The Lost Thread (Starts 2-2-10)

[Vitality]

My first theory of the season...The numbers have changed.

I submit that Ben turning the frozen donkey wheel at the end of season 4 had a profound effect on the numbers. A new variable has been introduced. Either one of the numbers has been replaced by the number 3 or 3 is a new 7th number.

When Kate and Aaron are visiting Sun at the hotel, and Aaron asks if he can push the button in the elevator, the number 3 and 13 buttons are clearly missing. Okay, most hotels don't have a 13th floor but that's the first I've seen without a 3rd floor.

Also, when Ben visits the butcher shop, and takes a ticket, the number on it is 342. The 3 is printed in a different typeface to the 42. I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of references to the number 3 in upcoming episodes.

Or maybe not.

Oh you fucker. Now I have to watch the whole episode over again.

god dammn it how closely u follow the show i noticed nothing

[chalice]

I'm adhering more vehemently to my original conjecture now.

The next episode is named '316', like. 16, we know. Why the 3?

[Busyman]

I'm lovin' the show.

Spoiler: Show

We found out that the smoke monster changed Russo's people.

Interesting.

[chalice]

I'm lovin' the show.

Spoiler: Show

We found out that the smoke monster changed Russo's people.

Interesting.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Spoiler: Show

As you know, Busy, Lost likes to misdirect us. Speculation abounds now that it wasn't the rest of Rousseau's team who changed but Rousseau herself.

After all, all we see after what's left of Rousseau's team enter Smoky's hole, is Rousseau going a bit nuts and killing everybody, even attempting to shoot Jin. I think it'll be later revealed that Rousseau was the villain of that particular piece.

Pure genius though, the way that the answers are coming in now. Remember way back in season 1 when Sayid meets Rousseau for the first time and he tries to shoot her, she explains that the firing pin was already removed from the rifle. We found out this week the circumstances under which it was removed.

Brilliant!!

[IdolEyes787]

The end of the Smoke Monster scene was very reminiscent of bits of Stephen King's It.

Not sure if I liked episode eight .
With that episode it becomes clear that Jack,Sawyer and the rest are at least partly to blame for their future fate.
It would be very hard to believe(even if they can not effect anything)that their past selves won't at least make an attempt to change what transpires in the future.

I mean if you had suffered some great tragedy and you were magically transported into the past , wouldn't all your energy(even if logic told you that it was impossible)be directed into seeing that those events never occurred?
Kind of God's joke on you .The more you try to change things the more you steer them towards inevitability.

Tragic really.

Best part for me was at the first with the glimpse of the unbroken statue.That tiny bit showed how deep the mystery goes and illustrates just how great the forces at work are.

[chalice]

The end of the Smoke Monster scene was very reminiscent of bits of Stephen King's It.

Not sure if I liked episode eight .
With that episode it becomes clear that Jack,Sawyer and the rest are at least partly to blame for their future fate.
It would be very hard to believe(even if they can not effect anything)that their past selves won't at least make an attempt to change what transpires in the future.

I mean if you had suffered some great tragedy and you were magically transported into the past , wouldn't all your energy(even if logic told you that it was impossible)be directed into seeing that those events never occurred?
Kind of God's joke on you .The more you try to change things the more you steer them towards inevitability.

Tragic really.

Best part for me was at the first with the glimpse of the unbroken statue.That tiny bit showed how deep the mystery goes and illustrates just how great the forces at work are.

Yep, quite a lot to absorb in this episode. I liked it just fine. The statue was pretty damn tantalising. Bastards had to show it from behind.

Seems Egyptian in origin which propounds the heavy Egyptian symbolism we've seen scattered throughout past episodes and which seem to be appearing with increasing regularity as we approach the end. People are speculating that it's Anubis or Thoth or any number of Egyptian deities. Difficult to tell but it seems to be holding an ankh which foreshadows the one Amy took from the dead Paul before she surrenders his body to the hostiles. However, the ankh doesn't help us too much as myriad Egyptian gods are represented holding one in one way or another.

As to the inescapable fatalism as theorised by Faraday- 'what happened, happened' and all that jazz, we have to consider each one of the characters' motivations.

Jack has finally given up pissing against the wind in regards to his control issues and seems to have accepted that he has some significant role to play in the greater game. Plus I think he subconsciously believes that his father is actually on the island in some form and that draws him back too. His life was pretty screwed off-island, as was Locke's in last week's episode.

