Thursday, May 25. 2006
Live Together, Die Alone [SPOILERS]
Much spoilage to follow...
Well, I've got that same feeling I had at the end of last season.
That, "what? WHAT?" feeling. Only this time we learned a lot more
first, before they toss out several tidbits that will open up next
season for a lot of changes and new developments. Kind of like the
last season.
Technorati Tags: lost, live together die alone, tv, reviews, hanso, widmore, others, swan, pearl, hatch, locke, sawyer, jack, kate, finale, desmond, electromagnetism, oceanic 815
Well, I've got that same feeling I had at the end of last season.
That, "what? WHAT?" feeling. Only this time we learned a lot more
first, before they toss out several tidbits that will open up next
season for a lot of changes and new developments. Kind of like the
last season.
Technorati Tags: lost, live together die alone, tv, reviews, hanso, widmore, others, swan, pearl, hatch, locke, sawyer, jack, kate, finale, desmond, electromagnetism, oceanic 815
Sure Thing, Brother.
Well the rumors were indeed true, Desmond returns on the sailboat. And what a bizarre twist the acquisition of said dinghy was, no? In this section I'll run down Desmond's flashback, even though it was intertwined with things throughout the episode.
The flashback was the past tale of Desmond Hume (which coincidentally was the last name of both Scottish philosopher David and explorer David...) He's just been released from military prison in England, and is met by his girlfriend Penelope's father, the infamous Charles Widmore (in another "small world" twist.) Widmore reveals that he's intercepted all of Desmond's letters to Penelope, and attempts to pay him off to leave her alone.
He calls Desmond a coward, which will be the theme of this flashback....
We then flash forward a few years, to an airport in the US, where he tries to buy coffee, but doesn't have any greenbacks. Who should save the day, but our own Libby. He asks if she's got another 42,000 of those, and proceeds to explain that he wants to enter Widmore's yacht race (presumably to stick it to him) and needs a boat.
She out of the blue offers him her recently deceased father's boat, the Elizabeth. No strings (well not at that time anyway.) Kind of funny how that boat seems to be attached to the deaths of that family.
Also of note is the name of her dead father. David. (see above.) Connect the dots here... She's in the looney bin with Hurley, who happens to be seeing a hallucination named Dave. Coincidence? Maybe, but we know how coincidences work around these parts.
So he's in the race, gets caught in a storm, and winds up beached on the island. He's taken into the hatch by the previous resident, a Kelvin Inman.
Kelvin at this point is where Desmond was where we first saw him, right down to the "snowman" question. Fed up with life in the hatch, but ready to instruct Desmond in all the ways of things. I think this offers up a bit of insight into why we do some of the things we do as humans. Simply, that's the way we were taught to do them. He accepts pretty much everything Inman tells him. He learns about the button, the hatch, the "incident", and the vaccine.
The "incident" is not really explained, other than to say that the hatch's inner workings are building up an EM charge, and pushing the button at a regular interval safely discharges it.
A couple of key points we see during the Inman/Desmond days: Firstly, we see that the map on the door was created by Inman's partner, Rosinsky(sp?). It also looks like the map was created "blind", that is they weren't using black lights when they were adding to it. Curious, isn't it? Secondly, we see both of them underneath the floor of the computer room, where Inman has a key that will activate the self destruct mechanism for the hatch.
Until one day he noticed Inman going outside with a tear in his hazard suit, so he follows him outside, where Inman removes his mask. Desmond follows him across the lava floes to where his boat has been kept, and repaired by Inman. Apparently Inman thinks Des is a coward too.. "I didn't think you'd have the stones to follow me."
Desmond and Inman struggle over what other lies have been told, and in a sort of Cain and Able moment, dashes Inman's head on the rocks.
He heads back to the hatch, but not in time to push the button. The heiroglyphs appear, and the electromagnet kicks in, pulling everything toward it. He finally enters the code, but not in time....
At one point (before he leaves for the race) we find Desmond at the stadium where he met Jack, and Penelope catches up to him. "Given enough money and time" she says, you can find anybody....
