# Lost 4.03: "The Economist" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556 "2008-02-14T04:02:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/141 "2008-02-16T19:29:39Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] I _think_ she said, “It’s my boss, he’s here” when the beeper finally went off. But I’m not sure. By the way, just to make sure I understood correctly: Her apparent tears and anguish just before she tried to kill Sayid were just acting, correct? She never had actually fallen for him, right? -FrL- [/QUOTE] Elsa and Sayid repeatedly refer to “The Economist” as “him.” ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/142 "2008-02-16T19:47:58Z")
It certainly seemed from the previews for next week that Kate was one of the celebrated Oceanic Six. She was the one wearing the sunglasses, no? ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/143 "2008-02-16T19:50:04Z")
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ] Yeah, I saw “RG” as the initials. Ben’s Other friend is named [Richard Alpert](http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Richard_Alpert), tho. I couldn’t find any other characters on the Lostpedia with the initials RG. There’s Rose Nadler, Richard Malkin (the psychic), Rachel Carlson (Juliet’s sister), Claire’s friend “Rachel” and “Ruth, Desmond’s ex-fiancee”. There were people in DHARMA with the surname “Goodspeed” but according to Lostpedia, they died in “the purge” (when Richard and Ben killed everyone with gas). [/QUOTE] There’s also a woman on the boat named Regina. I don’t believe we know her last name. I was wondering if “Elsa” was really Regina. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/144 "2008-02-16T20:03:29Z")
[QUOTE=easy e] There’s also a woman on the boat named Regina. I don’t believe we know her last name. I was wondering if “Elsa” was really Regina. [/QUOTE] Elsa had a distinct German accent. Did Regina? I don’t remember who she was-- was she the woman Faraday was talking to about the rocket? ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/145 "2008-02-16T21:53:12Z")
What was with Lapidus taking so much care to tell Faraday (in what sounded to me almost like a menacing tone of voice) that he was under no circumstances to talk to Minkowski on the phone, but rather he was only allowed to talk to that other person? -Kris ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/146 "2008-02-16T21:59:45Z")
I like that while Jack is moping, Hurley is in a mental institution hiding, Sayid is out taking heads. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/147 "2008-02-16T22:07:34Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] What was with Lapidus taking so much care to tell Faraday (in what sounded to me almost like a menacing tone of voice) that he was under no circumstances to talk to Minkowski on the phone, but rather he was only allowed to talk to that other person? -Kris [/QUOTE] It’s not clear what the significance was between them, but I think the point was to start exposing that there are factions among the freighter folks, just as there are factions among the Others. Same thing with the comment about how Naomi was upper management and didn’t really explain who’d hired her? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/148 "2008-02-16T22:51:11Z")
[QUOTE=Gfactor] It’s not clear what the significance was between them, but I think the point was to start exposing that there are factions among the freighter folks, just as there are factions among the Others. Same thing with the comment about how Naomi was upper management and didn’t really explain who’d hired her? [/QUOTE] Yeah, remember in episode 2 when Miles tried to call and talk to Minkowski, and he was told that Minkowski was “busy”. Assuming Minkowski is one of the head hanchos, you’d think he’d want to talk to the away team whenever they needed. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/149 "2008-02-17T00:19:53Z")
I looked through the past Lost threads, and I find it incredible that apparently I get to be the first to mention the significance of the name [Minkowski](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski) (as in, [Minkowski space](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minkowski_space)). I probably missed it somewhere, though. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/150 "2008-02-17T00:43:40Z")
I remember thinking the first time I heard his name that I should look it up and see what significance it had. Seemed like an odd name to pick just at random. But I forgot… ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/151 "2008-02-17T01:34:13Z")
I’m waiting for the day a new character is introduced with the name Red Herring ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_The\_Younger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d9b06d/32.png) [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/152 "2008-02-17T05:21:20Z")
[QUOTE=well he’s back] I’m waiting for the day a new character is introduced with the name Red Herring [/QUOTE] He’ll be dating a young school teacher by the name of Miss Direct, no doubt. [QUOTE=Sir Prize] If the people from the ship are Dharma, they would at least know how to fly a plane through to drop cargo to the old hatch. They are probably using the same flight path unless it shifted after Desmond turned the key. I am guessing that the hatch incident changed the time differential between the island and the rest of the world. Also, I don’t think time dilation is the answer. I think that you have to travel 31 minutes into the past to get on the island and presumably 31 minutes into the future to get off. Or vice/versa. [/QUOTE] Okay, here’s what I don’t get…the clock that Faraday has with him had traveled essentially the same path as the rocket - freighter to island - aboard the helicopter the day before. Wouldn’t the helicopter and therefore the clock have been subjected to the same time travel as the rocket presumably was, so that the two clocks should actually be in sync once the rocket reaches the island? Is this a hole in the space-time continuum, or just a gaping hole in the script? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/153 "2008-02-17T05:28:43Z")
I’m thinking they both synced the clocks to 0 at the time they decided to launch the one. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to launch it, they’d just say to each other over the phone “What’s your clock read?”. That is, if they had reason to suspect time difference problems already. Which they probably didn’t. Still, I think they synced to 0. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/154 "2008-02-17T06:39:44Z")
