The Lost Diary

That episode was amazing!

Awesome.....One of the best of all time. This episode not only posed questions, but provided answers.

"can you fix it brutha".....

Daniel, I gave last night's an A+!

I even cried when Desmond finally connected with Penny!

And I have decided that Farraday is my new favorite cast member. I like him even better than Locke (hold yourself back now, I know thats a strong statement)... notice how clearly he speaks when he's in his 'element'? He also seems to have compassion for the Losties, who are completely lost and don't know what the hell is going on... as opposed to Charlotte, who I am really starting to hate. Frank, too, seems to be a 'help'.

Noticed that Minokowski (sp, sorry) and his episodes were probably the reason that Frank told Farraday to just hang up last week if Minkowski answered the phone. However, Minkowski was a huge clue... they've been sitting there getting bored waiting for orders (from whom?) (for what?) and decided to go to the island? How could that small electromagnetic exposure account for Minkowski & partners severe reactions? Desmond obviously was exposed, he turned the key for God's sake, but the others don't seem to have nearly the exposure, but far worse results (death)...

Also, while Minkowski was being injected with something by the 'dr', I couldn't help but remember the injections given to the Others and Losties early on in the show to keep them from getting the 'sickness'. Seems that someone knew exacty what would happen to them back then, but they stopped doing it ?!

Forgot that I wanted to mention Sayid's compassion. He tried so hard to help Desmond, going so far as to patch the phone for him to make the call... I truly believe he's a good soul, how does he get mixed up with Ben remains another huge mystery to me...

Also, I wanted to ask: did anyone else think that the person that trashed the control room on the freighter is Ben's 'man on the boat'?

I'm not afraid to admit it, I cried and cried because I was happy that Penny and Desmond were finally reunited but also because LOST is BACK!

This was easily one of the best episodes of Lost E-V-E-R. I loved every moment of it. The concept of your conscience being able to time travel totally blew my mind. Wow. WOW!!!! BTW, I'm going to invest in a Studio 60 "countdown to the next show" clock so I can count the days, hours, minutes and seconds until the next episode of Lost.

I agree whole heartedly. This episode was an A+++. But then again, any episode with Desmond would get an A.

I'm even more convinced that Michael is on the boat. Who else would be helping them? I would love to know what was in that journal. We can now see that Penny's dad most likely knows about the island. And to have had Hanso as the owner?! Brilliant!

i'm so floored right now, that i can't even being to process what i'm thinking.

Loved it ... definitely an A+

KABOOM! That was the sound of my brain exploding. Easily the best episode this season. One question. Is Desmond altering the past or reliving it? Remember Penny made no mention of him trying to talk to her when she found him after he got out of prison.

I just figured that the "friend" on the boat that left the door open was the helicoptor pilot. Didn't he say that he really was trying to help Sayid?

Overall, this episode really was amazing! I had to watch it alone last night and I was going crazy!

Thank God for Lostpedia... I spent the hour after the show re-reading all the pages on Desmond, Penny, her father, and the Hansos!

Desmond is my favorite character.. so last night's episode had an even greater impact on me.

I really don't want to start analyzing this episode.. just love it for what it is. Except I want to say that Daniel Faraday is Doc Brown AND George McFly.

"I'm Daniel.. Daniel Faraday.. I'm your density.. I mean.. your destiny."

Awesome episode...so do we assume that some or all of the Oceanic survivors can/do time travel? I believe they do, but they don't "remember" yet. And another thing, since we know Sayid works for Ben in the future, shouldn't we connect the dots that he is the person helping Ben on the boat(but Sayid doesn't know it yet)?

When I saw Minkowski I knew I saw him in another episode. Wasn't he the guy who was in the mental wars with (flashback) Hurley. Wasn't he the one who kept saying the numbers over and over??

Oh my good lord, that was a great ep. My throat closed up with the final Penny and Desmond scene - but that was just a capper to the roller coaster ride.
Some observations:
1. All those theories about Vile Vortexes are starting to come true, eh?
2. The notion of getting "unstuck in time" in not so much "Back to the Future" as it is Billy Pilgrim, from the Vonnegut novel, Slaughterhouse 5. (Now I have to go reread that thing for clues...)
3. So, if you have a "Constant", you can survive the sickness? Can Rousseau, famous 'sickness' survivor, share anything about this? Was what happened to Minkowski what happened to her husband and all the rest of her colleagues?

this time travel episode gave me a theory that i thought was spot on, but then i realized it probably can't happen. I was thinking that maybe as the shows goes on from here the losties will get a chance to go back in time to before the crash and reverse their bad choices, like Locke not losing a kidney, Kate not doing what she did, Sawyer not shooting the wrong man, Hurley not winning the lottery, etc. Maybe they can even prevent the plane from crashing.
sounded good to me, but then it dawned on me that Desmond told Charlie, no matter how many times he tries to save him, he was still going to die. He couldn't prevent it from happening. does anyone else think that this time travel thing could end up being a way for them all to change the outcome of their lives or am i reaching too much?

LOST IN TEXAS, my mind definitely went there. Also, I can't help but get behind the statement made by the woman who Daniel posted about before today's post -- who threw out the idea that due to the time traveling aspect that is now prominent, perhaps Desmond is Ben's "man on the boat," and that even Ben seems to know this before Desmond does.

God, it all looks so crazy when I type it out, but I can't even wrap my brain around it the whole way. Damn you, LOST, for being so incredible!

This episode is most definitely one of the top five best LOSTs we've seen thus far. Bravo!

Best Episode in I can't remember how long.

So is this how Penny knows to look for Desmond on an island, because he went to her in 1996?

At what point does she get that memory? Remember the movie Frequency with Dennis Quaid? His son's memories change as thing in the past change ... I think that is what happens here. The person's entire past doesn't change, those memories become brand new to the person in the future while still having the other memories, too.

Good point, LIT, did the serum change the time-warp effects for those people who take it?

The whole Black Rock thing just about had me screaming. One of my friends thinks the original Others may have been on that ship, but how did a pirate get the log? And how is it that only the Hanso family knows what is in the log? My brain hurts thinking about it.

So much more I was thinking last night, gonna have to see what the rest of you come up with.

Halfway through that episode I found myself wandering in circles in the kitchen repeating "I'm so confused" over and over. Great episode and yes I was yelling "please Penny answer the phone PLEASE." The Black Rock showing up..yeah I was not expecting that. Could not catch the name (probably due to the blood rushing to my head) so thanks Daniel, I knew it was important. What Lost in Texas said about the injections...i had forgotten about that. Very interesting. What were those for anyways.

Who is this Hanso person? Have I missed something really big here?

I think penny's dad is the captain of the boat. that would explain why he bought that black rock book, why penny already knows about the island, and why my brain is about to explode.

i read on the TMZ comments that someone thought that claire might suffer the same effects as desmond, so she might be one of the oceanic 6 but be in a time where she never knew she was pregnant and had a kid. i thought that was awesome, so i thought it would repeat it. awesome theory. that would be super sad, but AWESOME!!

Is it possible that Crazy Future Jack is getting unstuck in time and that's why he starts drinking, grows the beard, and kind of loses it?

Excellent episode! This may be silly...but when Desmond was in the bathroom with Penny's dad, why did he (the dad) stopper the sink and just run the water? Then he walked off without turning off the water? That seemed totally weird to me...but maybe he's just a water waster.

What about the time difference. Daniel told Jack that it might seem like a day on the island isn't. I knew the time difference would come into work somewhere...

Best episode EVER!!!!

Why wont they answer pennies call, her dad has something to do with it!!!

Bethie, Hanso is the last name of the guy behind the Dharma Initiative. The Hanso referred to in this episode is presumably his great-great grandfather or something.

Rufus and I both give this episode an A+!!!

Paige ... maybe because water is a conduit?

I get the idea that all of the Freighter Tots all have different agendas, and I'm not certain that anyone knows the full story as to why they're there/what they're doing/what they're supposed to accomplish... they all seem relatively nice, but so secretive... I don't understand why Jack and the gang aren't demanding answers? They are content with a random phone/walkie talkie thing and are satisfied getting half-answers from Farraday and disapproving side-glances from Charlotte.

Why is Charlotte there anyways? She is an archaeologist, who is someone that studies dead civilization stuff...they're obviously not dead. She's got to be there for the Black Rock, right? Why not readily admit that, it doesn't seem like a big deal... unless she's studing something else...

Could they all be dead at the bottom of the ocean and the crash sent them back in time 31 minutes before the actual crash and they're alive for now, but will all eventually die (Faraday says you can't change the future and Desmond told Charlie he'd eventually die no matter how many times he saved him)...

Are they all going to perish one by one as the time line 'course corrects'? Ana Lucia, Ecko, Shannon, Boone, Arzt, and there's probably more. Last week we all saw Kate with a baby we think is Claire's Aaron... Claire must die for that to happen, Hurley brushed death with his car chase, and there's the mystery coffin too... are all of the Losties going to be killed off as the time line 'course corrects' and thats why Farraday sits sometime in the future, in a stupor crying and doesn't know why????

I'm with you WHERE IS THE ADVIL?????

Okay I've got an obvious one that answered a question for me. In 1996, Farraday put on the lead tunic to protect himself from the radiation, explaining that Desmond didn't need it but Farraday did because he exposed himself to radiation 20 times a day. When Desmond asked him "what about your head" it explains Farraday's current condition of forgetfulness. Also, Faraday mentioned that people exposed to radiation and electromagnetic forces are succeptible to this time warp sickness - a possible forshadowing that Farraday will come down with it too since he's been exposed to so much radiation.

Amazing.

Why is there an 8 year span in Desmond's journey (1996 to 2004) but when 2004 Desmond talked to 2004 Penny she said "I've been looking for you for 3 years"?

OMG best EVAR!

Penny's dad bought the diary in 1996. Minkowski said, "YOU'RE Desmond?" and then told Desmond that Penny has been calling the boat.
HEL-LO! The boat is run by Penny's dad!!

AAAAAHHHH!!!

@Brian: the writers have said in their interviews that you can't change the future. Daniel Faraday said much the same thing.

I wonder: when Jack said to Kate "We have to go back," and Charlie says to hurley, "You have to go back," do you think they meant BACK IN TIME? creeeeeepy.

Last week there was a woman who theorized that velocity had something to do with the time-differential. That makes a lot of sense! Helicopters are slower than the "payload", which is slower than radio signals - meaning you get a different time-skew.

Question: what's the deal with the pilot? He sees Flight 815 at the bottom of the ocean and calls in - and becomes the pilot for visiting the Island (?). Then he does all this CRAAAZY stuff, like flying in the wrong direction, giving up the phone for the gun, bringing the wrong people to the boat, bringing the phone to Desmond... Why does he keep getting away with stuff?

Has anyone called Penny's number yet? Just to see? :)

So, if it is almost Christmas in the real world and time passes at a different pace on the island -- what day is it really? If Daniel knows what the ratio is on the time difference, he could make everyone on the boat set their clocks and calanders to match what the Losties think the day is.

Why would Sayid comment on it almost being Christmas, he's islamic?

Remember when Jack asked the pilot about the Red Sox winning the world series? The pilot gave him a really strange look and didn't say anything else. It either hasn't happened yet, or it happened years ago.

Penny said she was looking for Desmond for three years. Did she start looking when his boat crashed, or in 2004 when he said he was going to call?

Lynne, I got the impression by Penny's 3 year comment that maybe three years ago she had finally forgiven Desmond of his wrongs and decided she did want to contact him. I might be wrong, but I just thought she was an angry woman for a long time, but three years ago she had a change of heart...

10:00 -- If you're not choked up right now, I'm sorry -- we can't ever be friends.

best.statement.ever.

I agree with eastcoastlb.....I think Minkowski was with Hurley in the ward, repeating the numbers.
I also wondered if anyone saw the reflection of a city skyline in the water when they have the LOST show screen with the island and water/waves in shadows at the middle and end of the show?

Or maybe... when was the boat race? Desmond would have had to enter the race, right? So when he doesn't come home, Penny would know about it (since it was a Whidmore sponsored race) and maybe that sent her looking. When was that race, anyone remember?

Lost in Texas ... what about the fact that Lawnmower Man pointed out that the pilot in the underwater footage of Oceanic 815 wasn't wearing his wedding ring and couldn't possibly have been the real pilot?

I just found this blog a few weeks ago after being a LOST fan from the beginning. I am so addicted to the site and all of your comments. I feel like I'm in a vortex after going from watching LOST without any "help" to watching it in connection with this blog! I apparently needed the assistance. Anyway...I agree with all of the comments that last night's episode was fantastic. Hopefully once I get a little more in the groove, I'll be able to offer my own insights! Thanks for adding to the experience.

Absolutely amazing episode. One of the best ever, and if anyone disagrees, I'll just punch them in the face. So much new info, but we do know a few things for sure (maybe for sure):

There's not really a time difference between the Island and the real world. They've been Lost for like 95 days, and it was just then Christmas Eve 2004, which is pretty much exactly the right date that it should be.

Also, Daniel Farraday has trouble with his mind due to his experiments. That was great when Des asked about head protection in the lab. He's probably been experimenting on himself for a while, which gave him some side effects, and know that he has bridged the gap between past and present with Desmond, he'll probably be okay.

I get the feeling that Mr. Widmore knew that Desmond was "unstuck" and that's why he gave him Penny's number. Widmore obviously knows something about the island, and wants to know a lot more. He's behind a lot of something. What, I don't know.

Ben's "Man on the Boat" is someone who likes the Losties or Desmond, because he sure did help them escape the sickbay. Is it Michael? Frank? Someone else? Pretty sure whoever it is, is repsponsible for destroying all the communication equipment.

Great Ep!

Janelle, I wondered if the 2004 calendar on the boat wasn't actually the current calendar, but the calendar in Lostie time, since thats what they're all studying...

If thats the case, none of us know what year it REALLY is... maybe the trial and all the fast forwards introduced aren't ff's but the present???

when the helicopter was going into the storm it looked like they were heading at 31 not 32. and when they landed on the frieghter the pilot said that he thought it was safe to stay in the grey area or something like that. so i'm thinking that depending on how far off course you are that affects how far in time your conscience goes? minowski was on a ferris wheel so i assume that means he went so far back he was a little kid. kinda convenient that desmond didnt go back further in time cuz then faraday wouldnt have been old enough to help him.

Did you guys read how Daniel completely abandoned his car at a 76 station on Santa Monica Blvd to make it home in time to watch LOST? Man, thats some dedication!

Daniel, you rock! Now, go fix your car-

LiT: love love LOVE the theory of "course-correcting"!

Best episode ever! (I'm a Desmond fan.) Desmond was not having any flashbacks in this episode. There were no "Lost" whooshes. He - that is, his consciousness - was traveling back and forth in time - these were not remembrances, but movements. Now, much of the "bad guy" motivation is explained - who ever is rich and powerful (like Penny's dad) would surely want to keep secret and kill, if need be, to be able to control time travel. But I can't quite figure out how Ben, et al, figure into this.

i think the calendar was the current time or how would penny know what day to answer the phone?

All these time travelers have amassed wealth and power, and maybe Ben went rogue and cloaked the island as a refuge, which could make him a good guy or a bad guy ... maybe a good guy who has to do some bad things?

I thought the same thing about Penny's dad, Paige. Why did he leave the water running? That HAD to have meaning. I'm beginning to think that he actually wants Desmond to find Penny and that maybe he isn't a jerk, but will actually end up being a good dude. Or I could be fatally flawed with that little theory!

I agree with what so many of you are saying, that with the time travel possible, what we have seen of our favorite LOSTIES futures may actually change based on their current actions. And perhaps, even some of their past actions might change based on what happens now.

Lost and the Sopranos. That's it people!

Hey! Loved the show last night! And I love reading this blog and all the comments. Just something that I thought of though....someone earlier said that how come the other losties weren't experiencing the same things as Desmond. In my own opinion, I think it's because they weren't exposed to all that radiation that Desmond was exposed too. And I think that Minowski and the other guy that tried to go to the island when they were bored must have not been on the EXACT coordinates that they needed to be on. Didn't Faraday say that if they weren't on the exact coordinates that SOME people get confused? So maybe thats what happened to Minowski and the other bored dude. I mean we dont know what the boaties have been exposed too. They could have been exposed to some sort of radiation too. And then not taking the EXACT coordianates caused them to get confused as well.I dunno. Just my thoughts. :)

the thing with Penny's dad was interesting. In the bathroom, he turned the faucet on and off with a towel (not his bare hands) and then left the water running when he left the room....I think someone has a little bit of OCD, and I think this will come back with more detail. After all he is very controlling.

I don't think the man on the boat is michael. He has been a pain in the butt to everyone that knew him (both on the island and prior). I can't imagine that the freighter tots would have taken to him that quickly to allow him access to things that would later be of help to the losties. I think Sayid is the man on the boat.

and speaking of....just interesting that he was not exposed to radiation or electro magnetic waves on the island and in his prior military career. Just saying....

Once I fully digest this episode, I will probably give it an A. Right now, my head is spinnning.

Great comment Larry- I think you're right about Faraday-

I was completely blown away by the episode last night. It has been a long time since I sobbed over a tv show..but come on..you'd have to be a cold-hearted soul not to have been touched by the Desmond-Penny phone call.
Just some observations:
Desmond is key to the Lost experience and story. He is now Faraday's constant. He has the time-travel ability, conquered the "sickness" that is causes, and is able to see the future.
I thought it was interesting that Faraday told Desmond that their meeting in the past would not mess up the future, the future being what it is no matter what.
Can Ben/Henry travel at will, with no ill effects?
So many questions to be answered!!!
Love you Daniel...always a pleasure to read your blog. I laughed at loud at your comment at 9:56pm!!

what if all of the flashbacks we have seen in season 1 and 2, are the flashback of those people "unstuck" in time?

I buy into the idea that time is not slower on the island, as someone said. But people are bouncing back and forth in time.

I'm wondering if the plane at the bottom of the ocean really is the actual crash and they are all dead in the past, or is it future, or is it present?????????

The Ben/Sayid flashforward, could it be a flashback?

I just had a thought! Remember the Desmond flashback when he met charlie singing in the streets, before the crash...Then we see charlie in Hurley's flash forward. Sorry Daniel, I think Charlie is unstuck in time, and while he may be dead on the island, he keeps hovering back and forth in time...Just a thought.

I could be wrong, but I think around the time Desmond spoke to Jack at on the bleachers Desmond also spoke to Penny and told her he was going to enter the sailing race to earn her father's respect.

Also December 24, 2004 is 93 days after September 22, 2004 which is when they crashed. I think it is 2004.

The guy at SRMH that kept repeating the numbers isn't Minkowski. I looked it up on lostpedia, but I forgot what his name was. Sorry.

hmmm some hand-washing going on...

Sayid washing his hand after using the gun to kill the girl.
Panny's dad washing his hands...

Literary allegory, perhaps? Pontius Pilate washed his hands after sentencing Christ to death on the cross...

Desmond didn't press the button (remember, the button is bad according to taller ghost Walt) so that Penny's people would pick up the magnetism signal from the island.

So how long would it take to get a crew together and get a boat to the south pacific? And who said on the boat that we think we are stlll in the south pacific? It sounds like their nav systems are all fouled up.

Just random thoughts here.

When Ben sent Michael and Walt off the island and headed for the exact bearings to get out, they would have run into the freighter.... Last night Minkowski said they had been stationed there for a long time, bored and waiting for orders... a tugboat carring Michael and Walt would have arrived there.

Personally I've never liked the Michael storyline, but it seems plausible that those people are on that boat somewhere. If not, where?

Okay, I have to say that I loved this episode. A++ Glad to see that I was not the only one. Way to come back. Confused from 1st commercial and I love it. Big step up. I guess that is all it takes to love it... confusion! But no this has been like the best episode in a minute.

And I just remember thinking Penny pick up the phone, Penny pick up the phone.

Okay, so in Daniel's journal about Desmond being his contant... did he write that in 96 or some time after 96 after more experiments? Lost...

God, I love this show. I was in a total daze 4 a while after just kept thinking.

Brilliant episode. It was the best episode of Lost I’ve ever watched and I’ve been watching from the beginning. When the show was over, I thought, ‘That was better than ‘No Country for Old Men,” and Daniel, you nailed that sentiment in your commentary. That one hour of TV was better than most of the movies I saw all year. So Daniel, if you apply for a job as a critique or TV advocate, I’d happily be a reference. ;) You have a way of pegging and articulating what people feel about the show and that’s not easy to do. Props to you.

My only question has to do with the Penny/Rescue Ship thing. I don’t get why/how Penny told Charlie that she had nothing to do with the rescue ship, and yet Minkowski told Desmond and Sayid that Penny had her own hotline to the ship. Was Penny lying to Charlie? Was Charlie communicating with the 1996 Penny instead of the 2004 Penny? Is there another ship? What’s the deal?

