A Lost Place: June 2008

Subtle Sub Light

This visual issues concerns a moment during the episode The Glass Ballerina, the second episode of Season 3.

So the situation was that a smoke fire had been deliberately lit as a means of attracting The Others. Jin and Sayid, armed, were waiting in the trees for The Others to take the bait so they could spring an ambush and capture a couple of them. Sun had been tucked away on the yacht (the "Elisabeth") beside the Pala Ferry Pier out of harm’s way.

Or what they thought was harm’s way. Because silently The Others appeared on the yacht, completing bypassing Jin and Sayid. How did they do that?

The answer presents itself for all to see during the episode Enter 77, when Sayid discusses access to the Island with Mikhail.

Mikhail: “There is an underwater beacon that emits sonar pings to help guide in the vessels.”

Sayid: “By vessels, you mean submarines.”

Mikhail: “Yes. The Initiative used it to bring us to the island. . .”

Sayid: “That explains how they were able to get around my position and capture our sailboat.”

Sayid is absolutely correct, and this is precisely how it happened, and as a neat little extra there was the briefest of glimpses of clues showing this in action when it occurred. This is best illustrated by first seeing the submarine clearly.

This is the submarine, a.ka. the 'Galaga', the one that Locke would eventually blow up. Take note of the red dot light. And now below is the yacht as the Galaga silently snuck up on it. Here we see that red light of the Galaga betraying The Others' using the submarine to bypass Sayid and Jin.

The red light of the Galaga is there, to the left of the fire.

(Click on image to enlage.)

And then gone in the next frame – indicating it flashes.

And that’s all there is, really. I mean, I know it’s not much but, if you’re anything like a Lost-obsessive like I am then this particular detail might have interested you. If it didn’t. . . well. . . there’s not much either of us can do about it now!

Lost ARG 2008 - Part 2

http://www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com/site/emails/0618.html

This is a link to a website version of the e-mail sent out to people who have registered their e-mail address at Octagon Global Recruiting. The interesting aspect to this site is if you view the source code (by clicking in to the View Menu and selecting Source) you can see the following line:

meta name="Alert" content="March has 32 days" /

March has 32 days

This is the title to a story in a comic book. But not just any comic book. It’s the comic book Mystery Tales #40 – which just so happens to be one of the items that Richard Alpert presented to Young Locke during the episode Cabin Fever.

You can read the actual comic book story (it’s 4 pages long, and this link will take you directly to good quality scans of the pages for you to look at) here: http://www.mysterytales40.com/march-has-32-days-last-story-from-the-mystery-tales-40-comic-book-96555

For those that can’t be bothered to look, the story is this:

A man, John Billing, wakes up. He goes to work where, today, he has a bridge to inspect before it is opened. However, his woman calls and says she wants to see him before she leaves at the airport, so John doesn’t inspect the bridge and goes to meet his woman. The bridge then collapses. Pained with guilt, John wishes he could go back but hears a voice in his head telling him that even he did re-live his time over he would do the exact same thing.

Then John wakes up again, confused, because it’s apparently the same day and he thinks it must be a dream. So he goes to work, set on checking the bridge, but his colleagues inform him that they have checked it thoroughly and there’s no problem. So John once again goes to meet his woman. . . but at the last minute he realises he is doing what the voice said he would so and so he quickly goes to the bridge, checks it, and prevents the collapse.

At the end, shocked and confused, he assumes the whole event must have been a dream. Meanwhile, elsewhere, a bunch of scientist stand around puzzled by the fact that according to their calculations March had an extra day in it and they’ll never know why. . .

Evidently there’s some Lost-related ideas in this story; most notably linking to Desmond and the idea of course correction – of being given a second chance to do something differently. I’m not particularly willing to run with this notion, and this story, too far as it may prove to be just one of those curious sidetracks Lost and its creators like to lead us down every now and then to pique our interest.

But, yeah, it’s interesting all the same. Not sure how, if at all, it will feed into this ARG though.

Lost ARG 2008 – Part 1

As most Lost fans ought to be aware, it’s become tradition in between seasons for an online game, or ARG (Alternate Reality Game) as they are better known, to be run for us to get involved in during the break. This season is no exception, and the first ‘announcement’ about the new ARG came during an advertisement break during the Season 4 finale.

You can see the advert here.

The advert pointed towards this website: http://www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com/

If you haven’t registered there yet, and wish to get involved in the game, I would advise registering your e-mail address. For those that can’t be bothered, but are still interested in what events and information the game throws up, I’ll be reporting my progress here as fully as I can, documenting as much as I can find of value.

So the first stage, having registered at the website, was the receipt of the following e-mail acknowledging my ‘application’:

‘Octagon Global Recruiting, on behalf of the Dharma Initiative, would like to thank you for registering your expression of interest in our latest volunteer recruitment drive.

We will be launching in San Diego on July 24th at Comic-Con International offering select registrants the opportunity to take an exciting aptitude test that will give applicants the chance to demonstrate their unique talents.

The Dharma Initiative hopes you will be able to join us to find out more about their ground-breaking new research project. We will contact you closer to the date with more information.

For those not able to join us in San Diego, Dharma's full recruitment program will be made available online to registered recruits after July 27th.

In the meantime, the Dharma Initiative urges you to spread the word. Invite your colleagues to join the team at http://www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com/ and take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

If you can't view the images in this email please click here

THIS IS AN OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION OF THE DHARMA INITIATIVE:This message and its attachments are confidential and may contain information which is protected by copyright. It is intended solely for the named addressee. If you are not the authorised recipient (or responsible for delivery of the message to the authorised recipient), you must not use, disclose, print, copy or deliver this message or its attachments to anyone. If you receive this email in error, please contact the sender immediately and permanently delete this message and its attachments from your system. Any content of this message and its attachments that does not relate to the official business of the Dharma Initiative or its subsidiaries must be taken not to have been sent or endorsed by any of them. No representation is made that this email or its attachments are without defect or that the contents express views other than those of the sender.’

The interesting aspect of this e-mail was that a person named Hans Van Eeghen had been carbon copied (cc) into the e-mail. I sent an e-mail directly to this Hans Van Eeghen and received the following reply:

‘Thank you for your email. I am currently on assignment in the field. I will contact you as soon as I am back in the office.

Sincerely,

Hans

###########################
Note:

Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Dharma Initiative or its subsidiaries unless specifically stated. This email and any files transmitted are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed.

###########################’

I expect we’ll be hearing more from this guy. I’ll let you know more when I know more.

The Skeleton Cave Couple

This may be a theory you have heard of, or it might not. Perhaps if you have heard of it you've never really believed it, or dismissed it fairly easily. Or maybe not. Maybe you believe this totally, in which case I am preaching to the converted. But my purpose here is to briefly but compellingly argue that the identity of the skeletons in the cave – the two dubbed “Adam and Eve” – are the bodies of Amelia Earhart and Tom Noonan.

The only key fact about these two people you need to know is this: During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937, Earhart and her co-pilot Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean and were never seen again. Their bodies were never recovered.

So the cynical (and I applaud the cynical) will be thinking, So what? What has the disappearance of these two people got to do with them possibly being the bodies in the cave in Lost? Well, allow me to supply the supporting evidence. It's not much, but the deliberation by which it exists is hard to ignore.

Firstly, the dates. Jack remarked that “Adam and Eve”, by the deterioration of their clothes, had been dead for at least 40-50 years. Earhart and Noonan disappeared in 1937. Jack was speaking in 2004. That's 67 years. Since it would appear Earhart and Noonan (if it is them) had to have lived and existed on the Island for some time before they were laid to rest then the dating stacks up nicely. They could have lived on the Island for 17 years and still been dead for 50 years by the time Jack found them.

But it's hardly a conclusive piece of evidence. So how about this.

Herarat Aviation was seen in the background of the episode One Of Us. It was present at the small airport that Juliet was taken to by Richard Alpert and Ethan Rom just before she was transported to the Island (after drinking the orange juice that knocked her out). Herarat, in case you hadn't realised, is an anagram of 'Earhart'.

When it comes to Alpert, and his 'Mittelos'/'Lost time' wordplay, we should never underestimate the power of anagrams in Lost. This Herarat business is either an enormous red herring, a reference to another lost person on a lost plane, or a strong indicator about Amelia being more a part of the Lost universe than we have yet seen.

And I deliberately choose the term ‘Lost universe’ because the references don't end here. In the online game Find815, that took place between Seasons 3 and 4, there was a moment where the main protagonist of the story was fiddling around with a radio and picked up a strange broadcast. . .

“. . . And in news just ahead, it has been reported that all communications with aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart have been lost. Miss Earhart was en route from New Guinea to Howland Island as part of a daring round-the-world flight. . . The last verified communication received by the United States Coast Guard was at 8:43AM today, and indicated that Miss Earhart's Lockheed Electra was low on fuel. A search is already underway by the Coast Guard. . .”

The strangeness of the historical radio transmission being picked up in 2004 is one thing, but the fact that Amelia Earhart was referenced once again, on the compelling detail of her disappearance over the Pacific. . . well, come on. If you’re not even in the least bit encouraged by the idea then probably I'll never convince you that Amelia and Fred are “Adam and Eve”!

Mind you, for those that don't like the idea of Amelia being dead, there is the neat indication that she is still alive and living on the Island. During the episode A Tale Of Two Cities, just before the crash of Oceanic 815, we see Juliet burning her muffins and then her doorbell rings and she answers the door to an elderly woman. This woman's name is, you guessed it, Amelia.

Uncanny, no?

I rather like that, in an easter egg sense, and it doesn't even need to be taken further. Just one of those little nuggets nestled amongst the treasure trove of secrets and subtleties interwoven into the Lost tapestry.

Lost Season 4 Overview

It’s easier to comprehend and compartmentalise a whole series with time and reflection. Season 1, for example, was all about the Oceanic survivors and how they came to be on the Island. Each new episode presented us with a new flashback focus, and we’d learn about who they were before the crash, and what events brought them to be onboard Oceanic 815. That was Season 1.

Season 2 was, I would say, mostly about Dharma. It was the Season we were introduced to the majority of Dharma Stations, pushing the button was the anchor point and climax to the show and we began to understand that the Island was perhaps not as far ‘lost’ from the real world as previously imagined. (Indeed, the ending to the Season showed us the very first off-Island, post-crash event with the Listening Post.)

Season 3 was about The Others. It started off with the reveal of The Barracks, home of The Others nestled in the mountains, and through Jack, Kate and Sawyer we spent time in the company of The Others. Also, for the first time, we got scenes concerning The Others that didn’t feature any of our Oceanic survivors – like them talking amongst themselves in the Hydra Monitor Room, for example. Flashbacks for the likes of Juliet and Ben became a new aspect to the show, allowing us to understand more about them.

Of course, the reveal of The Others simply peeled back another layer of people known as ‘the hostiles’ – these pre-Dharma Island inhabitants that we don’t know much about. I’d say they will almost certainly be part of the next level of revelation. . .

Season 4 then, I would determine, was all about life after the Island. Following from the “We have to go back!” Jack flashforward reveal of Through The Looking Glass we were mainly given flashforward stories that completely changed the stakes of the show. No longer was the fixation about if our Oceanic survivors would ever get off the Island, it was concerned with the consequences of what happened when they did, and what sacrifices were made in the process.

There was quite the shift in perspectives regarding what was once considered the main focus. Take Ben and Widmore, for example. These characters didn’t exist in Season 1, and we didn’t even know Ben’s name by the end of Season 2 (and had just one Widmore scene, him in the car with Desmond, to know him by). By Season 4 they have stepped up to become potential chess grandmasters, vying for ownership of the Island. What has shifted here is the Island has not become a place to be stranded, rather it has become a desirable place to reside. Not a place to get away from, more a place to get back to.

Less like purgatory, more like paradise.

But yes, pegging Season 4 to one defining concept, the ‘Oceanic 6’ would capture it. We spent half the Season determining who these 6 were, and the rest of the Season watching what events had shaped their characters and motivations in flashforward land. Some of these were more successful than others. Jack’s descent from hero poster boy. . .

. . . to washed-up, drug-addled mess. . .

. . . was nicely conveyed. The stress of fulfilling his promise to get ‘his people’ off the Island lead him to dogmatically strive towards decisions that, in hindsight, would prove disastrous. But then off-Island the decision to lie, and to bear the burden of telling the lie, would erode his soul. Learning Claire was his half-sister, unable to trust Kate and thus becoming a failed father-figure turning to substance abuse (just like his dad, who continues to appear to him!) and then having Locke come back, tell him he made a mistake before winding up in a coffin. . . Well, yeah, it’s enough to send anyone to the brink.

Sayid and Sun each turning mercenary due to the deaths of their loved ones is, again, particularly for Sun, a nice plot turn that will serve to drive their characters into new territory for the next Season. Hurley, however, whilst intriguing in his visitations from Charlie and Mr. Eko, hasn’t really been as coherent as he could have been.

“I should never have gone with Locke,” he told Jack. I expected to see some dramatic validation for that statement. I never got it. And Kate, too, never really explained why she chose to be a mother to Aaron (and lie about it). As a fugitive, why did she not go with Desmond and Frank? Was it so she no longer had to run? Probably. But where did the maternal custody of Aaron come from? Was she mercenary enough to think he would offer a viable means of keeping her out of prison? Maybe. But it wasn’t clear. Or it could have been made clearer, perhaps, is a better accusation. Season 4 episodes were much more condensed and fast-paced than any other episodes of Lost have been.

Of course, in the real world Season 4 of Lost will be remembered as being hit by the writer’s strike. The net result was a long break between episodes 8 and 9, and a reduction in the number of proposed episodes from 16 to 14. At just 14 episodes long, Season 4 was over a third shorter than the other Seasons have been – so if it felt like it was rattling by uncontrollably I suspect that was the reason why.

To put it in perspective, episode 14 of Season 2 was One Of Us. That was the episode Ben (as Henry Gale) first appeared, caught in Rousseau’s net. As much as Season 2 may have felt like one where Ben really featured, he was absent from proceedings for as long as the entirety of Season 4!

With only two more Seasons left of the show, the focus now turns very much to the endgame. All plot threads and, for the online Lost community in particular, new concepts are jumped on and examined as potential machinations that will bring about the conclusion to the whole thing. This Season time travel, via Ben in the Orchid, has been established and, naturally, the online community has become transfixed by the idea that time travel will prove to be the driver behind the show.

There’s also the idea, as produced from the Orchid Orientation film that featured duplicate time travelling bunny rabbits, that the Locke here. . .

. . .is a time-travelling duplication of Locke that remains here. . .

I should think that the big focus of Season 5 will be dominated by two plot threads. In ‘flashforward’ the story will be driven by the Oceanic 6’s return to the Island, no doubt furthering the battle between Ben and Widmore. On the Island, through Locke and his induction as the new Island Chief, we should come to know more about ‘the hostiles’, the original inhabitants of the Island and how that ties in with the pre-Dharma Island world of hieroglyphs and four-toed statues and Black Rock galleons in the jungle. . .

Personally, I have my own hunch about how it’s all going to end, especially after seeing the Island do its disappearing act in the Season 4 finale. We know that those who have left the Island (the Oceanic 6, Walt, Ben, etc) are either tormented to come back or have a will to return to the Island. And when we consider Michael, who was not allowed to die until he had completed a purpose for the Island, it becomes more apparent to me that the Island exerts a force outside of itself to retain and preserve itself.

What I believe is the Island will recall all those that have left (as Charlotte appears to have returned having been born there); everyone who knows about the Island and could hope to look for and find it again will be delivered back and remain there. Maybe they will live in a state of permanence, like Alpert, or never getting sick like Rose and Locke, or getting what they truly desire from the ‘magic box’. . . Whatever the way of it, once the Island has all that are connected to it back within its embrace it will disappear. Gone forever from the world to a place where not even God can see it. Truly and definitively. . . Lost.

Analysis: 4.14 There's No Place Like Home - Part 3

Part 2 of the analysis for There’s No Place Like Home Season 4 finale of Lost will deal primarily with the second half of the show – the starting point being the moment after Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter. Whilst I will not ignore the events that preceded this halfway point I will keep my focus on this final section.

Since the moment of discovering the explosives on The Freighter there was never any question they were going to go off. A set-up like that wasn’t going to be wasted, and a vessel like The Freighter could not possibly remain as a viable means of leaving the Island. So it was not if, but when.

Aside from numerous, nameless Oceanic survivors running around the deck in life vests (almost literally “redshirts”!) there were key people onboard whose survival, or otherwise, should be addressed. Michael, given that he was stood right next to the explosives when they went off, is dead. The absolute confirmation of that came with Christian’s appearance. “You can go now.”

Before that moment Michael had an outside chance of surviving because he seemed impossible to kill. Car crashes and guns that wouldn’t fire intervened to keep him alive. It seems, however, that his purpose was served. I can conclude that Michael’s purpose was to ensure that the likes of Charlotte and Miles and Dan were delivered to the Island – but that The Freighter was then destroyed so no one could leave. Of course, the fact that Christian showed up at that last moment does pave the way for Michael’s character to enter the next level of Island existence.

Season 4, especially, has been one where Christian Shephard’s role has taken on greater prominence. Jacob’s number two? His spokesperson? Some mysteries in Lost survive to baffle into the next series. Another question: Did Jin survive into the next series? Ever since Ji Yeon it has seemed Jin was definitely going to die. There was hope that it might not be the case, and indeed, for some, speculation may even persist. But I think it’s time to say he’s really dead. He was on the deck, with Sun looking right at him, and then it exploded right before Sun’s eyes. Her reaction was convincing enough.

And even if, somehow miraculously, Jin had managed to repeat the feats of his ‘exploding raft dodging’ antics of the Season 1 finale Exodus and jumped clear of the blast, what then? Miles away from the Island he was stranded in the ocean, and the Island disappeared shortly after. The helicopter didn’t get back to the Island before it disappeared, how could Jin have possibly got close enough? I have to conclude he didn’t. He couldn’t. And that renders him stuck out to sea with no land in sight. Doomed.

His only chance was that perhaps Dan Faraday picked him up in time, but even that is a chance of nothingness.

We got a glimpse of Dan on the ferry boat just before the bright light engulfed the Island. Looking at his passengers with him, there is no Jin. Fundamentally I believe Dan was ferrying people to The Freighter, witnessed it explode, and so turned the boat around and headed back to the Island. (Probably he was secretly pleased. He wasn’t altogether keen on leaving Charlotte.) And I suspect he was in the ‘disappearance radius’ of the Island (for not just the Island, but the Hydra Island and thus the surrounding area of the Island vanished) so he’ll have gone wherever/whenever the Island moved on to.

And that still leaves Jin dead. Sun knows it, and apparently blames two people for it. One is her father, for putting Jin on Oceanic 815 in the first instance. The other, at least in Jack’s mind, is Jack himself. (He said as much – “Sun blames me for. . .” – when he met with Ben at the end of the episode.) I think that’s rather harsh on Jack, for Sun to hold him responsible for Jin’s death. But I wonder if that’s simply what Jack thinks, and is not really the case. After all, we did get a brief scene with Sun meeting Widmore.

The flashforwards in general were all scrappy pieces pointing towards the next phase of the story for the Oceanic 6: the return to the Island. Here we had Sun meeting with Widmore, talking of common interests. Of course, the common interest is the Island – but Widmore asked the pertinent question: “Why would you want to help me?”

We can go two ways with this. Either Sun is turning bad, and really is forming an alliance with Widmore to gain the same benefits out of claiming the Island. Or she’s setting Widmore up to exact revenge on him for the death of her husband. (Widmore sent Keamy, and Keamy blew up The Freighter, and The Freighter belonged to Widmore. If anyone is truly to blame, it is Widmore!) I think Sun has revenge in mind.

Elsewhere the remaining members of the Oceanic 6 are falling into line to return to the Island. Sayid has taken Hurley with him, probably under orders from Ben. And Hurley has become increasingly entrenched in the Island ‘demons’ that torment those that leave the Island; not only seeing Charlie but apparently Mr. Eko! “Checkmate” indeed. And Kate is also not immune to such torments, experiencing nightmares (as Walt and Widmore have both reported experiencing) about Claire.

