Lost With Lost

Are you lost with Lost? Well me too in some ways. But after keeping silent on this blog for the most part for weeks (especially with this two-week hiatus ending tonight), it's time for me to begin to retrace some steps and try to make sense out of what's going on. I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of this season. The only thing fantasy/science-fiction that I've ever liked was The Phantom Tollbooth and that was many years ago. But I think I'm starting to get the show. And a good thing to, because I checked on Wikipedia and there are only 3 weeks left (including tonight). Tonight's episode is Daniel-centric, next week's "Follow The Leader" is Richard-centric (can't wait for that), and the two episode finale is called "The Incident". So with just those episodes and next season left, it's time to start getting some answers. I think I may have a few. No money back if these predictions are wrong, but here it goes...

Daniel Faraday's famous line of "whatever happened, happened" actually may be truer than any of us realize. I found it interesting that the episode titled "Whatever Happened, Happened" was all about the characters decision to rescue young Ben Linus. But in some ways, this just confirmed what I already thought: whatever happened, already happened, and no matter what occurs, it will continue to happen. Meaning Ben Linus would have never died. But it doesn't mean that what's occurring now on the show occurred exactly like it did before. But the same players were always part of it and it effects what happens in the future. But it happened and it can't be changed.

Confused yet? Me too. So way back in 2004, in the episode called "Exposé", Ben makes a list of people for Michael to abduct: Jack, Kate and Sawyer (as well as Hurley to deliver the message). So why those three? The reasoning given was that the Others needed Jack to do Ben's surgery and Kate and Sawyer were taken to convince Jack to do the surgery. But how did Ben know about the love triangle with Jack/Kate/Sawyer? How did he know that Hurley would be the best person to deliver the message? Because he already met them in his youth. He knew about this love triangle. He know exactly how to play them--and everyone else for that matter--to get what he wanted.

I wasn't sure if this was correct until I saw the previews for tonight's episode "The Variable". Daniel is back. The last time we had an episode named quite like this, it was "The Constant". A constant function is the function that maps all arguments to one same value. A variable is a function whose value and whose associated value may be changed. "Vary" doesn't mean change, but rather, dependence on the values of other variables in the expression in which the variable occurs, or dependence of the value of the expression on that of the variable (ie- E = m c² where E and m are variables and related, and c is a constant and fixed). So what HAS to happen? Well two things that have to happen are Charlotte and Miles have to leave the island before the purge (other things too, but let's dwell on these two). Why? Because they're still alive. How/why/by what means they leave may change, but they need to leave. This keeps up the order of the island/universe. And why will the leave? Well Charlotte already told us: because Daniel Faraday will tell them to leave. Miles and his mother weren't abandoned by his father, Pierre Chang, they were saved.

Yet try as they may, they won't be able to change certain things: The Incident happened before--we know about this from the DHARMA video with Marvin Candle AKA Pierre Chang--and seeing the last episode title, it will happen again (and remember the line in the Orientation video: ''Not long after the experiments began, however, there was...an 'incident'...and since that time, the following protocol has been observed...''). Jack and Michael couldn't kill themselves and Locke couldn't be killed because that would have upset the balance of things. Whatever happened, happened. But the details of how/why/when are variable. Some things can put a wrench into the storyline. Ben was not supposed to turn the wheel; Locke was. And because of that, some people are not where they're supposed to be. No matter how hard Desmond tried, Charlie was going to die, but he could pick some of the variables of the situation and Charlie went out a hero. That's why I also believe we'll see Desmond back on the island. He might not have come back on the plane as Eloise Hawking said he was supposed to, but I'm pretty sure his boat is going to run up ashore at some point before we're all said and done. And if Faraday (or anyone else) tries to change too much, he'll have to be put down to preserve the homeostasis (which, according to this picture, seems to have gone all the way back to ancient Egyptian times). 

Miles and Hurley had this debate in "Whatever Happened, Happened". Miles explains to him that they are in their present while everyone else are in their past. Hurley wonders why a future Ben couldn't remember that Sayid, the guy who tortured him in the future is the same guy who shot him in his past. Miles has no answer. And many people take this to be that they don't know the answer. But they answer it later on in the episode: the reason Ben doesn't remember Sayid shot him is that Richard Alpert erases his memory of everything that happened before he was shot. 

I have no clue whether I am right, I could be totally wrong and react like Lapides or Miles after being asked "what lies in the shadow of the statue?" (I think it's a person, or a part of a person...we'll see, though). But I'm hoping I'm more like Milo from The Phantom Tollbooth who found a note in place of his tollbooth at the end which read "FOR MILO, WHO NOW KNOWS THE WAY". Let's hoping I now know the way.

 

Other things:

-These DHARMA ads are amazing!

 

Ausiello/Watch With Kristen tidbits previously (I believe) unposted:

-Matthew Perry is not coming to Lost

-Question: Do you have any snippet to share with us about Lost's season finale? --Megan
Ausiello: We will come to learn that the dude who may or may not be playing Jacob bore witness to pivotal events in the pre-island lives of Locke, Sayid, and Sawyer.

-Question: Will we ever find out what happened to Rose and Bernard on Lost? --Lucas
Ausiello: I'm hearing we will.

-Question: This two-week Lost hiatus is killing me! More scoopage before the final episodes, please! --Brad
Ausiello: The major-ish Lost death is coming up soooooon. Also, it's less ish and more major than I first thought.

-Anna in Cardiff, England: Please, any hints for this week's episode of Lost? Can I expect something between Sawyer and Kate?
WWK: All we can say is that after you see the finale, you'll understand why season five of Lost has not handed you Sawyer and Kate on a plate.

-Eliot and Sandra: Are there any spoilers for the two-part season ender for Lost? We just can't wait! Thanks.
WWK: Sayid's wife Nadia is back in the finale. Yes, technically she's his tragically murdered wife, but still: whee! We'll also be meeting young Kate, young Tom (Mr. Friendly Kate's friend from Iowa), young Juliet, young Rachel (Juliet's sister) and young Sawyer, and several of those sightings happen because a pivotal figure in the Island mythology wants to check in on our heroes in their youth, à la Richard Alpert's test visit ("Which of these are yours?") to John Locke.

 

Other articles worth reading:

Doc Jensen: Preview of "Whatever Happened, Happened", recap of "Whatever Happened, Happened", recap of "Dead is Dead", preview of "Some Like It Hoth", recap of "Some Like It Hoth", one preview of "The Variable", and the other preview of "The Variable"

Some other great recaps: Watch With Kristen on "Dead is Dead", Watch With Kristen on "Some Like It Hoth", The Ack Attack!, and Hitfix