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This edition of “The Transmission” covers “The Last Recruit,” the thirteenth episode of Season 6. We share our thoughts, then we turn it over to our brilliant listeners in “You All Everybody.” After the latest track from The Others LOST Band, we report on the very last week of “LOST” production in the “Forward Cabin.”
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Segments:
- 0:00:19 Introduction
- 0:01:03 Recap: “LOST†in Eight Minutes
- 0:08:41 Reaction & Analysis
- 0:48:19 Feedback: You All Everybody
- 1:15:55 “Flash Sideways” by Wine Country Liz
- 1:19:23 Spoilers: The Forward Cabin
- 1:31:12 Closing
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http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/media/hawaii/lostcast20100425.mp3
Was today the last day of filming?
Just rewatched Through the Looking glass pts 1 and 2 – what a great pair those were – Alex this is your mother………
Then – Hurley on the radio to Jack “I told you dude, they’re all fine – I saved them all!†Hurley running over Pickett – Sayid doing his “crazy ninja stuff†while his hands were tied – Sawyer putting a bullet square in Tom’s chest……what a sequence.
Then Des popping out with the shark gun and Charlie drifting off peacefully – not penny’s boat.
Interesting though, remember Locke has a gun pointed at Jack having just thrown a knife into Naomi’s back. Jack stares him down, and Locke won’t kill Jack even though he swears he will. Walt or Smokey must have told Locke that he’s not allowed to Kill the other candidates…..why else would a crazed Locke not kill Jack – with Ben in the background yelling Kill him John – Rousseau has the great elbow to Ben’s head.
So does Locke know Jack’s a candidate – does Ben know and doesn’t care if he breaks the rules, because he knows the freighties are there on Widmore’s behalf?
Tom remarks, this is stupid, these three killed 7 of our people, we should be putting a bullet in their heads – not three in the sand. Did Ben give instructions not to kill them because they were all 3 candidates? Does this mean Jin is the candidate?
And coming up in a few episodes, how is it that the others have Smokey trapped under the barracks in the tunnels? Ben drains the water to release Smokey and almost on command, Smokey comes out and destroys the freighties.
Good morning Ryan and Jen and You All ~ Was that you daughter introducing The Transmission this week? I only listened once, but it sounded like a younger voice. Great podcast – you two have lovely rhythm how you present the material. Favorite Jen line re: Des “He’s running around running people over!” I fell over laughing!
I was happy that you two discussed the Claire disappearing thing ~ one of my many questions — glad I’m not the only one in the dark
If anyone could tell me which epi had the Adam and Eve reference, that would be great, so I can do a specific rewatch
@ Scott ~ lots of food for thought! Must rewatch so many episodes in a new light!
Looking forward to our Season 5 (1& 2) rewatch ~ thanx for getting a thread going for us
I’m going to miiisssss this boooaaarrd!!!
Aloha Ryan and Jen,
After watching the Last Recruit where Jin tells Sun that they will never be apart again, I now believe that this was a hint to the identity of the two skeletons in the cave.
I hate to think that Jin & Sun may not make it but we all know that major characters will die in the next few episodes.
Mahalo for your wonderful podcasts and insight from all your listeners!
The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham was on regular late tv last night, and got me thinking about how UnLocke displayed his access to Locke’s memories when he was talking to Ben about being murdered.
In the pilot episode, John has the scratch over his right eye- and the way it is positioned it looks very much like the markings of a marionette puppet. When Locke is holding up the black and white backgammon stones to show Walt- the black one is in the hand next the scratched right eye. The writers could have given John any kind of scratch on his face from the crash- over his cheek, forehead, whatever. I think this may indicate that both John’s soul and MIB’s essence are existing within John’s body. MIB is controlling John like a puppet- but John’s soul may still exist within MIB. This would explain the access to memories if John still has some brain function and consciousness.
I wonder if the sickness is similar to this- but the sick person can wrestle the control back under the right circumstances if there is enough distance from MIB. This may explain why Sayid and Claire are not following all of their zombie duties exactly as instructed. Maybe Desmond was trying to stimulate Locke’s conscious self in MIB by stunning flashsideways Locke with the car accident. Maybe Locke in MIB can wrestle back control? I guess we will find out soon enough! I’m off to listen to the podcast! Yay!
@ Kait ~ interesting analysis… I also think perhaps Jacob wanted Locke too, since John was such an open vessel with a need to belong, and so connected to the island — but MIB swooped in (I think Jack might have enabled this by leaving the island, or not returning quick enough, or something)
Love the podcast just two comments.
Why are the flash sideways called that when they’re taking place shortly after the plane landed/crashed on the island and our losties are 3 years ahead in the future battling it out with Unlocke.
Second I think joining Unlocke is a conscious decision you have to make, take Alpert for example, MiB talked to him but he chose to go with Jacob. If listening to his voice was the only component then all the candidates would be on his side since they’ve all heard his voice at one point or another.
@Ryan and Jen – Really enjoyed the podcast. I think it’s so cool that all of us watch the same episode but have so many different opinions and theories on it. Great discussion between Ryan and Jen. I like the way you break down the episode and talk about it.
Extra points for doing the podcast when everyone is sick. Feel better!!
P.S. not a stalker, I heard everyone was sick because I follow you on twitter. lol
Regarding Sun and Jin and their poignant reunion only to be separated again (as many in comments and podcast predict) has always reminded me of the Chinese/Korean/Japanese legend of the cowherd and the weaver girl. The tale relates to an astronomical event and the lovers are the stars Vega and Altair. Long story but the girl was/is a fairy princess. Her union with a mortal was forbidden. In one version of the story, her father (the Emperor of Heaven) separates them. In another, her mother scratches the heavens and creates the Milky Way (Heavenly River) to separate the lovers for eternity.
A festival each year celebrates the seventh night of the seventh moon when the stars Vega and Altair are high in the summer sky and appear to meet over a bridge. In Korean the cowherd’s name is Gyeon-wu (Jin, anybody?).
The date falls in 2004 on August 22 and in 2007 on August 19. Doesn’t seem to match up with the Lost calendar, but most of you have studied this a lot more than me.
Maybe the story is just total coincidence. But, the point is, even so, what I love about Lost and the comments is the sweeping allegory, the embrace of so many allusions to literature and folk culture and oral traditions, its ability to connect for us on so many levels.
Ryan and Jen:
Great job on the blog. This was the episode that I saw filmed out at Ko Olina when I was in Hawaii. It was great making sense of all that was going on at sea and when Kate and Sawyer swam out to the boat that was photoshopped into the scene. As we have only 4 hours of Lost left, it feels like we are on a wake of a very dear friend that is about to die. While we all enjoy the wonderful memories of our best friend “LOST”, we also all realize “The End” is coming. We all need to savor every word, every moment we have left. It is hard to be negative for such a wonderfully thought out work of television, art, science fiction history. I am going into this with the same attitude as I sat there when Episode 3 of Star Wars came out that tied everything together. I hope the blog shifts to the memories of LOST as we wind down, our favorite one liners, nicknames, characters. I am thankful for all the posts and countless hours of watching and rewatching that each of you put into this experience of LOST.
I am excited to see who the heroes are going to be in the finale. I can’t decide if I want it to be Ben, Locke, or Sayid to be the one who turns from the dark side at the End to destroy the evil emperor/UnLocke. Does anyone think off island Locke could perhaps enter UnLocke and cause him to in effect kill himself again? He was willing to die once off island for the sake of all. He may need to do it again somehow. Tragedy seems inevitable for Sun and Jin with one likely having to die for the other. Just as they flipflopped Sawyer and Jack jumping, I suspect Sun will lose her life for Jin this time. I hope we see more about the history of Eloise before it all ends, but I am ok if she stays mysterious. Regarding romance, I suspect many of the off island relationships will be left for us to ponder how they all end up. I look forward to look the island in the eye the next few weeks and find out all that it will reveal about itself. Most of all, thanks Ryan and Jen for making this such a more complete experience for each of us.
@ DrDoug ~ a lot of your guesses make sense or at least are super interesting Re: Sun sacrificing herself for Jin and Locke turning on himself in his new form ~~ I think (hope) we have 5 hours left of LOST, all in May (4, 11, 18, and two hours on the 23rd) ~ does that sound right?
@everyone – I am in total denial about the show and this podcast ending.
@drdoug – loved your comment. Great attitude. Loved the hero idea. I am on my itouch so I gotta keep this short.
I was pondering the many Adam and Eve scenarios that we have considered, thinking about which Losties it might be. But the more I thought about it, the more unlikely it seems that it will turn out to be any of our Losties. Does anyone really think, with five hours to go, that two of our characters will pop back in time and die so that they can be the skeletons in the cave? Seems highly unlikely to me.
So then I thought about the comment Cuse and Lindelof are said to have made about Adam and Eve, that the skeletons will show or prove that they knew where the show was headed. But we know they haven’t planned the small stuff, they have only planned the big stuff. This means that what the skeletons will prove is that they had the Jacob and MiB storyline planned from day one. I think that’s what the skeletons will prove. They won’t have anything to do with our characters.
This means that I think Adam and Eve will either be one of these two options. If Jacob and MiB turn out to be brothers, then Adam and Eve are their parents. I’m not crazy about that idea but it’s a possibility. My second option, which I prefer, is that the skeletons will be the original bodies of Jacob and MiB. We know that MiB takes bodies and that he has also suggested that Jacob took away his humanity (perhaps by taking away his body and turning it into smoke). Someone else has also suggested that perhaps MiB started out as a woman, which is why we don’t have his (her?) name. So MiB is Eve, Jacob is Adam.
To me, these options make better sense of the Cuse and Lindelof comment regarding the Adam and Eve skeletons. Knowing that Jacob/MiB would form the end game of Lost, they planted the two skeletons as an early reference so that if anyone thought Jacob/MiB was a last minute decision, they could point to the skeletons and say “nuh, we planned this all along”.
@greenberry — re: Adam & Eve. Season 1 “House of the Rising Sun” — Jack and Kate discover 2 skeletons in the caves and a bag with a black stone and white stone inside it. And then I”m sure you remember in “Lighthouse” Hurley talks about who they could be. Hope that helps!
Ryan and Jenn, I did not hear anyone else mention this, but I thought it was pretty cool element of this last episode. As many have mentioned before, there was a voice change in this last episode. Did anyone else catch it? When UnLocke was telling Sayid to go kill Desmond, at the very end of the conversation he says “Do it now” but it is not Locke’s voice. We listened to it several times, and I am 99% sure it was the man in black’s voice! Kind of cool I thought. Creepy too. Great podcast,thanks Ryan and Jenn.
Just listened to the podcast. I’m starting to think the reason Widmore called off the “deal” he had with Sawyer because Sawyer didn’t bring Jack with him to Hydra Island. He may have been the “last” or “only important” recruit for both sides.
Also, I keep waiting for Ana Lucia to show up at the station with Sawyer and Miles… @Ryan and Jen — I think you guys allude to her in the podcast.
Thanks for the podcast!!
KK ~ Thanx! I like Steven’s reasoning about Jacob/WIB ~ I’ll rewatch that early episode ~~ Maybe Widmore is ticked that Desmond is still gone
@ Stephen ~ even though it is hard for me to get my head around the (two) “alternate realities,” my thinking is that what is happening on the island in 2007 combined with the release of Jughead is rearranging retrospectively the post-Jughead Oceanic flight reality in Los Angeles in 2004 — in fact that reality is now mirroring the original pre/post crash reality AND vice versa, the LA X reality is rubbing off on the post-Jughead island reality ~ which is why we are seeing the two realities start to bleed into one another
As a poster eloquently pointed out, there is a 50/50 probability that either reality will be the END reality until the true reality is eventually revealed, when the other one will no longer be valid
When jack & unlocke are talking. Did anybody think the pause Unlocke gives was telling.
