Ben's Painting of a Woman

There has been some speculation of late about the painting that hung in Ben's house through his childhood, and still hangs now, in his home in the barracks (may be the same house).

Harper said to Juliet in "The Other Woman" that "you look just like her." This picture does look a lot like Juliet. The woman in this painting may be the woman to which Harper was referring.

So who is it? Well, it can't be Annie, Ben's childhood friend. It could possibly be his mom, but I doubt very much that Roger Workman could paint this, or could afford to have this painted.

Ben's painting reminds me very much of a painting that was hanging in my own childhood living room. It's a painting that was a subject of much discussion between me, my parents and sister. A painting so central to our family story that we made a miniature version with an identical miniature frame and hung it in the living room of a grand-scale dollhouse my dad built.

The painting is "Christina's World," by Andrew Wyeth. According to my dad, Christina was crippled, but would still work her dustbowl farm by dragging herself around the land using her arms.

Wyeth painted many pictures of her. I'm thinking Jacob painted the picture in Ben's home. And it is of a woman whom Jacob adored. Perhaps Eve from the caves? And Jacob is Adam: now a non-corporeal ghost/god whom Ben serves.

Kate's Family Tree; Montagues and Capulets

I'd like to preface my latest crackpot Lost theory with a few word about Shakespeare, who I like to call "Shakes." The name Kate was used by Shakes in the Taming of the Shrew, in which Petruchio schemed to marry and tame Katerina (and succeeded). In one of the most recent Lost installments, we saw a new Dharma station, The Tempest, which is a chemical weapons plant that can kill everyone on the island. Also a Shakes reference.

Now to segue into crackpot theory: their are two families on the island. The Montagues and the Capulets, basically. Lost is all about opposites - black and white. One family is good, the other bad.

The first indication that their were family ties on the island was when Christian was revealed to be Claire's father, making her and Jack half-siblings.

I think we will soon learn that Kate's mother, Diane, IS ANNIE. I will submit into evidence, exhibit A) Harper says "you look just like her." We have confirmation from the pop-up show that she was referring to Annie, as I suspected. Here are she and Juliet:


Hmm. Blond hair, blue eyes, overly tweezed brow, high cheekbone. The cheekbone I will submit as exhibit B) Annie, as a child, had an exceptionally high cheekbone which I also noticed in Diane.



I will submit into evidence exhibit C) Annie has lots of freckles. So many that one, if one were the type to nickname people, might call her "freckles." So above is the family tree: Annie and Ben -- yes, I said Ben -- beget Kate.

Remember that Kate's mother never confirmed Wayne was her father. Kate assumed that because she found evidence Mr. Austen was not in her life until a year after she was born. These both do much to prop up my theory that Annie left the island with child to hide from Ben. That's also why she changed her name to Diane, a meme for Die-Ann, as in Annie is dead. She may have even faked her death so Ben could not find her.

But, once again, I have disproved one of my own theories, which is bound to happen when you're on the sharpest end of the cutting edge. That theory being that Thomas was Annie's hidden child.

So the two big families are Ben's line and Christian Shepard's line. We've seen both of these patriarchs in Jacob's cabin. Ben's line is Kate. Christian's line is Jack, Claire, and Aaron. Ben's line is bad, Christian's line is good. Which is why Kate steals Aaron.

Island Comings and Going

I only have time for a quick word today about teleportation. The best part of the latest episode, "The Other Woman" was when new character, Harper, magically appeared, preceded briefly by whispers, and then vanished right before Jack and Juliet's eyes.

What to make of this? The picture at right shows a more common method of teleportation: beaming. But Harper was not beamed. But can you imagine her de-materializing slowly while Jack and Juliet watched in stunned silence? Anyway, Harper was there and then she just wasn't there.

Remember when that Other lady asked Michael if Walt had ever appeared somewhere he wasn't supposed to be? So Harper must have a natural ability to teleport just like Walt does.

Also remember the day Shannon was shot by Anna-Lucia? Shannon heard whispers in the jungle louder and louder, and then saw Walt. Then she was shot.

Do whispers and teleportation always go together? Do magical hidden whisper people transport the Others around the island (and possibly off-island)? More later.

Shout Out To Another Crazy Theorist

A real kindred spirit came up with a theory I am craaazee about:

Man in Widmore Video is Thomas Linus

I give this a 89% probability. I'm not sure about the "Widmore sent this video to Ben" theory. But it does lend A LOT to why Ben would want to enlist Sayid to hunt down and kill people: To find and free his son Thomas and get revenge on Widmore -- who personally performed this beating to send a message to Ben. I mean just take a look at this Linus family album I've put together:


This also plays very nicely into one of my earlier theories: that Ben "turned" Jack and Kate to his cause and placed Aaron with Kate for safekeeping. He would have an excellent reason for doing this if he couldn't watch the baby himself because he had to be a veterinarian and rain down some justice on Widmore.

But where is Claire? Why can't she care for the baby? Puh-lease. Ben hates Claire for some reason. More theories on that later. He may have killed her himself. I still believe she's the one in the coffin (see another earlier post). And don't let that silly newspaper clipping stop you from believing me.

After seeing, "The Other Woman" last night, I'm thinking Claire may meet her end by disregarding her lover Locke's no-no and popping in on Miles. He's trying to say something to her and she's like, "I can't hear you with this thing in your mouth." 'Nuff said.

Pure Purple Sky

Last night's pop-up episode of "The Constant" had a few nice reveals. One was something I had speculated right here in this very blog: that when Desmond initiated the fail-safe and the sky turned purple, it was the same phenomenon that Faraday created in his lab at Oxford.

The pop-up specifically mentioned the purple light. I have a few notes about this. It came out a few years ago that our sky is actually purple, but the cones in human eyes cannot detect such short wavelengths that are being scattered over such a large expanse, so we see a blue sky (honeybees and some birds see a purple sky, incidentally).

Soon after Faraday landed on the island, he mentioned the light scatters differently. This could be after-effects of the fail-safe. The fact that humans were able, for a short time, to see the purple sky, must have meant either the blue waves in the sky did not scatter over the purple, allowing us to see all purple, or the purple waves were longer. Because we know light is electromagnetic radiation, then I think it's obvious that when an electromagnetic pulse was release, it amplified the wavelengths of light in the sky, effectively stretching the purple waves and allowing them to be seen by humans. Soon after the pulse, they shortened and the sky was again blue.

The physical explanation for the blueness of the sky is attributed to the work of Lord Rayleigh in the 19th century. Rayleigh scattering, a phenomenon named after him, is the scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by particles much smaller than the wavelength of the light. It is interesting to note that in 1879 he was appointed to follow James Clerk Maxwell as Professor of Experimental Physics and Head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. Maxwell is a name given in the Lostverse to the "Maxwell Group," a group that paid for the expedition to find the Black Rock ship in the find815.com game.

So, it follows that in order to unstick your consciousness in time, you need to alter the electromagnetic spectrum in a way that makes the short spectrum longer. And apparently this will happen if the device is set to oscillate at 11 Hertz.

A few brief words on Hertz: Wikipedia says: Heinrich Hertz, through experimentation, proved that transverse free space electromagnetic waves can travel over some distance. This had been predicted by James Clerk Maxwell and Michael Faraday. So two more mentions of Maxwell and Faraday. I think we're getting somewhere.

With his apparatus configuration, the electric and magnetic fields would radiate away from the wires as traverse waves. Hertz had positioned the oscillator about 12 meters from a zinc reflecting plate to produce standing waves.

It's funny that Hertz is quoted saying about his experiments -- which paved the way for radio and radar -- "It's of no use whatsoever." Hertz died at age 36, much like Ferris at age 37.

So Hertzian radiation, better known as radio waves, should also be considered important in the Desmond-Faraday time travel experiment. Radio waves, like electromagnetism, are an important theme in Lost. Sayid is always trying to get some radio to work. I wonder what would happen if we got Sayid and Faraday together for some type of radio magnetism experiment?

Faraday Knows About Oceanic Six

I just wanted to pop in before Lost airs tonight and post a new theory about Faraday -- my current obsession. Here it is: Faraday knows all about the Oceanic Six.

He is definitely a time traveler (in mind, not body), and in re-watching the second episode of season four, I noticed some tidbits that seem quite telling now that we've seen the equation-intensive Eloise episode.

For one: First thing after Faraday lands on the island he says to Jack and Kate, "I'm here to rescue you." How does he know who they are? Because they're two of the extremely famous Oceanic Six that he has seen in the future. Then Faraday asks Kate, "Where are the rest of your people?" Kate says, "Mostly on the beach." He says, "Mostly?" He seems very confused. Because he is expecting only six survivors. He's also packing heat -- because he knows Kate goes on trial for murder in the future, and may not be keen on being rescued.

