Let’s begin at the end. Flight 815 was found. Everyone died. Purgatory theorists unite!
Naomi’s reveal that the doomed Oceanic flight was “found” back in the real world raises a multitude of questions and theories, all of which are probably wrong. The long-favored theory that the Island was a form of purgatory for our dead castaways will gain more steam, even though the show’s creators have repeatedly stated the place is anything but. Well, if we throw that explanation out the window, we’re left with alternate realities, mirror galaxies, Donnie Darko-style trans-dimensional wormholes and our more pedestrian black holes. Maybe the whole thing was staged as part of an elaborate government experiment designed to psychoanalyze humans under high-stress conditions. Or maybe the Others and their many real-world contacts staged another crash site to deflect attention from the Island. Hmm, that does seem the most plausible theory, doesn’t it?
I’m gonna go with the hyper-mirror-reality dimension galaxy theory, as it may give us a hint as to why pregnant women die on the Island. Perhaps, whenever people from “our” world cross the boundary between this dimension and the mirror dimension (which seems to be somewhere in the Pacific Ocean), a copy is created. One twin is sent along their way as if nothing had happened in the real world, and the other is sent to a whacked-out island where grievous wounds are healed within days, smoke monsters patrol the jungles, and PREGNANT WOMEN DIE! Why do they die? Why does an island that appears to foster life so well (by healing the wounded) kill new life itself? Well, it depends on when and where the child was conceived. You conceive it before crossing that trans-dimensional boundary? Then you’re all good, as a copy is created as you cross the super-terrific-ultra-dimensional time barrier. But, if you create a new life AFTER crossing it, there’s no copy to balance things out back on the other side! Life must find equilibrium, even across multiple dimensions.
Yes, really!
One of the early Lost, “what does it all mean?” theories centered around everyone in the world having a twin, with the infamous “Numbers” somehow signifying some commonalities or odds in calculating each twin’s life path and/or chance of meeting one another. One twist is that one twin’s good, the other evil. There was a tie-in novel called Bad Twin, which was written by a briefly-seen character on the show who died in the plane crash (remember the guy who was sucked into the engine?), and also happened to be Cindy the Flight Attendant’s significant other. You can search the various Lost sites on the web for that crap, as it gives me a headache even thinking about it.
Of course, none of this would explain how the Others had contact with the real world, Naomi was searching for Desmond (or was she?), and why Dharma keeps dropping food from the sky, but that’s for another day (and probably another season). Like I said, headache.
Onward…
Quick Hits
- Mikhail has a solid future in the special effects business, as I’ve said before. His convincing death at the hands of the sonic fence turned out to be all an act. The fence wasn’t activated when he crossed it, as we were indirectly clued into when Juliet turned it on to deflect Cerberus a couple weeks ago. Of course, the “Mikhail” in this episode certainly could’ve been ole’ Cerberus up to his old impersonation tricks again, but I doubt it.
And I think Smokey would’ve at least brushed his teeth.
- December 18, 2004. We’re at the 90 day mark of our castaways’ marooning, and Jack was “alone with [the Others]” for a week. Amazing how compressed time is in the context of these episodes. Three full seasons and it’s been a scant three months.
- The theory that Sun was pregnant by ex-lover Jae was put to bed (ahem) based on Juliet’s analysis of Sun’s sonogram. Also of note (I think): there were nine pregnant women Juliet tried to treat before they met their maker in the medical station’s bank vault.
We also got a look at where all of Claire’s baby room furnishings went.
- Naomi was speaking Portuguese, according to my TV’s closed captioning, and not Spanish, though the languages are similar. Unfortunately, I don’t know what she said, as my closed captioning said nothing more than “speaking Portuguese.” If Mikhail was being truthful, she also speaks Italian, and I’m relatively sure I heard some Chinese (or maybe Korean) and Russian.
- Why did Mikhail seem in such a rush to get to the source of the flare Hurley shot off? Was he expecting someone, or was it just curiosity? He seemed as desperate as the castaways to be rescued, if his nicking of the satellite phone is any indication.
- Naomi had a distinctive tattoo on her right arm, though any special meaning escapes my limited graphics memory skills.
The only thing I came across online by searching Google for “four squares connected by line” was a Wikipedia entry for tessaracts.
Other Stuff from Other Sites
- The plot thickens. The translation of Naomi’s Portuguese uttering to Mikhail is “I am not alone.” (“Eu não estou só”) Where are the rest of her crew then? On a helipad-equipped boat somewhere off the coast? [Sledgeweb]
I’d like to know what the heck Juliet plans to do. If you hate Ben and his machinations, why keep going along with him? He ain’t letting you go, so why help him? That’s it for this week.