A few things:

Lynee - Penny's only been looking for Desmond for three years because that's when he disappeared during the race.

The calander appears to be the correct date because Penny answers the phone and it's Christmas. The Freighties would not be catering to the Losties needs, because they're not really there for them anyway. So, I think the date is right. The time difference has to do with something else, like a Vortex. It takes time to get through the Vortex is all.

I don't think Minkowski was the guy in the mental hospital who gave Hurley the numbers. On IMDB, it lists a different actor. His name was Leonard Sims.

BEST episode ever!! I could barely breath during it I was so afraid I'd miss something! I think the friend on the boat is Michael. It would have to be someone who's been on the boat awhile for them to be able to know so much about the crew. At the same time though, Michael could be too obvious of a choice. I love this show! I could barely sleep last night, my mind was running in circles trying to figure everything out. I'm anxious to see how that journal from the Black Rock comes into play. It must be important for them to have brought it back.

Could water be the catalyst for time travel? Sayid and the ice, Whidmore and the faucet, Desmond splashed his face with the water in the sink and transported... its raining when he's doing situps/running at the army base/ raining in the phone booth... there's water in the ocean/ the helicopter flew through a storm to get to the freighter.../Charlie died in the water/ there's an underwater Dharma place 'Looking Glass'... water must have something to do with it...

But when 815 crashed, Ben ran out of the barracks and looked up into a clear, blue sky to see the plane crash apart...

Anybody else get the reference to Kurt Vonnagut's slaughter house five?

Minkowski is not the same guy as Leonard (guy in the mental ward with Hurley who repeated the numbers) but they appear to have the same 'sickness' [http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Leonard] and possibly a similar type of job.

Loved this episode! I agree- A+. Couldn't stop with the WTFs.

Regarding a past theory...
Why is the identity of the man on the boat so important? It doesn't really matter who is on the boat, it is someone no one knows about from one of Ben's off the island visits so that he has no direct connection to the island. Like the women in the looking glass, important for one, maybe two episodes. If it were Michael, he would have shown himself to Sayid rather than just open the door (but then that would raise too many questions and take away from the importance of this episode). It is enough that Ben has information.

This week's theories...
Could Daniel have been over exposed in his own experiments to cause him to have minor flashes? Or even self experimentation after Eloise died? Remember when we first meet him, he is being taken care of and crying over the crash of Flight 815 and he doesn't know why. Which brings us to the cards- maybe his short term memory is effected by his experiments. He can remember 2 of the 3 cards and that is an improvement. Having found Desmond (as his Constant), before he gets on the helicopter, and being on the island has helped to fix the problems he caused through experimentation.

Okay, I'm not sure if i misunderstood Penny...But didn't she say that she's been looking for Desmond ever since she spoke to Charlie 3 YEARS AGO?

Can anyone clarify that for me, cause it's been driving me crazy.

And here's where it starts. People posting without reading the previous posts, or previous weeks posts. Awesome! I love reading the same stuff over and over again!!!

Oh, on a personal note, my cable company decided it had to do a weekly emergency test when Desi was getting Penny's numbers. I don't think I missed anything, but need to send a nasty note with my next cable bill.

That's interesting Gina, when did that happen. I don't remember Penny and Charlie speaking 3 years ago. Refresh my memory.

this was one of the trippiest episodes ever...i dont even know how to explain it or even discuss it with others.. but it made me really happy and restored my faith in the show. i agree with you daniel when you invest years in a tv show its so rewarding to get a great episode.. i have been watching lost since pilot episode and i was in school at that time, didnt have a tv and watched it at my freinds apt...then moved got married and still watchin it and glad that my husband watches it too.. actually that was the first thing we talked about when we first met :)

Did anyone else scream at their Tivo when it went to "dead air" ??

It was funny afterward!

A little nod to the Sopranos, maybe?

this was one of the trippiest episodes ever...i dont even know how to explain it or even discuss it with others.. but it made me really happy and restored my faith in the show. i agree with you daniel when you invest years in a tv show its so rewarding to get a great episode.. i have been watching lost since pilot episode and i was in school at that time, didnt have a tv and watched it at my freinds apt...then moved got married and still watchin it and glad that my husband watches it too.. actually that was the first thing we talked about when we first met :)

All I can say is Sayid ROCKS!

The communications control room trashed? "No problem, just get me a battery, some wires and some tape. Here you go. Oh, btw, I'm so sorry the battery won't last long. If only I had some gum, I bet I could charge it up." I just love this man!

Great episode! A+++

Daniel Farraday is shaping up to be an awsome character.

Gina-I think she said that she was looking for Des for 3 years because thats the time that he took off in the boat, then landed on the island.

By the way-Does anyone remember what the purpose of that was? Was it a race? I remember it was Libbys boat. Was it a sail around the world? I just can't remember.

I think the communication between Charlie and Penny had happened recently. Like we saw.

Whats the relationship between Penny and Dad? I can't remember... but to answer Gerri's question, Minkowski said that Penny kept calling to the freighter but they were ordered not to answer... she told Charlie she didn't know Naomi, so she might not know what her fatheris up to and she's being kept in the dark because they don't want her to know about it... but she's obviously got her own resources out looking for Desmond (remember the Portuguese guys in the submarine?)... She's on to them, but I think her Dad is purposely keeping her in the dark. Why, I don't know.

Lost in Texas, I think you're onto something with your water observation. In The Economist after Sayid shot the man on the golf course the sprinklers went off. At the time I thought that was a little odd, but didn't think too much of it. It seems that water is a key piece to the big puzzle that is Lost.

Penny said "What Boat? Who is Naomi?" That is why I think the phone call between her and charlie was three years ago. Because she didn't start looking for Desmond yet.

Maybe she was trying to reach her father, who is also looking for the Black Rock, when Charlie picked up her signal? Maybe Penny's dad is on the boat and could HE be Ben's contact?

suddenly i feel like penny's dad has SO much to do with everything. i feel like his boat race was staged, just to get desmond to the island! i don't know why he wanted desmond there, but if he bought the black rock journal in 1996, it would be too much of a coincidence if desmond landed on that island in penny's dad's boat race.

also, after re-watching the eggtown episode, i have to mention how disturbing kate's face was after she picked up aaron at the end. terrible acting in my opinion, she didn't need to open her eyes and make such a weird face to convey the fact that something crazy just happened. boo kate.

I wonder if Charlotte is there to investigate the four toed statue?

Man I love this show!!

water could be factor in going forward in time. There was the rain and the sink, but there wasn't water everytime he went forward. Maybe the water surrounding the island and boat have to do with bringing him back to 2004?

Why this was the best episode of all time:

This is the very first episode that took an unsolved issue (Desmond's future flashes), then made us understand the seriousness of the issue (Desmond going to die unless he can find a constant), and then in the SAME EPISODE provided a real, solid answer to the issue.

The best part of that whole process is the issue and the answer is enough to keep all of us talking for at least the next week.

Just think of what would happen if they could adopt that format for each episode... imagine the possibilities.

I found myself watching it with a huge grin on my face, wondering if everyone else would agree that this was the best episode of lost ever. It really was.

At no time did I stop and think to myself, when are we going to see the other characters. IT was all about Desmond and Faraday. There were only a handful of other Losties in the episode and they only had a couple lines, and I can't say I missed seeing them. The episode was simply brilliant.

My coworker and I did our usual Lost Post Mordem this morning. The question is once Penny became the constant, did Desmond's path "course correct" so now 1996 Desmond is the same as 2004 Desmond? I imagine it as a string being all jumbled then pulled into a straight line again. Is that how that works?

Also, with the whole time issue... is this why women die during pregnancy on the island? Either the island is operating faster or slower than real time. Is this what is causing a fetus to develop too slow or too fast and ultimately kill the women? I think that has some real possibilities, I am just not smart enough to come up with a rock solid theory. Anyone want to flush that out for me?

Can't wait to see what you all have to say!

I wouldve been confused had I not been sent an email yesterday explaining the Valenzetti Equation. The email helped explained everything (hatch, turnkey, healing of Lockes legs, walt, why richard didnt age, Jack's dad, etc) - so I knew why it was happening, esp to Desmond. Too long to post as a comment, so I suggest all fans look it up. After reading about it - cant wait to see what happens next!

I think maybe Ben's man on the freighter is Sam. He's been getting encrypted e-mails and messages, radio broadcasts that can't be explained. He also doesn't trust the other people on the boat. He just wants to find his girlfriend, a stewardess for Oceanic. If you go through all the extras on the Lost website, Sam has no idea who is pulling his strings and sending him the info.

If Ben was able to get the broadcasts of Sam saying how he wasn't going to give up looking for the plane and his girlfriend, Ben may have found out how to reach him and use him.

I agree it was the best episode ever! We have a few questions though. The diary that Pennies dad bought came off the original black rock that was found on the island and in the auction they said it to be from the 1700's? dynamite was not invented in the 1700's (it was invented in the 1800's) so is it the same boat? or a have we got it all wrong? Also why does Daniel not remember Desmond? Did he forget when he got to the island and did he know this was going to happen (hence writing it down?) also we are confused about Desmond's original back story and when he left on the boat race. What year was that, did he and Penny not see each other before he got on the plane in 2004?

Our heads are spinning and next Thursday can not get here fast enough!

great great episode. a few thing i want to throw out there

1) faraday mentioning that the future cannot be changed
2) faraday cannot use short/long term memory. he can think things out, but cant remember anything. so the card test was not an esp test, but a simple memory test, and he could only remember two of three
3) why did mr whidmore leave the water running and plug the sink? he was not suprised to see desmond at the auction and i can imagine that he knew what was going on to desmond. he could have known desmond was going to the island and was helping setup the whole penny connection. crazy, but the man just bought a journal off the black rock from hanso, so what the hack
4) faraday had written down that desmond was his constant, reaffirming that it had happened and farday just cant remember anything (in my mind)
5) as much as i hope that michael is the man on the boat, i am 99% certain mr indestructible (mikhail) swam from the dolphin after blowing it up to the frieghter

first time posting here and only the third time reading this site, so go easy on me

I absolutely love this show. Last nights episode was so f@#$*ing good there needs to be a new word for "f@#$*ing good".

Holy Crap. That's all I can really say. I am speechless...

Wow you guys write fast, I'm loving the reading, just having a hard time catching up. Someone way back is talking about people in the flashbacks being 'unstuck'. Apparently to be 'unstuck' you have to find your constant, right?

...You know how all the Losties seem interwoven into each other's lives but they don't know it? Aboard the 815 flight, they were a bunch of apparent strangers, but there were all sorts of connections that they didn't know (Jack/Claire; Sawyer/Locke to name a couple)... it always seemed to obvious to be coincidental... I wonder if those people they are connected to are their 'constant'.

Just throwing it out there, but it has obvious holes. I mean, Desmond and Jack met at a different time running stadium stairs, but it didn't seem to do anything... did it?

I probably make no sense, do I?

just a little after thought - faraday could remeber where he was, what he was doing, and precise variables in an experiment - but could not remember meeting someone from the future? pokes a whole in my theory that it is one timeline and doesnt get changed, but maybe faraday was intentionally hiding their previous meeting...

At the end of the episode, I saw/imagined something that I am not sure really happened.

Once Desmond was done with the 2004 phone converstation with Penny, did his nose stop bleeding and his memory of being on the island and Sayid come back? It seemed that once he found and connected with his "constant", that everything fell back into place the way it actually is in 2004 time. Did anyone else notice that??

Lost In Branff - What I heard about the Black Rock last night was that it disappeared after setting sail in 1845. The Journal up for auction (Hanso's journal) was found in (or off the coast of) Madagascar.

I didn't hear anything about the 1700's. Maybe I misheard.

By the way, there's a supposed Vile Votex between the African mainland and Madagascar, which would explain how the Black Rock ended up on the island, and the journal was found near Madagascar.

Hi everyone. I really relate to the blog this week because I got so choked up last night watching Desmond and Penny that I sat there afterward wondering if I was being too sentimental. But I rewound the tivo and watched it again and came to the conclusion that this was just good television writing. It just really moved me.
It's going to take me a few days to digest all of this! But I love the posts guys!

Jess - Yes, that's what happened.

I absolutely love this show. TV has never been better. Last night, I had goose bumps all over. Screaming at the tv, only with Lost.

This proves why we love this show so much. The day after, I can't wait for this column. I search all the Lost websites looking for more clues. My friends and I talk about it everyday. Come Tuesday, the countdown begins....

Love, love, love this show, and this column, brutha!

Ok, this is weird too. Did anyone notice that on the wall calendar in the communications room, most of the days are marked off with a black X, some of the days are marked with a red X. And, there are four days in a row in October that aren't X'd off at all? The four days are October 20th-23rd. No days in October have a red X. The red ones start in November.

How far have I decended into LOST think?

Could Penny's dad be The Economist?!?

Hey Daniel...

Can you believe this week's show? As a huge fan of LOST, I loved this episode, so many questions, I too needed Advil. I can't believe I'm going to say this but this is the first show that I loved this much that didn't have Locke or Ben in it...how can that be...I am speechless.

Great show A++++++++. I hope next week will be just as good but I really think at this time that will be really hard to do!!

Could Desmond David Hume be the Economist? (David Hume was a Scottish Enlightenment Philosopher/Economist)

I don't think all of the Losties are unstuck. I don't think that's what their flasbacks are. If that were the case, don't you think they'd all come unhinged like Desmond did on the helicopter when he didn't know where he was or who Sayid was?

Also, just throwing this out there. Do you think the Dharma foods are laced with the "medicine" that was given in shots? They have cattle, chickens, and at least one farm on the island. What's the purpose of occasional food drops?

Kristin J - I think the point of the food drops are to keep the Dharma workers from going crazy. The food drops are more luxury than necessity (i.e. sweets, wine, beer). Sure, a person can survive off the island, but the Dharma workers were to be there for a long time, which would make them homesick, so the need for "regular" stuff seems likely.

That being said, there indeed could be "medicine" in that food. Excellent point.

Holy freakin' Lord! This ep had my head spinning, and in the best way possible. Definitely the most exciting ep of Lost ever in the sci fi aspect of it.

And I admit I teared up when Des and Penny reconnected, and I'm liking the quirky Mr. Faraday.

Can't wait to see who their "friend" on the boat is. And lucky for Des that Sayid is with him in case neck snapping is required.

I LOVE this show!

Ok friends, here's another weird one. The auctioneer doesn't say the journal was written by Hanso, he says it was written by the ship's first mate. He says the contents are known only to the family of the seller, Hanso. So it was found among artifacts of pirates in Madagasgar and the family of Hanso read it and are selling it. Who was the First Mate? I think, somehow, it's Faraday! He wrote the journal and it contains more of his scientific writings! And Penny's dad wants it.

Neat idea Larry! I'd love to see that jump from Desmond being nothing in the eyes of Whidmore to The Economist! But then Sayid would be out to kill him in the future, and right now he saved his life!?

However... wait a minute, you might be on to something. I have a feeling that Sayid and Desmond are now gone from the island forevermore. Desmond was no threat to Ben on the island, but now he is the only person to fully understand the two time lines he can be 'in'. Perhaps he is going to quickly learn (somehow) how to control it better (water, perhaps?) and amasses wealth and knowledge by jumping through time (just like Ben) but is out to get Whidmore (and Ben) for his bad luck? Just a thought-

That said, I think Sayid is a double agent- if Desmond is the Economist, I highly doubt that Sayid would turn on him after all he's done, and Desmond is a good soul. So is Sayid...

I'm in my own little world imagining this... Larry, do you understand any of my rambles?

All losties have been exposed to some EMI, since they flew in airplane 3 months ago. So it possible that all could somehow feel the effect of traveling off island. As Hurley said to Jack in the mental ward. "we need to go back" back in time?

I am, right now, glad that I am unemployed so I can keep up with the comments and not miss any real work. But now I need to go and won't be able to catch up until Sunday. Can't wait to see the rest of the ideas and thanks for a great recap Daniel!

"Remember the movie Frequency with Dennis Quaid? His son's memories change as thing in the past change ..."

And Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Juliet, was Dennis Quaid's wife in that movie! Hmm . . .

wow, you guys brought up stuff i didnt even think of to ask...

ps im just glad that pennys dad is mr meade from ugly betty! love him! haha.

anywhos...i dont think theres time travel for everyone...just desmond/daniel/minkowski have those crazy flashback/dejavu things...

also pennys dad/christian/hanso all connected? you guys know i stand by my belief christian has a big part of this...

and was i the only one watching and saying come out michael...come out and show yourself!!!

Let us not forget, not only was the auction lot number 2342, but the frequency number was 2.342...God, I love Lost

ps can someone PLEASE "off" charlotte. i am SO sick of her!

I was bawling like a baby by the end of the show. WOW! LOST this week was wonderful. 100 times better than last week. I would definitely give it an A+.

Like some other posters have said, I found myself yelling at the TV for Penny to answer the phone. Great moment for Penny and Des. Fantastic episode!

just a quick note....Minkowski = the actor Fisher Stevens from the 1980s movie "Short Circuit". I wonder what rock they found him under to play this role? He hasn't done anything in a while. Maybe this means we'll hear more from him in other people's flash backs? Also...regarding the Black Rock diary...did anyone else catch that it was found in Madagascar? Isn't that where Charlotte unearthed the polar bear? Altogether now..."Vile Vortice!!!"

I'm wondering the same thing about the timeline with Penney and Desmond, too. During our Desmond flashbacks, you kind of got the impression (TWICE) that he broke off his engagement with Penney, entered an around the world boat race to impress her father, and then he landed on the island, and I always assumed Penney was looking for him when he didn't show up at the end of this boat race.

NOW, we have 1996 Desmond saying he will call Penney in 8 years and 2004 Penney saying she has been looking for him for 3 years...what happened to the other five years? When did the boat race happen? Now, I'm wondering when did Desmond actually land on the island???

Obviously, time on the island seems much longer than in actual life, but still we know the dates 1996 and 2004, so there is an 8 year period there.

My mind is completely blown and I LOVE IT!

I understand LIT, and I too believe that Desmond and Sayid are very good souls indeed. So, if/where/when it goes wrong, I don't know, and I might cry uncontrollably. I wonder though if Desmond can now move freely from the boat to the island because he has his constant? Or, if the process will just repeat itself.

Flurp, you are so right, I am sorry, he did say first mate. My understanding though, is that the Black Rock was captained by Magnus Hanso (Alvar's grandfather or great-grandfather), so the journal would have relevance to that (if you buy into the Lost Experience).

Charlotte found the polar bear in Tunisia

And another interesting side note that probably doesn't mean anything at all, but my mind is so completely confused I'm trying to connect everything here...did anyone watch Eli Stone after Lost? The doctor on the boat, which happened to be the first time we've ever seen this doctor, happened to also make a first-time appearance on Eli Stone...I had to pause my DVR because I thought I was hallucinating. Probably means nothing, but Lost is making me so paranoid about every small little thing lol.

i was so blown away with last night..my husband reminded me of a note?? what note? anyone see what it said.

Does anyone else think that these one hour episodes fly by? Last night after the final commercial break... I was like... no!! I don't want it to be the end of the episode. I guess that is a huge credit to how amazing this show is.. on the edge of my seat the entire episode, I had to re-watch it last night.
I personally do not believe that everyone can time travel and it is definitely not something they have learned to control. Poor Desmond seems to think that it is not a blessing at all, but a burden, like his being able to see the future. Honestly, there is just so much going on in my mind about this episode that I can't even start to tackle what is going on. Oh, and did anyone else notice that the alarm on the boat was the same as the one in the hatch... maybe that was just a budget thing, they could only afford one sound affect... haha kidding!

So did any else think that Desmond gets through this experiance and his memory comes back and that is why he can see the future on the island and couldn't explain to Charlie how it was happening, because eventually 1996 Desmond winds up on the island (b/c you can't change the future) and since he has already lived it and 2004 Desmond trips back to 1996 when he gets to the island again (are you still following my train of thought) he knows what is going to/supposed to happen! That is what I got out of it...this epsiode was mind blowing!

Sorry if this was mentioned already (haven't had time to read all the comments). There was a lot of big things going on in last nights episode, but I wondered why the freighties were so surprised that the helicopter came with two losties. Didn't Charlotte call Regina and tell her they were coming? Shouldn't they have been expecting them??

Maybe Ben and Richard are each other's constants the way that Desmond and Daniel now are??

Speaking of the movie Frequency, there is a character in it named what??? Yep, Jack Shepard. Played by whom??? Yep, Kate's lawyer (Shawn Doyle). Never seen the movie, but got that info from the enhanced LOST last night and google.

