LT339: Downtime, Inbox and Administration

DOWNTIME

Been having some computer issues and that has caused a pinch in my schedule.

Also, the Comments section has been switched to “moderate mode” because we can’t just make people behave like humans. Keep posting comments and I’ll try to publish them as quickly as my schedule allows. In fact, there should be a half dozen from the last post to view, so be sure to go back and read them.


INBOX

Received a number of emails this week…probably due to the Comments feature changes. Here are a few that caught my eye:

From Angela:

I work with Golda and she contacted you a few weeks ago to let you know about our ABC partnership, allowing LOST fans to create LOST related designs on t-shirts, and other merchandise. If you’d like to giving away a free LOST shirt to a reader and one for yourself, let us know. The offer still stands!


Anyway, I wanted to let you know about a LOST design contest we just launched today that your readers would love to hear about. The prizes include a $200 CafePress gift certificate, LOST seasons 1-5 DVD box sets, a t-shirt signed by some of the LOST cast AND a grand prize - trip for 2 to Oahu, Hawaii!

Here is the information:

To enter, just create LOST designs on t-shirts for one or more of the categories below;

· The Island (Themes: monsters, magical, healing, powers, move the island)
· Dharma Initiative (Themes: Hanso foundation, Dr. Pierre Chang, stations e.g. The Hatch, The Orchid, The Looking Glass)
· Airlines (Themes: Oceanic, flight 815, Oceanic 6, castaways, plane crash, Ajira Airways, Frank Lapidus)
· Love “Square” (Themes: Jack/Kate, Sawyer/Kate, Jack/Juliet, Sawyer/Juliet, Kate/Jack/Sawyer, Kate/Juliet/Sawyer)
· The Others (Themes: Natives, Hostiles, Ben, Ethan, Richard, Jacob god-like being, “the list”, Barracks)

There will be a winner from each category. The category prize is: $200 CafePress gift certificate, LOST seasons 1-5 DVD box sets, and a T-shirt signed by some of the LOST cast!

A LOST producer will select the grand prize winner from the category winners. The grand prize is a trip for two to Oahu, Hawaii for 4 nights!

All the information to enter can be found on the contest page, including how to get a submission: http://community.cafepress.com/?p=769

Let me know if you have any questions! This is a fun contest with fabulous prizes for LOSTies.

PS. Here's a write up by the Examiner for our ABC deal and design contest:
http://www.examiner.com/x-35662-LA-TV-Insider-Examiner~y2010m2d3-ABC-and-CafePress-team-up-for-a-very-special-LOST-fan-contest

Thanks,


Angela Low

EDITOR’S NOTE: Good to hear from you Angela. If Café Press rings a bell with LOST TIDBITS readers it might because you see their ads on Facebook. They are a solid company and if you have an idea that’s been running around in your head, this would be a good time to try it out!


INBOX #2

And from Adrian:

Yo KC, its Adrian—

It’s been too long brother. I have been reading your stuff, but stopped commenting last year because I gave up trying to figure out what was happening. I just decided to go along for the ride—just as Jack did last season.

But I cant help myself now, because some of my thinking about what might be happening is, maybe, turning out to be correct. Of course next weeks episode could negate my theories.

Fate vs. Free Will:
The time travel rules on LOST have been, for the most part, clear and consistent: what happened happened. You cant change the past to alter the future. Course correction and all that. Bullshit, sort of.

In the season five finale, a very clear message was sent: You have a choice. Jacob tells this to Hurley and tells it to Ben. Hurley chose to get on the Ajira flight, it was not predetermined fate. Similarly, Ben chose to kill Jacob—it was not fate. Smokey tells Ben the same thing, he didn’t make Ben kill Jacob. Manipulated yes, made-No. And you know Ben probably had a mental orgasm upon realizing he had been so masterfully manipulated, because was/is so very skilled at doing the same thing. I’m guessing Ben will follow Smokey as a loyal servant. Smokey is the god Ben would follow.

The free will, free choice message became Jack’s mantra in the finale also.

1. Two Timelines?
Are their now two timelines? Maybe. Clearly we have the 1977 losties turning up in 2007 on the island. Maybe the bomb went off, but instead of causing the reset, it just sent them into 2007. Sawyer scoffs at this notion because the island is not blown to hell. So its pretty clear that the bomb did not go off and the Swan was built, Desmond presses the button, 815 still crashes…yada yada.

But the bomb did go off, because we do see a reset and 815 does not crash and the island sunk, moved, whatever. In this alternate timeline, things are not the same…Jacks hair, Charlie, Boone sans Shannon etc. But is this such a big shock? In a world where the island is destroyed, its possible Widmore died and there is not Widmore industries, no Penny. No Daniel. These changes would cause many modifications aside from 815 not crashing, and these minor discrepancies reflect just that.

I thought there were much more profound changes than hair cuts. The obvious biggie was Hurley, who is now the luckiest man alive. This is not the Hurley we know. Less obvious were personality changes in Jack, Sawyer, Locke and even Rose.

Here Jack is the nervous plane passenger being reassured by Rose, not vice versa. Off the plane, Jack is upset about Oceanic losing the coffin, but he does not lose it at the same level I think the Jack we know would. He buys or is at least comforted by Locke’s words on where his father is. And this Jack believes in miracles, it seems. If Jack could fix his wife, assuming that happened in the alternate, then he can fix Locke, he thinks. He is much more a man of faith, but still a man of science…maybe more balanced?

And Locke, thinking his back cannot be fixed, is much more a man of science. This Locke also seems to harbor much less. The Locke we know was beyond pissed about not going on the walkabout; I doubt he would be so chatty with Boone or even mention the walkabout. He would be too pissed off to bring it up. Or maybe he was allowed to do it in his wheelchair.

As for Sawyer, he was a little to pleasant in the alternate. I’m not sure crash Sawyer would apologize for bumping the Marshall, I think he would ignore him or tell him to suck it. Alternate Sawyer is not chatty with Arnst, but not overly derisive as I would otherwise expect. And then he gives advice to Hurley about keeping the lottery a secret. He could be laying the ground for a con, perhaps he had been shadowing Hurley after reading about this mega lottery winner, who he wanted to take.

But maybe, just maybe, he was actually trying to give Hurley some good advice. When push comes to shove, the Sawyer we know has a good heart. So its possible this alternate Sawyer was using his skills as a con man to help rather than hurt. He holds the elevator door for Kate (and he didn’t see her, he just heard someone plead to hold the door). Yes Sawyer noticed the cuffs on Kate, but im not sure he was trying to help her by stepping in front of the security guards and saying ladies first. If anything, they were less likely to notice the kuffs on Kate had she exited behind them, not in front.

And Rose was different for the reasons I covered above with Jack. It seems to me that the “alternate” Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Locke and Rose resemble the people their crash “counterparts” changed into over the seasons. Sawyer became a good guy, Jack was accepting of not having control, Locke had let go of his anger, Rose was just at ease.

However, I did not see this happening with alternate Kate, Sayid, Sun or Jin. They all seemed exactly like the people on the 815 that crashed. Not sure what’s going on here, but maybe we will see them behaving more like the people they became on the island in later episodes, rather than like the people they were when they crashed.

2. Alternate/Parallel Universe?
I have a couple of ideas here. One scenario is that when the Ajira flight crashed and most of the O6 went back to 1977, they went into past of an alternate universe or timeline. Hence changes they make did not alter the future they just came from, and where Sun, Ben etc. remained, because the past they were altering was not the past of the their timeline, it was the past of a new or already existing timeline or universe. Only the future of the alternate was affected, not the one they left. This solves any problems of a paradox. But, as Christian showed Sun in new Otherton, Jack & co. did show up in the past of the main timeline. How could they have been in the past of two timelines? Not sure, but remember Sun’s questioning of Richard? Richard said he did remember meeting them and remembered watching them die. But Richard was not at the Swan site to see what happened, even if he was watching from the jungle, he really cant say he saw them die. At best, he would have seen them disappear. He could not have seen the bomb kill them, because it would have killed him too.

So what’s going on here? Right now, im thinking that the two stories (crash, no crash) we are seeing are not two alternate worlds/timelines with two jacks, two kates etc. I’m thinking the no crash sequences are actually flash forwards. In effect, the 2007 folks (Jack & co., the ones touched by Jacob) are will eventually be in a position that puts them on the 815 that didn’t crash. In effect, we may have already seem how the show will end, the result at least, and this season shows us how they get there. So maybe they will time travel again, and we will see what Richard saw—them dying.

I’ve said enough, but could go on for pages more. Ill let these ideas simmer in my mind for a while and see what happens next week.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Wow, it has been like a reunion in my Inbox lately. Nice to hear from Adrian. Great analysis and feedback and you just saved me an hour or two of time! This is posted for the world to see, so now we are going to keep score on who comes closest to the final end game! No limit on entries, so keep writing me!


ADMINISTRATION

We have crossed the 23,000 hits mark for LOST TIDBITS! Wow, what a journey this has been. It was a surprise to reach the 4,000 mark, then 8K, then 15K, ok 16,000 was easy and now 23. And all my favorite numbers!

Thanks to everyone for reading. And now we have just a few months to hurry up to 42,000 so we reach all the LOST numbers in the counter! HA!


NEXT ON TIDBITS

If you enjoyed this post, please let me know by clicking on one of the ads along the right side.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC