The MOTHER of all Lost Season 2 finale reviews
Satisfied?
I am. I didn’t find the finale OVERwhelming, but it was far from UNDERwhelming like last year’s cliffhanger. I thought it was nearly perfect. There was so much going on it’s still sinking in for me, but I’ll try to get through everything as quickly as possible and then on to the big talking points. Spoilers ahead!
Flashbacks
I know this review is pretty text-heavy, so I’m going to get some pictures in here soon. In the meantime, enjoy the Wes’s extremely exhaustive review. — Chris
Desmond’s story was awesome. Not only was his character interesting, but his flashbacks intersected with a lot of other characters and it revealed a lot of answers in the process. We learn that D was a soldier in the Queen’s army and that he was imprisoned for not following orders. After he was dishonorably discharged, the mysterious Charles Widmore, Industrialist and Philanthropist, met him with two boxes. In the first box was every letter that Desmond had sent Penelope Widmore, Charles’ daughter, while D was in prison. If Desmond agreed to cut off all contact from Penny, Charles would give him the second box, filled with money. Desmond took the money.
Later at a café in America, D ran into Libby who helped him pay for his order. They sit and talk and D tells Libby he’s planning on entering a sailboat race around the world, sponsored by Charles Widmore. He plans to beat Widmore and win back his love, Penny. He needs $42,000 (do I need to even write, ‘note the number’ anymore?) to buy a boat. Libby tells him that her husband, David, just died a month ago and has a sailboat named after Libby — the Elizabeth, from Newport Beach (between Los Angeles and San Diego). She tells him that David would want Desmond to have it.
To train for the race, Desmond runs stadium stairs at the same stadium as Jack. The night of their encounter, Desmond receives a surprise visit from Penny. He asks how she found him, and she gives him a potentially revealing response: “With enough money and determination, you can find anyone.” Indeed. She goes on to say that she hasn’t set a wedding date with her new beau, probably because she’s still waiting around for Desmond. He tells her he’ll be with her after he gets back from the race because he has to “get his honor back.” If that’s what it takes, I say, go crazy.
Once in his sailboat, predictably, Desmond is caught in a crazy storm and washes up on the island where he is recovered by his future hatchmate, Kelvin Inman (who is formerly Joe Inman, the U.S. soldier who taught Sayid how to be a torturer). Kelvin is dressed in a yellow biohazard suit with an oxygen tank to supposedly protect himself from an infectious disease.
Upon waking up in the hatch, Desmond is introduced to his new workplace. The countdown, the button that saves the world, the dangerous outdoors. Kelvin tells him that his boat was wrecked, and Desmond spends the next two years never venturing outside the hatch.
Many questions are answered by Kelvin. Kelvin’s old hatchmate, Radzinsky, originally started the blacklight map that Locke saw in the episode “Lockdown.” Between K and R they figured a way to hotwire the blast doors and make them come down so R could work on the map from memory. Eventually, Radzinsky blew his head off with a shotgun, so Kelvin continued working on map and pushing the button. Kelvin also showed Desmond the key that will blow everything up if necessary — at least that’s what I took from this scene. My impression was that the hatch could essentially be ended if the key was turned. I’m not positive on this one, so get back to me.
As time goes on, Desmond gets antsy about being down in the hatch. He wants to go outside in the biohazard suit to conduct tests or whatever it is Kelvin is doing out there. His request is denied, but one day he decides to follow Kelvin anyway to see where he goes. Turns out, Kelvin doesn’t need that suit as there is no infectious disease, and he’s secretly been rebuilding Desmond’s boat to get off the island. Furious, Desmond confronts Kelvin on it, accidentally killing him as they struggle on some rocks. Desmond has to run back to the hatch to input the code, but he shows up late and the place is rumbling like an earthquake. He manages to get the countdown working again, but little does he know that now, he has brought down Oceanic Flight 815 out of the sky.
Another month passes and Desmond is starting to lose it being in solitary confinement. He pulls out Charles Dickens’ “Our Mutual Friend” the last book he wants to read before he dies. In it, he finds a letter, long ago hidden by his love Penelope Widmore. She tells him that if he is reading the letter, he must be in a very desperate place but not to give up because she still loves him. (Nerd Alert! - In “The Odyssey” Penelope is Odysseus’ wife and for years she remains loyal to Odysseus not knowing if he is alive or dead. Even at the urging of her father she refuses to marry and rejects over 100 suitors!) Desmond reads the letter and puts off suicide for another day. It happens to be the day that Boone dies and Locke bangs on the top of the hatch wondering how to get inside. Desmond tells this to Locke as the hatch goes apeshit at the end of last night’s episode, and tells him that he saved his life, so Desmond is going to return the favor.
At this point, Desmond inserts the key and a blinding white light can be seen all over the island. It’s unclear what exactly happens and this will be possibly the biggest mystery going into next season. Was it a suicide mission to save the island and/or the world? Did Eko and Locke survive? How did Charlie get out of there? And why was he acting kind of strange when he got back to the beach? What of the countdown now? Is that hatch simply destroyed? Is the electromagnetic energy going to reveal the island’s location?
Island Action
Everyone was right on with the “Desmond is in the boat” prediction. The episode began with Jack, Sawyer, and Sayid bringing a very drunk Desmond to the beach after he failed to sail away from the island. D told them he left 2 1/2 weeks ago — after he ran like a bat out of hell from the hatch — and headed west towards Fiji, only to end up back at the island. He spends the better part of the day saying things like, “There’s no escape,” “this is it” and “ignorance is bliss.” He also tells Claire that the medicine Charlie gave her doesn’t do anything. Clearly, he’s out of positive things to say.
With newfound access to a boat, Sayid and Jack hatch their plan. Sayid will sail to the other side of the island to scout the Others’ camp, then create a signal fire for Jack and the rescue party so they can meet up and take down the Others. Sounds good on paper, right? Sayid enlists Sun and Jin to come along because they apparently have sailing experience. Jin was a fisherman, so, I buy it. Those three set off on the boat while Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, and Michael head into the jungle.
Meanwhile, Locke confronts Eko on the button-pushing and tells him that it needs to be stopped so they’re no longer slaves in the hatch. Eko doesn’t take kindly to Locke so he kicks him out and locks the door. Locke returns with Desmond and they distract Eko long enough for D to hot-wire the blast doors and make them go down, locking Eko out. Unhappy, Eko runs into Charlie who helps him find leftover dynamite from last year’s finale with the intent of blowing the blast doors open. Isn’t that why they’re called “blast doors”? Because they can withstand…blasts? Someone get back to me on that. Anyhow, as Eko is setting it up, Charlie yells at Locke to open the door so they don’t have to use the dynamite and Desmond says, “Twould take an atom bomb, brotha.” That’s too bad for Eko and Charlie because when they set off the dynamite, both of them get knocked on their asses for not getting far enough away in time. And of course, the dynamite does nothing. As Casey Kasem would say, “And the countdown rolls on…”
Out in the water, Sayid, Sun, and Jin pass a very strange ruin as they sail around the island. It is a four-toed foot wearing a sandal that looks to be standing on a platform, which is situated on a rock formation jutting out into the water. The leg only rises up to where the shin might be. When I saw it (Nerd Alert!) I remembered my Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia article of the Colossus of Rhodes.
The sailors end up at the Others’ camp where Michael was being held. Sayid goes on a reconnaissance mission and discovers the camp has been abandoned. Not only that, but the hatch that was being guarded when Michael was there was nothing! Sayid opened the doors to find a dirt wall — very Looney Toons of them.
Back in the jungle, Kate realizes they’re being followed by two people across a river, so she and Sawyer start firing into the brush. Jack joins the fray and Sawyer mows down an Other while the other Other escapes. Then comes, what I thought, was probably the most intense scene of the night. Jack, infuriated about the situation, calls out Michael’s bullshit in front of the group. He screams at him over and over to tell them what’s really going on. Michael, panicked and distraught, reveals the details of the deal with the Others. When he confessed to the murders, I really thought Hurley was going to go apeshit on him like when he attacked Sawyer. Hurley asked point blank, “So, you killed them?” Jorge Garcia’s delivery was money. He was insanely calm and didn’t go nuts when Michael confirmed that he murdered Libby and then tried to justify his apology with “they took my son!” It was great. All the respect that we’ve lost for Michael over the past two weeks, all the jaw-dropping, all the sympathy we felt for Hurley was put on display in the faces of Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, and Jack. I thought that scene was well done. The group resolves to keep moving and not give the Others any indication that they don’t trust Michael.
Later, they come across a plastic chute in a clearing where dozens, nay, hundreds of plastic tubes have been sent from the Pearl Station to a pile in the middle of nowhere. Sawyer finds Locke’s map that he sent two episodes ago. While everyone is wondering what to make of it, Sayid’s smoke signal rises over the tree line from the Others’ camp. Too late. After briefly hearing the weird whispering voices that we have not heard in awhile, they attack with dart guns to take down the rescue party.
Back in the hatch, Locke and Desmond continue to wait for the countdown to hit zeroes. Desmond asks Locke about the Pearl Station and Locke tells him about the monitoring stations, the experiment, the notebooks and tube, and the printouts of all the numbers. He tells him that the two-man team in the Pearl was monitoring the “button experiment” going on in the Swan. After reviewing the numbers from one of the printouts Desmond starts to put it together — the day that Desmond didn’t push the button in time was September 22, 2004. The printout from that day read “922044:16” and then SYSTEM FAILURE was repeated over and over again. Desmond: “I think I crashed your plane.” Well, shit. Thankfully that was figured out at the last possible second! After Desmond realizes that the Pearl Station was the actual experiment, and the button in the Swan did need to be pushed Locke smashes the computer to ensure the code is not entered.
It’s pretty much all downhill from here. The rescue party, bound and gagged, is taken to a dock where Henry Gale reappears and completes the exchange with Michael. Michael is given a motor boat, the same one seen in last year’s finale, and the coordinates to a rescue point with Walt. Henry issues Michael a warning, telling him that A) he’ll never be able to find the island once he leaves, and B) if he tells anyone about what has happened, people will come for Walt again. Michael asks if his friends are going to be hurt (that’s a bold move, still throwing around the “friends” term). Henry tells him that they are going to be joining the Others’ camp. Who knows what that means. With that, Michael is reunited with Walt and they leave the rest of the people on the dock.
Once the countdown hits zero, the hieroglyphics that mean DEATH pop up, and the hatch goes haywire. The electromagnetic energy is triggered and everything metal starts flying around like Pearl Harbor. The earth starts shaking. Charlie and Eko narrowly avoid silverware in the chest on a few occasions. Luckily, Desmond left the key for the override system in the hatch bookshelf. He grabs it and climbs underneath the hatch, inserts the key, and…then…something happens. I’m not really sure. There’s a bright white light that is visible everywhere on the island. A piece of the hatch comes crashing down on the beach. We don’t see the end result in the hatch, we only know that Charlie walks back to the beach alive and is surprised to hear that Locke and Eko are not back yet. Then again, he’s having trouble hearing anything since his ears are still ringing, presumably from the earlier dynamite blast.
After Michael leaves, Hurley is set free and told that he must deliver a message to the Camp on the beach: stay away. He hesitates, but Jack gives him a head nod to go. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer all have the bags put back over their heads and are led away.
The very end of the episode tripped me out. Two dudes in a remote arctic station playing chess when suddenly a computer alarm pops up reporting an “Electromagnetic Anomaly Detected.” They call Widmore — Penelope Widmore, to report it. She still has a picture of her and Desmond next to her telephone. See the Analysis post for more thoughts on this.
Notes/Thoughts
The Michael-Walt story was sort of resolved. Father and son were reunited, but is that really it for them? They motor boat off into the sunset to be rescued? Henry Gale told Michael that once he leaves he’ll never be able to find his way back. Further, he won’t tell anyone what has happened because people will find out and they will come for Walt again. Is it possible that Michael and Walt will actually make it back to the States only to reconsider and come back to the island? Or will they reconsider before being rescued. Keeping in mind that redemption is a huge theme of Lost, it seems that the only way for Michael to redeem himself is to correct the mistakes he has made and save Jack, Kate, and Sawyer who are all in peril. If he did that, would he be able to win back the Camp’s trust?
“Zeke” has a real name. It’s Tom. And Ms. Klugh was referred to as Bea (I assume it’s spelled like Bea Arthur). Just to quickly review: the Others use make-up, fake beards, probably wigs, have aliases, protect fake hatches, and abandon camps and other hatches somewhat regularly. They most likely work for the Dharma Initiative. I don’t think they comprise the entire project.
Tom and Bea clearly defer to Henry Gale. HG may be the leader of the Others on the island and he may be high up in Dharma Initiative, but I’m still not convinced he runs the show.
Desmond sailed for 2 1/2 weeks due West and figured he’d end up in Fiji. Instead he ended up right where he started. Was his navigation equipment messed up because of the electromagnetic properties of the island? Did the island pull him back? Drunk driving? With all the focus on the power of electromagnetism, you have to believe that it messes with navigation instruments and keeps people not only from finding the place, but escaping as well. Is this place the Bermuda Triangle of the Pacific? Didn’t Amelia Earhart disappear in the Pacific on her last flight in the 1930s?
Sayid, Sun, and Jin are still on Desmond’s sailboat after Sayid discovered the abandoned camp that Michael was held at. Just like last year’s finale, people are still out at sea with their status uncertain. Maybe Michael and Walt will motor right past them at the beginning of next season. If that happens, Sayid will know what went down and will be in a bad mood. Michael better hope they don’t cross paths.
HG gave Michael the coordinates of 3-2-5. I’m not really sure how you write that — 3’ 25’? He also told Michael, “We’re the good guys.” Something tells me that, down the road, we may find out he is telling the truth.
If the Lostaways are in control of a sailboat, will some of them make an effort to escape? We know Bernard and Rose are not in a hurry to leave. Neither is Locke. Then again, is Locke even alive? I can’t imagine they’d kill off Locke and Eko — they’re too awesome — but I’m sort of assuming that Desmond is dead. Your thoughts?
Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are, in my mind, the three brightest stars of the show and they’re very much at the mercy of the Others at this point. I don’t even want to begin to speculate about how they’ll get out of this one. But as long as Jack is away from the Camp, anyone needing a doctor is screwed. So if Locke and Eko are in bad shape after the hatch incident, they’re not going to get any better anytime soon.
Charlie and Claire’s relationship took an expected turn at the very end of the episode. They seem to be the next pair giving romance a shot on the island. A “shot” — get it? (Uncontrollable laughter) The track record says one them is gonna eat it if that’s the case. My money will be on Charlie next season.
Speaking of Charlie, he was acting a little strange after he came back to the beach from the hatch. He complained that his ears were ringing. From the dynamite, right?
Well, the showdown that I wanted to see so badly wasn’t so much of a “showdown” as it was a “beatdown”. I should have known better with the Others. This isn’t the Civil War where everyone lines up and takes a shot. This is like Vietnam with the Cong hiding in the jungle. They are some wily bastards.
