Lost 4.03: "The Economist"

[Gfactor]

@Monstre

Well, technically just the Swan Station has been imploded. I have a feeling that the whole electromagnet thingy is bigger than the Swan Station. So now whatever it was doing and “building up a charge” that needed draining off every 108 minutes is no longer occurring – maybe the magnet is still around, but there’s no longer a dam to harness the energy (for whatever purpose it was being used for)?

[Spoiler] Answers

Carlton Cuse: Is there still electromagnetism on the Island? I would say yes there is. Is there electromagnetism that is going to lead to an imploding black hole and the end of civilization as we know it? Perhaps not.

Damon Lindelof: Lets just say like theoretically inside the Island there was this ball of electromagnetic energy. And lets just say there was a group of people – we’ll call them the DHARMA Initiative sort of drilling around and and doing general futzing on the Island and they accidentally drilled into this hole and suddenly that entire ball of electromagnetism became untapped so that they built this Swan station above it in in an effort so that it wouldn’t get completely out of control. So that by plugging that hole you don’t actually do away with all the electromagnetism. Its still there.

Carlton Cuse: It became tapped actually.

Damon Lindelof: Yes. Tapped. that’s right.

Carlton Cuse: Not untapped but then now its been re-corked. Lets just call it corked. Its been corked. Its not its its fine. Don’t worry about it.

Damon Lindelof: Its tapped

Carlton Cuse: Don’t worry about it right now. You’re ok.

Damon Lindelof: I’ve had so much beer in my life that I should know what tapped and untapped is.

Carlton Cuse: Especially before this.[/Spoiler]

Access: Granted

[middleman]

Not much to add. I think Kate, Hurley, Jack, and Sayid are part of the O6.

I thought Sawyer was one too based on Kate’s comments of getting back to “him” but “him” may well be Ben.

If so, then the coffin could not be Ben.

I liked this episode. It was Sayid: International Man of Mystery. I practically heard James Bond music when he shot the guy on the golf course.

I am getting to where I like the flashforwards as much as the episode (as opposed to most previous episodes where the flashbacks seem like a chore.)

Hopefully with a date certain for the end, every backstory will be meaningful to advancing the big picture. I worry about Sun and Jin’s upcoming episode.

[Justin_Bailey]

About the Oceanic 6

@Gfactor

I’m pretty sure that in the trailers hyping the revelation of the “next” member of the Oceanic 6, they said it was the fourth member we’d be seeing. Perhaps I’m confabulating, but that’s what I remember

[spoiler]While we know for sure that Jack, Hurley and Sayid are members of the Oceanic 6, I think next week’s reveal of “the fourth” will confirm that Kate is either one of the six or is hiding under an assumed name and someone else is part of the six.

But I’m not sure ABC’s promo monkeys have quite mastered the art of the misdirecting promo like the Amazing Race people have.[/spoiler]

[Baldwin]

@John Mace

Interesting that time is slower on the island than out in the world. I wonder if that means when they’re rescued, they jump from 4 months to close to our current time without having to have the 3 or so years pass by.

Not slower, faster (apparently). So the 100 days on the island might correspond to less time in LA. Or not.

I’m getting old and losing brain cells. In last week’s episode, Locke asked Ben, “What’s the black smoke? What is the monster?” (And wasn’t it nice to hear a direct question about that.) I absolutely cannot remember what Ben said.

ETA: Never mind! Just looked up the transcript. Ben said he didn’t know; Locke was then ready to finally pop a cap in Ben’s rotten brain, but Ben started spouting all his inside info about the freighter party. I think I lost some dialogue because, when he said she was named Charlotte Staples Lewis, my eyes rolled so far back I got to look at my own neocortex.

[Sir_Prize]

JACK: I’ve been flying a lot.

KATE: What?

JACK: Yeah that golden pass that they gave us. I, I’ve been using it. Every Friday night I, I fly from LA to Tokyo or, Singapore, Sydney. [Laughs] And then I, I get off and I, have a drink, and then I fly home.

