Most people prefer to watch a show or go to the movies without knowing much about what they’re going to see. It is safe to say that the viewing majority likes surprises. I, however, am drawn to Internet Spoilers like a car crash; I can’t help but slow down to look. Sites proudly boast about spilling the beans and spoiling plot points, sometimes months in advance of an actual airdate. And I bookmark these sites to keep in the loop and form my own theories. Believe it or not, this does not ruin the experience of watching my favorite shows. First of all, misinformation and errors are rampant and misleading (sometimes purposefully). Second, I enjoy trying to figure exactly how these Spoilers will unfold, and when.   

 

Spoilers tend to originate from extremely dedicated fans with connections in the media or industry, or from leaks directly (and stealthily) from network sources.

 

As for my part, as a Blogger and pop culture specialist, I promise not to post any Spoilers without an obnoxious and large disclaimer boldly announcing their arrival.

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I have a very trivial complaint. There is an annoying pattern in the world of series television – actors jumping ship from one show to another, leaving in their dust a flood of devoted fans that had grown to love, hate and/or relate to the characters they played.  It was extremely frustrating to learn (right in the middle of Season 3) that one of the lead actresses on a show I have been watching for years had been cast on a new sitcom, on another network altogether. The entire rest of the season was ruined for me, knowing that my favorite character was going to now be killed off or suddenly leave town under asinine circumstances. And of course it’s never the actors you loathe that leave the shows; fan favorites inevitably move on to bigger pastures (i.e. films) due to their increased popularity and marketability. Consider me Bitter, Party of One.  

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Once again, some thoughts about last night’s new episode:

* Whether or not it has anything to do with the magnetic field beneath the hatch, Rose, Locke and Jin have all experienced miraculous healing. Could that also explain Libby’s apparent recovery from mental illness? Or Sawyer’s quick recuperation from the gunshot wound?

 

* Rose never actually mentioned cancer or specified what kind of illness she had…just that she was in remission.

 

* The faith healer told Rose that there are certain places with great energy, energy which may be magnetic. Duh, the hatch.

  

* The faith healer told Rose he couldn’t do anything for her, much like the psychic told Claire in season one.

 

* It seems kind of ironic that Rousseau and Desmond are so concerned about ‘the sickness’ and yet the survivors are getting healthy and recovering from their various ailments and conditions…

 

* Note that baby Aaron is the only Lostie to have actually gotten sick so far. Was he infected by the Others while in Claire’s womb?

 

* When Michael reappears, was he delivered from the Others as part of the trade Jack was proposing? Did they send him because they won’t give Walt back? Was Michael brainwashed or blackmailed? Is he going to turn on the survivors? Did the Others threaten to harm Walt if Michel didn’t help them? The Others were able to drug and/or brainwash Claire, so it’s possible that they did the same to Michael.

 

* What if the food wasn’t dropped from a plane or balloon? What if it was carried in by the Others and left to look as if it was dropped? Perhaps the hatch blast doors came down because whoever was in the hatch was not supposed to see how the food gets delivered.

 

* If you recall from the first season, Walt’s mom got ill and died rather suddenly. Is it possible that she had some connection to Dharma? Had she been on the island and contracted the so-called ‘island sickness?’ Do we know for sure that she’s dead? The Others are clearly obsessed with Walt and his powers, so it makes sense that his mom might have been involved at some point.

  

MERE COINCIDENCES?

 

* Kate found a pair of crutches in the fuselage section a while back and we see tons of them in the faith healer’s office…

 

* Fake Henry Gale goes on a hunger strike right after a supply of food has arrived on the island…

 

* Just after the food drop, we hear for the first time about a survivor we haven’t met yet named Neil, a food industry guy (frozen yogurt)…

 

COMING UP

 

April 26

“Reckoning”

Recap episode

 

May 3

“Two For the Road”

Ana Lucia-centric

 

May 10

“?”

No character focus specified yet

 

May 17

“Three Minutes”

Michael-centric

 

May 24

2-hour Season Finale!
(followed by a summer of watching Season 2 all over again with inevitable overanalysis and speculation)

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Better late than never – here are some thoughts about last week’s Lost.

 

* Was Libby stalking Hurley after they both left the institution? Is that why she was on his flight? Did he really step on her foot on the airplane like she said when he told her he looked familiar? 

 

* Libby also heard Leonard mumbling the numbers in the institution…did that result in bad luck for her too?  

 

* Was Libby really sick and/or crazy? Was she employed by Dharma as a clinical psychologist? That may explain her ability to know how to act exactly like a mental patient. Also, she must have noticed the numbers on and in the hatch by now – and note that she hasn’t mentioned them or reacted to them…

 

* Libby was institutionalized for what seemed like a mental illness requiring meds, whereas Hurley seemed to be in a temporary, curable fog. Clearly she doesn’t have her meds on the island, so either she is acting or faking.

 

* If Libby wasn’t a clinical psychologist, then how was she able to hypnotize Claire to help her remember her kidnapping ordeal? Could the treatment Libby received as a patient really have resulted in her ability to do a spot-on impersonation of a psychologist?

 

* Libby told Hurley she’d buried a man with a broken leg. Was it broken before the crash? Were those his crutches that Kate found and gave to Locke?

 

* My only real clue that Libby is indeed still ill/crazy? When she led Hurley off of the cliff at the end of the episode, and he asked her if she thought it was possible to change, she said yes to his face, but her smile quickly dissolved into misery as soon as he looked away.

 

* Hurley has been eating the Dharma packaged food consistently, more so than any of the other survivors. Is the food drugged? Could it be contributing to his delusion?

 

* Dave said the same thing to Hurley that Desmond said to Jack in the stadium after he hurt his ankle running: “See you in another life.” And Nadia’s note on the back of her photo to Sayid also said something similar. What is the connection between these three?

 

* Hurley is yet another survivor who had contributed to someone’s death (the deck collapse) before the crash. He joins Locke, Kate, Jack, Sayid, Ana Lucia, and Sawyer on the list so far.  

 

* Was Henry Gale telling the truth about not entering the numbers? Something tells me he used the computer to contact Walt or the Others instead. Did he tell Locke he didn’t enter them because he wants the survivors to stop entering the numbers for some reason?

 

* Is the magnetic field beneath the hatch directly related to the numbers, blast doors or food drop? Did it contribute to the ‘incident’ that is referred to both in the Orientation film and on the hatch blast door map?

 

* If bearded ‘Other’ Zeke isn’t the HIM that Gale was referring to, then who is?

 

* Is Gale really HIM?

 

* Did Gale orchestrate this entire series of events, from capture to trade? Was he selected to learn more about the survivors? If he is indeed traded for Walt in this week’s episode, then he will return to the Others with key information to expose the weaknesses of the survivors: who’s in charge, power struggles, specific names, etc.

 

* Why didn’t Gale leave when he had the chance? Was he hoping to gather more information and then wait to be traded? 
 
* Right before Sayid was about to shoot him, Gale shouted that he wasn’t a ‘bad person.’ Was he referring to the Others, who only take good people?

* Were Sayid and Ana Lucia playing good cop/bad cop with Gale, or was their interaction real?

* Could the real, deceased Henry Gale have been Desmond’s traveling partner on their race around the world?

 

* This theory is way out there…Henry Gale was the name of Dorothy’s uncle in The Wizard of Oz.  Could the deceased Henry Gale be the uncle of a survivor? Walt, perhaps? 

 

* Looking back at who visited Gale when he was locked down in the hatch…it seems that Sayid, Ana Lucia and Eko all made confessions of sorts, like the makeshift jail cell was a church confessional. 

 

* By the way, if you take the words Henry Gale and Minnesota, you get an anagram for SEE AN OTHER LYING MAN. Remember that Ethan Rom is an anagram for OTHER MAN. Too coincidental…

* When Rosseau originally captured Gale in the net, why didn’t she torture him herself, to find out about her daughter Alex’s whereabouts?

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I just got chills. I’m having a total guy moment. It is opening night of the new baseball season, and my favorite team has just taken the field for the first of 162 games this year. I love it. The unshaven boys of spring (training) have emerged from the desert healthy and ready to go, and I have a good feeling about their chances of winning the division and making it past the first round of playoffs this year. The uniforms are clean, but I look forward to the slides and catches that will promptly wear them in. The home crowd is dutifully booing the visiting opposition. The Golden Gloves have been rightfully doled out, and now it’s game time.

