The Loop Hole

I don't even know where to begin in talking about the season finale of LOST. In fact, this post will most likely be very scatter brained - just forewarning you. I do want to say that if every episode was this fast and packed, LOST would suck. I hate them trying to pack so much in at the end. More happened in this episode then in all of season 5!! Why didn't they stretch out some of the season finale info throughout the season? It just seemed like a looooot of information to take in all at once.
We now know that in the "Pilot, Part 2" episode from Season 1, Locke's comments to Walt about Backgammon are more relevant to this show than any other dialogue thus far (excluding maybe last night's quote by Jacob regarding "a loop hole"; that's pretty significant as well). Locke tells Walt that the game dates back 5,000 years. Locke was referring to the Mesopotamian Royal Game of Ur, which is also related to the Egyptian game of Senet.(Lostpedia) Locke explains the rules of Backgammon to Walt, "There are two players. One side is light, and one side is dark." While doing this he holds the game pieces up to his eyes, which is another recurring image of LOST. But more about all of this later.

First let's talk about the new information we got and the questions that were answered:
1. Jacob is an actual person who visited several 815ers before they crashed on the island - Locke, Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Jin, and Sun. He also visited Sayid and Hurley but, for reasons still unknown to us, he saw them AFTER the Oceanic Six had come back.
2. Jacob gave Hurley the guitar case.
3. Richard is the way he is (seems to live forever) because of Jacob.
4. Charles Whidmore was not the reason Nadia died....Jacob was.
5. Rose, Bernard, and Vincent are living the retired life in a hut on the island.
6. Jacob is what is lying in the shadow of the statue.
7. The statue was definitely holding an Ankh.
8. Illana and Braum work for Jacob.

And now for the new questions which we will ponder for the next 7 months:
1. Who is the other guy with Jacob? (I'll talk more about that in a minute)
2. What is Frank a "candidate" for?
3. Is Sayid dead?
4. Is Juliet dead?
5. Where is the 1977 crew now and did their "plan" work?
6. What was the significance of Sun finding Charlie's Drive Shaft ring? Am I over-thinking this because I want Charlie back.....maybe.
7 - 1,000,000,000. Other questions that are blowing my mind and making my nose bleed.

The rest of this post is very largely based on my theory that Jacob is THE Jacob from the Bible and the other guy we saw with him in the opening scene of the season finale was his brother Esau. So bear with me. Okay, so in the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, Jacob has a twin brother named Esau. They are the grandsons of Abraham. You remember him from Sunday School, right? "Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. So let's all praise the Lord." Anyway, when Rebecca, their mother, who was from Mesopotamia, was pregnant, she felt her sons fighting in the womb so she asked God what was up with that. He told her, "Two nations are within you; ....two rival people; One will be stronger than the other; The older will serve the younger." When they were born, Jacob came out second, holding on to Esau's heel! Pretty interesting, right?
Some other noteworthy facts about Jacob and Esau:
1. Jacob tricked his father, Isaac, into giving Jacob his last blessing before he died when really Isaac had wanted to give that blessing to Esau. This blessing said, "May nations be your servants, and may peoples bow down before you. May you rule over all your relatives.... May those who curse you be cursed, and may those who bless you be blessed." Because Jacob received the final blessing from Isaac, all that was left for Esau to receive from Isaac was, "You will live by your sword, but be your brother's slave. Yet when you rebel, you will break away from his control." Needless to say, Esau hated Jacob for what he had done.
2. Jacob tricked Esau into giving him his rights as the first-born son.
3. Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Esau dug many wells. Some of which were named Quarrel, Enmity, and Freedom.
I'm still reading the Bible to find out more about Jacob and Esau's story and if I find any other interesting tidbits I will add them to this post. I have a million questions regarding the Jacob/Illana scene - What language were they speaking? Why was she in bandages? What is their relationship? What did he need her to do?

