LOST Challenge of the Week: “The Variable”

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I simply can’t wait for these last 3 episodes of LOST to hit the airwaves.  After a one week mini-hiatus, the hype meter is on high for the remaining 4 hours of Season 5.  While there’s all kinds of rampant speculation about what the finale will or won’t contain, the next episode, “The Variable”, seems pretty straightforward.  It’s going to be a Daniel episode, and he’s going to share with the LOSTies everything he knows about the island.  Additionally, it seems as though the Dharmaville ruse is finally up, and people are going to have to choose sides regarding staying in Dharma…or something else.  It looks like a high-drama, high-action episode.

But what intrigues me the most about the episode is the title.  Last season, we had an episode called “The Constant”, in which Desmond came to realize that he needed Penny, his constant, in order to remain sane and alive despite all of the time traveling he was doing (even if it was all in his consciousness and not actual physical time travel).  Additionally, we came to learn that Desmond was actually Faraday’s constant.  With Desmond off the island and Faraday back on it, you might wonder about (or fear for) Daniel’s safety…

But what about “The Variable”?  Is it a bookend of sorts for the episode “The Constant”?  And will it have a negative impact, as opposed to the positive impact of “The Constant”?  I guess that’s what I’m asking you…as this week’s challenge of the week:

What is “The Variable”, how is it related to Faraday, and in what way will it affect him?

That’s all for now, see you back in a couple of days with the recap!  Enjoy the show, I expect it’ll be an interesting ride!

LOST Discussion: 10 Things I Can’t Wait To See

Hey everyone, while we’re stuck with a LOST clip show this week, I thought I’d do something a little different than usual on the blog.  As you’re probably aware, we’ve only got 4 hours of LOST left this season, and then probably another 17 next.  And then that’s it!  LOST will be gone forever (except on Blu-Ray and DVD, of course.)

So, with more LOST yesterdays than tomorrows, I thought I’d take a look at some of the things I’m really looking forward to over the next 20+ hours of my favorite show.  And really, the writers have done a great job of answering a ton of questions for us.  I’d have to say that more questions have been answered to this point than are remaining to be answered.  But there are still some really good mysteries, events, people, and storylines that I’m looking forward to knowing the final bit on.

And, I thought I’d share all of them, including what I’m hoping for, with all of you.  If any of them jive with what you’re thinking about when you think LOST, I hope that you’ll comment below and start a discussion.  It’d be nice to chat about a few of these things while we still have time!  So, without further ado, here’s my list:

10.  Jack Shephard’s ultimate fate

When Jack was first introduced back in the pilot, it was hard to dispute the fact that he was the most central character in LOST.  Over the course of the series, Jack has slowly lost the leadership role, become extremely flawed, and for a time (at least for me), became pretty much uninteresting.  But really, LOST is as much Jack’s story as it is anyone else’s.  And his recent change…finally giving up his need to fix things, and actually thinking about himself and his destiny…is incredibly compelling.  There was a time that I really didn’t care about Jack’s character anymore, but that time has come and gone.  I can’t wait to see how Jack fulfills his island destiny…and if he lives through what the island has in store for him.

My fearless prediction: Jack will make a decision that will save the island, the world, and Kate, but will spell his own demise.

9. “The War”

If I was a betting man, I would wager that LOST’s sixth and final season is going to be all about this “war” that keeps getting hinted to us viewers.  And if it is, and it’s LOST’s final endgame, then you’d have to imagine that it’s going to be absolutely spectacular.  You know that everyone left alive (and perhaps even those that aren’t) will play a part, and that the show will pull out all the stops to go out with a bang.  Of course, we know so little about it, so I really couldn’t justify placing it any higher on my list.  Is it about the future of humanity as a whole?  Is it about the ability to continue to keep the space-time continuum together?  Or is it something just a bit more mundane?  I’d have to imagine that we’ll get just a bit more of a taste of what it’ll be prior to the end of the season,  And, if I were to do another list when the final frame of the finale airs, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it jumped 7 spots to the top.

