Wednesday, May 10. 2006
Episode: ? [SPOILERS]
OK, forget what I said last time about that being the most important episode so far. This one far surpasses it. Major spoilage ahead, so if you've not seen it, be prepared!
Locke and Eko, or "When Opposites Attract"
The Locke and Eko contrast is one that's been played out since Eko was introduced. Eko is the priest, the spiritual one, the believer in a higher power. Locke is also a believer, but moreso in human nature, fate, and
self-destiny.
Eko has a dream, where first Ana Lucia, then his brother tell him he "must help John" to "find the question mark." Being the believer he is, he runs to the hatch just in time to find the carnage within.
He takes John into the jungle to track the missing Henry Gale, but his real intention is to take John to find the ?.
After some initial arguments and a harsh head-bashing, John fesses up and shows Eko his map rendering. It's then they realize where they have ended up.
The crashed twin-engine. They camp there, and this time its John who has the dream. In his dream, though, he is Eko, and is led to the top of the bluff where the plane had originally crashed. (Nice recall for us about the "island demanding its sacrifice" too!)
Eko climbs the bluff, and looks down to see a giant "?" burned into the ground by salted earth (salt of the earth?) with the plane covering the . of the ?.
They move the plane and open the new hatch.
The Pearl Station
Oh boy, more new hatcheses! The Pearl hatch is apparently a one-room hole filled with a series of TV monitors, what looked like 3 per side of the 8 sided room.
Interesting to note: The monitors appeared to be of a much earlier vintage than the tech in the 'Swan' hatch, black and white, "round" tube, probably late 50's early 60's? Yet there was a early-mid 80's vintage Betamax deck (I think it was, the tape looked squarer than VHS) and another Apple II with the same two drives as in the swan hatch.
And a printer, where what looked like timestamps of when the numbers were entered. I will have to go back and see if those were proper UNIX timestamps or not.
They watch the above-mentioned tape, the orientation video for the "Pearl" hatch. Basically every 3 weeks a new pair of observers enter this hatch, and they record everything they find interesting in your standard comp notebooks, which when complete, go somewhere in the pneumatic tube mail system (also 40s/50s/60s vintage...)
Through the tape and the monitors, its discovered that they've been monitored all this time in the other hatch. And that the possibility the numbers and the timer is nothing more than the 'Skinner box' that's been theorized all along.
This sends Locke into a fit, as he's depended on the timer to give his existence meaning. And now that is meaningless.
The Drowned Girl
Flashback time! This time we go back into Eko's recent past, just before he gets on the plane actually.
He's asked by the monsignor to being investigating a so-called miracle -- the drowning and subsequent resurrection of a girl named Charlotte (oblique reference to Charlotte's Web perhaps? A tale about the inevitability of change and death?)
He doesn't believe it, however. His faith is being tested (here as well as on the island!) The girl's father, who claims to be a psychic, convinces him that she simply recovered from a bad case of hypothermia, and that the ME was a quack.
Flash forward to the airport, as he's getting ready to get on the plane. Charlotte finds him at the airport, to deliver a message from Yemi(?) his brother. That he's made a great priest. And then she goes. I think that cemented his faith.
The Theoretical
OK, now for the part where we guess what's going on!
So tonight we've pretty much been shown that the island is indeed one large observation / experiment. And it's heavily implied that the timer/numbers/computer bit is just one of the experiments, to give the people in that particular hatch a task "they think is important."
Yikes. So that part at least may be true, whether thats just a smaller part of a bigger picture is yet to be seen. I hope that's not all it is, or I'll be suffering the same bit of despair that Locke did.
Some observations I will have to go back and make:
Back in the hatch, suddenly the infighting about the guns and drugs (what, no money?!) comes to a halt as the injured Michael explains how Gale escaped after shooting them!
Sawyer gives up the location of the weapons cache in order to get Libby some morphine. They run into Hurley, who has to be told, and he goes to her side. At which time she wakes up, sputters, "Michael" then dies. Of course they don't get it, but Michael does.
And we exit with Michael looking particularly evil or remorseful, I'm not sure which, leaning up against the gunsafe wall.
The Big Questions (?) of the Week:
Technorati Tags: lost, ?, question, locke, eko, pearl, swan, dharma, hanso, hatch
The Locke and Eko contrast is one that's been played out since Eko was introduced. Eko is the priest, the spiritual one, the believer in a higher power. Locke is also a believer, but moreso in human nature, fate, and
self-destiny.
Eko has a dream, where first Ana Lucia, then his brother tell him he "must help John" to "find the question mark." Being the believer he is, he runs to the hatch just in time to find the carnage within.
