The Constant (S4:E5)

If last night didn’t make you fall in love with LOST again (if you ever fell out of love), then I question why you even watch the show. I watched the episode with people much smarter than myself last night, and they had great insights which will be lumped into the list below. Oh, and a shout out to Omar, played by Anthony Azizi (better known to most that knew him as Kamal Rowshan). Some of you will recognize him as two different terrorists (in two different seasons) on ‘24’. He also died both times.

The best comment last night was when someone mentioned that they love Desmond episodes. I too am a fan of Desmond episodes, and last night’s episode might have been the best of the entire series (in my opinion). Anyway…the scene where Desmond spoke to Penelope, in effect finding his Constant, was theatre/TV/etc. at its best. 1996 Desmond nodding as if he knew things were back to “normal”, 2004 Desmond on the phone mentioning the island, it was all done amazingly. Kudos to the LOST cast, crew and directors. We finally have Some Answered Questions. We finally closed the loop on some open issues.

Shall we?

1. Raise your hand if you were a fan of Quantum Leap. Last night reminded some of us of that great TV show. While it didn’t exactly match up, it was as if Desmond was doing a Quantum Leap within himself, except that it was 1996 Desmond leaping back and forth, while 2004 Desmond was somewhere in limbo. Another tribute to the 80’s was Daniel’s little argument that you can’t change the future. This kinda reminded me of Dr. Emmitt Brown (Christopher Llyod) in Back to the Future. Dr. Brown made a huge fuss about acts changed in the past that impact the future, causing a break from the time continuum, causing an alternate reality. This begs the question (now that we know the future can change): Are the Flash-Forwards that we’ve seen no longer a reality?

2. In the Desmond episode where he flashes back to an alternate past, he speaks to Mrs. Hawking from the jewelry store. She says events are structured and that the universe will correct itself. This sort of hurts the above argument with alternate realities.

3. “If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume is my constant.” While this is easily explainable, I think it touches a little on Daniel’s character. He said it himself. A Constant is someone you care about. Has Desmond had enough impact on Daniel’s life for Daniel to care about him? On another note, does 2004 Daniel now remember the encounter in 1996? Regardless, this foreshadows possible time-leaps by Daniel and/or other people Losties (Foundies?). Daniel is exposed to radiation more often than the normal individual. Could this explain Daniel’s difficulties on the island? He had trouble with the memory game that Charlotte played with him. Has Daniel been having flash-times? When we first met him, he was in his chair cowering over news of the crash. Was that a vision of Daniel having a “Flash-Time”???? He went through that same storm in the helicopter. He’s been exposed to radiation. Or was it Daniel from 1996 that had met Desmond, and knew what the crash was all about…?

4. Charlotte and Daniel have a closer connection than we think. Plus, there’s the part where Charlotte got her PhD at Oxford, and now we find out that Daniel taught there.

5. Does this episode kind of explain why Desmond was in Military Prison? He left the military to visit Daniel, although he told Penny that he had a couple of days off starting the evening of the day he was in the phone booth talking to her. If I’m not mistaken, Desmond stays with Penny and they rekindle something, because not only did he end up in Military Prison while Penny was in love with him (her father tried to pay him off to leave upon his release, and leave his daughter alone). Also, it is mentioned that the picture with Desmond and Penny takes place close to where she lives at the following address.

6. According to some posters, Penelope’s address (423 Cheyne Walk in London) is the same street that Mick Jagger lives on. Supposedly, that’s where Widmore Corp is too.

7. George Minkowski mentioned that whenever Penelope would call, there would be flashing lights. This is similar to what Charlie witnessed when he talked to her. If it’s “NOT PENNY’S BOAT”, then why/how is she in contact?

8. Here’s some “coincidences” with numbers listed on Lostpedia: 1996 and 2004 Desmond are 8 years apart. Penny’s address 423 Cheyne Walk (4, 23 & 42). Daniel’s frequency is 2.342 (23 & 42). Black Rock Diary action number 2342 (23 & 42).

9. Another nice one from Lostpedia: George Minkowski died from the lack of a constant. “Minkowski’s Constant,” a.k.a. Minkowski's theorem, is the foundation of geometry of numbers.

