Lost Analysis and Commentary (Episode 14 – The Variable)

WARNING – Heavy Time/Space analysis ahead.

Last season, Lost gave us an episode entitled “The Constant”....a mind-bending Desmond-centric episode that gave us a glimpse at Lost time travel. So, it stands to reason that this week’s episode, “The Variable” should be a counterpoint to “The Constant”.

In “The Constant”, Desmond needed to find someone who was anchored in both the past and the present....Penny was his constant. So if one is not traveling through time, they are a constant. Daniel assumes in this episode that the time travelers are variables. They are the ones that can change the equation.

The real question is: Is Daniel correct? My response is “Not yet”.

Prior to this week, Daniel’s mantra had been, “Whatever happened, happened.” Now, suddenly, he believes he can change the future (which for the losties is their past). Let’s take a look at Daniel’s actions and results:

1) He tells Pierre Chang that there will be an accident at the Swan station. Dr. Chang doesn’t believe him and proceeds with Swan development....still moving toward an accident.
2) He tells Dr. Chang that Miles is his son. When Miles denies this, Chang blows Daniel off. What this probably did is ensure Miles and his mom (as well as Charlotte) are sent off the island before the accident...as they always have been.
3) Daniel tries to save Charlotte by telling her to leave, and thus ensuring she follows the same path. (By the way how cool was it that Charlotte says to Daniel “I’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner”?....the exact phrase she says with her dying breath.)
4) He goes to find his mother on the island and she shoots him, fulfilling the “sacrifice” she referred to when talking with Widmore. (more on this below)

Regardless of Faraday’s contention that he is a variable, every action that he takes ensures that history remains unchanged...he is a constant.

"I'm from the future"

So, clearly Daniel was wrong....or maybe not. I’m going to tread carefully here as, to date, I have been firmly in the whatever-happened-happened camp. If Daniel was wrong about the time travelers being variables, then what was the purpose of telling Jack that if they can set off the Jughead bomb, Oceanic 815 will land safely in Los Angeles?

One answer is that Jack is the variable that can change the equation and erase everything that has happened. Let me be clear that I don’t buy this for one second, because it would set off a time paradox. If they blow up the island, the crash will never occur, but then Jack won’t be able to go back to 1977 to set off the bomb, so everything resets and the crash DOES happen. There would be an endless loop of bomb/no-crash and no-bomb/crash. Can’t and won’t happen.

Another answer is that Jack is the variable and changes something, but history course corrects and island survives. I think this is possible. I could come up with a million wild theories on this, but I’d rather not speculate too much and just leave it open as a possibility.

Yet another possibility (and the one that I subscribe to) is that Jack BELIEVES he is the variable, tries to change the course of history and ultimately ensures whatever happened, happened.

"You're a variable Jack"

I haven’t wandered around the blogosphere yet, but I’ve got a nagging feeling that I’m missing something....and it might be something big.

Let’s move on to my nominees for Mother and Father of the Year....Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore. We’ve known that Eloise was Dan’s mom, but this is the first week that we’ve received confirmation on the Widmore paternity. I don’t think that should be too much of a shock for anyone as they were both on the island from the 50s through the 70s. I thought I had mentioned Widmore was likely to be Faraday’s dad in a previous post, but I couldn’t find it (guess I don’t get credit). Both of them have been pulling their son’s strings his entire life. What I find interesting though is that while Charles and Eloise don’t seem to be working together on the outside, they appear to be pushing Daniel in the same direction....learning about time travel and returning to the island. This tells me that Daniel’s death is important. It is a critical event that must happen. This is why you could see the pain on Eloise’s face when she encourages Daniel to return to the island and the anger when she slaps Charles and refers to her “sacrifice”. Sacrifice is an interesting word to use, because it implies that she is giving up Daniel’s life for something of greater value.

"How bout a little snog for old time sake, Eloise"

I think if you couple this idea of sacrifice and her insistence for the Oceanic 5 to return on the Ajira 316 flight, it points again to Jack taking some important action related to the island. Jack may be the variable, but Hawking and Widmore are trying to ensure he is a constant.

Let’s go on to the final scene. One of the things I love about Lost is how they can deliver such shocking surprises and then leave you asking yourself “How did I not see that coming?” I always love when Richard is in the mix. For a split second I thought Daniel was going to shoot Richard and we would see how immortal he really is. Then BANG...Daniel is shot and I got that sick feeling that I knew who was the shooter....then, indeed, Ellie is revealed. The pain on Daniel’s face (emotional and physical) is heartbreaking as this exchange occurs:

FARADAY: You knew. You always knew. You knew this was gonna happen. You sent me here anyway.

ELOISE: Who are you?

FARADAY: I... I'm your son.

Epic.

"Don't shot me in the eyeliner"

Here are a few misc observations:

1) Gotta love young Daniel’s line: “I can make time.” Maybe some foreshadowing if Daniel survives (but I don’t think he will)?
2) Speaking of good lines how about Hurley: “You guys were in 1954? Like... Fonzie times?” and Sawyer: “Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy. Good to see you again. Pound cake's in the kitchen. Help yourself to the punch.”
3) It was good to see the meeting at the LaFluer residence....this is the first time ALL the 1977 Losties are in the same place together.
4) Ms. Hawking gives Daniel the journal that he keeps his time travel notes in.
5) Did you notice the “Wired” magazine Widmore moves to sit on Daniel’s couch? On the cover it refers to “Time Travel” and “The Impossible Gets Real”.
6) Radzinski is a complete tool. It was great though to see him in a shootout with Jack, Kate, and Daniel. Over the last 2 episodes it looks like Jack is finally growing a pair again (I guess the island can heal that too).
7) Hurley was carrying his guitar case again when getting ready to leave the DHARMA Barracks. We have yet to get Hurley’s back story for boarding Ajira 316. Its gotta be coming soon.
8) Desmond’s survival is important to both Widmore and Hawking. As was said previously, “The island isn’t done with you yet.” What I can’t figure out is what will bring him back there.

As we head to the final 2 weeks (this includes the two-hour finale) of the season, I think I share Ms. Hawking’s sentiments: “For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next.”

Lost Analysis and Commentary (Episode 13 - Some Like It Hoth)

Well, this week's episode, was somewhat of a letdown coming off last week's epic Linus-palooza. If you listen to closely, you can hear the uber-geek population screaming "Filler episode!" While I didn't love "Some Like It Hoth", it was one of those episodes that if you look carefully enough you can pull out just enough nuggets to make it worth while.

Let me start by going on the record that I now only care that two characters survive for the end of the series....I am holding out hope for a spinoff series entitled: "The Hurley and Miles Supernatural Comedy Hour". When you get lines like:

"Why don't we carpool? It'll help with global warming, which hasn't happened yet, so maybe we can prevent it..."

and

"You're just jealous my powers are better than yours."

and

"That douche is my dad."

...it is pure gold.

My new favorite couple

But lets get into the specifics of the episode. We finally got to see a full Miles-flashback episode....and I for one was glad. We got a little bit of a better sense of what Miles is all about. The major thing here is that Miles is indeed Pierre Chang's (aka Marvin Candle's) kid. But those of you who remember back to my first blog entry already knew that was the assumption I was under since we first saw Pierre's baby in the opening scene from season 5. We also learned that his ability to talk to dead people has been both a curse and a blessing to him since childhood. I also enjoyed seeing Miles' first encounter with Naomi Dorrit. What is significant about this meeting is that Miles gets out of the corpse information about Widmore, open graves, and an old airplane. This clearly dispels an internet theory that Widmore didn't fake the Oceanic 815 wreckage, the plane at the bottom of the ocean was the real 815, and it arrived there due to someone mucking with the past. So that is one theory we can toss in the trashcan.

Naomi makes a return appearance

Now, lets move to what I believe to be the most significant thing in this episode. In one of Miles' flashbacks, he is abducted in a van. The guy riding shotgun introduces himself as Bram. Please note that this is the same guy that was Ilana's sidekick on the island working on that massive crate I mentioned last week. Bram tells him that he doesn't want to get on Widmore's boat and then asks, "Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?" This is the same thing Ilana asked Lapidus last week. Bram also said that if Miles joined them, "all those things you've spent your life trying to find out? You'll know. You'll know who you are, Miles--why it is you have a gift, and most of all, you'll know about your father." If Bram and Ilana aren't working for Widmore and they don't appear to be working for Ben, then who the hell are these two? I'm going to guess that they are a third faction. Actually, I am starting to believe that the Widmore and Ben battle is really just an internal power struggle and the "war" Widmore spoke about a few weeks back will be with this new group. However, I don't think this new faction is really new (I don't believe that an entirely new organization is being introduced this late in the series)....I'm going to hazard a guess that they are representatives of the DHARMA Initiative....or whatever is left of it. And given Bram's comments above, I also believe that Pierre Chang is alive and perhaps leading this new group. So, do you still think this was a throw away episode?

