The "Lost" Appreciation Thread

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Just rewatched it... Good call.

Yes. Kelvin most likely finished the map, however he had a partner called Radzinski down there who probably did the main work before killing himself. Kelvin told Desmond while painting, "You should have seen Radzinski do this..." Quote is from memory so might not be word by word.

Ah yes, I think you're right.

In any case, thought last night's episode rocked. Finally some things are starting to get answered!

Indeed, great episode!

So what are your thoughts on the nose bleeding thing? Charlotte grew up on the island, left at some point and then came back. The island was moved and the strain from the time flashes that followed killed her. So what was physically different with her compared to our Losties that went back and forth in time with her? Sure, they bled too a little but not as much and none of them died. Hmmm...

Another interesting thing: When Locke went down the well and met Christian, he was told Ben wasn't supposed to move the island. He was supposed to do it. In other words, John Locke was destined to leave the island, not Ben. I can't make sense of that because Ben was more or less abandoned by Jacob. So it seemed anyway. Is Locke just a pawn?

More hmmm.

I like Cerberus; I'm glad they showed "him" more. I also like how he was implicated in the science team's "sickness", even if he doesn't end up having any mind-altering effects (I'm sure he does to some extent, however), it's still cool how they implied that something in relation to Cerberus made the team go crazy.

Well, I have no idea *why* the nose bleeding, but if we go with Faraday's theory that the ones most susceptible are the ones who have spent the most time on the Island, then the fact that Miles experienced the bleeds second after Charlotte seems to suggest that he's been on the Island before too, and that seems to tie into the theory that Miles is the baby that Marvin Candle / Pierre Chang is seen caring for in the episode a few weeks ago. Also, its interesting that of the original flight 815 castaways in our merry little band, Sawyer has started experiencing the nose bleeds, but Locke has not yet, even though, as far as I can see, they've both been on the Island for exactly the same amount of time.

As for exactly what Jacob/Christian's instructions were to Locke back at the cabin, that's a good question - because back then, Locke comes outside and tells Ben & Hurley "He wants *us* to move the Island" - but then last night Jacob/Christian says "I told *you* to move the Island". In any case, yes, Ben does seem to have been abandoned by Jacob, but not to the extent that Ben thinks - remember just before he moved the Island in the season 4 finale, Ben is muttering stuff like "I hope you're happy now Jacob!" etc etc etc. but apparently Jacob never wanted Ben to leave. On the other hand, Jacob or the Island seemed to allow Ben to be stricken with cancer, when its clear (because of Rose) that Jacob or the Island has the power to heal cancer.

In any case, by far the most interesting thing about the episode is the contention going around the net that when the French science team hears the Numbers being broadcast on the radio tower, the voice speaking the numbers is Hurley's (! !!) - I've listened to it several times now and at first I didn't think it was him, but now I sort of do. And, man oh man, the implications on the story if that's true!

It would mean that basically somehow Hurley ended up in the past, recorded the numbers on the radio tower, which were then heard by Sam Toomey and Leonard, Leonard tells Hurley about them in the mental hospital, Hurley wins the lottery with them, finds them engraved on the hatch on the Island, finds out they need to enter them into the hatch computer, eventually travels back to the past, and records the numbers on the radio tower and probably carves them onto the side of the hatch.

In other words, the significance of the numbers (if all this is true) is that they have no significance, they're just part of a giant time loop of past Hurley communicating them to future Hurley and round and round it goes.

But if the numbers come from Hurley, then why are they the numbers used on the hatch computer? I'm starting to think that the whole magnetic discharge thing in the hatch is some sort of failsafe mechanism that triggers an event that can be detected off the Island, so that the island can be found again if it ever gets lost in time/space. And that also, the numbers may also function as a "constant" for Hurley or other people. For these two reasons the numbers must be entered into the computer to trigger the "safe" discharge of the magnetic energy every 108 minutes. a) there's someone at all times focusing on the numbers, making them workable as a constant for other people and b) if no one is there to enter them, things might get so screwed up that without the discharge, the Island could become lost to the outside world. And that is why the safe magnetic discharge is not triggered on an automatic timer (which could have been easily achieved, it seems to me) but in fact was intentionally set up, by Hurley or someone else, so that someone must be there to enter them.

That was my theory too! Nice to see i'm not alone in that!

@ScrewyWabbit - Superb post.

So about the transmission Danielle's team picked up: Yikes! I have listened to it now and it really does sound like Hurley. This is huge.
A funny fact: Lenny and Sam heard it the same year, 1988.



A few thoughts on the magnetic discharge that was controlled from The Swan station... I've been thinking that maybe it kept the island stable in time and space.

The Dharma Initiative discovered the "move-the-island" chamber. And they built The Swan station. Okay, now lets imagine that it is the magnetism that makes the island moveable (and unstable). The Dharma Initiative figured it out and found a way to disable this highly dangerous property of the island by releasing the magnetic build up every 108 minutes. This release of energy did not compromise anything since it was weak and thus undetectable to the outside world. And once they had the island locked in position, they could leave and bring back supplies, more staff and so on.

