Lost "Lockdown" Airdate: March 29, 2006

There are still a few things that I want to cover from last weeks Lost, and I will get to it eventually. I did get a chance before tonight's episode to go back through a few of the season one shows as I back tracked a bit to check a few details. I came to the conclusion that I need to go back and disect all of season one. There are a lot of details that I missed because I wasn't watching for easter eggs then... I wasn't hooked... I liked the show, but I wasn't infatuated with it like I am now. When I'll find time to do this indepth study of season one is yet another of life's great mysteries. Maybe I'll book a trip to Hawaii and bring my laptop with me...

"Lockdown" was kick ass tonight. So much to discuss and yet so little time (my wife is running an egg timer on me now). Let me just jump right in and say I knew Henry Gale was an "Other"... I just knew it. And it was so brilliant of Sayid to dig up the grave. The alibi was just too perfect. Here's a screen cap of the "real" Henry Gale's license:



Notice his house number is 815. And just for the sake of wasting a few minutes, I googled the address... nothing. When I zabasearched "Henry Gale" a bunch of people and phone numbers popped up. I bet there are some freaks out there making some strange phone calls... don't get any damn ideas now.

Probably more important than the drivers license was the blacklight map on the back of the blast door. Here's a few caps of that:




My pics are kind of hard to make out, but I can surmise that it is what it looks like: a map of all the Hatches. I can make out the swan symbol in what must be the hatch that is manned by Jack & Locke. I remember hearing or reading somewhere a while back that there were six Dharma hatches. It looks like there is a count of seven, but the top left item looks to be drawn differently. I'm not sure what the question mark in the middle is...maybe its the power supply to the island...or the area that our blacklight aritist had yet to explore. I guess the important questions here are: Who drew the map? Was it Desmond or Kelvin? How long and how often was he in Lockdown? He had to be in lockdown mode for the blast doors to be down, right? And why was this person being so secretive?

Lets discuss the lockdown procedure, shall we? We hear static over the hatch speaker, then a countdown, and then the blast doors come down. We also find out later int he episode that food and supplies have been delivered via parachute. Perhaps the squelch that we hear is the drop plane sending out a coded signal. I'm sure this is connection, I'm just not sure why they have to lockdown the hatch while the drop is made. Does it keep the test subjects contained while the scientists get the supplies? Is that the purpose of the lockdown? Or does it have something to do with the magnetic field of the island? My brain is liquifying. Let's change the subject.

Not only did we get way more back story on Locke tonight, which I will get to in a moment, but we also learned a little quickie about Jack, he spent some time in Phuket, Thailand. Jack wouldn't elaborate as to why he was there, but I have a feeling we will soon find out in a future flashback episode, a little JJ Abrams set up if you will. Ya think he was there before or after his wife left him? It was also around the time of this scene we received the line of the night: "Should I go get a ruler?" Oh snap... Kate laying the smackdown. We also heard Jack say that when he needs the guns, he'll get the guns... and Sawyer makes some sort of reference to getting VD in Tallahassee.

Locke seemed to be doing pretty good for himself back when he had hair. He owned a home inspection company. I thought he was just working for one when I caught this capture:



It's a little fuzzy in the pic but it says "John Locke - Owner." It seemed that he was living a pretty good life. It's a shame that he was so messed up in the head over his dad conning him out of his kidney. There had to be more to it. I'm sure it was the whole acceptance issue. Helen enjoys reading the obits. She says that no one ever says anything mean after someone has died. As soon as she read ol' Anthony Cooper's name, I had a feeling that he faked his own death. BTW, if you google "Anthony Cooper," one of the results is a Professor of Psychology at Miami University in Ohio... COINCIDENCE?!?...yeah, probably. I just wasted five more minutes. Is my egg timer up yet?

So Locke's not-so-dead father enlists his help in getting his $700,000 dollars which he conned from Jimmy Pane. I had read in multiple places that we were going to discover a major connection between Locke and Sawyer tonight. I didn't see it unless this Jimmy Pane guy some how connects them. I need to back track a few episodes to see if he's mentioned in "The Long Con." The only other theory I have is that Locke's dad is the real "Sawyer." The man that messed up Sawyers childhood by conning his father. The man that Sawyer took his name from. I may be getting way ahead of myself. Here's a quick easter egg:



The bank safety deposit box is numbered 1516. I'm sure that's just the writers abusing the numbers again.