My fearless prediction: The war is all about who gets control of the island once and for all.  It will bring some sides together that appear to be enemies right now, and cause much death and devastation.  Those that live through it will be able to access all of the powers of the island for all of eternity.

8. Who are “Adam & Eve”

So…just in case you forgot, we were introduced to a couple of skeletons way back in Season 1.  And the writers have come forward to say that they wanted to do that as early as possible, to prove that they had a plan for the ending all along.  While this may seem somewhat trivial, the revelation of what the writers had planned from the beginning, and how it plays out, will be fascinating for me.  I think a good part of how LOST is remembered will come down to how they answer or reveal some of the mysteries that have spanned the majority of the show.  To me, this is one of those long-spanning mysteries.  Here’s hoping that the explanation is worth the wait.

My fearless prediction: It’s gotta be a couple, right?  The easy guess is Jack and Kate, but I’m going to go with Rose and Bernard.

7. How Christian/the apparitions/the whispers are tied together

Alright, some of you might be a bit critical of me for lumping 3 different things into this one category, but really, I can’t help but feel as though they’re related.  After all, Christian technically is an apparition himself.  Of course, at the same time, you have to wonder whether or not his presence is a little more special than the others, or if the apparitions are actually all one entity.  And at the same time, it clearly seems as though the whispers seem to happen at the same time the apparitions appear (see Ben’s mother for a recent example).  Again, this is one of those mysteries that has spanned all 5 seasons to date, so the anticipation is high for a spectacular explanation.  This could be one that will make us watch all of those old episodes again just to se how it all fits together.

My fearless prediction: The apparitions are actually resurrected island dwellers, but can only appear when the island allows them to.  The whispers are the island going through its catalog of deceased folks and deciding which one to manifest.

6. What happens in the Temple

If I remember correctly, we didn’t even hear about The Temple until we got near the end of Season 3.  But it’s been a huge part of the mythology this season, and seems to be inextricably tied to “The Sickness” that we were introduced to way back in Season 1.  It seems to be central to how the Others maintain control of the island, and also tied to Ben becoming the man he is today.  If that weren’t enough, The Temple may also be tied to many of the other mysteries of the island.  At the end of it all, The Temple may be the central focus of the island, and tied to how everything operates.  But in the very least, it’s a piece of the island that, when explained, will answer a couple of questions that we’ve been wondering about for quite some time.

My fearless prediction: The Temple is where all of the resurrections take place (the bodies must be taken there), and is the central location for all of the island’s powers.

5. What is the Smoke Monster?

Interestingly, I think that the Smoke Monster was my #1 mystery for the longest time.  In fact, it might still be at the top of the list if not for this season’s “Dead Is Dead”, where we were given just a few more details about how Smokey operates.  So while I now have other things that I’m slightly more interested in, I still am very excited about the final explanation of Smokey.  What is it made of?  Is it mechanical or organic?  Whose bidding does it carry out?  And what is the true reason why it kills some but spares others?  The episode where we get the final word on the Smoke Monster will be an excellent episode indeed.

My fearless prediction: The smoke monster is a supremely advanced machine, brought to the island from the future when the island skipped through time.  It does the bidding of whoever controls the temple.

4. The backstory of Richard Alpert

With Ben’s past almost fully explained with this season’s episodes, I’d nominate Richard as the most enigmatic character on LOST.  Heck, he may have been even before we got so much of Ben’s story.  There’s just so much we don’t know about him.  Just how old is he?  Has he been leading the Others before we even knew them as Others?  What’s his arrangement with the Others?  What’s his relationship with Jacob?  He’s clearly a huge part of the Others’ hierarchy, and can do some things that defy explanation (like walk through the sonic fence unscathed), so getting his backstory will be an exciting thing.  I imagine that getting to know what he’s all about will tell us a ton more about the island as well.

My fearless prediction: Richard is from the distant past of the island, but was resurrected, so is able to retain his age from the time he was brought back to life.

