Intro: Bafte Gets LOST

Making It Up as They Go Along?

Directing LOST

Writing LOST

Carlton’s Big Break

Damon’s Big Break

Jack Bender’s Big Break

Technorati Tags: carlton cuse, damon lindelof, Jack Bender, Lost

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

I am thrilled to announce a Twitter-based trivia contest for Lost fans who are attending Comic-Con 2009!

From Wednesday through Saturday of next week in San Diego, I will be handing out Lost t-shirts, DVDs and books that have been referenced on the show, among other related items. You may even be able to win one of the limited edition bloody Ben Linus bobbleheads…

The rules are simple and as follows:

• You must be a true Lost fan; I will quiz you to confirm
• You must be attending Comic-Con 2009
• You must have a Twitter account & follow me
• One entry per question per person
• You can only win once
• You may phone/tweet-a-friend for assistance

As Doc mentioned, I will be at the last ever Lost panel on Saturday, July 25, providing live tweets and details here about content and surprise guests. My tentative plan is to spend the night in line, and the majority of the trivia questions will be posted from 5am-10am on Saturday as thousands of us wait for the big event.

The first person to tweet the correct answer to a posted trivia question (replying to @jopinionated) will win, and we can then set up a location and time to receive your prize in person. Don’t worry, I will be everywhere and you can’t miss me; look for the blood red tees (in honor of Juliet, naturally) with the custom white Lost logos.

So add me on Twitter if you haven’t already, and spread the word to your fellow Lost friends who will also be attending!  For those of you who will not be joining us in San Diego, you will also have plenty of opportunities to win; I will be hosting a similar giveaway on my Lost blog after Comic-Con.

Thank you in advance for playing!

-Jo

Technorati Tags: Comic-con, Lost

Something I’ve long been fascinated with is how movies and TV shows with similar themes always seem to come out at the same time. While some of this can be explained by Hollywood’s copycat formula of success stories (vampires are back again thanks to Twilight and True Blood) or current fads (notice the plethora of 3-D films lately — especially in animation?), what I’m talking about goes a bit deeper. I’m referring to the tendency of certain story themes to come out in very close proximity to one another.  It’s as if there’s some kind of new information that humanity is ready to learn that’s buzzing around our collective unconscious. And writers, artists, poets, and even musicians — all being the modern-day shamans that they are — pick up on it and translate it into messages for us mere mortals to subliminally interpret.

I first noticed this tendency back in the late 1980s. I remember thinking how odd it was that all these adult/child switcheroo movies were coming out at the same time.  There was Like Father Like Son, Vice-Versa, 18 Again, Big and a few others. It’s easy to assume that after the success of Big, Hollywood just jumped on the switcheroo bandwagon, but actually, Big came out after those other films. Looking at our superficial society in the late 80s, perhaps the message of these films was to help us get back in touch with our inner-child. (With the more recent 13 Going on 30 and 17 Again in these stressful times, perhaps it’s time for a reminder.)

Then, in the late 90s we had a ton of cities-getting-destroyed movies. There was Independence Day, Armageddon, Deep Impact, and Godzilla just to name some. Could this have been some kind of subliminal warning about 9/11? More recently we’ve had disaster films like The Day After Tomorrow, The Happening, and The Day the Earth Stood Still (remake) where nature seems to fight back against humanity.  In the wake of An Inconvenient Truth, is this some kind of wake-up call to begin taking better care of the planet? Interesting how all those movies relate to a time, i.e., a “day” or “happening.” The message seems to be that we need to get moving now or face the consequences.

Within the last couple years, superpowers movies — either with superheroes or ordinary people gaining super abilities — have been off the charts. Last summer alone, a new superpower film seemed to come out nearly every week. Is this a hint to some kind of new evolution coming for humanity? And what’s with all the time-travel themes lately? This year alone we’ve had the theme creeping into Lost and the new Star Trek movie, and there was also Land of the Lost, and of course another Terminator film. Interestingly though, the theme of the new Terminator didn’t relate to time travel as much as the question over what defines humanity. With technology becoming so advanced, that is an issue we are likely going to have to deal with in the next fifty years if not sooner.

My point in bringing all this up is to demonstrate that the similar themes and concepts of movies and TV shows are not just coincidental. There are real messages for us to pay attention to. So after watching Knowing and noting its many similarities to Lost, I began to wonder what the message was and if it could give us a hint about the conclusion of the show, or possibly even what’s to come in the real world.

Both Lost and Knowing contain apocalyptic themes. Early on in Lost, it wasn’t particularly obvious, but there were hints. Many fans noted that The HANSO Foundation was an anagram for NOAHS…as in the ark that saved life on earth. In Knowing (I need to give away some spoilers here so stop here if you don’t want ‘em) there were alien crafts that captured all species of life on earth to bring them to safety (I believe this also happened in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still as well). Getting back to Lost, there’s also the fact that Oceanic Flight 815 might refer to Genesis 8:15, where God tells Noah to rebuild civilization after the flood.

So is the whole point of Lost about saving humanity (or a select group of humans) from the end of the world? Is that where the story is going? While I’m not sure yet if this theme will be contained within the actual story, or just within the moral of the story, the show does seem to be heading in this direction.  I spoke a bit about cataclysm theories in The Myth of Lost — especially as they relate to the numbers. What if the numbers are not just a serial number of the Swan Station but a date for the end of the world — 4/8/15 at 16:23:42? While this theory has been around for a while, in light of the events of the season five finale, and a very similar use of a sequence of numbers in Knowing, it does give it new weight. The apocalyptic undertones of season five and Knowing also shed new light on another aspect of the Lost mythology.

Early in season one, we see two skeletons referred to as “Adam and Eve.” Surely, this nickname, which seemed like a joke at the time, was no accident. Will the old humanity be destroyed only to bring in a new Adam and Eve to repopulate the world (Aaron and Ji Yeon perhaps)? Is this the point of Lost, or simply another one of its hidden messages about the real world? In Knowing, the Adam and Eve theme is shown almost literally — with a tree of knowledge and everything. This is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil — a theme Lost focuses on quite often. Who is good? Who is evil? What is right? What is wrong? If you look deeper at the Biblical good and evil mythology, it’s not really so much about morality as is commonly interpreted, but about the material world we live in: a world of right and wrong, life and death, up and down, physicality, time, and the senses. These are aspects that did not exist in the Garden of Eden until humanity ate the forbidden fruit. It’s all an allegory for the creation of the physical universe. A world where we can experience ourselves as separate beings who seemingly have the freedom of choice to live life as we want.

According to all these media messages however, this world, as we know it may be coming to an end. On the one hand that could mean that the veil between our physical/illusionary world and the infinite world beyond may be thinning. On the other, it can be a warning that our days living on this planet may be numbered. Either way, it would seem that Lost, Knowing, and similar stories are telling us that humanity may be in for drastic changes.  We will probably end up stronger when this cleansing is complete, but getting there is going to involve a lot of growing pains for many of us. And those who cannot deal with this new world may not be coming along. Already, we see how the old greedy paradigms are failing, the selfish people are falling, the cheats, liars, and assorted scoundrels are being busted, and those who represent the flashy epitome of ego are dying.

Yes, there are certainly a lot of clues out there in stories beyond Lost. But one thing that Lost has taught us is how to look for them.  In fact, I think that has been one of the more important purposes of the whole show — to teach us that the clues of the universe are all around us — not just on Lost. As we move ever closer to Lost’s final episodes, that knowledge is reassuring indeed. The search for clues will not end with Lost. Regardless of its solution, the show has opened our eyes to a whole new beginning.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

Technorati Tags: abc, Knowing, Lost, Lost In Myth, marc oromaner, Numbers, the myth of lost

Much like Jacob’s tapestry featured at the beginning of “The Incident,” Lost has woven a story filled with symbolism, mythology, and mystery. As Jacob says at the end of the two-part episode, “It takes a very long time when you’re making the thread. But I suppose that’s the point, isn’t it?” Well, I guess it’s the point when you have a moneymaking TV show and you need to keep audiences involved long enough to get to syndication and sell tons of merchandise. But most of the best stories I know are brilliant in their simplicity. This includes most nursery rhymes, tall tales, fables, and myths. Of course, you also have your Lord of the Rings and your Alice in Wonderlands, so there is hope for Lost to stand the test of time. Just like these other complex stories, Lost weaves together many themes that have helped to make it so meaningful. This is especially true in its final episode of the season.

Once again, the main theme of the episode, the theme of the fifth season, and perhaps the theme of the entire show is that of fate versus freewill. Is life a constant, and “whatever happened, happened” or are we the variables, as Daniel Faraday came to believe, with the freedom to choose? Jacob seems to represent this freedom. He specifically reminds Hurley and Ben that they are free to choose their paths, bails young Kate out of her crime, doesn’t stop young James from writing his letter to Sawyer, tells the insecure Jack that sometimes things just need a little push, and gives his blessing to the tumultuous marriage of Jin and Sun. Does this make him good or evil? Based on his white shirt compared with his opponent’s black one, we are being led to believe that he is good. After all, he’s allowing the freedom to choose. But as with many of the characters of Lost, I don’t think that either of these two beings is good or bad. Like Ben and Widmore, they just have different beliefs — issues to be worked out, as Jacob said. These issues seem to set the seed level for every character in the hierarchy below them.

Regardless of whether Jacob is on the side of good or evil though, I would say that he represents the guardian angel motif. This guardian angel can look out for us like Cinderella’s fairy godmother or the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi, or, it can be a troublemaker like the trickster fairy, Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, whose mischief challenges us to become stronger. All throughout the flashbacks, we see how Jacob allows the Losties to choose their path, yet, he gives them little nudges along the way to help them stay on it — for better or worse.  By bailing Kate out of her crime, did he teach her that she could get away with it, or encourage her to avoid it with her promise? By pulling Sayid aside, he saved his life, but allowed Nadia to be hit by a car. By telling the insecure Jack that sometimes things just need a little push, was he easing the argument he’d just had with his father, or setting up his tendency to always push things too far? Really, it’s up to the recipient of Jacob’s help to decide because he’s allowing them the freedom to live their life as they wish. He’s just occasionally intervening to guide them in the general direction of their destiny. This is actually in line with my own beliefs about fate and freewill.

In my last column, I wondered if there’s, “a general path that life wants us to take, and when we drift, it nudges us back in the general direction we’re meant to go.” I later stated, “We have freedom of choice when it comes to the details. But ultimately, life will steer you [towards your destiny].”  I went on to say that we just might get to see this message played out during the fifth season finale. We did. But not in the way I thought we would. I thought we’d get to see it through the incident itself. This may turn out to be the case for season six. In this episode however, we saw the theme play out through Jacob.

At the start of “The Incident” we learn that Jacob has brought the Blackrock ship to the shores of the island in hopes of proving his adversary wrong. This adversary, who we’ll call Essau since he was Jacob’s adversarial brother in the Bible, believes that when left to their own devices mankind is evil. “They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt — it always ends the same.” To which Jacob replies, “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”

Watching this scene, I was reminded of the film Trading Places, where brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke make a one-dollar bet over whether people are born bad, or if it’s a result of life circumstances. Using two unwitting characters (played by Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy) as the pawns in their twisted game, the brothers manipulate the characters’ lives to see which of their theories is correct. Considering the opening scene of this episode, and all the times Lost has alluded to games, the insinuation seems to be that all the turmoil that has occurred on the island, and perhaps the world, is the result of a little game. A game played with human lives by two supernatural beings. Perhaps the reason the show is called Lost isn’t because the characters are physically lost or mentally lost, but because they are pawns in a game that will be won or lost with their lives.

So who are the two players of this game? Since Jacob lives within the four-toed statue, it seems that we are meant to think that this is him. While the identity of this statue, finally revealed in this episode, will probably be debated for the next nine months, it definitely looked like it had the face of a crocodile.  Along with its Egyptian garb and two ankhs, the statue is most likely, Sobek, the Egyptian god of fertility and repairer of evil that had been done. Since Jacob appears to be attempting to repair evil, this fits him well. We also know that eventually his statue will crumble and that this likely coincides with the time when women on the island can no longer conceive. From this perspective, Jacob would appear to be good since babies and those who repair evil are good things. Speaking of which, isn’t this Jack’s MO — his obsession with fixing things? Could he be related? Perhaps Jack, Christian, and Claire are offspring of Jacob, explaining why the latter two were able to live in Jacob’s cabin — assuming it ever actually was Jacob’s cabin and the people Locke saw inside actually were Claire and Christian.

At the very least, Ilana, Bram , and Richard seem to think Jacob is good.What lies in the shadow of the statue? Some Latin phrase that apparently translates to, “He who shall protect (or save or watch over) us all.” But how do we even know that Richard and company are good? If they are all demons that are to be saved, that doesn’t speak well for Jacob. Even if they are good, Jacob lies in the shadow of the statue. Perhaps that phrasing is intentional. If there’s anything that Lost teaches us, it’s to never assume anything. We do get at least one other clue though — Jacob’s tapestry. At the top is a quote from The Odyssey in Greek which translates to, “May the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires.” Surely, it is a benevolent god that would wish such things. Then again, doesn’t the realm of desire belong to Satan? Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but the point is, thanks to Lost’s many plot twists, we really can’t know anything for sure. But we can speculate, and that’s half the fun on this show. Maybe Lost is tricking us with the white-shirted Jacob and his black-shirted killer and Jacob is the one who’s evil. Sure his followers claim to be the good guys, but as Frank Lapidus pointed out, usually those who insist they’re the good guys, aren’t.

Perhaps some insight can be gleaned by looking at Jacob’s opponent. Who exactly is this guy and how come Jacob didn’t mention his name? Well, if Jacob is Sobek, according to the popular vote on the Lost boards, that would make the other guy Seth — the Egyptian god of chaos and infertility. This would again explain the problem pregnancies assuming he comes to power after the statue crumbles. So, maybe Seth is actually the bad guy after all, or maybe they both are, or maybe it doesn’t even really matter. In fact, I’m not so sure that any of this will ever be spelled out for us, or if any of it is even relevant to the ultimate plot.  Like Trading Places, Lost is about the pawns, not the players. The pawns are who we are meant to relate to. We may all be a part of God, but in this illusionary world we live in, we’re just the characters playing out the game of life. The best we can hope for is to win.

Fate, freewill, gods, and games, and I’ve only just scratched the surface of the themes in this episode. At risk of turning this into a tome, I’ll just quickly reference two more. The first is one I haven’t really discussed much before and that is the theme of science versus spirituality. Besides fate and freewill, there is a sub-question that this episode seems to ask: Is it the experiments of DHARMA and the advancements of science that moves humanity forward, perhaps even saving us as Radzinsky claims? Or is it the work of supernatural guides like Jacob and our faith in God that saves us? Yet another timely topic as this theme is explored in the book and film Angels and Demons that comes out this week. Specifically, the story asks whether science and spirituality are polar opposites, or, if they are in fact telling us the same thing. Just as with the yin and yang, faith and freewill, or Jack Shephard and John Locke, I believe each completes the other. This may, in fact, even be the lesson for Jacob and his killer. Neither of them is right or wrong.

The final theme I’d like to bring up from this episode, is one I’ve covered quite a bit and pretty much makes up the bulk of my book. This is the theme of redemption. Are we brought into this world to overcome our issues? According to the mythology of Lost, the answer is, “yes.”  This is how we win the game, or at least, get out of it. From the very beginning of the series, we’ve seen that all of the characters have major life issues. Through a series of challenges, the island helps them solve these issues, and once they do, they die. In this episode, it was Juliet’s turn to burn. Before arriving on the island, Juliet was timid, afraid to stand up for herself, and, as we learn from a flashback featured in this episode, confused about her parents’ divorce.  Her parents tell her that just because two people love each other, doesn’t mean they should be together. Young Juliet doesn’t understand but her mother promises that one day she would.

In “The Incident,” Juliet calls the shots on the sub, knocks out a crewmember which leads to her being able to escape with Sawyer and Kate, and then helps convince Sawyer and Kate to help Jack after all. She definitely solved her whole timid thing. Then she comes to terms with her relationship with Sawyer, realizing that love isn’t enough, fully conquering her remaining issue. And that’s when she died. Or at least, seems to have died. Again, you can never assume anything with this show. Still, looking at the arc of her character, her solved issues, and her red shirt, I think it’s a sure bet that in this timeline at least, Juliet is gone.

For the most part, Lost seems to be sticking with the precedents it established early in season one. However, I do question the personification of freewill and fate in the forms of Jacob and his opponent respectively.  Up until now, the writers have treated fans as though we are smart enough to pick up on these themes through metaphors such as time travel and through the choices of the show’s characters. To express them in the forms of ancient Egyptian gods seems to bring them closer to the realm of a fairytale. For me, this makes Lost’s storyline less relevant to today’s audiences. Most of us cannot relate to the myths of Egyptian gods as well as we can relate to the mythology of say, The Wizard of Oz, The Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. So why go there? The idea that fate is a result of the rigidity of our timeline or the programming of a video game — I totally get that. The idea that it is the result of one Egyptian god killing his brother who had the opposite view, not so much. If anything, it seems to be taking a step backwards.

We already have tons of Egyptian, Greek, and Nordic myths that cover these themes. A good mythological story updates them so modern audiences can understand how they pertain to their lives. Even if Jacob isn’t a god, he’s still living in the statue of one, doesn’t age, creates hieroglyphics, and can resuscitate the dead. As fascinating as all this has been, I want to see Lost bring the story back to themes and characters I can relate to. I don’t care how fantastical the story becomes, as long as all the themes are consistent with one another. Egyptian god statues, Biblical names, creatures named after Greek mythology (i.e., Cerebus the smoke monster), time travel, ghosts, Buddhist concepts, book and movie references, and spiritual themes all seem to be a bit much. I know that mythology all borrows elements from one another, but they don’t usually take a little bit from everything and jumble it together. For me, the only way Lost can successfully navigate its own convoluted myth and come to a satisfying conclusion is if there is something bigger going on. Something else beyond Jacob — a twist that puts everything in perspective. While it seems increasingly unlikely that the show is going there, I’ve still enjoyed the ride and have definitely learned a lot.  Still, if I don’t get some major answers next season, I’m going to be disappointed.

Many fans point to how many answers we got this season — about Rousseau, DHARMA, and how the Oceanic Six got back to the island. Great, but none of that really has to do with the mythology. Even the mythological answers we got just raised more questions. Locke was dead, then alive, now dead again — but what’s the story behind this doppelganger of his? Ilana is working for Jacob. So, who is she exactly and why did she have bandages all over her face? Is she someone we’d recognize who’d gotten plastic surgery? We see the statue is an Egyptian god, but who built it, why, how did it get destroyed, and why does Jacob have to stay there? Is he that god, if not, how does he have powers?

There are still thousands of questions. I don’t expect Lost to answer them all, but I expect answers to the big ones, and I haven’t even mentioned the smoke monster, the numbers, Christian Shephard, Desmond’s time traveling, Walt’s powers, the food drops, the eyeball close-ups, everyone being connected, Kate’s horse, Hurley’s friend Dave, the pregnancy issues, the whispers, the polar bears, the Hurley bird, Libby, Mikhail’s revivals, the Black Rock, Henry Gale, the skeletons with the black and white stones in their pockets, and the basic origins of the island. To me, these are big questions and if they are not answered directly, I feel like I should be able to figure them out from the solution Lost leaves us with.

So, getting back to my original question, what if Lost concludes without meeting our expectations? Has it all been worth it? In the immortal words of Aerosmith I’d like to remind everyone that “life’s a journey, not a destination.” We’ve learned so much on this journey — that we’re all connected, there are no accidents, and the universe gives us clues to help us on our paths. Even if you don’t believe any of these themes, the show contains real wisdom that can help us with our own life challenges — wisdom we’ve learned through the perspective of the characters and through the lessons of the episodes. No matter how Lost ends, I believe that if we listen out for the whispers, overcome the smokey monster of self-doubt, and use our connections, we will succeed on our journey through life. Even if the ending of Lost leaves us more lost than ever.

Marc Oromaner is a New York City writer whose book, The Myth of Lost offers a simple solution to Lost and uncovers its hidden insight into the mysteries of life. He can be contacted in the discussion section of The Myth of Lost Facebook page.

The Myth of Lost is available on Amazon and barnesandnoble.com.

Technorati Tags: abc, Angels and Demons, Jacob, Lost, Lost In Myth, marc oromaner, mystery, mythology, philosophy, series, show, Sobek, solution, spirituality, television review, the incident, the myth of lost, The Odyssey, The Variable, Trading Places, tv

Brace yourselves LOST fans, because next year, in January, Lost will begin its sixth and final season as a television series. The excruciatingly long hiatus leading us to the end will begin by the end of the night and I can’t imagine anything worse than waiting that long just to watch the final chapter of a story that I don’t want to end at all. But all of this The End is Coming stuff got me thinking about how to pass the time this summer (and fall). For some time now I’ve wanted to go back and rewatch the entire series, from beginning to end, but it’s never felt like quite the right time for me…until now.

Myself, and the rest of the staff here at Docarzt and Friends would like you all to partake on this journey with us over the hiatus. It will be like a book club and a watch party mixed together. Here are the details.

• We’re going to watch all of Lost, and I mean all of it, from season 1 up thru season 5 in the next 7 months. We’ll all watch the same episodes each week (if you choose to participate), and then meet back here, at Doc’s at the end of the week to discuss and give our thoughts.
• Most week’s will require us to watch 4 episodes between Monday and Saturday (though some weeks only have 3 episodes on the schedule).
• I’ll write a single article that covers all of that week’s episodes each Sunday, giving a very brief synopsis and then dive into the items that I found interesting, based on things we now know. At the end of the article I will link to additional blogs and other lost fansites who will be writing their own take on the same episodes, as well as any additional resources you may find interesting.
• Then, each of you will have the opportunity to respond and give your thoughts as well, in the comments. We hope that you will all join us and watch the episodes with us each week, however, even if you just want to pop on the site every Sunday night (or Monday morning!) and see what we all had to say, that’s fine as well.
• So far Lost blogger JOpinionated is onboard to give us her reWATCHING thoughts each week, and Sledgeweb’s Lost Stuff will also feature one to two articles a week on the past episodes, focusing mostly on the mysteries, both solved and not solved.  Other Lost sites are encouraged to join us in this endeavor and keep the community riding high this summer.

Nothing will better prepare us, or be as much fun as doing this as a community. So while the days are growing shorter, and the sadness of the end looms over us, we can rejoice in all that made us fall in love with this series to begin with, and maybe even pickup a few new clues in the process. So remember, after Lost ends its fifth season there’s still work to be done. Come back to Docarzt.com regularly, every week, and reWATCH Lost with us.

reWATCHING LOST will begin on June 1.  Below is the schedule of episodes to be covered each week.

If you’re interested in participating in this event, and you’d like us to link to your articles each week, please email me at astrojones@gmail.com with the subject of “reWatching Lost” and I’ll give you any necessary details.

June 1 – June 7
	-S1E01 – Pilot: Part 1
	-S1E02 – Pilot: Part 2
	-S1E03 – Tabula Rasa
	-S1E04 – Walkabout
June 8 – June 14
	-S1E05 – White Rabbit
	-S1E06 – House of the Rising Sun
	-S1E07 – The Moth
	-S1E08 – Confidence Man
June 15 – June 21
	-S1E09 – Solitary
	-S1E10 – Raised by Another
	-S1E11 – All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues
	-S1E12 – Whatever the Case May Be
June22 – June 28
	-S1E13 – Hearts and Minds
	-S1E14 – Special
	-S1E15 – Homecoming
	-S1E16 – Outlaws
June 29 – July 5
	-S1E17 – …In Translation
	-S1E18 – Numbers
	-S1E19 – Deus Ex Machina
July 6 – July 12
	-S1E20 – Do No Harm
	-S1E21 – The Greater Good
	-S1E22 – Born to Run
July 13 – July 19
	-S1E23 – Exodus: Part 1
	-S1E24/25 – Exodus: Part 2
	-S2E01 – Man of Science, Man of Faith
	-S2E02 – Adrift
July 20 – July 26
	-S2E03 – Orientation
	-S2E04 – Everybody Hates Hugo
	-S2E05 – …And Found
	-S2E06 – Abandoned
July 27 – Aug 2
	-S2E07 – The Other 48 Days
	-S2E08 – Collision
	-S2E09 – What Kate Did
	-S2E10 – The 23rd Psalm
Aug 3 – Aug 9
	-S2E11 – The Hunting Party
	-S2E12 – Fire + Water
	-S2E13 – The Long Con
	-S2E14 – One of Them
Aug 10 – Aug 16
	-S2E15 – Maternity Leave
	-S2E16 – The Whole Truth
	-S2E17 – Lockdown
	-S2E18 – Dave
Aug 17 – Aug 23
	-S2E19 – S.O.S.
	-S2E20 – Two for the Road
	-S2E21 – ?
Aug 24 – Aug 30
	-S2E22 – Three Minutes
	-S2E23/24 – Live Together, Die Alone
	-S3E01 – A Tale of Two Cities
	-S3E02 – The Glass Ballerina
Aug 31 – Sept 6
	-S3E03 – Further Instructions
	-S3E04 – Every Man for Himself
	-S3E05 – The Cost of Living
	-S3E06 – I Do
Sept 7 – Sept 13
	-S3E07 – Not in Portland
	-S3E08 – Flashes Before Your Eyes
	-S3E09 – Stranger in a Strange Land
	-S3E10 – Tricia Tanaka Is Dead
Sept 14 – Sept 20
	-S3E11 – Enter 77
	-S3E12 – Par Avion
	-S3E13 – The Man from Tallahassee
	-S3E14 – Expose
Sept 21 – Sept 27
	-S3E15 – Left Behind
	-S3E16 – One of Us
	-S3E17 – Catch-22
Sept 28 – Oct 4
	-S3E18 – D.O.C.
	-S3E19 – The Brig
	-S3E20 – The Man Behind the Curtain
Oct 5 – Oct 11
	-S3E21 – Greatest Hits
	-S3E22/23 – Through the Looking Glass
	-S4E01 – The Beginning of the End
Oct 12 – Oct 18
	-S4E02 – Confirmed Dead
	-S4E03 – The Economist
	-S4E04 – Eggtown
Oct 19 – Oct 25
	-S4E05 – The Constant
	-S4E06 – The Other Woman
	-S4E07 – Ji Yeon
Oct 26 – Nov 1
	-S4E08 – Meet Kevin Johnson
	-S4E09 – The Shape of Things to Come
	-S4E10 – Something Nice Back Home
Nov 2 – Nov 8
	-S4E11 – Cabin Fever
	-S4E12 – There’s No Place Like Home: Part 1
	-S4E13/14 – There’s No Place Like Home: Part 2
Nov 9 – Nov 15
	-S5E01 – Because You Left
	-S5E02 – The Lie
	-S5E03 – Jughead
Nov 16 – Nov 22
	THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov 23 – Nov 29
	-S5E04 – The Little Prince
	-S5E05 – This Place is Death
Nov 30 – Dec 6
	-S5E06 – 316
	-S5E07 – The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham
	-S5E08 – LaFleur
Dec 7 – Dec 13
	-S5E09 – Namaste
	-S5E10 – He’s Our You
	-S5E11 – Whatever Happened, Happened
Dec 14 – Dec 20
	-S5E12 – Dead is Dead
	-S5E13 – Some Like It Hoth
	-S5E14 – The Variable
Dec 21 – Dec 27
	CHRISTMAS BREAK
Dec 28 – Jan 3
	-S5E15 – Follow the Leader
	-S5E16/17 – The Incident

Technorati Tags: hiatus, Lost, rewatching, summer 2009

Read the whole article here.

Technorati Tags: Invasion, Life on mars, Lost, The Nine, The Unusuals

For my first effort here are my caps from ‘Dead is Dead’.

12►

Technorati Tags: Lost, lost season 5, Screencaps

One MIGHT say that the LOST writer’s room is trying to inch closer and closer to the redemption line with Ben Linus.  I think that would be a huge mistake.  None-the-less, some of Mr. Linus’s vulnerabilities were quite revealing.  Revealing enough to forgive genocide?  Perhaps not.

“Dead is Dead” was a weaveworld of Ben Linus deceptions.  For the first time we got to see Ben operate without the average guy facade.  We saw the incredulous ‘who me?’ mask thrown on as needed. We saw that every move he makes is a manipulation.  He at first seems to be turning on Locke, we later learn he is merely flushing out the weapons.  In fact, the only thing Ben was consistent on links directly to the chink in his armor: children.

Ben went through with his judgment without turning the situation on its ear – his agony over the death of his daughter and his role in the situation was real, just as his willingness – nay, need – to be judged.  Perhaps most interesting was the parallel between Ben’s commitment to facing his ‘own’ kind of music, to his inability to keep his commitment to his own need for revenge.  Killing Penny seemed a cold and apt act in the wake of Widmore’s volition of rule-breaking.

The site of Penny’s child, though, was a turning point for Ben – connected through the needlepoint of the episode.  His task, in some regards, was no different than the mission to kill Danielle.  He arrived, and at the site of the child changed the rules of the game himself – disobeying his ‘leader’ for a higher moral ground.  In both the seizing of Alex and the sparing of Penny, Ben disobeys the Widmore nature – he doesn’t seem to have the backbone for this kind of evil.

All of this revives the question that continues to spin on its own momentum: who is the bad guy between these two?  “Dead is Dead” is win one for the Linus fans of the world.  Widmore is far more cold blooded than Ben, at least when it comes to children.  However, a note of caution to Ben-ites and LOST writers as well; true redemption will elude Ben Linus always, regardless of how popular he becomes.  Make all of the Darth Vader comparisons you like.

Sure, even though Anakin stood by while a whole planet was blow’d up real good, and we still cheered when he threw the emperor over the rail.  We were also always aware of this greater evil that seemed to pulling his strings, not to mention an overarching mythology that included an equal opportunity corruptor known as the dark-side of the force.  Ben linus has neither of these plot conveniences on stand-by to save him from the horrors of gassing the men and women of the Dharma Initiative, or any of the many smaller sociopathic displays Ben has snickered through.

Finding the human side of a psychopath is always the most fascinating part of stories that choose to go there, as long as they do not lead blindly to a redemption that fails to bring the villain to any kind of justice.  It’s an argument that makes returning to the question of who is the good guy/bad guy between Widmore/Linus all that much more volatile.  Personally, I’ll stick to “worse of two evils” line, and hope that at the end of the day the ghosts of New Otherton are waiting to drag a sneering Ben Linus to his just desserts.

Technorati Tags: Ben, dead is dead, locke, Lost

I’ve already given my personal theory on whether or not Little Ben is dead. This still remains a hotly debated topic with some people saying this has all happened before, and others saying Sayid changed everything when he hand delivered the gift of steel to Little Ben’s middle regions. I’m on the Little Ben is alive, and this has happened before side. Why?

The episode is called: “Whatever Happened, Happened”

I feel like that says it all right there. The infamous words from Dr. Faraday help sum up what’ll most likely be the overall feeling for the rest of the season. As we saw last week, Sayid shoots Ben. Is this something new? No, Sayid has always shot Ben. Big Ben recognized 815 Sayid as the same guy who shot him when he was a kid. Also…how does Big Ben know that Sayid is nothing more than a killer? Because Sayid told Little Ben right before he shot him.

Thank you, Miles!

I really hope the next few episodes start to put to rest some of the “So and so will remember this in 2004 now right?” theories. The answer to that question, is…no. As Miles says, they haven’t experienced this yet. How can they remember something they haven’t experienced yet? Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Juliet, etc may be in the past, in regards to time and the universe, but in terms of their life, they’re still in THEIR present. Jack isn’t going to suddenly remember in 2004 that he refused to save Ben when he was a kid. Because 2004 Jack hasn’t experienced this yet.

But what about Desmond, you say?

