Last episode, the most telling quote was Hurley's about Australia being the key to everything in Risk. This time, that distinction belongs to the concluding line from the Alice in Wonderland passage that Jack reads to Aaron: "Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!" As we know, one answer for both is "a Shephard." I found it interesting that Jack apparently knows this, too, judging by his comment that Kate isn't "even related to him!" My hope is still that they're building to the scene I predicted last week in which Claire and Jack travel to Jacob's cabin, where they learn from zombie Christian that they're related.
But there's another important dimension to Alice's rhetorical question. Did you catch that star mobile above baby Aaron's bed? That's now the second "star" reference associated with the tot -- his mobile in the Caduceus Station played the lullaby "Catch a Falling Star." As suggested in the Star of Jacob, I believe these are clues that Aaron is the great great grandson and quite possibly the reincarnation of Jacob, who was himself a Shephard. The star references also point to the possibility that Aaron is a kind of Island Messiah. But will he save the world or end it?
As described in the Lost Bible, the Book of Revelation tells how a false Messiah will appear bearing the mark 666. Claire learns she is pregnant with Aaron "six...sixty six" seconds after taking the home pregnancy test. Thomas Plantard de Saint Claire is the current Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, which readers of the DaVinci Code will recall is devoted to protecting the blood line of Jesus. For a variety of esoteric reasons, Thomas Saint Claire is often cited as a likely candidate for the false prophet predicted by by Revelation. It's telling, therefore, that Aaron's parents were Thomas and Claire.
Aaron is so totally the Anti-Christ! My guess is that visions of his apocalyptic rise to power are the nightmares of which Charles Widmore speaks. Natas! Redrum! Here are some other thoughts and questions I had about Something Nice Back Home:
* I laughed out loud at the way Rose barked at Charlotte: "Just watch your tone, Red!" Oh snap! Reminded me of Stanley's hilarious outburst on this week's Office. "Did I stutter?!"
* Jack states that "I said that I would get us off this Island...I promised that I would" just before collapsing with appendicitis. Obviously, the Island will inflict illness upon those who violate its wishes. As I suggest in the Cancer Man's Con, Jacob gave Ben that cancer. The Island's ghostly patriarch also took away Locke's ability to walk when it wasn't his destiny to climb up into the Beechcraft. Like Rose said, people don't get sick on the Island, they get better.
* Interesting...Jack's hospital knows they should reach him at Kate's place even before they're engaged.
* Just in case you didn't get the Star Wars reference last week with Evil Emperor Ben wielding his lightsaber, Jack stumbles over the Millenium Falcon.
* Yanks Bludgeon Red Sox for Sweep -- the perfect metaphor for how things regress in the flash forwards.
* They maintained my support for the 10pm start time with plenty of panty-clad Kate...
* Claire mentions she's no longer seeing things. Apparently, this refers to a scene that was cut for time from The Shape of Things to Come. According to Doc Jensen at EW.com, Claire was supposed to experience some sort of prophetic vision or hallucination after her brush with death.
* Why is Miles so interested in Claire? It's her aura, just like the psychic Richard Malkin said. Miles can read them, like he did Michael's in Meet Kevin Johnson. Miles is attracted to Claire's goodness as much as anything else. This is further confirmation of Malkin's prophecy that Aaron must not be raised by another. Natas! Redrum!
* Miles heard the replay of Rousseau and Karl's death. This fits with my belief that the Island is basically haunted by a Chorus of the Dead made up of everyone who ever died there. Is that why Cerberus didn't kill Keamy's men?
* Digging up the bodies was creepy but left absolutely no doubt they're dead. Again, here's to hoping we still get a flashback to what happened to Rousseau's crew from the perspective of Ben.
* Jack forcing Kate to hold the mirror so he can watch his own operation (to his own detriment) foreshadows their relationship in the flashforward perfectly.
* Hurley is right -- the Oceanic Six are all dead. Or rather, they should be. No one was supposed to survive the crash of Oceanic 815. They have to go back to the Island because they no longer belong in the world, which is about to end anyway. Like Doc Ray's corpse shows, the Island is a place where paradox can exist.
* "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack." Obviously, Hurley is correct that Charlie's message refers to Jack raising Aaron.
* Love that Charlotte speaks Korean. I'm reminded of the creepy Hawaiian-shirt guy who confronted Jin in the restroom right before Oceanic 815 boarded. Does this mean Charlotte works for Mr. Paik? Some faction from the future or even the Chronology Protection Agency?
* "Where do you suppose all this power is coming from?" My guess would be zero point energy generated using the Island's natural Casimir effect.
* My first reaction was that Jack's abrupt proposal was all wrong from a storytelling perspective. Then I realized that was kind of the point -- it's supposed to feel wrong to underscore that Jack isn't supposed to be doing this.
* Charlotte's Korean accent is only slightly worse than Jin's...LOL!
* Bernard cracked me up with his no-nonsense line "I'm sorry, Jack, but I agree" just before knocking the latter out with Chloroform.
* I figured that was the Island/Jacob calling to Jack when Christian appeared in the lobby. The malfunctioning smoke detector reminded me of the broken intercom in the Hyrdra where Jack heard his father's voice urge him to "let it go..."
* The appearance of Christian fits with my prior speculation that he will haunt his son, driving Jack to drink and drugs. Interesting that Jack asks for clonazepam, the same anti-anxiety drug Hurley sought from Sawyer after seeing Dave on the Island.
* Kate's mission presumably involves Sawyer's illegitimate daughter, Clementine. I can understand her wanting to keep that aspect of her mission secret out of fidelity to Sawyer. And Jack's jealousy and controlling nature will obviously be the driving force behind their breakup. But I can't help thinking she's partly to blame for not sharing at least the Sawyer connection with Jack. Maybe something really bad happens between those two during the escape from the Island. Why does Sawyer decide to stay?
* Interesting that Christian Shephard doesn't appear to be wearing a suit when he appears to Claire by the campfire.
* "She wasn't alone." Miles saw Christian too. The question is, why did they leave Aaron behind. Is it his destiny to leave the Island and destroy the world? Or is this part of some plan to create a bond between Sawyer and Aaron?
Thursday, May 01, 2008
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25 comments:
WHAT.
Exactly, dj. Just throwing something out to the crowd: the note Hurley read to Jack. I'm wondering if there was another meaning, like don't raise him meaning both Aaron AND the ghost images of Christian. Don't raise him up from the dead, that kinda thing. I'll say nothing else until everyone has recovered from the show. I'm enjoying the fact--and I'll bet Bigmouth is, too--that his first post had zero comments and last week's had 45. And my one goodtyping finger thanks you, bigmouth, for getting rid of the word verification.
wow! great episode, i love getting back to the mysteries like season 1. wow. claire going off w/ Christian and Miles saw him and Charlie visiting Hurley and Kate talking w/ Sawyer and wow!
Not a bad Jack episode. Lot of good nuggets to work with there, maybe that's how we get Rousseau's (spelling) flashback, Miles communes with her.
Miles was definately the best part of this episode. Loved the shot of Miles with the hoodie on, looking a LOT like CHARLIE.
I have a theory for you all...I think Sawyer might be dead in the flash forward from last night..who's to say that Kate wasn't visited by someone who was dead also? Jack and Hurley have been, why not Kate? I think Sawyer is dead and he appeared to her and asked her to do something for his daughter. I think she might have been talking to Cassidy on the phone when Jack walked in on her. And who here didn't say "No way!" when Claire woke up and saw Christian holding the baby? Wow...great episode.
I don't know about Sawyer being dead and haunting Kate, but I do agree that he asked her to do something for Clementine and that she was on the phone with Cassidy. Sawyer probably survives everything but remains on the Island, hence his request to Kate.
I'm wondering if the smoke detector beeping was an indication that the appearances of the dead are part of Smokey. Or just a coincidence that the battery was dying in order to get Jack out of his office...
yeah, wasn't there beeping before jack saw his dad the first time also? i thought about that too.
I was totally surprised that CS was holding Aaron. When Claire was waking up without him, I thought for sure that some Others had snatched him. Compared to CS, that would have been boring. :-)
I liked Miles in this ep too. He and Sawyer together on a trek could instigate some wicked insult fests! If Doc Jensen's theory about Claire being dead is true, I guess that Miles let her go off with CS because since she was already dead, so nothing could happen to her anyway. I'd rather that wasn't the case tho.
I just find it interesting that Hurley says they're ALL dead. I had a theory about that a while back, but I gave it up pretty quickly because it started to sound really freaking incorrect. But now..?
Maybe it's just wishful thinking on Hurley's part...wishing that they had all died in the crash, and that they never had to go through the island mess, and being the one of few who got to go back home? We know that's he's very susceptible to mega-survival-guilt like with the broken deck.
Someone in one of my list groups (and it may have come from someone other than them) that Claire may not have survived her house's bombing. That was the reason that Miles was so interested in her.
I keep waffling on if Claire IS dead or not, but I'm thinking that she is alive and the whole point was to establish that Miles could actually see Christian. I'm also assuming that it will be Miles's description of Christian to Jack that will lead to the big meet. Who else would even know his graveyard suit, i.e., the white sneakers. Even Sawyer couldn't know that.
Great post. I like the idea of Hurley meaning that they don't belong in the world anymore. That they're dead to the world now.
LOL about Aaron. Well, if they show that he has little demon hands with pointy fingernails like in Rosemary's Baby, then I'm going to get scared. :-o
What a strange ep. It struck me as ironic and somewhat telling that Christian appeared in the hospital at the same time the SMOKE DETECTOR was malfunctioning. I'd say it had never detected smoke quite like that. That is, if it can be assumed that the ghosts and smokey are really connected.
just a thought
I have always enjoyed that Lost blurs the lines between what *the story dictates * is real (real time story telling and flashback) and what is "really" real once you learn more about what is going on behind the scenes. I have always felt you can't take any part of their story telling as fact and that they constantly pull the rug out from under us. There is no right or wrong or black or white in Lost.
When Hurley found the cabin, people had posted images from that scene and it showed Christian Shepard to be inside. I am not sure where I stand with the whole "is Christian Jacob" thing yet, but I imagine that Claire will be with Christian, in the cabin, when Locke, Hurley and Ben get there.
The only surviving members of the raid on camp are supposed to be Miles, Sawyer, Locke, Ben, Hurley, Claire and Aaron. I think that Claire died and Sawyer may have too. We already know that Miles, Ben and Locke can see the dead…. I think Hurley can too and his finding the cabin is part of it. It will most likely explain his imaginary friend from his first stint in Santa Rosa. I don't think he knew that then and I am not sure he knows it now (maybe it takes his second stint in SR to fully realize it), but I felt like his character, like Miles, also treated Claire differently after the attack. He had a sorta weird mood and during the scene where the group splits and they decide who Hurley will join *(neither side really leaving it up to Hurley at the offset) Hurley seemed off. I wonder if it is that moment that Hurley is referring to when he apologizes to Jack *in flashforward* for "going with Locke. It is possible that the dead appear alive to non-"seers" and that can explain why Frank didn't register any inconsistencies while running into them in the jungle, but some of the language and events left me feeling like we lost more people in that fight than we realize.
I am curious about the people that Sayid is killing for Ben. I am wondering who they are and how they fit. I wonder about it because the war, at present, is a Ben-Whidmore thing and these peripheral characters complicate matters in a way that feels out of place. We know that Ben recruited Sayid by telling him that the first on his hit list was the same man that he believed killed Sayid's wife. Whether or not that is true doesn't matter as much that Ben enlisted him and is glad to have him on so that he can take on other people on a list. Can it be as simple as they are Whidmore's "men?" Could the economist that Elsa worked for be tied to Hawking? Could the people they are killing be the "course correctors" taxed with the responsibility to correct any and all abnormalities in the timeline they believe is that set out by the universe. Could the course correctors pose a threat to Sayid's friends and loved ones because they intend to set "right" the deaths of the Oceanic Six and all the other survivors who were "supposed" to die? Was Nadia a "victim" to course correction because she was not supposed to be spared by Sayid and later Charlie?
I want to start a "counter clock" for how many days Farraday wears that tie.
I mean, seriously. I don't know how long he has actually been on that island, but come on . . . he's still wearing that tie!
Yes, I know this is a show where smoke eats people . . . but I have a harder time believing that a person would STILL be wearing a tie on a deserted island.. I mean, when they started throwing stuff out of the copter to reduce weight, I would have STARTED with my TIE.
(not sure I even board a copter headed for an ISLAND wearing my tie to begin with but since he is a nerd I will give him the benefit of the doubt.)
My e-mail list for my weekly LOST thoughts includes a weekly shout out to "THE TIE".
My ONLY hope is that it will be used in some heroic life saving fashion . . . like a tourniquet or to choke a bad guy or something.
With his every appearance, I find myself thinking: "Surely it will be gone. Surely. Here he comes. Doh!"
My LOST group is already planning a "THE TIE IS OFF" Party. Maybe just maybe it is in the final scene of the season finale???
Anyone want to sign my unofficial "TAKE IT OFF!" Petition?
Oh, and if he DOES take it off . . . think they would mail it to me? (kind of like a snake in my mailbox)
I have decided it is the one LOST prop I must have.
What would YOU want as an island keepsake?
Well, at least he didn't bring his pocket protecter on the mission! :o)
I want Desmond's blue shirt.
I'd take Ben's wooden Annie doll--his Constant--just because its so damn creepy. If not that, then perhaps Elizabeth Mitchell's cell phone number (which I'm sure one crew member on location must have, so that counts, too). But the tie thing doesn't bother me as much as the beards that never seem to grown on Jack and Sawyer. Let Faraday have his fun, maybe he thinks it makes Charlotte all hot on him.
Hey all! I'm actually traveling for work right now, so I don't have time to do your excellent comments justice. I did, however, want to pop in to make a few quick points.
First, I forgot to mention Hurley's important line: "You're not supposed to raise him, Jack." I think this is pretty clearly a reference to Aaron. The most plausible interpretation is that someone wants to protect Aaron from Jack's alcohol and drug abuse. On the other hand, if you buy my Evil Aaron speculation, maybe the goal is to expose him solely to Kate, whom Col. Austen claims has murder in her heart.
Second, I absolutely love the suggestion by Jennifer, darry coe, and others that the smoke detector was a reference to Cerberus. That's precisely the kind of ironic easter egg the writers seem to love. Great catch!
Third, Wayne mentioned Christian's white sneakers. Can anyone confirm that Christian is wearing them in the scene where he haunts Jack?
Fourth and finally, SKID's comment about Faraday's necktie cracks me up! I'd love a scene where Charlotte looks at him funny, takes off the tie, then smiles and nods approvingly.
You can see CS's sneakers when he is sitting in the doctor's lounge.
http://bp2.blogger.com/_n3eH1jI8AZ8/SBqJcJN2FXI/AAAAAAAAELA/l6UW4iGj1Lg/s1600-h/cs-ws.jpg
Hi, I read all the time, but have never commented. I would love to have Sawyer's original pair of glasses. The one's he loses on the raft.
S04E11... I say once again, WHAT!
Actually, you know, it's funny. I was always really intrigued by that one time where Mikael muttered something about "the John Locke *I* knew..."
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