The Haphazard Blog

That finale is going to take some time to process…

Lost seems to be heading down a path where there are two realities. I think to tie all this back to when the series started, you had the struggle between Jack (the man of science, choice/free will) and Locke (the man of faith, destiny). Were the survivors destined to end up there or was it just an accident? Now we are seeing certain common elements between the two realities in addition to some people seeing glimpses of what is/was/did happen on the island despite not being there. It seems as if some things are destined to happen, but there is also some freedom around those things. So Hurley wins the lottery and meets Libby regardless of the reality. In one he is a psychiatric patient, gets the lottery numbers from another patient, believes he is cursed and crashes on the island. In the other, he isn’t cursed or crazy.

FlashForward seems to have a similar element going with their show. It was recently revealed that Dyson Frost has had many FlashFowards and he said in most, Demetri dies. The FBI agent already showed that the FlashForward was not an absolute when he committed suicide, but now it appears that what it actually is is a possibility. Some have higher likelihoods than others. Then there are characters who absolutely believe what they saw will come to fruition and others who believe that anything can be changed (and a whole spectrum in between).

Another show has some similarities to both of these as well, Fringe. They established there is another universe where the majority of things are the same, but there are differences between the universes.  So it makes you wonder if again, some things are simply destined with some minor allowances for free will.

You can probably tell I have a fascination with the free will vs. destiny discussion (long before I knew what existentialism was). It seems to have intrigued me my entire life. So I end up enjoying all of these shows and movies like The Matrix.

We’re right near the halfway mark for the final season of Lost and it seems like more mysteries have been added compared to how many have been solved. It makes me wonder if there is enough time to wrap up all the big mysteries.

I don’t think there will be an answer to the meaning of the numbers. They were used in so many contexts, they now just seem like numbers. Jacob’s numbering system for the candidates based on the placement of the lighthouse mirror? In a previous post I had wondered where was Kate. She had a number (51) assigned to her at the lighthouse. It doesn’t make much sense right now.

In the first couple of seasons, there were only flash backs. They seemed to show how many of the plane crash survivors had either unknowingly crossed paths or had some type of unknown relationship. Now in these alternate reality flashes, they seem to be running into each other and having their lives intersect. Does this mean they were destined to cross paths? Maybe the point is that some things are pre-destined, but how people get there allows for choice. It could explain why it’s hard to figure out if it is free will or destiny or who is good/evil between Jacob and not-Locke.

I thought the series would end with an explanation about why all those people were brought to the island and how they were connected. But I can’t make much sense of these new flashes. Some characters seem no different, while others seem to be living pretty different lives. What is the purpose of showing a what-if  Oceanic 815 landed? Does that mean both happened? Either could’ve happened? Is there an event that prevents it?

I thought I could kind of figure this whole thing out as it winds down, but I’m pretty much where I’ve been for the whole series. Just sitting back and waiting for answers. A couple more months and I guess we’ll have all of the answers we’re going to get.

Onto another show that just came back, FlashForward. ABC did a good job bringing this show back from a nearly 4-month hiatus. They had a special to recap what happened with the main characters and then aired a 2-hour episode. They gave us a lot of new information and filled in some blanks. We now know who suspect zero is, who (sort of) caused the blackout and the role of Lloyd in amplifying it. Oddly, neither Lloyd or Simon were asked about their captors. If any sketches were made, it would’ve been pretty simple to link Simon to his “uncle”.

With some of those questions answered, I think the next big thing is the events people saw when they blacked out and seeing how far Simon can get in figuring out who was behind the blackout and why they need him. It will be interesting to see if the flashes are destined or become self-fulfilling prophecies.

That’s what I wondered when they showed the scene in the cave. We saw:

• 4 – (John) Locke
• 8 – (Hugo “Hurley”) Reyes
• 15 – (James “Sawyer”) Ford
• 16 – (Sayid) Jarrah
• 23 – (Jack) Shephard
• 42 – (Jin or Sun) Kwon

What about Kate Austen? She was “touched” by Jacob as a child (when she tried to steal the New Kids on the Block lunch box), but isn’t on the list. There must be some significance to that along with the question of Jin, Sun or both (Jacob touched both of them). I don’t think this is the explanation or meaning of the numbers, instead it’s just another use of them. The mysteries on the island continue.

Both Sawyer and not-Locke (the man in black) saw the boy. Is he alive? Richard didn’t see him, but I believe he had his back to him and was gone when not-Locke looked back. The boy tells not-Locke that he knows the rules, he can’t kill “him”. Is the boy Jacob? Who is “him” that the boy refers? Jacob? Was it Sawyer? He brought him down a dangerous ladder. Sawyer had to choose to go down himself. Was he trying to lead him into a circumstance that leads to his death? Are all the people that Jacob touched safe from the smoke monster? Could that explain why it stared down Locke and did nothing? Did it appear as Jack’s dad and get him to almost chase him and fall off a cliff?

Off the island things are also mysterious. We have seen Ethan Rom (the guy who took Claire in season 1) and Ben off the island. Ethan was working at the hospital where Claire was taken in labor. Ben is teaching at a school where Locke ends up working after getting fired from Hurley’s box company (confirming that link from season 1). Is this to show that all the people on the island are linked. Maybe they weren’t all linked in the past, but would/will be in the future.

