Lost so far? Our thoughts up to 6.06

joey — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:55:48 +0000

Last night’s episode was phenomenal! There are tons of recaps on the Lost theory site darkufo, and podcasts on the Lost podcasting network that do a great job of recapping the Jack-centric episode Lighthouse.

We skipped writing recaps for the previous two episodes The Substitute and What Kate Does, but recaps are also available on lostpedia.

This week, the story has progressed to the point where we are going to go out on a limb to dig into a concept we mentioned in our recap of the premiere of season 6 “LA X”. In our previous post, we discussed the theory that the “Flash Sideways” are actually the resolution of our characters’ story. The producers want to give us the actual backstory of the characters outside of life on the island.

This is a redemption story

lost producers: Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse

If you’ve watched the Lost recaps before each season, or you’ve listened to the official Lost podcast by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the producers have been hinting at certain themes throughout the series which are becoming more pronounced.

Official Lost Podcast – Dec 06, 2006 (mp3)

The producers remind us that redemption has been an overriding theme of the series since Day 1. “Kate blew up a house with a man inside,” Lindelof says. “Sayid is a torturer. Sawyer has done all sorts of nasty things. That’s the space the show lives in. Michael was one of the few characters who was a victim before he came to the Island. He was a good guy, and his wife took his son away from him. He didn’t have anything to be redeemed for until now.” – lostpedia

We want to go out on a limb here and throw out the idea that the Flash sideways are, in fact, the redemption that the producers have been hinting at the entire time.

Flash “sideways” are glimpses of the end of the show

If you don’t know what we mean by “flash sideways,” read our previous recap, where we explain the concept in detail at the end of the article.

Here’s what we think happened:

In the very first episode, we see our Losties on Oceanic flight 815, we watch the turbulence and then there’s a break in the time-line where, in another scenario, the plane would have crashed
We watch the events of the island and what our characters have to go through to “redeem” themselves on and off the island
At some point during this season, our Losties will make a decision that will end the split in the time-line. At this point, we flash back to the opening of season 6 where Jack is looking out of the window and we see the island at the bottom of the ocean.
All of the flash sideways we are watching this season are a way for the producers to show us the resolved storyline of our characters without having to spend the entire last episode telling this story.

Open ended questions

Here are some open ended questions we’d love to get feedback on in the comment section.

How does the theme of destiny vs free will come into play during this season?
Why are these specific people so important?
What does Jacob vs. Smoke Monster have to do with the story of these specific individuals?
How many times has this happened in the past?

Last Thoughts

: possible looping nature of lost

We think it’s important to remind people that the initial name of the show was called “The Circle.” Clearly, these chain of events have happened in the past.

We think the real big question is: “What makes this iteration of The Circle or The Loop result in the character’s redemption story?”

Let us know what you think in the comment section!

Important take-a-ways from “LA X”

Important take-a-ways from “LA X”

joey — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:08:32 +0000

We could sit here and bore you with a long-winded recap of what happened in the Season 6 premiere entitled LA X, but fortunately, a ton of people (via @vossek from darkufo) and lostpedia have already done that!

Instead, we’re going to discuss some main points and themes from the two episodes that we think you should pay attention to.

You may want to keep this in the back of your mind going into the rest of the season (listed in order from least to most important).

1) Richard Albert is from “The Black Rock”

Do you remember the finale from season 1 finale Exodus, Part 1, when our beloved Losties were searching for dynamite to break open the hatch door? Well, our main man Locke made an astute comment about the original contents of the ship:

Inside the ship, skeletons were found shackled together, likely remains of slaves. Old mining equipment was also found, including the dynamite. At least two cases of highly-volatile sticks were present inside the ship’s hold. According to Locke, the ship “must have been en-route to a mining colony; probably set off from the eastern coast of Africa—Mozambique.” – Lostpedia

Why is this important?

Fake Locke / Black Smoke / Man in Black / Man in Locke/ Whatever you want to call him makes a comment addressed to Richard after coming out of the four-toed statue:

Richard confronts The Man in Black, who responds to Richard that it is good to see “you without your chains.” Richard is stunned and replies “You?!” indicating he has some familiarity with The Man in Black. The Man in Black responds “Me,” and knocks Richard out, hoisting him onto his shoulder. – source

The fact that Richard was on the ship in the grand scheme of the show probably isn’t that important, but at least it answers some basic questions viewers have been dying to know:

Where the hell did he come from?
Why does Richard appear ageless?
- By “ageless” we are referring to the fact that he has appeared in multiple time periods (1950’s, 1970’s, and 2000’s) without signs of aging
- This is probably a similar situation to what just happened to Sayid in the temple, as Richard said in the Season 5 Finale The Incident, “Jacob made me this way”.

2) The numbers are our main characters – hypothesis

This revelation is more of a stretch than the Richard Albert’s reveal, but we think the producers on the show have been hinting at this ever since the first time the numbers appeared in Season 1 Episode 18 aptly named Numbers.

We’ll let you do the leg work on researching what the apparent significance of the numbers are, but you can check out The Valenzetti Equation for starters.

Personally, we don’t think they are that important but it may have to deal with what we ultimately think the end game of the show is about: why these specific people were chosen to be on the island.

We think previous episodes have hinted at the same over-arching message of “free will” vs “destiny” and “they have a choice” etc.

It may also be worth looking at previous Daniel Faraday episodes, especially The Variable. Whatever big decision is made at the end of the series, these specific people (Our Losties) were chosen because they have the ability to make the “right choice.”

3) There’s some correlation between the “flash backs” last year’s “flash forwards” and this years “flash sideways”

For starters, this is probably the biggest source of confusion for people just jumping back into Lost, so we are going to quickly break it down for you.

Flash Backs (Season’s 1-3)
- This is what made the show famous back when Lost first aired in 2004. These are the character memories that happen in the middle of the episode, that show events from previous points in a characters lifetime
Flash Forwards (End of Season 3, Season 4)
- At the end of Season 3, we were shown that 6 of our Losties (The Oceanic Six) made it off the island, these flashes are perceived to be in the future.
- By “in the future” we are referring to the time period after some of our Losties left the island.
Time Traveling (Season 5)
- As a result of Ben moving the island to hide it’s location from Charles Widmore when six of our Losties left the island, the island (or our Losties) began to travel in time.
- There was a period of time where the island would “skip” between various time periods which eventually stopped when John Locke turned the frozen donkey wheel again and the island stopped in 1977.
Flash Sideways (Season 6, Alternate Timeline)
- This season we are watching the Losties back in present time after Jack detonated an atom bomb at a magnetic hot spot in the island that sent them back to correct time period and we are also watching an “Alternate” timeline.

I think it’s safe to say, we all know the producers of the show are waiting to have their “Sixth Sense” moment, the big revelation that’s going to make us go “ohhhhh they did know what they were doing from season 1″. On this week’s official lost podcast Carlton Cuse said,

Those two timelines are related and the way in which they are related are one of the big mysteries” – Carlton Cuse, The Official Lost Podcast

Carlton is probably dramatically downplaying the significance of the relationships between the different “flashes” that we’ve seen. I can think of a couple reasons why he might be doing this:

The “flash sideways” are actually part of the same story line as the “flash backs” we’ve been seeing all along.
- So in reality, we actually don’t know much about the background of our characters and what happens to them off the island…
- Therefore the producers are setting up a scenario where they can explain the real background of the main characters of the show and what makes our main characters so special – why are they specifically on the island.
The “flash sideways” are actually glimpses from the end of the show.
- If you think about it, they’ve done this before. Season 5 opened with a scene with Daniel Faraday from almost the end of the season, we could be seeing the actual results of the big decision / conflict that this season is building up to.
All of the “flashes” are possible outcomes of whatever decision the characters are going to make – (probably not true)

Either way, the biggest thing to watch out for going forward in Season 6, are clues pertaining to who’s on the “dark” side and who is on the “light” side a reference that John Locke made in the season opener, way back in 2004.

We’ll follow up with more recaps after next week’s episode, let us know what you think in the comment section.

silverlake to soho » lost