Thursday, February 25, 2010

LT349: I Think We're Going to Need to Watch That Again

LOOK AGAIN

I mentioned that my hope was to see whose name was found at position 108 on the dial in the lighthouse. Here it is:



Wallace? Don’t miss “Friendly” at 109. If Jack had not freaked out he would have seen into the life of Wallace. Wonder what he would have seen?


EDITOR'S NOTE: Is that 08 or 108? I can't quite tell but it deserved to be pointed out.


There is a Rousseau at position 20. That could mean Danielle or her husband or even Alex. Austen is found at position 51 and she is not crossed off like the others are. Linus is at 117 and is crossed-off, so either he is disqualified or dead.

Most circular things have 360 degrees so we can assume that Jacob has been peeking in at 360 people.

I noticed that Jack’s name is written slightly different than the rest. And the house he saw is not where he went to visit his mother. Maybe 23 stands for Christian?

Could all the flashbacks we’ve seen be the things that Jacob saw in the mirror? It might explain why at times a person seemed to be on the good list and then not on the list. Think Ana Lucia and a few others who were hoped to be good. Maybe they were waiting for Jacob to take another peek into his mirror and see. When we (and Jacob) saw Ana Lucia shoot the attacker in cold blood, maybe that doomed her.

Michael is an excellent example of this as he waffles between idiot and caring father.

CHEERS

Jack’s mother has a little helper but Jack doesn’t seem to be a drinker. Too bad, because he could have asked for a glass of MacCutcheon scotch. This is the choice of drink for Widmore, Cooper and maybe Jack’s father. This feeds into the theory that Dharma (or whatever name we can put on this “group”) is everywhere.




PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM

Jack’s son, David, is practicing some Chopin.



You can see the song title. It is the same piece that young Danielle was playing at the piano when his mother gave him the talk about spending his time a little more productively.

And it was clear, but should be mentioned in case someone missed it…but Jack said he read “The Annotated Alice” to his son when he was little. Now David is reading it for school.

SILLY RABBIT

Did you notice Jack found the key to the front door stored under a rabbit? The writers just can’t seem to let these themes go.



A very similar rabbit was hiding a key that Miles found when he let himself into the apartment as a child.

CUT ME, MICK

Sorry, a little Rocky flashback of my own. Anyway, the appendix scar is very interesting. I put this in the same category as the bleeding on the neck that Jack noticed in the airplane bathroom. How can he have these and not remember them? It seems as if EVERYONE – including mother – is pushing Jack down his path of destiny.

TIME TO PICK TEAMS

It appears that the teams are beginning to take shape. Hurley and Jack on Team Jacob. Sawyer and Claire on Team Locke.

Do you wonder if Jacob wasn’t forming a team from all of the Oceanic 6? It seems possible that by bringing them back to the island, this was their choice. On the other hand, John Black (my name for Smokey Locke) is trying to get his team to leave the island.

Something made me wonder if Jacob and Blackie haven’t been fighting for years in some place. Dad gets tired of their constant fighting and says, “Look, you two go to this island and when one of you wins, you can return home. Until then, you two stay there and fight all you want.”

STAR WARS RETURNS

Hurley used a little Jedi Knight trick on Dogan with that, “I’m a candidate and I can do whatever I want. YOU go back to the courtyard.” Nice one.

Now let’s consider what this implies. First, Dogan knows that Hurley and the rest of the candidates doesn’t know. Well, not until Jacob informs him. But when Hurley learns of his elevated status, Dogan backs down. What if only one becomes the Protector…will Dogan look up Hurley and slap him around for being bossy? HA!

WHO IS COMING BACK?

The question of the week is “Who is coming back?”

The early results show Widmore in the lead. Aaron is close behind. Daniel is mentioned as a possible…shall I say, candidate? Desmond should be included since we have seen him only as “ghost rider” on the plane.

I’m almost 108% sure it is Charles Widmore.




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Hope you liked this post. If you did, say thanks by clicking on one of the ads on the right hand side when you finish reading LOST TIDBITS.

