Kirk Cameron has not been seen on a movie screen in seven years, but guess who is the hottest ticket heading into the weekend?
With regard to advance sales, Cameron's dramatic "Fireproof", a super low-budget marriage themed family Christian drama opening in 800 theaters, has out-sold Shia LaBeouf's $105 million, country-wide opening of thriller "Eagle Eye".
But don't let the numbers fool you. The concept of advanced sales doesn't always shed accurate light on the long-term success of a film. In fact, it can be downright misleading. Industry analysts are not surprised, and believe the religious nature of the film lends itself to aggressive group sales.
That market for "Fireproof" is largely made up of churchgoers and secular Christian groups, the audiences that helped make Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" a blockbuster, and the popular "Left Behind" book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.
Christian leader James Dobson's Focus on the Family highly commended "Fireproof", and talked-up the film relentlessly on his radio shows, even airing an interview with Kirk Cameron.
And the Baptist Press urged readers: "Get your church behind it. Mark the weekend of Sept. 26-28 on your calendar. And go see it."
"Fireproof" made up over 40 percent of all advance sales this week on Fandango and Movietickets.com , the services said. "Eagle Eye" came in second.
Kirk Cameron, 37, became famous with his role on the television series "Growing Pains", and has recently become known for his work with his Christian ministry and the TBN show, "The Way of the Master". Cameron also starred in the first two movies from the Rapture-focused "Left Behind" series.
"Fireproof" stars Kirk Cameron as Caleb Holt, who lives by the old firefighter's adage: Never leave your partner behind. Inside burning buildings, it's his natural instinct. In the cooling embers of his marriage, it's another story.
After a decade of marriage, Caleb and Catherine Holt (Erin Bethea ) have drifted so far apart that they are ready to move on without each other. Yet as they prepare to enter divorce proceedings, Caleb's dad asks his son to try an experiment: "The Love Dare".
While hoping The Love Dare has nothing to do with his parents' newfound faith, Caleb commits to the challenge. But can he attempt to love his wife while avoiding God's love for him? Will he be able to demonstrate love over and over again to a person that's no longer receptive to his love? Or is this just another marriage destined to go up in smoke? Watch Kirk Cameron In The "Fireproof" Movie Trailer
Another indepth review of One of Us by the always interesting J.Wood.
Look for the odd shots; they tell so much, and are often symbolic. Symbols are becoming increasingly important in Lost. A symbol is an object, image, or written word that represents something other and more than what it immediately seems to be; it's over-invested with meaning, but that meaning requires a participating observer. We've seen eyes, the Egyptian hieroglyphs, black and white imagery, Buddhist baguas, and more recently the Russian doll and Juliet's mark. The doll was of interest because it was tangential to the overall plot of the narrative; it was the audience that recognized it as symbolically allegorical for the episode at hand. In "One of Us," the symbol could very well be the odd, quick shot of Juliet, Jack, Sayid and Kate's distorted reflections in the stream; it has the virtue of presenting yet another mirrored image, but one that is difficult to make out and changes before your eyes.
The mirrors pop up everywhere, first with the reference back to the second season Sayid episode, "One of Them"; this is the episode when Ben first "joins" the Lostaways, but on hostile terms. In a few places along the way, we seem to be getting characters mirroring the audience reaction once again. Sayid tells Juliet, "I want to know what you people are doing on this island, why you're terrorizing us, kidnapping children — I want to know everything." Isn't this what the audience has been clamoring for? In a recent interview with WBUR-Boston's Tom Ashbrook, one thing Lindelof notes is that the Lostaways never seem to ask the right questions, which can get frustrating for the audience. It seems someone is trying to ask what we're asking. Of course she's not saying anything — and she's under Jack's protection. None of the Lostaways are brash enough to outright attack Jack; he's the only medical care they have, and they and Jack know it. If Jack's going to step in front of Juliet, no one will push him out of the way. Juliet's no Pikki, but she's not exactly a fan-favorite, and she asks Jack how long it'll take before the Lostaways (including us) accept her. Like Sayid, Jack also seems to represent another audience sentiment: "They're good people; they're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But eventually they're gonna need some answers."
