Part Mop. Part Puppet. All Crazy.
So after last week’s stellar episode, The Beginning of the End, we get some more excellent backstory on the folks in the chopper from NPB (Not Penny’s Boat).
Here are the thoughts:
We got some great information on Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, Frank Lapidus and Charlotte Staples Lewis.
I first thought Charlotte was the woman who came back from the dead after drowning who figured prominently in an Eko flashback. Her father was the Dharma recruiter and psychic for Claire.
Alas, not the same person. See Lostpedia; they’re both named Charlotte.
What is clear (at least in my mind) is that the supernatural definitely plays some role in the island. For the millionth time, they’re not in purgatory, but something otherworldly is going on. A rift in time and space? Alternate realities (it’d explain all the ARG games)? Who knows.
I do know this: those four folks have some connection to the Flight 815, intimately. We only know Lapidus was supposed to be a pilot. I’m guessing the others were either supposed to be passengers or were somehow connected with folks on the flight.
I know, not a giant leap, but it bears saying.
Oh, and you might have missed it (I did the first time) but Charlotte is wearing Miles’ vest. She couldn’t get hers on. No idea if he has hers on, but I doubt it. Potential worm food?
We also know about George Minkowski and Regina from the sat phonecalls, but not much. It’s hard to say how many folks are also on the boat but George is the leading/only candidate right now for Ben’s mole.
I think we could speculate back and forth about whether or not the recovered crash was an elaborate ruse, but 3 of the NPB 4 believed it wasn’t true: Frank because of Seth Norris’ ring, Charlotte potentially because of her Anthropology background and Miles because he’s some kind of clairvoyant/psychic ghost whisperer.
And not to say “I told you so” (Thanks, Sawyer) but I really feel like the whole damn thing has a paranormal edge.
I think my theory is this: The Dharma Initiative has some hardcore vengeance planned for Benjamin Linus. Abbadon is the bearer/agent of that vengeance.
Food drops continue because the bare minimum of research and upkeep of the island is maintained but Ben is sloppy (you heard it here first). How else do you explain the ultraseude/70’s suit in the airport? He was photographed off the island and Abbadon is pissed.
Obviously, Dharma want the island back so they’ve dispatched the NPB Four to bring back Ben. All others aren’t a part of their plan. Hence Dan’s statement and Abbadon’s insistence that no one survived flight 815.
I’m still not clear whether or not he knows/believes otherwise. Case in point: his discussion with Hurley last episode.
What I do know is this: Abbadon is cut from similar cloth to Ben. They both know a good deal of secrets about the island but Ben is closer to it because he’s there.
I really LOVE this storyline. Can’t wait to see it played out.
Gotta love the ABC promo group for stirring the pot. My money is on Sayid being the next member revealed (only because he’s in the party with the NPB Four) but not Juliet.
She wasn’t on the plane after all.
If you didn’t play the Find815.com game you missed this number earlier but it was in Frank’s flashback.
888 548 0034
You also missed all the clues from the game (recapped last week) that turned out to be the names of the NPB Four.
The canned message that’s there is nothing more than it was the past few weeks, but I’m guessing that will change as the season progresses.
At least I hope so.
How old was the polar bear? It looked small/young.
How old was the site? Did that site have properties like the island?
Why a desert?
Anyone see anything interesting in the house where Miles did his poltergeist thing? Other than the drugs, money and photos?
Anything clue-like in the flashbacks (other than the hotline phone number)?
What is Locke expecting to get out of another experience at Jacob’s hut?
Why would he refer/ask about the “monster” of Ben first? Didn’t he call it “beautiful” after his Season 1 encounter? Isn’t his monster walkabout the genesis of the current Locke?
I could go on like this for ages. I’m eager to here your thoughts, troll the message boards, blogs and Lostpedia and see you back here next week.
BONUS LINKAGE: Don’t like my recaps or theories? Check out “Previously on Lost” a band that does musical recaps.
MINOR BLOGGING NOTE: This blog will be down Friday night/Saturday morning. Fellow blogger Thomas has the details.
See you next Thursday!
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I don't really blog that much about Muppets, despite the URL, and focus mainly on Lost, etymology and whatever else strikes my fancy
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Russell
February 8th, 2008 at 12:42 am
I also LOVE the Lost and have enjoyed your recaps, theories and such, but a question.
What makes you think that Abbadon is Dharma? Is that a hunch or is there proof somewhere I missed?
Yes, Ben killed off the Dharma personal, but how would Dharma know it was him that did it?
