Staying LOST After LOST by Erin

Recaps SEASON 1

1.01  – Pilot

1.02  – Pilot Part 2

1.03  – Tabula Rasa

1.04  – Walkabout

1.05  – White Rabbit

1.06  – House of the Rising Sun

1.07  – The Moth

1.08  – Confidence Man

1.09  – Solitary

1.10  – Raised By Another

1.11  – All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

1.12  – Whatever the Case May Be

1.13  – Hearts and Minds

1.14  – Special

1.15  – Homecoming

1.16  – Outlaws

1.17  — …In Translation

1.18  – Numbers

1.19  – Deus Ex Machina

1.20  – Do No Harm

1.21  – The Greater Good

1.22  – Born to Run

1.23  – Exodus Part 1

1.24  – Exodus Part 2

Amy’s LOST Rewatch Recaps Menu:  Season 1

WELCOME to LOST REWATCH!

My name is Amy, and I’ll be one of your friendly neighborhood Snappy Recappers from LOSTblog.com!   Each week during rewatch, I’ll post an “Amy style” recap of every episode of LOST with observations and brief analyses.  Make sure to check out weekly “Staying Lost After Lost” recaps from Erin, too!

PLEASE NOTE:  If you are watching LOST for the FIRST time, and you want to AVOID SPOILERS for future season/shows, this is NOT the recap for you. I’ll be making all kinds of connections from all six seasons as I see them.

If you truly want to watch from the beginning spoiler free, but still want to read recaps/analysis online, I highly recommend you head over to Karen’s LOST Notebook. Karen took notes and wrote up recaps on every episode as it aired.  If you follow her notes by episode in order, you’ll be as spoiler free as you can get.

SEASON 1

1.01  – Pilot

1.02  – Pilot Part 2

1.03  – Tabula Rasa

1.04  – Walkabout

1.05  – White Rabbit

1.06  – House of the Rising Sun

1.07  – The Moth

1.08  – Confidence Man

1.09  – Solitary

1.10  – Raised By Another

1.11  – All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

1.12  – Whatever the Case May Be

1.13  – Hearts and Minds

1.14  – Special

1.15  – Homecoming

1.16  – Outlaws

1.17  — …In Translation

1.18  – Numbers

1.19  – Deus Ex Machina

1.20  – Do No Harm

1.21  – The Greater Good

1.22  – Born to Run

1.23  – Exodus Part 1

1.24  – Exodus Part 2

Back to Amy’s Rewatch Recap Menu.

Staying LOST After LOST by Erin Recaps Menu: Season 1

WELCOME to LOST REWATCH!

My name is Amy, and I’ll be one of your friendly neighborhood Snappy Recappers from LOSTblog.com!   Each week during rewatch, I’ll post an “Amy style” recap of every episode of LOST with observations and brief analyses.  Make sure to check out weekly recaps from Erin, too!

PLEASE NOTE:  If you are watching LOST for the FIRST time, and you want to AVOID SPOILERS for future season/shows, this is NOT the recap for you. I’ll be making all kinds of connections from all six seasons as I see them.

If you truly want to watch from the beginning spoiler free, but still want to read recaps/analysis online, I highly recommend you head over to Karen’s LOST Notebook. Karen took notes and wrote up recaps on every episode as it aired.  If you follow her notes by episode in order, you’ll be as spoiler free as you can get.

Recap of Episode 1.01 – “The Pilot”

______________________________________________________________

Begin Episode 1.01

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A closed right eye. ZOOM  noise. The eye jerks wide open. The pupil quickly shrinks. The eye is GREEN with patches of brown.

POV Bamboo: long branches of bamboo. Leaves swirl and tremble high above. The sky is white. Weirdness alert: check out the noises. These are the very first weirdo bird calls we’ll hear throughout the show.  [FYI: When you SLOW these bird calls down, they say “HELP US!” Here they say “HELP US, JACK!” – no kidding.]

Close up of a man [We know it’s Jack, but we didn’t the first time, see, so that’s what I’m rolling with here to make the point.] We slowly rise above him.

Weirdness alert: If you listen to J.J. Abrams’ DVD commentary on the pilot, he specifically mentions that Kevin White, visual effects supervisor, was responsible for Jack’s eye AND the shifting patches of shadows and light.  Look carefully, those “random” shadows and bright patches of light were ALL added post production.

The man catches his breath. His eyes stare at nothing above him. He appears to mumble to himself as we rise. He blinks (finally!). Weirdness alert: Remember the discussion we just had about how these shadows are ALL added digitally? Watch the shadow that covers Jack right before he jerks.  That is ON PURPOSE.  Also watch his left hand. We’ll see him make this particular move over and over again in the first few episodes. NOTE: Jack’s suit and tie here are BLUE.

Jack's Hand-to-Head Move

A shadow overtakes him. He jerks and gasps, whipping his hand down by his side.  His hand does the “piano fingers” thing again (I can’t think of a good word for it).  His head whips left.  He stares (eyes green).  POV bamboo.  The man blinks several times.  A golden lab walks out of the bamboo. It half way kneels. Weirdness alert: Jack’s face is odd here.  The lab whines and runs off, stepping on the man’s face as it goes by (I HATE when my dog does that!).

The man drags himself via bamboo to his feet. The back of his jacket is torn up.  He groans. He checks something under the left side of his jacket. He leans back on two (amazingly strong) stalks of bamboo. He pats his right pocket. He searches it and comes up with: a teeny bottle of vodka (like the ones you used to sneaky hide in your purse and smuggle into clubs back in college).  Note: Red cap! He stares at the bottle. His hand trembles. He keeps staring.  He does the forehead hand thing (I need a good name for that too. Maybe the Jack hand-to-head move? Yeah, let’s stick with that!). He replaces the vodka and jerks alert. He takes off running.

He forces his way through thick bamboo as he runs. He exits the bamboo and enters a forest.  He darts by A WHITE sneaker hanging by one shoelace in a tree.  He bursts through the leaves.  NOTE: His suit is now BLACK.

Season 1 Sneaker: Jack's "Lampost"

Weirdness alert. This entire little sequence where Jack finds the crash is TOTALLY hinky.  When Jack enters the beach, he should be able to see/hear the crash site. It should be right in front of him. However, he turns right. A long (beautiful) stretch of empty, QUIET beach.  We hear Shannon’s (faint) screams as we pan back to Jack. He walks around shrubbery, RIGHT BACK TO WHERE HE BURST onto the scene.  That’s when he sees the crash site. Interesting, right?

The man is shocked. He STILL looks like he’s mumbling to himself! He shields his face from the burning wreckage. He stumbles into what looks like a plan crash site. NOTE: Jack’s shirt is half untucked. We’ll see his dreess shirt oddly untucked until Season 6.  Freaked out, dirty peeps scamper around him. A few huddle together with their hands over their ears.  Speaking of  ears: check out how Jack puts his finger to his right ear. We saw ZOEY do the same move in Season 6.  Looks  a lot like when CIA/secret/sneaky/spy people listen to a teeny earpiece for communication with “Alpha Base,” or whoever’s in the van.

The man spins in place. Peeps run by. A large turbine engine revs up and down (it is LOUD!). Weirdness alert: Watch how Jack notes SPECIFIC peeps.  He sees Charlie by the engine.  Weirdness alert: watch how Jack’s movements match Charlie’s perfectly! Editing love! Jack spots Jin hollering in Korean (for Sun).  Michael runs by calling for Walt. Shannon stands front and center screaming her head off.  Jack looks up.

One of Amy’s fav shots: Jack stands center staring at the plane’s wing jutting into the air while peeps scamper around him and Shannon screams nearby.

A cry for help. The turbine engine. Charlie behind it. A man on the ground calls to Jack for help.

Jack scrambles to the man’s aid. He waves over nearby peeps (John LOCKE is one of them). Together they lift debris off the man while Jack pulls him free.  He examines the man’s leg. He pulls off his tie and tourniquets the leg.

Fun fact: notice how up to this point we have seen NO blood on anyone.  The only red we see in this entire sequence are the scratches on our losties’ faces and the blood on this man’s leg.  Jack Bender (who directs TONS of LOST episodes later on) notes in his (DVD) commentary how carefully the colors were chosen for this shot.  They wanted the audience to pay attention to Jack, not to the “blood bath.” That’s why, ON PURPOSE, they eliminated all red from the screen and only put major blood on one random guy that we never see again.  Cool, right?

A woman’s scream for help. Jack looks up from what he’s doing. He scans the scene.  He spots a young woman, blonde and VERY pregnant, on all fours clutching her belly. He hustles his helpers to move Bum Leg Man to safety.  He streaks across the site (NOTE:  See those “fumes” in the air as Jack runs past them? You guessed it! Digital post production! Yay team!).  He drops to his knees by her side.

[Remember, we don’t know ANYONE’S name yet.]

• Claire: AHHHHHH!
• Jack:  How many months pregnant are you?
• Claire:  AHHHHHH!

Jack spots Boone CPRing Rose.

John Locke and Helper Buddy #2 carry Bum Leg Man away.  A man wanders in front of the engine. John calls and waves to him. The man STOPS and says “WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Whoop! He is SUCKED into the engine! Kaboom! The whole thing blows sky high. Jack covers Claire with his body. Boone ducks.

• Jack:  Listen to me. You’re gonna be okay. Do you understand me? But you have to stay absolutely still.
• Claire:  AHHHHHHHH!

Jack notes Boone working on Rose. He calls to someone offscreen. Hurley turns to him.

• Jack: Hey you!
• Hurley: Huh?
• Jack: Stay with blondie. In fact, move her over that way. If you see anything gross happening, call out for me.
• Hurley:  Oh, you gotta be kidding me. [Best first line from any character on the show!]

Jack jets off.

• Hurley:  Hey! What’s your name?

Jack turns back.

• Jack:  I’m super sexy Dr. Shephard, but you can call me JACK! [FYI: Amy LOOOOOOOVES Jack!]

Jack replaces Boone and CPR’s Rose.

• Jack: Stop! You suck at CPR!
• Boone: I’m a lifeguard. I’m licensed. [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]
• Jack:  Remind me not to drown in your pool.
• Boone:  Maybe we could do the pen in the neck thing.
• Jack:  Good idea. How ‘bout you go get me a pen. Beat it!

Boone scrambles off. Jack resuscitates Rose.  He notices the wing in the air is about to fall, and wouldn’t you know it – it’s about to fall on Hurley and Claire! Jack jets across the crash site (third time) hollering for them to move.  Hurley sees the wing. He and Jack hustle Claire to safety.

The wing falls and explodes big time [and that explosion was – digital post production! Apparently the original explosion on set was a pitiful “poof” with no pizzaz.  Excellent reproduction, don’t you think?]. Jack, Claire and Hurley bite the sand. A huge chunk of burning debris barely misses Charlie.  He double takes it. He crosses himself (his heart, actually).

• Jack:  Stay with her.
• Hurley: Dude, I’m not going anywhere. [FIRST DUDE!]

Jack runs off.

Jack wanders in slo-mo through the fire, smoke and scampering peeps (he nearly falls over).  A section of seats cants in the air. A lifeless arm dangles from above.  Jack sees it and gets upset. He rubs his head. He stares at — US! Boone arrives with a handful of pens.

• Boone: I didn’t know what color you wanted.
• Jack: These are fine, thanks.

Jack takes a second look (at whatever he was staring at before, and NO it’s not the hand. For that he’d have to look UP), and leaves. Boone looks at whatever Jack was looking at.

Jack searches a suitcase. He pulls out a sewing kit.  He runs away to a secluded section of beach. He removes his jacket (uh-oh. Amy’s getting her hopes up!). NOTE: I’ve always loved the fact that, for some reason, Jack carefully hangs his jacket on the nearest tree, but drops both shirts to the sand.  VERY Weirdness alert: Take a look at the HOLES in the BACK of the jacket.  There are NO matching holes or blood on the shirt.  Here’s something interesting: those holes are pretty close to matching Mock Locke’s Kate inflicted shotgun wound. Hm.

A large patch of blood under his right arm on his back. His shirt is sliced. He removes his shirt. He painfully pulls off his undershirt/t-shirt. [WOOT! That man is so frickin’ HOT! I missed Season 1 Jack SO MUCH! Dang. He looks better with chest hair.]

Jack drops to his knees [always a good thing!].  He examines the wound. It is just out of his reach. NOTE: He does the piano hand thing again. He looks down the beach. He blinks at the trees just before Kate wanders out of them (What a coincidence, huh? – NOT).  She’s rubbing her wrist.

• Jack: Excuse me –

Kate looks at him.

• Jack: Did you ever use a needle?
• Kate: Depends what you mean by ‘use,’ hotboy.
• Jack: Did you ever patch a pair of jeans?  [Um, who patches jeans anymore? Nobody I know, like EVER in my life! I don’t even patch my tires!]
• Kate: Oh, uh, in that case no. I made the curtains in my apartment, but I used a sewing machine. [WTF is Kate talking about here? Looking back, WHEN did this alleged curtain making take place? Kate used a sewing machine? Hm.]
• Jack: That’ll do.
• Kate:  What’s this about?

Jack shows her his wound.

• Kate: EW!
• Jack:  Look, I’m a doctor, but –
• Kate:  Double EW! No way!
• Jack:  Please. If you wouldn’t mind.
• Kate: (rolls eyes) <mutters> Four minutes post crash and hotboy’s already sparkin’ the puppy eyes.  (to Jack) Okay, yeah. I guess.
• Jack: Thank you.
• Kate:  Yeah, yeah – the longer you stay naked, the happier Amy will be [It’s true!]. Let’s get this over with.

He hands her the teeny bottle of vodka.

Jack: It’s for your hands. Save me some — uh, for the wound.

• Kate: Waist of perfectly good vodka if you ask me.

Kate opens the sewing kit.

• Kate: Any color preference?
• Jack: (laughs) Standard black.
• Kate: Hello! Deserted island! If you’ve got standards, time to put ‘em back in your pocket, k?

Jack pours the rest on his wound.

• Jack: Ahhh! SonuvaBITCH that hurts!
• Kate: Figures. No matter how hot they are, all men are babies.

A sullen, shell-shocked Sawyer lights a cigarette [NOTE: we’ll see this lighter again – in one of KATE’S flash backs.]. Sawyer puffs. He looks at the wreckage. He stares into the distance (into the island, just like Jack and Boone did). WATCH CAREFULLY: He is still; then he sighs and NODS. He heads for the beach. He flicks the half-smoked cigarette away.

The beginning of a GORGEOUS sunset.  Claire stands with her feet in the water. She rubs her belly. Hurley prepares to hand out airline meals [HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!].  John sits alone in the sand. He stares out at the ocean [Not BEHIND the beach like everyone else].

Boone tries his cell:  WEE-Woo-WEE-Woo noise. Sayid stokes a pretty darn big fire. He spots Charlie.

• Sayid: Hey you! Help with the fire!
• Charlie: Sure thing, bud.
• Sayid: My name is not Bud. It’s Sayid.
• Charlie: My name is not You. It’s Charlie.
• Sayid: Whatever.

Rose cries and kisses the ring on her necklace.

Kate sews on Jack [Who is still NEKKID! I LOVE Season 1!]. He winces.

• Kate: This is gross.
• Jack: You’re doing fine.
• Kate: You’re not afraid at all. What are you? Some kind of freak?
• Jack: No, actually. I’m a doctor.
• Kate: You said that.
• Jack: I’m a surgeon doctor –
• Kate: Ah. So your lack of fear, it’s one of those arrogant God things?
• Jack:  No! I’ve been afraid before! My first solo surgery, I gooned it up at the end. Ripped the dural sac, that’s—
• Kate: I know what a dural sac is.
• Jack: Okay, well, I was pretty darn scared then, that’s for sure.
• Kate: So? What happened?
• Jack: I counted to five, and everything was fine. No worries.
• Kate: Counted to five? That’s not cool.
• Jack: No! It was cool! Everything was cool!
• Kate: Stop talking and be still before I sew your arm to your back!

Weirdness alert: This is one of the few memories Jack has prior to any Flashbacks. We’ll see this memory again in “The Incident,” except this time, Christian will calm Jack down by telling him to count to five.

MORE Weirdness:  If you block the right side of Jack’s face (your left), you’ll notice that the left side (your right) is totally different.  Not only is it different, it has the same features we see on island Jack’s face in Season 6. AND when Jacob turns over Scooby Doo Cave to Jack – check out Jack’s face after he drinks from the cup.  BOTH sides of his face MATCH (finally), and they look exactly like the LEFT side of Jack’s face in this scene [done with lighting effects and digital post production!]. This is a HUGE clue as to what’s going on on LOST!! If you’re having trouble “seeing it,” just check out Jack’s left eyebrow. That’s the most obvious difference.

Night on the beach. A starry sky. NOTE: see the twinkle-twinkle? This sky is, of course, CGI [computer generated image], but look at the repeat patterns in the stars.

Small groups of peeps huddle around camp fires big and small. The plane wreckage glows in the background.

A hand with taped fingers with “FATE” written across them in black marker.  CHECK IT: I only mention this because we’ll see it a few more times, but check out the BLACK on Charlie’s nails (his right hand).  That instantaneously reminded me of Blade Runner. Weird right? Sayid and Charlie glow orange in the firelight.

• Sayid: You think they would’ve come by now.
• Charlie:  Who?
• Sayid: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter bunny – anyone!

A girl paints her toenails (can you SEE the denial?). Lifeguard/pen boy sits next to her. He offers her a candy bar.

• Shannon: As if I’m gonna start eating chocolate.
• Boone: Shannon, we might be here for a while.
• Shannon: The plane had a black box, idiot. They know exactly where we are. They’re coming. I’ll eat on the rescue boat.

Boone take a big bite of the candy. Shannon scowls.

• Boone: You know, lack of chocolate might be part of your problem.

Claire rubs her belly. Hurley sits next to her. He hands her an airline meal.

• Hurley: Hungry?
• Claire: Yeah.
• Hurley: Any more – baby stuff?
• Claire:  No. I’m okay.
• Hurley:  Hang in there.
• Claire: Yeah, you too.

Hurley leaves. He back tracks and gives her a second meal.

Walt stares into the fire. Michael tucks a blanket around him.

• Michael:  Sure you’re warm enough?

Walt nods.

Sun and Jin huddle together. They speak in Korean [subtitled].

• Jin: You must not leave my sight. You must follow me wherever I go. Do you understand?

Sun nods.

• Jin: Don’t worry about the others. We need to stay together.

Sun nods again. DEFINITELY something Not Cool going on with Sun. She looks frightened and furious at the same time. [Did anyone else start crying when they remembered Jin and Sun’s scene on the sub? Remember how they HAD to stay together? ]

Kate watches Jack tend to an unconscious man.  A huge piece of metal protrudes from the man’s belly.

• Kate: Do you think he’s gonna live?
• Jack: Do you know him?
• Kate: He was sitting next to me.

A fire crackles and sparks against the starry sky. A plane fashioned out of leaves.

• Jack: We musta been at 40K feet. Hit an air pocket. Dropped, maybe, 200 feet. The turbulence was –  I blacked out.
• Kate: What a stud you are, Mr. I Blacked Out! Actually, you were lucky.  First the tail was gone. Then the front end of the plane broke off.  It sucked.
• Jack:  Well, it’s not here on the beach. Neither is the tail. We need to figure out which way we came in. If we find the cockpit, maybe we’ll find the transceiver. Then we can send out a signal. Help the rescue party find us.
• Kate: How do you know all that?
• Jack: Took a couple flying lessons. Wasn’t for me. [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!]
• Kate: I saw some smoke. [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!]  Just through the valley.

Jack stares into the distance.

• Kate: If you’re thinking about going for the cockpit, I’m going with you.
• Jack: Um, I know yer hot-n-all, but I don’t know your name.
• Kate:  I’m Kate.
• Jack:  Jack. [HOWEVER, if you follow the UNDERSHOW (where you read lips), he just said JACOB. No kidding!]

They flirty smile with each other.

A LOUD metallic, gurgling, snuffling noise of something BIG and Unfriendly. They all look. Jack and Kate trade looks and get up.

• Walt: Is that Vincent?
• Michael: No. That’s not Vincent.

Rose looks on as a clump of trees on her left “disappear” like they are snatched out of the air.

HOOT, clicks, cranking and more noises.  They all gather together and stare into the dark on their right.

Ticka-ticka-ticka noise! More hoots. They look left in unison.  More noises. They look right. Clumps of trees are sucked into the night. A puff of air.  Charlie, Jack and Kate stare together as the noises fade.

• Charlie:  Terrific.

MAJOR Weirdness alert: Notice that there are TWO noises from TWO opposite sides of our losties.  ALSO notice that the FIRST flash (back) takes place JUST after [Smokey] announces his presence with authority.  Further, notice that it doesn’t show up until after dark and only manifests in the jungle.

______________________________________________________________

ORIENTATION: FLASHES

Welcome to our very first lostie flash.  This flash begins what is commonly known as a “flashback.” Please take careful note of Amy’s take on the flashes as follows:  They are NOT the past. They are NOT memories. They are daydream-type deals that LOOK like the past. We are ASSUME they are memories, and that we are watching has already happened to our losties.  Watch yourself! It’s a TRICK!

Think of LOST as a coin on a table with heads as the island and tails as the flash. From now on, in any given scene of the show, we can see either see heads OR tails on the table, but they are BOTH STILL part of the same coin! If I flip a coin and keep track, I’ll end up with a chronological list that looks like this: H, H, T, T, H, T, H, etc. If I flip tails, that doesn’t mean it happened yesterday. It happened NEXT, after I flipped heads! THAT’S how our losties are experiencing their time in this world: first on the island, then the flash, then the island IN the sequence that we SEE scenes on the show.  In a nutshell, THE ORDER IN WHICH WE SEE EVENTS HAPPEN ON LOST AS PRESENTED ON THE SHOW IS THE MOST IMPORTANT “TIMELINE.”  Do yourself a favor. From now until Season 3, do everything you can to AVOID extrapolating a “prior to landing on the island” timeline for our losties.  If you do that, you are actually shuffling events out of order.

[Don’t panic.]

You’ll get tons of arguments from all sides, but we’re using the hindsight is 20/20 principal for our LOST rewatch here. All will be explained as we go along, but roll with this one principle:  These flashes are DIRECTLY related to conditions on the island.

Now we know how they got started (and where our assumption of “memories” begins). We’ve just seen Jack and Kate recount their memory of the crash.  Then we hear “Smokey” (and pal) for the very first time. What happens next? The FIRST flash “back” we see is Jack’s story VERBATIM [We’ll see Kate’s pretty soon.]. This flash is a test run, and it incorporates the VODKA bottle, Jack, Rose’s ring kissing, and a glimpse of Charlie and John.

The thing that will confuse you from the start is how well/unwell our losties remember their flashbacks after they happen (after WE see them on the show).  As we go through rewatch, expect me to point out the myriad of ways Team LOST tricks you into believing our losties landed on the island with all these “memories,” and we are “learning” more about their “past” (before they hit the island) as the show continues forward.  Interpreting the show that way will totally screw you up by Season 4 and you’ll hate Season 6.  [Jacob says: Their past doesn’t matter. That’s because, for the most part, it’s been erased!]  Trust me!

Excluding Jack and Kate’s plane flashes, let’s make a careful note of WHEN and in what circumstances our losties remember the contents of their flashes.  [HINT: it’s usually ONLY in context of an item or another person’s flashback.] We’re about to see Charlie do it with the heroin.  One last thing: there is actually a really, really good reason why Kate and Jack and Desmond are able to remember things before we see them in their flashes, but we’ll get to that later!

Watch how carefully this flash fills in the blanks of and TOTALLY distracts us from what we’ve seen already.

On with the show!

______________________________________________________________

OCEANIC FLT 815

Puffy clouds, a blue sky and an airplane wing as seen from an airplane window.  Jack stares out the window. CHECK IT! Did you see the white “flashes” as the “clouds” went by? Very cool.

• Cindy: So how’s the drink?
• Jack:  Pfft.

Cindy sneaky hands him two teen vodka bottles.

• Jack: Nuthin’ I like better than a cute flight attendent who breaks the rules!

Cindy winks and leaves.

Jack PUTS A BOTTLE into his POCKET (blank number 1 filled: where did the bottle “come from?”). He pours the other into what’s left of his previous drink: vodka and OJ (I guess Jack still thinks he’s in college! UGH!). He gulps down the entire thing.  FASTEN SEATBELT DING.  We see Rose reading a magazine as Jack stands to leave. Charlie bumps Jack as he rushes by. He’s quickly followed by Cindy and a flight attendent droog.  Jack sits back down.

• Rose: Hmph.

Jack sits. BIG bump of turbulence.  Jack buckles in. FASTEN SEATBELT DING – again?

• Announcement: Ladies and gents, seatbelts might be a good idea right now.
• Jack: It’s normal.
• Rose: Says you. My husband says planes want to be in the air.
• Jack:  He sounds like a very smart man.
• Rose: You think? I told him that was the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. He’d better hustle back from the bathroom, huh. [Blank #2: Where is Rose's husband?]
• Jack: I’ll keep you company until he gets back. Don’t worry. It’s gonna be over –

Turbulence bangs a loose passenger into the ceiling.  The high pitched whine of a plane falling out of the air (like a missile!). Jack glances at Rose. Oxygen masks fall from the ceiling. Jack dons his. He keeps his eyes on Rose (wearing hers with her eyes closed).  Weirdness alert: if you listen carefully, you can hear GROANING and CLICKING that sounds a LOT like the noises our losties heard when the trees started disappearing. That BEEP BEEP BEEPing noise, what is it and why would the passengers be hearing it? Cuz to me it sounds a lot like a heart monitor right before it flatlines:  beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep, and that’s really weird.

Note that Jack’s flash ENDS exactly when he tells Kate he blacked out,  BUT his eyes are WIDE OPEN.

______________________________________________________________

CRASH SITE

The ocean. Amy’s second most favorite shot of the pilot:  Jack’s face slides from left to right across the screen.  WATCH: This will be the LAST time we see Jack’s face head on until Season 6. No kidding!  If you can, pause this shot in a few different places and cover each side of Jack’s face in turn.  Can you see it?

Losties mill in the background.  [DAMN! Jack is hot! Wow.]  We hear chatter about the freakshow the night before.

• Rose: That sound that it made. I keep thinking there was something really familiar about it.
• Shannon: Really? Where are you from?
• Rose: The Bronx. [All NOISES recycled from NEW YORK somehow]

Kate walks up behind Jack.

• Kate:  You ready?
• Jack:  Kate —
• Kate: Don’t bother. I’m coming with you.
• Jack: (sexy smile!) Then you’re gonna need better shoes.

Kate pulls shoes off a dead body. She and Locke stare at each other. He smiles with an orange in his mouth (VERY EFFED UP!).

• Kate:  That is very effed up.

Michael, Walt, Sayid, Boon and Shannon in a circle. Hurley joins them.

• Michael: Whatever it was, it wasn’t natural. [That would make it MECHANICAL. Right, my lovely LOST readers?]
• Hurley:  Lots of bodies all over the place. Think we should –?
• Shannon: No! They’ll deal with it when they get here.

Jack joins them.

• Jack: We’re off to find the cockpit. (to Boone) Try not to kill any of the wounded before I get back.

Charlie remembers something and smiles.

• Charlie:  I’ll come with. I want to help.
• Jack: I don’t need any help.
• Charlie:  I don’t really feel like standing still, so.
• Jack:  Fine.

[And so Jack and Kate’s FIRST chance of being alone in private zippapears. Thanks Chuck!]

______________________________________________________________

VALLEY

Jack, complete with walking stick, leads the Transceiver Trio.  Kate follows Jack. Charlie pulls up the rear.

• Kate:  (to Charlie)  You look familiar –
• Charlie: (shows her the ring) I’m in Driveshaft. You know, the band?
• Kate:  Um – maybe.
• Charlie: (sings) You all everybody! You all everybody!
• Jack:  We should keep moving.
• Charlie: You all everybody!
• Jack: We should keep moving in silence.
• Charlie:  Ah.

WATCH THIS SEQUENCE CAREFULLY:

SUPER SUPREME WEIRDNESS:  POV of  Transceiver Trio walking by. It’s Vincent (the yellow lab from the first scene. He’s sneaky watching from the bushes.

CUT TO:  At the crash site, John sits alone on the beach staring at the sea.  Sound of THUNDER (but NO lightening).

BACK TO : Transceiver Trio in the tall grass.  Instantaneous torrential downpour.

• Charlie:  Guys, is this day turning into night, end of the world-type weather normal? Guys?

CUT TO: John, head bowed, as the rain beings.  Losties scamper around him. He’s sitting center stage of the crash (NOT alone on the beach).  Peeps scramble for cover.  Jin with Sun huddled under debris.  He yells (in Korean), sending a shelter seeker away.  Boone and Shannon head for the plane cabin.

• Hurley: I’m telling you, you don’t want to go in there! There’s too many bodies!

John with his head bowed. He lifts his face to the sky and smiles as the rain pours down on him.  He spreads his arms wide. THEN:  More THUNDER-LIKE noises. Smokey activity in the trees.  Claire spots it.  Rose sees it too.

• Claire: There it is again.
• Rose: Oh my God.

CUT TO:  Our Transceiver Trio arrive. WATCH how they PAUSE. LISTEN to the squeaky noises before they continue.  As they pass through the trees, we see the cockpit (plus most of first class). It rests against a tree at a wicked angle, nose in the air.  Our Trio take it in.

• Jack: Well – let’s do this.

A freaked Kate follows Jack. Charlie stares.

They enter at the base.  The cabin is a mess with bodies still strapped in their seats.  They climb up the aisle. Weirdness alert: Kate makes some weird faces and I hear very odd creaking noises that don’t belong. Charlie nearly falls. He grabs on to a leg and pulls himself up.

Jack at the cockpit door. It’s locked (duh!).  He pulls down a small fire extinguisher and bangs the doorknob.  Weirdness alert: Jack is yelling “Come on! Come on!” This is what he was saying when he CPR’d Rose.  This is ALSO what JULIET says when SHE smacks the bomb!!

The door pops open. Kate squeals/Jack hollers as a pilot’s corpse falls out of the door.

• Jack: (to Kate) Hey. You okay?
• Kate: Yeah, you?
• Charlie:  Charlie’s fine, by the way.
• Jack: (to Kate) You don’t have to come up here.
• Kate:  No, I’m good. [Does anyone understand what Kate’s deal is here? I’d be like, go forth and transceive, hotboy!]

Jack helps Kate into the cockpit.  They look around. A pilot’s body is strapped into his seat.

• Kate: So what’s this stupid thing look like?
• Jack:  A complicated walkie-talkie.  [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Get it? On LOST, KATE is the complicated walkie-talkie.]

They look around. Kate searches near the pilot’s body. It comes alive with a gasp, scaring the crap outta both of them.  The pilot coughs. Jack checks him out and gives him water.

• Pilot: How many survived?
• Jack: At least forty-eight [notice he doesn’t say EXACTLY 48. There could be more he doesn’t/we don’t know about yet.]. How do you feel?
• Pilot: Not great. Dizzy, too.
• Jack: It’s probably a concussion.
• Pilot: How long? Has anybody come? [Any BODY, get it?]
• Jack: It’s been sixteen hours, and no. Not yet.
• Pilot:  Damn. That’s not good.  Six hours in, our radio went out. No one could see us. We turned back to land in Fiji [Cuz that’s the LOGICAL thing to do —NOT!]. By the time we hit turbulance, we were a thousand miles off course. They’re looking for us in the wrong place.
• Kate: Nice.
• Jack: Where’s the transceiver?
• Pilot: Over there.

Weirdness alert: Watch how the pilot grabs Kate’s hand as she passes it over (then watch her face change just after). Remember Jacob’s touch in “The Incident?” Turns out touch, just like the touch we see here, has been important throughout the entire show.

• Jack: Where’s Charlie?

Kate looks for him in the cabin. The pilot presses a few buttons.

• Pilot: It’s not working.

Kate calls Charlie. He tumbles out of the bathroom.

• Kate: What’re you doing in the bathroom?
• Charlie:  (smiles) What?

A familiar WHOOOOOOT with a THUNDER-LIKE sound, squeaking and clancking.

• Pilot: What the hell was that?
• Jack: Kate.

Louder squeaking (sounds like a squeaky door, doesn’t it?) and clanking noises. Jack reaches for Kate and holds her protectively in front of him. She’s terrified.

• Kate: It’s right outside.
• Pilot: What’s right outside?
• Jack:  Shhhhhhhutup, you moron!

Jack tucks Kate against the wall. Loud crashing. Ticka Ticka noises. A shadow passes over Kate and across the window [According to DVD commentary, that shadow was added post production.]. Grumbling noises.  Jack darts to the window. He wipes it with his hand and tries to see what’s outside. The pilot lurches to his feet. Kate takes his place and peers out the foggy window.

Like a complete MORON, the pilot sticks half his bod out a broken window. He does put the transceiver down first, so it’s not a total loss.  Charlie joins them in the cockpit. A moment goes by.

Suddenly, the pilot is jerked from his feet. He screams and struggles with whatever’s got hold of him. His feet kick helplessly in the air. Kate screams. They all freak. The pilot’s body slips out the window followed by a loud BANG – blood splats on the window behind Kate. [This moment right here was THE moment Amy fell in love with this show!]

Silence as they all freak out.

• Charlie:  What the hell just happened?!

Kate’s mouth gapes open. They all trade terrified looks. A loud creaking. The fuselage shakes and rattles.  Jack strains to grab the transceiver on the seat.  He’s almost got it. The fuselage falls to the jungle floor, knocking them around.

• Kate: Jack come on!
• Charlie:  Just leave it!

But Jack doesn’t leave it (because leaving it is not Jack’s style!). He grabs it. He tucks it into his pocket as they run away, with Kate in the lead (naturally – girlfriend is born to run!).

Mud slops around and on to them as they flee.  Charlie goes down. The sound of the “monster” is on top of him. He cries for help. Jack stops. He checks on Kate. She’s bookin’ it. He turns back. He untangles Charlie’s foot from whatever plant life’s got him.

• Jack: Come on! Run!

Kate scrambles into the shelter of a banyan tree. She clings to the branches like bars.  She’s trembling. She screams for Jack and starts crying. Weirdness alert:  Undershow watchers: check out all that unnecessary lip trembling and flapping.  A loud crash of “THUNDER.” She looks up into the tangled branches high over her head.  She takes a deep breath. She counts to a terrified five.

Kate in the tree.  Screechy weirdo noises. She jerks around and scans the jungle behind her. Weirdness alert: She gapes her mouth and shakes her head.  POV a specific spot in the jungle. She turns and screams as Charlie crashes into her. She pushes him to the ground and hovers over him.  Weirdness alert:  WATCH CAREFULLY. Look at Kate’s face as she questions Charlie. She looks like a corpse!  Watch how it changes before our eyes (and regains color) when the rain stops, and she looks up.  Creepy.

• Kate:  Where’s the hell’s Jack?!
• Charlie:  I don’t know!
• Kate:  Did you see him?!
• Charlie: Yeah, he pulled me up.
• Kate: Where is he?!
• Charlie: I don’t know!
• Kate: How can you not know?!
• Charlie:  We got separated. I fell down. He came back for me! That thing –
• Kate: Did you see it?
• Charlie: No. But it was right there. We were dead – I was. Then Jack came back and he pulled me up. I don’t know where he is!

The rain stops as suddenly as it started.  Kate looks up. [Seriously. Watch how her face changes.] POV the highest branches of the banyan tree.

• Kate:  We have to go back for him.
• Charlie:  Go back? There? Kate, there’s a certain gargantuan quality to this thing –
• Kate: Then don’t come.

Charlie stares overhead.

• Charlie: [Damn!] Kate!

He gets up.  Charlie tails Kate through a clearing.  WATCH CAREFULLY.  See that mist floating around? Well, I actually live in Hawai’i (where most of LOST was filmed), and there’s no such mist like that here.  The only thing close are the clouds in the highest mountains, and nobody can get up there!  EVERYTIME you see this floaty, weird mist IT HAS BEEN ADDED.

A loud ‘bird cry.’ Charlie looks back. He pulls his hood off and keeps looking back as he follows Kate over a log.

They enter the green. NOT ONE LEAF IS MOVING <— this is VERY unusual.

• Charlie: I heard you shout. I heard you shout Jack.  I’m Charlie, by the way.

Kate sees something on the ground. She picks it up. It’s the pilot’s wings. An odd shape reflected in the puddle from above.  She looks up.

• Charlie:  What is –
• Jack: It’s the pilot.

A very muddy Jack walks out of the jungle.  Kate smacks him. Several times.

• Kate: Don’t you EVER scare me like that again!!
• Jack:  Ow!
• Kate: (a few more smacks) I mean it, Jack!
• Jack: Ow! Okay! Okay! I won’t!
• Kate: You better not!

Jack grins.

• Kate: Did you see it?
• Jack: It was right behind me, but I dove into the bushes.
• Kate:  I’m sure you dove into the bushes like a manly man and not a complete wuss!
• Jack:  Why yes I did.
• Charlie: (points up) Guys. How does something like that happen?

They all look up. Above them, the battered, bloody carcass of the pilot hangs lifeless, caught in the branches of the tree.

• Kate:  That can’t be good.

______________________________________________________________

End Episode 1.01

______________________________________________________________

Ah,  yes. This is where it all begins!  How do you feel?  Hopefully, you’ve been able to make some connections to Season 6 already.  I know I have!

NEXT: Episode 1.02 “Pilot, Part 2”

CHAPTER 2: The ISLAND – Zip Cords, Green Screens and Time Travel

THE GREEN SCREEN

Remember in Chapter 1 where I described our losties existence as linear? Our losties are all together on a zipcord, and they can only go forward in their linear existence.  They are not time traveling because they can’t. They can only move forward on the zipcord. And they are all together at the same point on the same zipcord.

Their zipcord is surrounded by a green screen. The green screen can be the island, LA, a flashback, a flash forward, 1977 etc.  When they “time travel,” our losties do not leave their spot on their zip cord. Rather, the green screen around them changes to a different “time.” That’s why our losties all experience time at the same rate no matter where they “are.” [It's three years for the Oceanic Six and three years for Sawyer and Juliet.]

This is how the storytelling works. This is our characters’ existence on LOST.

Miles explains what Team LOST is up to when he and Hurley argue about paradoxes in “Whatever Happened, Happened.”

Here’s a handy-dandy example of what I mean.

_______________________________________________________________

SCENE: IMAGINARY DEPICTION OF OUR LOSTIES TRAVELING THROUGH TIME.

GREEN SCREEN – 2004

Hurley, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet hang together on the zip cord of their existence/reality. They continue forward, always forward, as they talk.

• JACK: Shove over. Give us some room, will ya?
• JULIET:  It’s not like I’m hiding it! There isn’t any! (to Kate)  He’s so grumpy since you got back.
• KATE: Tell me about it.

A flash of light. BAM!!

GREEN SCREEN – 2006

• SAWYER:  Damn! I hate when that happens!
• HURLEY:  Me too.
• SAWYER:  Oh no you don’t! Turn that way. Puke on Mr. Happy.
• JACK:  Thanks a lot!
• KATE:  Is that a runway on Hydra Island?
• JULIET:  Yeah.

Flash of light. BAM!

GREEN SCREEN – 1977

• KATE:  That’s irony in a nutshell.
• JULIET:  Maybe you should’ve eased off the sex and escaping and hauled more rocks.

Jack and Sawyer trade looks.

• JACK:  Not this again.

Dharma Initiative members wave at them as they go by.

• HURLEY:  Dude! Check it out!

Flash of light. BAM!

GREEN SCREEN – 1988

Kate and Juliet squabble in the background.

• HURLEY:  Did you see the ‘fro on that guy?
• SAWYER:  The 70s! I hope we land there!
• JACK:  You miss bell bottoms?
• SAWYER:  Try NO bottoms! I can almost smell the weed. . .(to the girls)  Will you two knock it off? You’re hurtin’ my head!
• JACK:  No, that might be your nosebleed. Lemme see.

Flash of light. BAM!

GREEN SCREEN – 2004

• SAWYER:  Hands off, Doogie! I’m fine.
• KATE:  Sure, he’ll put his hands on you –
• HURLEY:  SNAP!
• JULIET:  You got more than I did. The man’s a nun.
• KATE:  A junkie nun.
• JACK:  OH. MY. GOD! Can you POSSIBLY talk about…

Flash of light. BAM!

GREEN SCREEN -1977

• JACK:  …ANYTHING else?!
• HURLEY:  Dude, I don’t feel so good.
• KATE:  We’ve stopped. Quick! Jump!

They scramble off the zip cord hangy thingy. Hurley vomits. They all wipe blood from their noses.

• JULIET:  That was close. This is 1977?
• SAWYER:  Yes! Thank you God!
• JULIET:  Maybe you can help Jack loosen up.
• KATE:  And put out.
• JACK:  Your harpy-like ways are so appealing. Why didn’t I notice before?  I have to have you. Take your pants off right now.
• KATE:  Ha ha.

Kate and Juliet head to the DI compound.

• JACK: (mutters) B*****s.
• HURLEY:  I feel better. Where are we?
• SAWYER:  (grins big) Hugo, my friend, we are in heaven.

They follow the girls. Jack trails behind.

END SCENE

_______________________________________________________________

From the perspective of the island (the green screen), Hurley throws up in 1977 and the girls argue in 1988. But since our losties exist in their own linear time, for them, the argument takes place before Hurley pukes.

So how is that possible?  If you can’t change the past, and you can’t change the future, and you can’t change yourself (this “universe” will course correct to keep your identity/ghost intact), but you can skip back and forth “in time” on this island when the Frozen Donkey Wheel is turned, then what gives?

What’s making the green screen change?

Remember, the worlds of LOST (island and flash) are REAL, but they are not PHYSICAL worlds.

AMY’S THEORY, MEET “THE CONSTANT.” “THE CONSTANT,” AMY’S THEORY.

I got this idea from a show called FRINGE. In the pilot, an FBI agent needs information from her dying, comatose boyfriend.  Her kooky scientist pal hooks her and her boyfriend up to a machine that will synchronize the frequencies of their brain function.  He dopes her up and puts her in a deprivation tank.  When the monitor shows the two brains syncing to the same frequency, the agent and her boyfriend connect in a mutual dream world, an environment created using memories from both of them (definitely keep this in mind for later).  They talk (mostly he’s like um, what’s going on, sweetie?), and she gets him to “show her” the guy who tried to kill them both.  He shows her by thinking about it. They both experience his memory of the bad guy.  The kooky scientist wakes her up, and she jets off to save the day.

In “The Constant,” Desmond finds a grumpy and poorly coiffed Daniel (same hair as Horace) at Oxford University.  He’s looking for some answers and hopefully some way to keep his brain from exploding and killing him.  He tells Daniel to set the numbers at 2.342 oscillating at eleven hertz.  So yes, I googled it, and I found the most EXCELLENT LOST fan blog that had everything I needed!  [PowellsBooks.blog] I won’t bog you down too much (I highly encourage you to visit the site, tho), but basically J.Wood (our blogger) was poking around in “The Constant” and found an interesting connection to an author named Robert Anton Wilson.

Turns out Wilson was fascinated with quantum physics, specifically with those that postulated the nature of reality as perceived by the physical brain. I put a nice long quote at the end of this post, but excerpts from Wilson’s work are most useful for us here.

“Consciousness ‘is a non-local function of the universe as a whole, and our brains are only local transceivers.’”

“He categorizes thoughts/consciousness (software) apart from its physical housing (hardware), and the function of the two is the self. He developed : “YOUR HARDWARE IS LOCALIZED: BRAIN CELLS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. YOUR SOFTWARE IS NON-LOCALIZED: POINT-EVENTS EVERYWHERE, EVERYWHEN.” What we consider to be the self is the conjunction of these points.”

“‘What Bell seemed to prove was that quantum effects are ‘non-local’ in [physicist David] Bohm’s sense; that is, they are not just here or there, but both. What this apparently means is that space and time are only real to our mammalian sense organs; they are not really real.’”

Hm.

THEN I found an online copy of Mr. Dean Cvetkovic’s Ph.D. thesis in electronic and biomedical engineering (from MIT. For those of you who don’t know, Ph.D.’s from MIT in any kind of engineering are about as prestigious as it gets).  His doctoral thesis is called, “Eletromagnetic and Audio-Visual Stimulation of the Human Brain at Low Frequencies.” If you turn to Chapter 8 “Conclusion and Future Research,” you’ll read:

The base establishment of this research investigation consisted on technologically mimicking the
natural properties of light, sound and electromagnetic fields for exposure of human brain. The
results from this research investigation firmly suggested that auditory, visual and electromagnetic
stimulation could influence human conscious mood states and alter EEG activity by a possible
transition from higher to lower EEG activity, characterized with the wakefulness-sleep transition.
The findings from these results have also strengthen the consistency and solid evidence that
changes in human EEG activity could be elicited when stimulated to extremely low frequency
electromagnetic fields.

Now maybe all that mumbo jumbo doesn’t impress you very much, but what Dr. Cvetkovic says here basically amounts to this:

“It is possible to zap a physical brain with low levels of EMF and put it into a dream state.”

Oh yeah, baby! I’m happy!

If you combine these two concepts with the groovy mind sync on FRINGE and Daniel’s little fried- rat-brain experiment, you can come up with what I think might be a HUGE interpretive tool for how the island works and what it does to our losties.

WHAT’S THE FREQUENCY JACOB?

First, I gotta share a few excerpts with you:

Recap and Analysis: The End of “The End” of LOST

Why would pulling the plug make a difference? I dunno. However, I do know that when Desmond walked through the water and the light [in Scooby-Doo Cave], it looked a LOT like the EMF Box Blasting Moment. Remember what Widmore says? Desmond has an immunity to eletromagnetic radiation [EMR]. If he is exposed to a deadly level of EMR after he pulls the plug [which knocks him down and out], then the EMR could be the light we see. After he pulls the plug, the water disappears and the EMR is changed, or, more specifically, diffused and amplified.

Now, remember what MIB/Adam tells Mother/Eve? He and his peeps dig a well and find a place “where the water focuses the light.” This is not completely off the mark. EMF’s or electromagnetic fields (created by eletromagnetic radiation) can be stablized, even neutralized when they come in contact with negative ions.

Do you know where the highest concentration of negative ions can be found in nature? Any place with moving air and water and/or concentrated sunlight — like a BEACH or a WATERFALL (SOURCE HERE).

Amy Smashes Through the Looking Glass: Origins of the LOST World

This following is a mock up metaphor of what I think the technology of the island or The System is and how it works.  It’s just fun speculation, but it works really well with what we’re doing here.

Originally, the applied research, still in the experimental phase and led by Dr. X, was intended to help the mentally ill.  It would work like rapid detox for a junkie.  The patient would be “put under,” “hooked up” to “the system” and given “self-healing” mental exercises in a therapeutic, safe, controlled and “realistic” way.  These “therapy” sessions were called “journeys” (An Australian doctor even called them “walkabouts,” because, he said, they were” spiritual journeys through the wilderness to heal deep emotional wounds and discover the true self.”).  They called the “realistic mini-worlds” they created “environments.”

[But there were too many problems. So they decided to fix it.]

The human brain is pretty dense.  It’s got plenty of room in there.  Let’s work with this EMF frequency thing and see what we come up with.  They figured out if they created a stable  EMF (electromagnetic field)  around the patient’s brain/body just before they entered the system (like a CT scan) and maintained that frequency during the entire session, any memories the patient had of the session would be stored in the brain with a different frequency trigger.

That is, the human brain works within a certain frequency range.  The body creates biochemical energy that works best in our given environment.  That’s why exposure to unnatural EMF’s (like from home electronics or cell phones) are blamed for weakening our bodies’ biochemical and molecular processes and making us more susceptible to cellular malfunction and immune system problems (which lead to CANCER).

What these turkeys did was fix it so if they zapped your brain/body with X frequency during your time in the system, the memories you experienced during your “journey” would be stored in your brain at X frequency.  Only exposure to X frequency would activate those memories, so they would be unable to confuse you in everyday life, but they would still be stored in your brain.  In their thinking, they were creating repressed memories in their patients.

After trying this out on a few SUICIDE victims (ARGH!), they discovered something they thought was pretty darn cool.  The memories they confined to this frequency were cumulative.  That is, each time they hooked up the collection of what they called “phased memories,” the “projection” (their words) of the patient within the system remembered what happened last time it was visiting but nothing about the patient’s experiences between sessions.

OOhhh! Here’s an oldie but goodie!

Why Walt is Special 4/05/08

Think of the island as a radio signal transmitter. I know that there are many different ideas about what the island actually is or actually can do, but I’m sticking with this one to explain an endgame theory. When Rose visited the healer in Australia, he noted that there were different places on the earth that had a kind of energy. Some people, like him, could channel or use this energy. In his case, he could use the energy to heal. I think of our island in that way. The energy is like a signal, originating from the island itself. I think of Jacob as having the ability to tap into and use that energy or signal.

I think Jacob is looking for people who have the physical ability (due to brain development, psychic energy, genetic predisposition, whatever) to tune into his radio signal. That is, their brains are set to Jacob’s “station.” The people that our survivors see are not real, and they are not the smoke “monster” changing shape, but they are projections of this signal from Jacob’s mind to theirs. The images are filtered through the receiver’s brain, and, therefore, their memory or experiences. This is why they see people they know or have seen before.

This also explains the variation between what our survivors can “see.” Claire and Charlie can only see dreams, and these are jumbled and surreal half messages that lend themselves to delusional interpretations by others. There were clear messages in both Claire and Charlie’s dreams that became muddled with their memories and anxieties. Jack can see the physical form of his father, but can’t speak to him or hear him speak. Sawyer and Kate can sense a subtext in the animals around them, but are unable to see or hear anything. However, Mr. Ecko can see, converse and recognize the image he sees as not what it seems. Even Boone, when given what we presume is a psychotropic by Locke, can see and experience a full on hallucination which I believe is from a signal by Jacob. [Turns out it was a signal by Mock Locke!]

The fact that a few survivors can share the same visions (Shannon and Sayid see Walt together) only means that they both have the ability to receive the signal, nothing more. Shannon’s vision of Walt soaking wet (the first two times she sees him) makes sense because, in her mind, the only way he can be in front of her is if he came off the boat and out of the ocean.

WOW!

Okay, let’s add to Hurley to our list.  Hurley is special because he can see the dead.  KIB (kid in black) has that same ability.  Ben, Eko, Jack — many of our losties can “see” people, places and things that aren’t there.

Last thing:  Daniel Faraday’s rat brain zapper.

OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE

Think back to what Christian tells Jack in “The End”:

• Jack:  Where are we, Dad?
• Christian: This is a place that you – that you all made together so you could find one another. The most important part of your life – was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.

Remember, NOTHING we’ve seen on LOST is taking place in a physical world — not the sideways, not the island, not the FB or FF, not LA (off island).  None of that is PHYSICAL.  However, as Christian says: “it is all real. Everything that’s happened to you is real.”  The sideways does not have to be a physical world to be a real world.

The only way that that the sideways world can be “real” and “made together” by “you all,” meaning our losties, is if it is made by their “real” minds — just like our girl and her comatose boyfriend did on FRINGE.  The only way it can be made together is if their minds are somehow connected — if they are all on the same page.  If they are in sync.

If they are all on the same FREQUENCY.

We’ll explore more of this concept in Chapter 3 when we discuss how identity works on LOST, so let’s just stick to the basics:  location.  Remember, our losties are all on a zipcord, and they are all in the same exact SPOT on the zipcord.  As they zip down their zipcord of linear existence, the green screen around them changes:  island, flashback, flashforward, L.A. etc.

Our question remains: how does the green screen change?

The answer is:  I think Scooby-Doo Cave, where the “water focuses the light” is generating an electromagnetic field [EMF]. A stable EMF.  The frequency of the Scooby Doo Cave EMF determines what the green screen is for our losties.   I think the CAVE EMF cycles its frequencies naturally (flashes), and I think that process was “corrupted” by whatever Jacob did to the CAVE EMF.  When that happened, the effect on our losties was the flashbacks and flashforwards.  When Desmond unplugs the island, Jack is able to kill Mock Locke (undoing Jacob’s “mistake”).  When Jack replugs the island, it resets the EMF field back into its natural cycle.

So the green screen is changed by the “heart” of the island.  The frequency of the EMF created at Scooby Doo Cave determines what’s on the green screen [including all the flashes (back, forward and sideways)].

Still balking? That’s okay. I totally understand.  However, ask yourself how Ben moved the island.  If our losties minds are synched to the island’s frequency (our losties are on Island Channel 4), then that’s their reality.  That’s their green screen.  However, if Ben changes the Island to Channel 8, and you stay on Island Channel 4, oh, I dunno, because you are in a helicopter in the air and don’t have physical contact with the island as it changes channels, guess what happens?

The island disappears right before your eyes.   Ben didn’t “move” the island. He changed the green screen channel!  That’s why the peeps on the island get “jet lag” when they are “skipping through time.” They are unable to adjust to the changing frequencies before the island changes again.  Result? Brain bleed and frequency crossover. Not good.

That’s also why Hurley and KIB (kid in black) can see the dead. Their minds are able to tap into their frequency.

I’m so glad we brought up Hurley! He is an excellent example of what makes this entire time travel thing so convincing as a distraction.  Just because our losties are all on the same point on the zipcord, doesn’t mean they are all on the same frequency.

The very best analogy I could come up with, besides the zipcord/green screen one, was that of a train.  If we are all on the same train, we are all moving at the same rate at the same time.  If we are all in the same car on that train, then we are all on the same frequency.  If I leave that car and head to another, now I’m on a different frequency.  Maybe you come with me. Now we’re both in the same car; we’re both on the same frequency, BUT we are still on the train with everyone else. Even though we can’t see them, even though we can’t interact with them, everyone else is still on the train with us. They are just in a different car.

That’s why there’s NO TIME TRAVEL on LOST.  Our losties’ train, their existence, is still on track, no matter what car they are in.  So if the dining car is the island, when Kate has a flashback, she’s left the island car and gone to the flashback car.  When she crosses paths with another losties in her flashback, that means that lostie is in the flashback car with her (STILL ON THE TRAIN).

How we doin’?  Hangin’ in there?  Good show!  Don’t let the analogies get you down! Just think of the train or the zipcord and roll with it.  In our next chapter, we will be discussing character:  who’s who, and how our losties work their identities within The System.

UP NEXT:  Chapter 3: The How and Why of Who’s Who.

quote from Powell’s Books.blog

One thing that had a profound effect on RAW was when physicist John S. Bell published his theorem on nonlocality in 1964. The match showed that at the quantum level, particles can effect each other, or communicate, even at great distances. The physical particles had location in space and time, but the information communicated seemed to be everywhere and everywhen. “What Bell seemed to prove was that quantum effects are ‘non-local’ in [physicist David] Bohm’s sense; that is, they are not just here or there, but both. What this apparently means is that space and time are only real to our mammalian sense organs; they are not really real.”

In a 1993 interview published in the book Mavericks of the Mind, RAW builds on this idea with his hunch that consciousness “is a non-local function of the universe as a whole, and our brains are only local transceivers. As a matter of fact, it’s a very strong hunch, but I’m not going to dogmatize about it.” RAW later developed this non-local notion of consciousness in his book about Timothy Leary’s eight-circuit model of consciousness, Prometheus Rising; he categorizes thoughts/consciousness (software) apart from its physical housing (hardware), and the function of the two is the self. He developed : “YOUR HARDWARE IS LOCALIZED: BRAIN CELLS RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. YOUR SOFTWARE IS NON-LOCALIZED: POINT-EVENTS EVERYWHERE, EVERYWHEN.” What we consider to be the self is the conjunction of these points. More is to be made of this later, but this whole problem of being unstuck gives a new meaning to “double-consciousness,” which may not be far from the mark.

After watching and re-watching the final two scenes (and crying harder every time), I think we’ve got everything we need to put Season 6 together. The trick is to start at “The End” and look back. [Hindsight is 20/20 after all.]

First, let’s examine Jack’s arrival at the church, his coffin-induced memory upload (or “flash”), his discussion with Christian and finally, his reunion with all our losties who are “ready” and his “death” on the island. Hint: Pay VERY close attention to the transition back and forth from church to island.

Here we go!

___________________________________________________________

CHURCH PARKING LOT

Jack parks his truck and looks at Kate.

• Kate: Do you know where we are?
• Jack: This is where I was gonna have my father’s funeral. He died in Australia.
• Kate: I’m sorry.
• Jack: Why did you bring me here?
• Kate: Because this is where you were gonna have your father’s funeral. You can go in around back.
• Jack: Wait – where are you going?
• Kate: Inside. I’ll be waiting for you there. Once you’re ready.
• Jack: Ready for what?
• Kate: To leave.

Kate gets out and walks away.

___________________________________________________________

WHOOSH transitional EMF noise. <——TAKE NOTE

___________________________________________________________

THE FLIP SIDE OF SCOOBY-DOO CAVE

A bloody hand on rocks over flowing water. It’s Jack. He’s sprawled out unconscious on the rocks near a large pool of water flowing into a small stream. We see a small dark cave behind him.

His eyes flutter open. He fumbles before weakly and painfully pushing himself up. On his first attempt, his right arm is too weak to carry his weight. He lists over into the water. He finally pushes himself to standing, clutching the stab wound on this right side (where his appendix scar used to be).

He drags himself to the water’s edge. His right side is significantly weak. He exits the water. He leans heavily on the rocks with his left hand. He pauses to catch his breath.

Still clutching his wound, he pulls himself along with his left hand as he leaves.

___________________________________________________________

WHOOSH transitional EMF noise. <——-TAKE NOTE

___________________________________________________________

CHURCH

Jack passes a statue (St. Patrick maybe?) and heads up the stairs.

He enters a room [a familiar room! This was Mrs. Hawking’s office the last time he was here]. The room is filled with symbols of several major religions. He is alone. He spots his father’s coffin. [Check out the way cool stained glass window behind him in this scene! It represents 6 major religions from around the world].

Jack circles the coffin. [This EXACTLY what he did when he first got to Jacob's lighthouse. He circled the dial.] He rubs his face. Finally, he spreads his left hand out on top of the coffin.

Immediately, we see the Pilot’s opening shot of Jack’s eye opening [get it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!] and a brief shot of his POV into the trees above.

NOTE: This flashback is very brightly lit and fuzzy. We’ve seen other memories brightly lit and a bit fuzzy before, most recently when Jacob remembers Jack and Kate finding the bag of stones in “Across the Sea.” THEN Jacob lays Adam and Mother to rest in the caves, and THEN he puts the bag of stones in Adam’s hand.

Jack flinches. He draws back and catches his breath. He reaches out his other (RIGHT) hand to the coffin. [Dude! It looks like he’s got a halo of light around his arm!] On contact we see flashes of experiences on the island (memories of Jack’s and other losties) [Again VERY over exposed, brightly colored and brightly lit. Notice that there is NO SOUND before, during or after these flashes occur]. In sequence these flashes are:

• Jack streaks through the bamboo [THE WRONG DIRECTION] [“Pilot”]
• He sprints through the burning wreckage of Oceanic 815. [“Pilot”]
• He comforts Claire. [“Pilot’]
• He CPR’s Rose. [“Pilot”]
• He punches Charlie’s chest. Charlie inhales. [After Ethan hangs Charlie]
• He reaches and calls to Hurley [At crash in Pilot]. Hurley turns. [First time we see Hurley]
• He lays a bloodied Boone on some cushions at the caves. [Immediately post plane fall]
• He listens at Boone’s mouth. Locke is barely in the shot.
• He walks through the jungle with Sayid following.
• He comforts Shannon at the caves. [touches her cheek]. [Just before he Jedi Mind Tricks her out of her asthma attack]
• Sun laughs. [At caves] (This STICKS OUT, doesn’t it?)
• Jack laughs. [At caves] (This too. This REALLY sticks out.)
• Locke pulls Jack across and over his body to the ground. [After he pulls Jack to safety. “White Rabbit”]
• Locke smiling. [Big scene from “White Rabbit”]
• Jack staring back. [Big scene from “White Rabbit.”]
• Sawyer nods to Jack. Jack turns and leaves. [Just after Sawyer's "Christian loves you" story]
• Jack holds Naomi’s uberphone to his ear. [first phone call to freighter] (This sticks out too.)
• Kate in the helicopter [pre freighter]. She turns from the window and looks.
• Jack turns and looks back at Kate.
• Kate at the river. She snaps around and aims her gun. [“Lighthouse”]
• Jack raises his arms high. [“Lighthouse”]
• Kate smiles and lowers her gun. [“Lighthouse”]
• Kate and Jack on either side of the glass of his Hydra Station cell. He touches the glass. [“I Do" Remember, Juilet is behind Kate in this scene.]
• Kate ducks out of the jungle. [“Pilot”]
• Jack blinks, smiles and lowers his head. [“Pilot”]
• A crying Kate kisses him. [Earlier this episode when they said goodbye.]
• He holds her body close to his as they kiss. [And despite the doom and gloom, it’s a good kiss!]

Flash white screen. <—-TAKE NOTE

Jack draws back, a bit overwhelmed. He opens the coffin. It’s empty. He closes it again.

• Christian: (O.S.) Hey kiddo.

Jack freezes. He slowly turns to see a smiling Christian standing before the window ‘o religions. He is shocked.

• Jack: Dad?
• Christian: Hello, Jack.

[Note how cool Christian’s placement is in reference to the stained glass window. He is centered, and lines from the window seem to radiate from his head.]

Jack, confused, approaches him.

• Jack: I don’t understand. You died.
• Christian: Yeah. Yes I did.
• Jack: Then how are you here right now?
• Christian: How are you here?

Jack’s face is stricken. He lowers his head.

• Jack: I died too.

Jack starts to lose it.

• Christian: It’s okay. It’s okay.

Christian goes to him. They hug tightly.

• Christian: It’s okay son.

[Weirdness alert: Check out the CLOSE UPS of their faces as they HUG. This will be VERY important later. I’m serious. Take a really good look at how terrified Jack's face is, how Christian's face gets all weird, then how Jack's face twists in pain.]

• Jack: [VERY muffled] I love you, Dad.
• Christian: I love you too, son.

They let go. [Notice how Jack looks a LOT happier?]

• Jack: Are you – Are you real?
• Christian: (laughs) I sure hope so!

Jack laughs through his tears.

• Christian: Yeah, I’m real. You’re real. Everything that’s happened to you is real. All those people in the church, they’re all real, too.
• Jack: They’re all – They’re all dead?
• Christian: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you. Some – long after you.
• Jack: But why are they all here now?
• Christian: Well, there is no now, here.
• Jack makes to leave. He turns back.
• Jack: Where are we, Dad?
• Christian: This is a place that you – that you all made together so you could find one another. The most important part of your life – was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.
• Jack: For what?
• Christian: To remember. And to let go.
• Jack: Kate. She said we were leaving.
• Christian: Not leaving. No. Moving on.
• Jack: Where’re we going?
• Christian: Let’s go find out.

OKAY folks, this is it. If you can stop crying long enough (I highly recommend muting the beautiful but gut-wrenching music), take a REALLY close look at the EDITING of the following scene. THE EDITING TELLS US WHAT’S HAPPENING.

[PLEASE NOTE: NO WHOOSH transitional sound between the church and the island. Got that? BEFORE Jack hugs Christian, WHOOSH transitional sound; AFTER NO WHOOSH transitional sound.]

Christian puts his arm around Jack and leads him through the door into the church. Groups of peeps happily hug and greet each other. We see familiar peeps including Libby w/ Hurley. Jack steps toward them.

—- Jack’s bloody shoe. His face is pale, his nose is bloody (that wasn’t there before. Hm.). He trudges through the jungle.

Locke meets Jack in the middle and shakes his hand.

Locke: We’ve been waiting for you.

Jack smiles and moves forward to greet others.

—- Close up on Jack’s face with a still fresh bloody nose as he trudges through the jungle. He seems to stumble and become disoriented for a moment.

Penny and Desmond. Jack shakes hands and man hugs Desmond. He spots Boone. They hug.

—- Jack stumbles through the bamboo. Blood streaks from ears (nose looks better tho). His right arm is limp and useless beside him. He clutches a stick of bamboo (left hand). His hand is covered in blood. [This, by the way, is when Amy starts crying.] He pauses to catch his breath. A tattered white shoe hangs from a tree.

Jack hugs Hurley. Hurley lifts him up and spins him.

—– POV bamboo streaking by as if we are spinning. Jack leans against bamboo staring as we “pass by” him. His face is much cleaner. [Hm.] He blinks and looks around.