Jack asks have you ever been somebody else or words to that effect unlocke then says why don’t you ask me what you really want to know.
Jack then volunteers the information about Christian which unlocke takes credit for.
Is this because he was not Christian or does he not want to give away that he has been other people as well such as yemee ?
@James – Re: the pause and calculating looks of Unlocke asking Jack what he really wanted to know, and then telling him that yes he did appear to Jack as Christian Shepard – I’m pretty sure Unlocke lied. I don’t think he was responsible for those appearances. To say he was gave him some power over Jack who would no longer feel guided by his own father. I could be wrong but that’s my guess.
@Ryan – When you start the new board for the rewatch this week, would you please also include a link to your original podcast and your comments for that episode? It would be interesting to hear your thoughts. It would also serve as a good refresher for those who don’t want to watch the episodes again but may want to comment on them.
@James- I thought the same thing as you, it seemed that Locke only wanted to reveal as little information as he could. It seems like he can lie to some people (he lied to Zoe about Desmond) but he can’t lie to the candidates.
@Craig – a few of us noticed the difference with Locke’s voice. You are not crazy. ;), in what other episodes have you noticed it?
@Steven – I had the same thought about Adam and Eve being Jacob and MIB’s parents, the glitch in that is that the skeletons were only about 30-40 years old. Maybe we’ll never find out, or they could be two candidates from the past.
@Drdoug – I was watching the season 4 finale last night and I found another favorite Sawyer line (it is all in his delivery) it was when Jack, (who was bleeding from the appendix stitches), was going to the Orchid for Hurley to save him from Keamy. Jack tells Kate and Miles to go back to the camp. Sawyer grimaces and decides to go with Jack and says “you don’t get to die alone, dammit.” or something like that. He was so sarcastic when he said it.
re: the season 4 finale great scene at the Orchid with Jack and Locke. Locke breaks it all down to the island being a place of miracles and Jack tells him he doesn’t believe in miracles. So maybe it all comes down to Jack experiencing a miracle. What that miracle is, I dont’ know yet.
@KK – that’s the great thing about these season six reveals, rewatching the earlier episodes and catching all the clues. A bag with a white stone and a black stone – in season 1, didn’t mean much – looking back now very telling.
@you all everybody – I’ve officially switched my position on Michael’s spirit talking to Hurley ; ). I was sure it was MIB – directing Hurley to confront unLocke – but after rewatching ab eterno, it’s made clear to us that our characters can not feel the touch of the real spirits. In the hold of the Black Rock, Richard embraces Isabella, but and the end of the episode, when Hurley is relaying Isabella’s words, Isabella holds Richards face in her hand, but he can’t feel anything.
In the white Rabbit, before Christian shows up we here the now familiar ticka ticka sounds and the eerie bubbling/frog sounds – then as he walks away from Jack into the jungle he brushes up against large palms, and the move in response to him as if he was a real person. I think when smokey takes on a human form, he interacts with the world as a real thing. When the spirits appear and just stand there and don’t touch anyone or anyting, then it’s possible they’re authentic?
The whispers seem to be associated with warning about the others (there were no whispers with Isabella’s real spirit, she was just revealed in that cool camera movement). But who are they? Michael died off island, Libby died on island. Michael is stuck on the island now, but he doesn’t know where Libby is. Does that mean you’re stuck based on your choice – light vs dark? Where’s Anna Lucia, Where’s Charlie?
I was reading the fishbiscuit blog and he pointed out something that didn’t make sense. Sun and Locke arrived at the hospital at the same time. So it was about a day or two since the plane landed until Sun arrived at the hospital. They have some problem with customs, check-in, make whoopie, get together with Keamy and cyclops to be and Sun gets shot in the kitchen. That makes sense to me.
So Locke, in the same time, gets his lost luggage, gets fired, gets hired and run over in the same amount of time? I suppose he could get fired and hired and start all in the same day. Possible, but really a stretch.
@Steve – when Desmond sees Hurley in Mr. Clucks he mentioned on being on the plane with Hurley “last week” so some time has taken place. Plus Claire has had time to heal and leave the hospital.
@ScottB – Michael was really a spirit because MIB can’t take any other form than Locke right now (according to Ilana he is stuck with MIB) Isabella was a spirit. I think that Hurley can see them everywhere.
@Carol – I suppose the another way to think about it is that JinSun checks in and they stay in the hotel a 3, 4 days and then Keamy comes. But Sun is wearing the same blouse, outfit.
Okay, Sun was wearing the same outfit 3-4 days later. So JinSun check-in, Jin does his seedy errands for the corrupt boss for 3-4 days and Sun does her thing and at the scene in Sun’s room where they meet, she’s wearing the same outfit and Jin the same suit?
I can’t put it together. Maybe this might require I get thee to Hulu.
Just watched the part with Christian and Michael again. Just before Christian comes on the boat, there are “whispers” which we now know are spirits. So maybe that means the Christian on the boat was a spirit.
@Steve B – Okay I watched some clips on my itunes. Ben is wearing the same clothes in the ambulance as in the end of Dr. Linus. So when Locke gets run over it is the same day that Ben tells Alex that he didn’t write the reference letter. I am not sure how many days that is, we know that Locke has at least subbed for two days, maybe more.
@Carol – I’m not Bathurst Steve, but just plain steve.
Oy vey – I’m going to have to make a chart with binary, tertiary branches to figure this thing out. I guess I can believe that Locke gets fired, hired and start in one day, in time to meet professor Ben in the lunch room and volunteer his followship and in the same night, Alex goes to Ben’s house and the next day, Ben goes back on the extortion.
Ah, forget about it. I’ll just take Darlton’s word for it.
I still don’t think it fits and my gut feeling is that the time for the Locke story to transpire took alot longer than the Sun story and it doesn’t fit, knowing HR, school bureaucracies and time to concoct extortion plans or the SunJin story gave the impression of a brief time, but I’ll just ignore this inconsistency and on with the ride.
A hint of the end? From a NYT editorial by Lindelof:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/opinion/08lindelof.html?_r=1
And I think I’ve had enough of time travel plots. After LOST, no more. But that means no Fringe, no FlashForward, no Dr. Who.
At least for some “time”.
(In Jon Stewart voice) JJ Abrams, look what you frakking started. Curse you!
🙂
Does anyone think that Jack will be crippled with the explosion at the end of the episode? As he fills in the role of season 1 Locke, I could totally see this happening. Locke gained ability to walk in Season 1 and Jack will experience the opposite. Love the podcast!
@ steve ~ LOL and thanx for the clip
‘paper covers rock’ sounds good, but I could do with less explosions
GO HURLEY
@Steve and Carol: Sawyer and Kate said a week has passed… Yet you’re right about the Sun and Jin happening in the second day after the landing.
The lostpedia “timeline” moved their “unbutton” moment “a day before a week after the landing”… But then why would she tells him that it is now too late to deliver the watch??? He had a week to do it but he wants to do it by night a week after?
Well… the writers made a mistake and one that is clearly not a big deal. I hope they didn’t did that on a bigger mistery (and I am looking at you “Christian” with someone else in the Cabin when Hurley found it).
@Ryan: I totally checked for “Anakin” also… I am not sure his name is spoken in “Return” but that is a good reason to watch it again! Ewok time!
About the phone call about Babylon5: “Let it go, Jack. Let it go…”
And I just noticed on Netflix instant watch that all of the seasons of the X-Files are available. I never goto into that and watched the very first episode.
What did it feature?
A TIME jump.
Aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!
Netflix instant watch is so great! I’ve already caught the two S 5 episodes for our little rewatch and couldn’t help but sit thru Jughead, too.
Aboutlost.com has excellent recaps for those time pressed or without Dvd’s or Netflix, etc
See You All Everybody at the Rewatch blog.
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@Steve – sorry for the name mix up. I’ve lost track of the time table in the sideways world too, seems like they should have only been there atwo or three nights. Island time is even more confusing. I have no idea of how long they were at the temple and how many days they have been away from the temple. There aren’t many clothes changes. I remember three evenings, one with everyone getting killed at the temple, another one by the campfire and then last episode. I am not sure a night took place at the temple before Smokey made his threat, though it appeared that Richard had been captured for a while. I need enhanced episodes to figure this out.
I got an itunes gift card for Christmas and bought a season pass to Lost with it. It is very easy to forward through episodes on my itouch to check out details, only takes a second and all the episodes are on it. I have some of the episodes on my dvr but they take up so much space.
@Ryan – thanks for including the links in the new board.
@Carol – Thank you for the hearty laugh this morning!! I’ve been out of town, and I’m WAY BEHIND on the posts, but I read your post above about not being a stalker and had to let you know I truly did LAUGH OUT LOUD!!!!
@You All Everybody – I’m going to get caught up with the posts, but I wanted to thank you in advance for the enlightening you will all provide while I read posts from the past week. 🙂
The rewatch is a great idea, and I hope I have time to participate!
Given the time travel aspects of Lost, can Steve really categorically say that he isn’t me? Perhaps he is not Steven in Bathurst … yet.
@ Steven, you’re hilarious! Thanx for the laugh before zzzzzzz-time
I just assumed Flocke lied to Sun (just as I believe he’s lying about many things) and the reason for the wide shot including what it did was because of Sun walking past the fences. Notice Jin stops running at one point. And, well, the fences keep Smokey out. I assumed that’s why Sun got her voice back. As much as anything else on the show, camera shots seem to be important. I think otherwise they would have kept out such an obvious distraction. It was a clue to me.
Thanks for the shoutout, that was awesome! Love the podcast.
@Yann… I seem to recall that in the episode where Hurley stumbled on the cabin and saw Christian in the shadows, the eye that comes into view was thought to be Desmond’s eye. Looking back at that now, with how important Desmond has become, I hope that this is addressed.
@Bryan – I never thought about it being Desmond. I remembered when it first aired I thought it might be mikhail’s good eye. What episode did he see the eye? I forget.
Smoke and mirrors, anybody? 😉
Hello Ryan & Jen,
I would just like to mention that I do not believe that Unlocke got “stuck” in Locke form until after Jacob was killed. So the Christian that visited Sun and Frank in New Otherton could very well have been Smokey.
Why did Jack have to put his father’s shoes on John before the casket was closed?
@MEWp07 – When Jack was at the lampost station with Eloise she told him they have to recreate the first plane as much as possible. They were using Locke as a proxy for Christian. Because he was a proxy Locke had to have something in the coffin that belonged to Christian. After that time Jack got a call that his grandfather had tried to run away from his nursing home. Jack went to handle it and while he was unpacking his grandfather’s suitcase he found his father’s shoes and asked to have them. He put them on Locke’s body to give him something of his dad’s.
@Carol … I believe Hurley saw the eye in the cabin in the season 4 premiere, but I will have to go back to be sure.
And just a question that has been bothering me, and maybe it has been explained, but how is it that Smoke got to hydra island to become Locke when the Ajira plane crashed? Are we to assume that he took the form of man in black and took a boat? It doesn’t jive with me, since he said he can’t travel over water. It’s probably a simple answer that we can assume, but I didn’t know if I missed it somewhere.
I don’t know where to put this, but I saw Ab Eterno again, and it’s probably been mentioned, but there seem to be alot of similarities between Richard and alternate universe Jin. They both wanted to go to the new world with their loved ones. They both didn’t know English. They both did horrible acts that weren’t really part of their character.
I wonder if Jin will be the new Richard. It also doesn’t bode well for Sun.
@bryan – great questions – exactly how did Smokey get to Hydra and how did he get to be John Locke? I want a smokey flashback episode.