"Random Quirky Mystery - Part 6"

Among all the questions about the DHARMA Initiative that we've amassed since our TLE summer, there is one question (among many!) that we need to get an answer for by the end. That question would be, assuming that Jacob was already on the island when the DI arrived to set up their facilities, did the DI know about Jacob before they were rubbed out in the Purge?

Since Season 2 we have seen a mysterious "Him" spoken of by various people who were already on the island before the castaways arrived there. Sometimes when the Others mention "Him", it seems as though they are talking about Alvar Hanso, like when Tom in his Zeke persona makes reference to "a great man". At other times it sounds as if they are talking about Ben, as when Tom is talking to Ethan in the Staff station, about what a certain "He" is expecting. Then sometimes Ben talks about a mysterious, all-knowing, unforgiving "Him", that has to be Jacob. But regardless of who all these different "Hims" might be, when they are referring to Jacob, how far back does Jacob's sacred "Him-ness" with the DIs/Others go?

In Ben's FBs, Jacob seems to have something to do with Ben's apparitions, and his being chosen as the next project manager of Mysterious Island. If that is the case, then Jacob had to be on the island when the DI was there, most likely before. It would be kind of weird for him to show up somewhere in the middle of the DI's preparations. So from that, we could assume that Jacob was there even before the DI/HG unloaded their first crates of scientific equipment and pitched their tents on the beach of their shiny new magical research island. And if Jacob was there pre-DHARMA, I wonder how and when he revealed himself to them! Did they wander into his lair during a jaunty jungle recon hike and shine an evil flashlight into his cabin? Or did the blasting to create their subterranean stations awaken a dormant Jacob-Monster? However they met up, I hope that we get to see it!

Maybe Jacob is one of those fabled island volcano gods and they woke him up and he spewed fire and ash all over the DI's work until they managed to somehow keep him contained and under control. Which might be why Miss Olivia told her class that the volcano hadn't erupted in a long time -- "...because now we've got that evil volcano-man locked up safely in a rickety old cabin on the hill (with his Howard Hughes urine bottles!) and he won't bother us any more." Or so they hoped. At any rate, we need to know how long the DI knew about Jacob, and whether or not they tangled with Him as well, when they were scuffling with the Natives and causing their own inevitable Purge.

UPDATE: On Memphish's blog, Lost2010 said this about the DHARMA relationship with the Hostiles: "My guess is that the Dharma Initiative showed up and the "hostiles" welcomed them with open arms and showed them all the island had to offer. Then Dharma basically turns around and takes over their island and treats them as if they were the interlopers." I really like this idea, and it may tie into the DIs indeed communicating with Jacob early on, and then getting him P.O.'d when they started bringing all their nasty technology to upset the delicate balance of the island's properties.

"Christmas Greetings And Random Thoughts"

Mele Kalikimaka!

#1) Damon and Carlton have said many times that Lost's main theme is redemption. Christmas is about that too. TPTB say that the Lostaways have the opportunity to start fresh on the island if they want to. And on the beach, Jack says something about how their old selves are dead and they have new lives. That sort of makes Lost's redemption island like a "Christmas" island, for whatever castaway wants to reach for a humble new start. This is not the normal "mental-fast-food" topic you see on TV nowadays and fans have welcomed it, perhaps partially because the very thought of being able to start over fresh if one wants to, gives people hope. Every new day brings with it a new chance -- or a New Hope, as George Lucas would put it. :-)

#2) There's a campy retro Christmas song that goes, "How'd you like to spend Christmas, on Christmas Island?" and there really is a Christmas Island! According to Wiki, it is a territory of Australia that "has a unique natural topography and is of immense interest to scientists and naturalists due to the number of species of endemic flora and fauna which have evolved in isolation...undisturbed by human habitation." Sound familiar??? The history of the island isn't quite as benign as the holiday song though, especially during WWII, but it has come around. It really seems like it would have been a perfect place for a Dharma project, because it's isolated and rugged, and time doesn't move the same there as in the civilized world, according to one visitor's log that I read. Oddly enough, it's even in the general vicinity of Lost's uncharted island mysteries.

#3) And now for the obligatory holiday schmaltz! :-) As I've mentioned before, I retired last year and moved to TN, leaving all my buddies in NY. Due to my current health problems, I haven't been my usual social self, so I haven't made any new friends yet outside of family. Except for all of you nice peeps in the Lost Blog Community that is! It is SO nice having all of you as online friends! For the past year, since TLE started it all, I have loved reading your thoughts and chatting with you about the show, and life's little idiosyncrasies, among other things. I look forward to it every day, seriously. So I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year! :-)

"Merry Christmas Tiny Tim"
"God bless us, every one!"

"A Small Theory About All The Mystery"

This is not an earth-shattering thought or anything, I admit. But I was wondering, is it possible that TPTB are not just being annoyingly coy in telling the LOST story in such a frustratingly cryptic structure? Could part of their M.O. be to immerse the viewer as much as possible into the story? That is to say, the TPTB might want us to experience the show as if each of us was a terrified Flight 815 castaway -- to place each of us into the story as if we were one of the passengers who crashed and was trying to deal with everything that was happening, as it happened. As a passenger, we would not know anything about the other passengers, the Others, the Stations, or the island, etc. We would be just as clueless as we are at this point as viewers actually, and we would learn the details bit by bit as passengers, like we are while watching. It's as if we were playing the LOST game, as that new "third person" that was created for it, only we are moving through the show each week with no controls, just as an observer to everything that's going on.

Of course, in order to tell the story sometimes TPTB have to make us, the viewers, step out of our 815-selves, and observe things from the other characters' viewpoints, or else it would be a pretty flat story line. Sometimes we have to see things as another castaway, and sometimes we see things as Ben or Juliet, to be told the stories that surround us outside the immediate circumstances. But for the most part, we are in the dark as much as any Lostie in the beach camp. And the choppy non-linear way in which we are learning about the island and its inhabitants is pretty much the same way that the 815 entourage are learning about it...piece by excruciatingly tiny piece, as every beach day goes by...just like one of the survivors.

If TPTB are creating the show for this kind of immersing effect, I think that they took a very bold and impressive gamble trusting that there would be enough intelligent or curious viewers that would be able to "play" along, until they get to the point where the Losties and the viewers started to learn all the mysteries together. I don't know if I'm correct in this theory, because most likely TPTB would have told us that this is how they are writing the story for us to view it, and I've never read that they have stated this. They have told us about other ways that they have been inspired to write the story to explain their method, so they would probably mention this angle as well. But I wonder. The show sure does often make me feel as clueless as one of the Lostaways who have been left out of the loop, as Hurley put it. And I have a feeling that as the secrets and mysteries are revealed to Jack and his gang, that we will be having the same "Eureka!" moments that they will be experiencing, and at the same time. It can't be too much fun to present a show's story in this fashion, so if they are, there are sure to be big payoffs as we and the Lostaways learn more about their predicament in Season 4 together.