Hurley lets Jack go.

Charlie holds Aaron. Claire strokes Aaron’s head as Shannon, Sun and Sayid smile at the baby.

Jack leaves Libby and hugs Sawyer/James.

Kate. She smiles. She and Jack trade looks and smiles. She reaches for his hand.

—- Jack, blood streaming from his nose and ears wobbles as he stumbles by. He turns the corner. We see a clear spot of ground just ahead.

Jack smiles down at Kate. She grins up at him. They hold hands and trade happy looks. She turns as they move to the pews.

—- Jack turns as he wobbles into place. His face is pale and sweaty.

Jack and Kate move to the front pew. Jack starts to sit.

—- Jack starts to lower himself to the ground.

Jack nearly makes contact with the pew. Kate’s right arm stretches out behind him.

—- Jack clutches his side (left arm) as he hangs by his right arm.

Jack finishes sitting. He adjusts his jacket.

—- Jack slowly rests his shoulders and head on the ground.

Kate takes Jack’s hand.

—- Jack’s right hand covers his left. Both hands are covered with blood. He weakly lifts his head.

Kate says something. Jack grins. Sayid and Shannon, John Locke, Penny and Desmond, Rose and Bernard, Sun and Jin, Hurley and Libby in the pews. Juliet kisses James.

[WATCH CAREFULLY]

Christian at Jack’s side. He puts his right hand on Jack’s right shoulder.

—- Jack stares up. A LOT less blood on his face – just touches of blood at his nose. A dog barks. Jack turns. POV as he stares into the bamboo. Vincent comes running out of the jungle. Jack smiles. Jack looks up as Vincent touches noses with him and nuzzles his left hand.

—- He turns to look as Vincent lies down beside him.

—- Relieved and more relaxed. Jack looks up. He’s ready.

Christian still has his hand on Jack’s shoulder. He pats it and heads down the aisle.

Kate checks Jacks face. He looks around like he can’t believe it.

Christian approaches the doors at the back of the church. He swings both doors open. A warm, bright light enters and fills the church. Christian leaves. Our losties marvel at the golden light above them.

Kate looks at Jack. He turns to her. They smile at each other as the light gets brighter and brighter around them.

—- We hover over a dying Jack. Vincent lies unmoving next to him.

[I can’t even describe the look on Jack's face! Maybe it’s because by now I'm uncontrollably weeping. This is just wretched! Look was Team LOST has done to me! ACK!]

—- We float higher and higher. Sound of an airplane. POV Jack: A patch of blue sky above. [Although there’s ZERO breeze near Jack] the treetops swirl and sway. An airplane flies by overhead.

—- Jack chuckles to himself. He starts to tremble.

Jack half smiles as he stares forward. He takes deep breaths, in and out. The light grows brighter and brighter around him. He smiles softly as it fades him away.

A white screen. <——–TAKE NOTE

—- Jack’s eye stares at us. Slowly, it closes.

THE END

___________________________________________________________

*sniff*

Okay, now that we have recovered from the emotional beating that is this final scene, let’s look at Jack’s death/moving on transition VERY closely. In particular, let’s carefully pick through the way EDITING (visual and audio) is used to tell us EVERYTHING ABOUT Jack’s final moments.

1. WHOOSH Transitional EMF noise

PRIOR to chatting with and hugging Christian, we’ve heard the WHOOSH noise each time we’ve cut between the locations. We know it signifies EMF because we were able to identify that sound when Desmond got his CT scan (“Happily Ever After”).

This EMF sound has been used in Season 6 every time we switch back and forth between the island and the flashsideways. And, as far as I’m aware, it has NOT been used when we’ve switched back and forth between the island and anywhere else In Season 1-5. Remember, this flashsideways world is CUT OFF from the influence of the island. Our losties do NOT remember anything from the island (except Dr. Linus, but he’s special. We’ll talk about him later).

In fact, when we are first introduced to the flash world of Season 6, the island is underwater. SYMBOLICALLY underwater. Mock Locke, Jacob or any other weirdness that could seep into our sideways losties is blocked somehow. Whatever the incident/Jacob’s death did, it sealed the barrier between these worlds.

Accept in Sun’s case. Her FEAR seems to have pulled memories (and English) through to flash Sun, who, in fear, recognizes John Locke on the way to the ER. FEAR is a strong, primal emotion. Benry Gale and Mock Locke both use fear to mess with our losties. [See FEAR and IDENTITY for more information.]

After Jack replaces the plug, the water returns. [Notice how quick Jack puts his hand in the water when it comes back] and the water focuses the light again. HOWEVER, , it’s not until AFTER Jack chats with CHRISTIAN that the WHOOSH EMF transitional sound between scenes disappears (This would be when Jack starts sporting a fresh bloody nose and bloody ears. Hm. When have we seen that before?).

Why would this plug thingy make a difference? I dunno. However, I do know that when Desmond walked through the water and the light, it looked a LOT like the EMF Box Blasting Moment. Remember what Widmore says? Desmond has an immunity to eletromagnetic radiation [EMR]. If he is exposed to a deadly level of EMR after he pulls the plug, then the EMR could be the light we see. After he pulls the plug, the water disappears and the EMR is changed, or, more specifically, diffused and amplified.

Now, remember what MIB/Adam told Mother/Eve? He and his peeps dig a well and find a place “where the water focuses the light.” This is not completely off the mark. EMF’s or electromagnetic fields (created by eletromagnetic radiation) can be stablized, even neutralized when they come in contact with negative ions.

Do you know where the highest concentration of negative ions can be found in nature? Any place with moving air and water and/or concentrated sunlight — like a BEACH or a WATERFALL (SOURCE HERE).

The most important thing to remember for our discussion here is:  during the pre-”leaving” festivities, while Jack is marching to his deathbed, there are NO WHOOSH SOUNDS as we jump between the flash and the island.

Whether the island is plugged in or not, our losties experience their memories of the island.  Notice how these memories are triggered by contact with another lostie and focus on a “constant,” the lostie in front of them. (Kinda works like Penny did for Desmond). Once those memories are transferred or uploaded into our losties’ minds (however they get there), they quicky revert to their island personalities, but those personalities are focused on the relationships they had on the island, and since none of our losties (except Jack) seem to mind “waking up” in this world, I’m guessing whatever happens, their memories are integrated easily into who they are in the flash world.

2. Seemless intercut between Jack and Jack and Kate.

This one you have to PAY ATTENTION. If you go back to my transcript of this scene, you’ll notice that I marked in BOLD the ways Jack is moving in the church and on the island. Jack takes a step toward the church peeps, Jack’s bloody shoe hits the ground. Hurley spins Jack in a hug, the bamboo (and the camera) spins around Jack on the island. Kate’s hand covers his left hand with hers. Jack’s bloody right hand covers his left.

These two Jacks are DIRECTLY connected in the first half of this scene — to the point that Jack sitting down in the pew exactly matches Jack lowering himself to the ground. By the end of this scene, however, Jack’s moments are directly tied with Kate’s. The visuals of their matching positions (outstretched right arm) and hand movements demonstrate how they are connected as well.  We are watching very careful and meticulous intercuts in this scene.  Question is, why?

The answer: This scene shows us that events on the ISLAND and events in the FLASH are concurrent — they are both happening at the same time.

If that’s true, it means that events in the flash world and the island world HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME.  That means these two worlds are not disconnected by death or time (present/past/future).  They are two parts of ONE world.

These two worlds are joined together inside ONE unified world, or what I like to call, The System [It's the only word I could think of that works]. The flash and island worlds are like yin-yang:  symbiotic, coexisting, integrated and concurrent.  Yin and yang are distinctly separate, but they seamlessly combine to make ONE UNIT — The System. Opposite, but equal, yin-yang must be in balance for The System to function.

Think of the scale. Think of the stones. You can’t toss out the white stone;  it’ll cause imbalance. That’s why the TWO stones are in the bag in Adam’s hand. The stones do NOT represent good and evil any more the black and white pieces of a chess or backgammon set do.  This is not a story of good and evil or the battle between good and evil. This is a struggle to restore balance to The System.

Think of the world of LOST as a coin.  You can NEVER see both sides of a coin at once (not without a MIRROR, anyway).   If you try, you’ll only see the edge — neither side. If we say heads is the island world and tails is the flash world and put that coin on a table, we can only see heads/the island if tails/flash is hidden. Same thing if we turn it over. Once we see the flash side of the coin, we can’t see the island.

THAT’S HOW IT WORKS on the show. We are NEVER watching the past OR the future in the flashes. And we are NEVER watching the past or the future on the island. The only timeline that matters is the timeline of events our losties experience — in a straight line (the zipcord) — as the coin is turned over and over again (in the green screen around them).

Since these two Jacks and Kate are directly connected, and these two worlds are happening at the same time, then we are NOT watching Jack’s death.  Remember, when you die on the ISLAND you aren’t GONE. You’re just shifted to somewhere else. Since the island is not any more or less real than the sideways and neither world is a physical world, Jack’s “death” seen here is not a physical death.

We’re gonna get back to Christian’s “Everybody dies” speech (don’t worry). But for right now, the most important thing to pull from this concurrent world business is that: Jack’s “death” and Jack’s “moving on” happen SIMULTANEOUSLY.  Jack’s death IS Jack moving on. Jack “leaves” with everyone else. That’s why he’s so closely connected with Jack and Kate  in the church at the end. That’s also why he is IN THE SAME EXACT SPOT HE WAS WHEN HE OPENED HIS EYES IN THE PILOT  — when he “entered” the system.

If that “enter The System” business bothers you, ask yourself, HOW did Jacob know where Jack woke up in the pilot?  Why was Jack so close to Scooby-Doo Cave, and why was he the only one who woke up alone in the bamboo? [I need to check and see if we ever encounter bamboo like that again.]

I think when Jack replugged the island and woke up on the flip side of Scooby-Doo Cave, somehow he was kicked over to where he needed to be to “leave” safely. “He walks among them, but is not one of them.”  So the question is: how does he leave?

3. THE GIRL, THE SHOE AND THE DOG

We don’t realize where Jack is headed until he stumbles past the shoe.   It’s a shoe we’ve seen exactly ONCE before in “Pilot,” right after he opens his eyes and runs to the beach.  Now that Jack is LEAVING, the shoe pops up again. NOTE:  He wanders around in the jungle until Jack sees Kate at the church.  At the same time she leads Jack to the pew, Jack finds his “spot” in the bamboo.  In the end, both Jacks are “in position” to “move on.”  Only difference is, Jack is all alone on the island, and we know “you can’t do it alone.”

Back to the shoe:  Can you think of another “marker” in the wilderness in literature that indicates a nearby door to another reality?

How ’bout a LAMPPOST.  (Can I get an Amen, brutha?!)

Luckily, Vincent shows up, touches noses with him, sniffs his hand and lies still on the ground beside him.  [And now Amy is openly weeping again. Damn you, Darlton!]  Funny that Vincent shows up, right?  I mean, we see Christian send Vincent to “wake up my son” in Missing Piece # “And So It Begins.” Hm.

