Yankees-Red Sox Article Narrows Flash Forward Timeline

Hey everyone, this is Master Nak. I've been on the podcast and posted comments in the past. the JoshMeister asked me to be a contributor to the blog starting with my thoughts on "Something Nice Back Home."

The newspaper article shown in Jack's flash forward (titled "Yankees bludgeon Red Sox in Series Sweep") caught my eye. The headline rung a bell; I had a hunch it was from the 2007 season. I did a search of "Yankees sweep Red Sox" on Google, and found this article that confirmed my suspicion.

Much of the text in the article shown on TV was taken directly from this real-life edition of the New York Times. For example, this part was in both the actual newspaper clipping and the one on the show:

"It was good, because as a team, we're behind," said Robinson Canó, who smashed two opposite-field home runs against Curt Schilling. "We need to start winning some games if we want to make the playoffs. We’re a half-game up for the wild card, but we're not worried about the wild card. We're just trying to win games."

The name "Suzy Allman" appears in the Lost version. After looking up her name, I discovered that she is in fact a photographer for the NY Times.

Assuming that the date of the newspaper article is the date on which the flash forward is taking place, that would make it August 31st, 2007.

However, after taking a closer look at both articles, I found some discrepancies between them. The opening paragraph of the Lost version says the Yankees "rampaged into Fenway Park and won three games to bury the Boston Red Sox." Actually, the series this is referring to (in August 2006, one year earlier) was 5 games, not 3. This could easily be passed off as a simple mistake, but the next thing I noticed put the actual date of the newspaper in question.

The score box right below the Yankees-Red Sox piece was for the Angels vs. the Astros. The Angels are an American League team and the Astros are a National League team, meaning they would rarely play each other. They did, in fact, play each other in 2007, but the 3 game series was from June 18th - June 20th - not at the end of August. How, then, do we know for certain that the paper is supposed to be from August 31st?

At any rate, it still appears as if the year is supposed to be 2007.

Supporting evidence:

• The newpaper in Jack's lap in the Season 3 finale flash forward was based off of the April 5th, 2007 edition of the LA Times.
• Considering how big Aaron is, 2007 would make sense - he would be about two and a half years old. If these flash forwards were in 2005 as some speculate, the kid would be pretty huge for a one-year-old.
  

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Kris White Interview, Part 1

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Today we have a special treat! Congested from the Audibly Lost blog (and a frequent participant in the live chat on the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast and other shows) has conducted an interview with Kris White, host and producer of The Official LOST Podcast. Since the interview was conducted via e-mail, Congested has graciously permitted me to roleplay the interview to make it available in an audio format.

You can listen now, or better yet subscribe to the podcast to be sure to get the other segments of the interview!

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There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, the JoshMeister and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 12, "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1," the first part of the Season 4 finale.

LOST news and additional notes on past episodes:

• Jorge Garcia (the actor who plays Hurley) posted to his blog a photograph of the heiroglyphics wall in Ben's secret room that shows some of the symbols more clearly (see this post for some possible interpretations of the heiroglyphics)
• Strong evidence that Danielle is really dead comes via DarkUFO and the Lostpedia forums. Apparently, Mira Furlan (the actress who plays Danielle) asked to be written out of the show. The actress's husband stated in an interview in a Croatian magazine that his wife "got island fever ... so she made a deal with the producers to kill her character off." When asked how she was killed off, he said "Shot her. But, her character is pretty popular with fans of the series, so they [left the] possibility for [a] comeback next season."
• Also via DarkUFO, The Hollywood Reporter recently interviewed Damon Lindelof, who said that the original plan of 16 episodes for seasons 4 through 6 has been slightly modified. Since this season is actually 14 episodes due to the strike (counting next week's 2-hour finale as 2 episodes, as is customary), the next two seasons will now be 17 episodes each
  

There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 notes:

• Flashforward:
• Oceanic Six on plane, woman who represents Oceanic arrives at military base
• They all seem distraught, Sun says "We are in shock, Jack"
• Present:
• Jack and the gang on the beach debate about whether to follow the chopper or to call them via the satellite phone
• Daniel listens on the satellite phone and hears Keamy ordering Frank to put the chopper down and that they're going to The Orchid
• Daniel privately tells Charlotte that "they're using the Secondary Protocol" - "We have to get off the island. Right now."
  
• Jack and Kate go off toward the chopper, Jack starts bleeding from his surgical wound
• They run into Sawyer who warns them that Keamy shot up New Otherton
  
• Flashforward:
• The Oceanic Six answer reporters' questions at a press conference
• One of them asks Sun about her husband, and she says that "he never made it off the plane"
• One questions Kate about having a baby on the island, and challenges her that she must have been 6 months pregnant when the U.S. marshall arrested her
• After the press conference, Sayid is surprised and happy to see that Nadia was there waiting outside for him; they kiss and embrace
• Present:
• Sayid comes back to the island on a small motor-powered raft to warn the people on the beach that the men on the chopper had every intention of killing them all
  
  
• Ben tells Hurley that they're going to a greenhouse
• Ben: Moving the island "is both dangerous and unpredictable. It's a measure of last resort."
  
• Ben uses a mirror from a hidden DHARMA box to flash signals at someone off in the distance, wouldn't tell John who or why
• Who and why? Richard Alpert? Harper, perhaps? One theory is that Ben was signaling Richard to let him know that he was going to The Orchid and would need backup once he got there (hence The Others with their guns later in the episode)
  
  
• Daniel takes Sun, Jin, Aaron, and a few others back to the freighter via the motorboat
  
• Flashforward:
• Sun uses her crash settlement money to buy a controlling interest in her father's company - now she's the boss! She's angry with her father because he's the reason that Jin got on the plane.
  
  
• Hurley's dad gives him the Camaro for his birthday
• The mileage is 481516, and the trip mileage is 234.2 (The Numbers!) which causes Hurley to freak out and run down the street
• Present:
• Ben admits that he knows why Charles Widmore is trying to get to the island
• Ben spots Keamy's crew camping out at The Orchid in camouflage
  
  
• Daniel and the people on the raft arrive back at the boat, Desmond helps them, Daniel heads back to the island
  
• Sun and Jin see Michael and he hangs his head in shame
  
  
• Jack and Sawyer find Frank handcuffed in the chopper
  
• Flashforward:
• Woman tells Jack after his father's funeral that "I believe I'm the reason he was in Australia when he died"
• The woman is Claire's mom, and she tells Jack that her daughter was on the plane, and she says her daughter's name was Claire
• The woman then walks past Kate and Aaron (the woman's grandson, unbeknownst to her) and tells her that she has a beautiful baby
  
• Present:
• Michael denies that he works for Ben
• Desmond finds that the freighter is wired with lots of C4 explosives, and shows Michael, who seems surprised
  
  • Who set up the explosives? Keamy? Is that why he had the device strapped to his arm, so that if he dies the whole boat will blow up? Or maybe this was part of Ben's real plan for blowing up the ship
    
• Richard Alpert and lots of Others come out of the woods with lots of guns and stop Sayid and Kate, who were trying to find Jack and Sawyer
• The Others take Sayid and Kate captive
• Why? Sawyer and Jack had just walked by a little while ago, and The Others didn't stop them. Why stop Kate and Sayid? To protect them? To recruit them to help The Others save Ben?
  
  
• Ben tells Locke his plan for how to get inside The Orchid and walks right up to Keamy to turn himself in
  

Screenshots and Easter Eggs:


• DarkUFO's screenshots showing the Oceanic Airlines press event, including:
• The photograph that seems to show the Oceanic Six arriving on an island with someone pulling their luggage out of the water
• Maps of where Oceanic claims the plane crashed, the island of Membata where they arrived and were stranded after the crash, and Sumba, the island where they were supposedly rescued
• Dan Faraday's notebook, including:
• A page with several equations, a sketch of the Orchid Station logo, and the phrases "TimeLike FACTOR" and "SpaceLike Factors"
• Another page with diagrams and the words "Using Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates (V₁R₁) removes the singularity at R=Zm. As R gets smaller - light cones tip over"
• (For more screenshots of Daniel's equations, etc., see this post)
• Ben's trunk, DHARMA box, and mirror
  

The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

• Official LOST Podcast:
• We'll learn more about Charlotte's character in the season finale
• As has been mentioned previously, we'll find out who's in the coffin in the finale, and also there will be another electromagnetic event that will make the sky turn purple (which I'm guessing will be how Locke moves the island)
  
• Preview:
• A man says "We're losing fuel! Do not go back to the island!"
• It looks like Kate is on a helicopter

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Cabin Fever Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, the JoshMeister and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 11, "Cabin Fever".

Cabin Fever notes:

• Flashback:
• A teenage girl, Emily, is 6 months pregnant when she gets hit by a car and is taken to the hospital
• We find out that Emily is John Locke's mom
• Present:
• Wait, the doctor is still alive? (So far)
• Keamy can't kill Michael; he tries to shoot him but the gun jams! This seems to be even more confirmation that the island really won't let Michael die
  
  
• Horace Goodspeed (to Locke in a dream): "You gotta find me, and when you do you'll find Jacob"
• Ben to Locke: "I used to have dreams"
  
• Flashback:
• John had infections, pneumonia, but overcame all obstacles, and the nurses called him a "miracle baby"
• Richard Alpert (young and spry as ever) was there watching when John was about to be taken out of the incubator
• Present:
• John shows Hurley the DHARMA Initiative bodies
  
• Flashback:
• John (age 5) is playing Backgammon
• Richard shows up, says he runs a school for kids who are very special, and points out John's smoke drawing on the wall
• Is this supposed to be the smoke monster, or a smoke cloud billowing from an explosion?
• Richard puts several items on a table in front of John, asking John to indentify which items already belong to him
• The items are a compass, a vial containing what looks like sand (at first, I thought it was perhaps volcanic ash), a Book of Laws, a knife, a baseball glove, and a comic book (see photos here)
  
• John identifies all except the baseball glove and comic book as his own, and the last object he picks is the knife
• Richard tells John: "no it doesn't" - the knife doesn't belong to him - and leaves, apparently disappointed
• What is the significance of the knife? Does it symbolize something? Perhaps the island doesn't want Locke to be a knife-wielder
• Present:
• John finds the body of "Horace Mathematician" (as his jumpsuit identifies him) and finds blueprints for a cabin; according to John's dream, Horace was building it, but apparently this somehow became Jacob's cabin
  
  
• Keamy forces Captain Gault to let him release the "Secondary protocol" which will tell Keamy "where Linus is going"
• There was a DHARMA logo in the folder - the same one on Ben's parka (presumably the Orchid Station logo)
• The captain asks Keamy how Widmore would know where Ben would go, and Keamy says "Widmore is a very smart man," and says that if they're going to torch the island, that's where Linus will go
  
  
• Omar gets Morse code, and the doc is still alive at the time
• Captain is willing to help Sayid to rescue the people on the island
  
• Flashback:
• John (age 16) is mocked by his peers
• The school got a call from Portland, Mittelos Laboratories, Dr. Alpert wants John to go to science camp (they also sent a pamphlet; see a picture here)
  
• Locke's teacher, Gellert, tells Locke that he'll never be the quarterback or anything like that, and he might as well face that he's going to be the science nerd working in a laboratory; this is the earliest time in John's life where we've heard him say "Don't ever tell me what I can't do!"
  
• Present:
• Michael tells Frank Lapidus that Keamy is going to kill everybody on the island, which Frank didn't seem to already know
• Frank hadn't heard that Widmore planted the fake plane
  
• Ben: "there are consequences to being chosen"
• Hurley is the first to see the cabin
• Flashback:
• Matthew Abaddon tells John he needs to go on a walkabout
• Abaddon: "I'm a lot more than just an orderly, John"
• Abaddon: "When we meet each other again you'll owe me one"
  
• Present:
• Desmond watches as Keamy slit the doctor's throat
• Keamy shoots and kills Captain Gault and forces Frank to fly the helicopter
  
• Frank drops a satellite phone set to show the distance between the phone and Keamy's crew, presumably as a warning so the folks at the beach could stay safely away from Keamy; however, Jack interprets it as meaning that the people on the helicopter want those on the beach to come find them!
  
• Ben: "My time is over, John. The time is yours now."
• Christian says he's not Jacob, but can speak on his behalf
• Christian is not wearing his typical suit as whenever Jack sees him; he's wearing the shirt he wore when he came to Claire and Aaron
  • What would Christian wear if he saw both Jack and Claire at the same time? ;o)
• Claire was in the cabin, and Christian tells John not to tell anyone that he saw her
• Claire was acting strangely; is she now dead like her father?
  
• John asks the right question: "How do I save the island?"
• After exiting the cabin, John tells Ben: "He wants us to move the island"
  

Screenshots and Easter Eggs:


• Geronimo Jackson poster in teenage John's locker
  
• The front cover of the comic book that Richard Alpert presented to Locke shows a city floating in the clouds; perhaps this is supposed to be a foreshadowing of the island moving?
  

The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

• Official LOST Podcast:
• We're going to find out who's in the coffin in the season finale
• Preview:
• Kate with a gun
• Kate with baby Aaron
• A woman's voice says "They're calling you the Oceanic Six"
• From SpoilerFix.com:
• The next episode is Episode 4.12: There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 (Season finale, part 1)

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Something Nice Back Home Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, the JoshMeister and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 10, "Something Nice Back Home".

Additional notes related to The Shape of Things to Come:

• LOSTCasts:
• Ben could have killed John et al. a long time ago with his hidden shotgun, but he didn't
• Ben's barf was orange (perhaps orange juice) like the beverage Juliet was told to drink before entering the submarine.
  
• Jay and Jack:
• A caller suggested that maybe Charles is an island native like Richard Alpert seems to be, and/or maybe he was on the Black Rock and hasn't aged - might explain why he saw it as his island
• Another caller suggested that maybe Alex wasn't considered a true family member so it wasn't breaking rules in Charles' mind
• Official LOST Podcast:
• It was the real Harper who visited Juliet in the jungle in The Other Woman, not Smokey, a manifestation of the island, etc. (apparently we were supposed to figure this out by the whispers, which are a sign of The Others)
  
• Damon implied that what Desmond and Minkowski has was "the sickness" spoken of by Danielle Rousseau
  
• (More from the Official LOST Podcast in the spoilers section)
• Maybe the doctor who washed ashore with a slit throat could be a wormhole clone (Note: This theory was disproved by the next episode, Cabin Fever)
• Maybe it was coincidence that Michael didn't die in the car crash, and the
  gun was planted by Tom... Maybe Michael really isn't invincible (Note: This theory doesn't seem plausible after seeing the next episode, Cabin Fever)
• Heiroglyphics on the door inside of Ben's secret passageway:
• A possible translation of the heiroglyphics from movv.org is "A time to command something dangerous" (The smoke monster?)
• Other possible translations based on from DocArzt.com include "To summon protection," "Time to summon strength," "To summon time protection," "To summon time power," or "Time summons the power of life," among other possible meanings
  

Something Nice Back Home notes:

• Present:
• Jack collapses
  
• Flashforward:
• Jack is living with Kate! and there's a Star Wars Millennium Falcon toy on the floor - presumably Aaron's
• Jacks reads a story to Aaron while putting him to bed (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
• Present:
• Jack has a fever
  
  
• Miles finds Danielle and Karl's bodies; their faces are exposed
  • Is Danielle really, truly dead? More on this later
    
    
• Jack has "cramping, dehydrated, nausea"
• Juliet tells Jack that his appendix has ruptured, Jack says it hasn't ruptured yet, Juliet says "I guess we're just going to have take it out"
  
• Flashforward:
• Jack sees his dad!
• Woman comments to Jack about "L4" - this is the same vertebra on which Ben had his tumor
• Jack gets call from Santa Rosa about Hurley
  
• Hurley thinks all the Oceanic Six are dead and never got off the island
• Charlie wanted Hurley to give Jack a message: "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack."
• "Charlie said someone's going to be visiting you, too... soon." (Christian Shephard, obviously)
• Present:
• Frank Lapidus saves Sawyer, Claire, Aaron, Miles' lives
  
• Flashforward:
• Jack proposes to Kate, she accepts
• Present:
• Charlotte speaks Korean, Jin tells her to make sure Sun gets on the helicopter when it comes back -- or else he'll hurt Daniel Faraday
• Flashforward:
• Christian Shephard appears to Jack
• Did Christian's presence set off the smoke alarm? Is he Smokey?
• Jack gets prescription for Clonazepam
  
• Hurley asked Sawyer if he had any Clonazepam in his stash in Season 2, Episode 18, "Dave"
• Kate talks to who she claims is Noreen, "one of the moms from the park" (we later find out that she "was doing something for Sawyer")
  
• Present:
• Claire sleeping by a fire, wakes up, sees her dad (Christian Shephard) holding Aaron!
  
  
• Jack gets out of surgery, all went well
• Juliet tells Kate that she kissed Jack, Jack overheard but pretended to be sleeping
• Flashforward:
• Kate "was doing something for Sawyer" - "I made him a promise"
  
• Does this promise have something to do with Sawyer and Cassidy's daughter, Clementine?
• Kate met Cassidy in a flashback
• Jack: "He made his choice. He chose to stay. ... I'm the one who's here. I'm the one who saved you."
  
• diesel929 suggested in the live chat during the podcast that maybe Sawyer stays to find Claire
• Jack knows that he's related to Aaron; when and how did he find out?
• Present:
• Claire walked off into the jungle in the middle of the night following her dad
• Sawyer finds Aaron
  • Is this why Kate takes care of Aaron? Claire just disappears? Will we actually see her die? Does she in fact die?

Screenshots and Easter Eggs:


• Jack has no scar from his appendix surgery when he wakes up in the future
• (Actually, it looks like he does have a scar in this screenshot)
  
• Is it really Danielle in the dirt? (See these screenshots)
  
• Miles asked Sawyer if that was Danielle, but Sawyer didn't answer
• The executive producers have said as recently as this season that they'd like to do a Danielle flashback, but how could they if Danielle and Alex are both dead? (Unless Ben has a flashback that shows how he stole Danielle's baby)

The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

• Official LOST Podcast:
• Carlton Cuse said that there will be a big electromagnetic event this season
• Preview:
• Michael: "He's going to kill everyone" - flash of Keamy
• Kate walks holding a gun in front of her
• Keamy and Michael fight
• Someone says "We've been waiting for you a real long time"
• Horace Goodspeed from the DHARMA Initiative tells John Locke "I'm not making a lot of sense, am I? Probably because I've been dead for 12 years."
• From SpoilerFix.com:
• Episode 4.11: Cabin Fever (Locke-centric)

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The Shape of Things to Come Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, the JoshMeister and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 9, "The Shape of Things to Come". (Sorry again for being late this week; thanks again for bearing with me!)

Pre-Show Notes:

• During the mid-season hiatus, Josh was on the Cranky Fanatic podcast as a contestant on Big-O's special LOST Jeopardy game. Josh was up against Curt Yanko from the Black Rock podcast and Amanda from Lost Flashbacks. Amanda won, but Josh was lucky enough to get a prize anyway: Anne Dawson's cool LOST Mind Games book, full of brain benders and worth hours of fun, available from Amazon.com.
  
• If you liked the music sound bites from this week's podcast, you can get an MP3 of "Weird Al" Yankovic's song "I Lost on Jeopardy" for 99 cents, also on Amazon.

The Shape of Things to Come notes:

• Present:
• Jack is sick - "stomach bug" - takes antibiotics
• Vincent barking, Bernard finds body in surf - it's the doctor from the ship! His throat was slit!
• Who did it? Why?
• Hurley: "Australia's the key to the whole game"
• 1622 (or was that 1623 - two of the Numbers?) is fence code Alex enters - apparently a panic switch
• phone rings in Ben's house, woman's automated voice repeating "code 14J" - Ben says "they're here"
• Flashforward:
• Ben wakes up in Sahara Desert wearing DHARMA jacket, pukes, quickly takes out two attackers who ride up on horses with machine guns
  
• Why was Ben's arm hurt?
• Josh thinks this scene makes it clear that there's some sort of wormhole (or something conceptually similar) that can be entered into from the Orchid station; the logo on Ben's coat (as seen in a screenshot - see link below) is a new logo and the name on the coat is Halliwax, which is the name of the doctor in the Orchid orientation film
• Present:
• Claire's house goes up in flame after rocket explosion
• Flashforward:
• Ben is in Tunisia
• He's been to the hotel before - he uses his Dean Moriarty passport as ID
  
• The date is October 21, 2005
• Sayid says on TV: "I just want to bury my wife in peace"
  
• We later find out for sure that Sayid married Nadia, the woman he loved and had been searching for before Flight 815
• Present:
• Ben says Locke and Hurley are important because Ben needs to go to Jacob
• Claire's not dead - how exactly did she survive?
• The freighties sent Miles to Ben's house with a walkie-talkie
• Flashforward:
• Ben goes to Tikrit, Iraq for Nadia funeral to find Sayid
• Ben takes photos of someone - who? (He later tells Sayid that the man murdered Nadia days before in Los Angeles)
• Then Ben takes pictures of Sayid carrying the casket, and Sayid sees Ben
• Ben: "I'm going to find the man who murdered your wife"
• Ben lies about how he got off the island - says he took Desmond's boat
• Present:
• Ben finds out that they have Alex
• Martin Keamy, employee of Charles Widmore
• He killed Alex
• Ben says that the rules have changed - what does this mean, exactly? (More on this in a moment)
  
• Ben goes into his secret passageway
• Josh speculates that this may perhaps lead to the Orchid Station
• Flashforward:
• Ben follows Nadia's murderer
• Sayid kills the man and begs Ben to tell him "who's next"
• Ben walks away smiling; this was his plan all along
• On the podcast, we discussed whether Ben might have actually set up Naomi's death (which Josh doesn't believe based on what we saw in the episode) but Michelle brought up a good point that Ben may have orchestrated it specifically because he knew it would empower him to recruit Sayid; why would Charles Widmore specifically want to kill Naomi?
  
• Of course, maybe the man Sayid killed was someone who knew about Naomi's escape from the Iraqis and killed her for that, and perhaps the man didn't know about Charles Widmore at all, but Ben used Nadia's death as a way to trick Sayid into working for him
  
• Present:
• Earthquake, smoke monster passes by, there are gunshots, and (at least some of) Keamy's men are killed by the smoke monster
• Can Ben summon the monster? He must know more about it than he lets on
• Ben goes to say goodbye to his daughter while Sawyer, Hurley, Claire, and John Locke head for the tree line in the opposite direction of the monster
• Daniel Faraday sends Morse code signal "What happened to the doctor?"
• Signal comes back: "The doctor is fine." Daniel lies; Bernard knows Morse Code
• Daniel admits that he's never going to take them off the island
• Jack starts to feel sick
  
  
• Sawyer takes Claire and Aaron back to the beach, Hurley stays with Locke and Ben
• Miles goes with Sawyer, Claire, and Aaron (not surprising, considering that he knows what Locke and Ben are capable of, and that Ben's being hunted)
  
• Flashforward:
• Ben visits Charles
• Charles: "Have you come to kill me?" Ben: "We both know I can't do that" - Why can't Ben kill Charles? Is it against "the rules"? Whose rules are they, anyway?
• Charles: "Everything you have, you took from me."
• Ben says he's going to kill Penelope, "and once she's gone, once she's dead, then you'll understand how I feel, and you'll wish you hadn't changed the rules."
  
• Josh speculates that Sayid may end up being faced with killing Penelope; on the podcast, Christina wonders whether Sayid would do it considering his friendship with Desmond
• Charles to Ben: "You'll never find her."
  
• Why would Charles think so? We know Ben has good information sources because he knows an incredible amount about all of the Flight 815 survivors, etc. However, maybe Charles is right considering that Ben's file on Charles was largely incomplete
• Charles: "That island's mine, Benjamin; always was, will be again"
• Ben: "But you'll never find it"
• How is it that Charles can't find the island when his minions (the freighties) already have? Not to mention that Charles' daughter Penny independently discovered the location of the island through her own research. It doesn't seem to make any sense that Charles can't find the island
• Charles: "Then I suppose the hunt is on for both of us"
• Ben: "I suppose it is"
• At first Josh wondered whether Charles meant that the hunt for the island was on for both of them, but it makes more sense that Charles' hunt is for the island while Ben's hunt is for Penelope

Screenshots and Easter Eggs:

• "Halliwax" and new DHARMA logo (Orchid Station?) on Ben's parka
  
• Heiroglyphics on the door inside of Ben's secret passageway
  
• A possible translation of the heiroglyphics from movv.org is "A time to command something dangerous" (The monster?)
  
• Other possible translations based on DocArzt.com's article include "To summon protection," "Time to summon strength," "To summon time protection," "To summon time power," or "Time summons the power of life," among other possible meanings
  
• The smoke monster "train"
  

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Meet Kevin Johnson Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast (episode 50!), the JoshMeister and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 8, "Meet Kevin Johnson".

(Please accept my apologies for posting this on the night when Episode 9 is airing! I was very busy during the mid-season hiatus and didn't get a chance to edit and upload this episode until now. Thanks for your patience!)

Meet Kevin Johnson notes:

• Present:
• Michael: "I'm here to die"
• Ben tells Alex, Karl, and Danielle to go to the temple
  
• Karl didn't know about the temple
• Ben says the temple is not for Claire and the other Flight 815 survivors
• Flashback:
• Michael tries to commit suicide by crashing his car, fails
• Michael's mom is taking care of Walt
• Michael's mom doesn't know what happened with the island; wants to know where they were for "two months" (which clarifies the timeline; this is a flashback, but after Michael and Walt left the island and before the present)
  
• Walt is having nightmares (we later find out it's because Michael told Walt that he killed Ana Lucia and Libby)
• Michael tries to commit suicide with a gun, Tom stops him!
• Tom tells Michael he can't kill himself: "The island won't let you" - and when Michael tries, the gun jams
  
• Tom shows Michael photographs of a cemetary in Thailand where he says Widmore got the bodies to put in the fake Oceanic Flight 815, and shows him an invoice for Widmore's purchase of the plane
• Michael was recruited to kill everyone on board the ship!
• Miles knew that Kevin was not Michael's real name
• Kimi is practicing with a machine gun
• In the present, he just left to go to the island!!
• Michael has some explosives he's about to detonate on the ship
• Libby apparition on the boat is somewhat reminiscent of Find 815 when Sam thinks he hears and sees Sonya
• The bomb is not real - when it goes off there's no explosion, just a note that pops up that says "NOT YET"
• Ben says nobody asked Michael to kill Ana Lucia and Libby, but Ben says he won't kill innocent people when he's in a war
  
• Present:
• Sayid just introduced Michael to the captain and explained that he's a traitor
• Karl dies (or so we might assume)
  
• Danielle gets shot; there is no exit wound - but did she really die? I don't think so.
  
• Alex yells out that she's Ben's daughter
• Matt from the Smoke Hatch pointed out:
• Libby was holding blankets in the hospital, similar to when Michael shot her
• The Temple had a DHARMA symbol, so is it a real temple or is it a station?

---

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Ji Yeon Discussion

[Listen to this episode!] [Subscribe to the MP3 feed via iTunes]

In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM, Steve from the Smoke Hatch, and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 7, "Ji Yeon," plus more details from "The Other Woman" and notes from the latest episode of The Official LOST Podcast.

The Other Woman additional thoughts:

• In the first flashback, Harper Stanhope (Juliet's therapist) had a certificate of recognition on the wall that had a Hanso Foundation logo on it!
• Was she a member of the DHARMA Initiative who somehow survived the gassing and joined The Others?
• Is she supposed to be Ben's childhood friend Annie?
• This would perhaps be another reason why Ben hated Goodwin enough to send him to his death
• Why would someone who proudly displays a certificate from The Hanso Foundation be working with Ben and The Others??

• Notes from the popups:
  
• Harper has a bachelor's from Columbia and a master's degree in psychology from Yale
• Ben used the tempest station to deploy the gas in the purge that killed
  
• Stanhope is also Goodwin's last name (as opposed to being Harper's maiden name which she continued to use after marriage, as some women do)
  
• The Tempest is a reference, in part, to a Shakespeare play about a group of people who get stranded on a magical island
• The popups hinted that Juliet looks like Annie!!?!
• This is pretty ridiculous, in my opinion. The most obvious reason is that Juliet is blonde while Annie was a brunette as a child. But if you compare Annie and Juliet side-by-side, there are so few differences in their appearance. Who writes these popups, anyway?
• What makes a lot more sense to me is that Ben thinks Juliet looks like his mother, Emily Linus. Harper looks a lot more like Annie than Juliet does
  
• Zach and Emma - Juliet has been "wonderful" with them
• The lists indicated who was worthy to join The Others' community
• Ben was, in fact, involved with the plot to get Juliet to kill Dan Faraday and Charlotte Lewis; if Juliet had succeeded it could have opened up the way for The Purge II

Ji Yeon notes:

• Present:
• Regina had her book upside-down... can't read?
• The book is The Survivors of the Chancellor, an 1875 novel written by Jules Verne about the final voyage of a British sailing vessel, the Chancellor, told from the perspective of one of its passengers (in the form of a diary)
• Jin wants to name the baby Ji Yeon if they have a daughter
  
• Flashforward:
• Sun called emergency services, we see that she's very pregnant, and rather than being in labor she says that she thinks something's wrong
• Sun is watching Nikki's episode of Exposé on TV
  
• Flashback:
• It appears (so far) as though Jin makes it off the island, too
• Present:
• A note is passed in to Sayid and Desmond that says "DON'T TRUST THE CAPTAIN"
• Presumably passed to them by Michael? But why would Michael (or Ben, assuming that Michael is Ben's "man on the boat") want them to distrust the captain when the captain seems to be telling the truth about what a bad person Charles Widmore is?
  
• Flashforward:
• Substitute doctor, baby is in distress
• Present:
• Juliet told Jin that Sun was with another man
• Lapidus is running an errand to go to the island?
• Regina committed suicide
• Captain made Desmond and Sayid stop when they tried to save Regina
• Some of crew have cabin fever
• Sabateur on board has been destroying engine
• Charles Widmore gave the captain his orders
• Captain has the black box of the supposed Flight 815
• Wreckage was obviously staged - imagine the resources
• Where did Charles get 324 bodies?
• "That's why we want Benjamin Linus" - Why exactly?
  
