I don’t now what my motivation is, exactly, but I’m going to start doing recaps of the shows I watch regularly. Maybe it’s in an effort to entertain you, my loyal readers, as you go about your daily doldrums.
Lost: “The Long Con”
- There now seem to be three factions on the island: Jack’s warriors, Locke’s thinkers, and Sawyer’s in his own corner with Charlie. There doesn’t seem to be much going on, at least on the surface, in the last few episodes, but I think the table is being set for some major events down the road, Lord-of-the-Flies-style.
- Locke was going through a book called “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” down in the hatch (you can read the full text of the story here). A short summary of the story, courtesy of Google:
A Civil War soldier is to be executed by hanging, but when the plank is kicked away, instead of breaking his neck, he manages to miraculously escape unscathed…or did he?
That summary hints at the actual truth behind the story, which I won’t spoil here. Go read it at the link above; it doesn’t take long, and you’ll quickly see the parallels between it and the possible (and I stress possible) plot conceit behind Lost itself. I tend to think it’s more of a red herring by the creative staff, once again.
- Speaking of red herrings, the mystery script Hurley was reading, entitled “Bad Twin,” is an obvious allusion to some of the theories that have been formulated on the web. The “Bad Twin” theory states that everyone in the world has an identical twin, and that the odds of meeting that twin are 4,815,162,342 to 1. Yes, you should recognize those numbers. There’s more to it, and I’m not doing real justice to the entirety of the theory, but you get the idea. Anyway, that twin is purportedly “bad” as well, a mirror opposite in personality despite appearances.
- There’s an alternate, and much more likely, explanation for the script’s presence. Courtesy of Amazon.com:
Bad Twin is the highly-anticipated new novel by acclaimed mystery writer Gary Troup. Bad Twin was delivered to Hyperion just days before Troup boarded Oceanic Flight 815, which was lost in flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles in September 2004. He remains missing and is presumed dead.
- I found it kind of strange that, immediately before Sun was assaulted by Charlie, Vincent appeared. Coincidence, or is Vincent somehow a harbinger of bad things? Was he there to warn her? Am I reading way too much into what is probably just an overly friendly dog? Is Walt acting through him? Questions to be answered another time.
- The music Sayid and Hurley heard at episode’s end was clearly from a bygone era. Hurley’s “…or maybe from another time” comment is another obvious allusion to the fact that the castaways may nto be living in present day–that they were somehow transported back through time. At this point, I have to think the writers are simply messing with the audience, knowing full well how much everything is overanalyzed. Still, there have to be pieces of the larger puzzle sprinkled along the way, don’t there?
- Lastly, another instance of intersection between the castaways’ former lives: Kate’s mother was the waitress waiting on Sawyer and Gordy in the diner.