Be sure to check out the comments in the past few postings. I have to moderate them so they show up a tad late, but they are worth reading. Or wait until I can address them in a posting.

Enjoy,
KC

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

LT348: The Lighthouse – First Impressions

I GUESS I DO

Jack’s response to his mother’s question, “Don’t you remember?” when she is explaining he had his appendectomy at age 7 or 8.

Don’t you always remember a major event say after the age of say 3? My tonsils were removed and I recall the playroom at the hospital, the ice cream, and even a little planter someone sent gave me.

So why doesn’t Jack remember?


CAN’T WE JUST…GET THROUGH IT?

So Jack has a son in Timeline #2. I didn’t pick up any clues as to who mommy is in the house, but the money should be on Sarah.

Isn’t David another one of those Bible names?

I’m flashing back to Jack living with the Others and spending some time playing the piano.

Of course the lesson to all this was “You have what it takes”. This is each generation trying to reverse the prior generation’s mistakes. We’ve all done our own little “course corrections”, huh?


WE WEREN’T LOOKING FOR IT

Lots of life object lessons in this episode. You can only find something when you are looking for it. There it was, right in front of them, and they never saw this structure. Reminds me of a certain cabin Hurley once went looking for.

Are you as frustrated as me with the way Jacob goes about getting his will accomplished? Again, that reminds me of something I hear in church a lot about God’s will and how we don’t always understand it all the time but are assured that everything works out where God is concerned.


YOU’RE NOT REMEMBERING THINGS RIGHT

Mr. Hatchet (you know who I mean) seemed pretty sincere when he tells Claire that she has her facts mixed up. And yet, her brand seemed pretty real to me. In reminds me of a couple of brandings: Juliet and Sayid.

So the Others grabbed her, but her to the test and discovered she is infected. I agree with the Others. And as with Sayid they don’t seem able to do anything about it. They need someone else to do their dirty work. That reminds me of John Locke having Sawyer kill Cooper in the Black Rock.


HE’S MY FRIEND

My son kept pushing the concept of THREE tonight. He thinks there were only three members of the French team infected at one time. He thinks Smokey divided into three parts at the sonar fence while chasing Juliet and Kate back to Othersville. And it seems that John is currently looking for three candidates to complete his team.


RATINGS

LOST has got be backing to thinking about the show long after the credits have scrolled on the screen. I like that.

The writers definitely have fine tuned the art of cross-referencing the characters and events between the two timelines. We saw games again with Hurley and Miles playing some Tic-Tac-Toe. We have Dogan (spelling?) making sense in both sides of the time wall. I like that.

Claire really impressed me with her acting. She really has left the cute and innocent behind. And even in this new role she showed psychotic-like mood swings with her facial expressions. I like that.

But as before, we have a lot of new questions along with a handful of questions. The worst was not getting a peek at what is written at number 108 on the dial. I don’t like that.

Very strong episode, but doesn’t quite top last weeks, so I give this a B+.


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Hope you liked this post. If you did, say thanks by clicking on one of the ads on the right hand side when you finish reading LOST TIDBITS.

Until next time…

Enjoy,
KC

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

LT347: We’ll Go Walking Through the Park and Reminiscing

Today’s blog title is a line from the song by Little River Band…an Australian band. Hmmm… Uh, anyway, it is a stroll through some old topics with updated information

MORE OR LESS ON NUMBERS

We saw the Numbers next to people’s names on the cave ceiling:

4 - Locke
8 – Hurley
15 – Sawyer
16 – Sayid
23 – Jack
42 – Sun

I’m betting on Sun being 42 since she was touched by Jacob prior to the island.

If these Numbers relate to the Survivors in some direct manner then I propose they were handed to Jacob in advance (or the past). At first I thought these were the seat numbers on Oceanic Flight 815 so Jacob could identify the “candidates”. But they don’t match up. So it seems instead that these are more likely Vanezetti Equation-related (more on that in a coming post).

Too bad about the seat assignments because that would have led nicely into explaining why Jack’s neck is bleeding…from an injection.

So instead of trying to figure out the meaning of the Numbers I wonder if we should think less about them. After all the Numbers never got transmitted to Sam and Lenny. Lenny never mumbled them to Hurley in the mental hospital. They never got stamped on the Swan hatch lid. Why not? Because the island was underwater the whole time. Well, ever since 1977. See, if we can have two alternative realities, why not three or four?

In my alternate reality (no jokes required!) Radzinsky keeps drilling, hits the pocket of super goo and the island…sinks. No tower transmission, no Numbers.

SHOES

Since we are walking down memory lane I have to point out that there is something about shoes. Again, not more shoes, but less. I mention this only because it came to my attention that Jacob was barefoot when he visited Locke after his fall from the fourth floor. Then I’m reminded how the Others walked around barefoot. So did Sawyer often when he would step on sharp objects.

It’s connected…I’m just not sure how.

POLAR BEARS

Wow! It has been awhile since we talked about polar bears. And just when you thought it was safe to job in the jungle of corporate America…you get fired. John Locke learned that lesson the hard way.

Tip 1: Lie better
Tip 2: Ask Hurley next time why he hires someone like Randy Nations to mess up his company
Tip 3: Stop playing with toys

Look close. You can click on any picture in TIDBITS and get a larger version of it. Do you see it? Right next to the pen and above the Father-Son photograph. Growl! They just won’t leave us alone!

GAMES

Is the whole show one big board game? Chess? Truth or Dare? A jigsaw puzzle? Chutes and Ladders? A case can be made for each of them. Or maybe we are playing one of those IQ quizzes where we have to figure out the patterns. If so, he is the scorecard (thanks to Doc Arnzt):


FINAL THOUGHTS

As we prepare for another episode tonight let me leave with two pieces of advice. Here is the first one:


As the sign says on the wall, “Live in the Present”.

And for those gamers out there…

"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

- Einstein

Good advice.


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Enjoy,
KC

Monday, February 22, 2010

LT346: Feedback on the Substitute

LOT’S BIBLE STORY

We had a couple of comments about my analogy to the Bible story of Lot. I have TWO responses.

FIRST…it is the story of Job, not Lot. You can’t know how silly I feel. My apologies.

The SECOND observation on my blunder is how much LOST had penetrated into my mind. I could have misnamed Job as several Bible characters, but the old mind grabbed Lot. Maybe it was something to do with the name being three letters. See? LOST Disease! Numbers!

Someone even posted a comment on how odd it would be if LOST was a retelling of Lot’s life because the anagram of Lot’s is LOST. Yeah, I need help. If this show went on more one season I might need a room next to Hurley!

I just counted the number of times people corrected me: three. See what I mean? Spooky!


THE LIGHTHOUSE

Before I forget, did I mention that an hourglass is associated with death in some societies? That was back in the premier episode but I wanted to be sure I got that out there.

This week the episode is entitled, “The Lighthouse”. There are many Biblical references to lighthouses and most are obvious as they serve as a warning and guide through troubled waters. I can’t help but think of ships at sea in a storm. Can you say Black Rock?

Oh, this is really crazy but I misspelled (and corrected) Black Rock as Block Rock. Giggled to myself and then thought, hey, I call John the Second by the name of John Black. Blocke, Locke, Black, Rock. Oh man, do I need help or what? No, what I need is answers!

Let’s hope this week gives us some.

MORE COMMENTS

Ben! Nice to hear from you. He writes, “ Ben here- miss my comments much? I just wanted to ... Ben here-miss my comments much?I just wanted to say that I think that this alternate time-line is only different post-flight...at least for the passengers of our favorite plane.
So, Locke is still at odds with Dad...after all, how else did he get in the wheelchair? The photo on his desk may be a private reminder of who put him there. Just think, this whole time he was on the island, he and Helen at the latest were in a relationship.
Hurley, immediately post-flight, finally found happiness and rewarded the fortune-teller by giving her a dream job.
And Rose may have been working for Hurley this whole time.

MY RESPONSE: I’m not quite convinced that Locke and Cooper are still at odds. We have the sweet photo in the cubicle. We have Helen giving the reason for them being together is NOT John getting over his father, but instead how well the get along – or words to that affect.

And I think it is a stretch for Hurley to have his mother’s new house burn down, a few fires at businesses he owned, a meteorite crash into his new restaurant, and his grandfather die and then one flight home from speaking with Mrs. Toomey his life changes for success?

And consider that on the other side of the aisle, Charlie is still an addict, Kate is still on the run, and Claire is still trying to give up her baby. It does seems that some people’s lives changed drastically while others remained pretty much on course. That can’t be due to some airline food, but something prior. We will see. And it IS good to hear from you again!


EMAILS FROM READERS

I got an email from a guy who suggested that my name be included in the fan tribute of the Season 6 DVD. It seems this group is trying to get a few names listed as extras because of their on-line involvement with the show and its supporting communities. I seemed to have deleted that email so if you read this, send it again. I’d rather have “LOST TIDBITS” listed than my name. If you don’t read this, it was nice to be considered.

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Someone writes, “Is the rumor true that LOST will end with everyone being in a state of suspended animation and the machines are using them for energy and this is all a computer-generated reality?”

No, that was the movie Matrix, but thanks so much for writing, Roger B.!

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Someone else wrote, “Did you catch any other names on the cave ceiling?”

Yes we did: Goodspeed, Littleton, Troupe, Faraday, Rutherford and Straume. So this is not just the flight manifest of Oceanic Flight 815.

In case you don’t recognize Troupe – that is the author of the LOST-associated book, “Bad Twin”. On the show Gary Troupe is the guy who was sucked up in the running engine in the very first episode and his name is an anagram for “purgatory”. Straume is Miles’ surname. Rutherford is Shannon’s last name.

However, I’m confused on what the Others mentioned once that Jack wasn’t on the list.

My co-worker, MJ, noticed that the numbers next to the names may not be that big of a surprise if someone with knowledge then travelled back in time. The first appearance I’m aware of with the Numbers is 1977 when they are being stamped into the Swan hatch lid. This reminds of Sawyer commenting on going back to 1977 but off the island would give him a chance to win some bets. In other words, their appearance isn’t random or some pattern of nature, but a purposefully message from a time traveler. Since Hurley used the numbers to his advantage, he is the candidate in my mind! Of course, now that we know Jacob is very old and like’s Numbers he may have placed them where they served as some sign (think of that Star Trek Next Generation episode where Commander Data leaves a trail of THREE’s to give hints each time loop).


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Another reader comments, “Was the ladder Sawyer and John climbed down called “Jacob’s Ladder”?” Could be! Except that one led up to heaven and not down to…


NEXT ON TIDBITS

The hope is to get one more post out this week before the show. My goal is to do something called “Where we are so Far”. Sort of a summary to get us focused on the stretch run. That sounds fun, but also sounds like a lot of work so we’ll see. I will do this, but time will dictate when.

I’ll leave you with this: Lighthouses are never specifically mentioned in the Bible (the closest mention being a "light on a hill"). However, a lighthouse shows the way and warns of danger. We as Christians are called on to be a beacon or lighthouse so that others can see the way to eternal life through Jesus Christ.

So who will be the lighthouse on the island showing the true way?


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Hope you liked this post. If you did, say thanks by clicking on one of the ads on the right hand side when you finish reading LOST TIDBITS.

Until next time…

Enjoy,
KC

Sunday, February 21, 2010

LT345: Did You Notice?

THE NUMBERS AND OTHER THINGS

My memory says the producers once told us to not put so much stock in the Numbers. They claimed they were mostly being used as an entertainment value. Yet, they don’t go away. If one mystery needs explained by the end, I demand it be the Numbers. We say the Numbers on the cave ceiling last week, but that wasn’t the only place...





