This is a blog.

This is a letter to the Public Relations department of ABC Studios.
(This is not a flash forward).

We at Lostpedia would like to officially request an interview.

I watched the enhanced version of Through the Looking Glass, and (we're about to share a big moment): I was enhanced.

The Powers that Be (including script supervisor Gregg Nations) have denied having a hand in the enhancement captions. "Papa is very angry." They gave away all those mirror secrets.

But I really enjoyed the writing. I mean: WHAT writer's strike?

So let us please have an interview with the writing intern from ABC's marketing department responsible for the enhanced captions. He/she was amazing. Let me list the ways.

I had forgotten who Rousseau was, but luckily there were those popup pics to remind me. She looked crazy.

And most of all I'd forgotten who the scary dude was. He seemed awfully familiar.
You read my mind, and said:
"This scary dude is Ben Linus, the leader of the Others."
Oh yeah.

The ABC intern did his homework, maybe on the Internets. The Black Rock is a 19th century slaving ship. St. Sebastian is a protector from the plague. Pascal Flats is a reference to... ooo my mind was spinning.

But what about Richard Alpert? He's Ben's advisor, but there was no Ram Dass explanation in the caption. GRRR. And he highlighted Pascal Flats, but why did he ignore where Richard was actually taking all the Others? THE TEMPLE THE TEMPLE. WTH.

Wait wait, let me calm down, and get back on topic.

I was truly impressed. The ABC marketing intern read up on the last name Nadler, and labeled the Nirvana song playing in Jack's car (I guess Sarah sold his BMW).

And, yes, yes, YESSSS:
DHARMA is always all-caps, because it's an acronym-- have the caption writer go educate the film crew, since the prop master apparently doesn't know that. High five.

The sad part was all those boring parts when I had to sit through the actual show, when the captions dropped out. (More captions next time!)

Thankfully these caption dropouts were few because who actually wanted to watch the acting? Oh, the emotion in the enhanced caption, just tell it to me, it's spoonfed to me like Heroes:
"Clearly Jack is in great despair".
"Ben knows that he is SERIOUS"
"Jack and Kate are about to share a big moment."
"That's right, all three are highly motivated." (List)

Thanks ABC intern! That's what television is all about.

I was just drawn right into... "our gang."
Psst: Our gang = the characters we are rooting for.
(Remind me to put a new entry in the Lostpedia nickname article.)

And did I mention the quality of the sublime writing?
I'll say it again: WHAT writer's strike? We have lines like:

"hang on everybody, our triangle has just become... a quadrangle."
"Patchy, regrettably sans patch"
"It's not easy to be the leader of the Others"

And there was even fan service:
"Jaters are no doubt gleeful."

Ok, ok, I know ABC has to cater to the least common denominator and not the Lost-fan-without-a-life (i.e., people reading this blog, Jaters, and of course myself). Lost must capitalize on the barren landscape of WGA-less shows in the midst of the strike, and we can't afford to lose any audience due to the complex story. Here's the chance to Heroes-ify Lost without the creators of Lost having a say. Good for you.

So back to my first request.

May we have an interview with the ABC intern(s) responsible for the enhanced captions? We'd love to get in contact with him/her, but don't know how.

And in case you didn't get it, this is a STAR WARS reference, when Princess Leia triggered Artoo's message:

Help me ABC PR Dep't, you're my only hope. Please grant us this interview.

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Suspension of Disbelief

Now that I've had several months to sit and stew, there's one thing that has bummed me about Lost lately, and I've noticed it has just festered and has not gone away on its own.

But before I get to that, let me say:
As most of you here, I enjoy Lost. This is an understatement with all of the trivial knowledge I've absorbed maintaining the wiki. I am (barring Exposé) a very loyal fan.

Lost is the type of fiction that invites the kind of analysis that would support one of the largest wikis on the Internet.

The writers and props people take care to insert details that interconnect, often across episodes and even seasons. TPTB actually have faith in the intelligence of the viewer, and don't spoon feed it to you then hammer it violently into your face for good measure like Heroes. The self-consistent details are just there, so when you look harder, anywhere you look, they emerge. It's not a LOTR level of detail, but for television it's impressive, (and perhaps unprecedented in this new age of HD and online memes), and the effect is the same: I really begin to believe in this universe, that it could really exist.

It's not real, but it has a undeniable sense of reality.

Unfortunately, in Season 3, this sense has been somewhat eroded, and I have to actually work to maintain my suspension of disbelief. I don't mean storyline stuff like: "I don't believe the whole Skate interaction at the cages was realistic."

What bothers me is the really obvious stuff that just shouts out: THIS IS FAKE, and it does so intentionally. For me, the anagrams do this. There is no need for HOFFS DRAWLAR mortuary. There is no need for HERARAT Aviation. MITTELOS Bioscience: ditto.

Some fans may call these Easter eggs and eagerly consume them so that they can pat themselves on the back for being überfan-enough to know them all.

