Additional Season 3 Promo Photos

Thanks to Lyly here are some promo photos that I'd not seed before.

Exposé - Water Cooler Moments

Thanks to Sawyer840 for the video from ABC.

Kiele Sanchez on Kimmel

Thanks to Jay for this video.

The Season 3 Episode League Table

Here is the updated League table to include Exposé.

Note: Exposé is currently the most voted for episode ever with over 4,600 votes to date.

Lost Exposed by J.Wood

Another indepth review of Exposé by the always interesting J.Wood.

In terms of visual symbols, the clear winner for "Exposé" is the Russian doll. This is episode is episodes within an episode, complete with scenes within scenes, undisclosed stories that didn't remain buried for too long, and the two seemingly most disliked characters in the narrative, Nikki and Paulo, having each other's flashbacks. And again, a good bit of audience response was embedded into the dialog.

The Russian doll is a doll within a doll within a doll. Inside the innermost doll were the $8 million worth of diamonds that Zukerman hid — eight seems to be the operative number of the past couple episodes. Nikki and Paulo were pulling a Sawyer/Cooper-sized con by pretending to be an actress and a chef working for television producer Howard Zukerman in Sydney (and in Nikki's case, sleeping with him). Why they targeted Zukerman, we don't yet know. Nikki was guest starring in Zukerman's B-level TV series Exposé, which mirrors title of the episode itself — and is also the show Locke was watching in "The Man from Tallahassee" when he ate his dinner in front of his TV. By the end of "Exposé," we see that the events leading from the Exposé shoot meet up with the events of the "Exposé" episode, and those paralleled events share many narrative threads.

The backstory is a traditional noir story, with a femme fatale setting up a hapless male protagonist in a con for financial gain. The noir flashbacks really only follow the events surrounding Zukerman's diamonds, but those events disclose unknown elements from previous episodes. Noir films are all about the protagonist getting caught in a web of deceit, and the flashbacks knit into previous episodes to form a kind of narrative web that we're now finding ourselves in. You could put a shape to it, giving it a web-like grid.



On the 24th day, Nikki and Paulo, as well as Locke, all take measures to keep their respective hatch finds hidden from the rest; Nikki and Paulo want to protect their stash of diamonds, and Locke wants to protect his seeming sacred destiny with the Swan hatch. On the 49th day, Paulo hides the diamonds that were in the same lake as Kate's case in the Pearl station toilet; while there, Ben and Juliet show up to spy on Jack in the Swan station, and suggest that they'll use Michael to lure Jack. At the end of that same episode is when Michael seemingly communicates with Walt over the computer — this now looks like Ben's work, not Walt's. On the 72nd day, when Nikki and Paulo were first introduced as characters, Paulo's problem in the Pearl station toilet proves to be his retrieving the diamonds, and we now know that this was the moment when all the events leading up to their dual paralysis were set off. Paulo didn't want Nikki or anyone finding the diamonds, so he kept them on himself. These are just a few of the parallels, but along the way, as Paulo gets deeper in his noir web, each flashback links to and develops a previous scene from a previous episode, creating a kind of narrative web (which I've badly represented via a grid). There's one more over-arching link: this was the 14th episode of season three; the theme of every 14th episode of every season to date has been of one individual undermining others through some kind of deceit. In the first season, Walt burnt the raft; in the second season, Ben infiltrated the Lostaways; and here, both Nikki and Paulo jeopardize each other for the diamonds. Each flashback scene is a doll hidden inside another, but like Locke says, things don't stay buried on this island.

The other embedded bit is the audience response, again showing that this narrative is trying to actively engage the Lostologist audience. Sawyer seems as annoyed with Nina and Pablo as many of the fans — "Who the hell are you?" A quick perusal of The Fuselage forums will show just what people thought of these characters before their stories were ever woven back into the narrative. The actor playing Paulo, Rodrigo Santoro, has been called the Brazilian Tom Cruise/Russell Crowe; Zukerman spins this by calling Paulo the Wolfgang Puck of Brazil. The guest appearance by Billy Dee Williams carries forth the internal Star Wars dialog with the audience (Lando Calrissian, the baddest con man this side of Bespin).

But this episode wasn't without its literary references, and those references will work back around to the buried and seemingly dead. Howard Zukerman has an evocative name. We may find out more about him in the future, but there are two Zuckerman references that might be of use. Baron Sol Zuckerman of Great Britain was an anatomist and secretary of the London Zoological Society; during WWII, he studied and assessed bomb impacts on people and buildings. In the 1960s, he served as Britain's chief scientific advisor, and came out against nuclear arms development. He was also a foremost scholar of primate behavior. In his wartime activity, his activism, and his study of primates, we have an individual fit for the Hanso Foundation.

But in literary terms, the name Zukerman also evokes writer Philip Roth's Nathan Zuckerman. Of note is how Zuckerman was originally the fictional autobiographical product of Roth's fictional character Peter Tarnopol in My Life As a Man. In other words, Roth's character was a writer who created an autobiographical character in Nathan Zuckerman. Again we have a kind of dolls-within-dolls self-reflexivity at play, with a story mirroring its creation. Eventually, through his books The Ghost Writer and Zuckerman Unbound, Zuckerman takes over Roth's novels as Roth's alter-ego, rather than Tarnopol's. This is the kind of literary wall-breaking that Flann O'Brien, another writer seen in Lost, did with his novel At Swim-Two-Birds; in both Roth's and O'Brien's books, characters have agency and take over the text. As I've argued here and in my book, and as Damon Lindelof recently acknowledged in a radio interview with WBUR's Tom Ashbrook, we the audience are being scripted into the Lost narrative like characters; "your [the audience's] imagination now becomes a part of this show." As such, we have a kind of agency in this text, not unlike a Zuckerman or the Pookah (tricksters, all of us).

The next literary nod occurs in a flashback when Arzt, frustrated at not being told about the case of guns that Kate has, begins to yell "The pigs are walking! The pigs are walking!" In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the pig Squealer is the first to try walking on his hind legs, putting himself in the position of a human; these pigs are also the ones running the farm. After pronouncing for chapters that all animals were equal, the walking pigs announce "ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS." In its way, that scene echoes the philosopher Mikhail Bakunin's fear that a former dictatorship run by proletarians will become a dictatorship run by former proletarians.

In the scene when Nikki harasses Sawyer for a gun to get after Paulo, the book Sawyer is reading can barely be made out in the corner of the screen, almost as if it wasn't meant to be seen (again, score one for HDTV if you have it). The book is Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun, a near-noirish Hercule Poirot mystery set on an island off Cornwall. The story begins with a beautiful woman who attracts the attention of other men, and forces her husband to stand by and take it. Already we have our Nikki and Paulo parallels. Poirot has to investigate the death of the attractive woman with nothing but too many suspects and seemingly disparate clues. It wouldn't be fair to give away the ending of a potboiler like Christie's book, but suffice to say that Sawyer's being blamed for Nikki's death follows the plot to a point, but then twists it back around, again following the mirror-twinned narrative fashion Lost has come to develop. But the way Poirot has to deal with clues that don't seem to point in the right direction is echoed in how Hurley and the rest try to piece Nikki and Paulo's "death" together, as well as what we in the audience go through as we slowly piece the flashbacks together. Plywood, power lines, Paulo lies, paralyzed.

However, there's another subtextual reference that calls out from under for discussion, Wade Davis's The Serpent and the Rainbow. For some time now, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have been joking about the coming zombies. Davis is an anthropologist and ethnobotanist from Harvard University who in the early 1980s went to Haiti to investigate claims of voodoo zombification. He documented his experiences in his book, which was adapted by Wes Craven into a film in 1988. Davis found that voodoo bokors (witchdoctors) in Haiti concocted a special kind of toxic powder made from, among other things, puffer fish venom. The fish itself has poisonous spines that contain a tetrodotoxin, which is a neurotoxin more poisonous than a black widow's bite, and with no known antidotes. The puffer fish is famous in Japan for fugu, a kind of Japanese Russian Roulette of fish dishes. Only licensed chefs are allowed to prepare fugu, because if it isn't prepared just right, it retains some of its tetrodotoxin and will first paralyze the diner, and can eventually cause death by asphyxiation. Arzt's spider, lactrodectus regina — the (nonexistent) Medusa spider — seems to have the same kind of tetrodotoxic venom. This spider, by the way, points to two points of mythology on the island — another example of Greek mythology (along with Apollo, the Cyclops, Penelope and Cerberus), and the smoke monster. Just before the spiders swarm, the familiar tick of the smoke monster can be heard and Nikki and Paulo look around for the monster. But this time, it seems to have been crawling along the jungle floor.

