What did Walt say?

Building off my previous post on the Lost season two premiere, “Man of Science, Man of Faith,” I’d like to open the floor (comments & trackbacks) for discussion of what Walt said to Shannon.

As I’d previously posited, Walt was speaking backwards as though he was projected (astral projection?) onto a screen. The whole scene was very Princess Leia in the palm of Luke’s hand.

Initially, I thought I heard him mention Locke’s name, but other people who are more fanatical than I am have done the work for me. Here are a few links to Walt’s dialogue in various playback states:

Walt forward
Walt backwards
Walt back-to-back (forward + backwards)
Whispers before Shannon sees Walt

My own hearing tells me he’s saying “Press the button. No, don’t press the button. The button’s bad.” as heard in the back-to-back version. His message is very rushed so as not to arouse suspicion, but whose? His captors? Desmond? Someone else?

You can follow discussion of this issue and the entire episode over at ABC’s official message boards or on Fark (if you’re brave). I’m also a big fan of TV Squad, who are doing a great job of covering Lost.

UPDATE: Another version of the forward loop sounds to me like “Press the button. The button’s bad.”

UPDATE II: An alternate hearing of the second phrase might be “Locke must be spared.”

UPDATE III: If you like what you read, or got something useful out of the links, please click on one of the text ads. Thanks!

UPDATE IV: I’m selling Dharma Initiative T-shirts!

UPDATE V: For those of you looking for Walt’s backwards message to Shannon on Lost: Abandoned, TV Squad has the mp3.

58 thoughts on “What did Walt say?

  1. Josh Dumont says:

    okay guys, the reason why walt says “dont push the button” is because the button he is refering to is the “exicute button” so maybe that has something to do with him being held still, or being killed

  2. Mostly Muppet in the AJC!…

    Thanks to Phil Kloer for including me in his article, TV’s latest phenom is awash with theories, questions and very few answers. The article won’t appear in the print version of the paper until Sunday’s Arts section, but you can read …

  3. I’m the creator of the mp3s you gus are using on this page.

    I just wanted to let you know that I’m moving the files to http://pics.tonelab.net/. I’m canceling hosting for the site they are currently on, so you might want to update your links.

    Also, there are much better recordings of Walt available. You’re welcome to keep using mine, but mine are certainly not the best.

    Peace

  4. elise and beth says:

    we listened to it and it said ‘press the button, locke must be spared’. that would make sense because if they don’t push the button then something might happen that would involve locke dying and they might need him to defeat the others…….oooooo……

  5. Rock says:

    Listen 2 commentary on season 2 dvd. They tell us that walt said something like ”don’t push the button. The button’s bad.”

  6. “Lost” reveals in one place what it conceals in another. Remember Juliet’s explaining how Benry would leave instructions on tape on a 2-track recorder? That was our clue. Walt had help using it, saying, “Push the button” after it was already running, but then realizing it was recording on the wrong track, said, “No, button’s bad.” Meaning it was set wrong. So he switched tracks. Then he concealed the player on himself, and, at the time in question, played the tape. But he played the wrong track, which when played back was backwards!

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