Another Thought About Claire



So I really hate the idea that Claire died in the rocket blast on her house and has been a walking zombie ever since. So I have another idea. What if the shots given to Claire first by Ethan and then Juliet have heightened Claire's "specialness" which allows her to see Christian? I'd also argue that in the cabin Claire has been given more Ethan style happy juice, possibly as an additional accompaniment to more of these shots.

Now who else do we know has had similar shots? Well, a young Dharma Initiative child named Ben who just happens to see his dead mother on the Island. I'd argue that whatever is in these shots heightened Ben's specialness as well. Did the Dharma Initiative know what it was up to with these shots? Much as in the case of time traveling bunnies perhaps they had a rudimentary understanding, but were incapable of conceiving of such grand results in a certain chosen few.

And who else had those shots? Desmond -- a guy who kept seeing a dead Charlie before he was dead. Maybe in Desmond's case the combined effect of the shots and turning the failsafe key crossed his wires so that he also saw dead people only future, not current dead people.

Happy 4th of July

Enjoy the day and my favorite scene from Season 4 of LOST.

What Explains The 2 Photos?

Any new ideas about how we end up with 2 Desmond/Penny photos?

LOST in Slaughterhouse Five






















After watching Desmond unstuck in time in The Constant I decided to re-read Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five which features a similarly unstuck protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. I'm going to list out things from the book that remind me of themes in LOST roughly in the order they occur in the book. Feel free to comment and theorize away.

• The author of the book majored in Anthropology. Charlotte Lewis did too.
• Aliens abduct Billy, take him to their planet and keep him in a zoo cage where he mates with another abducted Earth female. The cage is furnished much like the Swan with appliances and furniture from Sears and a working record player. Billy exercises each day to stay in shape; makes his meals; cleans his dishes. I don't know if he does it to "Make Your Own Kind Of Music."
  
• Billy got to the alien planet through a time warp allowing him to spend years on the alien planet but only be gone from Earth a microsecond.
• The aliens taught Billy that when a person dies he only appears to die because he's still alive in the past. The aliens view time, past, present and future, as always existing and permanent. They can focus in on a particular moment like we would focus in on one part of the Rocky Mountains. Time does not pass one moment to the next with moments disappearing forever once they are past. You can be dead in this moment, but fine in plenty of others, so they don't fret about death.
  
• Billy first becomes unstuck in time while serving in the US Army in World War II.
  
• Billy describes his death as a violet light and a hum.
• As a child Billy's father tries to teach him to swim by throwing him in the pool leaving him to sink or swim. Kind of reminds me of Charlie.
• At one point Billy shifts from WWII to the 195os where he's about to give a speech. He worries that he will sound like his WWII young kid self, but in fact he delivers his confident Toastmasters-type speech. So unlike Desmond Billy seems to act appropriately wherever he is and can adapt. He seems to have all his consciousnesses at all times.
  
• But when Billy is moving around he does have to rely on visual cues such as his car to figure out when exactly he is. He does not instinctively know.
  
• Every so often, for no apparent reason, Billy would find himself weeping.
• Christmas 1944 passes unremarked for Billy and the author who find themselves as POWs in a railroad car at the time.
• There's an Alice in Wonderland "Drink Me" bottle reference.
• Billy's movements in time aren't always consistent. For example, being slightly unstuck in time he watches a movie backwards . He also knows in advance what time the aliens are coming for him, and willingly goes out to meet them. As the novel progresses he can clearly "remember" all the moments of his life from birth to death rather than being surprised that he's now in X year or Y place.
  
• In the POW camp, Billy begins shrieking uncontrollably and is taking to the hospital, strapped down and given morphine. The shrieking was not time travel related, but it reminded me of Minkowski and his description of Brandon.
• Within 4 years of starting this time traveling, Billy voluntarily commits himself to a mental hospital because he believes he is going crazy.
• Billy begins to look for meaning by reading science fiction. No mention of Philip K. Dick though.
  
• A fellow mental ward patient tells Billy that everything there is to know about life is in The Brothers Karamazov.
  
