Jay's Suspicious Screengrabs: The Statue

Ok, so we have another screengrab from Jay, and this one is shocking. Take a look at this still he unearthed online from an upcoming Lost episode:


That's an unexpected second foot on the four-toed statue. What could it mean? Well, apparently Jay's friend went on a Honeymoon in Hawaii, and got a pic of an interesting prop on the set of LOST that could clear things up.


Amazing. Clearly, what we thought was an ankh is most likely a large draft of the gettysburg address.

Thanks, Jay!

Episode 5.8 "LaFleur" – Initial Thoughts

My wife said this was the "craziest and best episode yet". The jury's still out for me as far as "best ever" goes, but it was a great one. Let's look at the new revelations, starting with the most awesome one:


THE STATUE! THE STATUE! But, of course, it's from the back so we can't see it fully. Ok, so my first thought was that it looked like a girl, and possibly Kate. But if so, what is she holding in both hands? (Click on the pic to enlarge.) Also, it appears she's wearing a crown on her head. Examining the statue further, however, I'd say that the statue is holding an Ankh in each hand, the Egyptian symbol for life – which would make sense a little because we also saw an Ankh this episode on deceased Paul's necklace (possibly a clue from the writers?). To further that theory, there is some speculation on the internet that the statue is of the Egyptian God Horus, who holds an Ankh in most depictions. I think this is very possible. A brief glimpse into Horus's wikipedia page has some striking LOST connections. First, Horus is often connected to the eye, the Eye of Horus being an important Egyptian symbol of power. And Lost loves showing close-ups of eyes. The show started that way, and keeps repeating that motif, memorably so with Jacob's eye flashing on screen during the first scene in Jacob's cabin. Second, Horus is often represented by a Falcon, and on this Wiki page, a green one at that. Remember the Hurley bird from Season 2?

Weird. Also, we've seen hieroglyphics all over the island, including a symbol of a bird not unlike Horus's symbol on his Wiki page. Read up on Lost's heiroglyphics here. Plus, Richard wears a lot of eyeliner, as Sawyer pointed out this episode, and what's more ancient Egyptian than that? So, if the statue is Horus, what does it all mean? Well, I'm not sure, but Horus been considered by some an early, pagan version of Christ. Meaning, he died to save his people – a common theme lately with Locke's resurrection. However, the connections between Horus's story and Jesus's story have apparently been exaggerated Da Vinci Code-style by folks who don't mind fiddling with the truth and are pretty easily debunked. The creators of Lost have often said that the island and the show are all about redemption and getting second chances, so to me this statue suggests that many people have seen the island in that light, even in its ancient times. And maybe some early Egyptians found the island, discovered its redemptive, life-giving powers and built a statue on it. Maybe it goes even beyond redemption... maybe somewhere on the island is the secret to Everlasting Life? Richard seems like good proof to that. Maybe he was one of the first to find it. And now does Locke have Everlasting Life? Lots to speculate here.


NEW DHARMA CHARACTERS: We meet two new doofus-y 70s characters right off the bat in the Dharma Pearl security station. Jerry... and Phil. Their first names suggest a subtle 70s Grateful Dead tribute. (As do the "brownies" their friend Rosie brings.) So, Dharma folks are basically hippies... with lots of guns. Hmm. One small fun easter egg: Rosie is wearing a Geronimo Jackson shirt.


HORACE LIKES BLOWING UP TREES: With Dynamite. Dynamite from The Black Rock perhaps? The Black Rock he pretended not to know about when Sawyer said his crew were looking for it? Also, Horace is okay with wearing his wife's socks if his are all dirty. Which is kinda funny.

DANIEL'S GONE OFF THE DEEP END: They find him whimpering "I'm not gonna tell her." Meaning, we can assume, that he's determined not to tell young Charlotte to leave the island and never come back. I don't like Daniel to be crazy, so hopefully he'll recover soon. Interesting that we didn't see him in the 1977 "Three Years Later" scenes. And, we know at some point he heads to the frozen donkey wheel site in the Orchid (from this Season's opener.) Does he use it to go back in time somehow and start a rogue trip to try to save Charlotte?


BABY CHARLOTTE: Excellent casting, by the way. So, we see Charlotte briefly with what I assume is her mother, speaking in an English accent. Although, Daniel's the only one that sees her, so could it have been a hallucination on his part? Maybe, but I doubt it, I think it was real.


AMY AND HORACE HAVE A BABY: So, first off, I guess I was wrong about Charlotte being Horace's daughter since Amy gave birth to a boy. Who is this boy? I have no idea. At all. Any guesses? But I will say... If Horace is a ladies man, he could still somehow have been Charlotte's dad as well as the mystery boy's dad. We did see him at Ben's birth in Season 3 with a different woman, the teacher Oliva, who lostpedia claims is his wife. Hmm. Maybe they were married or together first, then broke up after having Charlotte? I'm sticking with my original theory. Horace will turn out to be Charlotte's dad, too, somehow. Dharma has commune written all over it.

WAIT, YOU CAN HAVE BABIES ON THE ISLAND IN 1977? Apparently. So, I think that means the babies stopped being able to be born after "The Incident". Which, as I've theorized before, is when someone turns the wheel (Widmore at Ben's prompting?) and causes time skips to start up (reuniting Sun & Locke in the future with the Losties in the past?) To stop the time skips, Dharma builds the Swan Hatch, which fixes the time skips but for some reason prevents babies from being born? Causing the Others to have to kidnap children because they're dying out?

WHERE'S YOUNG BEN?: So, 1974 to 1977. Is Ben on the island yet as a part of Dharma? He was somewhere between 8 and 12 when he joined Dharma with his father in the episode The Man Behind the Curtain. And The Purge, where he killed Dharma folks en masse, didn't happen until 1992, when he looked to be about 35 or so. So if Ben was 8 when he came to the island, and about 35 in 1992, that would mean he came to the island in the 60s and would be there in 1974-1977 with Sawyer and the others. Hmm. And to that point-

IS WIDMORE CURRENTLY LEADING THE OTHERS? Widmore claimed last episode to have led the Others for 30 years before getting conned off the island by Ben. He was 17 when we saw him in Jughead, according to him. And that episode occurred in 1954. So that would mean even if he started leading the Others right after the Jughead episode, 30 years later would be 1984. So, yes, I guess he's there and leading Richard and The Others. Weird.


RICHARD AND SAWYER: Have an interesting conversation. Richard, of course, doesn't know Sawyer because he hasn't met him yet. (Side note: How come Richard always has modern looking clothes on, even in 1954? Except for that one time when he met young Ben, he's always been wearing this outfit.) I liked the way Sawyer handled this – and that we learn Richard DID bury the Jughead bomb. I'm sure we'll see that thing again. My question is... Does Richard know about the island's time travel capabilities? It looks like not. Because he had no idea what Locke was talking about in 1954. And if he had figured it out in the years between Locke's disappearance and Sawyer's arrival he would not have been so confused to meet Sawyer now. So, I think he's protecting the island for other reasons than it's time travel capabilities. Maybe it's resurrection and renewal powers?

SUBMARINE TO TAHITI – I get why Juliet doesn't end up taking the submarine, but what about Miles? Why didn't he ditch the island when he had the chance?

And finally, the shocker of the episode:


SAWYER... AND JULIET? Poor Juliet. Every time she gets something going with a guy, Kate shows up and scowls her way back into their hearts. Maybe next episode will pick up right where this one left off, and Juliet will suddenly yell "I've got your back" from behind Sawyer and shoot Kate before they can embrace. But I doubt it.

One more thing:

WHERE THE HECK ARE ROSE AND BERNARD? I mean, I barely care, but you just can't stop writing about two characters without explaining something about them, even if they are really, really boring. Did they get stuck way back in time somehow, playing backgammon on the beach?

NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW: Looks like Sayid shows up and blows everybody's cover. But if he shows up in 1977, what has he been doing the last 3 years? And it looks like Sun is stuck in present time. Will a 70 year old Jin be waiting for her in the Barracks? Or will they find a way to travel in time again, restoring the divided Losties? We'll find out in two weeks, with episode 5.9, entitled "Namaste".

You have to kill your dad?

Ben told Locke he had to kill his Dad if he wanted to lead the Others. Was that true?

We know that Ben killed his own Dad by gassing him. Richard asked him if he wanted to bury the body, and Ben said no, to leave him there.

I think maybe Ben made up that whole "kill your dad" rule. First, in order to kill his own dad, whom he hated. And then later in life, he stuck to that rule to try to keep Locke from becoming the leader of the Others. He knew that Locke wouldn't have the guts to kill anyone. He lied and told the Others and Richard that Jacob said that killing your dad is what "special leaders" do.

This would explain why Richard came to Locke and offered him Sawyer as a solution to his problem. (Back in the episode The Brig.) Richard even said that the Others were growing suspicious of Ben's leadership, so they must have known that he wasn't be truthful about Jacob's orders.

If I'm wrong, then I guess the Others just hate dads.

Why was Daniel Faraday crying?

Now that we know a little more about Daniel, and that the show involves time travel, I've been thinking more about the episode "Confirmed Dead". If you remember, in a flashback during that episode, we saw Daniel watching footage of the faked Flight 815 crash on TV, and he was crying.

I have two questions about this, let's see if we can come up with some answers together.

First off, why was he crying? Did he know someone on the original flight, and think that they died? If so, who could that be?

Now that we know that Daniel ends up time traveling, however, I think it's more likely that he's crying because of what's ABOUT to happen. As I mentioned before, I think the notebook that he carries around is from the future, and at some point we'll see a future, older Daniel hand the notebook to a young Daniel. That's why Daniel has to keep checking it, because he hasn't written it yet. So, maybe the notebook tells him that Charlotte is going to die on the island, and that's why he's crying. He sees the wreck and knows that a certain chain of events are about to begin.

Or, maybe he's crying because he already works for Widmore and he knows that the flight was faked, and that people were murdered in order to fake it. Or, maybe he's been searching for the island for a while and thought he had a lead with Flight 815, and was crying because his research was in vain. Research that he was hoping would cure his time-stuck girlfriend Theresa, the one Desmond saw in a coma in the episode "Jughead". What do you guys think?

Secondly, who was the woman that consoled him as he was crying? Was it Theresa, pre-time coma? Or was it Charlotte herself?

Oddly enough, the mystery woman was referred to in the "enhanced episode" notes as Daniel's "Caretaker". And, she is putting a blanket on him as he cries, a very caretaker-like action. Could Daniel have experimented on himself and caused himself to start skipping in time, landing himself in a mental home? And is he crying because he's seeing stuff from the future, maybe even Charlotte's death?

Could be lots of things, I guess. Thoughts?

Jay's Amazing Screengrabs: Ameila Earhart

A new feature on Lost Mindgrapes, my friend Jay's amazingly improbable screengrabs. He apparently has some kind of special screengrab technology that helps him catch things that others might miss. I don't know how he does it, but I think you'll agree the results are astounding. Here are a couple finds that support the Ameila Earhart theory:

Is Amelia Earhart on Lost island?

So, as Caesar was flipping through a LIFE magazine last episode, there was a quick picture of The Creature from the Black Lagoon carrying the lady from the original movie. The actress who played the lady has appeared on Lost. Her name was Amelia, and she was an other in Juliet's book club. But the real question is... Is she Amelia Earhart? There have been two clues in the Lost universe that Amelia Earhart might be on the island. First, a broadcast announcing Earhart's plane going missing over the Pacific Ocean was featured as a part of the alternate reality game called FIND 815 that happened in the summer right before season 4. Then, Richard's company Mittelos Bioscience used an airport called Herarat, which is an anagram for Earhart.

Also, she's wearing an Amelia Earhart style aviator scarf, so, bingo.


A nice detail from the writers, but probably not huge in the scheme of things on LOST.

Episode 5.7 "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

Here's random first thoughts on a great episode:

BACK AT THE HYDRA STATION: We open on new character Caesar exploring what turns out to be the Hydra Station. Which means flight 316 crashed on the much smaller second island near the main island. This is confirmed when we see Locke looking out over the ocean at the island across the way, right before eating a mango with huge amounts of gusto.


CAESAR LIKES MAPS AND GUNS: Caesar looks at some interesting maps and diagrams. Thanks to screen grabs from this site, I see that one diagram has the following words on it: Space Time, Real Time, Imaginary Time, Imaginary Space, and then some algebra that will never be decoded (by me) and "Event A" "Event C", etc. So that all makes perfect sense. He then finds what looks to be a map to Middle Earth or more likely the Island itself. This map has the Tempest Station called out on it, as well as a drawing of what looks like a boat or a submarine off to the left. And one note I can read says: Possible Path through Northern Mountains. Oh, he also thumbs briefly through a LIFE Magazine circa April 19 1954, which features a story called "The Awesome Fireball." Interesting, but probably mostly meaningless. Then he finds a gun, and lies about it. So he fits right in with all the other Losties, who have been lying about finding guns since season One.


THE RUNWAY? As Ceasar and the other new characters walk back to the camp to meet Locke, we see that their plane is pretty much intact, or at least a big chunk of it. AND, my guess is that we'll learn that pilot Frank Lapidus landed it to the best of his ability on the runway that the Others had Kate and Sawyer help them build at Jacob's command a few seasons ago If so, that's some CRAZY pre-planning on the part of the writers of Lost.

LOCKE'S BACK: And wearing at first what looks like a Jedi outfit, but I think it was maybe a blanket from Anjira Airlines? He's apparently totally alive, which is surprising. I mean, I knew he was coming back, but I thought he might come back in weird ghostly fashion like Christian Shephard or something.


THE OUTRIGGERS: Are also back. That's a little confusing because the last time we saw the Outriggers, it was in a future time. SO, are Locke and this new crew in the 70s with Jack and Kate? Or in the future of the island at some point beyond where we've been before? It's possible that those who crashed are in the present time, and those who flashed and 'disappeared' off the plane were taken to the past to be matched up with their friends. Possible, but confusing.

THE PILOT & 'SOME WOMAN': Sayid's Marshall Lady (was her name Alana? I couldn't find it for sure on the web) told Locke that the pilot and 'some woman' stole a third outrigger boat. We know the pilot is Frank Lapidus. I'm guessing the other woman is Sun, and that we'll see that she convinced Frank to take her across to the main island to find Jin. But if it is Sun, why didn't she flash away with Jack, Kate, and Hurley. And where's Sayid?


WIDMORE FINDS LOCKE: Because he's been watching 'The Exit'. My guess is that he's been watching the exit ever since Ben came back from the island the first time and left a trail of bodies in his wake. Because Widmore wasn't watching the exit then, or at least we didn't see a camera.

BEN TRICKED WIDMORE: So we learn that Widmore was tricked into leaving the island by Ben, so Ben could lead the Others. Widmore claims that he once led the Others, before Ben, and that they "protected the island peacefully." Yeah, right. Was neck-snapping a part of this peaceful protection? He didn't seem like a peaceful dude back in the 'Jughead' episode.

A WAR COMING: John rightfully asks why Widmore would help him, and Widmore responds, "because there's a war coming, and if you're not back the wrong side wins." Whoa, what? So I guess we know what the next and final season of Lost is going to be about.
But a war between who? Ben and Widmore? A reformed Dharma and the Others?

WIDMORE IS LYING: He first claims "I haven't tried to kill you" which is not 100% true, since he sent Keamy to kill everyone on the island. He then tries to claim that he was trying to remove Ben so that it could be Locke's turn to rule, but that sounds preposterous to me. If that turns out to be true, I will be shocked.


DRIVING MS. LOCKSIE: So then Matthew Abaddon shows up again to drive Locke to where he needs to go. My wife pointed out that you can see at first that Locke recognizes Abaddon, but is not sure from where. Then Abaddon pulls out the wheelchair, repeating a move that he did in the past as Locke's hospital orderly. Then, Locke appears to remember how he knows him. So Abaddon being Locke's orderly is interesting. By admitting to telling Locke to go on the walkabout, Abaddon is basically saying that Widmore KNEW flight 815 was going to crash on the island before hand. So, as has often been theorized, it is very probable that many of the people on the flight were arranged to be on the flight by someone behind the scenes.

Here's what we learned from each of Locke's visits:

SAYID: is now a little holier-than-thou working with a Habitat for Humanity type deal. He tells Locke that Ben manipulated him for 2 years into thinking he was protecting the people on the island. We pretty much knew that, but I wonder how Sayid found that out? And, what Ben was using Sayid to do? Remember when he was trying to kill an "Economist"? Who was that? Will the Economist play a larger part in the 'war' we're now hearing about? And also, who killed Sayid's wife? I would guess Ben did, in order to get Sayid to work for him.


WALT: Locke decides not to ask Walt to go back right after Walt asks him about Micheal's whereabouts. Clearly, he doesn't want Walt to learn about Michael's explosive fate. But it is weird that Walt didn't just show up on the plane last episode like every one else did. Or, was he in the back of the plane and we just didn't see him? Also interesting is Walt's recurring dreams about Locke wearing a suit on the island while other people try to harm him. I guess that's a hint towards things to come, since he's in his funeral suit on the island in present time. Maybe it's also a reference to the coming war Widmore was talking about?

HURLEY: Provides some more comic relief, but we don't learn a lot in this scene. Though Abaddon does say that Locke needs to step up his game or 'we're all in trouble'. What could this mean? It's so weird to watch a show where the main threat is so veiled in secrecy and you don't even know what's at stake. Everyone keeps saying "or God help us all" when talking about getting the Losties back to the island. What could this possibly mean? Is the world in danger? How?

KATE: Is as rude as ever.


JACK: Is even ruder than Kate. But I'm not sure why Jack is so mean. I think his first question to Locke would really have been "Hey, did you freaking MOVE THE ISLAND? What was that?" But no, instead he's really rude to Locke and says he was just an old man who crashed on an island and is not important at all. Um, an island with Smoke Monsters and the power to heal a man in a wheelchair isn't important? Locke tells Jack he saw Christian, which I think explains why in the season 3 finale, a drugged out Jack in a pharmacy referred to his Dad as still being alive. Jack must have thought seeing his Dad on the island was a crazy hallucination, but having Locke confirm Christian's prescence on the island must have sent Jack over the edge mentally.


BEN: Then, the creepy but great long scene of Locke's death plays out. There's a lot of interesting things to discuss here.

LOCKE GIVES UP: Apparently, Locke was going to just give up and kill himself. And his letter to Jack was a kind of pathetic last "I told you so."

BEN TALKS HIM DOWN, THEN KILLS HIM: Why does Ben strangle Locke? He obviously wanted him to live at first, but then learned something that changed his mind. Ben learned two things: That Jin was alive, and that the island told Locke to contact Elouise Hawking. I think it was the Ms. Hawking part that made him change his mind. Here's my theory on why. Ben's plan with helping Locke and the Losties is based on his selfish desire to get back to the island. According to Ben, after you spin the wheel, you're banished from the island forever. I think this is true, but Ben wants to find a way to get back anyway, against the island's wishes. I think Ben has been keeping an eye on the Losties to see when they're going to go back, so he can weasel his way into their group. It's ironic, then, that Ben accuses Widmore of using Locke to do the same thing. Anyway, here's what I think happened. I think Ben thought he had something Locke needed: a way to get back to the island. I think Ben has another way to get there, a way that he used to use coming and going from the island with fake passports. I think this is why Ben says to Locke as he's helping him into the wheelchair, something leading like "Once you get your friends to agree to come back, I'm not sure how we'll get back to the island, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there." But, to Ben's suprise, that's when Locke brings up Eloise Hawking. I think Ben was planning to use his knowledge of the island as leverage, but at this point realizes that he's not needed at all and that Locke and the Oceanic 6 can get back without him. In fact, they probably won't offer to bring him back if they can do it on their own. So he kills Locke so that he will be able to get on the plane himself, as the Oceanic 6's guide. He now knows how he can get Sun to go back, and he knows that Jack is wanting to go back because he's buying tickets to Sidney. And Ben could have already thought of how to get Kate back through Aaron's lawsuit and Sayid back by turning him in for the murders he had him commit. So the one tricky one would be Hurley, but maybe he handled that by possibly setting up the murder charges? And sending those guys to try to get Sayid? I dunno. But I think it makes sense that Ben would murder Locke for his own selfish gain. Did he know that Locke would come back to life? Maybe, or maybe if you asked him, he would have said "Who cares?"

BACK TO THE ISLAND: Caesar confirms that Hurley and some of the other Oceanic Six folks disappeared before the crash. Locke learns through this that his 'friends' are the ones that brought him back to the island. Although they aren't great friends because they basically told him to go hang himself. But he also learns that Ben DIDN'T disappear from the plane with Jack and the others, which lends credibility to my theory that the island doesn't want Ben back and Ben is just weaseling his way back in the picture.


MELISSA ETHERIDGE: Was it just me or was one of the injured people rock star Melissa Etheridge? I hope not.

SPOILER/NEXT WEEK'S PREVIEW: Looks like next week we'll get introduced to some new gun toting bad guys and that there will be some hostages taken by them. Also, Sawyer and Juliet will be back, so I'm guessing that will mean we're in the 70s? Erin and I froze a lot of frames on the preview, but we couldn't figure out who the female hostage was with the bag over her head. I don't think it was Kate because her clothes were different than Kate was wearing in another clip they showed in the preview. And I don't think it was Juliet for the same reason. Sun? Maybe, but her hair looked lighter than Sun's. Claire? No, didn't look like it. My vote is going to be out there, but maybe it's Sawyer's old flame Cassidy? Or, if they're in the 70s it could be Charlotte's mom. Because the lady had reddish blond hair. Also, it sounds like Sawyer will say some mushy things to Kate. Poor Jack.