LT167: A Look Back and Forward

HINDSIGHT

Missing Pieces: And So It Begins

If you haven’t seen this clip, you should go to ABC.com or YouTube and look it up with the above title. In summary, the show actually begins with Christian standing in white tennis shoes and his funeral suit in the jungle. He calls Vincent over and tells him to wake Jack up who is lying in the bamboo forest. The dog runs over to Jack like we saw in the pilot episode.

-- Dead Guy Walking: this might have freaked a few people out had the show really began this way. Of course, we didn’t know Christian was dead at this point, but we might have thought it strange to see a man talking to a dog that seems to be listening.


Season 1, Episode 1: The Pilot

The plane crashes and the survivors tend to the wounded. Jack, Kate and Charlie locate the cockpit. The survivors encounter a monster. Sayid picks up the French woman’s transmission. Sawyer kills a polar bear. Kate is identified as the prisoner.

-- Lights, Camera, Action: I think the opening scene was completely under analyzed as we see the focus on Jack’s right eye and a vodka beverage. When Jack is running to the crash site, he passes a white tennis shoe dangling in the tree.

-- A Needle Pulling Thread: Jack looks for a sewing kit and finds it! Kate then happens to find Jack off from the rest of the survivors and is seen rubbing her right wrist. And she sews, sort of. Jack selects the black color thread.

-- Golden Circle: Rose is seen kissing a gold wedding band that is on a necklace.

-- A Monster in Our Midst: the survivors first hear and see the Monster in the jungle. Everyone approaches the jungle edge except Michael, who backs away. Rose says the sound sounds familiar to her.

-- First Flashback: on board the plane Cindy gives Jack two bottles of vodka, he drinks one and stores the other in his suit pocket

-- Let it Rain: while Charlie, Jack and Kate search for the cockpit it begins to rain…it stops when Kate controls her fear.

-- Pilot Crashes: Jack finds the pilot alive and is asked how many survive. To this Jack says, “At least 48”. Moments later the pilot is dead. A bit later, Kate sees the pilot in a reflection in a puddle of water.

-- Airport Security: Jack needs a blade to operate on the US Marshall…and he finds one! Where is the airline security in 2004 that allows a straight-edge razor?

-- Black and White: Locke finds a backgammon game and explains the history of the game to Walt by saying, “It’s older than Jesus Christ.”

-- Drink Up: Michelle, the airline attendant, offers Kate another beverage but she refuses


HINDSIGHT OBSERVATIONS

-- Christian can communicate with the dog

-- The tennis shoe in the tree seems to indicate that the body of Christian is thrown clear of the wreckage and he has lost a shoe in the process, yet we see Christian wearing it in the Missing Pieces clip. This indicates the island can’t reason quite like a human mind kind…sort of like a Starman who comes to Earth and thinks Ford Focus is a good name to blend in with. The physical body and shoe is present, but the manifestation is fake.

-- The discovery of a sewing kit seems a bit lucky…consider that Claire will search for a more common item, a hairbrush, and not find one.

-- The wedding band might be a suggestion of the “eternal circle” since the show’s original title was to be “The Circle”.

-- Keep an eye on Michael as his reaction to the Monster was opposite everyone else

-- My focus is on oddities like Jack’s answer to the pilot about the number of survivors. We just witnessed what Jack experienced and yet he knows the count of survivors? How did he know this? I’m thinking Jack has done this before!

-- The pilot seemed pretty banged up and had been there in his seat since the crash. But he revives and tells Jack he is fine. Was he healed by the island? Moments later the monster says, “Not so fast, my friend.” Does this mean the healing is controlled by something other than the monster?

-- I wonder if the reflection in the puddle of water isn’t a hint of mirrors and reflections.

-- The backgammon begins a long list of games on the show, but the odd phrasing of Locke caught my eye, “Backgammon is the oldest game in the world. Archeologists found sets when they excavated the ruins of ancient Mesopotamia. Five thousand years old. That's older than Jesus Christ.” Was it bring religion theme into play or some other reason. It just seemed odd.

-- Beverages have been noticed on the show, but no conclusion to date. Kate’s drink appeared to be yellow or orange like juice. Her refusal might have led to her being awake during the crash where she saw the front section break off. Where they drugging these people?

This episode setup a lot of themes for the rest of the series. Of course, we had little clue at the time. It was written by JJ Abrams and then he turned things over to Damon. He did also write the episode premier of Season 3, “Tale of Two Cities”.


