Sunday, March 22, 2009

If You Seek Amy: Revisiting "Namaste" & Your Comments

I think 17 comments is a new record for an episode blog, so thank you very much to all who contributed! After reading all of your thoughts about "Namaste" and also watching it for a second time, I thought it deserved another post. Let the analysis begin.

AMY

I don't know any woman who would be chilling out on a hammock only 12 hours or so after giving birth, let alone one on an island who's child was delivered prematurely by a mechanic slash fertility doctor while her husband was sobering up after missing the birth of his son. I'm just saying...

Also, why is it that Amy seems to be the only person in Dharmaville who does not wear a jumpsuit? She wasn't wearing one when Paul got shot during their picnic, but he was. We know she had a job in the processing center...

BEN & JULIET

Aunt J-ha makes a compelling point about Ben's obsession with Juliet; that his infatuation started back in the 70's when he first saw her and developed a crush. I love it, and think that the entire recruitment process to get her to the island (meeting with Alpert via Mittelos, ex husband killed by bus, etc.) was fueled by Ben's lifelong desire to reunite with her. Not to mention the creepy portrait of the woman with the long blond hair in Ben's New Otherton house, and that various people kept telling Juliet that she looked like 'her.'

And yes, I realize that the woman in the painting looks more like Renee Zellweger than Elizabeth Mitchell. ;)

HORACE

Wezeralus - I still believe that Horace did die in Ben's 1992 purge, which was 12 years prior to his 2004 ghost appearance during Locke's dream. And although he did have a nosebleed when he was talking to Locke, I believe it related to his death by gas rather than time travel.

ILANA

I know that many of you will disagree with me here, but when Caesar went to check on Ilana after they landed on the island, it seemed she mumbled the word 'Sarah.' Some might argue that she said 'Jarrah' because Sayid was in her custody before the flash/crash. There have been two women named Sarah on Lost thus far; Jack's ex-wife and Ana Lucia (who was given that alias by Christian Shephard when they went on a drinking binge together in Sydney). It would certainly be fascinating to find out that she has a connection to either...

JACK

When Jack was being processed by Pierre Chang, wouldn't he recognize him as Dr. Candle from the Orientation film that he and Locke watched in the Swan? Wouldn't that bell have gone off in his head after watching Candle in the Barracks video that was playing before he got processed?

JULIET & SAWYER

Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but when Juliet responds to Amy's inquiry about when she and Sawyer might consider having a baby together ("TIMING'S gotta be right"), it made me wonder if she meant era. Of course I would much prefer to find out at the end of the series that she and Sawyer stayed together and had a baby rather that he and Kate...

LAPIDUS

When Ajira flight 316 started to lose power and Lapidus realized what was happening, did he attempt to reprogram the plane to follow Faraday's coordinates? I realize that he didn't have much time, but he certainly had experience attempting to avoid crashing on or near that island when he piloted the freighter helicopter...

PRODUCTION/CONTINUITY ERRORS?

There is great debate whether or not the woman who briefly appears behind Sun as she talks with Christian is a production error or if she is Claire, Charlotte, Annie, etc. In this day and age of HD, and with the intense fan scrutiny, I would be very surprised if it was an error.

1MileToGo made an excellent point about Dr. Marvin Candle as well...he was wearing a Swan lab coat in the Barracks video that played while new Dharma recruits were getting processed, and yet that hatch wasn't built yet. Simple continuity error?


RADZINSKY

1MileToGo noticed that Radzinsky was paranoid about the Hostiles finding out about the Swan. Was it because of what they were planning to build it atop of?

It seems quite significant that Radzinsky says to Sawyer:
"This whole thing is an act, and we either play into it or we don't. We can end this right now."
He may have been referring to Sayid, but that statement is far too relevant given what we've witnessed over the last five seasons; the Others' fake Hostile facial hair & costumes, fake Other village near the water where Walt got to see Michael, Inman's fake hazmat suit purpose, etc. Given that Radzinsky eventually draws the hatch blast door map, perhaps he starts to question his purpose and use on the island...

