4 8 15 16 23 42 - Official Lost Season 4 Thread

http://abc.go.com ^

[Lucky9teen]

Its tempting to watch Lost straight through from Season 1 to now, without interruption, to see the show in the time period of 91 days...and to see if it comes together as that or if the timing seems off or longer than that.

[elc]

Looks like Grey's Anatomy wins the battle for the time slot. Here's the schedule from E! (via DarkUFO):

Lost is back! Oh, wait, that happened two weeks ago.

What I mean is, Lost will be back-back, after the strike. And even better, we've just checked in with inside sources, and we have dates! Yes, dates! So, break out your calendars, 'cause we're hearing this is the approved plan:

The last episode of the current pod (episode seven) will air Mar. 13. Then the show will be off the air for six weeks and return Apr. 24 at 9 p.m.

(That Apr. 24 episode will be the already-completed episode eight, which was filmed prestrike, but which apparently works much better as a minipremiere than it does as a minifinale.)

Anyhoo, the following week, on Thurs., May 1, a little show called Grey's Anatomy returns to its usual 9 p.m. time slot, so Lost will move to 10 p.m., where it will stay for the rest of the season.

"Yippee" just doesn't do it justice, does it?

To find out what this all means for the season-four story, I checked in with my personal Jesus, Damon Lindelof, who explains how his writing team plans to squish the eight episodes of plot they had planned into only five more episodes.

"We are going to execute our full story plan for season four," D.L. says. "This simply requires a shift from high-octane storytelling to superhigh-octane storytelling. It requires no cramming, only a slightly heavier foot on the gas pedal...so, hold on to your hats. Those of you waiting for the long-anticipated Jin and Hurley Ping-Pong tournament, however, will be very disappointed."

[Lucky9teen]

First of all, the show will be off the air for six weeks? Ugh that bites!!

And then Lost will move to 10 p.m., where it will stay for the rest of the season? WTF? Grey’s Anatomy SUCKS!!!! Lost is SO MUCH BETTER. Stupid TV schedulers. I’ll stay up later I s’pose. grrr

[Lucky9teen]

Oh, and...

The writers’ strike may end up being the best thing that ever happened to Lost.

ABC is said to be finalizing a post-strike spring schedule that not only hands Lost its best available time slot, but promises to further strengthen the network’s stronghold on Thursday night.

According to multiple sources, ABC plans on airing this season’s final five* Lost episodes on Thursdays at 10 pm/ET beginning in late April, where it will follow all-new episodes of Grey’s freakin’ Anatomy! Throw in fresh installments of Ugly Betty at 8 pm and you’ve got yourself the most formidable one-two-three punch since the early days of CBS’ Survivor/CSI/Without a Trace smashup. Creatively speaking, I’d go so far as to say this rivals NBC’s storied Must-See-TV juggernaut back in the ‘90s.

And I haven’t even gotten to the best part.

The best part is that I’m hearing that ABC is strongly considering keeping this dream lineup intact this fall... and beyond.

I don’t know about you, but this almost makes up for ABC’s mishandling of [insert any number of show titles here].

* This just in: I’m now hearing that Lost’s final arc may consist of six episodes, not five. No, Team Darlton isn’t making an extra episode this season. Rather, the final installment of the current run (aka Episode 8) will likely be held to kick off the final batch of five. According to my spies, Episode 7 makes for a better, more logical, break. Discuss....

Source: TV Guide

[Lucky9teen]

PING

Episode S4E03 - The Economist
Episode Centric: Sayid
Air Date: 14th Feb 2008

Guest ListTBA
Guest starring are Ken Leung as Miles, Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday, Rebecca Mader as Charlotte, Jeff Fahey as Frank Lapidus, Mira Furlan as Danielle Rousseau, Marsha Thomason as Naomi, Armando Pucci as Italian man and Thekla Reuten as Elsa.

Synopsis
Locke’s hostage may be the key to getting off the island, so Sayid and Kate go in search of their fellow castaway in an attempt to negotiate a peaceful deal.

[diamond6]

bump for later

[kidd]

What an episode!

Some of the folks at Lostpedia have a HD screenshot of the passport that Sayid looked at. It was dated March 2003.

They think they’ve been on the island 100 days. They’ve really been there almost 5 years. That also coincides with the 31 minute delay in the payload and the observation by Locke that Walt was taller.

[Lil'freeper]

They think they’ve been on the island 100 days. They’ve really been there almost 5 years. That also coincides with the 31 minute delay in the payload and the observation by Locke that Walt was taller.

Hmmm.... I wonder if Juliette noticed that effect when she was watching her niece/nephew(?? can't remember) play on the playground on the feed in the flame station.

[MarkMyWord]

Hey, good point. Time seems to be suspended on the island so shouldn’t that impact one’s growth?

[WV Mountain Mama]

Could you add me to your “Lost” ping list?

When did Sayid start working for Ben? When they were locked up together and after he saw the passport? Man, I love this show!

[Lucky9teen]

You’re On! :)

[iceskater]

Unless there is a delay with receiving the signals as well?

[Scotswife]

“When did Sayid start working for Ben? When they were locked up together and after he saw the passport? Man, I love this show!”

Did you notice while they were still on the island Sayid said something like “I’d rather sell my soul than trust him...” (referring to Ben).

And then we learn that in the future, poor Sayid does indeed sell his soul.

Looks like all the Oceanic 6 eventually reach a point of despair where they realize they need to go back to the island.

[Scotswife]

“Time seems to be suspended on the island so shouldn’t that impact one’s growth?”

I’m wondering why Ben grew older, but that dark haired man who befriended him when he was a boy (what’shisname again?) never seems to age at all.

[WV Mountain Mama]

Don’t know the guy’s name, but he is Jimmy Smits’ brother on the show “Cane”. You’re right, he didn’t age, in fact, I thought they (make-up, directors) dropped the ball when they were showing him with Ben as a child, then again as an adult and the guy seeingly only got a haircut in all that time. Now, I’m guessing they knew what they were doing...doh!

[WV Mountain Mama]

And oh yeah, I did heat waht he said about his soul.

[Lucky9teen]

The LOST Report

My Serious, Logical Thoughts on The Economist
Greetings, welcome to The Economist.

TITLE
Refers to the boss of the girlfriend of Sayid. Although Sayid says that he is no economist. But then again. Elsa is not the innocent person she claims to be. Sayid has been setting her up and all along she was setting him up as well. The scene where she shoots Sayid shows that the group of people Sayid is coming after now know who he is and what he is doing. Why does Ben say that it is good that they know Sayid is coming after them? Would it not be better to have the element of surprise, or is Ben that caught up in revenge. Perhaps he just want them to seat and live in fear. That seems logical. What was the incident Ben referred to when he said Sayid thought with his heart and not his gun?

OPENING
This may be the first episode beginning showing the eyes of someone closed. Usually they start with an open eye. The Sayid shuts the eyes of Naomi.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE OTHERS GONE, LONG TIME PASSING
Notice that the people of Ben do not make an appearance or try to save Ben. The last we saw of the people of Ben they were on their way to a place called the temple. Whatever that means.

OCEANIC NUMBER FOUR
Sayid is the fourth member of the Oceanic six to be revealed. Also Sayid is the first of the six to leave the island. Consider that Desmond will never be a member of the Oceanic six since he was never on the plane. Same goes for Juliet. It does not mean she will not leave the island. So there will be more than six people rescued. Also do not forget about Michael and Walt. They probably have aliases by now and are not members of the Oceanic six. After all, Michael is guilty of cold blooded murder and Jack and particularly Hurley would rat him out. Recall how much Hurley liked Libby and Michael killed her. So the grand total may be Oceanic six plus Juliet, Desmond, Michael and Walt. This is a total of ten. Just thought I would point that out. ABC might be setting us up to believe that only six people from the island get to the mainland but in reality there are more.

YOU KILL ME
Then man Sayid shoots on the golf course in Seychelles seems to be Italian. It looks like this man knows who the Oceanic six are and that the are his enemies. Perhaps this man knows the truth about what really happened to flight 815. For Sayid to kill this man he must have done something very awful. Is this the same Sayid who felt guilty about torturing Sawyer and went off on his own on the beach? (he was then captured by the French chick). When Sayid tells Elsa that he is a headhunter this could have a ring of truth in it. Although Sayid explains that it means he is a corporate recruiter, it could also refer to his secret job of being a hit man. He is lying but he is not. The answer to the question why would Sayid do this comes from Ben at the end when he says to Sayid do you want to protect your friends or not? Sayid kills to protect his friends on the island. By the way, why would the economist insist on using a pager and not a cell phone in this day and age? Then later we see Elsa talking in German to someone on a cell phone? Her boss? And just who is the economist? How is Alvar Hanso involved or mister Widmore or Penny Widmore?

FRANZ LISTS
Sayid mentions a list of people that apparently he is supposed to kill. We have seen the idea of a list several times. Lists were mentioned by Ben and the others. On the day 815 went down Ben tells Ethan and Goodwin that he wants lists in three days. Ana Lucia finds one of these lists when they are attacked by the others. But what do the lists mean? We have been led to believe that the lists contain the good people on them. But here the list that Sayid refers to seems to refer to bad people. Obviously since Sayid is killing them. Do not forget the light versus dark theme introduced in the pilot which resurfaces now and again. Could it mean two forces good and evil fighting for control of a very special island?

AM I ON THE LIST?
Who are the people on the list? Is R.G. the initials found on the bracelet of Naomi on the list? Are these the same people that sent a whole freighter after Ben?

FREIGHTER
We have never actually seen the freighter and have only the word of the freighter people that is a freighter. What if it turns out to be something else? Did anyone see that the Black Rock was really a boat before we saw it? LOST is famous for its twists.

TIME DILATION
Faraday obviously has some idea about the strange properties of the island since the payload he had fired to himself contained a clock which he previously had synchronized with another clock he had on him. The clock from the payload reads 3:16 while the clock with Faraday read 2:45. That is a 31 minute difference. It would seem that the payload has been moving around out there for an extra 31 minutes while time stood still on the island. In another dimension? But if that is true then how could the freighter detect the payload hitting ground zero in real time? Time dilation or time slowing down is a scientific fact and is part of the theory of relativity. It can occur when something moves very fast like near the speed of light or when an object is near a very large gravitational field. The problem though is that time slows down for the object moving. The payload has a future time on it not a past time. This would indicate that the whole island is moving at the speed of light or the island is the source of a giant gravitational field. Neither makes any sense since the speed needed to achieve a 31 minute difference would be astronomical and the gravitational field needed would crush everything on the island. I would guess that time is moving more slowly on the island but then there is the problem as to how Faraday can communicate with the freighter in real time. Time seems to be passing the same for the freighter and the island. One way out of this dilemma is to suggest that time is altered at some point just outside the island like at a barrier but not on the island itself. This barrier might effect objects made of mass but not radio waves. The helicopter passes through a hole in the barrier and thus is unaffected by time dilation. The payload probably came to the island following the path of a large arch which shot it very high into the air. It may have flown over the hole in the barrier and hit the barrier itself thus producing the time dilation effect.

IHOB, INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF BEN
In the house of Ben a lot of different passports are found for Benjamin Linus. One of them is for a man named Dean Moriarty. Moriarty is the name of the villain in the Sherlock Holmes novels. There is also a lot of money in foreign currencies. This means that Ben has many aliases and may have been traveling around the world for reasons unknown. His travels around the world may have made him enemies which later on he hires Sayid to kill. Since Ben is totally devoted to the island it is reasonable to assume that his travels were for island business. Ben practically forbids almost anyone to leave the island. He tells Juliet that nobody is leaving the island even when she asks to be able to take a pregnant patient off the island to examine with better equipment. How did Ben get all that money? Are the passports mostly fake? Yes, probably.

A FRIEND INDEED
The dialogue:

Sayid: What do you know of friendship?
Ben: I know it is no use having friends you cant trust

May refer to the people of Ben as his friends but more importantly to his friend of the freighter.

TAKE SOME NYQUIL FOR YOUR COFFIN
In the flashforward episode of Jack last season, Jack goes to the viewing of someone in a coffin. Since Ben has many names, it may be Ben in the coffin. That is why the newspaper article Jack holds does not mention the deceased as being Benjamin Linus. Ben was using an alias and was buried under a different name. This would explain the comment by Jack that he is neither friend nor family. This theory gains support when you see Sayid working with Ben in this episode. Sayid works with Ben to protect his friends on the island. The ghost of Charlie also told Hurley that they need you meaning his friends on the island. He won a huge settlement from Oceanic for the plane crash. That means Sayid must be doing it because he believes in Ben and his cause not for the money. Also if Sayid won such a huge settlement does that mean that the story of how 815 went down is a false one? We know that 815 went down because Desmond and Kelvin did not push the button in time and the electromagnetic anomaly unleashed a pulse which brought down the plane. If this was the case they why would Oceanic be liable for this? On the other hand we do have that other plane at the bottom of the ocean purported to be flight 815. If a story is fabricated about how that plane went down, then in this fake story Oceanic may be found liable.

BRACELET
The bracelet Sayid takes off of Elsa reminds him of the bracelet he took off of Naomi.

STAY ON COURSE
Faraday tells the pilot not to deviate from the bearing he used to take them to the island. We have seen this before too. When Ben let Michael and Walt go, he told Michael to stay on a certain heading with the boat. He also told him that he would never find his way back to the island. So what happens if you deviate from the bearing when you are leaving the island? One gets the feeling that you will slip into some kind of wormhole where time speeds up. The same wormhole that befelled the payload. Does the island then have only a narrow opening through which it can be found in real space? Perhaps the rest of the island outside of this small opening is protected by a wormhole with a strange electromagnetic property that renders it invisible. We know that the island is next to impossible to find anyway. We have seen that from several sources. Consider that Jack wanted strongly to return to the island in a flashforward episode but was unable to. The two portuguese gentlemen in the arctic station could only detect the island when a strong electromagnetic pulse was emitted from it. The submarine needed a beacon to find the island and without it we are led to believe that even the submarine could not find the island.

WERE YOU AWARE?
Harold Perrineau is listed at the beginning in the cast list but makes no appearance in the episode.
Faraday is also the name of a famous physicist who worked with electromagnetism. Faradays law relates the average voltage induced in a group of coils to the rate of change of magnetic flux through the coils. Interesting that the physicist in the show has the same last name.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

LOST is just about the greatest one-hour TV show ever produced. I've given DVDs of the first three years to friends who, afer viewing them in order, are completely hooked.

Thanks for this update.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Five years? Dang, no wonder the pregnant women die! I was pregnant for all of 7 1/2 months before giving birth once, and 6 1/2 the second time - ;^)

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

If Ben is leaving the Island though, he might be aging while away, but not while on the Island?