Maternity Leave

A thoroughly excellent episode. An unusual one, too, with no pre-crash flashbacks. Lots of wonderful little links to things that came before, but much more tantalizing were the hints and implications of what’s coming. It was good to see Mr. Eko again, and who knows what he’s up to (cutting down marked trees, and cutting off a chunk of beard). He seems to think Henry Gale is connected to the Others, though, and now I’m even more convinced. Jen has also come around on that point, given that he too has clearly figured out just how to rattle Locke’s cage.

Things to ponder:

  • How about that mobile hanging over the crib? Commercial jets are an odd choice. Oceanic Airlines jets? Even odder. The fact that it played “Catch a Falling Star”? Absolutely intriguing. After all, it was “Catch a Falling Star” that Claire asked the would-be adoptive parents in Season 1 to sing to the baby.
  • Seems like the drug administered to Claire’s unborn baby was the same drug Desmond injected himself (and later ran off) with. So is Desmond an Other? Was Kelvin? More importantly, what is it? If it’s a vaccine, and in limited supply, having to choose “good people” sounds like a likely development. It also sounds like another psychological experiment.
  • So maybe there aren’t two groups of Others, but there are two sides to them. Ethan, Goodwin, Zeke out of costume, all seemingly bright, clever folks, but rough, dirty and raggedy when “in character.” But why? Efforts to sustain an image of a primitive environment despite having access to modern technology definitely adds to the “it’s all an experiment” theories.
  • The costume pieces in the hatch were totally unexpected, and I’m still not sure if it’s a twist I like. “It’s all an elaborate production” is a little further down the theory continuum toward “it’s all a dream” than I’d prefer. Presuming that was Zeke’s hat and beard, they were there in the past couple of days (after Zeke confronted Jack and party in the forest), and it sure seems like they left in a hurry, too. Maybe the countdown in the Swan station spooked them?
  • That’s twice now Locke has stopped Claire from going to the hatch. It’s implied this time, though, that it’s because they’re hiding Henry Gale. Jen’s not sure why that’s a secret. Because it might scare people? Inspire a lynch mob? Or simply because of how it makes his captors look?
  • Interesting to learn more about Ethan. I thought we saw a hint of a softer side, and liked that he perhaps was not the most respected member of the crew. Jen’s convinced he was just being his conniving, sinister self.
  • Who is the “he” that Zeke said he had to report Ethan’s “list making” failure to? And is “he” on the island, or in contact from afar? The DeGroots? (If Zeke isn’t a DeGroot.) Or the big man himself, Alvar Hanso? I’m betting the latter, because Zeke so proudly quoted the man.
  • Sun’s brief outburst about a mother never leaving her child smelled like a big pile of foreshadowing.
  • More and more, I’m loving Rousseau (and appreciating Mira Furlan’s talent). It was good to see Claire in the spotlight, too.
  • Jen loved the Stephen King shoutout. And more literature links: Dostoevsky vs. Hemingway.

Links:

SPOILERY BIT: Next? Again with the reruns. Next new episode will air on March 22. How about the preview, though? Sun wants a pregnancy test? Jen just about fell out of her chair. (Why would Sawyer have one, though? Who takes a pregnancy test on a plane?) The… “encounter” probably pre-dates the crash, and my bet is that it wasn’t with Jin. There’s something big coming in her flashback. I saw them filming that episode, and it looked both familiar, and yet a lot more contemporary than the period when she first met Jin.

I also got up close and personal with the shooting for the following episode (a Locke flashback). We just can’t wait to see these stories air.

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58 Responses to Maternity Leave

  1. Marissa says:

    I loved it. A lot. But it does give you more questions. The scratches on ethans face. That i cannot get out of my head. When they killed ethan he had scratches from claire on his face. when did she do that to him. WHere? also ethan was killed before claire was returned. Ethan was there when french lady took claire. So what did the french lady do? Did she take her right back? or not?

  2. Jen says:

    Did anybody hear Kate call her accomplice “Jason” is last night’s repeat? Jason was the name of Ana Lucia’s attacker, who she stalked and shot in the parking garage. I hadn’t caught that.

    So, we have three Thomases, two Brian/Bryans, two Beths, and two Jasons.

  3. tvscifi.com says:

    While we have some down time over the next few weeks with a buch of reruns coming. Here is a new theory to ponder. I believe that the Lost castaways are actually on Gilligan’s Island. My theory can be found at tvscifi.com:

    http://www.tvscifi.com/GilliganLostConnection2.htm

    As I went through an episode list of the entire Gilligan’s Island series, it sent shivers up my spine. How could I have not made the connection before? ESP, curses, evil twins, “Others” and even a cursed sweepstakes can be found on our little buddy’s island. I Nearly all the episodes of Gilligan’s Island have an eerie connection to Lost

    Here are some things to ponder:

    Just as items from the Fusies past mysteriously are found in the hatch (Kate’s music box, Clair’s boyfriend’s art), items from the castaway’s past mysteriously manifest themselves on the island. They were only out for a three-hour tour, yet evening gowns and trunks of money seemingly come out of nowhere.

    Like the polar bear, animals not native to the Island appear and threaten the lives of our castaways, including a lion, a gorilla, a giant spider and a chimpanzee (animals all native to Africa, a Nigerian connection perhaps?).

    Like Locke, Gilligan seems to have a strange connection to the Island. The Island controls Gilligan and uses him to thwart any rescue attempt. In exchange, Gilligan is given special powers from time to time, including super strength, ESP and invisibility.

    Like Hurley, Gilligan is the winner of a sweepstakes. Is this the start of his “bad luck?”

    The castaways are also threatened by “Others”: natives from nearby islands, a jungle boy, a jungle man, a South American dictator, a spy, a Beatles cover band, cosmonauts, Zsa Zsa Gabor, evil twins, a surfer dude, a Hollywood producer, a butterfly collector and not one but two mad scientists.

    Like on Lost, strange objects are drawn to the island: radioactive seeds, a missile, a jet pack, a meteor, a space capsule, a killer robot and a satellite, just to name a few.

    Like on Lost, the Island causes the castaways to have strange prophetic dreams. (i.e. Gilligan as a sheriff, vampire and cannibal.)

    Mary Ann, like Clair, gets amnesia.

    Like the Lost passengers, the crew of the Minnow is declared dead and the search for them is called off.

    It is my theory that the Lost Island and Gilligan’s Island are one and the same. That, or the producers of Lost are just ripping off Gilligan’s Island scripts. Sherwood Schwartz must be turning over in his grave, (if he were dead*).

    The Lost producers even seemed to cast the same characters, but had to split them into multiple people due to the fact that Mr. Schwartz’ castaways are so multi-dimensional. For example, no one man today could possess the intelligence of Professor Roy Hinckley, a true Renaissance Man, so he is re-imagined as Jack, Sayid and Michael. Here’s how the castaways are integrated into Lost:

    Skipper – Locke/Mister Eko/Ana-Lucia
    Professor – Jack/Sayid/Michael
    Mr. Howell – Boone/Jin/Bernard
    Mrs. Howell – Shannon/Sun/Rose
    Ginger – Sawyer/Kate
    Mary Ann – Clair/Libby
    Gilligan – Charlie/Hurley/Arzt

    Even Guest Stars Seem Familiar:
    Wrongway Feldman – Pilot of Flight 815
    Erika (Zsa Zsa Gabor) – French woman
    Jungle Boy – Alex
    Tongo the Ape Man – Zeke (Bearded Man)
    Big-game hunter Jonathan Kincaid -The Others
    Kidnapper (Don Rickles) – Ethan
    Cosmonauts – Desmond/Nathan
    Giant Spider – The Black Smoke
    The Mosquitoes (music group) – Drive Shaft

    *According to the recently obtained birth certificate of Sherwood Schwartz, he was born in 1806 and is nearly 200 years old! Perhaps he has visited the Island that he writes about and is privy to life-extension technology! Could Sherwood Schwartz and Alvar Hanso be one and the same? Are Mr. Schwartz’ TV programs some sort of horrible mind-altering experiment? It would explain the success of the Brady Bunch.

    info@tvscifi.com

  4. Graham says:

    After lots of frustration with the whole new episode shuffle, I started a website, http://islostarepeat.com (Digg here: http://digg.com/links/Is_Lost_a_Repeat_)

    Enjoy!

  5. Losts Leaders Suck says:

    I submit that the show is being dragged out unnecessarily. This, by way of poor leadership on the part of flight 815 survivors. From the looks of it, Jack has talked tough about raising an army, but no real steps have been taken to make the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 a real threat to the ‘Others’.

    If arms were to be distributed amongst the group, and resources stocked, an expedition around the circumference of the island could be conducted. This should be a logical move given the serial abductions suffered by 815 survivors, the bullet wound suffered by Sawyer, and the verbal and physical threats experienced by several among the group. The expedition would seek to find the boat used by Mr. Friendly, with the hope being that this will be found along near the rest of the Others’ encampment(s). At the very least, a more accurate sense of the size of the island can be obtained, and more hatches (along with whatever clues or supplies they contain) could be discovered. Although training should commence, the expedition should not proceed until Gale tells the group everything he knows.

    Without doubt, the man is a spy; that being said, he should be able to provide answers for a number of enigmas: the others (including their numbers, location weapons, history), the dharma initiative, the numbers / 108 minute countdown, and the ‘monster’. Elucidation of Danielle’s history would also be advised, to determine whether she should aid in any expedition about the island. The expedition should only be cancelled if Gale reveals that the Others pose a serious threat to the whole population of survivors.

    As for the number problem in the hatch… Leave Locke to do it – if he remains credulous enough… Surely he can duplicate what Desmond did (or so he claims) for a week or so.

    I would be surprised if the expedition did not yield tremendously positive results for our protagonists. Also, the alternatives are wholly unpalatable. For the protagonists to remain in their present encampment without arming or otherwise training for combat is sheer folly. Contrariwise, arming without ultimately attacking the Others would be useless, as the enemy has proven to be proficient in obtaining information about our protagonists.

    We have seen that the Others did not use overwhelming force or heavy arms in kidnapping 12 ‘Tailies’, so we have no reason to believe that they will pose a serious threat to 40 or so people armed with guns, spears, knives and various other makeshift weapons and traveling en masse. Despite internecine fighting, it seems apparent that all of the survivors see the ‘others’ as the common enemy at this point. If there is a turncoat or spy in their midst, arming the populace may enhance public safety during the course of the expedition.

    The goal of all this is to have the others stand down, free their prisoners, and reveal everything they know about the island and its sundry unsolved mysteries. If the others maintain that they have abducted ‘good people’ with an eye to providing them with vaccinations which are limited in supply, suggest that this is a ruse: a predictable psychological test given that the scientists were/are acolytes of BF Skinner. If the others are indeed Dharma scientists / employees and they assert that the disease is real, they should be punished for going about their altruism in such a destructive, demented way. If the others suffer from mental illness as a result of the ‘disease’, they should be killed – as Danielle did to her erstwhile co-workers. If the smoke does represent the embodiment of a powerful psychic, as suggested by Entertainment Weekly, with the ‘others’ being his henchmen, then more details will be needed about this psychic – details which can be obtained from the others themselves, or by a more thorough exploration of the island. In all circumstances, the expedition is indicated. Hopefully, the group will have some knowledge about which possibility is correct once Gale is broken.

    Being that this aforementioned course of action will be delayed or possibly avoided altogether (in favor of some more convoluted approach to the story’s climax…), I believe that we are being strung along in season two. Not only with more reruns – so that more ad time gets sold for our pals at the network, but also with a meandering plot. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great if we get more history on the survivors’ pasts, reasons for why each character is there, and the scoop on the nature of the island. Yet, how the group is conducting itself on the island seems not only irrational, but unbelievable (as was mentioned by a previous poster on this site). Has the instinct for self preservation not kicked in yet? Clearly the fear of widespread panic is not sufficient justification for keeping the group ignorant of threats to its safety – nor the concomitant danger that leaves them susceptible to.

    Just one more beef with the show: Why is it that when Michael goes missing, the bravado is there to go chase him into the heart of darkness, yet when Cindy is gone, the group plays it safe? Seems awfully convenient…

  6. Kirstie says:

    Poor Claire 🙁 Ethans an ass!!

  7. Kirston says:

    I think she was lured under the scientific project to the island and that Dharma planned to steal her baby from the beginning, just like Claire. After she was released into the jungle, Dharma has learned that that was probably not a very good idea, hence the reason to kill Claire instead of releasing Claire back to the losties. They have discovered that a mother’s loss is neverending, and that after 16 years she is still seaching for her child.

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