Empirical Sense

Quick Hits

• The big backstory-filler, though we already knew much of this one, was of Rousseau and her French crew descending into madness after a run-in with Cerberus. The crew’s roster, for the record: Montand, Nadine, Brennan, Lacombe, Robert, and of course Danielle. They departed Tahiti on 11/15/88; also, just for the record. After killing Nadine once the crew enters Dark Territory (as Rousseau called it when our castaways were en route to the Black Rock in season 1), Smokey drags Montand through the jungle to a hole at the base of an ancient wall adorned with hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs similar to those on the Swan station counter, and the secret door in Ben’s Otherville house, and on the pillar in the donkey wheel chamber.

  

  I’m sure some other sites will have a translation, so I’ll leave that alone. What caught my attention the way Danielle’s significant other Robert describes the monster just before she caps her baby daddy. He referred to it as a “security system guarding that temple.” The Temple.

  

  Before Ben went off to confront Jack and his castaways at the radio tower in season 3, Richard indicated he’d be taking the rest of the Others to The Temple for protection. Is this the place? If Smokey lives underneath it, I supposed that’d be as safe a place as any if you’re worried about trespassers. Provided, of course, you’re on good terms with the giant, death-dealing, freight train of destruction.

  

• Closing the loop on our discussion from last week, it’s hard to say if Faraday’s rules concerning time travel held true. Despite Jin’s presence, he didn’t seem to appreciably change events, based on what present-day Rousseau related of her past in seasons prior. He did confirm the radio tower’s presence on the Island, but it stands to reason the French crew would’ve found it themselves. Then again, maybe Jin always was a part of the past, and he was destined to lead the French crew to their deaths in Dark Territory. And perhaps we can just chalk up present-day Danielle’s not recognizing Jin to being bad with faces, or the fact that she went batshit insane.

  
  Losing an arm might drive me a little crazy

  And why did she and her crew go insane? Perhaps it was just acute paranoia. Perhaps Montand caught a virus of some kind down under the Temple and passed it on after being rescued. Perhaps Smokey assumed Montand’s one-armed shape and slowly drove the rest of the crew mad via subtle manipulation. Still shocking that Robert (if it was Robert) would be crazy enough to shoot his pregnant wife/girlfriend/significant other.

  

  I dunno, though, wouldn’t you remember a mysterious Asian guy showing up right before your friend’s arm is ripped off and you start killing your crew? Eh, maybe not. I think we can probably close the Rousseau chapter of Lost after tonight.

• Speaking of Smokey, the sounds he makes have always been intriguing, whether of the mechanical or roaring dinosaur variety. I heard a new one amid the cacophony; it sounded equivalent to a PVC pipe banging against something, yeah? Relevance? Nothing special; just found the sound design interesting. Or maybe the monster is controlled by pressure differentials in a complex network of PVC piping.
• Those insidious Numbers were back. Back in the old days of Lost, Hurley told us one of his insane asylum bunkmates kept repeating the Numbers over and over again. Between games of Connect-4, the guy eventually revealed to Hugo he heard them while aboard a Navy ship in the Pacific, and became obsessed with them. Rousseau and her ill-fated crew hear that very transmission through their radio shortly after their arrival on the Island. Another question to be answered: who recorded that transmission and put it on repeat?
• Also from the old days: Charlotte, during one of her time-sickness episodes, says “turn it up; I love Geronimo Jackson.” For those of your with good memories, Hurley played one of Geronimo’s records down in Swan Station in season 2, and the young FBI agent who busts the pot-growing hippie commune Locke was working at sported a Geronimo t-shirt.

  

• The Well, surrounded by Stonehenge-like pillars, appeared to be the origination point of the time flashes (or, more accurately, the donkey wheel chamber at the bottom of said well). I guess that makes sense, in whatever twisted time logic I’ve managed to imbue my brain with, since I’ve postulated the wheel functions independent of space and time.

  

  So who dug the thing? And just as importantly, who covered it back up with solid rock before Dharma arrived on the Island?

  

• Charlotte, as has become increasingly obvious, grew up on the Island, finally revealing her origins to Daniel before she croaks. She and her mother departed the place, leaving a father she never saw again behind. Charlotte’s spent her life ever since trying to get back there, despite a “crazy man” she didn’t care for telling her to “leave and never come back.” Daniel, though he doesn’t seem to know it yet, paid more than Dr. Chang a visit when he journeyed back in time in the season premiere.

  Oh yeah: who the heck is Charlotte’s father? Have we met him yet? It couldn’t be Widmore, right? Right.

• I pity anyone making a legitimate attempt to start watching this season of Lost without having seen just about every episode of season 1-4. Even I have a headache.
• I mentioned briefly before that, according to Christian, Locke was supposed to turn the donkey wheel and not Ben. If that were the case, we’d have to assume the Island/Jacob wanted Ben to stay on the Island and continuing leading the Others, yes?
• I’ve mentioned the “frozen donkey wheel” so many times by now, it may have slipped my mind to tell you all exactly why I refer to it as such. In one of the official podcasts show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse did for season 4, prior to the finale airing, they referred to the big plot device of the season 4’s capper to be the “frozen donkey wheel.” Completely out of context, that of course made no sense. Knowing what we now know, can you possibly think of a more appropriate description of that wheel? It’s cold down there and only a donkey could comfortably turn that wheel…or maybe a polar bear.

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