A Blog
So here we are, Lost’s final season has gotten underway. We are on the cusp of having the important questions answered.
Except after tonight’s episode, LA X, I’m not feeling like anything’s been answered. In fact, I have even more questions. And with 15-or-so episodes left this season, the producers better get cracking with some explanations! Continue reading “Lost: LA X :: Question: WTF?”
As a Lost fan, the past eight months since The Incident aired have gone very slowly.
I had a plan I started last summer to take a look at some of the mysteries of the show that I wanted to see answered. Because of timing issues, I was never able to go into as much depth with I Want Some Freakin’ Answers as I had planned. Sure, I wrote about a handful of questions, but there are a lot more. And with the final season of the Kingdom’s favorite show starting up next Tuesday, there’s not really enough time to explore all of them thoroughly. So I’m just going to go through the rest of my list, along with some comments:
Continue reading “Smoke Monsters, Whispers, Science Stations and All The Rest”
Ben Linus: And now you have a choice. Because if you stop and if you think, I can show you things. Things I know you want to see very badly. Let me put it so you’ll understand. Picture a box. You know something about boxes, don’t you, John? What if I told you that somewhere on this island, there’s a very large box… and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it, when you opened that box, there it would be. What would you say about that, John?
A bedridden Ben Linus used the above analogy to illustrate to a desperate John Locke just how special a place the Lost island was. Sure, we viewers have seen people on the island cured of terminal illness and paralysis. Others (literally) are ageless. Viewers (and John Locke, from experience) know the island is a place where wonderful things happen, but in the above analogy, Ben hints that the island’s magic isn’t random, and that individuals can have the island make their dreams come true. A few episodes later (in The Brig), Ben admits the box is a metaphor.
So the subject of this edition of I Want Some Freakin’ Answers is Ben’s magical mystery box, a topic only brought up twice during the series, but which may be the driving force behind some of the mysteries of the Island.
The only other time the box is mentioned is during the fourth season finale, There’s No Place Like Home, when Locke asks Ben whether The Orchid station is “the Box.” Ben dismisses Locke’s question, later saying that the purpose of the Orchid is the same as all the other DHARMA stations- to conduct “silly experiments.”
So viewers (and Locke) are left with Ben’s metaphor promising a device which could grant one’s heart’s desire. We’ve never seen it, but have had plenty of evidence of its existence, kind of similar to the way Hawking describing the way DHARMA first found the island.
Because of this, I’m led to believe the whole island is the Box. One just has to know how to use it.
We find out through the course of the series that there are unique pockets of energy housed on the island. DHARMA, a group of scientists, created a number of stations to try and harness this energy. I argued a while back that DHARMA messed up by trying to turn the island’s magic into science. I still think they did. But this energy is there for a reason. It healed Rose’s cancer. It let Locke walk again. Perhaps because these people believed it could happen, or in Rose’s case, had someone believe on their behalf, their wishes came true.
In The Man from Tallahassee, Ben showed Locke what “came out of” the Box when he used it: Locke’s father. It’s probably more accurate to say the resources of the Others enabled Locke’s father to get to the island, but it’s that magic (along with appropriated DHARMA technology) that enabled the Others to travel the world and acquire detailed files on visitors to their Island.
I have no doubt that in this upcoming season, we’ll find out more about the powers of the island. And then finally, we’ll have some freakin’ answers related to Ben’s analogy. Either way, I’m sure there’s much more in the Island’s box than this one:
This is the second entry in a series titled “IWant Some Freakin’ Answers.” From time to time, I’ll talk about some of the things we’ve seen over the past five seasons of Lost that I’d like answered. I’m not going to deal with topics we know will get answered (like the smoke monster), but rather those things that no one but die-hard Lost fans would care about. It’s very likely that not everything will be answered, and even possible that some may be passed off as continuity errors, but Lost wouldn’t have obsessive fans if people didn’t care about the little things, right?
Out of all the Lost cast members, life outside the show has been most unkind to Malcolm David Kelley, who played Walt Lloyd (a.k.a. WAAAALT! or “My boy”). Originally playing a ten year old boy, Kelley started his growth spurt in the years following Season 1, as he was removed from the show’s main cast (in a surprisingly benign way) while making cameo appearances throughout the following season.
