Lost: Season 5 - Page 8

Re: Lost: Season 5

Boy, do I feel silly now. I suppose the fact that it was last season and
so much time has gone by that I thought it was longer.

Okay, just forget everything I had said about grand design.

Re: Lost: Season 5

One of the weird paradox things about time travel - was Locke picked to be the leader of the Others because he told Richard that he was their leader 50 years ahead of time?

Also, were Faraday, Miles, and Charlotte picked by Widmore to come to the island because they encountered the Others in 1954?

I think the island traveled forward to that point in time and space where the Oceanic 6 can encounter it again.

Widmore was a lot more civil with Desmond than I expected. I would not be very surprised if Mrs. Hawking is not Faraday's mother.

Re: Lost: Season 5

Here's something I find a bit trippy, if Hawking is Daniel's mother.

Daniel was sent to the island by Widmore, more or less. He needs to get information to his mother, who is (theoretically) seen talking to Ben about his 70 hours. Which implies Ben and Hawking are on the same side. If we carry that all the way back, it means Ben and Widmore are working together, they just don't know it.

Re: Lost: Season 5

A few observations and questions:

On the surface, it appears Faraday tells Charlotte he loves her because he knows she is going to die from the sickness, but I think there is more to it. If the island is "skipping like a record" maybe Faraday was just trying to provide Charlotte himself as her "constant"?

If Sayid told Hurley to do the opposite of whatever Ben tells him, do we know that it was before he started helping Ben kill off Widmore's people?

It may have been on another board, but someone posited that the four toed statue was actually Sawyer (noting that the arrow/shard he stepped on was the cause). It may be a stretch, but if Saywer ends up in the distant past and "saves the day" for the ancient islanders...

Also from another poster...Do we in fact know that Locke really died? Maybe there is another reason we are introduced to the island's spiders in the episode "Expose"? When Ben told Locke "You're going to have to die" it's not clear he was being literal.

I'm not getting why Widmore did not press Desmond further on where Penny was, given Ben's threat. Maybe he already knows what will happen to her?


They sort of already do. The scene where Ben threatens to kill Widmore's daughter (Penny) there was mutual recognition to the fact that they cannot kill each other. I assume they know their destinies are intertwined.

Re: Lost: Season 5

To me, it seemed pretty clear that this was taking place after Sayid's assassinations as shown in 'The Economist.' I think the distrust on Sayid's part in these episodes now was because he realized he was being manipulated to kill people then.

Re: Lost: Season 5

I've checked out of that aspect. It may be quite rewarding after all the reveals, but not to me as I won't invest the time and energy it takes to keep it all straight. I'm just going to have to find a way to enjoy the show on a less intense level. Time travel stories typically fall apart under scrutiny, but scrutiny is exactly what this demands in order to keep up. The last time travel story I enjoyed was The Time Machine (both versions), mostly because they avoided paradoxes.

Re: Lost: Season 5

One of the things I've always strongly disagreed with, is the complaint that characters should be asking more questions. I always felt the show worked much better with the *viewers* asking those questions (and posing possible answers), and that to have endless dialogue about the "mysteries" would only confuse those views who already are confused by the simplest of LOST story-threads.

Here's a recent interview with Cuse and Lindelof, where they basically justify why "people [don't] stand around and explain stuff and you give a lot of answers at once."

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/i...ndelof_qa.html

No real spoilers in there that I found, unless you don't pay attention to the show

Re: Lost: Season 5

I guess it would be realistic for them to ask question but why waste the screen time when they'd get no answers? Rousseau had no clue what's happening on the island, Ben would lie or not answer and Juliet has been with The Others for 3 years so I'm don't think she is privy to any big island mysteries.

Re: Lost: Season 5

Very interesting interview. Thanks.

That would be hilarious.

Re: Lost: Season 5

there's alot of talk of Locke making himself the Leader (self fulfilling prophecy etc). and while it's debatable that Locke 'put himself on the map', remember that getting an introduction to the Others is one thing and getting to be a Leader is something else. Locke is the Leader because the Island chose him to be the leader (the walkabout, the walking).

THEORY: Ellie, Faraday and Widmore

Let's assume that Ellie (the cute blonde with the rifle and the dodgy accent) is Faraday's mother. If she was twenty years old in 1954, she would be in her 70s by now (which fits perfectly with Eloise Hawking's appearance). Let's also assume that Daniel is in his late 30s, meaning he was born around 1970 - which just happens to be the exact year that the Dharma Initiative was founded. What if Widmore betrayed Richard and left the island in 1970, selling its location to Alvar Hanso (explaining how Widmore became so wealthy). 'Marvin Candle' and his wife move to the island to lead Dharma. 5 years later they have a son, naming him Miles. Shortly after, Faraday appears from the future to warn the doctor about the purge and to explain the rules of space-time. Knowing he can do nothing to change the future, Dr. Candle wishes his son to be taken off the island. Widmore hears about the purge and contacts Eloise (whom he still has feelings for) to warn her. Ellie takes her son Daniel (now aged five), plus Miles and a baby girl named Charlotte, and leaves the island before the bloodshed starts. Widmore pays to have them all looked after and given the best education - especially Dan, as a favour to Ellie.

Meanwhile 'Marvin Candle' puts all of his efforts into trying to prevent the purge. In 1980 he oversees the construction of the Swan station, the purpose of which is to attempt to bend the rules of space-time. In their haste, his team accidentally disturb the buried hydrogen bomb. Their goal quickly becomes to keep it from detonating somehow - by harnessing the island's electromagnetic power, they attempt to create a time-loop lasting 108 minutes in which the bomb stays inert. It works, but with one tragic side effect: women on the island can't have children. Distraught by this turn of events, the Others decide to resolve the conflict once and for all (the irony being, of course, that the purge happens as a direct result of Dharma trying to prevent it). After the purge, the Others are left to clean up the Dharma Initiative's mess. Eloise and Widmore are the only two people not on the island who know of its existence. Two old friends/rivals: one trying to fix the past, the other out for revenge.

Re: Lost: Season 5

Simon that very good.

you should put that into the theory topic.

Re: Lost: Season 5

somewhere along the line, Eloise gets exposed to the radiation as she clearly has precognitive powers. nice theory, i liked the first paragraph more than the second. i still don't think the bomb has anything to do with the Swan, and the birth/death thing is more the Island than anything mad-made...

This is going to sound incredibly anal, but...

Something I've noticed this season is that the layout of the credits during the opening minutes is slightly different. The majority of you probably wouldn't notice, but I find the minutiae of films and TV shows interesting, including typography. Previously the credits were always neatly aligned with the bottom corners of the screen, making them neater and less distracting for the viewer. Now they are more central, as though someone decided to re-tool the layout for 4x3 TVs. From a design POV I find it odd.

Also, they haven't quite got the font right on some of the new names. The old regulars all use the correct font, but when a new name pops up it sometimes looks incorrect. It's not justified properly and the aspect is wrong. Finally, the colour grading during some of the island scenes has been more stylised than we've been used to, with pumped contrast giving primary colours an almost luminous glow. All these things make me wonder whether they've got new equipment, new staff or just inferior quality control.

Re: This is going to sound incredibly anal, but...

If they're going to change things like that, someone needs to fix the damn black artifacts in the "LOST" text that have been showing from the beginning.

Re: This is going to sound incredibly anal, but...

I totally agree, it just looks amateurish. I remember hearing that J.J. Abrams rendered it in preview quality on his PowerBook, and nobody bothered to re-do it.

If you look here, though, you'll see someone has made a much nicer version. Pity it's 30fps and not 24fps.

Re: THEORY: Ellie, Faraday and Widmore

This makes no sense, as you have mixed up two stations. The Swan is the station with "the button," and "the incident," but it is The Orchid which is built near the large amount of energy, which makes time-travel possible. At the beginning of "Because You Left," we see Candle making the training video for The Arrow, before running off to an drilling emergency at The Orchid (where we see Daniel, and the image of the wheel through the wall).

I think the explanation is more simple: The Others bury the bomb, as per Daniel's warnings, and later, Dharma erects The Swan nearby.

Re: THEORY: Ellie, Faraday and Widmore

I haven't mixed the stations up. Just because The Orchid is the time-travel station, that doesn't mean The Swan has nothing to do with it. Desmond's brain went time-travelling after he blew up The Swan, and the purple sky effect was similar to when Ben pushed the donkey wheel. There was clearly some kind of energy surrounding The Swan, and it's possibly linked to the hydrogen bomb. It's all speculation at this point, so I don't see how anyone can say what does and doesn't make sense. Until we learn what "the incident" was, it's all up for grabs.

On a side note, perhaps Widmore's interest in the island has something to do with the quest for eternal life. I know it sounds crazy, but bear with me. If Richard Alpert is truly ageless (or just really, really old) then maybe Widmore was jealous of him. You heard the way he referred disdainfully to Locke as "some sodding old man". What if he coveted Richard's 'gift' enough to betray him for the island's secrets?

Re: This is going to sound incredibly anal, but...

I noticed this as well, but I assumed it was a creative decision to reflect the island's instability. The scenes in the jungle and campsite had an otherworldly quality to them but I didn't really notice it in Des's off-island scenes.

Re: Lost: Season 5

Marvin Candle (aka Edgar Halliwax) may have used the orchid to time travel, perhaps to help his wife and "ghostbuster" son to escape the purge.

Note that in the scene where Ben turns the wheel and travels to the desert, the arctic coat he's wearing bears the name "Halliwax." I find the producers' providing this kind of detail really satisfying.

Re: Lost: Season 5

i make an effort NOT to see the credits because i don't want to know who's making appearances in the episode

Re: This is going to sound incredibly anal, but...

I noticed a slight change in the look on episode 2 (where they had a new director of photography) but not on the two episodes that long time DP John Bartley shot.

Re: Lost: Season 5

Finally caught up with the first three episodes of the season this weekend, and I think it is off to a very good start. I agree that Fionula Flanagan is most likely Faraday's mother. What's amazing to me is how Lost introduces new characters each season that don't feel tacked on but become essential to the story. Can you imagine the show without Desmond? Or Ben? Or now, Faraday? All have been substantial additions.

Nice time travel clues that have things falling into place, like Widmore on the island 50 years ago.

Seventeen episodes this season? So, 14 more?

Re: Lost: Season 5

Yep. I assume there will be at least two weeks where they play a rerun or skip the week since ABC will want the show on during all of the May sweeps period.

Re: Lost: Season 5

My theory: The island is actually Antarctica post-global warming. That explains the Black Rock shipwreck in the jungle and the polar bears.

Re: Lost: Season 5

The polar bears have already been explained...

Re: Lost: Season 5

It looks like the theory that Miles is Dr. Candle's son might be correct.

I wonder if we'll see Montand (of the group of French people) lose his arm.

I'm happy to see Jin return. The poor guy must be really confused.

I enjoyed Sawyer's "Thank you, God!" and "I take it back!" lines on the boat.

Re: Lost: Season 5

Thanks a lot for posting that! Very interesting interview and probably the best I've read/heard from Cuse/Lindelof in a while. The interviewer was good enough to keep pressing the questions that many of us have been wondering like how much of it did they plan vs. how much they made up as they went along, some plotpoints that may have been forgotten about, etc. The duo have gotten some of these questions before, but they've seemed relatively slippery in the past. Also nice to hear that the Libby story may still be in the cards - maybe they saw the fan response to their previous comment that they were dropping it (see a few pages back). If anything else, I would've asked them if we'd ever find out more about Walt's powers. Granted, the show has some sci-fi elements to it, but Walt seemed to take it in a direction the show hasn't explored since.

As for tonight's episode. Not as good as last week's. I guess I am a bit bored about all the drama concerning the Oceanic 6. Good to see Jin back. And of course Rousseau & the expedition team.

Re: Lost: Season 5

"I guess I am a bit bored about all the drama concerning the Oceanic 6."

Funny you should say that Ray. I was just coming on here to post that one thing I realized this season is that I am absolutely fascinated by everything that is happening on the island; and that I couldn't care less about the real world oceanic 6 stuff. Every time Jack and them come on, I want it to go back to the island story. Last weeks episode really drove that home to me, because there was no oceanic 6 story and I loved that episode. This weeks was good, a little slower until the last 10 minutes, then.. Wow!