# Lost 1.3: "Tabula Rasa" (some unboxed spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909 "2004-10-06T20:00:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McDeath_the_Mad)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/21 "2004-10-07T04:11:12Z")
Okay am I smoking crack? I swear after last Wednesday’s episode they showed a preview for this week and it had Locke building some sort of projectile weapon(s) to hunt with. And I remember seeing the marshall guy alive and warning everybody about Kate. But now it looks like Jack snuffed him out, or did he? Was the preview I saw for next weeks episode? MtM ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/22 "2004-10-07T04:17:40Z")
I’m sure I am waaaay off base here, but I’m getting a kinda weird “guardian angel” vibe off of Locke. He seems to be the calmest of the survivors, and his “miracle secret” seems to reinforce this. Air Marshall-dude aside, the survivors seems to have gotten off surprisingly light, injury-wise. I would have expected multiple broken bones, as well as a number of injuries which required immediate (and extensive) medical attention from a crash of that sort. Yet, there’s nothing more than a few scrapes and minor cuts. Sayid, Locke and Hurley are quickly becoming my favorite characters. Sawyer has potential, so long as he doesn’t keep up the “big jerk” role. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/23 "2004-10-07T05:31:16Z")
> [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](#): > > Okay am I smoking crack? > Was the preview I saw for next weeks episode? Yeah, you remember correctly… Last week’s preview showed Locke becoming the great white hunter, and strongly implies he gets chomped. I kept waiting and waiting for that to happen in this episode… Either they ran the wrong preview last week or they are doing some crazy last minute rejiggering of the storyline. Anybody else think that the black guy was going to find nothing but a collar at the end of the tether at the end of the episode? Whew. Glad it was a happy ending. I love doggies! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Batsinma\_Belfry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/24 "2004-10-07T05:40:34Z")
Some of the previews for next week, were also previews _from_ last week, _for_ this week. When they say **“Next on LOST”** , I expect to see those things on the next episode. I’m glad Vincent found his boy, but this episode was boring compared to the first two. > [@](#): > > Air Marshall-dude aside, the survivors seems to have gotten off surprisingly light, injury-wise. I would have expected multiple broken bones, as well as a number of injuries which required immediate (and extensive) medical attention from a crash of that sort. Yet, there’s nothing more than a few scrapes and minor cuts. What happened to the guy with the smooshed leg from the first episode? ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/25 "2004-10-07T05:53:57Z")
Random thoughts: [ul] [li]What was chasing Walt’s dad when he went looking for Vincent? [/li][li]Hurley rocks. “Dude” - enough said.[/li][li]Sawer almost seemed to have a heart after he wiffed on killing air marshall guy.[/li][li]With that in mind, I’m gonna get pissy if everyone ends up being a “good deep down inside poor misunderstood” character. C’mon people, I need bad guys![/li][li]The ending scene, with the music and Sawyer/Sayid and Jin/Sun was cheesy yet strangely effective.[/li][li]The scene with everyone sitting around listening to the air marshall guy’s shrieks and moans was creepy and strangely effective.[/li][li]I want to know what Kate did. \<\\>[/li][li]Those bodies have been in that plane for three or four days by my count. Ick. Who wasn’t smart enough to figure that there was luggage in the overhead compartments?[/li][li]I think Charlie’s hit on every female on the island except for the older black lady. He’s even scoping out the pregnant chick. :eek: [/li][li]Locke will end up being a mystical enigma who was not on the plane but not on the island either (figure that one out).[/li][li]I’m going to stick with my alternate universe theory for the time being.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![barking\_frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@barking\_frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barking_frog)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/26 "2004-10-07T05:55:00Z")
Interesting theory posted on another message board. > [@](#): > > Not sure if this has “spoliers” (see future episode name relevance below) but I thought many of you would find this interesting… > > I have never posted on this OR any other message board in my life. This fact is somewhat amazing considering what an obsessive personality I have at times. My latest obsession is LOST, and I must say, I find myself visiting this site multiple times daily—which I know is not much compared to some of you. > > As I’ve watched the show a couple times now, and enjoyed all of the insightful theories on these boards, I find myself gravitating from one line of thought to another. At first, I wanted to theorize (along with many of you) the answers to the all the grand puzzling questions at hand. There are so many possibilities that it almost seems impossible to predict/explain what’s going on with this island. More recently I started to think that we may make more headway by dissecting some of the more “intentional” scenes from the show. > > Some of the individual posts I’ve read have got me off on tangent thoughts that have been quite interesting, although not revolutionary. Think of it as baby steps towards potentially answering the bigger questions. > > So, after that long-winded intro, I have the following from a brief google-powered investigation into the potential significance of the “Backgammon” scene where Locke was talking with the kid. Draw your own conclusions, because I haven’t drawn any yet… > > First, I checked out the history of backgammon at the first site on the search - [www.gammoned.com/history.html](http://www.gammoned.com/history.html). I was able to confirm a lot of Locke’s backgammon facts, but also stumbled upon one that he didn’t mention. Somewhere along the history of the game, it was called Tabula, which means “table” and also happened to remind me that the next episode is entitled Tabula Rasa. > > Second, I checked the definition of Tabula Rasa, and came up with two definitions at www.cogsci.princeton.edu/…abula+rasa that seemed quite interesting. The first (with which I was familiar) was “a clean slate OR fresh start OR an opportunity to start over without prejudice”. The second definition was even more interesting – “a young mind not affected by experience.” What makes it interesting is that this definition originated from a British Philosopher by the name of (drum role please)………John Locke. > > Last, I looked up our friend Mr. John Locke, and found that he is most well-known for his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. There’s a lot to it, but there was one metaphor he uses early-on that I thought relevant. He seems to describe that which is comprehensible and that which is not comprehensible by humans as, “…the Horizon found, which sets the boundary between the enlightened and the dark Parts of Things.” Check out more at plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/ for more of Locke’s bio and philosophy. Light and Dark? Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Hmmmmm. > > Amazing coincidence or not, it’s somewhat interesting at the very least. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/27 "2004-10-07T08:10:16Z")
There’s one thing that I haven’t seen mentioned, but which struck me while Sayid was doing his thing with the flaming stick and the “two days ago we take off from Sydney, (points stick at sand)…” scene, followed by the “over 1000 miles off course” and “satellites need to know where to look” conversations, is that **they already have everything that they need to calculate their Latitude and Longitude, and they should probably get onto it sooner rather than later.** They know what day of the year it is, and most of them probably still have working wristwatches. With their combined knowledge of the geography of the world, it shouldn’t be difficult to generate a map in the sand and calculate their longitude fairly accurately. Since they are on land, and know the date, following the angle of the sun should give them their latitude. The more days that they try this, the more accurate the reading they should get. Plus, each day that passes means that their watches lose accuracy, so they should start timing sunrises and sunsets ASAP. Why is this important? a) If they do get a transmitter set up, being able to transmit an approximate Latitude & Longitude is _much_ better than just saying “Help” and hoping that you can be triangulated or that the transceiver/transponder position-locator works. b) If they get to the point where they are building a boat to leave the island(?), their current position would be vital. Yes, I know that they’re not all geographers or scientists, but isn’t there even _one_ Doper among the survivors? ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/28 "2004-10-07T08:44:49Z")
[Add this to my previous post immediately above] Even if they aren’t mathematically inclined and so can’t _calculate_ longitude, it’s worth measuring the time of the sun’s zenith just so that you can possibly say on the radio that the average “best guess” time of zenith (among those who are confident that their watches were set accurately, whether in Sydney, LA, London, or wherever, allowing for the different time zones) is “ **a** hours, **b** minutes and **c** seconds”. Any radio that picks them up will know _exactly_ on what course to set the rescue plane. After all, if a message appeared on the SDMB saying: > [@](#): > > “Help! I’m being held hostage! I don’t know where, but my watch, which was accurate when I left New York, says that the sun reached its peak at 10:52am when aligned to my cell window bars, and by triangulation in my cell I’d say that its peak elevation was 39.3 degrees” you just _know_ that some Doper would reply within 5 minutes saying that they’d figured out the location and called 911 to alert the relevant police jurisdiction to rescue the hostage. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/29 "2004-10-07T09:22:04Z")
