LT247: Some Like It Hoth Initial Thoughts

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

It took a while to tie-in the title of the show but when it did, it worked pretty nice, especially the part about Luke having his arm cut off. Where have I heard that happening before?

Hurley is a trip which makes him lovable, but how does he think he will get the script to Lucas? And what changes is he going to make? Will Darth Father and Luke become buddies. Geesh! Oh, Hurley is right about one thing...the Ewoks did suck.


MILES BACKSTORY

Pretty interesting stuff. But we just blew another time travel theory out of the water. Granted Miles wasn't ever holding himself, but it still seemed a bit odd that two could exist in the same time-space.

He should have gone with the guys in the van who added a nice element of mystery when they said, "[Out team is the] one that is going to win." There's that reference to war.


QUICK HITS

* Seems somebody has discovered the magnetic properties of the island.

* A filling through the brain is a tough way to go.

* Mom tells Miles that dad is "somewhere you can never go". So how does Widmore play into this having Miles go to where his father was?

* Kate is really beginning to bother me...shut up! Funny, for the first three years I yelled at the TV, "Start talking" and now I want her to zip it.

* $1.6 million for Miles to take a boat ride to an island. How much did Miles demand Ben pay him to free him from Locke's control?

* The van guys with the wonderful question, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" I love riddles.

* One lie leads to two lies and before you know you have Phil tied up in a closet.

* It will take some time to piece together what Daniel has been up to.


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Leave you comments and questions about the show and I'll try to address them.

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Enjoy,
KC

LT246: The Ties Are Tightening

TIME FOR GIGGLES

Click on an picture to see a larger version:

THE TEMPLE

Maybe this is new to you, but we know the Dharma logo for the Temple:

We observed this from the map that Ben gave to Alex and Karl for them to escape to. After reading a bunch of ideas, the consensus is that this logo is a representation of the “House of the Rising Sun”.

That was the name of an episode that featured Sun and Jin. It seems that Sun is a bit of an art and history expert and might offer some interpretations of the glyphs we see on the Temple wall.

The disturbing part of this is that face that Dharma has a logo for this. If the Temple is meant only for the Others/Hostiles…and if outsiders are “never to see the temple” due to the walls built around it…then why does Dharma have a logo for it? Was this Ben’s idea to keep the ruse that the Dharma Initiative was in power when the reality was that the Hostiles had taken over? And then why? Were the Others expecting guests? Sort of odd when you think about it. It suggests that Dharma and the Others are more intermingled then we might be led to believe.


THE TIE THAT BINDS

Every since Locke went into that Sweat Lodge and Boone tells him “I’m going to help you find your way so you can bring the family back together”, the show has emphasized families.

Is the family Christian, Claire, Jack and Aaron?

Or is it more figurative meaning the Oceanic family?

Or did Boone mean John’s family? No, not the Anthony Cooper father. The real father. Many have thought that Widmore’s banishment came from fathering Penny off-island. What if his child was Locke?

One reason for this idea is that it was said that Widmore had relations with an outsider. Annie and Eloise do not seem to be outsiders. But young Emily would have been. To verify the facts it seems Richard went to see for himself which is why he was there for Locke’s birth.

Of course, the Thanksgiving table is filling up at the Widmores with all the possibilities: Daniel, John, Penny, Annie, Eloise, and Charles. Kind of creepy and it would blow me away if LOST went down the “Founder” path. You know, where a population is offspring of its founder. Throw in a dash of “The Devil’s Advocate” and you can see what I mean. Why this show has crossed the line of science-fiction it has yet to go over the line of say “Twin Peaks”. Well, not yet.


TEASER PHOTO

Next episode is called, “Some Like it Hoth”. This is the name of the ice planet from Star Wars where Luke is hanging upside down in the polar bear cave. Anyway, here is a teaser photo that promises to be interesting, yet reveal nothing.

NEXT ON TIDBITS

Following the episode, you can look for the Initial Thoughts posting. See you then!

