Let’s start guessing what we are going to find out in the Finale.
First poll — who is sideways Jack’s mysterious ex-wife? He keeps on talking about her, but has never yet mentioned her name. I’m expecting a dramatic reveal. Maybe they’ll show her from the back, and she will slowly turn around …
Screencap is of Jack and Kate, as Kate is about to leave the Temple, in 6×03 “What Kate Does”
Matthew Fox talks about what Jack has been up to this season.
In a second official podcast, Damon and Carlton answer a question from “a perfect woman.” Darlton reveal that Vincent-the-dog doesn’t have any Daddy issues, which must make him unique among all the LOST characters. They also, on a more serious note, reveal whether Vincent will live or die this season. If you don’t mind being spoiled on that question, watch the video below:
“For a reason” is the catchphrase that inspired the name of this blog, the one phrase that seemed to best capture the central mystery of the show.
Originally, it was a phrase associated most strongly with Locke, something that Locke, as the man of faith, would say to Jack, the man of reason. Jack would always brush Locke off, too skeptical to listen.
Now we’ve turned a corner. Jack is no longer skeptical. But neither is he relying on blind faith.
In last night’s episode, 6×07 Dr. Linus, the phrase “for a reason” was spoken twice, once by Richard Alpert and once by Jack.
You can see both those moments in the “Quick Cut” video below:
Alpert: “I devoted my life in the service of a man who told me everything was happening for a reason. And now that man’s gone, so my entire life had no purpose.”
Jack (as the flame approaches the dynamite): “For some reason Jacob had been wanting me to know that he had been watching me ever since I was a kid. I’m willing to bet you that if Jacob went to that trouble, that he brought me to this island for a reason, and it’s not to blow up sitting here with you right now.”
"Jacob brought me to this island for a reason"
That’s a big shift. Originally, in Locke’s formulation, the explanation for the reason they were brought to the Island was mystical and abstract. It was fate. It was their destiny. Locke was speaking the language of abstract religion.
But now we’re getting more concrete. It was Jacob, a specific person, who brought them there, for his own reasons.
Since Jacob, presumably, is just a person, not a god, we have now left the realm of abstract faith. Perhaps God or fate or destiny may work in mysterious ways that humans cannot fully understand, but Jacob’s reasons can and will be explained.
Because the reasons originate from within the mind of a specific person, the explanations will be concrete and non-mystical — the type of explanations that even a man of science can accept.
And, in fact, Jack is looking at Jacob and his reasons with a scientist’s eye, drawing a link between cause and effect: “I’m willing to bet you,” Jack says, “that if Jacob went to that trouble, [then] he brought me to this island for a reason.”
In the lighthouse, Jack observed evidence that showed him that Jacob had been watching him since he was a child. From that, Jack infers an explanation: That Jacob must have had a reason to bring him to the Island. It’s a logical and rational inference — and a testable hypothesis.
Jack tests it by lighting the fuse on the dynamite. The flame fizzles out. The hypothesis is confirmed.
“For a reason” has become a mystery that will be solved not by faith, but by science.
This is a LOST promo from Spain, which is unlike any promo I’ve seen in the U.S. It’s very surrealistic:
The words held by the crabs at the end — Te queremos encontrar — translate (I think) to “You want to find.” What does that mean? “Find” as a play on words on “Lost”? Your guess is as good as mine.
From sl-Lost via latestlost
A photographer snapped several pictures of a shirtless Matthew Fox standing on his hotel balcony. I guess the weather must have been nice!
Matthew Fox, without his shirt, on a balcony in Rome, July 2009
You can see a full set of 18 pictures of Matthew’s day — many pictures of him with his wife, son, and mother, seeing the sights of Rome, as well as a few more balcony shots, one showing off his tattoo — on JustJared.com.
I also found an interesting description of Tuesday’s Fiction Fest event, written by Elisabetta, an Italian blogger who was there with a group of fellow hardcore Matthew Fox fans. They showed up wearing Dharma jumpsuits! Elisabetta writes about how they were screaming — so they may have been the ones whose screams you can hear on the video of the master class when Matthew Fox walked onto the stage. Read a detailed description of their day, and see a picture of them in their jumpsuits, on the Foxy and Jack Rule blog.
Photo from JustJared.com, (c) Bauergriffinonline.com
They sure are getting around! They conducted a master class today at the Roma Fiction Fest, an event, now in its third year, dedicated to television drama.
Here’s the opening of the LOST program. It’s fun to hear the way people scream “Matthew!” when Fox walks onto the stage.
In the next video, the master class begins. Damon, Carlton, and Jack Bender talk about the early days of the show, why they think it is special — and how they got away with doing weird things. Questions are in Italian and answers in English:
It looks like the master class lasted about an hour and a half. There are nine videos covering it, which you can find here: LOST at Roma Fiction Fest on YouTube.
Videos by griffin13508822008 and Vale1187
Matthew Fox in "Ask Lost"
Did you ever see the old Groucho Marx TV show, You Bet Your Life? It was a game show where contestants answered questions in various categories. In each episode, there was also a “secret word.” A toy duck was lowered from the ceiling with the secret word in its beak, so that the audience could see what it was. If any of the contestants said the word while chatting with Groucho, the duck would come down again and give them a prize of $100.
Ever since I decided, on a whim, to name this blog “For a Reason,” I’ve become hyperaware of that phrase. Now, whenever I hear one of the characters say “for a reason” on the show or hear one of the actors say the phrase in an interview, I feel as if they had just uttered the secret word. I think “Ding ding ding!” and wish that a toy duck would descend from the ceiling bearing a prize.
While watching this video, the sixth in the “Ask Lost” series, I had one of those wishing-for-Groucho’s-duck moments, because Matthew Fox does indeed say the secret phrase “for a reason.” Give that man a hundred dollars!