As for Charlotte, yes, someone kill her please. Very annoying. However, to Suze, I think she found the Polar Bear in the Sahara Desert, not Madagascar, BUT there is a Vile Vortice in the Sahara Desert supposedly.

Now for the Desmond/Penny timeline, I see it like this:
1996 - Desmond has already broken up with Penny and joined the military
1998 or 1999 - Desmond is discharged from the military after getting out of jail for failure to follow orders.
2000 - Desmond trains for race around the world to win back Penny. Meets Libby, Jack, etc. Libby gives him the boat.
2001 - Desmond "crashes" on the island. Penny begins to look for him.
2004 - Desmond contacts Penny on Dec. 24th

The only question is, have we seen Desmond contact Penny at any other time after he got out of jail and before he went on the race? If so, then there's a problem stemming from Desmond saying he won't contact her for 8 years. If not, it all works out fine.

qE2 - What note? Can you give more details?

Larry - I've been trying to remember Des/Pen time line too. When did they take the infamous picture (s)?? (how many copies of that pic? Naomi had one. Has Des been carrying one around too?)

T - They took that picture prior to 1996, because he doesn't join the military until after they break up. So, I will say that the picture is from 1995 or 1996. It's taken during the episode where Desmond "relives" his life, buys the engagement ring, meets Charlie on the street, etc.

http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Penelope%27s_letter

Penelope's letter is a handwritten letter written by Penelope Widmore and hidden in Desmond's hardbound copy of Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. ("Live Together, Die Alone").

Dearest Des,

I am writing this letter to
you as you leave for prison. And I've
hidden it in the one place you would
turn to in a moment of great desperation.
I know you go away with
the weight of what happened on your
shoulders. And I know the only
person who can ever take it off is
you. Sorry to be so dramatic, but
these are dramatic times, are they not?

Please don't give up, Des. Because
all we really need to survive is one
person who truly loves us.

And you have her. I will wait for
you. Always.

Love you, Pen

Correction....Desmond's constant is Penny and Daniel's constant is Desmond. Advil please!

nice idea mynugget-

Eloise moves to the future in her mind and her body stays limp in 1996.

If Richard or Ben is moving through time only in their minds, their physical body is staying somewhere in the present (like Eloise or Minkowski were seen last night)... we never see them in a trance state or fainting (like Desmond in the bathroom scene last night after Whidmore walked out), do they have incredible skill in controlling it if one is the other's constant? Along those lines, is Ben Richard's constant or vice versa?

Movies don't keep mystery and guessing like this going for so long. As a running series, it has the ability to be a living thing in a way, constantly growing and evolving. Whereas a movie is generally stuck with that cinematic time limit, a show can go on so much longer. The water cooler talk of a movie dies down in a few months, tops. People have been discussing Lost since the night it premiered. And there are constantly unanswered questions with numerous possible outcomes. I doubt there has ever been a show of this magnitude with this kind of intelligence.

A buddy imed me after the show and after we commented on how cool it was, he mentioned that what happened to Desmond happened to the dude in Slaughterhouse-Five. I haven't read it, so I'll take his word for it. But what other television show has this kind of depth and intellect? It's a nice feeling not being told I'm stupid by the blatant explanations that show up in so many other shows. It makes me feel like the writers actually respect the viewers, which is a really nice (and extremely rare) breath of fresh air...

I absolutely love what they did with the flashback this week. It wasn't about adding to the story in the same way these things usually go. A character was consciously having flashbacks, and we the viewers were along for the ride. We got to go inside Desmond's head. The whole episode was writing at its finest if you ask me.

Daniel Faraday is definitely my new favorite cast member. The awkward nerdy twitchiness is fun and the guy knows things that are important to us.

I think Michael is on the ship. I'm sensing his reemergence sometime in the next few weeks. I wonder if Walt will show up as well.

I am wondering why nobody else is commenting on the fact that when Desmond is speaking to Penny on the phone she says she has been looking for the island since she spoke with Charlie 3 YEARS AGO!!

To larry's timeline. Penny did contact des the night he was running the stairs with jack. remember it was dark and she drove up in a car onto the field. and she was asking him what he was doing and he said that he was training for a boat race around the world to win her back. so yes there was contact in the 8 years. so im confused again. also this must have been after he got the boat from libby.

HOWEVER there could be two time lines...one where he goes to the army/jail/race/island and has contact with pen during this time and the time travel never happened and he never got her number resulting in him not knowing it at first during last nights epi...

and another where he goes back in time and they actually have no contact for 8 years until last nights epi....

omg i need a sedative...

larry - penny contacts desmond. remember when jack was running the tour de stade? and he runs into desmond? in demond's flashback of that same event, penny shows up and tells him with enough money she can find anyone.
i mentioned that to my husband last night. it may or may not throw a kink into things. 1996 des doesn't say she can't contact him; he just says that he won't call her. that's theonly way i can justify it in any way. plus, that would be 2001, and he says something like, "it'll only be three years" (that he would be gone)? that would put him in 2004.
we loved this episode, but we had a hard time talking about it afterward. it feels like that answered some huge questions with a crap load of more questions. but absolutely the best episode in at least two seasons, in my opinion. i said last week that lost builds up and then hits you over the head, like arranging pieces in chess, then going in for checkmate. except this time, they hit us from behind!

Kind of off topic, but this kind of made me laugh. We're always talking about how careful the production crew are on LOST, perfectly placing things to make us think a certain way. Well, to add to my theory that you cannot read into everything on LOST, while re-watching Eggtown last night, the Dharma coffee cup that Kate is drinking from has the brand "Manistays" printed on the bottom. They carry that brand at Walmart!!!

I just had to mention that, because we're always trying to find the smallest clues, and make up all of this stuff, but sometimes, just sometimes, it 's just a production mistake!

I was cracking up after I saw that.

ok reading all these comments can really do a number on my brain. But one thing that sticks is:
On a lot of shows where time progresses slower than in realtime like on lost, actors will appear older. We as the audience are supposed to ignore that fact (like on Angel).
When Locke saw Walt on the island, he said that walt looked "taller". Now normally this is something that we and the characters are supposed to ignore. This presents the theory that maybe time is passing faster in the real world..i.e. it is 2004 on the island but it reality it's 2007 or 8. That would make a lot of sense, because if it were 2007, and Desmond was supposed to call Penny in 2004, and it was really 2007, that means he didn't call her when he was supposed to in 2004, and she's been looking ever since! What do you think about that?

Great show last night but I was wondering something about the episode where the pilot saw the plane wreck on TV. He saw the decayed pilot. My issue with that is in season 1, Jack and the gang spoke with the pilot that was trapped in the plane on the island. So how can the cockpit be in the ocean AND on the island? Did I miss something?

maybe tj just answered the "note" of my last post. by that point of the show mybrain was mush and i don't remember it. only that my husband was asking me..

Penny and Desmond are now the heart and soul of this show. I still think the ultimate end of Lost is going to have Desmond sacrifice a life with Penny to save everyone else.

Tonight's episode of "Lost" was great, and it reminded me why I love the show -- but more than that it reaffirmed my love of television. It reminded me why I invest years of my life in certain shows.

Indeed. Great review.

Sorry, I meant "Mainstays."

What if Walt is Ben's man on the boat? He seems to have the ability to travel to and from the island as Locke saw him after he left the island with Michael. Plus, the people on the freighter wouldn't suspect a boy of being a spy. Just a thought.

mariah - i think that it is 2004 in both the "real world" and the island. it definitely wouldn't be 2007 or 2008. if you look up the newspaper article that jack read in his flash forward (which obviously occurs after kate's and hurley's FF)the date is april 5, 2007. so it has to be at least before that, and more than likely before '06 and '05.

Going back to the water theory, remember when Walt would appear in season 1/2 he would be drenched in water.

Penny's dad knew about the island and he sponsered the race that Desmond was in. So he must have got Desmond to head to the island( rigging equipment on his sailboat?)and get him stuck there to stay away from Penny or perhaps as a pawn for antother reason.

It's a few espisodes back but a bigger question for me was the episode that introduced Daniel, Frank, Miles & Naomi. Was that a flashforward, flashback or a little of both. Initially I thought it was a flashforward based on their reactions to the plan being discovered underwater (why else would Charlotte be so skepital of it & Daniel was crying), but then Naomi's scene was preparing her for this mission which wouldn't be a flashfoward.

Great episode!!!

Penny said she had not heard from him in 3 years THEN she spoke with Charlie... meaning recently.

Also, I think the Regina character will be significant... not sure how, but I know her voice is identical to Naomi's.

The calendar, in addition to Penny and Desmond's 12/24/04 conversation confirms that there is no difference in time passage on the island or off... right? The only time difference happens when traveling back and forth... right?

Caryn and other who are saying that Penny has been looking for Des for the past 3 years AFTER she spoke with Charlie....not quite. She started looking for Des 3 years ago after his ship was lost in his around the world sail. She said she just spoke with Charlie recently and that's how she knew that Des was still alive.

karen - the story on the news (and the one that the O6 tell in the FFs) is that the plane crashed in the ocean. we know it didn't, and the losties know it didn't, but they have to say that it did (for reasons we don't know yet), and the plane on the bottom of the ocean was planted (again, by whom, we don't know).

naw, she just spoke to Charlie in the Looking Glass. She didn't mention it was three years ago.
She started looking 3 yrs ago when Des got lost in the race.

Seems to me Des and Daniel share the same affliction. i think the memory game Daniel was playing with Charlotte isn't testing his recent memory - he's testing his memory of the FUTURE. The Island seems to allow your mind to "see" the future more clearly (re: Des and Charlie).
So Daniel has already been through time-weirdness; that's why he saw Flight 815 and started crying and couldn't remember why. Once he met his constant on the Island things started to get better.

@Jnnifer: the writers have stated in interviews that find815.com was contracted out to a 3rd-party company. It shouldn't be used as a LOST canon. (I thought the same thing for a while until I read the interview.)

Larry, LiT: One of you mentioned about everyone being each other's Constant. I was thinking the same thing... Find your Constant, stop being LOST?

Did anyone else find it hilarious when Sayid said he just needed a moment to get the phone ready for Des? XD hahah

Caryn - Maybe my hearing is not very good, but I didn't hear Penny say that she'd been "looking for the island since she spoke with Charlie 3 YEARS AGO." I only heard that she had been looking for Desmond for 3 years.

Maybe I need to watch again. Did anyone else hear Penny say something about Charlie, because I did not.

Explains why Juliet had to have the med cocktail before departing for the island.....so she would not have "side effects". God, I love this show,and LOVED last night's episode!

amazing, simply amazing!!

********HEAD**********EXPLODING*********NOW************

Thinking out loud again: The island and surrounding space is the portal and Ben holds the key?There could be different realities in the flashforwards or flashbacks depending on the person. That when Others or Losties go back in time, they can change/alter the reality of those in the present and their own future life. Remember 'drunk future Jack' in the hospital yelling to check if his father was drunker? Jack's dead father is what put him on the island - what was changed? When Desmond went back in time, he was able to alter his future in some way and it changed the notes in Faraday's diary. Kate changing something in the past, so that her dying every six months mother suffers and doesn't die - was that a reality or a projection of what Kate wants to happen in her future life? And,could the island/portal/vortex actually be'dead space' that cannot support 'new life'?

Speaking of water, you know what I find odd? So many times we see the people on the island drinking from old water bottles that they keep refilling from the spring. Why do we see them drinking so much water when we dont see them eating or shaving or other mundane things. Am I to believe that Dharma supplies boxes of wine but not gallons of water? And why do we see them chugging water in every shot? Even when Sawyer sent that kid for walk after Ben said "sleeping with my daughter", Sawyer handed him his bottle of water first. When Sayid returned with Charlotte, there's Jack with is trusty water bottle.

ok well last nights episode ruled the world...again giving you a few hints and answers but leaving you with about 10 more and at the end of the episode..well for me anyways..sitting on the edge of the couch going NO NO NO it cant be over yet!!! NO! I believe firmly that Michael is the man on the boat, i also believe that pennys father has something to do with this freighter..


The black rock has been mentioned alot lately..I went to http://www.flyoceanicair.com and went thru all the lil clues and stuff it was really great..if you have not done this, i highly recomend that you do so..it also discusses the black rock.


I have also decided that i obviously need to go back and rewatch the last 3 seasons on dvd..there are little hints and clues thru out that are now being referenced in this season and its killing me!!!


one final note..do you think that this "constant" has anything to do with why those that have passed away on the island can remain in contact with those who are still on the island, or as in hurley case..any of the oceanic 6??

Larry I saw that "mainstays" logo too. Who knows...maybe Wal*Mart is part of the Dharmah Initiative. ;)

how addicted am i?? i walk in to my managers office and there is a note from the night manager noting that all the report numbers ended in 6 for last night and how that was a fun little coincidence. i see this note and immediately start thinking that nothing like that just happens, there is some deeper meaning for all the numbers to end in six....and then realize that in the real world stuff just happens..lol i told my manager that on LOST, that not would hold the key to all kinda crazy things. he just kinda looked at me. lol.....

Dharma + Walmart = World Domination???
Dharma + Walmart = World Destruction???

Could be, could be.

Desmond's "seeing the future" about Charlie seems different than his flash back/forwards in this eppisode. Faraday said you can't change the future, but Des did several times with Charlie. Yea, Charlie ended up dying after all, but not by lightning, and not by drowning saving Claire.(I think that is who was drowning.) Des saw a situation, told Charlie, and things ended up differently. I say you can change the future.

Great episode. I have some questions though.
#1 Why have we not seen Desmond in a flashforward off the island? We have seen Kate, Jack, Hurley, Aaron, and even "dead" Charlie. So why no Desmond - does he not make it back to the "real world'?

#2 Did Desmond, once he was had his constant, remember where he was and what had happened, or did he just realize he was fixed of the problem?

#3 I don't get the timeline of Desmond/Penny. I thought I remembered him and Penny breaking up shortly before he took his boat trip. He hasn't been on the island for 8 years, so what exactly is the time frame? Is it Desmond and Penny break up (which we saw in flashback a few seasons ago), then Desmond tries to contact her for her phone number (seen last night), then a few years pass where he keeps his promise and doesn't contact her and he takes his around the world boat trip and lands on the island (which is a past episode), Penny decides she loves him and begins to look for him - finding that he is listed as having gone missing while on his boat trip, while she is searching he maintains the "button" for a while, then meets up with Oceanic survivors etc. up to present. That's the only way that this timeline seems to work. Any other ideas?

Additional thought. Maybe Ben, having grown up on the island, made some discoveries about what was really going on and stole something of great importance, like an element of the time travel stuff. He obviously has something that they want, and he was on the island for most of his young life, so I think he took something they need or want. Otherwise, why would they care - they could just shoot him on site if they wanted to kill him.
I liked someone's idea of Charlie being like Desmond, and going back and forth in time. That may be what Walt is doing too.

hh - Thanks, I remember Penny talking to Desmond now, before the race. You're right, he does say he won't call for 8 years. He says nothing about her contacting him. Could also be a flaw. Could also be that he changed things. I really do not know if it's worth reading into.

Suzie: i sort of agree. Des was saying that even though he could "save" Charlie from that particular death, time had a way of "course-correcting". If he was meant to die, he would die.

So yeah, you can kind of change the future, but if something was meant to happen, it's going to happen one way or another.

Kind of spinning into the whole Fate vs Free Will thing.

Mariah - the only flaw with that is why wouldn't Aaron be 3? Like why wouldn't he age like Robin Williams in the movie "Jack"...if time was speed up on the island he would be noticably older every day. IMO

Okay my money is on Lawnmower Man being Benry's contact on the ship.

Here's an interesting tidbit - Desmond's buddy Donovan is a professor of physics in London who is familar with time travel. See the Lostpedia blurb below:
Donovan is a professor of physics in London. He is advising a graduate student named Partridge on her thesis. Donovan's concern is with the research's inherent unpredictability.

Donovan is Desmond's best friend, and is familiar with the history of Desmond's relationship with Penny Widmore. He also has at least a passing knowledge of the principles of time travel.

I wonder if we'll see him again?

I cant believe noone has made a bigger mention of the different times on and off the island. The helicopter trip could take what, 1-2 hours to get to the freighter and more than a day passed on the island.

Do you age the same? What about Ben lets say hes 40 real time does that mean hes like 65 on island time? Does the time affect why women on the island cant have babies? Why are the ones who were taken from the flight not willing to leave "the Others" And why are they all on the island to begin with?

Who are the Oceanic 6 and where did Jack's story come from? How did Ben get off the island (Locke blew up the sub) in Sayid's flash forward? Is he considered one of the Oceanic 6? Whewwwwww

I have two questions:
1. Penny's dad peed into the urinal without making a sound. Where can I learn to do this?

2. Was anyone else upset that Eloise died?

Brooke - because Aaron ages the same as everyone else on the island. He has never left the island. When Walt left, he aged normally. So when he came back, he looked older.
Time is actually slower on the island, so they are not aging appropriately. That is my theory, anyways!

George - There's a book enititled "Silent Pee Pee" that you should check out. It's done wonders for my soul...And yes, I really felt like Eloise would become a really prominent character in the show. Outstanding performance! Breathtaking!

Shenanigans, that only re-affirms my theory.

I think Claire has got to be alive on the island, and somehow Kate had Aaron in her possession when the decision of "stay on the island forever, or get off the island and forget about everyone else forever" was made...Kind of like that movie with Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington and Matt Damon from years ago where they left Meg Ryan alive in the dessert during Dessert Storm - and lied to everyone that she was dead.

Ok just a few more thought/theory/question..make what u will of it..so this constant/timetravel thing..is that why the "others" do not age?? and now that we know that the dharma initiative isnt the original inhabitants..how did they find the island? What is their purpose or was their purpose?? See this is why i need to go back and watch the last 3 seasons..i NEED to know why the black rock is so damn significant..it hasnt really been mentioned since russo took sayid and some of the other losties there...So in an earlier post i made comments about the dead losties ability to communicate with the living losties..makes sense since the "conciousness" is what seems to do the traveling...damn this show...seriously

Mariah - Glad to see someone else is on my page about the whole time thing.

Also, my theory includes the idea that when the O6 arrive back in the real world, the haven't aged as they were supposed to, so maybe physically and mentally they are out of whack, hence the visions of dead people, drinking, etc...
The people they left behind have aged normally, more than the Losties.
An interesting idea comes from that also: what if Kate got pregnant on the island, and she did the full 9 months "island time" but outside it really took like 2 or 3 years for her to have the baby? ****wow

Can someone tell me the significance of the numbers 2342? Did i miss something?

This whole concept of Penny speaking to Charlie 3 years ago is WAY off. Do you guys not remember in the episode when those guys that are in the ice and snow at a station get a signal and then they call Penny to tell her that they found something??
Some of ya'll are reaching wayyyy too far on some of these concepts, but some are sounding pretty good to me.
I LOVE LOST...

When I say people left behind, I dont mean the islanders, but the people left behind in the real world when they crashed.

my head hurts so badly!!! does anyone else get absolutely NOTHING done on fridays, because you plant yourself in front of this blog!!! thanks a lot...no dinner for the family tonight...this is definately fun and entertaining - good work all you die-hard Lost fans!!!

OMG qe2: you are right on the money.
I'm working OT tonight cuz i can't seem to get anything done!
Refresh page every 2 min... arrrg

Jessica,

2342 is significant because they are the last two "numbers"

Numbers refresher for us all
4 8 15 16 23 42

Larry, you had satated: Maybe I need to watch again. Did anyone else hear Penny say something about Charlie, because I did not.

Yes, there was a brief moment when she had mentioned that she had talked to his friend "Charlie", and Desmond had this look of, who the hell is Charlie, on his face. She was referring to when they swam down to the looking glass.

wow... so many theories running around...

Sayid didn't have the same "side-affects" that Desmund had so why are we assuming that this happens to everyone? Also, when it comes to time travel it has not been shown that you can physically take anything with you... there wasn't any writing on Desmund's hand, which would debunk all the "Ben time travels with all his passports and foreign currency" theories.

There is a difference with time on and off the isalnd.. but according to Lostpedia it is only about 4 days so far.

I agree, I think Michael is the man on the boat... I can't wait to see him. I hope he isn't whiny Michael but kick ass Michael!

By the way, I like Frank. I like him a lot. Hate Charlotte. LOVE DANIEL!!!

After Daniel Farraday's experiment where it took the rocket 31 mins and 18 secs to get to the island, I was all for the alternate time theory, where the island's time was behind that of the real world. But, after this weeks episode, I no longer believe that. It just doesn't seem right anymore to me.

carriem!!! lol
i was just thinking, good reason to get an iphone or whatever to carry it with me, so i don't have to keep coming back to the computer to refresh every 30 sec.!!! what a freak i have become. the time travel talk has made me realize i am just not as smart as most of you and the writers have gotten me very confused (lost).

The "sickness" that is effecting Desmond, they stated, seems to happen only to people who had been around large amounts of radiation. Sayid hasn't been. That is why Desmond is messed up and Sayid is not.

I have two questions:
1. Penny's dad peed into the urinal without making a sound. Where can I learn to do this?

2. Was anyone else upset that Eloise died?

Posted by: George | February 29, 2008 11:13 AM

1. Quite a trick, I agree.
2. Yes, I was.

so this means that not all the losties will have the same symptoms either... I know why, I was just pointing out that this will not happen to everyone. Maybe Locke since he was down there too... but he most likely will never leave the island so we will never find out.

wait a minute...didn't desmond in the beginning while in the hatch, inject himself daily/whatever? i forget if he was told to by the guy that was there before him...but why does he not do it any longer?
or even seem to be worried? gotta work, no more for me (ya right!

And Jess, I'm sorry, I think I wrote that post wrong. I did hear her refer to contacting Charlie, but what I meant was, did she say anything about talking to Charlie three years ago? I think I just mis-typed what I meant. Sorry.

No, she didn't.

How about this? Let's say that Sayid is Ben's Man On The Boat, or at least that's the impression Ben has. In actuallity, Sayid and Desmond are working together to get back to the island and help everyone who was left. They obviously can't do this without the help from Ben, so Sayid is "working for him". Now that Desmond's mind is straight because of Penny (and tahnks to Sayid), he and Penny are helping Sayid and also trying to bring down her father in the process. Her note found in the book seems to support this.
Sayid has been time jumping.
-He notices Naomi's bracelet is the same as Elsa's and realizes that they were working for Whidmore.
-He is the one who left the sick bay door open (Shades of Bill and Ted, "Thanks future self!").
-He wrecked the control room...
Desmond is The Economist
-He doesn't realize his Berlin employee actually works for Whidmore until Sayid figures it out. Her phone call wasn't from Des, but Whidmore.
There's more, but my brain hurts!

Finally getting a chance to come to my favorite site and read all the good stuff! It was an amazing and have to say my favorite episode to date. It was needed after last week! I'm still blown away and I need to watch it again to have HALF of it sink in. Amazing episode! I'm just as stoked as the rest of you are, and next week looks awesome! I can't wait! The need for exclamations is strong for this week. Period!!

The ending really really touched me, you could really feel the love. Nice touch!

my fave lost couples
1) des and pen
2) sun and jin
3) jack and kate

ben man's on the boat is not michael. michael is in the coffin in jack flashback

i mean " michael is in the coffin in jack flashFORWARD"

DL I like your thoughts, but Desmond as the Economist just doesn't make sense to me. Sayid and Desmond are friends, and Sayid is working for Ben in future to save friends.. I just don't see the correlation. I think the Economist is/could be Faraday? lol. Who knows!

And I like the idea of why we don't SEE who opens the door, cause it very well COULD be Sayid or any one of them in that room could of done it from the future. Love that thought. Sweet!

Wow DL, that is verrrrry interesting. Verrry interesting indeed!

I think that the other - Richard - who made contact with young Ben can travel in time, which would explain his ability to seemingly not age at all.

ray: Micheal in the boat AND in the coffin???

Sayid=MacGyver Actually, we can just drop MacGyver and refer to a tech whiz as a 'Sayid'! Great work in the radio room.

Did anyone notice on the calendar where the days were X'd out that three days in October were left intact? Hmmmmmmm

Any thougts on who the captain of the boat is? Maybe Whidmore?

I don't think the "man on the boat" could be Sayid or Desmond because its only their mind that can travel back and forth in time, not their bodies. Maybe I'm wrong though.

I dont get everyone saying Sayid is Ben's man on the boat. How can Sayid open the door for himself when hes locked in the room? Its not time travel in the physical sense.

But it seems that even though it's not time travel in the physical sense, the mind is only doing the traveling, it is still controlling the body in that time, I think.....

I agree Carrie M... even though I am not convinced that it is Michael in the box, if it is him that doesn't mean he can't also be the man on the boat.

Oh Shenanigans I get it. Sorry. Sayid still could not open the door, or be in 2 places at once. Could he?

Sam Walton IS the true Economist! Walmart + Dharma, halariously funny guys!

Chuck, someone else posted, and I wondered after last night too, why there were certain dates on the calendar that were not marked out, and a few that were marked in red. Is this significant, or nothing?

"Oh Shenanigans I get it. Sorry. Sayid still could not open the door, or be in 2 places at once. Could he?" Mariah

Exactly, its not like he could run into his otherself in back to the future.

I think a little time travel goes a long way. I think it's easy to get carried away and just think everything and everyone is related to time travel, but I think that would be overkill and these writers are just too good.

I can't even process. This was easily one of the best episodes anything. Does this explain by Desmond was in jail? He was tripping around in time and didn't get back to the barracks? Does anyone know why he was court-marshalled (or the Scottish equivalent? Was it desertion?

Loving everyone's comments and theories.
Sayid and Desmond leave on the helicopter and it takes them 1 whole day to get to the ship, island time. Sayid mentions something about leaving in the dark and arriving on the boat in the day time. Sayid says it's almost Christmas and when Penny and Desmond finally talk on the phone it is Christmas because Penny has her tree up.

Ok so Sayid sort of confirms that time on the island is almost the same as time in the real world. Does this mean time is different in the "vortex" the helicopter traveled through getting to the ship?
Were they in the "vortex" for hours, but Sayid, Desmond and Lawnmower Man had no idea they were in the helicopter for so long? If so how could they have that much fuel because when the Freighties first landed on the island they said something about burning alot of fuel coming to the island.

Eh, just some of the thoughts going through my mind. Great comments everyone. Lovin' LOST!

Wonder if Miles is still holding the grenade in his mouth? :)

Actually I found a page about the calendar with a screen shot:

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/02/does-losts-cale.html

Those October dates were not blank, but rather marked in yellow. Then there are other dates marked in red, while most are black.

What does it mean? Well, there's a nice post in the comments section of that page that so graciously proposes "the crewmember on the boat who was responsible for X'ing the dates lost his black marker and had to use a highlighter."

Maybe...maybe.

Thanks Larry, I was trying to find that screen shot.

Okay, I'm back after a break this morning:

If an 'anchor'(constant) is what you need to allow you understand which time you are in, and it needs to be something/someone that you feel really strongly about (doesn't necessarily mean that you feel strongly in a good way), then Penny is Desmond's 'anchor' or 'constant'... Desmond is Faraday's (as seen from his notes last night), and Aaron is Charlie's...

Charlie came to visit Hurley at the hospital, and acknowledged that he's 'dead'... but we all made comment that Charlie wasn't really dead... and Aaron would be his constant (remember how he passed his brother's ring to Aaron and it got lost in the bedsheets/crib)... we've seen Aaron in the future (we think its Claire's Aaron with future Kate) and he would be the anchor for Charlie... Juliet's anchor would be her sister, Jack's would be his father... Nadia would be Sayid's, you'd think... and it would appear that Ben is Richard's... but this is what I'm wondering... who is Ben's Anchor? ANNIE?

anyone find a screen shot of the directions the pilot was given?

is Annie Kate??

LIT- But wouldn't that mean that everyone has this side affect? Sayid didn't get it last night.

George: marry me

I don't think that you age different on the island. I don't think that the island is in a different time zone or dimension. Frankly...that would really annoy me.

The concept of your conscience traveling between times is astounding. It doesn't fully explain why you loose all recollection of your present, but I like the idea of having a constant to ground you.

I totally think that Sayid is Ben's guy on the boat. I just don't think he knows it yet. It ties into him working for Ben a la "The Economist." And Sayid has proven himself to be the ONLY Lostie to put other people's well being ahead of his own.

I like the idea that Jack could be suffering, in the future, with what Desmond has now. But...how would he remember Kate and the flight and all? And why would it set in so late. He had a good couple weeks/months with a good grip on reality.

Charlie bouncing around in time is awesome. But only Hurley has seen him since he died and Hurley has proven himself to not be the stablest of people. Especially when it comes to imaginary friends.

As for Walt...I don't think he aged differently when he left the island and that's why he was so much older when he came to John Locke. I think he was a 12 year old actor who grew up in the last 4 years. Call me crazy!!

loved it

I really like all the people commenting on this site and enjoy reading your thoughts. That being said, does LOST IN TEXAS have a life? I mean, geez, she has to go on and on and on and on about every little theory, and always comments on other people's thoughts. She is starting to make me nauseous!

coolio- don't make fun of people on here, that is not what this site is for.

The theories regarding the water are interesting... does anyone think it is significant that a submarine was used by Ben and crew for transportation on/off the island?

I think the Pilot opened the door for them. He is tied to Flight 815. He lost a friend. I think that all of his loyalties are to the people on the island. He is just on the freighter in order to get to the passengers. But...If that's the case then the crew on the freighter was there looking for 815. And Desmond (Naomi was anyway). But if they were looking for the passengers, why did they know Ben was there. I just confused myself so much more!

coolio - if it makes you nauseous then scroll on, but no need to comment like that.

Coolio: Take a Midol and relax.

Lost Junky - I think what you're asying makes sense. It didn't really take them 1 day to get to the freighter. Obviously, they didn't have that much fuel left. To them, it only took 20 minutes or whatever. Sense I buy into the Vortice Theory, it makes sense to me, that you can leave the island, travel through the Vortice, and end up on the other side at a different time of day. Although the island operates in the same time span as the rest of the world, it's still somehow different.

Perhaps you pass through the Vortice in an instant, but the rest of the world moves by in time relative to the actual amount of distance you should actually be traveling?

RE: the post by eastcoast lb:
I wonder if you could be partially right. Perhaps Minkowski was in another episode of the mental ward...I thought he might have been in the recent flash-forward of Hurley's. Is he the guy who wouldn't roll the dice? or in the background or something?

And, RE: the post by bobdapunk:
Interesting theory about Mikhail. He does seem to be unkillable, so it's plausible, very plausible.

So, what about that 'sheriff'? What happened to her, and why isn't she appearing to 'guide' or influence Desmond's actions in his time-traveling?

Sorry, I can't remember who noted that Walt was always covered in water when he appeared....GREAT catch!!!

I just came up with a new idea regarding the calendars...

What if the Black "x" is the days they (whoever they are) monitored the island with no deaths.

The Red "x" indicates a day they monitored and someone was killed and/or died on the island.

The yellow "x"... could those indicate the days Desmond blew up the hatch and they were unable to monitor any activity. SO the yellow "x" is an monitored day?

ALSO, are we sure the "flash forwards" are indeed flash forwards? Could they be flash backs that really were in the past, but they have found their "constant" and know about the future?

what was the inscription on Niaomi's bracelet? whose initials appeared at the end? do they match up with any of the characters we know?

Jen,
Thank you for posting about grown-up Walt. I've always thought Lock's comment about "it was Walt, only taller" was a joke/poke at the obvious. They couldnt replace him with a younger actor or we wouldnt know it was Walt.

So has anyone thought of the monetary impact time travel could have? Take Hurley for example....ever wonder why he was in the mental institution the first time, where he heard the numbers. Maybe he was there because of the "episodes" that time traveling can cause (the blackouts). And Since he wasn't supposed to win that money the universe is fixing its self by cursing it and him with "random" events. I mean if you figured out how to do this the right way, whats stopping someone from becoming the richest person alive. I am also guessing that is what Miles was talking about when he told Ben "I know what you can do" anyway that is my two cents. What do you think?

Hey You!

Exactly!!! People would flip out even more if they tried a stunt like that!

Coolio, you're a jerk.

That being said, I've had it with this blog. Two weeks in a row!

No one jumps on Larry for posting all day like me, or any of the other 'regulars'.

I am sorry if my posts are making you vomit, and yes I have a life. A pretty damned sweet one, in fact, that very few are lucky enough to have. I don't have to work and can do anything I want during my day... I chose to spend my Fridays rehashing Lost with my fellow bloggers, but no more. I'm sick of being bashed! Good riddance-

RE: Larry
I don't see how the vortex theory adds up because the helicopter and the object fired from the ship take drastically different time to reach the island. I think the relavtive amounts of time would be similar, showing that the time on the island goes by slower than time off the island.

Jess - could be, but why was this calendar in the sickbay, rather than being kept track of by the captian, first mate, or someone else? Also, the hatch blew up at the end of November, not October, where the yellow is. There may be some blue marks on it too. IDK.

The calendar was in the control/communication room

Newton's Third Law of Internet Boards: Before 200 Posts can be made, some knucklehead (or coolio) will chime in and flame a cherished regular poster.

I LOVE to read posts by LOST IN TEXAS, btw.
Muahhh

Lost in Tx
Coolios comment was uncalled for. Dont leave the site just because of someone like that. I enjoy your posts.

LIT does have alot of good theories...if i remember correctly, she was the one that first noticed how big a part water has played in this whole thing.

chris: I thought hurley was in the institute originally bc he had killed a bunch of ppl when he stepped on a balcony and it collapsed killing a bunch of ppl. I seem to remember this during a session with his doctors after he wasn't taking his meds. can anyone confirm?

Oh hands down...the episode was fabulous! This was the best episode in my eyes because it gave the most information.

1. Does Daniel have these time travel trips, or is he thinking he may, therefore, have Desmond be the constant?

2. Daniel didn't tell Desmond to find Penny, he just said he needs a constant, and of course Desmond was going to pick Penny.

3. Oh yes...Hanso owns Black Rock...and of course his great-grandon? is a huge funder of the Dharma Initiative...my thought, Penny's father is most definitely part of the Dharma Initiative. My only concern was...how did pirate's get a hold of that First mate's log?

4. My theory...remember Danielle's crew? They were exposed to radiation, Danielle was not because she was pregnant...that's why they went "crazy". They couldn't stay in one time.

5. Does this explain baby death's as well? *shrug*

6. Friend on the boat...Frank?

7. Card game between Daniel and Charlotte...did Daniel expose himself to that level of radiation so that he could "time travel"? Maybe that's why they were testing him...to see how far he could go forward?

Ok...I'll stop there...

LIT..I'm with Hey You - don't let it get to you. Besides, you know this blog is an addiction - you couldn't possibly stay away! :-)

LIT,
I love your theories and your explanations of them.
DON'T GO BECAUSE OF ONE JACKASS!!!

is it just me or did they all forget naomi's body in the helicopter? i think it is sad that nobody, the losties or her freighter friends, commented on it or moved the body.

Lost in TX, people who aren't as smart and thoughtful as you have to resort to bashing to upset everyone.

Hey everyone , I new here. love the blog! couple things i wonder if you guys got out of this past episode. Did Desmond endure this same experience when he Demo'd the Hatch with the self destruct? If so, was the Island manifesting itself in a way to protect him during the experience? any thoughts? Also, could this "side effect" be what Rouseau talked about, how her people "started getting sick"???? Check out Daniel Farraday's notebook in slow motion, and you can see a picture mapping of space time/real time/ imagingary space/ imaginary time. There is also a page of a chart showing imaginary time increasing as you travel from point A to point B in imaginary space to real space. Love to here some thoughts. thanks!

Team LOST IN TEXAS
banish all the haters...it's you who really eff this blog up...and make me sick

LOST IN TEXAS: We'd miss you if you left us!! Those of us who actually use our brains enjoy your insights. Don't let a couple of dolts and their inarticulate, ignorant comments get to you. You are much better than that!

Please don't give up on us.

Yes I am new here also but just found this blog. I'm working on some computer stuff, and checking this blog. Hope you guys don't mind my theories. It helps me to (try to) figure it all out. Mentally challenging (in a fun way), unlike the other stuff I'm doing!

The guy in the sick bay is the guy from Short Circuit! Fisher Stevens!
Oh, JOHNNY 5...!!!!!

Natalie,

I LOVE your theory # 7. That would make a lot of sense.

Someone mentioned Hurley’s stay in a mental institute - I recall him feeling very bad about an accident he felt he caused because he went out on a deck that eventually collapsed and caused several people to die.

The theories regarding the water are interesting... does anyone think it is significant that a submarine was used by Ben and crew for transportation on/off the island?

Posted by: Karla | February 29, 2008 12:49 PM

Interesting. Maybe travel by water is the only guarantee of shielding yourself from the "sickness"?

Bodapunk - The velocity of a rocket is faster than a helicopter, hence the rocket took 31 minutes, the helicopter takes longer. I don't really know.

LIT - don't leave. Forget peoples negativity.

BTW, I can post all day because all of my work, at work, is done, and I'm just sitting here. I have nothing else to do, and a lot of other websites are filtered out. This passes the time! And I don't give a shit about it either! When I'm busy, I sure won't be on here!!!

Rather watch "Lost" than "No Country For Old Men?" Are you flipping kidding me? I am jetting out to Los Angeles tomorrow with high hopes for hooking up with Javier Bardiem. In fact, the wedding will shortly follow. "Lost" can't compare to that hunk of burnin love. Actually this episode was a great filler - got us off track of the main story line of getting these flippin folks off that flipping island. C- episode in my book.

Kathleen - Yes it was because of the deck collapse, but that could have been cause by a blackout...Kind of like when Minkowski fell on the table when he "went back" And well we all know Hurley is a big guy and a fall like that could seriously strain a deck...i am just throwing that out there...

It took me an hour to read all the blogs so I could catch up. Whew!!!

Incredible. Everything actually makes a lot more sense to me now. When Desmond turned the key in the hatch and everything exploded he started to be able to see the future. His exposure to the electrowhatever makes him vulnerable to time travel when he leaves the island. Faraday confirms this. The time lines make perfect sense too. Penny and Des's relationship ends. He joins the military, gets kicked out, goes on the sailboat race some years later and is stranded on the island for just about 3 years.

Des' timetravel is conscience, but I still think that Ben, Richard, Ethan, Juliette all traveled to the island in the physical sense. I think Ben has a way of getting on and off easily without any side effects. His passports and money attest to that. Remember the black box that brought Lockes dad to the island...Lockes dead father. Last thing her remembered was being in a fatal car crash. But he was physically on the island.

RE:Penner
I think Desmond brought up a good point that Daniel was not protecting his head from the radiation, and that could explain why his head isn't functioning correctly. I think he was crying because when they found the plain he knew hsi friend/constant desmond was dead, but couldn't remember it. just a thought

Sorry if it was already said, but when the Losties first found Desmond in the hatch, I think he explained that he wrecked his boat and was down there for three years loading the numbers in the computer.

But, with this whole "time difference" thing, who knows how long he was really down there.

Take me to the island-
THANK YOU! I couldn't figure out what he was on! It was driving me nuts & I'm too lazy (I admit it) to figure it out!

Lost in TX - Coolio is jealous she/he isn't smart enough to understand/think of your theories! Please stay!!!

Also remember that Desmond traveled in time once before when he woke up in the apartment with Penny. That's when they took the picture that keeps showing up. He meets that lady in the jewlery store who seems to know who he is. I think that was more of a physical time travel than a mental one, but who knows.

I think the final scene last night has got to be one of my favorite romantic scenes in film history.

Hi all, I'm new to posting but lurk every week and LOVE the blog! I have so much running thru my head and maybe someone touched on this already, but is it possible that Hurley's "imaginary" friends are time travellers and no one else can see them? But that other guy at the psych ward could see Charlie. Hmm.... So confused!!!

What are your thoughts about the time travel theory posed by this site:

http://www.timelooptheory.com/the_timeline.htm

personally, it makes a lot of sense given this last episode. but what do you think?

Hi. This is my first time posting. I love this forum. All of the posts are truly insightful.

I had a thought last night…I believe that is really 2004 on the boat. Jack mentions on the island that they have been gone more than 24 hours and Faraday explains that time is not what it seems, or something like that. (You all seem to have a photographic memory, so please pardon any mistakes I make). I read all of the posts and did not see anyone mention Sayid’s comment to the pilot. Something about we left at dusk and now it is dawn, how do you explain that? It was never explained. So…It appears that to Sayid, et al. on the helicopter that it was a 30 minute flight or so, as should have been. This makes me think that time is only out of sink on the island and traveling off the island, but once off, time has caught up to the present correct time??? If so, what is up with the size of Walt and Aaron?

I’m sorry this does not make much sense. Maybe Lost in Texas or one other genius on this sight will get what I am saying and say it better or, please help understand why this would not make sense. THANKS!!!

RE:Larry

'Bodapunk - The velocity of a rocket is faster than a helicopter, hence the rocket took 31 minutes, the helicopter takes longer. I don't really know.'
Exactly, if the vortex changes time 'one day', then the helicopter would have made it to the ship in 31min + ~20min. Or the other way around, the rocket would have made it to the island in 1day + 20seconds. That is why I think time is passing at a slower rate on and around the island. The ratio seems to be ~1 min island time/60 min real time.

