Lost TV Series News and Theories

As we are in this short lull of time between last night’s “Reckoning” (in which we got our minds refreshed about Desmond and other LOST episode happenings) and the SUPER-exciting new episodes to come, I find myself most interested in Michael Emerson’s character Henry Gale, or…”Not-Henry Gale.”

The LOST Creators really struck gold when they recruited Emerson for this role. I honestly don’t know who else could possibly play this role as well as Emerson.
I think what makes him so good at it is his ability to melt the “characters” that Not-Henry plays all into one, so one doesn’t even notice the transformations as they occur.

Take the LOST episode, “The Whole Truth”, for example, at the end of the episode when Jack brings Henry (at this point we still know him as Henry) out of the Armory for breakfast to get under Locke’s skin. I call this scene “Breakfast with Henry.”

We watch Henry play The Boyish Inquisitive Guest character.

“What’s the computer for?” “Where did you guys get cereal?” “If it were me, I would be asking all kinds of questions!”

He has such an innocent face and demeanor while playing this character!

Jack puts a stop to this by asking Henry if he wants the cereal or not. Then Henry morphs himself to play The Martyr character. He quiets down and looks humble, also with a totally believable innocent demeanor, but it is different than The Boyish Inquisitive Guest’s. It is more adult. He only plays this role for a very short time before he melts into…

The Innocent Instigator character.

“I guess this is my time off for good behavior. I earned some brownie points. You know, for finally drawing that map for Ana.”

BAM. Just like that, Jack and Locke are looking at each other to try to place blame. Henry has accomplished exactly what he set out to do. And he isn’t even close to being finished toying with them yet. Next thing we know, The Innocent Instigator has become…

The Masked Manipulator role.

“Wow, you guys have some real trust issues, don’t you? I guess it’s no wonder she didn’t tell you.”

Again, Jack glares at Locke, Locke at Jack. Back and forth, again and again.
Henry watches. Now for the FUN part, to plant the seeds of awful thoughts into their minds. Henry is having such fun here. Henry melts into…

The Cat Ready To Eat The Canary character.

“What would I do if I were one of Them? Well, there would be a trap, of course. I would pick a dark, secluded place, a perfect place for an ambush. And when your people got there, my people would be there waiting for them. Then they’d make a trade. Me for them.”

Henry lets his words hang as he watches Jack and Locke become more and more uncomfortable.

“Whoa, I guess it’s a good thing I’m not one of them, isn’t it?” (the tiniest chuckle to himself only)

No big giggle or laugh to let Jack and Locke in on it and make them feel better. Henry just lets those words hang suspensefully in the air for a good few seconds, and I feel that we should see a bright yellow feather sticking out the side of his mouth. He then becomes…

The Wide-Eyed Eager Little Kid character.

“Hey, you guys got any milk?”

LOST

We, the viewers, all exclaimed “WHOA! Stop, back up a minute! What the heck just happened there?” Those of us who recorded it watched it again. Those of us who recorded it, and could not get enough of that scene, watched it over and over and over again. (This was me. It is in my library of “TV and Movie scenes that will NEVER be forgotten.”)

As I was watching and rewatching this scene, I noticed how easily Henry Gale slid into each character, leaving virtually no trace of the last role he was playing! If you have the chance to rewatch “Breakfast with Henry”, I highly recommend it.

We know Not-Henry lies.That is easy. What is also so intriguing about Gale is that we don’t know of a time where he has told the truth yet. (Or have we? If I have missed something, please let me know) So we cannot gauge his mannerisms to see if he is lying or not!

He is good. He is unreal. He is tremendous.
I truly cannot wait to see more of his role (roles) in the upcoming Lost episodes.

Thank you for reading,
Tania

**Disclaimer**
My quotes on what Henry Gale said in the scene of reference are not verbatim.

According to people.aol.com, Michelle Rodriguez who portrays Lost’s Ana-Lucia pleaded guilty to DUI charges in Hawaii on Tuesday. The judge offered her a choice between 240 hours of community service or five days in jail. Rodriguez chose the jail time. She will also pay a $500 fine.

The 5-day sentence started the same day so Michelle will probably not miss any Lost scenes.

