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.