How to Become an Other

The last few episodes of season five have thrown a log or two on the Jack loves Kate fire. Only it's been Kate doing most of the lovin'. First she told him, "I've always been with you, Jack," which gave me serious goosebumps, then she broke into his house and threw herself at him -- with a much better response than I've ever gotten from that move. For the most part, Jaters should be smiling like they've got a hanger stuck in their mouth.

So what's got me down? Well, I'm stuck on what separates an Other from anyone else, i.e. Dharma Initiative Workman, plane crash victim, etc. Approaching this problem from the stance of "what separates an American from everyone else?" I arrived at a few possibilities:

1) You are born unto one or more real Others. They train you in Other ways of non-caring about the wellbeing of those who are not Others (Ben's "who cares" on the return trip killed me!). They teach you to speak Latin and you get an elective of Korean, Portugese or French.

2) You are brought into the fold by Others because you have something they need. The transformation process from human to Other is lengthy. First, Smokey pays you a visit and decides if you are good or bad. If bad, he rips off your arm or kills all of you. If good, proceed to step two. Second, you are housed in a confined area (bear cage or barracks) and set up with an impossible number of appointments with a psychiatrist. The shrink answers all your questions with a question until you stop questioning and become an Other. If that doesn't work, then step three: You alternately take tests/solve puzzles (in a bear cage or fishing hut) and are forced to watch disturbing videos.

Some folks who fell into category two:
* Oceanic flight attendant (they did a number on her! She couldn't even remember she wasn't always an Other)
* Carl (who may be category one, but required reprogramming)
* Walt
* Jack, Kate, Sawyer
* Juliet

Here's what I'm wondering -- are Ben's Others different from Richard Alpert's "proto"- Others? Alpert didn't have access to the audio-video equipment necessary for brainwashing new recruits. It's possible all Others were born until Ben created the baby-birthing problems I'm guessing in the 90s. Then Ben had to scramble to figure out how to expand their ranks. He asked Jacob and Jacob started to give him lists. Then Ben developed the naturalization program and Latin curriculum. The rest is history.

The Frozen Donkey Wheel: A History

Yesterday's episode, "This Place Is Death" brought back some very important props I'd like to discuss today: the smoke monster (yeah!) and the frozen donkey wheel under the Orchid station.

I'll just say, it was more than a bit lame to explain the Losties' moving through time as "the wheel is off its axis." A few weeks ago, I said the time shifts were like pendulum movements back and forth, which was such an elegant thought. Now we find out they are just like eating at a rickety wagon-wheel table in a third-class Western-themed bbq place -- only with slightly less naseau.

But let's talk about the wheel for a moment. A horizontal wheel, to which is attached one or more beasts of burden, has been used around the globe for more than 2,000 years specifically to pull water up from underground wells. This device is called a "noria". Animals push the spokes and generate horizontal rotations that are transferred into vertical rotations through the gears, which brings up a chain of buckets from the well. Animals used in a noria are blindfolded because they can't stand the boring revolution walk.

In Dharma's case, they used polar bears to turn the noria. This worked until the wheel lit up and the polar bear disappeared, to be found later in Tunisia by Charlotte.

So I find it very interesting that this noria is at the bottom of a well. The wheel should be at the top of the well, carrying water out of it... Why would it be at the bottom? It must be because it is turning something that is in a well beneath it.

To explain this, I would like to mention again George Minkowski, who is named for German mathematician Herman Minkowski. In 1908, Herman Minkowski presented a paper which presented time as a "fourth dimension." If it is so, then it behaves like any other dimension: abiding by the rules of physics (in particular: bodies in motion stay in motion until acted on by force).

Just like the Earth rotating on its axis, time is a body in motion that moves along at a constant rate, according to Minkowski. But there's the kicker: the Earth does not rotate constantly. In fact, it wobbles, and it's slowing down every year. It's like an ice skater in a sit-spin, only with no wind resistance, it doesn't slow down except from the repositioning of objects on or in its surface. Two recent (in human history) events are said to have slowed the Earth's rotation: the damning of major water sources, and the movement of glaciers.

So if it's possible the Earth's rotation can be affected, then it is also possible time can be affected. What slows the Earth is force, but then what slows or speeds up time? What constitutes force in respect to time? You may have guessed it: magnetism.

Back to the frozen donkey wheel. It's attached to a long pole that goes deep in the earth and at the end has magnets, or something that generates electromagnetism (plutonium?). When it turns, it exerts force on time, making it slow or speed up. But then the question is how could it only affect some people on the island and not all of them? And how could the rest of the world not feel any time shifts? Because time is personal. H.G. Wells preempted Minkowski and Einstein in saying, "There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it."

Faraday's Not Going Back to the Future

Last night -- a night not unlike any other night -- I'm lying on my couch asking myself, "Why is Faraday working under the Orchid station in the 1970s?" This is THE question to answer this season, being one of the first mysteries thrown at us in season five. It will probably also be the LAST question the producers will answer.

Thankfully, you have me. And I have answers -- that I received while on said couch last night. To answer this quintessential question about Faraday, I'll start by showing you a very awesome blog post from one year ago today. Read it here. A year ago, this information was quirky. Now it paints a very revealing picture. Here it comes:

Faraday IS Radzinsky!

Sadly, all we've seen of Radzinsky -- the original inhabitant of the Swan station -- is the stain he left on the hatch ceiling. Convenient, because if we had seen him, he would have looked like a 45-year-old Daniel Faraday.

It seems to me like the season opening reveal -- Faraday working with the Dharma Initiative -- was to be Faraday's last jump through time. He could not return to the future because of the "incident" or because he fixed what was wrong with the space-time continuum and was stuck there.

We know "Radzinsky" filmed and cut the Swan station orientation film in 1980. And we've seen Faraday working with Pierre Chang to make a different film (the ComicCon film). The "incident" blows off Chang's arm and Faraday's who-knows-what. Then Faraday locks himself in the Swan and paints "Quarantine" on the inside of the hatch door to protect himself from radiation poisoning. He pushes the button (that he probably wrote the program for) every 108 minutes to save the world. That is up until Kelvin shows up. He shows Kelvin how to fake a lockdown, shows him the invisible map he has painted (from the notes in his journal), and then loses his will to live and offs himself -- if Kelvin was telling Desmond the truth.

Why wouldn't he have told Kelvin his name was Daniel Faraday? Same reason Pierre Chang started using fake names in the orientation films -- maybe to confuse other time travelers, or to hide his identity from those off-island who would search for him. So Faraday became Radzinsky. That's not a real leap for me.

The real puzzle is: Why does his mother, Ellie, have the SAME computer that is in the hatch? Did she help him write the numbers program after the incident? Like the program was installed on two computers and she took one off-island to continue the calculations? Ponder these questions, I will. But one thing is for sure: We will see Faraday descend into the Swan hatch and close the door that says "Quarantine." Then put on a record, open his journal, and start painting with invisible ink.

Ben: You Brought This On Yourself

Yes, I know everyone in the blog-o-sphere is abuzz after so many revelations in "Jughead," and I have discussed a few, but today I would like to turn your attention back to another mystery -- why pregnant women on the island die.

A big clue to this mystery was released in the Pierre Chang video shown at ComicCon 2008. If you haven't seen it, run don't walk, here. In the video, Pierre Chang, whom we have previously seen as Dr. Marvin Candle, is seen with his arm (in some of the orientation films it is missing) and with a baby crying in the background. So the Dharma hippies had no problems making love not war and carrying their babies to term as late as 1979.

Some have speculated that the h-bomb had something to do with women dying during pregnancy. I think not -- because, as I speculated in my last post, the h-bomb is buried in concrete deep under the Swan station, and has been since the 50s.

Why would the Dharma Initiative build a station directly over an h-bomb? I'm guessing they didn't know what it was, and just found a huge block of concrete with "unique electromagnetic fluctuations" and assumed it was one of the island's "mysterious properties" that needed studying. And it's probably this Mr. Magoo "what does this button do?" attitude of Dharma's that ticked off Richard Alpert's original Others and forced them to kill everyone (like they killed the army men who violated the island in '54). Even 24 years later, poor Jacob is so wounded by Dharma's experiments that he begs anyone who'll listen to "help me."

But I digress. Others (not those Others, I mean other bloggers) have speculated that "the incident" is what caused the pregnancy problems to manifest. I don't think so there either. The incident I'm placing at 1979-1980, and I believe it's the cause of Dr. Chang's lost arm (unless the arm just wandered off into the jungle and is living with Jacob, like Claire), and we know it's the reason the numbers had to be entered in the computer. Isn't that enough to follow from one incident. They wouldn't add pregnancy problems on top of all that.

So now for why we're here. The actual cause of the pregnancy problems. We know that things from people's past can manifest on the island -- like Kate's horse. I think not just important things, but also important events can manifest. Ben's mother dying in childbirth affected his life more than any other event. Kate is small time to the island, so her horse only manifests twice and shows itself to her and Sawyer. Ben, however, has spent most of his life on the island and is its leader and protector, so this important event for him manifests in every woman on the island. His big event keeps playing out over and over again.

Ben brought Juliet to the island to solve this problem -- but he was always the cause. To solve the problem, he would have to abdicate as leader. Which he finally did by turning the frozen donkey wheel and leaving forever. My guess is, women can have children again now that he's gone. But with Locke as leader, they will probably all have kidney failure.

H-Bombs Make My Fillings Hurt

This week's episode, "Jughead" really blew my mind hole. Talk about something for everyone! Especially for the Pesmond-shippers (aren't we all?). We may have found out one or more of the following:

• The poured concrete under the Swan station is an h-bomb


• Charles Widmore was an Other


• Faraday's mom is Hawkings, also an Other


• Faraday's father is Widmore


• The Others are the enlightened


• Richard Alpert answers to Jacob and is, in fact, impossibly old


• Richard visited Locke as an infant because Locke told him to


• Locke feels the Others/Hostiles are his "people" (he needs to learn Latin)


• Radiation has no effect on Desmond or his reproductive abilities

So, I'm thinking "the incident," which blew off Marvin Candle's arm, must have to do with the h-bomb buried in the Swan. I hope not, though, because we saw the bomb go off, and it didn't destroy the world -- it just blew off Desmond's clothes. (The shot Desmond took every 9 days must be to avoid radiation sickness.) I still want to believe Desmond was saving the world by entering those numbers!

Now for Widmore. I'm thinking he gets banished by the Others. His banishment means he no longer has eternal life; he will age and die. So he assists scientists in finding the island and creating the Dharma initiative, to exploit the island's restorative powers. Much like the Sona in Star Trek: Insurrection. (Not the first time Star Trek themes have been borrowed. In the commentary for "The Constant" the producers said they used the final episode of TNG as a template for Desmond's time-shifting).

But why do the rules not apply to Desmond, as Faraday says? Maybe he is Jacob's son?

Travel by Death

According to my last post, if the Oceanic Six do not return to the island inside of 70 hours, the Earth will stop turning. We have several parties who are in the know about this catastrophe and taking action to stop it. They are: Richard Alpert (via John Locke), Mrs. Hawkings (via Ben Linus), and possibly Daniel Faraday.

Faraday, unlike Alpert and Hawkings, has jumped into the fray because of the nosebleed effect and most likely does not know the world may end. The nosebleed effect being: If you have the bad fortune to get unstuck in time and do not have a constant, you brain will start bleeding out your nose until it scrambles and you die. Sad but true.

Now Alpert and Hawkings, who could be the same person, and who could (either of them) have four toes, know this goes way beyond brain-scrambling. Of course, we don't know how they know. I'd like to discuss Team A, Alpert-Locke, and their interaction at the crashed Nigerian plane, because I believe it has given us one major insight:

To escape the island, you have to die.

I think the converse is also true. To return to the island, you have to die. Here's the evidence. Jack's father decides to drink himself to death in Australia. He dies. He is able to return to the island and walk around with his body back.

Alpert tells Locke, to leave the island, he has to die.

Hurley's imaginary friend from the loony bin, Dave, tells Hurley that to be free he must jump off the cliff. That this is all an illusion and he needs to kill himself. Libby "saves" him at the last minute. Maybe Dave was right.

Coincidentally (or not) Locke, Hurley and Christian are among the few who have seen Jacob's cabin. It may be Jacob who facilitates this travel by death, but only for those who know him.

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and say the "purge" may have been an act of mercy by Ben and the hostiles, to free the Dharma Initiative workers from the island's grasp (and from inevitable death by nosebleed). This would explain why Ben persists in calling himself and his people "the good guys," and why I'm justified in believing that.

But what are the rules governing travel by death? Do you have to know and have seen Jacob? Is this why he knows his daughter is dead and not just transported. Are these the same "rules" Ben mentions to Widmore? We'll see.

The Pendulum Effect: Part II

The pendulum effect was first seen on Lost very early on, with Kate swinging between Jack and Sawyer. Now, in season five, the pendulum effect is no longer metaphorical. My latest theory: Those who remain on the island are literally swinging back and forth through time as if riding on a pendulum.

By turning the frozen donkey wheel under the Orchid station, Ben has "unstuck" the island's inhabitants in time, a theme certainly borrowed from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. Their first jump was to the past -- before their camp had been built and before the Nigerian plane had crashed. They hike to the hatch and experience another time shift -- now the hatch is long since blown up. Another shift -- the hatch is back. Another shift --the Nigerian plane is overgrown and resting on the Question Mark.

This is where we receive to the key to what is happening. Richard Alpert (he who doesn't age) says to John, "the next time we meet, I won't recognize you." Alpert knows they are on a pendulum, and that John's next jump will be to the past, before they've met. This also explains why they never go back to the time of the dinosaurs, or forward to an unrecognizable future. If they're traveling on a pendulum, it can only reach the same distance to the past as to the future. Each jump is equidistant from a centerpoint. The centerpoint, I believe, is when Desmond turned the fail-safe key and blew up the hatch. An action that unstuck only Desmond -- until that donkey wheel was turned and everyone became unstuck.

So, is the pendulum gaining momentum -- meaning each jump is further back in time and further forward in the future, or losing momentum? It's obviously losing momentum -- because Locke sees the Nigerian plane crash, then goes to the equidistant future and sees the plane resting on the cliff above him (an event not as far back in time as the plane crashing).

In the present, Mrs. Hawkings is furiously charting this effect in her secret laboratory beneath a Los Angeles church (with Tom Cruise keeping Ben company upstairs?). I'm certain she is charting when exactly that pendulum will come to rest. Turns out it's 70 hours from now. What happens then? The Earth stops turning on its axis and we all float off into space (well, technically, we would be thrown into the nearest wall at 1.5 times the speed of sound as our building tips off its foundation). More on that later.

Pendulums & Butchers

Wednesday night's two-hour premiere really knocked me into next week so I've got a lot to cover in this post.

First things first. We were hit over the head with some really obvious references throughout the second part of the season premiere two-parter. The first being Foucault's pendulum, visible in the last scene.

Designed by French physicist, Léon Foucault, the Foucault pendulum swings back and forth, drawing lines on the floor in a manner that allows you to see the rotation of the Earth. The experiment has different results if conducted at the poles or at the equator. In the episode we see Ms. Hawkings furiously doing equations on the chalkboard -- most likely because if you are in Los Angeles, and not at the South Pole, you need to do a lot of equations to find what you're looking for in the pendulum data. This may explain why Penny's team may have been looking for the island in a polar station.

The presence of the Foucault pendulum surely references Umberto Eco's (Mr. Eko?) book, "Il pendolo di Foucault." The book is a fictional account of three friends who invent a conspiracy (called "The Plan") for fun, but then begin to forget it's a game. One character, who has an unrequited love and constant sense of failure (John Locke anyone?), becomes obsessed with The Plan.

Is the island just "The Plan?" Certainly Ben's conversation with Widmore suggests they are playing a game. There are infinite references to chess and games. Unfortunately, some desperate people, like Locke, believe its real.

Or, the opposite could be true. Ben's conversation with Jill the butcher swings my pendulum the other way. If he has people -- probably in every city in the world -- with whom he can just drop off a body, no questions asked, he is definitely a higher-up in a real secret society. Jill is just one of potentially thousands of members of the "islanderati." This also would explain why Ms. Hawkings is doing her calculations in a robe in a hidden lair under a church -- if that doesn't say secret society, what does? But then who says you can't lead a secret society AND be playing an elaborate game? Enough for now.

Lost Wishes & Dreams

It's difficult to write with my hands all shaking in anticipation of season five, but I'm working through it to put together a list of my wishes and dreams for the new season. They are as follows:

1. Juliet dies. Please. Just please. I know she's from Bainbridge and is local and all, but if I have to look at her blank stare oozing out of my TV again this year ... so help me.

2. Ben's a good guy. If Widmore is the "big bad," then Ben MUST be the good guy (by default). I'm ready to whole-heartedly root for him in season five.

3. Jaters get thrown a bone. Because Juliet is now on the island drooling over Sawyer, Jaters will get a Jack-Kate exclusive romance with no other interested parties. Nice.

4. No more legal stuff. Kate's trial was about as realistic and believable as when Santa Claus went on trial in "Miracle on 34th Street." And I HATE seeing Kate in makeup. She just looks like another person.

5. More Dharma. Much more. I'll be specific: I would love to see a worker walk into the Dharma Division of General Mills, stick a Dharma label on a jar of peanut butter (or ranch dressing), then pile the jar on a pallet. He asks his supervisor, "Where does this stuff go?" The supervisor says, "Back to work, Bob. Hanso paid for 100 years of pallets in advance and then disappeared. Everyone knows that."

6. More Desmond. Much much more. But first, Penny's brain must be picked clean. Who is Charles Widmore? How much does she know? Of course, this won't happen. Everyone will sit silent on Penny's boat staring at the ocean, just like they did with Juliet on the beach. Asking nothing. Argh!

7. More Faraday. I love this guy. And he's the only one that tells us the truth! And Desmond is his constant - so he will keep Desmond on the show. And maybe he can get some answers out of Penny. In the Lost Experience, Alvar Hanso said the purpose of the Dharma Initiative was "to change the core values of the Valenzetti Equation." Faraday is really the only one who's up to the task.

8. Fewer questions, more answers. Would it really be so bad to give us some answers, J.J.? You never did on Alias. Well, I take that back. The big, red Rambaldi ball turned people into flesh-eating zombies. That's a head-scratcher. Even the answers are puzzles! Who would want an uncontrollable army of flesh-eating zombies? Search me. Maybe I don't want answers.

9. Sun turns evil. Ben finds out she has done a deal with Widmore, and he sends someone to kill her -- Sayid, perhaps. But it turns out Sun's piece on the side, Jae Lee, taught her more than just English. She is also a fighting master. She and Sayid battle to the death. Oh, and her baby is Michael's.

10. More underwater missions. My favorite Lost episode is the second episode of season four -- when a submersible finds Oceanic 815 (4-8-15 anyone?). I would even keep Juliet around if she found a second submarine and started scooting around the island in it, finding neat things at the bottom of the ocean, new Dharma stations, Charlie. Turns out before Ethan strung him up, he gave him an injection that allowed him to breathe underwater. Now he just needs to be rescued from the control room!