LOST The New Man in Charge, first thoughts

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



No, seriously... SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Okay, if you are still here, then I will assume that you have watched the entirity of LOST and perhaps watched this special as well.

On the LOST Season 6 Blu Ray, there is a special feature from after Dr. Jack's death (What? I told you there were spoilers!) entitled The New Man in Charge. It looks at the time on the Island with Ben working for Hurley.

If you are one of the people who complained about the number of answers neglected in the finale, this less than fifteen minutes will probably be exactly what you wanted. Tons of "questions" are answered in the special, and there are also a lot of good little LOST in jokes.

While most people will focus on the answers provided, I want to talk a little bit about the jokes, because the sense of humor in LOST is a part of the show that I loved, but never really spent much time talking about.

First, the special makes fun of its own purpose, the fact that there are questions that people want answers to that the show itself didn't have enough time to divulge. When the DHARMA workers ask who Ben is and what he is doing there, Ben replies, "I'm tying up a few loose ends."

While watching the Hydra Orientation video, Dr. Chang actually uses his real name, but he asks that those watching not give it out as he would hate to have to use an alias in the future, which, of course, we know that he does. The reveal is handled in a very amusing aside, which I really liked. If you really had to know why Chang always uses a different name in the videos, now you know, otherwise, it was an amusing joke.

The next reveal also made me laugh, as we got the reappearance of the Hurley Bird, which is called a Hy-Bird by the DHARMA folk.

And by the way, how awesome was the Polar Bear worker who apparently got a little too close to the Bears referenced by the loss of his arm. A nice little foreshadowing for Chang himself.

Just after the video ends, Hector references one of my all time favorite LOST moments, saying, "I think we're gonna need to see that again." That was of course the first thing that Locke said after watching the first orientation video we saw way back in season 2.

Finally, Ben goes to our favorite mental institution and we find our favorite kidnappee, which leads to the great moment of Walt asking Ben if he is there to kidnap him again.

Tons of questions were answered, and it was great to have some new LOST if only for 12 minutes, the only problem is that it raised another huge question that apparently we will never get an answer to...

Until Next Time, how in the world did they get a DHARMA Van to present day Los Angeles?

Josh Man

LOST Everyone Loves Hugo, first thoughts

Really only a few of things I feel like we have to talk about this week.

Don't get me wrong, a lot took place in the episode, there was a lot going on, but I feel like there are only a few things that really stand out as taking some time to look at.

First off...


LIBBY!!!!


It was so, so, so great to see Libby again.

Something that I found interesting was that while Charlie required a near death experience, Desmond had the deja vu moment underwater and the touch of his constant (as well as having his original timeline self blasted with electromagnatism), but Libby seems to have recognized the truth based on just a commercial.

It makes you wonder.

It was her realization of another timeline that caused her to put herself into Santa Rosa in the LA X timeline, what do you think caused her to be there in the original timeline? Did she have a similar experience in the original timeline? Was she aware of something that made her seem crazy? Does she have some sort of natural ability to pierce through to other realities, making it easier for her to connect herself to the Island timeline?

It would make sense, and be an awesome answer to the question of why she was in the mental institution in the original timeline.

Speaking of answers, what did you think of the answer for the whispers?

I kind of like it, the souls that are unable to escape the Island, those that die on the Island still burdened with the guilt of their actions are unable to leave the Island even in death. Redemption is definitely a main theme of the show and perhaps the redemption of those who died unable to find it is still possible. I certainly find the possibility intriguing.

The question I still have is why the whispers seem to focus on the Others. Perhaps because the Others have been on the Island the longest, the spirits that make up the whispers are most closely connected to them.

The other main thing that I wanted to discuss was the fate of Ilana (you got a little Ilana on you), not so much the way she died, which was very reminiscent to the death of Artz, but what Ben said afterwords. The Island no longer needed her.

I can't help but admit that there is a possibility that we have been deceived all along and Jacob isn't the good guy. It definitely doesn't seem fair that Ilana did so much for Jacob, gathered most of the candidates together, then blew up like a minor character from season one.

I'm honestly not sure what to make of Ilana's death.

I would like to point out the similarity not only to Artz's death, but also to Frogurt's death, he of the flaming arrow end. It was in the midst of indecision and argument and it was followed immediately by action.

In this case, the action of Hurley to destroy the rest of the dynamite.

I'm not sure that Hurley is doing the right thing, but I definitely enjoy him taking a leadership role. I think that leadership fits him nicely.

The final point I want to make is the interesting dichotomy of Island Locke throwing Island Desmond down a hole matched with LA X Desmond hitting LA X Locke with a car.

Is it petty revenge for Desmond (assuming as I do that he is aware of what is happening on the Island as well as what is happening in the sideways timeline) or is it a necessary action in order to wake Locke up?

How does Desmond know what will wake up the LOSTies? How did he know that Hurley just needed to kiss Libby whereas Locke apparently needed to get hit by a car? Guess we'll have to keep watching in order to find out.

Desmond off Island seems to have a lot of Jacob like qualities though, doesn't he? It is very much like Jacob's bit going around to each of the LOSTies in last season's finale.

Just wanted to point that out.

Until Next Time, things are clearly leading to an end. I'm trying not to think too much about that fact.

Josh Man

LOST Some Like it Hoth, first thoughts

Alternate title for this post could be "All the Good Jedi Have Daddy Issues"

As always *SPOILERS* if you aren't caught up.

Really just a few things to get into this week as the episode was for the most part self explanatory.  More answers then questions this week, although the questions we got were doozies.

It was confirmed the popular theory that Miles was the baby we saw in the opening moments of this season, no surprise there, and we saw the building of the Swan aka the Hatch.  Both nice things, but nothing to get too excited about.  LaFleur, meanwhile, is trying to cover up his actions concerning Young Ben, and I'm going to go out on a sturdy and firm limb and say that ultimately this will cause our LOSTies to lose their comfortable Dharma post.  There will probably be a lot more on that two weeks from now.

Let's get to the interesting stuff...

Let's start with the title of the episode, the second I saw it, I thought of Empire Strikes Back, and I wasn't disappointed.  There was a lot of Star Wars stuff in the episode.  Hurley is writing the script to Empire, with "a few improvements".  Of course, there is no way to improve Empire Strikes Back, as it is without question one of the best movies ever made.  Hurley's improvements, we come to learn, are that he would have Luke actually talk with Vader after it is revealed that Vader is (spoiler alert) his father.  Hurley claims that this would have saved a lot of trouble in the end.  While that may be, it sure as hell would have lessened the impact that the end of the movie had, and probably would have turned one of the greatest films of all time into utter crap.

The creators of LOST have long credited Star Wars as one of the main influences on the show.  I think in large part because of the epic tale based on mythic archetypes, but also, they seem to be telling us in this episode, because of the daddy issues.  One of the season one episodes was, of course, titled "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues", and that has long been a main theme of the show.  Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Locke, Ben, Hurley, and now Miles have all had serious issues with their fathers.  And the one time that we've seen Sayid's father it didn't seem like he was all that pleasant of a person either.  However, what is interesting about Star Wars, especially if you take all six movies and not just the original trilogy, the series isn't really about Luke and his daddy issues, it is about the father.  Everything is actually about Anakin.  (Who we found out in Episode One didn't even have a father, but that's another post).  For the most part, that doesn't seem to be the case in LOST.  The children ARE more important then the fathers.  Although, Christian does seem to be gaining in importance as the show goes on.  (And obviously his name brings to mind someone else who was born without an earthly father... hmm).

Speaking of Christian, I think that the name Bram is an interesting choice for one of our newest characters.  Proof that at least some of the other 316ers (and did you notice that the time on the microwave at Miles's new apartment was 3:16?) do know about the Island and have some ulterior motives, Bram picks up Miles off of the street and tells him not to go along on Widmore's wild boat ride.  Bram is usually short for Abraham, who was the father of the three biggest organized religions in the world, including Christianity (as well as Judaism and Islam) and it is also the first name of the author of Dracula.  Dracula of course being probably the most famous member of the Undead that there is.  Undead as in Dead, but Not Dead, as in Christian Shephard.  Pretty interesting.

Despite the interest that I had in his name, I am more interested in the fact that he tried to keep Miles from joining Widmore's crew.  And that later he boarded Ajira Flight 316 along with Ilana in order to get to the Island himself.  (We have seem him on the Island, he listened while Frank and Caesar argued about what the survivors should do in Namaste, and he is the one Ilana told to tie Frank up last week.)

I think that many of us, myself included, imagined that the coming war everyone had been talking about would be between Benry and Widmore, but we were wrong.  Sure the Others find themselves in a bit of a civil war between two leaders who are both, in my opinion, false, but there is a common enemy coming, one concerned with What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue.  You see, I don't think that they are at all connected with Widmore or Benry or the Others at all, but that they are a completely different group.  Despite their differences, which are many, both Widmore and Benry believe that they are acting in the best interest of the Island.  And the Island (or Jacob) has chosen the Others as it's chosen people.  (A very Abraham-ish idea, chosen people).  So, it is safe to think (at the moment with the limited information that we have) that this group is the actual enemy of the Island, and that probably the Others need to quit their bickering and get their stuff straight behind one leader (John Locke).

The other exciting bit of the episode happened at the very end when we discovered where Faraday had been all this time.  He was at Dharma headquarters in Ann Arbor.  Which means, he probably knows exactly what Dharma is hoping to accomplish.  He probably knows everything about the Island that Dharma knows, plus a little more thanks to his own experiences on the Island, Time Skipping and whatnot.  In other words, Daniel Faraday knows more about the Island then probably anyone else alive (or not Not Dead).  That will probably come in handy.

Finally, did you notice that Dr. Jack was erasing Egyptian Hieroglyph off of the black board in the classroom when he was attempting to cover for Roger?  Last week, in Smokey's lair we saw what certainly appeared to be Egyptian Hieroglyph, and the statue from behind certainly appears Egyptian.  Looking at names is always important in searching for LOST clues, and one that I had overlooked until hanging in the Royal Ontario Museum last week was the fact that Horus is an Egyptian god and the leader of Dharma on the Island is named Horace Goodspeed.

