Analysis

After last week’s Lost episode “Enter 77″, much of the discussion has circled around Rousseau’s convenient decision to disappear when Sayid, Kate and Locke were going to confront our new Russian friend Mikhail at the Flame.

Some are even going as far as speculating that the reason why Rousseau left is that she is really an Other sent to spy on our beloved lost survivors. So who is the mysterious French woman with a Romanian accent?

Let’s take a look at the episodes Rousseau has been part of!

Solitary

We first met Rousseau in episode 9 of Lost season one. In the episode, called “Solitary”, Sayid is captured by a mysterious woman who’s name we soon find out is “Danielle Rousseau”.

Danielle, who we find out has lived on the island for over 16 years, seems convinced that Sayid is an Other and has taken her baby, Alex. This is of course not the case, but as we later discover, there is a girl living with The Others who goes by the name Alex, so while Rousseau told some weird stories, so far it appears that Alex really is her daughter.

Aside from torturing the innocent Sayid to get information about Alex, Rousseau told him how she ended up on the island after hearing a transmission of the numbers:

Rousseau: “We were part of a science team…
Our vessel was three days out of Tahiti, but our instruments malfunctioned. It was night, a storm.. the sounds.. The ship slammed into rocks. Ran aground. The hull breached beyond repair.. so, we made camp, dug out this temporary shelter… temporary. Nearly two months we survived here.

While this story could make her look like a helpless victim, she soon started to display signs of paranoia:

Sayid: “Your distress signal, the message I heard - you said “it killed them all”.

Rousseau: “We were coming back from the black rock. It was them, they were the carriers!”

Sayid: “Who were the carriers?”

Rousseau: “The others”

Sayid: “What others? What is the black rock? Have you seen other people on this island?”

Rousseau: “No, but I hear them. Out there in the jungle. They whisper.”

Not only is Rousseau good at telling creepy stories, but later in the same episode she explains that she killed her lover Robert and the other scientists who crashed on the island with her after they were infected with “the sickness”:

Rousseau: “It took them, one after the other. I had no choice, they where already lost.”

Sayid: “You killed them”

Rousseau: “What would have happened if we where rescued? I couldn’t let that happen.”

After talking to Sayid for some time and letting him fix her music box, Danielle exits her hideout to scare away “one of the bears” and Sayid sees his chance to escape. As he leaves, he takes Rousseau’s map of the island with him.

Numbers

The next time we meet Rousseau is in the episode “Numbers”, where Hurley spots the numbers on Rousseau’s map and decides to find her.

Together with some other survivors who want Rousseau’s batteries, they head out into the jungle and finally find Rousseau, who agrees with Hurley’s idea that the numbers are cursed.

Exodus

In the episodes Exodus part 1 and 2, Rousseau approaches the Losties to warn them of a pillar of black smoke that she said meant that The Others would be attacking them that night. She then led the regular group of Jack, Kate, Locke and friends to The Black Rock, an old slaving ship stranded in the middle of the island, to find dynamite. The plan was to blow open the hatch and hide inside.

After that, Rousseau returned to the beach and kidnapped Claire’s newborn son, Aaron. Charlie and Sayid went after her and when they finally find her and bring Aaron back to safety, she confesses that she had heard whispers about The Others wanting “the child” and thought she would be able to exchange Aaron for her daughter, Alex. As it turns out, the child The Others were after was not Aaron, but Walt.

One of Them

After kidnapping Aaron, Rousseau stays away for some time but appears again in episode 14 of Lost season 2 “One of Them”.

She has captured Benjamin Linus, at the time known as “Henry Gale”, and shot him with an arrow through the shoulder. Rousseau hands him over to Sayid, telling him that “Henry” is an Other and that he will lie for a very long time.

Maternity Leave

Days later, Claire starts to remember what happened to her when she was abducted by Ethan and decides to find Rousseau who she knows is somehow involved. Together with Kate, Claire and Rousseau find the place where Claire escaped from her captors with the help of Alex. They find The Staff station, but it is abandoned and neither Claire nor Rousseau find what they were looking for.

As Claire’s memory comes back, she realizes that Rousseau saved her from Ethan and brought her back to safety. Claire also tells Rousseau about the girl who helped her escape, thinking that it might be Rousseau’s daughter.

Tricia Tanaka is Dead and Enter 77

In the last two episodes Rousseau has returned to the story as Kate has asked for her help to save Jack from the Others and told her that a 16-year old girl named Alex helped her escape.

On their way to rescue Jack and Alex, Kate, Sayid, Locke and Rousseau find The Flame station. This is where the controversy comes into the picture, because Rousseau decides to not take part in the confrontation with the mysterious inhabitant of the farmhouse. As she puts it, she has managed to stay alive on the island by staying away from that kind of encounters.

The Flame ironically ends up in flames as Locke sets of an explosion and Rousseau re-appears when Sayid calls for her.

Conclusion

I think it is a stretch to say that Rousseau is a plant sent by The Others to spy on the Losties.

As I have tried to demonstrate with the episode breakdown, Rousseau introduced us to the fact that The Others existed and tortured Sayid believing that he was one of them.

She saved Claire from Ethan when she could just have brought her back if she was one of The Others. Later, she shot Ben, who if she had been an Other would without doubt have been her superior, and told Sayid that he was an Other.

I just don’t see why Rousseau would repeatedly go against The Others if she is one of them or is somehow collaborating with them. She knows that they have taken her daughter, and her only motivation to stay alive is to get Alex back.

As for why she decided to not take part in the confrontation with “Patchy”, I believe that she was telling the truth when saying that she had managed to survive by keeping away from confrontations. Remember that several Losties have died at the hands of The Others and Charlie was left to die by Ethan. Rousseau didn’t join them to save Jack, she joined them to save her daughter, Alex. Considering that The Flame wasn’t a planned stop on their little trip I think it was a wise decision to stay away from possible danger. There is no point in saving your daughter if you end up dead before finding her.

I can’t rule out the possibility that she once was an Other, or even a member of Dharma, but in her current state, she is just a frightened woman trying to get her child back.

What is your opinion?

I wrote this comment back on October 28, 2006:

I’ve predicted this since Desmond returned in the season 2 finale. As you might remember, Desmond went to medical school and is a trained doctor. Now the losties have a new doctor in Desmond and Jack will join The Others.

With last week’s Lost episode “Stranger in a Strange Land”, my prediction proved to have been more or less right as Jack traveled toward “Othersville” with Ben, Juliet and The Others.

So will Jack join the Others out of his own will, or is he planning to run for the hills the first chance he gets?

The question depends on how important The Others are in the overall Lost story. If they, like I would tend to believe, play a major part in the story, my guess is that Jack will gradually learn who The Others are and why they are on the island. After some time he will come to understand their objectives and even sympathize with them.

When Kate, Locke and Sayid finally come to save Jack (come on, you know it will happen), I’m not so sure that Jack will want to be saved anymore.

Meanwhile, the losties have found a new doctor and possibly a new leader in Desmond. But will he be able to overcome his personal demons and become a “great man” or is he destined to be Locke’s sidekick?

It’s also interesting to look back at the episode where we first met Desmond - “Man of Science, Man of Faith”. At the time I didn’t think about it, but the man of science is clearly Jack, while Desmond is the man of faith.

What do you think the future has in store for the two doctors?

Use of unusual symbols to convey cryptic messages is nothing new for LOST. Andreas always has good thoughts on the episode, and I asked him if I could fill in some other thoughts on some of the representational graphic elements we’ve seen throughout the series. (Click on the titles below for the Wikipedia or Lostpedia entries that go into more detail)

The BaGua

One of first symbols we saw was the bagua, which is a Chinese Taoist symbol with a yin-yang in the middle–it became the basis for the DHARMA Initiative logo, and was even seen two weeks ago as an Easter Egg in “Not in Portland” (on Rachel’s bedstand). The basic interpretative meaning, as with most things having to do with Taoism, has to do with balance and relativism of the inner spirit with the outer universe, and the eight sets of trigrams on the side are used in geomancy (determining destiny, feng shui, and so forth). The dots in the center of the yin-yang show that few things are pure, and that there is a little light in dark, a little dark in light, and that both are needed for balance. I go into a little more detail about my own thoughts in my binary code theory from last year.

The Dharmacakra

The bagua is not the only 8-sided figure seen on the show with significance. There is a repeated motif of 8-sided symmetrical shapes, from the atrium Michael is seen standing within in “Special” to the university building Donovan comes out of in “Flashes Before Your Eyes”. Figures similar to this were seen on Isaac’s wall in “S.O.S.” and exactly like that pictured here as flashed pictures in “The Lost Experience”’s psychology testing video. While the bagua is a complex figure, the Dharmachakra is a bit more simple, appearing just as a wheel with 8 spokes, much like a compass rose (LOST, anyone?). This symbol has its roots in Buddhism and Hinduism, with the 8 ’spokes’ representing the 8-fold path to inner peace and enlightenment.

The Cross

This is a symbol that obviously most people can recognize as Christian in significance (though crosses have a long and varied history in many other cultures), and as representing the sacrifice/crucifiction of Jesus Christ. The Christian symbols on LOST are almost too many to name, but just dealing with the cross alone, the most notable was Eko’s pendant cross, which in the story, passed hands several times. It went from him to his young brother, then back to Eko, temporarily to Locke, and then back to Eko’s grave–representing the passing of faith between characters. Eko also carved a small cross on his stick (along with tons of scripture); he told Claire, “These are things I need to remember”.

The Hieroglyphics

These symbols were a big mystery when they were first presented in “One of Them”, following the first down-past-zero countdown. Back then, people scurried to find their meaning online and through Egyptian hieroglyphics translaters, with one of the most popular literal translations ominously having to do with death. Since then, the writers revealed their “true” definition for the show at Comic Con this summer: “Underworld”. According to what is discovered in “The Lost Experience”, they are also representative symbols for the Valenzetti Equation, which predicts the apocalypse. Coupled with Rachel Blake’s nickname, Persephone (from Greek mythology, the goddess who got kidnapped to Hades), I think the concept is “going to hell and back.”

Jack’s Tattoo (Chinese Characters)

And finally, we get to the symbols from this week’s show. The tattoo Jack has on his shoulder is actually a real life tattoo of actor Matthew Fox, but the writers incorporated this into the plot (I’ve created a JPEG image for this blog, so people don’t have to download special software to read the Chinese characters). However, it’s interesting that they had Isabel translate them into something quite different from their literal meaning. The actual translation is a line from a poem by Chairman Mao Zedong (”Eagles high, striking the void”), which has some interesting connotations in itself about being a master of one’s own fate (there’s that theme again). As a reader of some Chinese, it was curious to me why they went to such lengths to incorporate their own custom line, “He walks among us, but is not one of us,” which matches very closely to the title, “Stranger in a Strange Land.” This title is both a reference to the Exodus 2:22 passage and to a popular science fiction novel of the same name by Robert Heinlein. The important theme throughout, I believe, is isolation of someone in Jack’s position–I’ll have to look this up later, but I believe there is a quote that goes something along the lines of “One cannot lead one’s peers”… or then, there is always the more popular, “It’s lonely at the top.”

Juliet’s Mark (Origin Unknown)

This is the one that’s got me puzzled. I haven’t seen a symbol quite like this, and I’d appreciate input into what it could be a reference to, or if it’s just a unique symbol to LOST (there are lots of symbols that are star-like, with 8-rays, but not that many with a single asymmetric ray). I’ve heard comparisons from Wiccan octograms to Tarot cards to the Scarlet Letter, but perhaps the most convincing possibility for a reference is to the Mark of Cain, again, from the Bible. God marked Cain not only as a shameful curse, but also to warn others that he was not to be killed (the Bible never describes what the actual mark looked like). This seems an almost direct parallel to what Juliet is going through with Ben (who appears to be nearly-omnipotent in the Others’ ranks). It’s also a good excuse to give Jack and Juliet common ground, as they are both “marked” and reprived, abandoned or ostracized from their respective societies.

Just a bunch of thoughts on what we’ve seen so far. Please send us your thoughts on the symbols, especially if you think you know something special about Juliet’s mark!

EDIT: We’ve had some very interesting ideas and great thoughts added to our comments section, including someone who found this fascinating blog article.

-Cecilia

A lot of articles about how Lost has lost it are popping up lately, so when I saw that a similar critical blog post had ended up on the frontpage of Digg, I decided to take on the many complaints and show why Lost hasn’t lost it.

The complaints are addressed one by one with quotes from “Clever WoT”’s blog post.

The Lost Experience

The biggest nail in the coffin for me was the ill-conceived (and tremendously arrogant) Lost Experience. Average, busy viewers like me didn’t have the time or inclination for an optional multimedia snipe hunt. One hour a week is plenty, and besides, I figured anything important would surely be revealed within the show itself.