My theory is that Esau is the Smoke Monster and he is a "body snatcher" (which was one of my theories from very early on). I recently made a list of characters who have seen dead people or people from their past on the island. With that list I also included people who were "scanned" by Smokie at some point. My theory is when Esau is the Smoke Monster, he looks at people's thoughts and re-creates people that they have known in order to influence them to do something for him or something like that. I don't have all of the details worked out just yet. Actually, I used to have them all worked out but every time we get a new episode with Smokie I have to tweak my theory a bit.
Anyway, here is my list (in no particular order):
1. Shannon sees Walt
2. Hurley sees his imaginary friend (I don't know for sure if this is Smokie, it may just be Hurley's imaginary friend!!)
3. Locke sees Walt in the pit after Ben shoots him - that's gotta be Smokie cause he SAVED LOCKE'S LIFE!! Also Locke was scanned by Smokie.
4. Sayid sees Walt
5. Mr Eko sees his brother, Yemi. Eko was scanned by Smokie.
6. Little Ben sees his mom
7. Many people see Christian
8. Big Ben sees Alex - also this has gotta be Smokie/Esau and it would explain why Locke disappears conveniently during the time Ben is alone with the Smoke Monster/Alex. And right before Ben sees Alex he is scanned by Smokie.
9. Jack sees his Dad - this was where this theory of mine all began.
Think about it - a plane crashes, there is a dead body in it, that body goes missing from the coffin, the person who was in the coffin is now walking around the island, PLUS when we first see Christian on the island he is silent, spooky, doesn't seem to know anything, and awkward. Perhaps Esau didn't know who the body belonged to yet. I think this also explains why we found Christian in the cabin - Esau was in Christian's body and was "the other person" mentioned last night by Illana who was using the cabin.
Two other characters scanned by Smokie are Kate and Juliet. On a side note, a friend of mine posed the question, "when Smokie was trying to get Kate and Juliet but Juliet turned on the sonic fence, why didn't Smokie just go OVER the fence like Kate did once before?" I mean the thing can fly so .....

I also thought it was interesting that Moses was mentioned again in this episode. If you remember, Moses was mentioned by Mr. Eko in 3x10-"The 23rd Psalm". The following is from Lostpedia:
Mr. Eko informed Claire that Aaron was the name of Moses' elder brother. Aaron was a spokesman of sorts for Moses, persuading the Israelites to follow his brother and performing miracles with his staff, which turned into a viper before Pharaoh and unleashed the first three plagues. Aaron joined Moses, Nadav and Avidu on Mount Sinai to receive the Covenant, and saw a vision of God (Exodus 24:9). During Moses' 40-day encounter with God, Aaron ceded to popular demand by making a golden calf, outraging his brother (Exodus 32). Aaron became chief priest after the Ark and Tabernacle were constructed. He died at the age of 123 on Mount Hor. I don't know what the connection is yet but I will definitely read the Moses and Aaron stories in the Bible after I finish with my Jacob and Esau readings. If I find anything noteworthy I will most likely write a new post on Moses and Aaron and their connection to LOST.

Other random notes and thoughts:
Is Faraday "weird" because Ellie was exposed to radiation while he was in the womb?
Sayid walking around with a hydrogen bomb on his back seemed to make sense.....not.
Why didn't Jack mention that the "count to 5" schtick was Christian's thing when he originally told the story to Kate?
Thank God for Miles! He is the only one with any brains. My neighbors probably heard me shout, "FINALLY" when Miles tells the other dodos his thoughts about "The Incident".

Enough for now. Next post - I Am Jack's Stupid Idea vs. Tyler Durden

Your Mother Is An Other?

This week's episode, "The Variable", did a few things.  Let's see....it answered questions, then it answered some more questions, and more importantly it answered even more questions.  Yep that's about it.  Really episode 5x14 probably gave us more information then any other single episode that I can think of.  Okay, let's do a quick review:  

1.  Daniel has been doing research for the Dharma Initiative in Ann Arbor.

2.  Charlotte was doing "card tricks" with Daniel on the beach in Season 4 in order to find out if The Island was healing Dan's memory loss which he lost because.....

3.  Daniel conducted time traveling experiments on himself around the same time he put his girlfriend, Theresa, in a vegetive state. 

