We already knew the station and the guy existed, and learned little else new about either, really.
Again, we knew the Others used something for this purpose already. Learning it was this particular station wasn’t particularly revelatory. The most interesting thing about the station was that it was booby-trapped, but now that it’s gone, that’s the only thing we’re likely to learn about it.
Oh, and they had a cow, horse, and cat (2/3 of which are also dead now).
This was the one major development (in addition to the map that leads to the compound).
Oh, I’ve been one of those voices regularly decrying having everything given away so quickly, but since the last several episodes have yielded virtually nothing of value, I was hoping that getting to the heart of a new hatch would yield something more meaty than “Confirm - check; confirm - check, etc.”
Like I said before, we learned it’s purpose, it’s size, it’s occupant, it’s location in relation to the beach, etc. We knew it existed, but so what? We also know a monster exists, but we know virtually nothing about it. Now we know a lot about The Flame.
And the eyepatch guy? Before all we knew is that he was somewhere, and he had an eyepatch. Now we know he’s an Other, he occupies The Flame, he’s Russian, and we even know his birthday.
Again, so what? We knew the Others “somehow” communicated with the outside world, somehow getting food drops, baseball games, CDs, cartoons, meat… now we know how they communicated and where from. I think that was a really cool development and revelation. By your logic we already know “some” about everything… the cool part is filling in the gaps, which they’ve done here.
Yeah, I think this episode confirmed a lot of stuff, answered a lot of questions, and continued the story in a really interesting way without asking any more annoying questions without answers. In fact, instead of speculating more about The Flame and hoping one of the Losties would investigate more, it’s now completely gone. So we also know The Flame doesn’t play a part in their discovery, and isn’t particularly important to the overall mythology of the island.
And I think the capture of the Patchy is going to really be an interesting development
(assuming he doesn’t die at the Other’s security system in the next episode) , as is finding the map to the barracks, etc.
Yep, I think this was the best episode of the season by far.
Mikhail said he and Nadia Comaneci share a birthday. She was born November 12, 1961, for those of you who are looking for meaning in everything. None of Hurley’s numbers are in that date, for what that’s worth.
In fact, none of the numbers Locke entered last night are among the “cursed” set of numbers.
The one major revelation that I got out of this episode is that the Others are not Dharmas, but “Hostiles”. This is the first I’ve heard that there was a group living on the island before Dharma, and that the two groups went to war. The fact that no one has really mentioned this probably means that this was already known, but it was news to me.
As far as the Locke stupidity goes, entering 77 wasn’t nearly as stupid as what no one seems to have specifically commented on: Locke got there, and they met someone who claimed to be from Dharma, and discovered a new base, and what did Locke do? Talk to the guy? Look through documents? … No, he decided “hey, cool, computer game!”
Weak, weak writing. The behavior made no sense, and only served to bridge the gap to getting to the Dr. Candle screen.
By the way, I didn’t stare at the board long, nor am I an especially good chess player, but the move the computer made prior to Locke getting checkmate didn’t make sense.
The computer could’ve taken his queen for the cost of a rook, and not put itself in check.
From the doctor on the video, we do know that there are Dharmas and “Hostiles,” yes, and that they’re separate groups.
We also know that Mikhail claimed to be with Dharma, and opposed to the Hostiles, before he was found out by Sayid, Kate, and Locke.
However, the encounter with Mrs. Klugh and Mikhail’s reaction to the map told us that he is a part of the same group as Ben, Juliet, and the rest of Jack’s captors.
So, are the Others Dharma, or the Hostiles? That question was not answered by this episode.
If I remember the layout correctly, taking the queen would have allowed the rook Locke had just moved to take the white rook (not the one that took the queen) putting white king in check, which could be blocked only by moving either the rook (the one that took the queen) or a bishop into the path, both of which could be freely taken by Locke’s rook, each time leaving the king in check (I may be mis-remembering the board, but I think moving the knight was a decent move for a bad position). Then the game jumped forward a few moves before they next showed Locke move for checkmate.
Also, did anyone else almost roll their eyes when they saw the binder that said “Dharma Operations Manual”?
2 years ago, I might’ve had a sense of “oh, cool, new information!”
Now, I’m cynical enough about the show that I thought “gee, how is that going to be lost or destroyed before they even crack it open?”
He should’ve immediately put it in his backpack, at the very least. Maybe he did, and we’ll see it pulled out next week, but I very, very much doubt it.
Oh well. I guess having it blow up is slightly less jarring than simply having no one be curious about it, or accept “it’s complicated” as an answer.
When eye patch gave his little “sometime you’ll let your guard down…” speech, was I the only one that thought “kick him into an engine!”?
I don’t remember that part. It seemed like consecutive moves, and since the upcoming checkmate was obvious, it seemed like an inexplicable move.
Not that it’s that important, it just seems like a small effort to get right.
Take the following with the caveat that I’m not a great chess player.
If instead of moving the knight:
White Rook takes Black Queen
Black Rook takes White Rook: Check
White can block with bishop or rook. If with rook, black rook takes white rook: Check (leading to a loss of the bishop, which must move to intervene, and then the knight when the king moves out of the way), if with bishop, other black rook takes white rook (leaving white down in points, and in a bad position).
Yeah, and this makes me remember what I used to think was so interesting about Lost. It was interesting as a Lord of the Flies type thing. How will people put into this (lawless) context react and what will they do? We saw one charismatic person take on leadership, basic rules and norms emerge - then they started interacting with a foreign community. It’s interesting to take a step back now and think about Losties vs. Others that way. So far, we’ve found that the Others have many more amenities. Does that make them more advanced? Hm…
Also, I’m inclined to cut Sayid some slack on the Operations Manual. After all, he took at least one map, and presumably, several other documents. The Operations Manual is probably where they keep the emergency plan and phone trees and stuff. I guess that would be still be useful for the Losties, but are not pieces of information that I, as a viewer, have been dying to learn.
I buy the chess password gimmick. If it was a normal login screen it would attract the attention of hackers, but no one would suspect a chess game held secret info. Kinda like hiding your valuables in a fake book. A chess game can be won pretty quickly in the right circumstances, can it not? If someone knew the right moves to take against the AI they could enter it quickly enough with little memorization. It makes sense in a TV show sort of way.
So we know Russian guy is an other, but are we sure he’s an Other other? He said he’s not part of Dharma, which means spooky video Asian dude is not part of Dharma. Unless he’s not the original occupant of the bunker.