Oh, a quick shout out to Duhawks and M3. Good to hear that you stop by TIDBITS.

Enjoy,
KC

LT245: Imagery and Meaning

THE WAR IS COMING

Here is a theory for you to enjoy. Ilana asks “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” It is possible that this could mean that the shadow that the very tall statute casts. In early morning the shadow would be inward to the island. Maybe at a certain time the shadow it casts points to the location of something special.

Related to this theory is a spin-off that says that a grate exists UNDER the statue. The statue was erected in order to block this grate which could contain a smoke monster. Maybe even a white smoke monster. If they can topple this thing then we begin the war of east versus west (the direction the sun travels) and black versus white.

Perhaps the statue is covering the Jughead bomb or its shadow points to the location of the buried treasure. Either way, it would be helpful in a war to have a nuclear weapon at your disposal.


FUNNY COMMENT

Someone wrote, “Admit it. When you saw Ben’s torch get blown out you thought we was voted off of “Survivor”?” Cute.


INFECTION

There are some thoughts going around that Ilana and crew may be infected with the sickness that Danielle’s group suffered. She has always had a personality capable of what I’ve observed, but this idea makes for an interesting thought. If you consider that they have been on the beach most of the time, then I doubt this, but the evil disposition did make me wonder.

And if she is really working for Widmore then why didn’t they kill Ben when he was knocked out and recovering on the cot?


SERPENTS

This screen snapshot has spotlighted snakes:

In Egyptian mythology the god Apep was an evil demon and depicted in the form of a snake. He and the sun god, Ra, were at constant battle with each other. Apep was also known as the serpent of rebirth. Is this our Smokey?

Of course, Satan was depicted as a serpent in the Garden of Eden.


PICTURES OF YOU

Did you notice when Locke and Sun are waiting for Ben to summon Smokey from his bedroom hidden room there is a painting on the wall?

That’s right! It is our Hamster Lady. She keeps showing up in episodes and that doesn’t happen without a good reason. Many are saying it is a painting of Ben’s mother, Emily. But why keep including it and why does it keep moving locations?


SYMBOLS

We were given a lot of glyphs in the Temple Tunnels this past episode. Here are some interpretations of their meaning:
There is a weeping eye found several times which stands for sorrow.

The words these symbols represent are: watch, mutilate, make, purify and snake.

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Enjoy,

KC

LT244: Researching the Details

GUNS AND CANOES

With Ilana holding the weapons and the beach holding some canoes, is it safe to assume that it was her that was shooting at the Locke and company during that time flash?

This leads me to wonder if then that flash wasn’t to 2007 Ajira time (we did see water bottles from the flight). If so, and if what happened, happened…then we must assume that when Sawyer catches back up to 2007 (in 30 years) he will board a canoe with Locke to get to the Orchid hatch and then get shot at by Ilana. But we see her now and Sawyer and Locke are no where near each other in time. So…either Sawyer is going to flash to 2007 or things do change. If the first guess is correct then we might see a lot more “replays” of events we have seen already but coming from a different vantage point. I’m reminded of Sawyer coming up on Kate and Claire delivering the baby. However, does this mean Sawyer really was in the bushes the first time we saw Aaron’s birth or do we know he was on the beach at that time?

Yeah, me too.


EGYPTIAN MYTH

Seems there was a goddess named Inanna (is that close to Ilana?) who had to die in order to appreciate life. In the afterlife she meets her mirror image and loses her innocence. I might not have this next part straight, but it seems she dies in the afterlife and then returns to the land of the living “enlightened”.

If this sounds familiar it might be because of Ben and John. Or maybe you are thinking of Greek myth where a goddess and pomegranate share a similar tale? That Greek goddess was Persephone – which happens to be the alias name of the character in the summer LOST game.


SEASON 5 CLIFFHANGER

Each season LOST producers come up with a codename to reference the big season climax. They have announced that the Season 5 nickname will be “The Fork in the Outlet”.