However, according to the same publication, she still faces up to 18 months in Los Angeles County Jail for violating probation stemming from a previous DUI and a hit-and-run in Los Angeles.

I am an avid reader of screenwriter John August’s blog (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), so when he just posted an article about Lost, I started laughing, because he does actually have a point.

You’ve got polar bears, black smoke monsters, and a cabal of mysterious Others. There’s no shortage of dramatic opportunities, which is why it’s so disheartening to see the show reach for that lowest-hanging fruit: a guy in an air duct.

John continues:

Let’s back away from the keyboard and look at the situation with fresh eyes.

1. Most air ducts are not nearly large enough to hold a grown man.
2. Even if large enough, they’re not built to support a grown man’s weight.
3. “Secure” facilities — where characters are most likely to climb through air vents — are exactly the places that wouldn’t have hero-sized air vents.

Thanks to continuous bombardment in television and movies, the idea of characters shimmying through air ducts has become not just a cliché, but almost a given. The moment a hero finds himself stuck someplace, we expect his eyes to drift north to that spot just below the ceiling, where an oversized grate is beckoning: “Just yank twice! I’m not screwed in or anything!”

I love Lost, but John is right in that sometimes the deus ex machinas that fall from the sky are a bit too simple. This is of course not a problem that is isolated to Lost, but something that occurs in most, if not all thrilling tv-shows at one point or another.

In the Lost episode “Lockdown“, which John is referring to, I had already gotten used to losties climbing through the air ducts, but what really struck me as a bit strange was that Locke didn’t think of climbing through the air ducts until his legs had already been crushed by the blast door. Of course, if he had simply done that, then there wouldn’t have been any reason to let Henry out and the episode wouldn’t have been anywhere near as exciting as it was. So as long as it doesn’t happen too often, I suggest that we don’t get hung up on the details and instead look at the big picture.

In reality, improbable chains of events as interesting as these rarely happen, but that is also why we enjoy movies and tv-shows like Lost. In their worlds the impossible becomes possible and great stories are told, and in the end, that’s all that really matters.

Lost executive-producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse spoke briefly about it in a podcast some weeks ago, and now ABC has finally announced the “Lost Experience”.

In what’s being hailed as the largest interactive challenge based on a TV series, ABC and 19 other networks stretching across five continents are introducing “Lost Experience” — an Internet game that will feature a parallel story line that will give insight into the top-rated show.

The interactive Lost experience will be launched on May 3rd together with the upcoming Lost episode “Two for the Road”

I was listening to the latest podcast from our friends at Lostcasts earlier today and they had some really good theories on some of the latest events on Lost.

Something I liked in particular was their theory behind Mr.Eko’s reasons for building a church. I hope i’m not posting any spoilers here, but I think we heard Eko and Charlie telling Bernard in the last Lost episode, that what they where building near the beach was actually a church.

When Bernard questioned their decision to build a church, Mr.Eko replied:

“People are saved in different ways Bernard…”

This would probably mean that Eko intends to save their souls through Christianity, but the guys at Lostcasts had an idea that took the concept even further.

Unless you are one of those fans who fall asleep during one of the most thrilling moments of an entire season of Lost, you will probably remember Mr.Eko’s confrontation with the smoke monster. All that happened was that the smoke appeared to either scan or implant memories into the mind of Mr.Eko and then it simply went back into the jungle. Charlie, who was sitting in a tree, watching the whole thing, didn’t get hurt either.

You might also remember that Locke has had two encounters with the smoke monster. The first time, we never saw the smoke, but most fans assume that it was the smoke that he looked upon when he had seen into the eye of the island, as he so poetically put it. That time, nothing happened to Locke, but the second time that he encountered the smoke monster, he was dragged through the jungle and was even very close to getting dragged underground by what appeared to be a pretty angry cloud of smoke.

One of the popular ideas in the fan community is that the the smoke monster’s different behavior in these situations could have to do with how it interprets the person it is confronting and “scanning”. The first time Locke encountered the smoke monster, he was very secure in his faith both in himself and the island, while the monster’s violent behavior at their second date could be explained by Locke’s deteriorating faith in the island.

The guys at Lostcasts believe that Mr.Eko is aware of these reasons for the smoke monster’s reactions and that he is building a church to make sure that the losties are secure in their faith so that the smoke monster will do them no harm. They even go so far as to suggest that Mr.Eko might be planning to take control of the smoke monster and use it against The Others in a final showdown.