How does this tie in to the greater Lost mythology? Well, we know the Freighties came to the island looking for Ben. Which means, Faraday must have also seen a vision or a future where Ben's relationship to Sayid is public. That's how he connects Ben and the Oceanic Six. He tells Hanso Foundation, who has been looking for Ben since they took a fuzzy snapshot of him in 1979. Apparently they've lost their own island in the meantime, so they launch a freighter mission to explore the area where the Oceanic Six said they came from (in Faraday's future flashes).

It's apparent Faraday has also told his team about the future and about the Oceanic Six. This may solve the mystery of Naomi's conversation with Abbadon. She was asking him, "What if there are survivors?" and he was saying, "There were no survivors of Oceanic 815." What we weren't privy to was her then saying, "Then why would Faraday say there are six or eight survivors?" And Abbadon would say, "You're believing that wacko? He's only on the team because Hanso says he won't fund the mission unless he's on it."

Miles Straume also seemed to know about the Oceanic Six. He glanced at Jack for a split second before calling him "handsome." Because surely, he's seen Jack's picture on TV a thousand times and heard Oprah and everyone else call him handsome. He also tells Kate to stay away from the gun. Because he knows she's a criminal. And, let's not forget, Sayid asks him why he's not surprised to see them and Miles is like, "woo woo woo!" and mocks him.

Frank, too. When he sees Juliet, he makes up some story about memorizing the passenger manifest. Really, who can memorize 300 names? Not. He knows the Oceanic Six from their faces, and he also knows the name of the other two Kate says she saved out of the water but died on the island. When Juliet wasn't either, he yells, "She's a native!" Probably alerting the team to the fact that she must know Ben -- another native.

And we know Charlotte knows because she does the three-card game with Faraday. What we missed is Daniel telling her, "I'm having trouble seeing the future here. The island is messing with my abilities." She says, "I'll pull three cards and promise to show you those cards in an hour from now, but for now I'll put them here face down. Now what are they?"

Also, Charlotte was the only one on the team wearing a bulletproof vest. And she was the only one shot. Faraday had a flash where she is shot and killed by Ben and subsequently told her to wear a vest when they go to the island. Very similar to how Desmond was saving Charlie. But you know what that means: the world will course correct and Charlotte will die. Probably soon.

We also know that, because Faraday has written in his journal that Desmond is his constant, he must be in contact with Desmond in 2007. When he flashes forward and sees the Oceanic Six and Kate's trial on TV, he then calls Desmond. This means Desmond gets off the island, too, but he's not one of the Oceanic Six.

Be Careful on the Ferris Wheel

So apparently, George Minkowski died on the Ferris Wheel. Or trying to get back on the Ferris Wheel. But he couldn't get back. Or he couldn't get off. Not sure.

But, I think the mention of the Ferris Wheel is not accidental. Consider first, the name of its creator, George Ferris. George Minkowski. Coincidence? His full name is George Washington Gale Ferris. Gale -- as in Henry Gale, and Dorothy Gale.

The Ferris Wheel is a type of "observation wheel," which has origins back to the 17th century. The term "observation wheel" makes me think of the Dharma Pearl station, whose purpose was "observation."

I also learned the main character in Stargate: Atlantis is John Sheppard, a fan of Ferris Wheels. No relation to two of similar name, Jack and Christian Shephard.

Ferris died at the young age of 37.

Rats and Scots with Nosebleeds

Here's a comment I posted on lost-theories.com this morning:

I saw the rat experiment much like Desmond’s flashes of the future when he was on the island. When he turned the key, he was basically hit with the 2.347 oscillating at 11, and from then on, he saw events in the future in the same way the rat had knowledge he had obtained in the future.

Desmond saw Charlie being struck by lightening, but then that event didn’t happen. So if that event never happened, how could he see it? Just like the rat was never taught the maze, so how did he know it? Same thing.

But I’m wondering, why didn’t Desmond’s nose start bleeding the first time he saw Charlie struck by lightening? If the rat died within 75 minutes of his exposure, why did Desmond live for weeks with no effects — until he got off the island.

That may be the key to why Faraday had to come to the island. When his Eloise experiment is performed on the island, you don’t die — and you can see the future. It’s only when you leave the island that you get the killer nosebleeds. But that begs the question, why does Faraday need to see the future? To finish his dissertation?