Wednesday, June 18, 2008

LT98: Always Keeps You Guessing

HURLEY’S LIFE JACKET

You just can’t tell if LOST is telling us something or that we spend way too much time looking for stuff, but in the liferaft…



…Hurley seems to have his life jacket magically disappear. Could the life jacket be Smokey?

Go back and rewatch the scene on ABC.com...it really disappears.

PENNY

Lots of chatter lately about whether Penny is in big trouble. I mean after Ben promised to get revenge. If Ben keeps his promise (HA), then he is likely to send none other than Sayid to do the dirty work. But after rescue and spending a week with Penny, do we really think Sayid will kill her down the road? Unless of course she made him sleep on the deck or something terrible like that!

CHARLOTTE’S FAMILY TREE

Post a comment if you think you know who Charlotte’s parents will be. I’m thinking either a Dharma child or maybe Charles Widmore is her daddy…making Charlotte and Penny step-sisters in the way Christian had two families. Think Bad Twin.


I HATE IT WHEN PROPHECY FAILS

In that “supposed to” category falls Desmond’s prediction that Claire and Aaron would be getting on a helicopter. Sure, there is still time to accomplish this in the future, but the prospect is looking pretty bleak considering Claire is dead (right?) and Aaron has already made one helicopter ride before his first birthday.

PSALM 46

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Now consider how Ben lifted his hands and said, “I hope you are happy now”, reminds me of speaking to God than to Jacob.

And of course Jacob and Esau are Bible characters fighting over their rightful inheritance.

A NEW NUMBER

I submit 305 is the new LOST number. We know this is the heading to take to avoid the time warp.

But did you notice that the Orientation tape in the Orchid hatch began to rewind on John at 3:05?

And of course John 3:05 was carved on the stick by Ecko. Side note: Ecko “knew” to carve that on the stick or at least was motivated to like some sort of inspiration. Why would the island kill off a messenger? Unless Smokey and Island aren’t on the same team…or the two of these things are on the Other team. Hmmm…

And if you get your calendars out you will find that Ben jumped exactly 305 days into the future after turning the Dharma Wheel.

And when Penny gets that phone call alerting her to the magnetic anomaly the clock reads 3:05.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Could Ben’s bankroll actually be Hurley’s money?

Could the nightmares that Walt has actually be when he is projecting himself on to the island?

JEREMY BENTHAM

This philosopher was a proponent of utilitarianism which means the ends justifies the means. He felt the best action of government was the choice that resulted in bringing about the most good to the most people. His student expanded this concept and coined the phrase socialism.

Bentham also did not subscribe to the natural rights theory where mankind is given rights above those outlined by laws or beliefs. It is good to remember that when Jeremy spoke in class it was at a time when the opposing view was the divine right of kings.

This might help explain why John Locke took on this name as an alias. He is the total consequence man – that his actions be not judged, only the outcome. Think Ben blowing up the boat and saying, “So?”. Unless Locke could show a bad outcome for causing the C4 to make shark bait, then Ben was asking to not be judged.

And in many ways we see this same behavior in Locke when we use the word like “reckless” to describe something he did. Knocking Sayid on the head, killing Naomi, destroying the Countdown Computer, etc…well, “So?” He will argue that the outcome was justification for the means.

Then last night, I’m reading my textbook for school and on page four the words jump out at me, “Jeremy Bentham”. Cool, but it was a bit humbling to realize the writers of LOST know more about philosophy then I do.


Enjoy,
KC

Sunday, June 15, 2008

LT97: Watch Me

ANTIPODES

Every child seems to have pondered where they would be if they dug a hole straight down and came out on the other side of the planet. The start place and ending place are called antipodes. I mention this because the LOST produces used this term and it may explain where the island moved. The antipode of somewhere in the South Pacific could leave Ben and his polar bear in Tunisia.

It should not be forgotten that the time to travel from one side of the planet and then THROUGH the planet to the antipodal is 42 minutes.

But why just Ben and the bear in the desert? Where’s the island? Well, maybe the punishment for Ben is to go to the antipode, but the island stayed right where it isn’t (think time, not space). In ten months, which would make it October 2005, the island will reappear right where it is as the rest of the planet plays catch-up.

Personally, I think we need to recall all the use of star maps we have seen on the show. As Marco Polo noted when he traveled to the Southern Hemisphere, he could not see the Northern Star down there. With a little effort this summer, I’ll try to see what geographical points are possible using the LOST star maps.


LOOPS

We’ve discussed on LOST TIDBITS before how Jack seems to be looping with his experiences on the island. For example, when he wakes up on the jungle floor he seems to know what direction to run, where to look for the crash and so on.

After thinking on this I’ve reviewed Locke’s behavior and it hit me like a ton of bricks. He is also looping through events he has experiences. Now this isn’t so far-fetched when you consider what we have seen happen to Desmond in the jewelry store and with his photograph. So, when reviewing the earlier seasons with this in mind, I found these hints:

- Predicts accurately when it will rain
- Locke knows exactly how-to things like making paste
- He knows how to make medicine for a head wound on Boone
- He stops Sayid from finding the transmission point
- He knows how to build a cradle
- He knows to bring knives in order to hunt boar
- John knows that Charlie is looking for his guitar and he knows where to find it

This implies that several people are looping, if not everyone. And this might fit the producers description of LOST as a mosaic – a bunch of little pictures that when combined and properly placed contribute to a larger big picture.


WAS JACOB AT HURLEY’S PARTY?

At Hurley’s party a young boy is seen walking around in a jersey bearing the number 42.

He seems to smirk in a knowing way. Yeah, people can see lots of things in this show if they look hard enough, but it keeps getting mentioned on boards and that qualifies it for thought. It has garnered enough attention that the consensus is that we are seeing “Jacob” as a young boy.


WATCHES

Besides the obvious tie-in to time, the watches may play a more pivotal role then we have imagined to this point. We know Jin was ordered to deliver a watch to some guy in California. Before boarding his flight, a man in the bathroom reminds him of his mission.

Once the plane crashes, Jin becomes very protective of a watch that Michael finds.

In Missing Pieces, we see Jack’s father give him a watch before his marriage to Sarah.

A quick search on “watch” and “electromagnet” reveals a Phillips Stein Teslar watch that contains a chip that claims to protect the wearer from electromagnetism. The selling point is that a world filled with waves from the microwave, cell phones, computers and televisions…that a person wearing this watch will have less stress and sleep better. This chip was invented in 1986.

Or the watches might just contain a tracking device and not meant to suggest protection from time travel. I do know that watches have been given to people on the show and that seems important.


Notice in the above picture that Sayid and Jin are wearing watches. Where did they come from? Jin gave his away to Michael earlier.

And we see Sun and Daniel with watches on in the above picture. Besides WHERE did they come from, we have WHY are they wearing them? Ok, Daniel is recently here and has some reason to wear a watch, but the Survivors? Time of day has little bearing on life unless you have to be somewhere at a certain time. Recall when Sayid wanted to find the French transmission they used bottle rockets? Why not synch watches and set a specific time?

In might be interesting to note that even Richard wears a watch from time to time.


Enjoy,
KC