"Random Quirky Mystery - Part 5"

A LOST mystery that may not be as crucial as others, but would be extremely satisfying to know, is how the island was discovered by civilization in the first place. Like most LOST mysteries, we have been fed lots of little morsels of data to chew on until the episode where the story is wrapped up in a nice neat package (hopefully). So far none of the island clues really link together as far as we know at this point, although many imaginary connections can be made with what we've been given. I'm tired of doing that though, and would like TPTB to fill us in on how the island was discovered -- either by the DI, or by the long lost Magnus Hanso leaving his secret to his family, or whatever, by whomever.

Apparently the indigenous inhabitants were there for a long time (and they might have an "arrival" of sorts as well in their own past which could be interesting) before hapless travelers like the Black Rock crashed there. The details of time in between the slave ship "landing" in the jungle and the DI's approach are blank. Even in Hanso's speech to the new DHARMA recruits, when he talks about where they are to do their research, he goes from speaking of "the facility" to "the island" with no connecting details. It would have been so nice if he would have said, "The facility at which you will be conducting your important research is located on a secret uncharted island that was handed down to me by my forefathers, and is known only to myself, the De Groots, and now you." Oh well.

So TPTB, how about it? How was the island "discovered" in the first place? Like the saying goes, "Enquiring minds want to know."

P.S. Since Season 1 of LOST (even before TLE resurrected Verne's Jup [Joop] the orangutan) this show reminded me of the 1960s movie "Mysterious Island", and continues to do so as it moves along. That's not a bad thing, Verne's story was due for a well done remake for this century and I am enjoying TPTB's efforts and homage of sorts to one of my favorite scifi/fantasy writers. :-) See the wiki entry for comparisons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysterious_Island

"Random Quirky Mystery - Part 4"

A post on "Approaching Lost" (www.approachinglost.com) brings up another mystery that we surely need to know by the end of the show. That is, why can the Island/Jacob cure diseases (and flaky sperm counts), but not the rancid uteruses and toxic pregnancies? We are led to believe that the Island might somehow actually cause the aging uterus problem, so healing it would not apply in that case anyway. But why doesn't the island create super-babies with its wondrous healing properties while the uteruses are still viable, rather than adversely affecting the fetuses causing monster growths that attack the mother? Which also begs the question, how were the Island natives able to propagate before the DI came along, but that's for another post.

I suppose that we are kind of taking it on assumption that Ben may have ticked off Jacob or the Island in some way, which led to his not being healed of his spinal tumor. Maybe it's because he has not solved the fertility problems yet that Jacob has withheld Ben's healing, therefore letting Ben know that he's moving on to another leader who has the faith to fix the problem (Locke). But then that brings us back to the original question...why can't the fertility problems be healed like Locke's legs, Rose's cancer, etc.?

Is the fertility problem a situation like, a little bit of cure is good for fixing some things, but a large amount can cause problems? For instance, a little medication is good for aches and pains, but too much will wreck your liver. And maybe this contradiction falls somewhere into the area of the blast door map's, "the remedy is worse than the disease" notation? Was Radzinsky really saying that the Island itself may be able to enact miracles of healing in some ways, but in other ways staying on the island is very dangerous and you don't want to do it? As in, it can repair low sperm counts, but stay any longer and it will kill the mother and child? I hope that TPTB will reveal this to us by the finale!

"Happy Hanukkah Lost Friends"

Hanukkah celebrates the liberation and rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem, after its destruction by foreign forces. Since TPTB have infused Lost with so many spiritual undertones, one wonders if the upcoming trek to "the temple" mentioned in Season 3 will be used to impart more spiritual parallels and inspiration. I hope so, the spiritual aspects have been a nice part of the Lost story since the beginning, and it always brings very thoughtful segments and discussion of the show. The Lostaways and the Others will be engaged in a battle from which they might retreat together to this mysterious temple section of the island. The possibilities of what could happen there are very intriguing on numerous levels, depending on what exactly is there at the site.

Even though I'm a Lutheran, I feel that Christians should celebrate the Jewish holidays too, to remember how the Lord always comes through for us. After all, we were taught all of the Old Testament stories in Sunday school, right? Many of us might be fighting some kind of battle in our lives right now. I pray for everyone to be able to keep the lights of hope burning, to stay strong and faithful, and be blessed by the everlasting oil of peace, faith, love and good health this holiday season. :-)

Note: My image for this post was lifted from this Hanukkah decoration website (of which I am not affiliated, I just used their image):
http://www.ponddoc.com/HG/Holiday/Hanukkah.htm

"Random Quirky Mystery - Part 3 "

Once in a while bloggers will bring up the subject of why Ben can't or won't leave the island, especially in light of the fact that he was sick and needed treatment. I think that this is a very interesting question, also since Ben doesn't seem to have any friends on the island -- through his own fault or that of his circumstances. He's pretty much a man alone in a crowd which he expressed with his quote from "Of Mice And Men" to Sawyer.

We know that Ben was not too happy as a child living on the island with his dad, and as an adult he seemed to be as disgusted with the DIs as his father was, albeit maybe for different reasons. Assuming that people actually can come and go from the island, as we witnessed Richard doing, why doesn't Ben leave? Is it because on the island he is a very important big fish in a little pond, and back in the world he would be a nobody in a big pond? Or could Jacob possibly kill Ben from afar, like he supposedly healed Juliet's sister, if he jumped on the sub and ditched his island responsibilities?

I suppose that there is the chance that Ben really did come to love the special island where fate (or Mrs. Hawking?) placed him as a child. Or he might have grown a close sympathy for the island's indigenous people who love the island, and he wants to help them to keep it sacred. Worst case scenario, he really wants to leave but he is Jacob's (or Hawking's) island puppet and has no choice at all. That explanation might also reveal why he has no sympathy for others like Juliet who are trapped there-- because if he can't leave, why should they be able to? This is another case where I hope that we can look back and see the light about this mystery before the end of the series comes.

"A Message In The Island Conflict?"

Lost is a highly thematic piece of work, and often very allegorical, in addition to the basic surface story line. One of the reasons that we find it so compelling is all the sub-context and how we can discuss the many possibilities to these story themes. An aspect that I haven't seen blogged much about yet is the environmental angle, even though we actually discuss it inadvertently within the subjects of the island's properties, the DI's Valenzetti mission during TLE, and now Jacob's aversion to technology. But the environment is not even a topic on the Lostpedia "themes" page.

If anyone is familiar with the more upscale Japanese anime, the name Hayao Miyazaki stands out in the feature film area of the genre. His animated stories often revolve around an almost "Jacob-like" anti-technology theme of protecting the earth and its natural elements from overuse and destruction. In these stories his main characters are either zealous protectors, or abusers, of the earth who engage in conflict for either side. Each faction seems to have its logical arguments for what it does, in addition to having some ambiguously good and bad ethical qualities.