3. “What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue?”

Alright, so the statue would have had a hard time making the cut prior to this season.  But now that we’ve seen more than just the foot, and in fact, have a group using the statue as a code word/riddle, it’s suddenly become one of the most forward-facing mysteries on the show.  And there are many layers to it as well.  What is the statue a replica of?  If by some chance it’s Anubis, as many have speculated, then what does that mean?  Is the island the gateway to the afterlife?  Is the island’s truly amazing power not just healing people, but actually resurrecting them?  The other angle is all about Ilana’s group, and what they have in store.  After “Some Like It Hoth”, you’d have to think that they’re not part of Team Widmore.  But could they be doing Ben’s dirty work?  Are they a faction of Richard’s team?  Do they have a different leader altogether?  And what the heck is in their crate?

But what I find to be the most fascinating about this group is that they seem to, despite the subterfuge, have their collective heads in the right place.  They had a true understanding of Miles’ plight, and the fact that he’s been injured by his relationship (or lack thereof) with his dad.  They seem to know that he’s using money to replace the hole in his heart, and that he’d love to understand why he can “talk” to dead people.  And they offered him answers to those questions.  Of course, the final mystery is all about what the answer is to their question.  And perhaps, it’ll have some true meaning, whether the answer itself is literal or figurative.

My fearless prediction: The statue is indeed Anubis, the temple is in the shadow of the statue, and Team Ilana is going to give the island inhabitants all they can handle in the coming war.

2. How did Locke get resurrected, and what happened to him in the process?

I don’t care what the new Locke actually says, the man is, quite frankly, someone completely different than the man we’ve come to know over the first 4 1/2 seasons of LOST.  The new Locke is so in tune with the island that he has the ability to know whether Sun will ever see Jin again.  He conveniently disappears when Ben summons the Smoke Monster, and then again when he comes face-to-face with it.  The old Locke had the ability to get in tune with the island when he focused, but never even close to the level that the new Locke has mastered, and achieves effortlessly.  He has come back to a completely different level.

Of course, this may have everything to do with the actual resurrection process that Locke went through in the first place.  We have absolutely no idea how, when, or where this took place, but Locke was clearly dead, and now is apparently alive.  Was his resurrection at all similar to Christian Shepard?  Or, has he been resurrected in a more “real” sense?  In other words, is he an apparition of some sort, or is he the same flesh and blood as say, Frank Lapidus?  Many layers of intrigue here, and every scene with Locke right now has me on the edge of my seat. 

My fearless prediction: Locke was taken to the temple to be resurrected and is now inextricably tied to the island.

1. Who is Jacob?

I have to admit, Jacob’s been at or near the top of my list ever since Ben and Locke visited his cabin back near the end of Season 3.  We know almost nothing about him, other than he seems to be invisible, asked Locke to “Help Me”, and seems to be the man that the Others, Richard Alpert, Charles Widmore, and perhaps many others, report to or answer to.  It’s inferred that he has the answers to all of the island’s mysteries, powers, and weirdness.  He’s made a list (to what end we don’t know), which only contained certain LOSTies names on them, but not all.  And for some strange reason, he seems to hate technology, even something as simple as a flashlight.  The potential of what he could be, what he stands for, and what he could do to anyone and everyone on the island seems limitless.

Jacob and his true nature would seem to be the key to the entire endgame of LOST.  Maybe the “war” is about who will control Jacob.  Maybe the war is about who Jacob will give his loyalty to.  Perhaps Jacob is the original founder of the island and can explain everything that’s happened to everyone on it since its inception.  With only a season and a couple of episodes remaining, I don’t think that it’s too far-fetched to think that the revelation of Jacob will also coincide with the revelation of LOST’s ultimate storyline, and how the whole thing comes to an end.  I’ll certainly be excited to see anything that gives us even the slightest info on the character and its meaning.

My fearless prediction: I think I’ve made enough dumb predictions prior to now…I’m going to refrain on one of these so I’m not a straight 10 for 10 wrong on all of them! 

A few runners-up

Not everything could make my list, but here are a few more things that I’m keeping my eye on:

The infertility issue

We haven’t seen alot of this lately, but it was a huge item in earlier seasons.  It caused us to worry about the safety of Jin & Sun’s baby, and it’s the reason why Juliet is on the island.  And, it wasn’t an issue in Dharmaville in 1977, but clearly was in 2004.  Here’s hoping that we’ll see what caused it, as well as the resolution, before the series comes to a close.

The Faraday/Hawking/Widmore connection

Faraday has been a fun character to watch right from his first appearance on the show.  We’ve only seen a brief glimpse into his backstory, but even his introduction was full of mystery.  Why did he have such a strange reaction to seeing the footage of the Flight 815 wreckage?  Has he been to the island before?  What did he learn from his time travel experiements?  What was he doing at the start of Season 5 near the donkey wheel with what looked like an oxygen tank?  There’s alot to learn about Faraday, and his return in “Some Like It Hoth” was a nice sight.

The resolution to the Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Juliet quadrangle

While I haven’t been overly fond of this storyline through the seasons, it would be a bit of a travesty if we didn’t get some kind of real resolution to this prior to the end of the series.  Hopefully one of the couples will find some measure of happiness amongst the madness of the island.

That’s my list!  Did I miss one of your favorites?  Do you have something to share in addition to my comments?  Do you want to add any predictions to mine?  I’d love to hear all of your thoughts on these items, and anything else related to what you can’t wait to see in the final few hours of LOST!

LOST Recap: Season 5, Episode 13: “Some Like It Hoth”

Alright, before I get started, let me apologize for the delay in getting this post out.  Not that I think that any of you are waiting for my recap to make your LOST week complete, but I’d certainly like to be a little more timely.  Anyway, it was my daughter’s first birthday this past weekend, and obviously, I didn’t want to miss any of the festivities.  If there’s anything that wins out over my LOST obsession, it’s my daughter.  Anyway, that’s my excuse…I expect to get the posts out for the remainder of the season in a much more timely fashion.

So, after a huge mythology episode in “Dead Is Dead”, it was almost inevitable that we’d slow things down a bit with “Some Like It Hoth”.  It wasn’t quite as humorous as I had expected, but it was still a fun episode, and it had a couple of little tidbits of info to analyze and dissect.  So let’s jump right in!

Miles gets started at an early age

Interesting first scene this week, as it didn’t really seem to tell us anything we didn’t already know.  Miles can “talk” to dead people…OK, but we saw this in the “freighter folk” flashback last season, right?  I guess this scene establishes his relationship with his mother, and sets up the fact that he had his ability when he was young.  Unless I missed something though, there wasn’t a whole lot more than that.

“I’m gonna bring you into the circle of trust.”

Well, OK, so much for my earlier assessment that Horace seemed to be one of the few Dharma folk without a secret agenda.  But more that that, what this scene, and the episode as a whole, tells us is that Dharma has a lot more going on than they’re letting most of their group know about.  I’ll get into this a bit more later, but suffice it to say that Dharma’s not on the island just to have a commune away from the rest of society.  No, they have an ulterior motive…the true intentions of which are unknown…

“I need you to tell me why I’m this way…”

…and I need to know why you won’t talk to me about my father.”  It’s interesting how the first part of Miles’ request gets pretty much lost in the explanation of the second.  But the answers of how and why certain things manifest themselves will come in another episode.  This show was all about the father/son relationship, seen through Miles’ eyes.  Of course, this might have given you the first clue about how the planet Hoth might have been relevant to the episode itself…

Miles and Hurley take a road trip

We already knew that these two made for some interesting dialogue, so why not have them hop in the van together for some more fun?  Although the writing wasn’t as crisp as some of the previous episodes, it was still cool to hear the banter.  My favorite was Hurley “confiding” in Miles that he could talk to dead people too…”you’re just jealous my power’s better than yours.”  Hilarious!

Miles makes it clear that he’s all about the money

We already had a real good idea about this, but his scene with the father who lost his football player son, it becomes abundantly clear.  Not only can’t he speak with the son, but he charges the father extra for privilege.  Miles wants cash, and that’s all he wants.  The question is, why?  Here’s hoping we get the answer at some point…

Kate can’t keep her poker face

Not sure why she cares so much…perhaps her time away from the island has made her a little bit more empathetic to other people’s plights…but she can join me and my gang at our Texas Hold ‘Em parties anytime!  It’s actually almost sad how Kate’s actions are consistently causing more harm than good since she’s returned to the island.  She’s distanced herself from Jack, gave up little Ben to whatever devices lie within the Temple, and now she’s opened up a hole in the smoke screen the LOSTies have put up in Dharmaville.  It’s clear that things are going to become worse before they become better…

“That douche is my dad.”

First off, kudos to Hurley for calling out Mr. Chang as the jerk that he is.  You really gotta wonder why the guy is consistently on his worst behavior.  Second, was this one of the worst-kept secrets in LOST ever?  OK, knowing that “Kevin Johnson” was Michael was probably an easier call, but this wasn’t that much more difficult.  I don’t think I specifically called it out in the first episode of the season, but I think I came pretty close.  In any event, not too much of a shocker here.  It does, however, set up the rest of the episode quite nicely…

“He’s on his way to deliver something to a guy named Widmore…”

OK, so this is an interesting scene, but can we really decipher anything out of it?  The guy was bringing “evidence” of the staged Flight 815 to Widmore.  But was that to cover the tracks, or to expose Ben (or someone else)?  If you take it at face value, it really seems to point to the idea that Ben planted the fake Flight 815 at the bottom of the ocean…likely to give everyone closure to the idea that there might be survivors.  This is certainly a departure from what we thought we learned last season…that Widmore planted the plane.  Having Ben be the one that ultimately planted the evidence makes a ton more sense, but we’ve already been misdirected at least once, so I’m not closing the book on this one quite yet.

“How weird is it that your dad is that dude from all those movies?” 

Although it wasn’t any major shock to learn that Pierre Chang is Miles’ dad, it does make things very interesting with respect to who Widmore chose for his freighter expedition.  Now we can say with almost absolute certainty that Widmore hand-picked Faraday, Charlotte, and Miles because he likely meets and remembers them back in Dharmaville.  He knows that they must be chosen in order to fulfill their destinies in the past.  Very cyclical, and it plays on the whole free will vs. fate argument that almost certainly seems to be at least a major factor in LOST’s endgame.  After all, did Widmore choose them because of their special abilities, or did he choose them because he knew he *had to*?

“What did you learn in class today?”

“Oh nothing…just some stuff about the ancient Egyptians…”  OK, so that wasn’t spoken in the episode, but it may as well could have.  Awfully convenient to have Jack’s janitorial duties involve erasing the blackboard on Egyptian history day, isn’t it?  Of course, even with my DVR, I couldn’t make out anything worth discussing here.  I’m sure that we were supposed to be led to think more about how Egypt is going to play a role in the show, but not much else.  Any further clues will have to come from those that can translate the hieroglyphics on and under the Temple.

The one interesting thing to take from this scene though, is Jack’s demeanor.  First, he doesn’t bat an eye when Roger kicks his mop bucket.  He’s more in control of his emotions than ever before.  Second, he calmly comes to defend Kate, even after she previously threw him under the bus.  I may be the only one that feels this way right now, but I love the transformation that Jack’s character has gone through, and I can’t wait to see him get the chance to bust through the window of opportunity he is so calmly waiting for.

Hurley and Miles continue their Dharma station tour with Dr. Chang

I’m not sure which is more entertaining: the dialogue betwene the three of them (“I like country”), or the discovery of all of the Dharma stations in various states of construction.  One thing I am extremely curious about though…we know that the Dharma folk are building their stations next to the island’s phenomena.  The barracks are built on the smoke monster summoner, and the Orchid is built on top of the frozen donkey wheel.  But what is the Swan station built on?  Could it be where the Others buried “Jughead”?  Or is there something else going on there?

“What Lies in the Shadow of the Statue?”

OK, so it took only one week for my thoughts about the Shadow people to be disproven.  They are clearly not working for Widmore, as they wouldn’t countermand him so directly if they were.  The first conclusion you might come to is the idea that they must be working for Ben.  However, I’m not so sure.  Maybe they’re working for neither Ben nor Widmore.  Could they be working for Richard?  Could theyt be operating completely on their own?  Either way, they sure do know a bunch about Miles.  And they almost seem to be genuine in their desire to help him understand the things that have happened to him in his life.  But he takes the low road, and looks for money instead of answers.  (Which, by the way, explains why he asked for the specific dollar amount when he met Ben last season.)  When Miles’ abductor claims that he’s going to be on the winning side, you’re almost inclined to believe him…

“It’s ‘furry fist’…I need a spell-check.”

Hilarious dialogue once again between these two, and the mystery of the episode title is finally revealed.  And if it stays true to form, you realluy have to feel for Miles.  After all, if you haven’t noticed already, this show is largely about people who have issues with their fathers.  Miles, Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Ben, Locke…I mean, it might be easier to list characters who *don’t* have daddy issues.  But what the title might be telling is here is that some folks may actually prefer it that way.  “Some Like It Hoth” may actually mean that some characters prefer to have their relationship with their father mirror the movie that Hoth was in…The Empire Strikes Back.  That maybe Miles would prefer to have his relationship with his father be dysfuntional as opposed to seeing what he can do to work things out, or at least understand him.

Hurley’s subsequent discussion with Miles seems to be what the island is all about: getting redemption.  Be it from the scarred relationship with your father, or any other issue you may bring with you, this island gives you another shot.  Hurley used it to his advantage and made things right with his dad.  Let’s see if Miles (and many of the other people who need to) can go down the same path and find a way to patch things up.

“I know who took the kid.”

How amusing is it that as soon as Jack is able to give Sawyer and Juliet a measure of peace surrounding Ben’s disappearance and the potential fallout it could bring, Sawyer’s inability to cover his own tracks creates a situation even more dire than before.  There’s no coming back from this now.  The ruse is up, and I’m sure the consequences will be played out over the course of the final few episodes of the season.

Miles gives the money back

At this point, we all know just how much Miles likes money.  So what’s the sense of returning all of the cash?  Did he get such a huge amount from Widmore that he doesn’t need it anymore?  Or did he really have a change of heart?  Clearly, the writers are trying to show us (perhaps too blatantly) that Miles does have a heart underneath that tough exterior, and that maybe he will have the ability to reach out and try to understand his father.

By the way, I’d like to say here that I initially didn’t like Miles’ character very much, but that he’s grown on me greatly since we first met him.  It was nice to see a bit more about his backstory, even if it didn’t seem as though there was anything truly relevatory or groundbreaking to it.

“Hey Miles…long time, no see.”

Ah yes, Mr. Faraday!  Long time, no see indeed!  It’s nice to see Daniel back on the island, and it really sets up the excitement and anticipation for the next episode.  Filler time is over, and it’s time to begin building the momentum towards the season finale!

Post-episode questions:

1. Who do the Shadow people work for?  And what might their motives be?
2. What has Faraday been up to all this time, and why did he decide to come back to the island now?
3. How is Sawyer going to cover his tracks now, and should he even try?
4. What is Dharma really up to, and how do they know so much about the island’s mysteries?
5. Did Hurley actually write the script for The Empire Strikes Back? 

No new episode this week, but I expect to drop in and discuss some of this year’s developments with you, to see if we can piece together what’s in store for us in the final few episodes of the season.  Thanks for stopping by!