Oooooooh bonus! As I was writing, this hi-def screen capture of the blacklight map just showed up in my inbox:

Blacklight Map

Sorry to back up, but you can see that one of the hatches was scratched off and re-located on the map. So there are 6 hatches. I can make out the Swan, the medical hatch, the Arrow in which the Talies were in is on the top right, and in the circle it says, "I am here."

I better get this wrapped up (I just heard a *ding*). The only screen cap I didn't get was at the Flight Line Motel where Locke meets his father. The plane that flies over supposedly has a Dharma logo/Oceanic logo on the tail. And as always, if I missed anything, please feel free to post. Oh wait... one more thing before I log off. I caught a glimpse of the wall mural in the hatch that we saw a lot of in season one. I wanted to post that cap and compare it to the the season one pic (second picture) to see if there have been any changes to the mural.





I don't see any at first glance. Probably nothing more than a few more wasted minutes in photoshop for me.

Until next time.

LOST "The Whole Truth" Airdate: March 22, 2006

Screw this episode and bring on next week. While tonight's LOST wasn't all that thrilling, it did have a few moments toward the end, especially when Henry Gale descibes how, if he WERE one of the "Others," he would send Anna, Sayid, and Charlie into a trap and the Others would be able to trade them for him.

Let's back up a bit. I have a feeling that even though Sun promises Jin that she has never been with anyone else, we are going to find out later the "miracle baby" belongs to her English teacher, Mr. Lee. Call it a hunch... call it that fact that every damn one of 'em has a skeleton in their closet. I had forgotten about the epsisode where Jin comes home with blood on his hands. He works as a hitman for Sun's father. I can add him to my list of Lostaways who have killed someone.

I thought it was pretty funny that it was brought to their own attention that "Jack and Locke were too busy worrying about Locke and Jack." Their own pride and race to be in charge is what ultimately lead to the lack of trust from Anna and sent her, Sayid, and Charlie into what may be an ambush. In the preview for next week, it appears that they do find a balloon so I can't wait to see how it all plays out.

Not a big night for Hurley, eh? Wasn't he eating something the last time we saw him. I'm not sure what kind of candy bar he was eating and I wasn't able to get a clear screen capture of it. I also don't think that the candy has any relevance,Sun's pregnancy test, on the other hand, did. It's manufactured by Widmore Labs. Widmore Construction was featured in "Fire + Water" (Jan, 2006). I totally missed that the first time because I was concentrating on the Baptism of Christ angle. This Widmore Construction/Widmore Labs will play a much bigger role in the next few episodes.



Sawyer lead this week's Lost book club and he appeared to be burried deep into "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret" by Judy Bloom. What did he say when Sun asked him how's the book? "Predictable... not nearly enough sex..." The book, if you never read it as a child, is about a young girl entering puberty (on the surface). But if you dig deeper, you find that it is also about a young persons personal relationship with God.



There was also mention of the book from the last new episode. I know it's been a while so let me re-cap. It was Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" and...

...my wife is making me go to bed so I will finish this later on Thursday.

LOST "Maternity Leave" Screen Caps

I wanted to get a few screen captures up from this episode. Also, Susan posted a response to my last blog entry inquiring about Kate's toy plane from season one in the episode that will re-air this Wednesday, "Whatever The Case May Be." It is not an Oceanic Airline toy like the ones used in the crib mobile. I've posted caps to compare below.


The Dharma Medical Bunker entrance




Mr.Friendly (sans beard and rags) Talking With Ethan




The book that Locke gives Henry Gale. Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov."




Ok, here's the first of a few shots to compare the Oceanic toy planes to Kate's. First, the crib mobile from the medical bunker.




The plane that Kate removes from the bank robbery in "Whatever The Case May Be."




In this episdode, she says that it belonged to the man she loved,the man she killed. Here's another cap.





We now know that Kate killed the man she believed to be her step father (really her biological father), but it didn't look to me as if she "loved" him. My guess is that she has killed someone else and we will find out soon who that is in an upcoming flashback. Here's one last shot of Kate's plane.




I'm off to find a capture of Claire's lucid dream in which she sees the crib and mobile in the woods back in season one. I'll try to get that up this week.

LOST "Maternity Leave" Airdate: March, 1, 2006

This has to be the most revealing episode this season, and because of this, I feel like this blog entry might be all over the place. Let me start and the end of the episode.