Right before the rescue party headed out into the jungle, Sawyer said, “Let’s roll”. Immediately I thought of the Flight 93 guys. Intentional?
Libby said her husband, David, got sick and died. Sick with what, I wonder?
Why did Radzinsky make edits to the Orientation film in the Swan? And how did a piece of the film end up in a hollowed-out Bible on the other side of the island? Where are the other pieces?
When Kelvin was drunk and playing with the key, he gave it to Desmond and told him to “make sure you put it back behind ‘Turn of the Screw’” a novel that has been referenced more than once on this show. I understand Lost shares some of the same themes from the book, but my knowledge is limited overall. I pulled this quote about it that kind of applies to Lost: “One of the most challenging features of The Turn of the Screw is how frequently characters make indirect hints or use vague language rather than communicate directly and clearly.” Sound familiar?
Kelvin “joined” Dharma Initiative. I’m curious to know where you apply for a job. Most people, it seems, have to be lured or kidnapped into it.
The population of the island was whittled down a little bit again. Sawyer killed one of the others. Not the one he wanted to kill, but good stuff nonetheless.
Locke told Desmond that Eko and Charlie were not his friends. He also told Desmond “I was wrong” while the hatch was going completely crazy. It wasn’t really John Locke’s day.
Desmond told Locke his trademark, “See you in another life brother” as he prepared to enter the key to shut everything down or, perhaps, blow everything up. Who knows? But unfortunately, I think he’s dead. Which would suck because I really grew to like his character in a single episode.
What was the language the two guys in the arctic station speaking? Russian? Are they in Siberia, or near the North Pole? Widmore is a very rich dude who may or may not be involved with Hanso Foundation and Dharma Initiative. My money says he is. And Penelope’s money may very well be trying to find Desmond. Or maybe she’s just trying to find the island?
Outrageous Claims
Well, ever since I started doing these posts for Chris back in March, I’ve speculated and theorized as personal exercises to think critically about the show, and also to get others to do the same if they were lucky enough to read the reviews. I managed to hit on some of the stuff that happened — magnetism was the cause of the plane crash, Sawyer killed somebody in the finale, Locke gave up on the countdown — but I was way off on just about everything else, which actually still makes it fun for me to do this section of the blog. I made cases for four or five cast members dying and was only right on Ana-Lucia. I was wrong about there being another crash and introducing new characters. And I was wrong about the Michael-Walt resolution — though I think that is still up in the air. Walt could still be working for the Others! Just wait and see!
Which makes for a nice segue into speculation for next season. Take it with a grain of salt:
We’ll get a look of what exactly happened in the hatch as Desmond turned the key. We’ll see Eko, Locke, and Desmond be killed and brought back to life by the power of the electromagnetic energy. Many fans will wonder if the producers expect us to believe this.
Sayid and Rousseau will lead a daring mission to find Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and break them out. Rousseau will see her daughter Alex and some crazy shit will go down. Alex will provide information to Danielle and the other Lostaways, but she won’t be able to escape the Others.
The father of Sun’s baby will be revealed. If, IF it’s Michael, Sun may become the next target of the Others since there was so much interest in Walt and whether Michael was Walt’s biological father.
Jin will continue to improve his English. By Season 4, there will be no more subtitles.
The phone call to Penelope at the end of the Season 2 finale implies that she has been actively searching for the island for one reason or another. Her quote: “With enough money and determination, you can find anyone,” says a lot. Is she looking specifically for Desmond? If she is or isn’t, I think there may be some off-island activity that is explored next season with the Widmore family.
When Locke was trapped under the blast doors in the “Lockdown” episode, Henry Gale must have punched the numbers in. He told Locke he didn’t just to mess with his head. Obviously, shit hits the fan when the numbers aren’t entered, so that begs the question, what was HG’s motive? To test Locke? To get him to not push the button? HG was looking directly into the bright light when Desmond turned the key — was he thinking that he fooled Locke into creating a disaster?
If Desmond “accidentally” brought the plane down, then maybe it’s not an international conspiracy to have all the Lostaways there on the island. Maybe coincidence outweighs fate. Who knows — I’m really tired of writing though, so hopefully there are a lot of good comments to shore up my really long review. There’s plenty to discuss. Have at it.
There’s nothing official about my grading system, so I give it 7 out of 8 stars. I think one quick shot of the hatch aftermath would have pushed it over the top to a perfect score for me. As of now, the first episode next season isn’t slated to air until October 6th. See you then.
Wes
May 26th, 2006 at 1:25 am
Ok a few things. Wes did you notice those Hanso Foundation commercials? The interesting thing about those is the website after the commercial changes evey week. The 1st week they aired it was hansofoundation.org or .com, then it was letyourcompassguideyou or something like that (maybe it refers to the electromagnetic energy and what it does to a compass, maybe that is why D couldn’t get off the island, maybe it references 3-2-5), then this week it was hansocareers.com (which lists jobs for Hanso and the Dharma initative, the listings are weird and mention that any applicant must know self defense such as martial arts. This may answer your question about how does one come to work for Hanso and the Dharma initative.