Miles meets Bram

That covers the main stuff, but here are a few short hits on other things I found interesting:

1) Miles' mom appears to have been dying of cancer. Could it be due to exposure to radiation on the island (remember that nuclear bomb from the episode "Jughead" that is likely to end up under concrete in the Swan Station)?

2) Sawyer's...I mean LaFeur's island paradise is starting to come apart at the seams, between Juliet's lame excuse to Roger about Ben being missing, Kate being a sap around Roger, and LaFleur taking one of his security guards captive. This thing should come to a head in the next episode.

3) Did you notice the stuff on Egypt on the chalkboard in the DHARMA classroom? Nothing really revealed, but it underscores that Egyptian stuff is significant.

4) When Pierre Chang says, "I wasn't aware of any circles", that was kind of a cool reference to him not realizing he is sitting next to his son in a time loop.

5) Great to see Hurley watch the numbers being stamped on the hatch. I am starting to believe that the numbers are less mystical, and more just caught in a time loop with Hurley.....I don't have time to explain this one tonight, but I'll try to expand on this in a future post.

6) With all the making up with your daddy stuff Hurley was talking about, was one of the "improvements" he was going to write into "The Empire Strikes Back" a reconciliation of Luke and Vader? Would it go something like this:

Darth Vader: Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
Luke: He told me enough! He told me you killed him!
Darth Vader: No. I am your father.
Luke: No. No. That's not true. That's impossible!
Darth Vader: Search your feelings, you know it to be true!
Luke: No! No!
Darth Vader: Luke, you can destroy the Emperor. He has foreseen this. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.
Luke: OK....but can I borrow the tie-fighter tonight.

7) A threat to Kate finally seemed to momentarily awaken the old Jack. Let's see if this continues.

Jack is back....sort of

8) When Miles and Chang are heading to the sub to get Daniel, Chang says they are getting a scientist from Ann Arbor. Since this is the home of the DHARMA Initiative HQ, it is likely Daniel has been hobnobbing with Gerald and Karen DeGroot.....from orientation film fame.

9) Another popular internet theory is that Ben, Sun, and Locke couldn't go back to 1977, because there was already a younger version of them there (with the only real example being little Ben). Since we saw Miles and baby-Miles in the same scene, I think it is safe to assume that this is another theory that can be safely trashed (two in one episode).

That's all I've got. Next week is a clip show, so I probably won't post.

Lost Analysis and Commentary (Episode 12 - Dead is Dead)

Wow! I had high expectations for this week's Ben-centric episode and boy, did Lost come through! Probably the best episode of the season.

Again, this week I don't have a ton of time to write this, so let me get right into it.

The jury has reached the verdict and Benjamin Linus is found GUILTY....guilty of being the best friggin' character on TV. Anytime Ben is given an opportunity to stretch his legs, he shows us why he is The Man.

Let's start with his mission to kill Danielle Rousseau. Ben and Ethan (note that he is already an Other at a young age....I think I need to re-visit my initial instincts that his mom Amy is an Other spy) are sent to eliminate the French madwoman. However, when Ben enters her camp, he notices baby Alex and can't close the deal.....but decides on a little baby-napping instead. Gotta love Ben cradling the baby and firing a round into the sand to silence the French infection rantings. Here as in many other moments we see the dichotomy sundae of Ben....a scoop of ruthless bastard with compassion sprinkles.

So then Ben carries little Alex back to the Others camp, where Charles Widmore lets him know how displeased he is that Ben didn't kill both mother and child. So Ben calls CW's bluff and says, if Jacob wants it done, you do it. Charles retreats out of check, but its clear the chess match goes on between the two. Eventually, Ben has Charles exiled. There's got to be a lot more to the Ben and Chuck saga, but at the very least we at least know that Ben is responsible for Widmore's banishment from the island and he didn't leave via the frozen donkey wheel (as that has been a popular internet theory).

OK, so now let's skip ahead to the present. I could spend all night blogging about the Ben/Locke dialogue...it is always great when those to share the screen...but let me focus on what I think is important and that is that clearly their roles have been reversed. Locke is now the self-assured master of the island and Ben is the one who seems confused and surprised. However, some things about Ben don't change....like being a two-faced liar. So which of these statements is true?

- Ben believed Locke would be resurrected if he was returned to the island.
- He had no idea Locke would be resurrected and it scares the hell out of him (dead is dead).

He is lying to someone. And speaking of lies, how about Ben lying to Caesar that maybe Locke was already on the island. Not that the lie matters now, as Ben shockingly filled Caesar with a shotgun blast (raise your hand if you saw that coming....put your hand down you little Ben wanna be)...."consider that my apology."

So off Ben and Locke go the main island (home sweet home) in search of the monster. But first a little spookiness in Ben's old house that turns out to be just Sun and Lapidus (nice job Frank leaving Sun with a murderer and a zombie). I was totally psyched that we got to see the inside of the secret room where Ben summons the smoke monster. I always imagined the summoning device to be computer based, but I think it is so much cooler that it was a primitive system of draining some muddy water. But alas smokey doesn't show. So after Locke emerges from the jungle (what the hell was he doing out there? Maybe chatting with his old buddy Christian?), he leads them off to find the monster at the Temple.

Calling the Monster

OK, let's talk Temple for a few minutes. Number one, I am really amped up that what we have seen so far only turned out to be the wall surrounding the Temple (as Ben says the actual Temple is a half mile inside the wall). This means that the Temple remains a locale that we are likely to see at some point (I am guessing next season). Number two, it is really cool that Locke takes Ben down the same hole in which Montand got his arm ripped off (how is the island telling Locke where to go?). Number three, is the hieroglyph depicting Anubis and the smoke monster.

Cerberus and Anubis

Now, if you recall a few weeks back when we got a glimpse of the statue I guessed that it was Anubis....Egyptian god that protects souls on their journey to the Underworld. I am not 100% convinced that the statue is Anubis, but Anubis is clearly significant. In that same posting, I talked about Radzinski referring to the smoke monster as Cerberus, the watchdog of Hades in Greek mythology. Now we have a hieroglyph that links these two. So, I believe my theory that the island is a gateway to the Underworld is looking a lot stronger.

(By the way, it has been speculated a lot on the internet that Richard Alpert is the Egyptian sun god, Ra (Richard Alpert...RA). I think this is a strong possibility, but I'm not sure how that ties in to the Underworld piece)

So, anyway, back to the main story....Ben falls down, gets up and meets Smokey. And, as he mentioned earlier by Ben, the monster does indeed judge Ben for being responsible for Alex's death. I'm not sure exactly what to make of this, but here are a couple of ideas: 1) maybe Ben's sin was saving Alex in the first place and he was supposed to kill her; 2) maybe when you stand before God to be judged, you are actually the one to decide your fate. Then things get even crazier when Alex shows up. She accuses Ben of planning to kill Locke again and demands that he promise to follow Locke's every command....to which he agrees. So, here is my question: Does the smoke monster conjure the dead or just take the form of the dead? I like the idea that these are indeed the dead we are seeing acting of their own volition for the good of the island...but we shall see.

Ben's Judgement

When Ben emerges from his encounter with the Smokey and Alex he looks completely defeated and seems almost disappointed that the monster didn't kill him. I think this is because he has been given a worse fate....subservience to John Locke.

That covers the man story, but here are a few other observations that I found interesting.

1) There is MUCH MORE to Ilana than was originally revealed. First of all, she is moving a crate with "necessary supplies". That is a hell of a big crate for water bottles and airline peanuts. Second, she later asks Frank, "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" There can be no doubt, she is talking about THE statue....so how does she know about it? My guess is she was sent by Widmore. If so, was this a secret code to identify Others? Or maybe there is indeed something literally in the shadow of the statue. Can't wait to find out.

More than meets the eye

2) As I guessed previously, Ben went to the docks to kill Penny and was stopped by Desmond. Ben would have succeeded, but again his soft spot for a mother/child caused him to hesitate. My guess is that Ben's longing for his own mother is at the heart of these lapses in ruthlessness. Here is an interesting note though....Desmond could not have been in too much of a hurry to find Eloise Hawking. He took a SAILBOAT from London to Los Angeles. "Everyone on the island is counting on us, I'd better hop in my boat and I'll be in LA in 2 months tops."

3) Locke has "some ideas" how to get to 1977. So where did these ideas come from? Is he thinking Frozen Donkey Wheel? Is the island communicating with him? Were these thoughts implanted in him when he was dead?

4) Ben's Dharma house is built on top of the smoke monster summoning hole. So, who built the house (it was there before Ben)? Someone in the DHARMA Initiative must have known about the chamber. I'm thinking maybe Pierre Chang (aka Dr. Marvin Candle). Would be nice to find this out before the end of the season.

That's all I've got for now. Until next week....

Lost Analysis and Commentary (Episode 11 – Whatever Happened Happened)

As mentioned last week, I’m in an intensive training this week, so I need to write this up in 1 hour (it usually takes several). So bear with any shortcomings from previous weeks.

So, in the interest of time, let me do some quick hits before I get into the big stuff:

- Hurley and Miles discussing time travel, had to be the greatest, most self-referential thing I have ever seen on a TV show. That dialogue could have been lifted directly from the internet discussion forums. The “Back to the Future” reference was classic. For what its worth, I am solidly with Miles....whatever happened.....ALWAYS happened.

Battle of the time geniuses

- Interesting to see Roger Linus (Ben’s dad) with actual feelings for Ben. Gives just a bit (a very small bit) of sympathy for him when Ben later kills him in “the purge”.

- Nice fakeout in the grocery store, with the woman walking away with Aaron having hair like Claire. I would have preferred Kate losing Aaron to giving him to his grandmother....but whatever....I never really cared that much about that story anyway.

- The Cassidy/Clementine storyline was uneventful, but I guess it was somewhat obligatory to close out (I hope) the Sawyer-baby story.

- Interesting that we now know that Kate went back to find Claire....and not for Sawyer.

- Sawyer calls Kate “Freckles” for the first time since she returned...and then promptly dumps her. Personally, I don’t get Sawyer and Juliet (I still think there is something dark yet to be revealed about Juliet), but whatever. I’m all about theories....not shipping (that is internet speak for interest in character romantic relationships).

- Based on the comment of an Other to Richard, both Charles Widmore and Ellie (whom I have previously affirmed to be Mrs. Hawking) are still on the island in 1977 (interesting....)

- It was a very convenient continuity error that last week, Ben was shot in the dead center of his heart (left side of the chest) and this week the would is on his right side....what is this a silent movie serial?!?!?!?

So far so good...got that done in 15 minutes.

Now, I what to talk about 2 things. First Jack. Then Ben.

This week, the internet theories have been running wild with speculation that Jack would operate on Ben and save him. Seemed reasonable, but I love that Jack refused to do in. In the past, Jack (the Man of Science) would have jumped into action without a second thought. The new Jack (the Man of Faith) lets the island decide if it is necessary to save Ben.

Think about this....if Jack did save Ben, would he have grown up wishing to join the hostiles? The only hostile, he ever met (besides Richard) shot him in the jungle....wouldn’t that push Ben away from a life with them? Now, due to the actions of Kate (‘bout time she actually did something this season) and Sawyer (upon the urging of Juliet....hmmmmmm), Ben will be “saved” by the Others. Now I don’t think it really matters, because Jack NEVER saved Ben.....it was always Richard (I’m right there with you Miles).

But now....did Richard really save Ben? Before taking him, he warned Kate and Sawyer, that he would “never be the same again”. What on Earth does that mean? Well, lets think about where Richard took Ben. He brought him into the Temple....the same place where the smoke monster ripped off Montand’s arm and Rousseau’s crew were “infected”. I’ve previously hypothesized in previous editions that the island may be a gateway to the Underworld, and the smoke monster is Cerberus, the guardian of the Underworld. I’ve also speculated that the four-toed statue is Anubis, the Egyptian god that guides souls to Underworld. Perhaps, Richard is Anubis. And maybe his face is what we will see if we ever get a look at the front of the statue.

Gate to the Underworld?

I think another point that reinforces this is just after we see Richard bring Ben into the Temple, the scene switched to a waking Ben finding Locke sitting over him. Locke says, “Hello Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living.” I think that is about a big of clue as we could be given as to what is really going on.

Welcome back to the Land of the Living

I don’t have time to write much more. Next week’s episode (a Ben-centric, called “Dead is Dead”) looks absolutely EPIC! Can’t wait.