Can’t help but remember those electric flashes we saw in Smokey under the Temple.


SPEAKING OF ELECTRICITY AND SMOKE

I did some digging on when smoke and electricity are found together. What we may have observed in Smokey is static electricity. This involves the forces of attraction between charged particles. When we take a sweater off on a dry day is sparkles and snaps.

But how is this associated with smoke? During my research I found that the electro-static properties are used to control pollution. When a factory chimney is spewing pollutants into the air, we can apply a static charge to the smoke. Once the smoke is charged then metal plates of the opposite charge will attract the smoke and not allow it to escape into the open air.

This led me to conclude how Smokey has structure. If the smoke is say negatively charged and if we have a positively charged rod or metal plate or CHAIN (like the sound we often hear)…then it can cause the smoke to swirl around that charged metal piece. Yeah, it isn’t a complete explanation but it sure beats the snot out of nanotechnology.

Of course, how Smokey can display a video image or wrap around a person like we saw it do to Ben without the subject notice a metal rod, chain or wire is still unexplained. But this info did make be go, “Hmmm…”

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Smoke, Part II

I found that there is a “Smoke Theory” in the field of electronics. It seems that electronics work on the principle of blue-gray smoke. Engineers trap smoke inside each discreet component in order to empower it to do its thing. When a person does the wrong thing – like spill a liquid into a electronic component – the error is manifested by the production of a bluish-grey cloud of smoke. The phrase used to describe this is “letting the smoke out”.

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard this before, but it seems to apply somehow to the discussion at hand!


CHARLOTTE DETAILS

Just to clear things up for TIDBIT readers. Recently I posted that LOST might have made some continuity errors with Widmore. The prior “Opps” moment was with Charlotte’s age. At one point we are told she was born in 1979 and then we see a two-year old Charlotte skipping through 1974. The producers have said this was a mistake on their part and to go with the 1972 birth year.

This is probably more a sign of the sheer volume of facts that are dispensed on this show and how difficult it will become to keep everything straight. We may then experience more of these inconsistencies, so be on guard not to take everything literally.


JULIET DETAILS

Rumor has it that the actress playing Juliet might leave LOST for a new TV series. You know what this means for Juliet. They could just reduce her role to a few special guest roles or kill her off.

And for those older than the crackers Hurley eats on the island, you might recall a sci-fi show called “V”. I believe it was “V – the Final Battle” that dealt with a reptile alien race. It is going to be remade and this is the show Juliet is moving to.


LOCKE DETAILS

Just how numb have we become to oddities on LOST? John Locke starts to take his shoes off before paddling to the main island with Ben. He then puts them back on when they reach the dock. Yet, hardly a word is mentioned on message boards about this. Well, I haven’t found anything. How odd.


LOST REVIEW: Polar Bears

Soon the Survivors come across a very unusual thing: polar bears. It is unusual for they are found on a tropical island.

Now if we continue along the idea of a virtual reality computer things begin to break down on this discovery. Unless the programmer is not very well read, it would make little sense to find a polar bear on a tropical island. There is probably some fancy word for this contradiction, but let us all agree – this was strange.

It is not until much later that the Blast Door Map gives us an explanation. Someone wrote on the Blast Door that the Dharma Initiative was attempting to adapt polar bears to live in extreme climates. To accomplish the Dharma group used gene therapy.

Phenotype of the polar bear reveals that they adapted to the environment. These adaptations are so severe that bringing them to another environment would prove fatal. However, genetic study has proven that polar bears are of the same species as brown bears. Brown bears can easily live in a variety of less extreme climates as its cousins. Therefore, gene therapy is a very likely explanation as to how these creatures made it to the island.

In other words, we have a scientific explanation and nothing to do with bad programming by a computer geek.

