It said “Namaste” backwards. The painting had a polar bear and an upside down Buddha. It looked a lot like a painting Desmond had inside the hatch.
While that may be true, the execution left much to be desired. I do not find Desmond to be an interesting character, and most of his story just seemed like an hour of filler, with the only real insight coming in at the tail end.
This is another reason why I disliked the episode, and perhaps (though hopefully not) subsequent episodes. The whole “fate vs freewill” story angle just seems so tried to me; I want something that hasn’t been conveyed 1,000 times in recent years.
As soon as you can find a theme that hasn’t been done to death I suggest you copyright it - because nobody else has come up with an original one for a long, long time.
-Joe
I swear (no proof though) that the painting had the word “namaste” written on it, which I believe is one of the greetings/sign-offs the doctor used in the DI training films. The painting also had an image of Buddha.
I think it’s been speculated Widmore Industries is somehow tied into either Hanso or the Dharma Initiative directly.
Anecdote: When I spotted “namaste” in the painting, and that was probably a tie-in to the Dharma Initiative, being Yoga/Buddhist and all. She was feeling a bit… contrarian at the time, and said “It could just be his Buddhist. There’s like a couple billion of those.” 11 hours later I had the snappy come-back “Well your from a nominally Buddhist nation (Japan) - have you ever heard “namaste” before?” to which she informed me that the Japanese most likely changed all the terminology/pronounciation to something more Japan-centric. This lead to a tangent discussion of other examples of renaming*, and I failed to point out how that sort of helped my argument.
*apparently it’s hard to order Chinese food, since the Japanese kept so many Chinese characters but changed their pronounciation
Let me put it this way: Lost would be a better show without the fate vs freewill crap, imo. The show sufficed just fine when it wasn’t a central point.
When was it not a central theme? “Fate vs. free will” pretty much describes the entire relationship between Locke and Jack. A lot of what has happened since the beginning has been based on this concept, hasn’t it?
Yes, I realize it’s been a recurring theme between Jack and Locke, but that was different for a few reasons. It was ambiguous enough so as to be interesting (it wasn’t ever defined who was right), its presence was relatively minimal, and it was also presented in a semi-entertaining manner.
As of now, I feel the show has taken what was originally a relatively minor plot point (imo, it was merely a MacGuffin used to create tension between Locke and Jack) and turned it into what appears to be the central point of the story, with way too much story time dedicated to it. I’m also not too fond of the “fate” angle it seems to lean towards.
The biggest mistake you can make is to take the ideas of one episode and generalize it to the whole show. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people say, after any given episode: Oh, I’ve got it all figured out now. It’s about Christ, it’s about Limbo, it’s about fate, it’s about time travel, it’s about parallel universes, it’s about…
I always saw it as a central part of the story, not a minor plot point at all. It is just starting to unfold more as we get deeper into the show. I don’t mind writers using been-done themes (as others have pointed out, it’s hard to come up with something completely new) as long as they are creative in their take on it, which this show is IMO.
I think it is a good theme for writers to use, it allows for many nuances in the characters as we see in the Locke and Jack scenes, but also for each individual as they think about their regrets in their past, and how they can redeem themselves. But of course there are many other issues at play in this show, I think it has something in it for almost everyone. You can always ignore this type of stuff if you’d rather have an action / adventure show or a character romance or whatever. But I have the feeling you are going to be disappointed if you want this theme to only be a minor issue.
It’s more of a ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ scenario. Lost is getting much more hit-and-miss than it used to be, imo. This episode was just another entry in the growing list of “misses.”
Besides, what do you care what I think of the show?
Oh, that’s just good writing!
The glaring discrepancy in this episode that bothered me the most, that no one else has mentioned, is that a scotman knew nothing about whiskey.
Now, if you will excuse me I must ponder the mystery of naked Desmond some more.
I’ll be in my bunk!
Are we going to make anything over Charlie’s middle name, Hieronymus?
If we’re going to make something out of names, what about Penelope - wasn’t she Ulysses long-suffering wife, who waited for him while he was out on his voyage experiencing weird adventures? Hopefully, our modern Penelope isn’t just waiting for her Odysseus, but has people at Arctic stations tracking him.
Random thoughts:
-Theisland killed Eko??? While it may be true, it was a dumb line of dialogue.
-Didn’t Ben say he’d lived all his life on the island? Which island? Or was he speaking of islands as a group?
-I hope they throw in some random hatred for Michael when Sawyer & Kate get back with the group again. What a rat.
-While I wish last night’s episode had included more characters, I love Desmondo & the acting overall was superb. Of course, I despise the Juliet character, but thought the actress who plays her was terrific last week.
Yeah, but that’s how Locke has been talking about the island from the beginning. Like it’s a person with emotions and needs.
Penelope has guys speaking Portugues at an Arctic station tracking Desmond.
And I believe that Paulo and Nikki are supposed to be Brazilian.
I’m thinking that is not coincidental.
Knowing what I know about TV shows… I think it’s pretty unlikely that Charlie will die, especially if we, the viewers, would be happy to see it. Writers like to shock people by killing someone unexpectedly. Perhaps the universe will “course correct” by taking out Desmond when he keeps saving Charlie.
I also think this “course correction” is more based on opportunity than on fixing every single detail to make things happen just so. That’s why Desmond sees things shortly before they happen. Events randomly fall into place to the point where an opportunity arises to make a “correction”, and then Desmond is able to see that opportunity and prevent it.
Ever since S1, the showrunners have said “ITt’s about the characters” not the [del]red herrings[/del] mysteries. Well, to me, this week actually delivered on the character part, spending a lot of time on Desmond and his past and actually wrapping up his back story.
If they want to continue the line about “characters, not plot” they need to deliver the same for the rest of the characters.
LOST will get a 4th season, which will be the last, and so Abrams and Lindelof will try to extend the mystery over next season too. Stop it already and start developing the characters. Doing that is interesting enough.
Personally, I was little disappointed that the guy who was killed off to make the point that the universe “self-corrects” was wearing red shoes…
… it would have been much better if he was wearing a red shirt! 
Zev Steinhardt
Why come?
-FrL-