31 min * 60 sec/min * (time slow ratio) = 30sec

20 hours * 60 min/hour * ( time slow ratio ) = 20min

both equations work with the stated ratio. The question then becomes how did the survivors make it back to the real world in less than 20 years. I don't think the frieghties take them back; time-traveler Ben must.

As a sidenote, I guess we won't be seeing any more future visions from Desmond will we? Though we haven't gotten any in the past few episodes from him anyways.

i wonder what part walt will eventually play in everything. obviously he wouldn't be kept around as "taller walt" if only to appear to locke somewhat arbitrarily. by that, i mean why not have someone else to show up to locke instead of walt, unless they were ready to deal with the age/size difference in some way. could walt be locke's constant? someone mentioned locke may have been exposed to the radiation, but we wouldnt know because he would never leave the island. i think it would be totally sweet if he DID leave the island, and could go back in time and....do something exciting (not sure what).

also, i wonder what significance 1996 had to desmond that made him to back there. what determines what year the person travels back to?

My mind still cant wrap itself around it all. I am just so cofused!!! Who are the Hanso's and why are they so important? I am so confused, I need a lost translator!!!!

RE Cammies: I think people travel back to a time when there life went "off course" It took Desmond back to when he was in the military. And we all know he ends up going AWOL. Maybe that's why he ends up back there, to "fix" things.

Someone mentioned it earlier and it deserves another look: it is not December 2004 that Desmond finally calls but December 2007.

Is there any evidence in the background of Penny's scenes on the phone that might reference the year?

what were Faraday's exact words to Des about his "constant"? You have to care alot about it? Or you have to have strong feelings about it? Strong feelings could be negative or positive feelings. (I think someone else mentioned that already).
ALSO, he said your constant is SOMETHING, then Des said "can it be a person."
Wonder what else besides a person could be a constant? the island itself?

Daniel,

Long time reader-first time poster. Maybe this has been said before, but on another board for another show (Days of our Lives), when things are confusing (like the way all the families connect), we call out a duct tape alert so that people can duct tape their heads so their brains won't explode while trying to figure it out. While watching this week's episode of Lost, I needed one badly! I am so lost but in a good way! Love the blog, kkep up the good work.

i think it would be totally sweet if [Locke] DID leave the island, and could go back in time and....do something exciting (not sure what).

Hm. Maybe he did? Remember the scene 2 episodes (?) ago, when he was standing in the rain and predicted when it would stop? Maybe "Locke on the island now" is "Locke on the island AGAIN" but he doesn't consciously realize it.

Tie that into Desmond's flashes about Charlie (Desmond can see the flashes, Locke's flashes are just "knowing" but not seeing scenes in his mind); So they've both got side effects, however they manifest themselves differently from one to another.

Borscht, that is what I believe. It just makes a lot more sense to me. It's 2007 now, not 2004.

we know the call was made in 2004 for both Desmond and Penny because the freighter is not on the island but in real (everyone but the island) time and the calendar on the boat is 2004

Lost Junky...I just saw your post. I did not refresh before posting. You guys are fast! I think you explained my thoughts better. I was thinking the same thing that time was current once off the island. I do not think there is a big time difference.

Gonna write these as I come across other comments and think of things..so no real order here.

So Naomi told Desmond the freighter was Penny's boat and had a picture of her. Penny told Charlie (who told Desmond) that it wasn't her boat. Could Penny's dad have told Naomi to tell Desmond it was Penny's boat and given her the picture so that Desmond would come to the boat, but not told Penny that he was looking for Desmond? Sounds plausible considering that he is not a fan of Desmond. But if they are looking for Ben, why draw Desmond to the boat?

I thought that, looking at the calendar that the date was December 23. Looked like the 31st, the last day on the December calendar, was on a Friday, making December 24 also a Friday, and the red Xs on the dates went up to the previous Wednesday, the 22nd. That would mean that the current date was Thursday, December 23, 2004 (check the real calendar!) Anyone have a screen cap of the calendar on the boat? As far as what date is was in the real world, it was Christmas Eve at Penny's place, judging by the tree and presents. If there was a time difference, what is the likelihood that it is exactly a number of years different, as opposed to some random amount?

AS to the Black Rock. Definitely odd how the ledger from a crewmate of a ship lost at sea is available for auction. The ship sailed from England to Siam, but was lost near Madagascar, and ended up on the Island (which is somewhere near Fiji in the South Pacific based on comments from freighter folks last night). Vortice anyone? Do we know who any of the other bidders were other than Penny's dad?

As for Farraday, I believe that he used the device that he used on Elouise on himself after meeting Desmond. He knew that it worked and that in the future he would have Desmond as a constant, so he wrote that in his journal so he would know. When he used the device on himself, he was able to mentally experience himself on the Island, and he knew Desmond would be there so he could make contact. This is why Farraday is there in the first place and why he couldn't remember why he was sad about the plane crash. He hadn't actually been to the Island yet to meet Desmond, and was suffering some of the effects of the radiation, which made him forget things like Desmond did. But he subconciously knew he had to go to the Island, so he was sad about the plane, and ended up going, which allowed him to make contact with his constant. My only problem with this is that I don't see how it applies to everyone else yet. Only Desmond has had flashes, only Desmond got the side effects, and Farrady only really is able to help him due to these effects. So where does that apply to the rest of the people on the Island? Haven't quite made that connection yet.

Ok, gotta go for now, but I'm sure I have more on this later.

Mariah,

Seems so. She's been searching three years because he did not call. While there have been statements that the future cannot be changed, how does Faraday have the note about Desmond in his book?

On a side note, once had a girlfriend named Mariah. Beautiful name.

this is WAY out there...but what if locke initially never gave his dad his kidney. THEN, he goes "back in time" to that point because if he doesn't give the kidney away, he dies when he is shot by ben.

and what if (unknowingly), locke's dad is locke's constant? when sawyer kills him, isn't that around the time locke starts spiraling out of control and losing his focus? maybe he can't mind leap like he could when his dad was alive.

and, the reason locke may have had this ability to travel through time when none of the others can (except des when he leaves), may have to do with locke staring into the smoke monster. maybe that somehow gave him special abilities...???

One of the best episodes ever!

Covered in goose bumps when the black rock log was revealed and to have Widmore bid and win? So significant. Did anyone recognize any of the other men who were bidding on the book? One of them looked like the guy Sayid killed on the golf course...could Ben be "searching" for Widmore or anyone interested in the log and therefor the island, and then kill them off, one by one? My guess, Widmor is "the economist".

Love the water theory and LIT, please continue to blog, I've been reading you for over 1 year and would be sad to see you go!!

One thing that confused me is that Penny said she'd been looking for Desmond for 3 years - but if the time off the island goes faster, wouldn't have been a longer time - wasn't it 3 years that Desmond has been on the island?

borscht, thanks :)

Erin, good point. Why do they have to make it so confusing?!?!

Charlotte is on the island because digging on excavation she found a polar bear skeleton with a dharma collar on it, Hydra station logo. Very Awesome. Tunisia is where the dig was.

One theory is that since Desmond was being medicated, he actually knew the actual time that had passed on the island, hence knowing the future....??

Re:Erin

Good point you have brought up. Maybe when they stopped pressing the button and the emp blast happened that time started to desynch with reality.

Lost in Texas: I hope you see all the support you have. I think it is great when someone is passionate about something and they allow themselves time to enjoy their passion. As a mother, which I think you said you were last week, this is really important. Mothers rarely have time to spend on the things they enjoy. I always look forward to your posts and I think the blog wouldn't be the same without you:)

back to my crazy locke theory...what if ben knew that locke could travel time, and KNEW that locke's dad was his constant?? obviously ben is threatened by locke, and locke's abilities worried him, so he brought locke's constant to the island for locke to kill, and therefore rid locke of his abilities...

LOST IN TEXAS--Please don't goooo!!!! You are BRILLIANT with your posts and your theories are awesome! I love reading them, and I'm on this site ALL day just like everyone else, and I also have a wonderful life!

Perhaps some of the newer people don't realize that this blog is all about our common love of Lost and not about bashing one another or being "right". This is all in fun and all out of a deep love for this show. If that is not your cup o' tea then I suggest you find another board to spread your hatred.

LOST IN TEXAS...we're with YOU! Don't leave us!

Hugs LostinTexas. I wouldn't let some jerk run me away from something I love to do. You love LOST and you love to chat about it and apparently most here love to hear your theories too. I know I do. It's their problem not yours. You've done nothing wrong at all. Hugs again.

Cammies, that sounds really plausible. I wonder what then is the significance of the horse/Kate. Did Ben know about the horse? If so, how? And why would it be important to Kate's Story?
And thinking back to Mr Eko's story, if Mr Eko was going back and forth in time, his brother needed to be his constant, right? But it was established that his brother was dead when Eko arrived on the island. Did the brother dying seal Mr Eko's fate? OOps I accidentally typed "fart" instead of "fate" first. lol

I was fearful at the beginning of the episode that they were going to kill off Desmond because he obviously cut his hair for the flashbacks, so I figured, that's it, he's a dead man. Curious to see how they will justify that in the next few weeks.
Also, I too thought that Frank opened the sick bay door for them.
Great episode. Need to run to Walgreens to get more Advil.

mariah, i was thinking about mr eko too, and his brother as the constant. but his brother has been dead for a long time. so why would mr eko suddenly die? maybe the smoke monster is something like a traveling vortex. i think mr eko encountered the smoke monster after the radiation? and, since he didn't have his constant anymore, he couldn't survive. at the time locke encountered the monster, his father was still alive, so locked survived. and i think mr eko saw the smoke monster once before? i have to go back and watch the episodes, but if he DID see the smoke monster another time, and survived, maybe it was because he didn't know his brother was dead yet. so he still held his brother alive in his heart and therefore was not killed?

in conclusion, this means that if locke runs into the smoke monster again, he will die!

LIT: You are one of the best LOST theorists around, let that snide remark roll off your back. I, for one, would hate to see you go. I'm sure Daniel, Lauren, Ana (the original), bandirun, cathead, and all our other peeps would agree that you not being part of this blog would suck!!

When Desmonds leaves Penny's apartment after getting her phone number the scene shoots back to him waking up on the freighter and giving Sayid the number. Then the scene shoots back to Desmond walking away from Pennys apartment and smiling. So everything seems back to normal. He finishes his phone call with Penny and tells Sayid that everything is okay now. So I'm wondering if he will not time travel anymore, or will he be able to time travel without any problems??]

BTW- The Black Rock was lost at sea in the South Pacific. The ledger ended up with Pirates in Madagascar, who could of picked up the ledger anywhere.

Damn it, I'm addicted (someone mentioned early on that I wouldn't be able to keep myself away)... they were right. I checked back right now: WOW. You guys totally rule.

I think that its interesting that the person giving me a hardest time last week hasn't been posting today, or maybe she has adopted a new name: Coolio, perhaps?

Just a thought... who cares. I really, really thank you for your supportive comments. Its much appreciated-

When we all get along, I really have fun reading the comments, its a great blog-

Cammie, did Desmond and Mr Eko ever meet?? I think they may have when they first found Desmond? Mr Eko was trying to stop Locke from blowing up the hatch?

(RE:I don't see how the vortex theory adds up because the helicopter and the object fired from the ship take drastically different time to reach the island. I think the relavtive amounts of time would be similar, showing that the time on the island goes by slower than time off the island.
Posted by: bobdapunk)

Bobdapunk, remember Daniel told Frank the pilot to stay on a certain course, he HAD to stay on that bearing to get back to the ship. Later he told Jack and Juliet that sometimes you can get confused. This is what has happened to Desmond.

Maybe the rocket shot was directly on those coordinates and it took 31 minutes to get to the island, but the chopper was a little off on the coordinates and that's why Desmond got "confused". Frank was having a hard time of keeping the helicopter under control. Maybe you can get "lost" (no pun intended) in the vortex (taking more than a day to get to the ship) and become confused like Desmond.

Eh, who knows. Just a thought. Does that make sense?

LOVE IT ALL!!! God bless the fact that a TV can do this, bring us all together and make us use our brains. I must have spent something like an hour on wikipedia looking up Micheal Faraday (who Daniel is supposed to be based on) and I loved reading up on all this sciene stuff, and I hated sciene!! Again, I just love it all!
So the card game with Daniel and Charlotte...I think it was just like what Daniel was doing with Eloise. She knew the path of the maze an hour before he taught it to her and Daniel is trying to remember cards that are GOING to be shown to him or had already been shown to him in another time travel or whatever we want to call it.
I also agree with everyone that Penny has been looking for Desmond since he never made it back from the boat race, he has been on that Island much longer then out losties AND Penny did mention that she has just talked to Charlie. So the whole 3 years is simple a reference to what we already knew, that he didn't make it back after the race.
ok, now I am going home to watch the episode again cause I swear it was the best one EVER!!

Did Desmond get his exposure to Radiation when the bunker blew up?

Maybe Ben told the black mist to create a storm so that they would go off course and Desmond would find Penny and Penny would go to the Island and kill Locke with the unicorn horn that the devil guy tried to make her kill?? oh wait sorry that was a different show.... lol :)
(I say this all in good fun)

gosh, i don't remember if desmond and mr eko met, but would it have meaning if they did? wasn't charlie in the hatch too? if he was, that's why he can time travel and visit hurley? i also think i remember locke saying, after he saw the smoke monster, that it was the eye of the island and he saw things? or maybe i'm inventing things in my head to support my theory.... :)

I'm pretty sure everyone got radiation exposure when the hatch blew up. Remember that wierd light and sound?

Sorry, I meant not when the hatch blew up, but when desmond turned the key.

if sayid had radiation exposure, why didn't he freak like desmond in the helecopter?

You folks know that Lost is fiction, right?

AAARRRRGGGGHHHH this is so frustrating!!

I'll ignore that last comment by posting this comment that I'm ignoring that comment.

You folks know that Lost is fiction, right?
Posted by: Brahman | February 29, 2008 03:27 PM

"Fiction" is in the eye of the beholder.

O.K. few small points- one, the calandar. The yellow X's were on the days the Red Sox were playing the Yankess in the World Series and won. Since that has been mentioned twice in the show I can't see it as being unrelated. Two, never really a fan of the name Penny or Penelope until Desmond says it and then I want to name all my children Pen! Three, tricky, but is the angle you leave the island's atmopshere so as to not get the sickness the same when coming into the island's atmosphere (did that make any sense?)? Because if so they have all been exposed then(how could the plane crash at the exact correct coordinates it takes to cross through safely) and with some radiation exposure (Locke anyone) anyone could get the sickness. Just a thought.

/if sayid had radiation exposure, why didn't he freak like desmond in the helecopter?(/quote)

Didn't someone on the ship say that the time travel problems don't happen to everyone?

Too many thoughts in my head to put them all together :).

Ok....my brain still hurts and I can't even participate in a rational discussion of last night's episode but I do have a little comment....Why are we to believe that just because the freighter tots have a 2004 calendar on the wall that it really is the same year OFF the island? Or are we supposed to just take that as fact? It was Chrismas eve on the calendar and it was Christmas at Penny's house but they never made a comment about the year. Desmond just assumed that he made his phone call in 2004 because Penny answered. Could she have started looking for him after he DIDN'T make that call and have been looking for him for 3 years? Has anybody converted that 31 minute issue and figured out how much time MAY have passed off island? It kind of would explain how Walt is older AND how Kate could pass of Aaron as her child if she is in fact doing that. Ok....enough...I'm gonna medicate myself now and watch the show again.

remember, daniel told jack that their "perception" of how long it took the helicopter to get to boat was off, not that time itself was actually off. just the way they perceive the time. which again, to me, plays into the vortex theory. so i don't think that actual time is any different on-island and off-island. we have too many indications that time is still linear.
also, i don't think that everyone is time traveling. it doesn't really make sense to me, since when desmond finally found his constant, he is "cured". there's no indication that his consciousness would continue going back. and he is really freaked out by it, scared that he's going to die. it's different than his flashes - which were really just dreams, no actual change in time, as opposed to him going back to 1996 in last night's episode. plus, daniel described it as a side effect of traveling between the island and another location on the wrong bearing. and it only affects those who were exposed to high concentrations of radiation or electromagnetism. des is fine for most of the trip, until lightening strikes and they're in the storm. that obviously triggers something, as the bearing also changed at the same time.
my husband and i were talking about rousseau's team and the sickness, and why they would be afflicted, but not her. we think that their expedition had something to do with radiation/electromagnetism, so they were all exposed, except rousseau who was pregnant at the time. i think that would explain why she didn't get sick but the others did.

Lisa- Because Sayid was exposed to so much less radiation. He may have side effects soon, slower, more spread apart. Just an idea. Not marrid to it.

i was just watching last nights episode.
the big guy on the boat has a swan tattoo on his shoulder, i can figure out what is on his other shoulder ...? so the boat is dharma?

the reasons i loved this blog were because there were no blogs and people weren't nasty to each other. it's ok to disagree, but not ok to call out someone or name call. it happened last week, and it happened again this week. not cool.
ok, enough of that. any thoughts on why daniel told des "i NEED you to find me". i thought it was a very interesting way to word it. rather than, "you need to find me" or "you should find me" or even just "find me". it almost seemed like he kinda knew what was going to happen (like some little shadow of a memory, since he obviously has some trouble with that), and with what he wrote in his journal, he knew he needed his constant (des) to find him at some point. thoughts???

It looks like old Daniel could get a case of the crazies.

Minkowski. The actor who played him was on the show 'Early Edition' during the mid-90s. The show was about altering history. Interesting.

My theory on Daniel. Recall that Daniel had a caretaker when we first saw him. Why did he need a caretaker? I think he's flipping back and forth through time. When he saw the tv show about flight 815 he realized that he was 'in the wrong time' and started crying. I haven't worked out as theory on how he's able to flip through time without dying. Will have to think on that one....

I don't think that Demond becomes Daniel's constant until they meet in 1996. Once they meet up and those events really now happen in 1996, they are real and that is why Daniel sees that note he wrote to himself in his journal. I bet on Jack's life (I heart him) that if Daniel looked in his journal before he told Desmond to meet him, that note wouldn't be there and Daniel certainly wouldn't have gone looking for it cause it never happened so if it never happened, Des wouldn't be his constant. But then again with this show, maybe it did LOL Does everyone feel like they are explaining their ideas and it just is like talking in circles??? ; )
I do agree with everyone that says the future can't be changed, but it's just the major events of the future that can not be. If we take Charlie as an example...we all knew he would die when Desmond told us all about how he keeps saving him, but that Des knows Charlie will die no matter what. Charlies death can not be changed, but how and when he will die can. And if Des saving Charlie something like 3 times so that Charlie could live longer to go down and open up the airwaves isn't changing the future, I don't know what is!

Great show last night, can't wait to re-watch it. and i actually do have a timer on my myspace page counting down till the next show (the widget was from ABC page).

That idea of love transcending time, going back in time to find your intended love, like we saw in the Titantic or that old Christoper Reeve/Jane Seymour movie Somewhere in Time, i love those concepts. I think we have all had those times when we felt something was meant to be, we were destined to be together. But Daniel, i agree with you: there are no movies that equal the magic of Lost. and your writing is fantastic too!

I just thought of something.

Remember when we though Mikhail died after Locke pushed him through the security fence? He started bleeding out (through his nose and/or ears) and then went unconscious. JUST like Minkowski did in "The Constant." And I don't think Minkowski's dead either...

Hello Everyone. Thanks Daniel for another great episode re-cap; minimalist, cogent and funny. I too have a deep appreciation of truly engrossing, cleverly conceived and written TV series. In the ancient TV history archives hall-of-fame (in my pedestrian opinion) are series like the Avengers, the Prisoner, Twin Peaks, then came XFiles for awhile and more recently, the Sopranos, and how about Rome - but they are simplistic compared to our Lost. Nothing like our Lost. Ever. But I digress.

Loved last nights episode, like everyone else. Thought about it a lot today - couldn't stop thinking about it and all the insights and connections everyone brought today in their posts. I was astounded and agog at the mind/consciousness time travel element. A few simple things I wish to express. Please read, people:

1) Audacious premise - travel in time, jump back and forth with mind but nothing physical. Rather not unlike astral projection, I guess?

2) Last night showcased the Desmond character really well. Not in any particular order -bewilderment, frustration, fear, anger, hysteria, tenderness, hope, rage, wariness, intelligence, pride, beseechfulness, and more strong emotions. Agree that water in sink thing w/ Penny's father was significant.

