Lost Season 3 Spoiler Thread

[Recoil]

I've just this Tuesday seen the Sun/Juliette/Desmond&Co episode.

That was last week's episode for us.

I was really disappointed with the start of Season 3 up to and just after their long break (after only 6 episodes). However the last 6-8 episodes have all been VERY good IMO. So I am definitely back to being onboard with this show. They have been doing a good job at answering some of the older mysteries and brining up new ones, as well as better clues as to the Island. I'm really happy with the last several episodes and the direction its gone.

 

[Galahad]

I think the trouble is they don't use the very best characters often enough... but when they do, they do it magnificently.

I'll infinitely drawn more to Locke/Desmond's stories than I am to Kate/Sawyer/Jack's. It is not that I dislike the latter... I just don't find that plotline as intriguing or as much to my taste.

I actually think the creators have been very cunning and it worries me as much as it impresses me. It seems they have designed the programme to potentially capture everyone's taste. The mysterious and deep woven plots appeal to the sci fi and intellectual types... and the will they won't they quadrangle thing appeals to soapy minded people.

The setting is ambiguous enough to be in either camp.

They keep heading into the complex plots and make us think something majorly heavy is on the cards and then they pull back tantric style.

I just hope it all pays off. At it's end it is either going to be something spectacular... or a pathetic whimper that pleases nobody but the shallow minded.

I'm willing to go on trust at the moment and yes things have picked up lately.

 

[Recoil]

I agree. More Locke/Desmond and less Kate/Sawyer/Jack. Desmond, since his appearance in Season 2, has been my favorite character on the show...by far.

 

[Galahad]

Aye brother... I normally would have picked up that the parachutist wasn't Penny... but I've grown so fond of Desmond, I willingly blinded myself to it... because I genuinely like the guy and want him to be happy.

 

[vacantlook]

I am thoroughly tired of Jack. He needs to just go away.

 

[Boxie]

I am thoroughly tired of Jack. He needs to just go away.

Not until we get past that, "We should tell them".. "not yet" business. Tell them what??

 

[Chilli]

I'm completely back in the boat on the show .. it's been quite awesome recently.

Yes, Jack is beyond boring. Once we get the answer to his and Juliet's secret, they can both go.

I'm actually hating Sawyer less recently .. having him around Kate less, and having him see through her routine when she was around, greatly improved him. I also thought he was fun as the unsecure leader that Hurley keeps conning.

My sister had an interesting theory on what the island's deal is .. she sent it to the Lost podcast thingy, and they phoned her - it'll be published tomorrow. Will post a link to it then ...

 

[Recoil]

I remember Joe D posted a "unified theory of the island" some time ago. I don't remember if its this thread or an older one. I wonder how much of that theory has changed since it was posted. Part of it seemed interesting and I could see where it might be true...but it only explained a few points, not the entire picture. And, as I recall, it was posted after the Season 2 finale, so all of the Season 3 revelations were not in it or addressed.

Definitely post the link when her podcast goes up.

 

[Chilli]

Two weeks ago, I thought my sister's theory was perfect. But the last two episodes don't really fit into it. Maybe with some adapting, it would still work .. but the whole bit with the plane having been found, with all passengers dead, does .. complicate things.

 

[Recoil]

Yea but that could be a hoax placed by "The Others" so people stop looking for them...and thus, the Island.

I mean think about it. They said it was found how many thousand feet deep in the ocean? Talk about your needle in a haystack. It took us almost a century to find the titantic and we sort of knew where to look. How could the plane be found at the bottom of the sea so quickly?

I didn't buy that story as fact from the first second they said it...

 

[Chilli]

So my sister's podcast thingy is online .. Sky One's official podcast on the show.

Link

She comes on to talk about her theory about 25 minutes in.

 

[Recoil]

I listed to it, and its pretty interesting. It does sort of fit with part of what is going on. One thing I am not clear on, is they kept talking about this "Valendetti Equation." That has never actually been brought up in the TV Show, only on the online Lost Experience/wikipedia/Alternate Reality Game/thing, so I don't know if that can really be considered part of the actual shows content. That was brought up a couple years ago as something that may fit the facts, but has never been part of the show or established as Canon. It was never shown that Dharma was actually working on that either.

Unless I missed something...

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

It took us almost a century to find the titantic and we sort of knew where to look.

Actually, we didn't, that was the problem. The various estimates and reports of the ship's last known position were mostly off by varying degrees. Ballard's expedition found the ship by looking in the "wrong" area. Also, the Titanic was in waters much deeper than what Naomi suggested flight 815 was found in. (Do you suppose the producers checke with the worldwide air traffic control system to make sure that nobody actually operates a "flight 815" before picking that name? I'm pretty sure that certain famous or infamous flight numbers have been quietly "retired" to avoid freaking out the superstious or just bringing up bad memories for other people.)

And if a airliner is lost along a well-travelled route, with contact lost at a given point in the flight, it wouldn't be that hard to figure out about where it went down. In (relatively) shallow waters, say to a few thousand feet, a magnetic anomaly detector would be able to find a mass of metal like an airliner fairly quickly. So it isn't that implausible that whoever is behind the fate of flight 815 could announce that the flight had been "found" and produce some phony video footage to "confirm" their story. They put the "location" deep enough that nobody without specialized and very expensive equipment could dive the wreck themselves to check the story, announced that the bodies were still aboard, making it a tomb and thus further discouraging folks from disturbing the site, and probably filed a salvage claim (like Bob Ballard wishes he had for the Titanic) just in case, to make sure there was no financial incentive for anyone to mount an expedition to the "crash site" despite its being a tomb.

So for the cost of a few models, some mannequins and a little special effects work, somebody solved the "mystery" of flight 815, ensured that the search would be called off and firmly fixed the eyes of the curious on a patch of ocean many, many miles from the Island. I'd call that a pretty good return on investment.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Chilli]

No, I don't believe the Valenzetti equation has come up in Lost canon.

But I do think that the idea that the island is Noah's Ark could make sense either way - not just because we've had religious references before.

We know that the Island is, in many ways, protected from the rest of the world. It's entirely possible that they know that something bad is going to happen to the planet.. and that only the island will be able to survive it.

... so, is Kate pregnant?

 

[B5_Obsessed]

I believe th Valenzetti Equation was something utilized in the final season or two of Alias (also by JJ Abrams). The theory has been out there for about two years now,but I don't recall the source, i.e whether it was fan speculation or whether it came out of one of those many sites seemingly put out by the shows creators to enlarge the mystery.

By the way, did anyone hear that ABC has announced that LOST is going two more seasons only, and will end in 2009 with 5 seasons total?

This is actualy a good thing; if the producers have a guarantee, the know the show will go no longer or no shorter and it will allow them to pace the show properly and make sure it wraps a with a satisfying conclusion (if possible). Previously it seemed that ABC was pushing for 7 years against th producers' wishes, thus aiding in the dilution and fragmentation of the show's storyline through some heavily padded episodes.

Also, LOST is pulling a 24 and will not return for next season until January 2008, with the intent of running a continuous, uniterrupted season.

This season got off to a real shaky start, but I'm loving it once again. Can't wait for the finale.

 

[Galahad]

... so, is Kate pregnant?

That one had crossed my mind too. Girls at work believe Juliette is going to sample all women and just that Kate is next. I'm not so sure on that.

Lets not forget that sperm counts go up by 500% on the island. so who knows what it does to a womans reproductive system (other than apparently cause fatal complications in pregnancy)?

As to the plane crash thing. What if they are doing a Donnie Darko? What if the island is a nexus between two planetary dimensions and our 815 plane comes from our reality... but swapped places with a flight 815 in the other dimension that crashed in a locatable area?

Girls just reckon its the other sending a plant and doing the head messing routine again.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

... so, is Kate pregnant?

The only "evidence" for this is Juliet's reference to almost being done collecting samples from the "Losties" and that she should have Austen's by that night. It sounds to me like she's collecting specemins from several females on the beach, maybe even all of them (since for her research she'd need the largest database possible.) If that's the case Kate's is just one more sample and there's no particular reason to think she's pregnant. (Or that Juliet or Ben would have any way of knowing that she is, since at this point she'd be all of - what? Two weeks along?)

As for the Valenzetti Equation: Abrams seems to have invented both Valenzetti and his equation, so it is hardly surprising that both would be referenced in two Abrams shows.

The connection to Lost does seem to be "canon" since Gary Troup, the fictional novelist who died when flight 815 went down (he's the guy we see sucked into the engine on the beach) is listed as the author of a non-fiction book on the Valenezetti equation. He also supposedly mentions the equation in the introduction to his posthumously published novel, Bad Twin, which Sawyer reads in manuscript. (And whose last few pages Jack burns, apparently to punish Sawyer, but perhaps to keep anyone else from learning a secret Troup reveals.) Although a work of fiction, Bad Twin references a number of "real-life" entities from the Lost universe, including the Widmore family, Alvo Hanso and Oceanic air. (The private eye hero of the book even eats at Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack while in Los Angeles.)

Supposedly there is an easter egg that leads to an excerpt from Troup's book on Valenzetti on the season 2 DVDs:

On the Lost Connections section of the bonus disk, start with Jack, click the connection on the right side on the top. That takes you to Desmond.

Click the left side top connection and it will take you to a green screen that is the "hatch computer". Yes, it's beeping. Use your DVD remote to enter the numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) and hit enter. This takes you to a new connection which is the "numbers" connections. The left side top connection contains an Easter Egg about the Valenzetti Equation written by Gary Troup.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

What if the island is a nexus between two planetary dimensions and our 815 plane comes from our reality... but swapped places with a flight 815 in the other dimension that crashed in a locatable area?

Occam's razor, anyone? There is a perfectly plausible and extremely easy way that the "second" plane could have been faked. Why invoke interdimensional rifts? Also, while this might "explain" the 2nd flight 815, it explains literally nothing else we've seen on the show. The Island, the Others, Dharma, Hanso, the submarine, the foot of the giant idol, the Black Rock, Rousseau's presence on the island, Ol' Smokey, etc., etc., etc.

Regards,

Joe

 

[B5_Obsessed]

As for the Valenzetti Equation: Abrams seems to have invented both Valenzetti and his equation, so it is hardly surprising that both would be referenced in two Abrams shows.

Only with the assumption that JJ wishes to link distinct and separate projects together into some kind of larger "universe".

The connection to Lost does seem to be "canon" since Gary Troup, the fictional novelist who died when flight 815 went down (he's the guy we see sucked into the engine on the beach) is listed as the author of a non-fiction book on the Valenezetti equation. He also supposedly mentions the equation in the introduction to his posthumously published novel, Bad Twin, which Sawyer reads in manuscript. (And whose last few pages Jack burns, apparently to punish Sawyer, but perhaps to keep anyone else from learning a secret Troup reveals.) Although a work of fiction, Bad Twin references a number of "real-life" entities from the Lost universe, including the Widmore family, Alvo Hanso and Oceanic air. (The private eye hero of the book even eats at Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack while in Los Angeles.)

Regards,

Joe

I think we're forgetting the specific meaning of canon with regard to the show. I would think that until somebdy brings up the equation on camera or until it's officially postulated by Abrams, Lindeloff or Cuse, it's still just an unofficial hypothesis or part of last year's Internet hype campaign.

Consider this: If the Valenzetti Equation is the key to the reason Dharma was on the island, would it make sense to reveal this information to fans 2 to 4 years early?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Only with the assumption that JJ wishes to link distinct and separate projects together into some kind of larger "universe".

Right. Because it isn't like an artist might ever throw in a reference to one of his work in a completely unrelated one just for fun, or as an in-joke for fans of both. That's certainly never happened in the history art, literature, or the dramatic arts.

(Who was the guy on one of JMS's cartoons who was born on "Babylon 5"?)

I think we're forgetting the specific meaning of canon with regard to the show. I would think that until somebdy brings up the equation on camera or until it's officially postulated by Abrams, Lindeloff or Cuse, it's still just an unofficial hypothesis or part of last year's Internet hype campaign.

I wasn't aware of this rather interesting definition of "canon". So the content of the DVDs which Abrams and company either wrote or approved doesn't count? And the part of the "intenet hype campaign" that they wrote and/or approved in advance doesn't count? Well, isn't that a real convenient way to change your mind about something you've told the fans and not be called on it.

Regards,

Joe