LOST Fan

Here’s what I’ve put together so far, based on theories I’ve been reading on the internet, and also my own warped thoughts.

1. Ellie, the woman with the gun, is Faraday’s mother.

She is also a younger version of Ms. Hawking. Right before Jughead aired, during the rerun of The Lie, one of the little pop-up hints said that Ms. Hawking’s first name was Eloise. (I guess you could call that a spoiler from the LOST team itself.)

Ellie could easily be a diminutive form of Eloise.

Faraday’s rat was named Eloise.

Last week, Faraday told Desmond to find his mother. Then, voila, there was Ms. Hawking, who we haven’t seen in two years, back in the story. Coincidence? Unlikely.

This week, Widmore told Desmond that his mother is in Los Angeles. That would seem to nail it, as Eloise Hawking is in Los Angeles (with Ben).

2. Charlotte could be Faraday’s sister.

Charlotte has said she was born on the Island. Ellie could be her mother.

Faraday clearly loves Charlotte, and was very upset about her having gotten time-travel sickness. Although I assumed, while watching the episode, that the love was romantic, on thinking back, there was nothing specifically romantic or sexual between them. It could easily have been sibling love.

I’ve seen a theory that Charlotte is Faraday’s daughter, but I think that the idea of Faraday fathering children in the past is too convoluted even for LOST (which is saying a lot!). So I’m going with the theory that they are brother and sister.

3. Charlotte (or maybe Daniel) could be the baby in the first scene of “Because You Left,” the first show of the season. Because that scene started off the season, I think it had to be significant. And it was never explained. So I’m going with the explanation that would be the most interesting, dramatically.

4. Widmore could be Daniel and Charlotte’s father. There’s actually no particular reason for this, except that (1) it is possible, and (2) it would be interesting. (Though Widmore did fund Faraday’s research, there are plenty of other reasons, besides paternity, that he may have done that.)

5. So, in conclusion, this is our theoretical nuclear (no pun with H-bombs intended) family: Ellie, later to be Eloise Hawking, is dear old Mum. Widmore is Daddy dearest. Charlotte was born on the Island, but was adopted by Dr. Candle, because Mum and Dad took off. She never knew Daniel, who was born (I’m guessing) in England, until they reunited on the freighter. Daniel knew who she was, though, because he’s a time-travelin’ man.

Picture of Ellie from 5×03 Jughead (c) ABC

Funny column about LOST by Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jughead will be rerun at 8:00 on Wednesday on ABC, right before the new episode which starts at 9:00. The new episode is called The Little Prince.

I turned on the TV a few minutes before 9:00 this week, at the very end of the rerun of The Lie, and I saw that they had the little pop-up hints that they have have used sometimes on the clip shows. I love those hints! If I had known they were using them, I would have watched the whole episode. I assume they will be using them again this week on the rerun of Jughead.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

8:00 Jughead rerun, with (I hope!) pop-up hints
9:00 The Little Prince (new) This will run long, again — a few minutes past 10:00.

Everything runs an hour earlier in Central Time. Episodes are also available to watch for free on ABC.com.

In this short clip, Jeremy Davies tallks about something he has in common with his character, Daniel Faraday.

Blogging my reactions, during the commercial breaks:

9:07. I hope Charlotte will recover from her time-travel sickness and be ok.

9:16. Why do the Others speak Latin? Did they go to Others Prep School?

9:28. “He’s one of my people.” Ha ha. Was Locke the leader of the Others throughout all of time?

So far, this is not shaping up to be one of my favorite episodes.

9:39. I liked this segment a lot better! Learned many interesting things. Widmore was Faraday’s benefactor! Wow. And there was an atomic bomb on the Island — that would explain a lot — the strange Island sickness is probably due to the bomb’s radiation. The presence of the bomb might even account for the origin of the time shifts themselves.

I like Faraday and Charlotte as a couple — nice and low-drama. Sawyer and Juliette are starting to have some good chemistry too. But is there anyone who does not have good chemistry with Sawyer?

9:51. That young Other is Charles Widmore! Oooh, that gave me chills up my spine! I’m really liking this episode now.

10:01. Desmond and Penny named their baby Charlie! Awww.

Miles: “I’m fine too.” Ha ha.

