LOST ReWatch Week #8: Orientation, Everybody Hates Hugo, ...And Found & Abandoned

I must apologize for the delay - I am now two weeks behind in this Rewatch project! However, I think most of you will forgive me because the delay was caused by travel and Comic-Con. For those who missed it, here is my recap and analysis of the last ever Lost panel, accompanied by photos and links to all of the videos. :)

In addition, I just made the switch from PC to Mac and am furiously trying to learn a whole new bag of technology tricks to improve upon this and my other sites. So please excuse any spacing or photo size issues in advance.

I encourage you to also visit my fellow Lost Rewatch friends who are sharing their fresh perspective about previous seasons of our favorite show!

So let's crawl beneath the Swan together, lean our collective heads against the concrete and try to figure out if what happened did indeed happen...

Crossing Paths

While Shannon and her step-mother find out that her father did not survive a car crash, Jack walks by them in the hospital corridor.

Moments earlier, Jack had made the decision to save his future wife Sarah rather than Shannon's father after the two were in the accident.

Goosebump-Inducing Dialogue

Everybody Hates Hugo

Jin, in Hurley's dream: "Everything's going to change."

Mrs. Reyes, to Hurley: "You have to change your life. Do you think someone will change it for you?"

Hurley: "I'm sorry, but I can't let it happen again." [although he was referring to the food pantry, I immediately thought about his reaction to seeing the Swan being built in 1977 and the subsequent Jughead detonation, as well as the original dynamite blast which opened the hatch in 2004 that he tried to prevent...]

...And Found

Locke: "I'm not lost anymore."

Sun: "How did you do that?"
Locke: "Same way anything lost gets found; I stopped looking."

Abandoned

Shannon: "I need you to believe in me."

Parallels

In Orientation...

Helen says the following to Locke:

"You don't know what's going to happen. None of us do. It's why it's called a LEAP OF FAITH."

Locke says the following to Jack:

"I can't do this alone. I don't want to. It's a LEAP OF FAITH."

In 316 (S5), Eloise Hawking said the following to Jack:

"Start asking yourself whether or not you believe it's going to work. That's why it's called a LEAP OF FAITH."

In And Found...

Sun loses her wedding ring after burying a bottle of notes from the raft that Jin was supposed to be on.

In This Place is Death (S5)...

Jin gives Locke his wedding band to convince Sun that he's dead so she won't return to the island.

Significant Firsts

We see Pierre Chang as Dr. Marvin Candle in the Swan Orientation Film.

We also hear the names Hanso and DeGroot for the first time.

Jin speaks English (even though it's only in Hurley's dream).

We meet Libby; ironically, the first person she speaks with is Michael, who later kills her.

We are introduced to the Arrow Station.

We meet Bernard.

We find out Mr. Eko's name.

Bernard

I know the man was a Dentist, but he later assisted Juliet with Jack's beach side appendectomy. So...I am now curious why he did not offer to help or even look at Sawyer's infected bullet wound when they were making their original trek to the beach.

Further proof that there was more than meets the eye about Bernard - his Morse Code interpretation skills in S4.

Cindy

Was she taken by the Others or did she disappear on purpose; did Cindy ditch Ana Lucia & co. to join them? She was the only crew member from Flight 815 to survive, and unscathed at that. Conspiracy theorists...what are your thoughts about her allegiance?

Helen

I know I'm not the only one who thinks that Locke's girlfriend is still alive. Abaddon told him that she'd passed away from a brain aneurysm and took him to her grave, but as we've seen on Lost before...that does not necessarily indicate that she's dead and buried.

It seems rather unlikely now that Locke will have a happy ending on this series, but I hold a small glimmer of hope that he will reunite with Helen (perhaps in an alternate reality/timeline?).

Jack

Jack's 180 degree transformation from Seasons 1-2 to Season 5 is fascinating. He went from devout man of science to unstoppable man of faith.

He was infuriated by the countdown clock and button pushing, and did not believe one word out of Desmond's mouth. By the end of S5, there was no deterring the Doc when he believed that detonating a bomb would shift them back to the future.

Libby

I am very rarely disappointed with any aspect of Lost. However, that we'll never find out what Libby's real backstory was is atop my short list of frustrating, unresolved mysteries.

Being reintroduced to her character in Season 2...I just love that she said she was a clinical psychologist when clearly she'd spent time in a mental institution as a patient.

There are a few key aspects from the little we do know about her that intrigue the hell out of me; that her deceased husband was named David and Hurley's imaginary friend was named Dave, that Dave and Hurley were at the same institution as Libby, that she gave David's boat to Desmond - which is how he arrived on the island.

Personally, I believe that she is Penny's half-sister; that she was the reason younger Widmore was exiled from the island when he had an affair with a civilian that resulted in a pregnancy.

Darlton have confirmed on many occasions that actress Cynthia Watros has either been unavailable or uninterested in returning to the show. It seems that they would be interested in filling us in, given the opportunity to do so.

Dear Cynthia Watros:

Please return to Oahu at least once in the next ten months. Yours is an integral role and we are clamoring for closure.

Seriously and thank you,

The fans

Locke

Some of you will jump all over me because it was a mere prop...

...but I still contend that Bentham's obit is significant because it said that he had a son.

I rarely think about that possibility, but Locke's uncanny paternal nature with Claire & Aaron and his swaddling knowledge replanted that seed in my mind.

Before you politely disagree with me (hint hint; you know I'm not a fan of criticism that isn't constructive), keep in mind the possibility of an Alternate Reality element in S6. I strongly encourage you to watch the Hurley, Kate and Oceanic commercials that they played at Comic-Con; both hint quite obviously toward two possibilities. First, that the passengers of Flight 815 never boarded that plane or crashed on the island. Second, that their lives and luck were entirely different BEFORE getting on Flight 815 and crashing on the island.

The Others

The kidnapped Tail Section people were on the list for being "good people," and we know that they're alive because we later glimpse Cindy and the kids both on Hydra Island at the cages and in Other tent camp with Ben. Is it safe to assume that they all reside inside the walls of or beneath the Temple?

I still find it rather puzzling that Darlton confirmed on a podcast that the barefoot Other child who was dragging a teddy bear through the jungle was neither Zach or Emma. Why else focus on that bear when the Tail Section siblings first landed on the beach?

Rose

From the very beginning, Rose was resolute about her belief that husband Bernard was alive; it certainly seemed like far more than simple faith. I also think back to the faith healer in Australia who told her that he could not heal her because she was not "in the right place yet" and then her cancer WAS healed upon arrival on the island. It seems to me that Rose may have been visited by Jacob and his magic touch at some point in her life before Flight 815.

The Swan

What struck me at Comic-Con was the number of times that both Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet) and Darlton said that certain events would take place and specific characters would return "if Jack's plan worked." After re-watching Orientation, it seems quite clear (at least to me) that Jack's plan DID work...

According to Dr. Candle in the orientation film, the Swan was "originally constructed as a laboratory where scientists could work to understand the unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the island." He then makes reference to 'the incident' and explains the new protocol for pressing the button every 108 minutes as a result.

So...the obvious conclusion is that Jack's plan worked, that Jughead detonated and caused The Incident, and that a team was then put in place to study those properties beneath it. That the Swan continued to be constructed after the detonation seems to indicate that it may have shifted them forward in time but left relatively little physical damage to the locale. The concrete beneath the station (which Sayid noted was similar to Chernobyl) must have been used to block off any remaining dangerous electromagnetic issues caused by Jughead.

It is also significant to note the Candle appears to have a prosthetic left hand in this film; remember that Chang's left hand was crushed during The Incident.

For those of you who are convinced that the detonation of Jughead did not change anything...

1. Do you believe that the Swan construction continued and it was completed and staffed without any incident?
2. If so, what incident is Candle referring to the in the film?
3. If what happened, happened...is Juliet alive or dead at the bottom of the Swan shaft?
4. What do you make of the flash that occurred when she appeared to detonate the bomb; mere television SFX or time shifting indication?

Walt

On the island, Walt has appeared on several occasions in places he wasn't supposed to be (recalling the warning from Other kidnapper Ms. Klugh to his father Michael). We know that he has special telekinetic powers, but we must also ponder whether or not Mystery Man/NotLocke ever embodied young Walt to communicate/warn his friend in these instances...

Wet Ghost Walt appeared to Shannon and then Shannon & Sayid.

Taller Ghost Walt later appeared to tell Locke that he had work to do after Locke had been shot and left for dead by Ben in the Dharma ditch.

By the way, I love that in Hurley's dream, Walt was shown as Missing on his milk carton when he had no idea that Walt was no longer on the raft at that time.

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That wraps up this installment of my belated Lost Rewatch episode analysis. Stay tuned sooner than later, as I will tackle The Other 48 Days, Collision, What Kate Did and The 23rd Psalm next! Fair warning - I have always liked Ana Lucia, so the gloves are on if you are on opposite ends of the beach with that one...

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramble!

-Jo