Lost Discussion Group: More Mysteries of Lost

Proof yet again that Lost is the smartest show on television…what a spot-on parody/homage to the late 1970s/early 1980s conspiracy doucmentary……incredible.

One “clue” you didn’t pick up on, James — the reference to “Phil” a “security guard” — this is clearly the same Phil that Sawyer ties up after Phil discovers him helping Kate with Ben, etc…..

Question #4 just made me realize how much I miss Lost right now . . .

Olivia was portrayed by Samantha Mathis back in “The Man Behind the Curtain” (Ben’s original flashback episode); she was with Horace when they ran into Emily/Roger/Ben and was later the schoolteacher on The Island.

(Apparently, she was supposed to be Horace’s wife, but the actress declined to come back for Season 5′s 1970s arc, so they retconned her into being Horace’s sister and brought in Reiko Aylesworth.)

And I’m not sure if Phil’s mention is anything more than humor. Phil was already on The Island back in 1974; the copyright on the first bit was sometime in the 1980s (iirc), so either that interview is way old or we’re dealing with a new timeline where Phil didn’t join until the 1980s. I’m not opposed to a new timeline, but the question is why the 815ers not traveling back in time would alter history even before the point they went back to (again, Phil was on The Island before Sawyer & Co. were).

Until we know who is responsible for these, I am going to treat them as non-canon humor.

@Tom Shaw — I belive the clip’s reference to Phil is meant to be retroactive. In other words, the guy is talking about Phil disappearing sometime far in the past, pre-1980….thus the timing matches up.

Since these clips will be on the Season 5 DVD, I would say they are canon, much like the conspiracy documentary about the Oceanic 6 is.

This clip reminded me of how disappointed I was that we didn’t learn more about the dharma initiative last season. I could watch a whole new series just about the DI.

If this is canon, I’m not too sure what we could garner detail-wise (Phil took the job in Michigan, Olivia in Portland… both places are already relevant in the lore; the one thing I’ll note about Portland is Mittelos was in Portland – is it a coincidence that Mittelos was in Portland and the DI also had a presence in Portland, recruiting Olivia and the Linuses?). Whether it’s canon or not, I think the whole purpose is to stir up interest in the DI. If you could call it a spoiler, maybe it tells us that the DI is going to have a significant role in S6, even though I think a lot of the fans have put it into the back of their minds, thanks to Esau and potential space-time craziness.

I dunno. I think I’m going to wait and see the entire “series” before passing judgement. Parsing the minutiae of a Lost episode, well, there’s enough there. Six minutes, on the other hand, I know will just drive me crazy. I feel heretical typing this…

http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:MOTU_advert.jpg

Notice the hieroglyphics on the side of the film canister. Subtle link between the DI and the Island’s history or red herring to drive overly-analytical fans crazy?

These chunks are only coming out once a month? They’re going to need to be more intriguing than that to keep interest up for the next 6 months. Something tells me the last chunk will clearly indicate we’re dealing with a new timeline (though again, I think the primary timeline’s Losties will, either their whole bodies or just their consciousness, end up in the new timeline), thus prompting interest in seeing just how Season 6 works.

Although the Horace in Portland mentions do have me thinking:

If we trust Locke’s-dream-Horace, Horace was familiar with The Cabin.

Something was apparently contained in The Cabin. Given that we’ve seen Jacob out in the world but we haven’t seen Esau, and troops supposedly loyal to Jacob intended to harm whomever was in The Cabin, it seems reasonably safe to assume that Esau was the one in The Cabin.

Horace was in the right spot at the right time to ensure Ben survived his early childbirth.

Therefore, does the history not suggest the mirror situation: Much as Locke told Richard of his imminent birth, did Esau not foretell Horace of the birth of the future “chosen one” (Ben)?

(Note: I still think that Cabin-Esau told Horace/whomever that he was Jacob. Given that my thinking on the Room 23 video hasn’t changed (there is very little to suggest it post-dates The Purge), it now makes me wonder just which “Jacob” the video refers to.)

@tyrantking: The showrunners said at Comic-Con that the DI isn’t featured in Season 6. I’m not sure I believe them.
Why tease us with Radzinsky’s mention of how important their work is in the Season 5 finale?
Even assuming the timeline is changed from 1977 on, how do you explain the 60s/70s Island history without going into the DIs history? Sure, you could shorthand it to Esau-as-Jacob invited them there, but you have to explain what they wanted to accomplish to know why they would go there.
Why continue the Ann Arbor mentions if they will never be resolved?

Etc.

One other thing I thought of typing this out I’d like to touch (pun intended) upon:
Back in The Wheel cave, Esau-as-Christian 2.0 told Locke he couldn’t help him up. We also saw that Jacob noticeably touched the 815ers. Are these related? Does Esau/Jacob touching someone block their future use of his/her corpse/image?

@Tom – Maybe the rule that Esau needs to find a loophole around is that he’s not allowed to touch anything (or what? He dies?). Though Ghost-Alex did touch Ben. I dunno… but it makes a lot of sense that touching is part of the rule set.

Re: Horace – I was thinking that Horace was just an Esau image, showing Locke what he needed to see in order to get Locke to the cabin.

I dunno, it’s all really overwhelming. I’m super excited about the last season, but it’s kind of daunting to really try to get a grasp on the whole series again, since the emergence of Esau really put everything into an uncertain state.