JJ IS DNY-NO-MITE!

It occurred to me that we might get some insight to the plot of LOST if we better understood JJ Abrams. I like M. Night Shymalan and notice his “pattern” is observing in his films.

His first film was “Taking Care of Business” with Jim Belushi. It tells of a prisoner and a successful businessman who switches places by a twist of fate. In the end the two become friends and better people.

His next film was “Regarding Henry” with Harrison Ford. Ford is mean and concerned only with his job. An assault removes his memory and a loss of memory. What he learns about his old self he does not like and in the end his relationships and himself become better.

His next file was “Forever Young” starring Mel Gibson. He loses the one thing that matters to him, a girl, to an accident. With nothing to live for he agrees to try a new experiment and is frozen. Soon his chamber is forgotten until two young boys discover it and release him. His body has aged due to stasis, but not before he finds his true love is still alive and has a second chance to marry her.

He does “Armageddon” and then “Joy Ride”. The later is a tale of three youths who tick off the wrong guy and he haunts them. When the bad guy is finally dead a twist reveals that maybe he isn’t.

Abrams moves to TV and does a very un-sci-fi show called “Felicity”. After this comes “Alias” and then “LOST”. More on Alias in a bit.

He does “Mission Impossible III” with Tom Cruise. Then came “Cloverfield”, the Godzilla-like film. He also helped on the script of “Superman Flyby” based on the comic book.

He is producing “Fringe” on FOX and is busy with the 11th Star Trek movie. Currently he is writing a screenplay for Stephen King’s book series, “The Dark Tower”.

Busy man.


ALIAS AND LOST

We can notice a few trends in Abrams other work, mainly a love of science fiction. Especially worthy of notice is the work with King which is referenced in LOST.

11 writers have worked on both shows. 18 actors have worked on both shows.

The main character is Sydney…the name of the originating airport in LOST.

Sydney’s father is named Jack. Her half-sister is Nadia. Her lovers include a Michael and a Charlie Bernard.

“So It Begins” is the title of the LOST Missing Pieces mentioned above as well as 1.2 episode of Alias.

LOST schedule in Season 2 was interrupted due to a two-hour feature of Alias on ABC. The Alias two hour was merely two episodes back-to-back so it may have just been a marketing move to grab audiences both directions. The names of the two Alias episodes were the same names of the LOST episodes the prior and following week.

Driveshaft’s “You Are Everybody” is played in Alias.

In season 4, a scene in Alias is shot in an airport where the public address system announced, “Oceanic Flight to Sydney is now boarding…”

The finale to Season 1 of Alias is the same as Season 3 of LOST…a man is trapped on the other side of a door with a window and is drowning. In both shows a helpless person attempts to free the drowning victim by smashing the window with a fire extinguisher.

Several themes such as numbers, deception, and phrases like “the looking glass” are used in both shows.

I’ve also watched the Fringe and find similar patterns as well.

What might be a possible clue then is JJ Abrams explanation of how he wanted Alias to end. His goal was to make a full CIRCLE and have the show begin back at where it began. The difference would be that the next generation of children would be facing the same challenge. Hmmm…

Also of note is a speech given by Abrams in 2007 where he presented a “magic box” where anything the imagination could conjure up would be in the box. This parallels the magic box on LOST. Abrams was actually given a “magic box” as a child and he claims to this day he has never opened it.


SEASON 5 PROMO

Seven versus six. Aaron is not shown and Desmond and Ben are included on the off-island, city-landscape left side. On the right we only have Sawyer and Locke as “original” survivors.

“Destiny Calls” is the tag phrase for this season and it also happens to be the tag phrase for the new airline that showed up in the latest Dharma Special Access video. See that post for details to the website of the Ajira Airlines.

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KC

LT166: Wish I Knew Then What I Know Now

TIME AND OMNIPRESENT

LOST is clearly presenting time-based concepts. That has caused many hours of research into the topic and one product of that research is the concept of being omnipresent. This is concept of being everywhere at the same time.

Followers of the Bible believe that God is omnipresent. This relates to LOST because if time is flexible enough to travel to the past and the future, then it really does indicate that we can be everywhere at the same time. Or maybe the proper way to word this is that we can be at every time at the same place.

