1.30.2009

Daniel's Mama

Hey --

So, real quick, this is not my theory (whereas my last post was), but this sounds like a very plausible theory to me:

Desmond, as we know, is trying to find Daniel Faraday's Mom because she apparently is able to stop the Island from skipping through time. The going theory is that Daniel's Mom is Ms. Eloise Hawking -- the crazy old time-jumping woman that Desmond met in "Flashes Before Your Eyes." It would make sense that if anyone can stop the Island from skipping, it'd be her.

Moreoever, the theory goes on to say that Ms. Eloise Hawking may be "Ellie" -- the blonde Other that captured the Losties and took Daniel to the hydrogen bomb. Remember when Daniel was saying something to her like, "You look like --" but stopped himself? He may have wanted to say that she looks like his Mama, and if you compare Ellie with Eloise Hawking, they do look similar, albeit 50 years apart.

Further, it makes sense that she had Daniel while on the Island, allowing him to work for Dharma years later.

1.28.2009

So What Had Happened Was...

in the 1880s, the Black Rock, a slave ship, leaves England headed to Thailand and crashes on the Island. The sailors find that the Island is nearly deserted -- except for Richard Alpert (and maybe a few others) -- and Richard eventually recruits them to stay on the Island and be its protectors because he can't protect it alone. I don't know what happens to the slaves, but the 1950s Others are the descendants of those British sailors... hmm... except how come none of the Others are ever old? Maybe because the Island has healing properties so no one ever reaches old age because old age is your body deteriorating and the Island prevents that? So people can age from children to adults, but they can't get older than mid-life? So maybe the 1950s Others are the actual crew from the Black Rock?

In any case, one of them is Widmore and he likely ends up taking lead of the Others in some way -- perhaps by force? -- until Ben rescues the Others from Charles and Charles is banished from the Island forever under certain "rules." And perhaps Charles was made to turn the Donkey Wheel when he was banished -- which explains how Ben knew about it, but I don't know how Charles would have gotten back there post-Dharma without destroying the Orchid chamber like Ben had to. It does seem like the Island has moved since Charles left, however. The Black Rock was sailiing from the UK to Thailand, so it would have crashed in the Indian Ocean rather than the Pacific, but flight 815 was likely flying over the Pacfic when it crashed, so the Island may have moved between those two crashes, which is maybe one of the reasons Charles was having trouble finding it?

Anyway, Charles wants Ben because he knows that Ben is his main obstacle to taking back the Island. He later has Locke killed because he takes over the Others in Ben's stead.

Thoughts?

My house skipped...

Did anyone think that this episode was over in the blink of an eye? I suddenly saw Bad Robot and asked the clock, "WHAT?!?"

1.25.2009

A Broken Record

Hey, LeftBehinders! How're you guys doing? What'd everyone think of the first 2 episodes of Lost last week?

Briefly, I LOVED how the first episode started with Candle (or, I guess it's "Chang") waking up and putting on a Willie Nelson record (which subsequently skips, foreshadowing how the island, as a "record" will skip through time later on). And then he goes to the Orchid Station, and we see Faraday. All very cool, very interesting. But then... I dunno, I didn't dislike the episodes, but I didn't think they quite lived up to previous season premieres. I was particularly unimpressed with the second episode, the Hurley episode, because Hurley, like Sawyer, just slows down the show for me. The entire episode just seemed like a lot of unnecessary activity -- Sayid gets hurt, Hurley's driving around with Sayid, he buys a shirt, he goes home, he talks to his dad and mom, his dad takes off with Sayid... etc. A whole lot of moving around without anything really important or particularly interesting happening. There are only 2 seasons left! We have precious few moments left with this show -- why are we wasting 5 minutes watching Hurley buy a shirt!?

The problem with the show having a firm end date is that now the writers are just sort of winding down. They're busying themselves with getting to the end, with answering questions, which is fine, except it's always more interesting to see the magic trick then to find out how it was done.

As for the island time-jumping, I kind of like it and kind of don't. What I don't like about it is that the show has clearly gone off the rails. Remember the days where we (or at least I) thought that the show was grounded in reality and the answers to everything would be plausible? They killed that last season, but this season seems to want to go even further. Anytime you play around with time-jumping, you're just asking for trouble. What I like about it, though, is that I think this is actually a very clever -- and potentially really fun -- way of exploring the history of the island. They could jump back to Dharma, to the four-toed statue people, to the purge, to when they themselves crashed, etc. There are endless possibilities, and it could be a lot of fun. I remember during the second or third seasons the writers were thinking about doing an episode where the island gets its own flashbacks. Well, this may not be what they had in mind, but this could be a really fun way of doing it if it's done right.

Thoughts?