# Lost 3.21: Greatest Hits
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 16, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361 "2007-05-16T19:44:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 10
### Author:  [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/181 "2007-05-21T20:41:08Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
I’m thinking we’d have to go back at least 2,000 years to find them (remember the 4-toed statue).
[/QUOTE]
Right, because…people two millenia ago had only four toes?! :dubious:
Some help here?
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### Author:  [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/182 "2007-05-21T20:48:09Z")
[QUOTE=Fiver]
Right, because…people two millenia ago had only four toes?! :dubious:
Some help here?
[/QUOTE]
_Someone_ doesn’t understand evolution!
-Joe
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### Author:  [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/183 "2007-05-21T21:01:22Z")
[QUOTE=Fiver]
Right, because…people two millenia ago had only four toes?! :dubious:
Some help here?
[/QUOTE]
My guess would be that the “four-toed people” might have simply severed their pinky toes as part of an initiation ritual (or to indicate slave status; remember the Black Rock was a slave ship).
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### Author:  [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/184 "2007-05-21T21:10:15Z")
[QUOTE=Fiver]
Right, because…people two millenia ago had only four toes?! :dubious:
Some help here?
[/QUOTE]
The native hostiles evolved from the Simpsons.
[QUOTE=CJJ\*]
My guess would be that the “four-toed people” might have simply severed their pinky toes as part of an initiation ritual (or to indicate slave status; remember the Black Rock was a slave ship).
[/QUOTE]
Dude, you want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me, there are ways, Dude.
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### Author:  [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/185 "2007-05-21T23:06:22Z")
No, no. The aliens who crashed their saucer on the island a few millennia ago only had four toes. Sheesh. So obvious…
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/186 "2007-05-21T23:20:25Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller]
I disagree, John. [Here’s](http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Image:3x20-AlpertHostile.jpg) a picture of Richard from Ben’s flashback - those clothes are ragged.
[/QUOTE]
But that still doesn’t look like the “costumes” warn by The Others when they raided the Tailie’s camp-- clothes that didn’t fit, with pants torn at the cuff… dirty faces. Like [This](http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Image:2X05-TheOthers.jpg)
> [@Fiver](#):
>
> Right, because…people two millenia ago had only four toes?!
>
> Some help here?
The statue was in the style of ancient Greece. The number of toes wasn’t important other than as a way for me to identify it.
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### Author:  [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/187 "2007-05-21T23:31:00Z")
I think it’s important not to bite off too much detail from the little clues we’re given. Namely:
The specific period style of clothes Richard wore isn’t likely important, but rather the suggestion that he’d already been on the island for some time, and not living a lifestyle of modern conveniences.
Likewise for the statue. The exact specifics of the statues (what was its purpose? who built it?) aren’t necessarily important, but rather just the suggestion that the the island has been inhabited _for a long time_.
I think this style of razor (Occam’s brand or otherwise) is useful in a lot of cases. The question is ultimately, what were the filmmakers (producers?) trying to impress upon us by adding that image?
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/188 "2007-05-22T00:11:05Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
But that still doesn’t look like the “costumes” warn by The Others when they raided the Tailie’s camp-- clothes that didn’t fit, with pants torn at the cuff… dirty faces. Like [This](http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Image:2X05-TheOthers.jpg)
[/quote]
It really doesn’t seem worth arguing about to me, since the plot point remains the same - the primitive-looking clothes Tom et al wore in Season 2 were a disguise. However, I think that Richard’s “old” clothes do indeed look like they don’t fit quite right. I suspect that Richard and the original Hostile Others (i.e., not counting Dharma turncoats like Ben and recent recruits like Juliet and Mikhail) are descendants of the survivors of the Black Rock, and the clothes they wore before the Purge, (and, in my opinion, also the clothes they wore during the Season 2 encounters) came from the Black Rock as well, and they just make do with the best possible fit. Perhaps their care has been neglected since the Purge, now that they have much better clothing to wear.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2007, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/189 "2007-05-22T04:51:54Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef]
“I think you cracked my skull, what the hell is wrong with you?”
…
Not exactly ideal dramatically, but funny and realistic. I could see that scene in an episode of firefly.
[/QUOTE]
Actually, we _did_ see the magical unconsciousness-rendering blow to the head in _Firefly._ Remember Mal clocking Jayne with the wrench in “Ariel”?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/190 "2007-05-23T03:47:43Z")
**cmkeller** : I think you’re right. Now that I remember, the clothes that Picket wore (I think that was his name) when he abducted Michael in Season 2 were very similar to those worn by Richard in Ben’s backstory. Good call. I think that The Others had a range of costumes, from really bad to just old looking, and that Richard’s was well within that range.
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### Author:  [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2007, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/191 "2007-05-23T13:55:17Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
**cmkeller** : I think you’re right. Now that I remember, the clothes that Picket wore (I think that was his name) when he abducted Michael in Season 2 were very similar to those worn by Richard in Ben’s backstory. Good call. I think that The Others had a range of costumes, from really bad to just old looking, and that Richard’s was well within that range.
[/QUOTE]
How do we know that Richard was wearing a _costume_ when he first meant young Ben?
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-3-21-greatest-hits/404361/192 "2007-05-23T14:18:14Z")
Maybe it was creatively woven body hair.
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