LT341: Kids, Loopholes and Thoughts

LOOPHOLE THOUGHTS

My son called me last night and we discussed LOST. I took notes – as I do during the show – and during the conversation the phone’s battery was dying. That forced us to cut our chatter off in odd places such as when we were talking about this loophole of the Man in Black. It went something like this:

“It seems that the loop…crackle, crackle, crackle…hole…are you still there?”

And then it hit me. It isn’t a “loophole” that the Man in Black was after but a “loop hole”. There is a hole in the loop. What loop? Well, that takes us to the next section.

But first, we should offer our theory on how the loop of ash around the cabin got disturbed. When Ben and John visited the cabin, they were careful to step over it. However, when Hurley stumbled upon the cabin alone – and he was stumbling around quite a bit – he may have created a breach in the ash ring.


ASH THOUGHTS

We noticed Bram, the cabin and the Temple folk took the ashes and made a loop around the protected object. A LOOP around the intended item. It was only when the hole was made in the ashes that formed a loop around the cabin that the Man in Black was able to succeed. In this case, the Man in Black was able to make it to the cabin. There are probably other holes in loops – like the tapestry loops of thread – we may have overlooked as well.


PREGNANCY THOUGHTS

As we have been told, the women who get pregnant on Mysterious Island can never deliver and soon die afterwards.

Except for Amy. Seeing Ethan in last week’s episode made my son and I to think back on the fact that Amy and Ethan were fine. Now it seems pretty likely that Horace and Amy conceived the baby while living on the island. Horace, being the leader, had to stick around. And Amy had been there some period of time with her first husband. It isn’t likely the two slipped off the island for a weekend. So…how did Ethan and Amy survive?

My son has a theory on that. He offers that the pregnancy problems did not begin to show up until after Ben killed his father and the Dharma Initiative with the gas. Perhaps it was that gas that caused the problems. If so, consider who has been gassed since that point in time!


KNIFE THOUGHTS

While chatting about the loop hole, I mentioned that a piece of the tapestry was on the cabin wall. It was held on the wall by a knife. Ilana found it there.

I then remembered that John cut a piece of the tapestry corner off to use it as a rag to wipe the blood off his knife. The question then was if the knife on the cabin wall was the same knife that John killed with? No.

A little digging and we discovered that John’s knife is NOT the same as the one on the cabin wall. We will call the second knife: Jacob’s knife. We compared it to the filet knife that Jacob used on the fish at the beach and yes, that knife matches the cabin wall. Again, that was Jacob’s knife.

We are in the process of analyzing the knife shown to young John Locke.


TAPESTRY THOUGHTS

This then led us back to the tapestry where I suggested the piece on the wall was the same as the piece John cut. I’m wrong. There were TWO pieces cut out of the tapestry according to my son – and he does do a good bit of researching before proclaiming something.

Only one piece in the pictures shows the symbols that match up to the hieroglyphics we saw in Smokey’s chamber - that of Anubis weighing the hearts of the dead. His jackal image is distinct. And the image shows a black animal head. Black seems to correlate to Smokey in some way…hmmm.

Black is also the color of soil – as in underground. And the soil of the Nile – the home of our favorite gods – is also black. Black soil in Egyptian mythology is also associated with rebirth. And Smokey seems pretty good at the rebirth thing (see previous post).

CLOSING THOUGHTS

It was getting late by this point, so we wrapped it up. He said he would call back with more thoughts.

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Enjoy,
KC

LT341: What Kate Does – First Impressions

CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?

Why does every good show and scary movie involved characters who don’t share information with each other? TALK PEOPLE! For example, when Sawyer was announcing his department from Club Temple why didn’t anyone speak up?

In fact, why hasn’t the group of Others sat the Survivors down and said, “Ok, here’s the deal. We are going to draw pictures and talk you through this thing. First, don’t leave the Temple or Smokey could get you. In here you are safe from the smoke. Second, this is why you are here.” And so on. ARGH!

As my mind was mentally screaming this at the screen this episode another thought kept trying to enter: they can’t tell them or it would be pure free will. Let me explain that. If you are on a game show and you know what is behind Door #1, #2 and #3, then when Monte Hall asks which door, it isn’t really free will anymore. In other words, free will requires ignorance of future events. Sort of the same way that Jack had to be the one to offer Sayid his poisoned pill.


LIAR, LIAR!

I’ll bet 95% of viewers now look at the Others as Ben described them, “We’re the good guys”. And yet they can’t help but tell lies. It seems there is a clue in this fact, but who knows?