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On the spiritual side of the equation there are many references to polar bears. The Inuit and Eskimos believed that polar bears were humans when inside their own houses and put on bear hides when going outside. They connected the constellation in the skies to the resemblance of the great bear. The human-like posture of bears when standing and sitting may have contributed to this belief.

The skulls and teeth were considered to be of great value and meaning. In popular culture polar bears are often portrayed as sentient beings as seen in the movie, “The Golden Compass”. If the connection isn’t clear, it should be pointed out that the compass will play a role in future episodes of LOST. Maybe I should rent that movie?

Another book contains a reference to polar bears in Hawaii entitled, “Laughter in the Dark”. This book was found in Sawyer’s stash by Charlie. The original English name of this book was “Camera Obscura”. The book uses a non-linear storyline which is emulated by LOST.

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File this under, No Rock Left Unturned, but it should be noted that the USS Connecticut did encounter a polar bear once. The bear chewed on the rudder before moving on and the USS Connecticut was able to return to base under its own power. The USS Connecticut is a submarine.

It seems they even got a picture of this event which occurred in 2003.

CONCLUSION

It would seem that polar bears on LOST point to a hypothesis of science and religion much more than computers. Was this merely a distraction for us? If we use our Gary Troup theory that when things are cast aside on the show, we too should ignore them, then maybe polar bears were a distraction.

Recall that Mr. Troup’s anagram of “purgatory” was thrown away the minute he passed through a running plane engine. His manuscript of the book was discarded when Jack tossed it into the fire.

If we keep this consistent, then it should be noted that Walt’s comic book depicting a polar bear was also thrown into the fire. Sawyer kills the polar bear during the Transceiver Trek. And Locke burns the bear in the cave when retrieving Mr. Eko. There does seem to be quite a bit of suggestions to “ignore this clue”.

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Enjoy,

KC

LT243: Visual Aids

SAY WHAT?

Yes, we pour over the details of this show. Yes, we get a week in between to share notes. But when we heard Widmore left the island due to frequent nights on the continent and a tryst with an outsider, that seemed to differ with Widmore’s earlier explanation about turning the Dharma Wheel. It is a continuity error or is this one of those picture frame changing moments (think the staircase when Miles chased away a ghost with his DustBuster).

And while I’m on details concerning Widmore…the exile seemed to happen after the Purge in 1992-93. This would make it 15 years later when Ben calls Widmore at Penny’s boat. Widmore said he had been trying to return for 20 years. Maybe it just feels like 20 years.


DID YOU NOTICE?

When Ben was sent to kill Danielle the boy with him was Ethan. His hair seemed a little blonde for Ethan.

Did you catch the board game in Ben’s house? It is RISK, one of my all-time favorites. It appears no one has been in this house since Keamy and his merry band of military men stormed the island.

Did you catch the name of Penny and Desmond’s boat was “Our Mutual Friend” which is the title of Desmond’s last book he would ever read?

How about that metal case that Ilena seemed to using to carry weapons? That’s a big case for guns…what else could be in there? A casket?


Did you catch the Egyptian images in the tunnels under the Temple? It looked like the statue character bowing before Smokey. Anubis seems to be the winner of the Guess the Statue image.

LOST REVIEW: Transceiver

We last discussed the attempt by Jack, Kate and Charlie to find the cockpit. What they ran into was rain and the monster. But eventually they found what they were looking for: the transceiver.

As we review past clues in LOST we are attempting to find a common theory to explain the events we witness each week. At this point of our review we have covered topics found in part 1 of the Pilot episode. There is an amazing amount of clues pointing to a computer. This leads us to conclude that some kind of virtual reality is happening.

This post we have moved into part 2 of the Pilot episode and one of the key items is the transceiver. Again we find a clue related closely to a computer. Both use circuitry, microchips and have input and output capability. For trivia sake a transceiver is a sending and receiving device (transmitter and receiver). It talks and it listens as it provides two-way communication.

Once the transceiver is brought back to the beach it is up to Sayid to attempt to get it working. Kate checks on the progress and Sayid says that it can’t be used on the beach but perhaps on higher ground a signal might be found. He warns that the batteries are low.

You may not be aware but workstation computer do have a batter in them. Laptops obviously have batteries but even the MAGIC BOX under your desk has a battery. This is required for when the power is off because the computer still must keep the TIME.

I realize the influence it has when I capitalize words, but do take note that these popular terms are going to be future themes and topics on LOST. I just can’t help it, but everything keeps pointing to computers.

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Another thought on this subject is that the transceiver is trying to suggest communication. Anthropologists agree that speech is one of the few things that separate us from the animals. In all fairness it should be pointed out the importance of communication in science and religion. The word “communion” comes to mind on the religion side.

This non-computer analysis seems pertinent because soon the Survivors are going to march up to higher ground and find a signal. The receiver portion of the transceiver picks up a message that is on a loop for 16 years. Yeah, computer programs loop through lines of code. But on the non-computer side of the debate we notice the message is in French which seems to point out that while one can be talking, it doesn’t mean anyone can understand. The strict definition of communication would include sending a message and having it be received.

One last point…Sayid says they can’t send a message because the incoming transmission is blocking them. This reminds me a bit of religion in that God has left several messages (Bible, Torah, Book of Mormon, etc.) but they are each one-way communication.

CONCLUSION

I’d be willing to call this a tie between computer and religion. Ok, let’s call computers the science side of things and we have a tie between the show discussing religion AND science.


BUSY SCHEDULE

There is a lot on my plate right now, so keep checking back since we have just scratched the surface of this episode!

Enjoy,

KC

LT424: Dead is Dead Initial Thoughts

The worst thing about immediate posting is it doesn't give me time to digest. Each week LOST gives us a full-course meal and we should heed that advice about waiting 30 minutes. But time waits for no one, so here goes...

NO WORD FOR IT

Ben says that the Survivors call it the Monster. We call it Smokey. Tonight I call it just plain strange. The final scene was a lot like Mr. Eko except Ben apologized where Eko said he had nothing to be sorry for. Don't mean to keep beating the religious drum, but that sounds like a popular doctrine - repentance.

The orders are clear now: follow John. Funny, but the monster doesn't seem able to tell if Ben is lying about his promise, but I could tell from where I was sitting. You don't jump through this many hoops just to become a follower.


SUN

As much as she has disappointed me, tonight I felt a bit sorry for her. All the options provided her were not very good ones. Can you imagine either going into the hole with John and Ben OR being left to stand outside in the jungle at night? If my count is right, there were only two torches so she is standing in the dark.


FAST AND FURIOUS

-- What was Ilena keeping in that big metal box?

-- Did the "what lies in the shadow of the statue" remind you of "what did one snowman say to the other snowman"? Me too.

-- Is Ilena another Widmore group infiltrating this island?

-- If Ben meant to kill Penny then why didn't he? If he didn't mean to kill her, then why pretend?

-- How did Ben crawl out of the water?

-- I'm betting now that it was a liquid that saved Desmond. Was it Charlie that saved mommy?

-- Ben had a good heart? He saved Alex and Richard seemed to be keeping a close eye on Ben's progress.

-- So you can't leave the island or have children with an outsider? What pulled Charles off the island in the first place?

-- Tunnels run under this island and that is how Smokey gets around. But if you find one of his exit holes and fill it with water....

-- I saw electricity and sparks in the smoke.

-- Dead is dead...so can John be killed? Had Caesar shot John would that have revealed something John that Ben didn't want him to know?

-- Why is Ben taking so long to heal?

-- Desmond's boat was the name of the last book he would ever read, "Our Mutual Friend"

-- Has Ben ever directly killed anyone?


NEXT ON TIDBITS

Well, this episode is going to take some analysis so check back often. Until then, my advice is this, "If you hear whispers, run the other way."


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Enjoy,
KC