Lost 1.9, "Solitary" (SPOILERS)

Cafe Society
61

I really enjoyed this episode. One of the nicer moments for me was when Sayid fixed the music box. Good strategy there!

BTW, I think the tune that the music box was playing was either intended to be, or at least strongly inspired by, the Entr’acte between Acts II and III of Bizet’s Carmen. There’s a clip of this from Amazon.com (Disk 3 Track 1). You can play in Windows Media Player or RealOne Player. Some of the notes are transposed, but IIRC that’s standard for a music box. Any music-box-inclined Dopers want to confirm or deny this?

Any other ideas for identifying the tune?

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If his flashback is complete, he wouldn’t know for sure. He also said that a part of him still hopes she’s alive somewhere.

I liked Hurley’s, “HOW?” in response to Jack telling him “it could be worse”, and I love him for the golf course thing. Sayid = fucking sexy. He looks about eleventy billion times better without the hair extensions, too.

The polar bear scene was fantastic. “Wait, you haven’t heard about the polar bear?!” I like Charlie a bunch, too. The serious conversation between Walt (is that his name, or the kid’s name?) and Jack over which club to use got a giggle out of me. The contrived, “Wha? You’re playing GOLF? AT A TIME LIKE THIS!!!111/???” set up right before Mr. Itchy asked if he could play got mixed reactions from me. I mostly didn’t like it. Why would you bitch about something, and then ask if you could do it, too? He’s probably mad he didn’t think of it. Or maybe he was just surprised by it and I’m over-reacting. He gets on my nerves (get it?! HAHA!) either way, and I’m glad he’s not a tribe regular.

Am I the only one who thought Hurley found the inhalers? I’m glad it didn’t go that way though.

Hahaha! Why’d Kate automatically assume the golf course was Jack’s doing? I’d give her points for speaking up when Sawyer was met with harsh glares, but I’m still not sure I like that he’s not the asshole we were made to believe from the beginning. Are we ever going to know what she did?

If they kill Sayid off before he can tell everyone else about his Jungle Adventure (hell, if they kill him off at all… there are other characters more disposable (and less hot :wink: ) than him… um, he?) I’m going to be seriously disappointed. I might even possibly consider the idea that maybe I should start thinking about finding something else to do on Wednesday nights at 8/7c, but the end scene with the oogy music and the Big Eyes has me worried. Did anyone happen to notice him in tonight’s, “Two weeks from now, because ‘It’s a Good Turkey, Charlie Brown!’ (or whatever) is more important to us, on Lost”?

And WTF was with The Dad (Walt?) telling The Kid (Michael, is it?) that he could cut in front of everyone else to take a swing, but when Charlie told Dad it was his turn, he damn near trampled The Kid and said he could play later? Did I miss something?

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Um, to be honest, I thought he found a bunch of weed and was running around looking for salvage to build a bong. :smiley: “Dude!”

Michael is the father, and Walt is his son. I dunno, I didn’t really get the feeling that Walt was so enthused about taking a swing, anyway. I think the point was that Michael was indulging himself and enjoying it, but Walt was still dealing with crushing ennui. He’d shot down Walt earlier when he’d asked if he could go hang out with John Locke, but not given him anything else to do to entertain him.

If you don’t mind me harping on Rousseau a bit more, I think this might be related to one of the central ideas in Emile, that a child’s education is best served by determining what engages them naturally, and encouraging them to explore that fully, and to question and emphasise the importance of the usefulness of their interests, instead of suppressing their interests and forcing them to learn from standardized curricula.

An old book about ideal educational methods might not seem to have an obvious connection to our island, but…

And so Walt finds himself under the tutelage of John Locke, showing a keen interest in useful stuff like how to throw a knife.

I really do like this show.

64

I actually did. As happy as I am to see Mira Furlan getting some good roles, in Valen’s name it was a distraction knowing who she is. I hate to say I’d have probably gotten into the episode more if someone else had been playing the part.

Well, I for one am awfully happy to see he ponied up for a SDMB subscription.

65

It wasn’t a power cable, was it? It was a regular steel cable, the sort you’d tie around concrete or whatever. Could an exposed steel cable running through the ground like that conduct substantial electricity?

66

They didn’t get “tossed off” the boat. The boat ran aground. As with our current castaways, she said they set up temporary shelter then had to really dig in. Presumably then they’d have dragged everything off the boat that they could manage – including coats, and any useful furniture that was small wnough to remove.

John Mace - Yeah, it freaked me out when the first actual words I could make out were “Donda esta Alex?” I thought “Wha? What happened to the whole ‘French’ part of the French Lady. Wait, you mean there’s a Spaniard too??” Then I heard "Wo ist Alex?.. Où est Alex?.. " and I loved the way when Sayyid was whoozy that her voice seemd totally androgynous.

QUESTIONS

Did she say that she killed all her sick colleagues. Or that they all got sick ‘Robert’ (her lover who gave her the music box) killed them and she killed Robert? Or did they all ‘get sick’ and start killing each other and she killed Robert last? Between the way she was talking all cuckoo-for-coacoa-puffs I kinda lost track of that part?

When Saayid asked “who is Alex?” did she answer “Alex was my child?” because that’s a big deal. She talked ambiguously a lot. If she said "was’ does that mean “he/she is all grown up” or “he/she is dead and Danielle is looking for the body” or “he/she is somehow not her child anymore? (TCM?)” :eek:

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I cracked up at the scenes of Castaway Flounder making the golf course. Just how long was he away, and wasn’t he scared to go through the jungle alone? Did I miss something, or where did the golf clubs come from?

The writers were really trying to hammer home the point that Michael still doesn’t have a clue about this whole “daddy” thing. I think his backstory should be pretty revealing.

I consider myself one of the “musically inclined Dopers”, but I didn’t pick up on the music-box tune being derived from Carmen. Now I have to watch the episode again…

With regard to killing Sayid, my fear for this show is that it’ll turn all soap-opera-24-ish, where they resort to killing a character before s/he can pass on vital information. In 24, you could pretty much count on that happening, simply because you knew the drama had to be strung out for a full 24 episodes.

And wow, Sayid must really love Nadia, to shoot himself in leg to ensure her escape. Yikes! :eek:

68

Elephant trunk - yeah, I thought it was a trunk, but the next shot showed her putting on a grey sweater. So, I don’t think it was a pachiderm.

I thought it was a samll power cable. Like the ones the ones I’ve seen the genny-ops use on film sets. Part of where Sayid lifted it up, there looked like someone had done a some kind of repair to a spliced wire. It was awfully small. But all that tell us is that the line isn’t own by AT&T.

So, some stuff answered, but lots more questions.

Things we learned from the French Lady (Danielle Rousseau) things we didn’t:

  1. “There’s no such thing” as monsters. But what the hell is the TCM??? She went stalking with a rifle.

  2. What is the black rock? She mentioned it, Sayid asked her to clarify. She didn’t.

  3. Her colleagues got sick. What kind of sick? Cuckoo-for-coacoa-puffs sick, or ebola sick?

  4. The Voices that Whisper in the jungle (last few shots Sayid seemed to hear them). Winds from an approaching storm in the trees? Different astral plane? (“plane”, get it? Nyuck!) Invisible people? Mini-TCMs? (Maybe this is why we haven’t seen the TCM – we’re out of phase with their plane Nyuck!)

  5. Alex. Male? Female? On the island? Not? With the Voices that Whisper? Alive?

  6. She was part of a science team. Okay. They got lost off the coast of Tahiti due to storm. Okay. What were they researching (TCMs, polar bears, disease that turns you into an invisible Voice that Whispers)? Was their research in any way relevent to the present scenario?

  7. Power: she said 'they" control it now. (The Voices that Whisper.)

I have to say, I was kinda worried about this episode . That we’d find out too much – like the place is one big experiemnt or something. But quite deliciously, all this did was deepen the mysteries and bring up more questions! Yesssssss! :slight_smile:

69

Hm…

I don’t think so, I saw him in some of the promo pics for the episode three weeks from now.

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In the interest of accuracy, I wanted to point out that Danielle said their boat was 3 days out of Tahiti when it ran into trouble, not 2 hours.

71

Oo! I just had a thought! (Wild Alex speculation, possibly stupid, no spoilers)…

What if when Danielle said “Alex was my child” she didn’t mean it literally? But meant “creation”. Kinda like the way you could say that Dr. Frankenstein was the monster’s “father”.

What if the scientists made a human/polar bear/pterodactyl hybrid and named their creation “Baby Alex”? So when her distress call said “It got out. It killed them all.” She was referring to Alex, the one-eyed flying purple people-eater, that busted out and bit everyone? :eek:

Okay, maybe that’s stupid. But in any case, I was thinking that we don’t know a) if she really meant “fruit-of-my-loins, child” or “creation” or b) how old it is. If it’s a human child, it could have been born on the island or come with them from Tahiti. So if Danielle is (for the sake of argument) 50 and had a child anywhere between 20 and 35, then “Alex” could be the same age as a great number of our castaways.

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Eats_Crayons, I speculated the same thing a few posts up (on page 1).

Tho if Alex is the TCM, would she be wondering where it is? It sounds like she thinks Alex was captured, but it seems to have gotten free…

Brian

73

Great episode. Probably the second best one yet (Locke’s tale is still the standard).

I think a nice two week break will do some good to build drama.

Random thoughts:

  • Every episode seems to take a dig at one of our nitpick questions. This week it was that someone didn’t know about the polar bear. Kind of funny.

  • One of the redshirts, Ethan, is Tom Cruise’s cousin. I noticed the name William Mapother in the opening credits and watched for him. He looked like an ugly Tom Cruise Cruise’s real name is Tom Cruise Mapother IV. Wasn’t ETHAN the name of Cruise’s character in Mission Impossible (in which Mapother also appeared).
    Spoiler about redshirts:


Mapother is already credited in IMDB for a few more episodes, so we get confirmation that some redshirts will be recurring!

