THE ALTERNATIVE ISLAND

HIATUS WEEK FOUR

2006-12-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

HIATUS WEEK FOUR: December 7th, 2006

Bonus Section 1:

The Black Rock

This week’s special edition of The Lost Alternative Newsletter concerns the sea-trading frigate The Black Rock. But first, an epic poem concerning the fate of this slave ship turned trader…

The Black Rock Sea Trader
(To the tune of “[The Wreck of the] Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot.)

Which e’er way the wind turns
My son, first you must learn
Of that dangerous realm called the sea…

The seven seas they’re unkind
And they’ll leave you behind
That’s the future that fate kept for me…

‘Twas said Magnus alone
Could’ve killed Davy Jones
With a steely look or a frown…

Four score odd the crew,
Filled with gold it is true,
To Portsmouth forever now bound…

At the New World quay
Twenty-three vacant each day
‘Cept for grieving wives, sons and daughters…

No one’s ever claimed
Or were found the remains
Nor precious metals to fill up the coffers…

O’er ancient whale roads
That entwine the whole globe
And along the trade winds of wrath…

The ocean, it’s said,
Never speaks of the dead
When the cold winds of winter tack back…

The first mate made rounds
And the rigging odd sounds

As great waves broke o’er the railing…

And every man knew,
As Magnus did, too,
That the hull of The Black Rock was failing…

When the storm came a stealing
With every man reeling
Came the wreck of the ship The Black Rock…

Then the gales came a slashing
And the lightening flashing
Never again to find New World dock…

Where lies this man brave
Lost in some watery grave
As the mariners all know so well…

That a ship filled with gold
Or slaves ever so bold
Is destined to run ‘ground in hell…

Their fate remains lost

Their lives an uncommon cost
And the widow’s pine, wasting their prime…

In Portsmouth they prayed
Over every bare grave

And the church bells chimed forty odd times…

Now here is the mystery
That’s hidden from history
The ship found a tropical land…

A mysterious place
That rose out of the waves
A place touched by the Almighty’s hand…

Which e’er way the wind turns
My son, first you must learn
Of a dangerous realm called the sea…

The seven seas they’re unkind
And they’ll leave you behind
That’s the future that fate kept for me…

WHRIII
The Alternative One

The Black Rock

History

The Black Rock was owned and operated by the British trading group the New World Sea Traders and was one of three slave ships the company employed. The institution of slavery had been banned in August 1834 by the “Abolition of Slavery Act” in Great Britain, suggesting that the New World Sea Traders operated for over 50 years in the black market slave trade. At the time, the reputation as a slaver was the equivalent to piracy, one of the more unpopular enterprises of the day.

Magnus Hanso, grandfather of Alvar and a former ship’s captain who became a shipping industry entrepreneur, owned and controlled The New World Sea Traders. While no direct ownership has ever been verified, it is known that The Black Rock sailed out of slip 23 in Portsmouth docks and was scheduled to return there. Hanso's trading group managed slips 18 though 27. It is possible that the Hanso Foundation may have been seeded with money made from the proceeds gained through the slave trade by the New World Sea Traders.

The Black Rock disappeared in 1881, on a return voyage from gold mining operations in the South Indian Ocean. According to traders on Papua New Guinea, the ship sailed away from port in an easterly direction, rather than west to Africa, where it would exchange gold from the mines in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea for more slaves. According to a mysteriously discovered ship’s manifest, The Black Rock initially sailed from Portsmouth, England. A crew of approximately 40 men, along with an uncounted number of slaves, was presumably lost at sea. Magnus Hanso was known to retain a hands-on passion for the sea and insisted on captaining several voyages every year. It is thought that he was captaining The Black Rock himself, or on board, when the ship disappeared (based on the note on the Blast Door Map.)

The sale of the company in 1882 to the East Ocean Trade Group saw the remainder of the New World Sea Traders slavery and military vessels converted to legitimate trading ships.

(This webpage contains addition information concerning The Black Rock: The New World Traders)

Arrival

From what has been revealed to date, it seems that the ship may have reached the Island on its way back from Papua New Guinea. Its mission was to reach Africa, where it was to exchange gold for more slaves. However, since the ship ended up to the east of Papua New Guinea it would have been traveling the wrong direction and it was stated by traders that the ship set sail east instead of west. One possible explanation of this discrepancy may lie in the composition of the island itself. The magnetism here is disorderly and may have caused the ship’s compasses to give incorrect readings. A good sextant, however, would have told them that they were sailing in the incorrect direction. The ship’s final resting place is a great distance inland, a phenomenon that has yet to be explained. Some believe that like the great continent of Mu, the island rose out of the ocean and trapped the ship well inland. This is, of course, only a theory.

On the Island

The Black Rock was a British slave ship turned trader found far inland on the Lost Island by Danielle Rousseau, the location of which she later shared with survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 (episode “Exodus, Part 1” [123]). The reason for its inland resting place and most of its history are a mystery. Portions of its story and accounts were revealed through The Lost Experience alternative reality game during the summer of 2006. Rousseau, Jack, Kate, Locke, Hurley, and Arzt explored the ship looking for dynamite to blow open the Swan Station hatch so that they would have a place to hide from The Others. The Dark Territory, so named by Rousseau, is where the Black Rock is located and is the “primary nexus of Cerberus-related activity” according to the Blast Door Map.

After Rousseau left, Locke, Kate and Jack entered the ship through a very large hole in the hull of the vessel. Outside, Arzt and Hurley conversed about their situations. Inside the ship, skeletons were found shackled together, supposedly the remains of the slaves. Old mining equipment was also found, including the dynamite. At least two cases were located inside the ship's hold. According to Locke the ship “must have been in route to a mining colony, probably set off from the eastern coast of Africa, Mozambique.” The Survivors removed one of the cases from the ship. While handling an unstable stick of dynamite, the unfortunate Arzt was killed when the dynamite ignited. After Arzt exploded the remaining survivors left the ship with a number of sticks of dynamite and have never returned to the site. The hole in the side of the ship may indicate that it crashed up on rocks but does not explain how it got so far inland. The skeletons also pose a problem, as they do not resemble the normal method in which slaves are shipped. However, as a black marketeer this inconsistency may be overlooked.

When The Black Rock was revealed as a slave ship this past summer it raised several interesting questions. In which era did it originate? The ship appears to be a multi-mast steamer from the late 19th or early 20th Century when ships used a combination of sails and coal-fed engines as power. It also looks too modern to be from the conventional period of African slave trade, which took place, for the most part, on the west coast of Africa and had been banned by most countries by the early 19th century. According to John Locke it was probably headed from the East Coast of Africa to a mining colony. Also, if the ship is truly over 100 years old, how did a wood and steel vessel survive the heat and humidity of the jungle for so long?

The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 discovered the Black Rock about 45 days after the crash. However, its existence was established much earlier in the series. The Black Rock was first mentioned in Danielle Rousseau’s radio distress signal, though Shannon did not translate this at that time.

The ship had been discovered long before the arrival of the survivors of Flight 815. Both Rousseau, a survivor of a separate shipwreck 16 years earlier, and Radzinsky or Kelvin Inman, previous “occupants” of The Swan station, located the ship independently of each other. Radzinky or Kelvin mapped The Black Rock and recorded it on the hidden map on the inside of the blast door. The note reads, “KNOWN FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MAGNUS HANSO/BLACK ROCK”. This appears to indicate that Magnus Hanso was captaining, or at least on board, the ship when it disappeared and is buried in or near the wrecked vessel.

Rousseau mentioned The Black Rock to the captured Sayid in the episode “Solitary” [109]. Also, a section of her map, stolen by Sayid after his escape, was labeled “Back Rock” Rousseau later claimed that there was a Radio Tower near The Black Rock, from where she broadcast her long-running distress signal.

The Black Rock Theories

The Black Rock is found so far inland because the Island, like the lost continent of Mu, has the ability to raise itself up out of the ocean, thus capturing nearby vessels.

The Black Rock was wrecked on the island because of the mysterious magnetic field ability that the island has that enables it to attract boats and aircraft. While the Black Rock does not appear to be a metal ship, the magnetism could have affected the ship's instruments. The island may have the power to attract other vessels as well, including Desmond's race-around-the-world sailboat, Henry Gale's hot air balloon, and the Nigerian Drug Smugglers' Plane.

It is possible that The Black Rock could have landed there through a tidal wave or tsunami. It could have simply carried the ship there and dumped it in far into the island. Such a huge Tsunami could have also wiped out any indigenous population at that time, and would also explain why the rest of the Four-Toed Statue is missing.

Some or all of the Others could have descended from the crew of The Black Rock.
Adam and Eve could have been survivors of The Black Rock’s crash.

“The Black Rock” could refer to the black stone found with Adam and Eve. This could mean Adam was Magnus Hanso.

The ship may have suffered a mutiny and sailed east for refuge in the south Pacific islands rather than return to England.

The note on the Blast Door Map could have dual or misunderstood meanings. While most think that the note, which reads, “Known final resting place of Magnus Hanso/Black Rock” means that Magnus is buried there it may mean the final resting place of Magnus Hano’s Black Rock. The slash between “Magnus Hanso” and “Black Rock,” indicates an uncertainty and is rather vague as to its true meaning.

It could have crashed on the shore originally, and the strange tides of the island shifted to reveal more land. In season one, the survivors mentioned the beach washing away with the tide, covering some of the wreckage of the plane. Perhaps this area used to be a beach, but the islands shape has changed dramatically.

The Black Rock is depicted in the mural of the Swan station.

Bonus Section 2:

Magnus Hanso

Magnus Hanso is the grandfather of Alvar Hanso. A 19th century sea captain and shipping merchant, he commanded the Black Rock. The Blast Door Map suggests he is buried near the site of the ship wreckage.

In The Lost Experience

A page from the rare book New World Sea Traders was posted on Rachel Blake's website (see link above). It revealed Magnus Hanso to be the owner of the New World Sea Traders, a company prominent in the 1880s, with connections to the slave trade.

Hanso sold the company to the East Ocean Trade Group, which was bought in the 1950’s by the Hanso Group and renamed Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants.

After acquiring the New World Sea Traders' fifteen ships (including two sloops and a frigate), East Ocean Trade Group converted them into legitimate trading vessels.

The article also mentions that Hanso continued to captain several voyages each year, which explains how he could have been aboard the ship when it “wrecked.”

Meanings of the Name and References

The name “Magnus Hanso” is equal to “The Great Hanso”, or “Hanso the Great”.

“Magnus” is a Latin word for “great”, “large”, “big”, “very”, “very much” or “important”, etc.

Magnus is the Latin form of the Dutch surname “de Groot” (both meaning "The Great"). Karen and Harold de Groot created the DHARMA Initiative.

Albertus Magnus was a German philosopher and theologian.

Magnus was one of the greatest alchemists of all time, and was also the discoverer of the legendary "Philosopher's Stone" (which may have been the progemnator to the Life Extension Project.)

Additional reading:

“Lo!”, “The Book of the Damned”, “New Lands”, & “Wild Talents” by Charles Fort
(Charles Fort )

“The Illuminatus! Trilogy” by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
(The Illuminatus! Trilogy)

“Foucault’s Pendulum” by Umberto Eco
(Umberto Eco)

“The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown

“The Voynich Manuscript” Wilfrid M. Voynich
(Voynich)

“Fortean Times” Magazine
(Fortean Times)

“Stonehenge Complete” by Christopher Chippendale

“Centuries of Darkness” by Peter James
(Centuries of Darkness )

“The Study of Yōkai” by Inoue Enryo
( Inoue Enryo)

“Science Frontiers” & “Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena: Eyewitness

“Accounts of Nature's Greatest Mysteries “by William R. Corliss

“Alternative Realities” By Leonard George
(Leonard George)

“The Anomalist” edited by Patrick Huyghe and Dennis Stacey
( The Anomalist)

“The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena” by Bob Rickard and John Mitchell

“Borderlands: The Ultimate Exploration of the Unknown” by Mike Dash

“Remote Viewing Secrets” by Joseph McMoneagle

“The Conscious Universe” by Dean Radin

“Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology” by Lawrence Weschler

“Philosophy of Science and the Occult” Patrick Grim, ed.

“The Engines of God” by Jack McDevitt
(Jack McDevitt/)

“The Egypt Code” by Robert Bauval
(The Egypt Code)

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin
December 7th, 2006

P.S. I am looking for suggestions on what to include in next weeks Bonus Section. If anyone has any ideas or subjects you’d like me to discuss please feel free to e-mail me.

4 8 15 16 23 42

The Alternative One – dharmapoet@wi.rr.com

HIATUS WEEK THREE

2006-12-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

HIATUS WEEK THREE: November 30th, 2006

Hacking away at a story!

For your amusement and entertainment!

This week’s issue of the newsletter is not your standard fair of Lost related ephemera. I apologize in advance to anyone who was looking forward to the normal exposé concerning some detail of the world found on that tiny island called Lost. As Douglas Adams is fond of saying, “Don’t panic!” I certainly intend to continue producing the newsletter each week. However, at the risk of self-promotion (and those who know me know that I rarely do so) I’d like to introduce you to a new fiction that I and another fan, Amelia Crater, have been pursuing over the past few weeks.

I have always imagined myself a writer, of sorts. It is something that has quite consumed me for a very long time. While poetry has always been my main interest the short story and the novel have also been very appealing to me. Writing this newsletter and receiving your compliments and encouragement (you know who you are) has giving me the confidence to stretch my literary legs a bit, so to speak.

Amelia and I have created a story that takes place in the world of the Lost Experience and also contains threads of the weekly series, as well. It is called “The Apocalypse Equation” and we have already finished a number of chapters and have posted them to a new blog site.

The story concerns a hack writer named Iben Powned who is dragged into the world of Alvar Hanso and Thomas Mittlewerk simply because he wanted to write for a TV program. He has been a writer for such famous weekly programs as “Frankenfreaks”, “Deathwatch”, “The Lost Barbarian”, “After Night Falls” and “The Opened Eye.” Iben moves from exploit to adventure (sometimes in the same chapter) bumbling his way and unraveling some of the questions posed during the Lost Experience (NOT!). We’ve attempted to create a character that is humorous, unwitting, and unhurried yet smart enough to know that he has entered a world that is well beyond his limits to comprehend.

The address to our site is:

http://theapocalypseequation.blogspot.com/
We encourage you to visit, read, and respond by e-mailing us or leaving a comment (be nice please.) Let us know what you think. Let us know if you have ideas that could be incorporated into the story. But in any event… let us know!

We now return you to your normal programming!

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Date November 30th, 2006

P.S. I won’t bother to detail who wrote what concerning the story (in reality it really doesn’t matter) but ask that you, our closest Lost friends, critique and inform us of your opinions concerning our creation. Remember we are doing this for fun and for our own amusement. We’d like to invite you to enter our fictionalized world today. And hey… after reading the story, if you think you’d like to write a chapter or two then let me know, send it to me, and we’ll do what we always do… edit the living daylights out of it.

P.S.S. The famous weekly programs that Iben wrote for are fictional and exist only in the minds of the writers.

P.S.S.S. I am looking for suggestions on what to include in next weeks Bonus Section. If anyone has any ideas or subjects you’d like me to discuss please feel free to e-mail me.

4 8 15 16 23 42

The Alternative One – dharmapoet@wi.rr.com

HIATUS WEEK TWO

2006-11-22T21:08:00.000-08:00

HIATUS WEEK TWO: November 23rd, 2006

Bunnies (or “Rabbits I Have Known”)

This week’s article concerns some of the many references to rabbits and bunnies in the Lost world and some trivia concerning the number 8.

As a young man I remember reading “Watership Down” by Richard Adams. What struck me then about the book was the idea that rabbits, when trapped will always try to find a way out, even going to the extreme of a chewing a leg off to gain freedom. Now, many years later I correlate that story to the Lost Island and see that it fits nicely into what I have been saying for weeks. The premises for many works of literature are constantly being re-written and supplanted into the Lost episodes.

There are too many uncanny connections to recount in full but here are a few of my favorites. Adams created an entire culture for his rabbits, including a language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry and mythology. More than one chapter consists of examples of rabbit lore. Is any of this sounding vaguely familiar? The book opens with the runt rabbit Fiver foreseeing the destruction of the warren. We now see Desmond as someone with the power to see into the future. Albeit in tiny bits he still seems to have the ability. A dissatisfied group of rabbits want to leave the warren but the main group continues to hold on in the old ways. The two Lost groups are made up of those who wish to remain on the beach and seek rescue and those that wish to explore (push buttons, etc.) Both groups must face the problem of furthering their own society. The rabbits have no does to increase the warren population which will stagnate and die out without children and the Lost Islanders who, without hope of rescue, must build their own world on this small island. Many of the rabbit characters in the book have counterparts on the Lost Island. I’ve already mentioned Fiver and Desmond but there is also Hazel, the rabbit leader, who reminds me of Jack, General Woundwort, a tyrannical Chief Rabbit who is obsessed with control whose counterpart is none other than Ben Linus and Bigwig the strongest fighter of the group which I think represents Locke.

In the pilot episode of Lost Boone is seen reading “Watership Down” on Flight 815. Later, in episode 108 “Confidence Man” he notices Sawyer reading the same novel which leads him to believe that Sawyer found his bag which contained Shannon's asthma medicine. A great argument within the camp grows from Boone’s argument that because Sawyer had his book he also had the medicine.

Two articles by Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly (October 31st, 2006) make a connection from the bunny number 8 to Stephen King.

The complete article can be found here:
EW Article

Doc Jenson’s slant:

“TELL ME ABOUT THE RABBITS, UNCLE STEVE...

In last week's episode of Lost, there was a scene in which Ben seemed to kill a bunny by shaking its cage so violently that the rabbit had a heart attack and died. If you saw the episode, you know that it was all a ruse; Ben was trying to get into Sawyer's head — to rattle his cage, so to speak — and to prove that the castaway con man was no match for the former Henry Gale in the art of psychological warfare.

Quick — what's the one thing you remember about that rabbit, besides its fake death? My assumption is that what you most vividly recall was the ''8'' that was written on its white fur. I'm going to make that assumption, because a better mind than mine tells me that that's the assumption most anyone would make. His name is Stephen King, and it turns out that the 8-branded bunny is a reference to his memoir, On Writing.

The passage can be found in the chapter titled ''What Writing Is.'' The first sentence of the chapter answers the implicit question, and from a Lost theorizing perspective, it's kind of a doozy. What is writing?

''Telepathy, of course.''

And he's serious, too. I think. Read the book and decide for yourself. In this short chapter, King tries to argue his point by painting a word picture. ''Look — here's a table covered with a red cloth. On it is a cage the size of a small fish aquarium. In the cage is a white rabbit with a pink nose and pink rimmed eyes. In its front paws is a carrot stub which it is constantly munching. On its back, clearly marked in blue ink, is the numeral 8.''

It's King's belief that upon reading that, and reflecting upon the bunny, we would all agree that ''the most important thing here... [is] the number on its back.... This is what we're looking at, and we all see it. I didn't tell you. You didn't ask me. I never opened my mouth and you never opened yours. We're not even in the same year together, let alone the same room... except we are together. We're close. We're having a meeting of the minds.''

Do Bunnies + Telepathy = Doc Jensen's Animal Magic Theory?

Station to station

But some other things about On Writing. Earlier in the brief bunny-referencing chapter, King refers to books as ''an escape hatch'' out of the ''purgatory'' of life. He also talks about the place where you, the reader, like to be when you read a book. He calls this place your ''far-seeing place, the one where you go to receive telepathic messages'' from an author via the broadcast frequency of the printed page. King describes his own ''far-seeing place'':

''I'm in another place, a basement place where there are lots of bright lights and clear images. This is a place that I've built for myself over the years. It's a far-seeing place. I know it's a little strange, a little bit of a contradiction... but that's how it is with me.''

Does that sound familiar to you? It should. You've been there before. And tonight, you're going to go there again.

You know it as The Pearl Station.”

****

Of Mice and Men Connection

This novel, written by John Steinbeck, is one that Sawyer is seen reading while in prison in “Every Man For Himself.” Both he and Ben quote the book to each other on the way to the Hydra Island Lookout.

The story is the tale of a simple and childlike but physically powerful man named Lenny who is befriended by George a smaller, weaker man with a quick wit. The ideal situation for both men, who are struggling to find work, is to save enough money to purchase a farm and live off the fat of the land. Lenny dreams of owning a farm with a few rabbits.

The dream collapses; however, as Lenny accidentally kills their bosses' son's wife, while she is talking to him about her own failed dreams. To save Lenny from what could only be a long and painful death in prison; George shoots Lenny and distracts him by talking about the bunny farm he always dreamed about.
(In the novel, the character Lenny has frequent dreams and visions of rabbits.)

***

Number 8

The Dharmachakra, a Buddhist symbol, has eight spokes
In tarot, card No. 8 is "Strength"
In numerology, 8 is the number of building, and in some theories, also the number of destruction Songs with the number eight in their title include the Byrds's Eight Miles High and the Beatles' Eight Days a Week
"Eight maids a-milking" is the gift on the eighth day of Christmas in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol
Using hyperbole, the Beatles sang about loving their addressee "Eight Days a Week". Also from music is the 8-track cartridge
Magic 8 Ball is a randomized process of predicting the future or answering various questions, packaged to resemble this ball and often sold as a fortune-telling device
The atomic number of oxygen.
In physics, the second magic number.
All spiders, and more generally all arachnids, have eight legs. An octopus has eight tentacles
Timothy Leary identified a hierarchy of eight levels of consciousness
As of 2006, in our solar system, eight of the bodies orbiting the Sun are considered to be planets.
The Noble Eightfold Path in the Buddhist faith has eight steps
The Eight Immortals are Chinese deities
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that humans are responsible for their actions by the age of 8. Before that age, children lack sufficient knowledge to commit sin and are therefore exempt from judgment for their actions.
There are eight bits in a byte
"Section 8" is common U.S. slang for "crazy", based on the U.S. military's Section 8 discharge for mentally unfit personnel
In Colombia and Venezuela, "volverse un ocho" (meaning to tie oneself in a figure 8) refers to getting in trouble or contradicting one's self.

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Date November 23rd, 2006

P.S. I am looking for suggestions on what to include in next weeks Bonus Section. If anyone has any ideas or subjects you’d like me to discuss please feel free to e-mail me.

4 8 15 16 23 42

The Alternative One – dharmapoet@wi.rr.com

HIATUS WEEK ONE

2006-11-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

HIATUS WEEK ONE: November 15th, 2006

Supplement to Episode 306: I Do

A running list of the number of “I do’s” from this episode:
* I do – Want to invest in marriage (Kate purchasing and buying wedding veil and dress)
* I do – Want to do it (Kevin to Kate in the opening scene and visa versa)
* I do – Want to get married (Kate to Kevin at the altar)
* I do – Want to kill Sawyer (Picket to Sawyer for Colleen’s death)
* I do – Want to do it (Kate to Sawyer – Cage love scene)
* I do – Love you! (Sawyer to Kate after cage love scene)
* I do – Want to know what killed Eko (Sayid to Locke)
* I do – Want to bury Eko in the jungle (Locke making the decision himself)
* I do – Want to stop running (Kate to Edward Marsh and Kate by committing to the marriage.)
* I do – Want to warn you (Alex to Kate – “They’re going to kill your boyfriend)
* I do – Have an answer (Eko’s Jesus stick – “lift up your eyes and look north”)
* I do – Want you to see the monitor of Kate and Sawyer (Ben allowing Jack to “escape” from his cell again.)
* I do – Want to “fix” you (Jack to Ben on his surgery, finally)
* I do – Want to leave the island (Jack to Ben for doing the surgery)
* I do – Want to live (Ben on his upcoming surgery)
* I do – Want Alex here (Ben to Juliet before the surgery)
* I do – Want Ben to die (Juliet during the operation)
* I do – Want Ben to live (Tom after Jack’s coup)
* I do – Want to play mind games (Jack to the Others during the coup)
* I do – Want to follow orders (Juliet to Jack before the surgery)

Bonus Section 1

Focus has changed from the Swan Station over to the Pearl Station this season. The Swan Hatch, now a large hole in the ground, is no longer a location of importance but the Pearl appears to be presenting a number of new questions. Because of that I have switched my attention to it and have prepared the following information.

The Pearl Station

A note about the Pearl Station: I have always believed that the sequence of events on the island in season two dictated that the Pearl Station was actually the Hatch depicted as the question mark “?” on the Blast Door Map as seen by John Locke in the episode “Lockdown.” Visual evidence seems to confirm this as Locke spotted the question mark in the ground under the drug-runners plane. We, as viewers, have also seen this image and there is no doubt that a question mark was found in the dirt near the plane wreckage. I am convinced that the Pearl Station is the “?” as depicted on the Blast Door Maps. However, a group of loyal posters and viewers maintain that the Pearl Station may not be the “?” If the question mark is not the Pearl Hatch then it remains an unknown Station to date and may play a prominent part in future events. Some believe that the eye patch man may be located in the “?” Station but I strongly disagree.

Locke and Eko located the Pearl Station when they went in search of the question mark using the Blast Door Map as a guide in the episode “?”. Locke was familiar with the area near the smuggler’s plane and lead Eko here. In a dream sequence Yemi tells Locke/Eko to climb the cliff next to the plane and when at the pinnacle views the circle in the vegetation near the plane. This circle, combined with the fallen plane, formed a question mark. However, the question mark was only formed after the plane fell from the cliff, which was after Radzinsky and Kelvin drew the blast door map. In fact, the station marked as "C4?" is likely to be the Pearl Hatch, as the word "The Pearl?" is written next to it on the map.

The function of the Pearl Station (DHARMA Initiative # 5) is to observe the inhabitants of the Swan Station using a “Remote Viewing” system. The purpose of the Pearl appears to be to study the movements and daily activities of the individuals located in the Swan Station. It is presumed that this activity may have actually been the experiment as the filled notebooks were found later in an abandoned heap elsewhere on the island. That it is a research facility primarily used for experiments in psychology there can be no doubt. The question is exactly who is being experimented upon?

The architectural components of the Pearl Hatch include an octagonal-shaped concrete vertical shaft leading down into the hatch with a metal ladder attached to the shaft wall and one large octagonal room at the bottom of the shaft. On one wall are nine numbered video monitors, which are currently being fed static. These presumably are to feed live surveillance footage of other areas of the island. On another wall is a table or desk, which contains a computer and dot matrix printer, a pile of computer-paper, and a stack of Dharma notebooks. A bookshelf or cabinet is also found near (or on) this same wall. A pneumatic tube for sending the notebooks out of the station is anchored to the wall. A working bathroom, which has a sliding pocket door, is located in another wall. There are two lounge type chairs with trays located in the center of the room facing the monitors. This station has sustained some damage, either through neglect or lack of use. The paint and walls appear to be warped and moldy, there are missing ceiling tiles and loose wires and there is a rather large rock in the room. There are no living quarters found in this station as it was intended for eight-hour shifts only.

Also, just as the pneumatic tube requires power to operate so do the monitors at the Pearl Station. While we are aware that all the Stations still have electricity we continue to wonder where the poser supply originates. Could the solar power generated at the Others village be piping electricity to the different Stations?

Pearl Orientation Video

Mr. Eko discovered the Pearl Orientation videotape (U-matic tape) in a bookshelf while he and John Locke were exploring the Station. According to this orientation film (see transcription below), the initiates of the Pearl Station live for three weeks inside the station and monitor the occupants of the other stations in eight-hour shifts. After each shift they make their way to the barracks by way of the Pala Ferry. When an observation notebook is filled it is to be placed inside the pneumatic tube. A man who introduces himself as Dr. Mark Wickmund hosts this orientation video, however, he looks to be the same person as Dr. Marvin Candle from the Swan Orientation film.

Pearl Orientation Transcription

Dharma theme music plays

“The DHARMA Initiative

5 of 6 Orientation

The Pearl DHARMA Logo
Orientation - Station 5 - The Pearl

Hello. I am Dr. Mark Wickmund and this is your orientation film for station five of the DHARMA Initiative.

Station five or, the Pearl, is a monitoring station where the activities of participants in DHARMA Initiative projects can be observed and recorded, not only for posterity but for the ongoing refinement of the initiative as a whole.

As Karen DeGroot herself has written, “Careful observation is the only key to true and complete awareness.”

Your tour of duty in the Pearl will last three weeks and during this time you and your partner will observe a psychological experiment in progress.

Your duty is to observe team members in another station on the island. These team members are not aware that they are under surveillance or that they are subjects of an experiment.

Working in eight-hour shifts you and your partner will record everything you observe in the notebooks we provided. What is the nature of the experiment, you might ask? What do these subjects believe they are accomplishing as they struggle to fulfill their tasks? You, as the observer, don’t need to know. All you need to know is that the subjects believe that their job is of the utmost importance. Remember, everything that occurs, no matter how minute or seemingly unimportant, must be recorded.

Each time a notebook is filled with the fruits of your diligent observation, roll it up and insert it into one of the containers provided. Then, simply place the container in the pneumatic tube and… presto! It will be transported directly to us.

At the end of your eight-hour shift proceed to the Pala Ferry, which will take you back to the barracks to prepare for your next tour. On behalf of the DeGroots, Alvar Hanso, and all of us here at the DHARMA Initiative, thank you. Namaste and good luck.

© The Hanso Foundation
1980 All Rights Reserved.”

The Monitors

The monitor rack consists of nine screens configured in a 3x3 array and numbered one through nine.
1 – 4 – 7 This configuration represents the # 15 (diagonals 7,5,3 and 9,5,1
2 – 5 – 8 and centers 4,5,6 and 8,5,2) which is one of the numbers.
3 – 6 – 9
Each monitor has three dials in a vertical column. The upper two are of similar designs, but the third dial (lower) is very different and about twice the size.
0
0
O
In activating the monitors, Locke used the large dial to activate screens one through three and the upper smaller dial to turn on screen seven. Screen seven received a live video surveillance feed from the kitchen of The Swan station, showing Jack walking by. This image pans in another direction when John Locke next looks at it. The other six screens displayed only static. Screen five was used to display the Pearl Orientation Video. Above each bank of monitors, mounted on the wall, are three speakers (circa 1960’s). When working, these probably transmitted audio from the station that was being monitored at the time.

The Hydra Station has a small room with a similar group of monitors, which may be linked to the Pearl but are recording very different areas of the island.

It is revealed in the episode “The Cost of Living” that the Pearl Station is designed to monitor several different stations at once. While inspecting the wiring to the monitors, Sayid manages to patch a signal from a station, which appears very similar to the Swan Station. It is also revealed that the resident of this station, a man wearing an eye-patch and a jumpsuit with a Dharma logo, is aware that he is under observation.

The Computer

There is a Dharma brand computer present similar to that found in the Swan Station. There is also a dot matrix printer located next to the printer. The screen displays the message prompt “Print log? Y/N” when Locke first discovers it. When he types “Y” to the prompt the printer begins to print off a repetitive log that consists of a repeating series of numeric codes, interspersed by the word “accepted” and later “system failure.” (i.e. “accepted 922044:16 system failure”, etc.) The log numbers indicate the exact time the “Execute” key is depressed after entering the numbers into the Swan Station computer. It appears that everything that is entered into the Swan’s computer is logged. The Pearl's computer actually bears the logo of The Swan. In keeping with the rest of the vintage Apple hardware, the printer is an Imagewriter II, first produced in 1985.

The Pneumatic Message Tube

There is a still a working pneumatic tube in the Pearl station but because a pneumatic delivery system requires a compressor to force the air through the tube then there has to be power coming from somewhere. Where does the power supply for the pneumatic tubes in the Pearl Station come from? The personnel stationed at the Pearl were supposed to insert their completed logbooks into a message capsule and send them up the tube. Their logbooks would then be delivered to what was described as 'us' in The Pearl's Orientation video. The actual location turned out to be a dump where the tubes were simply piling up, without anyone of the DHARMA initiative checking on them. Locke took his sketch of the Blast Door Map and sent it up through these transport piping; it also ended up in an empty field, which was discovered in episode, “Live Together, Die Alone” by Sawyer, Kate, Jack and Hurley.

The Notebooks

The notebooks all contain the Pearl Station logo on the front cover and there appears to be huge number of them considering the large pile found by Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley. It is evident that while a huge amount of daily activity has been recorded in the notebooks it is also apparent that no one is actually using or reading the information in them.

The Lounge Chairs

There are two leather lounge chairs each with a writing table and a magnifying viewing lens mounted on an adjustable arm assembly to the side of the chairs. There is a small bank of controls on the arms of the chairs. On the left arm of the left chair, a rocker switch similar to older style power windows can be seen. On the right arm of the right chair, Locke used the conventional stove dial to brighten the lights in the room. On the dial these words can be read, starting on the right and moving counterclockwise: “HIGH”, “MEDIUM”, “WARM”, and “OFF”.

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin
November 16th, 2006

P.S. I am looking for suggestions on what to include in next week’s Bonus Section. If anyone has any ideas or subjects you’d like me to discuss please feel free to e-mail me.

4 8 15 16 23 42

The Alternative One – dharmapoet@wi.rr.com

EPISODE 306: I DO

2006-11-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

S3E6 (306): I Do

Air Date: November 8th, 2006
Production Code: 306
Official ABC pre-air summary:
“Jack makes a decision regarding Ben's offer; Kate feels helpless when it looks like Pickett is going to make good on his threat to kill Sawyer; Locke discovers a hidden message that may help unlock the island's secrets.”

Episode Re-cap:

Flashback
Kate enters her hotel room after a shopping spree and opens up a box to reveal a wedding veil. There is a knock on the door and when she opens it there is a Miami policeman standing there. We find out that he is her fiancé.

Kate and Sawyer are still stuck in the cages and Sawyer throws rocks at the food button for a little light entertainment.

Jack examines Ben’s x-rays and tells him that in one week the tumor will be inoperable. Ben believes that Jack is going to perform the surgery but Jack refuses and tells Ben that he wanted him to know how he was going to die!

Flashback
Kate and her fiancé, Kevin, have just 12 hours before they are to be married. We find that Kate is using the alias “Monica.”

Locke, Desmond, Sayid, Paulo and Nikki discuss the events surrounding Eko’s death. Nikki asks if they should take Eko back to the beach for burial but Locke decides to bury him in the jungle reasoning that the Survivors have had too many funerals lately. Sayid asks Locke what killed Eko and he tells him that the “monster” killed him.

Kate, Sawyer and some of the others are working at the construction site when an alarm goes off. “Compound breached!” blares over the loudspeaker as Alex runs into the compound shooting a wrist rocket. The Others capture her and as they drag her off she yells to Kate, “they’re going to kill your boyfriend.” Kate and Sawyer are sent back to work but not before they witness Picket and Juliet arguing. Juliet hands Kate a burlap sack and asks her to put it on her head. Juliet tells Kate to come with her or Picket will kill Sawyer.

Flashback
Kate is seen in a vestibule of the church in her wedding dress prior to her marriage to Kevin. Her future mother-in-law gives her a necklace. Kate (as Monica) marries Kevin.

Kate is taken to the Hydra Station in the burlap hood to Jack’s cell. She tells Jack that he has to do the surgery on Ben or they’ll kill Sawyer. Jack still refuses to do the surgery. Ben is monitoring the conversation from his security room and is not happy.

Flashback
Kate is shopping at the grocery store when she takes a detour to a phone booth. She sets a timer and calls Edward Marsh, the U.S. Marshall that has been tailing her. She asks him to stop following her and that she no longer wants to run but he knows that she will continue to run and tells her so.

Danny Picket tells Sawyer to say his goodbyes to Kate.

Locke’s detour, prior to Eko’s burial, was to collect the Jesus stick. As they bury Eko Locke notices a new inscription on the stick. “Lift up your eyes and look north”, it reads.

Kate escapes her cage again and breaks into Sawyer’s cage. When she asks him to run with her he tells her about the second island and the futility of escape. They spend an intimate night together.

Flashback
Kate is surprised to receive two tickets for a honeymoon to Costa Rica from Kevin.

The communicator in Jack’s cell begins to issue static. Jack hears “try the door” and finds it unlocked. He searches through the halls and notices Ben’s security room and an armory. He takes a handgun from the armory and returns to the monitor room to witness Kate and Sawyer lying on the ground together in the cage. Ben enters the room and Jack tells him he’ll do the surgery if he’ll get him off the island. Ben agrees.

Flashback
Kate finds out that she is pregnant and tells Kevin about her past but not before she drugs him on her way out the door.

Jack and Juliet begin the surgery on Ben. During the surgery Picket and another man leave the observation room and take Sawyer out of his cage. Picket sets Sawyer on his knees and points a gun at his head. Back in the operating room Jack makes an incision in Ben’s kidney and tells everyone that he has an hour to live unless Kate and Sawyer are set free. Jack takes the walkie-talkie from Tom and tells Kate to tell him a specific story when she and Sawyer are safe.

I’ll be watching you!

Observations:

Kevin, played by Nathan Fillion of Firefly fame, worked for the Miami Dade Police Department. I think Kate may have become involved with a police officer in the hope that he might be able to help her with her present dilemma. But when Kevin calls her “Monica” that fragile house of cards came tumbling down for me.

Kate is pregnant so we assume another episode will flashback to this situation. At a guess I’d say the episode will be entitled; “And baby makes two” or something along those lines. Did anyone notice if Widmore Labs manufactured her pregnancy test?

The tickets to Costa Rica from Kevin to Kate for their honeymoon trip are on Oceanic Airlines. Obviously, this was the impetus that caused Kate to drug and confess to Kevin about her past. There was absolutely no way that Kate could get a passport and she knew it. Once this and the pregnancy occurred she had to start running again.

The new writing on Eko’s Jesus stick, “Lift up your eyes and look north” appears to be a definite clue to some secret of the island. Is it a clue to the location of the unknown hatch where the eye-patched man is located?

A new character is introduced tonight. While Danny Picket and one other Other are going out to Sawyer’s cage Danny says, “Shephard wasn’t even on Jacob’s list!” So who is Jacob and maybe more importantly who is on his list? And what is the list for?

It’s apparent that Danny Picket blames Sawyer for Colleen’s death but I still can’t figure out why. It’s possible that since Picket cannot hurt Jack, because of their need for him to complete Ben’s surgery, and Kate is a woman then Sawyer, by default, becomes the only Survivor left for him to blame and therefore punish. Obviously, this makes for good drama but shouldn’t he have been out in the jungle looking for Sayid, Jin and Sun? It seems to me his anger is misplaced yet Sawyer is, by far, the easier target.

When the communication device in Jack’s cell went off a voice said “try the door.” This voice sounded like Alex to me. But why would she let Jack out of his cell? Did she know that by doing so it would force him to see Sawyer and Kate in the cage and thereby force him to change his mind? If so then Alex is the smartest person on the island. Or is also being manipulated by Ben.

Having sex on the island has not been kind to the women of Lost. Here’s the list: Shannon and Sayid were intimate. The next day Shannon was shot dead by Ana-Lucia! Ana-Lucia and Sawyer were intimate (Ana-Lucia wanted his gun). The next day Ana-Lucia was shot and killed by Michael. And Libby was just thinking about having sex with Hurley and we all know what happened to her. Is Kate next??

The Questions:

1) Did Mr. Friendly seem to anyone overly concerned with Ben’s condition? Does he have feelings for Ben? When Jack performed his extra-curricular surgery Tom looked so shocked that he almost couldn’t believe that it was happening. And it continued through the whole sequence of events, which included the relinquishing of the walkie-talkie. It certainly appeared as if Tom was emotionally invested in Ben’s welfare. Am I over-analyzing?

2) Is Alex Ben’s daughter? Just before Ben has his surgery he asks Juliet if Alex has asked about him. When she answers no he seems to be very saddened by the news. Is Benjamin Linus the father of Alex? It appears that his concern is more than just passing and is paternal in nature. What does that mean though? Was Rousseau married to Ben? Is Ben part of the original survey group that got stranded on the island? Or is there a shadow story that has not yet been told? When Rousseau caught Ben in the jungle she did not seem to recognize him. Why then would Ben be so concerned about Alex? Something here does not yet add up.

3) Will Kate and Sawyer run? *** Spoiler Alert*** Don’t read this next section if you don’t want to know the answer to the question. I warned you! In the coming episodes trailer we see that Kate and Sawyer do escape. Kate gets a handgun from the Other in her cage and she and Sawyer are seen running in the jungle. Sawyer has the gun in his hand. I had to slow down the DVR to see all this but it is confirmed. ***Spoiler Alert Ends***

4) Will Kate and Sawyer escape? Since Sawyer already knows that they are on an island and has told Kate this there is only one thing they can do. They must find where the boat is docked (or the submarine but I doubt either could pilot it.) My guess is that they will try to find the dock and steal the boat back from the Others.

5) Will Jack finish the surgery and if he does will Ben survive it? Jack has gambled and is playing the odds. If Ben bleeds out and dies Jack can fall in with Juliet’s group and “be protected” by them. If Sawyer and Kate are allowed to go free then he will probably save Ben and may be sent home. At least Ben will look on him favorably since he saved his life.

6) And who is Jacob? Picket tells the Other he is with that “Shephard isn’t even on Jacob’s list.” I repeat, who is Jacob? This new entity is brand new and will, I am sure, be debated heavily on the forums. (By the way I do not frequent any of the forums and only use Lostpedia occasionally, so most of what you find here is from my own mind… and how scary is that!)

7) Was Jack’s escape engineered by Ben? I think it may have been. It looks like this was the plan all along. By allowing Jack access to the security room he could see that Sawyer and Kate had become intimate. I am certain this was Ben’s plan all along. It is why he had Jack separated from them in the first place. Jack’s isolation was an intricate portion of Ben’s plan!

8) Is the eye-patch man, seen on the Pearl Hatch monitor, the mysterious Jacob that Picket talked about? And by lifting up his eyes will Locke head north to find the newest hatch?

9) One last question that is out of place and time – this question really does not fit into this episode but I’ve waited too long to pose it. Perhaps the lengthy hiatus will give us more time to contemplate. Without further rambling… Last year when Ana-Lucia, Libby, Bernard and Eko were bringing Sawyer back to the beach on their make-shift stretcher a fifth member of the Tailies was present. When Cindy disappeared there were only two real conclusions that one could come to. Either she was captured by the Others or was one of them. We have since seen the Others’ camps and compounds and most of the people in that group. I ask now then, what ever happened to Cindy?!?

Quotes:

After Jack tells Ben that he won’t do the surgery Ben says, “I’m disappointed in your decision.” Jack retorts, “ You won’t be disappointed long!”

Kate to U.S. Marshall Edward Marsh: “I don’t want to run anymore!”

Alex to Kate: “They’re going to kill your boyfriend!”

Ben says, “See you on the other side” just before succumbing to the anesthesia. Is Ben a fan of Ozzy Osborn or Korn? Ozzy has a song named this and Korn an entire album. And I have to look this up later when I have more time but didn’t one of Stephen King’s characters say this once? Lawnmower Man? The Stand? The Dark Tower?

Bonus Section 1:

MIND GAMES – SEASON 3

From an idea by Kim

The term mind games refers to the passive/aggressive behavior used specifically to demoralize a subject while making the aggressor look superior. The objective of mind games is to induce high levels of anxiety, confusion, mental exhaustion and sub-optimal information processing. It is used primarily to cause mental exhaustion and ensure limited constructive problem solving.

During the first five episodes of season three of Lost we have seen our share of head-trips or mind games played by the characters. A loyal reader has asked us to expound on the many different psychological games that are being played. There are a lot and I’ll try to touch on at least one aspect of each instance we can bring to mind. Feel free to e-mail me or make a comment on the blogsite if you can think of others. Especially if you think they are important.

Mind games in Episode 301: “A Tale of Two Cities”

Early in Episode 301 “A Tale Of Two Cities” Kate is given a shower and a dress and taken to breakfast with Ben on the beach. When she asks him why he is treating her to clean clothes and breakfast he replies, “The next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant.” Ben has sent Kate a message that a certain amount of pain will be involved with her capture and captivity. Of course, we are not sure if it will be physical, mental or both but we assume it won’t be fun for Kate. This is, of course, a threat of future or potential future pain and a very effective method to control behavior. Will it work on Kate? It has been noted that Kate tends to run when cornered but in this particular case she has nowhere or no one to run to.

An interesting side note mind trip here is that during the shower scene Kate tells Tom (Mr. Friendly) that she won’t change in front of him. He tells her, “You’re not my type!” What does he mean by this? Is it possible that Tom really is “Mr. Friendly”? Again, we can only assume that this is another mind game played by the Others. We’re guessing that we’ll find out more concerning this statement as the story continues.

Sawyer is being held in a large animal cage and is introduced to Karl, a young teenage boy who ultimately helps him to escape. Subject escaped! blares over the loudspeaker as they escape in different directions but both Sawyer and Karl are recaptured quickly. (It all seemed rather concocted to me!) This was a pure mental experiment by the Others in determining Sawyers state of mind. Would he leave Jack and Kate and escape? Or would he hold back and try and find them? To me, the experiment is inconclusive. Sawyer may have tried to hide, assess the situation (numbers and positions) before attempting to find Jack and Kate (at least I like to think he would). Or he may have headed straight to Locke and the rest of the Survivor army! When they bring Karl back and make him apologize for including Sawyer in the escape it all seems to swirl about in a state of confusion for me. Why would they make one of their own apologize to captives? Is Karl an example? Are they trying to teach him while punishing him? Like a parent? Or like a warden?

There is also a very strange back-story flashback concerning Jack’s jealousy and obsession concerning his ex-wife’s “boyfriend.” The creators wanted us to know that Jack was flirting with an epic emotional breakdown. Why? Showing him at his most vulnerable here it appears that we are being set up for a future reversal of circumstances and that the strongest side of Jack has yet to be seen. However, when they portray Jack in a guise other than what we have seen in the previous two seasons we have to ask ourselves why they would have to go to such extremes.

We speculated last season that the entire island might have been a big Skinner’s box. We now think that perhaps only segments of the islands can be defined in this manner. This includes the Pearl Hatch (where the reward is information) and now Sawyer’s cage (where the reward may be survival)! Another example of a mind game in this episode centers on the idea of problem solving. In order to acquire food Sawyer has to solve a complicated puzzle once used for bears. This form of problem solving for reward is based on the case approach. The most effective way to learn something is to be placed in the actual situation. Being told before hand that the cage would electrocute Sawyer if he tried to manipulate it would not have been as effective as throwing him in the cage and letting him learn for himself.

The book club is discussing Stephen King’s “Carrie” which Juliet says is her favorite book. This is the story of a young woman with extraordinary powers who is ostracized by her peers and eventually snaps… Will Juliet be threatened emotionally in the future and explode? Juliet argues with Adam… this may have been an insertion of power on her part. Perhaps, this scene was produced especially for the viewing audience so that we could see that a clash was occurring or that factions within the hierarchy of the Others was taking place.

And why did Kate and Jack both have bandages on their arms? It is obvious that the Others want them to think that they either drew blood or injected them with something. But what purpose does this serve? Or did they really draw blood? Why?

Mind games in Episode 302: “The Glass Ballerina”

During this episode Sun’s father plays mind games with his daughter. The glass ballerina, which belonged to the family when Sun was a little girl, is a metaphor for her apparent willingness to see others hurt to protect herself. Even when she knows that the ramifications will be disastrous she lies to shelter herself from harm. The figurine is a representation of how lies can shatter lives and the fragility of both. This game when played as Mr. Paik plays it can be disastrous to fragile little minds. Whatever lesson he intended to teach was lost in Sun’s need to protect herself from retribution.

Kate and Sawyer are taken out to what looks like a rock-covered landing strip where many of the Others are laboring. Ben, it seems, plans on using Sawyer and Kate as free labor. (Experiment or lesson? Research or chain gang? Hmmm…) Kate demands to see Jack before she’ll do any work but Pickett zaps Sawyer with a taser shock for her insolence. That the Others would resort to pain stimulus as punishment to perform manual labor comes as no surprise. What is surprising though is that whatever this project is it is important enough that members of their own group are hard at work in completing the task. Or, this too may be a mind game to make Kate and Sawyer think that what they are working on is important to the community of Others.

Later in the story Mr. Paik demands that Jin “deliver a message” to Jae Lee as he has taken something important from him. By not telling Jin of the situation he has also asserted a future power over him. When Jin refuses to do Paik’s bidding and quits his job Mr. Paik appeals to his honor and tells Jin that their shame is shared. As a matter of fact, he is telling the absolute truth and Jin realizes it but not the depth of that truth. He relents and accepts the job after Paik calls him “son.” Appealing to his emotions and the need to belong Paik has deceived Jin into believing that he has been accepted.

Sun and Sayid attempt to play Jin by lying to him (or at least not tell him what is going on) but he catches on very quickly. Back at the Pala Ferry site Jin demands one of Sayid’s guns when he understands what is happening and explains to Sun that he understands English better than they think. When Sayid hands the gun to Jin he asks him if he knows how to use it and Jin surprises Sayid by checking the magazine in a manner that makes it clear that he knows exactly how to handle a handgun. Jin has been playing the non-understanding “foreigner” and Sayid and Sun both tried to deceive him.

Sawyer, on impulse, walks over to Kate and kisses her passionately when he is supposed to be working breaking rocks in the hot sun but his motives are dual in nature. A fight develops and Sawyer lands a few punches before he grabs a gun. Sawyer holds the Others at bay with the rifle but Juliet who is pointing her gun at Kate calls him James and tells him to put the gun down. When he does he is tasered once again. When Sawyer and Kate are returned to their cages he tells her that he was testing their strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, he tells her that Juliet would have pulled the trigger without a problem. Ben observes all this on closed circuit television. Is Sawyer protecting Kate by telling her that Juliet was capable of murder? Or is he also playing mind games? This ploy seemed to me to be a way to keep Kate close to him. And Juliet called Sawyer by his real name in an effort to confuse and distract him.

Ben attempts to solicit Jack’s trust by apologizing and allowing him to know his real name. At the time we did not know why Ben would need Jack’s absolution but we have since found out why. Jack refuses Ben’s attempted reconciliation. Ben offers his hand and tells Jack that his real name is Benjamin Linus and that he has lived on the island all his life. Jack refused to shake hands. Ben then offers Jack a chance to go home telling him that he can make it happen if Jack only does what he asks at the correct time and place. To help convince him Ben tells him a number of facts about the end of 2004 including the date and that the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. When Jack is amused by the thought of the Sox winning the Series Ben shows him a television monitor. Ben repeats his offer, telling Jack that if he listens to him and trusts him, he will eventually take him home. There are a lot of head games happening during this exchange. Most we did not realize until we knew that the x-rays Jack saw were of Ben’s spine. When Ben tried to reconcile with Jack it was for selfish purposes and not to resolve open issues. Jack saw through this odd attempt to apologize and even though he did not know that Ben needed his help Jack’s refusal was a head-trip in itself. There is no doubt that Ben is panicking inside knowing that the only man who can save his life is a mortal enemy.

Later Ben tries to lay a guilt trip on Juliet. His statement, “You never made soup for me,” implies that either, Ben and Juliet had once been in a relationship, or less likely that Ben was once Juliet's prisoner. In either case, this statement is made to elicit a sense of guilt in Juliet. We are not sure what the relationship is or was between Ben and Juliet but we can certainly guess that it is falling apart. The flippant remark is to make Juliet feel regret concerning the current conditions. We do not know at this point whose is at fault for the falling out.

Juliet calls Sawyer “James” and Colleen calls Sun, “Sun-Hwa Kwon.” They obviously know more about the survivors then first realized. Calling someone by their entire or real name in a stressful circumstance is a form of adding familiarity and trust to an otherwise unfamiliar situation. This is a notably successful tactic in situations involving hostages where familiarity tends to make people believe in a fictional friendship. More head games… More head-trips….

Mind games in Episode 303: “Further Instructions”

Is the mysterious island itself playing mind games? Inside the sweat lodge Locke takes drugs and begins his internal adventure. His spiritual guide who appears in the guise of Boone soon meets him in this “other” state. He tells John that he was “the sacrifice the island demanded” and that John needs to bring the family back together. Their journey begins when Boone tells John that he must get back into the wheelchair. Boone then wheels John through an airport (with obvious Oceanic logos) and tells him “someone here is in danger.” The camera then pans to Charlie, Claire and Aaron in line for airline tickets. Hurley, the gate agent in this dream sequence, is entering the numbers into a computer terminal. Jin and Sun are standing in line with Sayid while Desmond walks by in a pilot’s uniform with three flight attendants. Kate and Sawyer, looking every bit the couple, are in security line as is Jack, who is alone. Ben is the security guard. Boone tells Locke that “they’ve got him” and that he needs to “clean up his own mess.” Locke is scared from his trance by the face of an angry growling polar bear in the fire. Has the island thrown a head-trip at Locke? While intentionally answering a specific question (where is Eko?) it also gives Locke a great deal of information to contemplate.

Locke believes that the island is an entity that can both reason and communicate. What he did not know was that it could (and would) also play mind games with him. His internal mental walkabout in the sweat lodge was done only to accomplish communication with the island. And the island responded! In the fire as John comes out of his trance he is frightened by the growling image of a polar bear telling him the exact nature of Eko’s trouble.

Why do so many episodes of Lost begin with the opening of an eye? This is a great scene device and very creative but I have often wondered if there was a deeper meaning. Since the eye is the world’s portal to the mind I presume that it may have something to do with mind control or psychological manipulation. The symbol of the “Illuminatus!” is the opened eye and the All-Seeing Eye is found in many eras and cultures. It is generally a symbol of the watchful and protective power of the Supreme Being. It appears on the Great Seal of the United States, and is among the many beautiful symbols of Freemasonry, where it represents the Great Architect of the Universe. It is also known as the Eye of God. Is the island God?

Mind games in Episode 304: Every Man For Himself

Ben convinced Sawyer that they had installed a pacemaker in him that would erupt his heart if overstressed. This head-trip was designed as a simple means to keep Sawyer in check. While Sawyer fell for this con it seemed a bit elaborate and irrational in many ways. That this tactic worked surprised me, as Sawyer appears smarter than that. A pacemaker is major surgery and requires a great deal of recuperation and has a slow and painful recovery time. Besides, a pacemaker would not do what Ben suggests but a defibrillator would. Again, this particular mind game was administered to keep Sawyer from attempting to escape the island.

Bearing the stretcher of Colleen’s injured body past Sawyer and Kate’s cage was designed to specifically give them a false sense of hope of rescue. By bringing an injured Other near, Sawyer and Kate were under the impression that a rescue attempt was being made. The loud noises and shouting may have given Sawyer and Kate the false hope that the survivors were on their way in making a rescue attempt. Another mind game played to create an emotional response… but why did they bother? And the burlap sack over Jack’s head is a recurring theme among the Others.

The Others placed Sawyer back in his cage even after they knew that Kate could get out of hers. This particular test was designed to assess Kate’s emotional attachment for Sawyer and whether or not she would leave without Sawyer or Jack. In this particular instance neither Kate or sawyer knew that mind games where being played as they did not know yet that they were being watched.

When Sawyer is brought in for his mock “operation” the communicator is left on in Jack’s cell and he hears Sawyer’s voice. The idea that he was being tortured was probably foremost in Jack’s mind. There are many reasons why this might have been done. Jack as a doctor would feel compelled to help an injured or hurt human being and his compassion and oath assured that he would be concerned for Sawyer’s health.

Jack is allowed to hear a conversation that stated it was a mistake to bring Kate and Sawyer “here.” This conversation fabricated in advance and designed to be overheard so that Jack would know that Ben had come for him. While Jack had no idea what Ben wanted from him it was obvious that Jack was the “one” that Ben wanted.

Jack is summoned by Juliet to perform surgery on Colleen. Juliet may have already known that Colleen was beyond help. However, no one but a doctor would have known this. Juliet’s summoning of Jack was so that he would see the x-ray of the spinal tumor. The Others run “a hooded Jack” past Sawyer and Kate's cage. This head game was designed so that Sawyer and Kate would know that Jack was alive but would continue to keep Jack isolated. The loud music playing over the loudspeaker was to insure that Jack would not hear Sawyer and Kate.

Ben made sure that Jack was handcuffed to Colleen’s gurney for quite a while. This may have been done for a number of reasons, including monitoring Jack’s emotional response to losing a patient. This is a recurring theme in many of the flashbacks that took place at St. Sebastian Hospital where Jack worked. It is also possible that Ben was giving him more time to observe the spinal x-rays and to examine the available medical equipment.

Later Ben admits to Sawyer that he conned him with the scheme of placing a pacemaker inside him. In the process this gave Sawyer information on just how smart Ben could be and at what lengths he would go to in being deceitful. A word of caution about Ben: There is very little that we can believe when it comes to Ben. He has done nothing but lie to the Survivors since he met them. Therefore the claim that they are on two different islands remains unfounded. Also, that the spinal x-rays are his may be suspect too.

Mind games in Episode 305: “The Cost of Living”

The Pearl Station may be part of a larger psychological experiment. In this case, the experiment would involve the observation of the “subjects” in the Swan Hatch. The subjects of the Pearl would be told, through their own Orientation film that they are to observe subjects in an experiment already in progress and are to record their observations in notebooks. They would not be told the whereabouts of the Swan experiment, however. The experiment would be monitored, as well, as described by the presence of cameras inside the station. It is not known where this experiment is monitored or by whom. There is still a possibility that whoever is monitoring it could also be the subject(s) of an experiment.

Jack’s attendance at Colleen Picket’s funeral is a definite mind game played by Ben to make Jack feel sympathy or guilt for her death. In the end this is a ploy to enlist Jack’s surgical expertise for Ben’s eminent spinal surgery. The white linen clothing was a nice touch too. Surgical, clean and without blemish…

It appears that Juliet has an agenda of her own and it doesn’t seem to include Benjamin Linus. Is she working to rid the Others of a tyrant or is she the usurper with a plan to take over? It looks like she may not be as nice as she pretends to be. Juliet tells Jack she is going to play To Kill A Mockingbird for him. What Juliet tells Jack and what she shows him on the “home movie” tell completely different stories. She tells Jack that Ben is a great man and that he deserves to live but her cue cards certainly don’t back up that notion. There is an apparent ruthlessness to Juliet’s plan as outlined in the cue cards. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that Ben is a skilled con man. Juliet’s behavior may be part of some elaborate plan on his part. Juliet’s animosity towards Ben could be a ploy. Juliet and Ben may know that Jack could never consciously harm a patient and by asking him to in an elaborate scheme to murder him may very well save his life.

Juliet’s cue cards read: “Ignore everything I’m saying”, “Ben is a liar”, “And he is very dangerous”, “Some of us want a change”, “But it has to look like an accident”, “It has to look like we tried to save him”, “And that’s up to you, Jack”, “It’s a complicated surgery. No one would ever know”, “And I would protect you”, and “Now tell me to turn off the movie.” Can we believe anything that Juliet says? Is she playing Jack for her own benefit? It is possible that Juliet wants Ben to die but why? What happened that would make her hate him so much that she would conspire to murder him? Juliet is definitely a character to watch and may be the one person who knows more than anyone else about what is happening on the island.

Juliet may be conning Ben. It seems to me that Ben had a plan set in motion to convince Jack to do his surgery and to make Jack think he wanted to. Juliet upended that scenario when she “mistakenly” allowed Jack to see Ben’s
x-rays. This was most likely done on purpose as we now see that Juliet would rather see Ben die than continue to lead the Others. Why is there so much friction between them? Does Juliet truly plan to remain on the island? Or does she have an entirely different agenda?

Mind games in Episode 306: “I do”

When Kate gets married under the assumed name of “Monica” she knows full well that someday she will have to run. Her “ideal” marriage is destined to fail since it is based on a lie and Kate is simply playing a mind game with Kevin. She may love him but there is no doubt that she run, even in her own mind. Why else would she have called Marsh?

(A note about Nathan Fillion who played Kevin in this episode – An interesting déjà vu moment occurred last night for me. When Nathan starred in “Firefly” in one episode he was drugged by his then newlywed wife, with a drug on her lips when he kissed her. In Lost his newlywed wife “Monica” drugged him with a Mickey in his drink. It appears that a lot of déjà vu moments are occurring, even across networks and writers/creators. Some I may not have even happened across yet. Since this is such a major recurring theme in the show I’ll keep you posted when I find others.)

Jack not only plays mind-games but he manages to achieve an entire coup on the Others. Ben is convinced that Jack will operate and save his life. Juliet believes that Jack is in her corner and that he intends to “accidentally” kill Ben. In either event Jack has set himself up pretty well. Consider this: If Ben bleeds out and dies he can fall in with Juliet’s group and “be protected” by her. If Sawyer and Kate are allowed to go free then he will save Ben and may be sent home. At least Ben will look on him favorably since he saved his life. I like the twists that this episode has taken but do not like the idea that I have to wait 90 days to see what happens next.

General Mind Games

Why do so many of the people have look-alikes? People who look like the Others appearing in flashbacks: The nun in Eko's flashback reminded some of Miss Klugh; the alter boy in Nigeria of a young Walt; some saw Michael or a Michael look alike in another episode; the guy in the hospital in Jack's flashback looked like Mr. Friendly (Tom); the leader of the "family" in Locke's flashback reminded some of one of The Others. I even confused Penelope with Juliet early in the premiere and I think that Adam (book club guy) resembles Ben. Of course, then there is Ben telling Jack that Juliet was chosen to try to manipulate him because she resembled his ex-wife. If the black smoke monster can take any form...what does that mean about the reality we've been seeing? Did it just happen that there was an individual in their remote and marginalized population who looked a lot like Sarah, or is nothing what it really “looks like” on the surface? (See our theory on plugging in or tuning in below.)

Bonus Section 2:

From an idea by Deb:
(Note: Deb was kind enough to write an article herself, which I’ve included below. And if you get a sense of déjà vu while reading it… well, don’t blame us!)

Déjà vu (or looking backward in a forward manner)

The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, “already seen.” Those who have experienced the feeling describe it as an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that shouldn’t be familiar at all.

Beyond Desmond’s precognition, déjà vu, is the real theme of this season.
Charlie tells the same joke “you never call never write” to John that he told last year to Eko. “Boy, you bunk with a guy for 48 days -- now he doesn't call or write.” (Bernard to Eko in “SOS”). “You don't call, you don't write.” (Charlie to Locke in “Further Instructions”, and to Eko in “Live Together, Die Alone”).

The opening shot of Locke waking up in the jungle is a shot-for-shot replay of the scene in the pilot when Jack wakes up in the jungle.

There is even an instance when Hurley mentions Déjà vu: From Episode “Further Instructions” Hurley says to Charlie, “I just got hit with, you know, deja vu.” This after Desmond tells Hurley that Locke will say something specific in his speech, which hadn’t yet occurred.

We can even use the repetition of the numbers and other items (such as the many inclusions of polar bears and toys) as déjà vu. Hurley saw the same numbers he used to win the lottery on the side of the hatch. Walt is given a stuffed polar bear as a small child then sees a polar bear in the comic book he’s reading. Also, polar bears appear in the Swan Orientation film and on the island itself.

Our Weird Theory Concerning Mind Games and déjà vu
(As posited by The Alternative One and Amelia Crater)

We’ve come to the very strange conclusion that the island and the survivors are plugged in or tuned in somewhere and are being force-fed mentally all their Experiences. We believe that the memories and experiences are being culled from major works of literature, from music videos, from pop-culture and from history. Scenarios from major works of literature appear in various forms including many of the books from Jack’s bookcase and they repeat with frequency. Bob Dylan, the Who and other rock bands appear in veiled moments throughout the past few seasons, including an entirely fictional band known as Geronimo Jackson. Not to mention Mama Cass Eliot, Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee. Somewhere in the world our survivors (and perhaps even the Others) are in comas or stasis plugged into each other via a cable and given memories and interactions by an unknown puppet-master. The reason we, and the Survivors, are experiencing déjà vu so often, is because many of the memories are being recycled and reused. I can’t say that this theory has been totally fleshed out but we are constantly testing the validity of the idea and keep coming up with the same conclusion. Someone is feeding them all their Experiences… the only questions we have at this point are who and why?

For more theories see out Lost Theories website at:
http://thealternativecrater.blogspot.com/

Recycled lines and themes:

In support of our weird theory above we’ve compiled the following recycled lines and themes, which we have experienced (déjà viewed) a number of times times before before.

Recurring Lines

“Are you him?”
Desmond says this to Locke when they first meet in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”, Helen says it to Anthony Cooper at the Skyline Motel in “Lockdown”, and Kelvin says it to Desmond after he hauls in from the beach in “Live Together, Die Alone.”

“Don’t tell me what I can't do”
There are a number of versions of this saying but they all convey the same meaning. Locke says it to Randy, who was giving him a hard time about going on his walkabout. During a long monologue and tirade Locke says it to the travel agent who denies him admission onto the bus and Locke says it to Kate, all from the episode “Walkabout.” Jack says it to Sun when he is trying to save Boone’s life in “Do No Harm.” Claire says it to Charlie and Sayid in “Exodus, Part 2.” Jack says it to Desmond in “Man of Science, Man of Faith.” Locke says it to Jack in “The Hunting Party.” Jin says it to Sun in Korean in “The Hunting Party.” Eko says it to Locke when Locke tells him the button pushing task is pointless in “?”. And most recently Charlie says it to Locke in “Further Instructions” when he wants to go on the polar bear hunt.

"Every Man for Himself"
Jack's speech to the castaways in “White Rabbit” includes this line. Sawyer tells Jin this in “...And Found.” Sawyer says it to Charlie in “Dave.” And Sawyer says it to Kate on three different occasions in “Every Man for Himself.”

"Fixing"
Sawyer tells Jack that he gets to be a hero again by fixing everything up nice in “Confidence Man.” Jack tells Boone he can fix him and Sarah tells Jack that she’ll dance at her wedding because he fixed her in “Do No Harm.” Desmond asks Jack “What if you do fix her?” regarding Sarah in “Man of Science, Man of Faith.” Jack talks about fixing their marriage to Sarah and she tells him that he’ll always need something to fix in “The Hunting Party.” Rose tells Isaac of Uluru that she is going to tell Bernard that he fixed her in “S.O.S.” And Sarah tells Jack that he’s always had to have something to fix in “A Tale of Two Cities.”

"From the dawn of our species, Man has been blessed with curiosity"
This is an exact quote by Alvar Hanso (1967), as seen on the official Hanso Foundation website (2005) and spoken by Carleton Cuse in the Hanso Foundation commercials that aired during the Lost Experience (2006). Tom quotes the following to Jack in “The Hunting Party” – “You know, somebody a whole lot smarter than anybody here once said: ‘Since the dawn of our species, man’s been blessed with curiosity. ‘”

"Let go" or “Let it go”
Sawyer says it to Kate and then Jack in different circumstances in “Confidence Man.” Locke says it to Boone in “Hearts and Minds” and Boone repeats it to Jack in “Do No Harm.” Locke says this to Jack in “Exodus, Part 2”, as the smoke monster is pulling him into the hole in the ground. Desmond tells Kelvin that he’ll never let it go in “Live Together, Die Alone.” Christian Shephard tells Jack to “let it go” several times, including in whispers through the communication intercom in “A Tale of Two Cities.”

"Live together, die alone"
Jack also says this line in his speech to the Survivors in “White Rabbit” and establishes himself as a leader. Sayid quotes this line from Jack’s speech in “House of the Rising Sun” and Kate does the same in “Man of Science, Man of Faith.” Jack says it to Michael in “Live Together, Die Alone”, and Kate to Sawyer in “Every Man for Himself.”

"Not a killer" or “not murderers”
Hibbs tells Sawyer that he’s not the killing type in “Outlaws.” Colleen tells Sun that she’s not a killer just before Sun shoots her in “The Glass Ballerina.” Eddie tells Locke that he’s not a murderer in “Further Instructions.” Ben tells Sawyer in “Every Man for Himself” after revealing that the pacemaker threat was a con, “we’re not murderers.”

“See you in another life”
Nadia wrote this to Sayid on the back of a photo of herself, as read to Danielle in “Solitary.” Anthony Cooper says this to Locke shortly before surgery in “Deus Ex Machina.” Desmond says it to Jack in “Man of Science, Man of Faith.” Dave says it to Hurley before jumping off the cliff in “Dave.” And Desmond says it to Locke in “Live Together, Die Alone.”

“There's a line”
Christian Shephard tells Jack, “There's a line, son. You know it's there. And pretending it's not -- that would be a mistake.” in “The Hunting Party.” And Tom says to Jack in the same episode, "Right here there's a line. You cross that line, we go from misunderstanding to something else.”

“What did one snowman say to the other snowman?”
(A recognition password of some sort….)
Desmond to Locke in Man of Science, Man of Faith.
Kelvin to Desmond in Live Together, Die Alone.
Locke to Desmond in Live Together, Die Alone.

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Recurring Themes

Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute

There are multiple connections between some of the characters and the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. In flashback scenes several characters including Hurley, Libby, and Emily Locke (John’s mother) were shown to be patients at the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. Hurley was admitted after a deck he and 23 others were standing on collapsed under him causing the death of two people, which he insists happened because of his weight. Hurley's psychiatrist was Dr. Brooks and during his stay he befriended a man by the name of Leonard Simms, who was obsessed with The Numbers (which is where Hurley got his lottery ticket numbers). Hurley also had a friend named Dave during his stay. Dave would frequently encourage Hurley to eat which would eventually make him gain weight therefore extends his misery. Dr. Brooks explained that Dave was not real, only a figment of Hurley's imagination.

Also, it wouldn’t surprise us if St. Sebastian, the hospital Jack and his father worked, and Santa Rosa were affiliated in some way.

It is not known how or why Libby became a patient, but she was there during Hurley’s stay, without his knowledge. This explains his constant question about knowing Libby from somewhere. Emily Locke was admitted to Santa Rose several times, suffering from schizophrenia. She also believed that John Locke’s conception was immaculate.

Other Characters Undergoing Treatment

Ana-Lucia, after being shot and suffering a miscarriage, gets help from an LAPD counselor. He judges her fit to return to the force but her problems continue until she kills the man who shot her.

Christian Shepherd is in counseling with the Friends of Bill (Alcoholics Anonymous) for his alcohol abuse problem.

John Locke attends a support group where he meets Helen.

Characters

The repetition of the hunter and the farmer is seen a number of times. John is depicted as the hunter in both the commune and on the island (boar hunting, etc.) The members of the commune are farming hemp while on the island Sun tends her garden. Locke also builds a sweat lodge on the island similar to the one in the commune in California. Hurley continues to challenge his own sanity. The theme of a con repeats over and over again, mostly affiliated with Sawyer but there are other plans being hatched by many of the other characters.

Although Libby attended the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute as a patient, she claimed to be a clinical psychologist on the island and actually used a psychological technique to help Claire regain her memory. And Hurley asks Sawyer on two occasions if he is hoarding psychotropic drugs.

The Stations

The Swan Station

One of the Dharma Initiative’s main fields of study on the island was, among other things, psychology. It was originally presumed that the Swan Station was part of a psychological experiment. In this case, the experiment would involve the task of pushing a button every 108 minutes. The subjects of the experiment would be told, through the Swan Orientation Film that failing to push the button would result in a catastrophic disaster. People in another DHARMA station, the Pearl, which the participants did not know about, would monitor the experiment. However, it is now clear that failing to push the button does actually result in an electromagnetic disaster, so it is unknown what role the Swan plays, if any, in any real psychological experiments.

The Pearl Station

The Pearl Station may be part of a larger psychological experiment. The experiment would involve the observation of the “subjects” in the Swan. The subjects of the Pearl would be told, through their own Orientation film that they were to observe subjects in an experiment already in progress and to record their observations in notebooks. They would not be told the whereabouts of the Swan experiment, however. The experiment would be monitored, as well, as described by the presence of cameras inside the station. It is not known where this experiment is monitored or by whom. There is still a possibility that whoever is monitoring it could actually be the subject(s) of an experiment.

The Hydra Station

Another example of Psychology is problem solving. This is shown when Sawyer is captured by the Others and in order to gain food, had to solve a problem of food acquisition once used on bears. (see B.F. Skinner) The Hydra Station may have been built to be used for experiments in communication and to study animals.

The Lost Experience

From The Lost Experience, we know that the H in DHARMA stands for Heuristics, a field of psychological study, which looks into how algorithmic learning develops. Lacanian psychoanalysis is a type of Freudian psychology pioneered by Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan. A key feature is the definition of the self in terms of the Other. Lacanian psychology is highlighted as a useful pre-requisite for the job of Personal Assistant to Thomas Mittelwerk on the Hanso Careers Website (as part of the Lost Experience). The Vik Institute is the flagship psychiatric hospital of the Mental Health Appeal. It was run by Dr. Armand Zander, but instead of treating patients, The Hanso Foundation is secretly exploiting autistic savants in the basement to recalculate variables for the Valenzetti Equation.

Fear

Numerous fears have been portrayed by various characters in various situations during the show. There is:
* Fear of being taken (usually discussed by the tail section members).
* Fear of the sickness (especially by Danielle Rousseau).
* Fear of the end of the world, related to pushing the button (specifically by Locke, Desmond, and Eko.
* Fear of the smoke monster (or the Security System, "the black smoke", Cerberus).
* Fear of a returning or redeveloping illness or disease.
* Fear of relapse into addiction (by Charlie, and Claire and Locke for Charlie).
* Fear of the numbers (Hurley and to some extent Locke)
* Fear of the Others.
* Fear for he safety of Aaron (especially by Claire and Charlie).
* Fear of wild animals, like polar bears and boars.

Featured Guest Article on Dharma déjà vu by Amelia Crater:

Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger…

Déjà vu isn’t just a passing fancy on the Lost Island these days. Not only do the islanders repeat themselves, or, spookier, repeat something they did not hear the first time it was said on the show, they’re also giving repeat performances or suffering from the kind of ongoing mind glitch that makes strangers look like someone you've met before.

I doubt that we can blame these dialogue do-overs on lazy writers:

Charlie tells the same joke, “you never call never write” to John that he told last year to Desmond.

Last year Eko said “Don't mistake coincidence for fate.” This year Locke said it.

Previously on Lost, in a flashback, at Shannon’s dad’s funeral, someone said, (I think it was Boone) “I hate funerals,” a sentiment apparently shared by Juliette who said it to Jack at Coleen's Viking funeral.

Then there are the oft-described cheeseburgers. Dave said it to Hurley in the Santa Rosa asylum: “Oh, oh, oh... can you taste that? That is freedom, baby. You know what tastes even better than freedom? Cheeseburgers.”

Last year when Locke offers prisoner rations to Ben(ry) he responds:

GALE: No cheeseburgers, huh?
LOCKE: No cheeseburgers. Bon appetit.

Jack had better luck in last week’s episode when Juliette went out and “killed a cow” and “rendered animal fat” in order to slack his cheeseburger cravings.

And that burger reminded us of the one Ben(ry) didn't get... and the conversation that he had with Locke that cheese-free day. Here's what they talked about:

GALE: Is that true -- what you said about Hemingway?
LOCKE: You have good ears.
GALE: You have thin doors.
LOCKE: You read Hemingway?
GALE: Sure, guy ran with the bulls, fought in the Spanish Civil War, stuff I can wrap my brain around. This is I can’t get through five pages of [indicating the Dostoyevsky novel].
LOCKE: Well, Dostoyevsky had his virtues, too. He was a genius, for one. Bullfighting isn’t everything.
GALE: So, which one are you?
LOCKE: I’m sorry.
GALE: Are you the genius, or are you the guy who always feels like he’s living in the shadow of a genius?
LOCKE: I was never very much into literary analysis.
GALE: I just don’t understand why you let the doctor call the shots.
LOCKE: No one calls the shots. Jack and I make decisions together.
GALE: Right, okay. My mistake.

[Locke leaves the armory, starts to do the dishes, and then loses his temper, swiping all the dishes on the counter to the ground.]

Huh? Didn’t Jack and Juliet have a similar face to face...about Ben(ry)? Oh yes, here it is from “The Cost of Living”:

Jack is watching cartoons in his cell when Juliet enters with a tray of food.

JULIET: How are you doing today, Jack?
JACK [sarcastic]: Great.
JULIET: You seem frustrated.
JACK: Am I going to keep watching cartoons or are you going to tell me why I’m here?
JULIET: I hope you like blueberry. If not, I can...
JACK: Should I talk to Benjamin?
JULIET: Sorry?
JACK: Should I talk to Benjamin? Because I’m starting to think that you're just the person who brings me my food.
JULIET: You can talk to him all you want. But he won’t tell you anything.
JACK: You work for him?
JULIET: No, I don’t work for him.
JACK: He’s in charge.
JULIET: Well, it doesn't work that way over here, Jack. We make decisions together.
JACK: Really? Because when I was holding that broken plate at your neck he seemed happy to just let you die. I mean, it felt like he made that decision on his own.
JULIET: You don’t know what you’re talking about. I don't answer to him.
[ Ben enters.]

That’s not the only time that Locke and Jack seem to be channeling each other. In the opening scene of “Further Instructions” Locke wakes up in the jungle we witness a shot-for-shot replay of the scene in the pilot episode when Jack wakes up in the jungle (see above). Ditto the scene in “The Cost of Living” in which Eko stumbles into the “garden” of red flowers to meet that carbon copy of his brother “Yemi.” Haven’t we tiptoed through these posies before? Yup, with Hurley when he was being led astray by island “Dave” in last year’s episode of the same name

These are mind games for sure, but there doesn’t seem to be any particular pattern to the madness, we don't know who is zoomin’ who, or to what end? One thing’s for sure, if the black smoke monster can take any form...we all might need a radical reality adjustment in order to keep up with reality we're seeing? Wasn’t that the season three teaser? The characters asking themselves “Who am I?” The announcer’s eerie intonement, “Find yourself on Lost.” Couldn’t we just get the cheeseburger, please?

Amelia Crater (A.K.A. Deb)

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Note: The next episode will not air until Wednesday, February 7th, 2007. I will, however, continue to publish this newsletter every week. Please let me know if there is a particular subject you would like to see discussed. Until next week then…

P.S. For the non-observant viewer… I have included a number of references I feel came directly from literature, music or pop-culture throughout this newsletter. How many can you find? Now that you’ve found them can you identify the source? Have fun! By the way… that’s a challenge!

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin
November 9th, 2006

4 8 15 16 23 42

The Alternative One – dharmapoet@wi.rr.com

EPISODE 305: THE COST OF LIVING

2006-11-02T11:42:00.000-08:00

S3E5 (305): The Cost of Living

Air Date: November 1st, 2006
Production Code: 305
Official ABC pre-air summary:
“A delirious Eko wrestles with past demons; some of the castaways go to the Pearl station to find a computer they can use to locate Jack, Kate and Sawyer; Jack does not know who to trust when two of the Others are at odds with each other.”

Episode Re-cap:

Flashback
Eko and Yemi, as young boys, break into the food locker next to the church. They are caught by a nun and forced to confess and seek contrition.

Flashback/Dream Sequence
Eko dreams of the events that occurred during Episode 210 “The 23rd Psalm.” Eko is told by his brother Yemi that, “it is time to confess. I’ll be waiting.”

When Eko’s tent starts on fire Charlie and Hurley rescue him but when Locke asks for him they discover that Eko has disappeared.

Jack is doing pull-ups in his cell when Ben interrupts him. Ben then asks Jack to take a walk. He gives him clean new white linen clothes to wear. Jack confronts Ben about his “aggressive tumor” but Ben feigns ignorance. Down at the beach the funeral for Colleen Picket is in progress. The Brenda Lee song “I Wonder” plays over the loudspeaker.

Locke insists that he can find Jack, Kate and Sawyer if they can only get to the Pearl Hatch to use the computers. Desmond tells him that the computers were used for communication between stations.

Flashback
Eko is returned to the village church just after his brother has been shot and flown out of the country. He decides to replace his brother as the priest of the village and to continue his studies in London.

Eko stumbles through the jungle on his way to the site of the plane crash and his bothers burial place but is followed by the black smoke (Cerberus). He hallucinates about the militiamen that he killed in the church and the altar boy, who tells him to “Go fast.”

Flashback
Eko washes his hands in holy water inside the church. When told by the altar boy that it was wrong he responds by telling him that he was “washing away his sins.” When the militia aggravates the villagers Eko tells them that he is not afraid. The main militiaman shoots a woman to prove that he is not to be taken lightly.

Juliet brings Jack a cheeseburger but their discussion is interrupted by Ben who wants to talk alone calling it, “Doctor / Patient confidentiality.” Ben explains how his intricate plan to convince Jack to perform his spinal surgery was ruined when Jack saw the x-rays. Ben tells Jack that he wants Jack to want to save him.

Locke, Desmond, Sayid, Paulo and Nikki catch up to Eko on their way to the Pearl hatch. Eko attacks Locke when he asks if he is looking for his brother, Yemi.

Flashback
Eko brutally kills three militiamen with a machete inside the church after arranging plans to sell vaccines.

At the Pearl Hatch, Nikki watches the Pearl Orientation Film as Sayid, Desmond and Locke examine the electrical wiring. Nikki asks what the other TV’s are for and repeats from the film that there are six stations or projects. Sayid plays with the wiring and a static feed appears on one of the other six screens. They see a room full of working computers in the background and a terminal on a table. Suddenly, a man with an eye-patch over right eye enters the picture.

Juliet brings the video equipment into the observation room and tells Jack that she is going to play the classic movie “To Kill A Mockingbird” for him. Jack wants nothing to do with a movie and refuses but Juliet convinces him to watch. While outwardly and in front of the cameras Juliet tells Jack how wonderful Ben is and how it is imperative that he do the surgery the TV shows Juliet with cue cards that say exactly the opposite of what she is telling Jack.

Flashback
Some villagers are boarding up the entrance to the church. Eko is confused as to why. He is told that the church can no longer be used, as it has been rendered unholy. Anima, the woman from the clinic, tells Eko that he owes Yemi a church.

Eko sees Yemi in the jungle and follows him to field of red flowers. When Eko refuses to ask for forgiveness Yemi says, “You speak to me as if I were your brother!” The illusion is broken and the black smoke rises up out of the jungle and attacks Eko. When Locke finds Eko dying on the jungle floor Eko whispers to him and Locke seems very surprised by what he has heard. Eko then unexpectedly dies! When Sayid asks Locke what Eko whispered he replies, “He said, we’re next!”

Observations:

1) Episode 210 “The 23rd Psalm” played a prominent role again in this week’s episode. I think the creators were trying to give Eko as much airtime as possible as they knew this might be his last. In fact, Eko even repeats the words from the psalm, as he lies dying on the jungle floor. It is also engraved on Eko’s Jesus stick.

2) During Colleen Picket’s funeral a number of odd unrelated occurrences took place. All the Others, and Jack, were wearing white linen clothing which to me, at least, appeared Druidic. Then in the very same scene Colleen’s body is placed upon a funeral pyre on a straw (?) boat and lit on fire just before it is pushed out to sea. This is reminiscent of the Viking tradition of burning the dead at sea. About ten years ago my wife and I lived in San Diego County. Every once in a while we’d go by a place called Swami’s in Encinitas. For those of you who don’t know Swami’s it has a great surfing beach and was immortalized by the Beach Boys in a number of their songs. But I digress; the clothing worn at the funeral reminded me of the World Brotherhood group that has a temple at Swami’s. They too wore similar clothing and one of their major “philosophies” was called the Path of Self-Realization. This seems very apropos to our Lost storyline. Perhaps, self-realization is more important than we might think. A few last words… Swami’s was named after Swami Paramhansa Yogananda one of the first Swami’s to venture into the western world. Also, in many cultures, white is the funeral color, which might explain the white clothing. Embracing this Eastern practice would be in keeping with other themes associated with the Others (the Dharma Initiative for example).

3) It appears that Juliet has an agenda of her own and it doesn’t seem to include Benjamin Linus. Is she working to rid the Others of a tyrant or is she the usurper with a plan to take over? It looks like she may not be as nice as she pretends to be. During a discussion with Jack Juliet talks to Jack but her home movie tells a different story. She tells Jack that Ben is a great man and that he deserves to live but her cue cards certainly don’t back up that notion. There is an apparent ruthlessness to Juliet’s plan as outlined in the cue cards. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that Ben is a skilled con man Juliet’s behavior may be part of some elaborate plan on his part. Juliet’s animosity towards Ben could be a ploy.

4) Juliet’s cue cards read: “Ignore everything I’m saying”, “Ben is a liar”, “And he is very dangerous”, “Some of us want a change”, “But it has to look like an accident”, “It has to look like we tried to save him”, “And that’s up to you, Jack”, “It’s a complicated surgery. No one would ever know”, “And I would protect you”, and “Now tell me to turn off the movie”

5) There appears to be a strange dichotomy between Juliet and Ben. When Jack is not present Ben and Juliet treat each other as equals. However, when Jack is present Juliet takes on a subservient role. Is this part of her plan to look less threatening? This alone could make a strong case for the power struggle scenario that I formulated last week. No, Juliet is not nice!
6) We now know why Eko was building a church on the island. In the Nigerian village the woman who runs the clinic (Anima) tells Eko that killing the men inside the church renders it unhallowed ground and unusable as a church. She also tells him that he owes his brother a church. When he begins building the church on the island it is for his brother, Yemi, and to clear that debt.

7) Ben must have some connection to the outside world otherwise he would not know what Jack’s wife looked like. It begins to look like the large folder of information Juliet had on Jack is real and not fabricated at all. Does that mean they have dossiers on all the Survivors? They know Sun’s entire name and Sawyer’s real name so it is possible.

8) Eko is only the second person on the island to be killed by the smoke monster. The pilot of Oceanic 815 was the first. With the death of Eko only Bernard remains from the Tallies group on the island. It should be noted though that Bernard was officially a fuselage member and was only in the tail section because he was using the restroom. (Side note: The actor Greg Grunberg who played the pilot now plays Matt Parkman, the telepathic cop on “Heroes”.)

9) Eko’s last words may have been directed only to John Locke and not the other Survivors. Eko may have said, “you’re next” which Locke interpreted as “we’re next.”

10) When Locke and Eko remove the rocks from the entrance to the plane they are recreating an act from the Bible. When the rock was removed from Jesus’ tomb his body was also not found in the tomb. This would hold exceptional significance to a Priest like Yemi.

11) As part of a deception to hide her real message Juliet offers to show Jack the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” This Harper Lee novel is the story of young outsiders who are taught by their father to practice sympathy and understanding and that experience with hatred and intolerance should not discourage their faith in human goodness. Is this then a subtle hint by Juliet perhaps?

12) The scene in which Juliet displays her “cue cards” for Jack reminded me of the Bob Dylan video of “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” How absolutely appropriate this is in this circumstance! I’ve been calling the Hydra Station cells the subterranean area for weeks now and who could be more homesick than Jack! (Even if it is only for the island next door!)

The Questions:

1) Why did Eko die? It appears that the Island has risen up and killed Eko, or at least the black smoke has. But the smoke had looked into Eko’s mind before and did not harm him. And Eko did not seem frightened of it at the time. When Locke tells Eko it saw it once too and that it was beautiful Eko tells him that this was not what he saw. If the island had the ability to scan his mind it would have known where his heart lies. Did Eko die because he refused to confess? That would mean that the black smoke (or the island) knows right from wrong or, at least, has a sense of morality. There is more to this then we are being allowed to see. I confess to being confused!

2) Was the image of Yemi a manifestation of the Security System? Is the black smoke sentient? Is it sentient AND a moral confessor of some sort? Cerberus acts based on the actions of the individual that it comes in contact with. It recreates an image of some past act or person wronged in which forgiveness is sought. The black smoke refrains from attacking Eko until he refuses to apologize for what he did to Yemi. When Eko confesses to being proud of protecting his brother Cerberus attacks.

3) How did the eye-patch man in the other hatch know that he was being watched? You can’t see someone watching you on a camera pointed at you! Unless there is a bank of additional monitors in his hatch and the Pearl is being monitored I just can’t see how this could be explained. It should be noted however that the cameras in Jack's cell shows a blinking red light. This may indicate when the camera is in use.

4) And who is this guy? I want to call him Eye-Patch Man but that is so cliché. Should we call him “The Pirate?” (Argghh… or ARG for those Lost Experience players.) There is no doubt that he is wearing a Dharma logo jumpsuit very similar to Desmond’s and Kelvin’s. But at what station is he located? In the Episode 207 “The Other 48 Days” the Tailies finds a glass eye in their abandoned station. Perhaps it belongs to the Eye-Patch Man. And really, who is this guy?

5) Who among the Others is in Juliet’s camp? Does Juliet want to stay on the island? And Ben wants to leave? Why else would Ben want the boat so badly?

6) And why is Ben so dangerous? He must have a collection of Ethan’s and Goodwin’s following him. Mr. Friendly and Danny Picket are most likely in Ben’s camp but I’m no too certain of that either.

7) If the island has curative powers which we think it does (Locke, Rose, Jin, and Charlie have benefited from its restorative powers) why can’t it fix Ben’s tumor?

8) Juliet may be conning Ben. It seems to me that Ben had a plan set in motion to convince Jack to do his surgery and to make Jack think he wanted to. Juliet upended that scenario when she “mistakenly” allowed Jack to see Ben’s
x-rays. This was most likely done on purpose as we now see that Juliet would rather see Ben die than continue to lead the Others. Why is there so much friction between them? Does Juliet truly plan to remain on the island? Or does she have an entirely different agenda?

9) Despite Jack’s hatred for Ben I am not certain he would break his oath as a doctor to intentionally kill Ben, even under the guise of an accident or an act of God during surgery. At a guess, I’m going to stick my neck out and predict that Jack does do the surgery on Ben but it is successful and he lives. This would, of course, alienate Juliet but I think Jack may have a plan (or con) of his own up his sleeve. Juliet is also a doctor and presumably has taken the Hippocratic oath. Does she hate Ben that much that she would break her oath? What could possibly convince Jack to break his to help her? What is really at stake there?

10) What or who started the fire outside of the tent that Eko was recuperating in? Did the island also do this to get Eko moving towards the plane? Or did the island deliberately send Eko towards the black smoke security system known as Cerberus? Is the black smoke contained to only certain areas of the island (an electronic leash)?

11) How did Desmond know that the computers in the hatches were used to communicate between stations? Did he have another moment of precognition? And why did he feel it necessary to question Locke’s reasons for going to the Pearl Hatch?

12) And where are Michael and Walt?

Quotes:

1) Sayid asks of Eko, “What happened to him?” and Charlie responds, “Before or after we saved him from the polar bear cave?”

2) Locke: “Don’t mistake coincidence for fate!”

3) Ben: “Do you believe in God, Jack? Two days after I found out I had a tumor a spinal doctor fell out of the sky!”

4) When Locke sees the eye-patch man in the closed-circuit monitor he says, “I guess he’ll be expecting us!”

Bonus Section:

THE HYDRA STATION (ISLAND)

The first time I saw the Hydra Station logo my mind wandered to the idea of the many-headed organism of the same name. The Dharma logo itself (shown above) depicts six heads but in Greek mythology the number of heads deviated from five up to one hundred. While there are many versions of the hydra nine is generally accepted as the standard number of heads. With that in mind we must consider that there are a number of “heads” to the Lost Hydra Station. I can think of two major components to the Hydra: The Subterranean Area, which contains the aquarium tanks and cells and the Aboveground Compound, which contains the cages and shower room, etc. With that in mind I’d like to examine the known “heads” of the Hydra Station and their components.

The Hydra Station, or Hydra Island, appears to be an experimental facility, primarily for the containment and study of sea creatures like sharks and dolphins in subterranean tanks and for land creatures like bears in aboveground cages. Both the tanks and the cages appear to have been abandoned and in disuse for quite some time. While not pictured on the Blast Door Map the Hydra station is obviously a facility run by the Others and is used for specific operational purposes. It appears to act as some sort of command post for the leaders of the Others. The Hydra Station was probably excluded from the map in the Swan Hatch because Radzinsky and Kelvin did not know of its existence and because of its remoteness and distance to the hatch. At first, the Hydra appeared to be a DHARMA station (see Episode 301 “A Tale of Two Cities”) but was revealed later (Episode 304 “Every Man For Himself”) to be on a smaller second island next to the main Island. Jack, Kate, Sawyer and possibly Karl, an Other, are presently being held captive in various locations on this station. Its original purpose is yet unknown. There are no animals apparently present there now but both Tom and Juliet have mentioned animals in conversations regarding the station. There is no indication that an Orientation Film has been produced for the Hydra Station.

ARCHITECTURE AND LAYOUT:

The Hydra Station architecture and layout can be broken down into two key sections each with different sub-sections. The Subterranean Area is composed of 1) the Aquarium and its tanks and cells, 2) the Connecting Hallways and Exterior Hatches, 3) the Monitoring Station and 4) an unknown location for docking the submarine. The Aboveground Compound is composed of 1) the Cages, 2) the Locker Rooms and Walkways, 3) the Operating Room, and 4) the Work Site (landing strip work area).

The Subterranean Area is where Jack is being held captive and where Ben monitors at least six different (and probably more) locations on the Island. Kate and Sawyer are being held in the Aboveground Compound.

SUBTERRANEAN AREA

1) AQUARIUM / TANKS / CELLS

During Jack’s “interview” with Juliet she tells him that his cell/tank was previously used to contain sharks and dolphins. During the escape attempt by Michael, Jin and Sawyer on the raft, a shark with a Dharma logo was seen. This shark was most likely housed at the Hydra subterranean area at one time.

Jack’s cell contains a very old intercom system that Juliet says no longer works. But Jack has heard through this “broken” intercom speaker on different occasions random voices, the voice of his father, Christian, and that of Sawyer when Ben had him tied to a table for his “pacemaker” experiment.

This area also has electricity as Ben has used a television set and recording device to show Jack the World Series and cartoons. It also has a multi-channel mixing board. Presumably, this equipment is used to communicate or converse with the animals.

2) EXTERIOR HATCHES AND CONNECTING HALLWAYS

a) There is at least one exterior hatch that opens to the ocean. This is the hatch that Jack opened when he was trying to escape. Opening this hatch flooded the hallways with water, which was then emptied when Juliet had Jack “press the button.” A red emergency button in this area apparently activates a pumping system to flush water from the entire station. I find it odd that Jack would “press the button” without at least some explanation or an argument.

b) There is at least one exterior hatch from above that leads to the cage area above ground. Colleen comes down this hatch when she advises Ben about the sailboat. This may be an exit to the zoological compound above or may be connected to the operating room(s).

c) It seems that the hallways connect to the exterior hatches, cells/tanks and the monitoring station. There is a hallway between Jack’s cell and the monitoring station. This hallway also looks like it contains both the hatch to the ocean and the overhead hatch to the aboveground area.

d) There is some speculation as to what is found in the hallway beyond Jack’s glass enclosure. It seems logical that this is a hallway that connects to the other hallways in the area.

I also think that when the Subterranean Area was in working order scuba divers could come and go freely in the hallways and through the hatch that leads to the ocean. The Others may not have usable scuba gear, which keeps them from using the underwater hatch.

3) MONITORING STATION
(Ben’s Monitoring Room)

This room, located in the Hydra Station, first appears in Episode 302 “The Glass Ballerina.” It is seen being used by Benjamin Linus, who is observing a panel of six security monitors. They seem to be live feeds from security cameras, complete with sound, in a setup very similar to that of the Pearl Station. The cameras monitor, among other things, various rooms in the Hydra subterranean area and the aboveground cages.

Monitoring Station Video Feeds:

Benjamin Linus is monitoring six different labeled monitors with various locations of the island shown on closed circuit monitors:

1) The jungle area where Jin and Sayid are waiting for the Others near the Pala Ferry and their large bonfire. The images intermittently cycle and cameras #1 and #3 rotate between two jungle shots and two hallway shots in the Hydra.
2) Jack in the corner of his cell in the subterranean area in the Hydra Station.
3) An unknown jungle location with a person in the center of a clearing, which could be Alex. Cameras #1 and #3 rotate between two jungle shots and two hallway shots in the Hydra.
4) A strange compound location not yet seen. May also have a damaged feed, but could be observing the section Jack is held in, or one like it.
5) Sawyer in his cage at the zoo talking to Kate.
6) Kate in her cage at the zoo talking to Sawyer.

(The room may also be linked to the cameras in the Swan Station or Pearl Station.)

4) SUBMARINE DOCKING STATION

While we have not yet seen this area (and may never) the mention of a submarine means that they need to have a place to dock it. This is only a guess but there must be some place where they park their submarine. It is possible that the submarine dock is near the aboveground compound. The submarine explains how the Others were able to board Desmond’s sailboat and take it from Sun without being detected.

ABOVEGROUND COMPOUND

The aboveground compound contains several animal cages and other structures including the locker room and a canopied walkway. There is also an unidentified large building near Sawyer’s cage. The walkway leads to the locker rooms and operating room(s) in one direction and to the beach where Ben tried to feed Kate breakfast in the other.

1) THE CAGES

There are two cages in the aboveground compound that are located near the canopied walkway and the large unexplained building. Currently, these two cages are being used to detain both Sawyer and Kate. When Sawyer escaped, with Karl’s help, we saw that there were at least three or more additional cages in the compound. Two, for example, looked to be for the containment of birds.

a) Sawyer’s Cage

This cage is reminiscent of the Skinner box, which has been discussed here before. The conditioning actions resulted in the “reward” of food and water, which Sawyer figured out with relative ease by manipulating the buttons and levers. It was also revealed by Tom (Mr. Friendly or Zeke) that the cages used to house bears and that it took them only a few hours to figure out how to obtain the food and water. This cage probably held polar bears and the feed, fish biscuits and water were probably supplied to feed these animals.

There had to have been at least two bears in each cage because of the far-removed controls that had to be operated. There are three control mechanisms in the cage. The first is a large rust colored button with a knife and fork imprinted on it, the second is a foot pedal and the third a large lever. After trial and error and by manipulating all three mechanisms in a particular order Sawyer is rewarded with food. The most probable purpose of the controls in the cage is to study cooperative behavior between two or more individuals.

The “reward” music is “The Thunderer,” written by John Philip Sousa in 1889. Why polar bears would need reward music, or any type of music for that matter, is beyond me.

b) Karl/Kate’s Cage

This cage is a long thin cage (as opposed to Sawyer’s square cage) and has blocks of various heights and sizes. It should be noted that so far, everyone who has been placed in this cage has escaped. Karl escaped by picking the lock and Kate by squeezing out through the bars at the top of the cage. This cage looks like it may have contained large cats. Karl’s captivity is still under debate. Some believe that he was a plant for some reason and others that he is an Other that was being punished for unacceptable behavior.

c) Bird cages (2)

During Sawyer’s escape, which was affected by Karl we saw a number of other cages in the compound. At least two of the cages looked like large aviaries and probably housed birds. This could be where the large green bird that called Hurley’s name was housed.

d) Unknown Cage

Again, during Sawyer’s unsuccessful escape we witness a number of other cages. One cage was as big, or bigger, than the cage holding Sawyer and may have held larger animals like boar or horses.

All the cages in the aboveground compound look to be abandoned and have not been used for quite some time. Whether or not the Others have ever used the cages for anything other than confining prisoners remains to be seen.

2) THE LOCKER ROOMS AND WALKWAYS (CANOPY)

Near the cages where Sawyer and Kate are imprisoned is a large building that contains a locker room and shower stalls. This is where Kate first wakes up after being taken to the Hydra Station by the Others. This facility seems large, contains a number of shower stalls and locker banks and has hot water. Like the cages the locker room and shower stalls look like they have not been used in quite some time.

The walkways seem to separate different areas of the compound. It is also likely that the operating room(s) may be found inside the same large building as the locker room and showers.

3) THE OPERATING ROOM (S)

During Jack’s stay in the operating room I got the impression that there is more than the one operating room. This is only a guess but seems logical. I assume that these are veterinarian operating rooms and used entirely for surgery on animals. This room was revealed when Jack was asked to perform surgery on Colleen after being shot by Sun. It also seems probable that there is an x-ray machine in the facility as x-ray images are shown near the operating rooms. This room may have been for observation or teaching during veterinary operations.

One caveat should be given here as the monitoring device and medical tools, which Jack used went un-remarked during the surgery. I am not a surgeon but do believe that the surgical implements and monitors used for humans are different from those used for animals. Jack would have mentioned it if the tools were not the same type he was used to using.

4) THE WORK SITE (Landing Strip?)

Close to the Hydra compound is an area where a great deal of manual labor is taking place. Sawyer and Kate are taken here and forced to work at taser-point. Both Lostpedia and Wikipedia indicate that the work site is a small rock quarry where the Others are working to clear the area for some kind of construction. I maintain that it is a landing strip of some type and that they are removing rocks and leveling it for a future landing. Danny Pickett appears to be the project supervisor and is nearby during every scene at the location. Of importance is the fact that many of the Others are also working on this same site. This would indicate that it is not an experiment or test but being readied for some real and tangible reason.

HYDRA – What’s in a name?

* The Hydra, which lived in the swamps near Lerna in Argolis, is a terrifying creature from Greek mythology with several serpent-like heads (the number of which deviates from five up to one hundred.) When one was cut off, three more would grow back in its place. It was also said that no weapon could harm it. This is one of several references to Greek mythology from the show (see also: Persephone, Apollo, Penelope and Cerberus).

* Hydra viridissima - The Hydra is a freshwater invertebrate capable of regenerating amputated tentacles. Hydras are predatory animals and biologists are especially interested in them because of their regenerative powers. Hydras have two main body layers: An outer layer and an inner layer. (Perhaps the Lost Hydra Station resembles the animal?) It has often been assumed that hydra are unique among the animals in that they don't undergo senescence (aging), and so are biologically immortal.

* Mother Hydra, is co-ruler of the Deep One race and consort of Father Dagon in the fictional Cthulhu mythos by H.P. Lovecraft. (The Deep Ones are a race of frog-like, ocean-dwelling creatures with an affinity for mating with humans.)

* Hydra is also the third moon of the now dwarf planet Pluto. It was named after Hydra, the monster that guarded the waters of Pluto/Hades's underworld in Greco-Roman Mythology. He abducted Persephone and her mother Demeter.

* Both Cerberus and Hydra were monster offspring of Typhon (had 100 heads) & Echidna (half maiden - half serpent), and both were killed by Hercules as part of his 12 Labors.

* The Hydra is also the largest of the modern star constellations. (The Arrow and The Swan are also constellations.) The constellation Hydra resembles a twisting snake, and features as such in some Greek myths. In Greek mythology, a crow serves Apollo. It is sent to fetch water, but it rests lazily on the journey, and after finally obtaining the water in a cup, takes back a water snake as well, as an excuse. According to the myth, Apollo saw through the fraud, and angrily cast the crow, cup, and snake, into the sky.

*HYDRA is an evil terrorist organization in the Marvel Universe bent on world domination. Despite the capitalization, the name is not an acronym, but rather a reference to the mythical Lernaean Hydra. The organization's motto references the myth of the Hydra, proclaiming that if a head is cut off, two more will take its place, proclaiming their resilience and growing strength in the face of resistance.

Animals of the Lost Kingdom
(This is not an advertisement)

The Hydra Station may be where all the animals on the Islands originated. It is possible that during some cataclysm (an electromagnetic anomaly, for instance) the animals that were being kept at the Hydra Station escaped into the wild. There is also supporting evidence to the contrary since a large body of water separates the two islands.

1) Juliet tells Jack that his cell was one used to hold sharks and dolphins. The sound equipment present here leads to two conclusions: a) that the equipment was used to control aquatic animals (like a radio-controlled shark) or b) used to communicate with sea creatures and perhaps attempt to understand their languages.

2) There may also be more animals still loose on the islands. When Tom mentions the bears to Sawyer and Kate, Sawyer asks, "How many were there?" only to get no response. The additional cages we’ve seen support this idea.

3) Tom tells Sawyer that “the bears” (plural) figured out the food mechanism in two hours. Therefore, there were at least two bears, if not more.

4) The name “Hydra” suggests that the station might specifically be for making animals more resistant to the environment or more recuperative upon injury. (The mythological Hydra being very difficult to kill). This fits the Hanso Foundation image seen in the Lost Experience and might explain what polar bears are doing in the temperate jungle.

5) The animals that were on the island prior to the crash of Oceanic 815 are: two polar bears, boars, a large green bird and a black horse. Whether they all came from the Hydra Station remains to be seen.

Correction to Newsletter 304: Every Man For Himself

In the last newsletter I misidentified the cartoon Jack is being shown in Episode 304 “Every Man For Himself.” It is not a Heckyl and Jeckyl cartoon but a Merrie Melody cartoon called “A Corny Concerto.” This is a two-part cartoon featuring “Tales From the Vienna Woods” and “The Blue Danube.” Jack is watching “The Blue Danube.” The below italicized section is from the Wikipedia entry for this cartoon. (Thanks to Lobster Johnson for the correction!) After the Wikipedia article is a bit of Lost interpretation by yours truly!

“A Corny Concerto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Merrie Melodies series

A Corny Concerto is a 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon made by Warner Bros. The cartoon was directed by Bob Clampett and written by Frank Tashlin. It features music that was composed by Johann Strauss, and was intended as a parody of Disney's Fantasia and so displays a great degree of timing with the music.

The Parts
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The cartoon is narrated by Elmer Fudd, who is constantly trying to control his tuxedo (specifically, his shirt) as he introduces the two pieces about to be shown (This adds to the parody of Fantasia with Fudd as the maestro). In the interlude, he winds up ripping his shirt off in an attempt to keep it in place.

Tales from the Vienna Woods

Bugs in the middle again.
Set to the tune of Tales from the Vienna Woods, Porky Pig and his hunting dog (who is unnamed) are hunting for Bugs Bunny (with Porky holding up a sign saying, "I'm hunting that @#$! rabbit" and the dog holds a sign of his own simply saying "Ditto", in keeping with the non-dialogue of the cartoon). Bugs, dancing to the time of the music, manages to continue outwitting both Porky and his hunting dog. At one point, for example, the dog points to a bush where Bugs is hiding. Bugs then holds up a sign, "It ain't polite to point!" and scampers off.

Towards the end, a single gunshot goes off, with all three characters thinking they got shot. Both Porky and his dog look and see there's no damage. Bugs looks, and acts like he's shot, falling to the ground. Porky and the dog start mourning Bugs, with Porky trying to undo Bugs' fingers around his chest. However, once he does so, Bugs reveals he has a bra underneath! He screams as if he's a woman, knocks Porky and the dog to the ground, and dances off.

The Blue Danube

Set to the tune of The Blue Danube, this cartoon tells the tale of The Ugly Duckling. In this case, a mother swan is leading her children along a river, when a small black duck (Daffy Duck, according to later historians) tries to tag along with them. The mother duck shooes the duck away. When the black duck tries again, with his underwater bubble tactic, the mother duck gets angry at the duck that's the cause of the bubble mess (himself encased in a bubble), and sends him back to the water.

A large vulture hangs in the distance, spotting the troupe. At one time he sprinkles salt and pepper on one of the ducklings, but too much pepper causes the duckling to sneeze. Then, one by one, the vulture picks off the baby swans, and at one point he picks up the black duck, but returns him, labeling the duck with a "4F" (unfit for military service). The mother swan sees the ducklings missing and goes into a panic, not knowing where her children are (at one point, picking up the black duck as if he was an inanimate object). The black duck sees the vulture, and immediately becomes angry. Flying off (for a few moments resembling a P-40 Warhawk fighter), the duck chases after the vulture, who turns yellow and drops the baby swans, who each have a parachute which lets them drop safely. The duck chases after the vulture, who gets knocked out. He then hands the vulture a drum of TNT and drops him from the sky, causing the vulture to die and play a harp in heaven. The cartoon ends with the black duck finally being allowed to tag along with the swan and her children - with only the duck's shadow having a hard time keeping up with the rest of them.”

An Alternative View of the Blue Danube and The Lost Connection:

This may be considered an exercise in stretching… If you replace the vulture with the Others and the “swans” with the Survivors on the island you’ll begin to see the correlation. The Mother Swan is, of course, John Locke the protector. The black 4F duck is most likely Desmond (not fit for military duty – kicked out of the military). The underwater bubble may be a representation of scuba gear or the submarine.

So re-written, using the scenario above, The Blue Danube cartoon sounds like this:

The Others hang in the distance, spotting the Survivors. At one time The Others try to capture one of the Survivors, but their plan fails. Then, one by one, the Others pick off members of the Survivors, and at one point The Others pick up Desmond, but return him, labeling him with a “4F.” John Locke sees that the Survivors are missing and goes into a panic, not knowing where the captive Survivors are (at one point, treating Desmond as if he was an inanimate object). Locke sees the Others, and immediately becomes angry. Locke chases after the Others, who turn yellow and drop the captive Survivors, who return safely. Locke chases after the Others, and knocks them out. He then hands the Others a drum of TNT causing the Others to die. Desmond is finally allowed to tag along with Locke and the Survivors - with only the Desmond’s shadow having a hard time keeping up with the rest of them.

Breakdown:
1) “The Others hang in the distance spotting the Survivors” – Obviously, Ben and his monitoring / observation cameras.
2) “The Others try to capture one of the Survivors” – This would be Ben’s unsuccessful attempt to capture Jack but he is caught himself in Rousseau’s net and imprisoned.
3) “The Others pick off members” – The deaths of Ana-Lucia and Libby, the capture of Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Hurley and the release of Michael and Walt.
4) “The Others pick up Desmond” – Remember Desmond is one of the few people on the Island that has been injecting himself with the serum on a regular basis.
5) “labeling him with a “4F”” – This may have dual meaning. Desmond was removed from the Scottish Army thus removed from or unfit for military service. The second meaning may be that Desmond is unfit for the experiments the Others are conducting.
6) Locke goes into a panic when he finds some of the Survivors are missing – Obviously, the hunter will be going after the Others very soon.
7) Locke treats “Desmond as if he was an inanimate object” – Locke used Desmond to close off the Swan Hatch and lock Eko out.

The rest of the scenario is based on speculation, as the events have not yet occurred:

8) Locke becomes angry and chases after the Others.
9) When he does the Others panic and release the captive Survivors.
10) Locke destroys the Others.
11) Desmond becomes a full-time member of the Survivors.
12) Desmond’s shadow is probably Penelope who is following him and trying to find him.

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin
November 2nd, 2006

P.S. I am looking for suggestions on what to include in next weeks Newsletter (and yes I will be sending a newsletter each week during the hiatus.) If anyone has any ideas or subjects you’d like me to discuss please feel free to e-mail me.

And good news for you “Firefly” and “Serenity” fans: Our good Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) will be appearing in the next episode of Lost (306 “I Do”) as someone from a Kate flashback.

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The Alternative One – dharmapoet@wi.rr.com

EPISODE 304: EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF

2006-10-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

S3E4 (304) Every Man For Himself

Air Date: October 25, 2006
Production Code: 304

Official ABC pre-air summary:
“The Others prevent Sawyer and Kate from escaping, leaving Sawyer perplexed by the extent of the measures taken to keep them imprisoned. Jack is asked to use his medical training to save the life of one of the Others. At the beach, Desmond's strange behavior attracts attention. He begins to construct a mysterious device.”

Episode Re-cap:

This episode begins with Desmond as he sits on the beach in contemplation and then, as if a decision had been made, extends a request to repair the roof of Claire’s hut. Claire and Charlie refuse his offer of help.

Jack is still held captive in a cage at the Hydra Station and Juliet continues to bring him his food. Jack questions her authority and their hierarchy. Juliet tells Jack that the Others rule by committee and discuss matters before making any decisions. Ben interrupts this discussion and tells Juliet that she is needed and disrupts her entire explanation and its validity.

Sawyer formulates and engineers an elaborate plan to electrocute the next Other that ventures near his cage. When Ben appears Sawyer gives us his best “another sucker” smile but the plan miscarries when Ben reports that the electricity to the cage has been cut. Ben proceeds to beat Sawyer with a baton but not before he gets Sawyer’s weight and age.

Flashback -Sawyer is in prison when a new prisoner is brought in. The new convict has been imprisoned for the theft of 10 million dollars from the government.

Sawyer is dragged to the Hydra Station and tied to an examination table. A wooden dowel is placed in his mouth and a large needle is inserted into his chest. In Jack’s cell he can hear Sawyer screaming through the com-link that Juliet told him does not work.

Tom brings in a small cage with a white rabbit that has the number 8 spray-painted on its fur. Ben puts the cage on Sawyers chest and shakes the cage violently and yells at the rabbit loudly until the rabbit rolls over and dies. Ben tells Sawyer that they have inserted a pacemaker and that should he get over-excited, over-exerted or tries to escape his heart will explode like the bunny.

Flashback - Sawyer finds out from a visiting Cassidy that he is a father and continues to keep an eye on Munson the government thief.

Juliet bursts into Jack’s cage covered in blood and asks him for his help. Jack thinks the blood belongs to Sawyer but Juliet explains that it belongs to someone else. Jack is escorted through the compound amidst blaring music and cannot hear Sawyer and Kate as they yell out his name. During the operation Colleen’s heart stops. When Jack calls for the crash cart Juliet tells him that it’s not working. Jack administers CPR but Colleen dies despite his best efforts.

Danny Picket, we learn, was married to Colleen and he is enraged. Down at the compound he removes Sawyer from his cage and beats him in front of Kate. During each punch Pickett asks Kate if she loves Sawyer. Under duress and to save him from additional harm Kate confesses her love.

Flashback - Sawyer is sitting in his cell reading John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” when Munson comes and asks him if he will help him move the stolen money to a safer place. Munson fears the warden and his woman are after the 10 million dollars.

Meanwhile, Kate escapes from her cage by climbing up through the bars at the top of the cell. When she tries to release Sawyer he tells her to leave him and run away. When he says, “If you love me you’ll go” Kate responds by saying, “I only said that so they’d stop hitting you!” She then climbs back into her cage. During this scene Sawyer says to Kate twice, “every man for himself” and Kate counters with, “live together, die alone.”

Jack is handcuffed to Colleen’s gurney and Ben tells Tom that he wants Jack to sit with her a while longer. Earlier Jack noticed x-rays and asks Juliet about them. He now thinks he was brought to the Hydra Station for the purpose of performing spinal surgery on someone.

Desmond erects a lightning rod, which saves Claire and Aaron. Charlie has a suspicion that Desmond saw this event happen before it actually occurred.
Flashback - Sawyer reveals the location of the stolen 10 million dollars to the warden and a treasury agent and by doing so ensures his own release from prison. Sawyer is also offered a “commission” which he reassigns to his daughter.

In the final scene, Ben takes Sawyer on a “walk” and proves to him that they are not on THE island at all and that he has utterly no chance of escape. He also tells Sawyer that they did not implant a pacemaker inside him. When asked why they were doing this Ben tells Sawyer that they are not killers and that the only way to convince a con man is to con him.

Observations:

* In a very peculiar way this episode concerned a subject that was almost the reversal of the title. While Sawyer makes the statement, “Every man for himself” at least three times in this episode no one is actually doing that (except perhaps Ben.) Desmond, who is now the island’s resident shaman and fortuneteller, builds a lightning rod to protect Clair and Aaron. Sawyer overtly protects Kate when he decides not to tell her about what was done to him in the Hydra Station. Jack and Juliet come together to try and save Colleen. Sawyer gives up his “commission” to his young newly discovered daughter. And Kate climbs back into her cage because she will not leave Sawyer and Jack. In each of theses cases the islanders committed acts of selflessness and in no way were these instances of “every man for himself.” On the other hand, Sawyer turns in Munson to be released from prison. Ben allows Jack to see the x-ray of the spinal tumor. Danny is enraged by Colleen’s death and beats Sawyer. And Jack pits Juliet against Ben.

* Jack is being shown cartoons on television in his cage. I believe that it was from an old Heckyl and Jeckyl cartoon. I’ll confirm that later if I can. In my best William Shatner imitation… Old… man… memory… fading… Correction 11/01/06: The cartoon is "A Corny Concerto" Merrie Melody (more on this next week and thanks to Lobster Johnson for pointing this out.)

* Juliet explains the politics of the Others camp. She tells Jack that she doesn’t work for Ben and that he’s not in charge and that a committee makes the decisions. Why don’t I believe her?

* Ben tells Juliet that, “the sub is back. We have a situation.” This connects a theory that has been rumbled about. That the Others have a submarine has been bantered around since the Others boarded Desmond’s boat. The thinking was that the Others boarded the boat from the sea side and they were not wet. Since Ben gave the boat to Michael the Others must have had some other type of sea vessel. Ben confirmed that tonight.

* Sawyer has a field trip with nicknames in this episode: He calls Pickett “Chinatown” and “broken nose man.” This reference is from the Jack Nicolson character, Jake Gittes, in the 1974 Roman Polanski film Chinatown that spends most of the movie with a bandage on his nose. In prison he calls Munson, the thief, “Costanza”, a Seinfeld reference which probably comes from the episode where they all end up in jail and “Murgatroyd” from the saying “Heavens to Mergatroyd” by the cartoon character Snagglepuss (Quick Draw McDraw) whenever trouble looms.

* As Sawyer regains consciousness on the examination table he hears Tom tells Ben that, “it has been two days since the sky turned purple. We’re blind. The “comms” are down and we can’t get them back up and Colleen is in critical condition…”

* When Sawyer is injected with the large needle it is a reference to a scene from the movie “Pulp Fiction” where John Travolta injects Uma Thurman with adrenaline. Jason is told by Matthew, "Remember, do it like in the movie."

* Sawyer, while in prison, is reading Steinbeck’s, “Of Mice and Men.” So, it would seem that the book club and Jack’s bookcase are still important. I am not sure if this book is on Jack’s bookcase but I’d venture to guess that it is probably one of the unidentified books.

* It is revealed that Sawyer is in prison because of the long con and that Cassidy turned him in.

* The number 8 white bunny is probably another Stephen King reference. In his non-fiction book “On Writing” King describes a caged white rabbit with the number 8 painted on it as an illustration of the significance of the written word to communicate images and ideas. The white rabbit may also be a veiled reference to the white rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland.” – By the way, if the white rabbit had a car his personalized license plate would read: IM L8.

* Sawyer’s daughter’s name is Clementine Phillips. (Cassidy Phillips is the mother and first appeared in Episode 213 “The Long Con”) If, as Sawyer suggests, “I’ve got no kid!” is true then perhaps Cassidy was aware of the 10 million dollars and the possible ruse of a non-existent child was to con Sawyer out of his commission.

* Munson's 10 million dollars was hidden in a store quick facility off 441 in unit 23c inside a red Ford pickup in Sawgrass.

* Sawyer's prisoner number was 840 and Munson’s 248.

* When Kate and Sawyer argue whether or not to escape, Sawyer employs the title of the episode, “Every Man for Himself.” Kate responds with “Live Together, Die Alone.” (Episodes 223 and 224) Both are quotes from Jack's speech in Episode 105 “White Rabbit.”

* During the operation in which Jack is trying to save Colleen’s life Jack learns that the crash cart is not working. This may be from the electromagnetic anomaly, which also rendered the Other’s “comms” unusable.

* Juliet admits to being a fertility doctor.
* Jack tells Juliet that when he looked at the x-rays he could tell that it was a man in 40’s and that he had a tumor on his spine. We are led to believe that his is Ben but it could also be Tom or Danny Pickett.

* Desmond foretells (or at least knows) the future again tonight. It is obvious that he knew lightning would strike Claire’s hut if he didn’t do something. So, he erects an intricate lightning rod made of a golf club borrowed from Raul and some wiring from the plane and saves Claire and the baby. Desmond's ability to see (and seemingly change) the future may be critical in changing the variables of the Valenzetti Equation later on.

* In the ending scene Ben quotes heavily from “Of Mice and Men.” He is obviously well read and has even memorized passages of the book. Ben’s reference is the third reference to the book in the movie. The first is Jack reading the paperback version in his prison cell and the second when they are climbing the hill to see THE island. Jack tells Ben that Ben would like the book because they kill puppies.

The Questions:

1) This is the second time that Desmond has foretold (or at the very least foresaw) the future. Is he stuck in some time warp? Did the electromagnetic anomaly cause some strange time dilation? Did the implosion of the Swan Hatch cause some type of power transference? At least Desmond is using his new power for good. He could be using it for evil, say, like to uncover winning lottery numbers?

2) Did Juliet curl her hair and put on makeup for Jack? If so, this could be the start of the love interest rumored to be happening this year.

3) When Jack questions Juliet about the politics and hierarchy of the Others her entire premise is shot down when Ben orders her to help take care of the situation. Why did Juliet tell Jack that the Others were ruled by committee if it were not true? Is it because she wishes it were not true? Or is Ben overstepping his authority?

4) Why is Ben going through so much trouble to convince Sawyer that he cannot escape? It seems like an elaborate way of going about things. For instance, he could have taken him to the top of the cliff first and done without the theatrics. On the other hand, if Ben is going to all this trouble does he know that there truly is a way off the second island and he just wants to convince Sawyer to quit trying? The whole scenario seemed a bit far-fetched to me. There was too much elaboration to prove a simple point.

5) Why was it so important that Jack not hear that Sawyer and Kate were nearby? This is another thing that makes no sense to me. Jack is aware that Kate and Sawyer are being held nearby. Why go through the trouble of blasting noise when Jack already knows they are near?

6) Why does Kate return back to her cage? Is it because she believes that all of them must escape together? She did repeat Jack’s mantra… Live together, die alone!

7) Do the Others really have a submarine or was I hearing things? Please someone (or all of you) confirm that I heard Ben say that the “sub” had returned.

8) Was Ben, as Henry Gale, lying to Locke? It appears that Ben really was looking for someone “good.” A good spinal surgeon, that is. Could Ben have been looking for Jack when Rousseau captured him? In light of the fact that the x-ray shows a tumor of the spine Jack is definitely going to be needed sometime in the near future. Who is ill? Well, that is up for debate and I refuse to make a call on this one. This tees up as a classic bait and switch television moment. Images of Ben, when Jack talks about the tumor, are shown in the preview but I think the powers that be may be trying to set us up. There are a number of men around 40 that could be suffering from cancer. Tom and Danny Picket both come to mind.

9) Why did Ben feel it necessary for Jack to be handcuffed to Colleen’s gurney and left there? I didn’t quite understand the logic behind this. Jack cares little for the Others. This has been proven time and time again. He even tells Juliet in this episode that he doesn’t care about them at all. What does leaving him handcuffed to the gurney accomplish?

10) Why would the Dharma Initiative need a fertility doctor? And where are the women all of a sudden? It seems that all the factions on the island are under-populated by women. Is the need for a fertility doctor setting us up a future event? Clearly, during episode 215 “Maternity Leave” Claire’s pregnancy is being manipulated (Ethan’s injections, the nursery, etc.) But why would they need a fertility doctor? Is there a problem on the island with women conceiving and bearing children that we are unaware of?

11) Was the large needle actually inserted into Sawyers chest? I got the impression that they forced him into unconsciousness and only pretended to insert the needle. Anyone else see it that way?

12) It seems that the electromagnetic anomaly, which turned the sky purple, also took out the Others communication equipment. With whom were they communicating? This also puts to rest the theory that the island is isolated (which we glimpsed when Ben showed Jack the World Series.)

13) Ben shows Sawyer that there are actually TWO islands. This assures at least another three seasons of Lost. What is the second island? Should we be referring to the “Hydra Island” rather than the “Hydra Station”? And why did Ben really show the other island to Sawyer? What are his motives?

14) And last but not least, during the preview of next week’s episode we see Locke, Desmond and Sayid in the Pearl Hatch and one of the screens shows another computer filled room and a man with an eye-patch! What is this other station (similar to the Swan?) and who is the person with the eye-patch?

Quotes:

* Ben: Guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. (Quoting from “Of Mice and Men.”)

* Charlie: If there’s a problem, I’ll fix it. I’m quite handy. I was building a church before Eko exploded.

* Kate: I only said that so he’d stop hitting you.

* Ben: The only way to gain a con man’s respect is to con him. You’re pretty good, Sawyer. But we’re better.

Bonus Section 1:

Juliet

* Juliet is a member of the Others and was first introduced in the season premiere episode “A Tale of Two Cities.” It appears that she is, on some level, quite unhappy with her current allegiance and/or status, particularly with Ben's authoritative position.

* Juliet lives in the antiseptic solar-powered village of the Others.

* Juliet is a principal figure in most of the actions committed by the Others, but appears forlorn with her current station in life and entirely alone. Juliet hints to Jack that she was once a doctor (“I’m a repo-man too!”) and in this episode admits to being a fertility doctor.

*Ben was the original moderator of the book club but now that duty falls to Juliet. Discussion in the book club seems to indicate an earlier animosity or argument between members. This sounds like a falling out between Ben and Juliet. I believe that Juliet became the book club moderator by choice rather than by default. A power struggle, it seems, may also be brewing in the Others’ camp.

* Ben may have been married to or involved with Juliet. She's playing “Downtown” (a song of loneliness) on the CD player when we first meet her, absentmindedly baking muffins, and asserting her own book choices. Ben's comment “I guess I'm out of the book club” has the tone of a recent intimacy broken. This is supported by Ben’s comment to Juliet, “you never made soup for me,” after she made soup for Jack.

* Juliet, along with others, witnesses the crash of flight 815 as it breaks up over the island. She is one of the Others who takes a lead role in interacting with the captured Flight 815 survivors thus establishing her as a leader or manager amongst the others.

* Juliet is in charge of “interviewing” Jack at the Hydra Station. Her approach is more interview than interrogation but Jack is indifferent to both. Juliet asks Jack a series of questions that she already knows the answer to and entices him with a grilled cheese sandwich. Jack attacks her at the first opportunity but we find rather quickly that Juliet can take care of herself when she knocks Jack out.

* A quick reacting Juliet saves Jack’s life when she rushes him back into his cell after he has opened the hatch after the hall begins to fill with water. She then knocks him out with one punch! Later, Juliet confirms that the Hydra Station is an underwater aquarium and that it was once part of the Dharma Initiative and used for Sharks and Dolphins.

* Colleen appeared to be annoyed to find Ben and Juliet talking together when she came to report about the sailboat. This indicates that Juliet may have been in a relationship with Ben.

* When Juliet hears that the survivors have a sailboat she is not surprised. She tells Ben that sailing around in circles will keep them occupied, which may indicate that sailing is not a feasible way to escape the island. This is verified by Desmond's attempt to escape with the sail boat and his subsequent return two weeks later.

* Juliet calls Sawyer “James” and Colleen calls Sun, “Sun-Hwa Kwon.” They obviously know more about the survivors then first realized. Juliet also has a file on Jack and seems to have information that comes from the outside world. However, this information may be from discussions, etc. that have previously occurred on the island and overheard by Ben or the Others from the monitoring station.

* Juliet, it seems, has trouble playing well with others. Her relationship with Ben seems strained at best and there were harsh words between her and Adam at the book club meeting. She also appears to have a disliking for Colleen. Why is Juliet so disliked? And why is she so unhappy?

* There is a recurring theme concerning eating and drinking that is initiated by Juliet. She tells Jack that the drugs they gave him can cause hallucinations if he does not eat and drink. However, Kate had the same bandage on her arm and they did not give her this same message. Either it is a lie or they want Kate to hallucinate. Also, Juliet tries to give water to Sawyer who pours it out. It seems to me that if the Others wanted to drug Sawyer they could have put something in his water in the cage. Why would they give Jack and/or Kate hallucinogens? What purpose would this serve?

* Juliet may be as caged as any of the survivors now in captivity. I believe that Juliet’s cage is much more emotional than the others. While we have little to go on we do know that she has a sadness about her that begs for an explanation. She listens to Pet Clark’s anthem to loneliness and forgets that she has muffins in the oven. These are all obvious signs of someone preoccupied with extremely hefty thoughts. But why is Juliet so melancholy?

* Juliet seems to be a composed, self-confident and intelligent woman and we now know that she is a fertility doctor. She is a principal figure in the actions of the Others, but appears quite unhappy with her current station in life.

* Juliet hints to Jack that she was once a doctor. (“I’m a repo-man too!”)

* After Jack's escape attempt Juliet claims she knows everything about his life: she mentions Sarah, Jack’s schooling and claims to be in possession of his father, Christian's autopsy-report.

* Juliet also gains Jack's trust and Ben congratulates her for her work. This is most likely important for whatever Ben has in mind for Jack and will become more apparent later on in the season.

* Juliet also recaptures Sawyer with a taser zap after he escapes from his cage with help from Carl.

* Juliet held a gun to Kate in the episode “The Glass Ballerina” to stop Sawyer from attacking The Others and Sawyer was certain later on that she would use it.

Theories concerning Juliet:

1) Juliet may become Jack's love interest on the island in later episodes. Could Jack be a victim of The Stockholm Syndrome? The Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage exhibits loyalty and sometimes feelings for the hostage-taker. The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm, Sweden, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their victimizers, and even defended their captors after they were freed from their six-day ordeal.

2) Juliet may have worked in the Staff Hatch in some capacity. She has already told Jack that she is a fertility doctor. As the Staff Hatch was primarily used for Medical treatment, especially for the treatment of a pregnant Claire, it’s only logical then that as an Other Juliet worked there.

3) Juliet tells Adam that “Carrie” was her favorite book. There are two schools of thought concerning this statement. Some feel that it is figurative and that Juliet may be depicting herself as Carrie and that a retribution for past wrongs may be in the future. Some feel that the likeness is literal and that Juliet calls this book her favorite because like Carrie she has some unique ability or power.

The Lost Experience Connection:

There is a possibility that there are two split factions among the Others. This stems from the Lost Experience Alternate Reality Game that took place this past summer. During the Experience we found that The Hanso Foundation had a change of leadership and many were none to happy that this occurred. Since the
Others continue to receive food, medicine, and supplies they may still have contact with the outside world and the Foundation. It is thought that Juliet may be leading a fifth-column revolt backed by many original Hanso loyalists and alternately that Ben is supported by Thomas Werner Mittelwerk and his new regime.

The Romeo and Juliet Connection:

Obviously Juliet was a character from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. With this in mind we find a number of common connections, which may give us additional information in later episodes. For instance, Juliet fell in love with a man from the enemy’s camp, which is probably reference to Jack. Rather than the Monatgue’s and the Capulet’s we have the Others and the Survivors. Based on names alone, a conflict between Juliet and Rose may occur later on in the season. In the play Rosaline was the lover whom Romeo cast aside in favor of Juliet. Rosaline may also be referring to Sarah, Jack’s ex-wife. It is possible that Ben's name refers to Benvolio in the same play. “Benvolio” means “good will,” though so I doubt that this correlates to this character. The Shakespearian references may also simply be a shout out by the writers to Harold Perrineau's role as Mercutio in Baz Luhrmann's movie adaptation of the play.

Juliet, The KLF and Mu:

Doc Jenson recently published the following strange theory on his Lost EW page (see below for link.) Some of you may remember Doc from the Lost Experience Game this past summer and others from his Entertainment Weekly reports. The reason that I am presenting his theory here is that my co-collaborator at our Lost Theories blog, “Amelia Crater”, who I call Deb (because that’s her name), and I have traded e-mails concerning this very subject. Can you say déjà vu goose bumps? This theory is eerily familiar, as we had discussed portions of it together before Doc Jenson published his article. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the KLF here is a little history. Now defunct, the KLF was an 80’s performance art/electronica band from England that was fascinated by, among other esoteric subjects, the lost continent of Mu. When the KLF was popular I was a fan (this is where the Alternative part of my name “The Alternative One” comes from - music and literature not lifestyle) and collected a few of their albums. At any rate, their work was filled with references to Atlantis, the lost continent of Mu, free masonry, and other arcane topics. They were also known as the “The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu” (the JAMs) and the Timelords, among other names. From the beginning they adopted mysterious novels like “The Illuminatus! Trilogy,” (from which they took their name and which I have read twice), Charles Fort’s “Lo!” and other works on pyramids and lost civilizations. They destroyed their entire back catalog of music in 1992 and began the K Foundation which sought to subvert the art world, even staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year. In one escapade they destroyed by fire one million pounds sterling. They have since released new music under the names The K Foundation, The One World Orchestra and 2K. Their music was intelligent and quite fun to listen to. Jenson connects the song that Juliet was listening to (“Downtown”) to the KLF (who recorded a heavily sampled version called “Down Town”) and then to MU (see theory below). I wonder now if the ancient lost continent of Mu might be the new LOST continent of Dharma? I’ll let him explain…

Here then is Doc Jenson’s Theory:

“THEORY: Actually, I don't really have a theory about Juliet's comment specifically, but it did remind me of something I didn't share with you last week about that Petula Clark song ''Downtown,'' which Juliet seems to like so much. Back in the late '80s, a British band by the name of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (or the JAMs) sampled Clark's tune in their hit song ''Down Town.'' Now, in case you aren't up on your pseudoscience or fantasy literature, ''Mu'' is the name given to a speculative place that some believe is the true cradle of civilization, an ancient civilization that colonized the world, which would then explain the curious similarities (hieroglyphics, astrology/zodiac blah blah blah) that exist among several other far-flung ancient civilizations. According to the Mu lore, the reason why archaeologists haven't been able to dig up Mu is because Mu is located on the floor of the Pacific Ocean — a sunken continent, not unlike the mythic Atlantis.

Now: Remember those hieroglyphics in the Hatch? According to the Lost producers, they spell the word “Underworld.”

”Downtown” = “Down Town” = “Underworld” = Mu?

Friends... could the island actually be the lost continent of Mu?”

Doc’s entire article can be found here:Entertainment Weekly Article

Bonus Section 2:

And a new article concerning Stephen King and his influence on Lost can be found on Lostpedia at this URL

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin
October 26th, 2006

P.S. I am looking for suggestions on what to include in next weeks Bonus Section. If anyone has any ideas or subjects you’d like me to discuss please feel free to e-mail me.

EPISODE 303: "FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS"

2006-10-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

S3E3 (303): FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS
Air Date: October 18, 2006 (originally scheduled for Oct. 11)

Official ABC pre-air summary:
“The fates of Locke, Eko and Desmond are revealed after the implosion of the hatch, while Hurley returns to the beach camp to tell the tale of what happened when he, Jack, Kate and Sawyer encountered “The Others.””

Note: While the phrase “further instructions” does not appear in any of the Orientation Films, nor does appear in this episode, it occurs to me that after viewing each film and this episode we are left with the impression that the Dharma initiates and the survivors are also left awaiting “further instructions.”

Episode Re-cap:

This episode of Lost begins with the familiar opening of an eye. This time it is that of John Locke who finds himself disorientated and injured and lying on his back in the jungle. John cannot talk and evidently Desmond has had his clothes knocked off by the implosion. Eko’s Jesus stick falls out of the trees at John’s feet. John makes his way to the beach, tears his tent apart and builds a sweat lodge at the site of Eko’s church so that he can “talk to the island.”

Flashback
Locke is driving down Highway 36 in rural northern California when he stops to pick up a hitchhiker. He is stopped by the police and when questioned says he has guns and groceries in the back of his van. When the policeman finds that all the guns are legal he allows John to leave. The hitchhiker, Eddie, lies to the cop to ingratiate himself to Locke.

Inside the sweat lodge Locke takes drugs and begins his internal adventure. He is soon met by his spiritual guide who appears in the guise of Boone. He tells John that he was “the sacrifice the island demanded” and that John needs to “bring the family back together.” Their journey begins when Boone tells John that he must get back into the wheelchair. Boone then wheels John through an airport (with obvious Oceanic logos) and tells him “someone here is in danger.” The camera then pans to Charlie, Claire and Aaron in line for airline tickets. Hurley, the gate agent in this dream sequence, is entering the numbers into a computer terminal. Jin and Sun are standing in line with Sayid while Desmond walks by in a pilot’s uniform with three flight attendants. Kate and Sawyer, looking every bit the couple, are in security line as is Jack, who is alone. Ben is the security guard.
Boone tells Locke that “they’ve got him” and that he needs to “clean up his own mess.” Locke is scared from his trance by the face of an angry growling polar bear in the fire.

Charlie follows Locke into the jungle when he tells him he is going to find and save Mr. Eko. Locke is hunting Polar bear…

Flashback
John returns to his commune with Eddie, the hitchhiker, and shows him their sweat lodge and the layout. Locke tells Eddie that they are a commune of hunters and farmers and the sweat lodge is to help determine which you might be.

John and Charlie find a hole where the Swan hatch used to be and John tells Charlie that it was an implosion (see image above.) They come across the active kill (dead boar) of the polar bear and are chased by the bear. Locke panics and throws his knife and sees that it has ended up in Hurley’s canteen. Hurley tells Locke and Charlie about the capture of Kate, Jack and Sawyer.

Flashback
John and Eddie become closer and Eddie questions Locke about the large greenhouse and all the fertilizer going into it. Eddie asks John if he can be involved in whatever it is they are going to blow up. Locke and Charlie find the polar bears warren. John enters the cave armed with a torch, a lighter, his knife and an aerosol can of hair spray. Inside he finds a toy truck and the bones of a body wearing a Dharma t-shirt.

Hurley meets a naked Desmond in the jungle and gives him a tie-die t-shirt.

Flashback
Mike and Jan, the leaders of the commune are in a panic. Their greenhouse full of marihuana is in jeopardy when they find out that Eddie is a member of the Humboldt County Sheriffs Department. John tells Mike and Jan that he can fix the problem.

Inside the cave Locke rescues Mr. Eko when he lights the hair spray and spews it point-blank at the bear. He drags an unconscious Eko from the cave.

While Desmond and Hurley are walking back to the survivor’s beach Desmond tells Hurley that “Locke is going after them” because he “said so in his speech.” When Hurley questions Desmond he says that he was confused.

Flashback
Locke takes Eddie out into the woods hunting and confronts him about being a policeman. John gets the drop on him but cannot kill him. Eddie says that John is no murderer and walks away from him.

An unconscious Mr. Eko tells Locke that he can still protect and save the missing survivors. In the final scene Locke gives a speech about rescuing their friends and Hurley understands that something strange happened to Desmond during the electromagnetic anomaly.

Observations:

1) Desmond foretold the future when he told Hurley about Locke’s speech before it happened. Desmond knew that John would make a speech and he also knew the content of that speech.

2) Mr. Eko tapped into Locke’s past when he told him he was a hunter. He either read Locke’s mind or saw the events of the past, all in a state of unconsciousness.

3) Locke is driving on Highway 36 in rural northern California near Eureka and the license plate number of his truck is 5Q49938. Note: This area was prominent in the Lost ARG tie-in book “Bad Twin.” The characters find themselves in or near Luna, California.

4) Boone has become Locke’s Spiritual Guide as predicted earlier. (In the Lost Greek mythology theory (see link below) Boone fills the role of Cedalion, the young guide of Orion. John Locke represents Orion, the hunter.)

5) Eddie is wearing a Geronimo Jackson “Magna Charta” t-shirt and tells Mike that it belonged to his father. Mike tells Eddie that his father had great taste in music. It seems that the producers and writers want Geronimo Jackson front and center and they do not want the viewers to forget this band. But why?

6) Eddie is Edward F. Coburn, Employee # 84023 and works for the Humboldt County Sherriff Department. (From file taken off the Internet by Jan.)

7) It has been reported that Eddie's eye color changes. We are told that they are blue at the beginning of the episode and brown at the end. We have not been able to confirm this yet.

8) The dead body in the cave is wearing a Pearl Hatch Dharma Initiative t-shirt.

9) The airport scene in which Boone pushes Locke in his wheelchair is an allegory for the current status of the survivors on the island. Consider: Charlie and Claire are together and caring for Aaron. Charlie is clean (and sober) and Claire and Aaron look vital, happy and healthy. Sun and Jin are standing in line waiting and Boone tells Locke that Sayid will take care of them. Hurley as the gate attendant is the message bearer and is waiting to deliver it. Desmond is, as Boone says, only thinking of himself. (Personally I think he is thinking of much more. Does one Penelope equal three flight attendants?) Kate and Sawyer, looking very much a couple, are trapped in the security line together. Jack is being scanned (monitored) by Ben and is in line alone. Mr. Eko’s stick is bloody and Eko is not in the airport, which indicates that he is missing and in trouble. And John Locke once again needs his wheelchair because he has been rendered a cripple (mute). This was a very clever manipulation of scene and plot to reveal to the viewers more information concerning the recent status of the survivors.

10) Locke believes that the island is an entity that can both reason and communicate. His internal cerebral walkabout in the sweat lodge was done only to accomplish communication with the island. And the island responded! In the fire as John comes out of his trance he is frightened by the growling image of a polar bear telling him the exact nature of Eko’s trouble.

11) We can assume that there are probably many more wild animals running around the jungle. The bear cage in which Sawyer is being kept obviously contained more than one bear and there are many empty cages at the Hydra Station.

12) Why did Locke pick the site of Mr. Eko’s church to build his sweat lodge? You would think that Eko would probably not be too happy about that but if you consider that this location was a spiritual place for Eko then it all makes sense. Communicating with the island and being linked to Eko was exactly what Locke was trying to accomplish.

13) The dream / trance sequence that Boone takes John through is just that; a dream sequence. It is not, in my opinion, a flash-forward to the future.

14) The Swan Hatch appears to have been completely destroyed. An overhead shot of it shows that it imploded; all that is left is a very large crater. (see image above)

15) Charlie says, “I’ve heard trees are great conversationalists.” This may be a veiled reference to his role in “The Lord of the Rings”, where his character, Merry, talks to the living trees known as Ents.

16) Our first view of Desmond in the jungle reveals that he is naked. In many movies and books depicting time travel, the traveler sometimes arrives sans clothes. This could explain why his clothing is gone and why he knows that Locke is going to make a speech.

The Questions:

1) Why do so many episodes of Lost begin with the opening of an eye? This is a great scene device and very creative but I have often wondered if there was a deeper meaning. Since the eye is the world’s portal to the mind I presume that it may have something to do with mind control or psychological manipulation.

2) How did John know that he could “talk to the island?” There was no threat of failure in Locke’s mind when he began his odyssey to communicate with the island. What made him so sure that he could accomplish this task? And how did he even know he could?

3) What happened between the time Helen left Locke and his showing up in northern California? And how did he get involved with the marihuana growers in the commune? At first it seemed a bit odd but it makes sense if you consider that John had to make a transition somehow from home inspector to hunter.

4) What did Boone mean when he told John that they needed to “get the family back together?” In what way are the survivors related? By blood? By circumstance? By status?

5) I totally understand what Boone meant when he told John to “clean up his own mess.” But he also said “they’ve got him!” Who had Eko? It looked to me like it was a polar bear but is the bear connected to another group (or entity) on the island? Curiouser and curiouser!

6) Locke finds a toy dump truck in the polar bear cave. Who did this toy belong to?

7) Locke also finds a dead human body wearing a Pearl Hatch t-shirt in the polar bear cave. Who was this person? Could this be one of the Pearl Hatch observers? He obviously was in the cave before the bear was, as the bear did not eat his decomposed body. The skeleton implies that members of the Dharma Initiative fell prey to their own experiments.

8) How did Desmond know that John was going to make a speech? And how did he know the content of that speech? Did he move forward through time during the electromagnetic anomaly? Did he see the future when he was unconscious? Did the island communicate with Desmond too? Hurley asks Desmond if he is going to “Hulk out on me” and thinks that a transformation of some type has occurred. Did Desmond’s proximity to the fail safe and implosion change him internally in some way?

9) Did the island cure Charlie like it did with Locke and Rose? He is obviously clean and sober but we never saw his painful recovery from his addiction. While he acted a bit strange for a while we never saw the physical changes that take place during withdrawal from heroin.

10) If the Hydra Station (where Jack is being held) was a facility that housed sharks and dolphins where are the Dharma dolphins? We’ve seen at least one Dharma shark but no dolphins yet. Later in the series, perhaps?

Bonus Section:

Benjamin Linus
(A.K.A. Henry Gale, A.K.A. Fake Henry Gale, A.K.A. Ben)

Although Benjamin Linus was not in this episode there is a great deal of information concerning him that I wanted to talk about. The information below is what I have gathered so far.

History of the names Benjamin and Linus:

The name Benjamin comes to us from the Hebrew name Binyamin and means “son of the right hand.” Being at the “right hand” of the father was to be favored or exalted or high-ranking. Benjamin was the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel and was sold into slavery by his brothers. In the Middle Ages it was often given to sons whose mothers had died in childbirth. After several decades of disuse it came back into great popularity in the 1970’s.

In Greek legend Linus was the son of the god Apollo. Linus is said to be the innovator of melody and rhythm; he was the music teacher of Orpheus, Herakles (Heracles), and Iphikles (Iphicles); during one of the lessons, Linus struck Herakles as punishment for his inattention and the youthful Herakles flew into a rage and beat Linus to death with a chair. The second pope, predecessor to St. Peter, and close friend to the Apostle Paul was St. Linus. His father's name was Herculanus and his feast is celebrated on 23 September.

A word about Benjamin Linus:

Benjamin Linus then is the favored one or at the “right hand” of the father and in very close proximity to those in power. In the Lost lore or mythology the father is most likely Alvar Hanso but may also be an unknown entity. Benjamin then may be second only to Hanso himself (or with the recent changes in leadership at the Hanso Foundation the father here could also refer to Thomas Werner Mittelwerk.) I think it interesting that the name Benjamin came back into popularity during the 70’s when the Dharma Initiative was being developed. This would fall into place with then-current naming patterns. That Herakles beat Linus to death is interesting and you have to wonder which individual on the island might be associated with, or portrayed as, Herakles. That Pope Linus’ feast is celebrated on the 23rd of September then is not surprising but could be a simple coincidence. However, as I’ve said before, there are NO coincidences.

Possible insights to the identity of Benjamin Linus:

* In Greek legend Linus was the son of the god Apollo. (As discussed above) Who then corresponds to Apollo in the Lost mythology?
(For an intelligent overview of possible links between Greek Mythology and the Lost characters see this website: Lost Dogon "Lost")

* Linus is a complete alias and a lie and may be a reference to the Peanuts character Linus van Pelt. In the comic strip, Linus is known for his exceptional intellect, and he acts as the strip's theorist and theologian, often quoting from the Bible.

* The second pope, supposed predecessor to St. Peter and close friend to the Apostle Paul, was St. Linus. His father's name was Herculanus and his feast is celebrated on 23 September.

* Linus was also a notable character mentioned in the second epistle to Timothy, written by Paul of Tarsus: “Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.” (2nd Timothy 4:21). He may be the same individual as St. Linus.

*Benjamin is “Him,” the actual leader of the Others, or at the very least a high-ranking member. If this is true, he was referring to himself when he said his boss was not a very forgiving man! It is obvious that he holds some power. Both Ethan Rom and Goodwin did not hesitate when he ordered them to the crash sites.

*He is a psychologist or psychiatrist for the Others. Or a remnant of the Vik Institute, which escaped the fire in Iceland. (Lost Experience ARG)

*Ben was one of the doctors from the Staff Hatch (medical) from the episode "Maternity Leave".

* He is illustrated in the picture from http://hole3.thehansofoundation.org/ also from the Lost Experience Alternate Reality Game during the summer of 2006.

* Benjamin is Radzinsky. This idea is hard to wrap my head around but others think that it supports the theory that Ben already knew about the Lockdown procedures. Radzinsky is said to have created the Blast Door Map, even with the black light inactivated. But if this is true then Kelvin lied to Desmond about Radzinsky’s death. I find this particular theory highly improbable.

*Ben is familiar with details of the Swan's function and location, because he is familiar with all of the DHARMA initiative stations on the island. After all, he is a lifelong resident of the island!

*Ben was the original moderator of the book club. Based on the conversation and tone surrounding the choice of Stephen King's book for the book club in “A Tale of Two Cities” and who the hosts of that session are. “Ben wouldn’t read this on the toilet!” Adam said, implying that Ben used to pick the works discussed at the book club meetings. This sounds like a falling out between Ben and Juliet.

*Ben is married to or involved with Juliet. She's playing “Downtown” (a song of loneliness) on the CD player when we meet her, absentmindedly baking muffins, and asserting her own book choices. Ben's comment “I guess I'm out of the book club” has the tone of a recent breakup. This is supported by Ben’s comment to Juliet, “you never made soup for me,” after she made soup for Jack.

*He is not “Him,” but simply second-in-command. This notion is supported by the Biblical reference that Benjamin was the brother of Joseph (of the amazing Technicolor dream coat). He was the only brother of the twelve who shared the same mother and father as Joseph, and thus was Jacob's favorite. But then we’d have to ask who and where is Joseph?

* Colleen appeared to be annoyed to find Ben and Juliet talking together when she came to report about the sailboat. This indicates that Juliet may have been in a relationship with Ben and that Colleen may now be involved with Ben.

* Ben could be named for the rat from the Michael Jackson song of the same name. He sure looks mousey to me!

Probable Activities of Benjamin Linus:

* Ben is the puppet master and monitors everything that occurs on the island. That he is the puppet master has a very low probability in my mind but it is confirmed that he is monitoring many places on the island. Puppet master – highly improbably. Monitoring the island – confirmed.

* He was a member of the group that discovered, interrogated, killed and buried the real Henry Gale. No doubt in my mind.

* Ben knew the location of the survivor’s beach camp and the location of the balloon crash. He drew a map from one location to the other, even though he had been injured and unconscious when taken from Rousseau’s trap to the Hatch. Very plausible.

* He lied to Locke about coming for him. Highly probable.

* He intentionally revealed the blast door map to Locke by turning on the black light while in the computer room. This may have been his way of thanking Locke for trusting him. Or, conversely, he did this to lead Locke to the Pearl, which would destroy his faith in the importance of inputting the numbers. Unlikely. Locke viewing the blast door map was an accident.

* He had intimate knowledge of the Lockdown procedure and may have even helped to perpetuate or initiate the magnetic implosion and release at the end of season two. Possible.

* During the lockdown, while alone with the computer, Ben contacted the others to tell them of his capture and may have even initiated the supply drop. As evidence, Ms. Klugh later tells Michael that she knows "one of our people has been captured.” Possible.

* Ben wants another incident to occur; this is why he told Locke that nothing at all happens if the button is not pushed. He does not seem surprised or frightened when the discharge occurs during “Live Together, Die Alone”. Perhaps, he too is seeking a way off the island. Highly probable.

* Ben may have been kept as a prisoner similar to the way that Jack is currently being imprisoned. This could be why he says to Juliet, "You never made me soup." He may have been on the island prior to the Dharma Initiative but I find it highly unlikely that an outsider would become the leader of the Others. Improbable. The “soup” quote may mean they had a relationship of some type. Improbable.

EPISODE 302: “THE GLASS BALLERINA”

2006-10-12T12:23:00.000-07:00

S3E2 (302): “THE GLASS BALLERINA”

Air date: Wednesday, October 11 at 9/8c
“Sayid’s plan to locate Jack places Sun and Jin's lives in grave danger. Meanwhile, Kate and Sawyer are forced to work in harsh conditions by their captors, and Henry makes a very tempting offer to Jack that may prove difficult to refuse.”

This is the second of six episodes that will air in October and November. The remainder of the season resumes in February and concludes in May.

My pre-air thoughts (or airy thoughts? or plain old dairy air thoughts?):

There is no doubt that we are all extremely curious about what is happening to the Lost members still at the Swan Hatch (Desmond, Locke, Mr. Eko, etc.) but I’m also very glad to be visiting the Others in their unique environment. This is all new territory for us and therefore completely unpredictable (not that Lost is predictable in any way but it was getting comfortable). We are taken back to season one wondering what the polar bear was doing on the island and what the black smoke was. Now, however, we're asking about the Other’s village and the Hydra Station and the Zoological Park. And, of course, the cages… I expect that the experiments will continue for at least two unpleasant weeks on our threesome. What happens after that is purely up for speculation! Tom (Mr. Friendly / Zeke) will again perform his delivery duties. Photos of the episode show him taking Kate and Sawyer somewhere. We’ll also meet a new player in the Others camp and are re-introduced to an Other we’ve met previously. Colleen, the new character, and Pickett (the Other’s resident phlebotomist) will share some quality time together in this episode. Mr. Lee (Sun’s English teacher) is also shown in back-story. Perhaps we’ll find out the identity of the woman he ran off to America to be with? Sounds like another interesting evening to me!

Episode Re-cap:

The glass ballerina, which belonged to Sun as a little girl, is a metaphor for her apparent willingness to see others hurt to protect herself. Even when she knows that the ramifications could be disastrous she will lie to shelter herself from harm. The figurine is a representation of how lies can shatter lives and the fragility of both. (And yes, I occasionally wax poetic, folks!)

Flashback…
Sun as a young girl begins a lifetime of lies when she tells her father, Mr. Paik, that the maid broke the glass ballerina.

Sun, Jin, and Sayid, are on Desmond's boat, attempting to locate Jack, Sawyer and Kate but their rendezvous signal fire goes unanswered. While moving to another location to start a more visible fire they discover the Pala Ferry.

Colleen, another new character, who is very friendly with Danny Pickett, seems to be able to handle herself in any situation. Colleen tells Ben that a radio report has confirmed that “the Iraqi” has found the decoy village. She also tells him that they have a boat. Juliet says they’ll just sail around in circles (implying that Michael and Walt will do much the same) but Colleen feels they might find the village or the Hydra Station. Ben orders Colleen to assemble a team and capture the boat.

Kate and Sawyer are taken out of their cages by Tom, Pickett and a number of others and Sawyer witnesses a stolen kiss between Colleen and Danny Pickett.

Flashback…
Sun and Jae Lee (her English teacher) are found having an affair. Mr. Paik finds them in their hotel room and orders them out. (I was a slightly disappointed by the affair as I wanted to believe in Sun’s fidelity but it does give us an insight into why Jin was so angry the first two seasons.)

Kate and Sawyer are taken out to what looks like a rock-covered landing strip where many of the Others are laboring. Ben, it seems, plans on using Sawyer and Kate as free labor. (Experiment or lesson? Research or chain gang? Hmmm…) Kate demands to see Jack before she’ll do any work but Pickett zaps Sawyer with a taser shock for her insolence.

Flashback…
Mr. Paik demands that Jin “deliver a message” to Jae Lee as he has stolen from him. Jin refuses and quits his job but Paik appeals to his honor and tells Jin that Paik’s shame is his shame. In matter of fact, he is telling the absolute truth and Jin realizes it but not the depth of that truth. He relents and accepts the job after Paik calls him “son.”

At the airstrip, Kate talks with Alex Rousseau as she hides in the brush. Alex asks Kate about Carl, another prisoner. Alex tells Kate that she isn’t “even supposed to be in that cage.”

At the Pala Ferry Sayid unveils a plan to capture two Others when Sun tells him she knows he’s lying about the new signal fire. Sayid asks Sun to lie to Jin for 20 more minutes, or until the blaze is too high to stop.

Flashback…
Jin returns home and tells Sun that her father wants him to hurt someone. Sun tells him that he does not have to do it, that they can leave Korea and start a new life where her father can’t find them. Jin angrily remarks that this is what he must do to remain married to her.

Back at the Pala Ferry site Jin demands one of Sayid’s guns when he understands what is happening and explains to Sun that he understands English better than they think. When Sayid hands the gun to Jin he asks him if he knows how to use it and Jin surprises Sayid by checking the magazine in a manner that makes it clear that he knows exactly how to handle a handgun.

Sawyer, on impulse, walks over to Kate and kisses her passionately but his motives are dual in nature. A fight develops and Sawyer lands a few punches before he grabs a gun. Sawyer holds the Others at bay with the rifle but Juliet who is pointing her gun at Kate calls him “James” and tells him to put the gun down. When he does he is shocked once again.

Flashback…
Jin follows Lee to his hotel room and thrashes him. He puts a gun to his head but cannot bring himself to commit murder. Instead he tells Lee to leave the country and never come back. As Jin gets back into his car, Lee’s body comes crashing onto the car from above. An obvious suicide? Lee is holding the pearl necklace in his hand.

While Sayid and Jin are hiding in the jungle the Others silently climb aboard the boat. Sun confronts Colleen with the extra handgun. Colleen calls Sun by her full name and tells her that she knows everything about her and that Sun is not a killer. But Sun shoots Colleen in the side. The Others attempt to capture Sun but she jumps overboard as the boat sails away.

Flashback…
At Lee’s funeral Sun asks her father if he told Jin about her affair, and he responds that it was not his place.

Sayid, Jin and Sun begin the long walk back to their camp.

When Sawyer and Kate are returned to their cages he tells her that he was testing their strengths and weaknesses. He tells Kate that two of the guards are capable fighters but that the rest could be handled easily. He also tells her that the big guy packs a pretty good punch and the “shaggy-haired kid” has some martial arts experience, and that the tasers have safety switches. Most importantly, he tells her that Juliet would have pulled the trigger without a problem. Ben observes all this on closed circuit television.

Ben attempts a reconciliation of sorts with Jack. He offers his hand and tells Jack that his real name is Benjamin Linus and that he has lived on the island all his life. Jack refuses to shake hands. Ben then offers Jack a chance to go home telling him that he can make it happen if Jack only does what he asks at the correct time and place. To help convince him Ben tells him a number of facts about the end of 2004 including the date and that the Boston red Sox won the World Series. When Jack is amused by the Sox winning the Series Ben shows him on a television monitor. Ben repeats his offer, telling Jack that if he listens to him and trusts him, he will eventually take him home.

Some observations

1) The current date on the island is November 29, 2004.
2) The survivors have been on the island for 69 days. (September 22, 2004)
3) The marching music that plays in Sawyer's cage when he completes the steps to obtain food is John Philip Sousa’s “The Thunderer” (1889).
4) Jack learns that the Boston Red Sox’s “Curse of the Bambino” had finally ended. This was a recurring inside joke with his father. Christian Shepherd used to say to Jack, "That's why the Red Sox will never win the World Series..."
5) Ben proves to Jack that they have access to the outside world (or at least information from) when he shows Jack the end of the World Series.
6) Jae Lee's hotel room number was 1516. Two of “the” numbers.
7) “You taste like strawberries” is a quotation from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode called “Crashed” and implies that Kate may have eaten the strawberries that were on the table while having breakfast with Ben. Writer Drew Goddard, of "Buffy" fame, was a co-writer for this episode of Lost.
8) Ben tells Jack that America had re-elected George Bush as President.
9) Ben tells Jack that the actor Christopher Reeves had died.
10) Ben sent Michael and Walt “home.” But Juliet verifies that they will only sail in circles.
11) Ben claims that he can take Jack “home” if Jack does what he asks when it is the time. Also Ben states that in order to do this, Jack needs to change his “attitude, err, perspective".
12) Items 4, 5, 8, and 9 are all events that occurred in late 2004.
13) Sawyer’s attempt to test the strength of the Others is encouraging to see. The first season showed Sawyer as a very smart con man but the second showed his “softer” side. I like the smarter Sawyer better!
14) The canteen Juliet offers to Sawyer appears to have The Staff Hatch logo on it, just as Ethan's canteen did in the episode “Maternity Leave.” Is Juliet trying to drug Sawyer?
15) Ben’s statement to Juliet that “You never made soup for me,” implies that either Ben and Juliet had once been in a relationship, or less likely that Ben was once Juliet's prisoner.
16) When Juliet hears that the survivors have a sailboat she is not surprised. She tells Ben that sailing around in circles will keep them occupied which may indicate that sailing is not a feasible way to escape the island. This is verified by Desmond's attempt to escape with the sail boat and his subsequent return two weeks later.
17) Ben is surprised to hear of the survivors possessing a boat. Ben may not know that Desmond is on the island.

Benjamin Linus

Benjamin Linus, who once deceptively took the name Henry Gale, appears to be the leader of the Others. In episode “A Tale of Two Cities” he sent Goodwin and Ethan to the two wreckage sites and in “The Glass Ballerina” he sent a group out to seize the boat and capture Jin, Sun, and Sayid when they docked Desmond’s boat at the Pala Ferry. He is also monitoring all the captives and some of the island sites.

His real Christian name (Ben) was revealed in “A Tale of Two Cities”, and his true surname (Linus) in “The Glass Ballerina.”

In the Old Testament, Benjamin is held hostage in Egypt by his brother Joseph. Joseph knows they are siblings but Benjamin does not. Later Benjamin becomes the leader of one the twelve tribes of Israel. In Hebrew Benjamin means "son of right."

Linus is from the Greek name Linos meaning "flax". In Greek legend he was the son of the god Apollo and a music teacher to Herakles. He was accidentally killed by his father in a contest.

The inevitable 100 questions

1) Juliet calls Sawyer “James” and Colleen calls Sun, “Sun-Hwa Kwon.” They obviously know more about the survivors then I first realized. For instance, I have seen Sun-Hwa Kwon in print many times and could not pronounce it correctly if Sayid was torturing me. Yet, Colleen rambles it off as if she knew Sun personally. How do they know so much about the survivors?

2) Why is Jack so important to Benjamin Linus and the Others? He has been separated from Sawyer and Kate and offers of freedom are being made to him. Ben kept his word with Michael but this could be a set-up so that Jack thinks he will keep his word. But why do the Others need a doctor? Does it have anything to do with the virus and the injections?

3) During the conversation between Alex and Kate we are told that Kate isn’t even suppose to be in that cage. What does that mean? Should she not have been caged at all? Or in another cage entirely? And who is Carl and why is Alex concerned about him? And why would Alex need a dress? And where did it come from?

4) If Benjamin Linus has lived his entire life on the island does that make him a child of one of the original members of the Dharma Initiative? If the Initiative began in the mid 70’s and Ben is in his mid 30’s then he could be a child of Dharma. Are the other Others also children of the Dharma Initiative? What about the elderly woman in episode A Tale of Two Cities? Is she one of the original members of the Dharma Initiative?

5) Sawyer and Kate are working on what appears to me as a landing strip. It looks like they are clearing and flattening an area for a plane to land. Why would they need a landing strip? Does Ben know that Penelope is searching for Desmond? And that she may make an attempt to rescue him?

6) Dharma Zappers? Where do I get one? Does it occur to anyone that full charge might be lethal? Or is that just my overactive imagination?

7) Juliet, it seems, has trouble playing well with others. Her relationship with Ben seems strained at best and there were harsh words between her and Adam at the book club meeting. In this episode she appears to have a disliking for Colleen. Why is Juliet so disliked? And why is she so unhappy?

8) There is a recurring theme concerning eating and drinking that is initiated by Juliet. She tells Jack that the drugs they gave him can cause hallucinations if he does not eat and drink. However, Kate had the same bandage on her arm and they did not give her this same message. Either it is a lie or they want Kate to hallucinate. Also, Juliet tries to give water to Sawyer who pours it out. It seems to me that if the Others wanted to drug Sawyer they could have put something in his water in the cage. Why would they give Jack and/or Kate hallucinogens? What purpose would this serve?

The Island Map?

Is this a map of the Island? If so how did Desmond get it? And how did it get on his boat?

Monitoring Station

Benjamin Linus is monitoring six different locations of the island on closed circuit monitors:
1) The jungle area where Jin and Sayid are waiting for the Others near the Pala Ferry and their fire.
2) Jack in the corner of his cell at the Hydra Station.
3) An unknown jungle location, which could be Alex.
4) A strange compound location not yet seen.
5) Sawyer in his cage at the zoo talking to Kate.
6) Kate in her cage at the zoo talking to Sawyer.

EPISODE 301: “A TALE OF TWO CITIES”

2006-10-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

S3E1 (301) “A Tale of Two Cities”

Air date: Wednesday, October 4 at 9/8c
SEASON PREMIERE
“In the season premiere episode, Jack, Kate and Sawyer begin to discover what they are up against as prisoners of “The Others.””

This is the first of six episodes that will air in October and November. The remainder of the season resumes in February and concludes in May.

EPISODE RE-CAP:

This episode was all about cages and confinement…

Flashback
“A Tale of Two Cities” opens in the very antiseptic-looking and seemingly solar-powered village of the Others. During a book club gathering hosted by Juliet (a new character) the members suffer through what seems to be an earthquake. The sky, however, is filled with the broken pieces of Oceanic Flight 815. Ben (fake Henry Gale’s “real” name) directs Ethan Rom to the fuselage wreckage and Goodwin to the tail section.

The remainder of the episode shifts between the various cages and the captives…

Flash forward
Sawyer, Jack and Kate each wake up in a different cage and Kate and Jack have both had blood drawn. (Kate’s cage is quite different from that of Jack or Sawyer.)

Kate is given a shower and a dress and taken to breakfast with Ben. When she asks him why he is treating her to clean clothes and food he replies, “The next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant.” And we certainly believe him!

Sawyer is being held in a large cage and is introduced to Carl, a young teenage boy who helps him to escape. “Subject escaped!” blares over the loudspeaker as they run in different directions but both Sawyer and Carl are recaptured quickly. (It all seemed rather concocted to me!)

Jack is being held in a dark glass and steel cell that looks strangely like some type of weird medical testing facility. Jack attempts an escape and captures Juliet but opens the wrong hatch door and the jail fills up with water. Jack finds out that this is the Hyrda Station part of the Dharma Initiative and that it was an aquarium once used for sharks and dolphins.

At the end of the episode Ben congratulates Juliet by saying, “Good work.” and she replies with a simple “Thank you.” They’ll have to work a lot harder than that though to break our three survivors!

It is apparent that Ben and the Others are conducting experiments on Jack, Kate and Sawyer (and probably Carl, too). It is also apparent that we’ll have to wait until later in the season to find out why.

Note: There is a very strange back-story flashback concerning Jack’s jealousy and obsession concerning his ex-wife’s boyfriend. The creators wanted us to know that Jack was flirting with an epic emotional breakdown. Why? Showing him at his most vulnerable here it appears that we are being set up for a future reversal of circumstances and that the strongest side of Jack has yet to be seen.

JACK’S CAGE

Jack opens a hatch in the Hydra Station in an escape attempt but floods the station. A quick reacting Juliet saves Jack, tells him to hit the button on the wall, which drains the water form the cell, and them knocks him out with one punch! Later, Juliet confirms that the Hydra Station is an underwater aquarium and that it was once part of the Dharma Initiative and used for Sharks and Dolphins.

KATE’S CAGE

Kate’s cage… is a dress?!? And Mr. Friendly is her chaperone! Ben has threatened Kate and she is not happy about that. The unknown possibilities of Ben’s threat weigh heavy on her but she knows that she has the support of Sawyer. Look for Ben to conduct his un-pleasantries on Kate soon.

SAWYER’S CAGE

We speculated last season that the entire island might have been a big Skinner’s box. We now think that perhaps only segments of the islands can be defined in this manner. This includes the Pearl Hatch (where the reward is information) and now Sawyer’s cage (where the reward may be survival)!

Imagine a con man in a cage. This is a special cage, a polar bear cage, (called, in fact, a “Skinner box”). This cage contains a bar, a pedal and an over-large button, with a knife and fork icon imprinted on it, that, when pressed, should cause a mechanism to release food into the cage. The con man is inspecting his cage closely, trying to find a way out, when he decides to press the button… Here, good folks, is where a deviation from the Skinner box scenario occurs. Normally, food would be dispensed and the con man would continue to press the button until he had enough food to hoard away but in this experiment our con man is given multiple verbal warnings to prevent him from pressing the button. The outcome is, of course, pre-ordained (we are talking about Sawyer here after all). And pain ensues… After a trial and error period Sawyer understands that the contraption must be manipulated in a certain order and he figures out how to obtain food. He is rewarded with a large Dharma goldfish and Dharma corn nuts?!? Yummm!

THE OTHER’S CAGE
(See image above)

The Other’s village is in essence another cage. While more comfortable than most it is a cage nonetheless. It seems that there is no escape for them, either. The location seems remote but both sides of the island can be reached in about an hour. We all know that the boat that Ben gave to Michael was not made for open ocean travel, which is why Ben gave it up. Desmond’s boat is another matter entirely. The only reason that Ben would want Desmond’s boat is to escape the island… the Others are as trapped as the survivors.

JULIET’S CAGE

I believe that Juliet’s cage is much more emotional than the others. While we have little to go on we do know that she has a sadness about her that begs for an explanation. She listens to Pet Clark’s anthem to loneliness and forgets that she has muffins in the oven. These are all obvious signs of someone preoccupied with extremely hefty thoughts. But why is Juliet so melancholy?

OBSERVATIONS:

1) The Others have electricity in their village (I assume solar-powered.)
2) Juliet plays the song “Downtown” by Petula Clark on her CD player. This is definitely a song about being lonely and Juliet is “very” unhappy. She burns the muffins and her hand, obviously not concentrating on the task at hand. Why is she so upset?
3) The book club is discussing Stephen King’s “Carrie” which Juliet says is her favorite book. This is the story of a young woman with extraordinary powers who is ostracized by her peers and eventually snaps… Will Juliet be threatened emotionally in the future and explode? (An excellent article concerning the Stephen King Connection can be foud here.)
4) A member of the book club says that Ben (fake Henry Gale) would not even read “Carrie” while sitting on the toilet. This proves what? That Ben is a snob? An intellectual? Hmm…
5) Ben is obviously in charge in the village as he directs Goodwin and Ethan Rom to head towards the two wreckage sites.
6) Jack’s cage is proven to be some type of holding cell for sharks or dolphins. Why on earth would they need a multi-channel mixing board for sharks and dolphins? Perhaps, a little easy listening music by Geronimo Jackson?
7) During Sawyers escape we see that there are many cages in the immediate vicinity. This compound resembles a zoo and should explain the polar bears and horses. But why does it have the Hydra Station designation on it?
8) The village contains between 15 and 20 houses. (30 to 40 people?)
9) The theme of dark and light was also portrayed again tonight with Jack’s cage as the dark element (stark, steel, Plexiglas, dark, light greens and blues) and Kate and Sawyers as the light (exterior, sunny, bright).

THE HYDRA STATION

I admit to being a bit confused by the Hydra Station as I was totally convinced that there was no underwater hatch on the island. I’ve been proven wrong. One nagging question though is why is the Hydra Station symbol found in the zoo? The same symbol appears in the underwater cage where Jack is being held and on the canopy in the compound of cages where Sawyer, Kate and Carl are being held. Why would an above ground zoo be part of an underwater station? Anyone care to comment?

JACK’S BOOKSHELF

Click here to view a hi-res image of Jack’s bookshelf.

I encourage you to visit and help fill in the missing books (see below).

There is no doubt that a correlation exists between the books found on Jack’s bookshelf in this episode and the show mythology we’ve already encountered. Sawyer’s book selection and our discussions concerning them certainly indicate that the creators know we are looking at this aspect of island life. The writers and producers are well aware that viewers are going over those titles in minutiae. With the bookshelf in Jack’s office they have given us an entire season’s worth of speculation concerning the works that appear here. Because there has been so much discussion concerning the literary works seen on Lost I have researched in detail the identifiable books on the shelf. (Please note: if you recognize a book that I have not been able to identify please e-mail me or post a comment.) Obviously, the reference and medical books are prevalent because of Jack’s profession but the fact that the books are so visible indicate to me that the writers/producers want us to view the titles. Recurring themes of the books on the shelf, either in title, subject matter or both, correspond to themes on the show. Those themes are (in no particular order): The Wizard of Oz, Yin / Yang, constellations and astrology, science and faith, ancient societies and civilizations, mystery, redemption, religion (Catholicism), Greek mythology, medicine, monsters / evil, murder and torture, corporate corruption, ship and plane wrecks, isolation and rescue, prisons and escape, islands, and twins.

The Bookshelf

On top of the bookshelf (left to right)
1. Three Ring Binder (Black – thin)
2. Three Ring Binder (Black – thin)
3. Three Ring Binder (White – thick – yellow lettering “…OGICAL”?)
4. Three Ring Binder (White – thin)
5. Three Ring Binder (Grey – thick)
6. West’s Business Law – Clarkson, Miller, Jentz and Cross
7. Compton's Encyclopedia Vol. 23.
8. Clinical Procedures
9. Harrison's Platinum Edition - Anthony S. Fauci MD, Eugene Braunwald MD, Kurt J. Isselbacher MD, Jean D. Wilson MD, Joseph B. Martin MD, Dennis L. Kasper MD, Stephen L. Hauser MD

SHELF 1 (left to right)
1. Obscured by Jack’s head
2. Obscured by Jack’s head
3. Obscured by Jack’s head
4. Obscured by Jack’s head
5.
6. Information Systems - Management in Practice - Barbara C. McNurlin, Ralph H. Sprague
7. Fire in the Mind: Faith and the Search for Order - George Johnson
8. Dark Horse -Tami Hoag
9.
10. Parker’s Astrology – Julia & Derek Parker
11. ____ Student’s Yearbook
12. Book of the Year 1976
13.
14. (Tilted book)
15. Pale Horse Coming – Stephen Hunter
16. Nighttime Is My Time - Mary Higgins Clark
17. The Greatest Generation -Tom Brokaw
18.
19. Coping With Job Loss: How Individuals, Organizations, and Communities Respond to Layoffs (Issues in Organization and Management Series) - Carrie R. Leana and Daniel C. Feldman
20.
21. Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen
22. Redemption - Leon Uris

SHELF 2 (left to right)
1.
2. Two Dollar Bill – Stuart Woods
3. Domes of Fire – David Eddings
4. The Price of Beauty?
5. Valhalla Rising – Clive Cussler
6. No Place Like Home - Mary Higgins Clark
7.
8. Hearts In Atlantis - Stephen King
9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling
10. Diagnosis of Diseases of the Chest - Vol. I - Fraser and Pare
11. Diagnosis of Diseases of the Chest - Vol. II - Fraser and Pare
12. Diagnosis of Diseases of the Chest - Vol. III - Fraser and Pare
13. Diagnosis of Diseases of the Chest - Vol. IV - Fraser and Pare
(Cycling trophy)
14.
15.
16. Eleventh Hour - Catherine Coulter
17.
18. Last ___

SHELF 3 (left to right)
1. The Spirit of Christmas – exact book remains unidentified
2.
3.
4. Funk & Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia Vol. 14
5. Lawrence Sanders McNally's Folly – Vincent Lardo
6. Funk & Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia Vol. 14 (Earlier Edition of # 4 above)
7. Astrological Patterns
8. Reader's Digest Condensed Book (4 titles illegible)
9. Holy Bible – King James Version
10. Dirty Work – Stuart Woods
11. (Call It Courage – by Armstrong Sperry) Possible
12.
13. Pulmonary Diseases and Disorders
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. The Scottish Bride - Catherine Coulter
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.

SHELF 4 (left to right)
(Several books obscured by golf clubs)
1.
2.
3.
4. Scientific Genius - Dean Kenneth Simonton
5. A History of World Societies – John P. McKay
6.
7. International Book of ____ (?)
8. Reference work
9. Reference work
10. Reference work
11. Reference work
12. Reference work
13. Reference work
14. Reference work
15. Reference work
16. Reference work
17. Encyclopedia Americana (Vol. II)
18. Encyclopedia Americana (Vol. I)

SHELF 5 (left to right)
1. Encyclopedia Americana (Vol. ?)
2. Encyclopedia Americana (Vol. 12)
3. Encyclopedia Americana (Vol. 13)
4. America -
5.
6.
7. The Bailey Chronicles - Catherine Cookson
8. Last Rights: Rescuing the End of Life from the Medical Establishment - Stephen Kiernan
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15. _____ Vol. 2
16. _____ Vol. 15
17. _____ Vol. 1

SHELF 6 (left to right)
(portion of books obscured by desk.)
1.
2.
3.

My observations and thoughts concerning some of the books (also in no particular order):

The medical reference books found on the bookshelf are there for obvious reasons but why the odd incomplete collection of Encyclopedias? The detective/mystery novels here may be a shout-out to the fans that have been trying to piece together clues from the past two seasons. Some of the books were clearly chosen for their titles and others for their subject matter and some are easier than others to connect to the Lost series. All, however, are of great interest and significance to fans of Lost. Yours truly included!

The books (a brief synopsis and connection, if found):

No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark. While not one of Clark's best books I like it because of the homage it pays to the Wizard of Oz and how it connects with "Henry Gale" and the "hot air balloon." Is it a coincidence that one of the murder victims in this book is named Charley Hatch?

Domes of Fire by David Eddings. “Perhaps the Troll-Gods are once more loose in the world!” And they only have four toes!

Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King. The most interesting part about this book is the introduction, to the young boy in the novel, of William Golding's "The Lord of the Flies." This is the definitive island survival story. Also, the show has been linked to Greek mythology and Atlantis would fit tightly into this theory. Some forum posters also believe that the island rose up out of the ocean and that is how the Black Rock was found so far inland. As Atlantis sunk into the ocean and may one day rise up again this too seems to fit nicely.

Redemption by Leon Uris. This is an action-filled novel, which depicts determined individuals during dramatic upheavals. Sound familiar? Losties, Tailies and Others!

Harrison’s Platinum Edition by Anthony S. Fauci MD, et al. is considered the "gold standard" in internal medicine. A great reference for those internists looking for “missing organs” or that stray “TWM virus” strain.

Fire in the Mind: Faith and the Search for Order by George Johnson. This book is based on a collection of interviews with scientific and religious pundits and fits nicely within the mythology of Lost, especially concerning the episode entitled, “Man of Science, Man of Faith.”

Dark Horse by Tami Hoag. This story revolves around an ex-policewoman mired in self-pity and self-hatred. A reviewer wrote, “In her latest thriller, New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag takes readers on a suspense-filled ride of shocks and twists leading to an explosive finish.” Sounds like the season finale of Lost!

Parker’s Astrology by Julia and Derek Parker. “One of the most detailed, practical, and beautifully illustrated guides to astrology ever published, written by two world-renowned experts. Beginning with basic explanations of planets and their positions, the Parkers show how to make a personal chart with step-by-step sequences.” Constellations, stars and astrology are recurring themes both in Jack’s bookshelf and the Lost show but I haven’t quite figured out the connection yet. Thoughts anyone?

Pale Horse Coming by Stephen Hunter. Pale Horse Coming is the story of a prison in the deep-south run by an aging madman with insane theories of racial purity and administered by a brutally efficient Stalin of a guard sergeant. Perhaps a warning to the Lost survivors to keep a suspicious eye out for Mittlewerk and company?

Nighttime Is My Time by Mary Higgins Clark. “Across the nation, young women are vanishing. By all accounts, their disappearances seem unrelated. But one young woman, realizing that she may have narrowly escaped their fate, begins to wonder--could all these women have had the same abductor? Determined to learn the truth, she finds herself in the midst of an investigation pitting her against a dangerous and ruthless foe.” Is this one of those mysteries that pays homage to the intrepid research of the fans?

The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. This is Brokaw's homage to the Americans who survived and overcame the depression and World War II and went on to build modern America. Alvar Hanso? The Dharma Initiative? The Hanso Foundoundation? The island?

Coping With Job Loss by Carrie R. Leana and Daniel C. Feldman. This may have special meaning to Christian Shepherd and Ana Lucia since both them had recently “Lost” their jobs.

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen. Skinny Dip is the story of a corrupt, evil and inept man who will do anything to get what he wants. Even murder! Sounds like finger pointing to me! This story also contains elements found in the Lost Experience Alternate Reality Game that played out this past summer. The dumping of chemicals into the ocean, murder and island solitude are found here.

Two Dollar Bill by Stuart Woods. This story revolves around a brilliant con man and his exploits. The inclusion of this book is most likely paying homage to the Sawyer character.

Valhalla Rising by Clive Cussler. The main character in the novel “finds himself confronted by an extraordinary series of monsters, both human and mechanical, modern and ancient. He will tread upon territory previously known only to legend.” Pretty much sums up seasons one and two of Lost but instead of a ship wreck it’s a plane.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. An island protected by dark soul-sapping entities. (The Isle of Azkaban/the Island – Dementors / Cerberus) A prison of unknown location. (Azkaban / the weapons locker.) A dark, and deranged prisoner freed unexpectedly. (Barty Crouch Jr./ Henry Gale.) Also, we know that the prisoner of the title was SIRIUS Black and this connects nicely to the constellation/star/astrology books. From Wikipedia: “Azkaban is probably not found on Muggle maps, as wizard land is often made hidden or un-plottable (therefore keeping it secret from Muggles and even sometimes from other wizards) and as a wizard prison, Azkaban would probably be especially secretive. Azkaban has a justifiably horrible reputation. Its remote location is more of a precaution than a safety measure—the mass presence of dementors renders the inmates incapable of happiness and forces them to relive their worst memories, as they become gradually helpless and very often severely insane.”

Eleventh Hour by Catherine Coulter. Father Michael Joseph is killed and it is up to his twin brother to find the killer and unravel the mystery. This partially mirrors the Lost Experience game clue novel, “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup.

Lawrence Sanders McNally's Folly by Vincent Lardo. “Archy McNally agrees to help Desdemona Darling's husband find out who's been blackmailing her for years and, while he's at it, “get the goods” on a psychic who's been milking Miami's finest ladies. An amateur production of ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, a murder, and other goings-on thicken the plot.” Psychics, murder and blackmail, oh my!

Dirty Work by Stuart Woods. This is another murder mystery that was probably placed on Jack’s bookshelf as a nod to the fans.

The Scottish Bride by Catherine Coulter. A single father of three has inherited a Scottish castle and the title of Baron Barthwick, but does not realize how much his austere life will change. Another one that I’m not sure where it belongs but perhaps is mirror of Michael, a single father who has fallen in the eyes of his peers and whose life has taken a tremendous turn.

Scientific Genius by Dean Kenneth Simonton. “Dean Simonton is one of the most creative people studying creativity today. In Scientific Genius he presents a theory of the bases of scientific creativity, as well as the beginnings of what he calls a ‘psychology of science.’ The book is a signal contribution to our understanding of creativity, scientific and otherwise... “ Janet E. Davidson, in Applied Cognitive Psychology. Hmmm… can you say Orientation Film? Or Pearl Station?

Next episode – “The Glass Ballerina”
Air date: Wednesday, October 11 at 9/8c
Synopsis: Sayid's attempt to rescue Jack, Kate and Sawyer from the others jeopardizes Sun and Jin's lives.

S1-2 Re-cap Episode: A Tale of Survival

2006-09-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Henry Gale was the narrator of this re-cap episode of seasons one and two. Obviously for the new viewer, this episode re-capped the entire first two seasons and showed the coming together of the three groups on the island, the Losties, the Tailies and the Others.

The Lost Series & The Hanso Foundation

2006-06-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Bringing it All Together

After over a month of making phone calls and e-mails, entering dark alleyways, chasing disreputable characters, reading questionable documents, uncovering secret codes and manipulating images for clues… we find that The Lost Experience Game and the Lost T.V. series have finally come together, sort of, off-handedly, in a round-about way. This entry is concerned with covering the information that ties the Lost series with The Lost Experience (Hanso Foundation), something I’ve been asking for since the game began. There are some very obvious tie-ins that will be mentioned here but also some that are a bit more esoteric and harder to fit together. We understand that the game is not intended to provide answers to the series but is simply available for our enjoyment after the season had concluded in May. If you have a connection not identified here please email me at dharmapoet@wi.rr.com With that said, I present, in no particular order… the Lost series & The Hanso Foundation connections.

1. The photo of Alvar Hanso from the Executive Bios page of the Hanso Foundation website is also shown in the Orientation film from the Swan Hatch. This is from the Lost episode “Orientation” and is the exact same image in both cases. Even then the photo seemed staged, grainy (to use Persephone’s word) and dated. Finding Alvar Hanso is an important part of the Lost Experience game but it was nice to see this connection early on. And, “Where is Alvar Hanso? Whose running this place anyway?”

2. http://www.letyourcompassguideyou.com/ or Permissum Vestri Complector Rector Vos
This site, when first visited, reveals The Hanso Foundation logo and their spokeswoman from the website (deep in the background) thus tying the website to the Foundation.
When the hidden page is revealed we see two items that link this site to the series. The clickable link is the mythical number 108 which is the number of minutes between the hatch clock reset and the sum of all the numbers added together (4,8,15,16,23,42.) Once the hidden page is revealed we also see the strange code DI9FFTR731 which is the Swan Dharma designation on all the food products on the island, including the Dharma Malomars. If you continue through to the Parent Directory to Index of/usr you will find one JGranger. On the Official Lost website under the “found” link there has been a number of journal entries made. Janelle Granger created these entries (she included her name in the journal) and she identified the faux “Henry Gale” (or person being held captive in the hatch), as her brother. This links her to both the game and the series (in an albeit round-about way.)

3. http://www.thehansofoundation.org/ Mental Health Appeal (Hole4) “light sequence again”
Why I hate the sound of “purple”! After 42 mind-numbing games of hieroglyphic “Simon” the following message was revealed to us: “Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications.” So now we know what the D.H.A.R.M.A. of the Dharma Initiative stands for. (Seems like a lot of trouble for such a minor clue.) By the way, the study of heuristics is “a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate solution is selected using rules.” Sound familiar at all to anyone? Here are some common and simple rules of heuristics: If you are having difficulty understanding a problem, try drawing a picture. If you can't find a solution, try assuming that you have a solution and seeing what you can derive from that ("working backward"). If the problem is abstract, try examining a concrete example. Try solving a more general problem first (the "inventor's paradox": the more ambitious plan may have more chances of success). Oh, and the Apollo Bar is mentioned as a reward when getting past level 42. Why doesn’t the Apollo chocolate bar have the DI9FFTR731 designation on it?

4. The Widmore Group (I have intentionally not recorded their website as "in-game" on my blog as it has not proven yet to be so.) The Widmore Group has been mentioned a few times in different episodes of Lost. Sun’s pregnancy test was a Widmore Lab’s test and Widmore Construction is believed to have been involved in the construction of the hatches on the island. The Widmore family plays a prominent part in the novel “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup. The Widmore family is also linked to the Hanso Foundation in the book and they are even found in the same building in New York. The season finale of Lost introduced us to Charles and Penelope Widmore. Though how they are related to Arthur, Cliff and Zander Widmore, from the book, has not yet been established.

5. The Orientation film (Station # 3 – The Swan) mentions the DeGroots and shows them staging a number of scientific experiments. One of which is a woman standing behind three large balls on a table conducting some type of blindfolded experiment (actually, it appears that she is the experiment.) This same image can be seen in the Cape Town Inquisitor newspaper microfilm from the Worldwide Wellness and Prevention Development Program “miracle” clue. Also, the Dharma lab coat that Martin Candle/Mark Wickman is wearing appears a number of times in the Lost Experience game. In the background of the WWPDP images (tobacco/oil/etc.) and also on the Institute for Genomic Advancement page it is an image of a person in the lab coat (or hazmat slicker) that first appears after typing in the password “parthenogenesis.”

6. Paik Heavy Industries is mentioned in a voice mail on the original Hanso Foundation Call Center in the Lost Experience game. 1-877-HANSORG. “Old man Paik” is listed in the book “Bad Twin” by Gary Troup and is depicted as a cutthroat businessman. In fact, Zander Widmore was removed from the group trying to conduct business with Paik because he was not tough enough to handle the situation. Paik Motors is listed as being in a “joint venture” with the Hanso Foundation in a letter from Hoo-Gon Choi of Korea on the Electromagnetic Research Institute page of the Hanso website. Mr. Paik, as mentioned above, is Sun’s father and Jin’s employer in the Lost T.V. show.

7. http://www.retrieversoftruth.com/ The Retrievers of Truth webpage became a part of the Lost Experience when it was unveiled in a television commercial on ABC during an episode of “Boston Legal” on June 7th and during a re-run episode of “Lost” on June 8th. There are a lot of connections between this website and the Lost series. When first visiting this page we are introduced to a very strange looking individual named Dr. Vincent “Wally” Bole. (Note: Many players feel there is significance to the bizarre image of Dr. Bole and I can’t disagree. He looks too strange to be normal, or even paranormal.) Dr. Vincent “Wally” Bole… An obvious connection to the Lost series is the name Vincent, who is, of course, the dog on the island. Vincent is a yellow lab and “Wally” Bole is an anagram for… you guessed it, yellow lab! Walt Lloyd is Vincent’s owner and Dr. Bole is known as “Wally”. Brian Porter was Walt’s step-father and the password on the Retrievers of Truth website is “porter.” The Porter and Lloyd families are mentioned in the history portion of the ROT site as being involved in the introduction of yellow labs to the world. On the Retrievers page it states that Dr. Bole met Alvar Hanso at a life extension workshop in Rangoon and he changed his life forever.

8. http://www.djdan.am/ The D.J. Dan Website has some interesting connections to the lost series. First, the Mythic Beaties page shows the image of a mapinguari which is mythical South American creature similar in reputation to bigfoot. The mapinguari is often compared to a giant three-toed tree sloth or a megatherium, which is an extinct giant ground sloth. In any event, on an old copy of a J.J. Abrams document the following hand-written note was scrawled in the margins in capital letters in red ink, “Mapinguari? No! No! Not Yet!”, which sounds like they are planning to include the mapinguari as one of the island creatures like the polar bear and the horse. Second, the D.J. Dan website has an image of the Hanso Foundation’s logo with a line through it (No Hanso!) connecting it to the Foundation and found in the source code of the Hanso website you can clearly find the URL to the D.J. Dan website. Many of the other images on this site correspond to some of the research initiatives on the Hanso site (ape = Joop, fallout pattern = ERI, signal tower = “light sequence again”, etc. Third, and the most compelling to me, was the D.J. Dan podcast from 06/14/06 form the Verizon employee forum. During this podcast a caller, who teaches bioengineering in the midwest stated that he was concerned with nano-technology. After a bit of discussion and a definition on what nano-technology was the caller stated that the nanites could swarm, kill, and think! This sounds very much like the smoke found on the island and indentified on the Hatch door map as Cerberus! The caller went on to say that these nanites would look like a storm cloud and could hover over an area. This solidified the connection to the smoke on the island for me. However, other players are saying that this theory was dispelled earlier by writers and producers of the show. I say, they changed their minds! Besides, to me it is the coolest explanation for our smoke that I have ever heard and it makes sense. For those who have read Michael Crighton’s “Prey” this idea seems more plausible than it once did. Could the nanites be forming (swarming) in such a way as to appear to look like a polar bear, or a horse, or a Henry Gale or whatever?

9. “Mus uni non fidit antro” or “A mouse does not rely on just one hole.” This quote is attributable to the Roman playright Titus Maccius Plautus,(205 BCE-184 BCE). In connection to Lost it was first found on the blast door map during the episode “Lockdown” and makes a reocurring apperance in the Lost Experience game. It seems that our favorite hacker/sabateur Persephone is relying on many mouse holes to forward information to us. Not only are her clues numbered as such (hole2, hole3, and hole4) but she has hacked into many different areas of the Hanso site, relying on many different “holes.” This all makes me wonder where, and perhaps more importantly, what Hole # 1 is.

10. The rock group Drive Shaft (Charlies band) has a song called "Moth" which was featured in one of the Lost episodes. This is also the nickname of Keith Baker who is a character in the "Bad Twin" novel. He was a friend of Zander Widmore until he was murdered.

11. "Heavy Water", a clue on the Hanso site, is written on the Blast Door Map.

12. "Magnus Hanso and the Blackrock" have been connected. While the Black Rock was known as the stranded in-land crashed slave ship from the island Magnus Hanso was named on the Blast Door Map (Episode "Lockdown"). Today, June 20th, 2006, Rachel Blake made mention in her "in-game" blog about the East Ocean Trade Group (New World Sea Traders) which was connected by an "in-game" researcher to Magnus Hanso and the Black Rock.

13. (See # 6) In Rachel Blake's entry from Copenhagen on June 22nd, 2006 we find that Rachel has recorded a connversation in Korean between Hugh McIntyre and an unknown man. This unknown man send regards from "Paik" thus tying at leat Old Man Paik with Hugh McIntyre and the Hanso Foundation.

For those readers who have uncovered other areas that show a connection or a link to one of the “in-game” websites, the Hanso Foundation and the Lost series please e-mail your findings to dharmapoet@wi.rr.com I’d like to keep this entry updated all summer and make this as complete as I can before the new season begins in the fall. Even the slightest bit of information will be added as I hope to have as comprehensive a list as possible for as many of the connections as we can find.

Episode "Live Together, Die Alone" Season Finale

2006-05-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

Episode “ Live Together, Die Alone”
Air date: Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
Season Finale

Note: There were a lot of location changes in this two-hour episode so I’ve decided to use the locations as my re-cap breaks. I hope this helps make it more readable.

Rescued! Or at least that’s what you’d think with a boat looming in on the horizon. Not with our group though, they have other plans!

Episode re-cap

Beach:
Jack, Sawyer and Saiyd swim out to the boat only to find a drunken Desmond. Jack wants to know why he came back. Desmond tells him that after 2 ½ weeks of sailing he simply “was returned” to the island.

Flashback jail:
Desmond is released from military prison and dishonorably discharged from the Royal Scots. His girlfriend’s father is there to meet him and dissuades him from seeing his daughter. Ok, he pays him to run away, calling him a coward.

Beach:
Saiyd and Jack hatch a plan (pun intended) to scout the others using the boat. They are intent on leading a surprise attack. Saiyd needs someone to sail the boat and Desmond is not interested. Saiyd convinces Jin to help him and Sun refuses to stay behind this time.

Hatch:
Locke and Eko begin their struggle together. Locke tells Eko not to be a slave and Eko throws him out of the hatch.

Flashback:
In a coffee shop Libby gives her dead husbands boat to a perfect stranger (Desmond) to win a race around the world. We find out later that his girlfriend’s father sponsored the race. And that he is desperate to win.

Jungle:
The chosen five are going to meet the “Others.” In the jungle, a huge bird flies out and surprises them. Michael shoots at the bird but his gun has no bullets. He begins to see that they know he is leading them into a trap. Hurley is convinced the bird said his name?!?

Beach:
Charlie finds Locke crying and tells him of Desmond return. Desmond tells Claire that the vaccine is useless and that she is wasting her time. Locke finds Desmond and they talk about the Desmond’s three year stint in the Swan hatch. Locke tells Desmond about the orientation tape for the Pearl hatch and wants Desmond to help him stop Eko from entering the numbers into the computer.

Boat:
Meanwhile aboard the “Elizabeth” Sun is sick (and not from the sea) and Jin sees the strangest of sights. In perfect Saiyd manner he says, “I don’t know which is more disquieting, the large foot or that it only has four toes!” What a beautiful line!

Hatch:
Desmond and Locke force a shutdown in the hatch and Eko gets locked out. Now they must wait for the numbers to count down. Meanwhile, Eko convinces Charlie to help him and Charlie tells him about the dynamite.

Flashback hatch:
After a storm at sea Desmond is knocked unconscious. He is found on the beach by a man in a HAZMAT suit and is taken back to the hatch. We find out that this is Kelvin and he explains a great deal about the hatch. We are told that “Radzinsky” is the blast door artist and that he also edited the orientation film. Kelvin is simply maintaining the map.

Jungle:
Kate notices that the group is being followed and they shoot and kill one of the others. Jack forces Michael to tell what he knows and he admits to killing Ana-Lucia and Libby and releasing “Henry Gale.” Jack tells his group that he has a plan.

Hatch:
Eko prepares to try and blow up the blast door in the hatch while Charlie argues with him. In a strange gesture Eko removes Charlie’s belt and throws it against the electromagnet. The ensuing explosion deafens Charlie and injures Eko.

Flashback hatch:
The hatch alarm is counting down and Kelvin is gone. Desmond enters the numbers and learns more about the hatch. Kelvin tells him that there is a system termination key and he explains the entire electromagnetic charge and build-up.

Other’s camp:
On Sayid’s scouting mission he enters the other camp and find it deserted. The hatch they are guarding turns out to be an empty rock cave and he realizes that his friends are walking into a bigger trap then they thought.

Jungle:
Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley and Michael come across the Dharma notebooks in a huge pile. The tube from the Pearl hatch leads nowhere. They hear the strange whispering coming from the jungle again and Sawyer is hit with a poisonous dart. Soon Kate and Jack are also hit with darts.
Flashback hatch/beach:
When Kelvin goes out of the hatch with a torn HAZMAT suit Desmond gets suspicious and follows him. Kelvin has secreted the boat in a hidden cove and has been repairing the boat. Kelvin and Desmond scuffle and Kelvin hits his head on the rocks. To all appearances he is dead. When Desmond returns back to the hatch metal objects are flying through the air towards the magnet.

Pala Ferry:
The “Others” have captured Jack and his group and they are tied up and gagged on the Pala Ferry wharf. Kate indicates that she knows Zeke’s beard is not real and he takes it off understanding that they know. His and Ms. Clue’s true names are revealed but worse yet “Henry Gale” is revealed as their leader.

Flashback:
After Kelvin’s death Desmond is despondent and finding a love letter from Penelope he breaks down. He then hears pounding, talking, etc. at the hatch door and shines his light up to reveal John Locke pounding on the hatch door. This cycle has been completed. The opening of the season was Locke looking down into the hatch with the light shining up.

Hatch:
Locke has let the numbers run out! But Desmond has plans to re-set the system. The electromagnetic disturbance has reached a fevered pitch. Appliances are being pulled toward the magnet, the pressure has crushed the numbers box on the wall and the hatch is vibrating and humming like never before. Locke tells Eko he was wrong and then an incredibly bright violet light and loud thrumming reverberating noise is everywhere and then is gone.

Pala Ferry:
“Henry Gale” gives Walt to Michael and gives him the boat as promised. He even tells him to sail at heading 325 degrees and he’d be rescued. Hurley is released and told to return and tell no one to come back for Jack, Kate or Sawyer. “Henry Gale” tells Hurley that his friends are going home with him.

Snow-covered mountain hatch?:
Iceland perhaps? Two men are seen in a scientific monitoring outpost. An alarm goes off and they check the system. The equipment has detected an electromagnetic anomaly. They pick up the yellow hot-phone to report… and Penelope Widmore answers!

Observations and thoughts on the season finale:

The boat
The “Elizabeth” was out of Newport Beach, California and was named after Libby. The boat belonged to her husband who had died. This tells me that Libby came from money. Perhaps, she even married into the Widmore clan?

Charles Dickens – “Our Mutual Friend”
This book has special meaning for Desmond and may explain a great deal. A recent review states:
“Our Mutual Friend” was the last novel Charles Dickens completed and is his darkest and most complex. The basic plot is vintage Dickens: an inheritance up for grabs, a murder, a rocky romance or two, plenty of skullduggery, and a host of unforgettable secondary characters. Sound like anything we’ve seen lately. It sounds like a review for “Bad Twin.” Hmm… curious!

New Characters
There were a few new characters revealed tonight:
Charles Widmore – Father of Penelope but not one of the Widmore clan from the “Bad Twin” book. Is this another branch of the family?
Penelope Widmore –Desmond’s girlfriend, and someone to watch.
Radzinsky – the original hatch sitter.

Full and Real Names
1. Desmond David Hume
2. Kelvin Joe Inman
3. Zeke aka Mr. Friendly is really named Tom
4. Ms. Klugh is really named Bea

Answers
1.Why push the button? There is an electromagnetic charge that builds up every 108 minutes. Putting the numbers into the computer causes the build up of energy to discharge. When Desmond allowed the numbers to run out when he followed Kelvin he caused a system failure, which actually caused the crashing of Oceanic Flight 815!
2. Kelvin is the same man who turned Saiyd into an agent in Iraq and is also Kate’s father (her picture was on his desk in that earlier episode).
3.We also see the “Pala Ferry” for the first time (not Apollo as I thought from the Pearl orientation film). Why have a ferry here at all? There must be some base close by for a ferry to be present at all. And where does it go to?
4. The others are the whisperers. Just before Jack, Kate and Sawyer are poison darted we hear the strange whispering we’ve heard in the jungle before. This means that the others are the whisperers, but why?
5. From the fact that the Dharma notebooks have piled up and went absolutely nowhere we can assume that the real experiment was taking place in the Pearl hatch and not in the Swan hatch as Locke believes.
6. Is Penelope looking for Desmond? Absolutely! She knows about the Electromagnetic anomalies from her father’s dealings with the Dharma Initiative (he is after all a Widmore). Why would she monitor EMA’s, if she didn’t have an idea what they were? She is definitely looking for Desmond and will probably play a large role in the seasons to come.

More Questions
1. Where are the others taking Jack, Kate and Sawyer?
2. What’s with the large four-toe foot statue? Made of concrete? We know that the Widmore Corp. has experimented with new types of concrete. But why a statue with only four toes?
3. Is Penelope looking for Desmond? Why is she tracking electromagnetic anomalies? (see above)
4. Why was Desmond in military prison?
5. Why does Desmond take up Widmore’s offer and run away?
6. Why did the blast door map have to be invisible? Did they have periodic inspections from the Dharma Initiative?
7. Is Kelvin dead? We see him with a smashed head and a lot of blood but do we know for certain that he is dead? I think they want us to think that he is dead.
8. What happened to Radzinsky? Now that Kelvin is presumably dead will we ever know? He seems to know more about the island and the project than anyone else. He drew the blast door map, edited the orientation film, taught Kelvin how to fake a shut-down and showed him how to restart the system. Seems like he held more answers than anyone we’ve encountered, so far. Hopefully, he’ll appear in the next season (perhaps in flashback?)

And an admission… The Hanso game and the program have turned my head to mush. There is so much to keep straight between the two and so much to keep up with that I know I have missed asking a great many pertinent questions. Please join in with your ideas, thoughts and observations. It was a great deal of fun. Please let me know if you would like to continue to be included in the newsletter for next season.

You can see all my re-cap posts at:
http://thealternativeisland.blogspot.com/

Episode “Three Minutes”

2006-05-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Episode “Three Minutes”
Air Date: Wednesday May 17th, 2006

Re-cap:

It’s obvious that Michael wants Walt back immediately and Jack is ready for war. Michael talks to Walt on the computer and is directed to an area north with “a HOLE in the beach”?

Preparations are made to bury Libby and Ana Lucia and plans are formulated to raid the others. Michael is vehemently intent on pulling all the strings. And he only wants a few select people to go along on this journey.

FLASHBACK (13 days ago): We slowly find out what happened to Michael when he was away from the Swan hatch. And it ain’t pretty. In a strange twist, Alex questions the captive, Michael, about Claire and the baby.

Charlie finds a briefcase full of vaccine in the pallet of food and brings it to Claire to use.

In a reversal of roles we see Mr. Eko entering the numbers into the computer and John Locke sitting on the beach contemplating his usefulness.

FLASHBACK (11 days ago): We get a glimpse of the other’s camp. Canvas tents, fishing nets and a strange shaped rock formation/building at the top of the hill, and a new hatch.

Michael has risked everything to save his son. Sayid suspects that “Michael has been compromised.” Jack and Sayid begin to set up a trap of their own.

FLASHBACK (3 days ago): Michael’s bizarre behavior is explained. Ms. Clue wants “our man” back (obviously “Henry Gale”) and Michael must release him and bring back Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. She gives Michael “three minutes” with Walt who tells him some of what has happened to him, and then makes a desperate plea for release.

During the funeral the islanders discover a saving grace, of sorts and we have something new to talk about… it comes in the shape of a boat!

Observations and thoughts:

1. Why Michael did what he did.
We see that questions of morals and life and death spring up in Lost all the time but never more so than within the last few episodes and more specifically, with Michael’s behavior. To what extremes might we go to save our own children? What measures would you take to insure the safety of your own child? When Walt hugs his father and asks for his help we feel his pain and begin to understand how Michael allowed himself to be caught in his present situation.

2. Michael told the truth to Jack and Sawyer about the status of the other’s camp.
We see that everything Michael has said about the others is true. They live in a compound with tents and huts, they are dressed in rags and are dirty, we did not see a great many of them, there were only two guns visible (looks like an M-1 Gerand), and they are guarding their own hatch. Walt, however, dispels the well-planned deception when he tells Michael that “they are pretending.”

3. Drawing blood or drawing muscle juice?
Everyone knows that to draw blood you need to find a vein or artery. Why would they stick a needle randomly in Michael’s arm to draw blood? They’d get fluid (plasma, some blood, etc.) but that is certainly not an approved method for drawing blood. Did the show research group not do their homework? Or is it somehow important to the plot? I assume no phlebotomists were consulted prior to this scene. (Thanks D. for your observations.)

4. Ms. Clue. That’s like calling Jack Shepherd Dr. Spine. Who is she? Introduction of a new character at the end of a season certainly spells death by bullet in the next season to me. However, as far as new characters go, she is pretty cool! And I mean like a cucumber not like a pleasant surprise. Who is she? One of the Dharma scientists? That could explain why they are testing Walt. But why are they testing Walt?

5. The make me take tests! And “don’t make us take you to the room”. Hmm…. Sound a lot like the Dharma Initiative to anyone? Could the room be sensory deprivation or the reverse? And what kind of tests are they doing on Walt? The question that Ms. Clue asked Michael is I think, very important. “Have you ever seen Walt in a place he wasn’t supposed to be?” Oddly enough, Michael does not answer that question.

6. A new hatch?!? That’s two in two weeks. Obviously, we won’t be seeing the orientation film or the inside of this hatch until next season. But why do they need to guard it? Keeping something out? Or scarier yet, keeping something in?

7. Ms. Clue wants Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Hurley. Why these people? It certainly dispels Jack’s theory that the others don’t want him or Kate.

8. The boat!
Could this be Desmond’s boat? I seem to recall that he came to the island in a boat. Could he be aboard? Interesting, that at the time they decide to raid the other side of the island a possible form of rescue should appear. Obviously, the boat is not big enough to save everyone. Will we see a repeat of season one where a select few make an attempt to leave the island and return to save everyone?

9. The vaccination kit
The briefcase containing the vaccines has a Dharma logo with the Swan on it, which makes sense to me. But was the vaccine necessary for the original hatch inhabitants or was it too also part of the experiment. Charlie brings this case to Claire, as he knows how much she wanted it. Is a reconciliation in order for next season? And why would Claire, or anyone for that matter, inject themselves with an unknown substance? I don’t think I’ll ever understand that.

10. The Hanso Foundation airs its third commercial.

"Paid for by Jeep (tm)" is seen in the opening sequence.

Commercial # 3 which aired on May 17th, 2006 during the episode "Three Minutes" is almost identical to the first and second commercials. It begins with Leonard Da Vinci’s self portrait, then Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (my photo on my blog profile page, what a coincidence), a video of the Space Shuttle taking off, a DNA strand, Alvar Hanso himself (out of focus and in the distance), and then cuts to the above scene.

The commercial voice-over audio states: “Since the dawn of time man has been curious. Imagining all that is possible. The Hanso Foundation: Reaching out to a better tomorrow. Discover the experience for yourself. Visit http://www.letyourcompassbeyourguide.com/” The voice-over is that of Carleton Cuse recognized from the Official Lost podcast.

As part of the Lost Experience game you can visit the above mentioned website to play further into the game and receive more clues.

Pre-Air Observations Episode - "Three Minutes"

2006-05-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Pre-air observations from commercial:

Michael tells the truth!
After watching the latest Lost commercial (tonight May 14th, 2006 on ABC) during Grey's Anatomy we find that everything Michael has said about the others is true.
We see that they live in a compound with tents and huts.
The are dressed in rags and are dirty.
We did not see a great many of them.
There were only two guns visible (looked like M-1 Gerarnd's).
And they were guarding their own hatch.

Episode - "?"

2006-05-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

Recap: Lost Episode “?”
Air Date: Wednesday: May 10th 2006

This episode probably should have been called “Mr. Eko sees dead people!”

In a dream (or perhaps not), a dead Ana-Lucia comes to Mr. Eko and tells him to help John Locke find the “question mark.” Then his brother, the priest, comes to him in another dream with the same advice. Mr. Eko’s life flashes before his eyes.

Ana-Lucia is dead and Libby clings to life. Michael frets the outcome.

What about Henry? It appears that he shot three people. He’s on the run and Jack wants retribution but that is left to Locke and Eko. Eko and Locke head off into the jungle to find “Henry Gale”.

FLASHBACK: Eko is attempting to make his way to America but is interrupted by his Monsignor to investigate a miracle. We find out that a drowned girl who was dead for two days comes back to life during the autopsy.

Kate tells Hurley about Libby and he races to the hatch to sit by Libby’s side.

Meanwhile, back in the jungle… (I always wanted to find a place to use that phrase) Locke and Eko share a dream in which Locke is Eko!?! This bizarre dream leads them to the discovery of a new hatch (Station 5 –The Pearl). Locke and Eko switch perspectives. Locke believes that he has been wasting his time with useless button pushing while Eko now believes it is the most important thing they can do! What gives?

Inside the Pearl hatch Eko and Locke see two lounge chairs facing nine T.V. screens. They also find and view the Orientation video for Station # 5 The Pearl. There are composition books and a pneumatic tube for sending the composition books filled with data back to the Dharma Initiative.

FLASHBACK: In the airport the girl who was drowned meets Eko. It seems she has a message for him. “Yemi says you were a good priest.” Yemi, Eko’s brother has been dead quite some time but the girl says she met him on the other side.

Back at the hatch Libby tries to tell Jack and Hurley about the shootings but with her dying breath she simply says, “Michael!”

Discussion and Observations

General Discussion and Observations:
1. The drowned girl’s father is none-other than the Psychic, Malkin, that Claire went to visit before flying to Los Angeles.
2. The “miracle” drowned/revived girl confronts Eko in the Airport and Libby comes up to them from behind and inquires if everything is all right.
3. Because Jack needed a painkiller for Libby and Sawyer had the Virgin Mary statues with the heroin in them we now know where Sawyer is hiding the guns. Do you think he’ll move them before Jack needs them?
4. And how angry is “Henry Gale” going to be at our bunch of survivors? Remember, he told Locke that his leader was a brilliant man but unforgiving! A portent of things to come?
5. We find out that Eko was a priest in Australia. Did he study at college or is it a ruse?
6. The “miracle” girl tells Eko's that his brother Yemi said that even though Eko was pretending he was still a good person.
7. Is stepping on a Virgin Mary bad luck? If so, Mr. Eko is in for his share!
8. I thought for sure that Libby’s death would happen in the season finale and that they would drag it out. This is another episode where we see the writers concentrating on moving the story forward.

The Pearl Hatch
Since I love the mythology of LOST (witness my LOST game blog) most of this week’s discussion is going to be about the new hatch [Station 5 – The Pearl] (and who isn’t discussing this now).

1. Is the Pearl hatch the Accelerated Remote Viewing Training Facility that Thomas Mittlewerk talks about in his voice mail message to Hugh McIntyre from the Lost Experience game? The Pearl looks exactly like the ARVTF sounds, a remote viewing station!
2. The log that Locke prints out is very interesting. It seems that the viewers/researchers/workers from the Pearl Hatch are also pushing buttons but it seems not at 108-minute increments. If you look closely at the number the accepted numbers are much closer together in time than one hour and forty-eight minutes. More to come on this when I can study the printed log better.
3. The nine T.V. screens seem to correspond to the all the stations. So, there are nine different locations to remote view and only six hatches (according to the blast door map.) Although, one could argue that the CV locations could be included, and probably are. Also, from the Orientation Videos/films we know that there are only six videos/films: “Dharma Initiative – Orientation – 5 of 6” which should mean only six hatches.
4. The narrator of the Orientation video introduces himself as Dr. Mark Wickman (Wickmund, Wickand) (5 of 6 Pearl) and both his hands work but in the earlier Orientation film (3 of 6 Swan) he introduces himself as Dr. Marvin Candell (Kandell, Candle) and has a bum hand, which later is verified by the writers as being prosthetic. What gives? This would suggest that the “original” Orientation film was actually produced after the video appearing in “?”. Regardless of what name he uses he is, without a doubt, the same person. Why two different names for the different orientations? Obviously, neither is his real name. Why the blatant anonymity? He also says that the Swan inhabitants will “struggle to complete their tasks” but the Swan film only gives them a single task.
5. Who are the de Groots? (University of Michigan scientists.) But what have they to do with the island and the Hanso Foundation? The original orientation film states that the Dharma Initiative was founded in 1970 by University of Michigan doctoral candidates Karen and Gerald de Groot and financed by the mysterious Hanso Foundation, apparently composed of a group of “scientists and free thinkers” from around the world who were brought together at a “large-scale communal research compound” on the island to conduct research in various disciplines, including meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, and electromagnetism. American psychologist and Walden Two author B.F. Skinner is cited as an influence on the de Groots’ work. (from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dharma_Initiative)
6. Why was the circle near the Pearl Hatch marked with salted earth? And why be visible from the air?
7. The narrator also states that after the eight week time limit is up that the viewers can make their way to the “Apollo Ferry to return back to the barracks.” This can only mean one of two things: A. There is another island located close by where the workers go to relax and/or live, or B. The mainland is close enough to reach by ferryboat. Hmm…
8. The narrator states unequivocally that the Pearl Hatch is for viewing Psychological Experiments.
9. MJS brings up a good point. Are the viewings recorded? If so Locke and Eko could rewind the Swan hatch video and see what really happened when Ana-Lucia and Libby were shot. It seems from the previews for next week that Jack and Lock already know that Michael was somehow involved.
10. The narrator also states that when the composition books are filled they should be rolled up and inserted into the tube for transport back to the Dharma Initiative. Does this mean that they are relatively close to the Dharma and that they too are on the island? P.S. I want a Dharma composition book… they are so cool!
11. Eko and Locke find the Pearl Hatch. The notation on the blast door for “?”: “Designation Unknown? Purpose Unknown? Relation to D.I.H.G. Unknown. Nil Actum Reputa Si Quid Superest Agendum (“Consider nothing done if anything remains to be done.”) Note that it did not take an entire season to get inside and explore the newest hatch.
12. The first thing I thought of when I saw the T.V. screens in the Pearl hatch was the www.subLYMONal.com page (from the Lost ARG). Very similar to my eye!
13. Hopefully, someone has the sense to go over the papers that Eko took from the Pearl hatch. There may be important information there. However, no one seems to be studying the island in depth. Locke would be the most likely candidate but even he, it seem, is only interested in finding the next hatch.
14. It looks like no one has been in the Pearl hatch for a long time. There was dust on top of all the items on the table, the printer was mottled with what look like moss or mold and the paint was peeling off the walls. How long has it been abandoned?
15. Why the Pearl? Easy, one definition for pearl is: a shape that is spherical and small. Pretty much hits the nail on the head.

Mr. Eko’s Flashing Life Sequence
Thanks to the controls on our DVR we were able to slow down the sequence of flashes in Mr. Eko’s “life flashing before his eyes” scene. The images are as follows:
1. The tail section survivors on the beach right after the crash
2. A scene from the jungle with the smoke monster
3. Unidentified floating dead body (in purple striped shirt)
4. The Dharma Swan Hatch symbol
5. Yemi’s (Mr. Eko’s brother) cross lying on the ground
6. The feet of the children, taken by the others, as they walk by
7. The teddy bear carried by one of the children, taken by the others
8. A fire on the beach
9. Nine Virgin Mary statues
10. The burning smugglers plane
11. Mr. Eko’s brother Yemi, when he was living
12. The Dharma Arrow Hatch symbol
13. Eko’s hands holding a copy of the Holy Bible
14. Mr. Eko’s Jesus stick
15. Close up of Locke’s face (with a shocked expression)
16. Mr. Eko and the smoke with his brothers face as a small child superimposed on the surface of the smoke
17. Yemi’s decomposed body with the cross
18. Yemi’s decomposed skull
19. The smugglers plane taking off from Nigeria
20. Truck with soldiers coming to get Mr. Eko in Nigeria
21. A scene of Yemi yelling
22. The Orientation guy (Mark Wickman, Mark Candell?)
23. The Dharma Swan Hatch symbol

SPOILER ALERT***** SPOILER ALERT ***** SPOILER ALERT

Here is a list of the guest stars for the season finale of LOST. This list of guest appearances may be considered spoilers. Reading further may spoil things for you. I warned you……

Malcolm David Kelley as Walt
Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond
Sam Anderson as Bernard
M.C. Gainey as Mr. Friendly
Michael Emerson as Henry Gale
Clancy Brown as Kelvin Inman
Tania Raymonde as Alex
April Grace as Ms. Klugh
Alan Dale as Charles Widmore
Stephen Page as Master Sergeant
Michael Bowen as Pickett
Sonya Walger as Penelope
Len Cordova as man no. 1
Alex Petrovitch as man no. 2
Eyal Podell as young man
Cathy Foy as receptionist
(From the www.thetailsection.com)

Who is Charles Widmore?
So Clancy Brown is both Kelvin (of the Swan hatch) and Kate’s Dad?

Only two more episodes left! Those of you not following the game… should!
Season 2 DVD’s will not be available until October 6th, 2006

Episode - Two for the Road

2006-05-03T21:06:00.001-07:00

Wow!!! Ok, not what I expected at all! And I think the wrong people got shot but we all knew it was coming and I still was surprised when Michael started shooting. “What just happened” was, I think, my initial reaction. Then it was “WHAT JUST #^$%*&%$# HAPPENED!!!!”

Recap:
"Two For The Road"
Air Date: Wednesday: May 3rd 2006

Michael is found in the jungle by Jack and Kate. He needs medical attention and they take him back.

Back at the hatch, “Henry Gale” attacks Ana Lucia. Locke saves her life at the last minute.

FLASHBACK, the man who shot Ana Lucia has been found dead. Ana’s mom knows the truth. Rather than face her Ana Lucia quits the police force. After a short time as a security guard at the airport Ana runs away to Australia with Jack’s dad, of all people.

Michael regains consciousness in the hatch and tells Jack and Kate that the others are weak, live in tents and eat dried fish. They also have a hatch, which they guard day and night. He also intends on taking his son back.

Ana Lucia wants a gun, presumably to shoot “Henry Gale”. And “tricks” one from Sawyer.

Back at the hatch Ana Lucia throws a knife to “Henry” and tells him to cut himself loose but when the moment of truth comes she cannot kill him.

Hurley attempts to court Libby with a picnic on the beach but forgets blankets. Libby volunteers to get them.

Ana tells Michael that she couldn’t kill “Henry”. Michael taking the gun says that he can and asks for the combination. After Ana gives it to him Michael shoots Ana in cold blood. Libby walks in and Michael panics shooting Libby in the stomach. He then opens the ammo room and shoots himself in the arm.

What the…..?????

Discussion and thoughts:

1. As far as the episode itself goes I again thought this one was a bit unsatisfying (except for the last two minutes). There was absolutely no mythology and no Science Fiction/Mystery. When are we going to see more smoke, or polar bears or buried hatches? Locke seems to be peripherally investigating the significance of the blast door map by looking at the blast door itself and by trying to draw the map from memory but it is not enough to satisfy my own curiosity. I have a feeling we won’t see more of this until the season finale.

2. Did anyone catch the Hanso Foundation commercial that aired in the middle of the episode? I have the end screen here:

The commercial begins with Leonard Da Vinci’s self portrait, then Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man (my photo on my blog profile page, what a coincidence), a video of the Space Shuttle taking off, a DNA strand, Alvor Hanso himself (out of focus and in the distance), and then cuts to the above scene.

The commercial voice-over audio states: “Since the dawn of time man has been curious. Imagining all that is possible. The Hanso Foundation: Reaching out to a better tomorrow. Discover the experience for yourself. Call 1-877-HANSORG” I tried calling the number many times last night but always with the same message “Call Failed: Network Busy”. And I also notice that the Hanso Foundation web site is back up and running at:
http://www.thehansofoundation.org/
with a strange alternate site at:
http://www.bigspaceship.com/archive/hanso/Hans

1-877-HANSORG (877-426-7674)
I did get into the system but had a bad connection at the time and will update this section later. However, I can tell you that once you dial the number you have a few options. You can learn more about the Hanso Foundation (press 1) or go into Alvor Hanso's voice mail (press 2). If you pick Hanso's voice mail you get a message from a woman asking where he is and a German language message that mentions Geronimo Jackson. I'll try to keep up with this as we go and update accordingly. This is the beginning of the summer LOST game.

3. Here begins the 800 or so questions concerning Michael and his time on the "other" side of the island. After the final scene of the show I had way too many questions to write them down. I've formulated most of them this morning in the shower and on the drive to work. Diane helped with a few of her own last night.

a) Was Michael a prisoner of the "Others" or did he just observe them as he told Kate and Jack? And what happened to the rifle he took with him?

b) If Michael was a prisoner was he brainwashed or coerced?

c) Why is "Henry Gale" so important?

d) If Henry's mission was to collect Locke like he said why did Michael shoot two people to spring him from the ammo room?

e) Why is "Henry Gale" so important? Is he the head guy everyone talks about?

f) When Michael first wakes up in the hatch he seems very groggy and is mumbling. Did the “Others” drug him? Or is his dissidence in response to some type of coercion by the “Others” concerning Walt?

g) The episode ends leaving many unanswered questions... I assume that "Henry Gale" has made good his escape. But has he?

h) On a less important note (or perhaps not) Sawyer was on the beach reading a manuscript called "Bad Twin" by Gary Tro....... The rest of the name was not readable. Any significance?

I found this book on Amazon.com at the following web site: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401302769/002-7039970-8122443?v=glance&n=283155 with the following review:
Amazon.com Exclusive: “Author Gary Troup delivered the manuscript for his hotly anticipated thriller, Bad Twin, just days before he boarded doomed Oceanic Flight 815. Watch the recently uncovered video clip of Gary Troup on Book Talk interviewed by Laird Granger talking about the controversy surrounding his mysteriously out-of-print first book, The Valenzetti Equation, and his new novel, Bad Twin”.

And the following from: http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Lost/Badtwin.htm
'Bad Twin' by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof
‘Bad Twin’ is a private-eye procedural involving a wealthy heir's search for his nefarious brother, based on a supposed "found manuscript" by Gary Troup, one of the passengers killed in the crash of Oceanic flight 815; Troup apparently delivered the document to ABC’s sister company, Hyperion Books, just days before he boarded the ill-fated aircraft.
Hyperion has now commissioned a novel by a "well-known" mystery writer (whose identity is being a secret), which supposedly constitutes the book (ABC/Hyperion has previously hired best-selling mystery novelist Ridley Pearson to ghost-write ‘The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red’, a prequel companion-book to the Stephen King miniseries ‘Rose Red’).
Published by: Hyperion Books
Release Date: Spring 2006
Notes: *Featuring Jack, Kate, Locke, Charlie, Sayid, Sawyer, Shannon, Michael, Hurley, Jin, Sun and Claire

P.S. I ordered the book from Amazon.com today. I’ll let you know if it has any redeeming value or game clues. WHRIII

i) In the flashback Ana and Jack's dad go to a home in the suburbs and Jack's dad demands to see his daughter. This means Jack has a sister. With all the six-degrees-of-separation going on in this show I would venture to guess that Claire is Jack's sister. And there was a blue Jeep parked in the carport. I seem to recall Claire driving around in a blue Jeep. Anyone else remember that? Or am I mis-remembering? (And is that even a word?)

j) How did "Henry Gale" know that Ana-Lucia has killed someone? He calls her a killer when she confronts him so he knows, or has studied, her past.

k) What is Hurley going to do when he finds out that Libby has been shot? Is she dead? I, for one, don’t think so. We’ll see. One thing is for sure, it looks like I was wrong when I said Henry Gale was one of the ones to be killed before the end of the season. In a way, that is good news as he is a great character… one of those people you love to hate!

4. The numbers did not match at all in this episode. Michael states that there were only 22 people in the “Other’s” camp and that they had only 2 guns. The combination to the ammo room was 18R 1L 31R again not any of the numbers. And in the flashback with Ana and Jack’s dad a boat in the background had the following printed where the name should be “II IUVIUV” hmmm…

5. The Lost Experience has begun. Check out this website for more information….http://www.thelostexperience.com/

Episode - Reckoning

2006-04-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

ABC did a very good job of using the past episodes to bring everyone back up to speed in the recap episode "Reckoning". Like we were going to forget? Of course, there was nothing new here, as we’ve seen these clips before when originally aired. However, I do want to discuss a few things that may have been missed or that I did not discuss in previous recap issues. The next four weeks we will see new episodes with the season finale on May 24th. Remember that the producers/writers have stated that two people were going to die before the end of the season. My first vote goes to "Henry Gale". I’m not sure who the second will be. Perhaps the second will be Rousseau?

Discussion topics:

1. Last night we saw that the tail section survivors were indeed living in the abandoned "Arrow" Station when they captured Jin, Michael and Sawyer. If you remember the blast door map you’ll notice that the "Arrow" station was located at the exact opposite side of the island as the "Swan" station. This means that when Ana-Lucia and Eko brought everyone through the jungle they passed through the central hub area designated with a "?" on the map. Could this be where the "Others" are living, working and/or conspiring?

2. Seeing the blast door map again, in the context of the show, was very cool. I still think it is the best piece of T.V. mythology ever invented. It probably won’t stand the test of time like "Who shot J.R.?" but it ranks way up there with me. And as you all know I live for the mythology in this program!

3. Watching the scene where Michael and Walt use the computer to send messages to each other reminded me that this episode was the one which actually started me writing and thinking deeper about the show. Prior to that I was just another casual LOST viewer. When the word "Dad" came up on the screen I felt a shiver run up and then down my spine. I won’t soon forget it.

4. Mr. Eko’s Walking Stick or "Jesus" stick was shown prominently on the recap show last night and the Biblical references were very noticeable. I’ll just briefly discuss each:

a. The 23rd Psalm: Begins, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters." This Bible verse is most quoted when people are in a fearful situation or in a situation where they no longer fear for their lives. Very apropos in this instance, I think. Also, the episode of that aired on January 11, 2006 was titled "The 23rd Psalm". The characters Mr. Eko and Charlie recite the psalm together (as "I walk through the shadow of the valley of death.") after discovering and burning the airplane that Eko's brother crashed in.

b. The word "Hateth" is clearly visible on Eko’s stick and appears in the following chapters of the Bible: Exodus 23, Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 12, Deuteronomy 16, Deuteronomy 22, Job 16, Job 34, Psalm 11, Psalm 120, Proverbs 11, Proverbs 12, Proverbs 13, Proverbs 15, Proverbs 26, Proverbs 28, Proverbs 29, Isaiah 1, and Malachi 2 - Anyone interested could find some meaning in the verses. Feel free to look them up.

c. Psalm 144 is a prayer for rescue or prosperity and begins, "Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight"

d. Revelations 3: This chapter is a group of letters from John to the city of Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodiciea. John says that these cities are dead cities with living people who have no faith. Is this a description of our survivors??

e. Colossians 4: verse 5 states "Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity." Enough said?

f. Titus 3: The Reminder (or Remember) chapter of the Bible: Remember good works. Remember to live obedient and kind lives. Remember what you used to be. Remember the great salvation of God. Remember to keep on course. Remember people. Remember to do good deeds. Mr. Eko has referred to this stick as "Things I need to remember".

And that concludes our sermon for this week.

The LOST Diary(s)

2006-04-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Diary # 1

I’m not sure when this occurred but on the official LOST website a link was included called “Found”. If you click on this link two pages from a diary can be viewed. I have included them here for your convenience. The diary pages are standard 8 ½” X 11” lined notebook paper with margin lines. The pages look like they have been crumpled up and then re-opened and flattened out again, although the notepaper did survive a plane crash, which may account for it’s crumply-ness. The diary pages are superimposed over the original crash site on the island on the website. There are arrows on each page to navigate to previous or following pages. I have only been able to get two pages to load.

There is no explanation where these pages came from or who wrote them but some deductions and inferences can be taken from the content of the pages. I’ll explain my thoughts after you’ve read the diary pages below.

Page 1

“Something must be done. I’ve just learned that
my brother is being held in the hatch as a
suspected “other” and from what I’ve heard, his
treatment has been less than… humane. Who
do these people think they are? Judge and
jury? What gives them the right? This is not
their court. This is not their island. Something
must be done…

I confronted Locke today and demanded to be
let into the armory to see my brother. But
all Locke continues to do is deny his very
existence. I can tell by the way he looks at
me that he’s lying and I’m going to find out the
truth.

This is some sort of conspiracy! Now Jack and Sayid
are lying to me too. They continue to deny
that they are holding my brother in that
hatch. And I could see the bruises on Sayid’s
fists! I’m going down there. Who’s to stop me?”

Page 2

“I was headed for the hatch when I came across
Charlie and Eko building in the jungle. And I’m
more confused now than ever. Charlie insists
that my brother is not in the armory… and
Charlie is the one person on this island that
thought I could trust, especially after the way
he tried to protect Claire and the baby.

He and Eko invited me to stay and help them
work on the church they are constructing. But
I have to find out the truth. I feel as though
I’m losing my mind…

They’re all talking about me – They don’t
think I can hear them , but I can. People are
saying I’m crazy. I’m crazy? Me? Hah! All I know is
that I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life
on this god-forsaken rock without my brother.
And if that makes me “crazy”, so be it. But I just
can’t go on in this place without somebody I can
trust. Why will no one help me?”

So, it looks like “Henry Gale” has a sibling on the island. The style of the letter does not reveal the gender of the diarist so it could you a man or a woman who has written the diary. I do not believe that the word “brother” is used here as a social connotation such as a “friend” or close associate. If you recall, Desmond calls Jack “brother” a few times in their different meetings. I do believe that “brother” in this instance is literal and a familial association as in a sibling.

The diarist knows that the hatch was once used as an armory but does not seem to know that the guns are gone. And the diarist is also aware of the history between Claire and Charlie on the island. This would tend to make be believe that this is not someone new but one of the older survivors. Besides, Desmond, Rousseau, or the others would obviously not be asked to help construct Mr. Eko’s church.

Which brings me to the fact that Eko and Charlie are indeed building a church. We can infer that at least that much of the diary is truthful. In the last episode (S.O.S.) Charlie told a number of people that they were indeed erecting a church. Bernard was invited by Charlie to work on the church when he was looking for recruits to help build the S.O.S. signal on the beach. Note that this was the only invite we saw on screen but that others may have been invited to help build the church. Also, according to a diary entry the diarist said he (or she) was going to confront Locke at the hatch before finding Charlie and Eko building. We can’t assume that Bernard is the diarist based on those assumptions. However, if I had to guess I would say that “Henry Gale” was Bernard’s brother and that Bernard is indeed the diarist. To cloudy the whole thing (and when hasn’t LOST been cloudy) the terms “losing my mind” and “crazy” crop up a few times in the diary. We have just watched an episode where both Hurley and Libby were seen in a mental hospital and I cannot rule out the possibility that either Libby or Hurley could be the diary writer and therefore the sibling of “Henry Gale”. Obviously, “Henry Gale” has become an important figure in the LOST mythology and since the writers have stated that there may be two main character deaths before the end of the season look for “Henry Gale” to be killed off in the next few weeks. Just a guess on my part but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Diary # 2

And apparently there is another diary found on the official LOST site that is difficult to locate but is lengthy and is not written by one of the main characters. I am not convinced that this is real or not but it does look like the paper from both diaries is identical. There are so many hoaxes out there its hard to determine what’s real and what’s not. I do believe that Diary # 1 is genuine and placed on the site by the writers as a teaser. I’m reserving judgment for Diary # 2 and won’t be including notes until (or unless) I find out if it is genuine or not. There are 32 pages encompassing 43 days and nights and many of the things that happened previously on the island are depicted accurately in the diary. Still this could be an elaborate joke. Page 30 of the diary has the following name found on it: Janelle Granger, Hermosa Beach, CA. She is assumedly the diarist. The entire diary can be found at

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/diary1.html

Click on the arrows to read more pages of this diary.

One last note: From the way the diaries were presented on the website it seems that my “Diary # 2” may have been the first to be found and “Diary # 1” second. I’ve listed them in the order that I first found them and am still unconvinced of #2’s authenticity.

LOST Thoughts Between Episodes

2006-04-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

* As you probably already know LOST does not have a new episode airing tonight. And next week is a re-cap episode. So, I have done a bit of research, a little reading, looked closer at my photos and have come up with the following additional thoughts concerning the last few episodes.

* The Rose/Bernard Papers
Bernard hands Rose a packet of pamphlets and papers before visiting Isaac at Ayer’s Rock. Amongst the papers is a story about Isaac (see photograph below). It reads as follows:

“Isaac of Uluru – Healer

Australian based spiritual healer Isaac of Uluru has been helping to ease pain and to restore people’s health as a spiritual healer and masseur for more than 25 years. Born in 1949, Isaac has been in demand for many years for the remarkable results he has achieved in helping people recover from injuries, health issues, emotional issues and so called incurable physical and mental diseases.

Photo of Ayers Rock
Caption reads: “Ayer’s Rock in Uluru, near clinic”

Isaac’s Healing Powers

Spiritual healing is effected by the act of attuning to the Life Force Energy, by meditation or prayer, so this energy can be channeled, via the agency of a trained Spiritual Healer, to any person, place, situation or life form, wheter (sic) present or not, via contact by the Hands or by the projection of Loving Thoughts, in order to have a beneficial effect, on the whole, at all levels of Being.

Distinction of race, class, gender, custom, belief, philosophy, or religion are irrelevant, no affirmation of religious faith is required. Spiritual Healing may be given to any person, place, situation or life form for any illness, injury, problem or situation at any time.”

This sounds very much like propaganda, or spiritual mumbo jumbo and reveals little about Isaac or his abilities. However, Isaac’s reaction to Rose when he went to “read” her was reminiscent of the psychic that Claire visited in one of her flashbacks. It was almost as if they both knew that something strange was going to happen to Rose and Claire sometime in the near future.

There is also what looks like a “National Enquirer” sensational type news rag in the papers called “The National Flash”. The paper has a headline that reads: “Winning Lottery Numbers….”, “Personal Horoscope”, and “Miracle in the Outback.” I’m sure that the Miracle in the Outback article is about Isaac of Uluru.

* Wondering what to do this summer when LOST is not airing? The Tailsection (a LOST website) posted the following today:

“Details have finally made their way out of the hushed halls of ABC concerning a massive campaign designed to keep LOST fresh on fans minds between the finale and the premiere of season 3 in September. Of course, you can count on THETAILSECTION to be the aggregate of each and every tidbit that comes along! On that note, interested in become a news editor? Send me an email with the contact button.

This is without a doubt the huge internet project that Lindelof and Cuse mentioned in the most recent podcast. Now, for the details:

ABC, Channel 4 Television in the U.K, and Australia Channel 7 will launch the 'Lost Experience,' a revolutionary interactive experience based on the international hit television series, 'Lost'. Working together, more than 30 broadcasters from Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Middle East will release clues with new information regarding the mystery and mythology of the island featured in the series. Fans looking to solve the puzzle will find audio, video, and text clues in locations around the world, along with an online community in which to connect and collaborate with others. Just like any other good mystery, clues can and will happen anywhere at anytime across multiple platforms.

The rumor is that official details will be released after the recap episode "Reckoning" airs on April 26th.”

Anyone interested in playing along?

* A little more trivia about the numbers: 4 8 15 16 23 42

The periodic table: The elements beryllium, oxygen, phosphorous, sulfur, vanadium and molybdenum appear at the positions that correlate to the numbers.

The "I Ching": The hexagrams that correspond to the numbers represent enveloping, grouping, humbling, providing for, stripping and augmenting.

The globe: Entering "4.815 162.342" into Google Maps displays a point in the ocean northeast of Australia and southwest of the Marshall Islands.

* And finally, some very interesting websites that tie into the LOST universe:

www.bigspaceship.com/archive/hanso/

www.thehansofoundation.org/dharma.html

(I believe this is the website where the summer mystery will begin but I’ll keep you more up to date as we go.)

www.dharmaindustries.com/

www.di9fftr731.com

thedharmainitiative.org/

www.dharmasecrets.com/

www.4815162342.com

lost.cubit.net

thefuselage.com

www.widmorelaboratories.com/

---------------------------------------------------------

Additional thoughts by P.W.

So what does DI9FFTR731 stand for?

DI-Dharma Initiative

9-9 people? 9th test?

FFTR-common term for firefighter, also stands for "Families for the Rainforest" group also, a nuclear reactor term "Fast Flux Test Reactor," (see below ex)

http://www.inkstain.net/nukebeat/archives/000203.html

731-Unit 731 was a secret military medical unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that researched biological warfare and other topics through human experimentation see below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

The button, the loud magnet rumbling? Does this all tie in together?

P.W.
----------------------------------------------------------

Did you notice Sawyer is always referring to shows and movies with his nicknames. Have you seen this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_%22Sawyer%22_Ford

P.W.
-----------------------------------------------------------

I searched for 960VKKS and I found that the VKKS part is referenced on a few biology/chemist websites. After reading a few, it looked like it is somehow linked to protein. Could this be why the code is on the food? The only other thing I found was some German crap:

VKKS
Vereinigung der
Kunsthistorikerinnen
und Kunsthistoriker
in der Schweiz

I think it is some sort of historian group.

P.W.

---------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for your input. I think that DI9 may be the designation of the Swan Station by the Dharma Initiative. If you look at the blast door map you'll see that there are 6 circular compounds (stations) and three (or more) rectangular compounds (CVI, etc. Could this mean "Cerberus vent"?). So there are at least 9 DI locations. I think that DI9 may be a location designation. I'm not sure what the rest might mean. It would be interesting if they found food at one of the other hatches because then we would know if the numbering system were different. I like the 731 human experimentation program. It fits nicely with the theme. Don't you think?

* The Alternative One

----------------------------------------------------------

Episode - S.O.S.

2006-04-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

Preliminary thoughts:

Episode “S.O.S.”
Air Date: Wednesday April 11th, 2006

From TV.com episode guide: “Rose is surprisingly and vehemently opposed to Bernard's plan to create an S.O.S. signal; romantic sparks are rekindled between Jack and Kate when they trek into the jungle to propose a "trade" with "The Others"; and Locke begins to question his faith in the island.”

My thoughts on the episode guide: Why is Rose opposed to Bernard’s plan?? Is she happy on the island?? Does she not want to be rescued?? This would seem to fit as the entire group of survivors has given up any attempt to work toward being rescued. When was the last time anyone talked about or took action towards rescue??? Are they all running from something??

The meaning of SOS:
SOS is the commonly used descriptor for the International Morse code distress signal ( . . . - - - . . . ). Originally adopted by the German government in radio regulations in 1905 it became the worldwide standard when it was included in the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention.

In common use, SOS became connected with phrases such as "Save Our Souls", "Save Our Ship", and "Send out Sailors". However, these phrases were developments that occurred later, most likely used to help remember the proper letters — something known as a backronym.
The common use of SOS then contains no periods (for obvious Morse code usage). So why did the writers incorporate the periods?? Did they not know the correct form?? Or just another twist for LOSTophiles like myself to obsess over??

In any event it seems that our Survivors are in distress and need help. The two ongoing storylines for this episode seem to be about Jack and Kate proposing a trade of Henry Gale for Michael or Walt, and of Locke questioning the purpose of the Hatch. For whatever reasons these story tags do not feel like SOS moments to me.

However, from the previews we know that Jack and Kate are caught in some sort of trap (perhaps the same one that trapped Henry Gale??) And that scenario would be distressful to not only Jack and Kate but also the remaining survivors as well.

A Google search for the term SOS turned up hundreds of TLA’s (three letter acronyms). The following may have some significance:
Single Operation System (Emergency procedures), Service Order System, si opus sit – Latin for if necessary, Speed of Sound, Survivors of Suicide, Science of Spirituality, Save Our Society, Shoot on Sight, Surveillance Operating System.

I will, of course, send the regular weekly re-cap tomorrow.

Up-coming episodes:
April 12th, 2006 - S2 E19: "S.O.S."
April 26th, 2006 - S2 RECAP SHOW: "Lost: Reckoning"
May 3rd, 2006 - S2 E20: "Two for the Road"
May 10th, 2006 - S2 E21: "?"
May 17th, 2006- S2 E22: "Three Minutes"
May 24th, 2006 - SEASON FINALE OF "LOST"! Episode title unknown but there are two parts and will be two hours long!!!!

I think episode “?” (May 10th) may be centered on the hub hatch that was found in the middle of the hatch door map in the episode “Lockdown”. That should prove to be an interesting episode. I can’t wait!!

Please note that all the major characters from the LOST cast have signed contracts for season three. Also, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (writers/producers) have also signed on for another season.

Weekly re-cap with observations and thoughts....

Posted: Thursday, April 13th, 2006

Episode S.O.S. re-cap:
Air date: Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

Bernard and Rose discuss the reluctance of the survivors to attempt rescue while putting away the newly found groceries. Rose is very hesitant to help with any rescue plan.

In the hatch, Locke attempts to recreate the blast door map but is frustrated when he cannot remember the details. He contemplates allowing the numbers to run out again so that he can get another look at the map but Jack reminds him of his obligation.

Bernard recruits survivors to build an SOS out of rocks on the beach. Rose resists him, telling him that he shouldn't give everyone “false hope”.

Flashback: When Bernard proposes, Rose confesses that she is sick and only has a year to live. Bernard wants to marry her in spite of her illness. In the Australian outback Bernard reveals to Rose that he has brought her to Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) to meet Isaac, a famous healer. Isaac tells Rose that he cannot help her but she does not reveal this to Bernard who believes that her health has been restored.

Back on the island, Rose confesses to Bernard that she was lying to him. She tells him that she feels the illness is gone and knows that the island had everything to do with it. In the last flashback we find out that Rose knows that Locke was confined to a wheelchair before the crash. Bernard realizes that his wife does not want to be rescued because she thinks she may get sick again. Bernard vows to stop work on the SOS.

Back in the hatch, Locke continues his attempt to draw the map from memory. But he leaves the hatch in frustration. It's not until Rose convinces him to maintain faith, that Locke returns with determination and continues drawing.

Meanwhile, Jack and Kate go out to find the ‘Others” in an attempt to trade Henry for Walt. While they wait for "Zeke" to arrive, Michael staggers out of the jungle and falls down at their feet.

Observations, speculations, theories and thoughts (oh my):

1. I thought that this episode was one of the weakest I’ve seen in a while. There was very little mythology (which I live for) and very little movement forward (except for maybe Michael coming back). All in all, this installment was a disappointment to me. However, that won’t stop me from adding my thoughts here.

2. My wife has told me that the Dharma Initiative logo (Swan Logo) found on all the food, hatches, etc. has been discussed over and over again. Since I have never discussed it (and came in late in the first season) I’ll go over just the basics with my added thoughts.

The symbols found on the outside of the Swan logo (and all the other logos) are from the I Ching, the Chinese “Book of Change”. The I Ching is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. It describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy, which is at the heart of Chinese cultural beliefs. The philosophy centers on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change. In Western cultures, the I Ching is regarded by some as simply a system of divination. Many believe it expresses the wisdom and philosophy of ancient China.

From Wikipedia:

top LI, Fire
top-right KUN, Earth
right DUI, Lake
bottom-right KIÄN, Heaven
bottom KAN, Water
bottom-left GEN, Mountain
left DSCHEN, Thunder
top-left SUN, Wind

So perhaps the above-mentioned symbols correspond to the Hatches??? I’m sure this sounds like reaching to some of you but I like the thought.

Fire = The Flame Hatch ?
Earth = The Staff Hatch (Medical Station)?
Lake = The Swan Hatch ?
Heaven = The Arrow Hatch ?
Water = The Pearl Hatch ?
Mountain = The Black Rock ?
Thunder =
Wind =

3. Early in the episode Bernard lets us know that he and the other “Tailies” were on the other side of the island for seven weeks. I am not sure we knew how long they were isolated from the others. Also, Bernard asked the same question that many people have been asking: “Why are they not doing more to be rescued?” I think that this question has been answered. Most everyone has a reason for not wanting to return back to the real world. Sun and Jin, Locke, and Rose for health concerns; Hurley (and possibly Libby) for mental health issues, Charlie for addiction reasons, Mr. Eko for a religious reason, Kate and Sawyer for legal problems and now that I think about it Ana-Lucia for both physical and mental health reasons, since she was shot while pregnant. I am sure that other issues will come to light as the season concludes.

4. “Dharmalars” Are we looking at the Dharma version of Nabisco Mallomars?? I had to laugh when I saw this. Can you imagine the restraint Hurley had to have to refuse these!!! At any rate the numbers on the box jive with all the other food DI9FFTR731. Also, at the bottom of the box could be found the following: 960VKKS and FL390. I have not found anything on 960VKKS but FL390 may be Flight Level 390 (39,000 ft.), which is a common oceanic flight altitude (from a Google search).

5. How come every time Henry Gale talks to someone these days the conversation ends in a fade out to a commercial amidst “spooky discordant violins”??? When Henry tells Jack “They’ll never give you Walt!” he really means it and seems to know what he’s talking about. And who is the real captive? Locke tries to engage Henry in conversation about pushing the numbers but Henry simply smiles a knowing smile. [Thanks D for the spooky violins!]

6. Uluru – Uluru (also Ayers Rock or The Rock) is a large rock formation in central Australia, in the Northern Territory. It is located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Ayers Rock is a large magnetic mound not unlike Silbury Hill in England. It is located on a major planetary grid point much like the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The grids meet at various intersecting points forming a kind of matrix. This is equivalent to the acupressure points on our bodies. These grid points can be found at some of the strongest power places on the planet. Isaac tells Rose that there is great energy in the earth and that some of it is geological and/or magnetic. This is in conjunction with the mentioning of “magnetic interference” on the blast door map from the “Lockdown” episode.

7. Charlie is helping Mr. Eko build a church. Why?? It seems Charlie does have a Catholic background. Is he building a church so that Claire’s baby, Aaron, has a place to be baptized???

8. A thought by my wife: The pushing of the button (monitoring, etc.) may be for only one purpose. Keeping them inside the hatch every 108 minutes. But what happens every 108 minutes that they need to be in the hatch? Whatever it is, it does not seem to be affecting those who are outside the hatch, yet.

9. And last, but not least, Sawyer had two stereotypes in the episode: He calls Jack “Dr. Giggles” when Jack comes looking for Kate to go off into the jungle for the trade mission and he calls Bernard “Norma Rae” when Bernard tries to get the survivors to build the SOS.

Norma Rae: Sawyer asks Bernard if he is "having union troubles down on the beach, Norma Rae." The 1978 Sally Field film of the same name, dealing with a woman's attempt to unionized workers.

Dr. Giggles: Reference to film "Dr. Giggles" about a psychopathic son of a mass-murdering doctor, who escapes from his mental institution to seek revenge on the town where his father was caught.

Episode Trivia
1. Bernard is a dentist.

2. Rose wanted to vacation on a beach for her honeymoon. Could she have known she would end up on a beach?

3. Michael returns in almost exactly the same way that Claire did in the episode, "Homecoming", stumbling through the bushes and collapsing.

The page that Locke was using to draw the hatch diagram at the end of S.O.S was from an unidentified collection of 18th century french poet Alfred De Musset.

ON THE BEGINNINGS OF MESDEMOISELLES RACHEL AND PAULINE GARCIA
So, whatever they say, she doesn't dry up,
the immortal and fertile source
that the divine messenger made spout from underneath his steps,
she still exists, this worldly juice,
she flows, and the gods are still down there.
Whereto does so much of our frivolous fights serve,
so much effort, always in vain, always reappearing?
A chaos crowded with useless words,
so many impotent hammers hitting the ancient idols?
Let us talk about art, let the experts do,
we will correct the errors
like a libertine of mistress
the lilas in sprint will always be in flowers,
and the immortal arts will rejuvenile without ceasing.
Let us discuss our flaws, our dreams and our tastes,
compare the modern and the antique if you feel like it,
and let us twist underneath these jealous flags!
When we will be at the end of our rethoric,
two children born yesterday will know more about it than us.
O young hearts filled with antique poetry,
welcome, children cherished by gods
you got the same age and the same genius.
The soft clarity you bring along in your eyes is blessed!
Come on! Let happiness follow you!
It isn't coincidential that a variable caprice
made you were born at the same moment.
Your mother downhere, it's the attentive Muse
that wakes over the sacred fire forever.
Obey without doubts to the god that inspires you.
Ignore, if it's possible, the fact that we talk about you.
These complaintes, these agreements, these tears, this soft smile,
all your treasures, give them to us
sing children, let us say it.

Episode - Dave

2006-04-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

Weekly LOST re-cap
Episode “Dave”
Air Date: Wednesday, April 5th, 2006

Note: This episode did not reveal much mythology. My observations and insights will follow the recap.

Hurley exercises on the beach at the request of Libby as their relationship begins to develop. Locke recuperates from the incident with the blast doors as “the Henry situation” heats up. Sayid forces Henry to reveal that he is in fact an Other, but that he will be killed if he talks. “Henry Gale” effectively becomes a prisoner for life (remember that I said this folks).
I don’t think he has revealed he is an “Other”. It sounds to me like he is involved with them somehow, but not part of them. He doesn’t agree with their philosophy. (AP)
O.K. Not revealed as an “Other” but at least in cahoots with them! And I do mean cahoots!!!! (WR)

Hurley admits to Libby that he is “sick” and has a problem with food and shows her his hoard of stolen food from the hatch. Libby convinces Hurley to destroy the hoard but as soon as he does the entire group discovers the pallet of; you guessed it, more food. This causes Hurley to have an “episode”... enter Dave in his P.J.’s.
Don’t you agree this scene was poorly written? To have Hurley destroy food that could be used by other people and that Libby encourages it doesn’t fit the story. I think the writers sacrificed some validity to give Hurley the chance to “have a breakthru”. (AP)
Not only poorly written but last season Hurley was very comfortable with himself and his “condition”. For this episode it seems the writers resorted to having his weight define him. Strange change but again just my thought. (WR)
In a flashback Hurley's time spent in a mental hospital is revealed. As Hurley's food addiction haunts him on the island, so does his “friend” Dave, from the past. It is revealed that Dave is a fellow patient from the mental institution and that he will eventually force Hurley to doubt his own sanity.
I thought it was pretty clear that Dave was not a fellow patient, but always an imaginary friend. Dave says and does the negative and mean things Hurley is thinking. (AP)
Is Dave Hurley’s own inner voice???? (WR)

Meanwhile, Mr. Eko asks Charlie to help him with his construction project but won’t tell him why. Later on, we learn that he may be constructing a church. (Chapel) (AP)
OK, I guess the writers at ABC Lost gave this away in their re-cap section. Eko does not tell Charlie what he is building in the episode but the writers gave it away in the internet re-cap. A slip, mistake? Or done on purpose? (WR)

Locke confronts Henry. Henry confesses that he did not push the button after he crawled through the vents during the lockdown. He also states that nothing happened as a result. Locke now has a dilemma. Is it really necessary to continue pushing the button every 108 minutes or does he trust that Henry Gale is lying?
They shouldn’t trust Henry for a second. He knows exactly what he’s doing. (AP)
“Dave” tells Hurley that the island is an imaginary place in his head and convinces him that the only way to escape it is to jump off a cliff, which will awaken him back in the hospital. Libby talks Hurley out of jumping and Hurley gets a kiss. Libby shows us a strange disturbing look as they walk back to the beach suggesting she knows more than she’s telling. Hmm…

In the last flashback of the episode we see a nurse in the mental hospital giving Libby, a patient, her medication as Hurley gets his photo-op with his doctor in the background. (By far the spookiest scene this season!)
I’ve always felt Libby was hiding something. I thought she was an “Other” until this episode made me doubt myself. If she was a psychiatric patient and not a Psychiatrist that may be what she’s hiding. At the hospital she was looking at Hurley as if she had feeling for him. Maybe that’s what makes her have feeling for him now. (AP)

On the other hand:
I could believe that this is all in Hurley’s head. He won the lottery, he got the pretty girl, everyone likes and trusts him. His insecurities and Dave keep him from imagining all good things for himself. (AP)

My observations and insights:

This is a Hurley intensive episode and as in most of the other episodes raises more questions than it answers:

1. Is “Dave” an homage to Cheech and Chong? I think it might be! Twice Hurley says to Dave, “You’re not here!” which reminds me of the old “Dave’s not here, man!” skit from the 70’s and also revolves around drugs. Dave also speaks street Spanish throughout the episode. Who is Dave? Was he real? He seems to cause physical pain to Hurley, once slapping him, once throwing a coconut. Can the island physically transmute living things? Jack’s dad? Kate’s horse? Now Hurley’s Dave?

2. This is the third week in a row where exercise (or at least physical exertion) has started an episode – Ana Lucia running along the beach up to Locke who is sitting by her tent site; Locke riding the stationary bicycle in the hatch (Lockdown); and Hurley and Libby running on the beach (Dave).

3. After watching a little more closely all the food I have seen has the same number/letter combination on the label “DI9FFTR731” and all say “Dharma Initiative” on the labels.

4. During the interrogation of Henry he states that ‘HE” will kill me and there is no doubt that Henry is truly frightened. When Ana says “the bearded guy” Henry yells that he (meaning “Zeke”, the bearded guy) is “no one, a nothing”. Which leads us to believe that there is someone higher up in the chain of command that Henry reports to. (One of the Dharma Initiative creators gone insane) (AP)

5. The 20 Dollar Bill note:
The serial number on the bill is “EF61363822B”
The note from the real Henry Gale reads: “Jennifer, Well, you were right. Crossing the Pacific isn’t easy. I owe you a beer. I’m hiking to one of the beaches to start a signal fire but if you’re reading this I guess I didn’t make it. I’m sorry. I love you Jenny. Always have. Always will. Yours, Henry”
This looks like a plot contrivance to me. Do you think he might have told Jenny that HIS BALLOON CRASHED!!! Of course not, the writers already know that we know this!
Also, this 20-dollar bill is a very current issue. If the real Henry Gale’s driver license expired three years prior to crashing how did he get a $20 bill that was new??? (WR)

6. Leonard has the magic numbers. Leonard, at the mental hospital continuously repeats the magic numbers from the island. In an earlier episode we learned that Leonard was dead and this is the first time we have met him. The Connect Four game he is playing look like the following, where O= open, B= black and R=red:
OOOOOOO
OOOBOOO
OORROOO
BBRROOB
RRBRRBR
BBRBBRB

7. What the heck is closnosopan? This is the drug Hurley was prescribed by his doctor.
And did the doctors credentials (on the wall) state that he graduated from Alvar University? (It was a bit hard for me to see).
The LOST Transmission podcast had a caller who said that closnosopan (spelling?) was a drug used to control seizures and anxiety and for pain management. (WR)

8. We do find that the accident that Hurley talks about was on a deck in which 23 people were standing. When Hurley comes on to the deck it collapses and two people die. Obviously 23 is one of the numbers.
Dr. Brooks says that the deck was made to support 8 people but that 23 people were crowded out onto it. Could this have been the party to celebrate Hurley’s winning the lottery??? Was Locke a guest at the party??? Did he lose the use of legs when the deck collapsed?? (WR)

9. When Henry is revealing to Locke that he did not push the button he says: “The numbers went past zero, I saw hieroglyphics, but I’m no expert, I heard a clunking sound like large magnets and the timer flipped to 108. I never entered the numbers, I did not push the button.” (We saw these hieroglyphics in another episode so Henry must have seen them when he didn’t push the button, or he knew about the button all along) (AP)
OK, if Henry is not an expert on hieroglyphics, this statement implies that he is an expert at something. How would Henry know that a loud clunking noise is the sound of large magnets? This does not make sense. It could have easily been the sound of two large blast doors closing. Or, anything at all. This statement may confirm that magnetism or electro-magnetism is a very important part of this story and that at least some of the information from the blast door map was pertinent and important. Of course, we won’t see the blast doors anymore this season. Can anyone say the Medical Hatch and the cable on the beach? No one has visited these areas since they were discovered. And it seems that no one is interested in finding Walt or Michael anymore either.
Can magnetic fields keep the island hidden from the rest of the world? Magnets are used for healing; maybe they are producing the healing properties. That still doesn’t explain the strange (psychological) things that happen. Are they all being fed hallucinogens?
There is interest in finding Micheal & Walt. It was alluded to in the preview that Jack would attempt to trade Henry for them next week. (AP)

10. Libby at the asylum with Hurley can be interpreted several ways. She may have met him at the hospital and followed him, or she's part of the Dharma Initiative (and they recruit mental patients who will be easy to condition), or it's all coincidence. Was she undercover? Or hiding in plain sight! Was she observing the patients or one of them? She may have been collecting data for her doctorate degree or a book but she looked pretty rough along the edges for someone doing research. And to be honest, when I saw Libby in the hospital I got those little shivers up and down my spine and my first thought was “Oh, no you didn’t…” Meaning, what are the writers up to and isn’t this an interesting twist?

Conclusion: This episode continues a promising tendency: movement forward, suspense, and character anguish. The island is starting to feel treacherous again.

Phrase of the day: “Skinner box”
Skinners well-known discovery is the Operant Chamber also known as Skinners Box. The operant chamber is an apparatus, which allows an experimenter to observe, manipulate and measure/record an animal’s behavior. Operant chambers have been used when doing behavioral research on rats. An example of an operant chamber for this type of experiment is one in which the chamber has a lever for dispersing food pellets, the rat is 'taught' to use the lever to get food and it's progress is noted by the experimenter. An example of an operant chamber for pigeons is a chamber in which there is a plastic disk at one end, which causes a drawer to open that holds the pigeons seed, the aim is also to 'teach' the pigeon to use the disk to feed itself. The main reason for construction of the Skinner box was to restrict the amount of responses for the animal to use. A rat cannot perform very many other responses besides the one that the experimenter wants him to.
Now, does the hatch resemble a Skinner box??

How weird is this!!!! I just heard today that Josh Holloway (Sawyer) is going to be starring in a movie called “Skinner Box” !!!!!!
The Plot summary from IMDB for Skinner Box: “As Hell Night forces four sorority pledges into an abandoned insane asylum, the asylum becomes the ultimate Skinner Box, treating the students like trapped rats, conditioning them to behave appropriately, or else.... “ (WR)

Next week is a new episode:
S.O.S.
Wednesday, April 12th, 2006
Writer: Leonard Dick, Steven Maeda
Director: Eric Laneuville
Guest star: L. Scott Caldwell (Rose) , Sam Anderson (Bernard), Donna Smallwood (Aussie Woman), Wayne Pygram (Isaac), Michael Emerson (Henry Gale)

Rose is surprisingly and vehemently opposed to Bernard's plan to create an S.O.S. signal; romantic sparks are rekindled between Jack and Kate when they trek into the jungle to propose a "trade" with "The Others"; and Locke begins to question his faith in the island.

We need to add a weekly feature about Sawyer’s stereotype comments. Pretty fun!!! (AP)

Sawyer stereotypes in “Dave” episode:
Calls Charlie – “Baby napper”
Calls Libby “Moon beam”
Sawyer: “I have enough food to start quicky mart..ya think Siayd needs a job?”

Other Sawyer Stereotypes From the Wikipedia website):

Character Nickname Episode
Aaron "Baby Huey" The Greater Good
Ana-Lucia "Hot Lips" Everybody Hates Hugo
Ana-Lucia "Ponce De Leon" Abandoned
Boone "Metro" Walkabout
Mr. Eko "Shaft" Orientation
Mr. Friendly "Zeke" The Hunting Party
Hurley "Pillsbury" The Hunting Party
Hurley "Jabba" Fire + Water
Hurley "Babar" Unknown
Hurley "Deep-dish" Dave
Hurley "Stay-Puft" Raised By Another
Jack "Doc" Multiple Episodes
Jack "Dr. Quinn" Solitary
Jack "Jackass Do No Harm
Jin "Bruce" In Translation
Jin "Chewie" Exodus Part 3
Jin "Sulu" The Greater Good
Jin "Daddio" The Whole Truth
Kate "Freckles" Multiple Episodes
Kate "Sheena" The Long Con
Kate "Thelma" Maternity Leave
Libby "Shrink" Abandoned
Libby "Moonbeam" Dave
Locke "Daniel Boone" The Hunting Party
Locke "Yoda" Multiple Episodes
Locke "Hoss" Whatever the Case May Be
Locke "Mr. Clean" The Hunting Party
Michael "Daddy" Exodus Part 3
Michael "Han" Exodus Part 3
Sayid "Abdul" Tabula Rasa
Sayid "Al Jazeera" Tabula Rasa
Sayid "Mohammed" Outlaws
Shannon "Sticks" White Rabbit
Sun "Tokyo Rose" The Long Con
Walt "Gazoo" Exodus Part 2
Walt "Short Round" Numbers, Exodus Part 1
Walt "Tattoo" All the Best Cowboys Charlie Charlie "Tattoo" Dave
Charlie "Baby Napper" Dave

New find!
In the episode “Lockdown” the balloon found by Sayid, Charlie and Ana-Lucia, which brought the real Henry Gale to the island is labeled “Widmore Labs”.
See the website at http://www.widmorelaboratories.com/ Very weird place. There is little content to this site but on the contact page “The Staff” can be clearly seen.
The Food Link states:
“Widmore Laboratories produces a full line of
grocery items. From salad dressings to frozen food
you can be assured of quality, freshness and great
taste. We package under our Infinity label, as well
as supermarket and drug store private labels.
We have also developed specialty line of
grocery products specifically designed for research
facilities and remote locations. We have specially
designed formulas for both Arctic temperatures and
also formulas to withstand the heat and humidity
of tropical locations. They have a long shelf life,
even after opening, but stay nutritious and tasty.”

Other craft that have landed/crashed on the island:
Oceanic Flight 815
“Henry Gale’s” Widmore Labs Air Balloon
Danielle's research boat
Nigerian drug plane
Michael’s Raft
The “Black Rock” slave ship
The Food Balloon
And the “Others” have a boat somewhere near/on the island.
Can anyone think of others??? (WR)

I really liked the psychology perspective; I think there is definitely a connection. Operant conditioning fits into almost everything on the island, I'll show examples:

Operant Conditioning is based on the notion that reinforcers and punishers dictate a subject’s decision, positive (pleasant) or negative (aversive) actions. Skinner once did an experiment where he taught kittens to manipulate a latch (or instrument). Can the button be the instrument and the survivors the subject (kittens)? What’s with the super loud speakers in the hatch?
Is the button a positive reinforcer, or is it a negative reinforcer? Is there a coincidence that the pallet of food dropped right when the button was apparently "not" pushed (Skinner box, button-survival)? Was it really dropped from the sky? No one heard a plane.

I'm thinking everything was plotted from the beginning. The "others" or experimenters brought them there for some reason. The fact that there is a connection between them all may be a factor in the experiment that is somehow connected to ability to survive, just a possible example. This does not fit in with true random sampling of populations though.

Stimuli are presented in the environment according to a schedule of which there are two basic categories: continuous and intermittent. Continuous reinforcement simply means that the behavior is followed by a consequence each time it occurs (the button, hatch, radio frequency, the #'s!!!). Intermittent schedules are based either on the passage of time (interval schedules) or the number of correct responses emitted (ratio schedules). The consequence can be delivered based on the same amount of passage of time or the same number of correct responses (fixed) or it could be based on a slightly different amount of time or number of correct responses that vary around a particular number (variable).

Maybe the Aussie guy in the hatch when they broke in was really an "other" and the negative influence for the group as to what might happen if the button is not pushed. Maybe Henry Gail was caught on purpose with the assumption that he could get inside to pose as a "variable" in the experiment, mix things up a bit. Now the question is, was his identity supposed to be revealed?
Is there a resemblance between that guy who ran off and Henry (lose the hair, add a few years, I wish I had pics, maybe Bill could help)? They both have that creepy feeling about them.

Just some insight to get you all thinking. I will read up on more psychology since it is what I went to school for, glad I'm finally using it!
Can't wait for next week.... (PW)

Episode - Lockdown

2006-04-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

My weekly recap of the LOST episodes
New Additions: March 31st to April 5th 2006 underlined typeface
This episode recap is beginning to look like a book…

Episode "Lockdown"
Air Date: Wednesday, 29 March, 20006
Flashback: Locke learns of his father’s death in the paper. Except, Anthony Cooper is not really dead. It’s a scam to hide from Jimmy Pane (Pain?) whom he stole $700,000 from in a long con. He offers Locke 200K if he will go to the bank and withdraw it from a safe deposit box (#1516). Locke is still influenced by a need for his father's love, so he collects the cash from the bank. Locke lies to Helen about his involvement. John brings the money to his father at a local motel but refuses his take. Helen, who has followed John, appears and is crushed by his lie. She drives away broken-hearted.

Flash-forward:On the island, Locke and Henry are trapped when the hatch blast doors close for no reason. While trying to escape, Locke's legs are caught beneath the doors and he is forced to trust Henry to enter the numbers and rescue him. Locke sees a strange map on the wall in the dark. Jack and Kate discover an airdropped pallet of food while Ana Lucia, Sayid & Charlie find Henry’s balloon. But when they dig up the grave they find that Henry Gale has been lying…

Observations:
*** This first one is a recap of last week's episode -
“Henry Gale” is seen eating from a box of Dharma cereal. The box reads “Dharma Initiative Breakfast O's DI 9FFTR731”.

Recap of "Lockdown"
Note: Lockdown is a double entendre: The hatch is literally locked down and Locke is pinned down under the door by his legs.

*** Locke's father, Anthony Cooper, has died (and Diane guessed it was a scam immediately). Is this the last time we'll see him??

The Philosophers of LOST:
“Anthony Ashley Cooper, the third Earl of Shaftesbury, lived from 1671 to 1713. He was one of the most important philosophers of his day, and exerted an enormous influence throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on British and European discussions of morality, aesthetics and religion.”

This is in keeping with the character naming of philosophers: John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were philosophers. (Rousseau the French woman). Charles Pace, Charlie’s name in the program, was a close friend of Aleisiter Crowley.

John Locke (b. 1632, d. 1704) was a British philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher, whose association with Anthony Ashley Cooper (later the First Earl of Shaftesbury) led him to become successively a government official charged with collecting information about trade and colonies, economic writer, opposition political activist, and finally a revolutionary whose cause ultimately triumphed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 – July 2, 1778) was a Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. His legacy as a radical and revolutionary is perhaps best demonstrated by his most famous line The Social Contract: "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."
Thomas Carlyle (Boone): Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish-born British historian and essayist who was leading figure in the Victorian era. Carlyle's collected works (1974) comprises 30 volumes. In the age which put faith in legislation, Carlyle believed in a leader, a hero, whom people must recognize and worship. In his famous work ON HEROES AND HERO WORSHIP (1841) his examples ranged from Mohammed to Shakespeare and Dr. Johnson.

Not really a philosopher but interesting:
Hugo Reyes (Hurley’s name) means: “king of thinkers” or “mastermind” hmmm…

*** Observations on the card game:
The first game shows: 3 clubs, 6 diamonds, 4 clubs, 8 clubs and J hearts. The next game has Jack beating Sawyer with the following hand: K hearts, 5 diamonds, 7 clubs, 2 spades Q spades and Jack has the K clubs and K spades to win and Sawyer has the Q diamonds and Q clubs. In the last game, for all the medicine, Jack wins with a pair of 9's and Sawyer has only a pair of 5's.
I am not sure of the significance of these combinations but am looking into it.
They are playing Texas Hold ‘Em (thanks Diane) and I also think that Sawyer got played by Jack.

*** When Locke visits his father at the Flightline Motel two different Oceanic Flights fly overhead.
I could not find a single instance of a real Flightline Motel in Google searching. Although, many references come up when partnered with LOST. Also, the bag which Anthony Cooper puts the money in has the Oceanic logo on it.

*** The Safety Deposit Box # is 1516 and the key is imprinted “Cole 19”.

*** The Home Inspection Scene: There are a lot of numbers and such in the scene where John Locke is inspecting the home. The sign outside the home reads: "L. A. Team Realtors - IN ESCROW" and John's pick-up truck has the following printed on the door: "Welcome Home - Professional Home Inspections – John Locke Owner – 555-0116”. The mailbox next door reads “94-1007” and Anthony Coopers license plate # is 4TRI019”
Also, The woman whose house Locke inspects in one of his flashback sequences is none other than the Sayid's love interest from his flashback, Nadia.

The Blast Door Map
*** Lockdown voice: “…. 30 seconds to lock down. Please proceed to the terminal. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1”
The map, the map, the map…… here are some observations and a photo from the internet. Consult your digital picture (apologies to Christie as I did not have enough photos to forward with Brian – but I will get you one – Brian should have delivered a copy of this photo to you by April 3rd, 2006)

Please note: All the following is from the good Lost fans at cubit.net. I deciphered only a few of the following clues from the map. Most of this work was already done for me. My thoughts or additions, however, appear in bold type and additions in red underline.

Some information concerning the map (with notes):
In reading the map it becomes clear that the author was not a member of the Dharma Initiative but someone very familiar with the operation and the incident. Various notations indicate that the person who drew the map was under the 108-minute time constraint and isolated ("estimated travel time incompatible with 108 do not attempt to survey (or journey)"). Could it have been Kelvin, the original button pusher? Or Desmond, the second button pusher who ran off into the jungle? And if Kelvin was not a member or the D.I, who was he? Was he a prisoner himself?? Plus, the map blast door must come down occasionally for the drawings to be made and whoever drew the map did so from a critical position of the Dharma Initiative.

Is the map important to the other characters?? Will Locke tell Jack?? Will Locke try to get the blast doors down again to show Jack??

From Entertainment Weekly Issue # 871 April 7th, 2006: Cartography queries: Burning questions: Who was this mapmaker? Where is he now? What’s up with the math equations and the French (and Latin) phrases? How can we be sure the Map isn’t some kind of Dharma mind game? How much of the map can Locke remember – and what will he do for a change to see it again?

Map Notes:

1. The Arrow Hatch (near 12 o’clock on the clock face)
a. “Credo nos in fluctu eodem esse” Latin for “Committed we advance towards madness” (my definition) or “I think we may be on the same wavelength” as defined by other Lost bloggers. Perhaps the Psychiatric Hatch???? My thoughts are such that if they have a Medical Hatch and a monitoring hatch (Swan) then they must has a Psych hatch (based on the Latin phrase written on the map) and a power hatch (which I think may be the “Flame”). Also, could “on the same wavelength” mean that there was communication with the outside world from someone on the island??
b. “Suspected shutdown date 10.28.84”
Michael Crichton (1942) and Bill Gates (1955) were born on October 28th. And 1984 was the year Microsoft was founded.

2. The Unnamed Hatch (1 o’clock)
a. “mountainous terrain most likely used by DIHG for meteorological research due to….” Some DIHG’s found: Dartmouth International Health Group, Da Incredible Generated Handles, Discovering Ideas Handbook Glossary,
b. “Possible manufacturing facility with light industrial equipment”
c. “Credo nos in fluctu eodem esse” “I think we’re on the same wavelength”
d. “Why so many Dharmatel relays in such an untenable location.”
Dharmatel Telecom Services; Providing direct phonecalls and callback services at http://www.dharmatel.com/ (I believe that this may be a spoof sight based on the Lost show).
Dharmatel Telecom Services, Donaustraat 173, Lelystad, 8226 LD, Netherlands

A. CV IV (3 o’clock)
a. “Geological composition likely to cause magnetic interference with weather project.”
b. “Interference might also prevent location from use as lightening or listening station, cryptography research, or analysis.”
Cryptography is a field for scientists, engineers, mathematicians and others who enjoy solving complex challenges. Cryptography plays an essential role in securing commercial and government applications including communications, payment systems, access and identification solutions, and more.
c. “Hic sunt dracones” Latin for “Here be dragons”
English mapmakers formerly placed the phrase "here be dragons" at the edges of their known world on maps. Could this be a reference to the Smoke Monster???
d. “High potential for K.V.” (See also The CA below)
e. “A mouse does not rely on just one hole.” A quote by Roman playright Titus Maccius Titus Plautus. Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC - 184 BC, born at Sarsina, Roman Umbria, today in Romagna, near Forlì) was a comic playwright in the time of the Roman Republic. The years of his life are uncertain, but his plays were first produced between about 205 BC and 184 BC. He wrote approximately one hundred and thirty plays, of which twenty-one survive. Is this in reference to the multiple hatches???

3. The CA (?) or C4 (?) Pearl Hatch (4 o’clock)
a. The word “baby” is found
b. The word “Saut” is found – French for “jump” or “bounce”
c. “High potential for RVS” (see also CV IV above) RADIAL VELOCITY SPECTROMETER – spectrographing light to understand the mechanisms of formation and evolution of the Milky Way
d. “The Pearl” ? The book by John Steinbeck???
e. “x4, y8, z15 subterranean conduit” Algebraic variables ???

B. CV III (5 o’clock)
a. CVIII = 108 in Roman numerals
b. “Everything is an emergency”
c. “primary nexus of cerebus (Cerberus?) related activity”
Cerberus: In Greek mythology, the three-headed watchdog who guards the entrance to the lower world, Hades. It is a child of the giant Typhon and Echidna, a monstrous creature herself, being half woman and half snake. Originally, the dog was portrayed having fifty or hundred heads but was later pictured with only three heads (and sometimes with the tail of a serpent). Cerberus permitted new spirits to enter the realm of dead, but allowed none of them to leave. Only a few ever managed to sneak past the creature, among which Orpheus, who lulled it to sleep by playing his lyre, and Heracles, who brought it to the land of the living for a while (being the last of his Twelve Labors). This suggests that there may be around the security Smoke Monster.
d. “Rev. – 4.2.02 Possible location of zoological research facility”
Is 4.2.02 another date??? Hans Christian Anderson was born April 2nd (1805)
e. “stated goal??? Accelerated De-territorialization of Ursus Maritimus (Polar Bear) through Gene Therapy and Extreme Climate Change”
Ursus Martitimus – The Maritime Bear; Gene therapy: Gene therapy is a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development. Researchers may use one of several approaches for correcting faulty genes:
* A normal gene may be inserted into a nonspecific location within the genome to replace a nonfunctional gene. This approach is most common. *An abnormal gene could be swapped for a normal gene through homologous recombination. *The abnormal gene could be repaired through selective reverse mutation, which returns the gene to its normal function. * The regulation (the degree to which a gene is turned on or off) of a particular gene could be altered.
Gene therapy may explain how Polar Bears could survive in the jungle!
From “Entertainment Weekly” Magazine # 871 April 7th, Page 11: Weird Science – Sounds Dr. Moreau-ish ….. Still, this notation does undermine the theory that the island polar bear was conjured (by Walt) from a comic book. Nonetheless, was Dharma experimenting with animal adaptability? If so, why?
f. “Activity”
g. “Liberate Te Ex Inferis” Latin for “Save yourself from hell” The hardcore rock band “Zao”???

C. CV II (6 o’clock)
a. “known final resting place of magnus hanso / black rock”
Was Magnus Hanso the captain of the “Black Rock” ship and is he any relation to Alvar Hanso of the Hanso Group?? P.S. For those of you who do not know, the Hanso Group financed the Dharma Initiative owns Widmore Construction, the company believed to have built the Dharma Initiative hatches. Also, the pregnancy test that Sun got from Sawyare was labeled “Widmore Labratories” Is Alvar Hanso buried at the black rock? Magnus Hanso – The Grat Hanso!
From Entertainment Weekly Issue # 871 April 7th, 2006: Who is Magnus? Everyone remembers that the “Black Rock” is the slave ship beached in the jungle. Magnus Hanso may be linked to Alvar Hanso – but how? Hypothesis: “Magnus” might be a veiled reference to The Magus, (John Fowles), a 1964 novel about a man on an island who gets sucked into the mindbending “godgame” of a mysterious recluse.
b. “Activity minimal during lockdown and restocking procedures”
c. “Possible CV II - Inactive since accident”
d. “No connection to islandwide E.E.P. network” “Emergency Environmental Project”, “Einstein Equivalence Principle”, “Evolutionary Ecology Protocol”

4. The Swan Hatch (6 o’clock)
a. “4 8 15 16 23 42”
The numbers have so far appeared all together:
On the hatch, Hurley's winning lottery numbers, On the medicine that Desmond injects into his arm, In the mental ward repeated by Leonard Sims, On the soccer jerseys of the girls Hurley passes at the airport, On the mural at the bottom of hatch, which also features their sum: 108, Jack's luggage tag number was all the numbers, The code that must be entered into a computer terminal in Station Three every 108 minutes - and many more that have yet to be uncovered or mentioned here. The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 appear throughout the series, both in sequence and individually. They were broadcast from the Island's radio transmitter, and it was this message that drew Rousseau's expedition there. Although she later changed the message after the deaths of her team, the numbers had also been heard by other people, eventually making their way to Hurley, who used them to win the lottery. However, after his win, a series of misfortunes began to happen to those around him, leading him to believe the numbers are cursed. His search for answers led him to Australia and, through the crash, to the island itself, where he ultimately discovers the numbers engraved on the hatch. Inside the bunker, the same numbers appear on the occupant's medicine bottles, and make up a code that must be entered into the computer. The sum of these six numbers, 108, has also become significant in connection to the DHARMA Initiative. This number appears on a mural inside the Initiative's Station Three, and the full sequence of numbers must be entered into the computer every 108 minutes. The individual numbers also appear frequently throughout the lives of the survivors, both before and after the crash.
b. “108 00, 8.15.01, 01.06.06 Complete Shutdown in Effect”
Also shown as 4.08.00, 8.15.01, 01.06.03: These may be dates 15 August, 2001 and 1 June 2006 (a date in the future). Napoleon (1769) & Sir Walter Scott (1771) were born on August 15th and Brigham Young (1801) was born on 1 June.
c. “I AM HERE”
d. “Multiple escape conduits blocked after incident” is written under the circled “I AM HERE”
e. “P.R.D. every 6 months” Periodic ration drop??? Public Relations Department, Public Relations Department
f. “fatalities = 5”
g. “Ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta ira deorum est” Latin for “The wrath of the gods may be great, but it certainly is slow” Decimis Iunius Juvenalis (60 - 117) Roman satirical poet. Is this the sickness that Danielle Rousseau talks about???
h. “Stationwide failure of Dharmatel intranet” Failure of the communication system???
i. “Home of H.G. delegation inspection 12.07.81” H.G. = Hanso Group?

D. CV I (7 o’clock)
a. “Recreation Area For D.I.M.G. Teams” (D.I.H.G. or D.I.A.G. depending what map you look at) – DIHG = Dharma Initiative Hanzo Group?? D.I.M.G. = Dharma Initiative Management Group ?? D.I.A.G. = Dharma Initiative Action Group ?? D.I.H.G. = Dharma Initiative Hanso Group??
b. “CV I Highly unlikely”
c. “no safe location for Dharmatel servers/hub/cabeling or infrastructure”
Is Dharmatel the name of the telephone system on the island?? Does it link to the mainland??
d. “low priority zone for exploration possible site for above ground… relevance to Valenzetti related”
Googled "Valenzetti" and discovered a Googlewhack, that oh-so-rare search term that brings up only one result, in this case a log of recently registered domain names, including: enzovalenzetti.com, thevalenzettiequation.com, valenzetti.com,
valenzettiequation.com or Valenzetti unknown, possibly "Vanzetti" which may reference a court case of probability of evidence used in a capital murder trials, or statistical work on international trade. A search two days later did not find the domain page.

5. The Flame Hatch (8 o’clock) I think the Flame Hatch may be the power source area where the island’s electricity is generated.
a. Ö16 Ö64 Ö225 - Show’s the square root of 16, 64, 225 which is (4, 8, 15)
b. “Cigito ergo doleo” Latin for “I think therefore I am depressed” Quite a twist from Cogito ergo sum “I think therefore I am”
c. “Alleged location of # 4 The Flame but unlikely due to cerebrus (Cerberus) ? activity”
d. “ Alleged location of aborted # 7: Each number of Heavy water table” or
“Alleged location of aborted # 7: Large number of underground springs heavywater table” - Heavy water is deuterium oxide, or D2O or 2H2O. Deuterium oxide is used in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy when the solvent of interest is water and the nuclide of interest is hydrogen. This is because the signal from the water solvent would interfere with the signal from the molecule of interest. Deuterium has a different magnetic moment from hydrogen and therefore does not contribute to the NMR signal at the hydrogen resonance frequency.
e. “Activity unsuitable for D.I.A.G. (or D.I.MG. or D.I.H.G.)
f. “Neptune” – Neptune Shell?
Neptune is the outermost planet of the gas giants and in Roman mythology, god of water, who became god of the sea only after his identification with the Greek Poseidon.
g. “Alleged? …. of = 4 the plane”

6. The Staff Hatch (what we refer to as the Medical Hatch) (10 o’clock)
a. “Aegrescit medendo” Latin for “The disease worsens with the treatment. The remedy is worse than the disease.”
b. “Malum consilium quod mutari non potest” Latin for “It’s a bad plan that can’t be changed.” Publilius Syrus - Publilius (less correctly Publius) Syrus, a Latin writer of mimes, flourished in the 1st century BC. He was a native of Syria and was brought as a slave to Italy, but by his wit and talent he won the favour of his master, who freed and educated him. Is the bad plan the “Dharma Initiative”??
c. “Cerebus (Cerberus?) station believed to have been abandoned due to AH MGD incident of 1985 Or possible catastrophic malfunction of cerebus (Cerberus?) system” or “Caduceus station believed to have been abandoned due to AH/MHG incident of 1985” – A caduceus (kerykeion in Greek) is a staff with two snakes wrapped around it. It was an ancient astrological symbol of commerce and is associated with the Greek god Hermes, the messenger for the gods, conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves. It was originally a herald's staff, sometimes with wings, with two white ribbons attached. The ribbons eventually evolved into snakes in the figure-eight shape. The number eight is important to the practicioners of judicial astrology.
d. “Confirmed site of Caduceus medical Station (The Staff)”
e. “Possible catastrophic malfunction of Cerberus system.
Cerberus is the three-headed dog from mythology that guarded the gates of Hades. Is Cerberus the security system (i.e. smoke) on the island??? The watchdog, so to speak??

E. H1 – Just noticed that on “The Staff”drawing the letters H1 can be seen. Hatch # 1 ??
F. H2 – Just noticed – between CV II and CV III can be seen H2. Hatch # 2 ??
G.H3 – Just noticed – between The Swan and CV I can be seen H3. Hatch # 3 ?? There also seems to be a broken line (X’d out) between H3 and The Swan (looks like a tunnel that is no longer usable on the map). All the hatches have tunnels ?? running to the hub but everyone of them has also been X’d out. Were the tunnels collapsed here to keep people from traveling from the hatches to the hub???

From Entertainment Weekly Issue # 871 April 7th, 2006: Secret History – “The Staff” is where Claire was held captive by the others. “Cerberus” – the mystic watchdog of hell – is probably Smokey the Monster. “AH” could be Dharma financier Alvar Hanso. And is Dharma abandoned the hatch ion ’85, does that mean the Others aren’t affiliated with them?

7. The “Abandoned” CV 0 or # 7 Hatch (11 o’clock)
a. This hatch has been scratched off the map and is, I think, the hatch where Anna Lucia and Mr. Eko’s group were living.
b. “following AH/MGD incident” AH = Alvar Hanso ??? Who is MGD??
c. “estimated travel time incompatible with 108. do not attempt to survey” or “do not attempt journey” (both are listed)
d. “sursum corda, sursom corda, sursum corda” Latin for “Lift up your hearts” x’s three - (Roman Catholic Church) a Latin versicle meaning `lift up your hearts’ – Could this be some spoken password???

8. The Hub Hatch (Center Circle) “?”
a. “Designation unknown”
b. “Purpose unknown.”
c. “Relation to D.I.H.G. unknown”
d. “Nil actum reputa si quid superest agendum” Latin for “Don’t consider that anything has been done if anything is left to be done.” Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (November 3, AD 39-April 30, 65), better known in English as Lucan, was a Roman poet, and is one of the outstanding figures of the Silver Latin period.

From Entertainment Weekly Issue # 871 April 7th, 2006: Hatchapalooza! Presumably other (undiscovered) hatches. The dashed icons – like the hub marked “?” – might mean the mapmaker wasn’t sure these places existed. A notation near “C3” suggests underground tunnels. The “CV” rectangles could denote electromagnetic energy or viewing stations.

Additionally, the two equations shown on the map (B vector and H vector) may be the standard engineering/physics equations. The B vector equation is the magnetic field equation, and the H vector equation is gravity. (See below for more.)

The map also contains a number of “paths” that are super-imposed over the network of hatches on the map. These could either be paths above ground in the jungle or below the hatches. It isn’t clear which.

Also, there may be other written additions to the map that have not yet been deciphered. I will keep you informed if any others come to light. (pun intended). Speaking of which, if the map shows up under high intensity black light are there other additional notes hidden under different types of lighting? Ultraviolet (has the sun ever reached the map?) Red light?? Blue Light??? Hmmmm…..

From the Wikipedia website:
Location
In the episode Lockdown of Season 2, when Locke is pinned underneath one of the blast doors, the timer for the countdown reaches a critical state. Just after the counter is reset, all of the lights go out and several ultraviolet lights turn on. The black lights reveal a hidden drawing on the blast door that Locke was trapped under. The drawing or diagram appears to be a map of some kind and is in the shape of an octagon.

Stations and Other Structures
On the map, there 6 structures depicted, and at least 4 of them are labeled by name and icon: The Swan, The Flame, The Staff and The Arrow. The other structures are labeled by question marks or numbers. Two of the stations are drawn with dotted lines. The 6 structures all surround a big circled question mark in the center of the map. At the top left, there is another structure (a 7th structure) which is scribbled out.

Among the hatches on the southeast side of the map, there are 4 rectangular structures/labels that have "CVI","CVII","CVIII", and "CVIV" written on them. Since CVIV does not exist in roman numerals, the labels are most likely CV 1, CV 2, CV 3, and CV 4, as represented in the roman numeral system.

Other Items
There is also a thin line that connects all but one of the structures.

In addition to the stations, the map also depicts the terrain of the island, showing rivers and mountains. There is also a lot of writing around and on the map; with some of it written in cursive handwriting, and other parts completely capitalized. The acronym D.I.H.G appears at least twice. Also clearly visible is the phrase "I AM HERE" (normally "You are here" in public maps) with an arrow pointing to the structure labeled "The Swan", which is also the name of the hatch that the castaways are currently occupying.

The name Cerberus also appears a few times on the map. Cerberus is monstrous three-headed dog from Greek mythology who guarded the gates to Hades (the Greek underworld). The writing refers to Cerberus as a "system".

The location of the final resting place of the "Magnus Hanso/Black Rock" is also shown on the map, the Black Rock is the name of the ship that the castaways found inland which contained dynamite. Hanso was the last name of Alvar Hanso of the Hanso Foundation, as mentioned in the orientation video.

Latin Phrases
There are multiple Latin phrases on the wall. Some include;
"Sursum Corda" - meaning Lift up your hearts; written three times above The Staff hatch.
"Cogito ergo doleo" - meaning I think therefore I suffer; written under The Flame hatch.
"Liberte te ex infernus" - meaning Free you from the fire or also Save yourself from hell; written above CV III.
"Malum consilium quod mutari non potest" - meaning It's a bad plan that can't be changed. - Publilius Syrus
"Aegrescit medendo" - meaning The disease worsens with the treatment. - Latin Saying.
"Credo nos influctu eodem esse" - meaning I think we are on the same wavelength.
"Nil actum reputa si quid superest sgendum" - meaning Do not consider that anything has been done if anything is left to be done. - Marcus Annaeus Lucanus
"Ut sit magna, tamen certe lenta ira deorum est" - meaning The wrath of the gods may be great, but it certainly is slow.
"Hic sunt dracones" - meaning Here be Dragons.

Map Timeline
A timeline of all the events on the map, based on the dates given on the map and the descriptions for them:
12.07.81 - H.G. Delegation Inspection.
10.28.84 - Suspected shut down date.
1985 - Caduceus Station [or possibly Cerberus Sation] believed to have been abandoned due to AH/MDG incident.
4.08.00 - System wide failure of Dharmatel Intranet.
8.15.01 - System wide failure of Dharmatel Intranet.
4.02.02 - "REV - Possible location of Zoological Research Facility".
01.06.03 - System wide failure of Dharmatel Intranet.

Mathematical Formulae interpretation
The square root of 16 is 4, the square root of 64 is 8, and the square root of 225 is 15. In other words, the first three of the "Lost numbers".

d could also be δ (see: formula for magnetic field)
(see: formula for magnetic flux density)

May be Kinetic Energy times Voltage. KeV is also the unit for thousands of Electronvolts.

*** Henry Gale’s (the real one) license reads:
“Henry Gale”
815 Walnut Ridge Rd
815 was the number of the Oceanic flight
Wayzata, MN. 55391
The name Wayzata came from the Sioux word meaning either The Northern God or the Northern Shore.
Signed: Henry Gale 8/11/64

08-11-64 Birth date
Wt. 220
Ht. 6’ 3’
Number: M-152-996-431-000 Expires” 03 Class: A1”

August 11th, 1964 – Beatles’ “A Hard Days Night” opens in NYC

*** The macaroni box from the drop-lifted pallet of food reads:
“DI9FFTR731 – Dharma Initiative – Macaroni & Cheese Supper” The number is the same as that on the cereal box.

Next Episode "Dave"
Wednesday April 5, 2006 on ABC
Writer: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Director: Jack Bender
Guest Stars: Michael Emerson (Henry Gale) , Grisel Toldeo (Nurse), Bruce Davison (Dr. Brooks), Ron Bottitta (Leonard), Evan Handler (Dave)
Production Code: 218
Libby lends a helping hand to Hurley to support him when he begins to think the island is having a strange effect on him, and Locke's sense of purpose is shaken when the prisoner gives him new information about the hatch.

Next two episodes (after “Dave”)

S.O.S.
Wednesday April 12, 2006 on ABC
Writer: Leonard Dick, Steven Maeda
Director: Eric Laneuville
All Guest Stars: L. Scott Caldwell (Rose) , Sam Anderson (Bernard), Donna Smallwood (Aussie Woman), Wayne Pygram (Isaac), Michael Emerson (Henry Gale)
Production Code: 219
Rose is surprisingly and vehemently opposed to Bernard's plan to create an S.O.S. signal; romantic sparks are rekindled between Jack and Kate when they trek into the jungle to propose a "trade" with "The Others"; and Locke begins to question his faith in the island.

Two For the Road
Wednesday May 3, 2006 on ABC
Production Code: 220
No Episode Summary Available

March 30th, 2006
Additions March 30th to April 5th, 2006

My e-mail to Jack and Jay at the Lost Podcast on April 12th, 2006 concerning Latin on the blast door map:

Jay and Jack,
There has been a great deal of discussion concerning Latin on the blast door map and most of it involves the Catholic religion. However, the language of the Vatican is also the language of pure science and should not be discounted as to why it was used in the map. Scientists and doctors still use Latin every day; from the names of animals to the names of internal organs in humans. The blast door is filled with a huge number of connotations concerning science. Including mathematical equations, notations concerning genetic manipulation, extreme climate changes and computers. Perhaps the maps author was a scientist??

The Alternative One
Kenosha, Wisconsin

From the writers of LOST:Turns out that supercool black-light reveal is a major plot point that carries on through the rest of the season. "Oh yeah, big time," Damon Lindelof said. "I mean, it plays huge in the finale, and even in episodes 21 through 24. Twenty-one is an episode that is very much on the sort of fundamental axis of that map, and it's a Locke and Eko story, which is going to be awesome. [Executive Producer] Carlton [Cuse] and I wrote it. That episode is just called '?' because that is the symbol Locke remembers from the map."

Episode - The Whole Truth

2006-04-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

Episode "The Whole Truth"
Air Date: Wednesday, 22 March, 2006

Some theories and observations:

1. The album Lock is looking at down in the hatch is "Geronimo Jackson". According to Wikipedia this is: "a band, believed to be fictional whose album is found by Charlie and Hurley in the Hatch during the episode "The Hunting Party." This album is reported to be produced by "Locke and Key Records". Lost writers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof mention in a Lost Podcast that music from the 1970s band "Geronimo Jackson" will be appearing on the show. In reality the band appears to be fictional though, or at very least a reference to 70's band 'Geronimo Black' - who incidentally wrote the song 'Other man', which as we know is an anagram of "Ethan Rom", the other and Claire's "Doctor" from the Medical Hatch.

2. The song playing in the back ground while Locke is looking at record albums is "Pushin' Too Hard" by The Seeds from the Evil Hoodoo record. Also, from the Easy Rider soundtrack. Is Henry Gale pushin' too hard on Locke???

3. Why isn't the Apollo chocolate bar that Hurley offers Sun a Dharma Brand like all the other food on the island?

4. Widmore Labs Pregnancy Test - There was also a Widmore Construction Company in the Episode "Fire + Water", which revolves around Charley. The producers have stated that Widmore Construction will play a major roll in upcoming episodes. Did they build the bunkers??? Was the preg. test on the island before the plane crashed?? Not part of the luggage??? Another theory states that the pregnancy test was on the airplane because one of the lost is also recently pregnant. Widmore Labs can be arranged to spell "A womb Dr. lies".

5. Where did Charley get a hand-gun??? Had to be from Sawyer???

6. Note to Pete: The map was drawn by Henry Gale on the title page of the book that Locke gave to him in the gun locker. The book is "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Dostoyevsky’s 1880 novel, The Brothers Karamazov, is a tale of bitter family rivalries. Sort of what Henry Gale is doing to Jack and Locke as he pits them against each other. How anyone could find anything using that poorly drawn map is beyond me!!

7. The relationship game - Mr. Lee (Sun's English teacher) left Korea for America because of an American woman. Could it have been Kate???

8. Off-subject and not part of the episode but "Oceanic" is an anagram for cocaine, hmmm....

More next week.