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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 15, 2009 21:12:45 GMT -5
Flashback. Still in LA it looks like. Dude... they abducted him? I thought he already agreed to go? Bran? You owe me a fish taco. Hee! And yeah, those fish tacos are pretty tasty. Don't be denying people their fish tacos! Bran uses the code phrase. And why on Earth would Miles know what that is? And does this mean the the Order of What Lies In The Shadow Of The Statue are not Widmore's people? Is this a third faction? Miles' isn't "ready" to go to the island yet. What does he need to do to be ready? Bran promises to tell Miles' about why he's psychic and about his dad. Miles being psychic has something to do with the DHARMA experiments, I'm guessing. There's the 3.2 mil figure. But Bran passes and goes for what will really draw Miles in. Widmore, take note. Hey, what if this third faction is actually the remnants of the DHARMA Initiative? Like the ones that weren't on the island? The world is a big place. Maybe Ben and The Others couldn't get them all, just send them into hiding. All the money in the world isn't going to fill that empty hole inside you, Miles. It's sad isn't it? You're playing for the wrong team? Yeah, what team are you on? The one that's going to win. Well, that narrows it down. More RoadTrip. Hurley fills Miles in on season 2. Hurley tries to foster bonding between Dr. Chang and Miles. Miles vents his frustration Hurley is a good therapist. And I'm guessing that Dr. Chang actually does care for Miles. Probably his mom said that based on whatever ill advised things Dr. Chang is up that that is going to bring ruin upon everyone. In an "he wouldn't have done that if he really cared about us" sort of way. Miles turns the tables on Hurley. They're going to be fighting in the jungle and stumble upon Something Unexpected, aren't they? Ah, Hurley is writing the Star Wars screenplays. With a couple of "improvements." Heh. Sawyer returns home. And Jack is there to regulate. Sawyer's little world crumbles some more. And Jack's back in the drivers seat. Phil shows up. And he's got the NotErased Security tape. Sawyer knocks Phil out and ties him up. Sawyer, Sawyer, Sawyer. *Sigh*
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Post by Lola m on Apr 15, 2009 21:19:06 GMT -5
"Hey Miles!" So who the hell are thsee people? And there's that "lies in the shadow of the statue" thing again. "We're not paying you anything" well, that kinda screws their bargaining position. At least they stopped before they tossed him out. So some of the Dharma initiative survived? and these are they? Along with the ones that came over on Ajira 316? Had kind of a Dharma vibe to it, didn't it? There was a lot that was giggle-worthy in this ep. ;D **makes note to look for this comic** ;D
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Post by Lola m on Apr 15, 2009 21:23:40 GMT -5
Heh.....that douche is my dad. Oh...would you stop the crashing of your plane if you could? Would you shoot or save a baby!Benry? And, will it work?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 15, 2009 21:24:38 GMT -5
Flashback. Miles returns to Mr. Gray. Returns the money and comes clean. Thereby negating any catharsis. But it wouldn't have been fair to his son. If you needed your son to know that you loved him, then you should have told him when he was still alive. Good point. Also, projecting much? ETA: On the other hand, there's not much that can be done for the son now; the father, however, can be given solace. So what Miles said is kind of vindictive. Back on the island. Miles and Hurley return to The Barracks. Bonding over daddy issues. The best thing I ever did was give him a second chance. And Hurley ties the Daddy Issues to Star Wars. In Empire, Luke finds out that Vader is his father, but instead of putting away his light saber and talking about it, he overreacted and got his hand cut off [Like how Dr. Chang gets his arm cut off?] . I mean, they worked it out eventually, but at what cost? Another Death Star was destroyed, Boba Fett got eaten by the Sarlac, and we got the Ewoks. And that could have been avoided if they had just, you know, communicated. Let's face it, Ewoks suck, dude. Even though Return of the Jedi is my FAVORITE of the Original Trilogy and I LOVE the Ewoks Miles looks and BabySelf and Dr. Chang [Looks like the epitome of domestic bliss] and ponders what Hurley has said. Aww... Scientists coming in from Ann Arbor. And one of them is Daniel! And Miles didn't know anything about this. So... how did that happen?
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Post by Lola m on Apr 15, 2009 21:37:23 GMT -5
Flashback. Still in LA it looks like. Dude... they abducted him? I thought he already agreed to go? Bran? You owe me a fish taco. Hee! And yeah, those fish tacos are pretty tasty. Don't be denying people their fish tacos! Seriously! I think there is a third (at least) faction - the remnants of Dharma, possibly including Daniel's mom . . . But I think they were warning him not to join the people who use the "shadow" code phrase, which are Widmore's people, which means that the plane people with guns in the future!present with Locke and Ben and Sun are really Widmore's people . . . If that makes any kind of sense at all. **facepalm** That would be my guess too! Yes! This is what I was thinking! That line sounds really Dharma-esque, doesn't it? Quoting myself to say now that I've rewatched (quickly), I can't decide if the van guys really are the same as the new plane people who said the "shadow" thing, or were warning against them! **is boggled** But I am still thinking that there are 3 factions! 'Cuz I just don't see the van people as being Ben's "style" somehow. ;D I mean, they didn't kill Miles, for one thing.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 15, 2009 21:47:34 GMT -5
I wonder what "improvements" Hurley was making to Empire Strikes Back. I wonder if we'll ever know.
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Post by Sara on Apr 16, 2009 13:28:14 GMT -5
As Liz wondered, Ilana's accomplice from the previous week, chatting with Miles in the van: Lostpedia confirms his name is Bram, per the credits from an ABC press release. Of course, Lostpedia notes the name is familiar to most of us because of Bram Stoker, author of Dracula. The entry adds, "Bram is usually a nickname for Abraham, as it was for Stoker." So not only are they paying homage to a classic author, but throwing a little Biblical mojo in there to boot.
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Post by Sara on Apr 16, 2009 13:35:35 GMT -5
Some fun facts about the ep from Lostpedia; as is appropriate for an episode with lots of Hugo, the numbers were all over the place: - 3:16 appears on the microwave in Miles' home as a boy.
- Miles has 15 piercings in his ears and face in the flashback.
- The man who had a heart attack died in room number 4. 4 is considered a bad luck number in Japan, Korea and China, as it is a homonym for the word "death" in Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
- Conversely, you can read the word "vida" outside the taco shop, which of course is Spanish for "life."
- There's a rabbit statue under which young Miles finds the key.
- A number 8 is written inside the ear of the rabbit statue.
- LaFleur asks Miles to delete the video from camera 4.
- Pierre is reading a polar bear book to Miles.
- Naomi tells Miles her employer will pay him 1.6 million dollars.
- The cover of the Sports Illustrated read "After 23 years... NEW BOSS IN L.A."
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 16, 2009 18:57:06 GMT -5
To help whet your appetite for the episode, some interesting speculation from EW's Doc Jensen:Reader Svetlana Evans picked up on something in ''Dead Is Dead'' that intrigued me, too. ''What is the significance of the big deal they made of John Locke taking off the shoes to row the [outrigger] between islands, and taking such care when putting them back on, especially on camera, while he was talking to Ben. Filler action or pertinent to storyline?''
I vote ''pertinent.'' Remember, those shoes belonged to Christian Shephard. Jack put them on Corpse Locke's feet so John could play the role of Corpse Christian's proxy aboard Ajira 316. I got the vibe that Lost was trying to remind the audience about the shoes without looking like it was trying to remind us about the shoes. Perhaps it's one more clue that John is as undead as Christian — that is, if it isn't proof of my ''Ben murdered Christian like he murdered Locke'' theory.
And perhaps the shoe thing is an arrow pointing elsewhere — someplace old and cold. And horny! Let me explain. To date, Lost has been partial to Egyptian mythology, famous for its robust ideas about the afterlife. Part of the Egyptian tradition includes loading burial chambers with things (food, furniture, various household goods) that the dead can utilize. Those hieroglyphics on Ben's secret door and in the bowels of the Temple? Archeologists say they were akin to spells or charms that allowed the dead to activate their stuff. See? You can take it with you!
But there's another mythology that had a similar yet more oddly focused tradition. Meet the Vikings, those rough-and-tumble mead-swilling, horn-hatted (i.e., ''horny'') Scandinavian pagans partial to Norse gods of Odin and Thor. Viking tradition called for corpses to be dressed in their finest threads and their feet to be shod with ''Hel-Shoes.'' After all, souls need a good pair of footwear for the journey to hell — or ''Hel'' as the Norse called it, named after the goddess who served as its warden. Hel had some very interesting father issues, just like many characters on Lost. And Hel has something in common with dearly departed Alex: As it happens, Hel's dad is Loki, the great villain of Norse mythology — the god of lies.
When I asked the Lost Super-Computer (i.e., Wikipedia) to crunch the word ''Hoth,'' it came back with the fact that ''Hoth'' also refers to a figure from Norse mythology sometimes known as ''Hod,'' ''Hoor,'' or ''Hotherus.'' Investigating Norse mythology brought me to the concept of ''Hel-Shoes,'' as well as some other intriguing possibilities for Lost.
You see, for eons there were two sets of Norse gods that were at war with each other: the gods of Aesir and the gods of Vanir. There was an attempt at a truce, which involved an exchange of hostages as insurance. One of the hostages was an Aesiran god named Mirmir, who had the ability to see future events. For various reasons, the Vanir felt they had been tricked, so they cut off Mirmir's head and sent it back to Odin, who for a long time carried it around and asked it questions and stuff. Creepy. And it gets better! Eventually, Odin buried the head in a well under the Tree of Life and was able to continue asking it questions about the future — but he had to cut out his eye as a sacrifice. Anyway, the truce between the rival tribes eventually collapsed, there was a rumble, and when it was over...the bickering deities found a way to get along and merged pantheons into one big super-pantheon.
Gonzo. And I love it. Might we see the Dharma/Hostile feud proceed along parallel lines? Will there be a hostage swap to preserve the peace? Is disembodied Jacob something similar to beheaded Mirmir? Will Dr. Marvin Candle cut off his arm to glean the Island's secrets of the future in the same way Odin plucked out his eye? Will Dharma and the Others finally merge to form their own super-group?
But back to this Hoth guy. Hoth had a distinctive trait: He was blind. He also murdered his brother, a god by the name of Balder. One might be tempted to forge a Cain and Abel comparison, but Hoth had a good excuse: He was tricked by the god of lies, Loki, into shooting a ''missile'' (or spear) loaded with mistletoe, the only substance capable of killing Hoth's otherwise invulnerable sibling. Yet despite being deceived, Hoth was punished severely. Odin sired a monstrous son named Vali for the sole purpose of slaying the sightless, accidental god-killer. At Balder's funeral, Odin whispered something into his dead son's ear. No one really knows what Odin said, and from that day forth, anyone who dared to challenge Odin in a battle of wits had to answer the Sphinx-like riddle: ''What did Odin whisper in Balder's ear?'' Finally, Balder's death set in motion Ragnarok, or ''destiny of the gods,'' a series of events that culminated with a final battle between various sets of gods and monsters from various corners of Norse mythology. One of the major players in Ragnarok was the Norse equivalent of Cerberus, the hound of Hell. Named Garmr, this wolfish creature was unchained during the final battle for the world and allowed to slaughter with impunity. Ragnarok ended with the death of the world (everything gets submerged in water, à la the Flood) and the birth of the new world and the rebirth of fallen gods — including Balder. Indeed, while Odin's whisper was technically a mystery, most scholars believe that it was actually a single word: ''Resurrection.''
Might this wide swath of Norse mythology parallel or at least intersect with Lost mythology? Garmr? Smokey, of course. Missile? Jughead. Odin's Resurrection Riddle? That brings to mind the Rainier-Canton anagram (''resurrection'') from earlier this season, plus the ''What did one snowman say to the other snowman?'' riddle from season 2 and the ''What lies in the shadow of the statue?'' riddle of ''Dead Is Dead.'' (My answer: Mirmir's head!) Balder? The slain, reborn god, could be John Locke, because, after all, Locke is...bald. And he has been resurrected. Ragnarok? ''There's a war coming, John. And if you're not on it when that happens, the wrong side is going to win.'' —Charles Widmore.
Might all of this be something of a stretch? Maybe. And yet, I'm taken with the idea that Lost's fixation with Egyptian mythology this season has actually been an elaborate misdirection — a smoke screen, if you will — for the real mythic cosmology that inspires it. And anyway, remember that the money that built the Dharma Initiative came from one Alvar Hanso, a Danish guy who according to ''The Lost Experience'' had secret Dharma facilities located in Iceland — which may have been Lost's way of hinting that the roots of its whole mythology lie in Norse soil...Hmm...
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 16, 2009 19:13:21 GMT -5
Hey! No previouslies! Young Miles and his mom. Dad's not in the picture. The actress who plays mom looks very familiar. Cool, we get to see the psychic flashes that Miles gets. Bunny rabbit! Wow, Miles' mom is very, very jumpy. And the music really isn't helping her nerves. Oh, Miles found a dead guy. I guess his mom was right to be worried. Miles hasn't learned to be quiet about his psychic flashes yet. I felt so bad for him, when he was standing there crying that the guy was still talking to him. Ha! Yeah, him paying no attention to the dead guy in back? Soooooo not gonna happen! Good one. Ha! It reminded me of small children haven't developed that filter that leads people to refrain from saying certain things to certain audiences (or saying them in a different way) when you know that they won't be receptive to it and thus saving one from fear, shame, humiliation, and disdain, etc. I remember several similar times in my childhood when I did the same thing (not with psychic premonitions, but definitely with perceiving the world differently), so I really feel for Young Miles here.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 16, 2009 19:16:03 GMT -5
Hugo gonna find out when he don't really wanna know. "that's traditionally what you put IN a body bag" "Tooth yanked out of his socket and blowing through his brain" ah. So future location of the Swan station.and Hugo just relaxes into it. Ah, that's why. "I can talk to 'em too" So how is he gonna run this scam with the grieving father? Simple and to-the-point. Good. Hi, Naomi! Didn't figure I'd see you again. Otherton.. Roger getting his good daddy drink on. And Kate can't leave bad enough alone. And Kate opens her mouth. Kate, you know about drunk asshole fathers. And Miles and Hugo having their Haley Joel Osmont moments together. "Just jealous because my power's better than yours" Hugo, you HAD to open your fucking mouth. "If you think working in the kitchen is bad..." "I like the kitchen" "Gross" so blandly he completely spikes Chang's guns. LD And Miles lets loose of a secret of his own. How did you put that together?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 16, 2009 19:19:47 GMT -5
My GOD that's some awesome hair. He's SO teenage. He looks like Rufio from Hook. Sooooo much better a regression than the scary be-wigged mock-teen Benry of last week. Loved her "now it starts" line. Hee! I actually thought that one was better than some of the wigs that Jack's had to wear.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 16, 2009 19:22:11 GMT -5
This island has a number of deceased individuals residing on it. Much as hunting down a mass murderer sounds really safe, I'm gonna pass. My employer is willing to pay you 1.6 million dollars. When do we leave? Marvin Candle. Stage name. Ha ha ha ha ha! And yeah, if you didn't want to talk, why mention it in the first place, eh? You say a word . . . Polar poop, got it! When crazy eyes Jack tells you to forget a topic, dude? Forget it! OMG, Hurley questioning Dr Chang? Heeeeeee! "We should all . . . get together for a beer sometime. How awesome would that be?" Are they building a secret station or something? Maybe in Hostile territory? The numbers!!!!! The numbers!!!!! The numbers!!!!! They're building the hatch!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!! "The one that crashed our plane." Oh! I didn't even catch that first time round!
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 16, 2009 19:31:39 GMT -5
<snip> This reminds me of an exchange between two of the soldier-monsters (and a prisoner) in the Girl Genius web comic: Gorb: Well, let's just kill her. Othar: Fiends! Kill her and I'll tell the Baron! Gorb: Well, maybe we'll kill you too, smart guy. Minsk: Gorb.... Gorb: What? Minsk: Gorb. This is turning into one of those plans... The kind were we kill everyone that notices that we're killing people? Gorb: It is? Minsk. Uh huh. And how do those always end? Gorb: The dirigible is in flames, everybody's dead and I've lost my hat. Minsk: That's right. And any plan where you lose your hat is? Gorb: A bad plan? Minsk: Right again! This.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 16, 2009 19:34:21 GMT -5
Told the truth to the guy, to be fair to his dead son. Miles really has more connection and respect for dead people than living, doesn't he?Hurley - nice summary of the story while making your point. Also? "Face it. Ewoks sucked, dude." ;D Awwwwww. Nice Dr daddy, sitting there with his boy. Did he make them leave to protect them, perhaps? Daniel!! Whoa!! Ooh, you're right!
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