 

I admit to watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN. Every night.  And I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new book “Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports.” Of course that means that I need to find time to finally finish “Juicing the Game: Drugs, Power, and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball” first. I was at PacBell Park when Bonds hit two historic home runs (numbers 71 & 72) in 2001. I will always remember the absolute appreciation and joy emanating from the crowd at deafening levels, the physical response throughout the stadium. However skeptical I may be now, neither this new book nor the endless speculation about Barry will ever ruin that night for me. It is forever etched into my short list of fantastic sports memories.

Although I grew up near two ballparks and attended high school with the kids of several major leaguers, I was not a true baseball fan until about ten years ago. In retrospect, I should have gone to more games and saved those damn baseball cards. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes they had predicted and prepared for the advent of eBay…

 

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My theories & questions about last night’s episode:

• Were the supplies dropped via parachute intended for the survivors of flight 815? If so, that means that Dharma (or someone else) knows about their crash and location. Are they being fed to remain alive on the island while unwittingly taking part in an experiment, or being drugged via the food?

• Was the distorted sound coming from the speakers in the hatch a warning system of incoming supplies? Did the hatch doors shut because an alarm was triggered by impending the arrival of the supplies?

• The warning speaker in the hatch is like something you see at a subway station. I believe there is system of underground tunnels somehow connecting all hatches. Remember that in the Pilot episode, Rose mentioned that the monster sounded familiar; that she was from NYC…

• Did all of the other hatches also lock down and receive the same warning?

• If the supplies were indeed dropped…from what? No one heard a plane or helicopter. Was it a stealth military-type plane? Of course, hot air balloons are pretty quiet…

• In Locke’s flashback, as he was standing in the parking lot of the motel, an Oceanic airplane flew by overhead at a very low altitude, but it was almost silent..

• We are assuming that the supplies were dropped. They could have been planted there by the Others.

• Are Dharma supplies dropped from Oceanic planes? Did flight 815 malfunction during a drop, causing it to crash?

• Did the hatch shut down to turn off the electromagnetic fields so it wouldn’t bring the supply plane down? A hot air balloon would not be affected by an electromagnetic field…

• I doubt that entering the numbers is related to the hatch locking down. Why would Dharma design it so that a blast door prevents access to the computer when the hatch locks down?

• In Hurley’s flashback last season, we learn that he first got the infamous numbers from a crazy man. Is it possible that this guy used to deliver supplies to the island, and that the numbers are a request for supplies?  Or did he overhear/intercept a message containing the numbers at some point in his life or career?

• Was the mural on the hatch wall (outside of the blast doors) created by someone who was in the hatch, saw the map when the doors closed, and then tried to recreate it from memory? Or did this person leave the hatch to go explore the island, and update the map upon his return?

• Whoever drew that map was in lockdown for an extended period of time. Did this person know how to make it lockdown on purpose?

• Locke has serious trust issues; he really wanted to trust his dad, and couldn’t. Turned out to be the same way with Henry Gale.

• Is the fake Henry Gale really Kelvin, Desmond’s hatch partner?

• Is the fake Henry Gale related to Bernard? They have similar features.

• Did fake Henry Gale recognize the numbers when Locke repeated them to him? He sure recited them back fast.

• Was fake Henry really knocked out after falling off the shelves trying to get to the vent in the ceiling, or was he faking it to stall? Perhaps he knew exactly what would happen with the computer numbers and/or the lockdown.

• It took Henry some time to return to Locke once the hatch doors reopened. Was he on the computer, in contact with the Others, telling them his location? Or were the Others trying to contact Henry?

• When Helen follows Locke to the motel and confronts his father, she asks “are you him?” That is what Desmond asked Locke the first time they met too.

• Was Helen in on the con with Locke’s dad? It seems too convenient that she was reading the obits and found his father’s name, and that she always shows up to catch Locke in a lie about his dad…

• Locke inspected Nadia’s house. She was Sayid’s girl.

• Is Locke’s dad the real Sawyer, the con man that Island Sawyer was seeking to kill to avenge the death of his parents?

• We haven’t found out how Locke became paralyzed, but I’m sure it had something to do with the two thugs who were after his father. And did Locke ever go back up to the motel room to grab the $200k?

• There must be some significance to Jack being in Thailand…

• Sawyer mentioned being in Tallahassee. That is where Kate was buying a ticket to escape to in one of her flashbacks.

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