But back to Davis and zombies: In Davis's account, a bokor would blow some of the powdered venom onto a victim. The powder is so potent that a little on the skin will get into the blood stream and cause paralysis, slowing the heart rate to such a degree the person seems dead. To psychically break the victim, the unlucky sucker is then buried alive, as if he were dead. The bokor knows how long to leave a victim buried — they're no good dead — and will dig up the person for later use. But being buried alive leads to, among other traumas, a lack of oxygen to the brain, which can cause brain damage. Recover the brain-damaged victim from the ground, use some hallucinogens to cement the shock and cause memory loss, and you have yourself a zombie, a living being without will or the capacity for focused thought that is good for little more than slaving in fields.

There is the famous case in Haiti of Clairvius Narcisse, who was seemingly killed over a land dispute in 1962, and zombified. The bokor who zombified Narcisse used the puffer fish venom to fake his death, then dug him up and kept him working at a sugar plantation for the next two years. The bokor had other zombies at a plantation, and he kept his zombies mollified with a hallucinogenic paste made from the datura plant. When the bokor died in 1964, the doses of paste stopped and Narcisse regained his sanity; he then found his way back to his village and proved he was still alive to the very people who buried him (not all zombies are so lucky). From this we have a few things: we know Nikki and Paulo aren't dead, and are now buried alive; if they make it out, will they be terrorized and brain-damaged from lack of oxygen? What then? We also know that Locke has employed a hallucinogenic paste, both to Boone and himself. We have, then, the makings of zombification — things don't stay buried on this island.

(A word of Wikipedia warning: As I was preparing for this post, I was doing some research and came across a post about "Exposé" on Wikipedia. Since the show hadn't aired, I thought it would be speculations and referential name-checks. Wrong — it was the complete plot, with no spoiler warnings in sight. This made viewing the episode a little less than surprising. Caveat exhibitrum!)

Article by J.Wood

Things I Noticed - "Exposé" by Vozzek69

Expose' was a very strange episode - half murder mystery, half 'The Other 48 Days'. I liked parts of it and disliked others. It seemed to create questions that no one really asked (such as what Paulo was doing in the bathroom of the Pearl hatch), then went on to answer those questions all at once. Here are the Things I Noticed:

Previously on Lost???
When I started watching this episode I thought maybe my TiVO had skipped the intro, but actually it hadn't. This was the first episode I can remember where they didn't do a "Previously on LOST" voiceover. There were no past scenes pertaining to the current episode, they just launched right into Nikki running through the jungle. (Unless my TiVO really did miss the intro).

Actually, this makes perfect sense. Nikki and Paulo were never previously on LOST. They were never previously a part of anything, up until this season, and I think the writers and producers realized they'd made a mistake in trying to introduce them. More accurately perhaps, they made a mistake in the way they introduced them.

Killing these characters off so quickly may have been a way for them to atone for this error. If so, you have to give them credit for at least listening to the fans. Having seen Nikki and Paulo from soup to nuts, we now know they truly accomplished nothing. They brought nothing and revealed nothing. They interacted with most main characters yet impacted no one, and they had little or no effect on the storyline. In fact, watching this episode it was almost the opposite: as they stumbled Mr. Magoo-like across the island's deepest mysteries, it's almost like they went out of their way to NOT get involved.

When all is said and done, it's almost as if Nikki and Paulo never existed at all - which is an interesting perspective itself. From the first time we saw them up until the episode they died, the running joke all season has been "Who the hell are you?" so they might be the one thing on the island that will actually stay buried.


Sawyer - Picked Last for Kickball
"I don't have the guns... the A-Team took them all". Funny line, but Sawyer's definitely feeling left out. He's used to being right in the thick of everything, but now he's relegated to grave-digging and playing ping-pong with Hurley. And losing, to boot.

Missing Kate, missing the action, Sawyer's left with nothing to do but don his glasses and read. Although he gains posession of a gun this episode, he doesn't get bullets - a metaphor for how useless he feels while Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Locke are off getting into jungle adventures without him.


The Pigs Are Walking!
Cool Animal Farm reference. A book very akin to Lord of the Flies, but the book references are getting a little too common lately.


The Plane Crash... Now Starring Nikki & Paulo
Sorry, but jamming Nikki and Paulo down our throats this episode just didn't work for me. Superimposing them into the plane crash doesn't legitimize their existence. Breaking out the episode one debris and shooting a few beach scenes doesn't give them the same street cred that everyone else gets for having been there all along. We all felt the hairs stand up on the backs of our necks as Shannon screamed creepily along with the whining of the jet engine... we all winced when flaming debris landed inches away from Charlie. Seeing Nikki and Paulo walk around in the background of these great scenes did nothing but piss me off.

And the part with Locke, right as the guy gets sucked into the jet engine... it didn't jive with me. "Hey you get away from there!" was all Locke said before that guy became the first spectacular casualty of LOST. Locke certainly didn't turn to Nikki in the middle and shout "Get back, get out!" before turning back to jet engine guy - and the season one disc I just watched again proves it. So why would the writers make such a mistake? Were they really that desperate to shove Nikki into the most memorable scenes possible, or was there an even stranger reason behind it?

Boone, Shannon, Ethan, Arntz... it's always cool to see these characters again. Still, because of Nikki and Paulo the whole thing just seemed extremely forced. One interesting thing about the Ethan scene: he actually sends Nikki and Paulo inland, encouraging them deeper into the island. Maybe he wanted the monster to eat them.


Promise Me We'll Never End Up Like Them
Nikki's referring to Boone and Shannon's constant fighting, but loyal LOST viewers know the sinister double-meaning behind this dark statement: Boone and Shannon are dead. For those who missed the more obvious "We all know what happens to guest stars" line, this one pretty much seals the deal for Nikki and Paulo this episode.


Dude Monster... Vincent Dude!
The 'Vincent is the monster' theory has picked up a lot of steam lately, and I'm definitely leaning that way myself. For a while now it seems Vincent has shown up during crucial times only to lead someone into danger or to uncover something weird. He was the 2nd character we saw in the entire show, too - right after Jack. Light dark, black white, good evil? It's early to say, but the word MONSTER was used several times tonight by different people.

However, one thing bothers me. Instead of stirring the pot this episode, Vincent actually (almost) helps Nikki and Paulo by uncovering their 'dead' bodies. If he's just a dog, it makes sense that Vincent would sniff out the fact they're alive way before everyone else on the island would. But going with the theory that he's not a dog, is he doing the island's bidding or is he actually working against the island here?

If the island is punishing anyone at all, Nikki and Paulo deserve the worst of it. Although other characters have committed murder, the poisoning of Zuckermann was probably the most ruthless thing we've seen so far. Ironic justice would be served by them dying in the same manner (poison), and we definitely hear the sound of the monster just as the army of spiders marches up Nikki's leg. Yet Vincent seemed to be trying to prevent their demise by uncovering them - perhaps undermining the island's will.


No Polar Bear Bite, Nothin'
The murder mystery feel to this episode lightened the mood, especially considering that the main detectives were Hurley and Sawyer. I thought this was a pretty unlikely team. Funnily enough, Hurley took on the more serious role of trying to figure things out while Sawyer cracked jokes like "Is there a forensic hatch I don't know about?"

Hurley's new closeness to (respect for?) the island is more and more evident as his character evolution continues. He somehow remembered that Eko's last words of "you're next" were uttered in the presence of Nikki and Paulo. Damn, even I missed that. This is something Hurley never would've figured out one or two seasons ago when he was too busy acting as the comic relief. This episode? He's collecting evidence, tracking down witnesses (Desmond), and reconstructing the crime scene step by step. Go Hurley.


Locke Blows Everyone's $&#^ Up
It was great to see 'old' Locke step all over Paulo's little picnic. It reminded me of the first season, when everything out of Locke's mouth was fascinating and we hung on his every word. "Things don't stay buried on this island". Hells yeah.


Luggage Lake
It's a well-known fact that all luggage jarred out of flight 815's torn fuselage ends up landing in the same lake, under the same two corpses, and that the only way to find it is to strip down and dive from the cliff at the far end. So it was perfectly natural for Nikki to assume, after asking Kate where she found HER case, that she would find the case she and Paulo were looking for in the EXACT same spot.

And of course it's there. Right? :)


Paulo Sucks at Hiding Stuff
Okay, here's a scenario: You have tens of thousands of acres of jungle upon which to hide a small handful of diamonds. Do you pick a unique tree or hillside and dig a nice deep hole? Uh-uh. Locke told you "the island's eroding". A better idea would be to find the one place on the island that actually looks inhabited (working lights, monitors, a bathroom, etc...) and hide the diamonds in the toilet basin. Yes it's a strange furnished hatch in the ground with full plumbing and electric... and yes two minutes after you get there an unknown man and woman show up to watch some TV - but hey that's not the point. The toilet basin is an AWESOME place to hide stuff because no one will EVER look there! Totally kickass.

