In the interest of time, I am posting a few photos for your perusal below. Stay tuned for more details from the scene this week; here, on TVOvermind and via Twitter (@JOpinionated & @DocArzt)!

If you repost these photos in any location, please make sure to provide credit with a link here. Thank you!

Technorati Tags: Comic-con

In the interest of team spirit, we’d like to recommend the sites and Twitter feeds of our friendly fellow Lost bloggers and podcasters for you to follow during Comic-Con:

DocArzt & JOpinionated
Twitter: @DocArzt & @jopinionated

DarkUFO & TheODI
Twitter: @DarkUFO & @TheODI

Ryan & Jen, The Transmission
Twitter: @hawaii & @kilinahe

Jay & Jack
Twitter: @jayandjack, @crackpotjack, @lukevenk

Other television sites to follow for Comic-Con coverage include TVOvermind, UGO TV Blog & UGO Movie Blog.

Stay tuned for frequent updates!

-Jo

Technorati Tags: Comic-con, Lost

My theory is that Ilana is a character intended to represent the Egpytian goddess Sekhmet.

Ilana is clearly in charge on the island, a strong female leader among her people, and Sekhmet was a warrior, protector and hunter. Sekhmet was commonly referred to as a lioness, and from a purely physical perspective, Ilana’s beautiful hair can certainly be described as a mane.

But Sekhmet is also known as both the Lady of the Flame and Devouring Flame, which is quite significant given that when we last saw Jacob, he had been kicked into the fire by Not-Locke/Mystery Man.

One of Sekhmet’s other designations was the Lady of Life, because she was able to cure illnesses and heal the wounded. Enter Jacob. He approached her at the hospital and asked for help, and we can assume that this took place before the events of 2007 on the island during the finale. If Jacob knew ahead of time that Mystery Man was going to take advantage of the loophole as Not-Locke and finally attempt to kill him, perhaps this favor he asked of Ilana involved protection from the future inferno, followed by her restorative powers. Further, I believe that Jacob was wearing gloves in the hospital because they had to avoid physical contact prior to the moment of salvation.

Before being tossed in the flames, Jacob told Not-Locke that “they’re coming,” and he very well may have been alluding to Ilana and her people. They were just outside of the statue, and I have a feeling that (at the beginning of Season 6) we will see Ilana rescue and/or save Jacob.

We are not privy to how, when and where Ilana sustained her injuries. But if Ilana is indeed an embodiment of Sekhmet, some of you might be wondering why she herself was susceptible to bodily harm. I would venture to guess that her gift may be activated or enhanced upon arrival on the island, which we know has unique healing properties itself.

Relevant side note: when you combine the names Ilana and Sekhmet, one of the applicable anagrams is heal mistaken.

In addition, there are some who believe that Sekhmet was the daughter of the Sun God RA, so it isn’t out of the question that Ilana could be Richard Alpert’s daughter. According to Alpert, he is ageless because “Jacob made me this way.” So if Jacob had the power to bestow eternal life upon a man, who’s to say that he did not also bequeath that man’s daughter with a predisposition for rejuvenation. That Ilana appeared to recognize Jacob in the hospital seems to indicate that they were already acquainted with one another, and it is logical to assume that she has been to the island before because she is more than familiar and comfortable with the layout of it.

There is great debate about exactly which Egyptian god or goddess is represented by the statue on the island, and Sekhmet may be a candidate; she has an Ankh in her right hand and a solar disc on her head. That being said, I am convinced that the infamous statue on Lost is an aggregate of several Egyptian idols rather than one in particular.

So there you have it.  To be honest, at first I was trying to figure out if Ilana was injured after a turn of the Frozen Donkey Wheel and poor landing or reception in Tunisia, or if she herself was somehow the one who was kicked into the fire. But neither of these theories seemed feasible after analyzing the logistics of both situations.

I was hesitant to follow this path, to compare yet another character to a historical Egyptian figure. Because despite the obvious mythology that exists on the island, I am still optimistic that this lore does not explain the entire series. To be frank, I will be disappointed if that is the case.

Thank you for reading, and feel free to discuss and dissect this theory in the Comments, but please be constructive!

[For other theories and episode analysis, please visit Jo's LOST blog]

Technorati Tags: Egyptian mythology, Ilana, Jacob, Richard Alpert

After watching The Variable three times, and paying special attention to the significant ‘destiny’ references, I experienced an epiphany that I believe to be plausible given the time travel we’ve witnessed this season.

We now know that Daniel Faraday is a talented musician, a piano prodigy.  My theory is that Faraday programmed The Looking Glass station security code.

We don’t know exactly when The Looking Glass station was constructed, but we know it existed in 1977 (Namaste). Faraday was stuck in time in 1974 after one of the island’s time shifts, but we do not know when he left for Ann Arbor before returning on the sub in 1977. So it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Faraday programmed that station’s security mechanism with a song at some point during that era, especially if he KNEW that it would alter (but not change) the destiny of the 815 survivors.

DESTINY IS A FICKLE BITCH

In The Variable, Faraday’s mother Eloise Hawking told him that destiny “means that if one has a special gift, it must be nurtured.” She was also quite adamant that her son disregard his musical skills and personal relationships to focus on science and mathematics, but he argued that he “can make time” for all of his interests. Perhaps he did just that on the island, combining his many talents to program the security code using a song.

Faraday told Jack in The Variable that “We make choices. We have free will. We can change our destiny.” In the Season 3 finale Through The Looking Glass, Charlie reminded Desmond that “you said it’s my destiny to turn off that jammer.” Charlie made a choice to sacrifice himself so that his friends would be rescued, and he was only able to fulfill his destiny because Faraday designed the musical code.