The island prior to moving was located based on three measurements: longitude, latitude and altitude. These three dimensions give us the physical location. So if the island moved in time to the past, then the island would still be right where it is. See, if the island was there at 9 a.m. this morning and it moved back in time at say 4 p.m., it would still be there 9 a.m., yesterday, and the day before that. Since the island disappeared, there is only one conclusion to draw: it moved forward in time. Let’s say it moved to 9 p.m. even though our clocks read 4 p.m. In five hours, the island will reappear. Why? Because the X, Y, and Z axis didn’t change…only the fourth dimension of time changed.

So, is the island really everywhere at the same time? At 9 a.m. we could say the island was HERE. At 9 p.m., again we could say the island is HERE. During those 5 hours, where was it? I propose HERE still because time is merely one of four adjustments and it happens to be the one that doesn’t deal with spatial measurement, but with time. Of course, Einstein tried to work out this apparent contradiction but combining the dimensions into something called space-time manifold.

This then led me to God and attribute of being omnipresent. The Bible says God has no concept of time and he knows the past, present and future. This gives a real paradox to contemplate since it throws a wrench into the concept of free will, but beyond that, it brings up another question: if God can be everywhere at the same time, then is God in Hell?

Hell is often defined as “absence from God”. The Bible suggests that God and Hell can’t co-exist for the same reason a light causes darkness to flee from a room when you flip a light switch on. But if God is everywhere, then shouldn’t we find God in Hell?

This contradiction is often justified by pointing out that being omnipresent is a power where corporeal beings deal with spatial dimensions. This of course moves time into the realm of power…or even more accurate, supernatural power.

We might propose then that time on LOST is faith-based. The other three dimensions of width, height and depth are science-based. This is perhaps a reminder to merge the faith versus science theme with the time themes which are center stage.


PERCEPTION OF TIME

Even Einstein’s theory is about perception of time. Two people looking at their own clocks will perceive a different relationship to time passage. We know that velocity changes the behavior of time and will even stop at the speed of light (ok, we don’t KNOW that, but have come pretty close to proving it).

This could mean that each individual on the island has their own “flow of time”. Desmond, for example, is definitely on a different flow that other survivors. Ben seems to have his own awareness of future events as he always has a plan and seemed shock when the future doesn’t play out how he expects or first experienced it.


COURSE CORRECTIONS

After dwelling on this stuff and making my head hurt again (at least I haven’t suffered from nose bleeds…yet), I came upon a theory for course corrections: Smokey.

To put it in concrete terms, we can claim with confidence that had the plane not crashed on the island, that Libby, Charlie, Boone, Eko and the rest of the dead would have died off the island. In the case of Charlie, we can really stand up with confidence and claim this for Desmond told us, showed us, and lo and behold, let it happen.

NOTE: I say “let it happen” because with his future vision it was interesting he didn’t see getting whacked on the head by the paddle by Charlie.

So I suggest Smokey is performing some course corrections to the universe. And this might be why it didn’t kill Keamey…it wasn’t time to. It avoided killing Locke and Juliet and Kate – although each were scanned.

Hey, just some thoughts I had to get off my brain!


HINDSIGHT

Ever ponder how cool it would be to go back to a prior age of yourself and re-do your life knowing what we know now? Well, I’d like to do that with LOST. Review the past four seasons knowing what we know now and see if anything appears different to us. During the summer, several LOST blogs have re-played the episodes with its readers, but I’m looking to do it from a different approach. The goal is not to rehash the seasons, but to look for clues that appear to have new meaning to us now. I’m not even sure if we have enough time before Season 5 begins, so my hope is to make it a feature in each blog. The section will be called HINDSIGHT, so look for it each blog!

The key to gathering additional information will be YOU. If something clicks in your mind during the review, please post a comment or send an email to me. The more pairs of eyes we have on this, the greater the odds will be that we discover something previously overlooked.


SEASON 5 PROMO

We mentioned in the last blog that TIDBITS will not expose spoilers. It just ruins the fun of discovering things for each person. But, that doesn’t exclude promos. Often I turn away and don’t watch those “next week on LOST” clips, but sometimes you just can’t help it. Anyway, thought it might be fun to reveal one promo feature each post, so look for it in each blog!



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And please leave a comment if you have questions or thoughts on a topic.

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Enjoy,
KC

LT165: Destiny Calls

TIME IS AN ILLUSION

Faithful readers, we have a lot happening right now and so you should check back for LOST TIDBITS quite often between now and the premier on January 21, 2009. So much going on that time seems to slip away from me, if you know what I mean.