I don’t know if I believe that this is what will happen, but it is a pretty good theory. I think that those who are secure in their faith will play an important role in the future.

Some really interesting things about magnetic healing and the magnetism of Uluru, or Ayers Rock as it is commonly known where also discussed on the latest Lostcast. If you aren’t already a fan of their podcast, I really recommend checking it out.

LOST can be seen as a microcosm of the world; very different people from all walks of life seeking to recreate a miniature “society”. I think the writers are making a statement about what human priorities are, in how the story unfolds. This is especially true now that it seems more and more likely they will be digging in for the long haul, since the raft failed and the S.O.S. was scrapped. The following are in the order they appear on the show:

1) Life & Death Safety / Shelter
“Pilot” S1E1&2: Jack and others scramble to people after the crash. They start building shelters out of the tarps. Fear over the monster paralyzes them all the first night. They stay close to one another for comfort.

2) Division of Labor
“Tabula Rasa” S1E3: Sayid: “If it rains, we should set up tarps to collect water. I need to organize 3 separate groups. Each group should have a leader. One group for water – I’ll organize that. Who’s going to organize electronics? You? Rationing food? Okay. And I believe a third group should concern themselves with the construction of…”

3) Leadership and a Sustainable Source of Fresh Water and Food
“Walkabout” S1E4: Locke decides to go boar hunting, so they have meat when the trays from the leftover plane food runs out.
“White Rabbit” S1E5: There is great concern that people have just been taking what they want, and panic ensues as people realize they are running out of fresh water (and Sawyer is suspected of hoarding). Jack emerges as the clear choice for leader in the beginning, though he is initially reluctant. He finds the caves and a source of freshwater there, after being led by an image of his father. People are relieved to see him return, and he makes his famous “Live together, die alone” speech to rally the troops.

4) Medical Care
“House of the Rising Sun” S1E6: Jack starts to collect medications from the wreckage, which he will later build a medical tent for. Sun will later add to his facilities, since she is secretly planting a garden full of medicinal herbs.

5) Entertainment
“Solitary” S1E9: Hurley builds a golf course to relieve some of the stress they are all feeling.

6) Fair Distribution of Limited Resources
“Everybody Hates Hugo” S2E4: Hurley is reluctantly given the task of distributing the newly found DHARMA food. He hates the job because he notices that individual greed and human gluttony are making people want what they don’t need, and he is the target of this, as the one who makes the decisions. In the end, Jack agrees to let off the pressure, and allows Hurley to distribute things to people to divvy up and ration themselves, though he and Rose still take care of inventory.

7) Law & Order; Meting Out Justice to Those Who Break The Rules
Has been an issue since early on, with many fights breaking out due to misunderstandings and false accusations (such as when Sawyer was accused of stealing medication and was tortured, Jin was accused of setting the raft on fire and handcuffed, and when the raft group was imprisoned in the pit by the tail section group). In “One of Them” (S2E14), this issue is tackled head-on with Fake “Henry”, an outsider they feel is a clear potential danger. They decide to imprison him in the armory, where there is the security of a combination lock.

8) Religious & Spiritual Needs
“S.O.S.” S2E19: It becomes apparent that what Mr. Eko and Charlie have been building is a church.

An interesting mirror of society. What other needs do you think human beings have? What do you think they will tackle next? What would you build if you were on the island?

According to Space.com, LOST co-creator JJ Abrams has committed to produce and possibly direct the 11th “Star Trek” movie.

Abrams also will write the script with his “Mission Impossible III” co-writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Paramount spokeswoman Nancy Kirkpatrick said.

The same site writes that Paramount Pictures are hoping that LOST executive producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk will produce the upcoming Star Trek movie.

Personally, I was hoping that JJ Abrams would get more involved in the next season of Lost now that he has finished Mission Impossible III, so I hope that these plans don’t get too much in the way. Nevertheless, I’m sure it will be a great movie.

As there’s no LOST this week, and next Wednesday (April 26) is another LOST clip show, I thought I’d use this mini-hiatus to explore some of the plot devices used in LOST.

