# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2004, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/141 "2004-10-02T23:24:32Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. Ah, yes, but you’re assuming they’re still on the same time/space continuum… :dubious: Can you move a thousand pound bear? If you’re hungry enough, you’ll find a way. Surely some of the plane shrapnel is sharp enough to use as a makeshift knife. But this group isn’t even hungry enough to eat the Korean’s food yet. I will say that I agree that there’s no way you’d disarm your only weapon when you’ve just been attacked by a freaking polar bear. Before I’d go defenseless, I’d at least pick up a big _stick_. Geesh. BTW, did anyone else feel like they were paying homage to The Lord of the Ring when they all climbed that hill? I expected Golum to pop out and try to knock Charlie down the hill… ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/142 "2004-10-03T02:45:09Z")
Okay, I am really pissed right now. I forgot to tape the first episode so when I heard they were showing the first two episodes tonight I was all set to tape them and my stupid local channel decided everyone would rather watch the local college team get their asses whooped so they carried the ESPN broadcast of the game. I can’t find anything on the local affiliate’s website about them planning to replay it so does anyone know some other way I can get a tape of the first two episodes? You know it’s bad enough when the local pro teams win a game or a conference title and they shove it down our throats constantly, but anyone who cares about college football could have gone to the game or watched it on ESPN. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_from\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Man\_from\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_from_Mars)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/143 "2004-10-03T02:53:22Z")
What is the difference between a transciever and the “black box?” I assume that the two are not the same since the black box is supposed to be indestructable (right?). Sixteen years (and five months) seems to be the number everyone is talking about but I wonder how accurate the estimate actually is. Sayed, after all, did quite a bit of math (or maybe it’s simple, I don’t know the first thing about “iterations”) without the luxury of pencil and paper. A decimal point off here or there could be the difference between 1.6 years and 160. ---
**Author:** ![DadWagonDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/144 "2004-10-03T03:08:29Z")
The atmosphere of this show reminds me of the mid-90s series _Earth 2_. I’m not sure what to think of it yet. ---
**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 3, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/145 "2004-10-03T03:56:07Z")
> [@Tony](#): > > What is the difference between a transciever and the “black box?” I assume that the two are not the same since the black box is supposed to be indestructable (right?). The black box is actually a [flight data recorder](http://travel.howstuffworks.com/black-box5.htm). I don’t think it’s designed to transmit data. ---
**Author:** ![Anyanka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@Anyanka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anyanka)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/146 "2004-10-03T04:32:08Z")
I’m surprised nobody mentioned The Bermuda Triangle. Also, the comic book having Dr. Fate? I think, sorry for not crediting who said that btw, wasn’t Charlie writing “fate” on his hand at some point? I thought dinasours too, but only because the sounds the “creature” was making were so reminiscent of “Jurrasic Park”. I didn’t think much of this show based on reviews, I saw it purely by accident, but I like it. ---
**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:** [October 3, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/147 "2004-10-03T04:44:29Z")
> [@Wile E](#): > > … > > I am really wondering if they had to cut out a lot of stuff because it seems like a lot of stuff is skipped over really fast but later there is references to it having been discussed. For example, when Jack was asked if there were any survivors in the cockpit he said no. Later when the polar bear attacked someone asked Charlie if that’s what killed the pilot and he said the bear was tiny compared to that. So at some point they did tell everyone what happened. There were other instances of things like that. Good point, that. I thought it odd too, but never thought it out as to why. > [@](#): > > When the kid, Walt, walks by the older guy (Terry O’Quinn) how did he know Walt’s name? Were they introduced before? Did he hear the father calling for him? If so I missed that, it just seemed strange to me that he knew the kids name. I liked how he responded to the kid when the kid said his mother had died a couple weeks ago. He didn’t say “I’m sorry” just “You’ve had a bad month”. I would assume that most everybody knew most everybody’s name after 24, 48 hours, with a few of them bringing special interest (the lone child, the pregnant lady) almost immediately. I thought the “You had a bad month” line was quite realistic and honest. I think it’s quite obvious (to me, anyway) that they are in [The Land of the Lost](http://www.70slivekidvid.com/lotl.htm), an alternate universe on an empty (well, humanless) Earth. Or something like that. My nitpick is 16 years ago was 1988… and it wasn’t possible to burn a CD outside of very specific environments, meaning the message was a tape. That ran on a continous 15 second loop for 16 years. Right. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/148 "2004-10-03T05:12:50Z")
Having just rewatched the pilot(s), the “thing in the jungle” definitely sounded mechanical. It “appeared” three times: twice near the beach and once near the cockpit. The first time, there was a very noticeable metal-on-metal squeal (rather like the wheels of a subway train), along with various grinding, thumping noises and the weird “hooting” sound. The only appearance where there were any sort of animalisitic growls was near the cockpit, before it ate the pilot. When it actually “attacked”, there were more of the grinding, squealing, hooting noises. Also, each time it appeared, it really just knocked down a bunch of trees (or at least moved them around a lot). It jostled the tree & cockpit around enough to knock the cockpit loose from the tree it was leaning against. I’m guessing that whatever it is, it didn’t “attack” the pilot, so much as he just got hit by it. There were also 17,294,533 iterations of the message (+ a few more while they listened and argued). Assuming each was 30 seconds long, as guessed at by Sayid, the message has been playing for about 16.45 years (or, 16 years 5.4 months - just like Sayid said). ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/149 "2004-10-03T05:17:09Z")
I just have a few more questions and comments after watching the first two eps. again tonight: 1. What’s with the odd tattoo on Dr. Jack’s upper arm? I thought I also saw it on the inside of that same arm. The numerical symbol looks like a very odd 5. 2. I think Redneck Guy got a Dear Jethro letter; he was reading it with an anguished expression right before he went on the hike. 3. When the little boy Walt was reading the comic book, it had a page showing a big white bear. Probably just a tease for us…Right? 4. I hope we’ll find out where the plane took off from and where it was supposed to go. ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/150 "2004-10-03T05:18:35Z")
> [@Anyanka](#): > > I’m surprised nobody mentioned The Bermuda Triangle. Hee - a Bermuda Triangle/alternate reality theme was my guess, but it’s over in the original Lost thread. I’m seeing the sense of a “secret science lab gone awry” theory as well, but could a polar bear survive on a tropical island, if it were transported or created there? I know the producers are swearing that the mystery is within the realm of possibility, but I’m not so sure I believe them! ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/151 "2004-10-03T05:39:33Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > 1. I hope we’ll find out where the plane took off from and where it was supposed to go. According to an interview at Ain’t It Cool News (you can read the interview [here](http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=18187), if you’re keen about that sort of thing), the plane was travelling from Sydney to Los Angeles. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/152 "2004-10-03T05:42:24Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > These people are dumb as a bag of hammers. Last week nobody pointed out the obvious fact that with all the wounded on the beach, having the only doctor go exploring was stupid. This episode nobody pointed out the obvious implication of finding a polar bear on a tropical island - the island must be inhabited. I started watching about half way through so I missed some of the set up scenes. But did no one see Kate come aboard locked up? She was in cuffs but nobody alive seems to recall a freaking prisoner? ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/153 "2004-10-03T06:32:41Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > 1. When the little boy Walt was reading the comic book, it had a page showing a big white bear. Probably just a tease for us…Right? Others (including me) have theorized about this, only to be mocked. > [@](#): > > 1. I hope we’ll find out where the plane took off from and where it was supposed to go. It was going from Australia to the US, probablty with a stop somewhere in SE Asia. I know Kate was being extradited from Australia, and Walt said he was leaving Australia, where his mother lived, to go live with his father in the US. Sorry I can’t be more specific than that, maybe someone else was paying more attention? ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/154 "2004-10-03T07:37:06Z")
Having rewatched the second half of the show, I heard the french woman say (not an exact translation, since I’m not sitting at the computer watching the show, but it’s close enough) : He killed them all. They are all dead, they are all dead. Please help us. Please help us. He killed them all. I’m the only one left. She may have said something in additon to that, but I couldn’t make it out over the other character’s dialogue. It’s worth pointing out that ‘He’ could also be translated as ‘it’. Same word in French. And the transmission is asking for help in a formal manner (either petitioning someone, or talking to a group). One amusing bit: Toenails translated “He killed them all” as “Please, help us”, but that’s probably just a disconnect between the writers and the guys in audio effects… ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/155 "2004-10-03T08:00:04Z")
> [@Barbarian](#): > > One amusing bit: Toenails translated “He killed them all” as “Please, help us”, but that’s probably just a disconnect between the writers and the guys in audio effects… I don’t know; it’s a simple enough thing for the producers to make sure the recording was really saying what they intended. Were I in their position, I’d make doubly sure, given the inevitable Internet speculation and the number of Francophones out there. It would certainly be interesting to hang a plot point on her mistranslation. I don’t know how it would be done, but then I’m not paid the big money to come up with these things. I can’t wait to see where that goes. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/156 "2004-10-03T09:12:45Z")
Sorry, I was less than clear. Toenails did say "please help us, they’re all dead’-- but the French had those statements in the other order. I figure that between the actresses, the writers, and the editors, someone jumbled the order, is all, especially if the people working aren’t bilingual. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/157 "2004-10-03T11:28:03Z")
Anyone here have any thoughts on why, if the main radio is dead and the pilot has to change course to Fiji, the pilot would not use the portable transceiver to notify somebody? Range perhaps? Would the plane only have one way to communiate? ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/158 "2004-10-03T13:05:19Z")
> [@Wile E](#): > > Okay, I am really pissed right now. I forgot to tape the first episode so when I heard they were showing the first two episodes tonight I was all set to tape them and my stupid local channel decided everyone would rather watch the local college team get their asses whooped so they carried the ESPN broadcast of the game. I can’t find anything on the local affiliate’s website about them planning to replay it so does anyone know some other way I can get a tape of the first two episodes? > > You know it’s bad enough when the local pro teams win a game or a conference title and they shove it down our throats constantly, but anyone who cares about college football could have gone to the game or watched it on ESPN. Hehe, you HAVE to live in Tampa. I am in Lakeland and I noticed that they were preempting the Lost repeat for the USF game when I tried to look for it yesterday afternoon on the cable program guide. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/159 "2004-10-03T14:43:16Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m surprised nobody mentioned The Bermuda Triangle Because they weren’t anywhere near Bermuda. The pilot said they were 1000 miles off course. Even if they were THREE thousand miles off course, there’s no way they would have been even close to Bermuda. They’d have had to cross the entire continental United States (or, if they were flying in the wrong direction, TWO continents plus the better part of two oceans) to get to the Bermuda triangle, which is off the east coast of the U.S. I know they didn’t have the time to make such a trek, and am almost sure a jet doesn’t even have the fuel capacity to do that. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769/160 "2004-10-03T14:44:31Z")
Oh, and re Kate: When she acted like she didn’t know how to handle a gun, my immediate thought was that she is playing dumb. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-9-29-unboxed-spoilers/266769.md?page=9)