Agreed. I like your theory in #93
I noticed that Desmond seemed to be pretty interested in Jack’s story after he recognized him in the jungle. I wonder if that’s just Desmond’s personality, or if that’s a clue about his knowledge of Jack’s wife’s recovery?
Anyway…I loved the way he told his story, at gunpoint, and finished with “The end!” Gotta love Desmond.
Did anyone happen to go back and take a better look at that picture of Desmond & Mystery Girl that Jack was looking at? It was brief, but it looked important.
My question is–where are the other stations? Because it sounded to me like they’re on the island.
It wasn’t Sarah or Shannon. That was all I managed to notice.
I think that “Locke-Daddyfigure” kills Helen and Locke tries to save her and somehow get paralyzed. The Sex for hire “Helen” is called any name he pays for.
Why in next weeks episode Jack says they can’t eat the food? Does he figure this is all an experiment and the food is part of it?
Possibly the large cable that Sayid found on the beach last season?
Add my name to the list that says they never should have pushed the button. Once you press it the first time, you allow yourself to believe that it’s real. You’re comitted to pressing it forever. Hopefully Hurley will get a shift soon. He’ll let the time expire. Even if it’s not Hurley, with a large group responsible for it, eventually they’ll screw up the process.
I hope we haven’t seen the last of Desmond. He’s a cool character.
You get to call the woman on a 900-number ANYTHING YOU WANT as long as you’re paying the bill. Get it?
Lady Venom: I liike that theory. I like it a lot!!!
I’ll let Mr. Venom know 
He’s a smart cookie and usually right about stuff like this.
The ‘button’ makes no sense, other than as a skinnerbox kind of psychological experiment. The other possibility I thought of is that it was some kind of ‘dead man switch’. ie everything is okay unless you die, in which case you can’t push the button and everything goes to hell.
But the thing is, no one is about to trust the fate of the world to the continued good operation of an old microcomputer. If it were really what the film said it was, there would be redundant backups and other failsafes. And why type the same numbers in every time? That makes no sense. Why not just have a big red button somewhere?
Also, don’t forget the significance of the numbers - they’re on the medication Desmond injected into himself. But perhaps that’s part of the psychological experiment.
Anyway, I wouldn’t have pushed the button. Screw that. No button-pusher, I.
Yeah, the writers were laughing at the audience again - just like they did with Arzt.
I had many points to make, but John Mace made most of them in Post #81.
Then I was going to make a bad joke about linking Hermes to Appollo so I could point out the Leela/Bender connection that CatsCradle made in post #89.
Pretty much all my material has been used. BF Skinner in the filmstrip. “Helen”. Really liking the Desmond character. All been said.
How about this? With all the madness and button pushing discussions going on, did anyone else yell out, “I’m the keeper of the cheese…AND HE KNOWS IT!”
My thinking at this point is as follows (based on what we know so far):
These guys are all trapped in an experiment gone bad. The folks who made the orientation film either gave up on their experiments, died, or simply moved on. Remember all the utopian experiments in the 60s/70s? The communes, etc? This is just one of those, but on a larger scale. The folks on the island are just pigeons trapped in a BF Skinner stimulus-reward type experiment.
Of course, that doesn’t explain several key elements of the plot: 1) Walt’s special powers; 2) How Hurley won the lottery with the numbers; 3) The psychic that put Claire on flight 815.
As for The Others-- I don’t think there are any. All we have are various groups trying to survive on the Island as best they can. It doesn’t make sense to call any particular group The Others.
Regarding the button… I suspect that the button was once rigged to the transmission tower, which broadcast the numbers whenever the button was pushed. That’s how Leonard and CFL first received them. But… CFL changed the transmission to her distress call, so the numbers no longer get transmitted. What happens when the numbers aren’t transmitted anymore? I haven’t the foggiest idea at this point. 
Me, neither. But then you and I are Men of Science, not Men of Faith.
The Hanso foundation web site.
I believe these types of sites are created by ABC, and might in the future contain addtional clues. Note that you get “access denied” if you try to link to any details about the projects. Maybe if you enter “The Numbers” somehow, you get access!
Sweet! I love it when I’m right!
I predicted that the people who captured the rafters were the people from the tail section who had just gone a little Mustang while being attacked by the “Others”. “I am so smart!! S-M-R-T!!”
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned that the “other” door out of the hatch area didn’t say “Quarantine”. And it’s also obvious that he’s been out and about because he knows that the door handle sitcks. So that might be where the fruit came from in his protein shake.
It also looks like they try to keep the inside of the hatch secret from the other survivors (at least Charlie). The Canadian preview had Charlie complaining to Jack about always being kept in the dark about things. But they also showed Rose in the hatch with Jack. I don’t know how they could keep all the food a secret to the otehr survivors when they need it so bad.