This sounds a lot like Lost. Are TPTB also offering this kind of message within their theme of protecting the island's properties? That is, do the island's characteristics represent the earth's natural wonders in general in the story? Now that I've looked at it in this way, it seems possible. Not in a overt sort of way like in a Miyazaki environmental film, but just as another underlying theme that TPTB have woven into the whole fabric of themes that make up the show. We have been shown in the finale of S3, that a fight to protect the island is what upcoming episodes are going to revolve around. And in Miyazaki fashion, we will have various groups of ambiguously inspired people that are going to battle it out. Some will be for the sides that want to maintain the island's natural environment, some who don't care and just want to leave it, and those who might wish to abuse its powers for gain.

Maybe in addition to all the other ways that TPTB suggest we look at both sides of a character's life and intentions, they are also throwing the environmental subject into the mix? And by the end of the story they might also attempt to inspire us to consider that there should be a way to find a happy medium somewhere in between rampant abuse of "this island earth", and forcing ourselves to live in harsh primitiveness like Jacob. Not to club us over the head with this ideology of course, but just as another one of the many underlying positive and redemptive themes in their story.

In case anyone is interested in learning more about Miyazaki's environmental anime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

"Random Quirky Mystery - Part 2"

Apollo bars...we've chased them, cursed them, photographed them, mailed them, and talked about them ad-nauseum. Is there any candy in history with the media mythology of Apollo bars? Who cares. All I hope is to be able to look back and understand why the kids in Dharmatown were encouraged to eat as much of them as they wanted to!

It could be that the candy was just laced with vitamins that "helped build strong bodies twelve ways", like Wonder Bread's retro slogan. There seems to have been a few variations of the Apollo bars, so maybe Annie's version was like a giant chocolate Flintstones vitamin for kids or maybe an early Dharma version of a chocolate energy bar. Perhaps super-candy for super-soldiers? Or, the kids were given bars with questionable additives like from TLE last summer. Not a nice thought, but a very compelling one with many possible implications that we've talked circles around already to no avail till we get more story or game. If they were laced with something to make people more docile and subservient, they should have given Roger Linus a steady diet of them. It might have saved his life if he was nicer to Ben. Or who knows, maybe whatever additive was in the bars reacted with the island's magnetism and made the girls grow up to have a 75 year old uterus and to spawn killer babies?

At any rate, it was kind of strange how TPTB wrote into the script the random comment by Annie to Li'l Ben, that they could eat as many as they like. It kind of jumped out in the conversation and made me think, "Huh? What did she say?" Again, it's either something pertinent from TPTB, or another "gotcha" type red herring. But it's another instance where I would like to be able to look back at that scene some time in the future, and realise why Annie said that to Ben in his flashback.

BTW, thanks again to Dennis who shared two of his Apollo bars with me and my nephews. :-)

"Happy Thanksgiving Bloggers"

Happy Turkey (or Tofurkey) Day to our fellow Lost bloggers, where ever you may be.

Don't forget to have Snoopy's favorite, A&W rootbeer and popcorn! :-)

"Random Quirky Mystery - Part 1"

This is the first post of perhaps a few, on some minor mystery details from the show that I find intriguing, and ones that I hope will mean something when all is said and done. If I post more than this one, this is "Part One" of a series. If not, this post will be "Part One Only". :-)

Since I love astronomy, one of my favorite Lost mysteries is something that was apparently picked up by a viewer in the episode "The Long Con". According to Lostpedia, a reversed view of Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, was spotted in the night sky shot during one of my favorite scenes with Hurley and Sayid on the beach. Maybe it was just the stars, and the beach at night, and the fact that one of the best Glen Miller songs was playing, so I really liked that scene. But for me the clincher was finding the notation and capture of the reversed constellation later online. The article in Lostpedia also mentions that the Connect Four pattern of the numbers matches Ursa Major, but that's too much for me to get into and I don't own the game to be able to check it out. Although, if true, it could solidify the fact that the Big Dip is actually shown here, and mirrored, for our viewing torture -- I mean, pleasure.

If this sky scene is not just another pointless (and I mean that in a nice way) "gotcha" moment and message from TPTB to the viewers, what could it mean? Does the island create or sit under some kind of magnetic lensing effect that makes it look like the sky's star patterns are backwards? Gravity can create some pretty weird astronomical effects, as in the "Einstein Lens" that creates a false visual of multiple objects/stars (or a ring), as the light of an object behind another is split around the front object's gravitational area in the field of view. A reversed sky view would contradict with the rising and setting sun directions though, and surely our highly intuitive Lostaways would notice that. Or maybe not, since the island's magnetic forces rendered the compasses unusable, so maybe they don't know which end of the earth is up, so to speak. If I were there I'd just assume that where ever the sun came up was East, etc., and go by that and not the twirling compass needles. But if the night sky is reversed, it's odd that at least one of the Losties (perhaps Locke the Hunter) did not notice it at all, and tell us. Ha ha.

So I do hope that this little quirky moment in the show (if accurate) will become one of the "Eureka!" moments we will have when we look back after Season 6 is finished. Not that TPTB will address it specifically, but that if remembered, it will cause one of those many little jolts that I suspect will zing us when we start re-watching the show from S1 to S6 for old time's sake. I get a sneaking feeling that once the show is over, it won't really be over in our heads.

"Post-Orchid Dharma Thoughts"

Watching the "Orchid Film" makes you wonder many things, in usual LOST fashion. The foremost question to me is, is it showing a smaller event before the Incident, or are we seeing the actual start of the Incident tragedy in the film? TPTB said that this piece of film surfaced in Norway, so does the rest of the film actually show something terrible that the DI/Hanso hid from the world, i.e., the entire Incident as it happened? I hope so!!!

Next came the question of where another station fit into the DI plans as we know them. In the Swan orientation film Dr. Candle says that, "Station 3 was originally constructed as a laboratory where scientists could work to understand the unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the island...", which seems to say that the Swan was originally the Orchid station as many people (not me) guessed right away. Is that why so far only the Swan film mentions the Incident and damage control protocol? Because it used to be the Orchid and still needs to be kept a secret, the way that the Orchid station's purpose was cloaked? In the Pearl film, the Pearlies are merely instructed to watch the Swanies (to ensure that the Swanies kept up their post-Incident duties?) and nothing is mentioned of the event. I can imagine the DI failing to mention their little mishap to future recruits coming on board to work.

It's also interesting to think about what may have been the mindset of the Dharma Initiative after the Orchid event. Is that when the general stability and control of their organization began to breakdown, following failure after failure? It seems that the DIs didn't give up on all of their experiments and projects after the Incident happened, although hints of activities in the Pearl and other defunct stations seem to be vaguely bogus pseudo-science at best, and useless psycho-babble-ology at worst. If they had to reconfigure the Orchid station and construct the new Swan set-up and protocol, they still seemed to continue operating in a business-as-usual manner, albeit maybe just to keep up appearances in their reports to Hanso HQ. As anyone who has worked in research knows, scientists do not like to admit failure, and do not like to give up their "capital" funding, because that next wacky break-through might be just around the corner! And, they still had that pesky Sword of Damocles, the Valenzetti Equation, swinging overhead.

What also about Ben's place in all this chaos? He obviously had his own problems to deal with on a familial basis, which probably poisoned his attitude towards the DI. And I doubt if his inherited "Workman" status left him privy to much of the underground DI work. But I wonder what he saw of the social and scientific downfall of the overall DI infrastructure? Surely he must have seen the facade crumbling as the DI's structure collapsed, and must have some knowledge of the Incident and other freaky happenings that went on when he was mature enough to sense it. He has expressed his slant on how the DIs got along with the natives, but what else does he know about the DI's breakdown?

I really hope that TPTB dive right into many of the alluded-to depths of these delicious Incident secrets in season four. I don't want to complain (again), but so far we've held on for three seasons of layered mysteries like giant onions that have a million levels with only a few of them visible so far. According to Lostpedia, "...Cuse further described the [Orchid] film as 'something that will fire your imaginations about what you're gonna see in Season 4'..." My imagination doesn't need any firing at this point thank you, they've done a great job of that so far. But after seeing the mind-blowing Orchid film this summer, my eyes are dying to see some big fat freaky crazy Dharma station action!

"Happy Lostoween"

I didn't make this beautiful image of course, I think that I snagged this LOTR-Lost pic from the Blackrock website.

"If Don Draper Was Lost"

It seems as if I've temporarily OD'd on fretting about Lost mysteries like others in our blog-o-sphere. So here goes another one of my thoughts crossing Lost ideas with another TV show or movie.

It's a darn shame that TPTB of Lost did not get Jon Hamm who plays Don Draper on A&E's Mad Men first, for a position on Lost. He is just such an incredible actor. To paraphrase a comment from one of the Mad Men blogs, that actor can say more by scrunching up the space between his eyebrows, than any actor on TV right now! As well as how he can look completely composed while at the same time like he's losing his mind. He can coolly tear down any smarmy opponent's nerves by using a rumpled brow and a smirk, like a mental bazooka. While at the same time, you know that his brain is about to explode because life as he knows it is about to crash and burn. Jack-Face indeed, humph! Not that I'm knocking the acting skills of anyone on Lost, I think that they are all terrific, first-rate, and I love them all. But Hamm has a fascinating ability to emote a fierce or complicated presence without speaking. The life of the Draper character also runs an interesting parallel with Ben's...rough childhoods, rotten/dead dads, new beginnings, strong but questionable choices in maintaining the status quo. Are they bad/good guys or good/bad guys?

If the Losties had Don Draper on their side after the crash, there would be no pussy-footing around with survival problems. Whenever they need a strong leader, self-made man Don could take over. If Jack and Sawyer start thumping their chests with each other, he'd pull out a club and chase those apes back to the caves. When Jin and Michael started fighting, I can see Draper handcuffing them together like Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier. And Ben? Fuggeddaboutitt! Draper would send Sayid into that closet to tie up Fenry's little booboo arm like a pretzel to get him to talk. And then afterwards he would slick back his hair, put his cuff-links and suit jacket back on, and pour himself a glass of MacCutcheon. Now this is not to say that Draper is an honorable character, he's not, and might be getting his comeuppances next season. But he is strong as heck when he needs to be.

Of course, if Hamm went to Lost, we wouldn't get to watch him completely own the Draper role, which would be a loss for that show. He's perfect in the part. I still like Desmond much better though, because his missteps in trying to make a better life for himself are not remotely as questionable as Draper's, which could be a fascinating comparison itself. But the Draper character is an incredibly complex one and Hamm's portrayal is one of the best on TV right now. The bad thing, is that Mad Men is going to give every drama on TV a tough time in the Emmy's next year. Lost has a hard enough time getting recognized as it is, I hate to see Mad Men give the Emmy snobs, er...judges, another reason to overlook Lost on purpose!

"Lost Magazine Reading is Fun-damental"

During the hiatus I have actually been reading the Lost magazine instead of just buying it and thumbing through to look for pictures to draw (no luck yet), and then chucking it into the "Lost magazine collection that will surely be worth a few cents more in ten years than it is now" pile. It doesn't seem like many Lost fans like it very much. For the first year the fanzine was nothing to really get excited about, as the images were almost 100% re-repeated stock PR photos (reversed, collaged, shrunken, enlarged, etc., to try to make them look different), and the articles were very limited as to the actual story content. It also looks like a carbon copy of a couple other TV series mags. But the editors have started to hit a better stride and produce a more interesting publication this year. Not that I'm a magazine publishing expert, I just buy a lot of "zines" and know what I like.

What piques my interest now is the increase of articles on the special effects, prop building, and set pictures that are included more every issue. I enjoy learning how things are made and the creative possesses behind the production, and they are beginning to deliver pretty well in that area. Like the fact that some of the "five o'clock shadows" on the guys are actually put on via an electrostatic flocking process which I find fascinating. No need to use the "Official Miami Vice Sonny Crockett Stubble Shaver" on this show! They also showed the making of the polar bear costumes and scenes Ms.FYSB, if you ever read this! :-) But the character images are still mostly the promo photos, which are beyond familiar at this point. There are so many incredible screen caps from the series, I find it odd that they don't utilize them more for the magazine.

I've also found that while the magazine of course doesn't reveal answers to any of the more nagging larger mysteries, it does unveil minor answers in the course of interviews and conversations that help fill in the blanks and free our minds to ponder the larger missing pieces of the story. You know, like some of the vague things that have been played out that we are still arguing about and making bets on. For instance, in Damon's "Pearl's of Wisdom" feature, someone asked if Desmond ("in a conscious, physical, or in whatever way") really travelled back in time to 1996, and he answered, "I'm going to give you a wonderfully simple answer -- Yes!!!" Unfortunately, the guy's question was vague as to the physicality of how he travelled back, so some unknowns remain there, dangitt. Also in the zine various contributors have stated repeatedly that Smokey killed Eko, for those who still doubt that. This month, Nestor Carbonell says in an interview that his group was definitely the indigenous people of the island, and that he "had taken part in the murder of Juliet's ex-husband," for those of us who still wonder if perhaps she did it in a "Carrie-like" fashion. I do think though that whatever is said in the magazine, TPTB could at any time zig-zag away from what has been said and go another way altogether! So unless it comes from Cuselof's mouth, I take it with many grains of salt.

Evangeline Lily gets philosophical about the Skater-Jater-Schmater triangle in a way that I found interesting as well. She says in issue #10, "I'm starting to see very clearly, that the difference between her love for Jack and for Sawyer is: she loves Jack even though he can't seem to love her for who she is. She loves who Jack is, and she loves Sawyer because he loves her for who she is...but Kate doesn't actually love who Sawyer is. She is hoping and wishing that Sawyer will be something else - to be more noble, but he never expects that from her. It's really beautiful and tragic, because Kate loves the wrong guy. She loves the guy who doesn't really love her..." So, is she saying that Kate's problem is the typical scenario where the girl picks the bad-boy over the nice-guy just because she thinks that she can change him? I truly hope not. Anyway, it's all good reading for this hiatus-challenged Lost fan.

"A Tale Of Two Bunnies"

Last week I was reading Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" while waiting in the ER after my car got got rear-ended (I figured that it would be a very long wait so I brought the big guns with me) and as I got to chapter 10 (chapter 7 is the one that the kid was reading on the steps of the Room23 bunker) things in the Orchid film started to come together. Please note that I was reading the new copy that is profusely illustrated, making it a sort of "A Brief History of Time For Dummies". But when reading about the wormholes and the Casimir effect, the whole thing kind of began to penetrate my thick skull and make some sense. Bigmouth explained it to us in his great blog "Eye M Sick", but it didn't really sink in until I saw the illustrations in the book. See: http://eyemsick.blogspot.com/ , for a much better scientific explanation than mine that follows.

Since Desmond's little trip, part of what we've been guessing about his possible wormhole time travel has been bugging me. Wormhole travel is supposed to happen with a warping of space (so that you can take a shortcut between points A and B) that brings time points together like two places on a folded piece of paper, as illustrated above. But I've wondered how did the Dharmas create this necessary bending? Well it seems that this is where the Casimir Effect might come in handy. That negative space between the plates caused by the smaller particles in there, that we've been reading and talking about since ComicCon, seems to create the curved space necessary for the wormhole. Supposedly a negative space curvature is needed for time travel, and this Casimir state can help with that.

Another possible clue regarding the Orchid film is in this chapter also. Apparently, a traveler could ride a wormhole that is stationary to earth, to a future point. And if he comes back to his present on a moving wormhole, then he could come back to a place in time before where he took off the first time. So, maybe that's what happened to Bunny15. They planned to send him to the future and maybe return him to the present, but he somehow came back on a different wormhole and surprised them in the lab by returning before he left. Thus, there ended up being two bunnies there at the same time. If they had some kind of specific transport platform or chamber where Bunny15 was supposed to disappear and reappear, they would have expected to keep the experiment contained. But what if he (as Bunny15-b) came back on a different wormhole, and into the room at a place that he had been sitting before, on the shelf...which just happened to be where Dr.Candle was holding him (as Bunny15-a) in the lab in the film. This theory is a bit different than Bigmouth's, but here is how it looks applied to the illustration in Hawking's book:

How they would manage to accidentally cross two wormholes is beyond me, so Bigmouth's theory is better than mine, and surely TPTB will follow the K.I.S.S. principle to make it easier for them and us! Hopefully the answers to that will also reveal if Dr.Candle lost his arm when the two anti-bunnies leaped together, and touched, and blew off his arm. And also, how a big clunky Island could have natural finely tuned laboratory-grade Casimir properties, that could be used to create a wormhole. To that I chant the Lost viewers' usual mantra, "I hope that we find out soon!" It will be fun to watch how TPTB will be able to write this in an entertaining way without a visit to the island from Mr. Hawking himself.

"The Devil's Triangle"

The relationship preferences that a lot of Lost fans seem to be so passionate about don't seem to interest me for some reason. Lost relationships have caused a lot of contention in online wars between the Jaters and the Skaters (and now Juliet is thrown into the mix!), but I don't care so much. I admit that I was happy for Hurley when he and Libby were getting together, because it's always great when the nice guy gets a break in a story. I also prefer to see married people like Sun and Jin stay together, and for new families to begin like with Charlie, Claire, and Aaron. Of course the depth of interaction, conflict or otherwise, between the characters in any story are very important. But so far I haven't emotionally invested any preference of whether Kate chooses to be with Smokey or anyone else on the island.

At this point, Kate and Sawyer have physically and emotionally gone light years beyond where Kate and Jack are, for the obvious reasons. And Jack seemed to have been resigned to leaving them to be together after he "accidentally" viewed their sleepover in the cage. But then Moses goes and tells Kate that he loves her on their flight through the wilderness in the finale! That's nice Jack, but it may be too little too late.

Personally, I don't think that Jack knows what love really is. It appears that Jack mistakes love for whatever surge of emotion that he feels for the "needy damsel du jour", which viewers have discussed in detail since seeing his FBs. Though like I've said before, Jack could possibly lift Kate up from where she holds herself down, but does Jack really know Kate anymore than Kevin? Accept for the fact that he learned she was a fugitive, he knows nothing about her life. Sawyer knows her better, even just from playing that "I Never" game with her. But Sawyer drags around his own baggage of moral and personal issues too.

Even if Juliet does not inevitably draw Jack away from Kate, I think that Kate should try to stick it out with Sawyer, since she made the choice to get physical and bond with him (repeatedly!). We would hate to see Sawyer find yet another reason to crawl back into his pitiful crusty shell. Who knows, maybe by the end of the show it might just be very important to the story who Kate ends up with. But however TPTB write it up is OK with me. I'm sure that they will make it a compelling component to the story whichever direction that Kate turns.

"Is Locke Just Jacob's Puppet?"

When Locke chided Ben for having a fridge with chicken in it (that John didn't hesitate to chow down we remember) was it really Locke talking? Sometimes I wonder if Jacob has been talking through Locke, especially to Ben. Ben told Locke that Jacob didn't like technology. And we know that Locke did not really have a problem with using technology to his advantage all along his Lost story, up until the conversation in Ben's kitchen. So at the moment that he said that it struck me as a very odd thing for Locke to say. Odd even for inconsistent Locke. But it doesn't seem an odd thing for Jacob to say to Ben at this point. Ben has been living a life of dictatorial ease since the DI purge. Has he not been obeying everything that Jacob has ordered him to do and that's why Ben can tell people that Jacob's not a forgiving man? Ben might know first hand of Jacob's anger, if he's been slowly casting off his own puppet strings, to disobey Jacob on occasion. So a thought has been nagging me since, that Jacob is using Locke like his brand new ventriloquist dummy making him do and say things to put Ben (his old dummy) in his place, as well as to protect the island.

We know that Locke is very pliable, his Otherville dossier apparently even stated as much. So was it Jacob who mentally convinced Locke to not push the Swan button, after leading him to the Pearl to make him lose his faith (as fans have posed on their blogs as well)? Could it have been Jacob throwing the knife when John killed Naomi? He could not even kill the father that he hated all his life, to buy his ticket into the Tribe of Jacob which he wanted more than anything. How could John have so easily thwacked Naomi in the back like that with no hesitation?

If this is true, I think that Locke will finally have the breakdown that he has been verging on for years, at the moment that Ben says to him, "Do you really think that you're so special to this island? Do you think that Jacob healed you because he liked you? He was using you like everyone else in your life John, and you didn't even know it! You're nothing more than a puppet to him! (pan in for close-up of Ben's most evil sneering smirk ever) Ha-ha-ha!" Then switch camera view to Locke's quivering lower lip and tears streaming down his face. If Jacob is actually using and speaking through Locke sometimes, I wish that TPTB would make it easier for us to see, maybe like when the devil talked through Linda Blair in the Exorcist.

"Is Hurley A Threat To Jacob?"

Lately I've been wondering a lot about Hurley in terms of his affect on the island or more specifically, on what Jacob's plans might be. Sometimes Hurley seems like the fly in the ointment, or the sand in the gears, of what we are told by Ben and Locke is "supposed to happen" on the island. Because there were so many events that might have deterred Hurley from getting on Flight 815 in the first place, it makes me wonder if his being on the island is a good or bad thing for Jacob, Ben, and Locke. Hurley's clock fails that morning so he's late for the flight, and then all the other series of stumbling blocks happened that stalled but did not stop him. And didn't the gate attendant tell him that he was not even supposed to be on that flight? But his determination gets him a place on the plane after all.

