Pearl Questions













The episode ? raises lots of questions about Dharma's Pearl Station.

1. Who salted a circle above the entrance to the Pearl? If you'll notice in the picture above, the circle doesn't ring the entrance to the Pearl because that entrance is underneath the plane. So who made this mark, when and why?

2. Given what the entrance of the Pearl looks like with its handles and locks, etc. it makes me wonder what was the purpose of the Hatch our LOSTies blew open at the Swan. Was it an emergency escape route? There was one of those in the Staff. Is there also one here at the Pearl?

3. Who was filming The Pearl? Locke looks up and sees a camera in the Pearl station. It wasn't hidden (or maybe wasn't hidden any longer) unlike those at the Swan. Was Mikhail watching from the Flame? Was someone watching from The Hydra? Is there another viewing station?

4. The procedure for manning The Pearl seems complicated. Teams of two are assigned to the Pearl for three week tours of duty. But they work only 8 hour shifts at a time and then go from the Pearl to the Pala Ferry to return to the barracks after each of those shifts. That seems to imply 6 people man The Pearl every 3 weeks. Why so many people? Why so brief a tour? What happpened after your 3 weeks? Were you reassigned or sent home?

Will Kate Ever Learn About Sawyer and Ana Lucia?

No picture on this one. I just couldn't bear to look at it. So any bets on if/when/where Kate might learn that Sawyer lost his gun to Ana Lucia in a roll, roll, roll in the hay? It's hard to see how she could get upset about a one afternoon stand with a now dead girl, but Kate and her romances are not the most logical things in the world. Add raging pregnancy hormones on top (mere speculation, not spoil-ed) and this could explain how Kate would end up leaving the Island with Jack.

Why Does Eko Need A Fake Passport?


















The name on the fake passport is not Eko Tunde, the name the Monsignor calls him and the name he gives to the passengers of Flight 815. This reminds me of Kate. In every flashback she uses an alias, yet she tells Jack her real name when they first meet. Of course, the Marshal was still alive to bust her had she lied to Jack. I guess when you're in an air crash, you feel compelled to use your real name.

But back to Eko. I assume Eko must have some identification to prove to the church who he is and was both in England and then Austrailia. So why the fake passport for a trip his superior knew he was taking?

Who Sent Eko's Dream?













So what/who used the "not good" Ana Lucia to speak to the unrepentant Eko to ensure that the button in the Swan was still pushed? Is it Mrs. Hawking style course correction until Desmond returns? In fact is there a two-pronged attack by the course correcting forces to stop Locke from pushing the button, but keeping it pushed until Desmond can turn the key? Or could there be two competing forces on the Island itself, one who wanted the button pushed and the other who wanted the key turned?

Sarah and Tom?













The fake name choices made by Ana Lucia and Christian were hotly debated at the time Two for the Road first aired, but what with the first Lost Missing Piece about Jack, Christian and the watch I think it's time to revisit Christian's decision to call Ana Lucia Sarah. Does Christian merely lack imagination? Now thankfully Christian did not put the moves on Sarah/Ana Lucia, so hopefully that means that using the name Sarah did not indicate anything more than Christian missing the daughter-in-law he had developed a supportive friendship with. Any other ideas?

So What Missing Moment Do You Want To See?

The internet is full of grousing about the mobisodes. So I'll open the floor. What 2-3 minute missing scene do you want to see? Be creative because this is my last post of this Thanksgiving week.

I think we'd all agree we want to see something that tells us something we don't already know. Arguably we got a little of that in Jack's missing moment. We learn that daddy issues go back at least another generation in the Shephard family, but the thing I'd rather have seen in that moment is where is Jack's mom? Why wasn't she at Jack's wedding?

The Hurley scene -- did this one tell us anything other than Rose and Bernard have a nice tent and Frogurt is a jerk? Maybe if something happens to Sawyer, Frogurt could become the guy you love to hate.

Here's a missing scene I'd like to see -- the scene where the pilot informs Cindy that the radio's gone out and that they are changing course. But the truth is, I only want to see this scene if there's something MORE to it. Something like knowing looks, winks and a nod, or better yet, the co-pilot saying to the pilot, "Why did you lie to her? We're headed to Indonesia not Fiji." And then the pilot takes out the co-pilot and keeps on flying with an evil grin on his face.

Yeah, mythology changing or at least clarifying missing moments. That's what I want!

Have a great Thanksgiving. Hope that something we'll be able to give thanks for soon is a settled writer's strike. And check back Monday for more LOST thoughts, questions and ravings.

P.S. I just saw modisode #3 and it was much more satisfying than numbers 1 or 2. Hope you all will enjoy it too.

Benry Confuses the H*&# Out Of Me!













I shouldn't believe anything he says right? In the last few episodes "Henry Gale" is being kept in the Swan this man in his torn orange shirt confuses Locke and me too.

In SOS he tells Jack that "they'll never give you Walt." But at the same time Mrs. Klugh is making that exact deal for Walt with Michael. Granted they get Kate, Sawyer and Jack in the deal as well, so I guess they did indeed get the better deal. Nevertheless they did give up Walt, even if they didn't give him to Jack.

This line continues in Two For the Road when the fake Henry Gale tells Locke after he's tried to kill Ana Lucia for killing two Others who were "leaving her alone" (huh?) that:

I'm dead anyway. Doctor's gone to make a trade and we both know hell come back empty handed and then I've lost my value. So either Jack comes back and kills me or my people find out where I'm being held and they do it. . . . Because the man in charge... he's a great man, John... a brilliant man... but he is not a forgiving man. He'll kill me because I failed, John. I failed my mission.

Now first off, Ben is clearly delusional (like Tom in Season 3) if he thinks Ana was unjustified in killing 2 Others who raided and infiltrated their ranks in order to kidnap people. Then again this is a man who managed to justify in his own mind personally gassing his father.

But what about this "I'm already dead" talk? He said something similar to Ana before he drew her the map to the balloon. Is this a true reflection of The Others justice system which seems to have little leeway for failure? I guess not because it seems clear that Ben's mission, whatever it was, did indeed fail and he wasn't killed by any "great man."

So why is he painting this picture of his society for Locke? I can't figure out why he would both try to keep Locke from pushing the button and sell his society as being insanely unreasonable and place where failure is punished with death if he was "coming for him." Knowing what we know now about Locke's threat to Ben's position why wouldn't Ben try to convince Locke to keep pushing the button in the Swan for the rest of his life? Because The Others were clearly monitoring The Swan and would have heard him doing that to the man whose legs were restored?

Sorry for all the rambling, but trying to put together what we know about the Others given the evil mastermind that is Ben drives me in circles.

Locke + Jack =

















Yep, that's right. The guy who needs to do something, but who is willing to resort to a faith healer. It's the blending of Man of Science with Man of Faith and the solution is
BERNARD!

Dave? Smokey? Jacob?













What caused Hurley to see Dave on the Island? I guess
it could merely be the desire not to change his eating
habits like in Santa Rosa, but is that all it is? If
it's Island driven, was the Island/Jacob/Smokey/whoever
trying to cause Hurley's death? Unlike the case
with Jack's dad, Locke's dreams, Eko's dreams, Kate's
horse there didn't really seem to be any sort of upside
to the vision. So I guess it was all in Hurley's head.

And speaking of all in Hurley's head, Dave made a
pretty persuasive argument that the show is all in Hurley's
head. Just a prank by the writers? Yeah.

One little detail I noticed. When we first meet Dave
in Santa Rosa it's Taco Night. Just like newleywed
Kate.

Libby Redeemed?






















Libby's death when it came seemed to break the LOST
mold of a character finding peace or redemption only
to then lose their life (and no sex either.) But I
think Libby might have found that redemption though
a couple of episodes before her death which makes
her death more like Boone's (who also didn't get to
have sex on Island--that we know of.)

Libby's redemption came in Dave first where
she helped Hurley free himself of his slavery to his
food stash and again when she saved him from going
over the cliff. Now of course we don't know Libby's
backstory, but I'm guessing that being able to
validate Hurley and help him face down his demons is
going to prove to be her salvation. And thus on LOST
she must die.

Sayid Rocks!


I think this is my favorite LOST scene of all time.

"But still I did not believe it to be true."

I'm looking for an opportunity to use this line. I'm
betting my son's teenage years will give me just that
chance.