SAWYER

I know that they haven't had the opportunity to spend much time together yet, but I'm wondering when he'll ask Kate about that favor he whispered before jumping out of the helicopter, and if we'll find out whether it relates to his daughter Clementine.

SMOKEY

lectric74 believes that the Black Smoke Monster was briefly visible when the door opened behind Sun and Lapidus in the deserted Dharmaville rec room, which may indicate that Smokey controls Christian. I'm not sure if it controls him, but Christian may certainly be one of Smokey's many manifestations.

Tyler is wondering if there was something else in the bushes as Sun and Lapidus walked down the dock, and if that entity (separate/different from Smokey) first appeared in the pilot episode of Season 1. I like that possibility, and wonder if it is yet another security system...

SUN

Upon a second viewing of this episode, I noticed the parallels between Sun's second arrival on the island and Rose's initial one. Both were playing with their wedding rings and worried about their husbands right before the planes went down, and both were on the beach staring out at sea afterward...knowing that their spouses were still alive and somewhere on that island.

THE SWAN HATCH

lectric74 noted that the energy beneath the Swan is electromagnetic in nature, rather than nuclear. Even though it would then seem that Jughead was not buried under there, Faraday's instructions to his mom (young Ellie) about the bomb in 1954 seemed very significant:
"Do you people have any access to lead or concrete? There's a crack in the casing. It needs to be filled with lead. You need to take it off this platform carefully and bury it. You do what I say, you bury it, it won't go off. Bury it, and everything will be fine."
Because the very mention of concrete brings to mind the sealed off sections of the Swan that Sayid and Jack explored in Season 1:
"The last time I heard of concrete being poured over everything in this way was Chernobyl."
Chernobyl was a NUCLEAR power plant. When that disastrous accident occurred, massive quantities of radioactivity was released. To me, that will be "the incident" on Lost that we have yet to see.

WHAT HAPPENED, HAPPENED?

1MileToGo thinks that it's possible that the Others never moved into Dharmaville; that the Losties in 1977 may have changed what happens in 2007. I like that idea, but I am not exactly sure WHEN Sun and Lapidus were.

Anonymous 3 is thinking that perhaps the "purge" and "the incident" never happen; that by changing events in the past, the Losties somehow prevent catastrophic events in the future. He/she reminds us about Locke's constant talk about destiny on the island, and that it's possible that none of the 'bad' things happen down the road because of what we're seeing now.

YOUNGER VERSIONS OF SELVES

Anonymous 1 was the first person to point out the possibility that Ben, Sun and Lapidus were not stuck in 1977 with the other Losties because they were already there as younger versions of themselves. To which I say, bravo! We've already seen young Ben with Sayid, and given Mr. Paik's wealth and mystery history...it seems entirely plausible that he worked with Dharma in the 70's and young Sun spent some time on the island with the family. Side note: perhaps young Sun taught young Charlotte how to speak Korean. As for Lapidus, since we know relatively nothing about him, that door is wide open as well.

If one cannot cross paths with themselves in earlier eras, then Miles is NOT Pierre Chang's child (thanks to Kalionan for questioning that!) because he's currently stuck in 1977. However, we do know that the baby is a boy, so it can't be Sun.
---
Kris - I will totally create a lengthy list of lingering questions after the end of Season 5! As for Michael, yes - I believe he is long gone (and not only has the actor moved on to another series, he burned bridges by making controversial comments about Lost killing off many African-American characters). As for the whereabouts of flight attendant Cindy and the tail section kids, that is one of my longest running frustrations with regard to loose ends on the show.

Thanks again for your comments - keep them coming! Obviously most of what I write about is pure speculation, and I'm often wrong, so you keep me on my toes.

See you later this week!

14 comments:

Dreyesbo said...

Well, we've seen there can be two same people at the same time, when they flashed to Aaron's birth. There were two Sawyers, two Lockes, and two Juliets around, so that can't be a reason they didn't flashed.pred

Anonymous said...

ok i have a few things to comment on from the list.

1.The picture of the blonde chick for some reason I assumed it might be Annie. Maybe she dyed her hair or something.

