# Lost 9/29 (unboxed spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 30, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769 "2004-09-30T01:03:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/101 "2004-10-01T17:23:34Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Solar power? With photovoltaic cels and an adapter that has hasn’t been invented yet but with which you can power a trasmitter. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/102 "2004-10-01T17:37:48Z")
umm… solar power’s been around for longer than 16 years, **trunk…** Here’s a translation a french-speaking canadian posted to another board I’m on… As far as the french womans message, it translates closer to “It got away, it got out, I told them to go to the black rock, It got out, please help us, it killed them, it killed them.” or something to that effect. It’s always nice to know french ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/103 "2004-10-01T17:39:47Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > No, six people couldn’t move a 1000 pound dead animal along soft ground. And your expertise in this area would be? ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/104 "2004-10-01T17:56:12Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > And your expertise in this area would be? Well, for starters, I used to work as a landscaper. It would take 5 us to move an 800 pound stone. And we were 5 MEN who moved heavy things on a daily basis. A stone is a RIGID object and smaller than a bear. Not one that flattens to the ground and gives when you push on it. Oh sure, if there were handles on it, 3 or 4 of us could lift it and carry it. Ask a hunter what it’s like to move a 200 pound deer out of the woods. Have you ever dragged a passed out friend who might weigh 150 pounds? A dead object like that doesn’t “want” to be moved. It doesn’t start sliding when you push on it. It gives and stretches and has friction with the ground. Think about it. Where do 6 people stand? Do they push, pull, roll, drag? Where do you grab? And what’s your experience, or are you just figuring that 6 people each get assigned 166 pounds of bear, and go walking off with their piece? * * * Ethilrist, sure, solar power has been around for a while. So, for what reason were solar panels and photo-cels being brought on a plane-ride (assuming the 16-yr old group also crashed there)? Were there solar-powered transceivers even though our “Lost” group doesn’t have them? If not, did someone have the means to power a transceiver with solar panels? ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/105 "2004-10-01T18:05:52Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Here’s a translation a french-speaking canadian posted to another board I’m on… > > As far as the french womans message, it translates closer to “It got away, it got out, I told them to go to the black rock, It got out, please help us, it killed them, it killed them.” or something to that effect. It’s always nice to know french Man, that’s really creepy. I literally have goose bumps on my legs. I love this show (first network show I’ve been excited about since Firefly). First, that the message has been repeating for 16 years (which _really_ creeped me out) and now this. I just hope they can keep the creepiness up and not crap out… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/106 "2004-10-01T18:12:47Z")
Going on the theory that WAG and conjecture about things that might get shown in future episodes should be in spoiler boxes, even though the thread title says “unboxed spoilers” because that’s talking about things that happened in this episode… My theory is that this is a Lost World (Jurassic Park III) setup. This place was conducting genetic research on something that got loose and started killing people. They had a whole pile of equipment (probably not as much as in the first movie, but maybe more like the 3rd). It’s not outside the bounds of TV fiction for there to be some kind of power source or portable solar cell setup (like you see charging emergency radios by the side of the freeway, for example) that could be set up in a secure location where the bogeyman wouldn’t get it, so that it could be found years later by Our Heroes. Another problem I spotted in last night’s episode is that, assuming their transceiver was supposed to be strong enough to get picked up by a global comm network (otherwise, why bother?), anything broadcasting a distress call on that frequency strong enough to drown out their signal should have been picked up, responded to, and _shut down_ years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/107 "2004-10-01T18:13:28Z")
Personally, I’m surprised at that guy being able to do the math that fast. I’m fairly good at math and numbers, and no way could I have figured it out that fast with everything going on around me. He must have been channeling Rain Man or something. And count me in as someone that would have been trying to get the bear back to the camp. While it showed them climbing up the mountainside, from the scenic overviews they gave, I’m guessing that they chose the fastest route, not perhaps the easiest. They might have decided that an hour or two of climbing beat 5 hours of walking around to the more gradual slope. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/108 "2004-10-01T18:31:22Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Well, for starters, I used to work as a landscaper. It would take 5 us to move an 800 pound stone. And we were 5 MEN who moved heavy things on a daily basis. A stone is a RIGID object and smaller than a bear. Not one that flattens to the ground and gives when you push on it. > > Oh sure, if there were handles on it, 3 or 4 of us could lift it and carry it. > > Ask a hunter what it’s like to move a 200 pound deer out of the woods. > > Have you ever dragged a passed out friend who might weigh 150 pounds? A dead object like that doesn’t “want” to be moved. It doesn’t start sliding when you push on it. It gives and stretches and has friction with the ground. > > Think about it. Where do 6 people stand? Do they push, pull, roll, drag? Where do you grab? > > And what’s your experience, or are you just figuring that 6 people each get assigned 166 pounds of bear, and go walking off with their piece? My experience is as a hunter who has hauled a dead 200lbs deer about three quarters of a mile by myself through the woods, as someone who has, in Army training, thrown a ~200lbs man over my shoulder and carried him and also dragged men of similar size by the leg in various training exercises and as someone who worked construction while in college. I have some experience hauling around heavy objects. If worse came to worst, there seemed to be plenty of vines around with which they could have woven some kind of travois for the bear. Failing that, the bear comes with built-in “handholds”—its legs. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/109 "2004-10-01T18:37:05Z")
