LT263: Body Double

BLACK AND WHITE

Here we go again, but with a lot more substance. But for an interesting twist, there is a lot of speculation about Jacob being the bad guy and the Black Shirt being the good one.

By the way, perhaps I missed this, but it seems people are calling the Black Shirt by the name of Esau. For those who may not know, Jacob and Esau were the twin brothers born to Isaac and Rebecca in the Bible story. Esau is the oldest and Jacob was said to be grabbing onto his brother’s ankle when born.

Esau in Hebrew means “hairy”. Another reference gives Esau the name “Edom” which means red. Scholars say that the name Edom may not refer to his hair color but to the abundance of red rock found in the land he was living.

Esau is the hunter (recall Locke at the pot commune claiming he was a hunter). He had the first rights to the family inheritance but sold those rights for a bowl of soup. Some claim Esau was in danger of starving to death and Jacob took advantage of the situation.

Later Jacob fakes his father in order to gain the official “blessing” of the birthright. This fake job is possible because Jacob covers his arms with fur and leads his father to believe he is the hairy son.

Well, there is some background information. Jacob does seem to be the manipulator. Of course, Jacob goes on to be the father of the line of David and Jesus – points the Bible scholar scratch their heads about as much as we scratch our heads after watching LOST.

So from this point on, the Black Shirt is going to be Esau to me. Well, until told otherwise.


MISSING BODY PARTS

We learned how Dr. Chang lost his left arm.

This event led to series of other events. If he had not had lost his arm we wouldn’t have seen him without it in the Orientation films. Of course he was there only because the Survivors prompted him to be there in the first place.

However, only if Miles was present could he have been saved…which allows him to go on and make Orientation films.

So…the bomb may not have changed the course of events after all…it may have caused it. Of course, it was Miles who suggested this possibility right before Jack tossed the bomb down the chute.

But then maybe those events did happen and it is Juliet’s smashing the bomb with a rock that starts a new thread of events. But then, would she show up as a recruit years later? Hmm…


MORE CONNECTIONS

Is it possible that Kate and Juliet are related? The reason this is proposed is because we saw Juliet and Rachel’s parents split up. Here is her father:

Now take a look at Wayne, Kate’s step-father:

Could Juliet’s father leave her life and then meet Kate’s mother? Whether step-sister, cousins or by marriage…there is a thought that all the Survivors have a family connection.

READER COMMENTS

Lea asks, "What did Richard actually say?" The answer is "He who is here to save us/protect us."

Big Momma Tammy and others all tend to agree that the Survivors are better marksmen than the official Dharma guards. It is probably hard to find good help on an uncharted island!

Greg observes that Jacob and "Esau" muse about the good versus evil of humanity while frying up supper on the black rocks...while the Black Rock ship sails by. Next season we are sure to see who gets off that ship.

And our Librarian points out the statue's foot is not what it first seems.

NEXT ON TIDBITS

My schedule has been brutal lately, but we do have a number of months to digest things. So keep checking back on more analysis of “The Incident” and LOST in general.

One thing I’m working on is that line Bram said about Frank, “Think he is a candidate?” That wasn’t thrown in there for nothing. My first inkling is that Frank is a candidate for the next sacrificial lamb…more on this in the next posting.

Throw in the feedback from the comments and you can tell that we will need every month we can get to be ready for the final season! Oh, and there is sure to be an off-season game, Comic Con and remember those chronological episodes they are preparing. Did I mention Desmond is going to become the island's next Jacob? Yeah, keep checking back.

The plan is to write at least once per week. But if you've been reading for awhile you know that I can't help but post more often.


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Thanks,
KC

LT262: The Incident Initial Thoughts

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

This two hour season finale was chocked so full of TIDBITS that it will take some time and posts to sort it all out. Here are just some random thoughts that we will follow up in the coming weeks.

* Role reversal of Jack and John continue

* Ben admits he is a liar

* I think Richard is the black shirt man in the opening scene speaking with Jacob - his Bad Twin?

* Bernard and Rose - decent way to explain things for the remainder of the Survivors.

* I despise Juliet. I mean every single scene she is in is a jumbled mess of logic, flip-flopping and emotional reactions. That simple flashback to her divorcing parents didn't do enough to explain her current actions.

* Did Nadia die in a way different than Ben stated?

* They all get on board Ajira 316 because of Jacob, not because of John.