2.Candle processing Jack, maybe he did notice him but remember Jack had to play as if he never knew Candle at all. Or else the 3 Oceanics and Sawyers group cover might of been blown.

3.Smoke seen in the cabin behind Sun and Lapidus. When watching it I figured fog or something from outside but not smoke monster since the smoke coming in from the door seemed to be white.

4.Why didn't Sun,Ben,Locke,Lapidus travel back in time like Jack,Kate,Hurley,Sayid. My theory is that Mrs. Hawking said if everyone was not on the plane who was on the island there might be weird effects. Remember Desmond was not on the plane, neither was Walt on the plane. Maybe the theory of no copies of same people in the past is right.

5. I could of sworn at one point Michael was confirmed dead by Damon and Carlton also guy who plays Michael is on that new show coming out soon The Unusuals.

6. I always assumed Cindy went marching with the other, others to the temple. My biggest thing I am looking to see tied up so far is, 2 things we might get the answers to in the end but:
Who is Adam and Eve (the skeleton couple found in season 1 in the caves)
What is in the middle of the island something seems to be import on there according to the hatch map.

Anonymous said...

I'm not so sure that Jughead is going to be the incident. This is based on the knowledge I have from Arzt's blog, but whatever the incident is, it will happen within a few episodes. Whatever it is will have a fundamental effect on some of the characters in 1977. I don't want to give away a whole lot, since not everyone may have seen the spoilers.

As to the Swan and the nuke. As closely as Alpert watches the island, and his distrust of the Dharma people, I would think it highly unlikey that he would allow them to build anything near that device.

There is also the issue with magnetism, the strength of the EM field as witnessed when it a)crashed flight 815 and b) when Locke destroyed the computer before Desmond turned the failsafe key, would have ripped the Jughead device apart. Even buried in concrete, that much power would have torn the device apart leaving a very deadly radiation cloud in it's wake.

I believe that the concrete was placed in such a way to protect the inhabitants, as well as the equipment of the Swan from the intense magnetic field that was building up during the 108 minute phase. Think of it as a concrete and steel faraday cage, about the only protection from EM currently known. The pressing of the button then discharged the field safely, at least based on the sounds of machinery starting up when the button press failed to happen.

I firmly believe that the Swan was built to harness the unique magnetic properties, but the incident changed that.

Bigdog - I swear the look of the smoke or fog was proceeding out the door. The door did swing outward, not inward, so the door would have been blown open by the outward moving smoke. Again, just my thinking in watching it a few times.

Anonymous said...

Jo,

Love your blogs! Just wanted to chime in on the Ilana portion of your blog. She did in fact mumble "Jarrah", wondering where her "prisoner" Sayid was. I watch the show with closed captions on all the time so that I can catch anything that you might not be able to hear clearly. Just wanted to point that out so people don't think anything more of it. Keep up the awesome work!

Nikki

Anonymous said...

I don't know if anyone has figured this out or not....but i came to realize it a couple of episodes ago....the four-toe statue encases the hydrogen bomb....which makes sense....because Sawyer asked Richard did they bury the bomb and Richard acted like he was confused about that.....so i have come to believe it is encased in the statue....it went off which explains why the statue is gone except for the foot....and that the radiation would prevent women getting pregnant on the island. Sooooooo.... the time everyone is in is "pre-bomb" and that is the big incident. TV guide mentioned that Locke would go back in time to prevent a major castastrophe....and i believe it is the bomb.

Suzanne said...

Question -- has anyone discussed Ethan's birth and how it doesn't make sense for him to be born in 1977?

I mean, obviously there is lots of time travel on the island -- but if he were born in 1977... that would make him only 24 when the plane crashed... and even younger than that when he recruited Juliet -- but he looked like he was in his late thirtys, early fourtys.....

Plus, where does the last name "Rom" come from? Shouldn't his name be Ethan Goodspeed?

Of course, I know that there is always the chance that Rom is Amy's maiden name or just a made up name or even the last name of the Other family that adopted him after the purge... but I'm still very curious about the age thing... anyone have any thoughts on that? Am I overanalyzing this?

Anonymous said...

Ilana said "Jarrah" - as shown in the closed captioning. Since she was escorting him and he disappeared, it makes since that that is what she would say.

Jo said...

Thanks for the comments!

Just a reminder that this is a spoiler-free blog. If you've read something about an upcoming episode on another site (Doc, Dark, EW, TVguide, etc.), I would like to ask that you do not reference it here out of respect for the readers who come here for spoiler-free theorizing and discussion.

I appreciate your feedback and consideration!

Anonymous said...

My apologies Jo, my intent wasn't to spoil anything in the future episodes.

My feeling on Amy not wearing a jumpsuit is it was probably done because of the pregnancy. We know that she was originally scheduled to leave the island when the sub arrived, and that would have pretty well eliminated her job duties in processing. I don't think Dharma would have wanted to make new jumpsuits for Amy just for the short time she was pregnant. And I don't believe they have to wear them at all times, since Sawyer was seen in 'street' clothes when Jack came to his home.

TechnoPrep said...

Hey, Jo...You have been busy!!!

I want to add a few points but you are making it tough since I can't post spoilers! So, I'll just say "Awesome Post"! Miss you!

technoprep

Anonymous said...

scarlettsusan - I don't think the bomb could be inside the statue. The statue is not there in 1977. We know this because during the flashes after Locke turned the wheel the statue appeared, but then after another flash the statue was no longer visible. This is when the lefties were left in 1977, with no statue. So if the bomb does end up being part of the incident it could not be in the statue.

JO - We know Sun, Ben, Lapidus, etc. are in late 2007 early 2008 because the words something like, "30 years ago" are shown when we move from Sun's group to Sawyer's. Since we know Sayer's group is in 1977 ...

Regarding the mention of the 17 comments from the previous post - I read your posts all the time, but never comment. I never gave it much thought that to a blogger seeing comments probably gives the blogger the same feeling a musician gets when they play and a crowd gathers.

From know on, even if I really don't have anything to say, I'll drop a comment letting you know I read the entry. :)

Anonymous said...

In reference to the "You look just like her" comment about Juliet...I always assumed that the "her" being referred to was Ben's mom. Since he never really got to meet his mother, apart from the time he saw her ghost (?) in the jungle as a child, and seeing her standing briefly outside of his window, I would think that his attraction to Juliet might stem from the fact that she looks like the mother he never had. Just a thought. However, I do LOVE the idea about the painting being of Juliet and that the painting is what was actually being referenced to. Being that the "You look just like her" statement was made LONG before time travel was introduced, I only assumed that his mother was being referenced (he did, after all, have a photograph of his mother and father), but with the introduction of time travel, and now that we know young Ben and Juliet are in fact in the Dharma Initiative at the same time, this theory of Ben's attraction to Juliet starting back in the 70's is wonderful and entirely possible! I love a good mind *bleep*!

PS-- I love Sawyer and Juliet together as well.

PPS-- Hmmm... just thought of something. And I could just be very very slow, so my apologies if this has been brought up before-- Ben's mother and John's mother both have the same first name-- Emily. Could be totally insignificant, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Anonymous said...

So many interesting theories, where to start?

I respectfully disagree with the theory that the group in 2008 is there because they cannot meet past selves. First, Chang and Miles are both Chinese and Sun is Korean so I don't think Sun is Chang's daughter. Also I think there would have to already have been some hint that Sun was once on the Island like there has been with other characters. Maybe the Island just decided which character's destinies were bound up in each time and sent them there accordingly.

I think the parallels we are seeing (i.e. Sun/Rose, Caesar/Locke) play into the whole concept of reincarnation. It seems that each character is representing an archetype that causes them to unwittingly make the same choices as previous characters. If time is circular like a record and that record is now playing again after skipping maybe what we see in 2008 is the wrong people filling the traditional roles.

On another note the closed captioning confirms that Ilana says 'Jarrah' (as in Sayid) rather than Sarah but it is very confusing.

Looking forward to tonight.

1Miletogo said...

I just rewatched Namaste and noticed that Chang assigned Jack to The Shed... Could this be the DHARMA door station?