Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Lost: ruining my confidence since 2004.

I have been out of the country and away from the Internet for nearly a week now, but after coming back to our blog and catching up on all of your posts, I felt it was necessary to reply one more time before Episode 2 airs tonight.


Lost has this knack for just completely undermining my confidence in theorizing AT ALL. In earlier seasons, just when I thought we'd figured out who the bad guy was (I once thought it was aliens, haha), we met a polar bear. And then we met the Smoke Monster. And then we met Ben. Then we met Widmore. Then we met freaking Jacob and Esau. It's like you can just never be too safe in your conclusions about this show, because unless we're given cold hard facts (like Locke as Esau in this episode) any theory is a wobbly, unstable platform.

And now I am feeling that same hesitance with my decision to jump on ANY bandwagon concerning the "Sayid is Jacob" theory. Initially, it didn't even occur to me. Then I rewatched the scene and thought "Oh…. wow, that could definitely be what happened." And then Arrow proposed it in his post. Upon reading that, I thought "Yeah that HAS to be it." And now I'm not so sure. Like Arrow said, you readers don't come to an analytical blog to listen yo people say "I just don't know," but my biggest point here is that Lost is probably single-handedly the best show I have ever encountered at keeping its viewers guessing. We can toss around facts and ideas, sure, but Lost will ALWAYS have another trick up its sleeve. Maybe Sayid is Shannon. Maybe that's where she went. I JUST DON'T KNOW, OKAY?


I really like what you said, Pearl, about the 815ers being caricatures of themselves. You're absolutely right. We recognized them as themselves, but - and I guess this is an obvious thing to say - but they were a version of themselves with a big chunk missing. It was exactly what Hydra was saying about the huge wealth of character development we've seen them undergo, and this episode reverting them back to a time before that all existed.

Like you said, Peal, Kate seemed crazier. Charlie, too, seemed different/even a little crazier. I think this makes sense though - they both crash landed on an island at a major tipping point in their lives, so maybe they really WERE that crazy all along, but we never got to see it play out because they were given a second chance on the Island.

Oh and - I forgot to mention this in my earlier post, but I can't tell you how nice it was to see Bernard return from the bathroom after the turbulence knowing that in at least one reality, he and Rose would never have to be separated.

I also found it a little odd that we didn't see any of the tailies on the flight either. I mean, sure they were at the back of the plane, but they were there. I understand that all three of the actors who play the tailies probably just couldn't do it - but it would have been nice to see them off the island for once, at the crux of it all.

Pearl, I know a little Japanese! Not enough to be useful really, but maybe I could give you a little lesson. xD

Hydra, you said something I have been grappling with all week as I sorted out my feelings and ideas on the premiere, and it was in this statement:

2. If Arrow's "cat in the box" theory is correct, which makes a lot of sense, that would mean that one of the story lines is completely inconsequential, which would be lame in my opinion. Why do care what happens to someone in a reality that doesn't exist?

That is a huge issue for me as well. We only have 16 episodes this season (15 now!) and if we're blowing half of those on a reality that doesn't actually exist or matter, that's a lot of wasted air time. My other theory is that the two timelines might converge in some way, but I do NOT have my head wrapped around that idea strongly enough to even begin to explain what that might look like. Probably another plane crash. That's all I've got.

Unless of course Hydra's theory is right, and we have in fact been shown the premiere and finale in the same episode without realizing it. Kind of like that episode when we thought we were watching flashbacks and then - nope! Turns out they were flashforwards.

Which is also weird. Lost is weird. WHY is Lost so weird?

On that note, I hope everyone enjoys Episode 2 tonight, and we'll be right here blogging with you as soon as we can! :)

- Swan

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