Why Hurley returned is unclear, but then he was in the funny farm and seeing dead people all over the place. The guitar case, I think, alludes to a visit from undead Charlie who has somehow convinced him to come back.

Kate has given up Aaron and there seems little else mooring her to civilisation.

I think what will develop will be a situation where the survivors accept their fate and their piece in the overall jigsaw and embrace the fulfilment of it, rather than railing against it any longer.

I realise that this is a tedious post (even more so than I'm used to regaling you with) so one more little novelty before I finish...

Nice little allusion to The Grateful Dead this episode. The 2 Dharma security men who spot Horace on the CCTV blowing up trees are named Phil and Jerry. Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia, mad stoners. If you look at the desk you'll see a plate of brownies- clearly a nod there. Also this is sustained by the rose motif in much of The Grateful Dead's body of work and artwork. The girl who Jerry is dancing with before Phil comes in is called Rosie.

Pretty fucking sweet.

[IdolEyes787]

As is your eye for detail.

I made note of the ankh but the tie- in totally escaped me.Eternal life ? Has to be significant .
It just struck me the comment that Sawyer made about Richard wearing eye-liner:something very Egyptian about him?

Missed the guitar case bit but makes sense.One of the few people Hurley would trust would be Charlie.
Seems to be a lot that I miss in fact and I appreciated your post(I was actually hoping that you would give me a little insight and didn't find it tedious in the least).

Strangely I got the Grateful Dead reference though which speaks volumes about me I guess.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Well, I love the people who analyse stuff like this, I miss alot.

I got the Egyptian thing with the statue and eye linear bit. Not much else, oddly....things make sense later on, it takes me a few episodes, but I take it as it comes...I get it while the episode takes place, but after it's over, I pretty much forget it, that damn short term memory

Found this, a throughly good read, adding spoiler to those have not seen the episode: http://blog.lostpedia.com/

Spoiler: Show

What can you tell from looking at the rear end of a statue? How is this episode different? What's up with people now getting pregnant and living? Why does there seem to be a DHARMA logo for everything these days? And since when was Horace the big DHARMA boss? All this and more, as we delve into 5x08.

No random writer this week - your usual simpleton heads it up with surprising ease. At first glance, this episode seemed very character centric as opposed to mythology (though of course a good Lost ep uses both well) - Sawyer moving on from Kate to Juliet, and the whole Horace jealousy theme a shape of things to come. But when actually reviewing now, one almost forgets just how much happened in this ep, and how it is actually quite special. Firstly, it's nice to see a Sawyer centric - it seems to have been a while since we've had one of those (someone said not since Season 3... that can't be right, can it?). But really, the whole notion of 'centric' seems to have gone down the well with this being one of the first clear episodes where there is no "main story, flash to certain event, main story" - the whole "present" of either being three years earlier or three years later was blurred with the opening - "three years earlier" taking place immediately after the episode 316, which one was tempted to call "present time". Now that we're three years later, it does kind of feel like time on the show has had its last nail in the coffin - and we're completely disorientated from now on. Will we get back to 2007 (assuming that is "normal time"... and have I now just contradicted myself by saying there is such a thing as "normal time" anymore)?

Let's start reviewing significant events with the point in time Sawyer and the gang initially went to... way back in time as Miles suggests. I'm guessing it's safe to assume that enormous statue will soon become just a four-toed one at some point in the future? Or is it another statue (I think it's kinda obvious it's not though)? But what do you think about it? Egyptiany? Very tall for a start - some kind of Collossus of Rhodes deal? Except Rhodes held up an arm, and this one seems to be wearing some kind of headgear, and also hands by the sides holding... snakes... weapons... the right hand item looks like the top of an ankh to me (which would fit with Paul's necklace)? And I dunno why... but the left hand item makes me think "gun". Whatever's there... it's at a time when there was the statue, but pre the well - which seemed odd as they commented how old the well was. So that would imply there was the statue time folk who used sandy stone, then another age who used dark stones to build a well, and then the military, and then DHARMA.... Sounds like the Island has just ALWAYS had people there. Let us know your theories.