Of other interest is the book that Desmond has clung to all this time. Dickens' last novel, "Our Mutual Friend", which is a story about, well... read the summary here. It looks like the book shares some similar elements....
In this book Penelope has left a note saying she will "always wait for him" and will "love him forever." Touching, but we'll see what this means later, and why the book is still there.
It also raises a question about the so-called "sickness" and the vaccine. Was/is it just a mind-game to keep the crew inside the Swan hatch and scared to go outside?
The Tale of Sir Michael
So our five heroes trudge off into the jungle across the island towards the others' camp. Saied, Sun, and Jin have boarded the sailboat on a scouting mission, where Saied will signal (with a pillar of black smoke) when it is clear for them to attack the camp. He arrives at the camp, only to find it deserted.
Saied and crew stumble upon a couple of interesting items which I'm sure will be more relevant next season. One being the hatch at the other's camp. The symbol on the door was simply a box with the 'Dharma' name on it, and behind those doors? A wall of dirt. Was this hatch filled in? Or just never dug out? Argh!
The other, and this one still has me scratching my head, was the foot of a giant stone statue alone the shore. The foot looked to be wearing sandals and had what looked like the bottom of a robe attached to it, and as Saied points out... It had only four toes. And thats all that was said about it. Anybody got any ideas on that one?
Michael, however, has led his party somewhere else. Before they walk into the others' trap, a few important things occur first:
They are "attacked" by a giant bird (was it a vulture?), who apparently was saying Hurley's name. Although I didn't hear it. Michael tries to shoot it, but finds out that Jack has handed him an empty pistol. Whoops!
Then they discover two "others" across the creek. Sawyer shoots one of them, who falls off the bluff face down. Now, is it just me, or was that none other than the good Dr. Candle/Wickman? They didn't roll him over to show his face, but it sure looked like him. (I wonder if there are cut-scenes from this episode....)
They eventually wind up at a giant pile of canisters underneath a large pipe. These canisters are none other than the ones from the Pearl hatch, unopened and complete with notebooks. On top of the pile they find Locke's map. At this point they see Saied's smoke, miles from their location and, rightfully so, realize they've been led into a trap. They are captured by Zeke, Alex, and the "other" others. What's up with the whispery voices here? And the little electro-darts?
They're led to a wooden platform at a dock, which oddly enough has a big sign over it labelled "Pala Ferry." Now what the hell is that about? Does it indicate there is another dock somewhere on the island? Another group?
Kate spills that she knows they're in disguise, to which the real names of "Zeke" (Tom) and "Klugh" (Dee?) are revealed. The tugboat arrives, with none other than the un-Henry, who appears to be, if not in charge, at least near the top of the pecking order. Apparently he's not very happy about the arrangement that has freed him, whatever that's supposed to mean.
He gives Michael the boat, with Walt, and instructs them to head a certain bearing where "they will find rescue." They chug off, to be seen again? Who knows?
One thing of note, he tells Michael, "We're the good guys." Now, thats a bit of foreshadowing if I've ever seen it. If they're the "good guys", then who pray-tell are the "bad guys?" I think we'll be seeing more on that next season.
The others send Hurley back to tell the rest of them not to come looking for the remaining three, who are hooded and carted off to who-knows-where....
The Swan Song
Meanwhile, back in the hatch, and at the camp... (I know, I know)
Locke attempts to remove Ecko from the computer station, to which Ecko pops him in the face with his Jesus stick, locks him out, and goes back to work.
Charlie stumbles upon Locke out in the jungle, crying like a little girl. (Is the Locke finally broken?) He tells Locke about the arrival of Desmond.
Locke gets Desmond to help him take the hatch from Ecko by force, which they do. Desmond fritzes the electronics to get the doors to close (which he learned from Inman when they were writing the map.) Curiously, neither seems to care about the map! I figured there'd be a "oh, by the way, did you draw this? What is it?" No, nothing!
Ecko is determined to take back the hatch, so he recruits Charlie to help. Charlie spills it about the dynamite, and they take it down to try to blow the doors. They set it off, but it doesn't work.