  • I also discount that “Alex” is a castaway we have seen so far. I think a “child” raised on the island by French Cat Lady would be far too warped to blend in with the group. I like better the idea that French Cat Lady used the vague phrase “child” because it is TCM. This would explain away her “No such thing as Monsters” line. She would not agree that her “child” is a monster. It would also explain the purpose of their experiments and why a scientific mission would have rifles. Maybe the rest of the group wanted to hurt her child and she killed them.
    Of course, I rather liked Spree’s theory of possession by the TCM (or whatever). I think I buy that. Maybe it doesn’t completly displace the person, but it makes them stronger and helps them fulfill their “destiny.”

  • I did have a worry about excepting French Cat Lady’s revelations as truth. Sayid’s comments created this doubt. Everything she says could be a red herring because she’s crazy. But then again, maybe they WANT us to think that and then discount her inevitable truths. Twisted bastards! Is Sayid hearing whispers, is he “sick” or is normal island madness creeping over him?

*One thought about the power sources. Didn’t Sayid say something about batteries powering her hut, but not being powerful enough to broadcast the transmission? If so, the cable, if it is a power source, may go beyond the hut to the broadcast point. “They” control that, though. To me, the biggest question now is WHO ARE “THEY”?

  • The guy playing Sayid is a very good actor. There were some tough scenes last night that he handled VERY well.

  • So far, we’ve seen Locke and Rousseau. If we find anything that says Hurley Hobbes, I am out of here! Either that, or I will use AV8RMike’s nickname for him: Castaway Flounder.

  • I also believe Nadia is still alive and will SOMEHOW, show up on the island. Just a hunch!

*I LOVED the chemistry between Sawyer and Kate. I think she is playing every male on the island. I think she is genuinely concerned with the others, but something sinister is bubbling at the surface. Also, great acting.

  • Boone and Shannon are the only two who still aren’t working for me. Shannon sure did look nice in that bikini!

  • During the episode, I had a thought. I have heard this show pitched as a “Real” Survivor. I don’t thing the WAG would hold up, but what if this was some form of sick Reality show. The participants are duped into thinking they crashed into the island for the sick entertainment of the mega wealthy. Kind of like Truman Show meets Survivor meet The Deadliest Game.

74

I figured since a few new characters were introduced, one of them is Alex. Speculation, but it includes info from IMDb so I’ll box it -

I looked up William Mapother, because the last name sounded so familiar. I kept thinking Mapother, and how come I know that name? Tom Cruise’s cousin, aha! heh Anyhow, he plays Ethan, and is listed in three Lost episodes so far, so I’m thinking he’s Alex. Seems about the right age, and since the other new character (new, as in getting some screen time with lines) shown at this time is the guy with hives (too old), I was thinking it fit.

I didn’t notice an elephant’s trunk, so will have to go back and watch the tape again. It seems a little unlikely to me, since the hut looked like it was actually underground, but I’m curious now.

75

I thought for sure I would not get the Mapother thing in before someone else! I got it in by ONE post!

:smiley:

76

I absolutely love the choice of names in this show. Everything fits so well! Can I do a Masters thesis on LOST? Please?

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Oh, sorry 'bout that, N9IWP. I did read your post too, but somehow flew right past that part.

FWIW - I don’t really think Alex is the TCM, just because it seems weird to call something that sounds so big and monstery by a human name. So, perhaps TCM was also created, but Alex is a smaller, more human-sized creation. I was thinking too (due to 28 Days Later), that maybe Alex is human part of an experiment, but there’s something “wrong” with him/her. So maybe he/she bites you and then you get “sick” resulting in violence and chaos.

Hence her warning to “watch your people”. If Alex has bitten/infected one of them… “Brains!.. Braaaaaaiiins…”

Wonder which she meant by “it got out and killed them all”? Alex the zombie-werewolf, or the purple, people-eating TCM?

78

Anyone got any wild speculation about the Voices that Whisper in the jungle?

whispering Braaaaaiiins…

79

Unless it’s ALEX or ALECKS or something like that, and it’s an abbreviation for something.

80

I definitly thought it was an elephant as well!

As for the cable, it looked like a 1 conductor cable in a plastic or rubber sheath. It looked more like a ground cable or a communications cable than power.

Am I the only one that is still wondering who cold-cocked Sayid last week? I don’t think it was Crazy French Chick (CFC) because she probably would have brought it up in her conversation (she also sounded surprised they heard her signal). So was it Locke? Was it Alex? Was it the “voices”.

I speculated that the ship that CFC was on was used either for transport or research before she mentioned it. I thought maybe they were carrying animals for a new zoo? That would explain the polar bears and elephants.

Can’t wait 2 weeks!!

MtM