680 Topics for the Road

Alright, that episode is gonna take me 8 years to write about and this could end up being the longest post in history if I try to dissect every little thing during last night’s telecast (and not just the episode itself). I’ll have to prioritize here. I’ll deal with the big event outside the actual show that we saw last night: a commercial for the enigmatic Hanso Foundation, which aired right before the last segment of the show. I’m lucky I even caught it while fast forwarding, but I did, and it not only provides a phone number to call (1-877-HANSORG), but also links you to their updated website (it had been down for the last couple of months, obviously for renovations): The Hanso Foundation Website.

Years ago, the movie A.I. successfully started the so-called “viral marketing” craze with a game-of-sorts that could be solved only by working together with others on the web to sort through clues spread across websites and accessed through certain phone numbers and movie trailers. Nicknamed “The Beast,” the game was designed and implemented by Microsoft and you can read more about it here. Below is the image from the A.I. trailer that started it all (note the notches on each character).

I outline this because it’s been rumored that ABC/Lost is going to be doing the same thing over this summer, and the commercial last night and the related website are the first breadcrumbs along the trail will lead to…what, I don’t know, but it should be interesting. There are a million different things to analyze on the Hanso site, which seems to react strangely when you try to register for its newsletter (you get prompted for a username by “Persephone,” apparently a rogue A.I. that’s hacked the site).

Persephone is the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Persephone was such a beautiful young woman that everyone loved her, even Hades wanted her for himself. One day, when she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up from the gap and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing sun, Helios, had noticed it.

Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile. Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate of it, it bound her to underworld forever and she had to stay there one-third of the year. The other months she stayed with her mother. When Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began. This myth is a symbol of the budding and dying of nature.

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/persephone.html

Unfortunately, I don’t have the password to go further yet, but I did manage to get through on the phone line finally. You’re greeted by the same woman from the website, and she asks you to enter your party’s extension or choose from the menu, which includes:

1-General Information: this leads to some French guy speaking in–you guessed it–French, bits of which I understood but most notably the name “Geronimo Jackson.” Said name belongs to a band whose album happens to be down in the Hatch. This leads to the address of the Hanso Foundation, only a part of which I caught: 544 [something], BK1604, Copenhagen.
2-Alvar Hanso: leads to a standard away message interrupted by a woman’s faint voice saying, “…what has he done with him? Who’s in charge?”
3-Tom Mittelwerk: He’ll be “away for two weeks,” but instructs those working for Widmore Labs (of pregnancy test and balloon fame) and Peak (?) Heavy Industry to contact the hotline for active projects. Clues to be analyzed later.
4-Hugh McIntyre: didn’t get through
5-Peter Thompson: didn’t get through

These are the five executives listed on the Hanso website, incidentally. You can rest assured that there will be sites up and running on the web shortly to exhaustively catalogue every clue found, much like the A.I. website I posted above. This is the start of what promises to be an exhausting summer (for me, because I’m sure you’re all depending on me to keep tabs on it).

Like I said, I could spend paragraphs upon paragraphs combing through the Hanso Foundation, but I’ve gotta get on to my analysis of the episode itself. Happy hunting.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me say: HOLY F*%K! Not once, but three times: HOLY F*%K! HOLY F*%K! HOLY F*%K! That’s the only way to sum up the reaction to the conclusion of “Two For The Road,” in which it’s revealed Michael has an itchy trigger finger and may just have been converted to Other status. Another rumor of late has been that ABC and the Lost creative staff were looking to ditch the actresses playing Libby and Ana Lucia, as they had been arrested for DUI a few months back in Hawaii. Drunk driving conviction=you’re fired, apparently. Whether or not that event led to their whackings last night is hard to say, but who cares, because it resulted in that mindjob last night.

Now, first things first (although this is about the twenty-third thing I’ve talked about): Michael. The obvious conclusion is that he is now an Other, and that he was converted/brainwashed/convinced to join the Others’ cause while he was on his island jaunt the last several weeks. Perhaps he has the “infection” that Rousseau spoke about so often. The counter to all that, though, is that he shoots himself in the arm at the end. It looks like he’s making it look as if “Gale” shot Libby and Ana Lucia, but to what end? I don’t think the castaways needed any further motivation to go after the Others and Walt, so why did Michael do it?

Quick Hits:

• It’s revealed Jack has a sister/half-sister living down in Aussie, and Mr. Shepherd wants to see her badly. I’m reminded of the picture of Desmond and his girl taken in Sydney that’s down in the hatch:

  

  

  Might that be Jack’s half-sister living there (not in the pictures), making him a distant relative to Desmond? Another line of thinking could be that this half-sister could be Claire. She is an Aussie, after all.

• More castaway connections: Sawyer runs into car door while Jack’s dad is getting out and Ana is in line behind Jack and next to Jin at the airport.
• Michael shooting Libby and Ana Lucia kind of puts a damper on this, but Michael described the Others’ camp as just tents and another hatch, saying “we could take them.” Based on the theatrical glue and fake beard Kate found, I’m guessing the disheveled outward appearance of the Others is all an act to lure the castaways in. But again, why is Michael doing this?
• The Bad Twin manuscript makes another appearance (it last appeared in episode 2×13) before being thrown in the fire by Jack. I believe this is going to end up being a tie-in to a somewhat-unrelated novel currently for sale on amazon.com.

  

• Jack’s dad had quite a bit to say about helping each other, interpreting “fate” as events that occur “so that we can help each other out.” Each castaway has their own issue(s), and they all need help. Judging by all the connections we’ve witnessed throughout the show, it would seem they were all brought to the island to, among other things, help each other.
• Funny that Dr. Shepherd chose the alias “Sarah” for Ana, as that’s Jack’s ex-wife’s name.
• Another comment from Dad that got my attention was in regard to parents and their kids working together: “too many issues.” I’d make the analogy of God and the human race here (the big parent and His kids).
• “Gale” refers to the “Boss” as a “great man, a brilliant man; but not a forgiving one.” I’m still not convinced Gale isn’t the aforementioned “Boss” himself, and he continues to play master manipulator in this episode, appearing to convince Locke that John is one of the “good ones,” and that “Gale’s” mission was to bring Locke back to the Others. Thus, the rest of the castaways are all damaged goods in some way. Furthermore, “Gale” tries to convince Ana Lucia that Goodwin, whom Ana killed, wasn’t going to kill her, that Goodwin was one of the “good people who were leaving you alone.”

  

Stuff from other sites:

• The numbers make a cameo:

  

• A news story on the viral marketing campaign at Fox News.
• Spin or fact?
  

  Ausiello: And then the DUI…
  Carlton Cuse (producer): Then she got this DUI and Damon and I looked at each other and we were like, “Oh, great. Everybody is going to think we’re killing her off because she got a DUI.” But there really wasn’t anything we could do about that. I mean, the story was set. We had made plans. With Lost, we think it out well ahead of when we actually shoot it. We thought about altering our plan, but [this] was in fact what was best for the show. The fact that she got a DUI would come and go and what would live on would be the show, and our plan was still the best plan for the character. Ironically, we actually thought about changing it the other way around once [the DUI] happened, but it really was the best story. We wanted to tell the best story.

  http://community.tvguide.com/forum.jspa?forumID=700000049

  Ironic that this episode prominently and repeatedly highlights alcohol use; the title itself, “Two For the Road,” is obvious in its connotation (both alcohol and death-wise); and two actresses arrested for DUI were offed.

And it’s a good effing thing I was Tivo’ing Invasion tonight, because the end of Lost was cut off again about a minute early. DAMN YOU, TIVO-DEFYING TELEVISION NETWORKS!

And I’m spent.