Locke tells Desmond about the Pearl hatch, and how the Swan is nothing but a joke. Desmond knows better, and seems to think the Pearl is in fact the psych experiment. Locke throws him the printouts from the Pearl, where we learn that the day Desmond failed to "hit the button" was the same day the plane crashed, and that the magetic disturbance must have been the cause.
The timer runs out. All hell breaks loose. Desmond realizes whats happening, opens the blast door and rushes to find his book, where he's stashed the self-destruct key. Ecko enters the computer room, where an obviously shocked Locke admits, "I was wrong."
Charlie tries to get Ecko out, while Desmond goes into the floor to set off the self destruct, in a last act to finally disprove to everyone that he is, in fact, not a coward after all.
Yikes! The entire island starts to glow a strange purply-white, and a deafening sound eminates from below. The ground rumbles as the Swan apparently goes up in a violent explosion, sending the 'quarantine' hatch door flying toward the beach residents. (Almost thought Bernard was going to bite it there, didn't you!?)
Charlie, at least, has made it out, and it looks like he and Claire are back in good graces.
The Big Lead In
So after all of that, we are suddenly shown something completely different. Two Russian guys in what looks like another hatch?! In the arctic or someplace else cold?! They are monitoring EM disturbances, and the big boom on the island shows up on their screen. It's something they're apparently looking for. Is this another hatch? On the other side of the world?! Wow!
No.
They decide that this one is for real, and proceed to make a phone call. To none other than Ms. Penelope Widmore, who "given enough time and money" has been searching for her lost Desmond. She never married and has kept the candle (hah!Double Wow!
The Big Answers
So it would seem that the "Chapter of the Swan Hatch" is over. That's what we should call season two, the "Swan Season." It started with our first glimpse into it, and ends with its destruction.
Hopefully season three will be just as strange and engaging.
Well the rumors were indeed true, Desmond returns on the sailboat. And what a bizarre twist the acquisition of said dinghy was, no? In this section I'll run down Desmond's flashback, even though it was intertwined with things throughout the episode.
The flashback was the past tale of Desmond Hume (which coincidentally was the last name of both Scottish philosopher David and explorer David...) He's just been released from military prison in England, and is met by his girlfriend Penelope's father, the infamous Charles Widmore (in another "small world" twist.) Widmore reveals that he's intercepted all of Desmond's letters to Penelope, and attempts to pay him off to leave her alone.
He calls Desmond a coward, which will be the theme of this flashback....
We then flash forward a few years, to an airport in the US, where he tries to buy coffee, but doesn't have any greenbacks. Who should save the day, but our own Libby. He asks if she's got another 42,000 of those, and proceeds to explain that he wants to enter Widmore's yacht race (presumably to stick it to him) and needs a boat.
She out of the blue offers him her recently deceased father's boat, the Elizabeth. No strings (well not at that time anyway.) Kind of funny how that boat seems to be attached to the deaths of that family.
Also of note is the name of her dead father. David. (see above.) Connect the dots here... She's in the looney bin with Hurley, who happens to be seeing a hallucination named Dave. Coincidence? Maybe, but we know how coincidences work around these parts.
So he's in the race, gets caught in a storm, and winds up beached on the island. He's taken into the hatch by the previous resident, a Kelvin Inman.
Kelvin at this point is where Desmond was where we first saw him, right down to the "snowman" question. Fed up with life in the hatch, but ready to instruct Desmond in all the ways of things. I think this offers up a bit of insight into why we do some of the things we do as humans. Simply, that's the way we were taught to do them. He accepts pretty much everything Inman tells him. He learns about the button, the hatch, the "incident", and the vaccine.
The "incident" is not really explained, other than to say that the hatch's inner workings are building up an EM charge, and pushing the button at a regular interval safely discharges it.
A couple of key points we see during the Inman/Desmond days: Firstly, we see that the map on the door was created by Inman's partner, Rosinsky(sp?). It also looks like the map was created "blind", that is they weren't using black lights when they were adding to it. Curious, isn't it? Secondly, we see both of them underneath the floor of the computer room, where Inman has a key that will activate the self destruct mechanism for the hatch.