Let's move to the DHARMA Initiative - which is great to see in full swing, and even funner to see that Sawyer has suddenly become the Island expert on DHARMA stations and what not. I didn't like how there was a sheriff logo, and then a maintenance logo - I preferred when the logos evoked mysterious and elusive meaning rather than "spanner means we fix cars". Wish they had a "Spanner" station though - that'd be quite amusing (doesn't really have the same ring as "I'm heading to the Orchid!"). One thing striking though was how Sawyer used his chance to talk to Richard, and how he sort of spread the legend of John Locke. When Richard et al constantly say how Locke is special, is it true or is it just manufactured by a series of events and testimonies? Does it matter either way though... let's just bask in the writers listening to us by mentioning Alpert's eye liner - very cool shout-out to the dieharder fans.

Finishing up, a big deal in this episode was how Amy managed to have her baby on the Island. It was good to see that the writers didn't just gloss over this for us to speculate, Juliet and Sawyer actually said what we were all thinking when they theorised that pregnancies might not be terminal yet. But why isn't it? Does it have anything to do with electromagnetism, radiation, maybe the sickness even? It could be anything, but it sounds like a single event triggers this phenomenon. It'll be interesting to see what changes on the Island.

Will we stay in the 70s permanently now, with flashes over to Locke and his band of new dour Losties (c'mon Caesar, glass half full dude)? Or will the arrival of Jack and co somehow lead to them jumping forward again? What's certain is that sparks are bound to fly... as the old love triangle with a stray Juliet now firmly becomes a love square. Will fists fly? Will Kate be fine with it and just get with Jack? Don't they have bigger issues to be worrying about right now!!!

[chalice]

Yeah, seems almost undeniable that the pervading mythology will hark back to Ancient Egypt. The statue, the hieroglyphs, the proximity of Tunisia (the exit point) to Egypt.

Sawyer's quip about Richard's eye-liner is an in-joke on the Lost boards. People have been talking about it for ages now and it just goes to show how invested the writers are in responding to the fans.

Forgot to mention Desmond before. As Faraday says- he 'is uniquely and miraculously special'. I believe that he will be a huge player in future episodes. He is unconstrained by the rules which trammel everyone else in respect to time and I think that if anything in the past will be altered, it'll be done by him and his mind-fucking escapades through time. Ben murdering Penny (unproven, of course) could well facilitate his return to the island at some point. And as Mrs. Hawking says, the island still has work for him to do.

[SonsOfLiberty]

Season 5 So Far:

Spoiler: Show

Lost Season 5 is half-way through. Only nine more episodes to go until the fifth season comes to a close. This season has been filled with exciting elements of time travel, mystery, and mythology. In the last episode, "LaFleur", we dove into the Barracks with Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, and Miles to see the DHARMA Initiative in its heyday.

The Islanders have stopped jumping through time to various Island eras; we are now stuck in DHARMA time, for now at least. There will be no new episode this upcoming Wednesday, so I thought I'd take this time to recap and rehash Season 5 thus far. I have included a recap, and a list of amazing and unforgettable "LOST" moments from each episode so far:

Episode 1: "Because You Left"

Season 5 began with a mind-blowing opening scene. Pierre Chang (a.k.a. Marvin Candle, Mark Wickmund, Edgar Halliwax) is seen inside the Barracks, along with his presumed wife and child. We see him shooting the Arrow Orientation film, and he then goes to the Orchid. He happens to bump into one of the Islander's we've come to know well: freighter physicist Daniel Faraday. Back at the beach, the survivors see that their camp is missing, and Daniel says that "it hasn't been built yet." John Locke (who was with the Others in "There' No Place Like Home, Part 3")is standing alone in the forest. He sees the Beechcraft crash on the Island. While climbing up to the Beechcraft, he is shot by Ethan. Locke tries to explain what's happening, but Ethan prepares to kill him when a time flash prevents his death. Richard finds Locke, and heals his wound. He explains that Locke must leave the Island to save them, and that he will have to die. Daniel talks to Desmond at the Swan station, saying that he must find Daniel's mother. Desmond awakes off the Island, and sails to Oxford with Penny.

"LOST" Moments

* Pierre Chang shooting the Arrow film
* We discover the Arrow's true purpose: to create defensives against the Hostiles (much cooler than a storage and restocking facility!)
* Somebody knows that Aaron is not Kate's child, and threatens to bring the sheriff if she won't comply
* Locke sees the Beechcraft crash-land on the Island
* Ethan shoots his own leader (John Locke)...
* Hurley standing casually on the balcony overlooking passers-by, with a gun...
* Daniel talks to Desmond, saying that he is the only one who can save them (by finding his mother, Eloise Hawking)

Episode 2: "The Lie"

Episode 2 is a fantastic continuation of the premiere. The off-Island adventures of the Oceanic 6 continue, and a now-wanted-for-murder Hurley is hiding from the authorities. The survivors try to make a fire at camp, and Neil intervenes, claiming they're all going to die because they can't even make fire. Ironically, he is shot by a flaming arrow, and the survivors run to the creek. Off the Island, a mysterious woman is inside of a dark room. She goes upstairs to a church, and sees Benjamin Linus. She reveals herself as Eloise Hawking (the same lady who talked with Desmond in "Flashes Before Your Eyes"). She says that they only have 70 hours to get them to go back.

"LOST" Moments

* Hurley telling his mom 'the truth' about crashing on Flight 815
* Frogurt on fire - a classic reminder that redshirts should never intervene with camp problems.
* Ana Lucia Cortez tells Hurley, 'Libby says hi'.
* The classic Hot Pocket scene...
* Eloise Hawking - "Then God help us all..."

Episode 3: "Jughead"

Episode three begins with something that doesn't surprise me; two redshirts trip over bombs, and Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles are taken to the Hostiles camp. Faraday devises and plan, and makes Richard Alpert believe they were sent to render their hydrogen bomb inert, so they won't die. Jones (a.k.a. Charles Widmore) escapes from Sawyer, Locke, and Juliet, and runs to the camp. Ellie leads Daniel to the bomb, where he tells her that they must bury it. Back at the army camp, Locke encounters Richard, telling him that he was sent by Jacob. Locke tells Richard to find him on May 30th, 1956 (his birthdate). Off the Island, Desmond and Penny have their child, Desmond goes back to Oxford, and demands Widmore tell him where Faraday's mother is.

"LOST" Moments

* Daniel confesses his love for Charlotte
* Widmore was on the Island... and he's an Other
* Desmond and Penny's child was named after Charlie Pace...

Episode 4: "The Little Prince"

In this episode, Locke says that they need to go to the Orchid since it's their best chance to stop the time shifts. On their way to the camp, they see a light in the sky. Locke knows it's from the Hatch, which means we're in the Season 1 time period of "Deus Ex Machina" and "Do No Harm". This is confirmed when Sawyer sees Kate in the jungle, delivering Claire's baby Aaron. Off the Island, Sun plots to kill Ben, Hurley is avoiding Ben by going to jail, Sayid recovers from the horse tranquillizers, and Jack and Kate follow Dan Norton to find his client. They discover that Carole Littleton (the woman Norton went to see) was not his client afterall, and she didn't even know about Aaron. Ben tells Kate that he was the client, and that Aaron is not her son.

"LOST" Moments

* Sawyer witnesses Kate delivering Aaron in an emotional and unforgetable scene
* Ben is revealed to be the client
* We see an Ajira Airways water bottle, which was a shout-out to avid LOST fans worldwide.
* The science expedition (Rousseau, Montand, Rovert, etc.) crashes on the Island
* Jin is alive!!!

Episode 5: "This Place Is Death"

Finally, after four entire seasons of anticipation, we get to see the story of Danielle Rousseau and her doomed science expedition. The expedition is attacked by the Monster, and Montand loses his arm while being dragged into the Temple. Later on, Robert attempts to shoot Rousseau, but is missing the firing pin (reminiscent of Sayid and Danielle's meeting in "Solitary"). On their way to the Orchid, Charlotte dies of temporal displacement. Locke descends down the Orchid well, and is met by Christian Shephard, who says that he must move the Island. Off the Island, Ben takes Jack and Sun to Eloise Hawking, who is stationed at the Lamp Post. Ben gives Sun Jin's wedding ring as proof of his survival.