Claire warned Kate that she mustn’t return to the Island, but the phone message Kate received just before the encounter told her the opposite. In reverse-speak the message was: “The Island needs you. . . You have to go back before it’s too late.” And I think Kate knows she has to go back, too – thus her holding Aaron and saying she was sorry.

The end of the episode was the reveal that Locke was ‘Jeremy Bentham’. Sayid didn’t believe it was suicide that caused his death (for all we know, Sayid might have killed him on Ben’s orders). Still, before Locke’s death and after, Hurley was being watched. Probably it was Widmore’s people, clued in to Locke being back and knowing he was seeking out the Oceanic 6. Follow the Oceanic 6 and they’ll lead back to the Island – it’s Widmore’s best trail.

It’s worth considering at this moment who exactly Ben was specifying when he stated everyone had to go back. Obviously he means all the Oceanic 6. And Locke’s dead body counts. But what of Desmond? Or Walt? Or Frank? Or even Ji Yeon? Are all these people required to go back? I think so. I think everyone means everyone. “The Island won’t let you come alone.”

Locke’s death does present an interesting void for who the current Island Chief is. It’s not coincidental, I think, that Ben is quick to act in getting himself and the Oceanic 6 back to the Island. Perhaps with Locke out of the way, apparently having failed the Island, he spies the chance to reclaim his throne?

Note the recurring use of hieroglyphs for the Wheel Room as similarly appeared on the door that Ben went through (that apparently lead to some level of control over the Black Smoke). My guess would be that these glyphs indicate pre-Dharma. Dharma certainly became aware of the Island’s power here, and so built the Orchid Station, and The Vault, as a means of harnessing that power. Yet inventing a match to make fire doesn’t mean the prime element of fire has been invented. I believe the wheel Ben used was created by an older Island civilisation, one probably responsible for the four-toed statue. . .

There can be no question that leaving the Island was an enormous wrench for Ben. There was certainly an element of Jesus Christ sacrifice about his exit – straining at the donkey wheel to save his people at his own cost like Jesus striving to carry a cross to his crucifixion. It was certainly moving, if you'll pardon the pun. Yet we already know where Ben went to next – the jacket he was wearing and the cut on his arm and his cold breath all present when he appeared in the desert during The Shape Of Things To Come, in 2005.

So we know Ben travelled in both time and space through the act of moving the Island; the key question is what happened to the Island? My guess is the same thing – it will have been moved somewhere in time and space. I get the feeling it has moved somewhere cold (I recall Hurley drawing igloos at Santa Rosa, and the polar bears the Island has would love it there!). But that’s purely gut feeling. It would certainly make it harder to find – and absolutely make the likelihood of crashing there on a passenger airline pretty remote! (But at the same time I acknowledge Lost is a show set-up to be filmed in Oahu, Hawaii – and the logistics of making that place look cold might be too extravagant!)

So, aside from a reveal of where the Island ended up, we had quite the finale. It had all the hallmarks. Funnels of Black smoke. . .

Exploding Dharma Stations. . .

But what it didn’t do was halt the action mid-flow. Season 1 had Jack and Locke looking down the shaft, Season 2 had Jack, Kate and Sawyer captured and Desmond turning the fail-safe and Season 3 had Jack on the phone to The Freighter asking to be rescued. Season 4? The Island could be anywhere, at anytime. And our Oceanic 6 story could be picked up anywhere. Point is, we’ve got something of a Tabula Rasa going into Season 5, headed for the home straight, we’re the action doesn’t need to pick up where we left off – rather we can be planted somewhere new and unfamiliar right from the start. A bit like the Island itself being dumped somewhere new and unfamiliar. . .

“We have to go back!”

A Lost Place

Subtle Sub Light

Lost ARG 2008 - Part 2

Lost ARG 2008 – Part 1

Top 5 Worst Flashback Stories

The Skeleton Cave Couple

Lost Season 4 Overview

Analysis: 4.14 There's No Place Like Home - Part 3

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