During Season 1, we got the impression that Walt was not quite normal. Called “special” by several people, Walt was kidnapped by the Others after flashing some knife throwing and bird attracting skills. In addition, Walt also hinted at having the abilities of precognition and astral projection–all leading up to the question behind this week’s I Want Some Freakin’ Answers — what is (or was) up with Walt?
Originally portrayed as Michael’s rebellious kid (or alternatively, the kid Michael was stuck with raising) after crashing on the island, Walt quickly became friends with Locke and Hurley. Locke and Boone taught Walt how to throw a mean knife, and Hurley taught Walt all about gambling (although, Hurley lost a lot of money to Walt, so maybe Hugo was really teaching him how not to play backgammon). “Special,” a flashback episode devoted to Walt and Michael established that Walt was raised by his mother and an unwilling stepfather who was spooked by some weird things that happened whenever Walt was around.
More weirdness happened later in the first season, during a discussion between Walt and Locke. Locke reached out to touch Walt, who got implored Locke “Don’t open it, Mr. Locke. Don’t open that thing.” Spooked by his encounter with Locke and a chilling vision of things to come, Walt willingly left the island with his father on the raft, only to be kidnapped by the Others.
Even though he was in the care of the Others, Walt appeared to Shannon twice, speaking backwards (much like another little man from another place), warning of doom shortly before Shannon’s death. Walt (or more likely, the Others) communicated to Michael through the Swan’s computer, who was slowly losing his sanity. The trick worked, sending Michael off the deep end and giving the Others their bargaining chip in Ben’s plan to get Jack to do the spinal surgery which would save Ben’s life.
In a Missing Piece produced between the third and fourth seasons, we learned that the Others were just as scared of Walt’s powers as his step father was. We didn’t learn anything of the powers or what benefit they would serve to the Island, but we learned that he was one scary kid.
After being captured by the Others, Michael is asked several questions about Walt, including “has Walt ever been somewhere he wasn’t meant to be?” Partially because he was an absent father for most of Walt’s life, Michael is unable to answer these questions, but is able to bargain for his and Walt’s freedom, as well as a safe way off the island. In a brief meeting, Walt tells Michael the others aren’t who they seem to be and that he spends his time taking tests.
Finally, Michael turns in Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley (in addition to killing Ana Lucia and Libby) and at the end of Season Two, sets off for civilization. Here, Walt and Michael’s paths diverge. Michael agrees to help the Others by posing as a spy on Widmore’s ship. On the other hand, Walt goes back to school (but not before appearing to a near-death Locke on the island and urging him to finish up his work), and meets Jeremy Bentham/John Locke and travels to visit Hurley.
It would be nice in the final season to find out what was going on with Walt. Why did the Others want him? How did they know that he was special? Did he have other gifts than killing birds and appearing in places he wasn’t supposed to be? What did the Others get out of him? And why was he so fearful about the hatch.
There are a lot of loose ends in regard to Walt. And because he’s appeared on the show sparingly since the end of Season One, I don’t have many guesses as to how and if he fits in in the overall scheme of things. If they were to bring him back, at least Walt would reach Malcolm David Kelley’s real-life age, so if they were to bring him back, now would be an appropriate time.
And hopefully, we’d find out whether Walt got that $83,000 Hurley owed him.
In an effort to post more (not to mention milk everything I can out of the Lost franchise before it ends next May), I’m starting a new feature (with a title inspired by Hurley) called I Want Some Freakin’ Answers. From time to time, I’ll talk about some of the things we’ve seen over the past five seasons of Lost that I’d like answered. I’m not going to deal with topics we know will get answered (like the smoke monster), but rather those things that no one but die-hard Lost fans would care about. It’s very likely that not everything will be answered, and even possible that some may be passed off as continuity errors, but Lost wouldn’t have obsessive fans if people didn’t care about the little things, right?
The big mystery around the end of Lost’s first season was what was in the hatch. We later found it was a station built to study the unique electromagnetic properties of the island by a group calling themselves the DHARMA Initiative. Aside from the weird swan-specific symbols scattered around the station and on it’s boxes of food products, our (not to mention the Lostaway’s) first introduction to the Initiative came through the Swan Station orientation film, way back in Season Two’s aptly titled third episode “Orientation.”
