I guess on this island rain is bad.

- Great Locke quote when seeing the guns "Why doc, you've been holding out on us."
- I was surprised to hear so many negative comments about the episode last night. At the very least, the character dynamics are taking on a very disturbing shape, something that's definitely going to have consequences during the rest of the season. Maybe it was a question of high expectations? Whatever the case, I liked getting a better look at Charlie's past, especially since it places so much of his time on the island in a new context. And any episode with a semi-obscure reference to "The Office" can't be bad, now, can it? (And so much beautiful, beautiful Claire!)

- I wonder if anyone on the island though about pulling a page out of the movie "Alive" and chowing down on Ethan. They have been without boar meat for some time right. Hey I know it’s morbid, but when you’re hungry, you’re hungry.



- e

S1Ep14 - Special (Michael and Walt's first flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello my dear friends -

I am writing this from my hotel room in NYC late Tuesday night and regret to tell you that I will not have as much info for you as usual as I have not had normal internet access for a while so have not been on the boards since "Special" aired. However, I was nerdy enough to go down to the public internet kiosk in the lobby of this hotel, go quickly to Ain't It Cool News, click to an interview they had with one of the Lost writers and then cut and paste some people's reactions into the section below. It has not been edited at all by me as usual but I think there may be a few good things in there. The writer being interviewed confirmed that the episode 3 new ones from now entitled "Numbers" is Hurley's flashback, hallelujah. People have speculated that he lived with his mother and ended up helping her die, some sort of euthanasia thing, but the writer would only say that that seemed too dark for Hurley, so I guess we will have to see what happens. As you will see in the below, all the nerds on the message boards are REALLY hoping that he's a TBer (talk-backer, one of the people who post on the message boards of this particular site), but I highly doubt that will be the case, but the nerds can dare to dream, stranger things have happened.

ISSUES FROM ‘SPECIAL’:

THE CHARACTER OF MICHAEL (Walt’s dad) OVERALL
Michael seems to be a truly good person. Unlike most of the others whose flashbacks have shown them to be flawed or ethically/morally challenged in one way or the other, Michael wasn't "bad" in any way. I think that is something to consider, especially in light of the fact that Locke may have now finally won him over....

And how about Walt's mom? Can anyone say bee-otch?

WALT
So is Walt some freaky evil child who makes bad things happen, or does he have powers he is unaware of and therefore is innocent? The bird that he was reading about slammed against the house and died when he was annoyed with his parents, at the same time that his mom started not feeling so well. Did he cause the bird to die? I think so. Did he cause his MOM to die? Not sure about that. The fact that the step-dad told Michael that "bad things happen when he's around" and "he's different somehow" lead me to believe that the bird was not an isolated freak incident. However, I'm not so sure that Walt could somehow will his mom to have a strange blood disease, but who knows. Or maybe his powers manifest themselves in ways that he didn't intend. All I know is that since he's been on the island, it has stopped raining when he wanted it to (pilot episode I believe that was), he rolls dice and they turn up how he wants them to, and the polar bear has now appeared twice after he looked at the bear picture in the comic book... Many of us thought that Walt just had these powers once he got to the island, but to know that he had an effect on things before the crash is very interesting...

I must admit that when the polar bear returned I was totally convinced that Walt was evil and that he was luring Michael into a trap to be killed because he was mad at him, and then Locke could be his new dad. But it ended much happier than that and it was actually nice that what was in my warped mind didn't happen.

THE MIND'S EYE
Early in the episode Locke emphasized to Walt the importance of "seeing" the knife go into the tree and the power of the "mind's eye." I think this was important and ties into the whole theory about people being able to will things to happen on the island. When Walt nailed the throw and then said "It was weird, I actually saw it in my mind, like it was real" and Locke replied, "Who's to say it wasn't?"... I believe that was a big clue.

Also, we are starting to see the lines of reality and hallucination/dreams being blurred on several occasions... Claire's dreams, Jack's zombie dad, Boone's encounter with the monster... I'm now beginning to wonder if Sayid's visit with Danielle was actually real or in his mind. He could have been in the old hideout, taken the maps, etc.... THOUGHT he was talking to her, but maybe it never even happened?

LOCKE
And once again we have much to discuss about our good friend Locke in this episode. First off, he had been training Walt with the knives since early on. Is that because he KNEW he would need to use one as he finally did in this episode to fend off the bear? Or will he still need to use one again in the future? Similarly, in addition to seeming to know what's going to happen in the future on the island (when it will rain, how people need to be prepared for certain things, how to find certain people at specific times, etc.), he also seems to know details about everyone's PASTS that he shouldn't know from the limited conversations he's had with everyone. In Jack's episode he seemed to know that Jack was being haunted by something and encouraged him to figure it out in order to be able to truly lead the group. In Charlie's flashback he knew Charlie was on drugs and also knew that he needed his guitar to get through it. In Boone's episode he clearly knew about Boone's strange relationship with Shannon. In this past episode he told Michael that Walt's "different" (the EXACT same words the step-dad used), prompting Michael to respond "WHAT did you say?".... This all leads me to believe that either the time loop theory is correct, or alternatively, when Locke saw "the monster" he was enlightened with info to help him become a leader of the group. Perhaps the biggest support of the latter theory is that Boone is now Locke's little gimp boy or something and is snarling at and beating up anyone who messes with Locke. At which I laugh, since Boone is just so lame that it's ridiculous. But he clearly is now a Locke disciple like Charlie is, since Boone was tempted by Shannon with another plea for help from her and he totally dissed her this time. At the end of this episode I think that Michael will also now be indebted to Locke.

Finally on this topic, Boone had on a shirt with 4 Aces on it... I'm sure someone on the boards somewhere has a theory about this so I will let you know...

CLAIRE RETURNS
That was crazy. I totally thought that either Michael or Walt was going to emerge but Locke would've already thrown the knife at them and killed them. I really need to get help. But anyway, this is proof positive that the writers of the show have done a great job at keeping some things secret because EVERYONE, and I mean everyone on the boards was convinced that Claire returned two new episodes from now in the episode entitled "Homecoming" and that she returned in a coma without the baby with a "look on her face that will haunt viewers." So clearly she returned earlier than that, but we couldn't see (we paused and slo-mo'd) if she was still pregnant. I’m assuming she's not since she'd been gone a week and Jack said she was due within a week, and since clearly the "others" just wanted the baby... and also she was NOT in a coma but did have a freaky look on her face. Some people wondered if she returned only because Charlie had read her diary and was thinking about her... I don't know about that. But I do think they will finally go looking for the black rock... I just hope it's not before they realize she's back.

And to all of you people who would NOT have read Claire's diary if you were Charlie… then I hope you are never on a deserted island with me if I were to disappear because that is the first thing I would've done if I was Charlie. Obviously they are on some whacked out island where weird things have happened and who knows what she could have witnessed that might be in her diary for a clue. Plus, I was thinking they would read that she had had a previous encounter with Ethan or something like that.

That's all folks, I'm tired. I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness nature of this message.

Now it's Wednesday afternoon and I just briefly skimmed the pasted in section below and there is some good stuff in there. Enjoy.

FROM THE MESSAGE BOARDS
(Warning: These people like to swear)


- If there is a God, Hurley's flashback episode will be NOTHING but him sitting on the Internet and using talks! Seriously, how cool would that be? The entire flash episode is fuck-all just him posting away on the Internet, then he gets on a plane to Australia to attend some LOTR convention and it crashes? Fuckin sweet. It'd be a total waste, but it'd be funny. (e: If Hurley is shown going to a Lord of the Rings convention, I will seriously die and go to heaven)
- It was a flight out of Sydney, Australia, that crashed... not a flight into Australia. Most people were on their way to the U.S. except for the pregnant girl, who was the only one we've met who is really Australian. Which makes me question why the Korean couple were on the flight to the U.S. instead of on a flight to Korea. Maybe they had a stop over in the U.S., but then why would they be on a flight going Eastward, all the way around the world, when Korea is North and slightly West of Australia? Hmm... I wonder if there is a reason, or if this is just a big ol' plothole.
- I never thought of the fact that the flight plan for Sun and Jin would be a plot point. I am also hoping that we get to see a real twisted side to Hurley, one that blows us away.
- "I'm know as something of a warrior, myself." Uh oh, let's hope he didn't mean Forum Warrior, indeed!
- Jin had to travel to L.A. on official Korean mafia business - this was like episode 6 ya big dopes.
- Personally I'm waiting for the rest of the castaways to eat Hurley... and then Locke can make a radio out of two coconuts and Charlie's empty plastic baggie.
- So Walt is the second person that has experienced something profound BEFORE he got on the plane (Claire being the other). Is it a coincidence that Claire was pregnant with a supposedly "special" baby and Walt seems to have an uncanny ability? Children with special powers... hmmmmm. Or could the island be far-reaching and affected Walt in some way prior to his leaving Sydney? I don't know if you all noticed, but tonight's episode crossed that line they've been balancing since episode one. We are now officially in sci-fi/supernatural territory.
- DAMN good episode of Lost tonite!!! Boone being Locke’s lapdog and getting the shit knocked outta him. Fucking priceless! Walt and Michael story was awesome! This was the best episode since the Locke episode of last year, easily! And how hot has Maggie become? Scorching HOT but she still doesn't hold a candle to the Goddess Sun!
- Yeah, I think Walt's comic is important not only because it has Green Lantern fighting a polar bear (and GL can make things appear with his will much like Walt) but because of the alien ship under the ice. I think that hatch Locke found is to an alien ship or a human device that's just as alien. I really do hope they stay away from the heavy handed religious parallels. They're going to lose a lot of viewers that way.
- I had liked the "the island gives people what they want" but I think this episode pretty much shoots that down. Walt seems to have his abilities before he got to the island.
- Ok, so did that kid crash the plane... because he didn't want to leave with his father???? Too obvious?? The mom being sick because of him was a thought of mine also.
- Come later and tell me how right I was: Locke is forming an army.
Locke appears to be forming a faction within the group -- to what end, I'm not quite sure, but the signs are all there. Boone throws himself at Michael after he threatens Locke, to which Michael says, "What are you, his attack dog?!" The foreshadowing of Charlie and Jack's conversation in which Charlie says, "Out of everybody on the island, I'd follow that man to the end." The moment in the first episode when Locke shows Walt how to play gammon, saying that there were two sides, one light, and one dark...and then holds up the black piece to his eye. There will come a time very soon in which Locke and his people (of which I believe we can count Boone, Charlie, Michael, Walt, Sawyer, Sun & Jin) will come to clash with Jack and his people (Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Shannon, Claire, and Rose). I believe most of what's happening in the ground is to mask the fact that the evil is all around them...and it has manifested itself in Locke.
- "Your son belongs to me now." I kept waiting for Locke to say that. That would have been killer. Tumultuous, but killer nonetheless. I guess this is better though, now he has them both, Boohahahahaahah.
- Would loved to see a Locke people VS Jack group, but I don't think Michael and Walt would get involved in any struggle. Still loving the bitch-slapped Michael gave Boone! DAMN, swatted him away like he was an insect.


- e

S1Ep13 - Hearts and Minds (Boone's first flashback)

[This message was initially sent as an email to friends, it was loaded into this blog 2.5 years later]

Hello everyone -

All I will say about this episode is that it wasn't as good as I had hoped, but there was a ton o' Locke in prime form, so that made me happy. And if you were watching it at my place you would've listed as the "PEE ON MY FOOT, JUST PEE ON IT, MAN!" interchange as the top moment of the night.

General topics to consider:

1) What is up with the compass not being correct?
Is the compass itself broken, or is the island on some weird magnetic field or does the island CAUSE some strange magnetic pull? Did Locke give Sayid the compass hoping to throw him off or did he give it to him to HELP him figure out what is going on with the island? My guess is the latter because Locke has said that he "wants Sayid on his side," but he also thinks people need to figure out things for themselves. What I think "on his side" means, I will cover later.

2) Shannon and Boone get freaky-deeky
No big surprise here, most people were just annoyed that ABC had to go SO out of its way to state that they had NO BLOOD RELATION. They were worried about their "family friendly award" they just won getting yanked back!

Anyway, all I think that whole flashback boils down to is a) they are nas-tay and b) Boone has serious issues with Shannon all around. SOME people on the boards think that Shannon will now be pregnant... feeding the "others'" need for kids...

3) Boone's "hallucination"
I'm not totally clear if the paste Locke put on Boone's head CAUSED him to hallucinate and see the monster or if it just kind of accelerated what would've happened anyway. A big theory is that the "monster" is ALWAYS what people see in their heads, so I don't think Locke caused Boone to see it.

Or

in other words, the monster does what people THINK it will do. The pilot was scared of the monster and thought it would eat him, so it did. OR, was the pilot even ever there? Did the island cause Charlie, Kate and Jack to all "see" the pilot, learn that they were off-course, and then see him get eaten, just because that's what the island wanted them to see? Who knows.

The bottom line for the Boone episode is that he saw the monster kill Shannon and that made him feel relieved. So to Locke, that means that Boone needs to learn to "let go" of Shannon in order to ensure his own survival on the island. Locke's comment of "So THAT's what it made you SEE?" led me to believe that 1) the monster was not a hallucination but the real thing, and Locke KNOWS what it's all about and blew his cover with that line and 2) that what Locke saw when HE saw the monster was his destiny on the island to become a leader of a sub-set of the group. Which leads me to...

4) Locke as a leader of the group
They are clearly setting it up so that eventually the survivors are going to split into at least two groups, and my guess would be that Jack is the leader of one and Locke the other. Locke is slowly but surely "converting" people into almost Locke-disciples or something. There is a reason why they had Charlie say at the end, "if there is one man I would trust my life with on this island, it's Locke" or something along those lines. Now Boone is also going to be a follower because after this episode Locke is going to take him under his wing and they are going to discover what's in that metal chamber (this is my guess). Also, Locke commented to Boone that he wants Sayid "on his side"... which leads me to...

5) Expanded 4-year time loop theory
Too long to write out now, but last message I commented on the "4-year time loop" theory that I think is very likely to be what is going on. Since then, a co-worker of mine has dug up even more VERY convincing evidence that this is what is going on (shout out to CG!). If you accept this theory (that they are repeating 4 years over and over again on the island but some characters know it and some haven't caught on yet), you could put MANY things together about Locke, namely: why he always knows EXACTLY when it will rain, how he knows all the stuff about hunting boar, how he can find people very easily, why he doesn't need the compass anymore (he's memorized the route), why he seems to be lining up people against each other subtly (Sayid vs. Sawyer)... it's because he KNOWS he's in the time loop and has probably gone through the most repetitions (people think that new people can come into the loop and then that slightly changes things... people think, for example, that Charlie and Claire are new to the loop).

6) Sawyer in Boone's flashback at the police station
So I said two weeks ago that one theory would be proven correct in this episode, and this what it: that the characters were all connected one way or the other before the flight. I think we will see more evidence of this soon.

7) What is under the metal window/door?
Possibilities: WW2 bomb shelter, maze of tunnels underneath the island, the thing is another plane sunk into the ground, a place where the "others" are holding Claire, a secret government lab that controls the events on the island. Someone also mentioned that it COULD be a Starbucks. All valid ideas. : )


POSTS FROM THE BOARDS

- So far this *whole* island has manifested, either tangible or intangible, exactly what the castaways think about. The kid reads a comic about polar bears and suddenly Sawyer shot a rampaging polar bear. Charlie thinks the best thing that could help his drug addiction is getting his guitar back, so suddenly he looks up and a guitar is sitting there, just like that. Then there’s how Jack saw his father alive; if that was all just dehydrated delusions, then why was the casket empty? Then there’s the “invisible monster,” which, if just a “dream,” then why is everyone hearing/seeing the same thing?!? Boone DID NOT simply have a dream; he faced the monster. Notice how intrigued Locke was when he said he confronted the monster; suddenly his “you imagined it” talk was all “really…? What did you see?” This is because the monster is, from what I have been told in rumor mills, a mirror of the person’s strongest inner emotions. This makes sense so far. It didn’t kill Locke because he was fascinated by it. It killed the pilot because that’s what he *felt* it would do. The French Lady is apparently immune to it, because she doesn’t believe in what cannot be seen. In Boone it reflected how he truly feels about Shannon, in other words; “Deep down it would relieve me greatly if you ate the bitch.” I know some may feel this is a simple to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to difference, because it still means he merely imagined what he saw. However; this wasn't simply a "it was all a dream" story. I'm just saying...
- The island is magical. As lame as that sounds, it is what it is. The island manifests what you want or need to see. It is a reflection of your inner demons so that you might deal with them once and for all. And once you deal with your demons, the island rewards you with something you desire. As Locke said to Charlie, "If you give something to the island, the island will give you something in return." In this episode, Boone was finally able to let go of Shannon - he gave Shannon to the island - and he will now be granted something in return. My guess: they'll have access to the hatch. The hatch, you see, could never be open until Boone gave something to the island. Locke knows this. Locke has, I feel, given himself completely to the island and thus is why he is granted with the insight to the island. So now that Boone has given something to the island, the island will grant him what he wants: access to the hatch. Also, did you note in next weeks previews that the polar bear is back? Coincidence that it's going to be a Michael/his son centric episode? I think not.
- This show rocks!! I think they’re going the “Stand” route and the camp will get divided into two groups of good vs. evil, which will lead to an epic battle, with the winners finding a way off the island. Or… I also like someone’s suggestion that this is all Locke’s fault because he wanted to prove himself. What if his desire was so great while flying over the “magical” island that he actually brought the plane down. That would be cool. Like the island said “oh so you wanna piece of me? Well coma and get it!” LOL. I’ve been looking for a long time for something to approach the greatness of X-Files, and I think Lost does the trick!
- I really liked this episode as I had no idea which way it was going to unfold and Shannon and Boone being the main focus was a welcome change from the usual Kate/Jack centered stories. Can't wait to see where they go with Locke from here, seeing as he now has two guys, Charley and now Boone who seem to be willing to walk into hell for him. Is Locke recruiting people in opposition to Jack and Sayid's leadership or does he have some still unseen motivation in mind? Should be interesting regardless.
- The reason that they are no longer searching for pregnant- girl Claire is easily explained. One, they have *no* *idea* where to look. It’s one thing to have a child missing in a local neighborhood and have hundreds of people help look, with cars, helicopters, and all required resources at their disposal. This isn’t even getting into how such a search would be handled by “locals,” in an area that’s at least *relatively* familiar ground. It’s something entirely different when under 50 castaways are on a deserted island and have barely found the courage to leave the simple 100-yard (?) beach that they were first stranded on. That isn’t even getting into the food and water they would need for such an expedition, entirely on foot. Did I mention how they haven't the slightest notion of where to look…? More bad news: Mr. Crackpot who kidnapped her was up against Jack –arguably the second strongest castaway there is—and Crackpot easily kicked his ass. Jack continued the search and Crackpot even had enough time to hang Charlie by noose, long before Jack was within range. Had they continued the search for Claire the outcome would clearly be no different than if they gave up, except that maybe --just maybe-- she can escape on her own. It isn’t that they don’t care; they just have a sense of humility. There’s no feasible way they could get to her right now.

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