What would that accomplish? The guys dropping the food are presumably aware that there’s someone on the island - why else would they drop food? It’s not like they’re going to see a fire and think maybe they should land this time. Unless maybe they think it’s a kickass Dharma luau.
Well, we just saw the TCM a few episodes ago-- the same time we saw Dr. Candle (or whatever he called himself in the Pearl station), so I wouldn’t say those plot threads were abandoned. I know what you mean in general, but those were bad examples. Maybe Adam and Eve, the Black and White stones, and The Others interest in Aaron would be better examples.
Yes, this has been one of my biggest complaints. Locke is pretty happy letting the island mysteries stay mysteries, but Sayid should be investigating like a mo-fo.
No, I think where they are is best. The medical stations was stripped clean and the Pearl Station is tiny. The Swan station was great to have as a base, and it only got blown up about 2 weeks ago, Island time. The beach is pretty comfy, and they couldn’t fit everyone in one of the bunkers anyway.
But what about the *three * bunkers?
Beaches look comfy a bit at a time. But have a look at the toll island living takes on the cast of Survivor. The sun beats down like a bugger, insects at night can be horrible, your feet and legs get chewed up, etc. Finding a big concrete building with electrical power wouldn’t just be a ‘this is interesting’ moment, it would be a, “holy crap! We found a place to live!” moment.
No one would leave abandoned a large, clean, powered building and willingly live exposed on a beach. Especially if people kept dying under mysterious circumstances and getting snatched by mysterious people.
If this show had a shred of real character behaviour, they’d all be crowded into those buildings, with guards stationed out at night to protect them from various threats.
And of course, a real Kate or Sawyer would have taken the very first opportunity with that kid to sit down find out everything about him. How long has he lived here? How do they get supplied? How many are there? What is their purpose in being there? Why did they capture the children? What do all the stations do? How come Alex’s mother is running around in the jungle like a crazy person? What does it all mean?
A show like Lost has to be very careful to make sure that the characters are not in a position to discover all the secrets just by asking, because then they have to write themselves out of that box by making the characters behave unrealistically. That’s the problem with Lost. It would have been a MUCH better show if the Losties actually behaved rationally.
Imagine how interesting it woud be to see them actually organizing, making plans, sending teams out to map the island, discovering mysteries, working out what’s going on, etc. I’d love to see an episode focused on ‘expedition team 2’, who were charged with climbing a mountain because a glint of something shiny was spotted. Have them uncover mysterious things, get in trouble, etc.
It’s more fun to watch people in a tough spot using their wits to get out of it, than it is to just have endless ‘character development’ and romantic triangles and random mysterious behaviour while every character not currently speaking dialog behaves like a bored automaton.
Complacency cures cancer.
I said in a post a long time ago that I thought the first two logical things they should have done were to circumnavigate the island and try to climb to the highest point of the island. That just seemed like common sense to me, but of course, in doing that they would have discovered the other nearby island and possibly the Other’s village. So they couldn’t let them do that.
Well, that describes the tailies pretty well. But the bunker isn’t all that big, and they did have an agreement with The Others that if they stayed on their side of the island, they wouldn’t be attacked-- and they weren’t, until Jack et al went out after Michael. Remember, the Swan station was designed to house 2 people, not 40.
Well, yeah, that’s what we all complain about wrt this show. The people are just unnaturally and unbelievably complacent about their situation. That’s understandable for someone like Locke or Rose-- they don’t want to leave the island. But it’s completely out of character for Sayid and Jack to not have explored the island more fully. Of course, a few times they did try to explore, they encountered the “security system”.
If the bunker couldn’t house everyone, I would think they’d do shifts. Like every week a different group gets to sleep inside. I also think they’d be making use of floor space, etc, for sleeping, not just relying on how many beds were officially there. I can’t imagine any shelters they’ve created are very good at keeping out wind and rain, both of which are common on beaches.
Isn’t that what they were doing at first with the hatch?
Did you not see the size of that thing? I don’t care how many people it was “designed” for, there was easily floor space for dozens of people. Between that, the other hatch, and the huge-ass facility they found in the jungle, they could fit hundreds.
I really like the ideas <B>Sam Stone</B> put forth. Essentially, combine the realism of Cast Away with the mysteries and cast of Lost, and you have a far more interesting (and logical) show.
I had the impression that the majority of the people had never seen the inside of the hatch. And I agree that people should have been allowed to live there in turn. It had bunk beds, dishes, a washing machine and showers.
And as for why they didn’t circumnavigate the island, I got the impression that there were cliffs that made it impassable at one point.
Perhaps, which leads back to problem numero uno: Illogical character actions.
IIRC, their reason for not informing the rest of the losties, was so they wouldn’t freak out or something. Ugh.
Where’d you get that idea? Sayid’s the only person who has attempted a circumnavigation, and he abandoned it after he was waylaid by Danielle.
The tailies also attempted to get to the Lostie’s camp by circumnavigating, but had to cut through the jungle because of the cliffs and terrain.
Okay, I guess it’s time to advance my own Off the Wall Theory ™. In Season One, everyone wanted off the Island. They tried to fix radios, they tried to explore the island, they pitched in and built a bamboo-and-flight-815-scrap boat for Pete’s sake. In Season II, they made themselves comfy on the beach, being content to live in BlueTarpVille and do essentially nothing all day. What changed?
What changed? The Dharma Food! It was after they found the pantry in the Swan Station that the Complacency set in. When the Tailies, who had not been getting food-drops and gnoshing on Dharma-O’s came to the Losties’ camp, they were still all wound up and gung-ho - Bernard wanted to build the giant SOS and Ana-Lucia wanted to get people to realize that they weren’t safe from the Others, and neither had any luck. Michael was away from camp for most of the time, and never lost his drive or motivation. The ones who were eating from the food-drops were the complacent ones.
So, we know the Dharmites have all sorts of chemical/medical substances on the island, and for all we know the Dharma label food is a product of Widmore Labs. What if the food is drugged in some way? It could either be a way to keep people from getting too curious about the weird sh*t going on, or maybe just another mind-control experiment.
What do y’all think?
Makes as much sense as any other theory, and more than some!
I wish someone would write YOUR show.
You folks have summed up my issues with the show quite thoroughly, and maybe added a couple things I hadn’t thought of until they were mentioned.
It seems like a lot of the BBC shows I’ve seen have an outrageously short run; one (or less) of what would be our TV season. Our shows drag on forever. It would be nice to see a compromise in situations like this, where a program would greatly benefit from a clearly defined arc. Babylon 5 did this, and was considered by many to have succeeded, even though the near-constant threat of cancellation caused early resolution of major plot points, much to the detriment of it’s last season.
I second the notion that somebody should make Sam Stone’s show. And they should put it on HBO.
The premise of “Lost” has so much potential, and it’s sad to see it being largely wasted. That said, even though this episode wasn’t great it at least moved the plot along a little. And the last two episodes were terrific. My fingers are crossed in hopes that the show will gain momentum and finish in a tolerably interesting manner.
If my own theory holds any water, I think that this episode may have advanced things more than we may think at this time. I believe that there is an underlying attempt among the Others to hold to their own version of civilization, with married couple and children, and many (if not all) of their actions may be driven by their need to maintain this structure.
From the first episode this season, we saw the Others and their settlement as a funhouse mirror version of suburbia. We saw Ethan paired with Juliet, and I’m pretty sure that we saw all the others interacting as couples.
Later, Danny became psychotic when he heard that (can’t remember her name) was shot by Sun, and immediately tried to exact his revenge on Sawyer. So that the balance was maintained, and Kate was now “unattached”? That might explain why Juliet killed him, because she had to let Sawyer and Kate go and she knew that Danny was now a loose cannon without a mate. I don’t think that the Others like unpredictability.
Meanwhile, Juliet has been unattached since Ethan was killed. The Others need a surgeon, and Jack will need to be paired with someone. They know that they will not be able to bring him to them by force or persuasion, but they also know of his need to be a leader and a hero. How better than to put Juliet in “jeapordy”, and have Jack willingly join them to “save her”? I think that this has all been manipulation to get Jack to form an attachment to Juliet - that Juliet’s “trial” was a fabrication intended to deceive Jack. This may have been what Ben and Juliet were discussing in the operating room.
And so, the backstory may turn out to be quite telling: Jack walks among them, but he is not one of them. The only question is whether “them” here is the Others or the Losties.
From a few episodes ago, it is clear that human reproduction is critical to their goals; both Ethan and Juliet were specialists in this. Perhaps there is something about the Island that inhibits human reproduction; not contradicted if we accept that Sun got pregnant off-island. It would explain why they were abducting children; both to satisfy their own emotional needs for children, and to continue the population. The fact that Alex accepts Henry as her father indicates to me that the Others may be adopting children after they have forgotten their own parents.
One wrinkle to this theory that I can see is that Juliet let Carl go, while keeping Alex. If pairing off is part of the plan, she would have kept them together. I can only guess that Juliet either knew that Carl would eventually return, or that Henry has other plans for Alex.
So… what you’re saying is that Lost is almost like a reality dating show, eh? Temptation Island with a smoke monster?