On the island, although Hurley still thinks that he is cursed, his persistence there seems to defy his "bad luck". He manages via his optimistic influence on his fellow castaways to enhance their morale and existence on the island, he helps to make better plans for their survival, and he does his share of saving the day when the other "leaders" don't feel that he can be counted on as shown in the finale of Season 3 most of all. He does all these things as a sort of behind-the-scenes silent leader of the group. So Hurley is a very positive influence on the island for the castaways as the unofficial "project manager" of the their post-crash survival.

But what kind of influence is he having on the survival of the island itself? Hurley's actions could be systematically undoing or hindering what Jacob and Ben have been trying to repair since the crash. Have Jacob and Ben not even really noticed that Hurley is such a force, because he is such a mild-mannered leader who is also a sort of "man behind the curtain" in his own humble way? After all, they had him in captivity on the dock and they let him go! Perhaps they don't notice Hurley as a force to be reckoned with because he's not a chest thumper like Jack, Sawyer, or Locke. Could it be that Jacob can't read everyone? Or is it because Hurley hasn't had a mind reading encounter with Smokey yet that keeps Jacob from getting a bead on Hurley's character and his moral fortitude? If some people were indeed meant to crash on the island, maybe Hurley was not one of them and his positive actions are also helping to slowly chip a hole in the dyke that is going to explode open in Season 4!

"Cheers To All Lost Blog Friends"

Here we are about midway through our Lost Hiatus and we have so far managed to survive the opposite of being stranded on an island...being stranded away from one! And now that I have rightly thanked Memphish for her inspiration, I would be totally remiss to not thank everyone else in our Lost blog circle of friends for all of their efforts and inspiration as well. It is so great to have all these sites to go to for assistance in interpreting the Lost mysteries, as well as the most important thing to have: favorite peeps of like mind whose brains we can pick if we miss something, or if we just have to talk to someone about a Lost idea or theory that we got in the middle of the night!

Thankfully, we have the big blogs who have some contact with TPTB on occasion like Doc Arzt, DarkUFO, et. al. who get a lot of the inside scoops for us, but it's also nice to have our friendly "homegrown" group of blogs as well. Some forums and blogs as we know are not too worried about being friendly or courteous to posters, and that's their choice, that's alright. But when you tire of slogging through the bad manners and want to get to the point of talking about all things Lost, you like to have the friendly kinds of blogs to go to as well. So thanks to everyone who has taken the time to create blogs where they lay out their theories for us, pose the questions that we might need to pay more attention to, and also to posters who help volley around ideas with everyone. Thanks also for reading my blog which I did not intend on ever doing but, again inspired by Memphish, I hoped that maybe I could vent some of my Lost thoughts in this type of platform as well. I think that I just like making the illustrations though, but at least I'm putting to use the "experience" that I got from writing hundreds of papers and presentations in management school. Whoodathunk?! Professor Ismay might be proud.

Anyway, Thanks Blog Friends! :-)

"Soul Sisters"

To thank Memphish (macdaddymom, below-right) for all the bizarre questions and images that she puts into our minds with her QOTD blog, today I will post a picture of what popped into my head from her post this morning, and that is, thoughts of the Log Lady from Twin Peaks and our own dear island crazy lady, Danielle Rousseau. Even though they are only sideline players to the main plot, these two hermit ladies are mystery stories all on their own and their antics make us wish that we could know more about them.

Although there is more to Danielle than her "Whatsamatta U." sorority sister, they both conjure up similar images; Log Lady walking in and out of scenes gently cradling her beloved stump, and Danielle tramping through the jungle cradling her rifle to keep it always ready for use. They both have an aura of hidden wisdom about them, that might be found somewhere beneath their dazed expressions. Neither lady makes much sense when they speak though, but hopefully Danielle's ramblings will become clear some day if we ever get her FB story. Thanks for creating such interesting mental images for us on your blog, Memphish! :-)

"The Power Of Peanuts and Stones"

Sometimes I wonder if the ABC programmers could do anything in the future to really mess up Lost before it is allowed to reach it's final season and episode. You know, the way someone seems to have done to TLE last summer. Everything with the ARG was going like gangbusters with the awesome websites, the commercial commitments, and worldwide participation, for the online treasure hunt. Then something happened and before the promised crescendo it just kind of went *phfffft*.

We know that TPTB have just signed a contract with ABC that lays out the plans for the remainder of the show. But what if ABC does something crazy like moving the show around too much? It could even be as simple as cutting TPTB's budget in half. Think about what Fox did to "The Lone Gunmen" for example. Fox placed it in the slot where some national league games were constantly running overtime and pre-empting it, and we never got to see it so of course the show died. Now I'm not saying that Frohike and company were as hot as Lost is, but their popular uber-geek storyline was riding the crest of the X-Files wave at the time, so it was considered the X-Files-2. Not that ABC would be dumb enough to do that, but who knows what craziness they might decide in the boardroom. They're bean-counters after all, not artists.

So the question is...if ABC did do something like this to Lost, what could we send to ABC via snail mail to get their attention? Like what Jericho fans did to restart that show sending in peanuts after its premature cancellation (the genius of fans, I tell ya!). The easy picks could be:

** black and white stones
** one white tennis shoe
** handcuffs
** water bottles
** toy planes
** plastic grenades

We could get plenty of ideas just from the Lostpedia "themes" section, and Lost fans are very creative to say the least. Maybe one of our major blogs, like DarkUFO, could coordinate the battle plan, and the USPS would get deluged with little packages headed for "ABC, LA, California" from all over the world. Sure, I know I'm being worrisome and paranoid and the TPTB of Lost won't let anything happen to their creation now. I'm going to be prepared just in case though, the networks are getting reputations for making too many bad decisions about good shows.

"Encyclopedia Lostica"

We love LOST because it's a fascinating tale of survival within a complicated web of mysteries -- a modern Bayeux Tapestry battle story interwoven with arcane illustrations. Like the saying goes, it's an enigma, wrapped in a mystery, just begging to be deciphered. It appeals to each of us depending on our personal interests, from philosophy to physics, and themes about unrequited love to the ancient struggle of good versus evil. And we know that it's just a TV show. But from the beginning of time humans have loved their stories, especially heroic legends of intrigue, conflict, and valor. Such is the stuff of LOST.

We viewers are very lucky that some wonderful fans created the Lostpedia website to help us keep all of our questions and research in one neat and tidy package (of 3,000 pages so far!). Thank the Lord for Lostpedia, that's all I have to say! I really enjoy delving into the origins and meanings of someone's artistic creation, which is what I consider LOST to be -- a true work of art. But most of the answers on Lostpedia are what we have had to speculate about. And from Season 1 the show has racked up so many unanswered (and unanswerable?) questions that TPTB have even said that every mystery will not be explained by the end of the final episode. Well somebody better call the "waaaambulance" for me then!

I think that this means TPTB are just going to have to publish an Official LOST Encyclopedia when the series is over! Don't you think? We don't want to get left hanging like after the X-Files finished with the comment that, "Not every question in life is answered, so not every question on the show answered," or something like that. Bah humbug. Again, it's a TV show, but I would really like to know what TPTB had in mind when they gave us little zingers like the Swan mural images, the text on the blast door map, Juliet's brand, Desmond's stuffed bunny, and the gory jars of juice on Jacob's window sill, to name a few out of a zillion. Obviously this is a giant task and would be a huge book. But TPTB already have everything written down in their scripts and production notes, so they only have to edit and print them up and annotate everything! Just mark footnotes and explain them in a sidebar on each page. Or putting it in the form of a regular encyclopedia of facts would be fine also. That would probably be better, because as Lostpedia has shown us there are multiple levels of mysteries to be categorized for each topic. Either way, an extensive index is a must!

Would it be good to explain LOST in this way? Or should the mysteries of LOST be left hidden? I vote for learning the secrets over leaving them unsolved, if we can. The number of blogs dedicated to pointing out the show's mysteries leans towards this preference as well (see Memphish's QOTD blog for a good start). And if TPTB have not just been "making it up as they go" (as some non-fans accuse), it would be great to finally be let in on all the nuances, inside jokes, and Easter eggs that won't be answered by the final episode. Do the show's creators (as artists), owe their viewers (as patrons), any explanations for their specific brushstrokes and techniques if the patrons are interested in learning them? We study art history for those reasons, I think that it would be nice if TPTB would do that for us. Will they give us the LOST Rosetta Stone that we need to decipher the show when all is said and done? I guess we'll have to wait to find out after the fat lady sings in the Mother of All Finales in Season 6.

"Ben's 8:15 To Yuma"

Since I sometimes relate current movies to LOST here, a new movie that I would like to recommend to LOST fans is "3:10 To Yuma". If you enjoy old "spaghetti westerns", you will probably like this film. Christian Bale and Russel Crowe are excellent in it, ditto Peter Fonda, et.al. And the scenery is really fantastic, if you like the wide open West and ghost towns. A lot of the movie looked like those snowy desert paintings of Bev Doolittle's too. It's fun to sit way up front for movies like this, so you're almost close enough to the scenery to get dirt in your eyes. Being "thisclose" to Christian Bale onscreen isn't so bad either, because his acting keeps gets better exponentially ever since his incredible starring role in "Empire of the Sun".

The plot is "Good vs Bad" and all the shades of gray in between, and as in life (and LOST), it's trying to deal with the gray areas that'll kill you. It's a basic morality play that has been told many times before, also on LOST almost every ep, but it's a good Western saga done very well. One of the obvious points in this film -- and I won't spoil any thing here -- is the problem of who to trust when the good guys act bad, and the bad guys act good. A familiar problem to LOST viewers right? As well as, how do you do the right thing when you have so much to lose or gain either way? There are definitely clear cut bad-to-the-bone guys in the story, but the central characters are the ones who sit inside the dilemma of choice. As we know, this is so much like the themes that we find in some of the LOST story and character arcs.

In the last LOST episode Jack and his posse are dragging Ben to his own train to Yuma judgement, and the showdown on the beach also ended on the side of the good guys, with Hurley and Sawyer taking down the "black-hats". Seeing Ben heartlessly gas his dad and sit there watching him gurgle to death only inches away, really turned off any sympathy that I felt for Ben after seeing his unfortunate childhood. I don't care if the Island is made of magical manna that could feed the entire world, that was cold hearted. But discussions of who the bad guys are on the island have been turned over and over, so I don't need to go into them here. Although, TPTB have hinted that we may feel differently about Ben's actions at some point. We'll see about that. The last episode of S3 warned us to be prepared for another shoot-out coming on between the islanders and the new intruders, that may twist the castaways' (and our) allegiances to an unexpected side. I really don't like Ben very much right now, so if TPTB of LOST can write a story that gets me into understanding Ben's problems and empathizing with him, my fandom will bow down to their storytelling expertise. Do other viewers feel that they can forgive Ben under the right circumstances? At any rate, I can't wait until High Noon comes to Othertown!

"Welcome To Panopticon Island"

In the Season 3 finale TPTB dropped a bomb on us in the form of the Flash-Forward. Within this FF were some hints for us to research further, which is one of the reasons why we love this show so much! In Jack's tear-sogged newspaper clipping was a possible lead on some information in the sketchy obit, a name in particular, which people have fleshed out to possibly be Jeremy Bentham.

Bentham we learned was the designer of an interesting theory on prison architecture called the Panopticon: "A building with a tower at the center from which it is possible to see each cell in which a prisoner is incarcerated. Each individual is seen but cannot communicate with the warders or other prisoners. The Panopticon induces a sense of permanent visibility [of the prisoners] that ensures the functioning of power. The prisoner can always see the tower but never knows from where [or when] he is being observed. It is also a laboratory in which experiments are carried out on prisoners and staff. It gives power over people's minds through architecture." Within this structure inmates are inspired to be on their best behavior under an all-seeing eye. Knowing what we do at this point about Smokey as a mobile force, the Dharma Initiative's obsession with observation and psychological manipulation, and the prison-like qualities of the inescapable Island, this Panopticon idea fits very well into the architecture of LOST.

First; the island has it's own prison guards in the entity of Smokey. TPTB have confirmed that smokey is Cerberus mentioned on the blast door map, and so we have a roaming security system to keep the island inmates' actions in check. Smokey also seems to be able to read an islander's conscience as well. Second; the Panopticon all-seeing-eye aspect to ensure that inmates function on a level of personal honor and culpability via the "threat" of constant observation, is also close to the heart of LOST. The DI has many observation stations: the Pearl's closed circuit video bank, Patchy's communication video console, and the monitors that were in the Hydra which could apparently also pan-and-scan the jungle. Jack also told Kate that there were cameras in the Othertown house that he was staying in. Third; we know that the DI was interested in the idea of experimentation on its members, but we're not sure yet to what extent they carried out this idea. They manned the Pearl station to, "...observe a psychological experiment in progress", and, "...for the ongoing refinement of the initiative as a whole", according to Dr.Wickmund. But the information seems to have gone unanalyzed at some point as far as we can tell, by the enormous pile of info tubes in the field.

The big question is, were the Dharma people privy to the fact that they were being constantly monitored in their everyday lives so that they would function on their best behavior? If they did know, then the island set-up was a communal version of the Panopticon. If they did not know they were being observed, then they were living under unethically intrusive conditions. But even if they were aware of existing under the watchful eye of "Big Brother", it's still not an ideal situation to be in. As far as we know, the DI recruits were not convicts, and did not sign away some of their rights as human beings when they came to the island. Or did they? And has Ben and the Hostiles' coup-society degraded not only because of the arrival of outsiders, but because of a general breakdown of the Panopticon system in keeping control over the ever-increasing number of inhabitants and intruders?

"A Cosmic Rubik's Cube"

Lately we've been wondering how TPTB are going to bring together all the elements that we are gathering concerning the Wishbox, the Casimir effect, time travel, the Island properties, etc. Consider the puzzle pieces that we have to work with so far (mostly in order of appearance):

- castaways with possible ESP abilities
- large amounts of contained magnetism
- catastrophic forces of some sort
- exotic experimentation
- the Island's special properties (including, or not, the magnetism)
- time or parallel reality travel (possible wormhole activity)
- a "wish box" that can somehow "materialize" one's thoughts
- the Casimir effect and quantum activities
- the possibility of duplicating material objects

I am not even going to touch the quantum physics of this bunch of bananas. Many blogs are talking about that more knowledgeably than I ever could. What I'm thinking about is how these elements are related and might work together toward the end result. Do the magnetism, the Casimir-like properties, and the ESP abilities, etc., have to all be at specific "settings" like a prescribed set of variables where all these peculiar components have to be in place for it to work properly? And can anyone "man" the controls of the apparatus in the Orchid video, or does someone with special powers like Walt have to be plugged into it as a part of the variable equipment settings?

Another question is, if you want something to "appear" via the Box, does the operator just need to think of what he wants to materialize, or does the apparatus allow him to travel through space to retrieve it? That is, does the thought-command activate the retrieval, or does the object wished for have to be physically gone after? From what we've seen since landing on the island, it looks like mere thought might activate some kind of spontaneous mechanism. Jack saw his dad, Kate saw her black horse, etc., and even Charlie's guitar might have been a part of that kind of materialization factor (thanks Memphish for that theory!). Ben also said that they had nothing to do with Locke's father appearing on the island and that Locke's mental obsessiveness brought Cooper there.

In the Orchid video, they talked about setting controls on the equipment for a desired result, but they didn't get what they expected. We've guessed that was the problem with the Dharma-built apparatus -- the function that it was supposed to perform hadn't quite been perfected into producing an exact result, causing the Incident. In this case, experimentation with a scientific prototype would be very dangerous. They built this great machine to harness and increase the random effects of the Island, but they weren't able to control it after all, so is it now a wormhole run amok (like a Water-Wiggle at the end of a garden hose)? Similar to the movie "The Cube" where the tesseract rooms shuffle every so often, the Island machine could be like an inter-dimensional Rubik's cube. Did Dr.Candlewickwax lose his arm during one of the Island's spontaneous cosmic shuffles?

"Please, Sir, I Want Some More"

I wouldn't want TPTB to think that we don't appreciate the juicy bone that they threw us with the Orchid vid at ComicCon. What they gave us was totally unexpected and we are collectively very grateful and excited about the new station and weird science possibilities. Everyone's blogs were buzzing about the new film, like a bunch of starving Dharma-ites opening their long awaited supply package after it hit the island drop zone. The high from that little piece of Dharma film satiated me very well for a while.

Until today, I'm so sorry. I seem to be having a mid-hiatus crisis all of a sudden. I'm tired of guessing and I'm tired of theories. Reruns are holding me over a little bit, and I am totally enjoying reading everyone's blogs and ideas. The Lost Community Bookclub has also been an excellent diversion, giving us some alternate-but-related LOST info to keep our minds occupied and razor sharp for catching clues next season. But I'm hungry again, and I need another bone to chew on man. The mobisode thing is supposed to happen I guess, but I don't have a mobile phone right now so I don't know if I will be able to access them. Hopefully they will eventually go up on ABC or Youtube, or our buddy Dennis at TLC will hook us up somehow as usual.

This is not good. It is only September, and we have until February. I realize that it's only a TV show, but it feels like we've been reading this huge fantastically interesting mystery book and just when we get to another good part, someone takes the book away and won't let us read it. So far I've only allowed myself to look at spoilers about the new actors in Season 4, and not even about the characters they will be playing. But I am starting to feel like Cadet Stimpy after Cap'n Ren gave him the mission to guard (and not to touch!!) the History Erasure Button!

"Can Cadet Stimpy withstand the pressure?! Will he hold out?! Can he hold out?!"

"NO I CAN'T!!!!!!!!!!!"

Oh well, at least I can watch "Mad Men" on Thursdays, it's getting pretty weird with Draper's bizarre past and present, and the character profiles are beginning to seem as complicated as the ones on LOST. Maybe I'll even work my way through the fan fiction on DarkUFO to keep busy, that will help. Thanks to everyone who has blogged like crazy and encouraged us all to keep the faith till February! I can keep reading everyone's awesome posts, maybe go talk to Dave, or play some Connect Four with Lenny. 4,8,15,16......anyone else besides me hurting yet? :-}

"The Mouse That Roared"

We were given an odd piece of information about Juliet in "Not In Portland". She tells Jack that she has been on the Island for "3 years, 2 months, and 28 days", which according to the math dates her arrival at 9/5/2001. Today I was thinking that maybe the true reason that Ben can't let her go back to The World, even if he wanted to, is because an elaborate lie has possibly been publicly fabricated about her death, along the lines of the one we are led to believe has been set up about the 815 passengers' deaths.

Think about why Mittelos may have chosen her over other talented and dedicated researchers. Sure, she is said to be a fertility genius, but that was about all that she had in her life really. Besides helping her sick sister conceive, artificially or otherwise, she had no life outside of her work. And her only other living tie to The World that we know of, was smacked by a bus and killed. BTW, if Desmond's ep was called "Flashes Before Your Eyes", Juliet's ep should have been called "Smashes Before Your Eyes"! That was a very unnerving scene.

Therefore if Juliet was chosen because she has virtually no links to The World (other than Rachel who They will use to manipulate Juliet emotionally if need be), Mittelos could have staged her death in the public news as well. Consider that they may have assumed that, in spite of her genius, Juliet was a complete loser emotionally. They could have pegged her for being the perfect stooge who would gulp down the "kool-aid", chuck the world and all it doesn't have to offer her, and who would be willing to live an "idyllic" life in Othertown doing the research that she loved for the rest of her life. They would watch over Rachel and her child (another post entirely!), and Juliet in her gratefulness would stay to work on the Island's great conundrum forever.

Then along came the attack on 9/11 right after she left..how convenient for Mittelos. They don't have to stage a car wreck to "kill" her, they can merely say that she happened to be at a Mittelos meeting in the WTC that morning. No remains, end of discussion. But something happened to Juliet on the island that they didn't expect...she seems to have grown a backbone. The little mouse became a lioness. Her frustration in the failure to solve the fertility problem, her small town blues, and her love for her sister, gave her a fierce determination to get the heck off of Craphole Island. Bad news for Ben, as now he's stuck in a scenario that they didn't make a contingency plan for -- Juliet's rebellion. Maybe Ben actually would like to get rid of her and the trouble that she causes but he can't, because she's supposed to be dead now which could not be explained if she returned to The World. So now Juliet dreams of being Carrie and telekinetically killing Ben, or getting someone else to kill him. In the end, like with Walt, I think that the Others got more than they bargained for with Juliet, even after all of their best laid plans.