I’ll do my best to keep you updated, as well as continue along some other features mentioned recently like Season 5 Promos and Hindsight, but for now, it is eating up a lot of time just to keep you up to date on latest discoveries.

Man, I love this show!

Oh, be sure to scroll down through the older posts because you don’t want to miss a single thing!


AJIRA AIRWAYS

It seemed a good time to share the news that is causing all the buzz with LOST fans: Ajira Airways. Check out their website at : http://www.ajiraairways.com/

Notice the island in the background of picture above. And if you count the windows on the plane you get 108.

The name Ajira has plenty of meanings depending on which language you use, but the most interesting is “island”.


HACKERS UNITE

For those who like to count in hexadecimal there are hidden phrases on several pages. For those who don’t enjoy converting every byte, here are those messages:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

This phrase is from John 3:16 in the Bible. In one of the Dharma Special Access messages from the producers they told us that “3:16” was the title of one of their episodes. This takes into two areas, again: religion and a little more hidden: immortality. If you check out the airlines website it plays a video. Be ready to click and hold on the red button and you’ll see an inserted image of a man holding up a sign in the airport as if he is there to meet someone. These placards usually hold the name and flight of a person and in this shot it reads: “John 316”.

The other phrases include:

“So off they started about Irish sport and shoneen games the like of lawn tennis and about hurley and putting the stone and racy of the soil and building up a nation once again and all of that.”

This phrase was also mentioned on a Dharma Special Access video. It was the one featuring a new book we would see in the show, but prior to sharing that with us, Damon just happened to be holding a book and “randomly” turned to a page and read the above line to us. He scoffed that this was how easy it was to turn everyday observations into LOST-related topics because it merely had the word “hurley” in the line. And now it shows up hidden on the airline website! Oh, those tricky guys!

Other phrases are:

“Pineapples in Hawaii”

“Where America’s day begins”

“Supersonic is commercial thirty till meridian”

The last one is saying 11:30 a.m. – thirty minutes before noon or midnight, I suppose.

Look for updates on what these clues could mean.


ORAGAMI TO GUAM

There are instructions to fold paper into an object using the provided sample boarding pass. When you peer into the folded item it reveals GUAM as the keyword. The website also includes longitude and latitude coordinates that when entered into Google take you to the Guam International Airport.

In my mind this all points to the airlines and the airport that our Oceanic 6 plus Ben (and maybe Desmond) will use to fly back to the island.


OTHER ODDS AND ENDS

The Adventures page contain write-ups of vacation spots each written by a fellow name MacCutcheon. This was CHANGED! The earliest version had the spelling of McCutcheon. This is of note because the earlier spelling matches the whiskey that Desmond and Charles Widmore have in common!

When attempting to book a flight you will see they are all full right now. I assume the proper combination will unlock a secret page for us. Most are learning towards 11:30 (thirty before meridian) and the flight being 316 (placard) and the promo code being found on the Frequent Flyer Card which works out to P-R-O-M-O in Ascii code (oh those geeks!).


POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

Below is a snapshot of a postcard which you can send to friend. I thought you might enjoy and if you have any comments on what it might be implying, drop me a comment.

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And please leave a comment if you have questions or thoughts on a topic.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC

LT164: Dharma Special Access 6

Another email from the producers of LOST with special access! The link is only available for 72 hours for those with the password, so hurry!

THE EMAIL

Happy New Year all you Dharma folk!

We hope you are enjoying your holiday season. We are.

Our shooting crew is on hiatus for another week, so we are enjoying a little semi-down time, hanging out with our families, reading books, doing a little writing on some upcoming episodes, and getting caught up on TOP CHEF, which is sort of an obsession of ours.

We didn't get a chance to answer even a fraction of all the great questions submitted, so we're back this week with yet another Q & A. We promise you the most obfuscation you've ever seen in a short segment of video.

Click on the link below and enter the password to check it out.

We also saw this really interesting new commercial we wanted to share with you. Hmmm. Very curious indeed... Anybody know anything about this airline?

Back to you next week.

Ring in the New Year safely. No DUIs, okay?

Peace and blessings,
Damon and Carlton

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/dharmaspecialaccess/index
Password: emal

SUMMARY

I liked the not-so-subtle mention of DUI's. Are you listening cast of LOST? HA!