Sawyer has become a near-mirror twin of his former self. Hurley got into his head like Ben got into Locke's, and for the first time he seems to be acting on behalf of the group out of his own volition. Unfortunately, this newfound leadership is bringing him back into direct conflict with Jack, who now seems to be playing the individualist role: "Yeah, Jack, I wanna ask you why you're fighting every one of us and sticking up for one of them." Even Sawyer's former enemy Sayid is backing him up — yet another distorted mirror image of what we saw leading up to last season's "One of Them." This also raises the larger question of whether inveterate selfish sons of bitches can lose a bit of their egos and do something positive for their community.
With this episode, one of the first visual mirrors comes with the upward shot of the submarine hatch as Juliet arrives at the island (the sub trip to the island, by the way, "can be kind of intense," Ethan says — what are they sailing through?). From the previous episode, we know that Juliet is being mirror-twinned with a few characters (at least Locke and Kate). Juliet's going up the hatch to be with the Others, whereas Locke went down a hatch to be with the Dharma Initiative (or what's left of it). In last week's post, a great discussion developed about whether Locke and/or Juliet were infiltrators or were willingly joining the other side; we now know Juliet was a plant, and even her possible discovery was accounted for by her and Ben. (Wait till Ben has to match wits with Hurley.) This knowledge at least plants the suggestion that Locke may be playing a similar game with the Others — but that knowledge in itself may have been a bit of a plant for the audience, something to infiltrate our own conversations, only to come back and bite us later. Given the way the narrative has engaged certain elements of our own immediate mediated circumstances in the war on terror/ism (like the nod to Afghanistan in "Enter 77"), planting misinformation doesn't seem at all out of bounds for Lost. In fact, planting misinformation may be this season's version of the alternate reality game.
Another instance of manipulating audience reactions through a mirrored scene may have occurred with the paper Juliet sees on Mikhail's camera in a flashback. In "Exposé," the paper shown in the airport flashback read September 24, 2004, not September 22. Of course many people caught the discrepancy, and Carlton Cuse joked — like with the Royal Scots honor/honour mistake from "Flashes Before Your Eyes" — that someone was going to lose their job. Of course we know that time is being played with in the narrative ("Only fools are enslaved by time and space"), but the scene in Mikhail's hut certainly went to pains to show us a newspaper with the correct date, complete with Ben grumbling that he didn't like being called a liar.
Another significant visual mirror appears in just a flash, when Juliet goes out for the medical supplies dropped in the jungle. The carving in the tree that marked the spot resembled, to an extent, the symbol branded on Juliet's back. But the top ray of this symbol didn't extend, and the right and left vertical rays were curved. It looked very similar to the Russian letter ж, which is also the symbol for ammonium salt (and ammonium was an important element for alchemists). But, like the problem with Juliet's mark, that letter only has six rays, while the symbol has eight — that horizontally bisecting line messes up all our symbolic logic. In the post for "Stranger in a Strange Land" I went out on a bit of a limb to follow a connection between Juliet's mark and the Rosicrucian cross, which lead back to a sigil which looks remarkably like the blast door map. I'm going to ask for some similar latitude here:
The symbol on the tree looks remarkably similar to a mark impressed on the forehead of a 19th C. Catholic dissident and mystic, Davide Lazzaretti. There is not much written on him in English, but in 1989, Franceso Bardelli wrote the biography Davide Lazzaretti: La Comunitá Giurisdavidica nell'Amiata Ottocentesca. (The Giurisdavidica Community in Nineteenth Century Amiata.) He was born in 1834 in a poor region of midlands Italy that was rich with superstition; the midwife that birthed him claimed he was born with two tongues. He had his first mystical visions when ill with malaria. In 1868 his visions became more intense, and he began to preach in Amiata, Italy. His preaching had two chief dimensions: it was laden with mysticism, and pushed for a socialist utopia. At this point the mysticism needs little discussion, and we might recall "Enter 77's" subtexts of Thomas Moore's Utopia and Tom Stoppard's play about 19th C. Russian socialists working for a new social order, The Coast of Utopia. To intensify his penitence, Lazzaretti went to a grotto for 47 days, subsisting on nothing but one piece of bread a day that a friar passed through a hole. While in the grotto, he was visited by Saint Peter and given the gift of prophecy, and a mark on his forehead – )+(. This symbol then became the symbol for the Giurisdavidican Church. His socialist utopian and mystical teachings eventually challenged the pope, and he was excommunicated. He was later shot dead in a clash with police.
