Episode Thoughts

I was taking a look at the above Easter Egg from Greatest Hits, thanks to our friends at the Tailsection, and though many people are focusing on the “white rabbit logo” what you will also notice is that it says “Moon Pool” Submarine Port. By literal definition, a “Moon Pool” is “a feature of some research vessels and undersea platforms. A room, with an airtight door, will have an open floor that extends right through the bottom of the hull.” However, The Moon Pool is also a book by A. Merritt with a description below:

“Set on the island of Ponape, full of ruins from ancient civilizations, the novel chronicles the adventures of a party of explorers who discover a previously unknown underground world full of strange peoples and super-scientific wonders. From the depths of this world, the party unwittingly unleashes the Dweller, a monstrous terror that threatens the islands of the South Pacific. Although Merritt did not invent the lost world novel, following in the footsteps of Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Burroughs and others, he greatly elaborated upon that tradition.”

Makes you wonder about next week’s episode and the implications this may have for that particular hatch itself.

This is going to be our first attempt at providing an episodic review based on the commentary associated with The Man Behind The Curtain post (it’s not quite as easy as it would seem, summarizing 600 posts). We will take some direct reader commentary and then incorporate our own opinions, but this will definitely be a collaborative effort.

1. Is Locke Dead? My opinion… no way! Locke is too important to the show in general and let us not forget that he was previously a paraplegic. I don’t think a single bullet will stop our fast-healing friend and neither do most of you, which is summarized by reader Bryce: “I seriously doubt that Locke is dead. First, why would the writers kill off a very popular character just one episode before the finale if they truly want him dead? Wouldn’t it make much more sense to build up the suspense with teasers saying that a fan favorite would die in the finale? Second, far too many issues with Locke and the Island are still up in the air; for being a fairly essential plot line, this is too quick of a way of tying off this story line. Third, and as with most of what I have to say this is just my opinion, I think the writers were in an odd position with Locke in these last couple of episodes. Obviously they want a major confrontation between the Others and the Losties, but whose side would Locke be on?”
2. Who, or what, is Jacob? At this point we have seen the image of Jacob (which I think is too ambiguous to speculate the identity of the person in the photo), which would seemingly imply that he/it has some human form. From reader Mardacara “I think that Ben has entrapped Jacob, whatever he might actually be - a person caught in a parallel dimension or ghost or whatever - Jacob is clearly a power unto himself. I think that he is the link with the Island or that he knows how to manifest the Island’s powers. Ben is threatened because Locke, by being able to hear Jacob, could potentially communicate with Jacob and together they could collude to strip Ben from his place of power…”

   I would tend to agree with this initial summarization of what Jacob might be, if we were 100% sure that the show in the cabin was not manufactured by Ben. I believe it is still possible that Jacob does not exist at all and that Ben uses the threat of Jacob to manipulate the people around him for his own nefarious reasons. Also, the initial concern from the Others/Hostiles, as well as Alex providing the gun to Locke prior to the journey, could lead one to believe that Ben has perhaps taken others to see Jacob before, and they did not return either. After all, there were a lot of corpses in that hole.

3. Bad make-up job or Island time? One of the more interesting parts of this episode for me was that we now understand there is an additional level of history to the Island, via the Hostiles. How long has Richard Alpert been on the Island and how old is he? I do not think the lack of Alpert’s aging was a mistake by the producers. This would lead us to believe that the Island, or the medical research completed on the Island, has lead to the anti-aging characteristics that Alpert’s appearance would suggest. To take this one step further and I know this is minor, but Ben’s comment to Locke about Jacob not appreciating technology was peculiar to me as well. Flashlights were invented back in the 1890’s and are not something I think any of us would consider to be technologically advanced circa 2004. This could also be an implication of how long the hostiles/Jacob have been on the Island too.

Let’s keep the discussion within this post focused upon the three questions referenced above.

I got an interesting e-mail from Lost Blog reader Adam this morning:

The other episode Ben mentioned a “Box” on the island. I was watching some of season one today and saw something interesting in the Hurley Episode “Numbers”.

When he tells Leonard he used the numbers to win the lottery Leonard tells him he has “Opened the Box”. Is this the same box Ben was referring to? Have the writers been planning the “Box” since season 1?

Let’s take a look at the conversation between Hurley and Lenny at the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute:

Hurley: I’m bad news to everyone around me. When I tell people that I think I’m the cause, they look at me like they think I’m nuts. They don’t believe me, but I know. Ever since I won the lottery with those numbers…
Lenny: You.. used those numbers to.. play the lottery?
Hurley: Ah.. yeah…
Lenny: You shouldn’t have done that! You’ve opened the box!
Hurley I what?
Lenny: You shouldn’t have used those numbers!
Hurley: Why not!?
Lenny It doesn’t stop! You gotta get away from those numbers, you gotta get far far away! Do you hear me!? No don’t you understand, you have to get away from it or it won’t stop!

I remember that when I watched this episode I thought “the box” was a figure of speech referring to the mythical “pandora’s box”, which when opened released all the misfortunes of mankind and forever changed the world which had previously been a paradise. But after Ben’s recent talk about “the box”, Lenny might start to seem quite a bit more credible…

Was Lenny talking about the same “box” that Ben used as a metaphore to explain the wonders of the island to Locke and if so, how is Lenny connected to the island? Will Ben’s “box” unleash a lot of misfortune? Is there a direct connection between the numbers and Ben’s “box”?

What do you think?

I don’t think anyone will disagree with me if I say that last night’s Lost episode “One of Us” kicked some serious ass. We found out a lot more about The Others, Sayid once again proved to be the smartest person on the island, and it was revealed that Juliet is still working for Ben.

What I don’t understand though is that some of you have left comments saying that Juliet is a really evil person.

In the Lost episode we saw several times how Juliet only wanted to do good but time after time was convinced by Ben to keep doing what he needed her to do.

Like Jack said, the thing in the world Juliet wants the most is to leave the island. To be fair, Jack obviously doesn’t know Juliet as well as he thinks he does, but in this case I believe he was right.

Juliet really wants to leave the island and she believes that the only person who can take her home is Ben, or possibly Jacob, so she probably figures that if she wants to go home she has no choice but to continue playing along with Ben’s plans.

This feeling of focused dedication is mirrored in Locke who would do anything to stay on the island, and was in a way reflected in Michael’s willingness to do anything to save Walt.

What I’m wondering is what will happen if Juliet finds out that Ben isn’t actually able to let her go home…

Lost Blog reader Kirk noticed that there was something strange about Jack in the last scene of last week’s Lost episode “Par Avion”. When Jack is playing football with Tom, what appears to be new tattoos are visible on his left arm.

As can be seen in the picture above, the tattoos depict what looks like some small black stars and some larger red and green shapes. I tried to get a sharp screenshot, but since Jack is constantly moving, this was the sharpest possible frame. Either way, what’s most interesting right now is not what the tattoos depict, but if we have seen these tattoos on Jack before.

If we haven’t seen them before, there are three possibilities:

• Jack has gotten new tattoos during his time with The Others.
• The tattoos belong to actor Matthew Fox and the film crew forgot to remove them.
• The man seen at the end of “Par Avion” is not Jack.

Thoughts and theories? Have we seen these tattoos before?

EDIT: I should have done a bit more research, The tattoos are not new.
Nothing to see here folks, move on!

After seeing this week’s Lost season 3 episode “Par Avion”, the thing that stuck in many of our minds was Locke’s suspect behavior.

To be honest I really thought that Locke didn’t know that The Flame would blow up when he “entered 77″ in last week’s episode, but the fact that he somehow managed to take a C4 explosive before leaving clearly changed my mind.

Would Locke still have entered 77 if he knew that The Flame would explode?
I’m convinced that he would, because as far as we know, his reason for entering “77″ was that he believed Dr.Candle’s words in the video. If the station has been compromised by the hostiles, enter 77.

So how could Locke know that there were C4 charges in The Flame and why did he take one? I don’t know more than you, but it’s quite easy to guess that the C4 will play some role in a future episode. It’s entirely possible that the writers wrote the scene where we find out that Locke has taken one of the explosives simply because the C4 is needed further down the line, without there really being any dramatic mystery behind why he took it.

On the other hand, Locke probably didn’t join the expedition to save Jack. My guess is that he has some yet unknown plan or reason for wanting to find The Others. Maybe he really believed the captured Ben when he said that he was coming for Locke…

As if secretly taking a C4 wasn’t enough, Mikhail added more wood to the fire at the end of his little speech:

Of course I don’t know you Sayid Jarrah, how could I. And you Kate Austen are a complete stranger to me. But you John Locke, you I might have a fleeting memory of. But I must be confused, because the John Locke I knew was para…

The last word is probably “paralyzed”, and as you might recall, Locke hasn’t told anyone, except maybe Walt, about the fact that he was paralyzed from the waist down before crashing on the island. So the question is - when did Mikhail know a paralyzed Locke? There are a few different possibilities:

• He knew or met Locke before flight 815 crashed on the island.
• Locke is an Other sent to spy on the Losties like Ethan and Goodwin.
• Considering that Desmond seems to experience repeating cycles of life where Charlie dies in different ways in each cycle, Mikhail could have met Locke in a previous cycle where the island didn’t cure Locke’s paralysis. However, this poses new questions since Mikhail would then have “a fleeting memory” of a previous cycle like Desmond’s flashes. Are The Others some form of time travelers?

Shortly after this was said, Locke pushed Mikhail through the sonic fence and he died. Did Locke know that this would kill Mikhail and did he kill him to prevent him from revealing something about Locke, or did he just figure that the best way to test if Mikhail was telling the truth about the fence not working was to push him through it and see what would happen?

Personally I think Locke had no previous knowledge of what would happen and decided that having Mikhail prove that he was telling the truth was a good idea, but considering Locke’s recent actions I would still sleep with one eye open just to be on the safe side.

What are your thoughts on Locke’s suspect behavior and Mikhail saying that he “knew” Locke?

I’m not gonna say “I told you so”, but right now I’m pretty happy about the fact that my theory about Jack joining The Others, which I came up with back in October, is turning out to be correct:

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.

Now we know that Jack is with The Others, and from the looks of it, he seems quite happy. The question is if he is playing along in hopes to find a chance to escape, or if he is really starting to sympathize with The Others.

One possibility could be that he is trusting Ben’s promise to let him go home, but considering that Juliet said that she hasn’t been allowed to leave the island, I’d say Jack’s chances are slim. Unless he has found a new home in Othersville that is.

What are your thoughts?

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?

From the Season 1 finale, “Exodus” scene, the rift between Locke and Jack first starts to develop, as the two work side-by-side in the anxiety-provoking task of retrieving dynamite:

Locke: I’m removing the driest pieces to minimize our risk transporting it. [he reaches for another stick] You ever play Operation?

Jack: Sure. Don’t touch the sides.

Locke: I always got nailed on the funny bone. [he picks up a stick] Bzzzt!

Jack: [flinching]: You like to play games, John?

Locke: Absolutely.

Locke IS a man who is mysterious and marches to the beat of his own drum, but there are some times when I don’t think anyone knows where he’s coming from. Seems like almost every episode he is getting into some sort of trouble because he doesn’t share things that he should be sharing, or someone else has to say “What did you do, Locke?!”

And oh yes, he does like to play games. From backgammon (”Pilot”), to Risk (”Walkabout”) to Mouse Trap (”Deus Ex Machina”) to crosswords (”Collision”), this guy has been up to all sorts of things… as Gollum from LOTR might say, he’s very “trixy”.

It was only a matter of time before they spotlighted chess on the show, one of the most thought-provoking and deception-requiring games. It was a nice touch to have the winning reward be the key to unlocking the Flame video with Dr. Candle. If only Locke had just said something about “Enter 77″ to his friends… the information sharing would likely have prevented the explosion, because Sayid and Kate had already seen the C4 in the basement. But I guess we could expect no less of Locke, who goes on his own vision quests, doesn’t share information about The Monster, the blast door map, or just about anything he finds. Just what is this man up to?

-Cecilia

I’m not sure what others thought, but while I was watching this episode, I was thinking this was one of the best ones in recent memory. Maybe it’s just my personal preference for episodes that reveal a few more answers about the mythology of the show. And then, of course, they had to show us that everything Mikhail said was a lie, and blow up The Flame. I think we did get enough of a teaser of how some of the mysteries could be answered, at least.

I know one of the things I was thinking while watching this episode was about the Russian. Fortunately, the translations didn’t take long in coming, now that Lost is an international phenomenon. Thank you “Evilwombat” and others who contributed to this.

Klugh: Mikhail. Mikhail! You know what to do.
Mikhail: We still have another way [out].
Klugh: We cannot risk. You know the conditions.
Mikhail: There is another way.
Klugh: They captured us. We will not give (or let, or betray) [unintelligible].
Klugh: You know what to do. It is an order.
Mikhail: We still have another way!
Klugh (in English): Just do it, Mikhail.
Mikhail: Forgive me. (shoots)

So, by the looks of it, Ms. Klugh and Mikhail already had a suicide plan if they were ever captured. More intriguing still, was the document found in Mikhail’s typewriter, which references Afghanistan, mujahideen, and the names “Nadji” and “Andrey”.

Oh, and then there’s that really, really creepy cat that reminds Sayid of the one from his flashback, and also is named Nadia (same name as his former love).

More conspiracies afoot?

-Cecilia

Update: The second Russian name in Mikhail’s document is Andrey, not Audrey.