Lost Analysis: Episode 8 -- Time Travel, Anyone?
Warning: Spoilers ahead. Proceed at your own risk or head over to ABC to watch last night's episode first.
Last week's episode kicked off a frenzy of theorizing not seen since the early days of the hatch, the button and the numbers and suddenly talk of "Lost" as a rudderless ship have evaporated, like so much black smoke. Why?
Turns out that the scene in which Karl (Alex's Other boyfriend) is subjected to some kind of sensory overload chamber -- and I dismissed as an homage to "A Clockwork Orange" -- held what looks to be a king-sized clue (or one whopper of a red herring). Thanks to some industrious fans, we now know that the scene contained a backwards message. That's right, a genuine Paul-is-dead moment right here in our very own "Lost:"
Listen closely or you might just miss the voice repeating this cryptic message: "Only fools are enslaved by time and space." (Nevermind the creepy screeching noise that sounds suspiciously like a jet engine.)
And, after last night's revealing Desmond-centric journey through time, it's starting to look like we're finally getting some consistent hints from the sadistic brains behind this weekly brain bender.
Much more after the jump...
Jumping back to last week's episode again (see, we can time travel, too), EW's Doc Jensen has done a bang-up job of distilling the swirling conjecture into one coherent post. It seems that the theory-du-jour (helped along by a glimpse of one of the Others reading a Stephen Hawking book) is that the mysterious force in the hatch that kept Locke, Desmond, Eko, et al. busy pressing buttons was a black hole -- a place where "matter is compressed to the degree that the known laws of physics no longer apply to it." How convenient.
But are we to believe that the minds that brought us "Nash Bridges" and "Felicity" are brainy enough to devise a complicated, scientifically sound quantum physics-based storyline interesting enough to hold the attention of the average TV watcher (or Celebritologist) who may or may not have passed high school science?
Maybe.
Hawking's contention was that "intense gravitational fields of black holes somehow unravel the laws of quantum physics" which makes crazy-cool "Lost" sense considering the magnetic qualities (i.e. gravitational pull) in the hatch and other island oddities. But would this explain a black smoke and pirate ships? If you long to get utterly lost in this particular wormhole, head on over to the TheTailSection.com to continue the discussion.
Returning to this week's show, though, we find Desmond wrestling with the same notion. As he asks his physics-savvy friend: Is time travel possible? And, as quoted in the EW article linked above, the producers want us to consider: "When is a flashback not a flashback?"
Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) gets an earful from Mrs. Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan). (Photo courtesy ABC)As we've learned over the seasons, there are flashbacks (filler) and there are flashbacks (scenes with direct bearing on the island storyline); Desmond's definitely falls into the latter category. Not only did we get more insight into his relationship with Penny, but we also had one of the characters in the flashback give us some pretty straightforward intel:
When Desmond tries to buy Penny an engagement ring, the kindly older woman suddenly tells him he does not buy the ring and goes on to tell Des that if he does marry Penny the world will effectively end. Until I looked up today's episode on IMDB.com, though, I didn't catch that the kindly older woman's name is Mrs. Hawking. Yes, as in Stephen and time travel and black holes and Damon Lindelof, what are you doing to us?
Mrs. Hawking has been inserted into Desmond's flashback, and the show, as a sort of guide (by who, though? Is she the great and powerful Oz or is she the big rabbit to Des's Donnie Darko?). She patiently explains that we can't escape fate, that the universe has a way of "course correcting" and that eventually everyone will play a predetermined part.
On a surface level, we learn that Charlie's lot in life seems to be dying to save Claire. And, considering Charlie's increasingly jealous and possessive treatment of her, I can't say I'm too sorry to see him go. We also seemed to learn that Desmond's pushing of the hatch button is the most important thing he'll ever do, so will he now fade into the background, emerging only when we need a prophet to help the plot?
On a deeper level, let's hope "course correcting" also applies to the circuitous route the show has taken over the last season or so and that this is the writing team's way of letting us know they have a specific end in mind. This may be the case. In last week's EW cover story, Lindelof said:
"I feel like we're playing a chess game and in the first six moves, we've lost our queen and two bishops, and the audience is saying 'They are the worst chess players in the world!' What they don't realize is that we're nine moves away from checkmating you. If we lose, we lose. But that's the play, and we're standing by it."
Fair enough. And with episodes slated to explain Jack's tattoos, Locke's wheelchair and the return of Cindy the Stewardess by season's end, I'm patiently waiting to be checkmated.
Best line of the night goes to Hurley: "Do you know any songs about drinking, fighting and girls with one leg."
Last night's episode made me feel all giddy and excited just like I did during season 1. I was very, very happy with it!
is a dead man walking, but you may be right since it seems obvious now.
Interesting...and coming up this week...
It's sad what he went through. 