LOST: What Kate Does

Welcome friends,

Probably a short post today. I've been putting this off in hopes that ABC would put up a podcast this week. It looks like that will not happen so I'm moving on with my own thoughts.

The episode is called “What Kate Does” which is a play of off an episode in Season 2 called “What Kate Did”. In the FS we see what happens as Kate escapes form the airport with Claire being forced along with her. To me there are really only a few things that are of blinding curiosity to me.

In general there are more occurrences of things in this timeline that appeared in the original timeline. For example, the toy whale that Kate finds in Claire's bag is the same toy that Aaron held in the Flash Forwards. Ethan is there just as he was on the island, although this time he is not trying to steal the baby (yet). Kate helps get Claire to the hospital where she will be able to give birth to Aaron. In the original timeline Kate was the one that helped Aaron be born in the jungle. It's curious that Claire was given the choice to have the baby now or wait awhile. She chose to wait. This was an option she didn't have back on the island. I wonder if we will see any significant effects of that different decision.

There are of course slight differences that are appearing in the FS. AS I mentioned Ethan is there but obviously not all crazy for abducting Claire. However, instead of being Ethan Rom, his name is Ethan Goodspeed. We already know that Ethan was the child of Horace Goodspeed and his wife Amy.

Presumably that is still true and hence why they have the same last name. But that begs the question why his name was Ethan Rom back on the island.

In my last post I theorized that perhaps Flight 815 of the FS timeline and the current events on the island are on the same timeline. Although I can't recall hearing the exact year the current on-island events are happening, I think it's okay to assume it's 2007 (or 2008) not 2004. So Iwas thinking that Flight 815 in the FS was actually happening in 2007. But in this episode on Claire's sonogram we are able to see the date 10-22-04. This raises questions in two ways. First off, the original flight 815 was on 9-22-04. So at least my theory of the flight not happening on the same, original day may be correct.....or perhaps not. You see, Gregg Nations, who is a co-producer and script coordinator for LOST, answered a fan question posted on famous LOST website, The Fuselage. Regarding this inconsistency.

(click for larger version)

The fan asked “The date on the top right corner is 10-22-04. Prop error or hidden clue?”

Gregg responded “Ah, it's a little combination of both. Two numbers are correct, and one number is a mistake. Can you guess which is which?”

He went on to say that it is NOT “10 as the clue and 04 as the mistake”.

So where does that leave us. I really don't know. But I I'm finding comfort that my theory may not have been completely wrong. I figured Darlton wanted us to assume that everything in the FS was happening at the same time...and whenever you assume something with LOST is when they usually throw you a curve ball.

Back on the island we're pretty much left to deal with the question “What the EF is going on with Sayid?” We see Jack make a huge scene about giving him the pill..blah blah blah. Jack being Jack. What was really interesting to me is not so much that the pill was poison...I mean really, I don't think anyone expected it to be homemade NyQuil for Sayid. It was either some SUPER magical potion (which would have been cool) or it was Poison. Well, it was poison. I'm not surprised or offended by the Other's (specifically Dogen's) attempt to poison Sayid. I mean they say he's infected and presumably evil and dangerous now. At first I wondered if the poison would have outright killed Sayid or if would just vanquish what ever it is that is claiming him. Taking poison and only have it kill part of you is something out of the end of Fight Club, and kind of a cheap way to keep a character on a show (*coughHEROEScough*). So I think assuming Sayid would die is okay.. although I'm only about 90% sure of that.

Of Course Jack did not give Sayid the pill so maybe we'll never know...and that's okay.

I like this because I think we're going to see what happens throughout the process of being infected. This is what happened to Rousseau's team and what has happened to Claire (according to Dogen). I think Sayid will eventually escape and join forces with Locke.

This is a great way to shed light on the events of the past in a non-flashback. The process of becoming infected, I think, is in-effect the idea of turning to the dark-side. It may not be voluntary but it still happens. I love if this starts to happen because we will now see our characters take sides for the “battle of good and evil” Those infected will be on the dark side, and those not will be on the good side (allegedly Jacob's side at this point).

If we take a look at the sides now, we have as the possiblyInfected: Locke, Claire, Sayid, and Christian (although he may somehow have represented both sides at one point) as well as Ben and Sun who may now be enslaved to the Fake Locke. Sawyer will be tempted by Locke to join him in this next episode (but will Sawyer do it?????) and if Jin is captured by Claire he may have no choice but to join them. On the good side we have faithful Hurley, Jack, and Miles as well as Ilana and Richard (if they, too, can avoid being enslaved by Locke).

So It'll be a good fight. Pitting friends vs friends. Remember that Kate only came back for Claire..what will happen when she's forced to fight her in some way..Or Jin has to oppose Sun..or any other relationship that can be strained. Should be good.

The last question then is, more specifically, WHAT is infecting Sayid? Is it the smoke monster? Would that even be possible since he (as Locke) was no where near the temple. I don't think it's the Smoke monster that “claimed” him, but perhaps it's more of the essence of the moster. The non-tangible evil that the monster is apparently a part of and has the ability to claim people.. in more of a spiritual sense. I'm not entirely sure and I don't think we'll get the answer to that all at once. I think that'll be something we see develop as we see how the infection takes over Sayid.

Anyway, that's about all I got this week. I think tonight's episode will be rally good and am hoping for another podcast to shed some light on these discussions. Stayed tuned for another post coming later this week.

Thanks for reading.

LOST: LA X

Welcome Friends,

The wait is finally over. The final season of LOST has started and there is a lot to speculate on. I'm probably not going to talk too much about the episode itself but I'm going to focus on some things that have been discussed outside the episode (podcasts, interviews etc...) and what that may mean for the outcome of this amazing series.
Let's dive in..

Damon and Carlton (Collectively known as “Darlton”) mentioned in an interview before the premiere that they were doing away with the flashbacks and flash forwards and were introducing a whole new narrative style. I don't remember if I talked about this in my other posts but I, and many others, speculated the idea of a flash sideways. This has proven to be the case. So the narrative switches between being on the island, (1)where the bomb did not work and (2) where the Losties are back on flight 815 where the bomb worked so plane did not crash. It is important to note that in the LOST podcast Darlton explicitly says that they are NOT “alternate” timelines. Meaning, this is not Sliding Doors, where we are looking at two possible outcomes based on a single event. Rather. BOTH of these “timelines” are equally real and will reconcile at some point. I'm now even daring to say that they may in fact be the same timeline. How that is, I'm not sure yet, but I will speculate in a moment.
Darlton goes on to say that it's the relationship between these two timelines that is perhaps the larger secret of the island.

In the FlashSideways (FS) we learn that the island has sunk. This is most likely because of the bomb going off and, well.... causing it to sink. Damon mentions that this is something we may see addressed in an episode soon, although its true reason for sinking may have more to it.
While on the plane in the FS we see that there are things that are different than what we know of the original flight. For instance, Jack is a little nervous about the turbulence while Rose is calming him (instead of he other way around), Hurley considers himself lucky, Jack gets one extra bottle of booze rather than two as well as spilling some as he pours it (which Darlton claims was intentional on their part and has significance)..but the most obvious difference is that Desmond is on the plane.
Darlton says that in this timeline just about anything goes. Just as Faraday predicted, since the bomb didn't go off, their plane wouldn't crash...but he failed to think about smaller changes that would occur. Remember, that the bomb went off in 1977 so that undoubtedly had a ripple effect that altered many other things other than just the fate of flight 815. IE..What happened to Charles Widmore? Would Desmond have met Jack at the stadium while he was training for a race if there never was a race? If not then why does Jack think he knows Desmond. By the island not existing after 1977 the path that the LOSTies took to get there never happened.....they never even started to happen. So this has set everyone on, at least, a slightly different course of action leading them to this FS timeline. However, you have to believe that fate is bringing them back together again anyway. As I mentioned above I'm pondering the thought that what if theses are the same timeline. We are meant to assume that the FS is happening in 2004 the same time the original Flight 815 took off. But what if it's not? What if for whatever reasons that it is now 2007, when the events of the Island are now taking place. So these timelines are one in the same. Are there then two “versions” of the survivors in the same plane of existence? That is to assume that the island is even considered to be a part of actual existence.

Darlton mentions several times that this is ultimately about good and evil. Hence the Black and White color motif that they use a lot. This can be traced back to my favorite unanswered question: Adam and Eve. These were the two skeletons that they discovered when trying to move into the caves. They were found with a black and white rock. I'm still thinking that this may be some kind of identification marker for our survivors. It could identify either which side of the war they're on (good or evil) or it could signify which timeline they are coming from. The one from the island or the one from the FS. This leads to the idea that perhaps the Kate form the island is Eve and the nervous Jack form the FS is Adam (or some combination of the like). This means that the two “versions” of our characters may be intermingling at some point. Which is why I think all these events are happening at the same time. Again, they say that the answer to this is significant to the answer about the whole island.

Although we knew that “The Enemy” (or “Jacob's Nemesis”, as Darlton calls him) has taken on the image of John Locke, they confirmed that he is indeed the Smoke Monster. I think that is huge because now we can go back to earlier seasons and see what the monster was doing and know who that really is. An interesting point about Jacobs' Nemesis is that Darlton never really says that he's on the evil side. There is no doubt a lot of ambiguity as to what the motives of people like Ben and Widmore are and whose side they are on. There has been some flipping back and forth. Darlton even mentions that we really don't know that, between Jacob and his Nemesis, which one is the good one. They are so obviously painting the Nemesis in the light of evil that it would almost seem certain that they will try to pull a 180 on us. After all, we don't even know what they're fighting over. So perhaps all this heinous stuff the Monster is doing is really for the greater good. Although if he does come out as the bad guy, even then the persona of John lock went form the man that was going to save the island to the one that is seizing control of and perhaps destroying it. Either way we are definitely seeing some role reversals.

Although Sayid spends most of the episode speechless and dying, in an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy points out that Sayid seemed weird. I don't if he meant in the FS or in the brief moment he woke up at the end. Either way Darlton did confirm that something unusual is going on with Sayid. That SOMETHING has taken control of him (implying it was not the smoke monster). I wonder, does Jacob have similar powers as the monster. Can HE take the form of dead people for his own benefit? They mention they we will see some more of this Sayid mystery play out in the next episode.
They never mention much about Hurley's new role. Is he the new leader? I mean...Jacob is appearing and talking to him. That's got to mean something.

Anyway there are lots more questions I'm sure. So please post comments of questions if there is something you want me to address or research for you. Frankly the show is so large now I'll never get to it all on just my own so I'll gladly accept topics to focus on if you like.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more.

Link to Podcast:
LA X Podcast

LOST: The crash of Flight 815

Saw this on YouTube the other day. It's the Crash of Flight 815 in real time set against the other things happening at the same time. It's edited a la "24" style. It's really neat to see all this at the same time. well done.

On another note. For those that don't know me, when it comes to LOST (and most shows) I am a purist. I don't read spoilers or have any desire to talk about things that have been leaked. So you won't see any of that on this blog. HOWEVER, I do listen to official podcasts from ABC (with Damon and Carlton) as well as other sanctioned press releases and interviews. In those, new insight is often given, but I find that Damon and Carlton are precise and deliberate with their words; offering clues rather than spoilers. So keep that in mind when following this blog and posting comments and look for my new posts commenting on the new episodes this week.
Happy watching.