Shame about Charlotte. I’m still hoping for a magical cure.

I was very impressed with the performance of Jeremy Davies (Faraday), who really came into his own tonight. Last week was Jorge Garcia’s chance to shine. This week was Davies’.

Overall impression of this episode: It got off to a slow start, but we got one fantastic reveal — the young Charles Widmore — and one huge step forward in understanding the mythology of the Island — the presence of the leaking atomic bomb.

Oh, a weird bit of synchronicity — My TV is still on, and the beginning of “Life on Mars” is playing in the background as I finish writing this, and someone on that show just said “Archie and Jughead.” Jughead!

Photo on top is from the 60’s show “The Time Tunnel.” If you remember that show, you’re as old as I am!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) The Lie will be rerun at 8:00, then the new episode will follow it at 9:00.

Wednesday, January 28

8:00 pm — Episode 2 — The Lie (rerun)
9:00 pm — Episode 3 — Jughead (new!)

Jughead will probably run a few minutes long, so set your recording devices accordingly.

As always, double-check with your local listings; everything is an hour earlier in Central Time; and all episodes are also available for free online at abc.com.

8:15 (get it?) clock graphic by William Vann from EduPic.net

He sounds good!

Here’s something strange. Ms. Hawking appeared in another episode of LOST — in a photograph on the desk of the monk who introduced Desmond and Penny!

Brother Campbell hired Desmond, fired him, then asked him, as his last task, to help Penny load wine into her car — so he was (accidentally??) responsible for bringing them together.

This happened in Season 3, Episode 17 — Catch 22.

The image is from Lostpedia — I made it brighter, so it would be easier to see.

Thanks to Miguel for raising the question in the comments below that prompted me to look for this.

Screenshot (c) ABC

In a video interview with Entertainment Weekly, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, the ubiquitous writer/producer pair, talk about time travel on the show. They say that as we watch this season unfold, we will become aware that they have been doing things in past seasons that have been leading up to this season’s events.

They say that Season 3’s Flashes Before Your Eyes (which we’ve been talking about here earlier), along with Season 4’s The Constant, were seeds that they had planted to put ideas of time travel into the show, and that this season is about implementing those ideas.

They talk about Sawyer as being someone the audience can relate to. All he cares about, in the premiere, is getting a shirt and something to eat! That keeps the show more grounded than it would be if all the characters were completely comfortable with the idea that they were traveling through time.

In that same premiere episode, Faraday says that you can’t change the past. But the writers say this is only Faraday’s theory. It may or may not be correct. So was Faraday right? We’ll just have to watch the rest of the season to find out.

Video interview.

Screenshot of Daniel Faraday (c) ABC, via Lostpedia

In this video shot earlier this month, Carlton and Damon talk about the top 6 episodes of all time, as selected in a poll of viewers attending a recent LOST event. You will not be shocked to learn that the episode where Jack got his tattoo was not one of the favorites!

Screenshot from “Through the Looking Glass” (c) ABC, via Lostpedia

Some thoughts after rewatching Episodes 1 and 2, mostly things I hadn’t noticed the first time:

The father in the first scene of Episode 1 probably was Dr. Candle, aka Dr. Chang. While we don’t know for sure that the man walking out of the house (who we soon learn is Dr. Candle) is the same man we saw, from the back only, warming a baby bottle, I don’t think it would make much sense for there to be two separate people.

Down in the Orchard, when Dr. Candle warns the workers not to try to drill through the rocks surrounding the donkey wheel, he says that if the energy should escape, then “God help us all.” This is the exact same line that Ms. Hawking utters at the end of Episode 2, in reference to what will happen if the Losties don’t get back to the Island in time.

At the beginning of Episode 2 there is a wonderful transition. On the boat, Hurley asks Sayid to back him up in telling the truth when they return. Sayid says he can’t do that, and Hurley says that he would always remember what Sayid did, and that if Sayid ever needed his help, he (Hurley) wouldn’t give it to him. The scene cuts to the future, in the car — where Hurley is frantically trying to help Sayid.

I think that’s a great demonstration of Hurley’s character. In the boat, we see him promise that he would never help Sayid. In the next moment, we see that his actions will be just the opposite.

I tried to catch a better glimpse of the cop who came to Hurley’s door, who on first watching, I thought might be Abaddon, but I couldn’t tell for sure this time either.