It is striking to me how both Charlie and Desmond eventually affect the destiny of everyone on that island by simply flipping a switch and pressing a button, and perhaps gives credence to my theory about the early level of involvement by both Faraday (The Looking Glass) and his mother Hawking (The Swan). Let’s revisit the following:

Desmond (Greatest Hits): “You’re inside a hatch. It’s a room full of equipment. There’s a blinking yellow light and switch. You flick the switch, the light goes off and then you drown.” Charlie: “So, before I drown, I just have to flip a switch.”

Charlie (Through the Looking Glass): “I just turn off your little jammer and the helicopters come and rescue all my friends.” Bonnie: “But if this station floods, what happens to you?” Charlie: “I die.”

Eloise Hawking (Flashes Before Your Eyes): “Breaking her heart is what drives you in a few short years from now to enter that sailing race, to prove her father wrong, which brings you to the island where you spend the next three years of your life entering numbers into the computer until you are forced to turn that failsafe key. And if you don’t do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead.”

Faraday (The Variable): “The Dharma folks at the Swan site, they’re gonna drill into the ground and accidentally tap into a massive pocket of energy. The result of the release of this energy would be catastrophic. So in order to contain it, they’re going to have to cement the area in, like Chernobyl. And this containment, the place they built over it…I believe you called it the hatch, the Swan hatch? Because of this one accident, these people are going to spend the next 20 years keeping that energy at bay, by pressing a button; a button that your friend Desmond will one day fail to push, and that will cause your plane, Oceanic 815, to crash on this island.”

THE ‘CONSTANT’ FACTOR

Keeping in mind that Desmond is Faraday’s constant and that Desmond’s constant is Penny, Faraday’s half-sister….

Right before meeting Faraday’s mother Eloise for the first time in 1996 during Flashes Before Your Eyes in Season 3, Desmond ran into Charlie in London outside of Widmore Industries (owned and run by Faraday’s father Charles Widmore). Charlie is singing Wonderwall by Oasis, “maybe you’re going to be the one who saves me…”

During their brief time together on the island, Desmond does save Charlie’s life on several occasions (the golf club as lightning rod, rescuing Clarie from drowning, saving Claire’s migrating bird, Rousseau’s arrow trap in the jungle). Desmond intended to take Charlie’s place by swimming down to The Looking Glass, but Charlie knocked him out and said “you and I both know you’re not supposed to take my place.”

FARADAY & DESMOND’S SWAN CHAT

So what does all of this have to do with Faraday programming the song in The Looking Glass?

Consider the following conversation between Faraday and Desmond in Because You Left (which took place before 815 crashed & long before Desmond met Charlie for the first time on the island); Desmond’s original vision of Claire and Aaron being rescued via helicopter, the very reason that Charlie chose to dive down to The Looking Glass station, is suddenly quite relevant:

Faraday: “You’re the only person who can help us, because Desmond, the rules don’t apply to you. You’re special. You’re uniquely and miraculously special.”

Desmond: “What are you talking about?”

Faraday: “If the helicopter somehow made it off the island, if you got home…”

Originally, I assumed that Faraday was referring to the freighter helicopter that the Oceanic 6 were on, but it is open for interpretation that Faraday knew about Desmond’s future vision that set off the series of events leading to Charlie’s actions in The Looking Glass.

In addition, I believe that the Easter egg featured in The Variable (the rabbit, which is literally THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS of Faraday’s mother) is a visual clue to this particular puzzle piece of Lost…

Everything happens for a reason. Don’t mistake coincidence for fate. These are not merely Lost cliches; they are applicable mantras in the tangled web of possibilities that has been woven before our eager eyes over the last five seasons.

I realize that it requires a leap of faith to link these characters and events. Earlier this year I explored another path which would require fans of the show to suspend our disbelief even further; I dubbed it my Crazy Charlie Theory, and if you’re interested, it somewhat relates to this road less traveled.

Now that I have outlined the reasons why Faraday and fate have intertwined on the island, resulting at least in part with Charlie’s destiny decision to save his remaining 815 friends, I would love to hear what you think. I would only ask that if you strongly disagree with the general theory or any of the points outlined above, you express it constructively. Namaste!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Technorati Tags: Charles Widmore, Charlie Pace, Daniel Faraday, Desmond Hume, Eloise Hawking, Penny Widmore

UPDATE:  Erased Slate has completed a transcription of page three, I cleaned up page two a bit.

UPDATE #3: Sledge from lost.cubit.net discovered that the text is lifted from a surveillance report that belongs to an online game.  Does this mean ABC will be sending the game’s creators a royalty check?  In light of that find, the whole text is reproduced below:

Thompson Investigations, Inc.

CASE DETAIL REPORT

Client Name(s): Allie Lamar, Walbert Dopelson
Contact: Lamar 234-XXXX, Dopelson 236-XXXX
Case Number: Lamar040326
Hire Date: 01/15/04
Report Date: 02/01/04

ACTIVITY REPORT

Followed the subject for seven days from January 25 through 31, 2004.

01/25/2004

Except for one trip to the mailbox, suspect never left 103 Pinecrest Drive, a single-story, wood frame home painted green and yellow. Three times, when subject had not passed a visible window for thirty minutes, subject answered the telephone and replied that Lee Chin did not live there.

The last light was extinguished at 10:05 p.m.

01/26/2004

Except for one trip to the mailbox, suspect never left 103 Pinecrest Drive. Two times, when subject had not passed a visible window for thirty minutes, subject answered the telephone and replied that Lee Chin did not and never had lived there.

The last light was extinguished at 11:35 p.m.

01/27/2004

Subject left home in yellow Volkswagen Beetle at 8:15 a.m and drove directly to Harvest Restaurant & Grocery, 1112 Van Buren Avenue. I followed suspect through the store as she shopped for food, filling a hand basket. She paid with cash and drove directly home, arriving at 9:27 a.m. Photographs are presented in Attachment A. Attachment A is not available to the public pending legal clearance.

Except for one trip to the mailbox, suspect never left 103 Pinecrest Drive again that day. When subject had not passed a visible window for thirty minutes, subject answered the telephone and replied that Lee Chin was in the shower and would return my call in fifteen minutes. I gave subject the number I keep for such occasions but no message was left.

The last light was extinguished at 11:35 p.m.

01/28/2004

Except for three trips to the mailbox, subject never left 103 Pinecrest Drive. When subject had not passed a visible window for thirty minutes, subject answered the telephone and replied that Lee Chin was dead, a victim of suicide.

The last light was extinguished at 12:18 am.

01/29/2004

Except for seven trips to the mailbox, subject never left 103 Pinecrest Drive. When subject had not passed a visible window for thirty minutes, subject answered the telephone, claimed I was Melissa f***ing with her, and demanded to know when I mailed her the prints.

The last light was extinguished at 2:30 am.

01/30/2004

Subject came out of the house at 8:15 am, set up a camping chair next to the mailbox, and proceeded to pace the front yard until the mail truck arrived at 12:32 p.m. Subject grabbed mail from letter carrier and ran into the house. Photographs are presented in Attachment A. Attachment A is not available to the public pending legal clearance.

Subject left home in yellow Volkswagen Beetle at 1:05 p.m. and drove directly to the health club. She stayed inside for fifty minutes. Subject drove directly home, arriving at 2:40 p.m.

Subject left home in yellow Volkswagen Beetle at 3:10 p.m. and drove directly to Sneed’s ACE Hardware, 1400 University Avenue, arriving at 3:18 p.m. After she had been inside for thirty minutes, I entered the store and was unable to locate subject. After determining that subject’s car was still parked in front, asked the clerk behind the counter if my sister had been in today, describing the subject. Clerk said she had and that she bought three cans of spray paint, one box of rubber gloves, and one tack hammer, paying in cash, before leaving by the rear door. Clerk didn’t remember colors of paint purchased. I checked the aisle and discovered fully stocked shelves with empty spaces in the rows containing the colors black, green, and red although I cannot positively confirm that the cans were stocked as indicated. I asked the store clerk if the register captured the part number of items purchased but he said he hadn’t scanned the cans of spray paint since he knew the price. I left the store by the rear door and checked the area by foot, but was unable to locate subject.

I returned to the store and again questioned the clerk. Clerk reported that subject used store phonebook to look up number for Oxford City Cab, then remained at counter and used her cell phone to have cab pick her up at Abner’s Restaurant, 430 S Lamar, and take her to Animal Clinic of Oxford, 2008 Harris Drive.

Drove various routes to Animal Clinic but did not sight subject. Visited Animal Clinic. Receptionist stated that she had not seen subject. Returned to ACE Hardware to find subject’s car gone.

I called client for instructions and was told to establish surveillance at subject’s home. The client said she would call me if the subject was sighted at the Yoknapatawpha County Conference Center.

Established surveillance on subject’s home. Subject returned home at 1:52 am.

The last light was extinguished at 2:25 am.

01/31/2004

Subject never left 103 Pinecrest Drive.

Client called at 9:10 am to inform me of the previous night’s vandalism.

The last light was extinguished at 11:35 p.m.

Surveillance completed.

INVESTIGATION FINDINGS

It is not possible to conclusively determine whether the subject was involved in the vandalism at Yoknapatawpha County Conference Center. Subject did purchase three cans of spray paint, plastic gloves, and a hammer on the day of the vandalism. Subject evaded surveillance for approximately ten hours, during which time the vandalism could have occurred.

Technorati Tags: easter eggs, report

Last week, I discussed our notion of time travel from the media and also how science may be getting closer to actually achieving it—the art and science of time travel, so to speak. Now (now being the moment you are reading this, which, is my future, your present, and…well, now it’s your past) I’d like to discuss the spirituality of time travel and how you can begin using it to improve your life.

Just to review a bit, I mentioned that many quantum physicists believe that there are an infinite number of timelines with an infinite combination of scenarios, and they’re all happening right at this instant. Now. That is all there is. The past, the future—all illusions. The only reality is right now. Everything that ever has happened, will happen, or could happen is happening right now. While this seems kind of hard to grasp, let’s look to our friend “metaphor” to help us out.

Think of a video game disc. Every possible combination of events that could happen, all exist on that disc. The main character’s infinite lives—some in which he is successful at completing his mission and many more where he (she, it) is not—all exist in one moment on the disc. And while each of these lives contains millions of possible event combinations, there is a certain path (which can translate in our world as “fate”) that the game play seems to lead the character on. When he steps too far from the path he is nudged back on, or he dies. Sometimes, the character must face obstacles that enable him to grow so that he will be able to accomplish his next mission.

From the perspective of the character, he is creating his every moment. What he has already created exist in his past and what he has yet to create exist in his future. If the character dies and we play again, he is not aware of his last game. All that is real to him is his current life. Only we—who are outside of the illusionary game—know that the character has infinite lives and has played them before. We know that the character is not really creating anything, but making choices about various options that have been set in code. As the character’s brain, so to speak, we have the freedom of choice to make a variety of decisions during its game play. We can have it face its enemy, run away, gather support, etc. But we can’t have it do anything that isn’t written into the program. We can’t make it fly, if it’s not a flying character, for example.

