Saturday, March 22, 2008

"Hanso Or Not So? 4.08"

Who is Michael's roommate in the hospital?
There is already heated debate as to whether or not this is Old Man Hanso here. It's interesting that TPTB would linger a shot on a neighboring patient if it wasn't important, or at least the kind of "gotcha" easter-egg moment that LOST is known for. Some viewers think it looks like Hanso, and the naysayers are already getting upset about it for some reason.

I think that it could very possibly be the same actor. The brow, temples, hairline, nose bridge with downward slope, and nostril curve, are very similar to Ian Patrick Williams' features. I'm a portrait artist, so I'm good at matching subtle facial features at various angles. But the big "tell" here would be the ears. In forensic portrait science, the ears are just about as unique a feature on a person, as their fingerprints. And like fingerprints, the overall form of the ear cartilage does not change with age (they just get longer), so ears are an excellent body part for identifying missing persons after many years, etc.

The good news is, "Hospital Bed Man" has a very unique and definitive ridge down the edge of his ear from top to lobe, that can be seen clearly in the episode cap and that would make an ID very simple. The bad new is, I can't find any clear images of Mr. Williams' ears online! But I'm working on it. Here are some samples so far (the Sri Lanka film is useless BTW):

7 comments:

maven said...

The Ear Detective!

I think that this man could be Tovard Hanso...the one who put the Black Rock ledger up for auction in 1996. Maybe he needed the money because he had a terrible illness, and that's why he's in the hospital now. And there would be a family resemblance. Just a thought.

Capcom said...

Hey, that's a great thought, Maven! Maybe they are the good and bad twins???? Maybe he got kicked out of the family fortunes too, so he's just in a regular hospital, in a double room, like any Joe Schmoe.

I'll get a bad twin out of this show if it kills me. :o)

Amused2bHere said...

I think TPTB are messing with our minds...this guy does look a lot like our friend Alvar H, and then there's the Socks in the background who are used as extras in other scenes, making us all wigg out and strain into our HDTVs.

I think they like playing with our minds!

pgtbeauregard said...

Amused,

I agree w/you - TPTB love to give us stuff to talk about during haitus.

Great ear shot Capcom!!

Capcom said...

You all are right, TPTB must have at the very least done this to drive us crazy over the break, even if it has nothing to do with inserting Hanso into the story soon. :-)

Paula Abdul Alhazred said...

Capcom,

I love that we've already been reduced to carefully studying Ian Patrick Williams' ears. It hasn't even been a week and we've already gone mad. Darn you, Darlton!

Capcom said...

I know PAA! You can't imagine how freaky it felt while I was looking into all that, heheh. But that was the only definitive clue that they gave us, since most of the rest of his facial features were messed up by the apparatus and general hospital scruffiness. :-)