Writing updates is a challenge I greatly accept but I have to be honest..with a show like LOST I never know what kind of format to put it...I wish I could find one and stick with it...Is it chronological, using the commercials as a break in chapters? or is it flashbacks first? Or is it geographical, with beach stuff, The Flame Station stuff or other stuff? It can be quite daunting and confusing to you, the readers....
I guess I'll just go with my gut...which is a sizeable task, if you knew what my gut looked like..:)
The following is part Episode detail, part Theory and all Crazy...Based on what we saw last night I have new theories about Dharma, the Others and the Hostiles..Let's dive right in...
We need more cowbell....
Now we know where Jack's hamburger came from...Bessie was out grazing at the same time as Sayid, leading him to The Flame station and the mysterious "Patchy"...
If he is to be believed, his real name is Mikhail Bakunin(this was not pulled from my extensive understanding of Russian, but from the ABC website that lists special guest stars)..The highlight about his name is that it's much like other names on LOST and it has a reference to the past. The REAL Mikhail Bakunin(according to my favorite site of all time,Wikipedia):(
May 18 (
30 N.S.),
1814–
June 19 (
July 1 N.S.),
1876) was a well-known
Russian revolutionary, and often considered one of the “
fathers of modern
anarchism".
Anarchy...fitting, considering the turmoil he caused in this episode alone....Patchy had a Russian accent and told a great story about being the last surviving member of the Dharma Initiative. After he was released from the Russian army, he saw an ad in the newspaper about 'saving the world". That was 11 years ago. He spoke of the war or "purge" that occurred between the "Hostiles" and The Dharma group. He was allowed to live as long as he didn't cross the line. The hostiles took 2 cows and he never saw them again.
The Flame Station had a satellite dish on the roof. Patchy described the station as the "hub". All of the communications come through the hub and circuit back out to the other stations. Here's instant internet access!! And possibly cable TV!! However, since 'the sky turned purple', communication with the mainland has been down. It hasn't cut the power though because Patchy had a lamp on and ice in the fridge. My Al Gore like hope is that the island is "green" and is self sustained on solar energy, with the exception of power needed to make the communications devices work.
Theory: the Swan station was the power plant. The electromagnetic anomaly that needed to be discharged every 108 minutes was also the source of power for all the Dharma Initiative projects and hatches. It also powered the equipment that enabled the island to communicate with the outside world. Think of it as an amplifier or booster. But it wasn't the only source of power. It would make sense from a hippie, Mother Earth News sort of way for the Dharma Initiative to have solar or wind energy as an alternative power supply. That would sustain all the power the stations or barracks need. Once Desmond turned the fail safe key and blew the power station up, the booster was underpowered and ceased to work.
The booster not working is confirmed by Locke's playing of the chess game. Once the chess game is beaten, Dr. Marvin Candle comes on the screen with a series of protocol situations and numbers. For a food drop, press whatever. For mainland communication press 38. When Locke presses 38, he's informed that it failed due to the system being down. For sonar something or the other, press whatever. When Locke tries this, he's informed that it failed as well and if there has been an incursion by the hostiles, enter 77. Before he can do that, he's stopped but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Theory: Patchy has been playing chess and giving the outside world the impression that the Dharma Initiative is still up and running. This can be confirmed by the food drop that happened last season, which by the way, won't be happening anytime soon due to the booster being dead. Slow down on consuming all the Dharma Oat bars, Paulo!!! Now that the communication is dead, it's just a matter of time before someone on the mainland recognizes that something's amiss and sends a search party, right? Except here's the next problem with the Swan station being killed: The sonar ping is gone. The submarines that have been traveling to and fro won't have a point of registry. Which could cause some serious problems....
Now you've got Locke carrying out the mission of destroying the Flame station because the computer told him to...How cool was it seeing Locke smile after he beat the chess game? I think Locke has been playing Dungeons and Dragons or other role playing games for quite some time(think back to his box company days) and now he's living one out....He's approaching the island as one giant game with each task getting him to the next level....
And next week we see another daunting task. The security fence. Is this to keep people out or something else out? Something "smokey" perhaps???? We'll have to wait and see....
This last episode was chocked full of cool things and I'll need to watch again to really dive into it...I have a major theory that's shared with a few other theorists across the net that I'll be publishing soon.....Stay tuned for that...
It was good to see the folks at the beach having some fun...It's an interesting dichotomy that they can be playing ping pong and Sayid and crew are getting shot and in fist fights...that's what I love about this show..you get all kinds of different action!
That's all for now...check the website over the weekend for some other ramblings and musing.....
Later
EPdeLFC, JB
