Tuesday, February 16, 2010

LT344: The Substitute - First Impression

THUMBS UP

I really enjoyed this episode because it returned me to those past episodes when afterwards my brain hurts! While I like action as much as the next guy what I really like is mystery, riddles and clues.

ALTERNATE TIMELINE

For lack of a better term let's use "alternate timeline" to follow the events beginning with Jack back on the plane. So if this is how things were suppose to turn out then we discover that John Locke was meant to interact with the people from the island. Is that plausible?

Wouldn't you think that eventually down the road that some of these people are going to sit down for a cup of Earl Grey and finally compare notes? Then they will discover, "Hey, I visited Sydney once back in 2004".

"Yeah, me too. It was in the fall."

"Me too! September."

"September? That's freaky. That's when I was there."

They continue on and find out they were on the same flight. Mostly likely this would be Ben and John since they now work together. John already is aware Jack was on board with him.

So life for John would have had him interact with these people even after the flight? That seems a bit of a reach. Now we have all had those moments when we look at someone and they look familar but we can't recall from where. Maybe it WAS a guy we sat next to on a plane. But four or five of them?

The larger question amid these coincidences is WHO made the choice for the rest of the passengers? Who decided life should go on with Ben as a European History teacher and Rose as job counselor?

Or as Locke's bride-to-be said, "What are the odds of running into a spinal surgeon? Maybe it's destiny." Good stuff.


THE STORY OF LOT

In the Bible the Devil challenges God. He claims that everyone loves Him as long as life is going well, but as soon as trouble comes calling then the believers will run for cover. God says not so. The Devil says pick your more dedicated and I'll prove my point. God picks Lot.

God tells the Devil he can do whatever he wants to make Lot forsake his faith and Lot will not waiver. But there is one rule: you can't kill him.

The Devil course corrects Lots' life so he loses his wife, his family, his farm, everything. Lot becomes diseased and covered with boils. Lot is left sitting on a trash heap wearing on sackcloth and moans repeatedly, "Woe is me." But he never loses faith in his God.

Does that ring a bell?


THE CAVE

Now this was interesting. "Jacob had a thing for numbers." Nice tease. Did you notice Kate didn't have a number? Hmmm...

We have

4 - Locke, John
8 - Reyes, Hugo
15 - Ford, James
16 - Jarrah, Sayid
23 - Shephard, Jack
42 - Kwon - which one?

John Black (my name for the Man in Black) says they are all candidates to replace Jacob as the island's protector from, well, from nothing. (Now I have the serpent's logic in the Garden of Eden in my head.)

We should keep in mind that Illana describes Frank, the pilot, as a candidate.

If my Bible training has taught me anything, then when the Devil speaks it is never an out and out lie, but a half-truth. It often is mostly true, but there is one minor detail that makes it so wrong. I'll have to replay the episode and try to discover the part that is wrong!


CHOICES

This show seems to emphasize the choices people have to make. Again with the half-truth, half-lie point...John Black says Jacob has removed your free will by pushing you onto the plane for your entire life. What we may learn one day is that it wasn't Cooper that pushed John out the window, but it was Man in Black.


VAMPIRES

There is a myth that says vampires can't enter your home unless you invite them. That is the feeling I have when John gets Sawyer to agree to leave the island. John Black can't leave unless some takes him...as a substitute!


MORE TO COME

Lots to over-analyze in this show. But I give this a solid "A" for its move towards the real motives behind the Man in Black. You have to love it when he throws the white rock out of the cave. And it was classic logic that John Black points out that Jacob made his visits when people's lives were in turmoil...just like when John visited a "woe is me" and drunk Sawyer.

And we haven't even mentioned the classic line of the show which was when Ben gave his eulogy at the gravesite, "And I'm sorry I murdered him." Great stuff.


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Enjoy,
KC

LT343: Time To Weigh In

THE PROMO

If you caught a peek at the promos for tonight’s episode you can deduce that we are about do some weighing. Literally, we are weighing rocks – one white, one black. Figuratively, we are weighing who wins the war. This should be cool.

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Also, those who have promoted a mirror theory – which includes the Bad Twin Theory – you look to be gaining some points tonight.

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Speaking of weight, it seems as if Hurley just might be at the center of all things LOST. In what way?


SPEAKING OF MIRRORS

As we have been reminded time after time (HA), it may not be a mirror but a window…or both. Yeah, like that two-way glass that Charlie was swimming in while Hurley was being interviewed by the police. So instead of Jack breaking a mirror it could be a two-way mirror with someone watching on the other side. Who could that be?


FLASHBACK

Before we settle down to this week’s episode, “Substitute”, let’s rewind…



Same whale Kate found in Claire’s bag was being held by Aaron when Kate was raising him.

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The police came looking for Kate in the hospital room and said they were looking for “Joan Hart”. That’s the same name on the letter that Kate received telling her about her dying mother. Who sent that letter?

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Arzt almost gets hit by the taxi and screams, “I’m walking here.” That’s the same line he yelled at Ana Lucia when she was being Christian’s driver.


THAT OCEANIC FEELING

Freud once described that need for God as an Oceanic feeling. Well, you too can sense that by going to Kayak.com and looking for a one-way flight from Sydney to LAX on September 22, 2010.