4.  Charles Whidmore is Daniel Faraday's father (I think most of us saw that coming).  But what I still don't get about this is if Ellie's last name is Hawking and Charles' last name is Whidmore, then why is Dan's last name Faraday??  Thoughts anyone?

5.  Whidmore put the fake Oceanic Flight 815 at the bottom of the ocean.  Finally this is settled!  But at the same time it totally screwed with my head because for as much as Ben has lied, this just so happens to be one of the few times that he actually told the truth!  Who would have thunk it?

6.  Daniel came to The Island on the freighter in 2004 because his mother told him to do it.  

7.  We find out what was behind the mystery of the first scene of Season 5, when Daniel is in the Orchid Station, and we get to see the scene play out in it's entirety.

If Dan is really dead, which he seemed to be, then when and how does the infamous Chang/Faraday video happen?  I'm talking of course about the one shown at Comic Con 2008 which you can view here.  The only thing I can conclude is that in between the time that we see Faraday and Chang in the elevator coming up from the Orchid (you know, after Faraday told Chang that he was from the future and Chang had a look on his face like he just found his dad's hidden stack of Playboys) and a little bit later when Faraday comes knocking on Sawyer's door during the meeting-to-end-all-meetings, Faraday and Chang dashed over to Chang's house to make a quick flick.  Though this scenario seems quite far fetched to me, I can't think of another opportunity when that video could have been made.  Can you??

One very important occurrence we still do not have all of the pieces to is The Incident.  Since we are pretty certain that it took place some time before 1980, it is possible that "the accident" Dan tells Jack about is the same as The Incident that we have all grown to love.  Of course, I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

The Desmond story line seemed boring and unnecessary to me.  I learned absolutely nothing from it.  As for the scene outside of the hospital between Eloise and Charles, that little get-together could have taken place anywhere and it would have most likely had the same affect on us as an audience.  I hate to question the genius of the LOST writers but, what was the point of including Desmond and Penny in this episode at all?

I did note the urgency and importance behind Daniel's first priority upon arriving off of the sub.  He wanted to see Jack immediately and the promo of next week's episode **MINOR SPOILER** looked to me like Faraday has passed the "crazy torch" off to Jack.  What is the deal with Jack this season?  This was a guy who, up until now, had his own identity, followed no one, and lead the 815'ers for 4 straight seasons.  Now, every time I turn around he is taking on the objectives and identity of some body else.  This guy was following BEN at the beginning of Season 5 for crying out loud!!  After that he started doing what he felt Locke would want him to do.  You do remember how Jack used to feel about Locke, right?  He pointed a gun at the guys head and pulled the trigger.....TWICE!  He was a total push-over during his mono-e-mono with Sawyer.  And now next week's episode has him taking over as the new Daniel Faraday armed with the formula-filled notebook and all!  WHAT THE HELL?!?!  I want my strong, confident, fix-all, take-control Jack back.  You're never going to get Kate back like this, Jack.  Stop making sandwiches and mopping floors and morph back into Super Jack.  

Besides, if Jack successfully puts Faraday's time-changing plan into effect, what will happen to everyone?  Will they just disappear Marty McFly style?  And being that they have already lived that entire sequence of events, what difference will it make if Jack stops Oceanic 815 from crashing on The Island?  It's already happened to them so it's not like they are avoiding having to re-live it or something.  I'm getting a nosebleed from thinking about all of this so I'll just stop with that.

The Juliet-Sawyer-Kate-Jack love quadrangle took a interesting turn of events in this episode.  Juliet has definitely decided to throw in the towel and accept defeat against any chance of a future between she and Sawyer now that Kate is back.  The scene played out well during the Sawyer & Kate vs. Jack & Kate showdown.  And as much as I dislike Juliet, I did feel sorry for her.  Once again she was so close to finding the romantic happiness she almost had with Goodwin.  I'm predicting a Kate & Juliet alliance is right around the corner.  I caught some foreshadowing of that when Kate made her final decision about visiting the Hostiles.  Notice how she ended up doing what Juliet told her to do?  That was a first and I'm thinking there is more of that to come!

