Lost

Hey kids,

Thought I'd pop in, I haven't been reading the ol' blog because I haven't even started this season of Lost (been pretty busy around here), but we've got spring break coming up so I promise to catch up! Just thought I'd poke my head in though and let y'all know I'm still alive.

Dan

PS Rissa, thanks for being my awkward buddy, you're a lifesaver

Struggle, mysteries, and power

I think one of the underlying themes of lost involves the cycle between various struggles with mystery and power. When the plane first crashes on the island the castaways are confrunted with numerous mysteries: noises in the jungle, dissapearing passangers, and the strange nature of their surroundings. During the second season they struggle with the mysterious hatch and the responsibility of the numbers and their power manifested in the hatch computer. During the third season the mysterious "others" begin to be revealed, and the power struggle begins between the crash survivors and their native enemies. During season four we learn that the mysterious others are in fact quite normal, except for their even more mysterious leader Benjamin who seems to hold a special power and connection to the island that no one quite understands. In season five Ben's facade begins to melt away and we learn that he is in fact part of a larger struggle between the island, Charles Widmore, and the mysterious power of Jacob. Finally in this last season we begin to see that Ben and Charles are mere pawns in a larger power struggle between Jacob and Esau, who seem to be manifestations of good and evil.

I would venture to guess that by the end of the series we will leave with a sense that even Jacob and Esau are merely playing their part in the larger struggle of existence. Clearly they are both subject to rules (not crossing the dust, not being immortal) that they cannot control. In the latest episode we see the way Esau struggles with his confinement on the island, and we begin to question Jacob's omnipotence (if he knows all then why did he have to cross out so many names to find the "right" ones?). I feel like some of the final revalations of Lost will involve a release from the ideal notion of absolute control and power. Instead we will be left with a concept of concentric circles of power or control that stretch into eternity, never reaching the pneultimate level. This would make for a very different universal concept than some sort of clean 'purgatory' resolution that would be uncharacteristically definite in a narrative of uncertainty.

The darkness

So after the last two episodes of Lost I have been trying to reconcile things we are seeing now with things we have seen in the past. One matter of confusion for me is the matter of Locke meeting "Jacob" when Ben took him to the shack in the jungle. That 'sitting in the dark' kind of scary figure just doesn't jibe with the Jacob we know now. On top of that "Jacob" says something to Locke when he's shaking the shack up (like "Help me"?). Was it actually Esau? It doesn't seem likely it was Jacob. On top of that the shack was protected by the ash from the smoke monster. Jacob doesn't need protection from the smoke monster and it couldn't be Esau because of the ash (unless the ash only stops Esau when he's in smoke monster form).

I think that there is a third force at play we haven't been explicitly introduced to ... the darkness. The darkness that got Rousseau's team, the darkness that has Sayeed, the darkness that has Claire and daddy Shepard(?). I think this is really what Jacob brought the new people to protect the island from. If so I think the height of the last season conflict will be the fight against the darkness.

We still don't know why Richard was in chains, why Esau is stuck on the island, who the new people from the plane are who seem to know certain things about the island.

CD Recs

Passion Pit- Manners. Download. Drink. Smile.

LOST

So I thought that was a great episode- apart from Juliet dying. I just can't get behind that; probably because I hate Kate, but whatevs.

Joe mentioned the parallel realities intersecting in his earlier post, and I thought I'd share a thought one of my friends from school had. He thinks that the flash-sideways is actually a flashback to the past that ultimately didn't change anything. While there have been differences in the sideways timeline, they generally tend to be small (Jack being the nervous flier-not Rose, getting one bottle of vodka- not 2, etc.), and there seems to be a lot of course correcting going on. The details may be different, but many of the overarching plot points are the same. Charlie almost dies and Jack saves him. Boone tells Locke that he would follow him anywhere. The Marshal is injured (he'll probably die later), and Kate escapes. I would be willing to bet that Locke will walk again at some point (thought with Jack's help as opposed to the island's), Kate and Sawyer will have sex, and Kate will end up with Aaron. Anyway, he thinks that many (if not basically all) of the major events from the past five seasons will still happen; it will just be off the island. At some point, the convergence of the timelines will come when they eventually end up back at the island. After all, the Lost mythology generally states that you can't avoid fate. Charlie tried, with Desmond's help, and failed, and Desmond himself got a similar lesson from Eloise Hawking in an earlier season.

Having said all that, one of the major flaws in this theory is that we saw the island underwater at the beginning of the episode. So I don't know. On the other hand, that could have only been a part of the island, or only one of the islands, and really, I wouldn't put it past them to somehow "resurrect" the island. Most things aren't too far outside of the realm of possibility in Lost anyway.

Lost is back!

I wrote this at work so some of it repeats what others have pointed out already:

So one of the interesting things that came up in that last episode is Esau's desire to go home (I believe we saw that in the past also although I'm not sure). One question has to be where is home? I am guessing Egypt or close by. The Island is covered with Egyptian Hieroglyphs and recall that Jacob was making an Egyptian tapestry in the statue foot. This is also consistent with the Biblical reference as Jacob moved his family to Egypt after a famine in Canaan and the descendants of Esau end up in Egypt. If I recall correctly the tunnel that Ben takes off of the Island brings him to a desert in Tunisia (not Egypt but the correct part of the world at least).

The Esau's line to Richard “It’s good to see you out of those chains” was very interesting. I guess Esau chained up Richard because Jacob seems OK with him. Richard doesn't exactly seem like the kind of person you need to chain up for being evil.

The whole parallel realities begs the question of where we are going with all of this. In the past, multiple realities always intersect at some point. Are these two realities going to intersect or what does the new reality add to the storyline? Could it be as simple as demonstrating that the plane not crashing doesn't work out for anyone? Or does it maybe allow the writers to kill off lots of characters without pissing off the audience because they are still alive in the good reality? I think because its Lost we have to get something big plotwise from this reality so those examples are probably not enough.

How did Juliet know that the bomb worked? Right at her dying moment? Seems to support the purgatory theory a little.

God I'm bad at being productive.

So I just wrote my little "Team Juliet" post...but I feel I must qualify.

While Juliet was much better for Sawyer than Little Ms. Underworld-Rise-of-the-Lycans, she only remaining thing that she could do for the plot of the show is to provide Sawyer with motivation. The best way to do that? Dying. But what the hell do I know...I thought it was Claire under all that.

In other news:

-Resurrected Sayid=Resurrected Jacob?
-While I think you could do a lot with not resolving the two timelines...I think its clear that they're going to have to merge at some point. I just hope it doesn't involve ANOTHER plane crash. Get creative, everyone. We can do this.
-I kinda want Ben to Stay evil.
-I think the show has forgotten about Charles Widmore.

-Andddd....reading.

First Impressions

Since the time difference prevents me from joining the live Lost dork fest with the rest of you...I figured I would post my initial reaction to this final season intro extravaganza. As always with the beginning of a season we get more questions than answers, but there is certainly one question looming in my head. How are they going to finish this final season and NOT convince me that the island=purgatory? I get the feeling that someone called them out during season 2 and they immediately backpedaled -- "Haha of course the island isn't purgatory...that would be super lame *gulp*"

Seriously though...we are getting some sort of flash-sideways? Are there two simultaneous realities? How is this not purgatory?

Also, I like the fact that there are two 'new' things happening on the plane: the presence of Desmond (could have any number of interesting explainations) and the non-presence of Shannon (only explained by the fact that she was "too busy" to film this season).

I wish I had Lost in HD because it is so much less entertaining in SD grainy glory.

I think John Locke transformation over the series arch will be one of Lost's greatest accomplishments (along with finally killing Juliet off). Seriously who could go from mystery man to outsider to leader to pariah to supervillan but John Locke?

Anyways those are my initial thoughts...

Press in dire situations

Ok, so my roommate introduced me to this and I thought you all might enjoy:
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/

Also totally psyched for lost tomorrow.