Trans 2009-01-25: “Because You Left” and “The Lie”

  Play 

This episode of “The Transmission” takes a look at the first two episodes of Season 5, “Because You Left” and “The Lie.” We recap the story in about twelve minutes, then spend some time discussing it in greater depth. Then, we turn it over to You All Everybody, our brilliant listeners and readers. Then, in the Forward Cabin, we review what we know about “Jughead” and report on the last week of filming on The Island.

Get iTunes | Subscribe to MP3 | Subscribe to Enhanced Podcast (AAC)

Segments:

  • 0:00:26 Introduction
  • 0:01:25 “LOST” in 8 Minutes
  • 0:13:29 Discussion
  • 0:40:12 You All Everybody: Feedback
  • 1:10:26 The Forward Cabin
  • 1:14:49 Closing

Got a comment about something mentioned in this podcast, or about the podcast itself? Have at it below. Otherwise, we encourage you to continue the larger listener discussion about these first two episodes on the previous post.

To download this LostCast, click the “Pod” icon below, or cut-and-paste the following URL:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/hawaii/lostcast20090125.mp3

Subscribe Download 1:15:48/69MB MP3 — Technorati: ,

This entry was posted in Podcast. Bookmark the permalink.

33 Responses to Trans 2009-01-25: “Because You Left” and “The Lie”

  1. m says:

    You think the island “picked up” the polar bears DOWN SOUTH!? I can’t believe you said that! 😉

  2. Pingback: Lost-Streams.com » The Transmission - Sub is on the Move

  3. matt says:

    Love listening to your podcast but I have to disagree with you guys on the time loop ending theory being a good end. I don’t mind the time travel stuff at all that they are doing, but if it ends on a time loop there would be no resolution just all of them doomed to repeat their lives forever akin to an awful purgatory. I do think it would be a good idea if they used Jack waking back up in the jungle again (maybe as the way he gets back to the island or something)…. but only if it got resolved sometime before season 6 ends would it be okay with me.

    On a completely unrelated note…you have the segment times labeled wrong on your homepage, “You All Everybody” didn’t start till around 40 minutes in, not at 0:22:13 as you have it labeled.

  4. Denise says:

    Great episode! You gave us so much more to think about, I think my head is going to start spinning soon! I was especially interested by the voicemail wondering if the flaming arrow people are the 4 toed statue people. That would be seriously awesome if that ends up being true.

  5. MJ from Midwest says:

    enjoyed the cast. Do you have a time (get it, time) constraint to your podcast:? I download the enhanced version to so that I can jump (get it, jump) by chapter. I believe many years ago you use to put additional calls to the Lost Line at the end of your transmission. Am I remembering (get it, remembering) correctly? If so, can you post listener comment into an “overflow” hatch at the end? I love listening to caller comments.

    i <3 frogurt. I am not sure that he is dead (paradox). Maybe he recovers from heart-burn injury and is take to the natives camp where is drives them all crazy, so they decide to emigrate to Fiji.

    See you next week. Watching Pilot 1 & 2 again.

  6. Ryan says:

    m: Um. Er. I just wanted to make sure people were paying attention. That’s it.

    matt: Oops. You’re right. I’ll update the post. I also need to fix the actual chapter mark in the “enhanced” file, which is where I got the timecode and which is obviously also wrong!

    MJ from Midwest: We try to keep our podcast to about an hour. It wouldn’t have been as much of a squeeze for a normal podcast with only one episode to cover! Yes, we used to put calls at the end, but got complaints about file sizes and about callers saying the same things. And people were definitely scared away by seeing “1:40:00” under “Time” in iTunes! If our call volume continues to grow, we may rethink it, but right now we have a great mix, and the blog is where most of the rich conversation takes place.

  7. G in SC says:

    Ryan and Jen, I’m a Lost viewer who enjoys the program, then listens to your podcast during a workout to decipher/figure out the latest episode. Your knowledge and analysis is normally spot on.

    I have to disagree this week. I think the whole “time travel” element for the characters and the island itself is sci-fi formulaic hack. It had me rolling my eyes. You said on the podcast it will end soon and we’ll see things develop in, I guess, a single dimension. It had better, or I’m moving on.

  8. G in SC says:

    Addendum: I hit submit too soon 🙂 I wanted to compliment you on the podcast. It’s very well produced, and you obviously put a lot of planning into your summaries and the whole enterprise.
    I enjoy it very much.

  9. Wray says:

    Don’t know if this means anything (and I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough) but my husband just told me that the rifles used by Jones et al are Korean War/Vietnam era. One of which he identified as an M1 Garand. Just some trivia…

    I just thought that their dress was reminiscent of Rousseau’s. Argh, I just want to hear her story already…

    Why do you guys think they made a point of showing Sawyer injure his foot – again?

    What do you think Ben had hidden in the motel room vent?

    To G in SC: I am hopeful that this time travel story will not be formulaic. Instead it may give us a new twist on an old idea. It’s about time since most of our references are either “Star Trek”, “Back to the Future”, or “Terminator”…

    I also think Desmond’s “specialness” must have something to do with him turning that failsafe key.

    I also don’t think Lost is ultimately about time travel itself, but an element in the story. So far I am loving how they are handling it.

  10. DR in IN says:

    Hey, just found the podcast and I love it! I know people are upset with the time travel stuff (and I don’t like it most of the time but I’m enjoying in this show) so i’m going to stay positive.

    One thing no one mentioned about Desmond being ‘special’ did anyone else notice that right before Faraday time warped again while speaking with him at the hatch Desmond looked up like he could hear/feel the time shift about to happen. Wouldn’t that make him ‘special’ because of being aware of the change?

  11. Donaldislost says:

    Glad you guys are back. Everything seems to be falling into place in the Lost world now. I have to say the new format of Lost was not that enjoyable at first, but after a second watch I realized that the pace is nearly doubled since the days of season 3. It will take some getting used to but I am on board.

  12. JJWest says:

    Hi Jen and Ryan-
    I agree with you that Faraday mentioning his mother and then Mrs. Hawkings showing up right away is a little too convenient. I think they’re messing with us and it seems too obvious. I think Ben meeting up with her the same night Hurley gets arrested in L.A. is the clue that she is not Faraday’s mother since he told Desmond to find her in Oxford, England. Also, if Mrs. Hawkings is his mother and seems to have all the secrets of time travel figured out, why would Daniel need to agonize through lab rat experiments if his own mother could walk him through it?

    So my theory is that Mrs. Hawkings is Penny’s mother. Perhaps she met Charles Whidmore on-island when he was there. (By the way, I thought the British “let’s hack off her arm” guy could be younger-Whidmore when they flashed back to the 50s. He seemed very possessive of “our island” just as Whidmore was when Ben confronted him in his bedroom.) At any rate, Mrs. Hawkings could know as much about the power of the island as Whidmore if they had been married. Could she be helping Ben to protect the island from her ex-husband? Is that why Mrs. Hawkings has been so involved in Desmond’s life? I don’t know if she knows Ben wants to kill Penny. But for Mrs. Hawkings everything is already pre-destined so it may not matter. Also, Whidmore was so confident that Ben would never find Penny. Could it be because he knows his ex-wife could hide their daughter anywhere in time? I’m eager to see who Faraday’s mother is, but I hope it’s not Mrs. Hawkings. It would be too spoon-fed compared to the rest of the show.

    I think there was a lot of deliberate “whose kid is whose” in this episode. We wonder if Marvin Candle’s baby is Miles. (Miles is eerily cool during the time-jumps, but seems to have no knowledge of the hatches.) Kate is asked for a blood-test from her and Aaron. Sun shows Kate a photo of her daughter but it’s of nearly a newborn baby. (Should she be 3 years old by then? Isn’t it unusual for a mother not to have a more recent photo of her 1st born? Why wouldn’t she want Kate to know what Ji-Yeon looked like?) And it all leads up to Mrs. Hawkings as potentially Daniel’s mother.

    On your podcast, I loved the idea that Locke’s season 1 “vision” of Yemi’s plane crashing was actually a memory. That made me go way back, but I think it makes a lot of sense (relatively speaking).

    I’m glad someone else commented on Daniel calling Sawyer “James.” That was so odd to me. When did he ever hear anyone call him James? The only one that does on a regular basis is Locke.

  13. Lindsay says:

    Thanks so much for your podcast Ryan and Jen! I really look forward to listening.

    I thought your reference to the Princess Bride (“…he’s only mostly dead…”) was so funny…my husband said the exact same thing as we were watching that scene!

    Another thought that occured to me while listening to the thoughts about Charlotte’s nosebleed: I agree that she’s the “timer” right now…however, assuming she is afflicted by the eventual-craziness-death-disease-thingy, what if she is Annie and Ben is her constant? He makes it back just in time for her to survive. I’m probably way off, but anyway…

    Looking forward to next week 🙂

  14. ManilaRaf says:

    Just listened to the podcast. It just occurred to me that each LOST episode that goes by means one less podcast that you guys will do. I hope that once S6 is over you guys will find the time to continue the podcast (Hawaii UP rebirth perhaps?).

    Anyways, I loved the podcast with both of yours and everyone else’s comments.

    I liked the comment that Locke isn’t really dead (just mostly) and is just lying inert while time jumping like Desmond. A couple comments I have with this & with Locke in general are; 1) He’s been “dead” for how long now? Desmond, at most, was under for a few hours, where is Locke jumping to that he’s extra-corporeal for days now, 2) When Hurley & Walt met last Season, Walt mentioned Locke visited him. If Locke was telling the O6 that they had to go back, what did he tell Walt?

    Again, I loved the Princess Bride references. It didn’t occur to me until Jen mentioned it in the Podcast.

    Also, when Mrs Reyes said the “Dead Pakistani” reference in The Lie, I think that was a little inside joke. Naveen Andrews is of South Asian descent, and definitely not Iraqi. So I think this was a dig by the writers that Sayid doesn’t really look Middle Eastern, but South Asian rather.

    I completely didn’t tie together the Jones the soldier threatening to cut off Juliet’s hand with Candlewaxmundchang’s lost arm. Not sure how it would connect in story though, unless “The Incident” involved some sort of Military intervention by those same soldiers. (Okay here’s a theory: What if “The Incident” was the accidental unlocking of the Power of the Orchid Station, which caused the Island to skip in Dharma Times. This caused Dharma to encounter people from other eras of the Island; The Hostiles, The Soldiers, The Arrow Shooters. Somehow, DHARMA was able to use the Swan Station to safely get the Orchid under control by using the Swan to release the energy in discrete regular amounts instead of big bangs that cause the island to time skip).

    Hmm, I might be onto something.

    And to G in SC, while the time travel is a bit disorienting, I don’t think it’s formulaic. If the entire show from now on is like this, I’d be inclined to agree. But I think, just like other things in LOST (The Swan, The Smoke Monster, Flashbacks) it’s just a device used to advance the storyline. And I for one, am drawn to the show because of the storyline and how it’s told and presented. And by now, pretty much nothing the powers that be can do to get me to drop the show because I’m so locked into wanting to see how the storyline is wrapped up.

    Again, love the podcast Ryan & Jen. Can’t wait for the next LOST & The Transmission episode. It’ll be great having a new episode each week to watch as well as having everyone else’s thoughts on what going on.

    Mabuhay & Mahalo.

  15. ManilaRaf says:

    And thus begins my episodic, disjointed posts again.

    I was reading Erika of Long Live Locke Blog commenting on the premiere and she brings up an interesting point.

    Remember way back in Season 2 when there was a mission to get the Dynamite from the Black Rock? Danielle mentioned a member of her party losing his arm in that area. What if he lost it because Pvt Jones and company came across him and hacked it off?

  16. ManilaRaf says:

    Do you guys think there’s any connection or significance to Alpert’s comment “It’s a compass…it points North John,” with what Locke sees on Eko’s Jesus Stick from “I Do”?

    “LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND LOOK NORTH” John 3:15.

    Or am I reading way too into this?

  17. bluedog1121 says:

    I love the idea that John is in the same kind of state that Desmond was in in “The Constant,” and not actually dead. BUT I can’t let go of the fact that John has been in that coffin now for…how long?

    Before someone is placed into a coffin for burial there’s the whole embalming process to go through. I would think that John’s body has already been drained, preserved, etc. So, if he weren’t actually dead, he’d be dead now! We don’t want another Charlotte Malkin episode! Or do we? Hmmm…

    I’ve had these same thoughts in reference to Christian Shepard.

    I *loveloveloved* the comment someone had (can’t remember if it was Jen or a listener) about the coffin Jack finds in S1 being not Christian’s, but John’s. Awesome.

    Love you guys! Keep it up!

  18. Anne says:

    I agree with the poster above about the guys on the island being Korean/Vietnam era soldiers. I think the flaming arrows were designed to make us think we were in 4-toed statue times, but in reality, it was a case of the soldiers making additional weapons with what they had available. There was no time shift between the arrows raining down and the appearance of the men with guns, plus in the preview for Jughead, I believe there was a shot of some of the military men with bows and arrows.

    I did some googling about military uniforms from that era (because I apparently have too much time on my hands). I wanted to see if I could figure out if they were from the Korean War or the Vietnam War, and if they were British or American troops. It looks like some of the US Air Force uniforms from that time used that name tape on them, but I only found ONE instance of this in all the uniforms I found. It seems like all the other uniforms (including most of the airforce ones I saw) just had the names written on the shirt itself, above the pocket. I wonder if they opted to use the tape to make the name stand out more for the camera, or if the uniforms I found hadn’t had the tape added yet or had fallen off, or if I’m just over thinking this. I do know that when my brother was in the Navy in the mid-90’s, they didn’t use name tape.

    As far as the compass, I think that was a nod from the writers to all us fans who tend to over-analyze things. I think Alpert’s comment to John was basically meant to be “sometimes a compass is just a compass”. It’s purpose is to prove to Alpert that John has met him before, not as some more profound clue or tool. Though, from what I have heard, it may be the same compass that was amung the items laid out for young Locke to pick from, which is a neat little connection to a past episode.

    Finally, one thing I’m not hearing anyone comment on is how after Sawyer asks Faraday, “Who CAN fix this?” they cut to a shot of Locke in the jungle. I’ve seen this technique used countless times in shows and films to give the audience the answer without saying it outright. Who can fix this? Cut to Locke, because he’s the man. Don’t know if that’s the case, but it seems like it, given Alpert telling Locke that he has to get everyone back to the island.

  19. Feanor says:

    John’s theory that Sun is working against Widmore is plausible, but it ignores the fact that Ben killed Keamy in full knowledge that doing so would cause the boat to blow up. And that’s what killed Jin.

    LOCKE: Ben, what did you do?

    (Gasps)

    (beeping)

    LOCKE: You just killed everybody on that boat.

    (Beeping continues)

    BEN: So?

  20. Danno in Denver says:

    Making sense of time.

    Now that Faraday is on the Island, he is taking advantage of the time shifts to observe all the Dharma activities. I also believe that the producers will be showing the same time shifts in order to further the narrative through this season. I will describe one at this time.

    Early Dharma, perhaps late 70’s, early 80’s. It is a time where Dharma does not have complete control of the Island or their barracks area. This is also a time of construction of the the various stations. The hostiles have to be controlled by a large security force, represented by men/women in green fatigues. This is also a time of extreme paranoia for DI: every stranger is met with suspicion and alarm. This is an important time frame for Daniel Faraday to learn all the details of DI & the Island. It is also the time of the battle between the flaming arrows, losties & DI troops.

    Other important times include:

    1) The Nigerian aircraft crash, some number of years before the 815 crash. This is when Ethan shoots Locke. This may also be the time when the losties find the intact hatch, with Desmond inside.
    2) The Nigerian aircraft on the ground. This is some time after the 815 crash, and the hatch is destroyed. This may also be the time frame when Alpert helps Locke.

    Anyway, looking forward to my dessert of Frogurt Flambe.
    /danno

  21. Melonpool says:

    My wife came across something on Wikipedia while we were talking about what the tern “jughead” could mean. Apparently, in the 1990s Archie comics had a series called “Jughead’s Time Police,” about Jughead receiving a time-traveling beanie and hopping through time to right the wrongs of history.

    Here’s the link:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_Universes_in_Archie_Comics#Jughead.27s_Time_Police

  22. Deevo from HI says:

    I thought of something as I was listening to the podcast…….the two people that I would suspect know the most about this “time jumping” business would be Faraday and Alpert……you agree? Faraday, if I remember correctly, says that when they are is hard to tell; it’s a “random event”. However when Alpert talks to Locke, he tells him that “the next time we see each other, I won’t recognize you.” Alpert knows something about how this time skipping works, like it’s happened before to him (which I’m sure it has). He knows where and when he will be the next time he sees Locke; how is that possible when our genius Faraday said that there is no way of knowing “when” because it’s random????
    I believe (and this is my crackpot theory) that the numbers have a lot to do with the time skipping. 4 8 15 16 23 42……maybe each time the island skips, it skips according to the next number in the sequence. And each number in the sequence refers to a period of time (hours, days, month, week, year). The time skipping would also alternate between going forward and backward in time (example… 4 days or months forward then 8 days or months backward. Then 15 days or months forward, then 16 days or months backward, etc…..). Faraday did say that the “skipping” gets exponentially longer or bigger as I recall from “the constant”. This must be how Alpert knows that the next time Locke and he meet, Alpert will not recognize Locke, because he can predict the jumps with the numbers.

  23. Dave says:

    Hi all,

    It’s been too long since we had a new episode, and I’m so pleased to hear the podcast again (sorry but I dropped off during the hiatus… I don’t have all the old seasons on DVD) and hear some discussion.

    A few comments on the podcast:
    1) Hurley’s comments about Sayid on the boat being “too anvilicious.” For some reason it reminds me of the van Hurley found that everyone trashed (including me) at first for being frivolous and throwaway… and it came back to play a much bigger part later in the season. I agree that it seemed to not fit well but I have faith that there will be a relevant callback sometime in S5 or S6.
    2) The paradigm of time travel. How could Frogurt die of heartburn (ah, such a literal pun, but I love it) in the past? Let me posit a theory: the people who move in time can’t alter those who don’t, but they can change themselves. So Frogurt can die because if he couldn’t, he might meet his future self (as he is unstuck in linear time). But Frogurt can’t go back in time and “kill Hitler,” because Hitler is fixed in linear time. Killing him would disrupt the future; dying when one is not constrained to linear time wouldn’t affect anything since Frogurt still exists in the future. (We’ve also learned over and over again that dying on the island is not the same as dying off the island.) Desmond is apparently the exception to those being “unstuck” in time, as is Faraday.

    I love the idea of the coffin Jack finds being Locke’s. Very clever. I don’t think that would be a cop out at all.

    Also — one thought regarding the supposition that the island only carries with it things that were there at the time (e.g. why the camp site vanished) — perhaps we will see the entire four-toed statue at some point?

  24. Jon From NC says:

    heyy guys,

    sorry bout the twinkie thing, i don’t know what i was thinkin, guess i had sweets on the mind 😀

    but yeah great podcast, keep up the goodwork, and see you next week

  25. Jon From NC says:

    heyy guys,

    sorry bout the twinkie thing, i don’t know what i was thinkin, guess i had sweets on the mind 😀

    but yeah great podcast, keep up the good work 😀

  26. Red says:

    Hey guys, just wanted to put my two cents in on the Arrow People. I have been hosting the theory since the first season that a third group inhabits the island since I saw what most people think as the others walking barefoot through the jungle with the teddy bear. Since the others were “revealed” in season 2, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them without shoes. They seem much too…I dunno, civil for it? I think this third group is “The Hostiles” as the Dharma folks refer to them, or “The Arrow People” as we are all now referring to them.

    Great podcast, keep it up.

  27. Michelle from Illinois says:

    I just wanted to drop you guys a quick line and tell you how excited I am to have lost back. I really enjoy your podcast! Keep up the awesome work guys! 🙂

  28. JC says:

    Due to the context in the both times the line, “God help us all,” both by Candle and Ms. Hawking, if the Oceanic 6 don’t get back to the island, the energy will be released as the island will explode, since they are somehow the Island’s constant, just like Mikowski’s brain basically exploded by going back and forth faster and faster… we’ll see what happens.

  29. CrackMonkey says:

    Hey guys,

    Long time listener, first time I’ve posted.

    I thing the “arm-cutter-offers” is actually Widmore’s unit from when he was in the military. Time period clothes are accurate for his approximate age and when he would be in the military. We know from a discussion with Desmond that he himself was in the military.

    Just my 2 cents. Keep up the good work!

  30. Matt H says:

    Not sure if this is the right point to post this comment, but hey it is Lost related – so why not?

    Here goes: I am sure Christian Shepherd has been on the Island before, and has possibly turned the “Donkey Wheel”! The reason I believe this is mainly due to an episode in season 2, when we see a heavily bearded, and innebriated, Christian talking to Anna. Anna is saying something along the lines of “we should go back” (in referance to LA if recall correctly), to which Christian replies “we can’t go back”. It seems to me that this is a direct reflection of beardy, future Jack; the idea that Christian has been expelled (or left) the island would also explain why Christian is flying back and forth between LA and Australia – just as his son will eventually do when he is trying to get back.

  31. Matt H says:

    A while ago I posted something about “Pushers”, people who seemed responsible for “pushing” other charachters towards the island. With the recent reveal about a relationship existing between Ms Hawkings and Ben, i believe that a number of the shows charachter might actually be “time keepers”/”guardians of fate” or however you wish to describe them; these would include:

    Ben
    Richard
    Desmond
    Abadon
    Libby
    Whidmore

    The key conflict would then exist between Ben and Whidmore who would each be trying to manipulate destiny – hence the reference to “the rules” and “changing the rule”.

  32. qstorm says:

    I’m in 100% agreement with Alex from Boston in that I will be very disappointed if I’ve invested five years only to find out that the show is about two guys fighting to control an island that can travel in time! As Alex said, time travel is hardly a unique concept in sci-fi/fantasy and the scenes with Sayid seemed derivative as well, as though the producers wanted to get some Bourne-like action in there. I guess I’m at a point where I want some solid answers.

  33. Keith from Lewes, England says:

    Hi Ryan & Jen – welcome back to a new series (although awesome work on the recap podcasts…)

    Jughead is showing this coming Sunday in the UK, so no comments there yet. Just wanted to bring you some observations.

    Ep 1: Sawyer banging on the hatch door saying ‘Open up, it’s the ghost of Christmas Future’ – nice link to Desmond’s interest in Dickens. Can anyone recall what book it is that Desmond was holding on to?

    Also, Mrs Hawkins druidic lair had a Foucault pendulum swinging to and fro. They exist in the real world as nice demonstrations that the Earth is indeed rotating – you can tell the time from them. There is one in the Science museum in London, England. You can find out more at the usual source. Of course, I don’t suppose they would determine ‘events’ in the Lostian sense.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum

    Do you think the headaches as a symptom of time-travel sickness (as exhibited by Charlotte) could be a nod to the headaches experienced by Lost viewers as they try to make sense of the spaghetti of plot-lines?

    Keep up the good work. I’m definitely one for the mythology, so feel the series has started strongly.

Comments are closed.