We’re going to try something new for these LOST posts.
Instead of me spouting off random ideas and theories, I’m going to shoot those ideas and theories over to the person who’s watched the most LOST of anyone I know, my brother Jordan.
(He’s seen most episodes over 5 times, as he’s introduced a handful of friends to the show over the years.)
Hopefully these posts will feel more like a conversation than a brain dump. Jordan’s thoughts will be in bold, mine’s won’t, and here we go…
LOST 5.05 This Place is Death
Alright jordan, let’s talk about “This Place is Death”…I thought it was a fantastic episode full of great moments. Jin realizing the monster was on the prowl before the Frenchies new something was up, Charlotte’s freaky quotes (and freaky faces), and of course, Ben pulling over the van to give the kids a whooping. Did you have a favorite moment?
i think you just said it. ben pulling the van over to yell at jack and sun was great. he was like alright listen, either you’re with me or not. so make up your mind and we can get on with it. to be fair, they were talking about killing him, that is kind of rude with him sitting right there driving and all.
true it was rude. and it it was funny because Jack was trying to sound all brave in front of Ben, and Ben totally called his bluff. after that Jack just sat there quietly in the back, even though we all know that Ben has lied to these folks time and time again. And yet they want to believe him. We want to believe him.
Let’s move on to Faraday. It seems with each passing episode, Daniel’s role in the story carries more and more weight. Some people think he’s ageless like Richard Alpert, some think he’s a “special time traveler” like Desmond, and others think he is Jacob. I can’t help but keep thinking back to the opening of Season 4 (i think that’s when it was) when Faraday saw Flight 815 crash on TV and was bawling. Any thoughts as to what is going on with him?
yeah he is definitely climbing his way up the ranks as far as cool characters are concerned. and lost has plenty of them. theres a lot left of daniels story to explain to us. should be very interesting.
And he whispers a lot, which is a nice quality, i think.
When Desmond showed up in L.A. and announced to Ben that he was there to see Daniel’s mother, Ben seemed a bit surprised. If there’s one thing we know about Ben, it’s that he is usually not surprised. Do you think he was surprised that Desmond was there? Was he surprised that Ellie Hawkings was Daniel’s mom? Or was he surprised that Daniel had learned that fact?
not sure. initially i thought that ben didn’t know that ms hawking was dan’s mom. but after thinking it through that seems unilkely. ben knew everything about charlotte and keamy and everyone else on the freighter because michael did some spying for him.
Yeah, i agree. the chances of Ben being in cahoots with someone hiding that big of a secret are about zero. Also, if Desmond is in L.A., is Penny nearby? Perhaps Ben wants to take this opportunity to go after Widmore’s daughter? And why would Widmore send Ben to L.A. anyway? Doesn’t he know Hawking is working with Ben? Is Hawking his twin sister or ex-lover? Who knows…
pretty sure hawking is ellie from 1954. ellie seems an appropriate nickname for eloise. same accent, right time frame. her and widmore were chums, maybe they had a power struggle and ben is really working for ms hawking. seems like she was ordering him around a little bit. penny is definitely nearby, she told desmond she was going with him, so she is probably following him everywhere he goes now.
Oh yeah, forgot she told him that. And speaking of Ben, I wonder if he’ll go back to the island with the O6 or not. I would think not, because he didnt leave with them, but we’ll find out soon…
im guessing he will go back. only time will tell.
ahh we disagree. It’s a bet, then. Whoever loses has to wrestle the smoke monster with one arm tied behind their back.
So what is actually causing the island to skip, the Donkey Wheel being off its axis, or the O6 leaving? Seems to me it might have been the Donkey Wheel being off. And if John Locke just fixed it, does that mean the island will stop skipping now? And if so, does that mean the LOSTies are now trapped in whatever time they are in (and wouldn’t that be convenient if it was Jan 2008…because that would explain why the 70 hour window was so critical, Hawking new they had to get back to the island now because it would line them up with where the LOSTies were in time)?
that seems very plausible. but then why do the O6 need to come back if the island stopped skipping when locke fixed the wheel?
yeah that’s what i can’t figure out either. Remember, it’s Ben and Richard convincing them they need to go back. Is it even true? And why was the Donkey Wheel not Frozen this time? Was it so hard for Ben to turn it last time because it was frozen, or because he wasnt supposed to be moving it? Did Ben knock it off axis on purpose or was that an accident? Did he know the island would start skipping , and that’s why he wanted off of it? (sorry, I’m asking questions that are impossible to answer)
yeah, you got me on those ones.
Moving forward, it looks like Charlotte died on the island. In an indirect way, it was Ben who killed who because he was the one who moved the Frozen Donkey Wheel and left it off its axis, causing the island to skip? Imagine if Charlotte was Annie…then Ben would have indirectly killed her. Or maybe Charlotte was Annie’s daughter? not sure if thats possible. (and what was that comment about eating chocolate before bed? i’m guessing that will be a clue to her identity down the road)
yeah i don’t know, don’t think she is annie. maybe annie and ben’s daughter. she said she had to leave with her mom and leave her dad behind on the island. we know annie is going to be important in some way. that would mean ben indirectly killed both of his daughters.
Ben would be sad to hear you say that. It was Widmore who changed the rules, according to Ben. Or maybe that’s Ben skirting responsibility for not saving his daughter.
Back to Charlotte, when she said, “Do not bring her back here, this place is death!” i dont think she was walking to Jin about Sun. I think she was remembering exactly what Daniel told her in the past. I think we’ll see Daniel scream that to her in a future episode when Charlotte is a little girl. That was a freaky scene.
yeah that was probably about sun. she was yelling in korean. and yeah daniel being the old scary man telling charlotte never to come back. probably around the same time he was hanging out with pierre chang in the orchid.
On an unrelated note, could there be some significance to bringing a coffin to the island? Will Locke be just like Christian Shephard once his dead body arrives on the island? Any other thoughts about Christian…his role still remains a mystery to me.
i’m still thinking that maybe locke is jacob. sometimes i also think that christian’s dad is jacob. one of those two. locke has to be reincarnated in some form on the island. if jacob were christian’s dad it would make sense as to why christian and claire can hang out in the cabin, but why not let aaron come back to the island. maybe they want to wait until they can test him to see if he is ready.
Plus, I remember that video you showed me once from the LOST mobisodes, which are considered canon for the show. In it Christian gives Jack a watch that his father had given him or something like that. I can’t remember the significance now. Maybe you can explain it in the comments.
Finally…a few other random things: people have said that the recording of the numbers that the french team was listening to sounded like Hurley…will Jin start getting nose bleeds soon?…were the “sick” French team trying to Kill Danielle, or more specifically, her baby?…pretty awesome that Rousseau told Sayid about removing the firing pin from her husband’s gun in Season 1, and now in Season 5 we see it…
didn’t sound like hurley to me, if i watch again ill listen intently. if the nosebleeds occur to people who have had the most exposure to the island’s properties then i think the losties should have some more time before they are affected. it sure appeared that Robert was trying to kill rousseau when he pulled the trigger of the gun he had pointed at her. maybe the monster killed them in the tunnels and was controlling their bodies? i think there will be a lot more moments like that in episodes to come.
Yeah that’s what I figured, that those were really the dead carcasses being controlled by the monster (pleasant thought). And kudos to the writers for the creative way Montand lost his arm, or rather, his arm lost him. Rousseau mentioned that Montand lost his arm way back in Season 1 and it’s been a joke with the writers on the podcasts since then. Everyone wanted to know how Montand lost his arm…well, we found out.
Thanks for your thoughts Jordan. We’ll do this again next week after episode 5.06, “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham”.