The name of that grotto? Sabina. The name of the woman who died on Juliet's operating table? Sabina. Perhaps Sabina was 47 days pregnant? Like with the Rosicrucian cross, there seems to be something here, but it may be there specifically as a game for us to trace. If nothing more, it traces a nice image, and it may be something for the folks at Lost Pod, the Italian Lost podcast, to follow up on.
Davide's last name, incidentally, translates to "contagious disease hospitals," which takes us to some literary references. "Contagious disease hospitals" fits nicely with the disease on the island and Claire's coughing up blood. We don't yet know the exact pathology of whatever disease Juliet was there to research — this island seems to heal the born, but prevent birth, or at least punish the birth-givers; Juliet can create life where life isn't supposed to be. It has an odd echo of P.D. James book (and recent film) Children of Men. Stephen King also made another appearance in this episode through his book Carrie, and he had a fictional disease in The Stand that showed similar symptoms called Captain Tripps. In the early 1990's, King also blurbed on the back of Richard Preston's book about the Ebola and Marburg viruses, Hot Zone; those viruses also lead to people coughing up blood before they expire. King wrote that Preston's book was one the most horrifying things he'd ever read. But — is there a disease? The Others implanted something in Claire. Des found out by following Kelvin that the biohazard suits were unnecessary. This disease may be more of a weapon than something at large.
Finally, Juliet may be the Carrie-like weapon that's building up to blow; the hard-done-by, seemingly timid girl who, when pushed to a point, turns into a kind of monster. Juliet rages at Ben when she accuses him of being a liar, but we're dealing with distorting mirrors, and her monstrous side may be cold; recall Sawyer telling Kate that Juliet "would have shot you — no problem" in "The Glass Ballerina." Juliet's face is inscrutable, and just when you think she's admiring Jack, she may be plotting something quite different. What we think we're seeing wavers and changes as we watch it. We just have to keep an eye on the odd shots.
* My apologies for the day-lateness on this one. A storm blew out our power/satellite signal; I consequently only got 35 minutes recorded, and had to wait for the episode to make it onto iTunes and ABC's website. *
Thanks to DocArzt over at The Tailsection for finding this news article about the Easter Eggs section of the site. Here is a snippet.
Here are a few of the comments fans have posted on the http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com about ALS:
"I think the site is fake. It's a good fake, but I think it's a fake."
"I hate to admit it, but I called the toll-free number. If you press 2, a sleepy sounding man answers. I was so freaked out, I hung up."
"I bet that guy's getting a lot of calls tonight."
"I'd bet my bottom dollar that site is for real."
"I called, and a lady answered 'ALS Technologies. May I help you?' I was going to ask, 'Are you a real company,' but I was too chicken. I hung up."
"Are you people crazy? This cannot be a real website. They would never put something like that on the show because they know we are going to investigate and probably call any number available. ... Please find the secret message!!!"
Linda Alvirez added her own post to the blog:
"Hello, everyone, I'm Linda Alvirez, wife of David Alvirez and CFO of ALS Technologies Inc. I'm also a huge 'Lost' fan as is David. Guess what, we are a real company, however that device only emits smoke; the passing out part was just great acting and, by the way, the Ozark Mountains are full of rocks and things that resemble the island."
Here is the updated Season 3 league table based on the votes for each episode in the Polls section. Left Behind has currently received nearly 3000 votes, still a long way behind the 5,600 that we got for Expose, which is still the most voted for Episode ever.
Left Behind was a transitional episode, finally separating the 815 survivors from the Others. Once again we have two distinct groups. Not much new was revealed, but the "us vs. them" stage is reset - with slightly different sides - as we head into the last half of the season.
Juliet Makes Sandwiches Like a Sick Maniac She must've worked at a deli. In any case, the way Juliet handled Kate's would-be surprise assault reaffirms her hardcore badass status. In my opinion, she's never to be trusted. Notable is the reappearance of Locke's MouseTrap game in the rec room, but I also took a good look at the rack of balls on the pool table behind Kate. It looked like there were two cue balls mixed in amongst the regular balls within the rack. Outside of the rack, where the cue ball ought to be, was the red ball. Perhaps the white balls are the 'good' guys (i.e. Others) living (or soon to be living) amongst our 815 survivors. Juliet would be one, but who would be the other? Perhaps the red ball represents Locke - now broken free from the 815 group and joining the others... at least for a time. Or perhaps (and more likely) I'm just looking a little too deep into the pool table reference. After all, the balls were all changed again 20 seconds later as the camera panned out at the end of the scene.