If you can't or don't see the video it was another Q&A. Here are the highlights:

--Geronimo Jackson is not going to get back together any time soon, but an original song of theirs has been found and will be included in a LOST episode.

--Was Christian in white shoes a prop mistake or does Jack have no taste? It was no mistake by the costume department and why he is tennis shoes will be explained this coming season.

--Is the four-toe statue a dead issue? Nope, and they will address it but not until season 6.

--Was Alex death planned? Planned? It what way do you mean planned? Hmm...


NEW AIRLINES

If you watch the video you see a commerical at the end that says something like, "get lost on a flight with us" and "follow your destiny".

The web link is www.ajiraairways.com

Check out their website and you'll see all kinds of related trips. Here is their teaser:

"Get lost in the world with groundbreaking promotions like Destination: Destiny that keeps your flight destination a mystery until you get there. We’re changing the way people think about travel - this isn’t vacation, this is your life... escaped. Let us deliver your destination by revealing your destiny"

A flight to somewhere!



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If you enjoyed this post, please click on the ad on the way out. This lets me know what kind of subject matter you enjoy, as well as giving me a few pennies for writing a posting you really like. And please leave a comment if you have questions or thoughts on a topic.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC

LT163: Random Brain Teasers

FORCED TO BOARD

Jack was about ready to not board the plane due to the difficulty of getting his father’s coffin loaded on board.

Sayid was detained and was at risk of not boarding the plane.

Hurley barely made it thanks only to that scooter he bought on the spot.

Sun had to a do a 180 degree turnaround, literally, to get on board.

Kate would have run at the first opportunity, but was dragged reluctantly on board.

Claire was probably one of the passengers least looking forward to this flight (we get additional support of this point of view in a deleted scene). She was carrying Aaron.

These are the Oceanic 6.

See Locke’s vision quest for additional support of those who leave the island.


THE LIST

According to Lost Moments, Christian expected his son to be on the island and instructed Vincent to go wake him up for he had work to do.

But Tom tells Ethan, “I don’t understand, Shephard wasn’t even on the list.”

Maybe the writers regret this line more than any other, but assuming it stands firm, then it does seem that Jack has been getting special permission to proceed on this journey.


SIX

While not one of the LOST numbers, it does seem to figure in prominently. Six is often consider the number of mankind and a triple-six gets a lot of attention.

I think that it is strange then that Dharma Initiative studies six areas of science. It seems possible that these are the six rules of the scope of the Underworld’s influence.

And it matches up to the Oceanic 6…although even Jack said 9 survived the crash.


GROUNDHOG DAY

I just can’t get this movie out of my mind when thinking about LOST. Maybe the Hostiles are only living the Groundhog Day Syndrome…every 108 minutes the island resets its clock, or 108 days, or 108 years. This could be why they don’t age.

If Dharma Initiative arrives and builds a hatch that stops the clock resetting in advance of the 108 build-up of electromagnetic properties, then the island no longer “stays young”. If I were Richard and started showing signs of aging, I’d purge someone too! Or at least I’d send Walt over to tell the Survivors to stop pushing that button. Or convince Locke to stop pushing it (I believe Locke was right about breaking the computer afterall).


DHARMA WHEEL

Why does that wheel remind me of a steering wheel on an old 1800’s trade ship?

Think Widmore was the last to spin it and was banished from the island?


TIME RULES

I’ve posted on this topic, but it still puzzles my brain about the rocket being late and the doctor with a slashed throat being early.

It seems that we have to go with oscillating time. By the way, here is a personal theory of mine: the time goes slower for a period of time and then reserves to speed up due to some external clue. I have a hunch that each time it rains, the pendulum of oscillation swings back to the other time signature. If I find the time, I’ll look for some indicator that effects time…HA!


SERIES FINALE

I’ve resisted watching or looking at any Season 5 previews or teasers. The show just seems better that way. LOST TIDBITS will NOT intentionally reveal a spoiler. We do believe that promos are fair game, but we do not venture into the spoilers section of any web site.

With that said, let me share two possible endings to LOST.

1 – It ends with Oceanic Flight 815 safely touching down in Los Angeles

2 – It ends with Oceanic Flight 815 crashing into the Sundra Trench


I’m only saying…

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If you enjoyed this post, please click on the ad on the way out. This lets me know what kind of subject matter you enjoy, as well as giving me a few pennies for writing a posting you really like.

And please leave a comment if you have questions or thoughts on a topic.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC