Lost 4.12: "There's No Place Like Home"

[Frylock]

@well he's back

Note - I finally got why Hurley couldn’t admit that he knew AnaLucia -

When did that happen?

-FrL-

[cmkeller]

In the season premiere, he was taken into police custody, and Ana-Lucia’s former partner mentioned her having been on his flight.

I’m really wondering how the heck the weird time effects are supposed to be working. So far, we’ve seen three examples:

1. Rocket fired from ship reached island much later than expected - island-time is 31 minutes ahead of real-world time.
2. Doctor’s corpse washes ashore before he’s actually killed on the ship - island-time is some measure behind real-world time.
3. Desmond time-travels - only his consciousness travels, switching between past him and current him, never affecting anything material at all.

Are these manifestations of the same effect? And if they are, will they be explained in some consistent manner, or just whitewashed as “time is weird on and around the island”?

[Gfactor]

@Justin Credible

Huh. I never thought of that. If it is indeed via radio, then I suppose the freighter would explode before the signal is even sent. I think…

Maybe Mikhail’s been repairing the Looking Glass all this time and will get the block back up . . . just in the nick of time.

[RikWriter]

@well he's back

Rik - Great theory. Just how do the Oceanic 6 get away tho? My theory there is that Penney’s sending a boat. She contacted Oceanic. or something.

I am thinking they get to another island on the helicopter.

[randwill]

@RikWriter

I am thinking they get to another island on the helicopter.

There are at least two islands. I’ve been wondering what the folks over on the prison island have been up to lately.

[well_he_s_back]

Hurley was asked about AnaLucia by a police officer after he was hauled in by the police after running wild on the streets in his car after seeing Charlie at the 7/11. In one of the earliest ep.s this season. Officer says he worked with AL, Hurley says he didn’t know her.

Oops - sorry. didn’t see this was already answered above. carry on.

[Diceman]

@Justin Credible

Huh. I never thought of that. If it is indeed via radio, then I suppose the freighter would explode before the signal is even sent. I think…

I don’t know. Either way, I bet Immortal Michael will survive the explosion Monster Squad style.

Wolfman’s got nards.

It seems like communications can get thru without any time distortion. They’ve called the freighter, and other locations, several times without any evidence that anything unusual was happening with the signal. Physical objects, however, are another story.

[Diceman]

@StarvingButStrong

I keep being struck by the ‘coincidence’ of there being an Oceanic SIX and that Desmond repeatedly says the inflatable boat (is that a Zodiac?) will hold SIX.

So, my guess at to how it works out:

There’s all that ruckus at Orchid. With the help of Richard’s group, the mercenaries are defeated. Ben survives (obviously) and either he or Locke start the ‘moving the island’ process which a) takes a while to actually happen but b) cannot be stopped. Jack/Hurley/Kate/Sayeed don’t want to stay on the island, so they rush back to the helicopter and get ferried to the boat. (Jack will feel guilty over not going to the beach to let others be saved instead of him, but there isn’t time.)

Probably the helicopter unloads just in time for the boat to blow up when the injured mercenary finishes dying a lingering death back at Orchid. Some of the people on the deck of the ship have enough notice to jump into the water. Desmond had just recently left the boat after dropping off his latest sixpack of Losties, and is in transit to the island.

He witnesses the boat’s destruction and heads back in hopes of picking up survivors, and collects the Oceanic Six. Probably there are more in the water than the boat will hold, and some sort of fight over who will get aboard ensues. Jin gets killed at this point, fighting to be sure Sun is saved. Desmond must get killed/pulled out of the lifeboat during this.

Then WHAMMO big special effect and the island vanishes.
The rest is left as an excercize for the reader.

Here’s what I’m imagining:

The mercenaries are defeated, with Keemey being alive but injured, and the rest are killed. Locke and Sawyer decide that they’re going to stay on the island, so Kate and Sawyer say goodby, and the helicopter leaves with Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid.

They arrive at the freighter just as Daniel is pulling up with a second load of Losties. This will probably be mostly or entirely redshirts. (I hope so, anyway; I don’t want Rose or Bernard to get killed.) Everyone now learns that the ship is rigged to blow, so they have to turn around and take everyone off again. Now, the previews make it seem like they’re having problems with the helicopter, so perhaps the helicopter has been damaged in the fighting, and is no longer airworthy. This leaves only the zodiac raft.

At this point, they notice that a yacht is approaching. It’s Penny, coming to rescue Desmond. The Losties begin to ferry everyone over in the zodiac. Desmond will insist on getting over to Penny as soon as possible, and Sun, Kate, and Aaron will have guaranteed seats as well. Somehow, Jack, Hurley, and Sayid get the remaining spots, while Jin has to wait for the second trip. Before Daniel can go back for a second group, Keemey dies (perhaps because Ben has tortured him to death in revenge for Alex) and the freighter blows up.

Daniel, in the zodiac, decides that he doesn’t want to leave Charlotte behind, so he goes back to the island. Then the Orchid Station does its thing and the island disappears. The people on the yacht decide that nobody is going to believe the true story, and probably Penny doesn’t want her father to get exposed, so they concoct a cover story that will mesh with the faked crash site in the Indian Ocean.

[middleman]

We assume Michael is “immortal”, but what if his role for which the island was protecting him was to keep the boat inoperative until Kearney left?

He could be toast.

Also, I am confused about the location of New Otherton. The Losties seem to be walking from it to the beach, but isn’t it on a different island?

[Algernon]

@Diceman

The people on the yacht decide that nobody is going to believe the true story, and probably Penny doesn’t want her father to get exposed, so they concoct a cover story that will mesh with the faked crash site in the Indian Ocean.

I know your theory is just, well, a theory, but do we have any evidence at all that Desmond gets off the island?

We know the Oceanic Six and Ben get off. But Desmond?

[Trion]

@middleman

Also, I am confused about the location of New Otherton. The Losties seem to be walking from it to the beach, but isn’t it on a different island?

No, the Hydra station is on another island. New Otherton is on the main island.

[middleman]

Oh. Ok. The Hydra is where they were holding Jack, right?

I wonder if that island stays put when they move the main island.

[well_he_s_back]

OK speculators - any thoughts on what happens to Lapidus? Isn’t he the only one who can fly the helicopter? I know Sayid’s supercool, but c’mon. Anyway, if he survives, how is this ex-Oceanic pilot’s presence to be explained to the press?

[running_piglet_cheese]

Well, somehow the helicopter gets Jack, Hugo, Sayid and Kate off the island. But then the boat blows up with the helicopter and pilot going up with it. Our 6 end up on the raft and wash up on island shown in the press picture. Perhaps that island is island #2 which is left after our Mysterious Island moves and disappears.

[middleman]

I think it is not a safe assumption to make that non-Oceanic characters like Desmond, Daniel, or Juliette do not make it off the island.

They may just sneak back into civilization without a cover story.

They were never assumed dead.

Of course, given the way Sayid asked Ben how he got off the island, I get the same impression as others here. Just pointing out that nothing we’ve seen stands as conclusive proof that the O6 and Ben are the only people back in civilization.

[mazinger_z]

@Omniscient

Is it possible that we are over-estimating the value of Paik Industries? Have they explained what Sun’s fathers company does? He’s obviously very rich and the head of a company, but there seems to be a common opinion that it’s a massive conglomeration. Perhaps it’s a big, but not huge, company. Suppose it’s worth $20 million. Sun could very possibly gotten a $10 million settlement and bought up controlling stake and it wouldn’t be unrealistic at all. Maybe the company is worth $50 million, still sorta plausible.

As others have said, this is the part that I thought was the most far-fetched. Even with Hurley’s $150M, and the rest of the Oceanic 6 money, it might be enough to buy a standard controlling interest (a company like Paik Heavy Industries doesn’t seem to play like other corporations, so I really doubt a minor controlling interest is possible, since it is so rare.) Besides, ime, you’re not called a “Heavy Industry” by being only worth a few measly millions.

[Qwisp]

I don’t think the takeover was so unbelievable. Keep in mind that Sun probably had a lot of shares to begin with, and Jin may have had his own shares that Sun inherited. I also think there is more backstory to the takeover that we have not heard yet.

Do you really think the writers of Lost are going to tell you everything of importance right away?

[Justin_Credible]

@Algernon

I know your theory is just, well, a theory, but do we have any evidence at all that Desmond gets off the island?

We know the Oceanic Six and Ben get off. But Desmond?

No evidence. Just hope.

[Merijeek]

@well he's back

-I think the other person Sun blames for Jin’s death must be Widmore.

Nope, it’s Sun. Jin was on the plan because of two people - Sun’s father, and Sun herself.

As for Ben saving himself, I think everyone needs to remember that it’s entirely possible that Ben and Widmore can’t directly kill each other because they’ve both already been placed in the future. Killing either one of them will create a paradox.

So, while Ben may know he’s going to do some suffering, he’s also completely confident that he can’t die - which might explain why the leader of the Others was willing to take such a blatantly stupid risk as to pretend to be Henry Gale and just wander into the Losties’ camp.

-Joe

[Flander]

@Merijeek

• which might explain why the leader of the Others was willing to take such a blatantly stupid risk as to pretend to be Henry Gale and just wander into the Losties’ camp.

-Joe

As I remember it, he was accidentally snagged by CFL’s trap and had to come up with the Henry Gale story to make them believe he wasn’t an other. I may be wrong, it was a long time ago.
Damn Ben is a great character.