He takes John into the jungle to track the missing Henry Gale, but his real intention is to take John to find the ?.
After some initial arguments and a harsh head-bashing, John fesses up and shows Eko his map rendering. It's then they realize where they have ended up.
The crashed twin-engine. They camp there, and this time its John who has the dream. In his dream, though, he is Eko, and is led to the top of the bluff where the plane had originally crashed. (Nice recall for us about the "island demanding its sacrifice" too!)
Eko climbs the bluff, and looks down to see a giant "?" burned into the ground by salted earth (salt of the earth?) with the plane covering the . of the ?.
They move the plane and open the new hatch.
The Pearl Station
Oh boy, more new hatcheses! The Pearl hatch is apparently a one-room hole filled with a series of TV monitors, what looked like 3 per side of the 8 sided room.
Interesting to note: The monitors appeared to be of a much earlier vintage than the tech in the 'Swan' hatch, black and white, "round" tube, probably late 50's early 60's? Yet there was a early-mid 80's vintage Betamax deck (I think it was, the tape looked squarer than VHS) and another Apple II with the same two drives as in the swan hatch.
And a printer, where what looked like timestamps of when the numbers were entered. I will have to go back and see if those were proper UNIX timestamps or not.
They watch the above-mentioned tape, the orientation video for the "Pearl" hatch. Basically every 3 weeks a new pair of observers enter this hatch, and they record everything they find interesting in your standard comp notebooks, which when complete, go somewhere in the pneumatic tube mail system (also 40s/50s/60s vintage...)
Through the tape and the monitors, its discovered that they've been monitored all this time in the other hatch. And that the possibility the numbers and the timer is nothing more than the 'Skinner box' that's been theorized all along.
This sends Locke into a fit, as he's depended on the timer to give his existence meaning. And now that is meaningless.
The Drowned Girl
Flashback time! This time we go back into Eko's recent past, just before he gets on the plane actually.
He's asked by the monsignor to being investigating a so-called miracle -- the drowning and subsequent resurrection of a girl named Charlotte (oblique reference to Charlotte's Web perhaps? A tale about the inevitability of change and death?)
He doesn't believe it, however. His faith is being tested (here as well as on the island!) The girl's father, who claims to be a psychic, convinces him that she simply recovered from a bad case of hypothermia, and that the ME was a quack.
Flash forward to the airport, as he's getting ready to get on the plane. Charlotte finds him at the airport, to deliver a message from Yemi(?) his brother. That he's made a great priest. And then she goes. I think that cemented his faith.
The Theoretical
OK, now for the part where we guess what's going on!
So tonight we've pretty much been shown that the island is indeed one large observation / experiment. And it's heavily implied that the timer/numbers/computer bit is just one of the experiments, to give the people in that particular hatch a task "they think is important."
Yikes. So that part at least may be true, whether thats just a smaller part of a bigger picture is yet to be seen. I hope that's not all it is, or I'll be suffering the same bit of despair that Locke did.
Some observations I will have to go back and make:
- The timestamps on the log, are they proper timestamps? or just made up junk.
- In the orientation video, WHAT exactly is on the monitors behind Dr. WhatsHisName? ALL of them seemed to be working, but I couldn't catch anything inparticular.
- Conveniently, sections of this tape were semi-erased or degraded to the point you couldn't hear the audio. Especially the part about what happens when your three weeks in the hole is up.
Back in the hatch, suddenly the infighting about the guns and drugs (what, no money?!) comes to a halt as the injured Michael explains how Gale escaped after shooting them!
Sawyer gives up the location of the weapons cache in order to get Libby some morphine. They run into Hurley, who has to be told, and he goes to her side. At which time she wakes up, sputters, "Michael" then dies. Of course they don't get it, but Michael does.
And we exit with Michael looking particularly evil or remorseful, I'm not sure which, leaning up against the gunsafe wall.
The Big Questions (?) of the Week:
- Why was there nobody in this hatch observing? Desmond was down there in the Swan hatch doing the timer thing (sans partner I might add) so was anyone watching him? Has anyone been watching our castaways?
- Where does the pneumatic mail tube go? And who did Locke just send his map drawing to?
- Why are the other hatches seemingly offline? The Swan hatch appeared to be the only one "online." Is this an indication that the "Others" are experimentees that rebelled and took over? Or what?
- What is in the other hatches?
- Who's side is Michael on? His own or the Others'? He's obviously no longer on "the team."
Technorati Tags: lost, ?, question, locke, eko, pearl, swan, dharma, hanso, hatch
Posted by PlanetLOST
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