10. Lostpedia is on fire. In the film “Donnie Darko”, water is used to construct a portal for time travel. Desmond’s flash-times are water-centric. He’s around sinks, rain and the ocean.

11. Apparently, off the island, it is December 24, but on the island it is December 26, according to day counters that people have had going for the series.

12. One of the more interesting theories that I’ve heard about Ben’s “Man on the Boat” is that it’s Sayid, working for Ben. Would it be freakish if Sayid were to run into himself. Others think it is Kelvin (the guy that was in the hatch with Desmond) or Michael.

13. The doctor on the boat gives Minkowski a shot. Is it the same shot that Desmond was taking in the hatch, and that we’ve seen numerous characters receive as well? Is it some sort of serum that doesn’t allow time displacement? Is what Desmond experienced, what Rousseau called “The Sickness”? Is this how Rousseau’s crew died? Why didn’t Rousseau die? Two amazing points made by Lostpedia posters on this topic: a) “The research Rousseau’s team was doing involved exposure to radiation, which Danielle avoided while she was pregnant. This explains how she was the only member of the team who was not affected as they approached the island.”; b) “This could be why pregnant women died on the island before giving birth. Their child starts to experience consciousness-travel (to the future when they are adults) before even being born and thus dying without finding their constant and killing the mother with him creating a paradox.”

14. Is Jack experiencing this in the future? Is that why he thought his dad was still alive? Is that why he feels he needs to go back to the island? Or…wait…could Christian Shepherd just be stuck in a time jump?

15. This brings me to a theory that I’ve been trying to prove since season one. That Christian is alive…and once again Vozzek69 of DarkUFO fame has summed it up perfectly: “Taking this into consideration, what if the plane crashed before September 22nd 2004? We’ve seen time differentials of 31 seconds and even a whole day now – who’s to say it couldn’t span a week or more? As we saw with Desmond, the consciousness is transferred but the body stays the same. So what if (and get ready to be totally creeped out here…) what if the plane crashed during a period in time when Christian Shephard was still alive? What if the only place his consciousness had to go was into his current body, tucked neatly away in the coffin that turned up empty on impact? Could this explain why Jack kept seeing him? Could this explain why Jacob looked like him for that brief instant, yet still looks like an embalmed corpse? Yikes.”

16. This episode basically opened a whole new door. Are the flashbacks really flashbacks, or is it the actual characters doing their own time-jumps??? I have to hand it to the writers of this series who have once-again managed to turn this whole story on it’s side.

17. And now, I leave you with an oft-used statement in this series, whether it’s said in different ways or languages, which now takes on a whole new meaning, “See you in another life.”

Note: There is still SO MUCH to this episode. If I can take time out of my busy life (yeah right dude…you write a frikkin’ blog), I’ll see if I can update some more.

Eggtown (S4:E4)

Eggtown: A sales term for a town/city/area where trying to make deals only has undesirable outcomes. This has some historical reference to eggs and the prohibition. Salesmen who wanted to either warn another salesman about a town not worth making deals in, or wanted to keep a town for themselves by keeping other salesmen away would call the town an "Eggtown".

1) 8 survivors of the plane crash? We know 4 of the Oceanic 6 (Jack, Kate, Sayid and Hurley). Who are the 4 other crash survivors? I'm assuming they will say they died on the island. I'm assuming Claire is not going to be one of the 8, because they are hiding Aaron's identity as Kate's child. What are we to assume with Claire? Would she have parted with her child, to give him a better life? Obviously, if that is the case...she stayed on the island unwillingly, if she's still alive. Is Aaron one of the Oceanic 6? Maybe by default, he isn't because he wasn't born until after the crash.

2) Does anyone remember Desmond's premonition last season, where he sees Claire getting on the helicopter with Aaron and leaving the island? Do you think, maybe, Claire dies before ever getting rescued? Some of the theorists out there think that Jack doesn't want to see Aaron, because he has a hand in Claire's death (accident or not), and that Aaron will remind him of his sister.

3) On another note, in Claire's first flashback episode ever ("Raised by Another" S1:E10), she visits the psychic, Richard Malkin. He tells her that it is imperative that she raises the child herself, because Claire is a good person and she must influence her goodness on her child. When she tells him that she is giving him up for adoption, Richard tells her it's not a good idea. Well...now Aaron is being raised by another...I wonder if this will play out at all.