Russell
February 8th, 2008 at 12:55 am
OH! and I’m taking a total stab in the dark on this but I’m predicting that Ben’s “Guy” on the boat is Michael.
Seth
February 8th, 2008 at 9:26 am
No real concrete information/clues on Matthew Abbadon, just a hunch. My gut says that since he was hinted at in the Find815.com story, he’s actually a part of The Maxwell Group which itself is a part of Widmore Industries (Penny’s dad’s company) which has ties to Hanso who runs Dharma.
Confused? Me too.
I’m also now thinking the “ghost” aspect is just a macguffin or red herring. I think we’re actually dealing with alternate realities. Someone locally (sorry I can’t find the link) seems to think it’s like DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earth storyline which would fit since it’s a bunch of comic book geeks at the helm of the show.
Lastly, I think you may be on to something with your Michael theory.
Chris Acosta
February 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I think you may have spelled Straume wrong, the reason being that all the last names of the NPB Four have something to do with a scientist/physicist and a Strome (i think thats how you spell it…lol) is a unit of measurement of electricity named after the scientist who first discovered it.
Jessica
February 8th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I don’t know exactly what this means but Charlotte Staples Lewis=C.S. Lewis and Daniel Faraday is like Michael Faraday the chemisist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism. But what about the other two? Do their names have any connections?
Seth
February 8th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
IMDb doesn’t list a last name for Miles but Lostpedia & Wikipedia have it as Straume.
Seth
February 8th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Per Lostpedia, RE: Frank Lapidus:
* There’s a Rick Lapidus in the Exposé script.
* The name is an anagram for “Farads link up.” The Farad is a unit of electrical capacitance, named after physicist Michael Faraday.
Per Lostpedia, RE: Miles Straume:
* The name ‘Miles Straume’ is a play on the word “maelstrom”, which means a powerful whirlpool or a swirling mass of water.
Commenter Chris also sees a connection between Straume and Strome, a unit of electricity.
Victoria
February 11th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
This came to me as I was falling asleep…Miles has telepathic abilities. Correct? What if he’s there to follow Paulo & Nikki’s trail? Since they got buried alive and all. Any thoughts?
Seth
February 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Victoria, while I think that’s an interesting theory, Nikki & Paulo bit the dust b/c the fans hated them so much. And while I’d like to think that Frank Lapidus has something to do w/ Rick Lapidus from Nikki’s script, it may be stretching.
Anything is possible though. Thanks for commenting!
HunterMaxin
February 14th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
It’s been a while…and this is long…
Theory:
Let’s go back to shortly after the turn of the Twentieth century, the days of Einstein and other early theoretical physicists. This was the dawn of the age of quantum mechanics, which provided new understanding and insight into physics at the sub-atomic level. New mathematics described the behavior of the tiny particles that make up all of matter in the universe. The math was clearly described in terms of numbers, symbols, formulas… however the application to nature as we know it was strange, weird, bizarre.
It was very difficult to wrap the human brain around many of the concepts of quantum mechanics, and the math alone was inadequate to explain the problems. Thus, physicists and mathematicians turned to “Gedanken Experiments,” German for Thought Experiments. Applying the known concepts of quantum mechanics to situations in the “real world” allowed a conversation to take place in a way most anybody could (sort of) understand.
Before I lose you, here is an example. In the mathematics of quantum physics, time travel is THEORETICALLY possible. One of the most famous Gedanken Experiments is the Grandfather Paradox. If you could travel back in time, could you kill your grandfather? Logic tells you that no, you could not, for if you did, you would not exist. (Pause here and consider why Locke insists that “he can’t” kill his father, he needs somebody else to do it.) The beautiful thing about Gedanken Experiments is that they are both scientific and philosophical, perfect fodder for a creative writer. In the case of the Grandfather Paradox, while they logic is clear, the actual experience of it is a mystery. Imagine actually standing there in the past, holding a loaded gun to the head of your grandfather… what would actually prevent you? “Something” would, some unknown mechanism of physics… and that is where the writers of “Lost” imagine for us.
“Lost” is a grand Gedanken Experiment, a test of science and philosophy. It asks the question, What if time travel were not only possible, but real, with technology developed in a manner as realistic and consistent with known theoretical physics as possible? And to make it even more dramatic, What if you could travel back in time, AND NOT KNOW IT? The passengers of Flight 815 have done exactly that, and the writers have made the audience go along with them, sharing the same sense of confusion and mystery.
