Author Archives: jstueve

My Squiggly Line LOST Supper Theory – Doc Jensen throw down.

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Okay, my good friend Jeff “Doc” Jensen has another column out today, and he said he’d continue his LOST Supper “analysis” in his twitter stream.  A few of instances of what he calls, “analysis”:

EWDocJensen: "Lost Last Supper" bonus thought: "The Da Vinci Code" alleges Leonardo posed Jesus and John/Mary so as to form the letter ‘M’ (More…)

EWDocJensen: Now, look at the space above Locke, between Sawyer and Jack. The way they’re framed forms the letter W. (More…)

EWDocJensen: A reference to "Widmore"? Of course, the shape suggests something else: A crown atop Locke’s head. But what kind of crown? (More…)

EWDocJensen: A royal crown for Locke the Christ–or a crown of horns for Locke the anti-Christ?

I’m all for reading John’s Revelation into most anything pop-cultural, especially any season of The Bachelor, or say the follow-up episode of Conveyor Belt of Love last night, which I still need to watch, and see where the whore of Babylon plays into that, but I digress.

I tweeted him a theory about a squiggly line, then later smashed his ‘Jacob’s touch has magikal healing powaz’ hack theory (didn’t help good ol’ John Locke to get touched by Jacob, he’s still dead in the sand).  Well, I guess Doc’s feeling a bit confident, just having posted his column, and getting all jiggy with the tweetings (which I helped him out with, remember?) tweeted back:

EWDocJensen: True. Maybe Jacob is saving Locke’s resurrection for later. C’mon, Mr. "Squiggly Line"! More imagination!

Alright, bud, howsabout I throw down some photographic evidence of the squiggly line… hm?

POW!!!

squiggly-line-1

BLAM!!!!

squiggly-line-2

There ya go, PHOTOGRAPHIC PROOF of a smokie reference floating over John Locke’s smirky mc-smirk-smirk face.  Proof that the Smoke Monster isn’t to be messed with.  And neither am I!

BWahahahahaha

UPDATE: Doc admits defeat with and claims the right to edit and revise his remarks. umm… well he says this:

EWDocJensen: @LOST_WFTB YOU WIN! Genius! CHECK IT readers: http://bit.ly/50wQEh But I have one suggestion for improvement…. (more)

EWDocJensen: @LOST_WFTB Terminate the squiggly line at the head of the "thing" behind Ben–it better completes the Smokey/snake shape.

Well, your wish is my command!  Here is the updated master squiggly-line photo, with Doc’s addendum in Purple (being the royal color, or the color you use when you’re feeling real special.)

squiggly-line-1a

Hurley and Miles – Space time dialogs…

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In the episode “Whatever Happened, Happened” Miles and Hurley have a couple of key discussions about the nature of spacetime as it relates to being stuck in 1977.  I’m postulating that Miles’ summary will also prove to be correct if the Bomb changes everything #BCE

First part is when Sawyer sends Miles back to the barracks to sit on Jack, Kate and Hurley, since things are spiraling out of control.

[Miles is loading his rifle.]

JACK: You’re telling us we’re under house arrest?

MILES: No, you’re all free to leave whenever you want…but I’ll shoot you in the leg.

JACK: [Sighs] And whose idea was this?

MILES: Who do you think?

KATE: Sawyer’s just doing his job, Jack.

[Miles looks at Jack and points at Kate, emphasizing her point. Miles walks over to the table where Hurley is inspecting his hand.]

MILES: What the hell are you doing, Tubby?

HURLEY: Checking to see if I’m disappearing.

MILES: What?

HURLEY: "Back to the Future," man. We came back in time to the island and changed stuff. So if little Ben dies, he’ll never grow up to be big Ben, who’s the one who made us come back here in the first place. Which means we can’t be here. And therefore, dude? We don’t exist.

MILES: You’re an idiot. [Takes a seat at the table]

HURLEY: Am I?

MILES: Yeah. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t change anything. You’re maniac Iraqi buddy shot Linus. That is what always happened. It’s just…we never experienced how it all turns out.

[Hurley looks at Jack, confused.]

HURLEY: This is really confusing.

MILES: Yeah, well, get used to it. But the good news is that Linus didn’t die, so that means the kid can’t either. He’ll be fine.

KATE: Didn’t look like he was gonna be fine. What if you’re wrong?