Hosted by a man calling himself Doctor Marvin Candle, who only has the use of one arm, the film gives us some background about the Initiative, as well as details as to the function of the Swan.
After that, the Lostaways find different DHARMA stations, some of which have their own orientation films/videos, and while they’re hosted by the same person, he doesn’t always go by the name “Marvin Candle” and in some cases, has two functioning arms.
In “?,” Locke and Mr. Eko find the Pearl Station, where they find an old school video cassette tape of an orientation video. Copy-written 1980, the gentleman hosting the Pearl video goes by the name Mark Wickmund and can use both arms.
In Season three, we see clips in the computer video for the Flame and the “Welcome to the Island” flick, but don’t catch the presenter’s name.
We don’t see any more DHARMA films presentations until the end of Season Four, when Ben has Locke view the Orchid‘s video. Again hosted by the same gentleman, but this time under the name Edgar Halliwax. “Edgar” even has a custom Orchid-station Parka which Ben appropriates for his trip to spin the wheel.
Finally, in Season Five, we actually meet the man in a setting outside of the orientation films. Everyone in the Initiative knows him as Dr. Pierre Chang, and he can use both his hands. Throughout the season, we find out Pierre is a bigwig with the DI, is a scientist and acts periodically in DHARMA films. He has a son named Miles, and much to [future] Miles’ consternation, he likes country music. We also see Pierre shooting the film for the Arrow Station, where he again calls himself Marvin Candle. In Season Five’s finale episode, The Incident, Pierre loses his left hand in an accident while trying to shut the drill at the Swan site down.
So we know this about the man of mystery: His name is Pierre and he lost his left arm in a construction accident in 1977. He shot the films for the Pearl, the Orchid, the Arrow and “Welcome to the Island” before 1977 (when he lost both his hands). However, the years for the Pearl and Orchid videos are after 1977, so either the DI fudged the copyright dates, or that’s a continuity error on the part of the Lost creative team.
The thing about Pierre that I’d like some freakin’ answers to is what’s with all the different names? Through the video for the Pearl, we learn that DHARMA is involved in studying psychology- though the answer to who’s the subject of the mind games – the observers or the observed, is up in the air. And these fake names all being somewhat related (Candle, Halliwax, Wickmund) make it seem as if the whole situation is more than a continuity error.
The DHARMA members who are the audience of these films/videos are being lied to for some reason. As seen in the episode Namaste, a large number of the DHARMA people know Pierre Chang (and one of my favorite moments of the episode is when Jack meets the man he knew as Marvin Candle, 27 years from that moment). So who’s he fooling?
My guess? There’s still more of DHARMA’s story to tell. After the incident, the Initiative implemented some heightened security protocols–changing how people dealt/communicated with each other, in some cases, even cutting off communication between stations. So giving people in each of its stations a unique frame of reference would serve to that advantage. And with what little we’ve seen of the functions of the Pearl Station (they were being watched too, the notebooks that were the “fruit of their diligent work” went nowhere), the Initiative wasn’t above lying to its employees/test subjects.
One of the few things we know about the DI in the time period between the Incident and Desmond’s arrival is that Stu Radzinsky worked in the Swan.
And why not? He had some science background, was a high-ranking member and even had a hand in designing the Swan. But as Kelvin told Desmond, he also killed himself in that very station.
Here’s what I think: Because of the incident, operators at the Swan (and other DI stations) were locked down- the Quarantine hoax was put in effect to keep workers confined to their stations.
Stu (who may have been punished for the incident with his tour of duty in the Swan) knew the truth. To keep himself sane, and to pass along his knowledge of the DI, he started the blast door map before finally losing it (or his conscience got to him) and ending up as a spot on the ceiling.
As this extrapolation of Stu’s saga shows, there’s more of the DI’s story to tell. As part of that story, I’d like some freakin’ answers as to why Dr. Pierre Chang’s IMDB credits can include the roles of Dr. Marvin Candle, Edgar Halliwax and Mark Wickmund.
Dude 1: You’re still trying to prove me wrong, aren’t you?
Dude 2: You are wrong.
Dude 1: They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
Dude 2: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that, it’s just progress.