Also one other thing, during the scene with Libby and Desmond, when she gives D her husband’s boat. Desmond asks what is the boats name and she says he named it after me Elizabeth. This confused the hell out of me, but the more I thought about it I think Libby had/has multiple personality disorder. This might explain her being in the mental hospital during the Hurley episode, being Libby the psychologist while she was on the island, and Elizabeth the widow in Desmond’s episode. Just a hunch!
May 26th, 2006 at 3:21 am
What a great finale. Just amazing.
Libby said her husband was called David. David…Dave. My bet is that Hurley actually killed Dave in his accident, and that’s why Elizabeth/Libby was following him. It would make perfect sense.
As far as the Penelope Widmore storyline goes, the guys were speaking Portuguese. My theory is she knows her father did business with Dharma and she found out about an electromagnetic island, and she also knew her dad would do anything to keep Desmond away from her even if that meant putting him on the island… Therefore, she is running an operation looking for a major magnetic force hoping Desmond is there, if she finds the location of the magnetic field/force she will find the island. We know the two guys noticed the “system failure” on the island but couldn’t make anything out of it since it didn’t last long, but this time, i think they find the island.
One more thing, remember the first time Locke didn’t push the button? that might’ve kept Desmond from leaving the island.
Anyway, great review and brilliant episode.
May 26th, 2006 at 8:04 am
Schmeck Daddy - I did check out the Hanso careers. Some of the qualifications are pretty trippy. Specifically, there was one that required a background in Lacanian psychology and I didn’t know what that was so I looked it up. In a nutshell, there was a dude in the early 20th century who’s theory was that everything related to the social world was a fraud, created by man. I really don’t know what that means, but it sounds important and related to the show.
I didn’t pick up on the David/Dave connection, but that’s pretty good. I did pick up on Zeke’s real name being Tom, which was Kate’s loverboy until she got him killed. I’m sure it’s no more than a wink at the audience, but you never know.
May 26th, 2006 at 8:45 am
I don’t think D is dead. There was just an all encompassing white flash that everyone seems to have seen.
My guess:
The electromagnet is constantly charged for some purpose. The button released part of the charge, but kept the magnet running. The key just completely discharged and shut off the magnet. Is there any effect to being in a massive electromagnetic discharge?
Also, there wasn’t an explosion, but the hatch door went flying, which might mean it was thrown with the discharge.
Just wild guessing.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:58 am
Thanks for a pretty comprehensive finale roundup. I must protest your use of “begs the question”, however: you’ve fallen prey to vernacular language pollution!
May 26th, 2006 at 10:33 am
After introducing Penelope, I doubt they’d kill off Desmond. Also, the fact the there’s now someone on the outside actually looking for them adds a nice twist to the story and leads me to believe that, in the end, there could be a rescue.
May 26th, 2006 at 11:43 am
Just a technical nitpick but ‘325’ was a heading, not a coordinate. Coordinates would be a set of two numbers determining position along two linear and perpendicular (in a cartesian system) axes. A heading is the direction on a compass, so it is merely a direction. In geometry, heading would be theta in polar coordinates where coodinates are strated in ordinal pairs such as (r,theta) where theta is the heading and r is the distance traveled along said heading.
Back to lost, I think it is likely that the electromagnetic anomoly would make you circle back to the island if you followed a heading just like Desmond did. He followed a heading of due west (that would be ‘270’) and was brought back to the island. Either Michael will come back to the island eventually, run out of gas, or perhaps that is the only heading that can lead you away from the island.
Think of a magnet and draw in imaginary field lines. Here is a picture of the field of a dipole magnet rendered with iron filings to follow the lines of field
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Magnet0873.png
As you can see, nearly all field lines (even those going out of the frame) lead back to the magnet. The exception would be straight off the polar regions of the magnet. As per Maxwell, magnets always have two poles, we call them North and South. So if 325 was a heading one could follow away from the island, assuming the anomoly was a dipole, there would also be a safe heading 180 degrees offset or at 145 degree heading.
However, there are theorized to exist starting with Dirac and other GUT’s and superstring theories, magnetic monopoles, although none have ever been observed. They would exist at the sub-atomic scale if at all. But in that case, the field lines would radiate radially outward rather than looping back to the magnet. So I don’t believe the anomoly is something as incredible as a massive magnetic monopole.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
I’m with Stack, I think D is still alive. They went through the trouble of showing Penelope at the end of the show and with the whole redemption theme… ;^)
The David/Dave + Hurley and Libby thing is probably true as well. We haven’t explored why she’s in the hospital and that would be another great connection between the two. She could have been faking a sickness only to get in and “observe” Hurley.
People are saying that season 3 is all about love and the Others so it will be interesting to see how deep we actually get to go into the Others’ camp.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Great comments so far, especially from Fun Bob. I think one of the best things about Lost is that no matter how far you dig, you’re probably not digging far enough. It’s clear that the writers are a sharp group, and I think Bob has hit on some good points with the technnical info on magnets. I think this is a really smart path to explore considering the bits of information that we received in the finale. October can’t come soon enough.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
I agree with Chris, thanks for clearing up the heading/coordinates question. I didn’t get a chance to tape the episode, so I was only going off a few notes when I wrote it. If there are any inconsistencies in the review don’t hesitate to set the record straight.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
I watched the looks between Jack, Kate, and Sawyer over and over again. Jack looked at Kate and seemed to be smiling in a sinister, knowing way. Kate looked back at him and blinked once as an affirmation. Sawyer was looking at the both of them and it looked like he was in on the situation. Anyone?
May 27th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
I can’t exactly remember how and why Rousseau’s ship ended up there, but it’s probably just another time that the button wasn’t pushed on time. I do think that the “magnet” was (or is?) always charged, and the button had to be pressed to discharge the excess.
Another thing I could think of was that the EM field anomaly acts as some sort of shield, making it impossible to find the island under normal circumstances (for anyone who could imagine it, imagine kinda the opposite of a black hole, if we pretend that space was a flat surface - there’s no way you could get into it!). I’m not quite sure what is supposed to happen when the button isn’t pressed, it could be that the field extends beyond its normal size, captures any ships planes etc in its path and then brings them down into the more “compressed” normal space when it goes back to normal. I’m trying to find something logical: if the island was used for sensitive projects, then surely such a shield would be perfect? This still doesn’t explain how so many people survived the crash though.
A slightly off-topic idea: the purple sky might be the result of some sort of redshift occuring when the failsafe was activated, I can’t quite think why that would happen though.
So far, I’d like to think that the failsafe switch made the magnet effectively completely discharge and switch the shield off, and also generate the magnetic anomaly that the two guys observed.
May 27th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Great comments from all of you guys. I would really appreciate if you just keep it coming when season 3 starts.
Here in Norway we are several weeks behind - I watched the episode with Locke being trapped under the blastdoors last wednesday. In other words: Im dying to get to know what happens further on, and I have no troubles with knowing what the next episode is all about:)
Btw, does anyone have the slightest clue on how many seasons LOST will run?
May 27th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
With regards to the blast doors, that’s exactly what my housemate exclaimed when Eko decided to get the dynamite. He shouted, “There’s a reason those damned things are called blast doors”.
May 28th, 2006 at 12:15 am
[…] Crap Filter: Always has great reviews of each episode. Wes has posted a very exhaustive review of the Season 2 finale. […]
May 28th, 2006 at 2:24 am
I thought the same thing as well.
May 28th, 2006 at 2:31 am
Norwegian fan, not to advocate anything of questionable legality, but you might just want to consider downloading them. You seem to have a handle on English, and as I understand it, pretty much all the American imports on TV are subtitled in Scandinavian countries anyway.
As for how many seasons it will run, it’s anyone’s guess at this point. This season only apparently spanned three weeks or so of real time, so 10 years from now, they can get away with saying they’ve only been on the island for a year. My guess will be five seasons, give or take one. Viewers will get tired of it after much more than that, I think.
May 28th, 2006 at 3:53 am
I think they mentioned on the podcast sometime ago that they had a year or two worth of storyline (in island time) before launching the series.
Norwegian fan, you’re not as far behind as everyone else here in the UK. The second season has just started on Channel 4! I get my weekly fix through alternative means *cough*.
May 28th, 2006 at 3:55 am
Also, the Lost producers seem to be very flexible when it comes to adapting the plot to circumstances. They’ve already killed off Ana-Lucia and Libby probably because of the actresses’ off-screen problems with the law. So if the show starts getting draggy and viewership drops after several seasons, they’ll probably kill the series off and end it with a big bang.
May 28th, 2006 at 8:41 am
I’m kind of wondering if Desmond actually crashed Oceanic flight 815. He says that he did and the evidence seems to add up, but when you take a common sense look at it, things don’t add up.
In the episode “The other 48 days” we see the tail section of the plane fall out of hte sky. This means that the plane broke in half away from the island and not directly over it.
Also, the force required to bring down a plane would be enormous. It appears that the countdown ran past 0 farther on the season finale than it did on September 22nd.
Another thing I have been wondering is whether or not hte guys looking for electromagnetic disturbances saw the disturbance that happened on the 22nd?
May 28th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
look closely at the portugese guy with the hat and glasses at the end of the season two finale. is it just me or does he bear an uncanny resemblance to Jack?
May 28th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
hey does any one think that since of one the numbers are four and thats how many toes are on the statue of that leg and well what if ursa major is the hatch locations on the island and in that book oddesy what if those are the stars he sails by that would fit with the statue and such and what if the electromagnic discharge is a shiled over the island to keep it hidden well thats what i think .
May 29th, 2006 at 7:19 am
Wiesheng says: “They’ve already killed off Ana-Lucia and Libby probably because of the actresses’ off-screen problems with the law.”
I don’t believe this is correct. I saw an interview with Michelle Rodriguez on GMA and she knew she was going to be killed off when she signed her contract. She even had to keep it secret from her co-actors. So although the writers of Lost are interacting with their fans in subtle ways, I read that JJ Abrams has a 5 year arch already sketched out and in place. My 2 cents. lgp
May 29th, 2006 at 10:34 am
Anyone notice this detail: Libby said her deceased husband’s name was David. Hurley’s imaginary friend in the asylum was named Dave. Dave was present in the asylum with Hurley when Libby was also confined there. Dave didn’t reappear on the island until the tail section group of survivors (including Libby) joined the midsection group.
May 29th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Anyone remembers if (the fake) Henry Gale has four fingers in his feet??
May 29th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
What about what Rousseau said about “it’s better being alone … they’ll turn on you” ? Maybe this is something for season 3 ? And what happened to the rest of her group ? Are they now part of “The Others” like Jack, Kate and Sawyer will be ? How did she know Henry Gail was an ‘Other’ and how did the real Henry Gail die ? Sorry … only questions at the moment !
May 30th, 2006 at 4:51 am
Multiply the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42
Total = 7418880
The same number that appears on the screen at the monitoring station!!!
May 30th, 2006 at 5:51 am
wat a awsome finale i catn wait for season 3. omg its so tripping all the things u have to think about
May 30th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Well I forget the specifics, but I think they deduced that the real Henry Gale was injured and died when he crashed. But it is interesting because that’s one more vessel to end up on the island. Let’s count them…
1. The old ship in the jungle
2. Rousseau
3. Desmond
4. The real Henry Gale
5. The Lost crew
6. Desmond again
The ones who appear to have arrived at the island voluntarily:
1. The Others
2. Kelvin
Am I missing anything?
May 30th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
GreenLantern said that
“Another thing I have been wondering is whether or not hte guys looking for electromagnetic disturbances saw the disturbance that happened on the 22nd?”
i think they did because as theyre scrabbling about with the book and computer and things, one of them says “dont tell me we missed it again?” or something to that effect, so im assuming they meant the september 22nd event…
May 30th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
dave guy i just read ur comment and thats exactly what i thought but then i thought naa that would be too complicated i saw it in the pics on the abc site cos im from the uk so we’re only up to the episode “the other 48 days”
May 30th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Chris Coleman:
One other person we know was on the island voluntarily but we have not seen was Kelvin’s partner in the hatch, Radzinski.
Also, don’t forget the plane bearing Mr. Eko’s brother and 2 other men. They were there quite unwittingly.
Didn’t Rousseau come to the island voluntarily as part of some research expedition, independent of the Hanso.org?
Wiki is not explicit but it’s about what I recall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Lost#Danielle_Rousseau
The thing is though, that if they were there voluntarily, I’d like to know how they found the island. If you are going on a science expedition, you don’t just stop at the first island to conveniently come along. They must have had a destination in mind. Maybe they did and arrived it our island by mistake which would make you right but I don’t recall her saying such a thing implicitly or otherwise.
June 1st, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Did anyone notice that one of the guys in the arctic looked like Jack, know that sounds weird but if you look back at it, it is totally him!?!
Opinions anyone!?
June 1st, 2006 at 3:55 pm
Just looked back at the comments and Dave agreed with this. Its really weird left me totally confused!
June 2nd, 2006 at 7:41 am
Yeah. I thought the guy looked like Jack. I know it’s a bit late now too what with the hatch being blown up or whatever, but do you think that anybody on the island realised that 4,8,15,16,23,42 added together make 108? Obviously we all know that but do you think they worked it out?
Bloody brilliant review by the way.
June 2nd, 2006 at 1:15 pm
sorry being thick here, everyone on this site is soooo observant, what is the relevance of 108?
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Rousseau said she came to do research but her party fell ill but speaks about the others as if they are seperate from her defunct, uh, dead party…
The “artic station” thing and tie in with Penelope seems soooo far fetched based on what little we know.
And as far as who is the father of Sun’s baby- the island cured Lockes paralysis, why not cure Jin’s infertility, at least thats how I saw it.
What are the odds that Rousseau, Hurley, Sayid, and maybe Mr. T will get on Michaels boat and try to rescue their crew???
June 3rd, 2006 at 6:59 am
Lol!! It’s a possibility (both to the Jin thing and the Mr.T scenario! Incidentally, the whole “Locke is dead theory” doesn’t really work. I don’t think he’s dead for the simple reason that his back story isn’t complete (i.e we still don’t know how he lost the use of his legs) and we still don’t really know how the island healed him (and Rose and possibly Jin.)
June 3rd, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Im so thick, sorry 108 mins they have to enter it sorry!
June 4th, 2006 at 12:54 am
yeh i was wondering, is that the finale?
what is the island and why is it so crazy?
who are the others and how did they get there?
im confuzzeled…
becuz it hassent aired yet in aus, im still trying to understand it all, meh…
thanx
June 4th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
hello from maldives …
just finished watching season two finale …
mindblowing … really kewl …
very nice review … lotsa info and links … thanks …
i’m still digesting everything shown to us …
i’ve so many questions … i dunno where to start …
am just gonna wait around for seson 3 … ehehe
you guys are doing an amazing job here …
keep at it guys …
peace …
June 4th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
[…] Ok … Just saw the season finale for lost season two … Lotsa kewl scenes … lot to digest as well … I’ve not been able to grab the whole finale yet … Just haven’t had time to think about everything … But this review was very helpful … I agree with most parts of that review … Kinda strange that everything … Even the smallest things … Are all inter-connected in the world of the lost … I guess that … season three would answer most of my questions … I guess that … season three would make me ask a lot more questions … Tought luck that season three is a coupla months away … Enjoyed almost all the episodes of season two … A really good show … 4 … 8 …15 …16 … 23 … 42 … enter/return … No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> […]
June 5th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
I still think the best episode was the one with The Pearl though ^^ really good
June 5th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Actor playing Walt, Malcolm David Kelley, is/will be getting puberty. So, I suspect Walt character will not be returning at least for a few seasons, having in mind that a season in Lost is about a month on the island. Michael will probably find “the rescue” —whatever it is—, let Walt go and come back to make amendments.
June 6th, 2006 at 11:40 am
Absolutely mind blowing, but i still dont understand what Kelvin was doing every time he left the hatch?
June 6th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Kelvin was repairing the boat when he left. If I remember correctly, he made a comment about how it was damaged.
June 11th, 2006 at 5:53 am
Well, I say part of series 3 will show how the others got there. They showed how the front/middle of the plane survivors got there, they showed the back of the planes story, now its time for the others.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Excuse me for being particularly nitpicking, but where have the polar bears and strange palm-crushing/pilot-chewing monsters gone? Now is the turn of “Hurley-calling-green-birds”…. I wonder if nexxt season they will be conveniently forgotten too……
By the way, UK, Norway and Australia should not complain: in Italy series 2 will start in September!!!!!
Luckily some of us have initiative…..
June 16th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
I have just seen the episode when Micheal retuns.
This is the recent episode that’s on tv in the Netherlands.
I am surprised to read that Lock don’t want to press the button.
I believe that the button means nothing.
And it is very strange that they all know each other in some way.
I mean before the plane crash. It seems that there is a link between all of them.
What I don’t understand is the image on the door that was shown when Lock was stuck under that same door.
Why did it reveal? I asume to find the other hatch. On purpose by Henry? Why?
What is Henry’s role in all of this.
And how is it possible that Lock can walk and Rose is healed?
I know I must wait to see the other episode’s.
But I am to curious.
June 17th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Hey guys,
It’s me… I’m going to let you in on a big secret. The whole thing can be tied to one individual… Oprah Winfrey. The island was an experiment that she funded to see if weight loss is affected by magnetic fields and simple tasks. The “DHARMA INITIATIVE” was the name she picked because it was the name of her first cat. GOOO OPRAH!
June 29th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IN SEASON 3 THE BRIGHT LIGHT IN THE SKY WAS A PLANE CRASHING THEN THE OUTHERS AND JACKS TEAM GO AND FIND THE PLANE AND THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE CRASHED DONT KNOW WHO 2 GO 2 OUT OF THE TWO. AND YES YES JACK & KATE GET AWAY BUT SAWER DIES OF AN INFECTION I AM NOT TELLING YOU WHAT HAPPENS ANY MORE BECAUSE IT WILL SPOIL IT
July 26th, 2006 at 10:24 am
hey guys. i’m new to this site and i say you guys do a great job. i know that this is way off of the direction everyone has been going, but i still don’t believe that there ever was a plane crash.
In the pilot, in the scene where the plane is on the beach and all hell breaks loose, a man that looks like Zeke, or Tom, is running from the plane screaming “stay there” or something like that. (posslibly to Ethan?). This leads me to believe that the Others wiped some of their own people’s memories, and gave them new ones (this could be why all of their memories are inter-connected).
So, yes, i don’t believe that the flashbacks the Lostaways are having are really their’s, but memories given to them by the others in order to observe how people will act based on what’s happened to them previously in their lives. They then send people like Goodwin or Ethan as observers of everyone’s actions.
The hatch and all the electromagnetic stuff is just a twist that the Others threw in there themselves to see what they would do.
Desmond’s memories are most likely really his, for 2 reasons 1) Penny is looking for him and 2) “Libby” gave him the boat that ultimately was the reason he was on the island (Libby would have been working for the Others at the time becasue her memory was not yet wiped).
The Others would have captured Sawyer, Jack, and Kate because they are all in love with each other, which could cause a problem in the experiment. They will most likely let them in on the joke and restore their real memories in the next season, if they get the chance to (they won’t because Sawyer, Jack and Kate will all escape).
Every single plot twist throughout the entire show has been carefully planned and written by the Others, up until the point in the show’s final season when the Lostaways defeat the Others, get off the island, and tragically realize the lives they thougt they lived never even occurred.
August 11th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Is it me or did anyone notice Jack’s and Anna Lucia’s seat numbers. Jack was sitting in seat 23 and Anna Lucia was sitting in seat 42F.
I may be mistaken, but it’s a theory.
Another thing, did anyone hear the whispers before Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Hurley were attacked? They said Elizabeth. Desmond’s boats name.
September 6th, 2006 at 8:32 am
ok the others that we see walking through the jungle in season 2 dragging the teddy bear,these are the children that were taken from the tail section survivors,yes?
so how come some are kept,alive and others killed? any1 know?
September 10th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
If u crashed on an island wouldnt u explore it first?
September 10th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
There r no answers yet because the makers havent made up there minds what will happen,it is made up as they go along,i cant see that they already know the end of the show!