It looks like this (click to see a larger version):

By the way, if you haven't heard of Kayak.com you must check them out. A very good resource for travel plans, especially foreign locations...like the South Pacific! HA!



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KC

Sunday, February 14, 2010

LT342: Can't Read My Own Handwriting

NOTES EVERYWHERE

I’ve scribbled notes everywhere. Today was the day to sift through those and either save them or toss them. I found one and can’t believe it hasn’t been discussed yet. More shocking was that I was able to read my own handwriting.

In recap episode someone said, “..John turned the same wheel Ben had turned…”. Everyone once in awhile I almost fall out of my chair when something is said on LOST. This was one of the moments. Same wheel?

But we saw Ben turn a COLD wheel and John turned a HOT wheel.

Did the Dharma Initiative freeze this room in hopes of controlling its power between John’s turn and Ben’s turn?


MAILBOX: WHY MIB WANTS IN CABIN

A comment this past week asks why the Man in Black would be eager to enter the cabin. He could have found Jacob in the foot of the statue where no ring of ash existed.

I’ve been thinking about this since it was suggested by my son that the ring of ash around the cabin is what kept the Man in Black out and thereby protected Jacob. After reading the posted comment above, I have to agree with the poster.

In fact, I’m going to suggest that Jacob wasn’t even in the cabin…it was the Man in Black inside. The ring of ash was meant to keep him inside, maybe? All those years he claimed to be Jacob, but wasn’t. So the guy in the rocking chair, and Christian and Claire could have been manifestations of the Man in Black.

I believe there are some similarities to the Bible story about the Devil being bound in chains and placed in the bottomless pit for a period of time so his influence would be limited on mankind.

This would have had to happen after the conversation we witnessed on the beach where Jacob was cooking fish.

Now if this is a better read on things, then we have to wonder how Smokey ran free around the island while the Man in Black was inside the cabin. The only thing I can offer for this is that Smokey and the Man in Black are not the same…uh…thing. This takes us to the line of thinking where Smokey is really a pet, a tool, a guard dog for the Man in Black.

Yeah, we have John Black (my name for the second John Locke) saying, “Sorry you had to see my like [the Smoke monster]”, but that could be more semantics than anything else. In other words, the Man in Black and Smokey can manifest themselves as whatever they want.

Great comment…you made me think!


MAILBOX: WHISPERS

SMG comments, “I am always intrigued by the whispers! Any news on what they were saying during last week's episode?”

While researching I discovered whispers were heard in the official promo for Season 6:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2iHG4KUxrs

In “LAX” episode the whispers are heard right before Kate and company are captured by the Others in the tunnels. I’ve yet to find a reliable interpretation but something else crossed my path:

Remember Charlotte Malkin? She is the daughter of the psychic who told Claire to raise the child herself, then strongly encouraged her onto Flight 815. In the airport you might recall that Charlotte runs into Mr. Ecko and tells him that she saw Yemi “between places”.

I bring this up because whispers were heard when Charlotte was on the autopsy table. That’s right, she died. The coroner had a tape of the autopsy events. In fact, she had drowned…just like Sayid. Hmmm…

The whispers at that time said, in part:

She's alive!""How will we know"
"She's not dead""I found it"
"We’re sending them in" (or) "Let’s hear what she says"

In a related side note, the woman who was to adopt Claire’s baby – but refused due to her husband leaving her in the alternative timeline – is named Lindsey Baskum. That’s an anagram for “Used by Malkin”. Double hmmm…

I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for any interpretation of the whispers, so keep checking back on LOST TIDBITS!


IT IS ALL IN THE NAME

The producers have told us that if you take the name “Johnny” and add two vowels and three consonants you will get the letters necessary to make an anagram clue for LOST.

One more challenge…it will be in a foreign language!

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One possible hint is Boba Fett – he is that guy from the Star Wars movie. If you research alternate names for the Devil you find “Baphonet” which is sort of close to how you pronounce “Boba Fett”.

Baphonet is associated with Aleister Crowley who wrote the Book of Laws that is offered as a selection choice to the young John Locke. Crowley also invented a set of tarot cards named “Thoth”; which is the name of the Egyptian god who intermediates between good and evil.

Baphonet is also associated with the severed head of John the Baptist. There is also a connection here with the Knight Templar. What the LOST producers said was that Boba Fett was a template…Baphonet the Templar? Yeah, it’s a reach.

Hurley was dressed like John the Baptist in Charlie’s religious dream.

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Some have suggested the phrase is Spanish which works out to something like “Jethro’s son-in-law”. JOHNNY + EETRR = Jethro Yerno.

Anyway, the son-in-law of Jethro is the Bible is Moses. Recall that Ben made some comment to John Locke about looking like Moses back in Season 5.

Strange as it may seem but a philosopher by the name of Sigmund Freud once made an analysis of the two personalities of Moses. The Midianite side, says Freud, is a “volcano god” and we all know there is a volcano on this island. Further, Sig says that Moses was like a pillar of smoke. Food for thought.

Oh, and the great-great-grandfather of Moses was…Jacob.

It should also be mentioned that Moses had a pretty rough life all things considered. As a baby he was orphaned (Claire?) and was raised by another (Egyptians). We also know he was not keen to public speaking since he had a speech problem. Even being reluctant God still prompted him to lead His people through the wilderness to the promise land – sort of like John Locke.

Let me know if you figure this puzzle out.

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Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC