Category Archives: Recurring Themes

Damon and Carlton talk about the final episode of the final season of LOST (and much more) at the Jules Verne Festival

Posted on May 9, 2009 | Leave a comment

Earlier, I posted clips of Evangeline Lilly and Michael Emerson at last month’s Jules Verne Festival. Now, here are some clips of producers/writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, starting with their walking out on stage to extended applause, and then being introduced to the audience:

They start to answer questions. Carlton talks about how being dead on LOST doesn’t mean you won’t appear on the show again:

The questions continue, and this is where they talk about the ending of the show, and where it gets really interesting.

Damon says that they’ve known, for a long time, what the very last scene of the show will be. Carlton promises that the ending will not be that it “happens in a snow globe,” or that it “all takes place in a dream in a dog’s mind” — and that they won’t just cut to black, the way The Sopranos did.

He says they have a very appropriate and legitimate ending for the show, and they are excited about it, even if they are already starting to feel nostalgic about the show coming to an end.

Damon says that they will answer all the mysteries “that we care about” in the final episode. They won’t make us pay to see a movie to find out!

They also discuss the show’s theme of faith versus science. Carlton calls it one of the central philosophical debates of our time. He says that he, who is Catholic, and Damon, who was raised Jewish, debate these issues between themselves, and then they put the debates into the mouths of the characters. He says that the ongoing nature of the debate is what gives the show its thematic power.

Carlton says that they will take the debate to a conclusion that is, hopefully, satisfying. Damon says that so far on the show, faith seems to be winning.

The questions continue. Damon talks about the Dharma Initiative, which he describes as a group of people who say they are trying to make the world a better place, but are probably more violent than anyone else we have met on the Island. He says there is still “much to learn” about them.

Carlton says that we will get some more answers about the Smoke Monster in this season’s finale.

Damon talks about how difficult it was to cast the character of Kate, how he and J.J. Abrams had to audition almost 75 actresses.

And here you can see them receiving the Jules Verne Achievement Award:

Here’s hoping LOST wins all the awards it deserves!

Leave a comment

Posted in Awards, Damon and Carlton, Faith versus science, Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Paris 2009, Season 6, Smoke monster

Mini recap of 5×15 ‘Follow the Leader’

Posted on May 6, 2009 | 1 comment
Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Although the episode title refers to a “leader” in the singular, there are actually two leaders in this episode who set out on parallel treks in different times — Jack in 1977 and Locke in 2007. Each is convinced that he is finally acting out his destiny. And each has Richard Alpert tagging along, as fresh and dewy-looking as ever.

Jack wants to carry out Faraday’s plan to explode the bomb, in order to put things back the way they were. Kate’s not interested. If everything is undone, she will just become a fugitive again, and will never have met Jack. Besides, she thinks, not unreasonably, that it’s irresponsible to go around detonating hydrogen bombs.

Ellie, though, is glad to show Jack where the bomb is. She knows she has just shot her future son and of course would want to see that undone. Not to mention that the bomb is right under the village of her enemies, the Dharma Initiative.

Sayid pops up (I had forgotten about him!) and rescues Kate from being shot by a Hostile. Kate takes the opportunity to head back to Dharmaville, where she is captured and put on the submarine in the impromptu prisoner’s quarters already occupied by Sawyer and Juliet. They were gazing into each other’s eyes and reveling in their sweet Suliet-ness until being rudely interrupted by Kate’s arrival.

Jack, Sayid, and Ellie, accompanied, for some reason, by Alpert, enter some very cool-looking underground tunnels and find the bomb, which apparently was not encased in concrete after all.

Meanwhile, Hurley, Miles, and Jin are in the hills above Dharmaville. Poor guys! Sawyer, who was supposed to lead them to the beach, is on the sub, apparently not caring that he was leaving them behind.

Miles, though, learns something important about his past. He watches his father, Dr. Chang, yelling at his mother, who has baby Miles in her arms, telling her she has to leave. Grown-up Miles understands that his father is yelling not because he is cruel, nor because he wants to get rid of his wife and infant son, but because he knows that yelling is the only way he will get his wife to leave — and save herself and baby Miles. And so the Island, once again, seems to have healed one of its character’s painful lifelong Daddy issues!

Thirty years later, in the Hostile’s camp, John Locke is glowing with alpha male energy. Alpert (who John aptly describes as a kind of adviser who has had that job “for a very, very long time”) and Ben appear submissive, but seem to harbor mutiny in their hearts, as they follow John on a trek to find Jacob, who no one has ever seen before.

Alpert had told Sun that he had seen all the 1977 Losties die. Locke told her that Jacob can bring them back. But Locke told Ben that he really wanted to find Jacob in order to kill him.

There’s a mind-bending scene where Locke tells Alpert that his time-tripping self is going to appear in the jungle with a bullet in his leg (just as we saw him earlier this season). Locke tells Alpert to tell the other Locke that he has to bring everyone back to the Island, and that in order to do that he will have to die.

So Locke’s instructions came from …. future Locke. So it’s all a big circle? Excuse me while my head explodes.

Screencap from Lost-Media, (c) ABC

1 Comment

Posted in 5x15 Follow the Leader, Ben (Michael Emerson), Daddy issues, Destiny versus Free Will, Dr. Chang (Francois Chau), Ellie in 1977 (Alice Evans), Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Jack (Matthew Fox), Jack versus Locke, Jacob (Mark Pellegrino), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Miles (Ken Leung), Recaps and reviews, Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), Suliet (Sawyer and Juliet), Time travel, Widmore in 1977 (David S. Lee)

Why did Eloise Hawking send her son back to the Island?

Posted on May 2, 2009 | 1 comment
"Don't you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles."

"Don't you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles."

Near the end of The Variable, Eloise Hawking leaves the hospital, and Charles Widmore creeps out of the shadows and approaches her. He says his relationship with Penelope was one of the things he had to sacrfice.

Eloise replies,

Sacrifice? Don’t you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles. I had to send my son back to the Island, knowing full well —

Charles interupts her before she can finish her sentence.

What, exactly, does Eloise Hawking know “full well”? Clearly she knows that she has sent Faraday to his doom, but does she know that it would be her younger self who would kill him?

That’s what Daniel himself, at the very end of the episode, believes. After he is shot, and sees that it was Ellie who had shot him, he says to her:

You knew. You always knew. You knew this was gonna happen. And you sent me here anyway.

If Daniel is right, then why would Eloise have sent him to the Island — why would she have manipulated him his whole life to become the scientist he became so he could go to the Island — just so she could shoot him 30 years ago?

1 Comment

Posted in 5x14 The Variable, Daniel going to the Island, Ellie in 1977 (Alice Evans), Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan), Faraday (Jeremy Davies), Polls, Sacrifice, Widmore (Alan Dale)

“Almost-live” blogging 5×13 Some Like it Hoth

Posted on April 15, 2009 | 4 comments
Planet Hoth from Star Wars

Planet Hoth from Star Wars

Writing my first impressions during the show’s commercials …

9:07 Starts with a powerful scene showing Miles, as a boy, already having the ability to communicate with the dead. Back in Dharma time, Horace sends Miles on an errand, welcoming him to “The Circle of Trust.” Miles picks up a dead body (Hostile?) from Radzinsky, then opens the body bag and asks the corpse, “So … what really happened?”

I’m liking this episode very much so far.

9:15 Multiply-pierced Miles, in flashback, visiting his dying mother. He wants to know why he is the way he is, and he wants to know about his father. His mother says that his father is dead, that he left them, and that he never cared about Miles. (Daddy issues!!) Miles wants to know where the body is. His mother says that it’s somewhere he could never go. (Like on a remote Island, perhaps?)

Miles has to take the body to the Orchid. Hurley comes along, with a funny line about how global warming hasn’t happened yet. Meanwhile, Roger, Ben’s dad, freaks out when he finds Ben is missing. He storms off. Juliet to Kate: “Well. Here we go.”

I am still really liking this episode!

9:28 Hurley finds the body. Says to Miles: “You can talk to dead people!” Says his secret his safe, cause he talks to dead people too.

Flashback: Miles conducts seances for hire. Tells a Dad that his son always knew he loved him. Is this a real message, or is he making it up for the money?

Naomi!!

Back in Dharma: Roger, drinking. Kate tries to comfort him. Roger senses that she knows what happened.

Hurley and Miles have a wonderful dialogue. Hurley tells how he talks to dead people. Miles says “That’s not how it works!” Hilarious. They are arguing about how communicating with the dead really works! Hurley: “You’re just jealous because my power is better than yours.” So funny!

Hurley says that Dr. Chang is a douche. Miles: “That douche is my Dad.”

Wow.

I am loving this episode!

9:40 Flashback to Miles and Naomi. Miles “reads” body, gets offered job for 1.6 million dollars. (This number came up in an earlier season. (Editing to add: Actually it was the 3.2 million dollars that came up before.)

Jack and Roger have an encounter. Then back to Hurley, Miles, and now also Chang in the WV. Chang’s 3-month old baby (the one we saw in the opening scene of the first episode of this season) is named Miles!! Wow.

Secret construction site — cool! They’re building the hatch! With the numbers on the cover!

I am totally loving this episode!

9:51 Flashback. Miles kidnapped by guys in a van. They say they want to talk him out of working for Widmore. One asks, “Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?” Ooooh!

Who are these guys? They tell Miles that they can tell him about his powers and about his Dad — the things he had asked his mother about on her deathbed — but Miles says he no longer cares, he only cares about money. They toss him out, tell him he’s “playing for the wrong team.”

Back in the van in Dharmaville, Miles grabs Hurley’s notebook. He’s writing the sequel to Star Wars — ha ha! — which hasn’t come out yet, and which he hopes to sell to Lucas! (There’s the tie-in with the title.)

Underling Phil tells Sawyer he knows Sawyer took Little Ben. Sawyer punches him, tells Juliet to get the rope.

I’m still totally loving this episode!

10:01 Miles goes back to see his client, says he wants to give him his money back. So he was faking after all! I’m thinking it is his conscience prompting him to return the money because he didn’t do the job he was hired for but, instead, Miles says “If you needed your son to know you loved him, you should have told him when he was alive.”

More Daddy issues!

Back in Dharmaville, Hurley talks about how he gave his Dad a second chance. Then he makes an elaborate Star Wars analogy, which goes way over my head, as I’m not a big Star Wars geek, but the gist of it is that he is trying to tell Miles that he should talk to his Dad.

Big Miles watches his Dad and Baby Miles!

Then Chang and Big Miles go out to meet the sub. And Faraday gets out!! And says, “Long time no see.”

Love, love, love this episode. It has so many of my favorite things — flashbacks, humor, Hurley and Miles riffing off each other, Daddy issues, and even the Hatch and the numbers!

Screenshot from The Empire Strikes Back (c) Lucasfilm, via Wikipedia

4 Comments

Posted in 5x13 Some Like it Hoth, Daddy issues, Hurley (Jorge Garcia), Miles (Ken Leung)

Anubis and the Smoke Monster hieroglyphics

Posted on April 11, 2009 | 8 comments
Hieroglyphic in Smokey's Lair Episode 5x12

Hieroglyphic in Smokey's Lair Episode 5x12

This hieroglyphic was on what seemed to be an altar in the underground temple that is Smokey’s lair.

The snake-like creature on the left is probably Smokey itself. The creature on the right, whose hand is outstretched with an offer of something (food?) for Smokey, looks a lot like the jackal-headed Egyptian god Anubis:

Anubis

Anubis

Anubis was the god who protected the dead and brought them to the afterlife. That certainly fits in with the world of LOST, with all its undead characters wandering around.

There’s been a big debate, among LOST fans, about whether the four-toed statue is meant to be Anubis or the goddess Taweret. I’d thought it was Taweret, based on the similarities of the headdresses, the toes, and Taweret’s mission of protecting pregnant women. The appearance of the Anubis hieroglyphic, though, in such a prominent place in Smokey’s lair, suggests that even if the statue is Taweret, Anubis must also play an important role in the history of the Island.

Editing to add: Answers people have given for “Other” in the poll are “It’s not offering, it’s welcoming,” “The Golden Apple of Discordia,” “Tootsie roll pop… ‘how many licks does it take’,” “Nothing – the hand is just outstreched towards the monster,” “Blessings,” “Nothing,” “A heart,” and “A heart to be weighed (judged).” Good answers!

Screencap (lightened and cropped) from Lostpedia, (c) ABC. Picture of Anubis via Wikipedia GNU FDL

8 Comments

Posted in 5x12 Dead is Dead, Egyptian mythology and hieroglyphics, Four-toed statue, Polls, Smoke monster

Recap 5×12 Dead is Dead

Posted on April 10, 2009 | Leave a comment
Smokie shows Ben faces from the past

Smokie shows Ben faces from the past

Ben, still wracked with guilt over Alex’s death, has come back to the Island to be judged by Smokie, who he calls “The Monster.”

That name could just as easily be applied to Ben himself. Ben is a cold-blooded killer, as we see in both the present storytime and the past via flashback. In the present, Ben shoots Caesar point blank, after manipulating him into attacking John. In the past, Ben tries to kill Penny, who he has never even met, just to get back at her father. He shoots Desmond because he is in the way. Surely Ben is the real monster of this story.

And yet, it’s a testament to Michael Emerson’s skill as an actor that we don’t simply hate Ben. When he tells Charles that baby Alex is not an “it,” Ben seems human, even endearing. When he sees the vision of Alex in Smokie’s lair, and he says her name, the love, and longing, and sorrow, and regret in his voice is heartbreaking.

The episode is almost as much about Locke as it is about Ben. Being dead for a while seems to have done Locke a world of good. It must have been like a little vacation, if we can judge by how refreshed he looks! He’s got his Season One macho swagger back, his confidence, his smile, his twinkling eyes, and his ability to do a magic mind-meld with the will of the Island.

There’s a lot of talk about the Island’s will. Not only John, but also Ben, Widmore, and Alpert all have lines referring to “what the Island wants.” At times, they seem to equate “what Jacob wants” with “what the Island wants.” Does that mean that Jacob is the Island, in some sense?

We see Ben in several stages of his life, and along the way, a few mysteries are cleared up. Charles, with a lot of hair, visits Little Ben and tells him the Island saved his life. Young-man Ben, with a teenaged Ethan, takes baby Alex. Several years later, Alex is in a swing, and Charles is banished from the Island.

In the present, Ben appears freaked out that John is alive, and says that knowing it would happen is different from actually seeing it. Ben and Locke then take the Island version of a buddy road trip. They run into Sun and Lapidus. The latter has had it with dead men walking, and wants to leave Crazy Island. But Sun wants to stay and find Jin. Locke tells her he has some ideas for how she can do that.

Ben lies to Sun, and tells her that “dead is dead” and that he had no idea that Locke would come back to life. Or is it Locke he had lied to, earlier, when Ben told him he knew he would come back — and Sun to whom he is now telling the truth?

In any case, it’s off to the temple, an encounter with Smokie, and the appearance of undead Alex. Strangely, when undead Alex suddenly grabs Ben by the throat, out of all the many topics she could have chosen to discuss with her father during this rare opportunity for communication, she chooses to speak about John Locke.

She says she knew Ben was planning to kill him again, and that if Ben so much as touched John, she would hunt him down and destroy him. She orders Ben to listen to every word that John Locke says and to follow his every order.

That’s quite a good deal for Locke!

Earlier, when Ben was on the porch of his old home with Sun, he heard a rustling in the jungle. He said to Sun, “You may want to go inside. What’s about to come out of that jungle is something I can’t control.” He meant Smokie, of course, but then when it was Locke who walked out of the jungle, Ben’s statement still applied – John Locke is someone Ben can no longer control.

Mysteries solved:

Ben killed John to bring everyone together so they would come back to the Island (or, at least, that’s what Ben said).

Ben took baby Alex to save her.

Ben’s injuries when he boarded Flight 315 were from Desmond beating him up after Ben tried to kill both Desmond and Penny.

Unsolved mysteries:

What’s in the crate on the beach?

How did Ethan come to be with the Others?

Who is Ilana, really? And why did she ask Lapidus “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” and why did she knock him out when he couldn’t answer?

And who was Caesar? Was he just the innocent victim of Ben’s manipulations that he appeared to be? Or did he have a secret role on the Island as well?

Ben and the Smoke Monster (lightened) from screencap by Lost-Media.com (c) ABC

Leave a comment

Posted in 5x12 Dead is Dead, Ben (Michael Emerson), Egyptian mythology and hieroglyphics, Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Recaps and reviews, Smoke monster

Is Sayid a Jesus figure?

Posted on March 31, 2009 | Leave a comment

LOST is filled with Christian symbolism. Locke, for example, appears to be the show’s Jesus figure. Told that he would have to sacrifice himself in order to save his people, Locke died, only to rise again.

In the Sayid-centric episode, 5×10 He’s Our You, Sayid also appears to be a Jesus figure, though the signs may be more subtle than they were with Locke.

"Better put him in restraints"

"Better put him in restraints"

Arms outstretched

Arms outstretched

Twelve people vote to execute Sayid:

Amy and the other Dharma-ites vote to kill Sayid

Amy and the other Dharma-ites vote to execute Sayid

Sawyer is a Judas figure (albeit only temporarily), when he appears to join in on the vote to execute Sayid. Then, when Sawyer offers to help Sayid escape, Sayid turns him down, saying that he has finally found his purpose. Sayid, who had spent much of the episode regretting the killing he had done, seems at that moment to want to die for his sins.

Then, of course, the plot takes a twist, and Sayid reverts back to his old killer self. Or does he? At the time I wrote this post, we don’t yet know if Ben is really dead.

Either way, Sayid’s tenure as a Jesus figure appears to have been temporary. But we shall see.

Credit for many of the ideas in this post, especially the observation that there were 12 people who voted to condemn Sayid, goes to epiclogin’s comment on a reddit discussion thread.

Images (c) ABC, via YouTube and Lostpedia.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Leave a comment

Posted in 5x10 He's Our You, Locke (Terry O'Quinn), Religious references, Sayid (Naveen Andrews)