Couple things:
When he found Hurley in the jungle, how did Locke know what was written on Charlie’s hand?
I loved how when they figured out the Looking Glass block was gone but the French Lady’s radio tower signal was still causing a problem, CFL said, “It’s okay…we’re here” and points to the huge, freaking tower. Like they wouldn’t have noticed that they were standing directly in front of what they’ve been hiking to for days.
My husband was reading some Lost discussion site (I have no idea if it’s one of those linked in the OP) that was throwing around the idea of time travel. I like their ideas. Basically, that the Island was in some rift of the space-time continuum, that Jack wants to get back there and has been making the flights back and forth trying to break into that rift, etc. I don’t know, I haven’t read it myself, but I think that theory could be used to explain Walt’s aging, Charlie’s appearance to Hurley (he really was there, but as a time traveler), Jack talking about his dad in the present tense in the future hospital scenes, Kate’s freedom in the future scenes (maybe she was able to change her past somehow). Has time travel been ruled out as a theory by the writers? What do you all think about this?
I decided that Hurley must have told him, and they just didn’t show that part of the conversation.
I watched the recap episode as well, which wasn’t too bad as those things go. I liked how there was basically no mention of the tail section in the entire recap. I guess that half of season 2 was just filler
I wondered about this, but was willing to assume that they’d had a brief chat.
In the most recent podcast (9/07) they said time travel was possible but that it was like other shows (they gave Heroes as an example) in the sense that, as Ms. Hawking says, things have a way of course correcting.
I imagine it’s because with all the reruns on the air right now due to the writer’s strike, ABC is trying to maximize it’s profit by cramming as many commercials into the Lost premiere as possible. It’s about the only thing going for the network at the moment.
Any thoughts on what it is that Jack is afraid Hurley will “tell” ? That there are more survivors still alive? Are they living their future lives under the guise that everyone else from 815 is dead?
Your assumption is mine as well. They were given some deal to get off the island - with others left behind. The mysterious “official” in this episode is affiliated with whoever got them off the island (or perhaps whoever just showed up and apparently isn’t going to help them) and wants to know if there are other people left alive on the island - this is the secret that Jack hopes Hurley won’t tell.
I’m hoping that the last season will deal with what happens after Jack says “we have to go back”. Somehow they have to go back (perhaps with Penny’s help) to rescue the ones that they abandoned. Jack becomes a hero again, regains his life, Desmond ends up with Penny, blah blah blah, happily ever after.
Oh, and hopefully Locke dies, the annoying bugger.
If I recall correctly I think she was carrying a photo of Desmond with her that she showed everybody.
It appears on the surface that the “Oceanic 6” made some deal with with the rescuers or whomever that they could get off the island (similar to Michael and Walt) under the condition that they never speak of the island or whose still left there, sticking to the story that every one else perished. That’s why the purported Oceanic lawyer was pressing Hurley if anyone else was still alive.
Now Hurley and Jack are starting to feel the guilt for leaving people behind.
I’d even throw out there that 2 of the Oceanic 6 are Walt and Michael.
Since Charlie and Dave were imaginary to Hurley, maybe the Oceanic lawyer was too. Maybe he even imagined that Jack visited him. Or that he was stranded on a mysterious island.
In fact, since Desmond can travel thru time and space and Hurley interacts with non-existent people and we, the viewers, aren’t told what is real or false or who is dead or alive, speculation seems moot. In the “Lost” universe, any story point that was implied to be true can be changed to false negating anything that was told to us earlier. Makes writing it a lot easier.
I mostly agree with this interpretation, although I don’t know if there necessarily needs to be a “deal” with anyone except themselves - they could want to be quiet about for some other reason. But “Oceanic 6” clearly implies that 6 people were rescued from the flight and the others are dead - in the minds of the public. Jack and Hurley’s behavior also indicates that there are people still alive on the island (why would they feel compelled to go back to an empty island?). And it was also clear to me that creepy lawyer guy was asking if anyone was alive on the island, not back in the USA. Obviously this is all just MHO, but it seemed pretty straightforward to me.
I liked the episode. I honestly do not understand the complaints of “not enough information.” The whole appeal of this show (to me) is the mystery, the not knowing what’s going on or what is going to happen. The mystery is what makes it compelling, what makes me dying to see next week’s episode. If they told me everything, I’d be bored. Sure, they go to great lengths and probably strain credulity in terms of what people say to each other and whatnot, but who cares! It’s very easy for me to suspend my disbelief that someone does not act logically since the reward is constant surprises and unpredictability.
Did anyone catch if Hurley actually lost his $100 million? I guess everyone was declared dead but the money should have gone to someone who hopefully didn’t manage to blow it all since he’s been gone.
Every preview of the season I’ve read has said OMG…this was *not *an OMG episode.
Typical annoyance from our writers: the big news from the beach is Charlie’s dying message about Penny and the boat. So you would think Desmond would be anxious to impart this message – setting up the drama for the entire season – to the rest of the Losties, right? But nooo…this is a Hurley Episode. So Hurley gets the big scene, relaying secondhand information, while Desmond stands there like an idiot.
I have a feeling that “we have to go BAAAACKKKK!!” is going to be this season’s “WAAAALT”
Yep to every single point you said, especially in your appreciation of straining credibility to keep the mystery going. The show would be totally boring if we didn’t have all these gaps to fill out in our heads inbetween episodes.
I had never considered this before. And it wouldn’t have been that much of a consideration before last night. We only knew of Dave, and it was reasonable to assume that Hurley had moved past that. Bringing in one (or more) imaginary characters does start to question what is real, and what is in Hurley’s mind, though…
I truly hope that this interpretation is wrong. Otherwise this could just be a serialization of “A Beautiful Mind”, with numbers, conspiracies and imagined connections between unrelated people.
At least with Suzanne Pleshette having passed on, we don’t have to worry about Hurley waking up and saying "“Honey, you won’t believe the dream I just had…”
The OMG reviewer was Tim Goodman, the San Francisco Chronicle’s normally pretty good, fairly cynical and rather acerbic TV critic. Generally his tastes and mine are fairly congruent, but I wasn’t entirely in agreement with him on this one either. But to be fair he saw the first two episodes back to back on DVD, sans commercials, which may have enhanced the impact.
This was actually the first episode of Lost I’ve watched in real time. Every previous viewing has been on DVD, generally in chunks. I finished up season three just last week. And I always go back and review the past SDMB episode threads. It quickly became apparent to me that I was far less annoyed by slower episodes than most of you poor bastards, slogging through them once a week, with the occasional mid-season breaks. Seeing an entire season in one to two weeks seems to make everything just flow better :D.
But my lord, the commercials. I very, very rarely watch network TV these days. Mostly cable. Now I’m seriously considering calling a halt to this endeavor and just waiting for next batch of DVDs. I was at first amused, then beyond annoyed at being to forced to watch the show in what seemed like five minute blocks. Am I right in picking up from the comments of you regular viewers that this was unusually bad?
Charlie McCollum in the San Jose Mercury was also extremely enthusiastic.
Beats me…I Tivo’d. But I do want to give them props for the two commercials they ran during the PopUp Video show on Wednesday – featuring Sawyer (Bad to the Bone) and Locke (Crazy). I thought they were quite well done.
Can’t have the viewers thinking that!