Let’s talk about what we know about time travel today. We are not talking about cheesy movies of the past, where one can travel back to the age of dinosaurs or the middle ages. In fact, in the “real” science of time travel, a few things are known by the constraints of physics and quantum mechanics.
There is a conceptual model of a real time machine, and it works something like this:
A time machine must have two parts, essentially two portals, connected by a wormhole (or black hole or whatever you want to call it). Door #1 is built alongside Door #2. Door #1 is allowed to continue along the “present”
timeline, while Door #2 is encapsulated in a bubble within space-time, thus separated from the present timeline. This would require a great amount of energy and technology obviously unknown today… but thanks to the writers of “Lost,” it has been solved by Dharma Industries. The amount of separation would be only slight to begin with… say, 108 minutes. Since Door #1 exists in the present timeline, it can safely be located anywhere (Dharma headquarters?). Door #2, now operating in a different place in space-time, in the past, must be safely located in a remote location, for any type of interaction with it from the outside could be catastrophic.
There is a very important concept in time travel here, which is that you can NEVER travel back further in time than the creation of your time machine; Hence the impossibility of visiting the dinosaurs, etc. Now, if the two doors of your time machine were separated by only 108 minutes at the initial “event”, but then allowed to just sit there, then both timelines would progress at the same pace, forever separated by only 108 minutes. Traveling to the past, but only by 108 minutes, would not be very interesting. Much more exciting would be to keep Door #2 back at the original time of its inception, while Door #1 continues to move forward in time. You could do this by continually “resetting” the clock on Door #2. Over time, the separation between the two doors would grow and grow, from minutes, to hours, to days, to years.
If you actually had the technology to achieve time travel in this manner, there are MANY profound questions you would have to test and answer in order to be confident that you could safely operate the time machine without catastrophically altering the future. The Grandfather Paradox is the most obvious, but actually only one of many questions.
ANSWER #1: What is the Dharma Initiative? It is the building and testing of a time machine, as described above. Door #1 is at the Dharma Headquarters, Door #2 is on the Island in the remote South Pacific.
The question isn’t, Where is the Island? The question is, When is the Island? The answer to that depends on how long ago, in the present timeline, the time machine was created… approximately 14 years ago, I believe.
ANSWER #2: Why must the button be pushed every 108 minutes? This “resets”
the clock of Door #2 of the time machine, essentially holding it at the time of its inception in the relative past. If allowed to pass 108 minutes on the clock, then the time machine will lose the ability to reset itself. Why, then, must it be pressed by a person, and not just programmed to reset itself? This is because the controllers at Door #1 do not have control over Door #2 in the past, and should disaster strike, and nobody is left alive in the past at Door #2, it should be allowed to pass 108 minutes and no longer reset.
ANSWER #3: What happened when the clock was allowed to pass 108 minutes? Door #2 of the time machine lost the ability to reset, and will now continue to progress along a timeline into the future, locked at approximately 14 years separation from Door #1.
What are some of the other critical questions, like the Grandfather Paradox, that must be answered when considering time travel? Here is a great one:
What if a childless woman travels back in time and conceives a child?
ANSWER
#4: A childless woman cannot travel to the past and conceive a child, because if she did, she would not have been a childless woman. In “Lost”, both mother and child die before the birth, thus preserving the timeline and laws of nature. Perhaps the Others do not fully understand this, and brought in fertility doctor Juliet to see if they can overcome this obstacle.
Consider another:
What if a child travels back to a time before he or she was born? Perhaps nothing… but what if the child dies in the past, before being born? Again, impossible.
ANSWER #5: The Others abduct children on the Island to protect them at all costs, for they cannot allow the catastrophic violation of the laws of nature of a child dying before being conceived.
And yet another:
If you travel to the past, will you be the “you” of the present timeline when you arrive, or the younger “you” of the past, or some combination of the two? I do not know, but I believe this offers insight into why John Locke can walk on the Island despite being paralyzed.
ANSWER #6: Locke can walk not because the Island has powers to cure, but because he has traveled back to a time BEFORE he was ever paralyzed. He is somehow a blend of the Locke of the present and the Locke of the past.
The Others are living in the time-space bubble around the Island and Door #2 of the time machine in the “past.” They are managing it and testing the effects of time travel, and strictly controlling who exits this bubble into the outside world.
How does one arrive at the Island? There are two methods of traveling to the site (and time) of the Island. First is the controlled method via Door #1 at Dharma Headquarters. It is not via plane, submarine, or any other traditional method of transportation.