And so began tonight’s episode of Lost, the final episode of Season 5, The Incident. If anyone has any idea what happened, I’d like to know.
I had to watch that opening scene of tonights episode more than once. I felt like there were a lot of hints involved in the conversation between Jacob and the adversary. Between that and all the flashbacks involving Jacob and characters we’ve known for a while, it almost felt like we were watching a different show. And with the ambigious ending of tonight’s two-hour Lost extravaganza, we Lost fans are left wondering whether it will even be the same show that returns in February of 2010. Not to mention we’re all stuck counting down the days for some answers. I’m sure the creators of Lost wouldn’t have it any other way.
So Jacob’s been around a while. He lives under the statue (or as some might say, in the shadow of the statue). He can leave the island at will and has healing powers. Through various methods, he brings people to the island. And he shares the island with the adversary who wants to kill him, but because of some nebulous agreement, can’t. It’s hinted that the adversary doesn’t always appreciate Jacob’s bringing people to the island and has a low opinion of mere mortals. But he’s more than happy to use them for his nefarious means.
Well, Jacob has brought these people to the island for a reason (the aforementioned progress). How that fits in with the incident at the Swan site and all the other assorted happenings on the island is anyone’s guess. One of the many things we’ll have to wait until next February for.
Since coming back from the dead, John Locke hasn’t been quite right, and all signs pointed to him going off the deep end on tonight’s episode of Lost, Follow The Leader.
First of all, there’s the very fact that he came back from the dead, which seemingly goes against the laws of nature (which may or may not apply on Lost Island). Secondly, he’s had a higher-than-usual rapport with the island- knowing what to do and where to go, and as we saw tonight, knowing exactly when he was.
And finally, tonight, we heard of Locke’s plan, which made me think he’s lost it. Continue reading “Follow[ing] The Leader May Not Be The Best Idea”
Ask a hundred people what they would do if they could travel back in time and you’d get a hundred different answers.
On tonight’s episode of Lost, Some Like it Hoth, we heard what Hurley’s plans are. And all I have to say is it’s about time someone puts forth a time travel plan that makes sense.
Although I do have to say that I think Hurley was wrong in saying Empire Strikes Back could be improved. Hopefully, he was talking about just improving Return of the Jedi (with the whole “Ewoks suck” comment) and leaving well enough alone with Empire.
But he would also have the power to influence the prequels. While I don’t have the issues with the prequels that some do, there are some areas that could be improved, and that would really be the advantage of time travel.
As a side note, I was planning on writing about how it would be torture for a Star Wars fan to travel back to the ’70s in 2004 and not have the chance to see Episode III. But then, Hurley had a few years off the island, so hopefully, he got the chance to catch up on Revenge of the Sith in the inbetween years.
But enough about Star Wars…
Continue reading “Some Like It Hoth And Some Sweat When The Heat Is On”
I’m sitting here, 20 minutes after the ending of tonight’s episode of Lost, Dead Is Dead, wondering what to say.
As with any episode of Lost featuring Ben or Locke, it was a solid episode. Throw in some exposition about Ben’s past along with hints at some longtime island mysteries, and you have an awesome episode.
I was on the edge of my seat all night, and before I knew it, this episode was over. And I couldn’t really think of anything to say about it. So I’ll start with this:
If, like Ben, at the end, we’re judged by the hairstyles we had earlier in our life, I’m in trouble.
And if you’ve ever seen the Superman curl that I had earlier in life, that’s big trouble.
But enough about me. Back to Lost…
Usually, when Lost throws a Kate episode out there, I get very bitter afterwards, wishing the episode had focused on someone more integral to the show’s overall mythology.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think there are plenty of other characters on the island (everyone but Sun) who has a more interesting story and who is more integral to the Lost saga. But at least tonight, after Whatever Happened, Happened, I’m not bitter. For a Kate episode, it was not that bad.
There are a few reasons for this; The continued self-assertion of Sawyer as leader of the survivors. DHARMA. The continued downward spiral of Jack into the biggest idiot on the island. The Others. But most of all, the two conversations between Hurley and Miles discussing time travel and whether they’re living in their own future or their past. (And by the way, Miles is right, he just doesn’t know why. I think)
Continue reading “The Reyes-Straume Roundtable Will Address Whatever Happened [Happened]”