Suspected "Other" Henry Gale does a great job of planting some seeds in Locke's head. Another great military tactic: Divide & conquer... turn your enemies against each other. In my last post I discussed how sometimes special ops are trained to assume the role of a fictional character in case they are ever caught behind enemy lines. There is definitely a military presence on the island: the army issue knife that Anna found, the military tactics, and hand to hand combat ability in Ethan are just a few examples.

Speaking of Ethan, we saw the softer side of this ass as he tried to woo a heavily intoxicated Claire. In case you haven't read it all over the internet, the man who calls Ethan out of the nursery and into the hall is none other than Mr. Friendly (a.k.a Zeke). "You were supposed to make the list and then bring her in..." he says to Ethan and then asks, "What am I supposed to tell him?" "Him" is obviously the one in charge, but who could that be? Ya think he's referring to Hanso? And is Hanso really Locke's dad? That has been suggested but not yet confirmed. Another theory I have seen tossed around claims it's Jack's dad who is running the show: Hanso, Jack's dad, and Sun's father partnered together to form the Hanso Foundation and fund the Dharma Initiative.

That really got me thinking, and this is a "way out there" theory; but what if Jack's dad did not technically die? I don't know what made me think of the movie "The serpent and The Rainbow," it just popped into my head. It was a 1988 flick about an anthropologist who goes to Haiti after hearing rumors of a drug that turns people into zombies. The drug actually shuts down the body to the point that people would think you were dead. You could still see and think, but you couldn't move, talk, or scream. What if Jack's dad's death was the beginning of an experiment? I have a feeling that Hanso also owns/owned Oceanic Airlines. What if the crash was already predetermined by the Others to get the doctor back to his post. It would be a good military weapon: make your enemy think you are dead and escape when they dispose of your body... hopefully they don't bury you in a big trench because that would totally suck and defeat the purpose of having that capability. I don't know... maybe this theory holds no weight and was a total waste of a thought process. I just like to throw stuff out there.

Meanwhile, back in the newly discovered Dharma Medical bunker...

I just want to quickly touch on a few other things from "Maternity Leave."

1. The teenage girl who helps Claire escape is Alex or Alexandra, Rousseau's daughter who was taken from her 16 years ago as a baby. Here's my question: if she was a baby when taken by the Others and raised by them, how would she know that Claire was in trouble?

2. They have been on the island now for 60 days. I think Jack made that comment. It doesn't seem like enough time has passed for the now abandoned medical bunker to look as dilapidated as it did. Maybe there is something going on with time. Hurley did make a "time" reference a few episodes ago when the radio they were using picks up Glenn Miller's "Moonlight serenade."

3. Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin... Mr. Eko's nappy chin locks represented the two "others" he killed when they invaded the talies camp a few days after the crash. Why he repented his sins to Henry Gale, I don't know. Maybe it was because Henry knew the men.

4. Kate finds the pirate costumes in the medical bunker lockers, including Mr. Friendly's fake beard and theatre glue. I guess the 'ol pirates in the woods scene was meant to scare the survivors into staying on their side of the island and away from the other side of the island where they might find modern technology.

5. There was a short scene when Ethan takes Claire out of the bunker for some fresh air. He gives her something to drink and she says it tastes "sour." Ethan shrugs it off and says, "Oh, I didn't notice." I'm not sure what he was giving her and/or if it has any relevance at all. He said he was going to miss her. Do you think he may have been sneaking her some of the vaccine?

6. The book that Locke gives Henry Gale is The Brothers Karamazov by Russian author Dostoevsky. I have never read the book, but some quick research on Wikipedia.org reveals a lot. "...often regarded as a masterpiece of literature and one of the greatest novels ever written. The book is written on two levels: on the surface it is the story of a patricide in which all of the murdered man's sons share varying degrees of complicity but, on a deeper level, it is a spiritual drama of the moral struggles between faith, doubt, reason, and free will." Wikipedia Link. Earnest Hemingway cited Dostoevsky as a major influence on his work, hence the Hemingway reference from Locke which fueled Henry's "divide & conquer" tactics. Henry also makes a Steven King mention.

I think that is just about everything I got from this episode. Let me know if I missed something. Feel free to post. The next two weeks will be season one re-runs... thank goodness because I'm on vacation March 11-20. I don't watch much TV when on vacation. The next new episode will be on March 22 with "The Whole Truth."

I'll see you on March 23rd.