MILES: Well, if I’m wrong, then I guess we all stop existing, and none of it matters anyway then, does it?

Next miles and Hurley are sitting in the barracks (Kate has left after getting mad at Jack for not DOing SOMETHING!!!) and are still on the space time talk.

[Hurley is seated in the house, questioning Miles.]

HURLEY: Let me get this straight.

[Miles is pacing.]

HURLEY: All this already happened.

MILES: Yes.

HURLEY: So this conversation we’re having right now…we already had it.

MILES: [Claps his hands] Yes!

HURLEY: Then what am I gonna say next?

MILES: I don’t know. [Shakes his head.]

HURLEY: Ha’! Then your theory is wrong!

MILES: For the thousandth time, you dingbat, the conversation already happened, but not for you and me. For you and me, it’s happening right now.

HURLEY: Okay, answer me this. If all this already happened to me, then…why don’t I remember any of it?

MILES: Because once Ben turned that wheel, time isn’t a straight line for us anymore. Our experiences in the past and the future occurred before these experiences right now.

[Hurley’s face tightens in confusion as he thinks, Miles stares at him.]

HURLEY: Say that again.

MILES: [Pauses in exasperation and pulls out his gun and holds it out for Hurley to take.] Shoot me. Please. Please!

HURLEY: Aha! I can’t shoot you. Because if you die in 1977, then you’ll never come back to the island on the freighter 30 years from now.

MILES: I can die because I’ve already come to the island on the freighter. Any of us can die because this is our present.

HURLEY: But you said Ben couldn’t die because he still has to grow up and become the leader of the Others.

MILES: Because this is his past.

HURLEY: But when we first captured Ben, and Sayid, like, tortured him, then why wouldn’t he remember getting shot by that same guy when he was a kid?

[Miles blinks and looks around. Hurley raises his eyebrow.]

MILES: Huh. I hadn’t thought of that.

HURLEY: Huh. [Crossing his arms.]

 

We learn later in the episode that Ben’s memory of getting shot are changed from being healed by Richard in the temple.  How that happened specifically is still a mystery.  This scene was cut between Kate, Roger and Juliet working on little Ben in the infirmary. So it was cut into the episode with a purpose, I think it explains to us how the time travel thing works in Lost’s universe.  So read on and read me BCmE theory again.

Bomb Changes (most) Everything.

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Call it my #BCE post.  Since I started re-watching LOST I’ve been considering two options that I’d been thinking were mutually exclusive:

  • Whatever Happened Happened (#WHH) – Can’t change the past, whatever happened happened, one continuous timeline, and even though Daniel, Sawyer, Miles, Juliet, Hurley, Jin, Kate and Jack are in 1977, they still have memories of time that happened after that (before they jumped back in time in 2004 or 2007)
  • Bomb Changes Everything (#BCE) – This comes from Daniel’s revelation about focusing on the Variables, and that their actions can change the past, that if he can negate the magnetic anomaly then that changes the future.

But, what if I’m wrong?  What if they’re not mutually exclusive.  What if we can do both, whatever happened, happen while negating the magnetic anomaly and changing the need for button pressing to keep the massive magnetic field at bay, and the resultant accident that caused Oceanic 815 to crash on the island?

First we need to backtrack a bit, along these time-jumping soaked theories.  We were first introduced to the concept of time travel from the effects that turning the failsafe key had on Desmond.  He’d become a bit detached from time, his consciousness returning to the key moment where he’d tossed his ring in the river, and left Penny and joined the army, setting down a path where he’d enter the sailboat race to win Penny’s heart (or at least give him the assurance that he deserved Penny) which brought him to the island.  In that same story (Flashes Before Your Eyes) we were introduced to Eloise Hawking, who told Desmond that the Universe had a way of course correcting, she could have saved “red shoes” life that day, but he’d only die the next.  Trace that down the line and we get Daniel’s assertion that whatever happened, happened.

Desmond experimented with this line of thinking, setting his goal to save Charlie’s life, and if he could continue to do that, by his thinking, then we could change his future and end up with Penny and live happily ever after.  In The Constant we saw the culmination of this story, when we saw Desmond make a call from the freighter and reconnect with Penny (his Constant) and sets down the path to being saved from the island with the Oceanic 6 and going into hiding with Penny on their sailboat.

