Two Percent Nation

LOST: can the past be changed?

I was feeling pretty down on Lost after last week's episode "The Variable". Faraday's chaotic return and ultimate death seemed like a monkeywrench in what was otherwise a continuous string of powerful episodes that seemed headed in one direction. I had thought that the Oceanic 6 were coming back with Locke to "save the Island". We don't know yet what the Island needs saving from. Maybe it's the "war" that's been referenced by Widmore and others. Regardless, it seems that the remainder of the season will instead be spent addressing the issue that Faraday brought to the fore last week: can the past in fact be changed?

The producers have said that Faraday is really dead and not coming back. That leaves Jack to take up the mantle of change-agent and carry out Faraday's plan to detonate the bomb and prevent "the incident" from happening. I'm still not entirely clear why changing this course of events is important. That would seem to serve the purpose of sending the Oceanic 6 back to their rightful place in time and ensuring that their flight never crashes. But I don't see how that necessarily saves the Island. Maybe we'll come back to that in Season 6.

I'm looking forward to the return of Locke in this week's episode. Is he the eponymous "Leader" from the episode title? We'll soon find out.

LOST thoughts: between episodes 511 & 512

Highlights from the April 6, 2009 edition of the Official LOST Podcast

This week's podcast with the Executive Producers was fairly light on insights. Here are the highlights:

What to expect in Epsiode 512 (Wednesday, April 8, 2009)

• An appearance by Desmond
• A continuation of the Locke/Ben story (Epsiode 511 ended with Ben waking up to find Locke alive and sitting by his bed)

Other notes

• Why was Ben bloody and beaten when he got on the Ajira Airways flight back to the island?
  • The producers implied that it has something to do with Penny & Desmond. In Episode 506 Ben called Jack from a payphone at the marina - theoretically the same marina where Penny & Desmond's boat was docked.  Was Ben bloody from killing Penny as part of his war with Charles Widmore, her father? He threatened to do exactly that in episode 409.
• In episode 511 Miles & Hurley have an in-depth conversation about time travel. This scene was not created by the writers in reaction to any audience feedback about how confusing the concept is on the show but rather was written in advance of the season premiere airing in anticipation of the confusion.

LOST thoughts: pre-Episode 5.11

Tonight's Episode: - The title is -"Whatever Happened, Happened" and will primaily be a Kate episode Questions to think about after the last episode: -Is 12-yr-old Ben really dead? The executive producers have implied that he is likely not dead as a result of being shot by Sayid given the premise of Faraday's time travel theory that the past can't be changed. -Is Alana the bounty hunter really who she says she is? The executive proiducers have implied that she is not exactly who she says she is. My theory is that she was hired by Ben or to make sure Sayid was on the Ajira flight and came back to the island. Things we can expect to learn/see later this season: The four-toed statue -We will see more of it by end of season including enough of it to know what it is a statue of. Why did Ben kill Locke? -Ben himself will explain this in one of the upcoming episodes. Why did Miles want $3.2 million from Ben (last season)? -Miles himself will answer this before the end of the season. Other tidbits: The book The Stand is a major influence on the writers -Draw your own conclusions if you've read this book. *Note: most of this information comes from The Official LOST Podcast Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry