LOST: “Some Like it Hoth”
At last, the long-awaited and highly anticipated (by me, anyway) Miles-centric episode.
Spoilers from tonight’s episode after the break.
Links and miscellanea
- Here’s a look at Lost from a religious perspective. It seems like I used to see more of these types of articles during the first couple of seasons, but they have only recently started to reappear, as the show seems to be returning to more faith-based and spiritual themes. The article points at that show-runner Carlton Cuse is “a practicing Catholic.”
- And here’s another article discussing why Lost can get away with blatantly religious themes where overtly religious shows fail.
- Josh Holloway (Sawyer) is a daddy. He and his wife Yessica just had their first child and named her Java.
- M.C. Gainey (Tom/Mr. Friendly) has an interview online in which he discusses Lost and his new Twin-Peaks-ish ABC show.
- Dutch Lost has an interview with Jorge Garcia (Hurley).
- And here’s one with Eric Lange (Radzinsky).
- Here’s an updated island map. Not sure how one does this kind of cartography, but it’s interesting.
- You can pre-order the Season 4 soundtrack at Amazon now. I’ve never listened to one of these, but it might make good mood music, and I think Michael Giaccino is a genius.
- Back to the Future’s own Michael J. Fox has enjoyed the time traveling on Lost this season.
- Finally, if all the time-tripping and backstory has got you a bit confused, ABC.com now has a Lost timeline available for fans.
Observations and speculations
- A quick note about the episode title: for those who don’t already know, it’s a punny reference to the classic Billy Wilder comedy, crossed by the ice-planet setting of the opening scenes of The Empire Strikes Back. I thought it was funny, but sometimes I’m a sucker for that kind of humor.
- Here’s a review of what we knew about Miles prior to this episode: He arrived on the freighter with a team that included a merciless mercenary (Keamy), an obsessed anthropologist (Charlotte) and a freaky physicist (Faraday). Miles’ exact role on this team was never quite fully explained, but from a flashback, as well as several other hints along the way, we were to infer that he’s a “ghostbuster” of sorts and that Widmore thought those skills would be useful in the hunt for Ben. Miles made it a priority to meet and speak with Ben on the island, promising him that he wouldn’t turn Ben over to the mercenaries in exchange for the curiously exact sum of $3.2 million. He had an opportunity to leave the island via the chopper, but chose to stay. Although Miles has no memory of ever being on the island before, he was affected by the time-shifting-induced nosebleeds around the same time as Juliet, and before the Oceanic 815 survivors. I and others have speculated that Miles was the infant seen in Dr. Pierre Chang’s barrack during the season premier, which would explain his connection to the island.
- The opening shot is of an old school microwave and the digital clock is displaying “3:16,” as in John 3:16 and Ajira 316.
- A few minutes later, we see another reference to one of the “numbers” when Young Miles starts getting death vibes from Apartment No. 4, the abode of the late Mr. Vonner.
- The next scene cuts to Miles in the security station, reading a Sports Illustrated with Tommy Lasorda on the cover. That particular issue dates to March 14, 1977. (This article about the recent legalization of the slam dunk in college basketball has a particularly cool retro feel to it.)
- Kate and Sawyer are on monitor 4. Somehow, you just knew when Sawyer mentioned it that Miles wasn’t going to manage to erase the security tape.
- Miles mentioning “your pal, Sayid” is a reminder that we still have no idea what Sayid is up to.
- Horace bringing Miles into “the circle of trust” cracked me up. It’s an example of how a lot of things in this episode (the humor, the action and the drama) were fairly dry and understated.
- As some suspected, the Swan Station (aka, the Hatch) was built in hostile territory (“grid 3-3-4″). Now it’s confirmed.
- In the next flashback, we next see Miles as a heavily tattooed punk rocker visiting his dying mother. For some reason, he has an upside-down 1 on the back of his plaid hoody. It’s was pretty obvious that Ms. Straum was lying about Miles’ father being dead. If he really was, there would have been no reason to conceal this fact from her son.
- By the way, add Miles to the long list of Lost characters (Locke, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Penny, etc.) who have Daddy issues.
- Juliet’s act before Roger Linus was not very convincing. She’s actually a pretty accomplished liar, but this isn’t some of her better work. From this moment, everything starts to unravel. As Juliet tells Kate, “Here we go.”
- As Miles and Hurley ride in the blue DHARMA VW van through the jungle, the Albert Hammond song “It Never Rains in Southern California” is playing on the car stereo. (Incidentally, Albert Hammond, Jr. is a rhythm guitarist for The Strokes.) The lyric from the song that we first hear is “Got on board a westbound 747/Didn’t think before deciding what to do.” Indeed.
- Hurley is scribbling away in an essay notebook with a DHARMA educational insignia (an apple on two books) on the front. He asks Miles, “How do you spell bounty hunter.” This threw me initially, and I thought maybe he was referring to Ilana, the woman who brought Sayid on the Ajira flight. More likely, he was referring to Boba Fett.
- Alvarez, the guy in the body bag, was obviously working construction on the Swan Station site and got a little bit too close to the intense electromagnetic area, causing his tooth feeling to rip through his brain. In a sense, Radzinsky wasn’t lying when he said that Alvarez “fell into a ditch.” But it was one hell of a ditch. Alvarez was “thinking about some chick named Andrea.”
- With Mr. Gray, we see Miles’ tendency toward shysterism. When he’s doing something he’s uncomfortable with, he asks for even more money (“that’s going to cost extra”). Just as when we first saw Miles, however, he ends up returning the money. He acts as if money is the most important thing, but then reverts to his own personal set of principles.
- As Miles leave’s Mr. Gray’s house, he is approached by Naomi Dorrit, later the first person from the freighter to reach the island. Naomi
- Yet again, the barracks swing set makes an appearance, with Roger Linus siting and getting drunk on DHARMA beer. Roger’s not a genius, but he does have a pretty good knack at being able to tell when he’s being lied to or when someone knows more than they are letting on. Remember that he knew Sawyer/LaFleur’s question about his keys was significant.
- The conversation between Hurley and Miles about talking to dead people is pretty funny. Miles has a true sixth sense, in contrast to Hurley, who’s apparently just delusional and/or being disturbed by the island.
- Funny Hurley line: “You’re just jealous that my power’s better than yours.”
- Funnier Pierre Change line: “Well, how do you feel about Polar Bear feces?” It’s interesting that he doesn’t think the experiments on the Hydra Island are worthwhile.
- So why exactly do Horace and Change want to move the corpse from the Swan Station (under construction) to the Orchid Station (also under construction)? Although it’s not very audible, one of the construction workers says after lifting the body bag, “What the hell’s he got in here, Jimmy Hoffa?” Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and his body was never found. It was a constant source of topical humor in the last half of the ’70s.
- Great Miles line, “That douche is my dad.”
- Naomi’s “audition” involves Miles identifying a stiff named Felix who was running intelligence for Widmore. In fact, Felix was bringing Widmore documentation of the graves and airplane that were used to mock-up the Oceanic 815 crash. I could be wrong, but this seems to indicate that it was not Widmore, but Ben’s faction, that created the fake crash site. After all, why would Widmore need this information if he was behind the conspiracy. And why would anyone have killed Felix to prevent him from getting the documentation to Widmore? [UPDATE: In the cruel light of the next morning, it occurs to me that Felix might have been trying to blackmail Widmore, and Widmore decided to kill him rather than pay. If this is the case, then Felix was a rank amateur; all good blackmailers know that you never bring the documents with you, but you keep the originals in a safety deposit box with instructions to your attorney to release the damaging materials should you come to any harm.]
- Naomi then reveals why Miles was brought on the hunt for Ben: Widmore believed that a ghost whisperer like Miles might be useful in locating Ben because Ben was the one responsible for killing many of the dead on the island. That makes sense. As soon as she told Miles that Widmore planned to pay Miles $1.6 million, I knew how Miles arrived at the $3.2 million figure he asked for from Ben—he wanted Ben to double the bounty that Widmore had promised. Pretty simple, really.
- To a casual viewer, it was probably an interesting reveal that Dr. Chang is Miles’ father, kind of like some people might have been surprised to find out that Locke’s father was the Real Sawyer. I wonder how many casual fans of the show are left, and how much of the audience is pretty locked-in, spending time reading and speculating about the various plot points. To the latter group, this was totally non-surprising.
- Hurley and Miles have still not changed their minds about their time-travel/free-will-vs.-determinism debate. Miles believes that his father is “going to get killed no matter what I do, so why bother?” but Hurley thinks he can improve the Star Wars trilogy by sending George Lucas an improved version of the Empire script and save us all from the Ewoks.
- The DHARMA classroom is pretty funny. I liked the bulletin boards that say, “Create arts and crafts,” “use your imagination,” “DHARMA students make learning FUN!!!,” and (my personal favorite) “DHARMA Science is FAR OUT!”
- Interestingly, the blackboard that Jack is erasing has a lesson about ancient Egypt on it, something to do with the development of Egyptian writing from before 2000 B.C. down to 600 B.C.:
Old Egyptian
2600 B.C. to 2000 B.C.
Tripling ideograms, phonograms and determinatives
Middle Egyptian
2000 B.C. to 1300 B.C.
classic stage of language
Late Egyptian
1300 B.C. to 700 B.C.
From synthetic to an language [? this part isn't totally clear]There are also some simple hieroglyphics written on the blackboard, with the words “Egyptian” and “‘Writing of the words of God’” written next to them. Interesting. DHARMA people may have known something about the island’s connection with an ancient, Egyptian-oriented mystical religion, and felt it was relevant enough to teach about Egyptian language to their children in school.
- It’s pretty funny that Change is so oblivious that he fails to notice that Miles, the Asian guy who kind of looks like him, has the same name as his 3-month-old son. Or maybe, as a man of science, he’s quick to dismiss it as a coincidence, no matter how unlikely. Yet, with the Orchid Station already under construction, you’d think he’d at least consider the possibility of time travel.
- I’m not sure I like officious Hurley. Funny, but uncomfortably annoying.
- It was also funny to learn that Dr. Chang prefers country music to jazz, and to see the look of disgust on Miles’ face when he hears this.
- Even though it was pretty predictable, it was a nice moment to see Hurley present when the hatch door window was getting its serial number pounded into it.
- I’m pretty sure that Lost has used the “La Vida Tacos” stand for a location before, though I don’t know exactly when. It’s close to where Miles gets snatched by the non-Widmore people.
- The most interesting part of the whole abduction is when the boss man, Bram, asks Miles, “Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?” This is the code-word-seeming language that Ilana asked Lapidus in last week’s episode, right before she clocked him with the butt of her rifle. If Bram looks familiar it’s because he was on Ajira 316, and was the guy carrying guns with Ilana. It seems that Ilana wasn’t the mostly clueless bounty hunter we presumed her to be after all, but may be a true-blue anti-Widmore operative.
- But how does that work, exactly? Who are these people and why don’t they seem to recognize Ben? Are they the successors to DHARMA?
- Miles tries to convince Bram that he doesn’t care about his father, but only about money, and Bram responds, “We’re not paying you anything.” This is quite a contrast to Widmore, who seems very willing to use Miles’ greed to his own purposes. Bram is confident that he’s playing for the team “that’s gonna win.” I’d sure like to know what team that is in more specific terms.
- Hurley’s Star Wars riff is very funny.
- Best Sawyer line of the episode (after knocking Phil unconscious): “Get some rope.” Nice dutch angle shot as Sawyer bends down to pick up Phil’s body, by the way. Reminds me of that moment in the film noir where the protagonist realizes that things aren’t going to be good for a while.
- When Miles returns to Mr. Gray to give him back his money, his words are devastating. He explains the refund by saying it “wouldn’t be fair” to his son for Miles to keep the money, then rants about how Gray should have told his son while he was alive that he loved him if it was so important. This scene was well done and powerfully communicated that Miles had not, in fact, stopped caring about his father, and it did so without relying on any clumsy exposition.
- I have a feeling that Hurley’s version of the Vader/Luke confrontation at the end of Empire would not actually be an improvement, even if it did help avoid the Ewoks.
- Dr. Chang is reading to Baby Miles out of a book called “My Polar Bear and Me.” Ha! Also, Baby Miles has a little DHARMA baby blanket.
- Finally, we see Daniel Faraday’s return to the island. He’s not a recruit, however, but a “scientist from Ann Arbor.” He’s also wearing a very cool-looking black jumpsuit with a Swan Station insignia on the chest. Interesting.
Even though this episode was not very quick paced, I enjoyed it. In some ways, it felt like a throwback to earlier seasons. It was a true Miles-centric episode, with the island events interspersed with chronologically organized flashbacks. What did everyone else think?
Next week, it’s a clip show, then a new episode in two weeks.
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Posted on April 16, 2009, in Television. Bookmark the permalink. 63 Comments.
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Whoohoo! First comment!!
Roger Linus’ beer did not have the proper 1970′s era pull tab. My wife caught that one. I’ve got to ask her how she knows so much about 70′s era beer cans.
Great episode. Miles has an excellent story to tell.
I totally forgot about that. Nice catch. Don’t forget, that when Miles tells Ben he wants $3.2 million to NOT take him in, he is probably attempting to take the offer made by the bad guys with guns in van, who, in his mind, probably don’t want Ben taken off the island. They weren’t giving him money, but maybe Ben would.
Things are leaning evermore on Ben being the ultimate bad guy and Widmore being a, well, not the main bad guy.
I assumed that Felix was actually going to rat out Widimore, and that’s why he was killed, presumably by Naomi. That’s my guess at least.
How else would Naomi be able to confirm who he was???
But, you’re spin is more interesting…
I wonder how much of this episode was already conceived and meant to be shown last season???
Hays,
Miles said that Felix was delivering documents and photos to Widmore, and that’s how I came to my conclusion. Another possibility that I didn’t consider last night was that he could have been attempting to blackmail Widmore.
I suspect that a good part of the flashbacks here were intended to be a part of the writer’s strike-shortened season.
LOVE the weekly analysis of each ep!! Best I’ve been able to find on the internet.
I thought it was HUGE that Chang blew off the work on Hydra. That said to me that there are two levels of Dharma – the touchy feely 1970s university-funded experiments is one, and the deeper mission of exploiting the island’s properties is the other. Just as we saw the tubes going nowhere, a lot of Dharma is a ruse to cover what’s really going on.
My guess is that the Others/Hostiles are OK with Dharma at the first level, but rise up when they figure out the second level – ie construction of the Swan in their territory and discovery of the wheel during Orchid construction. They have to protect their island after all.
As for Ilana and the van boys, I still think Eloise is the best bet for who is running them. With Ilana’s question, I suspected that their mission was about history/science/mysticism rather than conquering (ie Widmore), and that the crate doesn’t have guns, but rather research equipment. After all, Eloise was the one who identified Ajira 316 as the flight that would get to the island.
The van boys furthered the idea – they didn’t talk about riches (which is how Widmore recruited), they talked about *answers*.
It’s interesting that there are so many factions at play, and we have yet to fully understand who is working for who, which factions overlap, and who might be playing more than one side. My guess is a lot of this will come to head in The Incident.
Jenny, thanks for the compliment. There are a lot of good Lost bloggers on the internet. I’m flattered.
I agree with Jenny…this is the best one BTD Greg! Thanks for EVERYONE who writes in on this site…it always leaves me thinking. THANKS…
BTW-I did not really like this episode. To me it was obvious about Miles. The whole relationship with Ben’s dad and Kate…is WEIRD to me. Well, again I won’t waste space as I have nothing intriguing to add right now. I always re watch the episode the next day and after checking in here..so off to watch again.
Thanks again Greg and everyone else who contributes.
I have to second Jenny, Greg. Your analysis is always top notch.
Synthetic is a linguistic term. I don’t know enough about Egyptian to know how it applies in this case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_language
Also, Greg, I want to add that I really appreciate the variety of links you add at the beginning of each post. It links me up with some places that I wouldn’t have otherwise found.
I liked this episode and I liked the whole Hurley/Miles back and forthing. About a month ago my son and I saw the name of this upcoming episode and were brainstorming what they could mean by Hoth — we only knew it as the Star Wars planet! Now of course, we know. And btw, there are some people out there that know what ever happened happened. Maybe Hurley really wrote The Empire Strikes Back!
“Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?”
Answer: Four Toes >> Fortean >> Charles Fort
From wiki: “Expressed in a sentence, Fort’s principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels.”
Fort suggests that there is, for example, a Super-Sargasso Sea into which all lost things go, and justifies his theories by noting that they fit the data as well as the conventional explanations.
Maybe the Dharma Initiative is the Lost world’s Fortean Society.
Some thoughts (haven’t read the comments yet)
1. How much do you think they had to pay Lucas to make all those Star Wars references? It was worth it. One of the better Hurley episodes even if it wasn’t a Hurley-centric one.
2. The return of the numbers. One of the big mysteries returns. Why did they put those numbers on the hatch? The very opening of this season when we found Faraday stopping drilling presumably where the hatch is built may not have happened yet in the regular 70′s timeline.
3. Mile’s parentage confirmed. Many of us have been speculating on this for a while. More “lost” people who need to fix their personalities.
4. Mile can’t talk to dead people. But then I’m not convinced Hurley can either. The mystery of whether the dead people are really dead or are simulacrums produced by the island remains. Which makes me want to get back to Locke and the present but next week seems like a Dharma-centric episode where everything goes to hell.
5. What the heck is up with Kate?
Interesting you mention the Sargasso Sea. I just read Deep Fathom by James Rollins, who writes thrillers that combine science, history and adventure (think Indiana Jones/da Vinci code) – it in, he talks about a similar triangle in the Pacific, right about where 815 crashed.
There’s also alot about Lumeria or the land of Mu – a sort of Atlantis-type place thought to be anywhere in the Pacific, or possibly in the Indian Ocean. It’s a lost civilization whose symbolic language – known now as rongorongo – appears in various places, including Easter Island.
It seems to me that Lost is creating its kind of Mu, and tying it to Egypt (although why they didn’t go with Mu is beyond me – it was all there waiting to be accessed).
Saw Clark’s post after I made mine above, so let me comment on it now:
It’s entirely possible Lucas is a Lost fan. Like Lost, Star Wars was a combination of many of the movies and stories and characters Lucas loved growing up, so if anyone is going to appreciate the complexity of references in Lost, it’s Lucas.
re Miles vs Hurley’s abilities – I agree that Miles has a true psychic ability, while Hurley’s is in his head (although I love Hurley’s analysis that his powers are better than Miles’!). I think it’s an interesting parallel to Christian – cabin Christian being a true paranormal manifestation, and suited Christian being in Jack’s head.
Makes me wonder if the focus on these themes is preparing us for Jacob. So many fans seem to want him to be a person or some other very specific being. I think it’s more likely that Jacob means different things to different people – just like some people interpret God to be a specific being, whereas others take a more symbolic or philosophical view.
Other comments.
A Twin Peakish show? Who is the director though? It was David Lynch who made that show. When he took an extended hiatus to do Wild at Heart the show struggled and ultimately failed. (Although there were big portions of the second half of season 2 I loved)
A point I missed in my earlier comments. What’s up with the team who kidnapped Miles? My wife and I were discussing this. If they didn’t want Miles to help Widmore why not just kill him? I presume it was Ben’s team which means Ben wanted him there and is manipulating him. Interesting.
A question I’ve long had but this episode brought back is why the Others don’t give a damn about the hatch. They apparently didn’t even know (or care) about Desmond.
Are teeth fillings magnetic? I thought they weren’t.
I think we already knew it was Widmore who planted the fake plane crash. That’s how the pilot (forget his name) ended up on Widmore’s team. He knew it was fake.
“Felix” definitely was trying to blackmail Widmore. Which makes me wonder why our favorite pilot got a job rather than a bullet.
I think the Taco stand was a chicken stand when Hurley was with his friend after winning all the money. Lost is pretty good about how they reuse settings though. Contrast this with Chuck which tends to use the same building interior for evil mastermind foyers and doesn’t even bother trying to make it look different.
I agree that there are two levels to Dharma. But I think we knew this season 2 when the YouTube videos about Dharma “exposes” were put up. The secret Dharma is manipulating the numbers to create a Utopia. But they don’t mind mass murder to do it. Which makes me think that Dharma isn’t really gone. So are there two teams (Ben and Widmore) or three? Ben’s killing of Dharmaites on the island wouldn’t have killed everyone off island.
Jenny, Lucas may be a Lost fan, but TV and film references cost money. (Which is actually ridiculous in my mind – but that’s how the law evolved) And Lucas probably charged a pretty penny.
Plus it wasn’t exactly an endearing reference to Lucas. More an anti-Lucas fanboy kind of thing to say. And yes, Ewoks suck, but not nearly as much as the new trilogy.
BTW – I think both Christians are from the Island. I don’t think Jack (or Hurley) are imagining the dead folk they see.
Interesting point that Dharma isn’t really gone – the biggest indicator we have of that idea is that a shipment of food was dropped off as late as 2004. It’s one of those plot points that has been hanging for several seasons now – maybe it’s forgotten, but the producers have a habit of surprising us with this kind of thing, so maybe you’re right!
TOMMY Lasorda, not Toni, lol.
I am in the faction that believes that the Ilana/Bram group is a part of or an offshoot of what was left of Dharma after the purge. I mean, even though the island was purged of Dharma peeps, there was a still a mainland braintrust remaining, right? I’ve always wondered what they had been doing since they lost contact with their settlement on the island…
Supposedly we learn this year about the food drops. I’ve not kept up with the podcasts this year but I seem to recall them mentioning that the food would be explained.
It seems to me there are two explanations. Either Ben and the Others “took over” Dharma or Widmore did. The alternative is that the food drop was one of the tests of a time/space wormhole and that they were packaged all at once but drop throughout time.
Tom, you don’t think Ilana works for Widmore at all?
I think Star Wars may have reached the point where mentioning it on a TV show doesn’t require any royalty. I can’t recall the legal term though. Common…? A little help, Supergenius?
I agree.
Okay, I found it. Not common something. It’s Fair Use.
The problem is that whether or not something is actually fair use lawyers often err on the side of caution. Also there are unstated rules about payment for references.
I remember on the director’s commentary for Blair Witch Project that they said the most expensive part of the whole film was paying the “royalties” to be able to just mention Giligan’s Island.
Tom that’s a very interesting point. Dharma had people in at least one place that we know of – Ann Arbor – and at least one other station (Lampost) that may or may not have been manned when Ben gassed everyone. There’s also the facility in Portland that Ben/Richard used to recruit Juliet, and of course the food drops. For the Looking Glass station, we can imagine that Ben took care of them separately, but it is a hanging point of yet another group that would have missed the purge.
So we might assume that the part of Dharma that remains is whatever is left of the more idealistic/social experiment group – again more interested in answers than take over?
Good to know that they haven’t forgotten the food drops though – thanks Clark for that tidbit.
Clark, I don’t think you have to pay Lucas anything to talk about Star Wars unless you are quoting the dialog. Lucas is an overprotective parent about his stuff and probably keeps his lawyers on speed-dial, but I think you’re interpretation of the law is way overbroad. Only copyright law comes into play, and I don’t think what we saw last night would require any royalties. (Neither would Simon Pegg’s brilliant rant on Spaced, for that matter, which I seriously doubt Lucas would have agreed to.) I’ve never heard of any “unstated rules about payment for references” unless its an endorsement type situation that would require licensing.
Tom (19): “TOMMY Lasorda, not Toni, lol.” I actually thought I had fixed that already. This is the problem with rushing these recaps out late at night the same day the episodes air. Too tired to proofread.
Clark (16): “I think we already knew it was Widmore who planted the fake plane crash. That’s how the pilot (forget his name) ended up on Widmore’s team. He knew it was fake.”
The question of who created the fake crash is still up in the air. Ben claimed it was Widmore and told Locke that he could prove it. The captain of the freighter told the opposite tale: that Ben had created the fake crash and that Widmore had the documents to prove it. The Felix tale still leaves room for ambiguity. Lapidus is a conspiracy theorist who believed that the crash was fake based in part on his friendship with the Oceanic 815 pilot, but I don’t think his belief was why he was recruited, just why he was willing to go.
BTD Greg, I really appreciate the recaps you do every week. They increase my enjoyment of my favorite show.
So there are three groups vying for control of the island?
Widmore’s group.
Ben’s group.
And the new group Ilana belongs to (Possibly Dharma Strikes Back)?
Regarding the Christian religious perspective: I find it interesting that Christians are focusing so much on Lock’s resurrection: It’s standard SciFi stuff. I can’t count the number of SciFi movies and TV shows where a main character “dies” only to be “resurrected.” It’s usually explained in scientific terms — his species goes into “stasis” during trauma, or is “hibernating,” etc. etc. Although sometimes it’s not explained at all, it just happens… That’s SciFi, folks.
But one religious aspect that I haven’t heard anyone comment on is the idea of the Island as a conscious entity, with multiple facets of it’s’ personality “one in being” with it.
The Others seem to be very specific when they state that “The Island wants” this or that, and when they state “Jacob wants” this or that. Same with Smokey. All treated as separate entities, but all seemingly wanting the same outcomes, and using different means to push the characters to achieve those outcomes.
While there is a lot of Egyptian mythology being hinted at this season, all along there have many references to Judeo/Christian mythology. It’s already been noted on this blog many character names obviously coming from the Bible: Jacob, Benjamin, John, Thomas, Michael, etc. References to John 3:16, Doubting Thomas, temples, miracles, spontaneous healing, sin, redemption, judgment… these motifs have been there from Season One, simultaneously with the Egyptian mythos.
Has anyone considered the idea that the Island, Jacob, and Smokey are one unified consciousness, manifest as three separate personalities? If true, what we may have here is a Holy Trinity, with a remote, unapproachable God the Father (the Island) whose requests and desires are interpreted by a Son in human form, acting as the intermediary in human affairs (Jacob). Finally, we have an ephemeral Holy Spirit, who manifests the favor (or disfavor) of God the Father. (Unlike the Christian Holy Spirit, while it doesn’t obviously descent “like a dove” on those in God’s favor, it sure as hell beats the crap out of anyone in God’s disfavor!)
Seen in this context, Christian Shepherd, the appearances of not-Walt, even Hurley’s imaginary friend Dave, can be seen as Angels: divine messengers relaying God’s (the Island’s) will to the mortals on the island.
A year ago, I was theorizing to myself that John Locke was sort of a John the Baptist for the Island — a leader who would not ultimately be the Island’s (and world’s) savior, but would ultimately pave the way for that savior. In light of the recent death and resurrection of Locke, I am rethinking that, and waiting for more clues as to how Locke fits into this mythology. I for one can’t wait for the the show to return to the Locke/Ben storyline, to see how the resurrection ultimately changed Locke.
Jenny #24: Dharma had people in at least one place that we know of – Ann Arbor – and at least one other station (Lampost) that may or may not have been manned when Ben gassed everyone. There’s also the facility in Portland that Ben/Richard used to recruit Juliet, and of course the food drops.
Ben/Richard weren’t working for Dharma when they recruited Juliet, and IIRC the Portland lab was a cover story. But I agree that Dharma, Widmore and the Others all seem to have tremendous resources and international scope.
Greg, I think thought that when Lapidus calls the hotline he ends up getting a job with Widmore. While it’s possible that the folks finding the plane and those hiding the plane aren’t the same I’m pretty dubious. I think all the evidence points to Widmore.
Not that Ben is too lovable. But the idea that Widmore is a “good guy” is pretty implausible to me.
Regarding mention royalties, I’d love someone to chime in who knows. I’ve heard the opposite of what you say from several people.
That’s been discussed a lot relative to The Tempest – Forbidden Planet references. A lot of people think the island is akin to the giant world-computer in Forbidden Planet.
BTW – personally I think we’ll discover that the island itself is evil and Jack destroys it at the end of next season. I suspect we’ll start to see parallels to Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
So much great discussion here …
re Lapidus getting hired – it’s possible that aside from being a pilot apparently unemployed at the time, Widmore figured as a conspirist he was better on his side than mouthing off to anyone who would listen.
re three groups vying for control of the island – I think there could be more – I think Eloise might be in there, plus Richard appears to have his own agenda. What we don’t know is which groups overlap/control/might be working with each other, and how many of the players are working for more than one side (as we just saw Miles attempt to do).
re Locke as John the Baptist – I’m not up on bible studies, but the reference to him paving the way for another leader is intriguing. I still think that this thing started with Jack and Kate, and it will end with Jack and Kate. Christian’s continued presence on the island and the importance placed on Aaron makes me think that Jack might be the interim leader who will pass the inheritance to Aaron and Charlie, and possibly Sun’s daughter if we can confirm her ties to the island (still hoping to get back to why her father had pictures of the island in his office!).
re Portland facility – you’re right that we don’t know if Dharma used it, but at the same time, given that the Others have a history of taking over other facilities, and my doubt that Ben built it, I’m guessing that’s where recruits like Linus etc were processed. I also think it must be where the sub ports. Thus, when the purge happened, it’s another off-island facility/group of people that should have wondered what happened.
Here’s my two cents:
I agree that Hurley & Miles make a fantastic comedy team. I guffawed several times at their conversation in the van.
“The circle of trust†is meant to evoke the theme of time loops (as opposed to our normal concept of it as a straight line).
The magnetic field on the island is so strong that it induces magnetism in metals that aren’t normally magnetic like a filling. We’re talking about something powerful enough to cause time-travel, so it’s not that surprising that it can induce magnetism.
I think they transport bodies to the Orchid so they can experiment with the effects there on human-sized organic material. Either that, or the effects there are conducive to disposing of a body. Hence, the Jimmy Hoffa reference. The writers are very skillful in tipping their hand via character dialog that flies under the radar.
I think the statue-people are pre-Others, and may be immortal Egyptians, as I suspect Richard Alpert is. Richard may be an “inside man” for them just as Ben was for the Others when he lived in Dharmaville. That would turn out to be a great parallel, which the writers love. Being immortal would definitely lead to not caring about money.
The Dutch angle shot of Sawyer reminded me of the 60′s Batman villain’s lair (which may have come from film noir). At any rate, it meant that Sawyer was about to do some bad things. This could be a parallel with poor Felix the stiff. That doesn’t bode well for Phil.
Speaking of Felix the stiff, he was bringing the exact documents to Widmore that Mr. Friendly showed Michael in the hotel room. So there’s no doubt that Ben’s people killed Felix and took the documents. Now why would they do that? The only scenario that fits is that Ben planted the plane with the corpses and Felix was bringing Widmore the proof when Ben’s people caught him. Ben’s insistence that Widmore planted the fake plane is a strong indication that Widmore didn’t do it, because Ben’s a lying liar who lies. I suppose the blackmail scenario kinda fits, but we should always default to Ben lying. It makes the story more interesting if Ben did what we always thought Widmore did.
Miles’ pattern of behavior is being set up very consistently. (Only caring about money at first, then his conscience takes over.) Right now he’s in the money phase. I believe that he will “save the day” in the end.
I’ll be very interested in how Daniel gets to work on the island. The last the Dharmites saw, he was in some random shipwreck. Now he has the specialized skills to be a scientist on this wacky island? It’s only plausible if no one who saw him three years ago sees him now. That’s a big risk to take.
My theory on the food drops is that they are launched from another part of the island, which is how the alarm is triggered. I can’t wait to see the catapult or launch tube where they originate.
This recap is absolutely one of the best. It’s one of the five I’ve whittled down my reading to. (That was an awkward sentence, huh?) I don’t know if this is gauche or not, but another great recap can be found here: http://blogs.chron.com/tubular/archives/lost/
Had to take an entertainment law class in film school. Very boring – but I seem to recall that this would fall under fair use or some form of parody. Older works get referenced constantly in current works.
If making references to other works was something you had to pay for or actionable, Kevin Smith’s movies would never make back their budget number and/or he would have had his pants sued off many, many times.
I would have a clearer idea, but I leant my text book to someone a few years ago and never got it back.
These things aren’t black and white though. They are case by case and hinge largely on what kind of damage to the original work the reference might cause and how much of the work you lifted. In this case both factors pretty much amount to zero.
Another intersting note: we see that Chang was actually a very loving father. But, there has to be some disconnect/some event that changes that or forces him to kick his wife and kid off the island.
What if Faraday reveals his true self to Chang and tells him what is going to happen? Then, Miles and mom leave the island. But, they are forced to do because of a Harry and the Henderson treatment?
Also, Miles’ mother looked like she was suffering from radiation poison, no? Jughead?
It reminded me of the viral video that was shown at COMIC CON last summer with a Dharma Video featuring Dr. Pierre Chang, and it clearly was used to set up the whole time travel season that we’ve experienced. The question, of course, is whether this is canon or not.
http://www.lost.web.tr/comic-con-lost-marvin-candle-pierre-chang-video/
It sounds like Faraday who is behind the camera (another possibility is that its Radinzsky). And, Chang gives out information that only someone FROM the future would know (W as pres, internet, etc…). But, he also makes a plea to “change the past.”
Maybe his personality changed when he lost an arm and an eye.
I totally misssed that from the orientation films. Is it a fact that he lost his arm and eye???
Like the second scene with Miles and Mr. Gray, the moment when Miles was watching his father read to Baby Miles was perfect. If this show were written by just about anyone else, Miles would have sniffed and said, “He did care. He DID care!” I really like that these writers trust the audience to understand without having everything spelled out.
My favorite Hurley line: “Gross.”
BTW, tattoos are pictures etched in skin. Punk rocker Miles had piercings, not tattoos.
#32
I bet Faraday went to some kind of Dharma school in order to “learn” the physics and whatnot.
Finally, having seen Chang reading to his 3-month-old son, I am very curious to see what happened when he “kicks out” his wife and son. In particular I’m not sure I trust Miles’ mother’s version. Could it be that he does it after finding out about future events in order to avoid their death in the purge? If so, we’re getting on really shifty ground here with respect to the concept of “what happened, happened.”
I wonder if the Incident is enough to scare a lot of parents and kids off the island – Miles and his mother, Charlotte and her mother … they keep showing us those darn swingsets and classrooms like there’s going to be something big involving children (beyond the themes already playing out).
They’ve also made such a big deal of Charles having to leave the island – but when and why did Ellie leave? If Daniel is really her son, maybe it’s tied to Miles and Charlotte leaving … or maybe Ellie was caring for other orphans of the island (the way that Widmore seems to have taken Daniel and likely Charlotte under his wing, although I don’t think he fathered either).
And we have the modern day parallel – the Losties instinctively saving Aaron and Sun’s unborn child by getting them off the island, and keeping them off.
I wonder if the writers are setting up a Moses scenario: the Egyptian imagery, a destroying angel that poses a threat to the children, Aaron. I’m not sure how these pieces fit together, but maybe there’s something brewing. The exodus story has some pretty good archetypes to borrow from.
I kinda hope not – so far they have done a good job of integrating outside references and themes in a way we can all enjoy, but if bible history takes a starring role, many viewers will be, well, Lost.
I like Greg’s recaps and the ensuing discussions so much I’m constantly suppressing the urge to check to see if someone has added anything else – I’ve got my habit down to a reasonable limit now.
Even for non-religious types, the bible as pure fiction could still be a very entertaining source for parallels. No new episode until week after next?? You have got to be kidding me…
Wikipedia has failed me once again.
What if Felix was bringing Widmore documentation that the plane crash scene that he purchased had occurred? Then he would want to kill the middle man that could link him to it.
Also, what if Ilana and her crew are more Dharma kids that were sent from the island pre-purge. Maybe some parents chose to tell their children about the island or they were old enough to remember their Dharma education?
Widmore and Ben struggle for power with each other. New Dharma is ready to fight with either of them.
I think the idea of Ilana, Bram, et al. being the Sons and Daughters of Dharma is really intriguing.
I think it’s way to early to make a conclusive call regarding Felix. We just don’t know enough information. It may very well be something never revisited.
I’m still of the camp that Richard is a pirate and not an Egyptian. Don’t forget Desmond last saw Widmore at a bidding on the pirate ship journal.
I think Miles alerts his dad to the forthcoming purge of the Dharmites. That’s why his mother is sent away. And the dad can’t explain it to the mom for obvious reasons.
BTW – is the next episode Faraday-centric? I sure hope so.
Well, I think Jacob is a pirate and Richard was one too.
I wonder if something happens to his personality, much like the French sailors.
By the way, the Hurley character solidified himself as a complete impulsive idiot by blurting something out about the body immediately after he arrived at the station. Add that to the growing list of rash mistakes.
Yeah, Hurley is a very likeable character but not very good at keeping his mouth shut. This is in sharp contrast to all of our other Losties that lie with professional flare — except for Kate with Ben’s dad. She totally had a Hurley moment.
I totally missed reading last week’s posts, but was anyone a little creeped out when Juliet lied to Ben’s dad? She did it a little too well. Could she possibly know what lies in the shadow of the statue?
It’s been percolating in my mind…
How cool would it be if the kids of Dharma used to run and play in the shadow of the statue? It was their hangout, and they formed a de facto club. A handful of them survived the purge and were scattered all over the world at a young age, but when they would play beneath the shadow of the statue, that was there code phrase, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” That’s how they would identify one another. Now they’ve gathered to take back the island. Eventually, they’ll ask one of our established characters and he or she will know the answer. The question is who?
You thought Juliet did a good job lying? I thought it was a bad lie and that the actress was trying to communicate a certain fatalism about it all. (Corked off with the, “here it comes,” comment at the end) That is she didn’t try to lie because she knew it was all over. (And given the preview for next week it looks like she is right…)
John, good call about wondering if the smoke monster gets to Miles’ dad.
I rewatched the episode over the weekend, and had this thought: it’s clear now that Miles was the son of Dr. Chang. This means that the three of the four Task Force members were children of Islanders: Daniel Faraday being the son of Eloise; Miles Straum the son of Pierre Chang, and Charlotte Lewis the daughter of an as-yet-unknown adult (who, like Mile’s mother, appeared to have flown the coop at some point before the Purge).
If all this is true, what about Naomi? Could she have been the daughter of someone from on the Island? If so, who?
I find the possibility that Naomi being another “Lost Child” intriguing, especially in regards to her death. While there has been an obvious theme of male characters on the show having Daddy Issues, another disturbing trend has been showing up regarding the daughters of the Island inhabitants. It seems the Island has not been very kids to the daughters born on the Island: Alex, Charlotte, and (now, possibly) Naomi are dead.
And if as Brian G suggests, the new group represented by Ilana were the “Lost Children” coming back to forcefully reclaim an Island inheritance, it doesn’t bode well for Ilana and any other women in that group. Personally, the jury is still out in my mind as to who that group is, and whose side they represent.
Correction to my last post. The last sentence of the third paragraph should read “It seems the Island has not been very KIND to the daughters born on the Island…”
A few more thoughts to add to my previous post (#32).
Remember when Miles first joined the show? He was irritable and abrasive. Lo and behold, he’s just like daddy, even without knowing him! I love that the writers were planning this all along.
The word “circle” was mentioned five times (at least). This has to be referencing the “time loop” concept. Horace said it twice, about the “circle of trust,” and then Miles said it to Radzinsky, then to Hurley (about his father), “We don’t travel in the same circles.” Then, the most telling quote, from Miles’ father, “I wasn’t aware there were circles.” No, in fact, he isn’t aware of the time loops that the Losties are experiencing. Or should I say, CAUSING. He knows about time TRAVEL, as we know from his admonishment in the opening scene of this season in the tunnel.
I believe he will be introduced to time loops soon when Miles warns him about The Purge, which causes Pierre to send his wife & baby off the island. If it’s Miles who causes himself to leave, that’s the perfect time loop.
Hurley is very concerned about the Swan hatch that made their plane crash. He remembers that there’s an “Incident” which made the Swan station unstable. [My incidental (HA! Get it? "Incidental"! Oh, never mind.) theory is that it's what causes Chang's arm to be injured.] I would love another time loop in which Hurley warns them about The Incident, which CAUSES The Incident.
I just realized there is no Lost on tonight. Next week must be a killer in terms of plot so they are filling viewers in with all the info they need to figure out the (probably) Faraday centric episode.
BTW – the “incident” is probably what gets the Losties back to the present.
Well we did learn something last night – they confirmed that it was Widmore who planted the fake plane.
And, I think we once again got the clear message of what this show is about: the core characters who crashed the first time.
Jenny, how was this made clear? Was there new content?
I usually avoid watching clip shows as a matter of principle.
There was no new content, just a review of the lives of the Oceanic Six since they were rescued and how they all decided to return to the island.
It was a casual reference actually – talking about Widmore’s desire to return to the island, and that he had faked the plane crash to keep other people from finding the real crash (which actually finally answers the question of why the crash was so far from the real site, and way off any flight path between Sydney and LA).
I find the clip shows useful to remind us of what the producers/writers think is important. We all get so caught up in the details, that I think we all forget that in the end, this is a story about people.
One other thing of interest: they referred to Claire as having “gone missing” and replayed the scene when Kate says she’s going back to “find Claire.” This is noteworthy I think because the other characters seem to have accepted her as dead and made no effort to find out what happened, let alone get her back. I’m guessing this will come into play next season – and when you think about it, if Aaron is as important as we all seem to think, then his mother needs to play a bigger role in how it’s all resolved.
So this was part of the voice-over narration? Interesting.
I suppose yet another explanation for Felix is that he was on his way to Widmore with proof that his instructions had been carried out when Ben and his people ambushed him and stole the documentation.
I think we pretty well already knew Widmore faked the plane, despite a few of the doubters.
The emphasis on these clip shows does tell you a bit about what’s coming up. Not that I actually watch them mind you. But the bit about Claire and Kate is interesting.
Greg, that was my original thought too. I vaguely remember something in last week’s show that indicated that wasn’t the case. Only now I can’t remember what it was.
Can someone remind me how many episodes are left in this season?
Lesley, 3 if you count May 13th’s two-hour season finale as a single episode, 4 if you count it as two episodes.