LOST - discussion about the TV series LOST. ** SPOILER ALERT **

[The Graphite]

One thing that I was surprised that he didn't have a theory on is the anti to Black Rock. If the show has been hinting since the pilot (Locke playing backgammon) with the contrasting of Black/White what is the "White" that is the counterpart of Black Rock...assuming of course there is one. In other words...where or what is "White Rock"?

I've wondered the same thing. I can't think of anything else analogous to the ship, really... I've looked at the meaning of names of people, wondering if there's a person who represents the "white stone" but found nothing. Notable features on the island, but nothing. The closest thing I could think of is the Pearl station (a pearl is like a white stone) but there's nothing significant about that stupid little hole in the ground that I can think of, frankly. The only interesting thing about that station is the salted grass on the ground above it, forming a giant question mark.

Hmmm.... dunno!

Maybe Jacob brought the Black Rock (ship) to the island to poke fun at his adversarial counterpart. "Thanks, Jacob... Of all the ships you could have caught in your 'net,' you had to grab one called The Black Rock. Cute, real cute."

 

[The Graphite]

Btw, I don't know how I missed this.... but remember my theory about last names and kings?

I just now discovered that the name "Austen" is distantly descended originally from (and abbreviated from) Augustus or Augustine... which means "great" and "venerable" and is traced back originally to the son (and successor) of the Julius Caesar -- very first Caesar!

Kate is a candidate. Her name originates with one of the most famous emperors in the history of the world. If we were playin' checkers, I'd say "king me."

 

[The Graphite]

It's slow at work, can you tell?

I'm finding another well-hidden but recurring theme on the show. I have no idea if this means anything.

The producers of the show have repeatedly gone out of their way to show viewers a fictional candy bar called the Apollo Bar. Jacob even personally gave one to Jack on one occasion. They've been seen on the island, as well as in the world at large. They have really gone out of the way to promote this candy bar, to what is frankly a bizarre degree. They have actually manufactured Apollo Bars and given them to fans around the world, produced Apollo Bar tv commercials, published magazine ads, created a fictional history of the Apollo company, etc. This "dark chocolate" candy bar has been associated with almost every major character on the show at one time or another, although not with Sayid, Claire or the Kwons.

Apollo was a mythological god who ruled over several aspects of life, including prophecy (in a context of predestination), light (in the context of illumination) and healing. He was born on a magical, floating island called Delos which had a temple on it, and which could move around, not stuck in any fixed location until later when Zeus eventually attached it to the bottom of the ocean so it stayed in one place, thereafter.

The sacred bird of Apollo is... the Swan. (Note, on the island, the Swan hatch is not a trivial location on the island, like the Flame or the Pearl. It is built on top of the island's biggest access to the massive energies beneath, and holds those energies in check.)

Apollo had a son. His name was... Linus, who as a demi-god musician became the personification of the dirge.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

A few weeks back we (or little LOST group) had discussed if Apollo might have a significant role in the show. There are some other evidences to add to your theory but I can't think of them now.

I like your theory and there is certainly plenty of tid bits to make it worth considering.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

I was re-watching S.O.S. from season 2 last night with my nieces and I noticed that at the end of the episode when the camera pans out to show Bernard's unfinished S.O.S. sign it's actually a representation of the Hatch computer prompt.

That has been noticed by lots of people over the years but I have never seen anyone take a screen shot of it and compare it.

So, for fun... I did it myself (see below).

Again this illustrates the overall theme of the show that the Hatch (and pushing the button over and over again) symbolizes the island (history repeating over and over again), which symbolizes the real world in which events seem to repeat over and over again and when one (good or bad) person or country dies off.... another takes it's place and the loop begins again.

 

[yokefellow]

Random tidbit: The French artist Henri Rousseau is best known for his paintings depicting jungle scenes, even though he never left France or saw a jungle.

Just another name-related point I thought I would pass along.

 

[chatmaggot]

After last nights episode I felt kind of unfulfilled. Each show seems to be pushing the end is coming...but without answering any questions. There seems to be a war/battle coming. Okay. Widmore was banished from the Island and now he wants it back. His arch nemesis is Ben...but wait...now it's the smoke monster?

Every new episode introduces new characters, adds new questions (what's wrong with Sayid? Why is Claire "crazy" now?), but never answers old questions (what was the reason for the Dharma station The Pearl?).

 

[Town Heretic]

I think the whole alternate time line/Sawyer is a cop thing is just a way to stretch a handful of what I suspect will be pedestrian answers into a season...but that's just a guess.