Notice the clock on John’s nightstand. I’ll admit, I missed it during the show.

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Did you recognize the job placement officer who was asking John what kind of animal he was?


It was Lynn Karnoff who we first saw as Hurley’s psychic when trying to rid himself of the curse of winning the lottery! Again, I didn’t recognize her.

So, let’s deviate from I Spy for a moment and ponder how the two timelines differ. In some ways, like Kate, nothing has changed much. Of course she would have landed at LAX and tried to escape. See Kate. See Kate run. It is as predictable as Dick and Jane. But this lady has a completely different path in life (unless she moonlights as a psychic for extra money).

Not that we will get an explanation of why some people’s lives made a 180 degree turnabout, but I am curious as to how not flying through a time travel window over the South Pacific changed people’s occupation from pre- to post-turbulence.

What I’m getting at is that I don’t think Oceanic Flight 815 flashing or not flashing through time is what makes the big changes in the two timelines. It would have be something pre-takeoff that did that. WAY BEFORE takeoff that would make Lynn go from psychic to job counselor. Something like Jacob not even making it to visit the Oceanic 6 and possibly not visiting a whole lot of people.

I’m envisioning the oldest scene we have witnessed (the chat at the beach over a fish breakfast with the Black Rock at sea) but this time it is the Man in Black and Sawyer…or Hurley…or Jack. I’m talking about a MAJOR event that would shift the timelines so drastically that Boone lives and maybe Daniel decides to give up his experiments on rats.

Allow me to ride this horse a bit further. The pre-flight change must be so great that Locke and his father are buddies. Check out the picture you probably missed in Locke’s cubicle and the box company:

It makes it seem they are buddies. And Helen makes it very clear that John’s obsession with revenge on daddy-stealing-my-kidney is not the reason for a separation.

Allow my a little psycho-babble because I’m impressed with the possibility of how drastically our Friends (hey, after six years the Survivors are more friends to me than Ross, Monica and Chandler will ever be) paths can change. Do you remember that movie with Steve Guttenberg and Meryl Streep where they die and in Heaven video is shown of their life as they are judged? I wonder that instead of film footage of your life’s blunders that instead we may be shown all the Butterfly Effect our choices made and that we were oblivious to.

For example: KC, recall that girl you teased in 2nd grade? She lost her self-esteemed, killed herself in her teens, never had a child named Obama and America never got the President it deserved. That led to Congress passing a three-term limit in which Bush stayed in one more term and that allowed China to overrun the United State.

See? It isn’t that I was just a meanie, but the ramifications could be earth shattering. I mean Bush for a third term? Shudders! HA!

It seems as if this is what is happening on LOST for the alternative timeline is so varied in some ways (and little to no change in other ways). So what pre-flight event could be that big of an impact? I’m thinking Jacob never made it off the beach that morning…or something along those lines. Well, see.


Oh, more more thing on the picture...if they were buddies then how did John end up in a wheelchair in this timeline? Or are some things just meant to be?


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Did you see Helen’s shirt read, “Peace and Karma”? That one I noticed!

Did you know the song Sawyer is listening to is Iggy Pop’s, “Search and Destroy”? Playing right when Locke Black is searching for Sawyer. The song’s lyrics is about a forgotten boy who is wants someone to come and save his soul. Hmmm…Save your soul Sawyer or damn it?

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How did you not notice the spider crawling on dead Locke?


Someone suggests it was the same species that bit Paulo and Nikki and that Locke might not really be dead but paralyzed. Of course, now he is buried to death, but then again…we only saw two shovels of dirt so far. HA! No way this could be true, but it was a good try.


NEXT ON TIDBITS

Yeah, school has been hampering my LOST time. I just noticed a tons of emails and comments, so tomorrow I hope to get some quality LOST time in and answer the feedback. I'm activating the comments now, so check them out and come back tomorrow for some replies!


Hope you liked this post. If you did, say thanks by clicking on one of the ads on the right hand side when you finish reading LOST TIDBITS.

Until next time…

Enjoy,
KC