Lost Season 6 - RE: LA X

hugo for new island president

definitely

really like nice guy business hugo

"The Substitute" is the 4th episode of Season 6 of Lost and the 107th produced hour of the series as a whole.

hey 108 next

Locke = 4

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourIsDeath

The Japanese words for "Four" and "Death", despite being written differently, are pronounced identically (shi). As a cultural trope, it's often treated like the number 13 in the west, to the point building floors and apartments are (mis)numbered accordingly. In Korean, the Chinese-derived name for the number four (sa) sounds like the first syllable in the Korean word for death (samang).

<3 <3 ilana <3 <3

fake john saving sawyer along the cliff was an allusion to john locke pulling jack up from the edge of a cliff (maybe the same one) in season one, when jack is chasing christian through the jungle. i don't know if that means anything though, these days they seem to just cram in as many allusions as they can for the fun of it.

good catch though!

(There's a big hole in my theory which is that Sawyer's parents were already dead by the time the bomb went off in 1977 - maybe that wiped Jacob out of all history or something?)

Would guess the alternate timeline is the characters' lives w/o Jacob's interference, i.e. the way the man in black wants them to be able to live. If that's true, I'm not sure that 1977 really has anything to do with it. (It seemingly could for the island but perhaps not for the consciousness/lives/etc of those involved in Jacob's machinations.)

We don't know that the bomb went off, btw.

RIght, and it seems improbable that a hydrogen bomb would go off and sink an island yet destroy nothing on it-- Dharmaville, the the base of the statue, etc.

Maybe Alt-Locke ended up having a much better life because Jacob wasn't manipulating him? Except in the original timeline Jacob didn't appear until after Locke had fallen out of the window, so no idea.

there's nothing to say that the moments we saw between Jacob and the castaways were their only interactions.

YESSS FINALLY the black & white rocks!! The writers are reading this thread after all! They even chucked me an "inside joke"!

(It's the one stupid thing I've been wanting to see again since s2 or whenever they found them).

Anyway, great episode, although I felt a bit like I was drunk when I was watching it just because of how weird the tone & directing was compared to recent ones. For a minute I thought I was watching some impressive fan-made shit - when we saw the smokey-cam (esp pausing to check his reflection!) - and a bunch of explainin' and a new location.

the Ben reveal could've been better - it kinda sucks for us to see his back turned when it's obvious from his voice that it's him so why not just get straight to it?).

This is a classic Lost staple and one I hope they will never stop doing. See also "Kevin Johnson" and every reveal ever. I wonder if we'll see Professor Ben in the school secretary's office looking like this

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:4x02_benlinus_snapshot.jpg

er, like this
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:4x02_benlinus_snapshot.jpg

can't wait for the reveal that there was another boat called The White Rock

the spank rock

One other Lostpedia-y thing: Sawyer and Fake Locke climbing "Jacob's Ladder" to get to the little secret sea cave.

xpost the igneous rock

Worst line: "What do you know about realistic!" lol
Not sure about the in-scene reminder flashbacks of Jacob doing his touching. Seemed a bit jarring.

I didn't really like it either, but it's one of those broad audience concessions I forgive the show for - not every viewer is going to be on the internet discussing these theories or remembering exactly how things played out from an episode that aired 9 months ago.

the spank rock

The Yacht Rock.

this was a better-done ep than the first three, so was enjoyable on some level. still have massive forebodings though.

RIght, and it seems improbable that a hydrogen bomb would go off and sink an island yet destroy nothing on it-- Dharmaville, the the base of the statue, etc.

The only way this would work would be if most of the energy from the bomb blast went into negating the energy from the time pocket the Dharma dudes drilled into. Assuming we accept all the science here is bollocks and just roll with it.

The thing we don't know yet is the link between Jacob/Man In Black and the time energy, and what the consequences of fucking with that energy would be for them.

Yeah, according to Eloise the island was sort of unlocked in space, to the point that Dharma had to build a pendulum thingy to predict where it would at any given time. Surely this movement had something to do with the unique electromagnetic pocket inside of the island. And if that pocket were destroyed by Jughead then I can see the island just falling out of its orbit into the ocean.

Would guess the alternate timeline is the characters' lives w/o Jacob's interference, i.e. the way the man in black wants them to be able to live. If that's true, I'm not sure that 1977 really has anything to do with it. (It seemingly could for the island but perhaps not for the consciousness/lives/etc of those involved in Jacob's machinations.)

I for one would be way pissed if the alt-timeline did not fork off in 1977. As for the Jacob interactions, the SSN 5 finale did make a point of showing us Jacob at Sawyer's parents' funeral and then having Sawyer tell Jack that his parents died in 1976. I think the show is going somewhere with this.

Probably we'll soon see teacher Ben telling Locke about how he grew up on this weird island but had to leave in 1977.

the no-plane-crash 2004 timeline has to add up to SOMETHING. we can't just have these characters "randomly" meeting each other in cute ways.

Maybe the alt-timeline destiny is their actual destiny and something that Jacob or MIB has been desperately trying to prevent?

there haven't been any pointers in the show yet but imo something has to be happening in alt-timeline that matters, and that relates to all the island shit. the fibonacci equation. whatever. it can't just be seeing their backstories resolved.

Juliet's alt-consciousness appeared to be leaking back into her real consciousness just before she died. If that was to happen to, say, John Locke, it could be interesting.

sorry, what happened with juliet again?

She was suddenly all "hey we should get coffee some time", like she was somewhere different entirely. Then after her death she told Sawyer, through Miles, that "it worked".

that's true.

id prefer it if there was some tangible reason for the six being the six, for being candidates. not exactly "why these people". but what do jin and sun bring to the table exactly? that, say, another major cast member didn't. their kid? i can't even remember what happened to their kid.

Maybe the alt-timeline destiny is their actual destiny and something that Jacob or MIB has been desperately trying to prevent?

― Space Battle Rothko (Matt DC), den 18 februari 2010 12:18 (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what i thought as well. jacob most likely. as far as the kate flashsideways it seemed to show her way of finding peace or whatever but i'm not sure as to how the theory works with lockes flashsideways

neither jacob nor MIB can be particularly invested in these people's domestic happiness or whatever. jacob wanted them to *do* something. that thing not being done must have consequences beyond locke getting on with his pops or w/e.

Interesting how Jacob tells Kate to stop stealing things, and in the alt timeline she returns Claire's stolen purse

using a stolen car tho

That's true, she should have returned that - in the alt timeline she is 'the gunpoint borrower'

I was wondering though if Jacob actually affects the characters in the new timeline at the point he talks to them, so that their futures are different from that point on. Locke's life appears radically different where Kate's not so much.

At some point they're going to have to address how the heck Ben is alive in the alt - by all rights he should be dead in 1977, right?

lol @ the best week ever recap: "Basically, if this Jacob replacement candidate thing does end up being the crux of this final season, it means the entire show Lost has been about a group of tropical island castaways being filmed competing to win a title."

^^ lol

Survivor: Magical Island.

this show is so fucked up. i don't even bother asking questions anymore. i just hold on tight and hope that i understand at least half of what is going on.

― scott seward, Wednesday, February 17, 2010 10:34 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

So you have chosen option one of Flocke's 'Three Choices'. (the other two being, Keep Guessing or Stop Watching).

A weird detail is Claire's sonogram was dated Oct 22 2004, which is a month after 815 was supposed to arrive in LA. They might not have arrived on the 815 at all. Or it could just be a continuity error.

yeah I think the writers clarified that that was a continuity error

Do they have twitter or something? You guys have seemingly instant access to their creative team!

lostpedia, duh

"Basically, if this Jacob replacement candidate thing does end up being the crux of this final season, it means the entire show Lost has been about a group of tropical island castaways being filmed competing to win a title."

Fwiw ABC approached JJ Abrams with the concept for Lost, they wanted an action/drama version of Survivor.

fuck this 'chosen one' shit

they are all pretty suited for sitting alone in a cave for a couple of hundred years "protecting" an island tho. because they all have terrible human skills. i would say except for hurley but then again he can talk to dead people and would probably be fine

yeah I think the writers clarified that that was a continuity error

Ah that's cool. Where'd you see that?

on lostpedia but it seems they've changed their minds a bit now

The date in Claire's sonogram contains an error and a clue according to a post by Gregg Nations on The Fuselage. One interpretation is that it shows the incorrect month (10-22-2004) and should be 9-22-2004 (September rather than October) and the clue concerns the year, i.e. 2004. (Nations does not refer to the time at all.) When asked whether the "10" was the clue and the "04" the error, he replied that they were not.

As cool as this inside dope info is, I kinda wish the writers were all sequestered, jury-duty style, drinking coffee and pacing back and forth, blowing up at each other now and then until the finale.

I was wondering though if Jacob actually affects the characters in the new timeline at the point he talks to them, so that their futures are different from that point on. Locke's life appears radically different where Kate's not so much.

Nah Kate was like 10 years old when Jacob found her.

Kate doesn't seem to be terribly different in the sideways timeline, but as a personality she seemed a little less desperate, more in control. In the video podcast, Lilly said that the Kate there seemed to relish her role as a fugitive more, as an "adrenaline junkie". This makes sense since she doesn't actually kill her father in that timeline, but some random guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so her standard Lost daddy issues/guilt isn't as present.

The date in Claire's sonogram contains an error and a clue

Oh man, every time I think I know what the hell is going on ...

Loved scared shitless Richard, please more full-on panic from people expecting to get dashed against rocks by MIB.

Ilana's collecting the ashes, which I thought would happen, but I have no idea how those ashes magically become the circles of ash used throughout the show. Maybe the timeline's been violated so many times that the laws of cause and effect no longer apply.