LOST...Season 6

[John Adams]

I do want to return to TiVo, but I'm uncertain of the new releases that came out, the expense, and the future of the company. Plus, I think I have to get it to work with cablecard and that is sometimes problematic.

 

I use mine with dual cable cards and have no problems at all. Regarding the future of the company, even if it goes under, someone would happily buy their tech and steady cashflow. It's not like all the TiVos would suddenly cease working.

 

As to the last person who asked whether it works with a cable box, some models do. The newer models work with cable cards from your cable company.

[ricojes]

Last night's episode aside from that wasn't terrible, just horribly misplaced. It seemed as if the writers figured they needed to answer some questions, so they just jammed in a random episode just before the end. This episode would have been better had it been extrapolated, and had they shown it in season 5, or even earlier this year.

Exactly what I was thinking. The episode wasn't very good, but maybe I feel that way because it was so out of place. This should have been maybe the first episode this season or something. But for it to be one of the last was just disappointing. Half way through the episode I was saying it sucked, but I'll associate this episode of Lost with LeBron's quote after his horrible game on Tuesday "I spoil a lot of people with my play, when you have a bad game here or there, you've had three bad games in a seven-year career, then it's easy to point that out. So you got to be better." Only a few bad episodes in the entire Lost series, but with only a few episodes left, it needs to be better!!

[John Adams]

Last night sucked. Period. Anyone who thinks that the magic light is a good resolution to the island mystery also liked the Force Mitachlorians or whatever they are. It's lame at a level that defies lame definition. I will watch the last episodes but the experience has been soured--they just made Jar Jar the hero.

[Gavin in Va Beach]

Last night sucked. Period. Anyone who thinks that the magic light is a good resolution to the island mystery also liked the Force Mitachlorians or whatever they are. It's lame at a level that defies lame definition. I will watch the last episodes but the experience has been soured--they just made Jar Jar the hero.

 

 

Agree with this, as well as with ajzepp's assertion that the producers seem to enjoy giving the finger to fans of the show. This show had spent the first few seasons weaving such as awesome tapestry of drama and myth only to piss it away the last few seasons with lame soap opera bull.

 

Oh well, wouldn't be the first show that tried to get too cute and 'lost' it's way.

[UConn James]

I'm just calling him Esau.

 

That's also what I thought at first. But now I wonder if Esau didn't do it himself when he was "unconscious"?

 

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.

 

... A lot of you guys are cool with just accepting that certain things aren't going to be explained any more than they have been, and you're cool with an open ended finale that you can continue to talk about, debate, and theorize over. Like PTR and others have said, though, it's pretty tough to imagine that they're going to find a way in the final few hours to really tie up many of these loose ends...so isn't that going to frustrating as hell for a lot of you??

...

Are those of you who liked last night's episode really content with things remaining unresolved? And is the idea of continuing to theorize as to "what it all means" really that satisfying to you than it can outweigh the desire for a more wrapped up ending?

 

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.

 

Wow, reading the responses of the producers makes me sort of feel as if I don't want to ever watch anything they're involved with again lol. I appreciate that they want to do things their way and tell the story in the manner in which they envisioned it, but they act as though they're dumbfounded by the fact that fans are curious and want to know more about the mysteries and the other elements that they have put in the show. That seems somewhat antagonistic to me, in all honesty. They bring up the Sopranos and Seinfeld finale and how they were both controversial, but neither of those examples is really pertinent here, IMO. David Chase put PLENTY of clues and hints into the Sopranos finale that, when you actually pick up on them (which I didn't at first, admittedly), it's very clear as to Tony's fate. Seinfeld had no long-term overarching plot that needed to be resolved in the finale. Every episode was self-contained and the show was about "nothing" to begin with. That's completely different than having a show that runs for six seasons, where you introduce all sorts of back stories, sideways time lines, supernatural mysteries, etc etc, and then act surprised (and a bit defensive) when there are those fans who are left saying, "wtf?"

 

If nothing else, I'm DYING to see these last few hours, lol...

Last night sucked. Period. Anyone who thinks that the magic light is a good resolution to the island mystery also liked the Force Mitachlorians or whatever they are. It's lame at a level that defies lame definition. I will watch the last episodes but the experience has been soured--they just made Jar Jar the hero.

 

 

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."

[DrDawkinstein]

Last night sucked. Period. Anyone who thinks that the magic light is a good resolution to the island mystery also liked the Force Mitachlorians or whatever they are. It's lame at a level that defies lame definition. I will watch the last episodes but the experience has been soured--they just made Jar Jar the hero.

 

disagree completely. we always new it was the electromagnetic/blinding light/energy that made the island special. and all they did was confirm that.

 

i think it would have gone midichlorian had they tried to give a scientific explanation to the energy. as it stands now, we are left with the "undefined force". it's the "spirit energy", the life force, etc. but it's still undefined.

[PromoTheRobot]

Agree with this, as well as with ajzepp's assertion that the producers seem to enjoy giving the finger to fans of the show. This show had spent the first few seasons weaving such as awesome tapestry of drama and myth only to piss it away the last few seasons with lame soap opera bull.

 

Oh well, wouldn't be the first show that tried to get too cute and 'lost' it's way.

If all of Lost boiled down to "protecting the magic light" then what was the point of the last 6 years?

 

Who were The Others? What was there mission, other than to mill about in the jungle?

Why did fetuses and their mothers die on the Island, and what was the point of bringing Julia in to find out?

How was it that some of the Others, Ben, Richard Alpert, the big bearded gay guy whose name I forgot, were able to leave the island at will?

How was it that they could manipulate events like when Julia's husband got run over by a bus almost on cue?

How were the Others, through Mikhail, be able to monitor events in the real world as if they had remote cameras?

How was it that when you left the Island at bearing 305 you suffered no time shift?

Who set up Ben Linus with all the money and fake passports?

Who were all the people Ben had Sayid kill and what was the purpose of that?

Why did Richard go to John Locke as a child? What did that "test" prove?

If, as Jacob's mom said, they couldn't leave the island, how and why did Jacob leave so often? Couldn't he just will people to the Island?

Who built the Lampost? And who built the seemingly vast support network the Others seemed to enjoy?

Who and what was the Dharma Initiative? How did they find the Island?

 

I could go on and on but you get the picture. Lost threw so much at us that we assumed was central to the story. Now were finding out it was just filler?

 

PTR

[DrDawkinstein]

some of this stuff has been answered on the show. some of it has been answered through fan deduction. some wont be answered at all and be left for discussion after the show ends (which I like).

 

If all of Lost boiled down to "protecting the magic light" then what was the point of the last 6 years?

 

Who were The Others? What was there mission, other than to mill about in the jungle? They were Jacob's people. Good people which Jacob recruited to prove that not all humanity was evil.

 

Why did fetuses and their mothers die on the Island, and what was the point of bringing Julia in to find out? Because there was a leaking nuclear weapon underneath the Island? Thats open for discussion. Julia was brought in so the Others could reproduce and have pure Island babies who would be possible candidates.

 

How was it that some of the Others, Ben, Richard Alpert, the big bearded gay guy whose name I forgot, were able to leave the island at will? Submarine

 

How was it that they could manipulate events like when Julia's husband got run over by a bus almost on cue? Jacob/the Island/Destiny

 

How were the Others, through Mikhail, be able to monitor events in the real world as if they had remote cameras? Good question, but pretty insignificant.

 

How was it that when you left the Island at bearing 305 you suffered no time shift? Because of where/when the Island was located in time and space. The Desmond Incident which crashed the place opened a hole at that bearing.

 

Who set up Ben Linus with all the money and fake passports? Good question.

 

Who were all the people Ben had Sayid kill and what was the purpose of that? Good question. We can assume they were Widmore's people, but it's open to discussion.

 

Why did Richard go to John Locke as a child? What did that "test" prove? The same way Boy In Black "just knew" about certain things. He wanted to see if Locke was special.

 

If, as Jacob's mom said, they couldn't leave the island, how and why did Jacob leave so often? Couldn't he just will people to the Island? Good Question.

 

Who built the Lampost? And who built the seemingly vast support network the Others seemed to enjoy? Dharma Initiative built the Lampost. You might be able to chalk up the vast network to having been around for 2000 years as Jacob has been. Maybe over the course of that time, he summond people to the Island with the intent of having them leave and be his "Mainland Help"

 

Who and what was the Dharma Initiative? How did they find the Island? Not to be a dick, but... Seriously? this has been explained, theorized, and talked about to death.

 

I could go on and on but you get the picture. Lost threw so much at us that we assumed was central to the story. Now were finding out it was just filler?

 

PTR

[Lurker]

I could go on and on but you get the picture. Lost threw so much at us that we assumed was central to the story. Now were finding out it was just filler?

Good post. If, in fact, the end game was to see what happens to the core characters, I would have liked to skip the cliff notes version of the mythology so the 'big unknown' could have remained more compelling, rather than simply being tacked on to answer a few questions...

[Cugalabanza]

If everyone loved it, it'd be crap.

I agree with you. I still love the show as much as ever. I don’t have any objections at all with this week’s episode. The more I think and read about it, the more I get the emotional impact that the writers were going for.

 

I hope you don’t mind that I took this quote of yours as my new sig line. I kind of laughed when I read it. It has a weird twisted truthfulness. It’s sort of the opposite of a truism because technically it’s a contradiction, but somehow it manages to convey a Yogi Berry-like deeper meaning.

[ajzepp]

What I liked about this is that they used this episode, at this point in time, to clear up the backstory with Jacob and the MIB.

 

Maybe that's part of the problem for me is that I don't really feel like it cleared much up in terms of their backstory. I went from thinking Jacob didn't exist at all (back when Ben was always like, "jabob wants this" or "jacob said this"), to then thinking he was some enlightened, all-seeing, benevolent being who had some noble endeavor for which he needed to find a successor, to now just seeing him as some whiney, overly aggressive, teet-clinging weirdo. People online don't seem to know if the MIB is alive as the smoke monster or if he ceased to exist and smokey is an entirely separate entity. I get that this whole family drama with MIB, jacob, and the pseudo mom was the basis for a lot of stuff going on on the island, but as far as their individual motivations and goals and how they relate to the castaways? I still don't get it. Their real mom was hot, though....that much is certain

[CosmicBills]

I agree with you. I still love the show as much as ever. I don’t have any objections at all with this week’s episode. The more I think and read about it, the more I get the emotional impact that the writers were going for.

 

I hope you don’t mind that I took this quote of yours as my new sig line. I kind of laughed when I read it. It has a weird twisted truthfulness. It’s sort of the opposite of a truism because technically it’s a contradiction, but somehow it manages to convey a Yogi Berry-like deeper meaning.

Hahaha! I don't mind at all! Finally made it in Gringo's sig line.

[CosmicBills]

Maybe that's part of the problem for me is that I don't really feel like it cleared much up in terms of their backstory. I went from thinking Jacob didn't exist at all (back when Ben was always like, "jabob wants this" or "jacob said this"), to then thinking he was some enlightened, all-seeing, benevolent being who had some noble endeavor for which he needed to find a successor, to now just seeing him as some whiney, overly aggressive, teet-clinging weirdo. People online don't seem to know if the MIB is alive as the smoke monster or if he ceased to exist and smokey is an entirely separate entity. I get that this whole family drama with MIB, jacob, and the pseudo mom was the basis for a lot of stuff going on on the island, but as far as their individual motivations and goals and how they relate to the castaways? I still don't get it. Their real mom was hot, though....that much is certain

Amen!

[ajzepp]

Amen!

 

lol, I don't know how any mortal male can resist that long-haired, mediterranean goddess look

[Cugalabanza]

Perhaps the true mystery of the island is how it keeps getting all these super-gorgeous ladies to hang out on it. Electromag-daddy!

[UConn James]

If all of Lost boiled down to "protecting the magic light" then what was the point of the last 6 years?

 

Who were The Others? What was there mission, other than to mill about in the jungle?

Why did fetuses and their mothers die on the Island, and what was the point of bringing Julia in to find out?

How was it that some of the Others, Ben, Richard Alpert, the big bearded gay guy whose name I forgot, were able to leave the island at will?

How was it that they could manipulate events like when Julia's husband got run over by a bus almost on cue?

How were the Others, through Mikhail, be able to monitor events in the real world as if they had remote cameras?

How was it that when you left the Island at bearing 305 you suffered no time shift?

Who set up Ben Linus with all the money and fake passports?

Who were all the people Ben had Sayid kill and what was the purpose of that?

Why did Richard go to John Locke as a child? What did that "test" prove?

If, as Jacob's mom said, they couldn't leave the island, how and why did Jacob leave so often? Couldn't he just will people to the Island?

Who built the Lampost? And who built the seemingly vast support network the Others seemed to enjoy?

Who and what was the Dharma Initiative? How did they find the Island?

 

I could go on and on but you get the picture. Lost threw so much at us that we assumed was central to the story. Now were finding out it was just filler?

 

PTR

 

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.

[Ramius]

disagree completely. we always new it was the electromagnetic/blinding light/energy that made the island special. and all they did was confirm that.

 

i think it would have gone midichlorian had they tried to give a scientific explanation to the energy. as it stands now, we are left with the "undefined force". it's the "spirit energy", the life force, etc. but it's still undefined.

 

Nah, the light was a bull **** cop-out. I could have lived just accepting that the island had special powers, without knowing exactly how it works, so long as we were given enough info to understand what the purpose of the island and the castaways/candidates were. And no, "guarding the light" isn't a purpose.

 

As it looks now (and i hope it changes in the last 3.5 hours) we are left with some major themes, such as Dharma and the numbers, that have been largely ignored. If those huge themes don't have some greater purpose in the story, then why were we subjected to them for the better part of 3 seasons? Its like watching someone cutting, preparing, seasoning and cooking a steak, and when you sit down to dinner they serve you mac and cheese.

[GoodBye]

AJ, they called this show "Lost" for a reason. They knew we'd all be lost when it's all said and done.

[Andrew in CA]

All I can really say at this point is to try, as hard as it is, to reserve your judgment until you see the final 3.5 hours. There's a lot left to go. And from everything I've read and seen this week at work, it's going to be terrific. Will some be dissapointed? Absolutely. But that's just storytelling in general. If everyone loved it, it'd be crap.

Thank you. To all those burying the show already: can we wait until it's all over before we give the whole series a verdict? They have more than a full-length movie's worth of material left to show us.

[John Adams]

Nah, the light was a bull **** cop-out. I could have lived just accepting that the island had special powers, without knowing exactly how it works, so long as we were given enough info to understand what the purpose of the island and the castaways/candidates were. And no, "guarding the light" isn't a purpose.

 

Ding. That's why the mida-chlorines was such an appropriate reference. No one ever needed a gay explanation of "how" the Force worked...and when the explanation came, it was distractingly bad.

 

The "light" is like that. Stupid. I'd rather have it vague and just explain the guardians, smokey, MIB, etc.