the blast door map

well well well. the developments just-a-keep comin.

directed by: jack bender. my hero.

written by: edward kitsis and adam horowitz. they are the heroes of the socks. i think they're pretty good writers, though we do have them entirely to blame for arnzt, nikki and paolo.

1. the experiment
2. the forwards
3. the economist
4. the man on the boat
5. the warring factions
6. the 6
7. the others/hostiles
8. the pre-boomer
   
9. the coffin guy prediction
10. the minor gripes
    

before we get to sayid and all that, let's first talk about the little experiment that daniel was running. island time:

island delay:

31 minutes, 20 seconds. curiouser and curiouser. i love that the physicist and the archaeologist totally want to stay on the island. this place is playtime for them. fuck the physicist, let's get charlotte over to that giant 4-toed foot already.

has time indeed been moving faster off-island? or is time slower on the island? remember when penelope first picked up that phone at the end of season 2 and the talkbacks exploded with speculation about -when- penelope was (spurned mostly by an off the cuff comment by damon at comicon that year). well now we have some confirmation beyond desmond's interactive flashback that there are some real time issues going on here. d&c have been fairly clear that time "travel" is not a factor in the show, but there could easily be a sort of time "warp." it's just a jump to the left and a step to the right. i love the idea that perhaps time on the island has been moving at the same speed as the actual show. this occurred to me with last year's flashforward potentially being placed in the timeline at roughly the same time the episode aired (based on the date of the newspaper (which is not necessarily canon, since the date was derived from the actual page of the LA times used in the episode, and not because the date was shown onscreen).

it's not unlikely that -real- time will play a role in the show, since -real- time was used as the show's start date. the pilot episode premiered on september 22, 2004, the same day as the crash. i'm gonna predict right now that the events of the series finale will take place on the same day that the finale actually airs in 2010.

2. which brings us to those flashforwards. we've had 3 now, and it's very interesting to look at how they work dramatically as a storytelling device. aristotle tells us in 'the poetics' (mamet says it too) that what defines character are moral choices (not the quirky way in which they hold their cigarettes). the encompassing theme of 'lost' is that we are watching characters, all of whom are morally 'lost' due to moral choices made in their past, working their way towards inner peace. it seemed at first that getting off the island was a metaphor for finding that peace, but it's very clear now, that like life, reaching your goal doesn't mean that the journey is over. it seems clear that the true journey is going to be very different for each person, and perhaps for jack, it means returning to the island.

but about flashing forward: previously we would see a character on the island faced with a choice, then flashback to a time in their life when they were faced with a similar dilemma, and usually made the wrong moral choice. the island provides them with the chance to make better choices. but now with flashforwards, with perspective, the island scenes are now the arena in which the crucial moral choices are made, with disastrous repercussions in the future. sayid says 'the day i trust him (ben) is the day i sell my soul.' hurley chooses locke's side over jack's. jack decides to ignore locke's warning and call the boat. each person that gets a flashforward will make crucial choices on the island that deeply affect them in the future.



3. who is elsa's boss? abbadon? i'm willing to bet that elsa was named after indiana jones' double-crossing love interest in 'last crusade.' elsa has a similar bracelet to naomi's. what does this mean? are the bracelets from the 'economist?' is the economist "R.C." from the inscription inside naomi's bracelet? or is that "R.G."?? stupid font.



it's not matthew abbaddon, unless they're using codenames. it's possible the entire inscription is a code.

4. what is happening on that boat? on the phone, they seem just as sketchy as our survivors - 'uh, naomi's out fetching wood.. with a knife in her back.' last week minkowski was 'in the bathroom,' and this week we hear frank tell daniel to hang up if minkowski answers. it reminds me a bit of all the teases we got about jacob at this point in the season last year: major plot point downplayed as incidental until a crucial moment/reveal.

so who is ben's 'man' on the boat? is it minkowski? or regina? or michael? with this revelation that ben has tons of cash, multiple passports, and has been off-island, i'm leaning against it being michael now. it seems more likely now that ben simply has one of his people out there, as part of a larger operation, rather than having further manipulated michael into doing his bidding. i can't wait to see zoe bell as regina. have you seen 'death proof?' girl kicks ass.

5. so we have two factions of assassins, funded by multinational corporations, in an international war over the island: presumably those that seek the island (abbadon, possibly part of dharma), and those that seek to protect it for themselves (ben, and the hostiles). is this war going to be a major theme of the series' third act (a la the ultimate showdowns of good and evil in 'lord of the rings,' 'harry potter,' and 'star wars?')? and if so, which side is even the "good" side?

somehow sayid is able to be both a celebrity and an assasin, now something of a james bond. it seems that the oceanic 6 are under oath never to talk of the island's existence, so anyone who knows that the island is out there would be very very interested in talking with them.. hence abbaddon approaching hurley in the asylum. and who are sayid's targets? what is ben's ultimate aim? is ben hunting down alvar hanso himself?

6. jack. kate. hurley. sayid. two more to go. i actually wasn't positive that kate was one of the 6 until seeing the commercial last night. looks like we get a kate flashforward next week, and looks like it's all about how she deals with coming back to the real world, and being a celebrity. perhaps we'll find out how she gets out of prison? or maybe she -does- go to prison? wouldn't that be cool. who are the other two? it won't be desmond or juliet - as they weren't on the plane - so really it could be anyone at this point. i'll throw out a guess and say michael, who is probably on the boat, and, oh, how about cindy, just to mix things up.

7. uh, where did the hostiles go? remember richard alpert, and cindy and the kids and everyone heading off to the 'old place?' we haven't even had a reminder of that plot point. will they pop up unexpectedly?

8. the pre-boomer:
sayid: they'll know that i'm coming now
ben: good.
and it wasn't the usual boom. did you notice that? it was more like a crash, with different instrumentation in the score.

let's just talk about the ben reveal, though. it's not that i saw it coming, it's just that i don't feel like it was quite properly set up. they gave us an answer before they even set up a mystery! it was almost -too much- of a reveal. and maybe this is just because i'm used to having to wait long stretches of time before getting answers. i actually thought last week's simple pre-boomer was better.

a big mystery here is how we're meant to feel about sayid's new position as ben's underling. does this mean we should trust sayid less, or ben more? sayid says "the day i trust him is the day i sell my soul," so perhaps we're meant to think that sayid is not fighting for the right side - helps that ben is such a creepazoid. but i can also see how at some point, ben will truly reveal what he knows, blow everyone's mind, and they will have no choice but to fight for him, and with him. which brings us to:

9. coffin guy: it's ben. now more than ever. coffin guy cannot be one of the oceanic 6. the media would have been all over it. even if no one came to coffin guy's funeral, reporters would be there reporting on how no one was there, especially after jack had just appeared in the news. another oceanic 6 story would be irresistible to the press. the man in the coffin's death drove jack to suicide, presumably because coffin man would have some knowledge of how to get back to the island. ben totally fits. if ben can convince sayid to kill for him, i completely buy that jack would jump off a bridge because of him.

10. minor gripes: as i said, the ben reveal was not a skillfully handled as i would have liked. it's a huge huge moment. just think it could have been a little more effective.

the post-show commercials tell us way too much. last week it gave away that we would be watching a flash forward. this week it's giving it away again. by the time we actually get to another flashback, it actually -will- be a surprise.