BREAKING ‘LOST’ NEWS: THE FUTURE OF THE SHOW


(Don’t worry, this news does NOT contain spoilers)

I just read that after Season 3 of Lost ends in a few weeks, there will be three more seasons! While it is unusual for a popular television show to have a set date in the near future for the series to end, I applaud the decision to do so in this case.

The final three seasons will consist of only 16 episodes each…but at least they will air all 16 in a row without repeats!

With that in mind, be prepared for a long summer and fall; Season 4 of Lost will probably not begin until January of next year.

The series finale of Lost will more than likely air in 2010.

Which suits me just fine…three more years to overanalyze and obsess about one of the best shows on television, ever.

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WHO’S YOUR DADDY: LOST, EPISODE 3.19 – “THE BRIG”

A few things before delving into this week’s awesome episode…

I’d like to give a shout out of appreciation to my new LOST friends: Glenn, Porter and Tony. If you also enjoy reading my weekly Lost blogs, please join my Lost Distribution List by sending an email to jo@jopinionated.com. You will be notified immediately when Lost-specific entries are posted!

For some reason I had difficulty finding screen captures online from last night’s show, so there aren’t many photos accompanying this entry.

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And now, on with the show.

Ben lies. A few episodes ago, he summoned ‘the man from Tallahassee.’ Obviously that was Locke’s dad, Cooper. Last night we learned that Cooper’s last memory before arriving on the island was driving down a freeway…in Tallahassee.

Then again…Ben told Locke that he was the one who brought his dad to the island, and that the magic box was a metaphor. Could it be that the infamous Black Smoke Monster manifested itself again and took the form of someone from a Lostie’s past (see: Eko’s brother Yemi)? How do we really know that it was Cooper?

Remember how Juliet wished out loud that her ex-husband were hit by a bus…and then he was? Did the Others/Dharma somehow also crash Cooper’s car? Were the following car crashes also the work of Dharma??

  • Claire & her mom (she was fine, mom was in a coma); Season 3
  • Kate & the farmer in his truck (she saved his life, but Marshall caught her); Season 1
  • Kate & her doctor ex-boyfriend (she escaped, he died); Season 1
  • Locke confronting his mom (hit by a car in the parking lot); Season 1
  • Michael was hit by a car and wound up in the hospital (his first flashback); Season 1
  • Shannon’s dad and Sarah, Jack’s future wife (he died, Jack saved her); Season 2

Earlier in the season, flight attendant Cindy and some of the kids from the Tail Section appeared in front of Jack, who was locked up in the cage. She said they were there to watch. In last night’s episode, she and the camping Others gathered to watch Locke as he failed to kill dear old dad. WTF are they observing, and why?

Do the Others assume that Desmond is a Lostie? They shouldn’t, because Ben and Juliet could have observed him in the Swan Hatch (via the screens in the Pearl Hatch) way before Flight 815 landed on the island. If they were aware of him, they probably had his chart/info too. Which means that they know who Penny is. And so they wouldn’t be surprised to know that she is looking for him and has the resources to find the island…

BUT, if Naomi is lying and really works for the Others and/or Dharma, was she sent there as a reinforcement? Did she parachute in because Locke really did destroy the Others’ sub?

Jack and Juliet didn’t look too surprised to hear that there was a strange woman on the beach who crash landed on the island, probably because Juliet knew more Others would be arriving and told Jack.

Either way, Naomi is a liar pants. We know that in last week’s episode, she told Mikhail (in Portuguese, mind you), that ‘we are not alone.’ That satellite phone had a signal; is it a tracking device? How is it that the communications hatch was blown up, which affected all island technology, but her phone works?

Locke is the Liar King. A few episodes ago, when he went to say goodbye to Kate in the pool room before abandoning the village with the Others, he told her he tried to convince them to let her go. We didn’t see that last night. He read her personal chart and decided on his own to leave her behind based on his judgment of her past. Tsk, tsk. 

How creepy is it that the Cult of Camping Others would encourage murder in front of children?? There were Tail Section kids among those watching Ben produce and manipulate the Locke-Cooper Freak Show.

According to Ben, Locke had to kill his dad in order to finally move on with his new life on the island (thus purging himself of his life before the crash). Is the same true for Island Sawyer, now that he killed the real Sawyer?

Regarding the secret that Jack and Juliet are keeping, here are my theories as to what it could be:

  • Kate is pregnant (although why would Juliet tell Jack?)
  • Juliet told Jack about her double crossing plans and that the Others were coming to the beach for the women in 3 days

DID YOU NOTICE…

Ben told Locke that they were going to take the ‘pregnant women’ from the beach. Plural! Do they already know/assume that Kate is pregnant?

Cooper’s assertion that they found Locke’s plane at the bottom of the ocean fits right in with Naomi’s news. HOWEVER, Naomi said it was found off the coast of Bali, and Cooper said it was in the Pacific Ocean. Interesting how two new arrivals from the outside world arrived on the island with the same news but with conflicting locations…

Way back in Season 1, Kate told Sun that she was actually trying to get to…Bali. But as we know, the Marshall caught up with her in Australia and she was arrested. The fact that Naomi said that’s where the plane crashed can’t be mere coincidence at this point.

Ben said to Locke, “don’t’ tell me what I can’t do.” Locke has said that very thing on many occasions on the show.

Did they purposefully point out how Sawyer was barefoot as a wink-wink, nudge-nudge reference to the story of Tom SAWYER?

The column that Cooper was tied up to looked quite old, and is probably from the same era as the 4-toed statue. It could have been part of some ancient temple. Perhaps that is why Ben had Cooper tied up to it as a sacrificial lamb.

The file on Island Sawyer’s that Richard Alpert handed Locke was in French. Do we finally have a Rousseau (aka Crazy French Lady) connection??

FAMILY TIES

The following Lostie family members have now appeared on the island:

  • Locke’s dad
  • Jack & Claire’s dad
  • Eko’s brother

Is Juliet’s sister next? Jin’s mom?

QUESTIONS

Will the island and/or Locke’s healing powers revive Cooper like they did Mikhail?

Did Ben begin to heal because of his proximity to Locke or because he left his village?

Why is it that the Others are so self-righteous about who is ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ and yet they didn’t hesitate to offer Locke the opportunity to kill his own father for show?

Why don’t the Losties question Naomi’s statement that Flight 815 was found near Bali? Out of curiosity, I looked up the location and distance between Sydney and Bali. They are almost three thousand miles apart! That’s a lot further than Flight 815’s pilot’s estimation that they were 1,000 miles off course.

Where the heck is Sheriff Isabel? She wasn’t camping with the Others and we haven’t seen her since she put Juliet on trial.

What the hell is Rousseau going to blow up, and why? Another hatch? The abandoned Other Village?

Where is Alex? You’d think that Ben would insist that his ‘daughter’ accompany him from place to place. Is she with her boyfriend Karl, who we haven’t seen since Sawyer let him go?

If Naomi had a ship, why use a helicopter to reach the island?

The Others took Walt because he was ‘special’ but then released him because they made a deal with Michael. They had high expectations of Locke because he was ‘special’ and his injuries were healed by the island. Why is it that they’re not interested in Rose, who is miraculously cancer-free since crashing on the island?

Now that Island Sawyer has exercised his demons (aka killing the real Sawyer), will he be known as James Ford again?

Richard Alpert, who gave Locke the file on Island Sawyer, mentioned that the Others were conducting other research besides fertility. Such as?

What was Sayid burying or digging up when Hurley found him in the jungle?

If Locke has these healing powers, are they selective? Why is it that his buddy Boone died and yet Mikhail lived?

CRAZY THEORY OF THE WEEK

Like father, like son? Cooper called Ben ‘bug eye,’ tossing out a disparaging nickname just like James ‘Island Sawyer’ Ford does on an hourly basis. And we know that Locke has a brother…

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LOVE HER MADLY: LOST, EPISODE 3.18 – “D.O.C.”