Sadly I have only seen a part of this last episode. I was intrigued by the ads and stuff. But due to events I haven’t been able to check it out. I’d like to watch it from the start and catchup. There are no other shows on TV that I watch so maybe this’d be a good one to follow. The last few shows I’ve followed turned to shit quick or got cancelled. So what’s the deal? I realize there’s a plane crash…a bunch of survivors (the front half of the plane) and maybe a bunch of dead passengers (tail end). There’s supposed to be some dinos on the island. Right so far…we’re rerunning a new series kinda like lost world. Are they in the present? Are they on another island that Dr. (What’s his name) in the movie Jurassic Park let runamuk. Recall the cannister of dinosaur embryos that Newman lost in the flood. Anyway, I just wanted to ask if there’s anyway to catch up on the series this late in the game? ---
**Author:** ![Saranga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Saranga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saranga)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/30 "2004-10-07T09:30:17Z")
> [@Antonius Block](#): > > Plus, each day that passes means that their watches lose accuracy, so they should start timing sunrises and sunsets ASAP How is that? Their watches will stay accurate as long as they have power. Of course all watches are slightly inaccurate, but their watches aren’t telling the correct time right now anyway (they are probably on Sydney time). Still I think there are two reasons they haven’t tried this: 1. They don’t have an Atlas. Without an atlas they are screwed. Unless someone really knows their geography and has lots of latitude and longitude numbers memorized, I don’t think they could even get a good approximation of longitude, much less plan a voyage to somewhere else. 2. The plot hasn’t required them to make such preparations yet. There is still too much going on. They are best off getting a transmitter going, because they will have people looking for them. If they can get on the shortwave bands they can easily communicate with someone, somewhere, and consequently get rescued. Once they make contact with civilization via radio, everything would get easier (they could explain what happened to the flight plan, calculate latitude/longitude, get mollusk cooking tips… 🙂 ) IMO the easiest solution would be to find the secret hidden base with the 16-year power source and use its radio equipment. I have no idea what Sayid is really planning. He may just be gathering equipment to give the survivors hope… One thing I didn’t catch: What did Kate say about finding a beach? She seemed sure that they wouldn’t find a beach but I missed the preceding and following conversation. What happened? ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/31 "2004-10-07T09:31:05Z")
BTW I did see enough to confidently say that _Tabula Rasa_ must surely refer to the conversation between Jack and Kate. “Everyone deserves the chance to start over.” I think is what he said. Cool the link between Locke the character, Locke the philosopher and the term Tabula Rasa. At least (maybe) the writers are semi-literate. Is there something about the character Locke that has set him up as “special”? Is he peculiar in some way that I’ve missed? ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/32 "2004-10-07T09:39:08Z")
What’s the problem about time? A simple sundial is accurate enough to set a watch by. At noon the shadow will point either north or south depending on your hemisphere and when the shadow is at it’s shortest it is noon. (the sun is at it’s highest) the angle of inclination will give you your coordinates (latitude). Is the night sky the same? If so then it shouldn’t be a problem to locate the island with a good degree of certainty. Do they NOT know where they are? At least some idea? ---
**Author:** ![Saranga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Saranga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saranga)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/33 "2004-10-07T09:46:01Z")
> [@t-keela](#): > > There’s supposed to be some dinos on the island. That is unknown. There is a “secret” to the island, but interviews seem to rule out dinosaurs. I suggest you to check out the first 2 episodes. There’s a lot you missed out on. During Alias’s first season, ABC Family ran a marathon halfway through the season showing all the episodes of Alias up to that point (9 episodes IIRC). They might do that again… Otherwise you’ll have to find a copy of it somewhere. Also, the ABC site has synopses of past episodes and there’s a large SD thread with spoilers. Not nearly as entertaining, but you could pick up all the info you need to keep watching the show. ---
**Author:** ![Saranga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Saranga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saranga)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/34 "2004-10-07T09:47:04Z")
> [@t-keela](#): > > Do they NOT know where they are? At least some idea? The radio went out and then they went 1000 miles off course toward Fiji. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/35 "2004-10-07T10:02:14Z")
So y’all say they have an accurate watch set by a known time zone. They can accurately determine noon at the island. There is no reason they can’t determine their longitude then. Latitude is simple. They’re not lost, just ignorant. 😉 I was watching Alias but it’s gonna have to make some changes. The last aprt of the season was so predictable there was no need in wasting the time it took. I also used to follow the West Wing but that’s turned into a damned soap opera. There was another show I tried to follow…“Miracles” I think it was called. It was a fillin for Monday night football’s off season IIRC. Fiji huh? I think I’d stay. 😃 Dinosaurs and all. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/36 "2004-10-07T10:09:05Z")
> [@Saranga](#): > > How is that? Their watches will stay accurate as long as they have power. No watch keeps perfect time. At some point before crashing, each of the watches were synchronized according to _some_ standard, and they are each losing that calibration at an unknown rate. Either by “winding the hands to an approximate local time” (worst case scenario) or “I waited for the beep on the radio and set my digital watch to the exact time at the beep before leaving the hotel for the airport” (best case scenario). It’s not hard to derive a “best estimate” if you can talk to each of the survivors about their timekeeping practices. There’s a good chance that at least _one_ of the survivors keeps pretty good time and knows it. > [@Saranga](#): > > Of course all watches are slightly inaccurate, but their watches aren’t telling the correct time right now anyway (they are probably on Sydney time). The “correct time” is “Island Time”, and **that is exactly what gives their longitude**. Yes they _are_ probably on Sydney time, but that has a direct correlation to GMT. As long as you can get a good estimate for which of the several watches was best synchronized to any one time zone, and you know which time zone that is, you can get your longitude. It doesn’t necessarily matter if the watch was last synchronized in Sydney, London, or wherever. Most watches today are digital, and when setting to local time people just push the buttons back or forward for the required number of hours, keeping the minutes and seconds (so it’s possible that Charlie, the Brit, has the most accurate watch, even though he may have had to adjust for local time more than anyone else). What matters its the last time someone **really synchronized to a local time, and where that was**. That gives a direct calibration back to GMT, which leads to Longitude, which leads to a rescue plane flight plan _(if they can get the information out)_. > [@Saranga](#): > > They don’t have an Atlas. Without an atlas they are screwed. Unless someone really knows their geography and has lots of latitude and longitude numbers memorized, I don’t think they could even get a good approximation of longitude, much less plan a voyage to somewhere else You’re missing the point. The local “Island Time” as determined by the sun’s zenith _gives_ the longitude. No prior knowledge required. This can be helpful if they get a radio working (and that’s by no means an impossibility given that they have one transceiver and that there’s obviously a big-ass transmitter somewhere close by). My point is that currently they are **LOST**. **If they calculated their Latitude and Longitude** , they would no longer be **LOST** – they would know where they were, and the process of telling that to the outside world would be one step easier. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/37 "2004-10-07T10:21:12Z")
> [@t-keela](#): > > Do they NOT know where they are? At least some idea? In the show, no, they don’t know where they are. They’re pointing at stones in the sand, saying “we left here” and “we’re more than 1000 miles off course”. **Nobody** on the show has taken the POV of a navigator to try to determine their position, which is why I wrote post #27. I’ve not seen any previous discussion as to why nobody is trying to calculate where they are. They’re trying to **communicate** with the outside world, but it seems to me that it would really be helpful to add one’s solar observations to any message that they send out. Ironically, any sailor from the middle ages up to the 20th century would know this! ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/38 "2004-10-07T10:25:10Z")
Damn **A/B** sounds like we need to be on that damned island doesn’t it? From what I’ve seen there’s a few guys there that seem tp be pretty bright. So how come they didn’t figure their coordinates ASAP. While the watch/es were still accurate? Man that’s the first thing you do when you’re out like that is get a reading on the time difference between noon at your location and noon according to your watch. That difference ain’t gonna change and if the watch stops the next day, you still know where you are. ah well…guess I’m hooked now. I haven’t even watched the show really but I gotta see what’s up next. I never understood how some folks are so bad at surviving. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/39 "2004-10-07T10:32:21Z")
> [@t-keela](#): > > Damn **A/B** sounds like we need to be on that damned island doesn’t it? **t-keela** , if you and I were on that island we’d probably be arguing over the last few seconds of accuracy in longitude or how best to distil the local plants to brew your namesake so that it wouldn’ matter much either way. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2004, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909/40 "2004-10-07T10:39:44Z")
😃 I already said I wouldn’t want off. If there wasn’t any sex partners available I might have to leave to locate a nearby island with some native girls. We would definitely be making some homebrew. With any luck I could find some smoke… You wanna leave, that’s cool I’ll help you build an outrigger and some charts. Go back to the rat race you traitor. I’m gonna stay here and party. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-1-3-tabula-rasa-some-unboxed-spoilers/267909.md?page=3)