• A fake book is referenced about people whose mental diseases couldn't be treated because the causes of the diseases were all in the 4th dimension and doctors didn't know couldn't see or even imagine them.
• According to the aliens in order to get Earthling babies you need not only the normal mom and dad but you need homosexual males, women over 65, and babies who lived an hour or less after birth, plus 2 other types of people. Maybe that's what's wrong on the Island.
• Even though the aliens know what will happen at all moments in time, including the end of the universe, they do nothing to change any of those moments. Those moments are the way they are structured.
• The woman that Billy Pilgrim makes pregnant on the alien planet stays on the alien planet to raise the baby instead of going back to Earth.

Desmond and Billy Pilgrim are both unstuck in time, but there are stark differences in Billy and Desmond's time travel in The Constant. Billy never truly gets lost in time as Desmond seemed to and as seemed to lead to Minkowski and Eloise's deaths. Instead Slaughterhouse Five takes the position that moments in time are discreet events that your lifetime collective consciousness can move between. Billy doesn't need a constant to move seamlessly through time, though that may be in large part attributable to the lessons the aliens teach him about time and his subsequent nonchalant attitude.

In Slaughterhouse Five you cannot change these moments in time that you move through repeatedly. Billy knows when others are going to die, but does nothing to warn those people or stop them. Similarly the aliens know when and how the universe will be destroyed, but do nothing to prevent it. Death is therefore meaningless to Billy and the aliens and is summed up over and over with the phrase, "So it goes." Your moment of death is structured that way; you don't mess with it. A philosophy I'm sure would be Mrs. Hawking approved.

There is no traumatic event that triggers Billy's unstuckness in time. He wasn't exposed to radiation or electro-magnetism and thrust through some barrier. Instead he just started coming unstuck at a point in his life when he was tired, cold and frankly willing to die. Both Billy and Desmond were serving in their respective militaries when their unstuckness began. Other than that we're given no clue as to why Billy is unstuck or if there are others who are unstuck.

Another key difference is that Billy develops the ability to access every moment of his life from beginning to end as he's time-shifting. This ability seems to become stronger as the novel and presumably Billy's life progresses. Early on Billy seems nervous and uncertain as this happens, but later in the novel Billy can for the most part tell quickly and accurately where he is and what's going to happen next. And in the case of the alien abduction he even anticipates and plans for it. Desmond clearly hasn't developed this skill, but I wonder if Ben has.

Slaughterhouse Five is a unique blend of an anti-war book that examines critically the fate of child soldiers at the hands of removed commanders and the glamorization of war mixed with a unique form of the science fiction of time travel and aliens. Is this what's happening on the Island? To Ben? To Desmond? Definitely not in a one to one translation as is the case with every other reference the show makes to things literary, pop culture, and scientific. But is it worth taking a look at to figure out what might be going on in LOST? Absolutely.

Dezzed and Confused













Desmond's episodes in Season 3 leave me with a similarly confused look on my face and Catch 22 is no exception. Desmond sees a long drawn out flash of Charlie getting killed by an arrow, then shorter flashes of Hurley and the cable, a beacon, LOSTies including Charlie holding a parachute, someone in a flight suit, the picture of Des and Penny, and Penny herself (for about 1 frame). Now what gives?

Desmond tries to explain it to Hurley as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle with no box. But he's also afraid that changing one of the pictures on the pieces (i.e. saving Charlie) changes the rest of the pieces. But his flashes themselves are contradictory. First Charlie is dead, then he's alive all in the same series of flashes.

Desmond also struggles over the course of the episode with how much he should reveal to Hurley, Charlie and Jin to prevent them from changing things, but it seems to me that once Desmond starts taking positive steps toward enacting the things in his flashes he's already messing things up. Would it not be the case that things have to flow naturally for the puzzle pieces not to change? In fact was it getting the first aid kit from Jack that changed the pieces? Or was it the fact that Desmond was lying repeatedly that constituted some failure in his test and resulted in Naomi, not Penny, arriving on the Island?

I personally don't believe that Penny was ever going to land on the Island no matter what Desmond did or didn't do, but that his last "flash" of talking to Penny was no more than wishful thinking, not a true flash. It should be noted that they find the book with Desmond and Penny's photo before Desmond chooses to save Charlie and that the book is a Brazilian copy of Catch-22. Didn't Desmond wonder why Penny would have a book written in Brazilian Portugese? It also didn't seem to have an "If found, contact Penny" note in the front either.

A big theme in the episode was being tested and being willing to make sacrifices. I'm unsure whether or not Desmond passed the test by letting Charlie live or not. I think he feels he failed it, but I'm not so sure. Seems like sacrificing his own happiness for Charlie is passing rather than failing the test. Was this a case of the universe lying to Desmond in his flashes so that it could be done with course correcting on Charlie and relying incorrectly on Desmond's selfish desires to outweigh the cost of sacrifice?

Is It Better To Be A Great Man or a Good One?













This question should resonate for a lot of our LOSTies. Answering it is what has kept Desmond from Penny. When he goes to see her dad Mr. Widmore talks about the great man Admiral MacCutcheon and how Desmond will never be one. But Penny tells Desmond the reason she loves him is he is a good man. Why, oh why can we not be satisfied with being merely good? Instead Desmond chooses to do the only great thing he will ever do according to Mrs. Hawking and leaves Penny to push the button.

Is this in fact what Jacob is looking for? People who can settle for merely being good not great? Is this why Jack isn't on his list because Jack wants to be a great man as he's been marked by Achara? Penny seems to correctly assess in her father that greatness precludes goodness. Is this true for the rest of them as well?

Or is it the case that the Island isn't big enough for more than one great man? Maybe that's why you have to be "good" to be on Jacob (or is it really Ben's?) list.

Time Travel Questions













I rewatched Flashes Before Your Eyes and I'm more confused than ever. So I'm putting out the call for you readers to explain to me what is going on with Desmond and time travel which Damon has said actually occurred.

Now obviously Desmond's 2004 body didn't travel back to his late 90's London apartment as evidenced by his beard in 2004













and his non-beard in the 90s.













Instead it seems to be the case that the consciousness of Desmond in the 90s "remembers" so to speak things he has done in the future, at least up to and including turning the failsafe key. Right? He also makes several references to things in the future or the present happening before. So is there a time loop? If so, where does it start and stop? Obviously it extends beyond turning the key if what we watched in Season 3 is to be believed. Are there even multiple loops? Loops that run from head injury to head injury since it seemed that's what started and ended Desmond's London loop? Will Desmond time travel again because Charlie whacked him with the oar?

As you can tell, I'm very confused when it comes to time travel and Desmond and that's without even beginning the whole course correcting conundrum. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

As a sidenote, maybe the next time Desmond flashes back to England, he'll visit this site.

Is This













The Reason Desmond Flashes Only On Charlie?

Desmond spent three years vaccinating himself with Dharma's shot gun. Charlie tested it on his own leg. They are the only two we know for certain were injected with this substance from the Swan. Is this the reason Desmond only had flashes about Charlie?

Did Locke Really Try To Track
Desmond?















Desmond flees the Swan thinking the world is about
to end. Jack, not the world's best tracker, manages
to catch up with him. Then in the next episode Locke
says he tried to track Desmond, but that he didn't
leave much of a trail.

I'm suspicious that Locke didn't really try to track
Desmond because if Jack could find him, why couldn't
Locke? Desmond wasn't concerned with NOT leaving a
trail. He had 40 minutes to get the heck out of
Dodge. I wonder why Jack didn't have Kate try to
track him as well. If only they had, maybe I'd
have gotten my answer to this question.

I'm heading out of town this afternoon, but I'm going
to try to make new posts via my new iPhone Thursday
and Friday. If they look goofy or don't work forgive
me. Normalcy will return on Monday.

Does Desmond Know Something?














Why does Desmond suggest to Jack that he might have
fixed Sarah? Does Desmond remember his encounter
with Jack in the jungle and know that Jack did fix Sarah
the way he remembers Charlie on the London street corner?
Is it merely the endorphins talking? Is it a fallback to
looking for an opportunity to evangelize Jack that he might
have learned from his time with the monks? Is he
prodding for a spiritual opening with the "lift it up" advice?

And when did Desmond have time to almost be a doctor?
Was it in this life? Another? I am ready for time on this
show to start to straighten itself out!

If Desmond Didn't Have Flashes . . .
















Would Charlie Have Died Before This?