Do I think that Penny Widmore sent Naomi to find Desmond? Yes. Is she aware that Desmond is now hanging on the island with the real survivors of Flight 815? No. I believe that Penny sent Naomi (the parachutist) to find him after her team at the listening station (see photo above) discovered the electromagnetic anomaly. I believe that she knew where to look and funded that listening station after finding out that Daddy Widmore was a major financial contributor to Dharma…and probably had something to do with Desmond’s disappearance three years ago.

Naomi said “I am not alone,” which Mikhail translated as “thank you.” Did someone else parachute in with her? Were there others in the (alleged) helicopter that crashed? OR…is Penny actually there somewhere as well? Why else would Desmond have seen her in his last future flash?

Of course, this is Lost. So Naomi is probably a liar and an Other. She might have told Hurley about the real Flight 815 just to add to the collection of psychological games tormenting the Losties in this crazy experiment.

Mikhail obviously saw the flare that Hurley accidentally shot up in the air. He literally ran to find where it came from and looked quite surprised to come upon Desmond and the Losties…because he was looking for Naomi.

How did Mikhail survive the sonic barrier? Kate checked his pulse and said his heart had stopped. Was Mikhail prepared for just such a situation…did he carry an emergency Dharma pill to pop so that he could pretend to play dead when necessary (you know, the foam-at-the-mouth-heartbeat-stopper kind)? OR, as Mikhail indicated when referring to Naomi’s wounds…did the island heal his injuries rather quickly? And if so, does that mean we’ll be seeing dead Others again (Ethan, Goodwin, Ms. Klugh, Pickett, Colleen, etc.)?

Did Jack tell Juliet about Sun’s pregnancy? Does he really trust her that much? He probably thought it was very convenient and helpful to bring a fertility doctor to the beach where one of his friends was pregnant. Dumbass.

But if the Others had information about each passenger, their info would have shown that Jin and Sun were unable to conceive. Juliet should have been surprised to hear that she was pregnant, but I don’t think she was. She also wasn’t surprised to hear that Sun had an affair with another man; I’m sure that the Others knew that already.

Does Sun believe Juliet? Her lingering pose outside of the Staff Hatch after her ultrasound was telling. Did Sun follow her back into the Hatch and hear what she recorded for Ben? We’ve certainly learned that Sun is much smarter and more conniving than she appeared to be in the first season…

I am convinced that when Ben told Kate she was going to have a very difficult two weeks right after they were captured (see photo above) at the beginning of this season, he told her she would have to sleep with either Jack or Sawyer. That’s why they made her shower and put on a pretty dress. The Others were forcing her to get pregnant under the threat of death (either her, Jack or Sawyer). Last night we learned that Juliet was going to get Austen’s sample next (Kate’s last name is Austen). This theory might explain why Kate was acting elusive and uncomfortable when talking to Sun about Juliet’s island baby bad news.

QUESTIONS

If women who conceive on the island die, would they live if they terminated the pregnancy?

Why would the Others drag dying pregnant women all the way over to the Staff Hatch from their safe village inside the barracks?

If pregnant women and their babies die on the island, how is it that Ben was born there? Oh yeah…he wasn’t. Liar pants.

Who, besides Kate, are the other women that Juliet referred to for getting samples? There aren’t many viable candidates among the Losties that we’ve been introduced to. Watch out Naomi, you might be next!

Why does Naomi speak so many languages? Is it a coincidence that Mikhail and Ms. Klugh also seem(ed) to be multilingual?

How did Sun find Jin’s father, and so quickly?

Why would Jin’s mom ask for blackmail money in American dollars?

MY OVERALL (CONSPIRACY) THEORY ABOUT THE SHOW

From the beginning, I have theorized that the Losties were never actually on Flight 815. There was a real Flight 815, which was purposefully crashed…probably by Dharma. But the Losties boarded a simulated flight. They were specifically chosen. The flight and turbulence were fabricated, and they were all drugged by the oxygen masks. Before being removed from the plane, each passenger was injected with some type of memory chip or implant, causing what we see as flashbacks. And yes, some of them died; they had to in order to make it seem real. The deceased are the ones that didn’t fit the Dharma criteria for the island experiment. The “survivors” were placed in very specific locations on the beach, in the jungle and in the water with the wreckage.

Obviously, it would have taken a tremendous financial and logistical effort to organize and pull off this kind of scheme. But we’ve been introduced to several very wealthy flashback characters that are less than thrilled with or have been abandoned by the people who are on that island: Mr. Paik, who is disappointed that she married a fisherman’s son. Charles Widmore, who disapproved of Desmond dating his daughter. Sabrina Carlyle, Shannon’s stepmom who cut her off from the family inheritance. David Reyes, who Hurley refused to give lottery money to.  One or all of these people has more than likely contributed generously to the funding of the Dharma Initiative. And the heretofore unseen Jacob is the puppet master overseeing this entire experiment.

Major Hole in My Theory: How/why were the Others able to see the plane break apart above them if it was a pseudo crash?

Is this theory absolutely implausible? Yes. Do I need to sleep more and blog/obsess about Lost less? Perhaps. Will I? Doubtful.

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PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS: LOST, EPISODE 3.17 – “CATCH 22″


I do not have as many theories as usual for this week’s episode, “Catch-22.” But here are a few thoughts…

Do people really parachute out of helicopters? Seems kind of dangerous, with the blades and all…unless of course the parachutist has military training. I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it was a helicopter that crashed into the ocean, even though the Losties thought it was. Also, helicopter fuel tanks don’t hold very much, so it must have taken off from a location close to the island…

Did Naomi, the parachutist, jump before the helicopter (or whatever) started to crash, or during? She certainly drifted and landed quite far from the helicopter crash site.

Now we know for sure that Penny has discovered the whereabouts of Desmond. She sent Naomi to the island after her team saw the electromagnetic anomaly blip on their radar in the arctic listening station (which occurred when Locke imploded the Swan Hatch two to three weeks ago in Lost time).

The book in Naomi’s backpack was Catch-22 in Portuguese. Penny’s listening station team was speaking Portuguese.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you’ve been searching for your long lost love for years. You finally locate where he disappeared to, and you send in…one woman to find him. Penny either knows about the dangers of the island (probably because Daddy Widmore helped finance Dharma) or she has a tremendous amount of faith in Naomi, who must be quite a friend/savior/superhero to take on that job.

The cable on the beach leads into the ocean. Is it connected to the sonar which directs the sub to and from the island?

How/why are there so many copies of that Desmond/Penny photo?!

When Desmond visited Ruth, his ex-fiancé, and tried to explain why he left her for the monastery, she said it was a good thing that a “shepherd” hadn’t found him lying in the street, because then he would have joined the sheep. Yeah, but he’s with a (Jack) Shephard now.

Did you catch that Ms. Hawking, the old woman from the ring shop in Desmond’s last flashback, was in the photo with Brother Campbell on his desk?? So she IS real. Although the picture looked like quite the PhotoShop hack job.

In Desmond’s flash, he saw all three guys holding the parachute to catch the parachutist, including Charlie. So…was he meant to save him after all? As the events took place in real time, had Charlie been shot with the arrow, he wouldn’t have been able to help hold the parachute with Jin and Hurley.

FILE UNDER: RANDOM

I had to look this up because I am not at all familiar with anything Biblical…there was reference to the sacrifice of Isaac. In the Bible, Isaac is the father of Jacob (the Others’ leader with the list that we haven’t met yet) and grandfather of Benjamin (as in Ben Linus, the Others’ 2nd in command under Jacob). ALSO, Naomi (the parachutist) is a Biblical name that appears in the book of Ruth (Desmond’s ex-fiancé).

Desmond has future FLASHES, and Charlie & Hurley were arguing about Superman and the Flash. Does that make Hurley Superman?  

There was another use of the phrase, One of Us. Brother Campbell told Desmond that he was “one of us” at the monastery.

How is it that no one else on the island also heard the helicopter and/or saw the beacon?

So Flight 815, the real Henry Gale’s hot air balloon, Rousseau’s boat and now the parachutist’s helicopter have all crashed above and/or into the island, marooning them. And yet the sub is able to travel back and forth without issue (except perhaps when it enters through the invisible barrier around the island, which would explain Ethan’s statement to Juliet that ‘the last leg of the trip can be rough.’) So whatever protective barrier (which I like to think of as the Truman Show Dome) surrounds that island must allow underwater and/or subterranean access and also have some kind of trap door that opens up top (to let the Dharma food drops through).

** SPOILER ALERT **
Here is the schedule for the rest of the season.

4/18/07
Episode 3.18
“D.O.C.” (Date of Conception)
Jin & Sun-centric
Looks like we’ll finally find out who Sun’s baby-daddy is.

5/2/07
Episode 3.19
“The Brig”
Locke-centric
Apparently, the flashbacks will show us recent events on the island, including what happened after Locke discovered that Cooper (his Dad) was being held captive by the Others. Something tells me that we’ll finally find out that Cooper is the real Sawyer, and hopefully Mr. James Ford (island Sawyer) will as well.

5/9/07
Episode 3.20
“The Man Behind the Curtain”
Ben-centric
Rumor has it that we’ll see if Ben really was born on the island and we’ll learn more about Dharma and the DeGroots.

5/16/07
Episode 3.21
“Greatest Hits”
Charlie-centric
I haven’t heard much about this one yet, but it does not bode well for Dominic Monaghan…flashbacks can lead to death (see: Boone & Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, and Nikki & Paulo).

5/23/07 (2-hour Season Finale)
Episodes 3.22 & 3.23
“Through the Looking Glass”
Jack-centric
There will be a showdown between Jack and Locke.

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INJECTION REJECTION: LOST, EPISODE 3.16 – “ONE OF US”

In his last flashback, it was revealed that Jack’s tattoo translates as: he walks among us, but he is not one of us. In that same episode, Ben told Jack that regardless of what he thought of Juliet, she is still “one of us.” Juliet’s flashback episode last night was called…One of Us.  And then Jack told Juliet that because she also wanted off of the island, that she was “one of us.”

Did Juliet actually arrive on the island via sub? Why was she the only one strapped in if the last leg of the trip was supposedly so bumpy? And truly, is it possible to have a bumpy submarine ride? Aren’t they pretty smooth vehicles?

Refresher: Mittelos, Juliet’s new employer, is an anagram for LOST TIME.

And, at the Mittelos airport, there was a sign for Herarat Aviation. HER A RAT. Subtle! Also, Herarat is an anagram for Earhart…as in famous female pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean under mysterious circumstances.

The infamous Jacob was referenced again. He must also be some kind of doctor or scientist, as Ben promised Juliet that he would cure her sister Rachel’s cancer and it appears as if he was successful. Then again, anyone can PhotoShop a newspaper headline and the Others are certainly capable of coercion; perhaps Rachel was forced to appear in that video. That may not be her child either.  

Was Rachel’s cancer controlled by the Others? Did they cause it to return by activating an implant, similar to the one used to cause Claire’s “crisis?” Leave it to the Others to use and manipulate someone’s illness in order to blackmail one of their own to remain on the island.

And I’m no doctor, but when Ben hands Juliet her sister’s chart, the paperwork appears to be for a male patient with heart problems who weighs almost 200 pounds. WTF?

Ben said no one on the island has ever had cancer. If he has information about all of the passengers from Flight 815, he must know that Rose has cancer. Rather, she did before crashing on that island. Does he know that she’s been cured, much like Locke?

Has Juliet ever expressed how she felt about the death of her Other lover, Goodwin? Does she even know that he was killed by Ana Lucia after she found out he wasn’t a passenger? When Ben dispatched Goodwin to the tail section immediately after the crash, Juliet didn’t even register a response. How close could they have been?

Last season, Locke discovered that the Pearl Station had video surveillance of the Swan Hatch, where Desmond was stationed for years before the Losties found him. And we’ve seen that Ben and Juliet have visited the Pearl Station to view that monitor. So wouldn’t Juliet would recognize Desmond from the Swan Hatch, and also know that he wasn’t on the plane? Is she aware of his precognitive powers? Will that throw a wrench in her master plan?

When Juliet went to recover the medical supplies, there was a tree with a symbol carved into it. It seems to be the same symbol that was branded on her lower back after she was put on trial for killing Picket back on other island.

Juliet says that she can “fix” Claire’s medical emergency. Just like Dr. Jack, who is obsessed with fixing everyone and everything.

After showing Juliet video of Rachel and her nephew on screen in the Flame Hatch, Ben told Richard Alpert to get back to the island soon because of new visitors (meaning the Losties who survived the crash). Really and truly, we have no idea where this island is, but it certainly isn’t a quick jaunt from Miami via sub. Had Richard been back to the island more than once, or did he only return recently (with Locke’s dad)? If Mikhail was able to gather information about all of the passengers, Ben would have known about their history and may have instructed Richard to bring Locke’s dad to the island to use as bait to lure Locke in…

Even if Mikhail had gathered specific personal details about the Losties, how did they know that Sawyer shot the wrong man before boarding that flight the very next day? It’s not like the local authorities were after Sawyer for the murder. 

Did Ethan really improvise when the Losties found out he wasn’t really a passenger, or was kidnapping Claire yet another aspect of the Others’ master plan?

Did Claire survive her pregnancy because Aaron was conceived off of the island, or because of the injections that Ethan had given her?

Didn’t Rousseau deliver Alex while on the island? And if Ben was born on the island, then obviously the pregnancy death thing was a fairly recent phenomenon (post-Dharma?). Ben and Alex were born way before Juliet and her miracle fertility drugs arrived…

Why put an implant in Claire if you think she isn’t going to survive her pregnancy? They must have known that she would, and put the implant in her to use at a future date.

Back when the Others had Sawyer captured, they pretended to insert a heart monitor into his chest. But did they actually place an implant similar to Claire’s in him, in order to activate at a later date?

Also, when Kate had that infamous breakfast on the beach with Ben at the beginning of the season and he told her that the next two weeks were going to be very difficult, did they inject her with some kind of fertility drug and then threaten to kill either Jack or Sawyer unless she slept with one of them? Desperate times call for desperate measures when you’re living like the Children of Men

The very last scene of Juliet tying the rope to secure her shelter should have been accompanied by Austin Powers over-the-top evil laughter. Double crossing…get it?! Oh and look, her knot forms one of Hurley’s letters, an 8.

CRAZY THEORY OF THE WEEK
The Others found out that Sun was pregnant, which was a pleasant surprise to them. Their intel from Mikhail’s research would have indicated that Sun and Jin were not able to have kids, but now Ben knows about the island’s healing powers. So, he sent Juliet to integrate herself among the Losties in order to get closer to Sun and perhaps inject her with the serum or implant.  You might be asking yourselves, how would the Others find out about Sun? Remember that they had video cameras and audio on Jack, Kate and Sawyer the entire time that they were in being held captive.

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DHARMA OR BAD KARMA? LOST BLOG LITERALLY…LOST


I consider myself a fairly tech-savvy individual. So when a Word document disappears into thin air with no chance of recovery, taking with it hours of work and vast conspiracy theories, you can understand why I might scream, sh*tg*dd*mnmotherf*cukingsonofab*tch! If only I had Desmond to warn me of such a thing. Or a flashback that revealed how Dharma and/or the Others played a role in the demise of my data.

Alas, at this late hour I am currently attempting to recreate my weekly list of thoughts and theories about last night’s episode of Lost. I dedicated my entire evening to it, only to have it evaporate without a trace. 

So stay tuned. I will post it either in the middle of the night tonight or tomorrow after work. Thank you for your patience.

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