Ultimately, this was another great episode of LOST and I would love to hear what you thought of the episode.  It was bittersweet to see Faraday go.  And what a way to die!  Adios Dan.  Ahhh, the writers never cease to amaze me.  Until next week.... 

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE Part Deaux

5x13 - "Some Like It Hoth"

Now my first thought when I saw Hurley writing in a Dharma composition book was, "great, Hurley is writing down everything that has gone on since the crash because he feels like he is going crazy.  And Ben is going to find it and that is why Ben knows so much in 2004 when 815 crashed."  I was even racking my brain trying to remember which castaway was a bounty hunter.  Then we find out that Hurley is writing down the storyline of The Empire Strikes Back.  Don't get me wrong, that WAS comical but I am really anxious to see my theory proven.

I realize that this was a Miles episode, but Hurley brought so much to last night's show that I have to talk about some of his quotes.  For starters, in my opinion, one of the BEST scenes in all of LOST was the Hurley/Miles/Chang-in-the-Van scene.  Watch what I am talking about here. 

I almost peed on myself laughing at the scene that followed.  Here, Hurley and Miles are in the van alone and Hurley is trying to pump Miles up for how great all of this could be for him.  Where does Hurley come up with this stuff?  Unfortunately I could not find a video clip online to share here.  (note to self: learn how to grab video clips on my own so that I can add them to my blog)  Without a doubt, Jorge Garcia has gotten some of the best lines this season.  I'm used to getting my laughs from Sawyer in past seasons but Hurley's remarks have made their mark on Season 5 - "Let's face it, Ewoks suck dude."

LOST didn't leave us to wonder why Hurley was trying so hard to help Miles through his daddy dilemma.  The answer was hand delivered to us in a scene between Miles and Hurley while they were filling up the van with gas.  Hurley missed out on a real relationship with his father because his dad took off when he was 10 years old.  In Hurley's eyes, Miles has the opportunity of a lifetime by getting a second chance to have a relationship with his dad.  Of course, Hurley doesn't have the same cynical outlook on life that Miles has. 

In closing (finally!), I want to mention that I think there is definitely some meaning to Sawyer's sudden neglect to wear his glasses.  Is this a Superman/Clark Kent thing?  Is he trying to impress Kate?  Are they gone for good?  What's the deal?  Thoughts anyone?  On the other side, Jack's scene with Roger was weird, awkward, and creepy to me.  

Don't get me wrong, I love me some Jack, but I wasn't feeling it.  And I think Jack is in LaLa Land if he thinks that his little talk with Roger was effective in keeping things quiet for ANY amount of time.  Jack's approach to Roger only reinforced our knowledge of the doc's god-awful bedside manner.  I don't know how Jack is containing himself, but he is maintaining his whole "I'm doing nothing" attitude for sure.  But my theory is that things are about to get a little too crazy for Sawyer to handle and I can't wait to see him do some groveling when he needs Jack to save the day.

Here are a few other notes that I took down while watching this episode.  I would love to hear your comments, thoughts, theories, etc on what you think.

1.  Dan's back!  Where has he been?

2.  I am almost sure that this week Braum said, "Do you know what is in the shadow of A statue?"  But last week in "Dead Is Dead", Ilana's line was something like, "What lies in the shadow

 of THE statue?"  I know it seems minor but it caught my attention so I thought I would mention it.  I also may be totally wrong on what exactly was said.

3.  Braum mentions being on a "team".  See my theory page for some of my thoughts on what I think the meaning of that is.

4.  What do you think Sawyer and Juliet will do with that pesky security guy?

5.  Horace's instructions to Miles about taking the body to Chang in "Grid" something, reminded me of some dialogue that took place between Jin and Sawyer back in 5x8 "LaFleur".  Jin reports to Sawyer on which grid number he has completed.  What was the deal with that?  What did all of that mean?  What were Jin and Sawyer up to in their "grid search"?

Can't wait to hear what you guys think.  I'm almost looking forward to next week's break - this blogging stuff is harder than I thought!!  Namaste.

If you haven't already, don't forget to check out the first part to this post - I See Dead People Part I

I See Dead People Part I

LOST 5x13 - "Some Like It Hoth"

I was really looking forward to this episode of LOST because I had the feeling that I would have some laughs.  I'm so glad I was right.  That's just another great thing about LOST - they know exactly when to give us something funny to watch.  And after last week's very dark episode, "Dead Is Dead", we were all ready for something a little lighter.  Out of curiosity I decided to refresh my memory on what the plot is of the movie "Some Like It Hot".  I couldn't find anything that I thought linked it to LOST but check this out and let me know if you come up with something.  Regardless, I definitely got enough hilarious quotes from Hurley to keep me laughing through the next two week's, which was more than I expected.  Of course, in true LOST form, we were also left with a new set of questions (i.e., If this guy Braum doesn't work for Whidmore or Ben, then who does he work for?) and we were reminded of some questions that are still unanswered (What the hell is in the shadow of the statue, damnit?)  (More on that later)  Tonight's episode was Miles-centric and since we already knew that he could "talk" to dead people, I was anxious to learn more about Miles Straum.  LOST definitely gave us plenty of connections between Miles and our other castaways/time travelers.  And ultimately, I think Juliette set the tone of the week's to come when she said, "Well, here we go."  On a side note, I loved the fact that the next line Sawyer says directly to her is, "Get some rope."  AWESOME!!

So, what is up with younger versions of characters making appearances at the beginning of episodes?  Here are the ones I remember.  Be sure to send me the ones I missed and correct me if any of these are wrong.  1x5 - "White Rabbit" Jack gets beat up by kids on a playground and Daddy-Of-The-Year Christian tells him he "just doesn't have what it takes". 1x16 - "Outlaws" Sawyer hides under his bed while another award-winning father shoots mom. 2x10 - "The 23rd Psalm" Mr. Eko saves his younger brother from being forced to join an African version of The Jets (or maybe they are The Sharks). 2x12 - "Fire + Water" Charlie gets a piano for Christmas. 3x2 - "The Glass Ballerina" Sun does what she does best - lies, lies, lies and gets the maid fired to save herself from getting in trouble with (yep you guessed it) her awesome dad. 3x10 - "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" Hurley's dad leaves and in true Cat's In The Cradle style, promises that they will work on an old car together as soon as he gets back....approx. 15 years later. 3x20 - "The Man Behind The Curtain" Ben (not sure if this one counts since he's more like a fetus than a kid when the episode starts) 5x10 - "He's Our You" Sayid chokes a chicken (heee heee, that's funny) to prevent his ?brother? from being ridiculed by their dad.  And then we have tonight's episode where a young Miles hasn't yet learned how to turn the scary dead people's voices off in his head.

I'm not sure if the writer's have a good reason for starting episodes this way (other than it being a different approach to telling the story) but I know that I have learned several things through this method:  1. Younger character appearances equals Bad Hair;  2.  I want my next baby to wear Dharma onesies and;  3.  Lots of characters on LOST have Daddy issues.

One thing we learn is that, unlike Charlotte, Miles did not seek out The Island.  I guess I always thought ALL of The Freighties came to The Island knowingly armed with their own personal reasons.  I don't know if I like the fact that The Island sought out Miles but I know I don't like the thought of him being there only for money.  Come on, how lame is that?  And what is up with him being so money driven?  Is he saving up for something?  On the other hand, we do see him give back money to a stranger for the second time.  Remember last season he gave back some cash to a woman who was trying to get her dead grandson out of her house.  What does all of that mean?  What is the connection between Miles and money?  Is it just a tool used to show us that he has a sensitive side and a conscience?  I'm not sure.  I'm just wondering, if money is not really his achilles heal, then what is? 

We see that Miles' mother appeared to die of cancer, which is ironic since The Island seems to cure cancer.  Or at least that is one of my theories.  All I know is that this guy is so laid back.  I mean, if I had time traveled to 1977 on a magical island and I saw my mom in the cafeteria of a crazy, hippie, bunny experimenting commune - one that she had conveniently NEVER mentioned to me - I don't think I would be able to keep that information to myself for three years.  Am I the only one who thinks this way?  I was rather disappointed when Mom decided that during her last moments alive, she would rather tell her only son how much his father sucked instead of answering his first and more important question - HOW IS HE ABLE TO TALK TO DEAD PEOPLE?  I don't know, once again, maybe it's just me.  