No Forgiveness I loved the exasperation Kate showed as Locke calmly walked into the rec room and announced that he'd be taking a casual stroll with the Others. It's like everyone around her has been taking crazy pills lately. Locke's whole attitude was very interesting - he was cool, collected, even apologetic, yet he was firm and gave no direct answers. He's definitely been issued a copy of the Other's employee handbook. Still, I'm not counting him out.
This may be marked as the episode where Locke "joined" the Others, but I'm not so sure he'll ever be a full-fledged member. Not for lack of the Ben's recruitment either. Examining Locke as a person, he owes no real allegiance to anyone. He's always been a loner, and any attempt at a close relationship with anyone has always failed. Locke is an opportunist, and for this reason I think the Others are once again getting more than they bargained for. I'm sure they've put him on a strict "stop blowing things up" policy, but at the same time Locke is going to do what Locke (or the island) wants him to do. For the time being, the path of opportunity lies with Ben and company, so Locke wisely rolls with it. He's perhaps the one character able to emotionally separate himself from the things the Others have done; the lies, the deception, the kidnappings... Locke's able to put that stuff to the side in order to advance his own agenda.
This is not to say that Locke doesn't feel some type of attachment to his fellow 815 survivors. His plea to bring Kate along may have fallen on deaf ears, but he did try. Locke recognizes Kate as important and resourceful, but wasn't aware of what she'd done. "They're not very forgiving" was their judgement, not his. He probably didn't even try to plead a case for Sayid or Jack. The science of both those characters has been clashing with Locke's faith since day one.
I'm Not Supposed To Be Here Those were amongst the first words out of Hurley's mouth this episode. He said them as he turned to the ocean and looked into the sky. Although technically meant for Sawyer, it's obvious to me that those words apply to Hurley himself.
More than once I've put forward the theory that Hurley's the key to the whole show, so I won't go into detail about it again. Long story short he shouldn't have been on the plane, wasn't supposed to make the flight, he's not on any 'list', and may be one of the only characters on the island with clean hands.
Hearts and Minds Hurley's whole banishment con was pretty slick, but I was a little disappointed that Sawyer didn't see it coming. Tricking Sawyer into being nice for a while was pretty funny, especially the scene with Claire and Aaron. Watching him fish, hunt boar with Desmond, and coordinate a pig roast - all good stuff. But grooming him to be their new leader? I think even Hurley would recognize that Sun would be a better candidate.
Halfway through the episode Sawyer tells Desmond "Ive got Hearts and Minds to change". This was of course the title of the episode where Locke gets Boone to let go of Shannon. Interestingly enough, in that episode Boone and Shannon run from the monster and hide in a mangrove tree - exactly the same way Juliet and Kate do this episode.
Still, the Hearts and Minds reference represents what Sawyer must do to gain respect and trust amongst his fellow survivors again. After three months of scathing nicknames and brute force, he must reverse tactics and use sugar and honey. Perhaps more than any other, Sawyer's character has been undergoing the most drastic changes this season. Yet just when the music's playing, the Dharma A-1 is flowing, and the echos of laughter are enough to make even Sawyer smile... he has only to look over at Sun for it all to end. Her "I still haven't forgiven you for what you've done" scowl was enough to remind him of just who exactly he really is.
Backpacking Party - By Invite Only The whole scene where the Others donned backpacks and masks before gassing the camp seemed very strange to me. Assuming they only left four people behind (Sayid, Jack, Kate, Juliet), why go through such trouble? Two of these people are already bound up and the other two are cooperative... why not just toss them into a single building and gas them all at once? Why gas them at all? Drug them and leave, no? Doesn't make sense.
I thought maybe the masks had less to do with the knockout gas and more to do with the journey they were about to take. Before I saw the cannisters I thought maybe they were travelling through an area where masks were necessary to guard them from the sickness.
Wherever they went, they did it in a such a way that Sayid was unable to track them. "It's as if 50 people just disappeared". Maybe they gassed those they left behind so that they wouldn't see or hear the METHODS they used to leave the camp, rather than just the direction the Others went. Hmmm. Still didn't see any kids, either.
Kate's Backstory - Weak and Repetitive Jack's traveling to the South Pacific and Desmond's traveling through time. Locke's growing herb and flying through windows. But Kate? Every single one of her flashbacks is the same old story. Iowa's not really interesting to begin with, and I'm sure I'm not the only one getting tired of the inside of that diner.
It's a new twist that Kate meets Cassidy right after Sawyer finishes conning her, but the story didn't really go anywhere. Judging by the overwhelming number of Federal marshals with nothing better to do than stake out her mom's house, this flashback must've occurred right after Kate escapes. Cass helps Kate see mom. Kate helps Cass fulfill her good deed quota by allowing herself to be helped. They share a tender Thelma & Louise moment, hug, and get out of the car scene with minimal lesbianism. Too bad.
I guess the Kate/Cass flashback was meant to parallel the Kate/Juliet story, but you've got explicit trust in one and total mistrust in the other. The only important line I could pick out of the whole thing was her mom's: "You can't help who you love, Kate". The double meaning is so cryptic it could apply to either Sawyer or Jack. It certainly doesn't apply to a coffee-slinging mother's love for her child.
In the end at least Kate seemed to finally get the fact that her mom has forsaken her, opening the door for a future flashback in which we don't need to see the Marshall's very angry grill. And we've finally got confirmation that Sawyer has a kid.
Juliet Just Can't Stop Lying I think I figured out what the sickness is: it's pathological lying. And the Others are all rampantly infected.
I don't believe for a second that Juliet was gassed while making tea. I'm pretty sure she carried an unconscious Kate out to their place in the jungle, cuffed them together, and then played possum. Watch her reaction as Kate announces her intent to track back to the barracks. Juliet immediately wants to wait until dark because she wants the rain to wash away whatever traces she might have left behind. If they'd both been dragged there by a third party, she wouldn't be so nervous about Kate wanting to backtrack.
In my eyes one of two possibilities exist: the Others really did leave Juliet, but left her as a potential double-agent. They'd do this without telling her, which would give her no dangerous knowledge of where they were going. The other possibility is that Ben and Juliet are still in cahoots, and Juliet is a firm plant in the 815's camp. In this scenario I'd imagine Ben would be promising Juliet something she wanted - another trip off the island.
Either way, Juliet's got a pocket knife and a handcuff key. She knows the deal. Take a good look at her reaction after her "left behind" speech, just as Kate storms off disgusted. Juliet actually looks disappointed in herself, as if she's angry that she's still having to carry on such deception. I think that deception extends beyond the handcuff key - getting Kate to trust her was just another small part of a bigger plan, and Juliet's kinda pissed that it's actually working. She's getting sick of it all.
I will say though, that I imagine Ben's influence will eventually wear off. I'm thinking Juliet's exposure to the 815 camp will somehow bring back the good person she once was. This might happen through guilt or maybe through romantic feelings for Jack - but it will happen. Future prediction: Ben's overconfidence in Juliet's loyalty will come back to bite him in the ass. If I were him I wouldn't completely count on her, just as I wouldn't count on newly-acquired Locke to abide by their 'rules'.
Cerberus Since the name first appeared on the blast door map, theories that the smoke monster = Cerberus have surfaced. They were all good theories too, and it seems they were confirmed this week. The smoke monster definitely had a three-headed appearance to it, almost as if it were three separate entities coming together to form a larger one. I've also read cool theories about how the clinking chain sound we hear would be the gates of the underworld being opened to let Cerberus out.
Whether the monster IS Cerberus or whether it was just a clever name Kelvin attached to the three-headed entity, I sort of (for once) believed Juliet when she said they "don't know what it is". When it stopped to scan Juliet, we saw no flashback imagry like we did in Eko's episode. At first I was thinking the monster blanked out because Juliet had no past sins to be reconciled. Then again, she just shot Danny. Then I thought maybe it couldn't read her for some reason we don't know just yet. Or maybe Juliet has no past. The way the Others are shrouded in such mystery, I wouldn't be surprised.
The big issue I have with the sonic fence is why Cerberus didn't just go over it. If Kate could climb the fence, surely the smoke monster could fly right over. Watching it flee after being shocked gave it an animal-like quality to me. Maybe it's not as smart as we think it is. Maybe it's ruled by animal instincts. The more I see of it, the more I think this.
Super-Crazy Knockout Gas When Juliet and Kate finally reach the barracks, Jack's still unconcious from the knockout gas. Didn't that seem a little off? Haven't they been travelling through the jungle all night and into the morning? Why is he still sleeping?
This lends credence to the theory that Juliet brought Kate into the jungle herself, to establish a fugitive-type bond with her. Ben and Juliet could've hatched their plan, Juliet heads off, the Others get ready, and they gas Jack in the morning right before they leave. Or maybe Jack just consumed more of the gas being in such a confined space as that hallway.
Before concluding I'm going to offer up an even wilder theory: Jack's the other plant. Jack is the second cue ball in the 815 rack. Maybe Ben promised him another ticket home, and maybe Juliet knows about it. Maybe that's why Jack was so insistent that Juliet be allowed back to the 815 camp when Sayid was wisely trying to leave her behind. I'm not 100% behind this theory yet, but it did occur to me.
It's tough to say, because Jack's heart is broken. We can't tell if he's moping around because of the Kate/Sawyer thing or because of torn loyalty. I still maintain Ben allowed Kate the hole in her cage, positioned the cameras on Sawyer, and allowed Jack's door to be open - giving him access to the sex show. Ben knew this to be the only way to break Jack's will. If Jack truly is going to act as a double agent, it will be interesting to see what happens. If I had to bet on it, I'm sure his hero complex will override his desire to get off the island.
The telltale sign will be next week, when Jack will have the opportunity to assume his leadership role again. If he does, I'd lean more toward Jack still being somewhat under Ben's influence. If he comes back completely disinterested and forlorn over the whole captivity/Kate thing, I'd be inclined to think he's acting solo.
Another indepth review of Left Behind by the always interesting J.Wood.
It's about exclusion and exclusivity. The fifteenth episode this third season, "Left Behind," presents a narrative mosaic whose backstory has less to do with character development than it does with thematic mirror-twinning, twinned island narratives, plenty of points that seem to be plot developments but may be much more, and of more literary connections that push the episode into meta-literariness.
As the season progresses, it seems the narrative is getting more knotted within the overall Lost mythology. When character development occurs, it does so through the main action of the narrative. Backstories are now dealing with themes that more directly tie into the frontstories, and certain lines and shots are echoing previous episodes to create narrative and thematic connections. All the while, we're being shown (not told) certain plot points that serve as Chekhovian guns for future episodes. Jack, Kate and Juliet being left behind — banished from the group — is twinned with Sawyer's possible banishment from the beach. Why? Because they're not "good people." This is still a hazy definition; according to the Others, Ethan — the one who strung Charlie up to a tree and killed Scott — was good (because he was an Other). The brutal Danny was good. However the Others are using that term, it's not in the way we're accustomed to; they're part of what some scholars call a different discourse community, where their words and meanings don't line up with ours. Enough on that for now, but there's some interesting work being done in discourse analysis that would fit right in with the competing models of social organization in the Lost narrative; however, more evidence is needed before any clear claims can be made.
Kate's banishment is two-fold; she's banished (left behind) for not being a good person, and she's twice-rejected for trying to help someone who didn't want her aid. In the backstory, Kate's mother Diane tells her that what Kate thought she did for her mother, she actually did for herself. As cold and illogical as this seems, it also suggests that Kate returned for Jack less for Jack's sake than out of her own combination of guilt and desire for Jack. When Kate meets Cassidy in the backstory, Sawyer's former lover (and mother of his child), she and Cassidy not only pull the same jewelry con Sawyer taught Cassidy, but they bring up the good/bad dichotomy again in reference to Kate's charred dad. (Kate didn't realize she played the con just as Sawyer taught, but nevertheless performed admirably.)
Exclusion is just the chief echo across the episode. Other minor echoes develop cross-episode narrative connections. When Locke visits Kate in the game room, he yells "Coming out!" just as Ana Lucia yelled "Coming out!" from the pit in the second season episode "Orientation." This parallels the game room with the pit; it's interesting that that people would be held prisoner in a house of games. A minor clue also occurs in this scene; why was Locke's hand bandaged? There's something going on with him, but more on that in a bit; it requires some build-up. But there's another link to Ana Lucia; in the flashback, Kate goes by the name of Lucy, which she picked for the saint of the same name. Saint Lucy/Saint Lucia of Syracuse is the patron saint of blindness (and Lucy means "light"); she had her eyes gouged out after she refused an arranged marriage to a pagan noble, but could miraculously still see. The idea of being blind but still seeing suggests a thematic link to Kate's helping herself by helping others; she mistook what she wanted for what others wanted, yet still recognized the need. But the name "Lucy" is also there in Ana Lucia's name; Saint Anna gave birth to the Virgin Mary, and in keeping with the themes as they're used in Lost, this makes Ana Lucia the mother of blindness. Indeed much as Kate, Ana Lucia acted in a way that overtly seemed to be for the benefit of Tailies, but was really for herself. (And incidentally, Charlie has the tattoo "Living is easy with eyes closed.")
When Kate and Juliet are running from Smokey, they dive into a grove of trees; this mirrors the Pilot episode of the first season, when Kate dives into a grove for the exact same reasons. This time, however, Kate is much more self-assured, and doesn't need to count to five. When Smokey approaches them, it does to Juliet what it did to Mr. Eko in "The 23rd Psalm," flashing something at its intended target (and in mirror-twin fashion, we have Smokey checking out a large black African man and a little white, American woman). In both cases, Smokey turned and left. It may have been gathering necessary information about Juliet, and she's shown a few things that suggests there's much more to her than we've guessed. This is a woman who was supposedly pushed around by powerful men most of her life, yet it seems she could physically best most people who would attack her. She in fact handcuffed herself to Kate to convince her that she and Juliet were in whatever they're in together. The scene where the gas is tossed is interesting because we see a blonde woman with a similar cornflower blue shirt putting on a mask. (The Others seem to have a few people who bear resemblance to other known figures — they have one person who looks like Michael, but we never see him long enough for a clear distinction.) On closer inspection, it seems this person isn't Juliet, but with Juliet cuffing herself to Kate, the hint is there that Juliet wasn't ditched — she may be a plant by the Others. She obviously regained consciousness before Kate if she did the cuffing, and may never have been knocked out.
Which brings us back to Locke. Locke's fallen in with the Others in a way reminiscent of his commune days from "Further Instructions." But Locke also seems much savvier than he appeared to be in past days. With so much parallelism going on in the episode, and with Juliet being a possible plant in the Lostaways camp, we can ask: Is Locke a plant in the Others' camp? Is he Juliet's narrative parallel?
Talk of plants and duplicity brings us to the new manipulator of the island, Hurley. He plays Sawyer in this episode like a benign Ben. In his way, Hurley has chosen Sawyer as the new leader for their "society." There is something to the fact that so many other nominal leaders are gone; of those left behind, Charlie is weak and flappable, Hurley doesn't trust his own sanity, Claire has enough on her hands (and other parts), Sun and Jin are linguistically excluded (and Sun isn't quite leadership material), and we really just don't know much about the rest. This power play by Hurley is near-Rovian in its cunning (as well as a quick nod to Survivor; ABC exec Lloyd Braun first greenlighted Lost when he wanted to see a show that crossed Survivor with Cast Away). The way Hurley convinces Sawyer that what he gets from their beach society is worth sacrificing some of himself for also suggests a response to the individualist philosophy of Ayn Rand, whom Sawyer was recently reading. Sawyer's desire to be part of the society overpowers his desire for individualist identity, and he gives in a bit, but only because he finds it politically expedient. As he tells Des when hunting boar, Sawyer has hearts and minds to change, and politics is all about bribes.
First, the "hearts and minds" comment recalls the first season episode by the same name, where both Shannon and Locke manipulate the hapless Boone. It also echoes the political rhetoric we've been hearing in the press for a few months now; changing the "hearts and minds" of Iraqis is the new goal, one that seems unattainable to some because of the inherent nature of Iraqis (if you follow the U.S. news, you may have heard Bill O'Reilly complain that we can't change Iraqi hearts and minds because they just like killing each other; every time O'Reilly says such things, there are media watchdogs ready to point it out). Hearts & Minds is also the title of a 1974 documentary depicting the fallout of the same rhetoric from the Vietnam War (where the term originated). The key of Peter Davis's documentary is that hearts and minds can't be changed if the people looking for change refuse to recognize the others as fully human. Hurley alters Sawyer's heart and mind by getting him to recognize the other Lostaways as full persons, while all the time letting Sawyer believe he was the one initiating the the change — very well played. The fact that Hurley played Sawyer so well suggests that Sawyer may return to Hurley for advice — Hurley seems to know what people want — but there will be friction; Sawyer still has Sun to worry about, and if he becomes the new leader, there may be a problem when Jack, Kate and Sayid return.
The last echoes to be discussed are literary. In this episode, Sawyer is once again into Watership Down. He first cracked the book in the first season episode "Confidence Man" (hearkening back to the idea of cons). The anthropomorphic tale about rabbits follows a group of rabbits from the Sandleford warren. They leave their warren when one rabbit, a seer named Hazel, has visions of Sandleford's destruction (via construction — construction leads to the warren's destruction). They eventually run into a militantly fascist warren called Efrafra run by a despot named General Woundwort; he first institutes his police state to keep the warren free of myxomatosis, a disease that renders rabbits blind shortly before they die (echoes of Saint Lucy). The warrens are kept under control by an Owsla, or rabbit militia. One of the Efrafra Owsla, Blackavar, is not allowed to move up in ranks because his mother isn't from their warren, which somehow makes Blackavar genetically untrustworthy. When Blackavar tries to leave the warren, he's caught and his ears are torn as a mark of shame. A Sandleford rabbit named Bigwig feels pity for the fighter and frees Blackavar, who then joins Sandleford refugees. In this, we have some clear echoes of third season plot/character development: Des has gained a Hazel-like ability to foresee death, and Juliet — with her mark, her untrustworthiness to the Others, and her willingness to go in with Jack — makes her a Blackavar-like figure. (Does this suggest Jack is a Bigwig?)
And of course there is the overt echo of Tim LaHaye's fundamentalist fever dream pot-boilers, the Left Behind series. The series presents a version of the apocalypse where the right kind of Christian is raptured out of the world, while the rest are left to deal with the coming of Satan out of Eastern Europe. Again, it's about exclusivity. Aside from the rapture-like exodus of the Others, there does not seem to be too many narrative connections. For one thing, the Christian tradition explored in Lost tends to be Catholic, which has little to do with LaHaye's version of things. For another, the books take a pretty negative point of view toward other traditions in general, which is at odds with the pantheistic model presented via the Dharma Initiative. However, it does seem to be a kind of equal-but-opposite mirror twin to Stephen King's The Stand, in how both narratives concern the remnants of a world trying to right themselves and deal with an evil, manipulative presence (Nicolae Carpathia in Left Behind, the Walking Dude in The Stand).
This wasn't the only book, but I can't verify the other, Rick Romer's Vision of Astrology. Claire was seen reading this in the preview spoilers, but — correct me if I'm wrong — she doesn't seem to be reading it in the actual episode. (Rick Romer is in fact the Lost set director.) What may be happening here is an updated version of the Hanso Foundation commercials that aired near the end of the second season — not an alternate reality game, but a game with the audience. There have been a few foilers lately, or false spoilers. One recent one was that "Exposé" would reveal the first gay character, which ended up just being Shannon accusing Boone of flirting with boys. Astrology has its place in the Lost mythology, but so does misdirection and misinformation. If this is the case, what can we make of the sub seen in next week's preview?
Building on its lead-in by 6.7 million viewers (11.5 million vs. 4.8 million) and by 153% in young adults (4.8/13 vs. 1.9/5), "Lost" dominated Wednesday's 10 o'clock hour in Total Viewers (11.5 million) and across the adult demographics: Adults 18-34 (4.1/12), Adults 18-49 (4.8/13) and Adults 25-54 (5.4/14). In fact the ABC drama has won its hour in the key Adult 18-49 sales demographic on all 9 telecasts since entering its new time slot.
* Despite its late time period and declining TV usage levels, "Lost" grew its viewer (11.4 million to 11.6 million) and young adult audience (4.7/13 to 4.9/13) from its first half-hour to its second half-hour.
* "Lost" held all of its overall audience week to week, while growing its delivery among Men 25-54 (4.7/13 vs. 4.6/12) and Women 25-54 (6.2/15 vs. 6.1/15).
* "Lost" improved the hour for ABC over the same night a year ago by 3.8 million viewers and 60% in Adults 18-49 (7.7 million & 3.0/8 on 4/5/06).
Here are 3 newly released ABC promo shots from Left Behind. Probably some of the best Promo shots to date :) Sorry ladies, I'll look out for some shirtless Sawyer snaps.
Kirk Cameron has not been seen on a movie screen in seven years, but guess who is the hottest ticket heading into the weekend?
Kirk Cameron, 37, became famous with his role on the television series "Growing Pains", and has recently become known for his work with his Christian ministry and the TBN show, "The Way of the Master". Cameron also starred in the first two movies from the Rapture-focused "Left Behind" series.