The island was probably moved at least once by the Dharma Initiative. We know Widmore was on it in the 1950's. I'm guessing Widmore discovered something really cool and tried to exploit it. Dharma discovered it too at some point and a battle began. Dharma figured out how the island works and managed to move it so that Widmore couldn't find it anymore. The years go by and everything is just awesome until Locke decides to see what happens if they don't push the button. The enormous amount of energy that is unleashed when The Swan blows up is detected by Widmore and the battle begins again.



Anyway, I must read your post again and think some more... *lol*

Ah - I was going to check what year that Sam and Lenny heard it, thanks for pointing this out!




Your idea that somehow the magnetism is tied to the ability of the Island to move in time is very interesting - perhaps the Swan station was built to prevent the Island from being moved again? Like, perhaps, the Swan was necessary to allow experiments in time travel to be conducted at the Orchid in a way that would allow them to move objects through time without moving the whole island.

Also, I agree wholeheartedly that the Island has been moved through time before - Ben knew exactly what to do in the season 4 finale to move it.... and one would tend to think that because Ben had to blast a hole in the test chamber in order to clear a path to the frozen donkey wheel, for whatever reason he and Locke couldn't just drop down the well in order to access the wheel.

I was also thinking that perhaps the well has been used to gain access to the donkey wheel before. The ropes and pulleys that we saw this week (when Jin is making Locke promise to not bring Sun back to the Island) look like a bit too much just to bring a bucket of water up out of the ground. Like maybe its been designed to bring people down there... maybe even an unwilling polar bear or two ??? On the other hand, I think after Ben does blast a hole in the test chamber, he is climbing down a ladder - so perhaps its been accessed that way before too.

In any case, I am dying to learn about the "incident" that apparently caused Marvin Candle/Pierre Chang/Henry Waxman to lose his arm. I've been in favor of the theory for a while now that some flying metal severed it the last time someone failed to push the button in the Swan station in a timely manner.

Yes, I really think so. The magic (magnetism) is still there, but controlled and limited in strength, making the experiments safe. Small things (like cute little bunnies) are affected when exposed but the island is not since it takes a lot more energy to move such an amount of mass.



Hmm... This is interesting! Surely Ben knew about the well? The only thing I can think of is that he needed something from the Orchid. We know he put on a warm jacket for example. Maybe that was crucial for surviving the jump? And he was in a hurry, the island had to be moved asap. So he knocked out the wall of the test chamber instead of going back up and down the well.



I totally agree with you. My guess is that it never was a well but an entrance to the donkey wheel all along. They made it look like a well so it wouldn't attract any attention if discovered. Perhaps Dharma even built it? We know they built a test chamber in the Orchid which sealed the other (perhaps original?) way in. And about the polar bear we know went on a trip to the Tunisian desert: Maybe the wheel was completely stuck when they found this chamber. Maybe it hadn't been used for centuries. What to do? They bring down one of their specially trained bad-ass polar bears to make it move and bam! *lol*



Hmm... I haven't thought much about this one. What are the other theories? I must take a look.

Re: how Candle lost his arm - one school of thought seems to be that he lost it to Smokey, as did Montaigne this week. But my own guess is that the first time the button at the hatch wasn't pressed, a lot of metal started flying just like in the season 2 finale, and a piece of it severed Candle's arm. In any case, as for Candle and Montaigne, last week's episode at least debunks the theory that they were the same person (since we had never seen Montaigne but knew that both he and Candle had lost an arm).

As for the polar bears, my guess is that they were brought to the Island for the precise purpose of turning the donkey wheel... spokes of donkey wheel have loops where a rope could be attached, the polar bear remains in Tunisia were wearing a Dharma collar, and its apparently darned cold in the donkey wheel chamber - what other animal is extremily strong and suitable to working in extreme cold? Unless that is you have some Tauntauns handy Since it seems hard to move the wheel (takes a lot of strength) and the cost for doing so is a one way ticket off island, it seems it seems a lot better to use a polar bear.

I agree with you about the well's purpose - and also that the test chamber was probably built over the other passage to the donkey wheel on purpose.

And Sayid has taught me why you should never put your sharp knives blade up in the dishwasher!

I love this series!! ! Omigosh. I first saw it when I was working in Antarctica. They had the dvds from season one to three. Since I was done watching some seasons of House, I started right in on Lost. I had wanted to watch it originally, but when I had taped the first episode in season one, it didn't turn out.

So...watching season one was GREAT. Other people were watching it too, which meant I had to wait painfully for them to return the dvds so I could finish watching them.
As soon as I got back to the States, the first thing I did was order season 4 from the library.

The finale was awesome, but overall a slightly down year for Lost, IMHO - still better than 99% of what else is on TV though.