4) Again, we get hints of a time displacement. The chopper hasn't reached the boat yet, and it's been about a day since they left. However, this is more than 31 minutes. Next episode has to clear this up. There are too many questions at this point.

5) Loved this little tidbit from Lostpedia: Shawn Doyle (Duncan Forrester) previously worked with Elisabeth Mitchell (Juliet Burke) in the film "Frequency". The film involved time travel where Doyle's character, a serial killer named Jack Shepard, is prevented from killing Mitchell's character.

6) "You just totally Scooby-Doo'ed me." Hurley and Sawyer as roomies. Monetzuma? As in the Montezuma's Revenge...cuz the toilet flushed?!?!? Honestly, I think you have to be a LOST fan to find this stuff so funny...but I don't know what was said after this as I was trying not to fall off the couch from laughter.

7) Interesting thoughts by some posters. Part of the story with Jack, Kate and Aaron is that Jack, being Aaron's uncle, might actually pass a paternity test. The cover would be that Jack is Aaron's father, and that is why he was brought to trial.

8) Looks like Daniel is suffering from memory issues on the island. He couldn't remember the third card in the test of memory. One poster mentioned that Daniel had difficulty remembering his name in the episode where he landed on the island. I have to go back and watch this again, but I seem to remember him being a little groggy. But, that could have just been the fact that he just parachuted out of a chopper that he didn't want to jump out of.

9) I thought for a while that Charlotte was Ben's "Man on the boat". However, now I have little doubt that Miles is Ben's "Man on the boat". Miles wanted privacy, but Kate wouldn't leave. He wanted $3.2 million. A strange number. He argued over time of delivery (3 days...one week). Could this have been a code between them?

10) So we're back to backgammon, and black and white. The dark side, the light side. Locke used the white pieces in season 1. He's using the black pieces now, as he's gone to the dark side. Alternatively, Sawyer used white...and it seems he's gone to the light side. Our very own Han Solo.

11) Did Locke take Ben's old role...and is his posse playing out the role of the Others? If another plane crashed on the island...they would find themselves playing out the role of the Others, and the new Crash Victims would be like the original Losties. This show seems to be all about loops (time loops, plot loops, etc).

12) The book that Locke gives to Ben is called VALIS. VALIS stands for Vast Active Living Intelligence System. The book is about an ancient, mechanical intelligence orbiting the earth that has been guiding people’s thoughts.

13) Xanadu has several references: 1. The movie about a man who crosses over into another dimension. 2. A poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, about a famous tropical paradise. 3. The name of Charles Foster Kane's mansion in "Citizen Kane".

14) The Book Sawyer is reading is The Invention of Morel. It is a story about a fugitive who hides on a deserted island in the South Pacific.

15) On a side-note. I have not forgotten the other Others. Ben sent them to the "Temple" with Richard. How long until they make an appearance?

16) The scenes from the next episode had a short haired Desmond talking to Daniel. So either he gets a haircut on the boat, or next week is a Desmond episode. The next episode is named, "The Constant"

The Economist (S4:E3)

So...I'm at the NEBY Fest in Stamford, CT. Decided to skip out on some sleep to get this out earlier than mid-next week, and enjoy the Music and Festivities this weekend. This will be a short version. I may update at some point if I can get some time.

Let's...some questions answered...even more arose. Sayid gave us a surprise in the beginning and the end of this episode. Ben became even more sinister. I was really hoping Sayid would have reconnected with Nadia, or at least she would have been in the background or something. But, great episode nonetheless

1) Why was Sayid crying in the end? Was it the pain from the bullet? Was it the fact that he killed a woman that he fell for? My guess is that he's thinking just like Jack and Hurley have shown in their flash-forwards...that he must go back to the island. My prediction is that we'll have a Kate flash-forward sometime soon, and at some point we will either overtly or covertly see Kate's desire to go back to the island. I'm also guessing this season will end with the Oceanic 6 getting back to the island. Another theory I've seen out there is that it was because Elsa resembled Shannon, and that they both died from gunshot wounds to the mid-section.

2) From Sayid's own mouth: "...the day I start trusting him is the day I will disown my soul." The "him" he was referring to was Ben. Looks like Sayid ended up disowning his soul.

3) Best Line of the show, "Great, the ship sent us another Sawyer." This is what he said after Miles called him "Tubby"

4) A New Zealander posting on the message boards claims that the New Zealand passport that was seen in the drawer that Sayid opened was a diplomatic red-colored passport. Not the regular white-colored one.

5) Looks like Jacob doesn't like being told where to be. I'm guessing Jacob can only be seen when he wants to be. Locke was frustrated that he didn't find Jacob. However, he also played it off half-decently to the group, when they were about to ask him "What the F...?"

6) Elsa had a pager. Her boss, "The Economist" likes pagers. Doctors still use pagers. Could her boss be Christian Sheppard? However, with Naomi's and Elsa's matching bracelets leads many to think that they both worked for Matthew Abbadon.

7) Daniel's little experiment puts the theory of a bend in the time continuum on the island some merit. It was about 31 minutes and some change. Did anyone notice that Elsa said "You were supposed to call me at 10:30"? Upon some translation by a German, they left out the subtitle for the rest of what she said. She actually said, "You were supposed to call me at 10:30, not 10:00". Off by ~30 minutes...

8) There's a VERY LOOSE theory making circles that the voice you first hear when Sayid is getting the gunshot wound looked at was none other than Christian Sheppard's voice. The theory is that people are saying that Ben and Christian are the same person.

9) Is Charlotte actually Ben's "man" on the boat? He knew a lot about her, and he knew enought to know he could shoot her and she'd have a bullet-proof vest on.

Update on Confirmed Dead (S4:E2)

This guy is amazing. He writes a weekly piece on the DARKUFO site, and I just couldn't pass up an opportunity for you guys to read his stuff on Confirmed Dead. He goes by the name of Vozzek69, and I regularly reference his material on this site. He is one of those that I refer to as "people much more intelligent than me".

This time...reading through his piece on Confirmed Dead, I figured everyone should read what he had to say. Either that, or I was going to have to reference every bit of this particular write-up. You can find it here.

Confirmed Dead (S4:E2)

Four new characters!?!? They threw them right into the mix. Interesting back stories on all four (plus a little more about Naomi). Let’s jump right in. Here are the things I noticed, and things that much smarter people than I, from other sites, noticed as well.

1) I have now set my DVR to record 5 minutes after the show. I found out that I missed the commercial after the episode (prior to, or maybe even part of, the premier of Eli Stone). There is an Oceanic commercial talking about the golden pass which takes you anywhere you want to go. This is the same golden ticket that Jack talked about in Through the Looking Glass. Then a man starts talking in the middle of the commercial saying to not trust Oceanic and that he found flight 815. Then they show an Oceanic plane under the ocean. Is Oceanic trying to cover things up? Are they working with Hanso and the others in on this plot? You see the website flyoceanicair.com. then for a split second it shows find815.com. If you go to www.flyoceanicair.com you will see a more robust message from the man interrupting the Oceanic commercial. Then find815.com seems to be a work in progress.

2) We kick things off with underwater footage of the dummy airplane. The scene then cuts to Daniel Faraday, who’s crying, and claims he doesn’t know why. However, we see that this is a common theme with Daniel. He’s always afraid. He was afraid to jump out of the helicopter (prompting Miles to push him out). He has a fearful demeanor when dealing with Jack and Kate. Obviously he has some sort of gift or skill that made him important for this mission. But, what is it? Daniel shows that fear again when they find the metal box with the gas mask and other supplies. But, we finally cut to the chase when Daniel says that saving the Losties isn’t their primary objective.

3) From Lostpedia: Michael Faraday was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to electromagnetism as a field of study. From Wikipedia: "He established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena." In this episode, Daniel Faraday comments on abnormalities in the light rays on the island.

4) Enter Miles Straume. I liked the part where he asked to be taken to Naomi’s body, because he’ll know whether Jack & Co. killed her or not. His flashback was a little spookier. Miles seems to be some sort of medium between the real world and the spirit world. How the money and drugs in the bag behind the bookcase played into that scene was a little strange. I would think that what he did wouldn’t release a ghost from a house, but I’m not an expert on these matters.

5) I like how Locke revealed that he got his orders from a taller Walt. Could they be bringing Walt back into the fold? Maybe that’s their way of explaining the child actor’s growth spurt over the last few years.

6) Charlotte Staples Lewis, eh? Like Clives Staples Lewis? Better known as C.S. Lewis, author of the Chroni(what)cles of Narnia. Anyway…Charlotte’s flashback shows us that she is one of those characters that she may know a lot more about what’s going on with the island than she’s leading on. She obviously wasn’t surprised about finding polar bear bones in Tunisia, and seemed like she expected to find the Dharma logo (Hydra) on the collar that was previously around the polar bear’s neck. She had enough foresight to know that Ben might try to kill her. You don’t just randomly wear a bullet-proof vest.

7) Frank Lapidus, was supposed to be the pilot of 815. I liked the part where Miles and Daniel ask him where the helicopter crashed, and he told them that he’s a good pilot and did not crash it. This is a bit of an anomaly, as everything that comes within the vicinity of the island crashes on it. Though the original hatch and the magnetic force is blamed for the previous crashes, this comment brings an interesting point. Had Frank been piloting 815, would it have crashed? He obviously realizes that there is a cover up as well (with Seth Norris and the lack of a ring on his supposed body).

8) So Ben has a man on the boat. He knows all about their mission. I wonder if it’s Minkowski. Minkowski’s voice kept changing on the phone depending on who he spoke with on Naomi’s phone in the premier episode. This remains to be seen. Whoever it is, they’ve done their research on the members of the mission. Another genius from Lostpedia had this to post: The name Minkowski is a reference to Hermann Minkowski, the mathematician who pioneered the idea of 4-dimensional space-time.

9) Finally, we came to the flashback with Naomi and Matthew Abaddon. This may debunk the theory that Abaddon is the black smoke. Naomi says that she doesn’t have the right team, calling them a head case, a ghostbuster, an anthropologist and a drunk. But Abaddon tells her that they were all chosen for specific reasons. Abaddon also mentions that there are no survivors. However, here’s my take. These are four people who may have a clue as to what really happened, and Abaddon is sending them onto the island with Naomi to eventually leave them there.

10) Try calling the Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 Hotline Number 1-888-548-0034. You get a recording, however they’re really covering their bases on this show.

11) If Ben has been on the island his entire life, who got his picture off the island and eventually into Miles’s hands.?

12) I also love how Locke’s life is indirectly saved by his con-man father. If he had a kidney where he was shot, he would have died.

13) We also notice that both Locke and Ben know what Hurley was talking about with Jacob’s cabin. Yet, neither acknowledges it. Now they both know that Hurley has come across Jacob.

There is more to be read up on, but wanted to get something out there. I’ll add more if there is more to mention.

Next episode is called “The Economist”

The Beginning of the End (S4:E1)

It feels like it’s been a year since we saw a new episode of LOST. Oh wait, it almost has been a year. Anyway…it was nice to get back into the swing of things. The Hurley-centric episode was a nice way to start things off, especially with the car chase with the car that Hurley and his father started working on together. Well, here we go again.

Some of the things I noticed (with a little help from other websites on stuff I might have missed):

1) Back to Flash-Forwards. We see Jack watching Hurley’s chase on television. This obviously took place before Jack’s Flash-Forward from last season. He knew Hurley well enough to know that it was him when they said it was a Camaro. The best part was Randy standing there with a camera, filming the crash at the end of the chase. Yes, the same Randy that was Locke’s boss at the box company and Hurley’s boss at the Chicken Shack. I wonder what it was like to see his former employee getting taken down by the police.

2) So, who are the “Oceanic 6”? I have my theories (we’ve also had Matthew Fox spoil this for many that saw a certain interview). We know Jack, Kate and Hurley are 3 of them. We know that this was the “lying” that Jack told Kate he was tired of in last season’s finale. But, lying about what? Did the other Losties die in a bloodbath? Did they get left behind? So many questions. Jack wouldn’t have willingly left anyone behind just to have his own freedom. It’s not in his character. Kate might. Hurley might. I guess this will have to be seen.