I’m not saying that the world we live in is actually a videogame, or even a program like The Matrix, but the truth behind this mythology is, I believe, very close to how our world really works. And now, science is starting to prove it. Science is starting to see that there are an infinite number of timelines that exist, and that the ones we notice, or think about, are the ones we leap into. Well, technically, science is only seeing this on a subatomic level so far. But guess what our world is made up of? Yep, subatomic particles. So many scientists have theorized that our world works similarly.

So, how does any of this have to do with the time travel on Lost? Simple. Just like as may be the case with our world, Lost is demonstrating that multiple timelines exist simultaneously. And in order to leap into them, one of the characters has to think about or discuss another one of these times. “In the future you have to…” POOF! You just went into the timeline about the future because that’s what you were thinking about.

Now in our world, you aren’t going to leap into the future whenever you think about it. But the scenarios you tend to think about just might be in the timeline you enter into. So if you are always complaining and thinking about negative things, you will likely move into the timeline of your life where the things you are complaining about are happening. If you have a positive outlook and tend to look on the bright side of things, then that is the timeline you will head into. In other words, your thoughts are attracting you to the timeline where what you are thinking about is occurring. It’s called The Law of Attraction and it’s the principle that the very popular book/movie The Secret is based on. Not surprisingly, Lost has specifically illustrated this very principle at least a couple of times on the show. I plan on discussing which episodes they were and how they teach us to use the principle, but it will have to wait for another column to be posted some time in the future…well, depending on when you’re reading this.

See you in another life, brothers and sisters!

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose new book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and how it provides hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Myth-of-LOST/34096821137

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Lost-Solving-Mysteries-Understanding/dp/0595484565 and Barnesandnoble.com: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Myth-Of-Lost/Marc-Oromaner/e/9780595484560

Technorati Tags: marc oromaner

In “Jughead,” ambiguity is the watchword of the day with very few scenes being what they seemed to be on the surface. Hell, even the reference in the title is ambiguous, since “Jughead” was both the name of an actual experimental H-bomb and of a time-traveling Archie character! (Don’t think they meant the Archie reference? Then why did Widmore’s appropriated uniform say “Jones?”) About the closest thing we got to straightforward was Locke’s closing the time-loop that brings him to the Island and makes him either the resurrected Once and Future Island King™ or else the biggest patsy ever used and abused by this particular hunk of exotic-matter-laden rock, putting even poor Michael to shame.

(Aside: And really, wasn’t it just one of the most cold-blooded moments on the show so far when Island Apparition Christian appeared to pointedly dismiss the at least partially redeemed Michael? No one deserves that…except Nikki & Paulo, of course.)

So let’s start with the Locke subplot before we get to the main course of Desmoliciousness. (I do so love Desmond-based neologisms, or “Desmologisms.” )

Pre-des-tin-a-tion, pre-des-tin-a-yay-tion…it’s making me loop!

That grown-up Locke ended up being the cause for Alpert’s previously-mysterious interest in young Locke may seem anticlimactic to the hardened sci-fi geeks in the house. I mean, we’ve all seen predestination loops before. But that reaction gives short shrift to this scene by focusing too narrowly.

Just as important in the exchange between time-jaunting Locke and 1954 Alpert was the fact that Alpert and the 1954 Others (including promising rookies Charles Widmore and Ellie-probably-Eloise Hawking) seemed ignorant of time travel as a possibility on the Island. It certainly looked to me as thought it was this strange visitation by the class of 2004 that first showed them it was even a possibility and that they should start studying bleeding-edge physics, stat!

In so doing, Locke (and Faraday) actually gave rise to the epic-scale ensurance trap being spearheaded by Hawking and blessed by Alpert (after all, Jacob sent Locke, right?) to ensure that all the Lostaways were aboard fateful flight 815 and Desmond entered Widmore’s sailing race.

It also resulted in the careful grooming of Faraday (who I’m more convinced than ever is Hawking’s son, but more on that later) as a temporal troubleshooter. Think about it…if the sudden disappearance of of the ‘04 Lostaways didn’t completely verify their outlandish story, then the birth of one John Locke in Tustin, CA, a mere two years later certainly did. It also explains the seemingly excessive emotional response by Alpert to 5-year-old Locke’s failure of the Other Lama Test™.

So, while Locke’s role in setting the predestination loop in motion was clarified, his fate was rendered more ambivalent than ever. Locke’s ascension to Other leadership as a child would clearly have gone against the time-stream’s (or maybe just the Island’s) necessary configuration. As Faraday said, most of us can’t change the past. Locke had to fail that test and he had to turn down the “Science Camp” invitation from Mittelos as well. He had to lose the kidney, survive his 8-story fall, be miserable in a wheelchair for some years, crash with Oceanic 815, be miraculously healed, do all the things we’ve seen him do on the Island, and actually die in the service of this grand design.

(Further Aside: Is it just me or does this throw some serious doubt on the ultimate employer of Mr. Matthew Abaddon thanks to his visit to the convalescing Locke? The possibility that he’s a double-agent only pretending to work for Widmore while actually serving Ben, Alpert, and Hawking is intriguing, to say the least.)