As for Daddy Chang, it seems evident that he is not digging on everything that the Dharma Initiative is doing.  That was the feeling I got when he said, "If you breathe one word of this, I'll have you shipped to Hydra Island so that you can weigh turds for their ridiculous experiments."  To which Hurley simply replies, "Gross."  I guess he doesn't necessarily HAVE to think that everything they are doing on The Island is greatness, but I was definitely surprised when I heard him say the experiments were ridiculous.  On a side note, why haven't any of us fans ever thought of calling it "Hydra Island"?  That seems like such an obvious name for the other island, duh!    

Next Post:  I See Dead People Part Deaux

Websites I Recommend

Here is a list of LOST websites that I frequent often. I know there are a billion sites out there that are dedicated to LOST and I am sure that there are a lot of good ones that I have missed. Please feel free to post comments about any websites that you have found.
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/
http://www.jayandjack.com/ (not my favorite podcast but still worth checking out)
http://www.lost.com/
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page (good place to find reference material)
http://www.oceanicflight815.com/
http://www.theblackrock.org/br2/
http://www.thefuselage.com/ (this is J.J. Abrams' site)
Along with these, make sure to subscribe to The Lost Podcasting Network on iTunes. It's the easiest way I've found to get all the best LOST podcasts.

Are You There, Jacob? It's Me, Bejae.

Since I am planning to use this blog to post my many thoughts, theories, and ideas about LOST, I decided that I would share how my thought process has worked up until now and give a brief history about myself since becoming a Lostie.

I didn't start watching LOST until this past summer (2008) when one of my brothers loaned me his Season 1 DVDs. I went through the 6 DVDs in 3 days thus abandoning my children, dishes, laundry, and life! Like a crackhead looking for a fix, I began frantically calling my family and friends in search of the Season 2 DVDs. Fortunately, my parents had them. (note: neither of them have ever watched a single episode which further supports another theory that I have - Am I Adopted??) I quickly finished Season 2 and then viewed Seasons 3 & 4 on the much appreciated ABC.com Full Episode Viewer.

The next few months were very sad for me as I felt that I had nothing to live for. I had greedily drained the Well of the Island and I now had nothing to drink. I purchased my own copies of Seasons 1-4 and rewatched them but my thirst was not quenched. I found myself keeping notes of thoughts and questions I had about certain scenes or themes within the show. I convinced some of my co-workers and friends to borrow my DVDs in the hopes that I would have SOMEONE to share this wonderful story with. All of this was only a means to pass the time until LOST would re-air in JANUARY!! "Are you kidding me?", I asked. JANUARY!?!?! Yes, because of the stupid writer's strike I would have to wait another 5 months to read the next chapter of this rivoting drama.

But then it happened......the heavens opened up to me......I found the key to my survival and it was right in front of me all the time.........blogs, chat rooms, podcasts, websites, articles, Lostpedia, books, youtube channels, on and on the wonderfulness continued!! It was magical! How had I missed this underworld of greatness? I felt like Veruca Salt walking into my very own personal chocolate LOST paradise (get it? - LOST paradise, instead of Paradise Lost! Clever, right). I probably looked like Gollum as I pet the screen of my Powerbook G4 and whispered, "My precious", to all of the LOST fansites I had just discovered. It was overwhelming and wonderful.

Obviously, since then, I have narrowed down my favorite websites to only a few (check out my post on Websites I Recommend). And I have learned the hard way that, as much as I think I do, I infact DO NOT WANT TO READ SPOILERS.
Next Post: My Soooo Good and Not So Good Theories

Welcome!

Okay.  So I've decided to start a blog.  I was inspired after reading the many LOST theory blogs that I receive links to.  Not sure exactly what I am going to write yet.  I'm planning to go full force all out after this Wednesday's episode airs.  Wish me luck on my first blogging venture! Namaste!