* The opening scene reminded me of Satan and Jesus for some reason - Satan looking for a loophole in Jacob's perfect reasoning.

* Ames, Iowa - my home state. Too cool!

* Kate had a chance to be good her whole life.

* Vincent returns. It almost felt like this episode was a series finale instead of season finale.

* What is in the box?

* Does this mean we know what lies in the shadow of the statue?

* Why was the ash around the cabin black now?

* Was the new occupant a reference to Christian and Claire?

* I loved the John and Richard debate about resurrection and aging.

* Miles, the voice of reason. The nuke might be the incident...loved that.

* When did Jack take shooting lessons? Ok, when did all the Survivors take shooting lessons...except Kate of course.

* Richard "saves" Ellie...strange.

* Dr. Candle's arm - now we know.

* Ok, Juliet didn't have to go that way. That was rough.

* Sun and Jin's wedding site...the wife and I visited that temple last year. I recall a shiver when we walked on that side of the pond...must have been Fate. HA!

* Bye Phil, nice to know you.

* Is the show getting more and more graphic?

* I'm beginning to think Bernard and Rose have the right idea.

* Why didn't the bomb go off? Maybe we can't change things.

* FlashForward looks like a decent show.

* Ilena and Richard - man, I wish I took Spanish lessons...ooooh, nice twist with Locke. Locke has to be the "Bad Twin". YES, it was the loophole! The rules must be that Bad Locke can't kill Good Jacob.

* What a clever twist of faith, free will, obedience, mankind as the pawn, and selfishness.

* How about that...a show where Evil wins. You must admit that is original.

* Sort of half expected for Bad Locke to turn into Smokey at the end. I have a feeling Ben isn't about to get out of that room alive.

* Did the season just end with black on white? Destiny Found, baby.


NEXT ON TIDBITS

LOST TIDBITS won't go away for the off-season. We may slow down the number of posts each week, but we are going to continue the analysis, reviews, theory searches and the fallout of the last two hours of television.

Enjoy,
KC

LT261: Have You Thought About...

PROMISES MADE

Kate tells Aaron’s grandmother, Ms. Littleton, that she will find her daughter. So if Kate wishes to return to the real world so bad, then what happened to her promise? Come on, Sun is saying that if there is ANY chance at finding Jin, she will try. So, why can’t Kate keep her promise?

And then what about Sawyer? He is willing to ditch his friends and hitch a ride on the submarine leaving everyone else behind. This he does after he revealed where Kate was heading. Jack would have to have bamboo shoots shoved under his fingernails before he talked or abandoned everyone. So maybe a zebra can’t change his stripes.


BODY SNATCHERS

What if Locke and Jacob have switched bodies? Recall how it seemed the French team was possessed of sorts? What if Jacob can swap bodies and Locke is now Jacob?

Could this explain why J-Locke doesn’t care about helping Sun any longer?

Does this explain why J-Locke wants to kill the other Jacob?

Would the “Help Me” plea change our opinion if this body snatching was happening?

Are the Hostiles so interested in getting the dead bodies back for a similar reason?

Is Jacob versus Locke the real Incident?

Would also this better explaining the meaning behind the LOST-book, “Bad Twin”?

Was Christian also a part of this? There is a story called “The Cleric Quintet” which deals with the main character’s ability to hop from body to body. He picks a weak host because when he hops the next time it will be someone slightly stronger. This allows him to turn around and kill the original host which is weaker. Of course, it also forces him to switch bodies more often – damned if you do, damned if you don’t sort of thing. The main character is named Ghost.


STAR TREK CLUES

JJ’s latest film seems to hint at the same alternative reality that we see on LOST. Concepts like you can’t really change the past and the presence of two Spock’s are echoed in the film.

Abrams is on record saying he doesn’t subscribe to time travel, but he doesn’t rule the multi-universe stuff. The article stating this was in a recent Wired magazine (same magazine send on Daniel’s couch). That recent magazine had puzzles and clues about LOST and Star Trek. And two LOST writers were included on the Star Trek script – one being Damon Lindelof.

Now if Jacob is revealed anytime soon and it happens to be William Shatner…


GALAGA

Did you notice the submarine crew had their own Dharma logo?

Those guys think of everything!


FINALE THOUGHTS

Tomorrow we have the two-hour season finale – who is excited? But there are some thoughts I’d like to throw out there:

-- Where is young Ben? Last we saw him, Richard was carrying him inside the Temple

-- Anyone else think there are two Smokey’s – one white and one dark?