Right we did see Desmond wake up in 2007ish with a brand new memory. How did this happen? Basically, because a new memory was inserted into Desmond’s past. Which caused present Desmond to be given this new knowledge. The same thing could have happened if Faraday met Jack in 2002 at the hospital and said: “Hey, someday you’ll meet some one named Ben Linus. Do not trust him, ever.” And boom! Jack has a new memory. That’s just an example, by the way. I don’t think that’d happen, because you can’t change things like that. Unless it’s Desmond, because the rules don’t apply to him.

Jack’s being a…what’s the term, Rebecca? Doodie head?

So Jack does not want to save Little Ben. A good point was brought up in the comments on the video’s page, about whether or not Jack will eventually succumb to his nuerotic need to fix things. I wonder how long he’ll hold the feeling that somewhere, something is being fixed, and he’s not a part of it. I think Jack is going to cave. He’ll be a jerk about it, but eventually he’ll do it. Remember, he was a jerk once about fixing Ben’s tumor, and eventually he did that. Kate and Juliet and Sawyer will all guilt trip him into it, and mention that their whole lie could come unglued if people find out what’s going on. And Hurley will talk about how he’s afraid of disappearing. Then, in the end, Jack will come to the rescue, being the hero that the island needs him to be.

Hurley + Miles = Miley?

I’m hoping we get to see the start of a Hurley/Miles pairing. Two comedic characters, each with their own sense of humor…I think it’ll bring an awesome element to this season. Judging from one of the press releases for an upcoming episode, it looks like this won’t be the last we see of the duo hanging out. The only thing I’d be worried about here is Miles’ safety. Both the people Hurley’s gotten close to on the island have died. First Libby, then Charlie. Even poor Tricia Tanaka took a dirt nap while around this guy. Could Miles be next? Maybe we’ve been wrong about Hurley all along. Could it be possible that he’s more than just a rich unlucky guy stuck on an island? What if there’s more than meets the eye here? I’m going to go out on a limb with this one. Hurley doesn’t know it, but he’s actually the grim reaper in a fat suit.

Give me some Richard this week!

This work last week. I asked for some Ben, and we got some Ben. Now I want some Richard! I beg thee, Lost Gods, just give me a scene with Richard. Every time that guy’s on screen, it seems like you hear the entire Lost community cheer in unison. Is there anyone out there that just doesn’t like this guy? I’m hoping with the whole Sayid being a hostile/Little Ben getting shot thing, he’s bound to show up soon. Maybe he’ll confront Sayid in the jungle. Or maybe he’ll find a gunned down Little Ben, and tell him that his patience will be rewarded. Just give us our Richard fix. Just enough to hold us off for when the heavy stuff starts coming. Because he’ll definitely be around for that.

Spoiler! This is Aaron as an adult!

Blah.I’m guessing a flashback to what she did with Aaron. Do I care? No. I don’t care at all. Call me heartless, but Kate could’ve dropped Aaron off at a shelter for all I care. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I can’t stand baby “actors.” They’re worthless, and never provide any real purpose to things. And if you’re going to argue: “But they’re cute!” That’s fine. But Aaron is not cute. It’s almost as if Charlie was predicting the future when he gave the nickname “Turnip Head.” What do I think Kate did with Aaron? Like most people, I think she probably gave him to Cassidy. This means we’ll get to see “awesome” scenes with Cassidy and Kate, and if we’re lucky, baby Aaron and baby Clementine! Woooo…anyone else as excited for all the baby action we may see?

Alright so that’s it. Let me just say, I expect another slow week. But I really think things are going to pick up with episode 5.12. Something about Ben summoning the smoke monster has me thinking it’s going to be a good one. So what about you? Anything you want to see this week?

Technorati Tags: flashing forward, Lost, Lost Spoilers, lost theory, miley

Matthew claimed he is a big fan of Lost, but knows that after being stereotyped on television as Chandler Bing from friends, his chances are slim.

Matthew says, “I want to be on that show so bad, but people would be like, ‘What’s Chandler doing on the island?’ So it isn’t going to happen. But I am truly addicted to the show. I even follow the story lines online.”

Knowing this it seems Matthew Perry is possibly a blog and forum follower like the rest of us, you never know who is lurking!

Source : Hollyscoop

Technorati Tags: Lost, Lost News

Click  http://www.docarzt.com/docarzt-friends-live-lost-chat/

or for those of you with an IRC client such as MIRC, Chatzilla or Icechat add server irc.docarzt.com and join #lost

Last week we were busy and had some great theories and ideas flying about! Please remember though we are keeping it PG13 and spoilerfree.

See you there!

Technorati Tags: Lost, lost season 5

Attention Listeners: Being noobs in the LOST podcasting world, we could use your support.  If you enjoy what we are doing, please take a moment to rank and review the podcast on iTunes, Odeo, and whatever service you might be listening through.  Peace, Doc and Koobie.

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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