3) Daniel Farraday character very intriguing. Liking him. Will be interesting to (hopefully) learn how he was originally brought into this freighter "rescue" gambit.

4) Does the whole "constant" thing remind anyone of basic beliefs of reincarnation whereby souls choose to come back specifically to be with the people and souls they knew from past lives, to reconnect for various reasons, etc.? A stretch, huh?
Til next week.

I read all the comments from this morning thru noon-then I had to be away till 6:00. I just spent the last hour reading these! I realize the whole show was about time travel-but, to change the subject a little- does it not bother anyone else that the "Losties & Juliette" did not ask Faraday how he knew about all the side effects coming to and from the island? He obviously knows of people coming and going-Juliette has been wanting to get off the Island for forever-Jack and the rest don't ask about this! That would be the first thing I would say-who was here? when were they here? are they coming back soon? why have they not found us? If I missed something, I'm sorry!! BTW: Lost in Texas-I was wondering why you would let such a comment get to you-I thought last week was worse!! Just curious, did you post under LIT for a reason and not Lost in Texas???? Welcome back, either way!

okay
my question is.. when desmond finds his constant (penny) does he remember the past 8 years or does he still only remember 1996 but knows its now 2004 and the constant only stops him from dying??

Amazing Episode. If you noticed, water really set Desmond off on his flashbacks. Might explain why Penny's dad left the water in the bathroom running.

Lots of good theories on here this week! Good to know I wasn't the only one crying last night!! Just a few random thoughts I had:

On the calendar: I think it’s the crew’s way of keeping track of what day it really is on the Island so that they’re up to speed on what’s going on in the mind of the Losties and they can play along, etc. We know there’s some sort of time differential because of Farraday’s experiment and him telling Jack and Juliet this week. I think the fact that the days are crossed out in different colored ink is irrelevant, just happens to be whatever pen they had laying around that day because if you look closely one day looks like they started to cross it out in black and the ink ran out and they finished it in blue and then the next few days were crossed out in blue.

I think Naomi had the picture of Desmond and Penny as a ruse, to make them think that was her mission for being there. She’s probably working for Penny’s father/Dharma/Hanso so that’s how she knew about Desmond in the first place.

Need help figuring out what one of the freighter guys says…in the scene where the two guys are escorting Desmond down below and the taller freighter guy is telling Desmond where they’re originally from and just as he’s about to say where they believe they are now, the other freighter guy says something over him. I rewound it a couple times and still can’t for the life of me figure out what the guy in front says. It’s driving me nuts!

Tootsie - I agree. Seems like we've seen a few scenes in which the losties don't persue questioning when you want to yell at them to try and get some answers already. Guess they are too distracted and scattered to stay focused what with all that's coming at them all the time. But still.

That was the best episode!! I almost killed my husband for not being as enthused as I was...I was crying when Des and Penny were on the phone at the end...he was like for crying out loud it's a SHOW!..Dufus!....

Question, how come Minkowski remebered his time on the ship (or seemingly so) while Des couldn't remember anything passed 1996? Did I miss something? I mean Minkowski told Sayid and Des his whole story right? Anyone?? Thanks!

Also, sorry if I am repeating someone else but Minkowski, Fisher Stevens, was also in "Early Edition", the show where the guy got future editions of the daily paper and could change the future! Cool huh!

I also agree with Mariah that they have been on the island 3 years, not 3 months. One reason is the hair: Has anyone noticed how long Sun's hair is this season and how Sawyer is always getting his hair cut? He started off with short hair and next thing we knew it was in a pony tail.

Anyone else find it odd how Desmond and Milkowski experienced the time change thing differently. Desmond had no memory of what happened between 1996-2004, whereas Milkowski seemed to recall that he was the communications officer and what had happened on the boat, despite the fact that he kept skipping through time. Seemed like it was Milkowski's 2004 self was skipping through time as opposed to Desmond's 1996 self.

Just rewatched the show on ABC.com Someone earlier commented on the tats that one of the freighter guys has-one was of a Darma Swan ?-the other one looked like the same drawing that was on Daniel's blackboard in his lab, they showed it quite a bit! Also in Daniel's journel-one of the drawings looks a lot like what Locke saw in the hatch (on the door) when he got trapped. Any one comment on this? Also-what was Desmond's second sentence after Sayid asked him if he was ok now? He said something like he was back or ok now..and then something else??? I could not make it out!

hey daniel....i was just on spoilerfix.com and they said that they are going to start filming to last 5 episodes of the current LOST season beginning march 10th...and they are currently looking for extras....
did you hear about this yet??
theres going to be 13 episodes in total this year
im very pleased with this news...maybe with the 5 extra episodes they will be able to answer some of the more confusing questions presented with this current season of lost
I especially want to know more about Charlotte....like what was with the skeletor polar bear with the darma collar out in the desert.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! A++++++

Is it possible for a brain to explode?? b/c I'm just completely in awe after this episode! I can't even begin to put into writing all the ideas running through my head! TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!!!

few things!

LIT-loved the time correcting itself theory you had! I would be devestated if that were the case but very intersting anyway.

Daniel-LOVED ur final line! i feel the same way!

Finally, I thought the same thing about water "setting Desmond off" so I too wonder if that's why penny's dad left the water running PLUS it was raining when he was back on base!

AHHHHH LOVE THIS SHOW!!!

Milkowski has been "traveling" a lot longer then Desmond, it just isn't still new to Milkowski. So he has had time to put some pieces together about his 2004 self. Now I am not saying that explain why he can remember something like the cutting of the wires in the communications room, cause I doubt his past self has had enough time to catch up with his 2004 self, but of course we can't say he hasn't traveled over and over again in time. If you can do it once, you can do it again and again. Traveling back in time that is...and just cause I think it needs to be said; the guy on the boat that was from Vegas is a hottie. I would let him take me to the sick bay ; )

Great episode, one of my favorites of all time. I have to watch it again before I even begin to have theories. I love Desmond (Emmy award winning performance last night anyone??) and Daniel is the best new character in a while. I cried like a baby when Penny finally answered the phone, I love Penny and Desmond. I agree with Daniel that this episode is what LOST is all about and why I love it as much as I do. There is nothing else like it!

ok so i posted a comment like 20 mins ago but i just thought of something....remember in the first season how danielle said that her whole team was effected by an "illness" when they first landed on the island?? what if its the same thing that desmond was going through this week??? that might be the reason why desmond was instructed to take those shots when he first arrived there....so he couldnt become ill....danielle said that her team started going crazy and then all died so thats just one of my theories...
plus theres the whole charlie thing in the hurley flast forward...maybe he went ill right before the looking glass flooded and was able to travel into the future...
my reason for believing this is that him and desmond were the only ones that were able to time travel plus they were the only ones to sacrifice themselves for the well beings of all the losties
maybe when charlie appeared to be drowning he was just in a catatonic state whilst in time travel mode.....and thats why he didnt just swim through the broken window right behind him in the looking glass to swim himself to freedom and thats why he drowned....plus there was the line "yes i'm dead...but im also here"
opinions anyone??

1. Desmond = best character ever.

2. Desmond + Penny forever.

3. It's totally Dad's boat.

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this already, but is anyone else bothered by the presence on the island of a physicist named Faraday?! That's a pretty unconventional name for a tv character, no? And how convenient that it is also the name of a famous British physicist, MICHAEL Faraday, who also has a constant named after him (his work was in electricity and the constant is a measure of electrical charge per unit mole)! I have no idea how this fits into the grand scheme of things, but I can't believe that it's just a coincidence.

oh, and...

4. Farraday = best new character.

5. Someone. Kill. Charlotte.

jessica - yeah, i kind of just assumed that the sickness is the same. it makes a lot of sense. i posted earlier (and i think a few other people did too) about how danielle's team was sick but she wasn't, because, being pregnant, she wouldn't expose herself to radiation or electromagnetism.

alex - in an interview, a couple of the producers/writers/or something said that the name 'faraday' was an homage to the scientist. it was done deliberately.

Loved this episode!! A+++
I love how at the end when Des and Penny are talking on the phone that it is like a song. They go back and forth "I don't know where I am" "I'll find you Des" "I promise" "No matter what" etc etc until they both say together "I LOVE YOU!"
Loved it!

Yeah, Daniel's name is a play on Michael Faraday. I talked about that earlier and if you go on wikepdia and look up Michael Faraday there is some great stuff to read!! His Law of Induction is awesome, and I think gives some clues. Plus I know I read somewhere that it was Michael Faraday's face that was on that money that Sayid found in that back room that Ben had and Sayid opened that drawer and found all that money and the passports.
I do really love the Daniel character, he is just totally going to continue to give us some great information!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday

A++++++++++++to infinity and beyond. Desmond rocked all that is LOST. I worship at his altar. It doesn't get any better than this!

maybe this is not important..but why does penny have an accent and her father does not??????

Okay just found this blog 4 weeks ago and I am just as hooked to it as I am to the show!
I have a question/comment but first I have to go back and check something from last week.

Did anyone else notice that Penny was wearing a wedding ring during the big call at the end???? Or did we already know that and I miss it somewhere? Also it was the same day for her as it was on the boat - she was standing in front of a christmas tree. I thought this was one of the best hours I have ever spent watching TV. I really hope it gets the attention it deserves - this show ROCKS!

does the black rock have treasures ben could be using to fund his activities? could it have been ben who auctioned the diary? sorry if somebody touched upon this before, i skimmed but can't read everything ...

AWESOME EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Penelope=Ulysses' wife- who was faithful while he fought the trojan war. This may have been discussed before- just found this blog- but thought I would point it out. My 8th grade teacher used to yell at us to not be a Penelope and base our lives on the actions of a man. she even made pins with the name penelope crossed out. just adding my $.02

K so here's my theory:
pennys dad knew about the island before desmond entered that boat race and some how he found out that desmomd was going to buy a boat so he could enter the race so in order to make 100% sure he didn't win, he hired libby to prened like her husband had just died and she was willing to give her boat to him. So desmond took it as a very genorous gift and took it but the boat was rigger so he could get to the island. But my ? Is: why did they need him? Or when....hmmmm......?..!.?!.?.!!!.??!!.?.!!!

Borscht, something you might care about could be the Island! for someone?

Best Lost episode EVER, and Daniel I have to say I was quite moved by your comments.

Lost in Texas ! I literally skim the rest of the comments every week, but I read yours in full detail! Keep it up plz!

1. You guys are awesome. I have spent so many conversations with so few people talking and hypothesizing what is going on with the Losties.
2. This past episode seems to really be chopping some possible theories, or at least resevering a partial space in the definitive explanation of what is going on here.
3. This water theory stated throughout is vary interesting. In the movie Constantine he uses water to travel between planes of existence, humans are born in water "amniotic fluid". Water really seems to be a conduit for the movement of consciousness.
4. This blog is highly detailed. The time travel 101 in this episode seems to lay down the fact that only the consciousness moves. I wonder if it is only within one's lifetime, like Sam Beckett in the show Quantum Leap??? Any thoughts, backwards and Forwards?
5. Prior to the show this thursday, I had a strong feeling, that the Island may have been what some call "the Garden of Eden". It seems to exist outside of Time, people age quite slowly, Healing properties, many inexplicable things. Man was banished from the garden, some say to this, that He/She was not allowed to procreate within the Garden. I still want an understanding of the Four toed statue though? anyone? If Man was meant to be deterred from the garden that would explain why it is so hard to find? If this Island exists outside of Normal Space/time a wormhole could explain the difference in time> Wormhole would = Farradays path he laid out for the pilot, if he strayed one would travel or partially travel through a different moment in space/time. Wormholes have been theorized to create a door between to points in space, despite a vast distance, or time. So by moving through an Extraordinary Door that can connect to different points at precisely the Same Time = Time travel.

1. You guys are awesome. I have spent so many conversations with so few people talking and hypothesizing what is going on with the Losties.
2. This past episode seems to really be chopping some possible theories, or at least resevering a partial space in the definitive explanation of what is going on here.
3. This water theory stated throughout is vary interesting. In the movie Constantine he uses water to travel between planes of existence, humans are born in water "amniotic fluid". Water really seems to be a conduit for the movement of consciousness.
4. This blog is highly detailed. The time travel 101 in this episode seems to lay down the fact that only the consciousness moves. I wonder if it is only within one's lifetime, like Sam Beckett in the show Quantum Leap??? Any thoughts, backwards and Forwards?
5. Prior to the show this thursday, I had a strong feeling, that the Island may have been what some call "the Garden of Eden". It seems to exist outside of Time, people age quite slowly, Healing properties, many inexplicable things. Man was banished from the garden, some say to this, that He/She was not allowed to procreate within the Garden. I still want an understanding of the Four toed statue though? anyone? If Man was meant to be deterred from the garden that would explain why it is so hard to find? If this Island exists outside of Normal Space/time a wormhole could explain the difference in time> Wormhole would = Farradays path he laid out for the pilot, if he strayed one would travel or partially travel through a different moment in space/time. Wormhole have been theorized to create a door between to points in space, despite a vast distance, or time. So by moving through an Extraordinary Door that can connect to different points at precisely the Same Time.

Daniel F's notebook shows two Charts confirming his own research into the Island, there are two charts showing normal space/time versus imaginary space/imaginary (perceived time) time. I Don't know if any of you watch Stargate, but it is also possible that there is a Time dilation field around the Island. Meaning a bubble in which in/ out time passes at different rates slow vs. normal, or fast vs. normal. The perception of "time travel" in this past episode has really changed my gears.

I'm still haunted by the lady that died in the Looking Glass, that told Charlie, that the Keypad was programmed by a Musician? It almost seems that everyone of Losties is there for a specific task. It seems like the same chess game is being played over and over and people are reprising their roles.

Could someone have survived, and left with the ledger from the blackrock? Then boat Jacked and robbed, including the Ledger? or did someone leave the Island and, Was that supposedly Tovard Hanso or a member of the Hanso family that got it off the Island?

I really think that it was Hanso selling off stuff from the Island to fund the Dharma Project. I think Penny's dad was aware of the Island and wanted the ledger to get more hints on how to get there.

I also think that Libby may have suffered from the sickness at some point, that's why she was at the mental institution with Hurley. Maybe even Hurley was her anchor. (seems far fetched, since she didn't show any symptoms on the island, but that would definitely tie up that loose end)

Someone also mentioned that maybe pressing the button was somehow keeping the island's time in synch with the real world and thus Dharma could have scheduled food drops etc. As far as I know, ever since Des turned the key there have been no more drops from Dharma. I'm really not sure what I think about all of the time differences. It seems some people age faster (Walt, Aaron?) and others not so much (Richard). I'm not sure how much of Richard and Aaron's age "discrepancies" were meant to be noted. I'm not sure I buy that time goes slower or faster on the island. How could they possibly be having real time phone conversations with anyone off the island? Wouldn't there be long delays or alternatively very fast data transfers during calls? Or is that the reason they have to have those special phones?

My head is about to burst, so I'll stop now.

BTW, I love this community and the theories people come up with. Even if at first a theory may seem far fetched or even "stupid", people mould it, build on it and come up with things that seem reasonable (well, for LOST anyway, lol)

Thank God I don't work on Fridays.

Why was Penny's Father so cordial with Desmond here, but the last time we saw Mr. Widmore with Des, he was so hateful and spiteful to him, with the whole This glass of Scotch is worth more than you'll ever be.

thanks for the response HFS, i've waited all day for to post, and it's so late now

When Daniel F first arrived he commented about how the Light scatters differently here, so that's another reason, to me, that suggests some space/time discrepency, may not necessarily that, but maybe there is a buffer between normal time, and where and when ever the island is, that could explain the lagginess?

Am I going to need my scientific calculator for this episode?

That was seriously the best line you've ever written in a lost diary.
You rock, Daniel :)

Tonight's episode was probably the best in a very, very, long time. And the fact that it got even you stumped well, that's priceless. I have no idea what's going on and I love that. You were correct when you said that tv is work because this episode, the bigs in the meeting must of been like, wtf?! Then cracked up over just how cool it read.

Btw, I do think the reason Jack feels guilty about Aaron is because I think he killed Claire somehow and the reason Aaron ends up with Kate as "her son" is to get her a light sentence or possibly no sentence cause we all know that Kate ain't got no business being nobody's mama.

There's been some talk about Charlie being affected by the electromagnetism and that might be why he's dead but 'not dead' because Hurley saw him in the future FF.

If the exposure to electromagnetism causes this mental time trip, then I believe that you're right, Charlie has the 'ability' (or curse?) too! Remember when Locke let the clock run out on the numbers, challenging Desmond and he (des) ultimately turned the key to save the world? Weren't Charlie and Ecko in the hallway of the hatch? Weren't they the ones to save Locke? They would have had massive exposure, like Locke to the electromagnetism as well...

Does that mean we're not through seeing Ecko!? (I hope, I loved his character)... and my other question is this...

Charlie died in the Looking Glass. Of that I was pretty certain, like everyone else. How could a dead brain time travel? Eloise didn't. So this is what I'm wondering... how could Charlie be dead in the present but 'go' to the future to see Hurley? He couldn't. Eloise died and she was dead. Minkowski is dead and is dead.

So was the Charlie we knew in the Looking Glass Charlie in the past, and they are all in the past, and the FF's are actually the present?

Along those same lines as I just stated, if the FF's we've been seeing are the present time and Jack says to Kate out at the airport, "We've got to go back", maybe he means, 'we need to go back in time??

Since I think that water is the conduit to travel through time, could Jack be standing on the edge of the bridge, not preparing to commit suicide, but hoping that the hitting the water will 'take him back'? He doesn't do it because it seems completely illogical, and he doubt it will work (which by the way, is always his problem, he has NO FAITH)...

maybe, Penny's dad has known all along that Desmond must go to the island b/c it is his destiny. Whitmore does whatever he can to make this happen. He intentionally cuts down Des, in order to keep him from staying with Penny. At the auction, he was probably expecting him. he claims to not like him, yet gives him Penny's number anyway. He knows that Des would never get on the boat if he and Pen were together. I think this might be the beginning of the path to finding out what Desmond's destiny is.

Penny's dad is in charge of the freighter.
Penny and Desmond do not know this. They are mere pawns in his quest to find the island. He cooked up the whole thing so that Desmond would be trained in the army and he knew that he would compete in the boat race that his company was sponsoring so that someone would find the island.
He is the boss of the girl Sayid killed.
He is the one who wants to kill Ben and everyone on the island and harness the islands power.
Ben knows who he is.
Kate can pass off Aaron as her child due to the time space continuim.
The last episode of last year could still be the last episode.
These are all of my "explanations"

OMG....This is absolutely the best blog ever about the best tv show ever! One question though..is anyone else out there scared that when the last episode airs and it's all over we will be sitting in a dark room some where trying to figure out a way to get "back" to the island?!!

LIT-another great thought on Jack not trying to commit suicide but trying to "go back" then not doing cuz of the whole faith thing (that would be EXCELLENT)!! BUT if this is true then how come Eloise was able to time travel without any water acting as a conduit??

or maybe water only acts like a conduit if you're exposed to radiation while being near water? totally off the wall but we're talking about Lost here. lol

oh!!! but wait didn't he NOT do it (jack trying to commit suicide) b/c the woman spotted him and crashed and it distracted him?? or had he already climbed off the ledge? I can't remember!

DANIEL Faraday = DANIEL Lost Diary

Faraday keeps a journal.
Daniel LD keeps a blog journal.

Faraday obsessed with the properties of the island.
Daniel LD obsessed with the properties of LOST, the show.

Faraday has colleagues that study the island with him.
Daniel LD has friends that watch and discuss the show with him.

Wouldn't it be cool if they named Faraday after our very own beloved Daniel?!

hey LIT: never mind I just re-watched that episode and there was no water on the bottom of the bridge Jack was trying to commit suicide on. It was just a concrete landing. dammmmit! i was really intrigued by that idea!

last comment about this whole water theory i promise!!

someone also said everytime Walt reappeared on the island he was dripping wet...well again i just re-watched the episode when Walt appears just before Locke tries to kill himself when he's in that ditch and he's not wet! so now im just back to no theories and getting absolutely nothing bout this show! hahaha

but i still think that it's possible that Walt is able to time travel back b/c he has the side effects

LIT - Jack was standing over concrete when he was planning to jump. Not sure if you remember, there was some writing on it and people were trying to figure out what it said (and whether it was significant). So he definitely wasn't trying to "get wet".

Gypsydm - I too thought we'll be "lost" without LOST and after it ends we'll be left hollow wishing for a way to get back :-)

As much as I want more answers, I know each time we get one, we're that much closer to the end.

looks like Michelle was faster, lol

Amazing episode! I now believe the Penny's enigmatic father is the "he" that was mentioned by Miles when he was asking Ben for $3.2M in "Eggtown". And I also think that he's the captain of the boat and the organizer and financer of the "search party".