-- Will we learn exactly who is related to whom? Will Penny and Daniel be step-siblings?

-- Will the Incident be an electromagnetic leak or the bomb leaking? According to Kelvin, “The incident—there was a leak. So now the charge builds up and every time we push the button it discharges it before it gets too big.”


READER COMMENTS

Greg Tramel writes to clear-up my confusion. He talked about some lettering being different and I was like, “huh?” Then I actually clicked the link and found this picture he was talking about:

(click on picture to see a larger version)

Oh my! This is why Greg – and to a lesser extent myself – always think this prop errors are not errors. They are clues of some sort. Things change way too much. Is that the message? That there are subtle adjustments being made that collectively might have a major impact?

What a nice find. Thanks Greg…now I know what you meant. Doh!

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Our Librarian is back with a link to an image-driven blog to be found here: http://synchromysticism.blogspot.com/

I haven’t had much time to digest it (and I’m waiting for LOST TIDBITS to show up on his list of interesting blogs! HA!), but you might want to take a look. It looks as if he is trying to offer a suggestion of what is in that large metal box that Ilena is carrying around with her. One picture that caught my eye was the Ark of the Covenant. And we thought the Black Rock was old!


NEXT ON TIDBITS

Tomorrow is the big night, so here is your sneak image that tells you nothing but makes you think, “Neat!”:

As always, TIBITS will be posting immediately after the airing of the finale with our Initial Thoughts.

And don’t forget to Read and Click an Ad.

Enjoy,
KC

LT260: Those Words We Said

And I still hear the echoes of those bitter words we said
That could drive a million miles and never drive them from my head
Those words we said

- Kim Richey, lyrics from “Those Words We Said”


LOCKE’S WORDS

“I’m going to kill him [Jacob].”

As we know there are a lot of types of killing. Killings can be murder, act of war, some are mercy killings, accidental, natural causes and so on. There is a growing group of viewers that think John might kill Jacob out of mercy. They wonder if Jacob meant, “Kill me”, instead of “Help me” when he spoke to John.

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The other theory is to ignore the literal translation. In other words, Locke didn’t mean literally that he was going to kill Jacob. Now this has a striking similarity to something called “Koan”.

Koan is the term to describe the process of looking for the actual hidden meaning. It applies to Buddhism and that is what got my attention. First, the logo for the portal of Buddhism is this:

This symbol is called the Dharma Wheel.

Now the most famous example of Koan is the saying, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him”. This doesn’t mean to literally take out a gun and shoot. Instead, Koan wishes the interpreter to examine the parts of the message: What is the road? Where is the road? Who is the Buddha? What is meant by kill?

In the end and via Koan, you might simply conclude that the message really means: If during your spiritual path you get the thought that you have arrived at total enlightenment, then cast those ideas to the side and get back to your committed practice.

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So, Locke might simply be saying, “I’m going to expose Jacob for what he really is.” He may mean he wants to kill off the myth and mystery that surrounds him. It might the science side of John coming out more and more – just like Jack used to be.

Another suggestion offered is that John might be implying that he wants to release Jacob. That idea made me think of that white ash that surrounded the cabin. Could Jacob be Smokey’s mirror image? Don’t overlook that an anagram for DeGroots works out to “Store God”.

Or John’s words could be partially literal. A killing will take place but maybe it is like those movies where someone gets stuck between to two planes of life and afterlife. All these beings wish for is to be allowed to continue on to the other side.

And for those still holding out that LOST has a religious message driving it, then consider the similarities to the Catholic church. For example, the church does not permit a follower to speak directly to God but to use an intercessor, namely, a priest. This was the same priesthood of Christianity until Jesus (or is it John?) died and he abolished the priest arrangement.

Ok, I think we’ve covered all the bases. Vote now and turn in next Wednesday to see if you were right or not!

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My guess? I’m going with the idea that Jacob is dead…a myth…a story.

See, John flashed back to the 1950’s and tells Richard that Jacob sent him. As far as John knows, this is true. If you recall, the Hostiles seemed to not be aware of this Jacob-fellow. Moments later, Locke’s story of Jacob gains a lot of credibility when he disappears before their eyes. Richard turns this into a 50-year control tool. Now that Locke realized his error, he wishes to correct Richard and all the Hostiles. Of course, by doing so, Richard and Ben are going to be exposed as frauds. And do you think those two are about to let that happen?


