Lost: This Place Is Death

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So, yeah, lots of dying on the island this week. The death toll was at roughly six or seven: all of Danielle Rousseau’s compatriots and one Charlotte S. Lewis.

Charlotte’s an interesting case isn’t she? Who is her mother? When (and why) would Daniel try and warn her about the island if he – more so than anyone else – knows that you can’t change the future?

Anyhow, here are a couple of tidbits tonight. No big revelations from me, I don’t think, but that’s only because my mind is processing the answers, or bits of answers, slower than it can think up new questions. Don’t get me wrong; I like the new direction, but I’m still getting used to things.

Were you paying attention?

This episode picks up on the inside jokes and Season 1 hints of last episode. Here’s a brief rundown.

  • Numbers on a loop being transmitted via radio

    • They seduced the man who gave the numbers to Hurley and were heard on the beach way back in Season 1 (or 2?). Back then time travel seemed like a nifty theory but this was before Desmond’s jumping, the flashes and when people hadn’t gotten off the island.

    I will find the actual episode reference where Hurley hears the numbers on the radio (is it in a scene with Bernard?) and makes a joke about “when” they’re hearing the transmission.

  • “just Klingon”

    • Charlotte’s reference to the languages she speaks other than English and Korean and yet another sly reference to J.J. Abrams upcoming re-boot of the Star Trek film franchise.

  • Geronimo Jackson

    • The band that will not die gets a shout-out from Charlotte after she falls ill but before she eventually dies.

    First mentioned in Season 2 episode The Hunting Party

  • The Sickness

    • After theorizing last week that the “sickness” that took Danielle’s crew might have been related to the time travel flashes, I quickly regretted it. They weren’t moving in time; Jin was.

    It was suggested somewhere that the sickness might have been related to the buried bomb from the past (Jughead) and it might still be, but the actual answer, if you’d call it that, has something to do with Smokey.

    Is Smokey somehow related to the buried Jughead?
    Where is that temple exactly?
    Does it (the temple AND Smokey) have something to do with the four-toed statue?
    What exactly are the symptoms of the sickness?

    More questions than answers, but you can tell we’re moving the story forward towards actual revelation (I hope).

    Also, why were Danielle’s people sailing from Tahiti in the first place? No one just winds up on the island just by accident and the dude who lost his arm seemed fairly knowledgeable and decisive about what he wanted to do there.

    Am I crazy in thinking that perhaps they were Dharma?

  • Canton-Rainier

    • The name on the side of the van Ben drives. It’s an anagram of “Reincarnation”.

    Not my revelation; it’s been out there online since last week.

    Still, is that a sign that Locke might not really be dead or that those that return will be reborn somehow?

    I’m also curious to know just how long Locke was alive and well in Los Angeles. When he jumped did he land in the future of 3 years after the helicopter left? Or did he blink into the present?

    I think we’ll find out soon, but maybe that has something to do with his death?

  • Eloise Hawking

    • She’s Faraday’s mom, but I wonder how many of our Losties knew that. Not Ben, it would seem, but he’s proven shady (to say the least) before.

    It’s been said theorized perhaps she was related to Widmore somehow – a sister, a cousin or maybe even an island wife – which would tie Faraday even tighter to the island. I don’t know what to think.

    Promos indicate we’ll know more very soon. Can’t wait.

  • Is Ben really that important?

    • And should he be?

    Don’t take this the wrong way. I love Ben, I really do. I mean I *LOVE* Ben.

    Best character on television, IMHO.

    But he wasn’t initially written or planned to be such a lynch pin. He wasn’t meant to be the glue that held the whole enterprise together.

    I just don’t think I’m comfortable with his role in this season. I want him to get shot, honestly.

    I need him to get fucked up and have his plans fail in some regard. I think the story and the drama and the show demand it.

    I mean, how many times can one guy talk and bullshit his way out of a near-death experience unless he’s the Deus of the Deus Ex Machina?

    I’m really hoping that Christian Shepherd/Jacob’s(?) admonishment of Locke means that some of the “death” is actually Ben’s fault and that he’s done a good job of covering his own mistakes and hubris just because he happens to know more of the mechanics of the island.

    Or maybe I just like thinking that the writers would mess with us just that much.

    I think they will. I hope they will. They owe it to Ben, quite honestly.

    What do you think? Is Ben too important? Will he be revealed to be behind much of the movement of the story, or just someone who used our Losties for his own needs?

    I think you all agree with me.

Wow. Wordier than I thought.

Lots to chew on. Feel free to chew it in the comments.

Until next week.

Related posts:

  1. Lost: There’s No Place Like Home
  2. Lost: There’s No Place Like Home, Part 2
  3. Lost: The Little Prince
  4. Lost: The Shape Of Things To Come
  5. Lost: Jughead
  • http://www.wordstudio.net Will Hindmarch

    A couple of weeks ago, I wrote this post: And Bring That Corpse With You

    The gist of it: Jack had a body and a coffin with him the first time he went to the Island, too, and that didn’t stay very dead, did it?

    From Christian/Jacob’s dialog, plus the attitude of Ms. Hawking, I think Ben has grown beyond his role among his “team” in the Island Affair just as he outgrew his expected role on the page. He’s been pursuing his own ends for some time, but he’s so slippery and so tough that he has to be tolerated to some extent.

    Is he being set up as the kind of trickster-villain that we’re supposed to want to see get his comeuppance at the end of the show? I hope not. I don’t think Dean Linus needs to get knocked into the swimming pool for us to wrap up these hijinks.

    What I really want to know, now, is how Danielle’s lover came to call it “the security system for the temple.” Did he learn that on the Island, or did they know that when they set out? Were they sent by Widmore… and was Ben’s adoption of Alexandra an attack on Widmore to begin with? How did Danielle come to associate the sickness with the Black Rock? When she said (something like) “You disappeared! You must be sick too!” did she mean that the guys who went down under the temple started hopping through time afterwards, too… and she thought of that as a sickness ’cause of the nosebleeds and junk?

    Lots of ancient ruins tonight.

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  • http://www.mostlymuppet.com/about/ Seth

    I think your comment here and your post there are excellent.

    I’m always gracious to hear what you have to say.

    I write these posts mere minutes after the episodes air and, despite my notes, I don’t always recall where we left things in previous episodes or seasons.

    I don’t want Ben “punished” per se, but I do want him found out, exposed, explained and laid bare.

    I think we’ll get that. Plus, a smidgen of comeuppance would be nice.

    Rousseau is actually getting more interesting, isn’t she? It’s always the quiet ones.

    I simply *LOVE* all the hallmarks back to those first two seasons for those of us that have been here all along.

    Thanks for the comments, Will.

  • http://sauve.blogspot.com Russell

    I’m rewatching the episode and specifically the scene where Charlotte tells Daniel about spending time on the island as a little girl. She says;

    “Because I remember something now. When I was little, living here, there was this man, crazy man, and he really scared me and he told me that I had to leave the island and never ever come back. He told me that if I came back I would die.”

    She goes on to tell him that she thinks the crazy man was Daniel.

    But the interesting part of that sentence to me is; “Because I remember something now.” As if she was just given the memory, just like Desmond suddenly remembered his conversation with Daniel at the hatch while he was sleeping. Only time will tell if I’m reading too much into the word; “now”.

  • http://www.mostlymuppet.com/about/ Seth

    @Russell, I think you’re on to something. I had a very similar thought, though it could just be the ravings of a woman about to die.

    I do think that Daniel “jumps” again at some point and feels compelled to tell a younger Charlotte that if she returns to the island she’ll die, but I don’t know if that discussion leads to Charlotte’s “memory”.

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