What I want to know is did the writers have all these ideas about the show when they started writing...like how it all going to turn out....or does it evolve as it goes? I am fascinated by their imagination to come up with this stuff!

I just read "Lost In Texas"'s comments and I am very impressed. This "Coolio" person is anything but. I'm glad you decided to stick with this blog, LIT.

I remember Damon Lindelof (or was it Carlton Cuse?) saying that in a DVD extra feature that the writers holed themselves up and completed the entire storyline in one weekend. Quite amazing!

Has anyone broght up the Lorentz Invariant and the Lorentz Violation and Lorentz Symmetry? Don't know what I'm talking about? Neither do I b/c I'm a CPA not a quantum physicist, but this is EXACTLY what I just discovered "LOST" TO BE ALL ABOUT!

In Farraday's journal were scientific equations in 4 dimensions that discuss the Lorentz theories which are really part of Einstein's Theory of Relativity (I spent hours reading up on this stuff last nite after the show). It seems that THIS is a HOT area of science right now and deals with matter, anti-matter, and dare I say DARK MATTER (ie like the black smoke and the electropods that contained it!) The field also deals with electromagnatism and Time Reversal (ringing any bells?) And oh yeah, there were scientists in this field named...ready...Minkowski and Farraday (although spelled a little differently.

So I'm thinking lots of things right now and need PEOPLE OF SCIENCE to get their heads around this!

-How about the plane crashes b/c it enters this "no fly zone" where matter and anti-matter separate from each other?

-the island or "other universe" was known to govts and their militaries, but not the rest of us and they've been keeping this thing secret while they experiment.

-all of their equipment in the science labs on the island are outdated from the 70s. Maybe they LOST their way and couldn't find this place again until recently, talking about the govt?

-Ben is a wanted man b/c he KNOWS all these things and if anti-matter life forms like the passengers of Flight 815 return to the world of living matter, there's gonna be some BIG PROBLEMS in the fabric of our universe?

I could go on and on with this but PLEASE EVERYONE look into this and let's share ideas about it b/c my head's gonna explode if I dig anymore on my own! The only part that REALLY perplexes me is the concept of religion and faith on the island and who is this dude JACOB? Could it be that science can explain 99% of everything in the universe but the 1% we can't explain is where GOD comes in???

Paul "Spike" Rubino
Rockledge, FL

Paul, that makes sooooo much sense. The Dharma Group is like a Think Tank that is privately funded by Hanso. It could of started as a secret military experiment for several governments or highly powerful and rich people. Maybe the people on Sayid's hit list.

Was the pilot that took over the flight of Oceanic 815 hired by Hanso to fly off course and over the island so they would crash?

Someone posted a question about why Naomi wasn't taken off the helicopter after it landed on the boat. And this was listed as a blooper on Lostpedia. But I simply cannot believe that the writers and producers of "Lost" would have forgotten about Naomi being on the helicopter. The same goes for the Schrodinger's equation missing the Hamiltonian operator on Faraday's blackboard. These aren't bloopers, they must have meaning, but I feel like I'm groping in the dark as to their meaning.

They should call this "The Lost In Texas Forum", since everyone is so anxious to kiss her A$$. And I like the rebuttal from her, when Coolio, just voiced his/her own opinion. Something about she doesn't have to work for a living, but chooses to graces us with her extraordinary knowledge and presence on this Forum. Love it. Of course she is not leaving. This is probably the only place in her life were she can be the showcase.

LIT Fan: In a world filled with violence, war, starvation, and poverty you choose to voice an opinion and get upset about this? How petty! Way to make a positive difference in the world.

ben has been deliberately cloaking the island from the outside world, and when desmond turned the save-the-world key, the island became briefly visible to the outside world, which is how penny's guys saw it.

i think penny's dad is rich BECAUSE of the island. hanso said ... somewhere ... that only a few people know how to find the island, so i'm thinking whatever dharma's experimental mandates were, they were very outside the gov't/military.

like the illuminati, it seems pretty clear that there's a syndicate of wealthy time travelers who employ the gifts and talents of top scientists and researchers to further their agenda ... it's their agenda that's not quite clear. and like all utopian endeavors, things go sour, people go rogue, people get power hungry, and sh*t happens.

Kristy, I agree. The Hanso group, if they are connected to Widmore is privately funded by a group of very wealthy individuals from different countries. Maybe even Suns father is part of it.

Ben is the only original Darhma member on the island that we know of. Richard lured him with visions of his dead mother. Was this Jacob inhabiting her body or something else?? Where did Richard, Ethan, Jacob and all these other Hostiles come from? This is still a big question for me. Obviously, the power struggle remains between these two groups, Widmore and Ben. The survivors of the crash, Desmond and anyone else who "accidentally" finds the island are pawns in this war to control the island and it's powers.

Also, what was the circle of sulfur or whatever was surrounding Jacobs house....does it keep him under control in some way?

the circle of ash or whatever that surrounds jabob's house could be akin to circles made in spells and rituals -- it's a circle that keeps things/forces/people outside the circle.

This is truly what the overall story is about! To me the means are kind of a set dressing to telling a great story so no matter whether you agree or disagree with the 'science', the last five minutes of this show was worth it all. Desmond got his redemption - it was given to him by the island. Something I think all the characters will get in the end.

Paul-very interesting theory!!! i'm reading up on it now!

Paul's theory: I'm reading up on the lorentz theory and you are SO right. These "experiments" and theories date back to Einstein and recently (and by recently i mean the date on the report im reading is the year 2004 hmmmm familiar?) scientist have been going crazy running experiements to test this.

They talk about the difference in time from two objects in different parts of the universe. They discuss another interesting experiment of two light beams set off at the same time heading in different directions until they eventually meet but the light beam is then altered!! I mean ths is nuts!!!! To think this is ACTUAL theories and experiments being discussed TODAY!

oh!! and of course they talk about the relevance of a magnetic field and gravity!!

I have NO idea what i'm reading but it all sure sounds connected to the show!!

Ok, so after doing some Lostpedia research I think I've got on to something important. Bear with me for a minute.

So I found this link about the 12 "Vile Vertices" throughout the world, one being around the Bermuda Triangle, and which are areas infamous for "disappearances" of boats and planes and stuff. Now, besides the Bermuda Triangle, there is also supposedly one near Fiji, Madagascar, The Sahara, and one on each of the Poles, among other places. These are areas supposedly where like electromagnetic fields in the earth converge and mess stuff up.

Now, this would help explain a lot. Suppose that the island is actually in another dimension or something like that. Traveling between this dimension and the one on the island would take longer than traveling between the regular distance. This would explain why it takes longer to get to the freighter on the helicopter and stuff, but how its still 95 days from the crash to Christmas, when Des talks to Penny.

However, it doesn't end there. Suppose that all the vile vertices bring everyone to this same island dimension. Therefore, when the Black Rock crashed off Madagascar, it was moved to the island, where they find it today. Also, suppose some polar bears stumbled upon the vortex in the north pole, which would explain why there are polar bears on the island. Also, maybe there are other routes off the island or something, which would explain the why there were Dharma polar bears skeletons in Tunisia or wherever it was. I'm still trying to work this out, but I think I may be on to something...

Just a thought.

Tim..... Love the idea! That explains alot! Good work brutha!

What do you think about when Sayid gets onto the boat, he says to the helicopter pilot; How did we take off at dusk and land in the middle of the day? There must be a some kind of time differnce between the island and the boat.

OH! and also, that would explain how Ecko's brother's drug plane made it on the island

OH! and also, that would explain how Ecko's brother's drug plane made it on the island

I think this explains how when Desmomd first met Jack he seemed to know something. He had that "See you again brutha" talk going even then. If anyone has the first season and can go watch it, post back and let me know what you think.

P.S. Daniel you should host a Lost party, find a bar & grill, people will come.

I am rewatching all of the episodes and I just noticed that in the first or second episode Kate asks Charie if they had ever met before and he said she probably recognizes him from driveshaft. He kept saying that the band is still together and she keeps saying how good they USED to be and it seemed like the band was together a long time ago for Kate and still together for Charlie. Does that make any sense??? Just wandering now that we know that time is of big significance....

love the bar & grill idea, i am only 7 hours away from santa monica blvd, happy to assist. and all past seasons of Lost are free to watch at abc.com, if that is helpful to anyone.
enjoy reading everyone's comments

Hey Michelle & TeresaLynn,

Here's more on this Lorentz Theory from an article written in MAY 2004!

Imagine you are about to create a universe. How would you do it? As soon as you say "let there be the laws of physics" you would immediately face a problem. Do the same laws hold for everyone in your universe regardless of where they are? Or do the laws change as you move about or face in different directions? Clearly the most equitable and fair way to proceed would be to make the laws of physics the same for all observers. To a physicist such equality and fairness of physical laws is called a symmetry, and the symmetry that requires the laws of physics to be the same for all observers is known as Lorentz symmetry. THIS THEORY WAS FOUND IN FARRADAY'S JOURNAL!

It was Einstein who, in 1905, first used Lorentz symmetry to describe the laws of physics in our universe. He took Lorentz symmetry as a postulate of special relativity, whereby he assumed that the laws of physics - including the speed of light in a vacuum - are the same for all inertial observers. An inertial observer is anyone with a system of calibrated clocks and rulers that is at rest in a frame of reference that is not accelerating. LIKE FARRADAY'S ISLAND EXPERIMENT WITH THE MISSILE.

Einstein worked out the consequences of Lorentz symmetry and came to the startling conclusion that measurements of length and time intervals are different when they are made by inertial observers moving relative to each other. The extent of this distortion of space and time is described by a set of equations that are now known as Lorentz transformations.

A general Lorentz transformation leads to a mixing of space and time intervals, and ultimately to a blurring of the distinction between space and time. What emerges in relativity is a 4D geometry. In four dimensions an invariant notion of distance called a space-time interval can be introduced. I BELIEVE WE WITNESSED A BLURRING OF SPACE AND TIME WITH DESMOND'S EXPERIENCES AND THE 4 DIMENSION GEOMETRY WAS ALSO FOUND IN FARRADAY'S JOURNAL AS A GRAPH.

There is so much more on this topic that it's a fascinating read if you can get by the scientific mumbo-jumbo. I KNOW this is where they're going with the show but how they get there and what the ultimate destination or result is will be anyone's guess.

ok. given what we're starting to figure out, what's up with the dummy oceanic 815 crash site? we kinda maybe know it's a dummy site because we kinda maybe know the pilot's not who the news was reporting him to be. so, it would appear that the real oceanic 815 was deliberately flown into the vortex so the specific people who were manipulated into getting on that particular plane ended up on the island, right? so ... why?

I think this is helpful. Alot of interesting theories, that make sense!

http://www.timelooptheory.com/the_timeline.htm

I think you guys may have finally figured this out (does it seem at all anti-climatic?)... but one question that I just don't understand... does/did the island ever exist in the past/present?

I ask this because in the FF of Jack saying he was flying every weekend trying to get back, he had maps all over the place, trying to find the island. Does the island ever 'really' exist, or is the 4th dimension not 'real'?

I think you guys have it figured out, I really do, but I'm just as confused as ever!

further honing my question ... assuming it's a dummy crash site to prevent anybody who's not part of the syndicate of rich time travelers from looking for the wreckage, why was this particular group of passengers chosen to be sucked onto the island?

i think you guys are on to something. what? i am so not sure, i am just hopeful that the writers can explain it to us "regular" brains when the time comes....
if the pilot of 815 is not the man they say, because frank says so, then where is the guy that is frank's friend??
i remember someone telling the survivors that 815 was found and there are no survivors...was this one of the freighter people?? and if so, they are not in the loop as far as hanso/whitmore goes. but then why does the tall guy on the boat have a dharma swan tattoo? especially if as someone earlier said, it seems to be old science/technology in the dharma hatches and that guy was probably born in the '70s.
but then again, i am new at this and maybe none of that made sense or has been figured out already.

qe2: yes it was one of the freighter people that said that they were all found dead....it was naomi if i remember correctly

and she had the picture of des & pen.
des was not on 815, but pen's dad knew he was on the island, why would he go find him? hanso et al must have known that 815 was on the island..ben told? and that they would eventually find out the "secrets of the island", so they planted a fake crash, so no one would look and keep the island and it's secrets to themselves and hope the survivors would just die???. i am just too lost. waiting until next week.

further on the vortex theory:
i read on the wiki thing that miles straume's name is a play on the word maelstrom which means a powerful type of vortex or whirlpool
after all my research...this theory truely does explain everything about the island and how people get there......but the secrets of the people off the island and their envolvement has yet to be explained

All you folks with the theory that it was NOT actually december 24th...Penny was staning in front of a CHRISTMAS TREE.

Ummm, people, this is fiction, and after the last episode, science-fiction. All the questions you are asking can be answered simply by saying that that's the way it was written. And all the answers you are trying to guess are the yet-to-be-written thoughts of a script writer for a fictional tv show.

This episode signaled the end of Lost for me because it crossed the line from rational to irrational. Everything up until now has been a mystery, with possibly rational explanations. But now we know that the answers to come are going to be of the irrational, science-fiction variety, which is a big let-down.

Magnetic annomalies I can believe, time travel-not.

Paul-that is the EXACT same article I was reading!!!!! I remember being in awe right after the first line! haha

Brahman-I get what you are saying esp. since I felt the same way I always said I hope this isn't going to turn out to be some ghosts and haunted island, ppl playing god type of show. BUT after reading the Lorentz theory it just shows that (if this is right) and the show really is about this, then it's not SO far-fetched as it sounds!

If scientists today are actually re-searching this stuff it's because there is a teeny possibility that it could be true or it could happen. maybe not so much the time travel (cuz I mean it IS hollywood they had to thrown in SOME fantasy) but the rest of it??? magnetic field? maybe the pull of this magnetic field causes the time difference? I mean that sounds pretty possible to me!

this is really off-topic and doesn't have anything specifically to do with the last (AMAZING) episode, but where does anyone think they're going to go with that box of gas mask-esque equipment? Just curious about other thoughts.

Thursday night after the episode I went to a library (I'm a freshman in college, and we have a science library open twenty-four hours) and took out Steven Hawking's "A Breifer History of Time" because I'm really lame and read mostly the whole thing that night (among doing other things, ultimately staying up in a local donut shop until 7:30, at which point I went home, showered, and went to my 8:30 class) ANYWAY I was super interested in the whole time travel business, etc.; though the book didn't shed much light on what I had desired, anyone know of any specific resources dealing with this matter? I'm awfully eager to learn more (both in fiction and nonfiction). I'm such a dork.

All the science will tie in somehow, but I have a thought. I was wondering if the flash forwards and flashbacks were actually the people jumping through time like desmond was. When they have flashbacks they just jump to random situations, like desmond did. So maybe because they weren't exposed to high levels of radiation, like desmond was, they do not die. Or maybe they have their "constants", they are linked in the flashbacks and are currently together, are they eachothers constants? I completely buy into the vile vortice theory. Daniel has this blog on the tmz website (everyone who writes here is way more intelligent, i have to say) and somebody went off on that theory (feb 8th #105) search "lost diary" on tmz.com, very interesting. I also wonder if the hanso group includes Penny's dad and sun's dad. They could be funding all this research on the side, as they run sucessful companies. Maybe Ben is fighting against research on the island from them because he has his own team doing the same research, perhaps on all the space/time/light/magnetic etc. properties of the island. I also think Sayid is a key player in the past and future of this whole crazy situation! Has he been working for ben for longer than we think? Thanks for listening!

Fuckin' A...417 comments & counting!

Looks like you've got quite a following, Daniel...myself included.

I'd like to propose a question to the other readers of your site that I already e-mailed to you:

"After the inevitable finale, do you think there would be any interest in a 'Lost' prequel? Like a well-crafted story of the Hanso Foundation & the birth of the DHARMA Initiative that ties into the present series? Maybe it's just me, but I'd kinda like to see how it all worked...you know, polar bears & sharks being studied in captivity, assigned & enthusiastic numeric-code punchers, the voyeurs in The Pearl, etc.."

Keep on keeping on, D!

I think that there should be a new rule on here. A person should have to have read at least this weeks comments BEFORE posting their own comment. Lots of people posting repetitive stuff that's been talked about a whole, whole bunch. It would be nicer if people went back and at least skimmed previous weeks comments. I'm just saying.

Seriously one of the best episodes of Lost.

Desmond & Penny finally connecting had me weeping -you know, silently - I needed to hear them.

1996 Daniel was awesome and I think we have a clue now as to what is wrong with 2004 Daniel.

btw - my friend tells me they are calling '96 Daniel : Hairaday
too freaking funny

ok just thought of something. Ok so current Desmond & current Daniel were able to talk about Des going back in time and finding past Daniel so they can meet up and well we all know what happened. Ok so we also all know by now that all the losties were meant to come to that Island, or at least I think we all agree on that. But we all wonder what or who brought them all together on that plane. Well why couldn't it just be that someone (Maybe Sayid? Maybe Penny's Dad, Maybe several people) went back in time and simple made events happen in the losties lives/worlds that brought them all to get on that flight. I mean we already know something brought them all together in 815, but what if it was people traveling back in time to manipulate events to make sure they came to the Island to save it or make it visable to someone, again like Penny's dad. So it wouldn't be sooo much that destiny brought them all together, but that people manipulated their lives to ensure that they were brought there. Ok it's late and I think I am repeating myself
LOL, I love reading everyones thoughts...this is GREAT!!

Bummed - Who's got time to read through all 420+ comments? Repetition of ideas should be expected on a forum...maybe brilliant minds think alike? If you think a post has already been covered, then just skip it.

I'm just sayin'....

Tim I love the comments and theory of the vile vertices, you put it excellent. I've have been trying to construct a theory like this, but couldn't word it. well put, i really believe this to be a part of the answers to come. thanks~TmTti

Okay, after re-watching this weeks episode I do believe for some, Desmond being one of them, water is a conduit. The bathroom scene, Mr. Widmore doesn't touch the knob on the sink yet he washes his hands. He lets the water flow because he knows that for desmond it will take him back to penny.

1. he was expecting him.
2. he gave him her new addy.
3. he takes him to the bathroom where there is water after the silent pee thingy because he knows that desmond is stuck in time amd that getting in touch with penny will unstick him in time. I think it probably has more to do with penny than anything. What a father will do for a child...

How Widmore knows these things are unclear however, he is a major player as is desmond. I think desmond is in the circle of major players on this show. His real role has not yet been unveiled.

I think Kristy brought this up about the fake dumy crash site for Flight 815. I like that idea has a strong possibility, but to tie it into the Lorentz theories in Farraday's journal, it could be that at the moment the plane went through the doom coordinates, that all matter and anti-matter separated, so you'd have the particles of matter (land of the living and now dead) at the bottom of the ocean off of old Siam and the mirror particles of anti-matter (plane and people included) now ending up on the island!

My biggest problem or HURDLE if you will for the show was the initial plane crash. How DID these people survive with in some cases just a few scarpes? My earlier theories of dream-like states (very lame) and purgatory (religion, religion everywhere) were the only ones in my uneducated mind that could answer this first big question.

Now, I read up on these Lorentz theories and the similar idea posted by Tim re: "Vile Vertices" and I think Jack being the man of science he is, will be proven right.........but not entirely, as too much time has been invested in Locke not to be partly right about his faith.

There is one other person outside of the Dharma people who can explain to us what's going on...the Psychic who read Clare's palm! What did he see and why did he want the baby to STAY with Clare on that doomed crash and not be safe with new parents in LA? And now that Baby Aaron is back "safe" with Kate, is that a good thing??? Kinda haunting questions if you ask me. Thank god it's just a TV Show:)

This is off the episode, but need current thoughts - on Hurley watching the Xanadu DVD in teh Eggtown episode. Remember? At first I thought it was a quirky movie reference, but think of the poem, Xanadu, that talks of Kubla Khan...

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

and this commentary on the poem in wiki...

When he declared himself emperor the historical Kublai claimed he had the Mandate of Heaven, a traditional Chinese concept of rule by divine permission, and therefore gained absolute control over an entire nation.

Remember how John Locke had declared himself the caretaker of the island? This is now his Xanadu, and he is the new "King of the Island"

There is also a website xanadu.com that is a computer software project....

PROJECT XANADU MISSION STATEMENT: DEEP INTERCONNECTION, INTERCOMPARISON AND RE-USE

And then I saw this news post in my googling, Olivia Newton John starred in the movie Xanadu, right? Do you remember that her long time boyfriend was famously lost at sea a few years ago...? I'm just saying... (wink)

There are just too many Xanadu offshoots to explore, but I thought it an interesting side line...

Paul,
I am thinking the same thing. I don't think that Kate is who she says she is. The psychic provided a huge clue by saying that the baby (Aaron) HAD to be raised by Claire. And that the baby would be in danger if he was raised by anyone else. I see a connection between Annie and Kate, too, but not sure how yet. (Annie has freckles, Kate has freckles. Annie loves the Apollo bars and Kate looked like she was 'remembering' the Apollo bars when she found them in the pantry in season 2.) There are other little things along the way that I can't remember. We'll see...

About the water theory, why wasn't there always water whenever Desmond went back and forth? Are you saying that water just makes it easier? Because, he wasn't in water every time that he "lept" and in fact was never in water when he was on the ship to go back in time, and was never wet when he came back from the past (unlike Walt who was wet sometimes, but not every time).

Also, what's up with Des going catatonic? I mean, it seemed he was only out of it for a few seconds while they were doing crunches, or else his drill instructor would have been kicking his ass. He did collapse in the stairwell, bathroom, and at Faraday'a office. However, he did not collapse after he talked to Penny at her house (in fact, he kept on living his past life). But he seemed to go catatonic in the future every time, which I kind of understand.

The thing is, why was he colapsing in the past? Shouldn't he have just kept on living that life, like he did when he left Penny's house? Why did he keep living then, and not every other time (he was out a long time in Faraday's office)?

I notice that Desmond, when he was on the floor in the stairwell, touched the water valve to get up. and being on the ship he was on water. maybe he stopped going back & forth in time because he was more content with his life and had Penny as a positive force and constant in his life. not sure.

People have noticed the similarity between Lost and "Lost Horizon" book/movie, interesting Lost Horizon points at wiki

daniel tells desmond the only way to STOP it is to find his constant. so, once des makes contact with penny, he no longer jumps back and forth in time. he tells sayid, "I'm perfect." which, to me, means his time jumping has stopped. so when he leaves penny's house, he knows he has accomplished finding his constant. the smile, to me, means he knows that everything will be fixed. he seems aware of what his future self is trying to do (and his future self is aware of what his past self - or consciousness - needs to do) so once he has the number, he knows things will be fine. as far as what happens to 1996 des after the episode, that's anyone's guess. i think we're supposed to assume that everything is fixed after the phone call. des can recall being on an island(no one told him that prior to him saying it), he seems to know where he is and WHEN it is.
this is also why i don't think time travel affects everyone. it's sporadic - daniel says SOME people experience side effects when traveling back and forth. not all. and all the losties are already on the island by the time they are (IF they are) exposed to the electromagnetism. remember, before the implosion, the whole thing was sealed off by a really thick layer of cement (that sayid likened to chernobyl). so, IF any of them do experience anything, it wouldn't be until later, when they try to leave the island. that completely rules out charlie, since he's dead anyway. the writers didn't want is second guessing that - they showed him take his last breath and do the sign of the cross so that we would KNOW he died. hurley sees him as a hallucination (and the other guy that sees him is another hallucination) just like dave was (and dave slapped hurley, too).
ok - that's all for now!

oh, and i think he's collapsing in the past because that's not his real self - that's his consciousness going back. his body is physically in 2004 on the boat. he blanks out without collapsing when his present self goes back because his body is still physically present, but his past isn't real, so without his mind/consciousness, he doesn't really exist. wow - does that make sense?

Season...I just read the blub on wiki about Lost Horizon...and it is very very similiar. Wild indeed!! Having never read Lost Horizon, I am intrigued enough now to take a look!! Is there any show on prime time television today that provokes such discussion??? Daniel you are so on point that Lost is some powerful television!!!

I agree that Des in 1996 is more or less his mind only and not his physical self, BUT it seemed to me that he blacked out only for a moment while in the military courtyard, very very briefly when he dropped his coins, but for a very long time in Daniel's lab, and not at all after he left Penny's (which hh says is b/c he had received the phone number at that time, which makes sense). We don't really know how long he was out in the bathroom or the stairwell. So, I'm just trying to figure out any significance from production irregularities. Perhaps his mind allows him to go back to where/whenever it needs to be, which could account for time differences. Really, it's not that important, just wondering.

I was just thinking about it some more myself and besides water/source being a factor in those time travels, they involved metal: sink faucet, coins and the charge from brushing someone's hand who just came out of a phonebooth in the rain, the residue in Faraday's Oxford office of that radiation(?) heat lamp shined frequently over little Eloise. its like when you're supposed to touch metal before you fill up on car gas.

well, i guess this all isn't major in the sphere of things but just enjoy all the little details myself.
yeah, the Lost Horizon movie by Frank Capra sounds a lot like Lost, i agree Michelle.

These theories are the reason I was Sociology major! I don't understand any of this technical/physics stuff...but I still love it!

I posted the comment about Lost in Texas having no life and being an idiot last week. I was happy to see someone else had the nerve to say something too. LIX, you really do need to get a life. And for the most part I do scroll past your idiotic comments.

Sawyer to Kate (season 1): "I made this wish fou years ago."

Edit:
Sawyer to Kate (season 1): "I made this wish four years ago."

Wow,thank gawd for the Lost Diary! It successfully distracted me from my wife watching that stupid new Oprah show. BTW, any chance Oprah is the Economist?

soemthing you may find interesting-
do a google search of the Hollow Earth Theory. I thought of it when they kept playing that Halls of Shambala song when Hurley got the van going. I may be wrong, but i think there is a mythical underground city called Shambala (sic?) Also when drunk-bearded Jack is FF he is listening to Nirvana!? ehh, ehh?? I know, I am having fun. Just thoght you would find the Hollow Earth thing cool.

Am.totally.confused.now.
What an episode! I really thought we were going to lose Des. Can't wait until Thursday! On another note, leave it to Sayid :)....to out "McGuyver" McGuyver!

sure is a shame that some people just can't help themselves!!! mean people suck!! i feel that this is a place for all kinds of people to express themselves and their ideas all around a TV SHOW!! who is the one who needs to get a life, i ask?
i bet there is a mean people blog someplace coolio can join and feel right at home.
i did not really want to respond, but isn't there just too much anger and garbage out there in the real world. everyone here is here for FUN!! kindness and tolerance.

So, with what we have watched (BEST show yet), this may explain why Jacob is calling out for help... he is possibly stuck in time and looking for his 'Constant'? Or someone to save/get him to where he wants/needs to be?
First time posting, been reading and enjoying since Day 1... thanks Daniel, love this group!

what are some theories about what/who jacob really is? does he control ben or does ben control him? and why has jacob suddenly abandoned locke?

thank you.
the faith healer ululu? that bernard hired on roses behalf was startled and would not help her. why? similar reaction as claire's psychic.
that her baby had to be raised by her tho. bad things will happen if claires child is raised by another.
did kate name sawyer and her baby as a deterrent to the original special aaron?
where are the children on the island
someone said in a better place.
could the horse that Kate saw be her constant?
wasnt kate's alias was annie when she was with the farmer before he turned her into the marshall.
i was thinking the fb's were survivors connecting with their constant but daniel said if you cared enough.
Locke opens the door, Kate says you have blood on your hands. i killed a chicken.
how do the elements fit in?
water/earth/fire/air
the polar bear is explained at least partially by the fact that there was a zoo. remember that is where kate and sawyer were. we have not seen to what extent the zoo was sizewise.
is there more than one island with powers.
didnt someone tell kate not to follow them because they were on another island nearby?
hmmmm
lost of questions. too much to take in. too many episodes to rewatch right now.
i like to think we will be satisfied when the final episode airs in 2010.

OMG does this have anything to do with MAY2012???~~!!!
thank you.

larry - that's true, we do get the impression that des is only out momentarily in the exercise yard. the phone booth may have been longer, but still not as long as when he was in daniel's office. hmmm. i ran it by my husband and he reminded me of something daniel told des when they met - that in his (des's) case, the situation had become exponential. so, perhaps it starts out as mere moments, then starts getting longer and longer. maybe?

on a completely other note - my husband and i just got home from our fourth foo fighters concert. fucking awesome.

jack's tattoo!
"Eagles high up, cleaving the space"

sounds like an airplane to me! OMG i dont even know why that is so exciting to me, my head is totally exploding from going all over these insights from here!~ like the Valenzetti Equation et. al.
WHew.
thanks everyone

Speaking of Jack listening to Nirvana. Either he was just listening to a radio station that likes to play older music, or that would put him in around year 1996???

Was it 2004 in the first episode with the plane crash? I remember Jack complaining that his drink wasn't strong enough and the flight attendant gave him two more bottles. He drank that first bottle like he really needed some booze!!! Was he an alcoholc then? Was he just upset about his dad dying?

Coolio - I hope you don't let everyone chase you away from this site, just because you voiced your opinion. Last week my best friend was chased away from this site after a conflict with the same person you had conflict with. She simply stated that she didn't like spoilers after LiT posted some, and asked LiT to post a disclaimer before posting spoilers. Everyone pretty much told her she was out of line and she decided not to come back here. Trust me, it broke her heart cause she has been reading the blog since the beginnig. She also doesn't work and this was how she spent her Fridays. So, Coolio stay strong and just scroll past comments you don't like.

LOVED this episode.. A+ in my book, didn't miss the other Losties at all I was so caught up, my other half at one point (wisely during the adverts!) asked if I could say something else other than the 1 million 'whaaaat??' he'd heard from me in the last 1/2 hour!! Just fab.

So much to say but most of it has already been said.. Can't decide who benefits from the Radio to the mainland being smashed? only Ben/Others so insider on boat must have done it, if Michael, why would Michael be working for Ben as 'man on the boat'? doesn't quite fit for me but hey who knows!

I like the water conduit thing - similar to 'Constantine'. It would fit with Sayid touching snow in Berlin, Sayid and sprinklers on golf course, Whidmore running tap, Des on Boat, Des in rain, some of the Walt 'appearances' he was wet but the jungle was dry (not all I know).

I didn't quite get that Des was back to normal at the end - yes out of danger but I still felt the way he said 'Thankyou... Sayid' as if he was still the 1996 Des, quite a tentative thankyou.

Also Naiomi - I don't think they 'forgot' about her - there's a reason why they didn't rush to take the body off - just don't know it yet!!

6 days and counting for us!

hh - that's the only explanation I could come up with as well, that Desmond would be out for longer and longer periods of time as the sickness got worse. Really, nothing to think too much about.

JayB in the UK - You said that you didn't feel that Des was back to normal at the end. I did, because he tell's Penny, "I was on an island," when they were on the phone together. At the very moment he said that, they cut to Sayid who looks shocked that Desmond remembers this, because up until then, he had no idea what was going on in the present.

I don't remember anyone telling Desmond that he had been on an island during the episode, so that tells me that he remembers things now. Additionally, the fact that he found his constant, which was what this entire episode was about, tells me that he's okay now.

Can anyone tell me if someone tells Des that he had been on an island during the episode, before he talked to Penny on the phone?

Well I guess Minkowski's name was definitely a clue to what was going on. I loved this episode - I don't think A+ is a high enough grade for it.
I agree that water is a key element being a conduit. And Mr Widmore has to have a key role in this thing. They wouldn't throw him in this episode just to give Des Penny's address. Something is going on.

I didn't read every single comment because there are SOO many. So, sorry if I miss anything... but there were a few things I was thinking.

First, with the time travel - Faraday said that your consciousness is traveling, but the body is still there. When 1996 Desmond was with Faraday and went back to 2004 his body stayed in 1996, too. So, for ideas like Charlie maybe going through time I don't think it makes sense because his whole self wouldn't just disappear - right? And so I also think that probably people like Sayid aren't bouncing around form the boat to the island because people would see him in those two places.

Now, I think it's possible that maybe those people HAVE moved around in time and maybe still do, but just not in the times that we're thinking.

I think since they made it appear that the time travel happens rather suddenly and leaves the person pretty disoriented that it's unlikely that any of the Losties have been doing it without us knowing.

I do think, though, that the TT could be the "sickness" but it only happens to some people. Maybe it will start happening to more of the Losties because of the radiation that was emitted when the hatch blew up. But, I also think that if something like that happens, Ben would know about it - or could be doing it himself - and so the hatch blowing up would have worried him more.

Also, like Faraday said, the time travel seems to be a "side effect" of traveling to and from the island - if the island is inside a vortex, the time difference inside it (i.e. the pay load experiment) could shuffle around the time and affect certain people (like Desmond).

One observation that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with time travel or anything specific, is that Desmond seems to be the only person who has something waiting for him off the island. Could that have anything to do with why this is happening to him. His life will now be good off the island even though it was bad before - while the Losties don't have anything waiting for them.

"Desmond seems to be the only person who has something waiting for him off the island." Excellent point Erin.

After rewatching episode 3 (season 4) with Sayid kneeling on the ground by the helicopter, it looks as if he is time traveling...not praying. When he "comes to", he's changed his demeanor toward Naomi. I think once he traveled to the freighter, he was able to travel back in time...and now he knows Naomi when before he didn't. Does that make sense? It ties in with him being Ben's man on the boat, but didn't know it until traveling to the freighter and events playing out/unfolding there.

Juliet also has someone waiting for her... her sister.

I know many are mixed when it comes to Juliet and I, for one, am not 100% sure which side she is on. That being said, I do want her to get back to her sister but not as much as I want Des to get back to Penny!

And...Sayid back to Nadia.

I agree... there is something about Juliet that still creeps me out. Especially with the previews for this week's episode. I never really trusted her and I hated it when she kissed Jack last season...

everybody has something waiting for them off the island.

i agree that sayid was time traveling when he looked like he was praying, and he clearly "knew" naomi afterward. so, the key is learning to time travel without short-circuiting your brain, which means somebody has to teach you how to do it. so, when did ben teach sayid to time travel? when they were "jailed" together by locke?

How would Sayid have the ability to time travel if it is a side effect from leaving the island on the wrong coordinates? He hasn't left the island yet in that episode.

newbie,
I think he gained the ability to time travel when he got off the island and went through the 'storm'. Once he was on the freighter he learned about time travel,etc. and then traveled back in time to that point where we saw him kneeling on the ground by the helicopter. I think he also learned who Naomi was while he was away and he feels and acts differently toward her when he comes back.

Interesting theory kfree- but then my question would be, why didn't Sayid show any signs of this like Des did? I mean Sayid was lucid and showed absolutely no signs that he suffered from the same symptoms as Des. I may be wrong, but that is just my theory.

larry - no one told des about the island prior to the phone call. but, he does tell daniel-in-the-past that he meets him on an island. soooo...not sure what that means. but him saying it to penny, sayid's surprised reaction, and des using sayid's name afterward are three of the reasons why i believe that his time jumping has stopped at that point and he can recall his more recent past (after 1996, that is). plus, i think des has a slight glimmer of recognition when penny says charlie's name.

Definitely. Thanks.

"I mean Sayid was lucid and showed absolutely no signs that he suffered from the same symptoms as Des."

because ben (or someone) must have taught sayid how to time travel by using a constant. ben and sayid were alone together in the mess hall after locke imprisoned them a few episodes ago...

but daniel tells desmond that to STOP it, they need to find a constant.

I loved this episode and I love this blog. This is my first day off since Thursday and I've spent most of the day reading over the comments. All I can say is, as soon as the episode went off, I felt like Locke after he watched the orientation video. I looked at my husband and said "we're gonna need to watch that again". We've since watched it 3 times and it's still just as good as the first.
Thanks Daniel for doing this blog and bringing together a great community of people. I love reading all the comments and theories.

I guess I am not convinced that none of the Losties are time traveling right now since no one else has left the island...it might also be because I really like Desmond's character and think he is special... but I may be biased. That is what I love about LOST we all have our own theories but still get along (well, most of us!!)

I can't wait to find out how it all plays out regarding who is time traveling! But until then, you should try to go back to episode 3 of this season and watch Sayid by the helicopter. Watch him take a breath right before he opens his eyes. It's like he came back to his body.

in an earlier post, i mentioned how IF any of the other losties experience time travel, it won't be until the try to leave the island. but then, i still think it would only be those that had the most exposure to the electromagnetism. maybe some that spent the most time in the hatch (although, the whole thing was protected by thick cement), or those closest to the hatch during the implosion(ie, on the beach), which would rule out kate,jack, sawyer and hurley who were on the dock with the others on the opposite side of island. so, yeah, some people may experience it later, but i still don't think that any of the losties have been flashing back and forth on the sly (like in their flashbacks) - we would have seen them have some sort of reaction, they would have had the same confusion that des had, and other people would have noticed.

sayid was praying and meditating in that scene. so in way, yeah, it is like he left his body, but not traveling in time.
i guess it's pretty obvious i'm in the opposite camp of most people on here! sorry if anyone feels like i'm giving them a hard time. i just feel like we don't have enough evidence to start jumping to conclusions like everyone is time traveling, just because we've seen des do it.

Newbie - Sayid doesn't show the same symptoms as Des because he was on the other side of the island when the whole hatch thing happened. He wasn't exposed to the radiation like Des was. Remember that he was with Jin and Sun on the boat?

In regard to whether or not Rousseau's shipmates suffered from this past episodes "side effects" I think it's interesting to note that Rousseau says that they were on the island for 2 months BEFORE anyone got sick. That seems like a very long time to be going back and forth in time before dying.

Which means, IF Rousseau is telling the truth about things, then her people died of something else. Or, maybe she made the whole thing up because she's not exactly who she says she is.

Either way, I was just trying to shed some light on some previous posts wondering if Rousseau's shipmates suffered from these "side effects."

I think Sayid can do it because he left the island.

Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain
With the rain in Shambala

Sorry! Been readin’ this blog for an hour or so. Got it stuck in my head! Notice the water references though?!

Many, many theories that I agree with! Many, many others I hadn’t thought of but with which I will further assimilate!(Yes, we are the Lost collective.) Brilliant hour of entertainment! Best episode yet! Kudos to the writers and cast! Thanks to all peaceful bloggers for all insights! (I can’t stop with the !!!s either!)

Since this is my first season to blog, it is the first I’ve heard of the water theory, which hadn’t occurred to me. I always did wonder why Walt was dripping wet. Very thought provoking and seems spot on. However, I can’t get past the idea that electricity is needed as well. (Some kind of “power source” (for all you techies)). Why else did they have to fly thru the thunderhead (thunder cloud?) to get to the freighter? Does a wormhole need static electricity? (If already explained, please forgive my ignorance. I tried to read everything, but there’s so…much…to…process…)

Possibly Minkowski wrecked the comm room? Maybe he thought disrupting comms with the island would cure him? I know he said he didn’t know who trashed it, but maybe, he was lying?

Now for those that feel like repeat bloggers need to get a life…what exactly are you doing with yours? Oh yeah, you’re reading blogs and making comments. Comments that do nothing to further the love the rest of us share. Nor, do they add to the experience. Got something hateful to say? Send it in an email to yourself. You might be surprised at how mean, whinny and petty you really sound. Keep the hating to your self. It is not wanted here.

hh - I'm with you in that I just don't see enough info yet to even think about Sayid jumping through time.

FYI: Just watched Eggtown again, Kate's full name is Kathrine Ann Austin.

hh- I am with you too. I just don't see any evidence that anyone else is time traveling... you are not alone!

"but daniel tells desmond that to STOP it, they need to find a constant."

that's true. i was interpreting stopping it meaning stopping the uncontrolled, nosebleed, brain short circuiting aspect of it, not the actual ability to time travel. but, i'm also in the camp that's starting to think some people can control their time traveling, like sayid seems (to me, anyway) to be doing. at this point, i'm interpreting sayid wiping his hand in the snow as controlled time travel. it's how he and ben are going after people.

anyway, didn't daniel say something about how people's (and eloise's) brains explode BECAUSE they have no constant, and part of the function of a constant is so that the time traveler has a thread of logic between dimensions of time?

Just throwing this out there...I've read all the comments and I go with the side that says the only time travelers are desmond and daniel (i think someone said that...it all jumbles up by the time im ready to type) anyway, ive found myself not commenting because well i was really satisfied with this episode.

So I was wondering...does anyone else find they have less comments after a "good episode" or maybe I'm just too caught up in my midterms this week?

PS How many of the O6 do we have? Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sayid...or we still debating on the whole Aaron thing?

hh & Larry, add a third to your party. i don't think anyone else on the island are leaplings.

make me the fourth...i had to go back and read what you guys were talking about...

i think if this "time travel" was happening we would have seen more clues maybe leading up to it or someone having ff's/fb's like desmond and issues like daniel.

one more thing...does anyone think shannon's stepmom/boone's mom has a part in any of this? i just watched the episode where shannon got shot and something about her evil stepmother doesnt sit right

SB- according to Lostpedia they have not counted Aaron as one of the six, even though they are not the gospel according to LOST, I tend to agree with them. I guess we will have to see...