• Flashforward:
• Sun gives birth to a girl, names her Ji Yeon per Jin's wish (hence the episode title)
• Present:
• Blood stain on the wall, reminiscent of Radzinsky
  
• Michael introduces himself as Kevin Johnson
• Desmond has never met Michael; refer to Lostpedia's November 2004 timeline
• Flashforward:
• Sun and Hurley go to Jin's tombstone which has the crash date (22 September 2004) as his date of death

Non-spoilers from The Official LOST Podcast:

• The relationship between the Widmores and Alvar Hanso as described in the book Bad Twin is part of the LOST canon

WARNING: The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

Notes from The Official LOST Podcast:

• Carlton said that one way that the Tempest Station could be interpreted is that "there were not all entirely peaceful missions that were going on in the DHARMA stations. Another interpretation is that the DHARMA Initiative was aware that there were hostile forces on the island and created gas to protect themselves. Those might be two viable explanations."
• We will find out by the end of the season whether Ben was telling the truth to Locke about Charles Widmore
• The scenes in The Other Woman are not the last we'll see on Harper, Juliet's therapist
• Carlton confirmed that "we will be seeing more of Jack's dad in the future. I think it's a really good question to ponder what exactly is Christian Shephard's role in the lives of Jack and the other survivors on the island and it was a good observation also to say that it was Christian Shephard indeed in the cabin."
• We will see the smoke monster again soon. Damon said that they like to unleash the monster once per season at least. Says Damon, "We have a rule, though, and the rule is: every time we show you the monster that we evolve its mythology a little further so you learn something about it that you didn't know before."
• We will see Locke return to more of a Season 1 Locke, "an energized and activated Locke," as soon as this season
• Episode 8 will be titled "Meet Kevin Johnson"

From a UGO interview with Damon and Carlton:

• Carlton: "We can't say much about what the format and structure of next season will be like because I think it would spoil the ending of this season. As this season gets closer to the end it is going to become more than apparent where the story wants to go next."
  

Notes from the preview for Meet Kevin Johnson:

• We'll find out about Michael's story
• Someone will die
• Ben apparently revealed to Locke that Michael is on the boat
• You can watch sneak peeks at DarkUFO's spoiler site—but be careful about other comments and posts there!

---

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The Other Woman Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM and Steve from the Smoke Hatch discuss Season 4 Episode 6, "The Other Woman," plus more details from "The Constant" and notes from the latest episode of The Official LOST Podcast.

The Constant recap:

• Notes from the popups:
  
• Eloise being "unstuck in time" is a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five
• It was implied that the "friend on this board" referenced by Minkowski is Ben's spy on the boat
• Tovard Hanso is a distant relative of Magnus Hanso, as well as Alvar Hanso
• Danielle Rousseau - was the "sickness" she mentioned the same thing as George Minkowski and Desmond had?
• Did Dan know to send 1996 Desmond to see him because he had already lived through the event in the past? (This is a time travel paradox)
• The rat never was in the future to learn the maze because he died - paradox pointed out by Curt Yanko on the Black Rock podcast
• Did Dan set up Desmond meeting him in the past for the selfish reason of giving himself a "constant"?
• When Dan saw the news report on TV about Flight 815 supposedly being discovered, did he know at that moment that this would lead him on the expedition in which he would find Desmond? If so, why was he sad?
  

The Other Woman notes:

• Flashback: Harper Stanhope
• Juliet's was assigned a therapist right when she got to the island??
• Present: Juliet heads into jungle to search for Dan and Charlotte, hears whispers, then Harper appears and says "long time no see"
• says that Faraday and Lewis headed to The Tempest (electrical station) to release gas to kill everyone on the island
• there are more whispers, then Harper disappears
• Flashback: Harper is Goodwin's wife
• Goodwin was having an affair with Juliet
• Present: Charlotte nearly shot Kate
• Kate lied and said Miles is fine
• Charlotte lied about phone not working
• Kate saw gas masks, Charlotte knocked her out
• Flashback: white blood cell count plummets, immune system turns on the fetus
  only happens to women who conceived on the island
• Harper: Juliet looks just like someone close to Ben (his mom?)
• Ben would hurt Goodwin if he knew about Julet's relationship with him
• Present: Ben tells Locke that their common enemy is not the people on freighter; the enemies are "the ones they work for"
• Combination to safe: 36 15 28
• Ben shows Locke a candid video of Charles Widmore beating one of Ben's people, says that Widmore is the man who commissioned the freighter and that he wants to exploit the island (e.g. its healing properties)
• Ben has a file on Charles Widmore: some of it is vague, some of it is guesswork, some of it is concrete
• Flashback: Juliet asks Ben, "Do the children from the plane really belong here?"
• Present: Dan in gas mask and full suit, trying to hack the system in The Tempest station: "Juliet, what are you doing here?"
• Dan was actually trying to render the gas inert, not release it
• Flashback: Ben to Juliet: "How can you possibly not understand that you're mine?"
• Present: Juliet to Jack: "Ben thinks that I'm his and he knows how I feel about you" - they kiss anyway
  

WARNING: The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

Notes from the preview:

• Juliet: if she [Sun] doesn't get off this island in 3 weeks, she will die
• we will find out the last of the Oceanic Six
• we'll see the face of someone we never expected to see again (Michael, presumably)

Notes from The Official LOST Podcast:

• Damon said that we will learn "in this pod of episodes" (presumably before the mid-season break) what is going on with the Others who Richard was told to take to the temple
• It will also be very clear who are the members of the Oceanic Six by that time
• We will see more of Penny and Charles Widmore this season

---

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"The Constant" Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM and guests Spivvy (aka Josh) and Amanda from the Lost Flashbacks and Steve from the Smoke Hatch discuss Season 4 Episode 5, "The Constant," plus notes from a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

Top of the show:

• Follow-up on The Economist
  
• Did the first flashforward scene on the golf course take place after the one with Elsa? Mr. Avellino seemed to be afraid of Sayid, yet at the end Sayid said to Ben something to the effect of "now they know we're after them."
• As supporting evidence, this episode contained Dan Faraday's experiment with the payload sent from the frieghter, and the time difference between the golf scene and the last scene with Elsa (not counting commercials) is 31 minutes
• (source: LOSTCasts podcast)
• Josh theorizes that the DHARMA Initiative wanted to do its Valenzetti Equation experiments (among others) on the island because it would buy them extra time; time moves more slowly on the island
  

Eggtown recap:

• Notes from the popups:
  
• 93rd day on the island
• The book VALIS is "about a fool's search for God, and God turns out to be a joke"
• In the book The Invention of Morel, someone finds a machine that can re-create reality
• Some people think that Miles was actually giving Ben a code... heading 325 is the way off the island as given by Ben to Michael, and "$3.2 million" contains a 3, a 2, and 5 zeros. Ben already knows the heading, but maybe Miles was trying to tell Ben that he was Ben's spy from the boat. (Josh doesn't believe this theory, especially after rewatching the episode, but it's interesting nevertheless.)
  

The Constant notes:

• On the helicopter: Frank's "cheat sheet" says to go 40 miles N at 305, 7 K east
• Desmond's consciousness is jumping back and forth in time???
• Desmond suddenly lost his memory of Sayid!!
• It turns out that present-day Desmond thinks it's 1996 and apparently has no recollection of events that occurred between then and now
  
• Dan: "Your perception of how long your friends have been gone is not necessarily how long they've been gone"
• Dan said that if Frank was off course there might be "side effects"
• The crew members don't seem to know exactly where they are, just near Fiji - "still in the Pacific"
• This refutes the theories that the real plane, not just the fake one found underwater, crashed near Bali in the Indian Ocean
  
• The freighties lock up Desmond with a weird guy (we later find out it's George Minkowski) who says, "Hey, it's happening to you, too, isn't it?"
• Dan asked if Desmond was recently exposed to high levels of electromagnetism
  "going to and coming from the island some people can get a little... confused. This is not amnesia."
• Weird guy: "I was just on a ferris wheel." He seems to be having flashed similar to Desmond's
  
• Daniel tells Desmond via the satellite phone that when he flashes back to 1996, to take a train to Oxford University, the Queen's College Physics Department, so that Desmond can meet Dan there
• Desmond was supposed to tell 1996 Dan to set the device to 2.342, oscillating 11 Hz, and that if 1996 Dan had any doubts, that Desmond should mention that he knew about Eloise (Daniel's lab rat)
• We find out that the crazy guy is George Minkowski, the ship's communications specialist, who used to answer the calls
• He recognized Desmond's name
• He said he was told to never answer when the light flashed when Penny called
• One of the nicest things about this episode is that it finally gives a clear explanation of Flashes Before Your Eyes, which was totally ambiguous about whether Desmond really time-traveled, whether he was in a parallel universe/timeline, or whether it was all in his imagination:
• In this episode, Daniel Faraday explains to Desmond that his consciousness is making the jump, and we can plainly see that Desmond's body is not going back and forth in time
  
• Dan tells Desmond that "Each time your consciousness jumps it gets harder to jump back"
• Minkowski: someone sabotaged all the equipment 2 days ago (Ben's man? But then who opened the door?)
• Josh's theory is that Ben's "man on the boat" is Michael, who sabotaged the equipment, and Walt is the one who opened the door. Or for that matter, it could be the other way around. Michael was willings to do Ben's bidding on the island, so why not on the freighter? We learned from one of the mobisodes that Walt spent some time in Room 23, so perhaps he was brainwashed and is working for Ben.
• Tovar Hanso owned the journal of Magnus Hanso, captain of the Black Rock
• Charles Widmore won the bid on the journal, which eventually would lead to the expedition from the Find 815 game and the discovery of the fake Oceanic Flight 815 in the Sunda Trench
• Minkowski died saying "I can't get back"
• Penny's phone number and address were clues in the Find 815 ARG
  
• Ultimately, Desmond finds that Penny is his "constant" (his link between the past and the present) and he is able to communicate with her briefly through a temporarily-fixed phone that Sayid rigged in the communication room on the ship
• Desmond seems to be completely out of the time loop now; he has his memory back, as he seemed to remember Charlie and he clearly remembered Sayid's name as he said it for the first time since his flashes began at the beginning of the episode
• Does this also mean that Desmond will no longer have any future-seeing flashes? Is Desmond completely cured of all bizarre time-space phenomena?
• Be sure to refer to my previous post for notes and commentary on Dan Faraday's chalkboard and notebook writings
  

Notes from a recent Entertainment Weekly interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (there may be spoilers in this post beginning now):

• Mobisodes and Orchid film are canon, but the video game and find815.com are NOT, which means they do not relate to the story directly
• This makes sense because certain things like the timeline of the press release and the billboards did not jive with Sam Thomas' discovery of the fake Flight 815, which should have taken place in 2004 based on what we've learned on the show
• For another thing, Sam Thomas isn't mentioned in the discovery of the fake Flight 815, nor do we hear his voice on the show when we see the ROV being piloted
  
• There are no "this is what might happen" flashforwards.
• There is no connection between Naomi's and Elsa's bracelets.
• Charlotte Staples Lewis' name being a reference to C. S. Lewis is "an important clue to Charlotte's own, as-yet-untold important backstory."
• By the end of this season there will be two theories about the apparent Flight 815 in the Sunda Trench. Ben's list has something to do with this.
• We will find out this season who is in the coffin.
• (credit to Jay and Jack for pointing out this EW article)
  

Preview for the next episode, The Other Woman:

• Ben says, "we have a common enemy"
• Charlotte, Jack, Juliet have guns at various points in the episode
  
• Charlotte knocks out Kate
• Charlotte says to Juliet something to the effect of "you'll have to shoot both of us if you want to stop us"
• Jack says to Juliet, "If there's something you need to tell me, now's the time to do it."
  

---

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Phrases from Daniel Faraday's Chalkboard and Notebook [Updated]

[Updated March 1, 2008 with Wikipedia references and quotations, plus other information and questions]

In Season 4 Episode 5, "The Constant," we get to see Daniel Faraday in 1996 doing time travel experiments with a lab rat's consciousness. He has a chalkboard on which he has written a number of equations and diagrams. Later on the island, we see closeups of his journal, which includes still more equations, diagrams, and interesting phrases. Sledgeweb [1][2] and DarkUFO [1][2][3] have some screencaps of Dan Faraday's chalkboard and notebook. Some of the notable phrases that I've been able to pick out are as follows:

• "Kerr metric"
• Wikipedia: Kerr metric
• describes the geometry of spacetime around a rotating massive body
• the Kerr metric permits closed, time-like loops in which a band of travelers returns to the same place after moving for a finite time by their own clock; however, they return to the same place and time, as seen by an outside observer
• Could this explain what's going on with the time difference on the island?
  
• "Kerr might work! Can it evade Hawking's chronology protection conjecture?"
• Wikipedia: Chronology protection conjecture
• a conjecture by the physicist Professor Stephen Hawking that the laws of physics are such as to prevent time travel on all but sub-microscopic scales. ...the aspects of physics which make time travel impossible at macroscopic scales, thus apparently preventing time paradoxes. He says: "It seems that there is a Chronology Protection Agency which prevents the appearance of closed timelike curves and so makes the universe safe for historians."
• An example of a time paradox is the grandfather paradox, in which a time traveler goes back in time and kills his own grandfather before his father was conceived. If the time traveler succeeded in his mission, then the time traveler never would have existed in the first place, so how could he have traveled back in time to kill his grandfather?
  
• In 1996, Li-Xin Li published a paper in which he postulates the anti-chronology protection conjecture: "[Under specific circumstances, t]he chronology protection conjecture might break down, and the anti-chronology protection conjecture might hold: There is no law of physics preventing the appearance of closed timelike curves."
• What specifically does Dan mean that "Kerr might ... evade Hawking's chronology protection conjecture"?
  
• "Cone theory combining trinity to infinity"
• "Relative quantum mechanics"
• Wikipedia: Introduction to quantum mechanics
• Quantum mechanics (QM, or quantum theory) is a physical science dealing with the behaviour of matter and energy on the scale of atoms and subatomic particles / waves. QM also forms the basis for the contemporary understanding of how very large objects such as stars and galaxies, and cosmological events such as the Big Bang, can be analyzed and explained. Quantum mechanics is the foundation of several related disciplines including nanotechnology, condensed matter physics, quantum chemistry, structural biology, particle physics, and electronics.
  
• Wikipedia: Relational quantum mechanics
• Relational quantum mechanics (RQM) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics which treats the state of a quantum system as being observer-dependent, i.e., the state is the relation between the observer and the system.
  
• "Temporal sloshing"
• "Temporal double-well"
• "Space-time interval"
• Wikipedia: Spacetime
• Spacetime entails a new concept of distance. Whereas distances in Euclidean spaces are entirely spatial and always positive, in special relativity the concept of distance is quantified in terms of the space-time interval between two events, which occur in two locations at two times ... Space-time intervals may be classified into three distinct types based on whether the temporal separation or the spatial separation of the two events is greater
  
• "The Lorentz invariant"
• Wikipedia: Non-critical string theory: Lorentz invariance
• Wikipedia: Lorentz covariance
• Wikipedia: Lorentz transformation
  
• Wikipedia: Invariant (physics)
  
• "Relativistic mass of the particle as measured"
• Wikipedia: Mass in special relativity
• The term mass in special relativity usually refers to the rest mass of the object, which is the Newtonian mass as measured by an observer moving along with the object.
  