Last night we had the Interpreter announce, “I just lied to him”, when describing how he told Sayid that he passed the test. Maybe I’m getting my theological doctrines crossed, but don’t the good guys have to tell the truth?

I go back to the free will points made earlier because…well, I have to. It is the only way to explain Ben’s persistent lying. Recall that Mrs. Hawking sort scoffed at Jack’s inquiry as to the truth of Ben’s words by saying, “Probably not.” It is like it is expected. Perhaps they just aren’t allowed to share information or it ruins the test/experiment/life challenge.

We also observed the two Others who were escorting Kate and Jin warning each other about keeping one’s mouth shut. How odd.


ASH POWER

There was a lot in last night’s show, but it seems to me that the ash isn’t getting the top billing it deserves. We saw it being dusted over Sayid’s body in this episode. So what’s up with this fairy dust? In LOST fashion, the ash leaves me with more questions than answers such as:

Was the ash around the cabin meant to keep Smokey out or Jacob in?

Was the ash possible collected from the fire pit where Jacob was burned?

Why didn’t Sayid repel from the ash like a vampire would to holy water?

Depending on how you answer the first question, then wouldn’t Sayid repel from the ash only if he were good like Jacob?

There is something we are missing here and it seems it would helpful with learning other things if we could figure out what “thing” doesn’t like ash and sonar.


I M SICK

Bonus points if you remember where we first saw the title of this section, “I M SICK”. Answer: I recall it first on the mural in the Swan Hatch.

The sickness/illness/disease/infection seems to be the same thing and it was center stage last night. Sayid has it and the only cure seems to be death. Yikes!

Let’s review who has been “sick” for sure. I know the French team came down with a bad attitude. This was after all of them (except Danielle) went down into that Smokey hole when they first arrived. They come out and they were possessed (as I choose to call it).

And we know that John Locke seems to have the sickness in some sense.

Then we see Claire. See looked sick to me. And she shot the Others as if she knew who to kill. I mention this because she wasn’t just taking out anything that moved since she seemed confused when she saw Jin. Is there some aura around the Good Guys that sick people can see and that becomes the target of their rage?

Some rules of sickness are starting to fall in place as I see it:

Rule 1: You must be dead
Rule 2: You must not be buried
Rule 3: You must be on the island

Using these rules we now understand why Amy (picnic with first husband, Paul) wanted to bury the two Others before they headed back to Othersville. And she really wanted Paul’s body to be carried back. Now I understand sentiment as much as the next man (which is say, we don’t understand it one bit), but people! There’s Others coming to check on the missing men. Think anyone heard the gunshots? Let’s move out. But Nooooo! First we have to bury two guys and then we can fold the blanket and head home. With my rules in mind, that all changes and they DID need to bury the bodies.

Christian – dead, not buried, on the island = sickness

French team – killed in the hole, not buried (or would being underground count as buried? Hey, I have a rule adjustment…

RULE 2-1: You must not have a religious burial

Harper (Goodwin’s wife, the therapist) - she MUST be dead, not buried, and she shows up to give Juliet the message to go kill Charlotte and Daniel

Walt – now that is a tough one…the rain scene and speaking backwards is just beyond explanation at this point.

Sayid – as seen in this episode

Claire – MUST be dead, not buried, on the island and very sick

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MJ, my co-worker and fellow LOST-fanatic, said today, “Maybe they all died at the time of the crash and Smokey has them all re-animated.” Hmmm…


OVERALL GRADE

I give this on a B+, maybe even A-.

We got a lot of answers along with the normal dose of questions, but we GOT answers and some stuff.

I actually downgrade the show and will more if they continue the “reminiscing stuff”. I’m talking about the, “Don’t you remember? You hit me with your gun three years ago?” Hey, we are bright viewers, we like puzzles, so let us figure a few of these out on our own! It is starting to remind of all those TV-to-movie movies that seem bent on throwing a tribute out to original show factoids.

I like the slower episodes for it is the people interaction and dynamics that makes this show great. It is the mental challenge and watching how the Survivors adapt that’s the good stuff.

Now TIDBITS is all about over-analyzing, so here goes: when actors have a crying scene, I can’t help but “remove myself from the show” for a little bit and wonder how hard it must be to make oneself cry on demand. I see it some music videos and honestly, I only cry on a sad song the first 10 or 20 times. These actors and musicians have sung it probably 500 times before the video is made and yet, tears on demand! With that whole prelude in mind, I really was convinced by Sawyer. Kate, not so much, but some of the mouth movements and breathing motions…heck, I think he was real. I mean, real as far as actor’s go – he really did that scene on the dock service.




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Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC

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