"LOST" Moments

* Montand loses his arm
* We see a Temple (possibly The Temple) in the Dark Territory
* Charlotte dies from temporal displacement
* Locke turns the frozen wheel

Episode 6: "316"

Episode 6 starts with a replica scene of "Pilot, Part 1". Jack awakes in the jungle, and runs to find Hurley and Kate, who are in the lagoon. Off the Island, Hawking explains the Lamp Post's purpose, and gives Jack Locke's suicide note. At Eloise's church, Ben tells Jack the Biblical story of Thomas the Apostle. Thomas wasn't convinced of Jesus' ressurection until he could feel his wounds. Ben tells Jack, "we're all convinced sooner or later", which is a symbolic representation of Jack's science vs. faith dilemma. Jack, Hurley, Kate, Sayid, and Sun eventually go to the airport to board Ajira Airway Flight 316. There are many proxies and parallels we see that relate to the boarding of Oceanic Flight 815, back in Season 1: Sayid is taken in under custody (just like Kate and Mars). Locke was in a coffin on the plane (just like Christian Shephard was). Hurley was reading a Spanish comic book (much like the Spanish Green Lantern comic from Flight 815).

"LOST" Moments

* Eloise and the Lamp Post Station
* Frank Lapidus is the pilot! - "We're not going to Guam, are we?"
* Jin in a DHARMA van, and wearing a DHARMA suit

Episode 7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

This episode reveals the epic story of John Locke, and his off-Island mission to get the Oceanic 6 to return to the Island. In "Because You Left", Richard told Locke that he had to die in order to bring them back. Christian confirmed this by saying, "that's why they call it sacrifice." When Locke is off the Island, Charles Widmore assures him that he won't die, and that he wants to help John to bring them back. Widmore explains that a war is coming, and Locke must be on the Island for the right side to win. Matthew Abaddon takes Locke to find the Oceanic 6. Sayid and Kate both refuse to return, and Locke doesn't ask Walt because he's "been through enough." When Abaddon is shot by Ben, Locke gets into a car accident, and ends up at the hospital Jack works at. Jack tells Locke he's just a lonely old man who survived a plane crash, and that fate isn't real. Locke attempts to hang himself, but Ben intervenes, saying that he "still has work to do." When Locke mentions that Jin is still alive, and that he knows about Eloise Hawking, Ben strangles him to death.

"LOST" Moments

* Widmore was once the leader of the Others
* Abaddon was shot... by Ben!
* Ben murders Locke, right after preventing him from hanging himself
* Ben is with the injured Ajira survivors

Episode 8: "LaFleur"

Miles, Sawyer, Jin, and Juliet are near the Orchid well, right after one of the time shifts. We get to see something that all LOST fans have been anticipating since "Live Together, Die Alone": the four-toed statue. After Locke turns the wheel, the nosebleeds stop, and the Islanders gain their composure As they head back to the beach camp, they see two Hostiles about to kill a woman. Sawyer intervenes, killing the Hostiles. The woman insists that they bury the bodies, because of their truce. At the Barracks, Sawyer tells Horace Goodspeed that they crashed on the Island in a salvage vessel, and that his name is Jim LaFleur. Richard Alpert makes a casual appearance at the Barracks at nighttime, talking peacefully with DHARMA nemesis Goodspeed. Richard demans retribution for them breaking the truce. Sawyer explains that he shot the men, and he isn't a part of DHARMA. Sawyer says that he's waiting for John Locke (the man who entered their camp in 1954) to return. Three years later, we see that "James LaFleur" is head of security at the Barracks and Juliet is working at the Motor Pool. We also see that Sawyer and Juliet have a strong relationship with each other. Sawyer is radioed by Jin who says that he's found the survivors at the North Valley.

"LOST" Moments

* We finally see the four-toed staue...
* Richard visits the Barracks
* Sawyer is head of DHARMA security!
* Sawyer & Juliet together - they're a perfect couple...
* The survivors have a grand reunion, seeing each other after more than three years apart.

Season 5 has exceeded all of my expecations for LOST. The writers have perfectly blended elements of mythology with character development. Season 5 has been a season full of time travel, mysticism, religion, science, faith and mytholgogy - which are all key incredients to the recipe of LOST. Every episode of this season has been incredibly unique and intriguing. Now that we are in DHARMA times, we will be able to learn the many mysteries of pre-purge DHARMA, and their historic conflict with the Island's hostile and indigenous inhabitants. Hopefully we will see more of the Island's enigmatic DHARMA stations (the Flame, Tempest, Staff, Orchid, Swan, Pearl, Temple, Arrow, Hydra, Looking Glass) and also see more DHARMA characters (Radzinski, Chang, the DeGroots).

We are half-way through this season, and so far the episodes have been incredible. I have a good feeling the second half of this season will be no different.

http://blog.lostpedia.com/2009/03/se...-thus-far.html