Instead, after sticking carefully to the show for two seasons, I discovered that many of the questions I had been pondering were answered in between seasons in The Lost Experience. In order to get up to speed, I had to read an online FAQ about what was revealed in the course of the game (easily the least fulfilling plot experience of my life).

While I agree that The Lost Experience in itself could have been better, the fact is that we don’t know if it actually has anything do with the Lost storyline. If I’m not mistaken, the producers have even said that everything important will be shown on the show.

The Lost Experience could have revealed things about the island and The Dharma Initiative which we will learn later on in the Lost story, but it’s also possible that The Lost Experience was an independent story simply created to entertain the hardcore fans and create some buzz.

In Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof’s favorite graphic novel Watchmen, there is a story within the story in the form of a comic book about pirates called “Black Freighter”. Pages from the comic book are seen throughout Watchmen and if combined, make up a story of their own.

Maybe “Lost” is the story within “The Lost Experience”, maybe it’s the other way around, or maybe I’m wrong and they are both part of the same story. Either way, I don’t think it is necessary to know a thing about The Lost Experience to enjoy Lost. If you didn’t enjoy following it, then you shouldn’t have done so.

Stupid Producers

On the topic of the producers being idiots, let’s turn to their inability to understand the strengths of their own show. Here’s an instructive quote from producer Carlton Cuse:

“We don’t allow the characters to focus on the mythology. But when we sit down and we work on the stories, we’re primarily spending most of our time talking about these characters and how they interact. And I think that if the characters became focused on the mythology, a lot of people would drop out. I think there’s a much larger audience that’s much more interested in “Who is Kate going to choose?” than the details about who Alvar Hanso is.”

Maybe there is a “much larger” audience that cares about a clumsy, cliche love triangle than an innovately mysterious island, but I seriously doubt it. My interest in Lost, like many people’s, was centered around the “mythology” and not the ham-fisted characters. I like character development more than most, but a show like Lost needs to keep its characters well-rooted in what is central to the show: the mystery.

Lost is a mysterious show and needs to stay true to that, because let’s face it, there already are too many Desperate Housewives and “Gray’s Anatomies. What you need to understand is that Lost is a character-driven drama about mythology, mysteries and basic questions like life, death and survival. It is necessary to develop the characters on a personal level for us to care about what’s happening to them.

If all the characters did was run around in the jungle shooting at the Others, investigating hatches and playing Sherlock Holmes all day, we wouldn’t care when Ethan almost killed Charlie, when Shannon or Boone were killed or when a crying Kate was forced to leave Jack with The Others two episodes ago.

The producers aren’t stupid. They know exactly what do to create a emotionally engaging and suspenseful drama. I agree that it wouldn’t hurt if the characters talked a bit more about the mythology though.

Characters

If the producers turn all of their efforts toward turning Lost into a Passions-like soap opera, then why, pray tell, are all of their characters crap?

Jack has trouble with relationships. We get it. We’ve gotten it since the first season. Message received. The flashbacks started as an interesting storytelling device, but quickly devolved into just another way to hold back on as much of the plot as possible. Now, we get multiple flashbacks with the same “character development.”

Look, Kate’s a manipulator who always runs from her problems! Look, she did it this other time! Oh look, it gets her into trouble a lot! Oh my gosh, it happened again, and it totally parallels what’s happening on the island! Flat characters make for boring TV.

So that fact that characters behave according to their personality makes them flat? The characters do develop and they do overcome their obstacles, but they often do that in the island storyline. Besides telling us about the characters’ past, the flashbacks help illustrate why the characters react like they do on the island. If the characters resolved their problems in the flashbacks there wouldn’t be any point in showing them since they would be irrelevant to the plot on the island.

Tell me another show where we learn as much about the characters as we do on Lost? On almost every other show we only know as much about the characters as we see in the straightforward storylines, but on Lost, we have the combination of the island storyline and flashback information and as a result we learn a lot about the characters.

Compare Jack to any character on CSI, Desperate Housewives, 24 or even Heroes and you will discover that you know a lot more about the characters on Lost.

As for the characters being boring, say what you want, but personally I think a con-man who has become the man he hates, a former altar boy who has become a drug addicted rock star and a former manager at a box company who couldn’t walk but is now running around in the jungle with a big knife searching for his destiny, are some pretty great characters.

Plot Holes

Stop giving excuses and start giving answers. I’m not talking about wrapping up all the big mysteries, but for crying out loud, give us something. With so many completely unanswered questions about the island, there’s no reason every episode shouldn’t contain half a dozen new, tantalizing tidbits of information. Go back to Black Rock, show Jack’s dad again, give us anything. You can berate people for lack of patience, but the bottom line is that a compelling plot needs to have constant motion. And instead you gave us Sawyer and Kate fucking in a bear cage for three episodes.

Last week we found out what happened to Desmond when he turned the failsafe key. We’ve found out a lot about The Others. We learned what Kate did. We have discovered Rousseau’s daughter Alex. We know how Juliet became an Other.

A lot of questions are answered all the time, but as soon as they are answered everyone forgets about them and screams “where are the answers!?”.

How to fix it

Kill Jack. Kill Kate. Kill Nicki and Paolo (or whatever) and never, ever, ever make such a grade school attempt to introduce new characters again. Make Charlie interesting again instead of the whiny, jealous infant he became. Don’t screw up Desmond. Cripple Locke and bring back his mystic bent. Let Sayid loose. More Sun & Jin. Make Sawyer say something besides “offensive attention-getter, unimaginative nickname. Sarcastic comment and/or question.” Oh, and maybe explain where Danielle is after all this time.

I’m sure no one would complain if Nikki and Paulo died, but personally I’m hoping that there was a point in introducing them. Maybe they are Others or they have some other purpose, either way, I’m willing to wait to find out.

Killing Kate and Jack proves that you have no idea what you are talking about since Lost would lose a large part of the audience if they died. Besides, they are great characters.

Are you actually watching Lost? They already made Charlie interesting again by having Desmond explain that Charlie is going to die. Now he doesn’t just have to take care of Claire and the baby, but he has to do so while knowing that the grim reaper has put a price on his head.

Get the Others jacked into the mythology again instead of turning them into a Melrose Place-style tangent. Let the characters talk, explore, and care even remotely about why everything is so bizarre, and let them LEARN SOMETHING. Go back to Black Rock. Try to explore the security system’s infrastructure. Go to the other stations intentionally instead of accidentally. Give us something about Walt and Michael after they left. Give us serious internal conflict between the “names” and the “no-names.” Aren’t they sick of sitting around on a beach while Jack and Co. fight pirates and polar bears? Bring on Lord of the Flies mayhem.

I’ve already addressed part of this, so let’s go straight to exploring the security system. I don’t want to to into spoiler territory, but I can almost guarantee that the security system and other hatches WILL BE intentionally explored. Locke even said that he was planning to go to the Flame station. These things will happen, but you need to have some patience, everything can’t happen at once.

Regarding conflicts between “names and no-names”, that was the reason why they introduced Nikki and Paulo, and I thought you didn’t like them?

It will never happen. The producers’ explanations of their goals for the show make it very clear that they are hellbent on ruining everything that was compelling about it. They don’t have the imagination or skill to pull it all off and, on top of all of that, they have also made it clear that they disdain the majority of their audience. So, despite its potential, “Lost” is halfway down the spiral and never returning. I suggest you follow myself and 10 million other viewers by turning your back now before the producers waste more of your time.

So the fact that the producers are going against the system to get ABC to set an end date for Lost to make sure that the story doesn’t get dragged out is bad? The fact that they are trying to please both the hardcore mythology focused fans and those who prefer the character interactions is bad?

The eight episodes so far in Season 3 have been great, and if anything, the last two have proven that the Lost writing team have both the skill and imagination to create very exciting television.

Update: Clever WoT has posted a reply answering my reply.

I’ve been away for a while on the writing side, and back to post about this most interesting episode. My own thoughts are that this is one of the most interesting episodes to come around for a while, not only from a storyline-expanding perspective, but also character development.

I still scour the forums and fansites pretty religiously, and thought I’d post about all the interesting Easter Eggs I’ve seen up since late Wednesday night. You may be aware of some of them, but there were a LOT, some quite interesting.

     Companies we’ve seen before:

Books:

Religious references:

More time references:

Well, it looks like The Powers That Be are getting back to the things that the Lost audience really looks forward to, like the Easter Egg hunts. But what do you make of all these things?

I can tell you that I personally am a little conflicted by the time motif. While the thought of nonlinear timelines on the show would make it very interesting from a sci-fi standpoint, this seems to conflict with Season 1 statements the writers have made that time travel was not an explanation for the show. What do you think?

It’s Worth Watching has a nice little post about the connections between the work of Stephen King and Lost. As you know, the Lost writers and King are mutual fans, and King’s books have been mentioned in Lost several times.

Here are a few examples from the list:

• In “A Tale of Two Cities,” Juliet’s book club is reading Carrie by Stephen King ,and later, a copy of King’s Hearts in Atlantis is displayed on Jack’s office bookshelf.
• In “Every Man For Himself,” Ben’s demonstration with the rabbit to Sawyer is a direct reference to King’s writing exercises in On Writing.
• Lost’s two main characters, Jack and Sawyer share the protagonist’s name from The Talisman, Jack Sawyer.
• King’s short story “The Mist” concerns a fog that engulfs a town. Lost’s creature is a black cloud.

I’ve never read much Stephen King, so I never knew about many of these connections. It’s interesting that the protagonist in King’s “The Talisman” is named Jack Sawyer. “Jack” is a very usual name for the hero or protagonist of a story though so I’m not convinced, but the list makes for some interesting trivia.

The always ambitious IGN.com has published a massive list of mysteries that haven’t yet been answered. Here is a sample from the list:

#50: The Others and the Outside World

Whether or not The Others and The Dharma Initiative are the same, one thing has become obvious - The Others, unlike the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, have connections to the outside world. They apparently can watch TV, they know tons of details about each survivor, including Sawyer’s real name, Jack’s profession, etc. — things that you might get with some Internet searching skills or perhaps something more advanced than that. One also wonders whether their new clothes, food, books, medicine, etc. mean that they have intimate connections to the world outside the island, at least in order to gain life’s necessities.

So the question becomes why don’t The Others leave the confines of their surroundings themselves? If they know where to find rescue or how to get away from the island, what’s stopping them from doing so? After all, they promise Michael and Walt when they hand over their boat to them that by going in a specific direction, they will find rescue. How come they don’t utilize this outlet themselves in order to go back to the outside world, maybe for some spinal surgery?

Read about the rest of the unanswered mysteries at IGN.com.

Via TVSquad

Back in “The Whole Truth” (which seems like ages now), before we knew Ben’s name or much about his true identity, he read a quote from The Brothers Karamazov, a classic Dostoevsky novel about redemption:

GALE: “Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.” So, what’s the difference between a martyr and a prophet?

JACK: Either way, it sounds like you end up dead.

GALE: That’s the spirit.

It’s been a while, but I think this topic deserves revisiting. Ben was obviously trying to hint at something ironic in his usual sly way. I believe he was saying that people do not often want to hear the real truth.

Clairvoyance, prescience and prophets have emerged as a major theme in LOST:

By “martyrs”, that could be anyone’s guess. The person that comes to my mind (besides Ben refering to himself willing to die for his cause) is Boone, who Locke said was a “sacrifice for the island”.

How do you interpret the Karamazov quote, and what Ben meant by using it?

Throughout the LOST series (both seasons), there have been certain, peculiar phrases that get repeated or mirrored back to one another. It’s very clear that this is intentional, and may go even beyond showing thematic interconnections between characters. A few examples:

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” (Or very similar variations)
1) Locke to Randy (his boss at the box co.), Kate, and then the Walkabout agent (in “Walkabout”)
2) Locke to Boone (in “Deus ex Machina”)
3) Jack to Sun as he is about to amputate Boone’s leg (in “Do No Harm”)
4) Claire, when she wants to get kidnapped Aaron back (in “Exodus”)
5) Jack to Desmond (in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”)
6) Mr. Eko to Locke (in “?”)

“See you in the next life.” (Or very similar variations)
1) Nadia’s note to Sayid (read in “Solitary”)
2) Desmond to Jack in flashback (in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”)
3) Dave to Hurley, before jumping off cliff (in “Dave”)
4) Desmond to Locke, before turning fail-safe key (in “Live Together, Die Alone”)

“Live together, die alone.” (Or very similar variations)
1) First speech is by Jack and becomes a famous moment where he takes on the role of group leader (in “White Rabbit”)
2) Quoted by Sayid (in “Solitary”)
3) Quoted/mirrored back by Kate (in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”)
4) Repeated by Jack and also S2 finale name; also the gist of Penelope’s letter to Desmond (in “Live Together, Die Alone”)

“Are you him?”
1) Desmond to Locke (in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”)
2) Helen to Locke (in “Lockdown”)

“Very ’special’ children” (Or very similar variations)
1) Emily of Locke (in “Deus ex Machina”)
2) Tom (’Mr. Friendly’) of Walt (in “The Hunting Party”)
3) Megan Pace of her young son, Charlie (in “Fire + Water”)

“For someone who wants his son back so badly, you don’t seem to know much about him” (Or very similar varation)
1) Lizzy the Lawyer, to Michael (in “Abandoned”)
2) Ms. Klugh, to Michael (in “Three Minutes”)

“YOU.”
1) Jack, upon recognizing Desmond from years back (in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”)
2) Desmond, upon realizing that it was Jack who jumped on the boat (in “Live Together, Die Alone”)

Many more examples. What do you think of this idea of mirrored dialogue? Aside from just emphasizing themes, the actual wording is so close that it makes me believe that this is more support of the idea that this is a show about karma. Everything that goes around, comes around.

Well, I got a bit busy last week to leave any comments under the LOST season 2 finale post (whew, 500+ responses… new record for us!), but rest assured that Andreas, I, and I think all who write for this blog followed the finale with great interest. I have watched it a few times, and there is a lot to dissect in it. Fortunately we have all summer to do it… or unfortunately, I should say; sad to have a Wednesday night without a new episode!

Violet and I had a discussion about the finale recently that I found interesting (she is someone I know from outside the blog). She pointed out that when the two guys from the arctic call (one of which is NOT Jack, confirmed by the podcast)… they called her Miss Widmore. At this point, we know that Desmond has been away for over 3 years, since that is how long he was sitting in the hatch. When he left, there was the inference given by Mr. Widmore that Penelope was about to get married; something she didn’t refute when Desmond asked her outside the stadium. I guess she waited for him all this time?

Violet and others know the other handle I use online is “Pandora”… partly out of my great love for Greek mythology. There’ve been a few times when I’ve seen references to Greek mythology in the show (such as Cerberus, 3-headed dog guarding the gates of Hell, mentioned from the blast door map, and possibly the name of The Monster), and also in the webmaze (such as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, kidnapped from her mother Demeter, Goddess of Spring, by Hades). The opening of the hatch itself could be seen as a metaphor for Pandora’s Box. Just ask Hurley — I think he’d agree that evils were released after opening it!

Penelope in Greek Mythology was the wife of Odysseus (Ulysses to the Romans), King of Ithaca. After he left for the Trojan War, his journey home was no easy task, and the subject for Homer’s great epic poem, The Odyssey. His great voyage by sea (much like Desmond in his sailboat race) was sidetracked numerous times by supernatural events and exotic island distractions.

Odysseus was actually gone for 20 years (10 years of war + 10 years of travel time), during which Penelope pined away and refused numerous suitors. She was seen as the symbol for fidelity to the ancient Greeks. In the myth, Odysseus finally returns home and does so in disguise, to find that Penelope, still pining but getting restless at the many suitors’ advances, has arranged a contest in which the suitor who is able to string Odysseus’ old bow would win her hand in marriage. Odysseus is the only one who is able to do so, revealing his true identity, and killing off all the rude and disrespectful suitors with the help of his son. (Edit: Joe pointed out in the remarks that the exact number of suitors was 108 — great catch!)

Given the fact that most of the names on this show have significance (John Locke, Christian Shephard, Boone Carlyle, etc…. [Desmond] David Hume is also a philosopher’s name), I thought this was an interesting connection. Can you think of other names that have meaning to the story? What do you think of Penelope — was she really looking for Desmond out of love? Or is she more complicit in her father’s plans and conspiracy than we think?

PS: The one other thing I would like to mention is that when you take a look at the screencaps of Desmond’s letters to Penelope, we can see that they are addressed to Knightsbridge, U.K. Knightsbridge is a small, affluent suburb of London, and the same place where Lucy Heatherton, Charlie’s ex-girlfriend, was from (according to Tommy, the heroin addict friend who helped him “fnd” her). Are they setting us up for another connection?

PPS: I just wanted to put out one last note, in response to some earlier reply comments pointing us to widmoregroup.com. This is NOT an official site, and is considered a hoax site by most veteran webmazers, based on /whois IP information, and also the quality of the site. New sites will be introduced in links and national promotion campaigns intrinsic to the ARG itself. There are numerous fake sites, user beware.