Horus was the son of Osiris (the god of the dead and underworld) and Isis (the goddess of fertility).  He reclaimed the Egyptian throne from Seth (the god of desert and chaos) after it was stolen from his father.  Ever after, the Pharaohs were considered the embodiment of Horus.  Other traditions say that Horus reclaimed the throne for his father and the Pharaohs were the embodiment of Osiris and the heir was the embodiment of Horus.

Until Next Time, some interesting stuff, and the Island certainly has its connections with death and fertility.

More on LOST

So, I just watched the final mobisode on ABC.com, and if you are a LOST fan, you really need to check them out.  Go to ABC.com and click on "originals" and it takes you right to the mobisodes called Missing Pieces.

What they are is little bonus scenes from throughout the entire series, showing a little more about various moments in the shows past.  The first one, for instance, is a little more of Juliet before book club.
There are a few funny ones, a few very interesting ones, and then there is the last one.  This Missing Piece is entitled "So It Begins" and it takes place just before the opening scene of the show, Dr. Jack awaking on the Island.  It is from the point of view of Vincent.  Running around the jungle, sniffing at luggage, just being a dog in an interesting new surrounding.  Then, he comes across someone.  At first, still from Vincent's perspective, we just see legs.  Then the camera gives us a shot of the person.  It is Christian Shepard.  He calls Vincent over to him and tells him, "I need you to do something for me.  Wake up my son, he's got work to do."

Then, we see the opening scene from the first episode of the first season of LOST.

Wow.

Is Christian Shepard Jacob?

Is Christian Shepard alive, brought back from the dead by the Island or Jacob?

Was Christian brought to the Island at the time of his death the way that Anthony Cooper, Locke's dad, supposedly was, another connection between our leader representing faith and our leader representing science?

I had no idea when I asked what I thought was an innocuous question (What happened to Christian Shepard's body) in my Season 4 preparation post that it would turn out to be one of the biggest mysteries of the new season.

Anyway, some new thoughts that I had on the premiere, The Beginning of the End...

Hurley is Jonah.

What do you think of that?  Last year I cited Mr. Eko as Job, but I think I like this comparison even more.
I started to think of it in part because of the show following LOST on Thursday, Eli Stone, where the protagonist is apparently a modern day prophet.  That just put the idea of prophets into my head, which always makes me think of Jonah, maybe because in middle school (or as we Disciples call it, Chi Rho) I was in a South Hills (you can't see it, but I just did the hand signs) produced musical based on the ichthyophobic prophet.  Anyway, I realized that there was a parallel.  Jonah, a prophet, hears from God that he has to go and bring the good word to the people of Nineveh, well that's just about the last place that Jonah has any intention of going.  Hurley, fears that his visions of Charlie are based on the fact he needs to go back to the people left behind on the Island, just about the last place that Hurley has any intention of going.  Both of them, in fact, go in exactly the opposite direction.  For Jonah, that's literally, he charters a boat in the opposite direction, for Hurley, he goes in the opposite direction in his own life, back to the mental institution that he was so ashamed of before, but now he goes there willingly, even gratefully.  Then, for Jonah, there is the storm that the sailors blame on him, casting him overboard in order to get swallowed by a gigantic fish.  Hurley, in the common room of the mental institution, sits in front of a black board featuring a boat and a gigantic fish (as well as an island).  Jonah ultimately comes around to the fact that he needs to do the right thing (of course maybe he'll do anything to get out of the belly of the fish), Hurley appears to be coming around towards the end as well, telling Dr. Jack, "it wants us to go back."

I'm interested to see if the Jonah parallel continues in the next Hurley-centric episode.

Until Next Time, if you happen to live in one of the many states having a presidential primary today, get out there and vote, meanwhile, I'll hope that the race stays close enough that when it's my turn in a month it still won't be decided.

LOST Dave, first thoughts

So, I gotta talk about the last episode of LOST and the question it raised.  Is the island and everything on it just a figment of Hurley's imagination?

For my part, I would have to say, No, I don't believe that it is, or they wouldn't have told us.

However, the idea of things, or indeed everything, being just in the head is an intriguing one.  It may play into the ultimate truth of the island.

What really shocked me about this episode is the fact that the new girl, I always forget her name, (EDITORS NOTE: Holy crap! There was a time when I couldn't remember Libby's name?  Shame on me!)  from the other side of the island was also in the hospital with Hugo.  That's just strange.

We already know that the island has some sort of power.  It gave Locke the ability to walk again.  It brought the horse that was just like the one from Kate's past.  Perhaps it could create someone for Hurley from his past.  Maybe the new girl on the island actually doesn't exist and has been created from the mind of Hurley.  I guess we won't know anytime soon though.  After all, Walt has been missing all season!

Although, maybe something will finally be done about that this week since Jack is going to try to trade "Henry Gale" for Walt.  I can't wait to find out.

Until Next Time, I hope that you are secure in your own reality!