Lockdown Questions













1. Was the lockdown really related to the food drop?
2. If it was, why lockdown the Station to drop the food?
3. Why seal off the computer room from the living area
when it is so vital to enter the numbers every 108 minutes?
4. Why isn't there a food drop manual in the Swan like
there is in the Flame?
5. Why isn't this procedure mentioned in the Orientation
film?
6. Was the food drop automatic or initiated by someone
like drops at the Flame?
7. What is up with the blacklights? Where did they come
from? What made them turn on? (And why didn't Locke
pursue this line of questioning with Desmond?)
8. Where did the food come from? Who sent it? And
why can't those looking for the Island such as the
freighter people and Penny follow the food?

I can live with a "Missing Moment" or even discussion of
these issues on an official podcast, but I would like at
least some of these answers.

Watching Lockdown and Dave which followed it
I also wonder what Ben did when he went through the
vents to the computer.

Could it have been the case that in the event of a lockdown,
the computer enters the numbers itself meaning that Henry's
story that he did nothing to the computer is true? Or could
it be the case that Henry entered a different sequence of
numbers, numbers that reset the clock, but also turned on
the blacklights and possibly sent a signal back to
Mrs. Klugh?

We never saw our LOSTies enter the wrong numbers. I wonder
what would have happened in that event. Maybe that new
video game will let me try it.

What Is It About Jack And Babies?













I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop about Jack
and babies. All the way back in Season 1 where Jack
doesn't rat out his dad until he learns the dead patient
was pregnant to his worries pre-marriage about having
kids to his reaction to Sarah's negative pregnancy test
to his "whole truth" discussion with Sun and Kate
where he says:

Sun, my advice and... and it's just that because I'm
the last person to ask about this, but... you should
tell him. And when you do you should tell him everything...
the whole truth.

Why is Jack the last person to ask about telling the
truth when it comes to pregnancy? I was hoping Sarah
was going to be pregnant in Jack's first Season 3
flashback, A Tale of Two Cities, but if she was
she wasn't showing and I guess TPTB decided to use Sun
and Jin instead of Jack and Sarah as the "who's the baby
daddy?" couple.

Although I guess the very pregnant Sarah of the end of
Season 3 could be pregnant with Jack's baby. Is that
why it's a bad idea for Sarah to drive Jack home? It's
always been speculated that Jack's last flash occurred in
2007 because of his cell phone, but what if it's 9 months
after a "false negative" test just before Sarah leaves Jack?

I really hope that's not the case because I don't want to
see the LOST writers get as sloppy as those on a certain
other show that airs on Mondays, but there's always seemed
to be something about babies that strikes a chord with Jack,
and I want to know what it is.

And while we're on the subject of pregnancies, do you think
someone was actually flying with a pregnancy test or was the
Widmore kit in the Swan?

Oh Dear!



I've reached that part in Season 2 where the LOST writing team
felt the need to start making like these penguins, tap dancing
to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out the story. The Whole Truth is one
of those episodes (along with SOS, Two For the Road and
arguably others) where the first 38 minutes sort of drug by only
to get a great whammy in the last 5 minutes.













Ben's musings in the breakfast nook of the Swan certainly
qualifies as one of those endings that saved an otherwise
less than scintillating episode. "Now if I were one of
them . . ." You know the rest. And he finishes it all
up with "You got any milk?"

I guess Ben was trying to bolster his Henry Gale story
with this game of "what if." Knowing that there was no
trap at the balloon that should have boosted "Henry's"
credibility upon Sayid's return. It also helps to build
the tension heading into the next episode as we were left
to worry about Charlie and Sayid (while rooting that the
Others would get Ana Lucia. You know you did.)

But The Whole Truth was not totally without merit
other than this scene. Re-watching the episode after
Season 3 gives it whole new meaning when it comes to Jin
and that lying liar he married. And this is why I love
LOST and love re-watching LOST. Each time there's something
different and something has changed. What's more the
thing that has changed is ME and how I now view the
situation and characters. BRAVO LOST!

Why Would You Put Your Medical
Facility Underground?













And why for that matter would you put it so far from
your housing complex? I'm betting the Staff had a
purpose far different from the one the Others are using
it for now. In fact I'm certain Dharma didn't use The
Staff for costume storage.

