UConn James

As I referenced, how many people seemed this peeved over the bright light in "Pulp Fiction"? Does it really matter to the story of Vincent and "Bad Mother F----" Jules what's in the briefcase? It's not like it's a 60-watt incandescent down there. Like radioactive material is warm, that warmth is not the most important property. Light is just the visual of what it looks like from 40 feet away. As you say, we've seen the light plenty of times before, only not as close, and now some people are complaining that we didn't get to see it from an inch away. Well, people aren't meant to see it closely. Bad things happen to those who see it closely. It's a kept secret for a reason, and I can understand if it stays that way.

Wow. Quite a list. Some of those have answers of a sort, some whose answers are speculation, and some don't have answers (at least, not yet). The point of the last six seasons was showing the progression ("everything that happens until then is just progress") of how the 815 survivors were shaped by what they experienced on and off the island; by their past, by their present, by the past that was their present.... They needed all of it to pare down who would be the candidate. A long, unpleasant, death-filled interview for a job that doesn't have too many perks. The Others did some of their own things, but they also acted on Jacob's lists and generally protected the Island from various invading peoples. They also aided Jacob pushing the candidates along the paths they had to travel. Had they not cleared the runway on Hydra Island, where would Ajira 316 have landed? The best theory I've seen is that the Jughead bomb directly underneath Dharmaville caused some kind of reproductive anomaly. Either that or babies just aren't meant to be conceived and born on the island, as one of the rules. Ethan seems to be the exception... and it was because his future self directly impacted a candidate, and then he was killed when his purpose was done. The Others could leave and return, ostensibly by ships e.g. whatever that Army unit arrived on, the boat took Walt and after the Purge, on the submarine. Richard Alpert said he went off-island three times (and thence, I wonder why he still said that the Island was Hell a few weeks back...). Twice for Locke, and once for Juliet. He was checking out Locke to see whether his claims of being the next Others leader had any veracity. Richard said he never saw anything special from Locke during these visits.... Combined with the time-traveling stuff, I seriously wonder what Young Locke needed to do in order to get Richard's attention, what with the drawings of the smoke monster, etc. But, then again, at that point, Richard had been on-island for ~ 100 years, and even now, he seems pretty clueless as to what's happening. I'm not sure they controlled those events. They could have. But you have to listen to Eloise Hawking about those things; the universe course corrects. With some give and take, what needs to happen, happens. If you're not needed anymore, the universe will kill you or won't go to any trouble to save you. The Flame station, which Mikhail ran, was equipped with a satellite dish. Perhaps it was linked up with the Others who were off-island. Also, the remote camera shot with Richard showing Juliet's sister wasn't out of the realm of reality, nor require Island magic. It's video. The 305 bearing appeared to be a small break in whatever kind of energy that surrounded the Island, and which caused the temporal shifts in some people. Ben Linus had an apparently sizable network of off-island Others who ran front businesses. The people he had Sayid kill were Widmore's people. Ostensibly Ben did this so he could control the island, and probably as payback for the mercenaries that killed Alex. When Ben went to kill Penny, he lost his nerve, especially once he saw young Charlie. That's an unanswered question about Jacob leaving the Island. We don't know how he was able to do that, or why he needed to leave when it seemed that many others had been "pushed" to the Island without being touched. Can theorize though. Perhaps the Lighthouse had a larger function than just viewing the candidates. Perhaps Jacob could manipulate the mirrors to appear in those various times. Or, one could argue that Jacob couldn't leave the Island if he was the Island. Something in what Mother said there after he drank from the cup, "You and I are the same now." Re: the Lamp Post station, it's my belief that Daniel Faraday, during the '74-'77 time-jump when he became a black-suit in DHARMA, was heavily involved. It was he who found the Island for Widmore in 2004; stands to reason he'd know how to go about doing it again. Eloise Hawking seemed overly... proud.... when she explained that a "brilliant man" had constructed it. Dharma was just another in a large number of groups of people who came to the island and snooped around at its properties; only, their work was more advanced than any previous group. I'm not sure if they were all that important other than to, as I wrote above, be part of what pushed certain of the Candidates to where Jacob needed them to be and do what they needed to do.

MIB did not have the Smoke Monster's properties at that point. It was only after Jacob killed MIB that the transition to Smokey and Island Dead happened. Look closely... his head hits a rock when Jacob threw him into the stream, he goes limp and floats. MIB's dead body came out the other side. It wasn't the act of becoming the Smoke Monster that killed MIB; it was a fulfillment of the rule that they couldn't directly kill each other. Funny about the 'Esau' bit. On the DarkUFO blog, there's a screencap of a Hulu PSIP/show description caption that calls him that. Whether that was one that got out of the lab, or whether it was some intern at Hulu who just put that name in as a space-filler ("Esau" has been a suggested name since the S5 finale when he was first shown) and then forgot to change it.... My money's on the intern explanation. I just don't see how something like that slips. And yet, Titus Welliver said in an interview that he was told MIB's name. Maybe it will come out at some point. As I wrote upthread, not to a large degree, and after the finale it will give something to think about and imagine for yourself after the show is done. I can also see some parallels from within the show --- even on the island, not many people have the answers. We, the viewers, know much more about the Island than any one of the characters do, besides Jacob. The Island is meant to have those secrets remain secret. Even from us. I don't know if this is all a byproduct of CSI showing too much that people in general want to know everything. It's not enough for Quincy, M.E. to say someone was shot in the torso. These days, people want to see the bullet enter the flesh. Real-life juries acquit because they don't get CSI-type evidence. I'm sorry, but I'm one of those people who doesn't have to know every detail. There's just not enough time in the day. And revealing some of these things cheapens the magic. As wrote before, some of the questions and details that didn't get answered on-screen (e.g. the food drops) will be answered in a LOST Encyclopedia book that apparently will hit the bookshelves at or around the same time of the S6 DVD release in August. Here's the link. Before everyone kvetches too much, we should wait to see what exactly is left that you're dying to know when its all out there. "All good things to those who wait" as Hannibal Lecter said. I hate to be a stooge or anything here (That tgregg's job! *ba-da-bing* ), but hey, it's their show. And it's not even over yet. If Dickens hadn't sent the reader-liked, sympathetic Robert Carston to his death on the gallows in place of his doppleganger client, would "A Tale of Two Cities" been as good as it was? We wouldn't have, "It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better sleep I go to than I have ever known." Yep, I wrote that from memory. Can't change what your story is for the sake of short-term viewers who, ten years later would complain that they got what they asked for.... IIRC, I believe it was Terry Gilliam who, on one of his DVD commentaries, wore a T-shirt that read, "Art is: working on something until you like it, and then leaving it that way."

BTW, It seems like most people are simply calling the Allison Janney character, "Mother." And, Darlton said in the above interview that MIB's name will not be given. And I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else reference "Pulp Fiction" regarding the tunnel light.

A bit of discussion from Vozzek69 on the DarkUFO LOSTpages. If you follow this link and want to avoid spoilers, don't veer off the linked page.

Hitfix.com Exclusive Interview: Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse Talk "Across the Sea" For anyone who had issues with this ep, I'd recommend reading the above. 'Course, I recommend it to everyone else, too. Doc Jensen's LOST recap: A Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother OK. I'm going to be reading for the next three hours....

Me three. Didn't write it, but thought it, especially filling up the well. She had evidently gone into the tunnel, as she knew things about it not to be discerned by hovering 15 feet away from the entrance. She told Jacob when he drank the wine that he was the same as her now. Might this involve what Locke said he saw after the boar hunt? A white-smoke version of the "monster"? Or is there just one Smoke Monster, she was it, and that part of her went back into the tunnel when she was killed by MIB?

I don't understand the reason for the rule in the first place. What competitive advantage does wearing jewelry have?

And yet, he still loved her. MIB didn't want to kill her, but he seemed to have no choice. After he speared her, it was like he was expecting something to happen... only, she'd already appointed Jacob. This seems to be the same way he knew not all of the candidates died... what he was expecting to happen didn't happen.

THIS. The most dramatic thing of all may well be that nothing in the world changes. That this show simply shows how the universe/island course corrected to "save the world."

A lot can happen in 3.5 hours. Yep. That's a big question. And, until we get absolute confirmation otherwise, I will continue to believe that at least part of MIB or his consciousness got into Locke near the time of his birth. For Young MIB, even a vague awareness of Locke as some kind of Constant... a flash or three, similar to the sideways world... and an equivalent flash in a Young Locke. More to the point, MIB couldn't leave b/c he's dead. Or... island-dead. Off the island, his body couldn't exist. Now that he has taken the form of Locke, that may have changed, but I'm not sure. Plausible. Yeah, I'll take that. MIB died on the Island, and Smokey can take the form of anyone who died on the island (or even of memories downloaded from the living). Just that the MIB body is not his in the sense of having a body. It's like an animation. It was in the same manner that "The Hunt for Red October" managed their language switch. Here, there was a musical chime that signaled it. And yes, just assume that the rest was spoken in Latin and it has simply been converted for us. This brings about the reason why the Others all had to learn Latin... presumably in case they or Latin speakers experienced a time-shift. Actually, it's the story that stay with me most of all. Maybe I'm just weird like that. Actually, I'm cool with some details not being explained b/c it's just something to think about for the rest of my life. It'll keep the show alive, in a way. Also, don't forget that some of the questions still remaining will be answered in the canon Lost Encyclopedia that will supposedly be coming out this summer near the time of the S6 DVDs. Have some faith, everyone. If you're still disappointed after the finale, so be it. But don't be party-poopers just before the cake and presents are brought out.

And as an addition to that, when Locke turned the wheel.... Christian was already down there. Actually, no. I'm sorry. Locke fell down the well, there was a timeflash where Sawyer tried to jump down but the well was filled in, and then Locke turned the wheel. OK. So Christian need not have been there whenever that flash took place (I believe the open well was the same time flash where the Tawaret statue was still standing). In that way, it really seems like the Claudia apparition was akin to a Tree of Knowledge. And yet, whereas Jacob was fairly simple-minded and unquestioning, MIB sensed it all the while. MIB was "special," had the gift of being able to lie.... I also think Island Woman's attachment to MIB was that he was unexpected by Claudia. She only had one name, and it was given to Jacob. IW perhaps figured that she could call dibs on MIB or that he was some kind of a gift from the universe. And I suppose, in a way, he was. MIB was/is part of what needs to happen.

Also makes you think about when it was that Locke turned the wheel near the Orchid station. After another timeflash, the well was filled with dirt. It's also quite possible that the explanation of the light / wheel isn't over yet. I feel that Ben may have more to add. But if an further explanation doesn't happen, is that so bad? We've lived with a fair amount of vaguery since the start, we live with vaguery every day. Some things don't require a molecular-level description --- it's enough to understand the basic precepts. This may very well be a place where as Lindelof explained, we'll have to just accept, similar to "The Force" in Star Wars. Was it necessary to see why the detonation fuse blew out on the Black Rock? Do we need to have a flashback to 1830 at the fuse's building to see that there was a malfunction in the process? No. All we need to know is that the fuse went out. What happened / needed to happen, happened.

I believe she said that his people were from/encamped on the other side of the island. Given that we now know MIB and Jacob were brothers stolen from their mother, that gives us a little framework from things we've seen in the more current storyline. It makes me think of Zach and Emma (and the flight attendant acting as a guardian), especially. Sayid said that those who were with FLocke either died in the explosions or fled into the jungle. Abductions of children, and children who are "special" (MIB intuitively knew how to play the game on the beach. Asked, he says, "I just know.") Across time, there's a repetition of patterns with different players. Ben had a very similar experience to MIB's, yet with some subtle differences. His mother died in childbirth, he saw her apparition (before the Smoke Monster existed.... or was it?) that prompted him to join another group on the island. He killed his parental figure. Only, in Ben's case, he doesn't want to leave the Island. But with all that.... where the hell is Ben? And Richard? IIRC, they were supposed to have gone to the Barracks to get some explosives. Is Richard still all, "I dunno wtf to do!" or might Ben have one of his plans? Back to the ep tho. I wonder if Island Woman was the winner of her own game? Notice how she told MIB, "Thank you!" after he stabbed her? It's like she'd been there forever and was finally getting the release of death. She had two candidates to replace her and she had chosen --- or, as Jacob suspected... she was left with --- our blond demi-god. He drank the cup of wine (with what poultice in it? Island Woman had been at her mortar and pestal again) and was the one. Something changed for Jacob, tho. He didn't need plant mixtures, etc. to do his workings. All he needed was his touch. I think we may have discovered Widmore's quest last night, tho. He is like so many of the men who come to the island seeking the source of that light. As Island Woman said, if men were allowed to have or steal bits of it, soon it would all be gone. It may confound you and have every fan saying, "WHAT IS IT!?!?" but I think you do have to admire the extra-textual bow to the "Pulp Fiction" briefcase. My working theory is that inside the cave is... a large balance scale and the entry point to hell. Remember how Jacob described the Island to Richard. It is the cork on the bottle that contains evil, the devil, hell, whatever you want to call it. Perhaps MIB entered Hell as he passed under that lintel stone, but owing to the rules, some part of him couldn't die, he is a special form of what's come to be called "island dead." That seems to be what he meant by, "Jacob stole my body" in "Ab Aeterno." Still trying to piece some things together, and I'm going to re-watch and read Doc Jensen's column before I give any decision. I thought it was a very good ep, tho. There are some who won't like the mythology and some who see value in it by way of translating events of the distant past into more present-day events.

Wow. That was ballsy. And it worked. We weren't given the names of Allison Janney's character, nor of MIB. We also were not told here, but it's in the air everywhere that the time of Claudia's arrival to the island was 23 AD. Let's start out with the parameters of the game. The food Claudia ate was a careful mixture from... what do we call her? Island Woman?... her mortar and pestal. Seemed to trigger the births, and it also seems to be the tincture by which Jacob and MIB couldn't kill each other. Likewise, drinking the wine was a mechanism for Jacob to be the next protector of the island. Light and dark imagery was heavy in this ep., so I'm not sure identifying each instance is going to be necessary. You saw it. The swaddling cloths. The game and its pieces. The light at the end of the tunnel and the black smoke that came out of it.... So, some of the biggest mysteries have some answers. "Adam & Eve" are the Island Woman and MIB (at least, his corporeal body). The Smoke Monster form came as a result of getting too close to the light. I'm going to have to re-watch that part especially. Can anyone explain what happened right there? MIB got sucked under a kind of lintel stone. All told, yes, this presents quite a different side of the story. But we're left with even more questions, following as Island woman herself explained, that each answer she gave would only prompt more questions. Where did she come from? How long had she been on the island? Did she go down toward the light (seems so. How could she know what it is?)? Could the tunnel light be what Locke saw that he described as a beautiful bright light? How could MIB show up as MIB in 1867 if that body was dead? As we saw it, the Donkey Wheel hadn't been installed yet. The wells were dug, they'd found electromagnetic properties at several points. After the village was burned (by Island Woman, most like) and its inhabitants killed, the well was filled up. Apparently, it was re-dug? Only, its properties didn't work for MIB? So, what does MIB mean when he's said that he wants to go "home"? Does this mean, back in time? These are my initial thoughts, sorry if they're scrambled. Kristin from E! was hella right when she wrote you're going to have to re-watch this ep.

Just a couple of thoughts after re-watching "The Candidate." 1) In the sideways flash, Claire said that she had never met Christian Shephard. So, might that mean that there wasn't a car crash and her mother wasn't in a coma? Could it mean a different father for Aaron? It's also interesting that Christian left her... a wooden box in his will. A body in "a wooden box" is what MIB required to assume an identity. 2) Seeing the auction site with Jin's wedding ring, the engraving on the inside says "We will never be apart" their deaths --- namely, Jin's refusal to leave Sun --- feels a little more cosmically right than it did last week.

No, that was a new chapter. Just, in your book, there was a not-so-great character included in those pages. Don't think that you haven't grown or haven't learned anything... I'm not a bible-thumper but I do believe there's a reason for everything that happens. There will be subsequent chapters where lessons learned in this chapter help you.

Not chiding too hard, dude. It weren't much. But, there are those here who prefer to stay 100% LOST-pure going into episodes.... Lord knows I'm not one of them . On the whole, all of the LOST threads have been very good in this regard.

duey gave a bit away this week, so it won't be a total surprise.... This ep will be heavy on island mythology. Special guest star is Allison Janney, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on "The West Wing."

Here's a hint of advice to you and everyone else. Don't ever do that again. People who get it all handed to them (and do nothing in return for what they get (and no, ladies, having a vagina does not account for this)) only expect more and more.

Link Principal Madison could also take away the white kids' books. That would be sweet! If this were the other way around, this dude would be lucky to be drawn and quartered. Al Sharpton would be up in his grizzle with a microphone. As it stands, he might get a slap on the wrist, and there's ~ a 15 percent chance he'll be invited to a White House beer summit.

I vote for this. I really don't know why people get married anymore. The current way of things is serial monogamy, at best. We knock the old days and call it politically incorrect, but the medieval mindset --- that women are either stupid, batsh-- crazy, or will sleep with anything that moves (and thence, many a man's sister's children were treated better than that man's own children; b/c they are guaranteed to be some at least percentage of blood relation) --- hit it on the nose w/o all the dancing around. The current 'Me! Me! Me!' social order has just taken it even more full-bore, only we have Maury Povich and his DNA tests to save the day(!). Just by the tone and what was written, I'm 95 percent sure what drove the split.

There will apparently be an auction of LOST props this summer, to be held in Los Angeles (I would hope there's an online feature for bidding among the plebians...). Linked from ABC's LOST site, so it's legit. Wonder where the proceeds will be going, or is this a way for ABC to recoup some of the $ they spent producing the show (it cost $12M to film the pilot ep)? Link What item do you have your eye on?

From Lostpedia's precis of the ep:

HB, Fez!