Like hell I’m going to read this thread from the beginning…
Anyway, does anyone else think that the guys on the boat are going to take Walt to the bowels of Lud to meet the Tick-Tock Man? No? Sorry.
Seriously - my theory is that the island is a prison, holding some sort of dark god. The TCM is the jailer; the Others are its worshipers. And Locke has just freed it.
(Or perhaps two gods? One dark, one good, following the black/white motif).
Huh. Interesting. I like it, too. Only … what do the numbers have to do with anything?
They’re the spatial coordinates of the location of the control center, but only if you use non-Euclidian geometry, which would drive a normal man insane.
Fortunately for the Lostaways, they’re a little short on normal men.
I watched the trailer for Season 2. You can see it here by clicking on the lottery numbers in order. I’m convinced that this supports the theory that these guys are actually dead and in purgatory, or something (it says they’re NOT the survivors over and over). Remember the reply to Boone’s radio call (“No, we’re the survivors of flight 815”).
Also, Artz was supposed to represent the audience (us). The show writers were thumbing their nose at us. Notice that Artz brought up all the main questions/complaints that the fans have about the show such as Hurley’s lack of weight loss and the fact that we never see the other 30-odd survivors.
The Social Security Number of the Beast?
Maybe it’s sort of a science-fictiony God, whose true Name can only be expressed by numbers. When Hurley invoked his Name, he inadvertantly became the High Priest; all the people dying around him are the sacrifices.
Interesting trailer…one thing I noticed
You can hear and see that Sawyer is back on the island
When Arzt first appeared he was trying to get something to happen (ie the boat launch). Then he complained about some inconsistencies on the show. And then he started whining and the writers killed him. So it’s probably not an metaphor you’ll want to take all the way.
I only watched it once because it took forever to load…but were the clips from Season 1? Have they even started filming Season 2? So they could be showing anyone/anything and still keeping their options open.
They looked like season 1 clips to me.
-rainy
About the Others taking Walt:
1b) If they weren’t after Walt, what were they doing and why did they take him? Well, maybe they were out fishing and didn’t make it back to the island before dark. Some up above speculated the smoke was intended as a beacon to get them back to the island. Which is fine during the day, but if they’d had some trouble with the engine, they could have been keep out much longer than they planned.
As for taking Walt – that may not have been the point of that particular trip, but they were interested in him and seized the opportunity. Why would they want him? How about just because he’s a young-ish boy? They (presumably) have a group that consists of some number of people who were working scientists 16 years ago and thus likely mid-forties and upward in age, plus a 16 year old girl. Primitive living is hard work, physically hard work, and that gets harder and harder as you grow older. The traditional way to see that you are cared for in your older years is to have a supply of younger people to take over the labor.
If you look at it, they’ve gone after the most ‘reasonable’ people to add to their island population:
a) a heavily pregnant woman (a twofer: not just the baby itself, but a female who is patently fertile and so young she have many child-bearing years ahead of her)
b) a near adolescent boy, that is, one already mostly reared and beginning to be strong enough to work, but young enough you have a chance of 'reconditioning' him to accept his new life.
Note: he’s also a more reasonable age for a mate for Alex than the old guys, meaning more kids in time.
Note that Walt was at first dead set against sailing, then dropped his opposition. Could that be BECAUSE on some level his talent figured out he WOULD be taken off the raft? Or figured out some way of making sure he was ‘rescued’ from it?
As in, perhaps the raft was fated to run into one of those early monsoons, and everyone aboard would have died far out at sea. So his talent steps in, and inspires the Others to go fishing at just the right time. And maybe screws up their engine for a while, something like that.
As a result, Walt is safe and the others have at least a chance of swimming/floating back to the relative safety of the island.
That link to the Oceanic seating chart… what does it do? I got it to show a couple of seats (Jack, Locke, Charlie, Kate, the Marshall, and Rose), but that was about it. I clicked around on the blue seats, but nothing much else happens.
StarvingButStrong,
a) I think it seems pretty clear they were out looking for Walt, because Rousseau said they wanted the boy. Your “crime of opportunity” theory doesn’t explain how come the AOTO (Agents of the Others – I like that better than “Boat People”) were armed with a gun, spotlight for night searching, had a complement that exactly matched the raft and came prepared to firebomb the raft. If they wanted to enslave Walt because of his age for hard labor, it would have made more sense to lure all three adults under false pretenses and imprison them later so they could all labor. We know Sawyer can chop wood, and that Michael is an engineer.
b) Interesting speculation on why the AOTO may want Walt and not the other men, though.
c) Your theory that Walt’s talent intervened to save him friom death by impending monsoon is more intriguing to me.
Just before the launch, when Michael told Walt that they [i.e., Michael and Walt] didn’t have to go on the raft if Walt didn’t want to, Walt said, “Yes we do.” Emphasis on the “we” part. Maybe Walt doesn’t entirely know what would have happened to him, but he could sense or foresee what might have happened to his father if they stayed on the island. Perhaps any danger to Walt himself was secondary to trying to save his father’s life.
My impression was that this related to the “feeling” Walt got earlier in that episode, when Locke touched his arm and then Walt sensed something and said to Locke, “Don’t open it! Don’t open that thing!”
I think Walt knew, or sensed, that Locke would be opening Pandora’s Hatch anyways, and knows this means something bad – and so said to dad, “yes we do” meaning “we need to get off the island because that thing’s getting opened”.
Walt’s choice to leave wasn’t a “God for me vs Bad for me” descision. But rather a “Bad for me vs Biblical End of Days Bad for me” intuiton.
As for AOTO, we don’t yet know for sure that the boat people have anything to do with the others, though the implication is very strong. If we continue using using AOTO regardless, tho, someone needs to update the LOST jargon thread so others (ha!) can keep up.
I read Entertainment Weekly yesterday. The final TV rankings were included.
Lost was the #14 show of the season. It was #15 among 18-45. That means the show has a broad range of ages watching it. I think that bodes well for season #2. I think the DVD release will add more 18-45 viewers and move it up in the overall rankings.
(Lost is actually higher in the rankings if you count Survivor Vanuatu and Palau as the same show AND take into account that Amer. Idol is a part time show that takes up two spots in the charts…)