Furthermore, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that Jeremy Bentham-vintage Locke actually did not spend three years leading the Others and soaking up Island lore. Instead, bouncing around through time and never managing to get full explanations out of any version of Alpert he meets, he seems more out of control and less clued-in now than he’s ever been (his quick adaptation to using details like when certain rifles were made as temporal landmarks notwithstanding). Increasingly, he looks like the Island’s most-exploited dupe.

But then…it’s still only the beginning of Season 5 with the better part of two full seasons to go and Locke’s biography remains studded with miracles, the list of which I’ve gone through before. I still read this as setting Locke up for the ultimate miracle of resurrection and a chance for our master player of games to finally make the decisive move that “wins” for everyone the show and possibly everyone on Earth. Who knows? Maybe like poor, canceled John Doe, Locke will wake up with the Akashic Records in his head and Jack as his converted apostle. (I really like that scenario, by the way! You listening, Darlton? )

We also got to see that Richard doesn’t merely seem ageless by virtue being a time-traveler, as some had suggested previously, but has actually stayed young for very long periods of time. If anything, the evidence at hand would appear to suggest that Alpert has only ever traveled in time at the usual 1:1 speed. (”How old is he?” “Old.” I still say Alpert, at least, was on the Black Rock, dangit!)

Of course, this segues nicely to those fresh-faced youngsters, Widmore and Ellie…

I had a feeling when I’d met you that I’d seen you before. I saw the city of Paris in civil war…

The fact that Widmore was an Other in 1954 utterly confirms for me the basic premise of my “Others Civil War” hypothesis from last week’s recap, while still forcing me to change the details given that young Widmore would certainly appear to be “temporally appropriate” (ditto Ellie, assuming she’s Hawking, which I very much do!) to the grizzled, vicious old corporate raider in the present day.

Clearly, at some point, Charles tried to usurp power over the Others and the Island for himself. Though now I’m forced to conclude that this happened sometime in the late ’50s or ’60s in order for him to have gotten exiled to the outside world with enough time to spare to become a captain of industry thanks to his mad Other skillz before being the “silent partner” helping fund the DHARMA Initiative in the ’70s.

His ruthlessness was established early on by his willingness to snap his compatriot’s head rather than lead Locke, Sawyer, and Juliet to the Others’ camp. Ditto his arrogance by his inability to see Locke as anything more than “a sodding old man” who couldn’t possibly track His Otherness or know the Island as well as he does. Certainly sounds like the profile of an ill-fated would-be revolutionary and all-around hot-headed malcontent, don’t you think?

Meanwhile, young Ellie was given a really fine reason to start learning all she could about Minkowski space-time and probability by a traveler from the future. She also certainly seems to have ended up off the Island in the future, raising the possibility that she might have been a rebel on Widmore’s side. Possibly even his lover, as some are already theorizing, making Penny and Faraday half-siblings. (And we all know how Lost loves itself some secret half-sibs courtesy of Christian Shephard’s philandering ways…)

For her to turn around and fashion her son into an instrument for either troubleshooting or monkey-wrenching time itself (depending on how you choose to interpret it) would add yet another Dickensian touch to the proceedings. Anyone remember nasty old Miss Havisham, raising her daughter to break the hearts of men as a man had broken her own heart by jilting her at the altar in her youth? I know most of you are still trying to forget ninth grade English, but still…do try to remember your Great Expectations!

Despite all this seeming clarification, we once more find ambiguity in Eloise Hawking’s agenda in the future. Is she ultimately on Ben’s side? Widmore’s? Time’s? Her own? Whatever she is, she’s certainly not some passive Oracle of Time willing to do her thing for all sides without an agenda of her own. Yes, she may be helping Ben and the Oceanic 6 get back to the Island, but is that an alliance of convenience or a true loyalty to Ben (or just against Widmore) on her part? Is she trying to preserve the timeline, as she said to a confused Desmond all the way back in “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” or is that just a smokescreen for her attempt to use Daniel and Des to perpetrate the biggest temporal hack ever undertaken?

So, the reveals that both Widmore and Hawking were once Others, and that Ellie almost certainly grew up to be Eloise Hawking, mother of Daniel Faraday (and really, are those assumed names or what?) may seem par for the course on Lost, but don’t focus too much on the surface. Focus on the murkier depths instead, because meeting their past selves has done little to clarify the future of either character or their progeny.

Also, regarding Ellie, I think people are making wayyyy too much out of her comment to Daniel, “You just couldn’t stay away, could you?” This is a classic misdirection on the part of the Lost writers. This was a comment born out of the initial misapprehension on her part that Daniel, Miles, and Charlotte were somehow connected to the US military, with whom the Others had only recently done battle (and slaughtered to a man), and who left behind the titular Jughead, the H-bomb. It wasn’t Ellie recognizing Faraday at all, though as we heard in subsequent dialogue, Daniel recognized Ellie. (Holy broad hint, Batman!)

(Yet Another Aside: In further ambivalence news, weren’t the young Ellie and Widmore both dead ringers for how we’d expect them to look in their youth while simultaneously having two of the worst attempts at English accents ever heard on television? Oh my, yes!)

Okay, okay…now on to Desmond!

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

I know I can’t be the only one who gets a little misty over Des & Pen getting at least three years of globetrotting, off-the-grid connubial bliss or that they named their adorable little moppet Charlie. (Awwwwww!) But nothing good can ever come of seeming to get your “happily ever after” only two-thirds of the way through the story. And, sure enough, poor Desmond has to go back to Ithaca…er, Oxford…to run another errand for Daniel and all the endangered leftover Lostaways. Being a unique temporal anomaly can really have its down-sides.

