Rousseau

*Doc Arzt posted the audio from a press conference call with Lindelof and Cuse yesterday, and there is some really good information about what we can expect in the future:

-The title of the finale is “There’s No Place like Home”, part one on May 15th and part two on May 29th.
-They are planning an online prologue for Season 5, similar to ‘Find 815.’
-The story’s that were dropped because of the writer’s strike will be picked up in later season’s
-Season 5 should be launching in the last week of January
-They will not comment on the fate of Rousseau, but they can confirm that she was indeed shot with bullets
-The Orchid video will pay off in a major way by the end of Season 4
-The rattlesnake in the mail box (i.e. gamechanger in the season finale) is officially called “The Frozen Donkey Wheel” - according to Darlton this is going to be something that will absolutely make sense to all of us ;) The best allusion to this came from Lindelof during the call:

“There might come a time in the show where the word ‘flash’ becomes irrelevant,” Lindelof says. “If you stop and think about what we’ve done this year, there’s the story on the island which we perceive to be the present, then there’s the story of the Oceanic 6, which is happening off the island in the future.

“But if you were to switch perspectives and were off the island, focusing on the Oceanic 6 trying to get back, that would be the present, and what happened back on the island would be either a parallel present, a possible future a possible past, who knows. When you hear the ‘whoosh’ noise, the question becomes, Where does it take you?”

Wow - exciting things to come and it’s great to know that we will definitely be getting another ARG-like shot in the arm for the off season hiatus!

*The Extra Hour is Confirmed: Basically, we are going to get an hour on May 15th, and then two additional hours on May 29th - a 3 hour season finale that spans over two distinct episodes

The hiatus blues have seriously kicked in after 8 fantastic episodes of Lost so far this season - now the wait starts again… Here are some interesting things happening in the Lost-world to keep your mind occupied (24 more days until Season 4 resumes!):

*Find815.com Part II - The Find815.com homepage was updated with the following message from Sam Thomas:

Not sleeping again.
Something’s still not right.

The reporters have stopped calling. Everyone is moving on. Flight 815 is a closed book for them. They think they have all the answers they need.

But I don’t…
S.T.

This could be an indication of a restart in the ARG - or a prelude to something we can expect at the conclusion of Season 4…

*The title of Episode 9 has been released by ABC - “The Shape of Things To Come”; there is also an episode description circulating out there that is a bit spoiler-esque, so I will leave it off of the blog until the EP preview in a few weeks - needless to say it looks to be awesome!

*Article in The Age about Season 4 - This article provides a pretty good recap of Season 4 thus far. I find the comment about Ben/Michael Emerson to be spot-on:

The greatest transformation, however, is happening with the nominal villain, Ben Linus (Michael Emerson). Lonely child, patricidal killer, manipulator and instigator of abduction and mass murder, he’s slowly evolving into the most important character on Lost. He creates confusion within confusion, but it’s increasingly unclear whether he’s a true believer or a malignant force.

Take “Meet Kevin Johnson” as the most recent example - where Ben once again flexes his truly unique manipulative powers - what a head case Michael must be now after that end-around!?!

Also, I would be interested in your thoughts about whether or not Ben was responsible for setting up Rousseau and Karl - and if not, then who do you think will ultimately be responsible for their (attempted) murders? There were some comments about this in the MKJ post - but I think it’s worth discussing a bit further.

DocH pointed out, rightfully so, the most subscribed to theory thus far:

Guess we won’t get the Rousseau FB after all (or Karl). Bet the target practice on the boat had the same shooters that dropped Danielle and Karl. HMMMMM? Karl and Danielle were the two that stood between Ben and Alex. How much do you want to bet that Ben is behind their deaths? You know… to get closer to Alex.

It’s possible Rousseau is still breathing - she has continued to find a way to survive on the Island for sometime (not quite as spectacularly as Patchy, but close). However, I’m not exactly sold on who the shooters were. Ben sent them off together, and I doubt he was crazy enough to do that had he not absolutely known Alex would be safe and the other two would be eliminated. So, what possibilities does that leave for the “who dunnit” in terms of trigger-pulling?

Yes, it is true, your science professor’s favorite magazine has taken a hard look at the Lost season finale and parlayed it into a quick, humorous read of Sci-Fi Fact vs. Fiction.

What we can offer is a reality check: Writer, filmmaker, military adventurer and former dynamite wrangler Robert Young Pelton weighs in on the good, the bad and the fake from Wednesday’s mind-bending finale. (If you have not seen the two-hour episode, stop reading now!)

Thanks to Matt Sullivan, Online Editor of Popular Mechanics.

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?

Remember when we first met Danielle Rousseau in the Lost season 1 episode “Solitary”? We all thought that she was crazy, but what if we were wrong…

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. Two months before…

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.”

I think Rousseau knew exactly what she was talking about.

When referring to “the others” being carriers, I think we can assume that there is some form of deadly virus or disease on the island (the sickness) but when we heard Rousseau say this, we didn’t know about The Others, so the question is, are Ben’s Others the carriers of a deadly virus or are the others Rousseau is referring to other “Others”?

This is a bit of a stretch, but…
Danielle says that she was part of a science team, but we’ve always assumed that her team had nothing to do with Dharma or those we know as “The Others”. What if Rousseau was a Dharma scientist? If she was, how does that affect our view of her?

The sickness

Later in the same episode Rousseau continues to talk about 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.”

The question remains - what is the sickness and does it even exist?
Rousseau sure seems convinced that the sickness is a real and very scary thing.

On the other hand, the word “Quarantine” was printed on the inside of the hatch doors and Desmond and Kelvin injected themselves with a vaccine, but since that appeared to be a hoax that Kelvin pulled off to steal Desmond’s boat it’s impossible to know for sure.

It is worth noting that Kelvin had Hazmat gear which he wore outside the hatch. If the sickness is a hoax, why would Dharma keep Hazmat suits? My guess is that the suits where used for protection against the electromagnetic anomaly in the Swan station.

The virus

Another idea which depends on how Lost is tied together with the Lost Experience is that the sickness could be Mittelwerk’s virus which is designed to kill 30% of the world’s population. However, considering time differences I’m not sure about this. Maybe the sickness was the base for the virus…

And now for something completely different

As a last note, there was a somewhat unrelated but still interesting thing said in “Solitary”. When Sayid asks Rousseau about her transmission she answers:

“It is broadcast from somewhere else, but they control it now.”

If “they” are The Others, how can they be in control of the transmitter now but not have been so when Rousseau changed the transmission into her call for distress? Does this mean that The Others came to the island after Rousseau or that they didn’t know about the transmitter?