Lost 2.7 "The Other 48 Days"

Cafe Society
121

It is possible that AL was in the military before becoming a civilian officer. I can’t tell you how many vets I know that became cops after they left the military.

I’m leaning toward the notion that AL did not shoot Shannon. Didn’t Shannon into the bushes yelling “Waaaalt!” and didn’t Sayid yell after her? (I’m at work so I can’t check my DVR) When we saw the shooting from the Tailies’ perspective we heard nothing but rustling. Then “Bang!” Odd that neither , Michael, Sawyer, nor Jin said anything. They didn’t acknowledge that it was Shannon they were looking at. Didn’t say anything to Sayid. Didn’t run up to help. Makes me think that what they saw was something shocking but not Shannon. Maybe she shot an Other child. Maybe it was one of the kids that was abducted.

Likewise with Sayid, he was staring angrily at someone(thing) it may not have been Ana-Lucia and the gang.

There is most likely a huge significance to the fact that the knife was U.S. army issue and what did AL say? It was at least 20 years old. Perhaps the experiments on the island had a military connection or a military plane had crashed there once.

122

Aha! Thanks. Boy, he was evil then. Now he’s just a pussy cat. You’re right; that’s the sign of a good actor.

123

This is a theory I’m still hanging onto in the back of my mind. All the symbolism is actually just the Jungian archetypes of the collective unconscious. But if that is the case, I’d be a little dissapointed.

Every time Michael yells “Waaaaaalt” an angel gets it’s wings

124

I don’t have any anagrams for you, but I did pick him out as a bad guy as soon as I heard he was named “Good one”.

125

So here’s some more crazy thoughts.

When Michael, Jin and Eko were hiding, one of the Others was dragging around that kid’s teddy bear. The one dragging the bear didn’t seem to be a kid–all the legs looked adult if IIRC.

Why would an adult be interested in carrying around a teddy bear?

Also, the Other who infiltrated the Tailies seemed to be saying there are criteria by which his folks were choosing who should be taken. He referred to people as “good” and “bad” people but his tone and his general character make it implausible that he had a genuinely moral intent behind these categorizations. It must mean “good” or “bad” for some purpose.

I think they’re doing something to the kids which makes them adults. One of the active projects at the Hanso site (http://www.thehansofoundation.org/activeproject.html) is the “Life Extension Project.” This is the only one of the projects which I can imagine would have something to do with messing with the human aging process. Even though I can’t see how changing a kid to an adult would “extend” his life, still, I think this might be the right connection to make nevertheless. Maybe the life-extension process accelerates you to age thirty then keeps you there for a long time. Or else maybe the life-extension project has simply gone horribly wrong.

Okay, but what about Walt? He seems to be still a kid, wherever he is.

So my next theory is this: that each “Active Project” has a separate group of “Others” trying to continue it in some twisted fashion. So the Tailie “Others” are attached to the Life Extension Project. But the Boat “others” are attached to the Remote Viewing Project. And Ethan is attached to the Eugenics Project. (Hence his interest in the Baby, and the wierd conspiratorial goings on about the baby in the flashbacks.)

Walt is being used in a Remote Viewing experiment. And the whispering voices are other remote viewers. Of course, this version of “remote viewing” goes one better than the usual thing we think of as remote viewing–not only can the viewer see remotely, but can be seen (and heard) remotely.

At another site, by the way, there is a clip of the whispering voices played backward. It’s the voices from the scene where Sayid and Shannon are hugging. Most of it seems like gibberish, except at the very end you hear fairly clearly the words “Why is Sayid hugging Shannon?” No other backwards-playing of whispery voices has turned up any results, however, so this could just be a trick of the ear.

Do all the “Others” groups know about each other? Dunno… It might even be going to far to say they are different groups. Maybe it’s one group trying to continue several different projects.

So on this theory, we’ve seen something having to do with the following “Active Projects”:

Life Extension (BTW note the symbol for life extension is the arrow pointing up… kind of connotative of an extension/improvement of some kind…)

Electromagnetic Research (Don’t know what a swan would have to do with this, though.)

Mathematical Forecasting Intitiative (the numbers, of course…)

Juxtapositional Eugenics (Claire’s baby, maybe Walt’s powers as well are the result of genetic engineering)

Remote Viewing (Walt, the Voices)

This leaves the following as currently unexplored:

Quest for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

Cryogenics Development Imperative

So… are either of these red herrings put out by the producers? Or should we expect to see aliens and froze-toes in future episodes?

-FrL-

126

snork

i’m going to be thinking this from now on, whenever i hear his name being yelled. well done. :smiley:

127

OR

Those voices they hear are from the telivsion audience… us!

This is all real!

:smack:

128

That would be kind of cool!

What? It would!

129

Or someone on the island, in the past, shopped at an Army-Navy surplus store.

130

My partner just brought up that she thinks she remembers seeing Goodwin on the boat amongst the gang that abducted Waaaaaalt.

I don’t have access to that episode and I’m fuzzy on the timelines. Anyone want to clear this up for me?

131

Well, you’d think Sawyer and Michael might have mentioned something when they saw his body…

“Hey, that’s funny… he didn’t have a stake through his chest when he kidnapped Waaaalllllllt!!!”

132

Just like backgammon pieces, one black, one white…

Could Goodwin=Godwin? :slight_smile:

133

The Cryogenics Initiative will show up when they thaw out the Nigerians, who will prove to be old enemies of Ecko’s. This will set him at odds with Locke, who will see the Nigerians as allies to control Charlie., who will be an enemy of Locke’s over Claire and the baby. :smiley:

134

I hope I’m not the only one who thought, when the arrow in the logo appeared, “Hey, I bet Starbuck and President Roslin could tell you a little somethin’ about that whole Arrow of Apollo thing.”

“Two sides. Black and white.”

135

Something that bugged me about the episode, but might be explained by the “missing” in the body count is the whole sickness angle which seems to have disappeared.

One of the first things Ana asked the original survivors was “how many of you have gotten sick?” I thought for sure the Tailies were coming down with some kind of illness that fried their brains and turned them into “others” and that was the reason for their “trust issues.” (Danielle from the first season was also very concerned about “infection”)

But they didn’t mention or show anybody getting ill in the Other 48 days… Where’s the germ?

EZ

136

I like it!

I’m still thinking over the “only taking the good people” thing. Good as in good people? Or good for their needs? And why have the Others pretty much ignored the big group and only bothered the tailies?

And ivylass, watching the episode I found Goodwin distracting because he looked just enough like Sean Bean but not quite at all.

137

electricz this is the sort of thing that makes me scream X-FILES!!!

Libby said there used to be 23. We can count the missing:

3 the first night
9 the next time
1 dead leg guy
2 kids missing
1 nathan killed by goodwin
1 goodwin

totals 17 gone…16 if you don’t count goodwin, but I think Libby did.

We’re left with 5, unless I’m missing someone:

analucia
libby
stewardess
eko
bernard

which totals 21 or 22 if you count Goodwin. Who’s the missing tailie? If s/he got ‘sick’ there would have only been one or two at most cases of sickness and not something to prompt such an ominous question from AL.

138

Let’s face it–AL & Jack are equally piss poor as leaders. The thing is that Jack benefitted from a number of variables: [ul][li]Fewer crises. They’ve had their share of ups & downs, but only one death via malice, fewer deaths overall (we saw at least 8 or 9 graves with the tailies) and only one abduction (which turned out OK in the end).[]Strength in numbers. In addition to losing fewer people, they started with more. This made them less vulnerable and more prone towards…[]Better Organization. With fewer crises and greater numbers, you can get a lot more done. The tailies had a policy of doing everything in pairs (which can be less efficient), and started their island experience with a heightened sense of paranoia. The Lostaways were generally more carefree, more enterprising, and less fearful in exploring more, increasing their ability to find food, water, shelter, etc.[]Diversity in personalities. Jack’s had an opposite sex confidante in Kate, and while they’ve had issues of trust, they also rely on each other more. AL’s opposite sex confidante turned out to be the infiltrator, so one can guess that he had been doing any hundreds of small things to heighten her suspicion, undermine her authority, and feed her red herrings, all which can be critical in compromising good decisions.[]Also, Jack’s had Locke, who’s been very vocal about their disagreements, but who has also been right about a number of important things, as well as being an incredibly productive member of the community. AL’s “Locke”, Mr. Ecko, had had no such relationship–silent, withdrawn, and nowhere nearly as important as a crosscheck for AL when she may have needed him the most.[*]Authority. Jack’s a doctor, so people see him as educated, skilled, and important. AL may have some sort of police or military background, but that isn’t as helpful from a skillset point of view. And let’s face facts–men are less likely to want to view a woman as a leader, especially in a survival scenario, so it’s reasonable to expect that every opinion she had was not going to be accepted quite so eagerly as if it were from a man equally stubborn/forceful (Jack).[/ul]Essentially, we’ve seen how a marginal leader (Jack) can benefit from circumstances to gradually improve over time. AL got thrown in the deep end, and with nobody else willing to assume the burden, she seems the type of personality (and possibly vocational background) who feels she should take on the load. The obstacles she faced were exponentially higher–insurmountably so, it seems. By the end, she’s was successful in eliminating the infiltrator herself, but her group’s down to a handful and their decisions are motivated increasingly out of fear and panic and desperation than the more level-headed Lostaways. It seems safe to say by the time Jin washed up, AL had abandoned all hope. There was no help coming, no possibility in finding allies anywhere, they were completely on their own, and her behavior reflected this.[/li]

I suspect they did, but after a week or so (with no incidents), gave up. Remember, they didn’t have anyone like Locke to enforce the level of discipline necessary to routinize these shifts. And given that they have fewer numbers and are essentially beachbound (since they’re not likely to stray far from the security of the group), they’re also likely more tired, dehydrated, undernourished, and less alert. Not terrific candidates for allnight sentry duty.

If there was one person who could’ve clearly maintained the level of discipline necessary, it was Mr. Ecko, and he was (apparently) so far removed from the group that they could not rely on him for the type of leadership he could’ve provided. Imagine AL bossing you around about sentry duty–would you do it? Especially after a week’s worth of nightwatch yielded nothing? Convincing a group to do this requires the power of persuasion, something AL clearly lacks.

139

Sounds like someone is preparing a management book based on the characters of “Lost”.

140

Bernard’s seatmate?

They didn’t count the bodies that Eko evidently pulled out of the water, but maybe Bernard said that the guy was alive to begin with and they counted him as a nominal survivor.