> [@watsonwil](#): > > I, too, think it could be an “imagination” monster conjured by imagery. I hope this isn’t what’s going on. The gag was old when Star Trek (repeatedly) ripped it off from _Forbidden Planet._ ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/110 "2004-10-01T18:41:01Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > So, for what reason were solar panels and photo-cels being brought on a plane-ride (assuming the 16-yr old group also crashed there)? Were there solar-powered transceivers even though our “Lost” group doesn’t have them? If not, did someone have the means to power a transceiver with solar panels? Why are you assuming the 16-year-old group _crashed_? We don’t know why they were there, for how long, etc. The current survivors haven’t explored enough of the island yet. For all we know, there is a windmill hooked up to a turbine somewhere on that island. Everything could have been built to “blend into” the natural surroundings, so as to be invisible to the eyes of anyone on a passing aricraft, because maybe what they were doing there was not exactly ethical or legal. It doesn’t mean they weren’t there _on purpose_, though. We can’t assume, just because the _current_ survivors crashed, that the previous group did, too. That isn’t to say that they _didn’t_, either … _we just don’t know._ ---
**Author:** ![KinSaba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@KinSaba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinSaba)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/111 "2004-10-01T18:41:29Z")
The boy, Walt, said he found the comic book - maybe it was on the island from the previous group of stranded people, although, I admit, it is in pretty good shape for that. Must have been kept in a ziploc. But, what if it was drawn by one of the previous people - showing what happened to them? You know, as a way to pass the time… ---
**Author:** ![barking\_frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/96bed5/32.png) [@barking\_frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barking_frog)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/112 "2004-10-01T18:54:57Z")
> [@Atrael](#): > > Personally, I’m surprised at that guy being able to do the math that fast. I’m fairly good at math and numbers, and no way could I have figured it out that fast with everything going on around me. He must have been channeling Rain Man or something. > > And count me in as someone that would have been trying to get the bear back to the camp. While it showed them climbing up the mountainside, from the scenic overviews they gave, I’m guessing that they chose the fastest route, not perhaps the easiest. They might have decided that an hour or two of climbing beat 5 hours of walking around to the more gradual slope. Hey, he’s from the middle east, and those guys are all good at math and electronics, just like asians are abusively protective of their wives, or how the redneck is supsicious of all things that aren’t white. And really, one night after surviving a plane crash, your immediate thought would be food after killing a polar bear on some Fiji island, while there is some hungry, mysterious, gargantuan creature on the loose that is throwing human corpses onto treetops? Not to mention the bear was clearly killed in an opening, not beside some convenient 500 foot cliff, and it would not be a case of simply “throwing it back to camp.” Besides, I doubt many people would like the thought of eating a wild polar bear just one night after an incredibly tramatic experience, and I doubt they have the tools to properly prepare it for eating – not many people carry knives on planes, and it already took Jack a bit of effort to find the straightedge razor. Their priority, at the moment, is short term survival and dragging a 1000lb polar bear and cooking it would be extremely exhausting. I know that if I were in a plane crash, I would expect a rescue crew within days since I imagine all commercial aircraft are equipped with GPSs (I don’t really buy the “we’re 1000km off course, they have no idea where we are” thing); however, it’s obvious that there’s something else at work here (I just hope it isn’t some lame twist like in _The Forgotten_). I think most people would like to think, from the comfort of their computer chair, that they would stand up and be logical and heroic in an event like this, but I doubt many people could live up to it. Even as I speculate over what I would do, I wouldn’t think “finally, food!” after what just happened on the show. It’s also easier for us to say it’s silly that they didn’t eat the polar bear, when we know that they will be on an island for a long time (but the characters are not so sure). > [@RikWriter](#): > > My experience is as a hunter who has hauled a dead 200lbs deer about three quarters of a mile by myself through the woods, as someone who has, **in Army training** , thrown a ~200lbs man over my shoulder and carried him and also dragged men of similar size by the leg in various training exercises and as someone who worked construction while in college. I have some experience hauling around heavy objects. If worse came to worst, there seemed to be plenty of vines around with which they could have woven some kind of travois for the bear. Failing that, the bear comes with built-in “handholds”—its legs. In addition to the other problems I already mentioned in this reply (and Trunk in his), there are probably two people in that group of six who could lift more than 100lbs (the redneck and maybe Sayid or the lifeguard). I wouldn’t give the others more than 40 pounds. Yes, they could go back for it with more people, but it would not be easy to find and would already begin spoiling in the tropical climate, or worse, the corpse may have attracted the giant monster. You would also need to find people in a similar mindset, and need the full cooperation of everyone involved to drag that bear. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/113 "2004-10-01T18:57:18Z")
> [@KinSaba](#): > > The boy, Walt, said he found the comic book - maybe it was on the island from the previous group of stranded people, although, I admit, it is in pretty good shape for that. Must have been kept in a ziploc. But, what if it was drawn by one of the previous people - showing what happened to them? You know, as a way to pass the time… “Perhaps he was dictating…” ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/114 "2004-10-01T19:06:22Z")
> [@rockle](#): > > Why are you assuming the 16-year-old group crashed? We don’t know why they were there, for how long, etc. The current survivors haven’t explored enough of the island yet. For all we know, there is a windmill hooked up to a turbine somewhere on that island. Everything could have been built to “blend into” the natural surroundings, so as to be invisible to the eyes of anyone on a passing aricraft, because maybe what they were doing there was not exactly ethical or legal. It doesn’t mean they weren’t there on purpose, though. > > We can’t assume, just because the current survivors crashed, that the previous group did, too. That isn’t to say that they didn’t, either … we just don’t know. No duh, but that doesn’t mean that every WAG thrown out there is perfectly valid. If we just want to make up stupid shit all day, fine. It’s dinosaurs. It’s actually a massive “reality tv” set like “The Truman” show. It’s giant robot pirate monkeys. There are windmill powered turbines. It’s actually Colorado. It’s savages, who have never seen the “white devil”. Whatever fears they imagine come true. They’re going to walk down the beach one day and find the Statue of Liberty. The forest is actually Ents, giant “tree-people” who talk amongst themselves and are wondering what to make of the interlopers. They’re in a time-warp and the signal is actually. . .one of them. . .that’s it. . .it’s “toenails”, broadcasting in French because that’s what she heard on the radio. They landed on a leper colony. The Korean is part of an end-of-the-world-cult trying to get the others to “eat the urchin” and be “one of us”. An woman was shackled and escorted by an armed guard onto the plane for being an. . .embezzler. They all make perrrrfect sense. Any other theories or rip-offs from old movies anyone hasn’t trotted out there, yet? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/115 "2004-10-01T19:18:00Z")
> [@watsonwil](#): > > **Rubystreak**'s theory is the one I intended to post after an earlier poster noted the white bear in the comic (I believe it was the JLA/JSA crossover from 2000). > > I, too, think it could be an “imagination” monster conjured by imagery. My advice: don’t open a bag of Stay Puffed Marshmellows! No one on the hike read the comic book; at least, not that they showed us. Wasn’t this also a plot device in **Forbidden Planet** – monsters from your imagination? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/116 "2004-10-01T19:18:32Z")
The butler did it. 48 little indians. Whoops, that’s insensitive. 48 little native americans. They’ve actually been shrunk down to the size of termites. They’re on a different planet. It’s all a dream. _Life_ is a dream. _This_ is reality, and the plane crash was just a visualization of a systems crash in the matrix. Three episodes from now, the kid is going to point at somebody and say, “You’re a _bad man!_” ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/117 "2004-10-01T19:22:50Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > No duh, but that doesn’t mean that every WAG thrown out there is perfectly valid. Hey … in my own defense, I wasn’t saying you are wrong – I just asked _ **why** _ you made the assumptions you did. That’s all. If there was something in the episode that said the “others” had crashed, I missed it. Otherwise, asking why you assumed that they did seemed an honest question. I’ll be the first person to admit that I don’t know shit about shit, including the current price of tea in China, and what constitutes “possible.” So sue me. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/118 "2004-10-01T19:25:59Z")
If it _is_ the Island of Random Bears, I hope that they avoid selling out and including Care Bears. Almost more intriguing to me than the ‘monster’ or the twist or whatever else is going on - how are they going to keep this storyline going for any extended period of time? How many seasons of “Yep, they’re still LOST!” can they milk out of it? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/119 "2004-10-01T19:48:55Z")
**cuckoorex** : All of them. Once they’re not lost any more, they have to change the name of the show. See: Lost in Space, The Starlost, Missing, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/120 "2004-10-01T19:51:06Z")
> [@KinSaba](#): > > The boy, Walt, said he found the comic book - maybe it was on the island from the previous group of stranded people, although, I admit, it is in pretty good shape for that. Must have been kept in a ziploc. But, what if it was drawn by one of the previous people - showing what happened to them? You know, as a way to pass the time… Isn’t the simplest explanation that it was in the luggage of one of the passengers? That’s what I assumed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769.md?page=7)