Desmond is special. I think Desmond IS the constant, by turning the failsafe key (at some point in the future) his being/consciousness is a constant which we can glean a nugget of proof from when Daniel made contact with him while hopping through time at the beginning of Season 5.  Daniel was able to get a message to ‘present day’ Desmond to seek out his mother (Elosie Hawking).  Odd cross-timeline communication.

Break for a second, and consider a scene from Fringe.  In the scene, Olivia was investigating the Observer August, and some lab flunky was explaining time, and poured water through a tube, to demonstrate how we usually experience time, one-way, first-in-first-out.  He then stopped up the tube, and filled it with water, then stopped up the other end, and said, I think these people experience time like this, all at once.

Okay, end break, and consider an explanation from time from LOST University, where spacetime is considered a landscape of events.  If we laid out all the events that are possible on a sheet of paper called space time, we could arrive at different places on that landscape by drawing a line (time) to travel between events.  Consider that time travel is ‘cheating’ by bending space time (the paper) and moving between two events not in a line (time) along space time, but through a space (from one side of the paper to the other) backdoor.

In that sense, and as I’m trying to understand it, everything happens at once, the concept of time is how we travel through space time.  But we only experience time as we move through it.  So as far as we’re concerned whatever happened, happened, along the line we’re traveling.

There have been hints of this that we’ve observed in Season 5.  Sawyer witnessing the birth of Aaron, just as we saw it in Season 1.  Locke telling Richard to tell past Locke that he’d have to die in order to bring the others back.  Sawyer remembering that his parents died while he was stuck in 1977.  This dual presence might even explain Christian Shepherd wondering around the island like he owns the place.

Consider the Variables (my team name for Sawyer, Juliet, Kate, Jack, Miles, Hurley and Jin) explode the bomb like Daniel (is he team Variable, or is he dead, because he was always meant to go back and get shot by his mom) told them to, thus creating (or really shifting to) a new timeline where the Incident never happened, no emergency sarcophagus for the magnetic anomaly at the Swan Station, no need for a failsafe, and no need for button pushing.  BUT, all those things have already happened, and they have always happened.  But our people have shifted lines at the point of the incident from the one where all the safety procedures were necessary to one where they are not needed.

So, what changes?  Sawyer is still an orphan (that already happened) and he’s now synced with his future self along that time line, but can recall the memories (as if a dream) of the past timeline only it’s 2004 and he’s back on Oceanic flight 815, maybe having lived out all the things that he did the first time.  Same with all the characters on that flight.

Who is on the island in 1977 (for real, not a Variable) that could have changed thing for people on the mainland?  I can’t think of anyone.  Remember the popular theory is that the Swan hatch with Radinzsky, Kelvin Inman and later Desmond was unknown to the hostiles (Widmore, Eloise, Benjamin) even up to the purge. Danielle’s research team didn’t come to the island because of the magnetic anomaly, so they’d still land to investigate the signal and be attacked by Smokie just as we saw in Jin’s journey through time.  Ben would still be a part of the purge, then make Widmore an outcast.

Some of my own pushback.  Eloise is pregnant with Daniel, perhaps, so Daniel is yet to be born, and this is a paradox, he’ll be born on a timeline where the magnetic anomaly has already been negated, and his life would be totally different, maybe a concert pianist.  But if he did that, then how did the Variables ever get the idea to explode the bomb.  Well two Daniels, just as there are two Lockes, two Christian’s…

I’ll need to ponder this more, but wanted to share it with the scads of people that want to read this! 😉

LOST Game Changing Episodes: #10 Every Man for Himself

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I wanted to push my self to write more on my blog, so I decided upon writing about LOST episodes that “changed the game”.  My emphasis on game changing, means to me that the episode had a moment or scene where something was revealed that changed the way I perceived the show.  So without further ado, I’ll start the list off.

Every Man for Himself was the fourth episode of season 3.  Stuck in the middle of the 6-pack of fall episodes, before the very long wait of 17 episodes that ran back to back in the spring of 2007.  This series of episode has gotten a bad rap, after re-watching all the episodes the past six months, I’ve found new appreciation of being stuck in the Dharma Zoo.  This episode was the turning point of that arc. 

The back story was all about Sawyer and his willingness to con anyone if it favors his own skin.  Off island Sawyer really was a scallywag, and his preference for the long con is showing strong in the back story.  The characterization really highlighted Sawyer’s past character, and really around this point the back stories were getting a bit repetitive.  Still they managed to have Sawyer pull a fast one, and was an enjoyable story, and left a few breadcrumbs for fans to hold on two in the larger arc of the story.  Besides, who doesn’t like Bill Duke as the prison warden.

On the island, we are seeing Sawyer and Kate bond as they try to figure a way out of the animal cages.  Ben catches a whiff of this and pulls Sawyer out of the cage, after beating him real good with his Daredevil cane.  The first glimpse of a Dharma test bunny is revealed as Ben demonstrates to Sawyer what will happen if his heart rate goes to fast.

Sawyer and Kate get a glimpse of a hooded Jack getting ferried to the Dharma operation station, to operate on Colleen (who was shot by Sun when the Others stole back Desmond’s boat).  The operation is futile, and an enraged Danny (Colleen’s husband, and the main warden of the Others’ prison camp) goes to take out his rage on Sawyer.  Sawyer gets the best of him by pummeling Danny’s fists with his face a few times, then to add insult to injury revealing, unbidden, his love for Kate. (wait, maybe I have that backwards…)

Anyway, the point is that Sawyer is too worried about his imminently exploding heart to put up a fight or over exert himself anytime the pulse monitoring watch goes off.

image The real game changing scene was after a long hike, Ben reveals that he conned the con-man, and Sawyer doesn’t have a heart monitor and he faked the rabbit’s demise.  But that wasn’t the reason he brought Sawyer on the trek, the real reason was just over the last rise.  The image of Ben and Sawyer on a bluff over looking a wide expanse of ocean to the main island.  Jack, Sawyer and Kate weren’t only imprisoned, they were trapped on another island.

Stand by for more Game Changers in the days to come.

Contemplating Jonah

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I’ve been doing a better job at studying and preparing for Sunday School earlier in the week.  And this month long study on finding our place in God’s will has been one good passage after another.  Last week was Gideon, this week Jonah.

Jonah is a nice short book, you can read the whole thing in a few minutes, but it’s so layered and rich, it bears a lot of contemplation, and reflection.

But first, let’s grab a verse from Jeremiah that I ran across in my other quiet times.

The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it? – Jeremiah 17:9

That kinda begs for some context, doesn’t it?  I’d read the surrounding passage, and it describes ‘one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD.’  The passage describe him becoming like a bush in the wastelands… dwelling in the desert.  The examination of the heart/mind in verse 9 is the final determination of this man.  Our only hope is to trust in God.  Outside of that we are doomed to the selfish nature of our deceitful heart/mind.

Jonah understood that perfectly.

And he still did the exact opposite of what God asked of him.  In the belly of the fish, he was thankful to God for his rescue.  He gave thanks and rededicated himself to God’s mission.  And with fish guts still in his ears he trekked to Nineveh, and did as God bid him, and proclaimed their impending doom.  They listened, and repented.

The God did exactly what Jonah knew he would do.  God had compassion and cancelled the destruction.

That ticked Jonah off. Why? Because Jonah knew that He would do that.

How odd.

Thoughts?

Vacationing at the Hatch

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For those not following my @LOST_WFTB twitterfeed, we’ve shifted to an undisclosed location for a little vacay.  So when we got here, I got setup to work from our vacation hut (aka Grandpa and Auntie’s house.

It’s TOTALLY AWESOME.  It’s a HATCH… I need some Dharma labels to trick it out, but here are some photos for a tour. (click to embiggify)

image 

View from my workstation.  Note the concrete construction and eerie lighting. I haven’t noticed any magnetic anomalies, but that’s cuz Locke stole my compass. 

 

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Here is a view out the back entrance of the hatch.  Note the black shirted others.  They may be aligned with Smokie.  Investigating.

 

 

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Around the corner are shelves full of provisions! I’m not gonna tell Hurley about this, or he’ll tell Dave, and once Dave knows, EVERYONE will know.

 

 

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This is my computer setup, dual screen greatness.  Note the VPN FOB above the keyboard this is important to be able to periodically punch in the numbers to communicate with Mittelos while on wokring vacay.

 

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Here is an alternate shot looking back at my workspace.  The others stopped by to watch a movie, but I chased them out so I could do the important work of saving the world, brutha. An upgrade from Super8, I think I may do my re-watching from that chair.

 

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The hatch even has an exercise station.  I had to chase this other off of it, incase he hurt himself, I haven’t found the first aid-kit yet.  I haven’t found the armory either, but I’ll be sure to change the combination one I find it to keep the others out.

 

Namaste and 4 8 15 16 23 42

WFTB v. Lost Rewatch – My thoughts.

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First and foremost, the goal is the same, Re-watch (or watch for the first time) all episodes of LOST, sequentially before the beginning of season 6.

That is what we’re both trying to do, and I’m going to continue to do my best to promote not only LOST (aka the greatest tv show evah!) and re-watching efforts.

lost_wftb_80 We started early, admittedly off the cuff (read the first post of this series). We focused on a twitter based live tweeting experience and that has been our strongest point.

200px-Thelostrewatch

Lost Rewatch seems to be blog and message board based with some of the biggest and best LOST blogs/sites/wikis participating and promoting. Here’s a sample list from one of the participating sites: “A bunch of Lost bloggers, including Doc Artz and Friends, JOpinionated, Sledgeweb and the Lostpedia Blog”

I think it’s entirely possible to do both, if you have the time, and inclination.  Join us for a  LOST_WFTB Live TweetUp, and then you’ll be more than prepared when Lost Rewatch watches the same episode two weeks later. (For instance, this week their re-watching episodes 1-4, while we live tweeted episode 9-11.)

I don’t think its a competition.  I’m not treating it as a competition.  The point is to enjoy LOST.

So do. Enjoy. Lost.

RFC – LOST Shipping lanes

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For all you non-nerds, RFC means Request For Comment.

Which leads me to a confession.  I’m a 41 year old father of four.  I have degrees in Computer Science (B.S.) and Information Technology Management (M.S.).  I spent nine years in the Navy.  With that back ground, I’m an expert at acronyms.  I totally get those.

image My problem is, I have two teenage daughters (okay, really one is 12, but still she ACTS all teenagerey) that are starting down the path to adulthood.  Since starting WFTB I’ve noticed a few of my followers are of the same species of my daughters (teenaged girls).  I’ve also noticed that they talk with a weird coded language at times and I need help.  Please my role as a respected father is in your hands!

I need a crash course on Shipping, and by that I mean relationshipping. Namely how this whole shipping referencing works.  You know, so I can be down with it, when I banter with my girls.

I get some references (Jate = Jack + Kate), but is there a rule or do you just make it up?  Conventions? Does the male come first? (Sake = Sawyer + Kate??!)

If I try that with Jin and Sun: Ji(n) + (Su)n = Jin

That’s not really unique, should it be Jiun?

Rose and Bernard (Ronard? Bese? Bernase?)

What about Sawyer and Juliette? Sawette? Julyer?

Jack and Juliette? Jatte? Julck?

*sigh*

Help me out here folks, quick!  Summer is here, and I’ll be spending time on the road with my daughters and I’ve gotta be able to relate!

Help me out in the comments.

Disclaimer:  The above was written by a member of Team Edward – don’t hate.

John Locke black, white, or just an easy pawn

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LOST 005 As part of the re-watching experience, one of the fascinating things to examine is the role of John Locke in the epic battle being waged.  In the first few episodes, John Locke is portrayed as a mystical guru that is in tune with the island.  He saves Jack from certain death falling off a cliff, coaches him towards leadership of the survivors.  He sees Charlie’s battle with heroin addiction, and gives an impassioned speech about how the struggle makes one stronger like a moth coming out of a cocoon. Then we see a darker side of Locke, encouraging Sayid to torture Sawyer, indicting Sawyer as the saboteur of Sayid’s triangulation experiment.

Re-watching just shows how morally ambiguous they have portrayed Locke from the beginning.  The episode Walkabout is revealing.  Locke’s pre-island paralysis is hidden in plain site for all of the flashbacks, his ability to walk miraculous, his determination to become the hunter of the group fulfilling his preparation for a walkabout.  The lead up to the final memorial scene is interesting.  Just a few hours before, John Locke came face to face with the smoke monster.  Then Jack sees his father disappear into a clearing, and after chasing after the white rabbit, finds Locke emerge from the brush covered with blood, hauling a dead boar.

There are several theories on the role of Locke, who is influencing him? How early?  Is he dead from the beginning?  Was he scanned by Smokie but allowed to live?  Did he die from the first encounter and is possessed by Esau?

Here is a place to discuss and talk about the role/character of Locke. I think he is the key, not only in the struggle between Blackshirt(Esau) and Jacob. Let’s hear your theories.

The Twitter conversation that sparked this post is below the fold.

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