Does anyone remember anything from the old DI websites
or TLE that would fit with an underground medical
facility? I think its pretty clear that The Staff is
not a mere DI infirmary. In fact does anyone have any
theories about why the DI facilities in the LOSTies
sector of the Island--The Swan, The Staff, The Pearl--are
underground when DI Village, The Flame and The Hydra
are not?

Were Claire's Memories Real?













Throughout Episode 2.15, Maternity Leave, Claire has
flashes of memory about her time with Ethan and the Others
at the Medical Station. One of the most coincidental of the
memories is that in the nursery there is a mobile of Oceanic
airplanes just like the ones in Claire's dream before she was
taken by Ethan. Moreover the mobile plays "Catch a Falling
Star," the song she associates with her long-gone father and
which she asks the prospecitve adoptive parents to sing to her
bay-bee.

Now ever since the episode aired I've wondered, how could the
Others know about that mobile and that song? Did Smokey scan
Claire and inform them? Were they the ones trying to adopt
Aaron in Australia? Were they working with Malkin?

Well I think the answer may be much simpler than that, and it's
given to us in the episode. Libby tells Claire:

Claire, what you saw could be combining experiences of what
happened before the crash to the night you were having dreams
here on the island.

So while Claire was remembering things that did happen to her
in The Staff, I think she was also adding in pre-crash memories
and post-crash dreams.

Claire's time with the Others raises other questions as well
which I hope won't just be written off as faulty Claire memories.

First, what were they injecting in Claire? It was a liquid, not
an "implant" unless it's nanobots. :D

Next, why not keep Claire? Both Ethan and Alex state that they
were planning to keep the baby but not Claire. Does Claire's
willingness to give up the baby both pre- and post-crash make
her a "bad" person?

Finally, Alex's rescue of Claire -- Girl Scout goodness or
Ben's manipulation? I guess at a minimum it was Ben anticipated
therefore the implant.

Maternity Leave is one of my favorite episodes for its
on-Island flash and its paying off of things started many, many
episodes before. But there are still things I want to know.

What Is It About The Island That
Makes Language Skills A Must?













Kelvin is a perfect member of the post-Purge Dharma or the
post-Purge recruited Hostiles whichever it actually is
because of his language skills. He has at least English and
Arabic and I'd suspect more languages in his bag of tricks.
Mikhail clearly spoke multiple languages. Bea Klugh spoke
multiple languages. Why would language skills be important
on an isolated Island inhabited by less than 100 people?

I Can't Wait To Get The Rest Of
This Story!













Danielle returns and so do the questions. For example,
why doesn't she just tell Sayid I have a guy in a net instead
of the rifle trust exercise? Why doesn't she just question
Ben herself? She managed torture Sayid just fine. Granted
that torture pad is now Kablooey, but she's creative.
How does Danielle know Sayid is a torturer? I couldn't find
it, but I didn't look very hard.

And what about Ben? Why did he run when Sayid released
him from the net? Afraid Danielle would recognize him kind
of like Claire's flashes in the next episode?

More Ben -- his cover story is that he crashed 4 months ago.
Do you think the real Henry Gale crashed then, a mere
2 months before Flight 815? And then the story of his wife's
death--sick and 2 days later dead. I guess that wasn't based
on Danielle's team's "sickness" or she wouldn't have needed
to shoot them.

Can anyone remember whether or not they thought the man in
the orange polo was telling the truth or lying? Michael Emerson
was so good I'm pretty sure I changed my mind each and every
scene he was in. We've been promised more information on what
Ben was up to when he was trapped, accidentally. I hope
it's soon.

Why Haven't The LOSTies Been Able
To Pick Up The Others' Chatter?













Technical question. The Others seem intent on using Walkie
Talkies. We see Juliet leave one in The Pearl in Expose. They
use them both on Falcatraz and while on trek at the end of Season
3. Now I know that they aren't on them constantly like that
annoying Danielle transmission, but would Sayid have been able
to pick up The Others on his glorified walkie talkie had he tried?

And why didn't poopy pants Paolo or for that matter Sawyer use the
found walkie talkie during Season 3 either?