Couple observations about Sayid. When he’s playing golf against the Italian guy, and he loses the bet, he says that it appears the 5 iron was the right choice. Well, it was the right choice for that guy, but if Sayid had hit a 5 iron, he’d be even farther away for the flag than what his 7 iron produced. In fact, he’d probably be off the back of the green. And then when he’s in the cafe with Elsa, he orders an “expresso”. Surely he’s got enough smarts to know that it’s an espresso. That seemed really out of character unless he was trying to make himself appear to be a yokel, which doesn’t seem to be the case. And I’m still struck by the absolute utter lack of interest that Jack showed in Faraday’s experiment. I mean, he heard and saw enough that he should’ve been aware of the implications, yet he never asked even one feakin’ question. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/155 "2008-02-17T07:05:52Z")
[QUOTE=Indistinguishable] I’m thinking they both synced the clocks to 0 at the time they decided to launch the one. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to launch it, they’d just say to each other over the phone “What’s your clock read?”. That is, if they had reason to suspect time difference problems already. Which they probably didn’t. Still, I think they synced to 0. [/QUOTE] Actually, I suppose they must have had reason to suspect time difference problems already; else, why launch a clock, of all things? So, yeah, my reasoning in the first part works: the clocks were being used more as timers than as “What time of the day is it?” devices, they hadn’t been running yet before the launch, but they were both started off at 0 at the time of the launch. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/156 "2008-02-17T16:07:32Z")
[QUOTE=Indistinguishable] I looked through the past Lost threads, and I find it incredible that apparently I get to be the first to mention the significance of the name [Minkowski](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski) (as in, [Minkowski space](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minkowski_space)). I probably missed it somewhere, though. [/QUOTE] Cool. Speaking of significant names, my ears finally pricked up at “Saint Sebastian Hospital” while catching up on _Through the Looking Glass_ last week. I guess because it was mentioned so early on and is so nicely inconspicuous as a hospital name, I never thought much about it. But it fits in with the [Apollonian theme](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7251086#post7251086) they’ve had going on. How does a Catholic saint [relate to classical mythology?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sebastian) > [@](#): > > As a protector from the plague, Sebastian was formerly one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (until the suppression of that cult in 1969) . The connection of the martyr shot with arrows with the plague is not an intuitive one. In Greco-Roman myth, Apollo the archer-god is the deliverer of pestilence; the figure of Sebastian Christianizes this familiar literary trope. This finally clicked for me when I heard “Saint Sebastian” for the umpteenth time during that episode, which then concluded with Ben Linus in a position that was [evocative](http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4460/linusboundtf0.png) of St. Sebastian’s [martyrdom](http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/39598/4/saint_sebastian.jpg). (Linus, of course, was a son of Apollo - given over to be raised by others (shepherds,) which didn’t work out so well as a dingo ate his baby. Apollo reacted to this insult by whipping up a nice little child-killing plague. Oh, that wacky Apollo! ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/157 "2008-02-17T16:25:53Z")
[QUOTE=Paul The Younger] Speaking of which, in the final scene Ben asks Sayid “Is she dead?”. It seemed clear all along that Sayid was going after Elsa’s boss, so why does it appear that Ben is more interested in her death, not so much her boss’s? Obviously the identity of Elsa’s boss is the next big mystery…“The Economist”… any bets on Old Man Widmore? [/QUOTE] Possibly he’s asking ‘Is she dead’ to make sure there’s no loose ends, like people who know too much running around. And Ben’s observed the Losties long enough to know none of them volunteer info, so he’d better ask explicitly. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/158 "2008-02-17T17:41:23Z")
[QUOTE=Paul The Younger] Obviously the identity of Elsa’s boss is the next big mystery…“The Economist”… any bets on Old Man Widmore? [/QUOTE] “Obviously”? 😛 It’s just as obvious that the next big mystery will be “How is it that the island is at the South Pole?” or “How is Walt’s mom still alive?” or “Did it appear that Kate and Juliet were living an ‘alternative lifestyle’ in their flash-forward?” or “When did that other plane crash?” or “Since we’ve seen Charlie-ghost and Boone-ghost, will we see Shannon-ghost too?”. Hell, we might even find out that somebody is going to nuke the island and that will take precedence over anything else. Like usual. 😉 On a more general note, this last episode is where, imho, the series pulled one too many surprises out of its …hat. Why do we need to find out the identity of this guy when we don’t even know the identity of Jacob? Really… when it was revealed that it was Ben that was giving Sayid his orders my heart sank a little bit. I know that in _Lost_ the mystery _is_ the story but the sheer amount of unanswered questions (and the writers desire to add more to the mix) implies that even the “big mysteries” (like who is Jacob? or what’s the big deal with Claire’s baby?) are, in the end, no more important than than irrelevant queries about the characters (like who was with Jack when he got his tattoo?). So I’m beginning to think that this one is just going to end as the _X-Files_ ended, with the story over and nothing really explained. It’s a fun journey though and, as long as it doesn’t end in a clip show, I’ll stick it out to the end a “fan”. Though I do think _Lost_ will eventually have more Unanswered Questions than any TV show prior. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/159 "2008-02-17T18:41:02Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] And I’m still struck by the absolute utter lack of interest that Jack showed in Faraday’s experiment. I mean, he heard and saw enough that he should’ve been aware of the implications, yet he never asked even one feakin’ question. [/QUOTE] A character on Lost showing an inexplicable lack of curiosity? Failure to ask follow-up questions? I’m shocked! Shocked! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556/160 "2008-02-17T19:35:07Z")
Yeah, I know. It still bugs me, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-4-03-the-economist/437556.md?page=9)