Until one day he noticed Inman going outside with a tear in his hazard suit, so he follows him outside, where Inman removes his mask. Desmond follows him across the lava floes to where his boat has been kept, and repaired by Inman. Apparently Inman thinks Des is a coward too.. "I didn't think you'd have the stones to follow me."
Desmond and Inman struggle over what other lies have been told, and in a sort of Cain and Able moment, dashes Inman's head on the rocks.
He heads back to the hatch, but not in time to push the button. The heiroglyphs appear, and the electromagnet kicks in, pulling everything toward it. He finally enters the code, but not in time....
At one point (before he leaves for the race) we find Desmond at the stadium where he met Jack, and Penelope catches up to him. "Given enough money and time" she says, you can find anybody....
Of other interest is the book that Desmond has clung to all this time. Dickens' last novel, "Our Mutual Friend", which is a story about, well... read the summary here. It looks like the book shares some similar elements....
In this book Penelope has left a note saying she will "always wait for him" and will "love him forever." Touching, but we'll see what this means later, and why the book is still there.
It also raises a question about the so-called "sickness" and the vaccine. Was/is it just a mind-game to keep the crew inside the Swan hatch and scared to go outside?
The Tale of Sir Michael
So our five heroes trudge off into the jungle across the island towards the others' camp. Saied, Sun, and Jin have boarded the sailboat on a scouting mission, where Saied will signal (with a pillar of black smoke) when it is clear for them to attack the camp. He arrives at the camp, only to find it deserted.
Saied and crew stumble upon a couple of interesting items which I'm sure will be more relevant next season. One being the hatch at the other's camp. The symbol on the door was simply a box with the 'Dharma' name on it, and behind those doors? A wall of dirt. Was this hatch filled in? Or just never dug out? Argh!
The other, and this one still has me scratching my head, was the foot of a giant stone statue alone the shore. The foot looked to be wearing sandals and had what looked like the bottom of a robe attached to it, and as Saied points out... It had only four toes. And thats all that was said about it. Anybody got any ideas on that one?
Michael, however, has led his party somewhere else. Before they walk into the others' trap, a few important things occur first:
They are "attacked" by a giant bird (was it a vulture?), who apparently was saying Hurley's name. Although I didn't hear it. Michael tries to shoot it, but finds out that Jack has handed him an empty pistol. Whoops!
Then they discover two "others" across the creek. Sawyer shoots one of them, who falls off the bluff face down. Now, is it just me, or was that none other than the good Dr. Candle/Wickman? They didn't roll him over to show his face, but it sure looked like him. (I wonder if there are cut-scenes from this episode....)
They eventually wind up at a giant pile of canisters underneath a large pipe. These canisters are none other than the ones from the Pearl hatch, unopened and complete with notebooks. On top of the pile they find Locke's map. At this point they see Saied's smoke, miles from their location and, rightfully so, realize they've been led into a trap. They are captured by Zeke, Alex, and the "other" others. What's up with the whispery voices here? And the little electro-darts?
They're led to a wooden platform at a dock, which oddly enough has a big sign over it labelled "Pala Ferry." Now what the hell is that about? Does it indicate there is another dock somewhere on the island? Another group?
Kate spills that she knows they're in disguise, to which the real names of "Zeke" (Tom) and "Klugh" (Dee?) are revealed. The tugboat arrives, with none other than the un-Henry, who appears to be, if not in charge, at least near the top of the pecking order. Apparently he's not very happy about the arrangement that has freed him, whatever that's supposed to mean.
He gives Michael the boat, with Walt, and instructs them to head a certain bearing where "they will find rescue." They chug off, to be seen again? Who knows?
One thing of note, he tells Michael, "We're the good guys." Now, thats a bit of foreshadowing if I've ever seen it. If they're the "good guys", then who pray-tell are the "bad guys?" I think we'll be seeing more on that next season.
The others send Hurley back to tell the rest of them not to come looking for the remaining three, who are hooded and carted off to who-knows-where....
The Swan Song
Meanwhile, back in the hatch, and at the camp... (I know, I know)
Locke attempts to remove Ecko from the computer station, to which Ecko pops him in the face with his Jesus stick, locks him out, and goes back to work.
Charlie stumbles upon Locke out in the jungle, crying like a little girl. (Is the Locke finally broken?) He tells Locke about the arrival of Desmond.
Locke gets Desmond to help him take the hatch from Ecko by force, which they do. Desmond fritzes the electronics to get the doors to close (which he learned from Inman when they were writing the map.) Curiously, neither seems to care about the map! I figured there'd be a "oh, by the way, did you draw this? What is it?" No, nothing!
Ecko is determined to take back the hatch, so he recruits Charlie to help. Charlie spills it about the dynamite, and they take it down to try to blow the doors. They set it off, but it doesn't work.
Locke tells Desmond about the Pearl hatch, and how the Swan is nothing but a joke. Desmond knows better, and seems to think the Pearl is in fact the psych experiment. Locke throws him the printouts from the Pearl, where we learn that the day Desmond failed to "hit the button" was the same day the plane crashed, and that the magetic disturbance must have been the cause.
The timer runs out. All hell breaks loose. Desmond realizes whats happening, opens the blast door and rushes to find his book, where he's stashed the self-destruct key. Ecko enters the computer room, where an obviously shocked Locke admits, "I was wrong."
Charlie tries to get Ecko out, while Desmond goes into the floor to set off the self destruct, in a last act to finally disprove to everyone that he is, in fact, not a coward after all.
Yikes! The entire island starts to glow a strange purply-white, and a deafening sound eminates from below. The ground rumbles as the Swan apparently goes up in a violent explosion, sending the 'quarantine' hatch door flying toward the beach residents. (Almost thought Bernard was going to bite it there, didn't you!?)
Charlie, at least, has made it out, and it looks like he and Claire are back in good graces.
The Big Lead In
So after all of that, we are suddenly shown something completely different. Two Russian guys in what looks like another hatch?! In the arctic or someplace else cold?! They are monitoring EM disturbances, and the big boom on the island shows up on their screen. It's something they're apparently looking for. Is this another hatch? On the other side of the world?! Wow!
No.
They decide that this one is for real, and proceed to make a phone call. To none other than Ms. Penelope Widmore, who "given enough time and money" has been searching for her lost Desmond. She never married and has kept the candle (hah!Double Wow!
The Big Answers
So it would seem that the "Chapter of the Swan Hatch" is over. That's what we should call season two, the "Swan Season." It started with our first glimpse into it, and ends with its destruction.
- We learn that it was most definitely not a "skinner box" experiment, that the danger was very real.
- We know why the plane crashed.
- Did we gain any insight into "the others"? I don't really think so, other than to say they're definitely not what they seem. Neither is Henry.
- The hatch in the others' camp is a dead end.
- Locke was wrong. What this means for him personally (if he's still alive) is unclear.
- Michael and Walt were reunited.
- What exactly became of the hatch, and of Ecko, Locke, and Desmond? If the blast doors came down for the self destruct its possible they're still alive, at least some of them.
- What will happen with Michael and Walt? Are they gone?
- *What* was the "giant foot" about? That has to be either a big clue-in for next season or a big red herring.
- Who is watching the Pearl hatch?
- Who are the real "bad guys" if Henry, Tom, et al are the "good guys?"
- Who was Rosinsky? Why did he start the map? Why did he blow his head off? Did he indeed do it himself at all? What more can the map bring us, if it survived at all?
- Penelope Widmore. What was she looking for? How did she know what to look for? Will she somehow find the island? Does her father know?
- What exactly did Desmond do to land himself in prison? Is it relevant?
- What will happen to Jack, Kate, and Sawyer?
- Was the bird calling Hurley's name? Why?
- What was so important they had to take Walt in the first place?
Hopefully season three will be just as strange and engaging.
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