LOST Season 4 Discussion

I guess you heard Hurley say he was one of the "Oceantic 6" while he was being arrested by the cops. That was the biggest shocker for me.

I want to know who the ghost was in that house. Seemed like it was possibly Walt's room or something??

The guy named Faraday seemed like the writers being clever. Faraday's law has to do with a strange amount of electromagnetism, which can apply to the island. The guy who came on the island said he was a physicist.

Courtesy of: TV GUIDE, TV SHOW BLOGS

Lost
by Trish Wethman

Episode Recap: Eggtown
This show gets me every single time. I don’t know if I am in the minority on this or not, but I didn’t see the Kate/Aaron twist coming at all. I thought for sure that the baby was Sawyer’s and that Kate would walk into that bedroom and call him James. I gasped when she said Aaron—literally gasped! I thought that we would learn the reason that Kate decided to leave the island was because she lied to Sawyer about being pregnant and knew that the only way to save the baby (and herself) was to leave. I think it is safe to say that we can count Aaron as one of the Oceanic Six. So what does that leave us with, you ask? A boat-load (or rather, a freighter-load) of questions, as usual. And yet, instead of being completely frustrated, I am riveted.

At first glance, as Locke prepared breakfast for his hostage, I thought that we were being introduced to the next “survivor.” I’m sure most eager fans have already identified the novel that John grabbed off the shelf as Philip K. Dick’s 1981 science fiction novel VALIS (an acronym standing for Vast Active Living Intelligence System). Click here for a link to the author’s site and a summary of the book. Based on the quick research I did, there are some interesting parallels to be drawn.

Overall, the flash-forwards tonight were not as compelling as I hoped they would be based on the previews with Kate in a sea of paparazzi. However, I am glad that we got a solid explanation about how she was able to walk away from a murder rap. It would have been harder to swallow if she got off the island and all was simply forgiven as a result of the notoriety. (To all my fellow Big Love fans, Kate’s attorney was played by Shawn Doyle, Bill’s reluctant-polygamist brother Joey.)

Back on the island, Kate was up to her old tricks, mixing it up with Sawyer and defying Locke’s orders. Getting Miles some face time with Ben resulted in an awkward extortion attempt—for the strangely specific amount of $3.2 million in cash, Miles agreed to mislead his employer into believing that Ben is already dead. However, Miles ended up with the short end of the stick as John went to some rather extreme measures to keep him from talking. (Yes, I would say that a live grenade is an excellent incentive to keep your mouth shut.)

As for last week’s island escapees, Jack and the gang on the beach waited impatiently for word from Sayid and Desmond. However, nearly a day after their departure, no response had come from the freighter. When Charlotte finally gave up the secret, “emergency” number, the woman on the other end of the line had no information about the helicopter or its occupants. So, is this another example of the island's apparent time distortions or has something terrible happened to the chopper?

Future Jack’s trial testimony was definitely revealing and certainly provided a window into what the world knows (and doesn’t know) about the Oceanic Six. In his testimony, Jack stated, “Only eight of us survived the crash.” (By the way, if six made it off the island, who are the two that allegedly died between the time of the crash and the rescue in this fairy tale?) He went on to sing Kate’s praises as a hero/savior in what really was more an account of how he had taken control of the situation. It is now confirmed that the Oceanic Six lied when they returned. But why? Did Locke’s group swear them to secrecy or is this a decision they make on their own to conceal the truth? I am certainly more understanding of why Jack devolves into an alcoholic, drug-popping mess and Hurley ends up in an asylum.

Why is Jack avoiding Aaron? Well, we know that Claire and Jack have a father in common. Or at least it appeared that way in the Claire-centric flashback (I am learning to take nothing for granted in the Lost universe.) But Jack has not yet learned of his connection to Claire in island time. Does future Jack know that Claire is his sister? Based on Claire’s fierce maternal instincts, as well as the warning she had previously received from the psychic, it is difficult to believe she would have willingly handed Aaron over while remaining behind on the island. So does Claire die? And if so, does Jack learn his connection to her at some point? And if he does, is Jack’s reluctance coming from his grief over Claire or guilt that he couldn’t help her or both? As I type this, my head is reeling from all the possible places the story could be going. It is why I say over and over again, I love this show.

Some other fun/interesting tidbits from tonight:
—Josh Holloway's scrumptious Sawyer, shirtless in multiple scenes (always a welcome sight), flirting with Kate and back to calling her Freckles.
—Locke, in response to Ben saying he had already read the book he selected: "You might catch something you missed the second time around." (It might just be me, but I felt like it was a wink to the fans to keep looking for clues.)
—Hurley getting “Scooby Doo’d” by Kate.
—Hurley and Sawyer as the next generation Odd Couple
—Jin, on the beach with Sun, explaining why he learned English
—Box o’wine and Xanadu? This island truly is a paradise!

If the previews are any indication, next week promises to be even more exciting than tonight. In the meantime, check out the Online Video Guide for more Lost clips and previews. And of course, keep the comments coming!

Posted by Trish Wethman 02/21/08 11:35 PM

Lost is about to lose me.

I was thinking it'd be Michael too, but that does seem rather obvious, but who knows.

I thought it was dragging more last season than this season. This season it might be prolonging things, but it seems like things are moving in a forward direction.

And Kate bugs me. I don't know why. It's like she somehow knows how to expertly track people through the jungle, but then she's dumb enough to turn her back on Charlotte and get knocked out.

I thought the same thing about Kate last night. It was just stupid to let her get knocked out - poor writing.

Well, Joah, your theories were spot on for who dies and who is the spy on the boat.

Now, do we know all of the Oceanic Six?
Sun, Hurley, Jack, Kate, Aaron and ? who else?

My theory on the 324 bodies is the people he mass murdered on the island from the original Darma project.

Why do you think that Jin doesn't really die?

So Mr J is officially out of the Lost fan club? I'm still interested. I think they're finally moving forward again this season.

I thought they stated last night that it was him who staged those bodies?

Do you think maybe Whitmore is behind the whole thing? Is he connected to Dharma?

Courtesy of: SPOILERFIX

Episode 4.08: Meet Kevin Johnson (Michael-centric) [Last episode completed before the writers' strike]
Airdate: March 20, 2008

* 03/17 - The current print edition of TV Guide (March 10-16) drops some spoilers regarding what's to come in Lost's late season: we may learn in the March 20 episode (4.08, Meet Kevin Johnson) whether Michael ever reached the mainland, if he's come back to rescue the other survivors, whether he went home. Source: DocArzt's Lost Blog
* 03/12 - Walt does appear in episode eight, but 100-percent-trustworthy sources tell me that during his blink-of-an-eye appearance, "He is exactly the size that a nine-year-old should be." Source: Kristin on E!Online

Source: Michael Ausiello, TV Guide
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

For further (NON) clarification regarding whether Aaron is one of the Oceanic Six...


Question: Who the heck are the Oceanic Six? If Aaron's not one of them, and Jin's grave marker is for his "supposed" death when the plane crashed, who else made it off the island with Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and Sun?

Ausiello: Who said Aaron is not one of the Oceanic Six? Certainly not me. Take another look at my asterisk quiz from Feb. 27 and consider all of the possible combinations. In the meantime, don't expect a definitive answer about the Six from Team Darlton. Carlton Cuse tells me they're "not going public with any further clarifications right now." And what of the ABC promo that promised viewers they'd know the identity of the Six by the end of last week's episode? "We don't determine how ABC promotes the show," says Cuse. "But Damon and I will say you have now seen all of the Oceanic Six in this season's episodes."

* In an EW.com article, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse answered the fan question, "What is the meaning or significance of the two skeletons that Jack and Kate found in the cave of season 1?"
CUSE: The answer to that question goes to the nature of the timeline of the Island. We don't want to say too much about it, but there are a couple Easter eggs embedded in "Not in Portland", one of which is an anagram that actually sheds some light on the skeletons and hints at a larger mythological mystery that will start to unfold later in the season.
LINDELOF: There were certain things we knew from the very beginning. Independent of ever knowing when the end was going to be, we knew what it was going to be, and we wanted to start setting it up as early as season 1, or else people would think that we were making it up as we were going along. So the skeletons are the living—or, I guess, slowly decomposing—proof of that. When all is said and done, people are going to point to the skeletons and say, "That is proof that from the very beginning, they always knew that they were going to do this."
o In the Official Lost Podcast transcript/February 12, 2007, Damon and Carlton confirmed that the anagram was Mittelos-Lost Time.

What do you think happened that only six of them leave the island? Do you think the others live, but choose to stay there?

Was the guy who came to visit young John the guy who recruited Juliet?

Wasn't the guy in the cabin, Christian, Jack & Claire's dad?

Move the island?

a couple words about Jeremy Bentham, another classic loaded Lost name. Bentham was a 19th-century philosopher associated with utilitarianism and liberalism. He also designed the ''panopticon,'' a cylindrical-shaped prison that requires minimal security and facilitates intense paranoia. He was also buried in a bizarre box designed for public display called an ''auto-icon.'' Bizarre. Clearly, one must consider comparing and contrasting philosopher John Locke to philosopher Jeremy Bentham, but one should consider those things when one is not falling asleep at his computer at midnight.

More interesting to casual Lost fans is this: The name Jeremy Bentham all but confirms as legit the obit text that has circulated throughout fandom since last year. There are many more curious details in this notice — including the suggestion of suicide that was raised by Sayid later in the episode

..and while we're on the subject, jeez Claire looked like she packed on the pounds.

TV Guide: Were you disappointed Michael and Walt didn't reconnect before your character died?

Perrineau (Michael): Listen, if I'm being really candid, there are all these questions about how they respond to black people on the show. Sayid gets to meet Nadia again, and Desmond and Penny hook up again, but a little black boy and his father hooking up, that wasn't interesting? Instead, Walt just winds up being another fatherless child. It plays into a really big, weird stereotype and, being a black person myself, that wasn't so interesting.

[Responds Cuse: "We pride ourselves on having a very racially diverse cast. It's painful when any actor's storyline ends on the show. Harold is a fantastic actor whose presence added enormously to Lost."]