On another note, CTV the network which broadcasts “Lost” in Canada always has quick promos of the stars of the current show interacting with a large CTV logo (each letter is inside a large ball). It sounds pretty cheesy (and it is, believe me). Anyway in last nights “Lost” they had Jack, Jin and Walt in one of these promo’s! He definitly looked older and different (but I’m pretty sure it’s the same actor).
Great episode!
MtM
there’s a whole whoppin’ load of things that don’t add up from this episode.
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if the fate of the world does indeed rest on pushing the button every 108 minutes, why the bloody 'Ell haven’t they had an equipment upgrade since the '70s??? it’s not as if the Hanso Foundation or Dharma Industries doesn’t know the place exists. they’re the ones who set the whole screwy thing UP. if it were truly that earth-shakingly importent, don’t you think the set-up would at least rate getting a UPS for power backup??
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something doesn’t add up with Desmond. he’s been there in the hatch for 3 years (he says). he appears to have a routine that includes giving himself a daily (at least) injection from the Mystery Serum Bottles, complete with Mystery Number Series ™. there’s a supply in the cabinet that looks like it’d be good for a couple decades at least. yet when he bugs out because he thinks the computer is trashed, he doesn’t bother taking this medicine stash with him??? if the injections are indeed vital to his health, wouldn’t that be the FIRST thing he’d lunge for before bookin’ out the door? and if they aren’t important, why did/does he bother injecting himself?
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and what kind of freaky-ass organization, no matter WHAT their experimental goals, never checks on their employees/participants for years at a stretch? ok, maybe the original “volunteers” signed waivers and such out the wazoo when they first joined up. but the film itself mentioned some unspecified “incident”, with hearty implications that the fall-out of said incident was not beneficial or desirable in line with the whole operation. don’t you think it would behoove the head honchos to at least send out a team to do health checkups at least once a year? how do those poor slobs get any dental care? what if someone develops cancer, or diabetes, or some other late-onset debilitating disease? that situation would be a lawyer’s wet dream – deliberate denial of adequate health treatment, and a whole HOST of other grounds for getting sued into the ground by the detainees or their heirs and estates. and we all know how the legal and medical system has evolved in the past couple decades. if the original Organization(s) still are operational, their corporate lawyers would be hemorrhaging blood at the mere thought of that place’s set-up.
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in the same vein, if the island has KNOWN anomolous magnetic properties, wouldn’t the Organization be liable for some of the crashes/ founderings/X-marks-the-spot-everybody-lands-here occurrences? they’ve got people there, allegedly studying the phenomenon. don’t they have a responsibility to at least notify the Coast Guard/International Air and Rescue/FAA/somebody when they notice people turning up on their little preserve? they may not be actively causing all these accidents, but i’d think they certainly have at least humanitarian obligations to let the proper authorities know that “X accident has survivors here”.
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and as a total aside… Desmond’s been living there for 3 years. there was a guy there before him, and said guy had a partner for a while (according to the Orientation protocols, at least). their food supplies for the most part consist of canned products. where’s the incredible trash dump that should have accumulated by now? or are they supposed to have some kind of super-incinerator/smelter system that burns everything down to slag? well, i guess that could explain some of the infamous Black Smoke, couldn’t it?
me, i’m pretty convinced that the whole set-up is a big Psych experiment, as others have postulated. i was a bit annoyed with Jack for caving and pushing the button. i think he wussed out there. however, i’ll cut him a small degree of slack: all the yelling and shooting and confrontation and crying – he’s probably running a little ragged about now, and that’s never the best mindset for making totally rational decisions.
Remember that the guy in the film mention para-psychology also. My guess is: Its a Pavlov type experiment (i.e. the world won’t end if the subject don’t salivate when the bell rings), but that its meant to put them under extreme stress in order to bring out their para-normal abilities. I think the food is drugged in some way with a psycho-active chemical of some kind (that perhaps has the unfortunate side effect of making people psychotic), and the control subject get or take the injections.
The number I think is some kind of group think (hive mind, whatever) element that perhaps has a more than random effect due to it constantly being thought about by the subjects (ever 108 min.), and when used (like by Hurley for the lottery) can be, I don’t know, triggered maybe…but with unexpected additional para-normal effects due to the unstable nature of the subjects, especially from the Others who are perhaps para-normal but completely psychotic.
Thats where I’m at right now anyway…could be complete bullshit but its fun to speculate.
-XT
I’m pretty sure Desmond grabbed a load of the drugs to inject.
He did jam a bunch of serum bottles into his backpack before he left.
Also, the “fruit” in his shake was obvously canned fruit-- marichino cherries and what looked like a pickled pepper.