Watching the timed history of 'The Other 48 Days' last season was awesome. So many little things fit together with what was going on during season one (Boone talking on the radio, etc...) that by the time the episode ended you knew the writers really did a fantastic job making everything click. But not this time. This time was kinda ridiculous.

Paulo and Nikki walk right past the Beechcraft, with no intent on mentioning it to anyone? Far-fetched, but okay. Five seconds later Nikki trips over the Pearl Hatch? Come on. Wouldn't this knowledge have been useful during Jack's "Holy crap the Others are coming to get us and I'm trying to find us a place to hide" speech? Guess Nikki didn't get green-screened into that scene.

I don't usually pick on LOST but there were many details that seemed sketchy this episode. How long has it been since Arntz blew up, yet all his moths and spiders are still flapping and kicking in those glass jars? Please. 'But Vozzek, maybe there were air holes'. Yah. Maybe there were.


Charlie + Sun = Cool Scene
One thing I really did like this episode (aside from Nikki on the stripper pole) was the interaction between Charlie and Sun. Knowing Sun's misconceptions on how close the Others really were might affect decisions they made as a group, Charlie chose to come clean about her abduction. There was a good possibility he might be alienated again, yet Charlie did it anyway. That was pretty cool of him, and I thought that scene was well shot.

Sun defending Sawyer as not being a murderer was important because it shamed him into doing the right thing in the end. And although she struck him out of anger for what he did, I think she and Sawyer shared some unspoken thoughts between them. Telling him the diamonds were 'worthless here' was something Sawyer already knew, but the Sawyer of old would've surely hoarded them away for when they'd be rescued. But he didn't, which leads me to think Sawyer's resigning himself more to fate than to science. He's starting to realize they're probably not ever getting off the island. Sun is too. Together they share that moment.

I also somehow got the feeling that Sawyer dumping the diamonds was important to his survival... as if the island would put a giant boot in his ass if he'd tried to keep them. No real evidence to support this, it was just a gut feeling.


The Others Rulebook
Even Ben seemed out of place this episode, showing an uncharacteristic vulnerability as he revealed his plans to Juliet (and Paulo). I also wasn't sure if Ben hesitated and almost glanced Paulo's way for a second, maybe even noticing him(?)

Ben needs to convince Jack to do the surgery because he needs him to want to do it. For some reason he can't put a gun to Kate's head and make Jack operate... I still believe for things to work out correctly it has a lot to do with free will.

Similarly, it's confirmed the Others couldn't just "grab them" when they wanted to, but rather the 815 survivors "needed to come to them". This is why Klugh let Michael go - although the Others could've probably taken who they wanted at any time, it seemed they needed bait to draw them there willingly. Come to think of it, maybe this is why the whole thing with seizing Claire never worked out right for them (it almost seemed Ethan was acting alone on that one). I still don't know all the "rules" on how this free will thing works, but I'm sticking to it.


He Was The Cobra?!?
Billy Dee Williams turns out to be the Cobra - the big bad guy right in the midst of the good guys all along. This little scene could be really important, especially if we consider the title of the episode: Expose'. The very word means "a public exposure or revelation". Could this mean that someone big (HIM?) is planted right before our eyes, right in the midst of what we consider to be the good guys? "Shrouded in mystery for the last four seasons"?

I think it might. That kind of mind-blowing twist would definitely make a good season finale. I can't imagine who it would be at this point, other than maybe someone we don't know much about - like Danielle. Still, it's something to consider. Whoever it is, I don't think they were exposed by Paulo or Nikki.


Nikki Bad... Paulo Good
In the end, I think Nikki and Paulo were finally distinguished by the way they died. They both died by the same method, but not in the same manner.

Nikki died for her lust for power. Paulo died for his lust for Nikki, and I think that's really the lesser of the two evils. Nikki seemed the more heartless of the two - grabbing the key from her dead boyfriend's neck and orchestrating the whole spider thing. It was obvious she was more interested in the diamonds than in Paulo himself.

If you look at Paulo in that last scene and watch his eyes, I think he was trying to warn Nikki about the spiders. Even though she'd intentionally poisoned him, he was still trying to save her. Maybe in the end he saw some redemption, but not Nikki. The same way she lived was the same way she died.

The last thing I noticed... Hurley's shirt was wayyyyy too dry after covering a 3-foot double grave with all that sand. There wasn't the slightest hint of sweat.

Big catfight next week.

Lost Boss Explains Last Night's Double Demise

That the producers decided to kill off much-maligned castaways Nikki and Paolo on this week's episode may not have been a shock to fans. But how the greedy, murderous pair died provided one of the biggest twists — and thrills — of the season. (After being paralyzed by spider bites, the not-so-dynamic duo were buried alive — albeit unwittingly — by Sawyer and Hurley.) "People hated them before they even opened their mouths to say anything significant because it felt like they were crashing the party," exec producer Damon Lindelof acknowledges of the characters who were abruptly introduced last fall. "The easiest thing would have been to just write them out and forget they ever happened, like the cougar on [Season 2] of 24. But that's not Lost. We should at least own up to it."

Kiele Sanchez wasn't bothered by the criticism directed at Nikki and reveled in going out with a bang, yet wasn't too crazy about filming the burial scene: "I am horribly claustrophobic — I can't even have a blanket over my face — so I didn't have to do a lot of acting. I was genuinely terrified." — Reporting by Shawna Malcom

Source: TV Guide

Exposé - Previously on Lost

TV Guide Scan

TV Q&A: ‘LOST’—JACK BENDER

Thanks to Andreas over at the Lost Blog for finding this very interesting interview with Jack Bender. Here is a small snippet from a much longer article which you can read in full at the link below.

We’ve heard that next year you guys will have a later kickoff in the season to help wrangle some of the scheduling problems early on.

BENDER: That’s the word. Although we haven’t heard officially, the word is it’s going to be more in the formula of “24” and those shows where we come on later and we’re on straight through because everyone was so pissed off that it happened like it did last year. I have to say that our first few episodes…look, any show where you’re doing 23 episodes, it’s difficult to keep the bar as high as we keep it on every single episode, and certain episodes will satisfy the mythology sci-fi people and certain episodes, like the Hurley episode that was just on, will satisfy the feel-good people who just want our people back on the beach triumphant. So every episode isn’t going to satisfy everyone, but in order to keep the bar up, we certainly feel like the episodes this year have been good, even though the rap critically was that they were inconsistent, the first six.

I think one of the reasons we ended up getting hit with that was that a lot of it was the fact that we only had six and then we were off, which meant they could only look at those six. So there is no question that that idea was not a great idea. The network, ABC and other networks are scrambling these days, I think, figuring out how to keep their audience, how to keep the television business going because these shows are expensive. And even though they sell worldwide and we’re the biggest show in the world in terms of worldwide sales and all of that, they no longer have to wait for a hundred episodes to syndicate. But it’s still the network game and advertisers and ratings and the demographics still kind of rule everything.

So next year…that was a long way of saying that the plan next year is for us to come on later and to go straight through, and I think that’ll be probably good for everybody.

Source: Wizard Entertainment - Full Article

DarkUFO Widgets for your website

Here are 3 Widgets that will allow you to put the Latest News, Spoilers and Screencaps on your own site, blog, Myspace page etc. If you would like any other widgets created from the site please email me or leave a comment.

Spoilers

Latest News

Screencaps

Sky One Podcast for The Man from Tallahassee

Rodrigo Santoro in Star Magazine

LOST: THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE #10

Thanks to Lyly for the scan.

TV’s hottest couple are Lost Magazine’s cover stars this issue as Evangeline Lilly and Josh Holloway talk romance, Season 3, and beyond! The writers reveal their plans for the shocking Season 3 finale, and co-creator Damon Lindelof answers fan questions. Plus, order the Previews exclusive cover before they are "lost" forever!
Amazon

Source: Lost Official Magazine

Lost gets a new Dog - Meet Pono

Pono, a yellow Labrador retriever who spends much of his time in the Diamond Head area and on the waves off Waikiki, is about to become a star. But it's not likely to affect his already comfortable life.

The 22-month-old dog will be featured in flashback scenes in Wednesday's episode of "Lost," according to his owner, Virginio "Marcus" Marcos.

Marcos proudly reported that Pono completed all of his scenes in one or two takes, with little effort. Members of the crew erupted in cheers when Pono finished his tasks successfully. And of course, everyone loved him. "He's like this ambassador of aloha," said Marcos.

No wonder. At Marcos' Diamond Head Cove Health Bar, Pono greets everyone who walks in and is especially fond of -- and patient with -- children. He also happens to be an excellent surfer, taking to the waves on Marcos' 12-foot-6 board.

Marcos keeps the board leash tied to Pono's harness, but both have their limits. "If we eat it three times real good, then we go in," said Marcos, who wants to make sure Pono always feels comfortable in the ocean.

Because the dog weighs 90 pounds, Marcos usually encourages Pono to swim next to the board all the way to the beach after a surf session.

Pono also has considerable math skills, which he was happy to show off last week (for a treat, of course).

Marcos wrote 12 divided by 3 on a piece of paper and held it in front of Pono, who promptly barked four times. Marcos also hid a pen, water bottle and towel, then asked Pono to retrieve them one at a time, by name. Then he wrote out the word "Kamehameha," and asked Pono how many letters were in the word. Tail wagging, Pono barked 10 times.

Apparently, the folks at "Lost" enjoy the Health Bar's wholesome fare, and that's where they discovered Pono. Though Marcos could not reveal any plot lines, he hinted that Pono might be asked to return.

Maybe one of these days, they'll find a role for Pono's little buddy and constant companion, a chocolate Lab puppy named Hone.

Source: Star Bulletin

New Lost clip show

Thanks to ChristaMC for the info here about a new Lost Clip show which will air before the Season 3 Finale.

“Lost: Clip Show” (working title) is scheduled to air as a one time only telecast on Wednesday, May 23, 2007 in the 8:00 - 9:00 PM ET/PT time period.

8:00 - 9:00 PM Eastern/Pacific
7:00 - 8:00 PM Central

Source: ABC

Taking everything at face value

UPDATE: 26th March - I thought it was about time I updated this.


Sometime us Lost fans are accused of reading too much into everything and always looking for the unexpected. My friend said to me to think about "Occam's Razor" - All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one. So I thought OK, lets look at Lost by taking everything at face value that we "know".

So help me compile a list of things that on face value appear true.

Note: This does NOT include any spoilers or info from the Lost Promos/Trailers etc

- There are 2 Islands
- The Others appear to have no children
- The Others do not possess super-human abilities
- The Plane crashed by accident/Desmond
- Penny is looking for Desmond
- The Magnetic anomaly has been terminated on the Island
- Desmond has some pre-cognative abilities
- The Island is on Earth
- The smoke monster is NOT of this world
- Eko, Shannon, Boone, Ana-Lucia and Libby are all dead.
- Jacks dad is dead.
- The others have contact with the outside world
- The outside world still exists
- Jae-Lee is the father of Sun's child
- The Swan really did have a purpose
- The monster can take the form of people and things from someones past
- There is no sickness
- Walt has special powers
- There are 2 groups of others
- Kelvin is dead
- Jae-Lee committed suicide
- The Polar bears were on the island as part of the Dharma animal experiments
- The island healed Rose's cancer and Locke's legs
- Sawyer has a daughter called Clementine
- Radzinsky killed himself
- Rousseau really has been there 16 years, and her crew really died. She is not an other
- The Swan hatch is gone
- The question mark is The Pearl Station
- The others "camp" from last season is fake, including the "Door" station
- Ben did not mean to be captured
- The glass eye belongs to the man with the patch
- Someone drops Food and other Supplies on the Island
- The Others know about Walt's special abilities
- The Others want children
- The Bearing of 325 is the way to leave the Island
- The Monster can take other forms.
- The Dharma Initiative failed.
- The "Button" actually DID something.
- The Pearl Station's tube was a hoax.
- The Island exists in the real world in 2004
- There were people on the Island before DHARMA came
- Ben is Alex's adopted father
- Karl has been brainwashed
- The Others killed Juliet's ex-husband Edmund
- Juliet injections caused Rachel to become pregnant
- Mittelos was just a ruse to get Juliet to the Island
- There is a cable that runs between both islands.
- The Others have not been able to return to the outside world since the sky turned purple.
- The horse that Kate saw was real.
- Ethan was able to come and go from the island to the "real world."

- Locke blew the sub up
- Jack and Claire have the same father
- Anthony Cooper is really on the Island
- Mikhail is Dead
- Jack made a deal and was leaving the Island
- Jacob is the overall leader of the Others
- Locke's actions blew up The Flame
- The Others are prepared to die rather than reveal their true purpose
- The Purge was real
- Paulo and Nikki are dead

Last Update: 26th March 2007

The Man From Tallahassee : Behind the Scenes

Originally posted in the spoilers section.

The Man From Tallahassee - Ratings

Jumping from its lead-in by 6.9 million viewers (12.0 million vs. 5.1 million) and by 136% in young adults (5.2/14 vs. 2.2/6), “Lost” won Wednesday’s 10 o’clock hour across the adult demographics. Despite CBS’ decided lead-in advantage coming into the hour from “Criminal Minds,” ABC’s “Lost” defeated CBS’ “C.S.I.: NY” by substantial margins across each of the adult demographics: AD18-34 +68% (4.7/14 vs. 2.8/8), AD18-49 +27% (5.2/14 vs. 4.1/11) and AD25-54 +10% (5.7/14 vs. 5.2/13). In fact the ABC drama has won its hour in the key Adult 18-49 sales demographic on all 7 telecasts since entering in its new time slot.

“Lost” was up from the prior week among Adults 18-34 (4.7/14 vs. 4.6/14) and Women 18-34 (5.1/14 vs. 5.0/14).

“Lost” grew the time period for ABC from the same night last year by 2.9 million viewers and 53% in Adults 18-49 (9.1 million & 3.4/9 on 3/22/06).

Source: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate Ratings)

SEZON TUMANOV - Season of the Fogs

This is something I posted a while ago but as I'm looking at books with connections/parallels to Lost I thought I would repost it.

As someone who has followed both LOST, the TV show, and LOST the internet phenomenon , it has always intrigued me when possible new influences are found by the loyal and resourceful masses. This is one that caught my eye more than most as some of the parallels are very striking.

The following book "SEZON TUMANOV", The Season of the Fogs, has been brought to the attention of various LOST fan sites and I thought it would be good to share what has been found so far.

Here are just some of the similarities.

1) A group of 14 students disappear on the planet Reana.
2) Rotanov, an inspector, who was sent to find the students, finds out that there are people living on the planet who no one knew about called "The Singularities".
3) The planet has a changeable electromagnetic field.
4) From time to time the electromagnet falls into time gaps and when it comes back to the normal time it brings something back with it.
5) Inspector Rotanov finds out that "The Singularities" were known for kidnapping kids.
6) Rotanov finds out that the planet was an alien-experiment that failed. So after the aliens left, the mechanism for time-traveling has changed the electromagnetic field of the planet.
7) On the planet they have "Seasons of Fog", The SEZON TUMANOV. These are crawling shapes of grey smokes, which are capturing the people, putting them to sleep or turning them into "The Singularities".
8) The people are protecting themselves by building underground hatches with hard doors.

You can read the book in it's full Russian here.If anyone has any further information on this book please let me know.

The Season 3 Episode League Table

As most of you are aware, after each episode we run a "What did you think of ..." Poll. I thought it would be interesting to collate all the results and to publish them as a league table. I'll be updating this table each week. So far we've had over 25,000 votes across the episodes and the rating is an average rating with Awesome = 5 and Awful= 1

Any of the results surprise you?

Locke's Unlucky Episode by J. Wood

Another indepth review of The Man from Tallahassee by the always interesting J.Wood.

Now we know. Locke's back was broken after his father knocked him out of an eighth story window.

The thirteenth episode of the third season, "The Man from Tallahassee" — the unlucky episode for Locke — gathers more narrative threads together than it introduces. This episode shows us why Jack seemed comfortable with the Others (he was promised passage off the island), raises the point of why some people are rapidly healed on the island while others aren't (Ben's surgery isn't healing too quickly), let us in on both Locke and Ben's motivations, and we now know how Locke ended up in that wheelchair. Every moment in that chair must have been a reminder of being rejected by his father three times, each more violently than the previous. And this episode is fraught with narrative mirror twinning and audience manipulation (and I mean that in the best sense possible).

The literary/philosophical references of this episode occur mainly in the names. Ben's room is littered with books, but almost none of them can be made out (although Lostpedia claims Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time can be seen, which brings us back to "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and the ideas of time warps and wormholes on the island). The most significant play of names is between John Locke and Anthony Cooper. John Locke the 17th C. empirical philosopher was retained by Anthony Cooper, the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, and was mentor to Anthony Cooper, the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, who became a somewhat prominent philosopher in his own right. As echoed in Lost, Locke the philosopher was retained by the elder Cooper when he helped Cooper with a surgery on his liver (something which the poet John Dryden teased Cooper about in his writings; apparently Cooper had to wear a silver tap to drain his liver, and since Dryden didn't approve of Cooper's politics, he teased Cooper about his tap). Cooper the philosopher was also a deist and Neoplatonist who believed, much as Locke, that people were not born bad, and the natural state of man was not warfare (contra Hobbes). He understood the person to be a mess of competing appetites which had to be brought into balance. His ideas were really only collected in his book Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (which Powell's has an early edition of for $450); this book influenced thinkers like Immanuel Kant, who in turn was strongly rejected by last week's Ayn Rand. The 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury is very much a kind of mirror-twin to the Anthony Cooper of Lost; Shaftesbury pushed the idea of an innate moral sense imbued in every person, and argued that morality could be calculated in an almost mathematical sense. The Cooper of Lost calculates his immorality in an almost mathematical sense; he enters relationships only when there is profit to be had, nothing more. Whereas the Cooper of history worked towards social harmony, the Cooper of Lost manipulates for self-benefit.

And manipulation is the key to this episode: Ben, the seeming leader of the tribe, is a master manipulator. But as I argue in the book, the audience is as much a part of this narrative as the characters, so when a character is being manipulated, we can watch our own backs too. When Locke visits the disability case worker in his flashback, we assume he's in the wheelchair, partly because he's sitting and we can't see if the chair is there or not. It's a bit of a reversal of what we saw in Locke's outback flashback when we first find he was in a wheelchair — a narrative mirror twin. But this time, we learn his disability is severe depression after being rooked of his kidney. That's the first clue that this episode is going to play with our expectations and predetermined assumptions. There are the little manipulations — Jack playing the piano (Charlie's domain), Richard Alpert first hinted at in the noir scene through the closet slats and showing up at the end (Ram Dass will be back), Kate being told by Jack, "I'm not with anyone, Kate," (so much for the relationships). Where things get interesting are the scenes that play with audience attention. Locke at the disability official's desk and its mirror-twinned scene from "Walkabout" are both moments where Locke was at his weakest in front of people of authority. Cooper pours Locke some MacCutcheon whisky, which we saw in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" was named for Admiral MacCutcheon. Admiral MacCutcheon was also a character from ABC's television version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Bear with this one: Verne also wrote Around the World in 80 Days, a travel tale that employs a Henry Gale-like hot air balloon. This is their 80th day on the island, and Locke comes around full circle (around the world) in facing his fate on the island, deciding to destroy the submarine in order to remain on the island, and whole. Locke entering the submarine recalls Locke going down the Swan hatch at the end of the first season episode "Exodus," but this time he's controlling the destiny of the machine, rather than having his destiny controlled by the machine. When Locke looks down at his feet after being dropped into the wheelchair, the scene is a mirror twin to the pilot episode, where Locke looks at his feet after the crash and realizes he can feel them. Locke strung up in the boiler room at Otherville is a mirror-twinned image of Ben being strung up in the Swan station armory. Ben in the wheelchair is a mirror-twinned image of Locke off the island, and in many ways Ben is also a man of science while Locke is the man of faith. But Ben is manipulating Locke better than Anthony Cooper could have, and as such is a kind of mirror-twin figure of Cooper to Locke. The final scene of this episode, when Ben explains his gambit of using Locke to keep Jack on the island in order to not look weak to his people, is chess-like in its strategy, and the way Ben predicted Locke's reactions and moves was Desmond-like in its prescience. Locke won the chess match in the Flame station, but lost the one against Ben.

Yet Ben says two particular things that bring the audience right back into play. In these two instances, what he says has direct relevance to both Locke and the way the audience interacts with the narrative. The first is occurs in Ben's kitchen, when he explains to Locke that if Locke blows up the submarine, he'll have a problem with his people. As much as his people love the island, he explains, they need to know they can leave it, and the sub "maintains that illusion" (which suggests they can't really leave the island). Ben's people — much as the audience itself — is there on the island because they want to be, but haven't necessarily made a full commitment yet. One of the major topics on websites like LOSTCasts, The Fuselage and Lostpedia is Lost's ratings, and how the thirty-some million audience members dropped by about half in the third season. Many of the grumpier responses to the complexities of the mythology reflected a desire for more traditional television faire, where an episode was self-contained and the threads were tied up more neatly than we were getting. Others complained that there wasn't enough focus on the relationships, while still others complained there was too much focus on the relationships. The scheduling issues didn't help matters. But Lost isn't like any other television narrative we've experienced, and as I've argued all along, it should be read more like a hybrid novel/game than a standard television show. That takes some effort; ask your friends who are familiar with the show, but found that when they missed an episode or two, the work it takes to catch up is almost prohibitive. If they get back into it, they have to wait for the DVDs to come out so they can spend a weekend crashing through the past episodes. Furthermore, the demographic where Lost still wins is in the 18-40-somethings; this is the generation who grew up with computers, video games, and their participatory narratives, and they're a much smaller population than the baby boomers (who make up the majority of the television-watching demographic). The attention the first season garnered could be likened to the attention a car wreck or side show gets; it was a strange phenomenon that caused many people to rubberneck over to ABC on Wednesdays to see what was going on. When more was asked of those people than they were willing to give, the audience thinned some, and even split into camps — those who devoured the complexity, and those who wanted little to do with it. That's not unlike what happened with modernist literature like William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying or James Joyce's Ulysses (and certainly Finnegans Wake, and possibly with their experimental inheritor David Foster Wallace), a phenomenon noted in the post for "Stranger in a Strange Land". But as Ben says, for those who stay (like Locke, who's made the commitment), he can show you "things you want to see very badly."

The other such double-meta-moment came with Ben's box metaphor. There's the link back to Hurley's flashback in the first season episode "Numbers"; when Hurley told Leonard Simms he played the lottery with the numbers, Leonard tells him he shouldn't have done that because he "opened the box." The box idea recalls the notion of the Skinner box experiments that were the Swan and Pearl stations (at least to an extent). Ben describes his box as a thing that contains imagination. In the second season episode "Man of Science, Man of Faith," Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman is shown on Desmond's bunk (another one of those narratively complex modernist novels). In that book, the protagonist opens a box he thinks contains money, but instead contains something called omnium, a substance that's at the root of everything and can be anything one desires. This sounds very similar to Ben's box, and omnium operates in a similar way to the stomping smoke that manifests as Yemi, horses, Christian Shephard, and possibly Anthony Cooper on the island (unless you think Ben really has Locke's father). But what other boxes would the audience be familiar with that contain imagination? The boxes we use to engage this narrative — television sets and computers. The television is the box that contains just about anything we could imagine, and in many cases shapes the contours of our collective imagination. It certainly has with Lost. The computer is the box where the audience goes to imagine theories about the show, and stray into the matrix of links and information that drive the audience's collective imagination about the show. Ben's box metaphor, like his talk of commitment to the island, breaks that fourth dramatic wall and steps into the world of the audience.

Of course this isn't the first time that's happened. Whenever the writers acknowledge audience response in the narrative, the fourth wall is busted. The alternate reality game was all about breaking down that wall, which was marked by a television commercial for the Hanso Foundation that appeared during station breaks. When that fourth dramatic wall is dropped, the audience becomes a character — we're literally scripted into a show that's structured like a game, invited to actively participate in solving its mystery. The mirror-twin shot looking down the hatch of the submarine/the Swan station is an homage to the game Myst, letting us know that this is more than just television. As a game, as a narrative that the audience actively participates in by using these boxes that contain imagination, Lost may very well be the most massive video game ever played.

Article by J.Wood

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Thanks to Charles for alerting me to this.

Roadside Picnic is a science fiction short novel written in 1971 by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, published in 1972 and since deemed a classic. The film Stalker directed by Andrei Tarkovsky is loosely based on the novel. The authors later wrote the novel Stalker, in turn loosely based on the film.

Aliens have visited the Earth, and departed, leaving behind a number of artifacts of their incomprehensibly advanced technology. The places where such artifacts were left behind are areas of great danger, known as "Zones." The Zones are laid out in a pattern which suggests that they resulted from the impact of an influence from space which struck repeatedly from the same direction, striking different places as the Earth rotated on its axis.

A frontier culture arises along the margins of these Zones, peopled by "stalkers" who risk their lives in illegal expeditions to recover these artifacts, which do not obey known physical laws. The most sought one, the "golden sphere", is rumored to have the power to fulfill the deepest human wishes.

The name of the novel derives from a metaphor proposed by the character Dr. Valentin Pilman, who compares the visit to a roadside picnic. After the picnickers depart, nervous animals venture forth from the adjacent forest and discover the picnic garbage: spilled motor oil, faded unknown flowers, a box of matches, a clockwork teddy bear, balloons, candy wrappers, etc. He concludes that humankind finds itself in a situation similar to that of the curious forest animals.

WIKI Entry
Amazon Entry

Things I Noticed – "The Man From Tallahassee" by Vozzek69

WOW. Just WOW. The episodes keep getting better and better, and this week was no exception. Here are the things I noticed:

Previously on LOST...
The first thing I couldn't help but notice was that my manifestation theory might be a little more popular after this week. :) For those who haven't read it, it's been in the THEORIES section of Dark's site for almost a year now. Here's the link:

http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2006/08/thoughtdreambelief-manifestations.html


The Jack & Juliet Show
Seemed to me that the whole Jack/Juliet happy afternoon have a good night thing was a big farce. To say they were bait for the incoming rescue party might be giving the Others a little too much credit, but by the time the episode ended I realized that's exactly what they were (whether they understood it or not). Once again Ben gets credit for being one step ahead of just about everyone, and you'd be a fool to believe he didn't know about Sayid and Kate way before Mr. Friendly showed up in his bedroom to tell him.

Right before Jack shook Ben's hand however, I thought I saw a bright red tattoo on the inside of Jack's forearm. Was that always there? I also thought Sayid's glance at Kate (while she was viewing Jack with Juliet) was pretty telling. Kate's jealous.


Danielle IS Weak
Mikhail was dead on about her. Once again Danielle fades back into the jungle just as things get interesting, and I'm still sure she's no coward. Danielle fears facing the fact that Alex is alive even more than she fears not having her daughter in her life. This is a struggle she would have to overcome all on her own... except for what Sayid did this episode. With the seeds of doubt now planted over her mom being alive, at this point I think Alex will make the first move. She'll take the ball out of Danielle's court.


Apparently Locke Didn't Go Back for the Money
Seeing Locke's run-down apartment and need for benefits, I guess that answers that question. And with Cooper still scamming people, maybe he didn't go back for the money either. Which means some chambermaid got a GIANT tip.

Locke initially lying to the woman's son seemed strange, until you realize he wanted to handle everything himself. Bad move once again, because pre-island Locke couldn't handle boiling an egg. I noticed some strange glyphs on the TV tray Locke ate his dinner off of, with the number '40' written in the middle. Not sure any of that planted stuff means much at this point, but I guess someone will decypher it.


What Submarine?
You have to hand it to Ben. Even woken up at gunpoint in the middle of the night he still manages to put on an Academy Award-winning performance to convince an ever-skeptical Locke that what he's "choosing" to do is his own design. Even with Alex flat-out telling Locke that her father is tricking him into doing what he wants, Ben's plan still goes off without a hitch. Unbelievable. And even if you give Ben less credit and assume he didn't know Locke was going to waltz in there with a pack of C4 wanting to blow up the sub, he still manages to both get the explosives back without question AND send a guide along with him to show Locke exactly where the sub is. Crazy quick thinking or insane planning ahead, Ben is NOT to be messed with.


The Others Have a Kickass Rec Room
Pool table, pinball machines, and a really nice fooseball table? Can you really blame Jack? I mean come on.

Watching the whole Jack/Kate scene, I think we're meant to be shocked by so completely 'out of character' Jack's being. In truth though, he's really not. Of course Jack's not with the Others - in his own words, he's not 'with' anyone. When Jack emerged from that dreary cell to find Kate and Sawyer's naked cage romp, something inside him broke. His will to stay was completely destroyed.

"The first time I saw Jack he was risking his life pulling people out of burning airplane wreckage" (Locke's words). That Jack is long gone now. The old Jack thrived on leading, helping, healing, and caring about everyone on the island. Since the beginning he's gotten nothing but headache and heartache from it, and it's now a lot easier to just push all that away. Jack wanted his plan to free Kate and Sawyer to be the last thing he owed them. After that he was indebted to no one and could leave the island with a clean slate. Kate showing up this episode was like twisting a knife in an existing wound.

It was funny how Kate went from complete incredulity over Jack's attitude to sudden comprehension that Jack knew about her and Sawyer. Her facial change as she realized this was priceless. "What did they tell you?", she stammers... and then Juliet walks in. Now that Jack's still stuck on the island, the dynamic between him and Kate (not to mention Sawyer and Juliet) is going to be very interesting.


Kids Kids Kids
The writers showed us a swingset last episode, but this time they hit us over the head with it by chaining Sayid to it. The Others must have kids around, right? Nah. I'm still not buying it. I know it was dark, but the swingset just felt pretty unused to me. I think it was all for show. I still believe the children are someplace (sometime?) else, simply because I think children have the potential to be more dangerous than adults on this island.

And when Kate asks Jack about the people/kids the Others took, he answers simply with "they're safe". Although Jack physically 'saw' the kids a couple of episodes ago, that answer sounded contrived. It sounded like an answer Ben would give.


We Have Two Giant Hamsters Running a Massive Wheel in Our Secret Underground Lair
This was the best line of the week, but the conversation that followed here was the real meat and potatoes of this episode. Not only was a huge secret of the island finally revealed, but we also see a giant hole in Ben's seemingly impenetrable armor: he doesn't have total control.

It turns out that the island CAN manifest things, and it works exactly as I've always thought it would - on the thoughts of those who inhabit it. The box analogy was for Locke's benefit, but in short the thoughts, dreams, desires, and fears one might have can be physically realized by the 'place' on the island (interesting the way Ben put that).

This is extremely powerful knowledge, but Ben confides the secret of the island to Locke for several reasons. First, Locke's "commitment is genuine" and Ben knows he's got no desire to leave. This puts the two of them in the same boat, so to speak. Ben also recognizes that Locke already has a kinship with the island that, at this point in time, might even surpass his own. Finally, Ben needs to learn from Locke. If Locke has knowledge of how the island works that Ben does not, he needs to gain that knowledge. Especially now.

The really awesome part of this scene was how nonchalant Locke was about everything. Ben's really not telling him anything new here - since season one Locke's known that this place is very special. In fact, Locke is angry at Ben because he is abusing the very purity of the island's gifts. He uses its power to make himself comfortable with electricity and running water... in Locke's eyes he's 'cheating', just as his father cheated everyone he came into contact with. Locke shames Ben. "If you had any idea what this place was, you wouldn't be putting chicken in your refrigerator!" Ouch, man. Locke takes a proverbial crap over Ben's whole house, his lifestyle, and his leftover chicken. Then he punches him square in the face with "That's why you're in a wheelchair... and I'm not".

As awesome a character as Ben is, it was enormously satisfying to finally see someone get the upper hand on him. Ben is totally astonished here, maybe for the first time ever. How could Locke be there only 80 days, and yet know more about the island than Ben does having lived there his whole life?

The answer of course, is that Ben has lost sight. Living in comfort, Ben's lost his own communion with the island. Of all people, Locke knows the penalty of straying from the island's set path. When Boone lost interest in helping Locke enter the hatch, Locke lost faith and the island punished him temporarily by taking his legs away. The island then sacrificed Boone to show Locke the penalty for going against the flow. Locke understood this lesson immediately. Locke understands more than Ben gives him credit for.

Still, the island DID provide a spinal surgeon to save Ben's life. Whatever its agenda truly is, the island must still need its favorite son for something. And as Ben struggles to learn the secrets of how the island 'works', he believes the answers must lie within those who are closest to it. Walt, Locke... maybe even Rose.

Finally, if we accept that the island can manifest things based upon thoughts (and I think we've seen evidence that belief plays a major role too), those with the most vivid imaginations would be the most powerful and dangerous. And which group does this apply to the most? The children. Children believe in everything, from monsters to aliens to Santa Claus. I think this is why the others took the children first. This is why they isolated them who-knows-where.


Fool Me Once, Shame on You. Fool Me Three Times? I'm a Gullible Moron.
Pre-island Locke was an angry sucker. This episode marks the third time Cooper has gotten the best of him. It's almost unbelievable how stupid Locke is, confronting his dad yet again, knowing that any encounter he has with him can only end in pain and deceit. And this one ended by answering the question we've all been anxiously waiting for: how the hell did Locke get paralyzed?

The sudden shove and 8-story fall was awesome. The filmmakers did an incredible job with it. I was expecting it and it was STILL shocking - the music change, the rush of it all, and especially the crunching sound Locke's spine made when he hit the ground. That moment had a lot of hype to live up to, and I think it pulled it off.

The bottle of scotch Cooper drank was McCutcheon's, but by this point I hope no one is surprised to see this. The island has a limited amount of brand names to work with, and then everything else gets labeled 'Dharma'. More evidence to what I said last week, that the island is messing with the flashbacks.


Stars, Subs, and Time
Ben tells Locke that since the anomoly, 'no one will find this island'. Yet even before the sky turned purple, way back in season two, Ben said 'God can't see this place'. I've always thought the island was unreachable, at least by normal means, and I think faith and belief is the only way to gain access to it. Unless of course, the island itself wants you there.

Still, I believe Ben when he says he's recruited people to the island (Richard, Juliet, etc...) I also think he keeps his people in the dark about a good many things. The phantom 'food drop', the sub, the 'contact with the outside world' - these are all illusions to keep his people from realizing that they're really LOST. Maybe some of them have made the big commitment he talks about, but to others it's nothing more than a job. The big question though: What exactly does Ben need these people for?

Watch the scene where Ben's staring at the photos of young Alex on the wall of his room. He's not looking at the photos, he's looking at the clock. In watching the clock, you'll see it changes time several times througout the scene. Right at the part where Alex hands the pack over to Locke, the clock goes from 12:40-ish to about 4:13. It might change during the scene where Jack shows up also, I didn't check.

With one huge mystery of LOST revealed, the other big mystery we need to solve is the one involving time. Maybe the clock in Ben's room means something. Maybe the star chart on the wall means something too. Maybe the writers just like to mess with our heads. In any event, the time anomolies are something we're bound to see more of in the future. Remember the producers during season one: "We never said WHEN flight 815 crashed". More ammo for the argument that they've planned this all along.


The Man From Tallahassee
The final scene of the show was awesome. Locke seeing his father in that chair really cemented everything Ben had been saying. Up until that point there would be non-believers who would throw the whole 'magic box' thing over their shoulders as something Ben lied about to mess with Locke. But not after seeing the man from Tallahassee.

Who knows how long ago Locke inadvertently manifested his dad. The point is that upon stumbling across the man from Tallahassee, Ben immediately knew who was responsible for him. This made Locke a very important commodity to Ben, which may be why he came looking for him in season two. Which would make Cooper cooped up for a pretty long while.

Incredible episode.

Lost Horizon

I was sent some info by Erick about a film called Lost Horizon, I looked it up and discovered it was based on a novel by the same name. I was interested to see a number of resemblances between it and Lost.

Overview
Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love, and a sense of purpose in Shangri-La, a utopian lamasery high in the Himalayas in Tibet, whose inhabitants enjoy longevity. Among the book's themes is the allusion of the possibility of another cataclysmic world war brewing, as indeed it was. It is said to have been inspired at least in part by accounts of travels in Tibetan borderlands, published in the National Geographic by the explorer and botanist Joseph Rock. The remote communities he visited, such as Muli, show many similarities to the fictional Shangri-La. One such town, Zhongdian, has now officially renamed itself as Shangri La (Chinese: Xianggelila) because of its claim to be the inspiration for the novel.


Story
The origin of the eleven numbered chapters of the novel is explained in a prologue and epilogue, whose narrator is a neurologist.

This neurologist and a novelist friend, Rutherford, are given dinner at Tempelhof, Berlin, by their old school-friend Wyland, a secretary at the British embassy. A chance remark by a passing airman brings up the topic of Hugh Conway, a British consul in India, who disappeared under odd circumstances. Later in the evening, Rutherford reveals to the narrator that, after the disappearance, he discovered Conway in a French mission hospital in Chung-Kiang [probably Chongqing], China, suffering from amnesia. Conway recovered his memory and told Rutherford his story, then slipped away again.

Rutherford wrote down Conway's story; he gives the manuscript to the neurologist, and that manuscript becomes the heart of the novel.

In May, 1931, during the British Raj, owing to a revolution, the 80 white residents of Baskul are being evacuated to Peshawur. In the airplane of the Maharajah of Chandrapore are Conway, the British consul, age 37; Mallinson, his young vice-consul; an American, Bernard; and a British missionary, Miss Brinklow. The plane is flown instead over the mountains to Tibet. After a crash landing, the pilot dies, but not before telling the four (in Chinese, which Conway knows) to seek shelter at the nearby lamasery of Shangri-La.

The four are taken there by a party directed by Chang, a postulant at the lamasery who speaks English. The lamasery has modern conveniences, like central heating, and bathtubs from Akron, Ohio; a large library; a grand piano; and food from the fertile valley below. Towering above is Karakal, "Blue Moon," a mountain more than 29 000 feet high.

Mallinson is keen to hire porters and leave, but Chang politely puts him off. The others eventually decide they are content to stay: Miss Brinklow, to teach the people a sense of sin; Bernard, because he is really Chalmers Bryant, wanted by the police for stock fraud, and because he is keen to develop the gold-mines in the valley; Conway, because the contemplative scholarly life suits him.

Conway is given an audience with the High Lama, an unheard-of honor. He learns that the lamasery was constructed in its present form by a Jesuit named Perrault from Luxembourg, in the early eighteenth century. The lamasery has since then been joined by others who have found their way into the valley. Once they have done so, their aging slows; if they then leave the valley, they will age quickly, and die. The High Lama is Perrault.

A seemingly young Manchu woman, Lo-Tsen, is another postulant at the lamasery; she does not speak English, but plays the piano. Conway and Mallinson fall in love with her.

In a later audience, the High Lama says that he is finally dying, and that he wants Conway to lead the lamasery. Meanwhile, Mallinson has arranged to leave the valley with porters, and Lo-Tsen, who are five miles outside. He cannot travel the dangerous five miles by himself. Conway agrees to go along.

Source: WikiPedia

The Man from Tallahassee - Key Moments

LOST Season 4 confirmed

Good news for the fans, bad news for all the dolts who thought Lost was getting cancelled. Thanks to t_fremming for the heads up.

ABC Television Network today announced fourteen early pick-ups for the 2007-08 season for new breakout series Brothers & Sisters, Men In Trees, and Ugly Betty, as well as returning hits The Bachelor, Boston Legal, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Grey's Anatomy, Jimmy Kimmel Live and Lost. The announcement was made by ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson at the March Development Meeting in Los Angeles. These series join previously announced America's Funniest Home Videos, Supernanny and Wife Swap, which have also been renewed for the 2007-08 season.

Source: ABC

The Hugo Cup - Vote for DarkUFO

Some kind soul has entered my site into the Hugo Cup, an awards for LOST Web sites.

If you like my site and can spare 2 mins please consider giving me a vote :)

http://www.execute.tv/index/week/&category=HugoCup

Cheers

New Media Mentions Section launched

I'm pleased to announce that I've just opened up a new Media Mentions section of the site. in which we will try to post new and interesting Lost related content from magazine and online sources. This part of the site is run by myself along with my team of Lyly Ford and Sawyer840. If you would like to join the Media gathering team just send me an email darkufo@ntlworld.com.

Latest Ratings show LOST is Found

Nice little article written by my friend Jon Lachonis from BuddyTV and The Tailsection.

Ever since LOST returned an hour later, a move ABC knew would result in a ratings decline (how couldn't they?), the internet has been on fire with journalists and bloggers using the show's title to denote its status. It has been plain fashionable to bash LOST, everyone from major newspapers to respected online e-zines like Zap2it have gotten into the ring to take a few wild swings at the show that once dominated like no other. There is just one thing wrong with the logic, and I'm repeating myself here for very good reason. ABC knew LOST would lose viewers with the time slot change, but it just didn't matter.

Despite the loss of around four-million hard core viewers that found the new time slot to be a little too late for them, LOST has brought more new viewers to the Wednesday 10pm est time slot than any other show of recent memory. Forget CSI. I said 'new' viewers, and for those keeping score LOST finally succeeded in beating CSI to dominate 10pm both in viewers and adults with last weeks 'Par Avion'.

The reason most of these LOST bashing articles use to spread woe are pretty much taken from the same list of erroneous talking points. Fans are frustrated with the lack of answers. The story is progressing too slowly. Like, okay, who else is having trouble keeping up this season? We got our first look inside two of the others compounds, we got even further into the damaged psyches of our beloved characters. We found out that the others had off island communication up until Desmond turned his little key, proven by the video tape Ben showed Jack. We know that Desmond traveled back in time, the others have a submarine, there are two islands, Sawyer has a kid, Kate digs sawyer, the others use brainwashing to keep their dissidents in line... holy brain cramp. And there's more! Heck, this week we will finally know how John Locke wound up in the wheel chair.
Oh, island mysteries. You want to know about that? Where they are, what healed Locke, etc? Wake up knuckle head, that would end the show! Some of us, around 13-14 million at last count, still want LOST to continue serving its special brand of story telling for a few more seasons.

The bottom line is, LOST has continued to grow its audience since returning in its new time slot and is filling it with a distinctive demographic that advertisers crave to reach. So despite the malcontent murmurs of LOST's imminent demise... LOST is doing just fine.

Source: Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer

Lost star lands Marco Polo role

LOST hunk Ian Somerhalder is to star in a new TV show for Sky One - based on the travels of Marco Polo.

Ian - who played Boone in the castaway drama – will star as the Venetian explorer in the historical series.

Last year, Ian won a Screen Actors Guild Award for his Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Source: NADIA MENDOZA@The Sun

Lost Shrugged by J.Wood

Another indepth review of Par Avion by the always interesting J.Wood.

Eyes and lies; that's how "Par Avion," the twelfth episode of the third season of Lost begins, and it ends with a reference to an Ayn Rand subtext, which has as much to do with Bakunin as it does with libertarian political philosophy.

The standard shot of opening a scene on an opening eye is revived in this episode, and used to connect Claire's backstory with the frontstory on the beach; the first eye-shot opens the flashback, the next eye-shot opens the beach scene. The revelation that Claire's father is also Jack's father Christian Shephard isn't really news to Lostologists who presumed as much from the second season episode, "Two for the Road." That episode portrayed Ana Lucia in Australia, where she worked for Christian Shephard during his death-bender. Ana drove a drunken Christian out to some home in Sydney, where a blonde woman (now known to be Claire's aunt Lyndsey) hollered at Christian and he proclaimed he paid the mortgage and had a right to see his daughter. If anything the revelation is that the woman was Claire's aunt, not her mother, which only clarifies Christian's direct relationship with Claire, not his relationship with Claire's mother. And it confirms that Jack and Claire are half-sibs; what this bodes, however, is anyone's guess. The subtext, however, is all about Christian's subterfuge; he lied to both his American family and at least kept his Australian family in the dark.

Subterfuge is the other thematic link. Charlie and Des won't tell Claire about Charlie's impending demise, Locke proves himself to be duplicitous, and it isn't clear whether Bakunin told the truth or not. Charlie seems to have come to some grips with Desmond's prophecy, and tries to start living each day to its fullest with Claire, until Des pulls one of his unstuck-Billy-Pilgrim tricks and ruins his day. Des can't keep Charlie from eventually buying it, but it seems that Charlie's fate is directly connected to his desire to be with Claire; Charlie's potential death by lightning, drowning and being smashed against the rocks by the surf would all have been a result of his trying to help Claire and her baby. Maybe Richard Malkin's prophecy that "danger surrounds this baby" meant something after all.

Locke's subterfuge is more enigmatic. In "Enter 77," Locke accidentally blows up the Flame Station, and proclaims he didn't know the station was wired with C4; and even if he did know, how could he know that entering 77 into the computer would set off the C4? But when Locke and the rest on the Jack mission find the sonic pylons in the jungle, Locke reveals that he stashed some C4 from the Flame in his pack. This deception raises the tension between Locke and Sayid to near–Jack vs. Locke levels, and suggests Locke purposefully destroyed their potential means of communication. The audience can also question just what are Locke's motives; he's already said he's not motivated to find Jack, and we know that he's in no hurry to get off the island. He could be embarking on these missions in order to forcefully fulfill his supposed special destiny, but it's still a mystery. His actions become more erratic when he throws Bakunin into the sonic barrier, and Bakunin's head explodes inside his skull. Bakunin earlier revealed in the jungle that he knew all about his four captors, and that he couldn't explain why he and the Others are there on the island because they couldn't comprehend the purpose — and they couldn't comprehend because they weren't on the list. They were brought there by a great man, Bakunin says, and that man isn't Ben. He then proceeds to point out each person's deficiencies; Kate Austin is flawed, John Locke is angry, Danielle Rousseau is weak and Sayid Jarrah is frightened, and that's why they were never on any list. He also nearly announces that the John Locke he knew was paralyzed, but Rousseau interrupts him at the "para-." Perhaps Locke threw Bakunin into the barrier to keep that knowledge secret (a little knowledge can be a useful or a dangerous thing). His story is next week, and we should have a clearer idea of where his motivations come from.

The sonic barrier is interesting for a couple reasons: Bakunin claims that like everything else on the island, it hasn't functioned in years, but Locke proves that wrong. However, such technology is rather new, and suggests that either the Others, or the Dharma Initiative, or whoever made the barrier, was very much ahead of the curve. The Pentagon is just now developing Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD's) to be used in crowd control and in battle situations, and they've been used on naval and commercial ships only since 2003; in 2005 a Carnival cruise ship successfully used such a device to fend off a pirate attack.

The literary subtext in this episode, however, is only briefly alluded to, and sets the episode in contradistinction to "Enter 77." Just before Charlie and Claire release the tagged seagull with a message tied to its foot, Sawyer is seen reading Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. Rand was a disciple of Aristotle, the accidental godmother of libertarianism and founder of a philosophy she called objectivism. Like Mikhail Bakunin, she hailed from Russia and the ideas of both were shaped by their particular cultural moments; both were highly skeptical of centralized state governments and organized religion, but unlike the wild-haired ideologue, Rand was very much against political anarchism.

The Fountainhead follows an architect named Howard Roark, who incarnates three pillars of objectivism: ego, rational self-interest, and individualism. Roark is Rand's Zarathustra, the perfect person who perfectly embodies the writer's objectivist philosophy (in fact, Roark is Gaelic for champion). Objectivism starts with Aristotelian-like epistemology, meaning you take only what you can observe as a first principle. (For viewers trying to crack the riddle of the Lost narrative, most theories that come only from what we've seen seem to work best.) Rand placed reason above all else, and argued that for a individual to be fully realized and truly happy, that individual had to hold her own rational self-interest above all else — reason directly led to the primacy of the ego and self-interest, and the best social structure to serve such a notion was free market capitalism. But rational self-interest didn't mean hedonism; to act hedonistically is to mistake being sub-human for realizing a full state of human nature. Objectivism basically comes down to the the right to life as the furtherance of life (almost along the lines of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness); this didn't mean the protection of life as such, but fulfilling the potential of an individual's life. Rand shared some ideas with the enlightenment philosopher John Locke, and we might see the actions of the character Locke as him furthering his own life on the island — the one place he's been able to have a life, after being raped of his organs and left paralyzed.

Rand had differences with certain ethical positions that emerge from particular philosophical and religious contexts; she rejected the Hobbesian idea that human beings are born bad (original sin), as well as the requirement to consider your fellow person's well-being over your own — religion stifled individualism. Rand felt that people were born as blank slates to be shaped by their environments, and that no individual has any particular obligation to any other person other than him or herself (which sounds vaguely Christian Shephard-ish, and definitely Sawyer-ish, except they're both hedonists). In short, the fully realized person is the one who works only towards their own rational self-interests. In such a view, individual rights trump civil rights, which puts Rand at somewhat odds with the philosophers Locke and Rousseau and their conceptions of the social contract. Both Locke and Rousseau championed individualism, but also put forth different notions of the "general will" and "law of nature," in which the individual is a part. Rand felt that the individual will could trump the general will and sometimes put it over natural law; people could consent to such things, but weren't automatically under their dominion. It's clear why Rand's ideas might click with Sawyer, although when he takes off his glasses to contemplate a passage, we don't know if its because he agrees or disagrees with what he's reading. At any rate, Sawyer's encounter with Rand could possibly result in some sort of fundamental character change. What could Sawyer produce that would also be a monument to his own ego as well as a commodity he could trade?

Such individualist notions as Rand's don't fit well with the idea of a collectivist state, and she was staunchly anti-communist and a pro-laissez-faire capitalist. However, economist Mark Skousen has pointed out a contradiction in The Fountainhead's understanding of individualism and capitalism — the role of the consumer. Roark stubbornly refuses to compromise his designs to meet the will of the client, and even destroys one building when its construction doesn't match his design. Skousen notes that a producer of some good, like an architect, needs consumers in order to be a producer. If an architect like Roark refuses to design a building according to his client's wishes, the client will go elsewhere, and the individualist architect will be left out of the capitalist loop of productive associations. Both Rand and Bakunin had similar positions on how relationships of production should occur; free people should enter productive associations on their own, without any kind state intervention. This is indeed how the relationships of production are developing back on the beach; how the Others do it, we don't yet know.

For Bakunin, this approach to production led to a kind of anarchist collectivism, where the laborers do the negotiating and relationship-building. Anarchy for Bakunin meant consistently upsetting the structures that would turn any governmental system into centralized system that could interfere with such productive associations; coming out of the monarchist meltdown of 1848, he had good reason to distrust centralized governments. For Rand, however, the focus was on the individual producers for whom the laborers might work — Roark would determine the terms of a contract, not the manager who entered into the contract with Roark, nor the workers who would eventually construct the building. Rand was also skeptical of people's ability to get along in non-aggressive, productive relationships without some sort of limited governmental oversight to protect life and property (and in this sense, she echoes Hobbes; what would Rand have to say about organized street gangs?). The fact that the Lostaways have been getting along without organized protection may argue against this — but there was the need for Hurley to play sheriff when Ethan started kicking people's asses.

What we get, then, with the introduction of figures like Rand, Bakunin, Locke, Rousseau, (Hobbes and Marx implied), Hume, Burke, and others, are possible paths for social organization that the Lostaways may take, and we're slowly getting glimpses of the path the Others took. Furthermore, there's a weird mirror-twinning aspect that's occurring with the audience, as we convene and discuss ideas in various virtual social settings — in blogs like this, in forums, in wikis like Lostpedia, in podcasts, and in watching the show itself. Each has its own virtues; some foreground the individual voice, some the collective voice, others and interaction between the individual and collective. We're living lost right along with the characters.

Article by J.Wood