The other method is in the accidental collision with the time-space bubble that surrounds the Island, as happened with Oceanic Flight 815, the Portuguese woman’s helicopter, etc. Despite the many theories that abound in online forums, the Others did not know that Flight 815 was coming or going to crash at the Island. It was a chance encounter. It was a disaster that created a paradox… what happens to a plane that crashes in the present, while entering the past? This leads to the question of whether the passengers are alive or dead, answered by talking about a cat.
Schrodinger’s cat, to be specific. Again, quantum mechanics can be very strange. One of the strangest behaviors in particle physics is known as Superposition, which is the ability of a particle to occupy two different states simultaneously (like up and down, left and right, here and there, etc.). In the world we know, you cannot be both here and there, but in particle physics, a world of probability, chance, and duality, you can. How can one imagine this? Another great Gedanken Experiment was conceived, as follows:
Place a cat in a sealed, steel box, along with a bottle of poison. In addition, a radioactive element is placed within the steel box. The decay of this radioactive element triggers a hammer, which breaks the bottle, releasing the poison and killing the cat. For the observer, outside of the box, you do not know when this radioactive decay happens. Because of the laws of Superposition, the radioactive element can occupy both states simultaneously, for the briefest moment. For that blink in time, the bottle is both broken and intact… the cat is both dead and alive, at the same time. This is a puzzle of science, but more important perhaps is the philosophical question of what does it mean to be both dead and alive?
ANSWER #7: The passengers of Oceanic Flight 815 are dead at the bottom of the ocean. AND they are ALIVE on the Island. They are both dead and alive. I told you that you would love this one. Since they are alive in the “past” of the Island’s timeline, can they return to the present in which they are dead? I guess that is the ultimate question that we will have to watch the show to find out.
A suggestion of an answer is found in Locke’s/Sawyer’s father. We were led to believe that he died in a car accident, and finds himself here on the Island. Of course he would think he’s in hell! We believe that somehow Locke “willed” him here, but that was actually never said on the show. In fact, Ben said to Locke, “you brought him here.” Perhaps what he means is this:
ANSWER #8: Locke’s father did not die in the accident. I believe that we will find soon that Locke is going to leave the Island. The question that nobody asked Locke’s father was when did the accident happen? See, Locke is going to return to the “present” timeline, and is going to pursue his father. He is going to find him, perhaps he is even going to cause his accident. He is going to drug and kidnap him, unable or unwilling to kill him by himself. He is somehow going to get him to Door #1 of the time machine and send him to the Island, where he already knows that Sawyer will kill him. Locke is going to “bring him here” to the Island… he just hasn’t done it yet. When he is on the “outside” in the present, why is he going to do this? Because he has to, because it is destiny… for on the Island, it has already happened. You know Locke loves destiny.
I could go on and on. Why is there a zoo with polar bears?
ANSWER #9: The animals are on the Island for testing the effects of the various paradoxes associated with time travel. Perhaps another reason is that by keeping and preserving endangered animals, like polar bears, within this bubble in the past, there is a resource for their recovery should they become extinct in the future. Consider it a Noah’s Ark.
How do the Others know so much about the passengers of Flight 815?
ANSWER #10: The Others have had perhaps years, with Dharma Industries in the present timeline at Door #1, to research each of the individuals, and transmit this information to the Island. To the audience and the survivors of 815, it seemed like the Others instantly knew about them. However, it likely required years of research to compile the files.
There are still mysteries that remain, and stories that we do not know how they will play out. With this explanation, though, the behavior of the Others is understood. They must protect the timeline AT ALL COSTS. That makes them seem evil to the survivors of 815, but in reality their intentions are to prevent catastrophe.
There are many other stories I haven’t touched, but they are all consistent with this basic theory. This includes Desmond’s apparent “time loop” he is experiencing, and many others.
So there it is. Or, I’m out of my mind. Time will tell.
Mostly Muppet Dot Com
February 14th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Lost: The Economist…
Ok, so I’m a little bit late because my internet is flaky (thank you very much, Charter) but I’ve got a doozy. Stick with me.
First, before I recap tonight’s episode, read Hunter’s comment on last week’s post concerning C…
Andy Douglas
February 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I may be completely off the mark here, but what if Miles is the son of Jin and Sun?
He looks like he could potentially be of the same heritage and Sun is pregnant. If this whole space/time continuum thing is accurate then that is a possibility?