That’s when VINCENT clinched it for me. That’s when I figured out what was happening to Jack.

I know right now your head is spinning, and maybe you’re even a little mad, and that’s okay. I completely understand.  However, this next part is really, really important to cover because it shows how Jack “transfers” [instead of dying] on the island.   I don’t know about you, but I hated Jack crawling into the woods to “die alone!” And I didn’t get why he had to “die” there.  Why?  Why not die near the nice little stream? And where in the hell did Vincent come from? What’s that about?  Now, on top of crying my eyes out, I’m starting to think Jack died for nothing. That is not cool!

Let’s keep in mind:

• Our losties regain their memories and become “themselves” – the losties we remember from the island.  [I call it a transfer because those memories have to come from somewhere, and if this isn’t a physical world, they don’t have physical brains with which to repress their memories. I also call it a transfer because I remembered Hurley discussing TRANSFERRENCE with Jack way back in Season 2]
• They do this by connecting with one or more other losties that share very emotionally charged memories with them.
• There’s no EMF noise, no transition time, no anything when this memory transfer happens.  Our losties just “see” flashes of memories (as we recognizes them) and then they “wake up.” [And they are unnaturally happy for a group of dead peeps, aren’t they?]
• Desmond and Hurley are hustling to connect our losties as quickly as possible without forcing them to do anything.
• When our losties wake up, they “understand.” They wait at the church for Jack.
• They can’t “leave” until all of them “wake up,” and they can’t leave without Jack.

Problem:  Jack is not doing so great with this memory thing.  He receives flashes from John Locke at the hospital, and then again from Kate at the now deserted charity ball/concert.  He’s confused and upset. NOTE: When he becomes confused and upset at the hospital, he wants to see David.  I think David was “keeping tabs” on him.

Jack responds differently to the flashes than everyone else does. They don’t really take.  Question is why? I think the answer is: he’s not like all the other losties.  He requires some outside help.

TO BE CONTINUED in:  CHRISTIAN’S TRANSFERENCE

CHAPTER 1: The Basics and The Constructed World

First off I must confess.  I frickin’ LOVED the LOST series finale [“The End”].  I was so excited as each scene went by, I was actually too happy to absorb the very last scene where Jack and his peeps “leave” at the exact same moment Jack dies on the island.  When I went back and watched it again, I bawled like an idiot.  That final scene, which gives us SO much information all at once, is just gut wrenching!

I think I loved this episode because I liked hearing the satisfying ‘click’ of the very last piece of the puzzle we’ve been working on for six years.  I think the final scene gutted me because I hated to see Jack die alone, flat on his back in the bamboo while everyone else smiles and hugs at the church.  The look on Matthew Fox’s face, that look of fate fulfilled, without fear, just KILLED me.  Then Vincent shows up and offers the comfort of Dog Love?! Are you kidding me? I totally lost it.  I’m even having trouble writing about it now!

In short, I think the final scene of this episode is the perfect conclusion for a show that starts and ends both in a perfect circle AND from one point to another in a straight line.

HOWEVER,

I’m pretty sure the finale was never intended to give us Answers answers.  We got resolution, especially character resolution, but not any specific answers to develop that resolution.  That tells me, we didn’t get “The End,” we got the last missing piece of the puzzle. NOW the work deciphering the entire puzzle can begin.

This is why I’m totally jazzed about LOSTblog.com’s LOST Rewatch! Now that we are armed with ALL the information, it’s time to start digging!

My job for rewatch is to provide recaps and analysis of each episode every Sunday (and I am SO excited about it!).  Problem is, my recaps and analysis might be off the beaten path for many LOST fans.  To prevent confusion (and eternally long posts), I’ve put together a handy-dandy guide viewing guide (for those interested) that explains how I watch LOST. If you have questions, PLEASE feel free to post them in the comments section!

As we begin, let’s review what we know so far:

1. LOST is a RIDDLE. Everything we need to solve mysteries or answer questions (the important ones) is ALREADY in the actual show.
2. LOST is a PUZZLE. In order for the entire picture to make sense, we have to put each puzzle piece in its place. No two puzzle pieces are alike or interchangeable, and all puzzle pieces are necessary to complete the entire picture.  This also means if two or more puzzle pieces aren’t fitting together, then we are trying to put them in the wrong place.
3. LOST is VISUALLY VERIFIABLE. Darlton specifically mention in their Times Talks Live pre-finale interview that we can trust what they SHOW us.  What we see on the show is what happened.  However, if a character talks about something we never see or we see differently on the show, what that character says is suspect to the degree we trust them. They use Widmore as a prime example.
4. LOST is WORDPLAY.  Many a LOST fan has been stumped by the way Team LOST writes. Sometimes the meaning of what we HEAR is obvious, sometimes it’s ambiguous, and sometimes it’s obviously ambiguous.  Best defense here is a good offense. If something we hear or a character says makes NO sense WHATSOEVER in relationship with what we’ve SEEEN happen on the show (which Darlton say “actually happened”), then we need to examine what we HEAR more closely.
5. LOST is METICULOUSLY WRITTEN, FILMED, PRODUCED and EDITED. Sure, these guys make mistakes. However, if we blow off an unreasonable number of mistakes, we are missing clues. This show is one of the most amazing shows ever created specifically because of its attention to detail. Never assume they got lazy/they don’t care/they’re not trying. They make this inconsistencies obvious for a reason.

To roll with Amy’s POV (and future recaps and analysis for LOST REWATCH), here’s what you need to know.

AMY THINKS:

1. Nothing we’ve seen on LOST takes place in a physical world BUT IT IS ALL REAL. [This one is the most important.]
2. The world of LOST is a “system” (I have no idea what kind of system or how it’s created). It has rules and guidelines, a history and a purpose.  When Jack opens his eyes, the system is “broken.”
3. This “system” is an INTERSECT. That is, it is a world created by the interconnection of several minds (or memories) of several people.  It’s not clear (to me anyway) that those minds connected to create and change the island are the minds of our losties.
4. Our losties are an intersect in the flash back and flash forward worlds. They are interconnected with each other, and yet still manipulated, mainly by sound. They are an intact and separate (from the island) intersect in the flash sideways.
5. Our losties experience the island part of this world as a conscious dream state. Our losties experience the flashes part of this world as a subliminal dream state.
6. Our losties experience their flashes subliminally, almost like repressed memories.  They don’t have consistent or complete access to these repressed memories unless they have a “constant,” an item that exists in both worlds [toy plane, ring, letter, etc] or a person [Penny].
7. Desmond is the only lostie (on the zipcord) that experiences the flash world in a conscious dream state. Anyone else who experiences the flash world this way eventually gets a nosebleed and drops dead.
8. Our losties don’t know any of the contents of their flash backs/forwards until they happen (with one or two exceptions, like Desmond).  It doesn’t matter if it’s a flash back or flash forward. Our losties don’t have access to the sideways flash world.
9. The flashes are manipulated, mainly by Mock Locke and Jacob, to influence our losties on the island. This includes flashbacks and flash forwards. Flash sideways is a world separated from the influence on the island.
10. The world of LOST is a constructed world, but what it can be constructed with is LIMITED, like legos. The blocks, in this case, are memories of whoever’s “plugged in” to the system, and these memories are used and reused as needed to create this world [the island world AND the flash world].
11. On LOST, your memories are WHO YOU ARE. Any alteration in your memories changes your identity.

Okay. Here’s the hard stuff.  [Slow deep breaths!]

1. There is NO timeline for our losties except what we see them experience on the show and this timeline is created IN SEQUENCE as events are presented on the show.
2. Pulling the scenes as presented in the show OUT of sequence to create an external timeline works for the history of the ISLAND but NOT for the experience of our losties. If you extrapolate our losties experiences on the show and re-arrange them “chronologically” into a interpretive timeline, you are actually shuffling them out of order.
3. Our losties are all on ONE zipcord of existence. They can only experience events one at a time in a straight line, regardless if those experiences are on the island world or the flash world.  [Yes. In sequence as presented in the show.]
4. Our losties can NOT go back in time on the ZIPCORD, and they are all on the same zipcord and on the same point on the zipcord.  They can only exist in THEIR present, THEIR now, THEIR current spot on the zipcord.
5. Think of the island as a ‘green screen’ around our losties’ zipcord. No matter what happens on the green screen, our losties can only experience the present – where they are on the zipcord.  They can only look BACK at their experiences on the zipcord (which begins when Jack opens his eyes). They can NOT see their future events on the zipcord.
6. The starting point of existence for EVERYONE on the zipcord is simultaneous (when Jack opens his eyes). This means they are all experiencing time in the same way. Tricky part? Not everyone is on the zipcord.
7. Every character we see on the show is either on the zipcord of existence in the same exact spot as our losties OR is part of the green screen (OR is outside the system somehow). Some characters, like Juliet, can hop on the zipcord with our losties. Others, like those who die, hop off the zipcord and enter the green screen.
8. The only exceptions to #7 are Jacob, MIB, and the peeps in “Across the Sea.”

HOW TO CONSTRUCT A “REAL” NON-PHYSICAL WORLD

The island world is created using knowledge as “legos” [Remember, not a PHYSICAL world, but still absolutely real, and our losties have been inserted into this constructed world from outside the system]. If we think of knowledge as that acquired through study, and the legos as memories of that knowledge, then we can play Name That Brain to account for nearly everything we see.

Amy’s Name That Brain Game:

• Cultural anthropology and/or archeology brain.
• Physics [very advanced] brain.
• Philosophy studies brain.
• Humanities studies/ENGLISH major brain.
• Fine Arts brain.
• Surgeon/Medicine brain.
• Military/diplomacy studies brain.
• Handy-Man brain.
• Boy Scout brain.
• Psychology brain.
• Religious brain, general.
• Religious brain, eastern.
• Alternate Medicine brain.
• Feng Shui/Chakra studies brain. [This one is really important.]
• KNOWS the history of the ISLAND very well brain.

If we consider the intersect of our losties in the flash backs/forwards world (which sometime bleed over into the island world), we’ve got a pool of experiences, lines and scenarios, characteristics and talents that are reused over and over again. Here are just a silver of them as examples.

• Hit by a car.
• Pregnant/losing pregnancy.
• Pulling a con.
• Star crossed lovers.
• Abandonment
• Daddy issues
• Momma issues
• Murder for revenge
• Murder of an innocent
• Traps (being trapped, laying a trap)
• “Sonuvabitch”
• Mental institution/problems
• Criminal activities problems
• The numbers
• Airplane travel
• A blue business suit
• A black business suit

Are you starting to see it?

The reason all of this is important is to help us sift through what the legos are, what’s important or not important in the green screen and how it relates to our losties.  Once we do that, we can get down to the nitty gritty of our story:  WHO’S WHO. [UP NEXT in CHAPTER 2]

Highly recommended reading:  Origins of the LOST World for a better explanation of how this world is created.