I don’t disagree with most of your analysis, but the tailie graves were clearly of those who died in the water. According to my calculations (see list above) there couldn’t have been any more than 3 survivors buried by the tail section group. The lostaways simply torched the fuselage so we don’t see their non-survivor graves.
Which brings up another advantage enjoyed by our midsection group: They had a nice chunk of aircraft and luggage to plunder, unlike their counterparts who seem to be living with the clothes they wore on the plane.
I like your assessment. Though it could fall into one of your existing categories, I think you could add “Had Able Lieutenants With a Wide Variety of Skill Sets” (besides just Locke, who probably doesn’t qualify as a Lt.).
How valuable is a guy like Sayid? In his own way, he is better than Locke because everyone seems to like and respect him.
And Hurley is kind of the guy who lifts your spirits.
Sun had gardening.
Jin was a fisherman.
Michael could build things.
But overall, I agree much of Jack’s success was circumstance.
Exactly. Free from any larger duress, the castaways can go off and explore or contribute according to their respective strengths or interests. It’s about morale, not least of which is helped by living in a community where you’re not being hounded by Jack every minute. Their psychological load is lighter because the oppressive shadow of The Others is relatively non-existent.
For the tailiees, AL’s concern for the group, though well-intentioned, only serves to remind people about What’s Out There. It’s hard to relax, think straight, or break free from the group is you’re constantly worried (or being reminded on how you should worry). This still means you look to a leader, even a default one like AL, but you don’t have the same level of confidence in her; the fact that she feels the weight of this responsibility, and is forced to second-guess past decisions that had diastrous consequences, doesn’t help.
Has Jack ever made a truly disastrous decision for the Lostaways? It seems like whenever he came close–becoming a victim of his more self-righteous know-it-all impulses–somebody (Locke, Sayid, Kate, even a dying Boone) stepped in. AL doesn’t seem to have anybody like that, since Libby, Bernard, et al seem to be more quiet/timid/recessive.
Hmmm…I checked my notes on that class but maybe I missed something crucial; the notes don’t specify one hand or two. You could be right. All we practiced on was the adult-size dummy.
I liked seeing the things that led up to what we saw in the previous episodes. Ana-Lucia digging the pit, how Goodwin ended up on permanent stake-out, the other side of the brief conversation with Boone…overall, though, there wasn’t much that caught my attention other than Goodwin. He seemed more human than Ethan, even when his cover was dropped, and he seemed (sort of) willing to talk to Ana-Lucia; she attacked first.
A brief thing, that might just be wild speculation (but hey, what isn’t?), is that Goodwin makes the third person who’s run out from the jungle to the survivors. Ethan, Goodwin…and Kelvin. I’d have to go back and listen to Desmond’s story again, but it sounded like he’d barely spent any time on the island before Kelvin appeared and took him back to the Swan.
Someone mentioned above that there might be different groups of Others for each station. Life Extension for the tailies, Eugenics for the middle section, Remote Viewing for the guys on the boat (assuming the Others who took Walt were part of that), and Electromagnetic Research for Desmond.
It’s too bad Rousseau never mentioned an infiltrator into her group, but then again she was with a group who presumably knew each other, whereas in a group of strangers it’s easy to pass yourself off as another stranger. The Others probably didn’t have a chance to get into her group, and just infected her people with a space virus (Q.E.T.I. :D).
I’m a police officer, we go through the training at least once a year (not to mention the practical experience of doing it on real live dead people). Even though other things have changed in CPR technique, that has remained the same.
Actually, you may be on to something…The constellation of Sagitta is the arrow launched by Sagittarius and it is actually situated so the south of Cygnus and the arrow is pointed at one of Cygnus’ wings. Other nearby constellations…Vulpecula (Fox), Delphinus (Dolphin), Equuleus (Little Horse), and Aquila (Eagle) are the nearest constellations to Sagitta and Vulpecula lies between Cygnus and Sagitta. Cygnus has the constellations of Lyra (Lyre), Draco (Dragon), Lacerta (Lizard), Cepheus (King), Pegasus (Winged Horse), Delphinus, Equuleus, Sagitta and Vulpecula surrounding it. If any of these symbols pop up in future episodes (or any other constellation for that matter ), then IMHO, you are on to something.
As usual, I come to this thread way too late to make any original observations. But I just want to express my esoteric, happy surprise at noticing that this episode was directed by Eric Laneuville, who played orderly-turned-physician’s-aide Luther Hawkins on St. Elsewhere back in the '80s. He directed a lot of episodes of that show, and it’s good to see that he’s still directing!
When Libby was telling Anna Lucia that the broken leg guy was dying from infection, she said he would be the third injured person to die. Anna Lucia asked her “what can we do about it?” Unlike the main castaways, they don’t have a doctor (although I think the show’s exaggerating how effective a doctor would be on a island without any supplies.)
So Ethan the angel abducts Claire, tries to kill Charlie on the way, and then Claire escapes from heaven and goes back to purgatory. Then the angel Ethan comes back, decks Jin with a rock, threatens Charlie, and then kills Scott (or Steve?)
Man, I guess Heaven’s gone downhill lately. Are they under new management or something?