I think the mysteries that I would like to know the answers to before the show ends are:

• What was special about Walt? Did he have a key role in this? Did his growth spurt cause them to just abandon him? I think if he does not have his mysterious “ability” explained, then the growth spurt was a problem and they just dropped him.
• How will they explain the the off-island (plane lands) and the on-island (plane crashes) stories?
• How will they explain the differences between passengers on the original Oceanic 815 flight that crashed and the one that lands?
• What is the battle between the man in black and Jacob about?
• Who is Richard and why doesn’t he age?

Going back to the time travel mystery. When the bomb is detonated, they go from the 1970s back to 2007. They say that the crater is there from when they blew up the Swan. It looked like some of the debris burying Juliet was from the drilling rig and she wasn’t nearly as far down as she fell. One of the Dharma vans came with them. I can see how they differentiate between the people who time traveled (the people went back to the time they were supposed to been at), but how come some objects went and some didn’t? This might be nit-picking, I’m not sure.

Yesterday we went to Wichita to get some shopping taken care of and decided to stop at Souper Salad for a quick lunch. They are a pretty good place for vegetarians and vegans. They will mark what is vegetarian (not that what they say is vegetarian is actually lacto-ovo vegetarian) and vegan. I noticed the oddest thing. Bleu cheese dressing was not marked as vegetarian. Some other dressings I’d assume to be were also non-vegetarian. So I tried to find out why and found a nutritional guide on their web site. Here’s what it says:

• Honey Mustard – Contains Eggs, Contains Other Animal (they do not specify what)
• Fat Free Cranberry – Contains Other Animal
• Caesar – Contains Eggs, Contains Finfish
• Bleu Cheese – Contains Eggs, Contains Finfish
• Chipotle Ranch – Contains Eggs, Contains Finfish

I wondered if “Other Animal Product” is honey, but they mark stuff with eggs in it as vegetarian.  Why in the world is there fish in Bleu Cheese dressing? I checked the dressing in my refrigerator and it doesn’t have anything listed that could be remotely considered fish. Is this an aberration or one of those items specially made for the restaurant industry like Extra Heavy Mayonnaise. I think I’m going to stick with fat-free Italian dressing. It’s better for me anyways.

The show that has topped my TiVo Season Pass/DirecTV Season Manager is back for the final season. I’m looking forward to the conclusion of it all and have the big mystery explained.

The premiere episode was really good. I re-watched the Season 5 finale and Juliet dying is a sad scene (the whole scene). In the recap and the flashbacks to “the incident” they did edit it down some so it wasn’t as dramatic. She ends up surviving only to be killed again.

We got confirmation that not-John Locke (or not-Locke) is the smoke monster. He wanted to kill and Jacob and he has done it. I guess the question I didn’t ask was why he wanted to kill him (besides hating him) and what he would do after that. What is their relationship? Is it fate vs. free will?

Why did Jacob want/require Sayid be saved? Is there significance to him being dead for a while and suddenly awakening?

There are so many questions. At first I thought Jacob was reincarnated as Sayid. I changed my mind because when Sayid sat up, he asked “what happened?”. I would expect Jacob to know that.

The biggest mystery now is what is going on with the alternate reality where Oceanic 815 doesn’t crash? Although that is not completely accurate because some things are different like Desmond was on the plane and Shannon stayed behind in Australia. Is this what would’ve happened if the bomb had gone off?

Time travel is such a hard thing to write. It’s so easy to end up in a paradox. If they never crash on the island, then who goes back in time to set off the bomb to stop the plane from crashing? Is this alternate universes like Fringe?

Who was Juliet talking to when she was dying in Sawyer’s arms? Was she somehow in two places at once? Are they in some type of place (heaven? hell?) where the only way out is “death”? Could her message, “It worked”, refer to anything else other than the hydrogen bomb detonation?

I think some type of dream is too easy. Lost fans would be furious if everyone on the plane had lost consciousness and it was all a dream. We’ve seen time travel. Faraday had some weird experiment where the missile took a lot longer to arrive that it should. Finding the island is nearly impossible. To leave the island you have to follow a specific path. The island has vanished/moved.

I can’t even come up with a logical theory right now. So many mysteries to try and explain. I hope that come May I’m not disappointed. The build-up has been big. Please don’t go out like the Sopranos. I don’t want to think I wasted my time watching the last 3 seasons.

CBS has created a small mess in choosing what commercials will be allowed to air during the Super Bowl. It started with the Tim Tebow and his mother’s commercial advocating for life. It is reported to be Pam Tebow’s story about choosing to continue her pregnancy despite the urging of doctor’s that she have an abortion because of the risks of the pregnancy. This of course turned into a Pro-Life/Pro-Choice war.

The underlying message in favor of life is a good one. I don’t quite get this commercial. Is it supposed to mean more because Tim Tebow is famous? Could there be a commercial where the mother of someone like Slobodan Miloševic? (if she is still alive) says she was urged to have an abortion but didn’t. Is that what Pam Tebow is implying? I think the spot would be more appropriate with commercial actors instead. The biggest issue people seem to have is that it is being paid for by Focus on the Family who have a public Pro-Life stance. If they had their way, people like Pam Tebow would not have a choice to make. (On a slight aside, people are actually questioning the validity of this story because Pam Tebow was told this in the Philippines where abortion was and still is illegal in all circumstances.)

CBS then went ahead and muddied the waters by rejecting a commercial from a male gay dating site, Man Crunch. It certainly seems like they are applying different standards to what is acceptable to air in these situations. There seemed to be plenty of push back against the Focus on the Family commercial. On the positive side, Man Crunch got a lot of free advertising without having to hand over $2.5-2.8M. Something to keep in mind for start up companies next year.