Some good news today – the traffic charges against Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who plays Mr.Eko on Lost, were dropped after his defense attorneys proved that he indeed has a driver’s license.
Adewale was charged with driving without a license and disobeying a police officer earlier this month.
I know it can be frustrating for people who don’t want to play The Lost Experience to see these posts all summer, but hopefully we can wrap up the central storyline without too many extraneous details.
The focus of the story is on a young woman by the name of Rachel Blake. She was raised by a single mother, and decides to trace her educational funds one day, and finds that they originate from The Hanso Foundation (THF), a so-called philanthropic organization that supposedly uses science for the betterment of humankind.
However, as she digs deeper, she uncovers many dark secrets about the organization. She decides to start hacking their website under the pseudonym “Persephone”, on a mission to expose the executives and projects of THF. They all involve illegal or unethical activities, including illegal organ harvesting, use of mathematical forecasting to start wars, questionable experiments with genetic engineering and life extension, and the intentional spread of viruses to limit population growth.
She discovers that the founder of the organization, Alvar Hanso himself, is missing, and that the president and heir apparent, Thomas Werner Mittelwerk, is running the Foundation. He is something of a mad scientist with a Messiah complex, who will stop at nothing to further his own agenda. She follows him and the clues throughout numerous European cities, Sri Lanka, and even stops at Comic Con to accuse the Lost panel writers of being liars and helping THF. Along the way, she meets a number of ‘accessory’ characters that become friends and try to help her, some of whom even give up their lives for the cause.
The most important things she finds that are relevant to the Lost story are about the DHARMA Initiative’s connection to the Valenzetti Equation (first seen on blast door map). Enzo Valenzetti was an Italian mathematician who was contracted by the U.N. Security Counsel after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 to formulate an equation to predict how and when humanity would destroy itself. Each of The Numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, are “core factors” in this equation, standing for a different method of self-destruction, such as nuclear war or pandemic. The hieroglyphics, as seen on the countdown clock in Lost, mean “Underworld”, but are representative symbols for The Numbers in the Valenzetti Equation.
DHARMA turns out to be an acronym that stands for Department of Heuristics and Research into Material Applications. They were a group funded by THF to look into changing these environmental and human factors (The Numbers), thereby saving humanity. They were sent to a remote island location to attempt this, and the stations, food and medicine drops were all for these scientists. The radio tower (Danielle mentioned to Hurley) was set up by DHARMA to broadcast the Numbers until one of the values could be changed. There is the suggestion that the Sickness may have been purposely introduced as a transgenic virus that was part of their experimentation with a ‘vaccine’ aimed at manipulating one of these values.
In the end, Mittelwerk says DHARMA failed, but he still seems determined to continue the work at all costs, even that of many human lives. He imprisoned mathematicians and autistic savants in the Vik Institute (supposedly a mental health hospital) and forced them to run the Valenzetti Equation over and over, until they verified that a mortality rate of 30% was “optimal” for his research purposes. It appears that there are specific ‘genetic targets’ that are being sought for experimentation, who may have different degrees of susceptibility to this disease.
He was about to send another group of scientist recruits to some remote villages to spread the virus again, when he was partially thwarted by Rachel Blake. She blew the whistle on THF’s unsavory activities. THF headquarters were raided by law enforcement, but it was a trap, and Mittelwerk got away. His last words were a vow that we hadn’t heard the last from him, and that he still had the virus and planned to use it.
In the end, Rachel tracks down Alvar Hanso in Norway. He claims that he was unable to stop Mittelwerk, because he was a relative prisoner in his home, due to experimental medical treatments (not elaborated, but appear to involve life extension). The big revelation given at the end is that Alvar Hanso is Rachel’s real father.
Other revelations given along the way that are connected to Lost:
Rachel’s videos on YouTube in chronologic order:
#1 VIDEO (Copenhagen)
#2 VIDEO(Copenhagen)
#3 VIDEO (Copenhagen)
#4 VIDEO (Copenhagen)
#5 VIDEO (Iceland)
#6 VIDEO (Italy)
#7 VIDEO (Paris)
#8 VIDEO (Paris)
#9 VIDEO (Paris)
#10 VIDEO (Paris)
Comic Con VIDEO (San Diego, not shot by her)
#11 VIDEO (Sri Lanka)
#12 VIDEO (Norway)
Hope this was of some help! Please comment if you see glaring omissions or inaccuracies. For those who want more details with pictures and links (but still directed to storytelling only for non-players), click HERE.
The recap/special “Lost: A Tale of Survival” will air on ABC tomorrow. According to the network the show will bring new viewers up to date and be a source of illumination for current viewers.
Feeling lost? Having a hard time keeping up with what’s happening on the island? ABC has the remedy for what ails you by inviting both new and avid “Lost†viewers to take an insider’s look at the
most talked about, critically acclaimed show on television.“Lost: A Tale of Survival†will explore the series in a way that will bring new viewers up to date, but which current viewers will also find illuminating. From the back stories of some of the most compelling characters on television to the mysteries of the island, “Lost: A Tale of Survival†will provide an insightful glimpse into the lives of the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on ABC.
I have no idea if this is a regular recap or if there will be relevant information for the hardcore fans. Either way, a recap might be a nice warm up for the upcoming season which starts on October 4.
Feel free to discuss the recap/special in the comments!
It appears the Lost Experience wasn’t over after all – The Hanso Foundation website has been updated with a message from Alvar Hanso.
When you have read the message, make sure to click the word “humanity” at the end of the third paragraph and you will see a message from Mittelwerk.
What are your thoughts on this? Discuss in the comments!
Lost co-executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis are two guys we haven’t written much about, so it was fun to see that SciFi.com had managed to ask them a few questions about their work and what we can expect from the upcoming Lost season 3.
“As writers we come in every day ready to play,” Kitsis said. “We don’t take a day off. To us, Lost isn’t a job. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a way of life. It’s almost like we forget. You go to the newsstand, and you see it in Newsweek or in TV Guide, and you’re like, ‘Oh, right. It goes out.’ We’re just guys. We’re just people that sit in a room and come up with stuff, and then it’s like you forget that everyone sees it.”
Besides talking about their job, Horowitz and Kitsis commented on the fact that actors who portray characters who have died on the show are back on the set in Hawaii.
“Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean your story is over,” Horowitz said with a laugh.
Kitsis added: “We think we’re going to blow some minds this year.”
Read the interview at SciFi.com
As a sidenote, I just want to clarify that we have not reported about which of the actors who portray now dead characters are back on the set because it can be considered a spoiler.
Last night was the culmination of many months of storytelling, as The Lost Experience drew to a close. Stay tuned later this week, and I will post a shorter summary of the important things we’ve discovered this summer in the backstory, for those who only watch Lost on TV.
On DJ Dan’s podcast aired at 8PM PST; listen to the mp3 HERE. At just after 9:15 PST, Rachel Blake called in. She said she ‘had an insider’ on the Lost panel and talks about what made her start hacking. A caller called in with a live audio feed of The Hanso Foundation getting raided, though Mittelwerk blew up the building and escaped. When Rachel is pressed for details, she gives the big reveal, leading us to ABC.com for her final video (see it below for the version with the Sri Lanka video cut out):
Direct spoilers and transcript below under “Read more” for those who can’t view.
With only a week until the start of Lost season 3, SciFi.com managed to get a short interview with Jorge Garcia (Hurley). Jorge talks a bit about his character and reveals some of his thoughts on the upcoming season:
“I am wondering if the numbers going to zero might have brought some new plane down … or run a ship up on the beach or who knows. A Bermuda Triangle-esque accident might have occurred because of the numbers. … Actually, what I’m most excited about in season three is that whole situation with the outside world getting a blip that we are around. We showed up on radar somewhere.”
Read the entire interview at SciFi.com
Time.com has a long article about how Lost and its fans has changed television. The article is bit long but it’s still a nice read.
The mystery of Lost–and the opportunities for cyberanalysis–turned it into TV for the post-TV generation. Besides stoking interest, technology has affected the kind of storytelling Lost can do. On a practical level, DVRs, DVDs and iTunes downloads mean it’s less likely fans will miss episodes, fall behind and give up, which allows the writers to keep the show complex and challenging. “A show that is as serialized as Lost would have had a much harder time pre-iPod, pre-DVD, pre-streaming video,” says Abrams.
Read the entire article at Time.com
EDIT 9/25 (by Cecilia): Believe it or not, I was actually interviewed for this article. I was contacted through a friend, as a moderator of another site, and was on the phone with one of the writers for about 30 minutes. I was very excited about getting in the article, but unfortunately they dropped me my comments. :( They did ask a lot of questions about what I thought about the direction of the show, and what made it unique. However, a friend and co-mod (Craig) got a quote in in the last paragraph, happy for him!
Lost-media.com writes:
“While the rest of us are counting down the days to the “LOST” Season 3 premiere on Oct. 4, Honolulu will once again have an early look. As part of the city’s Sunset on the Beach event on Saturday, Sept. 30, the season premiere of “LOST” will be shown early to thousands of local and visiting fans. Cast members will stroll down the red carpet starting at 5:30 p.m., and the long-awaited episode will hit the really big screen at 7 p.m.”
While I understand that the launch of Lost Season 3 will be a bit more glamorous by having a premiere screening, this also means that detailed descriptions of the episode will appear online four days before the rest of us get a chance to watch the season’s first episode.
Since The Lost Blog is against spoilers, I just want to kindly ask everyone to NOT write about upcoming episodes, including pre-screenings, in the comment-threads on this site.
If you are in Honolulu, have fun!
A short (and frankly, not that exciting) update. Rachel sent out a short email directing us to go to WhereIsAlvar.com. Once there, there is a collage graphic made up of pictures of Apollo-grabbers that says UNITE. It reminds us that DJ Dan’s next live podcast is on September 24th (Sunday) at 8 PM PST, so it appears the end game could be approaching. If this is not a crazy hour for you, it might be a good time to try calling in!
EDIT 9/20: Apparently, the idea the DJ Dan broadcast might be climactic was an accurate guess, according to a new ABC press release!
EDIT: Letyourcompassguideyou.com has changed. On the site there is a hidden link with the title “13/9/19/19/9/14/7/15/18/7/1/14/19″ which can be translated to “Missing Organs” by changing the numbers into the corresponding letters in the alphabet. The link leads to the /usr/ folder.
If you then check the /trash/ folder, you will find a file called missing_organs.zip and a chat log. There is also a new video up on YouTube.