• "Imaginary space"
• "Imaginary time"
• Wikipedia: Imaginary time
• Imaginary time is a concept derived from quantum mechanics and is essential in connecting quantum mechanics with statistical mechanics. Imaginary time is obtained from real time via a Wick rotation

Are there any physicists or readers familiar with space-time theory who can try to explain some of these phrases in layman's terms? If so, please post in the comments section of this article and enlighten the rest of us. =)

I'm planning to do a special space-time theory podcast at some point during a break or hiatus with Curt Yanko from the Black Rock Podcast, Steve from the Smoke Hatch, and others. We'll be discussing Stephen Hawking's book A Brief History of Time and how it ties in with the show, as well as other time travel related subjects. Details on the date and time are still being worked out. In the mean time, please e-mail me at thelostmeister+timetravel at gmail dot com if you would like to participate, if you have any MP3 comments, or if you want to write in with any theories or thoughts about time travel on LOST.

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Eggtown Discussion and "Wormhole Clones"

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM and guests Spivvy (aka Josh) and Amanda from the Lost Flashbacks and Steve from the Smoke Hatch discuss Season 4 Episode 4, "Eggtown."

Top of the show:

• The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike is over!
• This block will include 7 episodes, then there will be a break, then 5 more episodes
  
• New time slot for when LOST returns: after the break, the show will move to 10 PM
• The 35 remaining episodes will be split between Seasons 5 and 6
• sources: Lostpedia, UGO
• I'm looking for sponsors for this blog and podcast
  
• Want to market to thousands of LOST fans? E-mail me at thelostmeister+marketing at gmail dot com.
  

The Economist recap:

• Is John Locke the economist?
• John Locke has the same name as a famous economist
  

Eggtown notes:

• on the island: Kate tells Sawyer has a secret agenda (we later find out that it's to find out from Miles whether they know about her history)
  
  
• flashforward: Kate is standing trial for her murder, gets taken into custody for the duration of her trial
  
  
• island: Jack said they're going to get is all off this island... Dan looks away
• Kate wants to talk to Miles for a personal reason - asks him "Do you know who I am? Do you know what I did?"
• Miles: I'm exactly where I want to be
  
  
• flashforward: Kate: "you are not using my son"
• This was the "he" who would be wondering where Kate was, mentioned in Season 3 finale
• Jack: only 8 of us survived the crash, Kate rescued the rest of the Oceanic Six
  
  
• island: Kate wants Sawyer to bust Ben out, but they end up doing the opposite; Kate busts Miles out while Sawyer distracts Locke
  
• Sawyer plays Backgammon with Locke - black and white pieces
• Miles wants Ben to give him money ($3.2 million) in exchange for Miles claiming Ben is dead
  
• Miles says that Ben is a lot more powerful than the Flight 815 survivors think he is
• Miles reveals to Kate that they know everything about all the crash survivors - including that Kate was wanted for murder and was being taken by a marshal back to the United States
• Charlotte is teaching Dan how to predict what cards she's placed face-down
• ...or so I thought at first. Actually she uses the word "remember," so it seems that this was a very simple memory game, and Dan was only able to remember 2 out of 3 cards, and got the 3rd completely wrong
• Steve from the Smoke Hatch suggested that Dan may be an autistic savant
  
• Reginna says to Charlotte over the phone: "What do you mean they took off with the helicopter? I thought the helicopter was with you!"
• Where are Frank, Desmond, Sayid, dead Naomi, and the chopper?
  
  
• flashforward: Kate and Jack conversation
• Jack didn't seem to want to have anything to do with Kate's baby
  
• Kate lives in a mansion!? How was she able to purchase and move into a mansion after coming home? Why wasn't she taken back into custody immediately after returning, since she was wanted for murder and had a history of evading the police?
  
• Kate's baby is Aaron!?
• So, is this Claire's Aaron? Presumably they wouldn't confuse us for no good reason... plus there was setup for it earlier in the episode when Claire asked Kate to hold Aaron, and when she told Kate that she should try becoming a mother sometime
  
• Did Claire die? Is she still on the island? Did Kate steal Aaron from Claire?
• Based on Kate's mom's feelings about seeing "her grandson," it seems she thinks that Aaron is Kate's biological son, which doesn't make any sense because Kate clearly wasn't 8 or 9 months pregnant when she boarded the flight. Does the general public think that Aaron is Kate's biological child? How would a woman who is wanted for murder be able to become the sole legal guardian of a child?
  
• Presumably Jack knows that Kate's baby is actually Claire's baby Aaron, but why is Jack so afraid of seeing Aaron? Does he know by now that he's Aaron's uncle? Is he upset because Aaron is a constant reminder of Claire's death or that Claire's still stuck on the island? Does Jack know that Kate stole the baby from Claire?
  
  
• Books in this episode:
• VALIS
  
• the book that Locke brought to Ben
• "a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God. VALIS is the first book in the VALIS trilogy of novels"
  
• The Invention of Morel
• the book Sawyer was reading
• "A fugitive hides on a deserted island somewhere in Polynesia. Tourists arrive, and his fear of being discovered becomes a mixed emotion when he falls in love with one of them. He wants to tell her his feelings, but an anomalous phenomenon keeps them apart."
  
• Screenshots at Sledgeweb's site
  

Notes from the Official LOST Podcast (there may be spoilers in this post beginning now):

• Kate is indeed one of the Oceanic Six (we figured this out from Eggtown anyway)
  
• "The remaining two are going to be very tricky."
• We'll know the other two "soon," before the end of the season
• Presumably Aaron was one of them, although the executive producers didn't say so
  
• Although coy about the topic, Damon and Carlton admitted that the name of the actor who played Michael, Harold Perrineau, has been credited in each episode so far this season even though he hasn't been on the show in a long time
• Clearly what this means is that Michael is going to become a regular character again this season, probably very soon
  
• There are "future episodes" about the time mysteries related to Dan Faraday's experiment
• SPOILER We will be seeing Libby soon - this season
• When asked about the DHARMA polar bear remains that Charlotte found in the Tunisian desert, Damon said that there are properties of the island that are capable of transporting things off the island. Carlton recommended watching the film for the Orchid Station, which he says is somehow important to the show. Damon said that the polar bear has something in common with the bunnies
• Josh has developed a theory about "wormhole clones," like the second bunny with the number 15 on its back in the Orchid film
• Perhaps all the incarnations of Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Edgar Halowax, etc. are actually instances of the same person from alternate realities or points in time, or duplicates of the same person through some manner of space-time alterations caused by the island's Casimir effect. This could explain why one of the incarnations seemed to have a prosthetic arm while the others didn't, as well as the different names (of course, the names could just be made up)
• Perhaps there are wormhole clones of Libby, which might explain why she seemed to be such a different person (with a different hair color each time) in the mental institution, Desmond's flashback, and the island
• Here's an unrelated but interesting thought: If Michael hadn't killed Libby when he did, Desmond would have returned on his boat in time to see Libby alive and would have surely recognized Libby as the woman who sold him his boat. How would Desmond have reacted to that? Would he immediately suspect a conspiracy?
• Josh also pointed out that the executive producers have said on another edition of The Official LOST Podcast that we will never hear the word "clone" on the show
  
• The executive producers confirmed that the cow that Frank Lapidus saw was Mikhail's cow from the Flame Station

Preview for the next episode, The Constant:

• The preview appeared to show Desmond shoving Daniel Faraday against a wall, possibly in a flashback?
• There seemed to be a storm while they were on the helicopter, and it looked like there were guns drawn; perhaps Sayid and Desmond became afraid that Frank was going to kill them by leading them directly into the middle of a storm when Frank was really just trying to follow the exact heading that Dan said he must follow no matter what

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The Economist Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM and guests Spivvy (aka Josh) and Amanda from the Lost Flashbacks and Steve from the Smoke Hatch discuss Season 4 Episode 3, "The Economist."

The following notes are from the rerun of the previous episode, Confirmed Dead, which contained several popups with new information:

• The woman in Dan Faraday's flashback was not Dan's wife—it's his caretaker!
• Miles Straume is supposed to sound like maelstrom, which is a very powerful whirlpool
• Faraday's remark about light scattering is a clue to the unique properties of the island
• It was confirmed that Charlotte's name is reference to C. S. Lewis and Narnia
• The phone number on the TV that Frank called is 1-888-548-0034, which is a real telephone number
  
• George Minkowski's name is a reference to Hermann Minkowski, who introduced the concept of spacetime
• Frank says: "Miles, this Juliet, she was not on the plane. ... She's a native."
• Miles: Really?! Where is he [Ben]?
  
• The popup confirms that the photo is supposed to be confirmation that Ben lied about never having left the island
• Ben: these people are a threat

The following notes are related to this week's episode, The Economist:

• Miles to Jack: "The people who hired me told me this is Benjamin Linus and they told me to find him. And for what they're paying me..."
• On Naomi's bracelet: "N, I'll always be with you. R.G."
  
  
• In a flashforward we find out that Sayid is one of Oceanic Six
• "I insist, Mr. Avellino" Sayid says before shooting him
• At this point we start to wonder if Sayid is an assassin, and if so, does he work for someone?
  
• Later, Sayid meets a woman named Elsa, who says: "my employer is an economist"
• After Sayid leaves, he makes a call and says: "I made contact," and then throws away phone and rubs snow on his hands for some reason
  
• Hugo didn't like Locke's plans - maybe this is why he told Jack in the episode 1 flashforward that he should have gone with him?
• Dan's experiment
• "fire the payload"
• "I don't have it ... that is far more than weird"
• when the payload finally arrives, it's a rocket, and the time on its clock is off by 31 minutes
• Locke (apparently) bound and gagged Hurley and left him at the barracks
• Sayid finds Ben's secret room
• currency from various countries
• passports, one of which says his name is "Dean Moriarty" according to Lostpedia
• Moriarty is the archenemy of Sherlock Holmes; if this name has some meaning, who might the Holmes be to Ben's Moriarty?
  
• Hurley was working with Locke!
• Sawyer to Kate: "I ain't lookin' to leave"
• He tries to convince her to stay by reminding her that if she goes back, she'll still be a wanted criminal
  
  
• In a flashforward, Sayid warns Elsa, "the man you are working for in not an economist"
• She knew that already and shot Sayid (intentionally not killing him) and made a phone call in German
  
• Sayid reached for his gun and shot and killed her
• What was with her bracelet?? Was that the same one that Naomi wore?
• It turns out it wasn't; click on the screencap at DarkUFO's site for a closeup look
  
  
• Frank to Desmond (in explanation why he didn't know about Penny Widmore even though Naomi did): Naomi was "senior management"
• Kate decided to stay behind with Sawyer
  
• Dan to Frank: "Be sure you follow the same exact bearing you came in on... no matter what"
• This is very reminiscent of Ben's comment to Michael that he must follow an exact bearing to "find rescue"
• Could it be that Michael is the "man on their boat" that Ben referred to? If so, how have they been keeping in contact with each other? And why would Michael work for Ben?
  
  
• The flashforward's major reveal: Sayid was working for Ben!
• Ben and Sayid were keeping Sayid's friends safe? Which friends? The Oceanic Six, or the people still on the island (assuming there are still survivors on the island), or perhaps the woman Sayid used to love, Nadia?
  
• Sayid: now they know we're after them
• Ben: "Good."
  
  
• Amanda pointed out that there's a deleted scene wherein Sayid and Kate try to disarm the pylon fence while Miles discovers that it's not on by walking through unharmed
  

The following section contains spoilers from the preview:

• Preview for the next episode:
• The fifth member of the Oceanic Six will be revealed
• Kate gets with Sawyer... again
  
• On the podcast, Amanda said that she thought she saw a different-looking Claire in the preview

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Confirmed Dead Discussion, and Does Hurley See Dead People?

[Listen to this episode!] [Subscribe to the MP3 feed via iTunes]

In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, tJM and guests Amanda from the Lost Flashbacks and Steve from the Smoke Hatch discuss Season 4 Episode 2, "Confirmed Dead."

• The episode starts out with an ROV apparently looking for a "chest full of doubloons" (very much like the Find 815 game... however, the people navigating the ROV whose voices we heard were clearly not Sam Thomas or Mr. Ockham)
  
• They instead found what they thought was Oceanic 815
• We see a Daniel (Dan) Faraday flashback, in which he cries as he sees the news report about the alleged Flight 815 being discovered
• Back on the island, Dan calls George Minkowski
• Apparently there was an electrical storm
• Dan has a gun
• Kate: "most of them are back at the beach"
• Locke: "There's a cabin I have to go to"
• Hurley: "The cabin is back that way."
• Locke: "What did you say, Hugo?"
• Ben looks at Hurley, apparently just as surprised as Locke that Hurley has apparently seen Jacob's cabin
  
• Locke: "I got 'em [my orders] from Walt"
• Jack and Kate find out that a gas mask fell from helicopter
• Dan: "Rescuing you and your people... can't really say it's our primary objective."
• Locke: "It was Walt, only taller."
• Locke: "I'd probably be dead if I still had a kidney there" (pointing where Ben shot him)
• Was it Locke's destiny to no longer have his kidney so he could survive Ben's gunshot?
• Miles to Kate: "Naomi... the woman you killed, where is she?"
• We find out later that Naomi asking about sister was a duress code
• Flashback: Inglewood, CA
• Radio: "Authorities are confirming, all 324 passengers, dead" (presumably talking about Flight 815)
  
• Miles Straume (sounded like Strung) goes to Miss Gardner's house, and we find out that Miles is a dishonest exorcist
  
• Talks to dead people - Tells Kate "I'll know [what really happened to Naomi]! Take me to her body."
• Later: "They didn't kill her. It happened like they said it did."
• Flashback: Medenine, Tunisia
• Tunisian newspaper about Flight 815
• Charlotte: polar bear skeleton in desert, Hydra logo on its collar!
• She smiles upon finding the Hydra logo - is she a DHARMA Intiative employee? Are all of them currently working for DHARMA? This might explain the gas mask; they don't want to get gassed like Ben did to his father
  
• Daniel says he's a physicist and talks about how the light scatters strangely
  
• Miles claims he "collects soil samples"
• Feigns surprise about Find 815
• Josh's wife Kylene suggested at the commercial break that Miles wasn't surprised because he can talk to dead people and thus already knew they weren't dead
• Charlotte running? Nope; Vincent
• Flashback: Eleuthera, Bahamas
• Sees TV report about Flight 815 and the "victim identification process"
• They showed actual bodies in the plane - whose bodies are they really? Were they planted there by Widmore? Abaddon?
  
• Seth Norris is the name of the pilot, whose alleged body was not wearing Seth's wedding ring, which Frank notices as proof that it's not the real pilot
• When asked how he knows so much about the pilot, Frank says: "because I was supposed to be flying Oceanic 815 on that day"
• What is the significance of Frank seeing a cow? Just to prove that there are random cows roaming on the island providing food for the Others, like Mikhail's meat locker in the Flame station (and lack of many cows outside) hinted
  
• Ben shot (but didn't kill) Charlotte - she was wearing a bulletproof vest! She knew there was danger on the island
  
• Frank Lapidus landed the chopper safely
  
• Flashback: Naomi says: "So this is the team?"
• Matthew Abaddon hired Naomi to lead the operation?!
• Locke to Ben: "What is the monster?"
• Ben: "I don't know."
• Ben says that he knows why the freighties are there—for him! And he reveals several details about Charlotte Staples Lewis' life, which shocks her
  
• Locke: "How do you know all this?"
• Ben: "Because I have a man on their ship."

Also discussed:

• Master Nak's theory that Hurley can see dead people: