Trans 2008-02-29: “The Constant” – Episode 4-05

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This episode of “The Transmission” follows the Feb. 28 episode, “The Constant” (Episode 4×05). After reviewing “LOST in Eight Minutes” (okay, nine minutes), we take a closer look at the story. Time travel, the Black Rock, Hanso vs. Widmore, and epic love stories. Then, we turn it over to You All Everybody, where the real genius emerges. Finally, we step into the Forward Cabin to discuss the synopsis and location shoots for next week’s episode.

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Segments:

  • 00:00 Introduction
  • 01:19 Recap: LOST in 8 Minutes
  • 10:57 Discussion
  • 29:56 Feedback: You All Everybody
  • 58:13 News & Spoilers: The Forward Cabin
  • 1:00:06 Closing

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http://media.libsyn.com/media/hawaii/lostcast20080229.mp3

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23 Responses to Trans 2008-02-29: “The Constant” – Episode 4-05

  1. NemesisVex says:

    Michael Ausiello over at TV Guide hints very strongly that Aaron is not one of the Oceanic Six.

    http://www.tvguide.com/Ask-Ausiello/080227

  2. Wow! I can’t believe you’re back. A few weeks ago I decided to look for a new LOST podcast to replace you (it took me a long to get over it) and lo and behold I find that you’re back. What a wonderful surprise.

    The last episode was great. I think a tear rolled down my cheek during the telephone call.

    I am eagerly awaiting Miles’ interaction with some of the supernatural elements on the island. If anyone can figure out what the smoke monster is, it’s Miles.

  3. also, what ever happened to penny’s brazilian guys on that submarine from the end of season 2? will they be popping up again soon?

  4. also i dont think that aaron is one of the oceanic six. carlton and damon said that the first four (kate, jack, hurley, and sayid) were solid but that the others were sort of in question. if aaron were one of the six wouldn’t jack have seen him since they got off the island? at least when they landed in the real world and got whatever sort of media attention they received. kate sort of seems to insinuate that jack has not seen aaron. which leads me to believe that he came to kate by some other means. i thnk that ben and someone from his group probably grabbed aaron (like they grab all other small children) and kate is taking care of him for that group and their research.

  5. Aldo says:

    Thanks for reading my comment on your podcast! I listened to it twice to make sure.

  6. NuckinFuts says:

    Hey Ryan & Jen – –

    I had not heard any of the old podcasts before…I found and joined the site around the time you stopped doing podcasts the 1st time around but have found this a great place to share my thoughts and see what other people were thinking…much more so than any of the other sites I have come across when I looked on the net…I have enjoyed listening to you guys the past few weeks and appreciate you mentioning me a few weeks ago…You guys seem well versed over many topics and have obviously seen and read a lot of different material and I like the fact that you are obviously fans of actors/writing/philosophy/ and genereal entertainment…..this makes your opinions worth anyone’s time….Hope all is well with you guys and I look foward to listening and reading from this site till 2010….show’s like this week’s make that seem like too short a time – – Brian ( doesn’t sound as good as NuckinFuts does it? ) —

    PS – Although ending a few years from now it will be a lot of fun to go back through all of our old entries and see how right / wrong we were with some of these theories!

  7. Xapa says:

    Great episode! I cried at the end! I’m so glad this one was full of plot, and no more ghey flashbacks, and confusing flash-forwards. This is my favorite season so far. Thanks for this great podcast…

  8. Z says:

    Dear Transmission,

    In Season 4 Episode 5 or “The Constant”, Jack stresses that it’s unusual for Sayid and Desmond have been gone for a day and a half. Daniel says the time experienced off the island is different from the time spent on the island. That got me thinking, and computing to figure out how time works. This is unusual, but please take a read for the computations about time on the island to off the island. This is totally unusual, but incredibly important to understanding why the Oceanic 6 have lied! Check it out:

    If it takes 20 minutes to get on the freighter from the island, but they were gone from the island for 36 hours (1 day and a half), then how long have the islanders really been gone?

    To figure this out, you have to convert hours into minutes for the island time then reduce the time to a ratio configuration which can compare real time with island time.

    So… 36 hours to minutes = 2,160 min.
    Then compare this number to real time in a ratio and then deduce…

    20 minutes (off island): 2,160 minutes (on island)
    (20 min.)/20 min. : (2,160 min.)/20 min.

    1 min. (off island): 108 min. (on island)
    *reference to Desmond’s Hatch pressing the button every 108 minutes…

    This is already intense, I know… It gets more intense, let’s figure out how long they’ve been on the island in real time.

    First, we have to control for the 108 minutes which we can easily round off to hours (108 min. = 1 hr. and 48 min. ~ 2 hrs.)

    [1 min. = ~ 2 hrs.]

    1 min. (* 12) = 2 hrs. (* 12)

    How many minutes off island to 24 hours on island?
    02 min. = 4 hrs.
    03 min. = 6 hrs.
    04 min. = 8 hrs.
    05 min. = 10 hrs.
    06 min. = 12 hrs.
    07 min. = 14 hrs.
    08 min. = 16 hrs.
    09 min. = 18 hrs.
    10 min. = 20 hrs.
    11 min. = 22 hrs.
    12 min. = 24 hrs. [12 min. = 1 day]

    How many minutes for 2 days?
    12 min. (* 2) = 1 day (*2)
    24 min. = 2 days

    They’ve been on the island approximately for 100 days… If these calculation are correct, then how many minutes is that off island then?
    12 min. (* 100) = 1 day (* 100)
    1,200 min. = 100 days
    20 hours = 100 days

    They’ve been on the island for 20 hours, wouldn’t you lie to convince the world you weren’t crazy?

    Now, I haven’t taken into account the Swan’s explosion, which I believe the 108 minutes is critical to understand, but this seems to fit the scheme of things.

    I’d love to hear what you guys think about this, and I’m a big fan of your podcast. Thanks for reading this, and I’d love to hear back from you.

    -Z (mrz5000@gmail.com)

  9. Wow Z, this sounds great. I wonder if it is true! I wonder if it will turn out that they’ve been only missing a day. Ha!

    Alas, I doubt it will be. The news report seemed to insinuate that the hunt for the fallen flight 815 had taken a while and remember Faraday and the gang all saw that news report before the got on the freighter and over to the island. It just seems like it would take a FEW DAYS to get that team together and get the mission on its way. I feel like someone somewhere insinuated that the freighter might have its own time but I think that would just be too confusing.

    I think you are definitely on to something but I don’t think it is as simple as what you’ve drawn up.

  10. roger says:

    here’s my understanding of what has happened.
    this whole situation is simply a lab test in thought transmission, a kind of telepathy expriment. all these people are interconnected by personal and
    shared experiences.
    that would explain everything, weird, believable or not.

  11. Dr. Maybe says:

    Maybe this is something the writers will be able to explain away, but I’m having a hard time understanding why Charlotte didn’t mention anything to Frank (or anyone else for that matter) about Ben’s Man on the Boat… She was there when Ben revealed this nugget of information, she was there when Frank, Desmond, and Sayid took off, and she’s been hanging out on the beach for a day or two… Seems like she’d mention it to someone! I get the feeling this is just a plot hole.

  12. Michael Moura says:

    Hello there,

    I have to say.. I loved the episode even more the love story between Desmond and Penny.. however, regarding the time travel of the consientiness is a copy cat of the movie The Jacket, released in 2005.. the idea probably came way before Lost… but still a good episode.. I also love the movie The Jacket. i just wanted to point that out.

  13. Timmy says:

    LOST is not a copy cat of The Jacket you jack***. you must be crazy to compare a movie like that with LOST. Go to wiki and do your research or watch the god damn movie again. The reason for time travel in LOST is electromagnetic radiation. The reason for time travel in The Jacket is getting shot in the head, and magically gives power to time travel. wow, real original. At least the electro radia + a bunch of math sounds about right.

  14. Ryan says:

    Take it easy, Timmy. Unless you’re a writer for the show, you’ve got no better basis for your theories or beliefs about the show than anyone else. From “Donny Darko” to “The Langoliers” to “The Stand” to “Back to the Future” to “12 Monkeys” to several dozen other references, I’m sure we could come up with bits and pieces of lots of things that connect. “The Jacket” makes about as much sense as “Eureka.”

  15. tvscif says:

    Interesting article on Lost’s time travel science, from Popular Science:

    http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/science_news/4253025.html?series=6

  16. Z says:

    I’m willing to bet that Ben doesn’t have simply “a” man on the boat, but instead two men on the boat! From the current episode, “The Constant” we can easily assume that Michael is on the boat. However, and this is where I’ve had to convince many other fans who I work with, I believe that Charlotte is that other man!

    We know the writers love using red herrings, and you can quickly guess that Ben would go ahead and cover Charlotte’s identity by insinuating through a common phrase that the person on the boat is a man. Secondly, in “Confirmed Dead” when the helicopter is about to drop off the people from the freighter, you can distinctly hear Charlotte yelling for a vest. Now, why would the writers willingly include this quick mention of a bullet proof vest if not to chance the hint at possible shootings.

    Ben would know about the vests, why else did he shoot her in the chest without much of concern? Why didn’t he just shoot Locke? I’m willing to assume that Ben wanted to draw attention AWAY from Charlotte. Who is Charlotte then? And why is she so interested in Dharma bears?

    Finally, as Dr. Maybe mentioned up above, why didn’t she mention to the other freighter people about the ‘man’ on the boat? Evidence seems to be quickly building up against Charlotte, and it seems like nobody is looking at her direction with their expectations of seeing Michael again.

    Thus, Charlotte is ONE of the men on the boat! Ben is a genius!

    -Z

    PS: I really do need to fix my numeric theory, I know. Something is still missing, I just know it! The other hole in the numbers is that the writers mentioned (I think) that they were going to explain how Walt gets older, and my numbers show the opposite effect.

  17. Bryan says:

    “I’m so glad this one was full of plot, and no more ghey flashbacks, and confusing flash-forwards.”

    Wow, with an assessment like that it’s amazing you even watch the show at all.

    Sorta like, wow I really enjoyed the Super Bowl except all that stupid football playing, or, Star Wars was great except all that dumb space stuff.

    Seriously.

  18. HeyBrah says:

    I’m along for the ride wherever LOST leads us. Please keep in mind that Science Fiction has always preceded Science fact. For example, when “From the Earth to the Moon” was written, no one probably ever would have believed that it could ever really be done BUT it was done. Time travel in LOST and all of the other referenced Movies is not impossible … we just don’t have the know-how yet!

  19. Ryan says:

    Selected prior comments deleted.

    Personal attacks will not be tolerated, and direct attacks on Jen and I are a good way to get banned. If you’re not impressed with the people who interact here, you’re welcome to find another forum. Now, let’s get back to the show. Mahalo!

  20. Keith says:

    Jen & Ryan – another awesome podcast, to go with another awesome episode of Lost. If only the show were as consistent as your work 😉

    The time-travel/place-travel aspect of the show is confusing the heck out of me. This week’s episode certainly helped make concrete the theory surrounding time-travel, but has left me more confused than ever!

    Some thoughts:
    -Why does travel to and from the island incur some time ‘defect’, whereas telephone /video /radio comms do not?
    -Does the fact that consciousness can travel separate to body allow a way of getting around this fact?
    -Does the consciousness travel theory have something to do with the inability of children conceived on the island to be born there?
    -I like the tie in to 108 minutes – perhaps the button helped keep the island ‘in synch’ with the outside world, and once the failsafe was set off, this led to the island ‘drifting’ in time (or even space!)
    -There is a strong tie between electromagnetic radiation exposure and detaching a persons consciousness from their current time frame – note Desmond travelling forward and back following the fail-safe, and back after being in the storm on the ‘chopper. Did the entire crew of Oceanic 815 experience this?
    -The reference to the Casimir effect does suggest that Dharma are exploring some way of stabilising a wormhole, allowing ‘faster than light travel’ (see wikipedia – also Wormholes and Time Travel, and Faster-Than-Light)

    *phew* Will need to spend some more time thinking about this, as all the ideas are currently swirling around like the Smoke Monster in my head!

    ‘Til next time,

    Keith (Brighton, England)

  21. Keith says:

    Z,

    More for your numbers theory.

    Try the Wikipedia Wormhole article, and the discussion about Time Travel gives a theoretical method by which a twin at one end of a wormhole would age faster than the twin at the other end. I think the numbers aren’t necessarily important (in the sense that they have to be THOSE numbers) but it is important that they are internally consistent within the LOST universe.

    K

  22. Z says:

    Thanks Keith, I did base my very fast computation of those numbers on Einstein’s theory of something-or-other which used a metaphor of twin brothers separated… the metaphor said something like, if one brother stayed on earth, while the other brother went on a space ship. When the two brothers reunited on Earth, the consequences of traveling through time and space would NOT have aged the brother in the space ship, but the brother on the planet would have aged according to the time spent on earth. I’m sure Einstein is rolling around in his grave for my lack of understanding. But thanks for catching my reference!
    -Z

  23. Bonita in Atlanta says:

    rewatching here in May 2011 & can’t get this episode up. so sad. I’ve been enjoying flashing back..

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