Hey, no, but wow! Except that no one has any better idea of what's goin' on maybe. I would recount what's happened, but I fear my mind is still reeling. Please share your interpretations of just what in hell is happening on/to that island...
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
The only thing I can say is... Holy frell!
Well, maybe not the only thing. But it's certainly the first thing. And second.
Holy frell!
Desmond's first partner was the army dude Sayid met in Iraq!
I had a feeling that the button would turn out not to be a psychological experiment once they said it was one. So it was meant to leak off the electromagnetic energy of the anomaly... Charlie got out in time, but the fates of Locke, Eko, and Desmond are unknown.
And Desmond caused the crash?
A giant four-toed foot, apparantly once part of a large statue, is seen by the boat crew.
The hatch in the Others' "village" is a fake, apparantly.
Henry was the leader of the Others? He keeps the promise the other Others made and gives Michael and Walt their boat. Hurley is let go to tell the rest of the castaways never to come after them, and Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are kept captive.
I didn't read Bad Twin, but this is apparantly where it ties in. Desmond's lady love is the daughter of a wealthy guy named Widmore. Hanso (of the Hanso Foundation) was on the board of the Widmore Corporation at one point.
And we see at the very end of the episode that the rest of the world is still intact (Our first view of the outside world in the "present," which is still two years ago.) A research station manned by Russians detect the EM anomaly, and report it to... Desmond's lady love.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
See, I thought it sounded like Russian at first, too. But, upon further inspection, they say "por favor" and "Que?", so it's probably either Spanish or Portuguese. (I'm leaning toward the latter.)
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I'm not so sure the door in Other Village is "fake." Aren't there references on the invisible map to construction sites that were abandoned for one reason or another? I mean, they were clearly guarding it as part of their ruse, but I guess "fake" feels like it implies they put the door in for that sake, whereas I think it likely that site was never completed (or perhaps dismantled and filled in?).
I'm also not sure we can say that "Henry Gale" is the leader of the Others. I mean, they deferred to him in this case, and maybe he does have some authority, though we don't know anything about how they are organized. I don't think he is the "him" that both he and Tom(!) have referred to, at any rate.
In regards to the EM events: the second one seemed more severe than the first. (I mean, the countdown clock didn't implode the first time.) Did Desmond manage to shut it down after all? And if he didn't, it really doesn't seem end of the world bad. But then I guess we don't know all (any of?) the details.
So is this the end for Michael? I can see no way the community would ever accept him back, so, I mean, he can leave the island, or he could go hermit like Rousseau, or he could die. Those seem like the only believable outcomes.
And next season? Presumably Sayid will deduce that Jack and company have been captured or killed, and hopefully he will sail all the way around the island for scouting purposes (finding the dock ((and maybe the aquatic station responsible for that shark?))), and then? I kind of want him to go back, gather up everyone Ana-Lucia trained, and lead some sort of awesome commando mission. Because I am ready for some confrontation.
Aside from all the crazy plot stuff, I really liked stuff like Charlie trying to play peacemaker down in the hatch, when he could have simply chosen sides, especially since we had just seen him taunt Locke. Or, and this is a small thing, but I liked his warning about dynamite, and the implication that people on the island have been learning things and more importantly sharing what they've learned.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"I'm also not sure we can say that 'Henry Gale' is the leader of the Others. I mean, they deferred to him in this case, and maybe he does have some authority, though we don't know anything about how they are organized. I don't think he is the 'him' that both he and Tom(!) have referred to, at any rate."
He's probably not the top banana, but I'd say he's a higher banana than anyone we've seen so far.
"In regards to the EM events: the second one seemed more severe than the first. (I mean, the countdown clock didn't implode the first time.) Did Desmond manage to shut it down after all? And if he didn't, it really doesn't seem end of the world bad. But then I guess we don't know all (any of?) the details."
When they showed Desmond trying to shut it down and nothing happening at first, I thought the implication was that it went back to normal on its own. However, since we now know that failing to press the button really does have extreme results, I'd say Desmond must have ended up shutting it down after all.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
The question remains (to my thinking) that if the builders of this bunker needed the button to be pressed every 108 minutes or else face massive (if vague) annihilation, exactly why it would be necessary to have a human person type such a seemingly arbitrary sequence of numbers into the computer. Disregarding for the moment the easily automated repetitive process, why not just have them, say, hit one button. And but like I used to program in BASIC on an Apple II like that one and I can tell you that it wasn't THAT hard to make the computer do a thing every, say 108 minutes. Plus maybe more reliable. Especially if, say, the fate of the island/region/world/universe hung in the balance. By which I mean I want to know, and not THIS SHOW IS TEH STUP1D.
I really enjoyed the episode and continue to be impressed at their ability to answer questions with more questions. It's a great show that way. I am trying to figure out of what nature the blast of the failsafe was. Obviously it was quite visible everywhere on the island. Something that made everything white, like a nuclear detonation, but without the maelstrom and blastwave (maybe). Clearly, I wouldn't know, but I suspect that even an EMP blast would have dire consequences for those in the immediate vicinity namely Desmond, Locke and Eko. At the very least they're sterile now. It sort of irritated me that no-one really blabbered about it afterward and sort of went about finishing off the plot. Like if I was, oh I don't know, anywhere and suddenly the world went white for a few moments and then a giant hatch door came screaming out of the sky I'd be very much freaked the fuck out and bothering everyone with arbitrary questions about WTF was that.
This Article pointed out that the final minutes of the episode were the first time that we saw the outside world occuring not in flashback and that this might deflate some of the more extreme theories about what is going on.
quote:New York Times, Kate Aurthur, 25 May 2006, blah:
... Beyond serving as a teaser, the finale's last minutes were incredibly important to the larger story, Mr. Lindelof said, particularly since this was the first time in 49 hours of the show that "Lost" went off the island in the present, rather than in a flashback. "It's time to actually blow up several theories of the show," he said. "People who believe that they're in purgatory or that they're subjects of an experiment are going to start reassessing those theories based on the fact that we are literally showing you the outside world."
Which is very neat. Anyway, yes, I really enjoyed it, and continue to enjoy it.
Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
I am wondering if Michael will feel very guily about doing what he did, rushing back to rescue them, then joining up with Sayid and party. I could see this happening with Michael getting halfway through and the others pulling him out, then Mike explaining why he did what he did. Then he can become an incamp outcast.
Watching this I have realized how many episodes I have missed. I feel a trip to the video store coming on.
Like Pen said, with enough money you can find anyone, anywhere.
It is too bad that the computers are stupid, after all, the monitoring team freaked that they about missed it.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Question: Did Desmond wind up back at the island because his instruments made a circular course look straight, or does the island enjoy a topography where straight lines are actually circles?
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
I think that would depend on how Desmond was charting his course. If he was using a compass, it's quite possible the island's EM anomalies caused him to go around in a circle. If he was using something else, like the sun and stars, then something else is definitely amiss.
And this also raises the possibility that Michael and Walt can't leave the island, despite the fact that Henry let them have the boat and gave them directions to rescue. Wouldn't that EM pulse have seriously fried any electronic guidance system or compass the boat had?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"The question remains (to my thinking) that if the builders of this bunker needed the button to be pressed every 108 minutes or else face massive (if vague) annihilation, exactly why it would be necessary to have a human person type such a seemingly arbitrary sequence of numbers into the computer."
Perhaps the typing of the numbers and the pushing of the button served the dual purpose of keeping the magnet in check and being a psychological experiment.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
As interesting an experiment as I'm sure it would be, one boggles at the notion that so dire a catastrophe would be an acceptable consequence of the experimentee's choice. All things being equal I suspect a simulated disaster might better serve their purpose, whilst leaving real world-in-the-balance type actions to the domain of surety.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I suppose it depends on just how in-the-balance things really are.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
Well if it were only island-in the balance or even The Swan-in-the-balance, those are pretty steep odds for head games. And would obvioulsy limit any debriefing options. I'm wondering whether the necessary human component is psycho-emotional in nature. Or something. Also, Walt or whatever IM phantom Michael was chatting up. How did that work?
Was it mentioned in the episode the nature of the failsafe? Whether it was an EM blast? Not that I have any ideas what else it could be, but.
Our Portugese (or whatever)-speaking, chess-playing, magnetic-anomaly monitoring friends were in the (an)arctic, is it not so? Which would be quite the opposite clime of the mysterious island. Hrmmm. The snow-globe references were a flying...
Had we heard the "smells like carrots" joke before? It's funny, but I got the impression it should have been familiar. Locke apparently knows (knew?) it.
Also, did people think Libby was crazy on account of her giving away her husband's boat to a complete stranger (albeit one with an honest face and a compelling story)? I mean would that be a justification for her institutionalization.
I have many questions. I suspect that's sort of the point...
Posted by Krenim (Member # 22) on :
quote:Originally posted by bX: Also, Walt or whatever IM phantom Michael was chatting up. How did that work?
It was probably one of the Others in the Pearl station. They could watch the monitor and wait for Michael to be alone, and then use the computer there to interface with the one in the Swan station. We already know they were networked because of the printouts. Of course, that's the mundane explanation. It could have actually been Walt, either using a terminal in another Dharma station, or by using his special abilities.
quote:Originally posted by bX: Had we heard the "smells like carrots" joke before? It's funny, but I got the impression it should have been familiar. Locke apparently knows (knew?) it.
Desmond posed the question to Locke when they first met in the hatch. When Locke didn't know the answer, Desmond knew Locke wasn't "him", whoever "him" is. Desmond's partner posed the question to Desmond after he regained consciousness after the wreck, for the same purpose. Whether the "smells like carrots" answer is the correct one for identifying "him" is anyone's guess.
quote:Originally posted by bX: Also, did people think Libby was crazy on account of her giving away her husband's boat to a complete stranger (albeit one with an honest face and a compelling story)? I mean would that be a justification for her institutionalization.
I don't know if this was pre- or post-institution. The Desmond/Libby encounter was... what? Three or four years prior to the present? (Three for Desmond's time on the island, and the race was supposed to be a year long.) When was Hurley in the institution? Do we know how long it was after the institution that he won the lottery, and how long it was after that the crash was?