The scene with Hurley and Cheech, where Hurley almost tells his Dad the truth, but was interrupted, is a wonderful scene. I’m not sure what this does to my Theory of the Bad Fathers, because while Cheech may have been a bad father in the past, having abandoned his son for years, in this episode he was a very good father indeed.

Photo (c) 2009 ABC

I found a better quality clip of Ms. Hawking’s scene from Season 3’s Flashes Before Your Eyes. Someone put this up on YouTube just yesterday, and it’s much better than the oddly-dubbed version which I had posted earlier, when it was the only one available. Thank you, YouTube person!

This video also has, at the end, Ms. Hawking’s scene from The Lie. If you want to skip straight to that section, it starts at 5:33.

There’s something that’s been bugging me about this. Right in the middle of the scene in the jewelry store, there’s a musical crescendo and the screen goes black for a moment:

————

(Editing to add: Problem solved — see comments. It’s just a break for a commercial. Duh! Nev-ah mind. )

————

(On the clip, starting at 1:53)

Ms. Hawking: … And if you don’t do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead. (She stretches out her hand.) So give me that sodding ring.

And here the music swells, and the screen goes black.

(They stare at each other)

Ms. Hawking: Oh, you’re going to be difficult about this, I can see.

(Editing to add: Long passage of off-base speculation deleted.)

Photo (c) ABC, via lostpedia.wikia.com

Here’s the scene from Season 3, in the episode where Ms. Hawking — the strange character who appeared, wearing a hood and a cape, at the end of this week’s episode The Lie — made her one and only previous appearance on LOST:

There’s more that happens after that. I wanted to get a clip that had the rest, but the only one I could find was this odd one which is hard to hear and appears to have been dubbed into some other language and then back into English. It was good enough, though, to bring back the memory of having seen it before.

———————
(Editing to add: Please see the next post (above) for a higher-quality clip that contains Ms. Hawking’s entire scene from Season 3 as well as her scene at the end of “The Lie”)
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I remember that when I originally saw this scene, two years ago, it seemed completely incomprehensible and bizarre. But in the context of the even more bizarre things that have happened on the show since then — Desmond’s visions, the return of the undead, the donkey wheel, the Island skipping through time — it doesn’t seem quite as outlandish now. Relatively speaking, that is.

Photo (c) ABC, via lostpedia.wikia.com

In case you missed it, or want to see it again, the entire Season 5 Premiere will run again on ABC on Saturday:

Saturday, January 24

8:00 pm — Destiny Calls (recap show) (rerun)
9:00 pm - Episode 1 - Because You Left (rerun)
10:00 pm - Episode 2 — The Lie (rerun)

Then on Wednesday, there will be a rerun of The Lie right before the new episode starts:

Wednesday, January 28

8:00 pm — Episode 2 — The Lie (rerun)
9:00 pm — Episode 3 — Jughead (new!) This is going to run a couple of minutes past 10:00.

I’m not totally sure that these reruns will be shown everywhere, so check your local listings.

As always, everything runs an hour earlier in Central Time.

And, of course, you can always watch the episodes online at the abc.com site.

Photo (c) 2009 ABC

I read some of the Television Without Pity forums — the collective hive mind there knows everything! — and I found answers to some of my questions.

The woman at the end of The Lie is Mrs. Hawking, who appeared in one episode in Season 3, where she was working in a jewelry store where Desmond went to try to buy an engagement ring. Mrs. Hawking told Desmond not to marry Penny, but to go to the Island instead.

Here’s a connection I hadn’t thought of: Ana Lucia told Hurley to stay away from cops. And then where does he go in the end? Into the arms of the cops.

It looks like nobody knows for sure who the parents in the very beginning of “Because You Left” were, though there is much speculation that the baby might be Charlotte.

Some final random thoughts:

When Kate got the call on her cell phone (that we later found out was from Sun), I thought that the call was from Sawyer!

When Locke fell from the tree, I thought he was going to be paralyzed again.

If they’re going to be jumping around so much in time, does that mean they can bring back everyone from the cast who has ever been on the show at any time during the past four years? That would be cool.

And once again, blogging during commercials …

10:02 “Libby says hi.” Okey-dokey. So is Hurley hallucinating, or does Ana Lucia exist, in some fashion — even though she herself said she didn’t?

10:16 Notice how Ben didn’t answer when Jack asked if Locke was really dead?

Cheech is back! It’s actors’ reunion week on the LOST set!

10:26. Redshirt gets hit with a fire spear! And, OMG, was that Abaddon at Hurley’s door?

Vincent the Dog! He’s here to join Cheech and Michelle Rodriquez in the actors’ reunion party!

Who is Jill the Butcher?

It’s so funny that they finally let Sawyer have a shirt. I know the writers are playing with us here.

10:38 Hurley’s Mom: “Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch?” Ha ha.

Cheech is a good actor!

I’m glad the show stopped jumping around in time, for the moment, anyway. I was getting dizzy!

10:47 I loved that scene with Hurley breaking down and telling his mother the truth. I thought that was the best scene of the night.

10:57. Who was that woman at the end?

I loved the scene with Hurley and Ben. That ties as my favorite scene of the entire three hours. Those two actors are so good, and the interaction of their personalities so interesting — Ben, cold and calculating, the gears in his head always whirling away, and Hurley, decent, honorable, and radiating warmth. I can’t remember those two ever having had an extended scene together before. It should happen more often.

Now the news is on, and they’re saying that Obama took the oath of office — again. Has he come unstuck in time too?

Blogging my random thoughts during commercials.

9:11 That was exciting! Dharma knowing about the donkey wheel. Faraday showing up back in Dharma time. Sawyer without his shirt! Rose and Bernard.

Who was the father in the opening scene who we saw only from the back?

9:21 Plane crashing. Ethan shooting. That was weird.

9:31 Death by dishwasher. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

Hurley: “Maybe if you ate more comfort food, you wouldn’t have to go around shooting people.” Great line.

9:41 All this whipping back and forth in time is giving me vertigo.

9:53. Sawyer: “The ghost of Christmas future.” Ha. Miles: “That chick really digs me.” Ha again.

It’s starting in a minute! Yay! I’m going to try writing my random thoughts, during the commercials.

Here we go ….

8:07. I love the approach they are taking — telling the story by characters, rather than chronologically. That mixes things up, keeps it from being boring for those of us who have seen the show from the beginning.

It’s great to see Damon and Carlton, even if they do sound scripted. Maybe they’ll let loose and start wise-cracking later.

8:16. This is great. It’s reminding me how much I love this show.

It was very interesting when Damon said the Island is like a horrible AA meeting, where you keep on having to face your past over and over.

So it looks like redemption is the most important theme.

I’m relieved that they are paying so much attention to characters and to themes, which for me are the main draws of the show. I was afraid that the science-fiction aspects might take over completely this season, pushing character and theme into the background, but if this recap show is any indication, that’s not what the writers have in mind.

8:25. Wow, there are a lot of commercials.

Why does Alpert always wear eyeliner?

8:33. I had thought that Claire was dead. Guess I was wrong.

8:46. Jack is such a wet blanket.

It was a shock seeing Alex get shot, even knowing, this time, that it was coming. And Ben’s expression afterwards — amazing. Emerson is so talented.

8:59. They promise more answers than questions this season. A likely story!

Tonight, tonight won’t be just any night!

Schedule reminder:

8:00 Recap show: Destiny Calls
9:00 Episode 1: Because You Left
10:00 Episode 2: The Lie

(An hour earlier in Central Time)

I’ll be blogging my first impressions of the show right after it’s over. I’m on West Coast time, so many of you may already be asleep by the time my post goes up. If so, I hope to see you tomorrow!

Enjoy the show!

This is the “ABC Starter Kit: everything you need to know about LOST.” The narrator is the same woman who narrated the two recaps that I posted here earlier, but the content of this one is different.

It takes a more straightforward, less humorous approach, an approach that relies less on the viewer’s existing knowledge of the show. So it might be a good one to show your friends who (gasp!) don’t watch LOST — especially those friends who brush off your pleading that they watch the show by saying that they couldn’t possibly catch up in time.

This will help them catch up in a mere 4 minutes and 51 seconds.

(The number 4:51 has no significance, at least that I can see, which makes it unusual for a number used in LOST-related pursuits.)

Enjoy!