I'm preparing for a Seinfeld like horror of an ending...Didn't that group almost die in an airplane crash?

:think:

[fade in: tight shot as Jerry sits up suddenly in a darkened bedroom, sweat soaked. He cries out. A figure stirs beside out of frame to his right. The camera pans as the nightstand light is turned on.]

Jerry: Wha-what happened?!

Bob Newhart: You're having a bad dream, Jerry. Probably driven by the sense that you've wasted years of your life in a wallow of shallow, narcissistic speculation, an obsession with relatively worthless minutiae and surrounded yourself with grotesquely stunted caricatures of human interaction instead of developing substantive friendships with worthwhile human beings who could help you nurture and develop a more meaningful appreciation of life.

Jerry (calming): You think?

BN: (shrugs) It's either that or you'll have to cut back on your Chinese take-out. Now go back to sleep Jerry. I've got patients in the morning. [turns off light]

Jerry: Weird dream....and I wasn't even in it.

(cue funky pop and bass line)

LOST

[fade out]

 

[Dena]

After last nights episode I felt kind of unfulfilled.

Me too.

Every new episode introduces new characters, adds new questions

And that is driving me nuts! Next week of course they promise Richard will explain why he never ages and tell what he's seen. But will they really reveal anything?

 

[Nathon Detroit]

oh man... I thought last night's was awesome!!

I wonder what is locked in Widmores Sub?? Could it be Aaron? Could it be Anthony Cooper? Could it be Desmond? Could it be Sawyer from the other timeline??? :think:

Ha!!! I love that the show is totally wacky.... to me... that's what makes it so fun. Pure and total escapism.

 

[Oh no... it's Sozo]

After last nights episode I felt kind of unfulfilled. Each show seems to be pushing the end is coming...but without answering any questions. There seems to be a war/battle coming. Okay. Widmore was banished from the Island and now he wants it back. His arch nemesis is Ben...but wait...now it's the smoke monster?

Every new episode introduces new characters, adds new questions (what's wrong with Sayid? Why is Claire "crazy" now?), but never answers old questions (what was the reason for the Dharma station The Pearl?).

It was actually my favorite episode of the year.

Why the response from Sawyer when he captured Kate?

I'm still trying to understand the significance of the alternate reality in LA.

I'm thinking that the writers are not going to end the show answering all of the complex story lines. I have the feeling that the mysteries surrounding the island will be a bit of a let down, and that when the smoke monster is defeated, some of the characters that he has infected will get their lives back.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

I'm thinking that the writers are not going to end the show answering all of the complex story lines. I have the feeling that the mysteries surrounding the island will be a bit of a let down, and that when the smoke monster is defeated, some of the characters that he has infected will get their lives back.

I agree with you.

Which is why I am guessing they will intentionally leave some big questions unanswered. I think it's safe to say that any actual answers might be less mentally satisfying as our imaginative answers.

That being said, I am sure they will answer at least a few of the bigger questions but they will also leave a fair amount of them to our imaginations.

 

[The Graphite]

I agree with you.

Which is why I am guessing they will intentionally leave some big questions unanswered. I think it's safe to say that any actual answers might be less mentally satisfying as our imaginative answers.

That being said, I am sure they will answer at least a few of the bigger questions but they will also leave a fair amount of them to our imaginations.

I agree.

On the bright side, the producers recently said in an interview that they will not try to please everyone but will end it in what they believe is the best way, overall, and that over the course of the series they have found that this pleases more fans overall when they take that approach. Inevitably, when you try to make everyone happy, you compromise on what everyone wants, and then no one is happy.

 

[Oh no... it's Sozo]

I love it that Sawyer basically rolls his eyes at all these supernatural events and thinks he will outsmart them all. I believe he will. It makes him my new favorite character.

 

[chatmaggot]

Why the response from Sawyer when he captured Kate?

I assumed it was because he recognized her from the airport when they were in the elevator together.

 

[Oh no... it's Sozo]

I assumed it was because he recognized her from the airport when they were in the elevator together.

Thanks for confirming my fears of pre-onset Alzheimers .

:sigh:

 

[The Graphite]

I love it that Sawyer basically rolls his eyes at all these supernatural events and thinks he will outsmart them all. I believe he will. It makes him my new favorite character.

I think he has become basically the anti-Ben, if you think about it. Ben is the ultimate manipulator (unless you count Jacob and "Esau," but they're in a whole different category, obviously). Ben has lied so much that you just cannot completely trust him, no matter how sincere he finally seems to be. After all, he seemed pretty sincere in getting Locke down from that noose, but as soon as Locke told him about Eloise, Ben killed Locke without batting an eyelash.

I did find his confession and repentance scene moving. However, I have to admit, I only "trust" him about 90% after that. There's still the nagging doubt about him that I cannot totally let go of until the entire series is over.

But Sawyer is like Ben's antithesis. You can try to put one over on him, but he will swindle you back and come out ahead. He's like the (mostly) good-hearted deceiver. The rogue with a heart of gold, ala Han Solo, etc.

As a viewer, half of me hopes that Ben's repentance is true, but I gotta admit, half of me would love to see Ben make a final gambit that takes everyone by storm in a big way, because he is just that sneaky and underhanded. Story-wise, I think that would be pretty awesome. Do not ever, ever EVER trust Ben Linus completely.

 

[zoo22]

After last nights episode I felt kind of unfulfilled. Each show seems to be pushing the end is coming...but without answering any questions. There seems to be a war/battle coming. Okay. Widmore was banished from the Island and now he wants it back. His arch nemesis is Ben...but wait...now it's the smoke monster?

Every new episode introduces new characters, adds new questions (what's wrong with Sayid? Why is Claire "crazy" now?), but never answers old questions (what was the reason for the Dharma station The Pearl?).

I actually think this was a pretty clue-filled episode.

We're going to be handed new questions up until the end (and I imagine even at the end).

I think that there'll be a few "key" episodes forwarding us towards the answers, and that next week's episode will be one of them. I wonder what the twist will be. I want to find out what Richard "wanted" ... If there was a deal that he made, as Dogen. If so, I think it has to do with love, similar to Dogen? Speaking of Dogen, I wonder if we'll ever see him wreck a car with his baseball-loving kid.

I agree with other folks that there'll be many unanswered questions remaining at the end of the show, but I'm sure the basic framework will be provided for most everything that's happened. I wouldn't expect to have all of the mysteries of the island or events explained.

Maybe it's something Faraday-related in that locked room... ? Faraday, Desmond, Penny still need to show up... I figure that the longer they don't, the more important they are to an end scenario. Or like Knight said, maybe it could be someone who's actually already on the island. That sounds like a good mind-bender. Or maybe one of the kids. ...Or maybe it's a slew of magic dragons.

I thought it was odd how excessively cheesy the first scenes of Sawyer-revealed-as-cop were, particularly the hotel scene... Like some overly-dramatic, unrealistic cheesy cop show. Just wrong. I watched it again and I think it must have been done that way intentionally. I hope so, anyway.

The mirror in this episode seemed interesting to me. 1) We really saw what he was thinking when he looked into it (hatred for who he was–or wasn't), 2) he broke the mirror.

 

[zoo22]

I think he has become basically the anti-Ben, if you think about it. Ben is the ultimate manipulator (unless you count Jacob and "Esau," but they're in a whole different category, obviously). Ben has lied so much that you just cannot completely trust him, no matter how sincere he finally seems to be. After all, he seemed pretty sincere in getting Locke down from that noose, but as soon as Locke told him about Eloise, Ben killed Locke without batting an eyelash.

I did find his confession and repentance scene moving. However, I have to admit, I only "trust" him about 90% after that. There's still the nagging doubt about him that I cannot totally let go of until the entire series is over.

But Sawyer is like Ben's antithesis. You can try to put one over on him, but he will swindle you back and come out ahead. He's like the (mostly) good-hearted deceiver. The rogue with a heart of gold, ala Han Solo, etc.

As a viewer, half of me hopes that Ben's repentance is true, but I gotta admit, half of me would love to see Ben make a final gambit that takes everyone by storm in a big way, because he is just that sneaky and underhanded. Story-wise, I think that would be pretty awesome. Do not ever, ever EVER trust Ben Linus completely.

Yeah, Ben's even said "Lie. That's what I do."

But I do believe that he was genuine in his "repentance" to Ilana last week.

Unrelated, I was thinking about how everyone thinks it's so awful how MIB kills people all the time, but then I thought, well that's what our heroes have done too. They're always killing people who they think are threats. They've sure killed a whole lot of people. It's just that they're our heroes. Not that it's necessarily something meaningful towards LOST, but I was just thinking about it.

 

[The Graphite]

The mirrors certainly appear to be very important. And he is a shattered and distorted man, on the island, at this point.