Many informed sources have written about the number and types of plots that exist, including the commonly known conflict schema: “man vs. himself; man vs. man; man vs. nature, etc.”. Ronald Tobias describes 20 master plots; Georges Polti named 36 dramatic situations. Rudyard Kipling thought there were 69 basic storylines.

In an episodic narrative like LOST, the writers make use of plot devices in order to create problems or tension, or to resolve them. Here are just a few examples:

Red Herring:

This is a prominently placed clue that leads nowhere, used as misdirection in order to fool viewers into falling for a “twist”. An example of this would be Jin’s burned hands, in “…In Translation”. We are to assume that since his hands are burned, he is the arsonist. The twist comes when we learn that Walt burned the raft, and that Jin burned himself trying to extinguish the flames. There may be other examples, but as LOST is not a completed narrative, it is often quite difficult to determine what is a red herring, and what may be a real clue, later on.

MacGuffin:

This is slightly different from a red herring, in that a MacGuffin is integral to advancing the plot, through character motivation, and yet its significance is never revealed to the viewers. The term was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, and he used it often in his films. In LOST, again, it is very difficult to determine what is and what is not a MacGuffin, simply because the story is incomplete. Kate’s toy plane may be a MacGuffin; it drove her character to rob a bank, shoot her accomplices, and risk life in prison… for what? A little memento of her deceased darling Tom? Maybe Hurley’s numbers are a MacGuffin. Will we ever discover their true nature and significance? One could even say that the Island itself is a MacGuffin. Indeed, there are many, many possibilities, but until the narrative is concluded we can’t know for certain.

Chekhov’s Gun:

This may be the opposite of a red herring. It follows what is known as the “Law of Conservation of Detail”. Basically, a gun (or any other detail) that is shown in the beginning of the narrative, has great significance later on. From episode to episode, we have seen many of these devices, such as Locke’s toe wiggle at the beginning of “Walkabout”. In the overall story arc, however, it is again difficult to determine the importance of significant clues, until we have all available information. Is the Black Rock a red herring, a MacGuffin, or a Chekhov’s gun? The smoke monster? The cable on the beach? Adam and Eve?

What do you think?

According to Tom Jicha of The Sun-Sentinel, apparently all hope is lost, for Lost…

Eventually, there comes a time when you have to say, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice every episode, shame on me.”

That time has come. It was one thing to discover a key character was paralyzed when he got on the ill-fated plane but now has the physical prowess to enter the Iron Man Triathalon. Who’s to say Lourdes is one of a kind?

But this past week, we learned that something in the air or water also cures cancer. That’s it. I’m out of here.

Personally, I understand that some people are starting to get a bit fed up with the mysterious nature of the island but I would not agree with Tom that the writers have no idea where the story is heading. I’m sure that JJ, Damon and Carlton have a good idea of how this little universe works and in which ways they want the story to develop. However, TV shows and movies are not all about creativity and great storytelling. It is also about a more or less necessary evil – money.

If you’re watching the show because you’re waiting for the big answers to come, you have to understand that by the nature of what it is — it’s not a movie, it’s not a series of movies, it’s not a trilogy, it’s not a miniseries — it’s going to be on the air for as long as ABC wants to keep it on the air.

Says Damon Lindelof according to Zap2it. He continues:

“How can you ever possibly think that ‘Lost’ will end in a satisfying way? Carlton and I can almost guarantee you that it will not.”

Well that sounds assuring!
Nevertheless, I have faith in the creative minds behind Lost and am sure that they will give us the answers to the mysteries when time is due. To be honest, the mysteries are not the only reason I like the show. Lost is simply really good entertainment.

What are your thoughts? Do you think the many questions will be answered?

Related links:
Read Tom Jicha’s article at Sun-Sentinel.
The article might contain a spoiler, but it could just be wild speculations. However, read at your own risk.

This is the 100th post on The Lost Blog!

I would just like to take some time to thank the all contributing writers, both staff and commenters for making this site one of the best places to get Lost out there. I would also like to thank Cecilia for filling in for me when needed, writing great posts, and simply being a great friend.

As you might have seen, some small changes have been made to the layout during the last few days and more are to come. It is my goal to provide the best user experience possible, so please let me know if you have any tips or ideas on how The Lost Blog can improve.

Andreas