3) In the interrogation room, the cop that was friends with Ana Lucia leaves and Hurley sees Charlie in the one-way mirror as if he’s swimming towards it. When Charlie places his hand on the mirror (similar to the end of last season) he has something written on it. “THEY NEED YOU”. Who is “they”?

4) When Hurley gets lost and ends up at Jacob’s cabin, he looks in the window, and who is sitting there? None other than Christian Shephard (Jack’s father). The eye he saw through the crack could have been Jacob. I’ve seen some mention that it was Locke. At first, I thought it was Jin, and that the group Hurley had lost ended up finding the hut and had gone inside to investigate. Someone even mentioned that it looked like Ben’s dad’s eye.

5) Vozzek (one of the most insightful posters on DarkUFO) had this to say, which I found interesting: “More importantly, why does Jacob seek an audience with Hurley? It could be because of the faith thing I just mentioned, but it could also be because Hurley is one of the few constants the island can’t touch. At least twice, Hurley has stated “I’m not supposed to be here”. In Locke’s sweat-tent dream vision Hurley is the only 815’er not making his way on board the plane. In season one he arrives at the gate and the stewardess says “I don’t think you’re supposed to make this flight, hon”. Without going into this too deeply, I’ll repeat my assertion that Hurley has always been untouchable – both on and off the island – because he was never part of the original equation. Maybe the island would rather just have him gone. Maybe this is why Hurley is later allowed to leave as one of the ‘Oceanic Six’.”

6) Intense moment when everyone arrives at the cockpit of the plane. When Locke tells Jack that Jack won’t shoot him, Jack pulls the trigger. He had no idea the gun wasn’t loaded. So basically, Locke is dead to Jack. This can send the rivalry into a much worse place than it has already been. We saw the divide happen when Locke made his case to the Losties. We even saw Sawyer and Kate part ways. Ben’s comment asking Jack if he can go with Locke was one of many funny quotes by the Chief Other.

7) Who is Matthew Abbadon? That may not even be his real name. He showed up at Hurley’s mental institute offering him a better place. When he cuts to the chase and says “Are they alive?”, we once again come back to the questions that came up several times in this episode. Did people choose to stay in the end? Was that to protect them? Was it to hide some sort of massacre? Lostpedia had this tidbit: Abbadon is the name for the angel of the Abyss in Revelation. This angel does the work of God in binding Satan and hurling him into the Abyss. He basically was the keeper of the Realm of the Dead. In Hebrew, Abbadon means “The Place of Destruction”. My favorite part of this is that there’s a place in Iran called Abaddon, I think.

8) Another poster points out on DarkUFO that Abaddon was the Black Smoke Monster. As he leaves the room, you don’t see him, but his shadow kinda disappears in the same way the Black Smoke Monster would disappear.

9) Is Charlie Hurley’s new imaginary friend? Has he replaced Dave? Lewis, the other mental patient was able to see Charlie. What was with Charlie’s hair when he showed up at Hurley’s mental facility? What is it that Charlie insists Hurley knows what to do about? Obviously, these questions throughout the episode are tied to one thing (which will be one of the underlying themes of the season). I like how he counted to five to make Charlie disappear, much like he did to make Jacob’s cabin disappear.

10) Hurley should try out for the NBA. He swished every shot he took. Can’t say the same for Jack, who can’t hit the broad side of a barn. Anyway…Jack foreshadows (or is that back-shadows) his beard. They have an exchange. Hurley apologizes for going with Locke, saying it was a mistake. He also talks about going back. I think he said “he” will do whatever it takes to bring them back. Who is he?

11) Anyone like the part where Jack says “We’re never going back”? Especially, since in the season finale “Through the Looking Glass” he tells Kate, “We have to go back”

12) Another little easter egg that someone posted on Lostpedia: While playing horse with Hurley, Jack gets the letters "H" and "O". "H" is the 8th letter of the alphabet and "O" is the 15th – 815. Behind Hurley as he’s freaking out over Abbadon there’s a small sculpture of the letters ‘HO’ on a shelf. Hurley mentions Charlie’s ghost showing up in the convenience store right next to the “Ho Ho’s”. I guess those are more references to the numbers, yet a little more hidden. They’re going to make this part fun, aren’t they?

Next Episode is called “Confirmed Dead”