And, for all that Desmond showed us a more take-charge side as he stormed into Papa Widmore’s office rather than approaching as a supplicant, he (like Locke) seems to be dancing on the strings of hidden puppeteers. Eagle-eyed viewers have already noticed that the receptionist at Oxford was played by the same actress who played the Oceanic Airlines gate attendant in Sydney who saw flight 815 off. On a show that’s used the same extras to mill around in the background since Season 1, that simply can’t be an oversight on the casting director’s part.

We know for a fact that extra special attention has been paid to the manipulation of one Desmond David Hume’s life—Brother Campbell, Ms. Hawking, Charles Widmore, Libby, Faraday, and no doubt many more have been expending Herculean efforts to ensure that he act as required for as-yet-unknown purposes thanks to his “specialness.” (Yeesh. You turn one little key and suddenly the burden of the entire time-stream is on your shoulders…very unfair, I say!)

So, the trip from her to Faraday’s “sealed” lab to meet the suspiciously helpful caretaker, to poor, time-unstuck Theresa, to Widmore’s office to get the slip of paper with Mama Faraday’s LA address on it seems awfully orchestrated…which only further obfuscates Hawking’s ultimate allegiance if so. And, even if the caretaker was on the up-and-up—an unexpected wrinkle based on Desmond theoretically being rebuffed by the “Daniel’s not here, man!” response from the planted receptionist—it still seems odd that Widmore would know how to find Hawking and be willing to give Desmond that info.

That the destination of Oxford was originally planted in Desmond’s brain by Daniel is also curious. It doesn’t beggar imagination that 2004 Daniel didn’t know that mummy had relocated in the intervening three years to LA, but somehow someone still knew that Desmond Hume would be showing up in Oxford on that lovely 2007 day. Hell, at this point I might be willing to believe it was a future version of Desmond, all Wyld Stallyns style.

It’s going to be one mighty interesting day when Des faces Ms. Hawking again after over a decade, and double trouble to boot since it’ll put Penny and Ben Linus in close proximity. Hopefully, he’ll remember Hawking. That Des couldn’t remember that it was in 1996 that he’d last gone to Oxford with the events of “The Constant” comparatively fresh in his mind (only three years as opposed to eleven years previous) is more than a little unsettling after Charlotte’s memory lapse last episode. If Des has time-travel sickness as a result of Faraday’s implanted memory or as a delayed, dormant effect of the effects of all Des’ other time-jaunts, I’m gonna get mighty pissy.

This is what you want. This is what you get.

Which finally leaves the 800 lb. gorilla in the room, by which I mean the 6-megaton-yield hydrogen bomb, Jughead. The one question I’m not hearing anyone ask, let alone answer, is how the US military managed to stumble its way to this particular Island to test a bomb capable of vaporizing it entirely when Widmore, Ben, and others with astonishing skills and resources can’t find their way there even with very specific intent.

I can only formulate one possible answer to this question: the Island wanted that bomb.

Why? Beats the hell out of me. It clearly didn’t have much use for the military personnel accompanying said bomb as it allowed its faithful servants to mow them down expeditiously. It also prevented the one man likely to have the acumen to “render it inert” from actually doing so by yanking on the ol’ time-strings to leave Faraday and the others goodness knows when.

As has been observed on several occasions, things buried on this particular Island have a way of showing up again, and burying the bomb is exactly what Faraday told the ‘54 Others to do. That means there’s still a highly experimental nuclear fusion bomb with compromised shielding somewhere on this Island fifty years later, thus becoming the single largest instance of Chekhov’s Gun ever seen on network television.

Could the Island be considering suicide like the Luna Central Computer in Steel Beach? On Lost, anything’s possible…

(Final Aside: To all you people out there speculating that Charlie Hume-Widmore somehow time-loops back around to become Charles Widmore, I’m sorry…I really just don’t think that Darlton would have a major character be straight out of a novelty song. There is such a thing as a time-loop too far!)

Technorati Tags: Charles Widmore, Daniel Faraday, Desmond Hume, island, John Locke, jughead, Looking at the Little Things, Lost, Ms. Hawking, predestination, Richard Alpert, Time

Okay, maybe there aren’t a lot of fans saying that. I think it’s those nasty voices in my head again. Sigh…

But back to my original point. I’ve rarely speculated. I know that A) I can come up with an idea, then I’ll get married to it, and then it won’t turn out to be true, and I’ll end up curled up in a fetal position crying my eyes out that my fantasy ending didn’t come true, or B) I can come up with an idea, and it’ll be proven wrong about 5 minutes after I’ve made it, or C) I can come up with an idea, and somehow Darlton, knowing I am a GENIUS, will actually make that the end of the show, and then… well, then I’d be a little disappointed because I figured it out. (By the way, that last one was just so I’d have three points. That would never come true.)

But you know what? It’s season five, and I’m going to join in on the crazy speculatory fun and come up with a theory, so… HERE GOES!

So in the 1950s Charles Widmore decided to join a group of pre-hippy hippies and come to an island in the South Pacific. (I haven’t yet worked out this early part… give me a few weeks.) He meets a tough chick named Ellie, which is short for Eloise. In the mid-60s Eloise and he have a brief affair and she gets pregnant. The child turns out to be Daniel Faraday. Ellie takes the child and leaves the island, and Widmore finds and turns the frozen donkey wheel and is unexpectedly ejected from the island. He returns to England, remarries and has a child named Penny. Years later, Daniel is a professor at Oxford trying to figure out how to time travel, and he names his rat Eloise, after his mum. (Um… nice?) Widmore tracks him down (not hard when they live a stone’s throw from each other) and he’s reluctant to admit that he’s his father, but realizes that Daniel’s work could help him find the island again, and funds it. Penny meets and falls in love with Desmond, then Desmond ends up on the island, then time travels back to the moment where he could have stayed with Penny and NOT gone to the island. Eloise Hawking pops up, encourages him to get his ass back on that bloody island, and he does so. Then Daniel ends up on the island, and Desmond goes back in time to earlier Daniel to give him the correct coordinates of his machine. Then Desmond leaves the island, is reunited with Penny, gets her pregnant, they name the child Charlie. The child grows up, discovers the time machine research that Daniel Faraday had done, goes back in time to the island… and is called Charles Widmore. Penny just gave birth to her own father.

Oh YEAH, baby, this speculation is FUN! And while I’m at it, Hurley is actually Sawyer’s grandson, Ji Yeon is Jin’s great-great-grandfather, and Kate DOESN’T EXIST.

Oh. Right. I just remembered why I don’t speculate. I think I’ll go back to posing questions.

I’ve written up my extended entry on last night’s episode on my blog, but I think the most interesting thing that came out of last night’s episode was the revelation that the woman on the island could actually be Daniel’s mom, Eloise. And where, might you ask, am I getting this name Eloise from? I don’t watch the enhanced versions of the show; most of the “revelations” are things the hardcore fans already noticed. But last night, on my second viewing of “Jughead” (was anyone else wondering when Betty and Veronica were going to show up?), I backed up my PVR to the beginning and it was showing the end of the enhanced version of “The Lie.” Mrs. Hawking is delivering her “May God help us all” line to Ben, and underneath it said, “This woman’s name is Eloise Hawking.” Until then, we’d only known her as Mrs. Hawking, and even THAT was only because it was her name in the script, and never a name she’s been called on-screen.

I LOVED last night’s episode. Loved loved loved it. But, I have to take umbrage with the fact that what would be a key point to the mysteries of Lost is not available to the average viewer. If I hadn’t watched the enhanced version (okay, admittedly, the last minute of the enhanced version), I would have missed the fact that her name was Eloise. Should such an important point really be in a subtitle and not part of the episode? Because I don’t consider that canon. If I watch it when the episode is live, that should be enough. The writers should work this information into the actual episode, and not into a line of the enhanced version. I’d rather not have known her name was Eloise right away. Let me ruminate on that line from Daniel — “You really remind me of someone” — for a few weeks, and think maybe he means Theresa. But to give away key information in a subtitle? I think that’s wrong. It’s like when they revealed the meaning of Hurley’s numbers at the end of The Lost Experience (they fit into a formula that accurately predicts the end of mankind) and then call it canon, meaning you’d have to play along with the Lost Experience to get that. I disagree. I want Lost fans twenty years from now to watch six UNENHANCED seasons of this show and be able to piece together the mysteries. It should either be in the dialogue or in the screen, but it should be canon.

Anyway, that is a small nitpick to a very, very excellent episode. If you want to see me drooling all over it, please come on over and check out the blog! Next week: we return to the Oceanic 6.

Nikki Stafford is the author of the Finding Lost series of books, which offer episode-by-episode guides to each season. The guide to season 4 is now available at Amazon.com. She posts regularly on her television blog, Nik at Nite.

The truth is, I thought LOST 5.03 was a spectacular episode full of chilling reveals and gut wrenching emotional work.  The emoting was mostly off the island, in the capable hands of Penny and Desmond.  Of all the romantic geometry on the show, few couples have succeeded as completely as Desmond and Penny.  The fact that the two named their son Charlie was one of those rare moments of sadness and heart, a small detail that really showed how emotionally connected the writers remain with the story.  On island, the Daniel and Charlotte thing  just feels weird – however, is it possible that Daniel knows Charlotte from another timeline?  It would certainly seem so, otherwise the fact that Daniel ‘loves’ Charlotte, someone he has relatively little history with, comes across as a bit, yeah, creepy.

The Others continue to astound.  Here we see that they are still at their ‘borrowers’ ways.  It reminded me of their rouse throughout season 2 with the bare feet and grubby clothes.  The fact that Charles Widmore was among them is absolutely mind blowing.  Is he of the ageless sort, ala Richard Alpert, or is he a recruit like Juliet was?  Could Elle be Eloise Hawking?

As for my complaint of a ‘cliche’ in Jughead, what I was referring to was the fact that John sent Richard to visit him.  That clears up that mystery, in a way, but the actual element represents a trope over used in time travel stories – imho.  Granted, I’m a die-hard Phillip K. Dick fan, and it is a twist used many times in his own time travel stories.  If you’re seeing this used for the first time on LOST, I envy you.  For me, PKD stories aside, it was enough

times to elicit a small groan.

With Jughead we see our first glimpse at the possible endgame, or one aspect of it.  What kind of impact did that leaky hydrogen bomb have on the island after it was implanted in it?  Did Richard’s people follow Daniel’s instructions for disposing of the bomb safely?  How would the island’s special properties impact a leaky hydrogen bomb anyways?  Something tells me that Jughead will be seen again.

That’s what I have for now, be sure to check back throughout the evening and tomorrow as we dissect the episode further, and don’t forget to check in at our forum to give your own reviews.

The brewskis that Lapidus fetched from Searcher’s fridge have a somewhat ominous label, and name. ‘Jekyll Island’ brings to mind the Robert Lewis Stevenson novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which chronicles the adventures of a man who dabbles with science and winds up cursed with a violent alternate personality.  Could this reflect that one of our characters has a hidden darkside?  Maybe not, Jekyll Island is a real place – an island off the coast of Georgia that is named for a real Mr. Jekyll, who did not have a split personality.

Of course, it could mean nothing at all – since the company “Studio Graphics,” which creates props for television shows, was the one that developed the concept.  Innocent choice, or artful use of found props – you be the judge.

Next up is the massive chalk plotter in Mrs. Hawking’s-or should we say Mrs. Faraday’s?-personal Dharma station.  in case you missed the little Dharma logos plastered all over the binders and the computers, let there be no doubt that this is the off-island Dharma station we’ve heard so much about.  Now about that device that is so strange it had to have been made up…

It’s real. The Foucault pendulum was created to verify that the earth was spinning.  The pendulum required a large electromagnet to run indefinitely; and true to their reputation for attention-to-detail – the set included one (see image below.)  Since the device physically extrapolates a reading between the forces of gravity and the magnetic poles, it is capable of ferreting out any associated abnormalities.  The question here is whether LOST’s pendulum is sussing out minor fluctuations in the earth’s gravitational field, or major shifts that could end up spelling doom for our Losties, and the rest of mankind?

From the perspective of an inertial frame outside of Earth, the suspension point of the pendulum traces out a circular path during one sidereal day. No forces act to make the plane of oscillation of the pendulum rotate – the plane contains the plumb line, so the force acting on the pendulum is parallel to the plane of oscillation at all times. But the plane satisfies the constraint that it contains the plumb line. Thus the plane of oscillation undergoes parallel transport. The difference between initial and final orientations is as given by the Gauss-Bonnet theorem. α is also called the holonomy or geometric phase of the pendulum. Thus, when analyzing earthbound motions, the Earth frame is not an inertial frame, but rather rotates about the local vertical at an effective rate of radians per day, which is the magnitude of the projection of the angular velocity of Earth onto the normal direction to Earth.

From the perspective of an Earth-bound coordinate system with its x-axis pointing east and its y-axis pointing north, the precession of the pendulum is explained by the Coriolis force. Consider a planar pendulum with natural frequency ω in the small angle approximation. There are two forces acting on the pendulum bob: the restoring force provided by gravity and the wire, and the Coriolis force. The Coriolis force at latitude φ is horizontal in the small angle approximation and is given by

where Ω is the rotational frequency of Earth, F_c,x is the component of the Coriolis force in the x-direction and F_c,y is the component of the Coriolis force in the y-direction.

]]> http://www.docarzt.com/lost/lost-easter-eggs/what-was-that-thing-on-lost-501-the-lie-easter-eggs/feed/ 11 http://www.docarzt.com/lost/marc-oromaners-lost-in-myth-uncovering-the-hidden-wisdom-of-lost/ http://www.docarzt.com/lost/marc-oromaners-lost-in-myth-uncovering-the-hidden-wisdom-of-lost/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:35:49 +0000 Marc Oromaner http://www.docarzt.com/?p=3675

We all know that Lost is filled with lots of hidden clues—everything from the books the characters read and the philosophers their names are based on, to the anagrams, whispers, and backwards-talk found in many episodes. While these hints can help us to understand the show, there is something else woven into its many mysteries that is far more valuable to our everyday lives.

Like all great mythology, Lost contains hidden truths about the inner workings of our world. The reason it’s hidden…

We all know that Lost is filled with lots of hidden clues—everything from the books the characters read and the philosophers their names are based on, to the anagrams, whispers, and backwards-talk found in many episodes. While these hints can help us to understand the show, there is something else woven into its many mysteries that is far more valuable to our everyday lives.

Like all great mythology, Lost contains hidden truths about the inner workings of our world. The reason it’s hidden is because the rational, conscious mind isn’t what’s aware of this truth— the unconscious mind is. So, in order to reach that part of you, the story must speak a language that can sneak past your logical, thinking brain and head down to the cellar of your deeper consciousness. This is the realm of symbolism and metaphor, which, as you’ve probably noticed, Lost has quite a bit of.

The show’s main metaphor is the island itself. Breaking it down to its simplest elements, the island contains a very diverse population of inhabitants who always seem to be fighting one another. It has a mysterious history of ancient natives who appear to have had a better understanding of its powers than its current occupants do. These inexplicable powers seem to guide the island’s inhabitants to better themselves through a series of challenges. And finally, the island is in danger of being abused and possibly destroyed. Sound familiar?

In other words, the island of Lost is really planet Earth. All the people on Lost represent all of us, and all the things that happen on Lost are the things that really happen on our world, but our world is just too big for us to notice. Just as the island seems alive, sometimes our world seems alive, leading us to chance encounters and events that almost seem scripted. And whenever we follow the clues, or listen to the whispers, or act in spite of our fears, we take one step closer to our destinies—one step closer to getting off our illusionary island.

In future columns, I’d like to discuss Lost’s mythology in more detail—analyzing mysteries like the whispers and the numbers; themes including time travel, our connections to one another, and the power of our minds to create our realities; and some of the messages Lost is giving us from specific episodes. I’ll also be talking about the themes from the new episodes as they air. There are truly a lot of useful lessons Lost is teaching us—whether we’re conscious of them or not. No matter how the show ends in May of 2010, Lost’s wisdom can stay with us for the rest of our lives, and perhaps, even beyond.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose new book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and how it provides hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Myth-of-LOST/34096821137

The Myth of Lost is available on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Lost-Solving-Mysteries-Understanding/dp/0595484565 and barnesandnoble.com: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Myth-Of-Lost/Marc-Oromaner/e/9780595484560

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