Thursday, April 12, 2007

Thoughts on One of Us...

* The Others knew about Sawyer's murder of Frank Duckett, an act with no witnesses besides the perp and victim. How?

* The trip to the Island is apparently bumpy, even when done by submarine. I'm again thinking wormhole/wrinkle in time...

* Aaron was the first child born on the Island in some time...maybe even the first since Alex.

* Does the Island reproduce by mutating fetuses exposed to its energies? Perhaps only those originally born on the Island can reproduce there. Regular women just reject the mutated fetuses as foreign bodies...

* A poster named lostimio notes that the crash of Oceanic 815 was doubly lucky for Ben, who needed both a spinal surgeon and another pregnant woman for Juliet to study.

* Did Ethan fall in love with Claire? Someone (I wish I could remember who) once raised this intriguing possibility, which last night's episode made me totally recall.

* What does Rachel think has happened to Juliet? Did the Others say she died? This might explain why Ben was so adamant that Juliet not speak with Rachel.

* Was Juliet lying when she said that Claire had been treated with an experimental vaccine to prevent rejection of Aaron in utero? Or did she seize upon that grain of truth as a convenient cover story?

* How crazy is it that creepy Richard Alpert is played by the same guy (i.e., Nestor Carbonell) who cracked me up as Batmanuel on theTick? Talk about range...

* Does Jacob really exist? Ben's references to Him continue to remind me of the Wizard of Oz...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am glad that I came across your blog. The fact that there is so much knowledge among the Others is very disturbing. I really don't know how Mikhail can generate a file on each passenger and how he can access this information. I know for a fact that Oceanic does not have all the personal information on Jack and the rest of the survivors, and if they do HOW??

I wish I knew where this island was and what Ben's motives are.

klf said...

The wormhole theory which I've seen batted around may be true, but would that not mean one of three things:

1) Either Ben isn't as truthful as he illustrates himself to Juliet in this episode (as in Michael & Walt cannot get home)

2) Or Michael & Walt are in for a "bumpy" ride on their return trip through the wormhole/wrinkle aboard that little fishing boat.

3) Or I'm forgetting some important detail.

Anonymous said...

In regards to the "bumpy ride"

Everyone seems to be taking this quite litterally. Keep in mind however that that could easily just have been a false explination as to why they needed to tranquilize Juliet. It could easily just be something that Rom (Or Alpert, I forget who said it exactly) would say instead of "Well, we can't let you see exactly how we go to and from this highly secretive place".

PS. Bigmouth, I posted a comment on your theory about Desmond's "time travelling" experience below if you have any interest in reading it.

Anonymous said...

Two questions/thoughts on Juliet and Ben:
-- What is Juliet's motivation for betraying Jack et al? In my view the most likely answer is that Ben threatened to kill her sister. Evidence against this theory is the collegial tone between the two when discussing the plan, though we only saw one snippet of their conservation.
-- Ben and lying. I just don't buy that he always keeps his word. I think he probably keeps his word some of the time, but given his over-arching sense of purpose (as yet unknown), I'm sure he feels justified breaking his word when it suits that purpose.
I highly doubt everything with Juliet's sister went down as he described it. For instance, I suspect they faked the report showing the sister's cancer had returned.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I love your blog!

My question is how come Rousseau hasn't died since she was pregnant and gave birth on the island?

Bigmouth said...

anonymous: Thanks -- I'm glad you commented! A posted named lostmio mentioned an interesting way the Others might have learned about Sawyer's murder -- perhaps the Australian police solved the crime right after he was placed on Oceanic 815. She's skeptical of the Others' apparent omniscience. I am too -- Ben reminds me a lot of the Wizard of Oz, especially his constant invocations of Jacob. But like you, I can't quite figure how the Others have so much intimate information about our losties at their fingertips.

kalip: Yes, recent events don't bode well for Michael and Walt. But don't forget the heading 325, which Ben gave them and appears on Danielle's map, suggesting it has some significance. Perhaps it's just a way to avoid the Island's tendancy to mess with compass headings, in which case Mike and Walt haven't truly escaped the snowglobe. I'd love for them to return in some future episode and report that the rest of the world is empty of people and things. It's just the Island and nothing else...

harbringer: That's a great point about the sub potentially being a hoax. Could this be the real significance of 325? Maybe the sub is simply a diversion from the true route of entry and exit to the Island. Still, it's important not to forget the Nigerian drug plane's presence on the Island. I confess I'm skeptical of explanations that involve passengers being drugged and dragged halfway around the planet.

anonymous: Great point re Juliet's motive for betraying Jack, though I wonder if her feelings for him will cause her to hesitate when push comes to shove. I also think you're right about Ben's tendency to construe the terms of bargains liberally in his favor. I think you're right, for example, that he was lying about the return of Rachel's cancer. I also fear this creates further reason to doubt that Mike and Walt made it back to civilzation.

anonymous: Thanks! Any guesses about how Rousseau survived would be wildly speculative at this point. But I am working on a theory that the Purge was actually an attempt by Dharma to prevent those born on the Island from reproducing and superseding humanity's dominance of the planet. Maybe Rousseau's immunity is precisely why the Others were so interested in Alex...

Cap It said...

A couple of questions:
- Why would Juliet be 'hoarse' after the trip? is there something in a tranquilizer that would make her hoarse?

- This is OLD season 3 question: What did Ben do to Kate way back at the beginning of the season? Remember when she was taken to his ocean side 'picnic tent' and he told her the next two weeks were going to be unpleasant? The next time Sawyer see's Kate (when she is being put into the cage across from him), her wrists are bloody. When he asks her what they did to her, she's silent.

Anonymous said...

very good point on number 2, cap it. i was under the impression that plan got sidetracked by the escape (and that two weeks or so had not elapsed before kate and sawyer were reunited).
but if they did something to her, i'd bet they treated her in an effort to foster her pregnancy.
-A

Bigmouth said...

cap it: Yes, that was my understanding. I seem to recall Claire being a little hoarse and unsteady when Ethan took her outside of the Staff. On that point, I'm struck by the similarity in Claire and Juliet's shared experience of emerging from the darkness and being blinded by the light. It's very Platonic...

As for what Ben did to Kate, I'm not really sure. Truthfully, I wonder if her reticence was actually a function of her comparatively luxurious treatment. Perhaps Kate kept silent because she couldn't really explain to Sawyer why Ben was so nice to her. Can you imagine her describing breakfast with fresh fruit while Sawyer is noshing on fish biscuits? Anyway, someone once mentioned that Kate was somehow Alex from the future. I personally am not ready to go quite that far, but they do like alike and this would explain why Ben even gave Kate Alex's dress!

A: Ooooh, good call re Kate's pregnancy! Could Ben somehow know that she is destined to get pregnant on the Island? Maybe he wanted to treat her with the same medicine that Juliet gave to Claire...