To me, these are nothing more than self-indulgent graffiti. It is a glaring sore in Lost's fabric of reality just so the TPTB can say "Kilroy was here". It is simply not believable, the names are not believable, and because it is totally inconsistent with the rest of the universe of Lost, the only explanation for the existence of these names is something that comes from outside the universe of Lost. Could Jack actually have stopped and decoded the anagram and changed his storyline? No, the message was not meant for him, or anyone else in the Lost universe. Hence, my new need for the suspension of disbelief.

The anagrams in these obvious places are completely unlike the coincidences in the crossing flashbacks of the characters, which are firmly rooted in storyline and the mythology of how the universe of Lost operates. It is also unlike small references like Eddie's Geronimo Jackson shirt, or small references to The Lost Experience (TLE) like considerably more obscure Korean sign and conversation in D.O.C.

Speaking of TLE, I had no problems with anagrams there because it was an intrinsic part of a game, and its canonicity is a grey area.

Ethan Rom I could handle, because the names are real; there really are people named Ethan and those with the surname Rom, and to me this is just part of mythology and allegory much like the use of Philosophers' names: Locke, Rousseau, Alpert, Bakunin, etc.

But a big sign with a name inconsistent with the universe of Lost? That's a visual I can't ignore, and to me it's worse than product placement. Hoffs Drawlar is just as bad as if I saw a real advertisement for the upcoming presidential election on a billboard during a flashback. TPTB shouldn't toy with the universe, even if it is theirs.

Comments?

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The Unexplored Third Season‎

We have just gotten word about the Season 3 box set DVDs. For all of you who constantly complain about the fourth season of our favorite show not being broadcast until February 2008, we'll have to wait just for six months until this bad boy of DVDs comes out. They have set the current release date for "Lost - The Unexplored Third Season" for December 11th. Of course, this doesn't exactly mean that it will come out on December 11th, given last year's Season 2 DVD date switch-around. Anyway, it looks like it's going to be a boring hiatus, in my opinion. Really, the only thing that we have to look forward to now is the release of the (supposed) video game.

Read related story...

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Easter eggs: paintings and Volvos in One of Us

Lostpedia is always on the prowl for easter eggs, and here we're reporting something that I haven't seen in other Lost fansites yet. There are several paintings in the operating room at Juliet' failed OB-GYN surgery in her island flashback. The two paintings are by American painter Georgia O'Keefe, whose is known for close-up renditions of flowers that resemble the external female reproductive organs, an appropriate theme for Juliet's fertility surgery. The two paintings are O'Keefe's 1919 "Music: Pink and Blue II"¹ (left), and 1923 "Grey Line with Black, Blue and Yellow" ² (right). You can read more in the wiki in the "cultural references" section of our episode summary.

Something we have not been able to identify is the watercolor painting of flowers hanging in Juliet's bedroom with Goodwin. Watch it again and try to ignore Juliet. If you have a clue what this painting is, please drop us a note in the comments here for your eternal fame. Finally, did you notice those photographs of the young Alexandra Rousseau in Ben's office? Somehow I get the feeling we'll see those again.

As you may already know, tracking automobiles featured in Lost is somewhat of an obsession at Lostpedia. The one interesting find was Juliet's car when she drove with her sister to Mittelos' secure airport (right). It's a Volvo. In fact it looks a lot like Sawyer's Volvo S70 from The Long Con back in Season 1 (left). What do you think? Lost's production crew has done this before, especially with the famed Golden Pontiac (featured in Locke, Michael, and Kate's flashbacks), but also with the re-use of Tom Brennan's gray BMW 5-series sedan (1x22 "Born to Run") in Jin's flashback (3x02 "The Glass Ballerina) as Jae Lee's landing pad, but this Volvo isn't used as a stunt vehicle (incurring damage), so we're not sure it's the same, and the window frames may or may not match. Click the automobiles link above to read all about it.

  

--Ho ho ho

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Episode Blog - The Cost of Living

Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed the episode. I did an analysis for my own userpage blog not knowing that it'd end up on here, but I hope y'all like my extensive level of analysis:

I saw the episode last night and let me tell you, what a nice way to end an otherwise horrible day. Not that the day was bad, merely cause I did college, work and sport and had no proper food all day and so by the time I got home at like 11pm I felt like throwing up (nice imagery there). So anyway, I got myself some hot chocolate and had some grapes (not a good combo I might add) and sat down to watch the show. And what an episode it was! Fantastic minus more weird supernatural dream scenes - though even them now are making a little more sense which made me feel a lot better about my anxieties that the thin supernatural ice Lost is shaking was starting to crack. Anyway after such a good ep I skimmed through it again doing my blog notes, before retiring from exhaustion. So here I am on this Friday afternoon ready for an epic rant...I mean review.

As so much happened this week I'm just gonna skip Eko's flashbacks, which again I feel is secondary narrative this Season and is hardly that necessary to the character arcs anymore - but hey not to put a downer on an episode which featured great Monster time. Anyway, first point of call is Colleen's funeral where Jack and the Others are wearing their new agey robes. This got me thinking, new agey, DHARMA is new agey! You know it makes sense peeps... Anyway I found the scene very enjoyable as we actually see Ben crack for once, I know he's a clever guy who deceived everyone when he was captured, but I defy you to suggest his fear at Jack's words was him acting again. That man was genuinely scared without a doubt. It definitely showed though why they took Jack, but again just made me think "huh, this still doesn't explain why they didn't take him, Kate and Sawyer when they went after Michael and got cornered". I brushed this off with "maybe Ben didn't know til later", but as I'll mention in a few, this rationale would also be shattered.

Now to Eko wandering off, when I heard that New York cab printer noise I jumped for joy - the Monster!!! Always cool to see it, one of my more favourite mysteries along with the Rousseau saga and DHARMA stations. I'll discuss this further in a few. So back at the camp, Nikki and Paulo are conveniently invited along on John's mission. I found the staging of this quite funny as John proclaims "no, anyone is welcome" but the only new people he actually says this to is those two, uncanny. Also in this scene it became pretty obvious that Nikki and Paulo are "mixin' it" (as someone at college called it today). Side note, how convenient Desmond suddenly says "oh the computer can also communicate with other ones, even though the guy in the Orientation film said do nothing other than number pressing". I think this whole scene was just a poor string tier...

Now back to Eko again, and I'm trying to understand by note here where I wrote simply "Harry Potter moment". What do I mean? Ah yes, the monster's reflection in the water, very Basilisk (god I'm sad). Anyway next is Juliet and the cheeseburger, always handy to find a girl who can make you it from scratch by killing a cow (I thought that line was a nice touch...). God I'm craving a cheeseburger now. Anyway, to the bit I mentioned before! I figured they didn't take Jack earlier when they had the chance cause they didn't know Ben was dying, but then he said he found out two days before Flight 815 crashed, so that flew out my theory. Why didn't they take him before then, eh? Well the only thing I have left now might be that they didn't get Jack's "This is Your Life" file until much later, so Ben and the Others didn't actually know he was a surgeon until like just after they took Michael - which is the only solution right now I can muster that makes sense let me tell you! Still doesn't explain Kate or Sawyer though apart from possible leverage.

Again to Eko, who now meets up with Yemi, or is it... *twilight zone music*. But, I liked that its not Yemi, meaning Lost might explain the island visions! Meaning they might come up with a plausible explanation!!!! Hoorah! Just realised now though, minus the horse, those visions seem to want to kill people. I mean didn't Jack almost fall off a cliff chasing Christian, or am I conflicting episodes? And didn't Dave try to get Hurley to kill himself? And didn't Yemi look a bit peeved that Eko wouldn't like offer his life before him, not to mention possibly set the tent at the beginning of the episode on fire? Evil spirits... But, is he the Monster? His eyes to me looked black, much darker than Eko's but of course doesn't mean they aren't just very dark brown - but they did seem a really off colour. Maybe thats just me... Anyway, we then see Eko get wasted by the Monster (props to the Lostpedia editor who added it throws him about in a Cross direction - I didn't notice that one). At any rate, I'm assuming thats how the Pilot dided huh.

Now have to mention the Pearl action. Loved that they went back there!!! DHARMA stations are always so much fun to the storyline. And I have to say I felt like Locke when Nikki points out that he says "stationS" as in plural - as I remember arguing with someone that they monitored only the Swan and they said "no it'll look at other ones too". So yeah, me ashamed... But how cool was that feed. I'm gonna take the educated guess and say its the Flame station, as I know we might see it this Season from what I've been hearing. It looked a lot like the Swan though didn't it. And who is that guy? Radzinsky? At any rate he didn't look too happy. A few points I must raise here though. One is that I enjoyed reading a Lostpedia argument about how did Nikki know there are six DHARMA stations. Whilst its interesting to think Nikki might be DHARMA, lets note that at the start of the Pearl video it says "5 of 6" lol. Second, people are saying how did patch man know about the camera being on. Err maybe because it panned? Or maybe a red light came on? Third, he was wearing a DHARMA suit and probably owns the glass eye Libby found in the Arrow. This guy probably knows all the stations, and so I'm sure will reveal some huge revelations toward the end of the Season. Fourth, when Kate read notes from the capsule dump, maybe it wasn't from observations of the Swan, if so then the Flame has a ping pong table :-)

OK last bit now (thank god, I had hoped for this blog to be brief), Juliet and her video! Now I'm one to at times take things on Lost at face value contray to everyone else and just say "hey just stop questioning if someone is lying or not for once" (you know who you are LHorse and your P is not RB hehe), and this instance is one of these times. Juliet is good in my opinion, cause I really can't trust Ben and his evil schemes. Juliet wants Ben gone so she can turn the Others away from whatever path Ben has put them on (the facade and kidnapping I'd assume). While it could be another lie, I think on weighing it up Juliet is better than Ben, though crazier too in fairness. Now, lastly, to mention Eko again. He died! Damn and here I was hoping we'd never have to deal with another tedious Charlie flashback ever again! Oh well, I'm gonna miss his cool "Hello John" voice. I leave you with the final thought: As one plucky Lostpedian noted, when John recites "we're next", does he mean the proverbial we, or did Eko mean "YOU'RE next". Consider this until next time...

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