Wednesday, September 24, 2008

LT130: Needing a Vacation After a Vacation

BEN’S TUNISIA VACATION

A reader of LOST TIDBITS – who is oddly named Ben – writes and asks about Ben’s travel to the Tunisia.

He writes that after arriving in town, we see Benjamin Linus go straight to a hotel where he’s already registered as a “preferred customer”. This name is not his real name, but he has a license handy with that name.

Q. Did he know he was going to Tunisia?

A. Excellent question because we do see evidence of pre-planning. I think the answer is clearly “Yes” because he was prepared.

He may have time-jumped to this place before-hand because someone obviously arranged the pre-registration. And his face didn’t seem to surprise the desk clerk which seems important to me for some reason.

**

Q. Or was he already in Tunisia, registered at the hotel and then got named and eventually thrown in the desert where we see him last?

A. The order suggested is discredited because he was wearing the parka when he was in the desert. So unless his muggers put his jacket on him and then moved him to die in the sand, he likely hadn’t made it to town yet. And recall that his arm was bleeding which we saw happen just prior to turning the wheel. Drats, those slippery ladder rungs!

When he registered under the name Dean Moriarty he asked for the date which strongly suggests he had just arrived after disposing of a couple of guys in the desert.

He does tell the clerk that this is not his first visit to this paradise of a place but that it had been awhile. We can’t tell if this was within a normal life timeline or from a previous jump.

**

Q. Did Ben know his transport spot would be Tunisia due to the polar bear clue?

A. I believe he knew he was going there. The parka sort of misleads us a bit. Let us assume the jacket was for the cold room with the Dharma Wheel only. This would kill off any theories about Ben aiming for the South Pole. I think the polar bear transport tells us the island has moved things here before. How long before is the question and Ben may not have had (or needed) knowledge of the polar bear’s location to prepare. After all, Ben did not get transported to a dig site which Charlotte was recently at.

On the other hand, Ben tried to discuss the weather with the desert guys on horses in English, then Arabic, and finally Turkish. This says that Ben wasn’t sure exactly where he was. We might conclude that teleportation is not an exact science…a fact well worth keeping in mind should such opportunity present itself to you.

**

Now for questions that came to mind as I researched this line of questioning.

Q. Is Dean Moriarty a famous name?

A. Yes, he is the central character in a book called “On the Road”.



Q. How did the two Bedouins on horses find him…luck?

A. When the two arrived they commented that there were no footprints leading to Ben’s body. One asked the other, “Did he fall from the sky?” You can take his question two ways: figuratively or as a reference to some prior knowledge. I prefer the first and this indicates Ben was a total surprise to them. That then leads us to Fate as the invisible hand that led the Arab men to Ben.

Let’s also note that they carried AK-47’s, knew the basic caution first approach evidenced by the one patting him down like a professional, and that they hid their knowledge of English. This would leave the door open a crack to say that they might have been expecting him.



Q. What about that orange stuff that Ben up-chucked?

A. It looked a lot like some of beverages we have seen on the show before. Most notably, it resembles the stuff they gave Juliet to drink before your submarine ride.


Q. Is Ben filthy rich?

A. Yes, it sure seems so. This has made some viewers offer the theory that Ben and Widmore used the time-jumping to get rich. Jump ahead and get the winner of the World Series and then jump back again and make a bet a few days later. Some then carry this theory to suggest Widmore needs the island to jump back to the present and Ben needs it to jump forward. Or was it the other way around?

I digress…yes, Ben is rich and Miles seems to know how much is in his bank account. Ok, I don’t think Ben has just $3.2 million, so that number must represent something else to Miles. Maybe Ben jumped into Miles timeline and stole the money knowing Miles is somewhat of a criminal himself and couldn’t call police and tell them, “Hey, some guy from 2 years into the future just teleported into my room and took the money I’ve taken from vulnerable people.”



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Enjoy,
KC

Sunday, September 21, 2008

LT129: Sweet Dreams

HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?

In John Locke’s case, pretty bad. We are talking about John wanting to fulfill his destiny so badly that he would do anything to get back to the island. Even to go as far as killing himself, which is why he is lying in a casket right now. The obit in the paper said the man hanged himself. Of course, so did Judas.

And what is it that he wants? Maybe to be Jacob which means he has to donate his physical body. This is sort of like Christian’s body being used. Or Claire’s. Or Yemi’s. And let’s not forget that two more people may have “donated”: Adam and Eve in the cave.

Is it part of destiny for Locke or just a man who wants to be more than a button pusher? Let’s consider that Mrs. Hawking told Desmond that pushing the button would be the most important thing he ever did. So much for following advice, Desmond.


SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO LAUGH

I came across a site with a couple of videos of Season 4 bloopers. Everyone once in a while we need to step back from the mental puzzles and just giggle at it all.

Check it out here:
http://community.livejournal.com/lost_tv/1715010.html


HAVE YOU ANY DREAMS YOU LIKE TO SELL?

Now that Walt is living with his grandmother it seems he suffers from nightmares. Imagine if you will that Walt shared with us one of his nightmares. It might go like this:

“It was one of the strangest dreams I’ve had. See, I still have nightmares about the island which is a placed I’d rather forget about. In this particular one I’m dripping wet. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense to me either but you know how dreams are, right? They make perfect sense WHILE you are having the dream. Anyway, in the dream Shannon is there and she sees me but I run away from her. I said something to her but it was like all backwards. Again, dreams are strange because it made sense at the time. My mind was saying “the button is bad, don’t push the button” but when my lips moved it came out like gibberish in my ears even though I felt like I was speaking correctly. Then I woke up and wrote it down.”

My pure luck, LOST TIDBITS interviewed Goodwin’s wife, the woman who is Juliet’s therapist, and she says she had a nightmare once to. They were at the temple one night and she reports dreaming that she showed up in the jungle and spoke to Juliet. She told Juliet to kill Charlotte and Daniel. Then she woke up.

With time hopping (there is that rabbit theme again) now available, Walt’s nightmares in 2005 could be his visions in late 2004. What if a bunch of people were dreaming and their dreams brought them to the island but were invisible. And what if all those same people dreamed they were whispering to each other?

Of course this also suggests that polar bears and black horses can dream. But then that takes me to Blade Runner movie which has been correlated in TIDBITS to LOST before. That movie is an adaptation of a book entitled, “Do Electric Sheep Dream When They Sleep?”. Hmm…


FLEETWOOD MAC

While researching this Dream theory the band Fleetwood Mac popped into my head. They had this song named “Dreams” and it kept running around in my brain. Here are some of the lyrics. They just seemed to fit:

Thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
Say, women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know

Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell
Dreams of loneliness like a heartbeat, drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering
What you had, And what you lost
And what you had, oh what you lost


I think my new theory will be entitled, “The Stevie Nicks Theory”. Come on the Grammy winning album is “Rumors”. It was released in the late 1970’s on vinyl like found in the hatch. The album even keeps the LOST connections going with a family-oriented song called “Oh Daddy”. Another tune is about drug use like Charlie. Another called “Never Going Back Again”.

Or maybe I’m just over-thinking this a bit too much. But if the producers come out in the end and say, “We used lots of sources but our main one was Fleetwood Mac”, then I’m on record (pun intended). HA!


If you enjoy this post, please click on an ad in the upper-right hand corner on your way out. This also helps be steer content in the direction of those kinds of posts you like. Thanks so much and keep reading!

Enjoy,
KC