Sounds like “us” includes Kate. If so, she is free to go flying whenever she wants and is probably one of the 6.

[phungi]

@middleman

Not much to add. I think Kate, Hurley, Jack, and Sayid are part of the O6.

I thought Sawyer was one too based on Kate’s comments of getting back to “him” but “him” may well be Ben.

If so, then the coffin could not be Ben.

I am never sure of anything on this show. We do not know the time line, so it is possible that Ben left the island only to die at a later point on the mainland.

[Klif]

@Sir Prize

Sounds like “us” includes Kate. If so, she is free to go flying whenever she wants and is probably one of the 6.

He could also just have been casually mentioning the free passes to someone who doesn’t have one, but who knows about it.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

Apparently the link posted by wasson above causes pop-ups and disables browsers. I’ve thus undone it as a link.

[middleman]

@phungi

I am never sure of anything on this show. We do not know the time line, so it is possible that Ben left the island only to die at a later point on the mainland.

I agree with that. I was saying if the “him” that Kate had to get back to was Ben , then Ben couldn’t be in the coffin. I am pretty sure Jack had been to the funeral home prior to meeting with Kate. I think he even said something about the funeral.

My point, I guess, is that Ben can either be: “him”, the dead guy at the shitty funeral, OR neither one. He cannot be BOTH “him”, and the dead guy at the shitty funeral!*

My suspicion is that Ben is the dead guy and Sawyer is “him.”
[sub]*Of course, there have been empty coffins before so…[/sub]

[well_he_s_back]

Just a thought: if time runs funny on this island, could that account for why babies don’t develop well there and don’t survive birth? or is that plotline completely irrelevant now?

[rainy]

@msmith537

A bullet is also just a piece of metal and this particular piece was traveling about 5 km per second.

GAH! Missed the last couple of weeks, just now catching up via iTunes.
The scene as it should have played out…

Faraday: “Look at these clocks! This isn’t good! This means…”

BANG - A shot rings out, Faraday stumbles backwards a bullet hole in his forehead. Jack appears over the body. (Close up, Jack looks crazed) BANG…BANG…BANG

Chopper Pilot : “Why the hell did you do that?”

Jack: “We were flying on a plane that broke apart in mid-air. We’ve been here for THREE months. There are polar bears, black smoke monsters, wild boars, crazy French people, falling plane wreckages, 200-year-old sailing ships, abandoned secret laboratories and a crazed hippy commune whose members sit around all day figuring out how to mind f[beeeep]k us. You guys come here to rescue us…”

Chopper pilot: (interupting) “We’re not here to res…”

Jack: “Yes you are!” BANG (from the angle of the shot, it is assumed another round passes through Faraday’s corpse)

Chopper pilot: “Why do you keep doing that?”

Jack: “Nobody seems to stay dead around here. Did I mention the pyscho-cyclops-Russian? That helicopter is my ticket off this island and this idiot…” BANG (another round through Faraday / chopper pilot grimaces) “…shoots a missile from 80 miles away at a beacon 30 feet from the helicopter.” BANG BANG (2 more to Faraday / chopper pilot looks nauseas) “No more experiments. You want to do something, bury this idiot…” BANG

(Jack looks thoughtful)

Jack: “Scratch that, you might hurt your hand or have a heart attack digging the hole. As a matter of fact, while we’re waiting on Sayid teach me to fly this helicopter.”

Chopper pilot: “But I can’t…”

(Jack looks at chopper pilot, a persistent twitch flinches under his right eye giving him the appearance of a crazed man)

Chopper pilot: (continuing) “…right. Well the first you do is turn on the starter motor.”

Jack: “Where’s that?”

Chopper pilot: “Let me show you.” (steps over to helicopter)

(Jack steps across Faraday’s corpse, then turns back towards it) BANG
Sorry - venting finished. I thought that whole scene was really sloppy, maddeningly so.

-rainy