PREGNANCY PROBLEMS

Has it been mentioned that the Jughead or the Incident is the cause of the pregnancy problems?

Let’s say one or the other is the cause. What would make Ben strive to fix the problem? I recall Richard saying something like Ben was wasting time chasing foolish ideas regarding the pregnancy problems. Of course, not wasting enough time that Richard doesn’t speak up to Ben, but I’m still trying to figure our why Richard has to answer to these mere mortals that come along as leaders.


WIDMORE’S WORDS

Speaking of pregnancy…did you notice how Eloise held her hand over her stomach when dying Daniel mentioned his relationship to her? Widmore places his hand on her tummy as he says, “Not in your condition”. Subtle, but TIDBITS noticed!

I’d bet $3.2 million dollars that she is pregnant with her son as she is shooting her son. Uh, did I say that right? Yeah, I think so.


SAWYER’S WORDS

“We’ll buy Microsoft.” The man is always thinking!

While we are on the subject of Sawyer…I just read a theory where Sawyer is Jacob. I’ll explore this a bit further, but the first piece of evidence is that Sawyer keeps stepping on things with his bare foot. Now I’m trying to find a picture and see if James has but four toes!


GREG’S WORDS

Greg Tramel from the Eye M Sick blog (http://eyemsick.blogspot.com/) writes:

“2007 vs 2008 on island, I'm asking another blog's commenters to debunk this but is the island always a year behind the "real" world (being Penny & Des in 2008)?”

I’m thinking the answer is no. Mostly this is based on the fact that the show began on September 22, 2004 – the day of the crash, right? And another season premier matched the date of Oceanic’s “Grand Re-Opening”. I just need to sit down and do some calculations, but off the top of my head didn’t the helicopter take the Oceanic 6 back home in early January 2005? Or was it still late December back in 04? (Hey isn’t that almost a song lyric?)

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Greg also pens, “I'm thinking the complicated part is The Others don't do the traditional wife/husband thing and as long it is Others hooking up other Others, everything is a-ok. But once you hook up with a non-Other you get exiled off the island, like Widmore. Don't think they would play the brother/sister hooking up card BUT there was the Boone/Shannon thingy so you never know.”

I’ll admit that I threw out the brother-sister with Hawking and Widmore for the sensationalism, but when you pointed out the Boone-Shannon things, well…the show would bring a bit of edginess to it if the writers did go this route. When you think about the sex on LOST we’ve got cheating affairs, sex in bear cages, Tom’s boyfriend, Jin’s miracle gametes, and convenience quickies in Sawyer’s tent, and a dash of pseudo-incest-by-marriage with the Rutherford kids. Now you point out the strong possibility of a promiscuous society among the Others. To be completely frank, Bible scholars have always sort of glossed over the fact that Adam and Eve’s children had to practice incest in order to “replenish the earth”. Scandalous!

Now you have me thinking about those real-world stories of doctors at sperm banks using their own donations on patients. And can we lay blame if Jack and Claire hooked up before they knew their relationship? We’ve got half-brother, families with three surnames (Faraday), an island dedicated to pregnancy issues, and adoptions on this show. Would it really be shocking? The possibilities are endless!

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And finally, Greg throws out there, “Oh yeah, and for fun i put out this crazy notion at eye m sick [blog]. Jim LeFleur is James Ford's father. Highly doubt it, but fun to think about nonetheless.”

There you go. The possibilities are endless. If Sawyer does become the con man who conned his own parents then they also would mean he slept with his own mother. Ok, I’m glad I saved the Reader Mailbox stuff for last because where this could head is just getting a little creepy.

On a sort of related off-shoot…many people have wondered how the Others knew that Sawyer killed Frank (the shrimp truck operator). One explanation I’ve seen offered is that in one of the loops, Sawyer created his own file for Dharma so it could later be handed to Locke to give to Sawyer to convince him to kill Cooper (yeah, re-read the explanation slowly). I sort of like this but it then leads to memory issues. Which memories would stick? Does this explain the déjà vu feeling we all get from time to time? Would Maslov’s self-actualization really imply that this is the state where one retains all memories and lessons learned of one’s past reincarnations? Sort of like the exact mirror image of the Tabula Rasa theory introduced by the English philosopher named…John Locke? Hmm…

Now look at what you got me thinking! HA! Seriously, thanks for the (warped) feedback.


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Enjoy,
KC