Found in Lost: Thoughts on “Eggtown”

OK, so we’re a little late to the party. But from now on, every week, members of the Beaver community will share their thoughts on LOST in this new column. This isn’t about summarizing what happened, although there will be some of that—it’s about sharing and discussing theories & ideas. Throw in your two cents in the comments.

Major spoilers after the break; don’t keep reading if you’re not up-to-date! (But please don’t post spoilers about upcoming episodes…)

MADDY KIEFER ‘08

So, like every other week, this episode was full of countless twists, revelations, and, typically, questions. We learn that Jin speaks perfect English, Daniel can’t remember the three of spades in his pack of Dharma playing cards, the helicopter is M.I.A., and apparently Kate has a son. Oh wait- CORRECTION: Kate STOLE AARON.

Apparently the Oceanic Six have an entire story crafted out; eight people survived the crash, two died, the other six returned, along with (or including?) Aaron, posed as Kate’s son. The obvious question is, what did they do to get off the island, and, in this specific situation, why did they take the kid but ditch the mom (Claire)? Are the other Losties still on the island, or are they dead?

An important thing to consider is how exactly Kate could pull off being Aaron’s mom (this is, of course, assuming that Aaron is Claire’s baby, and not actually Kate’s, whom she decided to name after Aaron Sr.). One thing we must come to realize is that they don’t get rescued for a long time after the freighter people land on the island. If, lets say, they were to get home within a few months of where the show is now, it would be very obvious that Aaron was born only a few months after the crash. This would be discovered because, for young children at least, it is very easy to deduce when they were born. They would realize that Kate would have had to be in her third trimester prior to the crash, which she definitely wasn’t. If Aaron was a few years older, however, it would be harder to predict his exact time of birth, meaning that Kate could pretend that she was only a few months along at the crash, or got pregnant on the island.

Something else to ponder is why Jack seems so hesitant to see Aaron in the future. Well, there seems to be a few possible explanations to me. We all know that Jack and Claire are half siblings, although they don’t know this—yet. My guess is that they somehow figure this out, and that is why its so difficult for Jack to face his nephew. He most likely feels guilty for either leaving her on the island and stealing her kid, for the fact that she is dead, or, in Toph Tucker ‘08’s opinion, Jack feels bad for murdering his new-found sister. (Note from Toph: I’m not saying it happened, just that we need to consider the possibility. :)) Another fact we must consider is something that Desmond told Charlie last season—he told Charlie that he had a vision of Charlie pushing “the button” and then saw Claire and Aaron getting onto a helicopter. Of course, maybe Des only said this to get Charlie to push it, or maybe they both did get on the helicopter. Maybe they pushed Claire out over the open ocean and kept the kid? Who knows, it could happen…

One thing that, looking back, struck me as odd, was something that Kate told Jack in front of the taxi. She clearly states that “she has a son”- something that Jack knows is a lie. But before this, they were being completely honest about the lies that Jack had just told in court, so why would she be trying to cover up now? Or is it really her son? My initial thoughts when I saw Kate’s “son” was, why is he blonde? Now that looks like proof that it is Claire’s son, although, one could argue, that Kate might have the recessive trait for blonde hair (cause we know her mom is blonde), and Sawyer, if he is the father, has pretty light hair as well. No matter whose child he is, though, there is one thing that is answered; we now know that, in the season 3 finale’s last scene, when Kate says, “I have to go, he’ll be wondering where I am,” she is referring to Aaron. Still doesn’t answer whether Aaron is actually her son, or, as suggested by the ending of this episode, Claire’s. But would the writers really name the kid Aaron if it was Kate's child? I mean, isn’t that ridiculously confusing? Well, of course, this is LOST, which means that anything is possible.

Wanna see the episode again? Just go to ABC.com and watch it again for free, along with every other episode of LOST. As Locke said at the beginning of this episode, “you might catch something that you missed the second time around.”

TOPH TUCKER '08

Tonight’s episode focused a lot more on Kate than on the “big picture,” unlike the past few episodes. Since this is the first time we’re doing this, I’ll share some of my accumulated thoughts about stuff beyond Kate.

1. Time Dilation

“The Economist” introduced what promises to be a huge plot point: there’s something going on between the island and the rest of the world that messes with time. The clock on the payload was about half an hour ahead of Dan’s clock. There appear to be TWO phenomena at work. (1) The payload arrived much later than expected. (2) When it arrived, the clocks had fallen out-of-sync.

It could be time travel. But if I were a betting man, my money would be on time dilation—time moving at different speeds for different people/places. Super-high speeds (like INSANELY fast, faster than anything on Earth) can slow down time, as can big gravitational fields. We know the island exhibits wacky electromagnetic characteristics. Could there also be gravitational weirdness? What if the button in the hatch, which was releasing electromagnetic buildup every 108 minutes, also regulated that? Now that the hatch is gone, could the island be falling out of sync with the rest of the world?

I think the characters would have noticed higher-than-normal gravity on the island. But what if it’s something about the water surrounding the island? Some kind of barrier?

Tonight we may have gotten another clue, as the helicopter appears to be late getting back to the ship. A lot of people have written theories and such on Lostpedia, etc. But none of them are particularly convincing, and it's not clear that all these people have a clue what they're talking about. I need to think more about this…

…and then again, there’s a precedent for time travel facilitated by the island: Desmond. We have no evidence of prior time dilation. But in the “real” world, time dilation has been tested and proven, whereas time travel has not. Then again, I can’t remember the last time I saw a smoke monster, either. I suppose I’m just lucky I’m not a betting man.

2. Equilibrium

The island appears to have a different sort of "equilibrium" state than the rest of the world. In normal life, people are born, age, reproduce, and die. And that's the natural state of the world. But look at Richard--who, like Locke (at times), appears to be "in tune" with the Island. And look at the pregnancy problems. Assuming that Richard, like Locke and unlike Ben (e.g. Ben's cancer wasn't cured), is somehow more a "friend" of the island, and thus exists in the way that he is "supposed" to. It appears, then, that the natural state of the island is that no one dies, but no one is born. In the real world, change is constant and unavoidable. On the island, it is smothered.

3. Matthew Abaddon

I'm still wondering about his line to Hurley, "Are they still alive?" We don't know who "they" are, and we don't know how the Oceanic Six got off the island. But the line is one piece of evidence that Abaddon is somehow out-of-the-loop. That, of course, doesn't tell us that the Oceanic Six got off via someone other than the freighter people. But it tips the equation in favor of that. After all, if the Six had gotten off via the freighter, Abaddon & Co. would've have plenty of time to question Hurley & Co. on the way back, in whatever setting they desired, on their "home turf." But now Abaddon has to track down Hurley to ask him? And Hurley doesn't recognize him? (We don't know whether Abaddon is on the freighter, of course.) Again, it doesn't tell us anything conclusively, but it makes me lean away from thinking the Six & the freighter people are all friendly with each other. Oceanic, on the other hand, seems to be friendly with them. (Then again, no matter how the Six turned up, Oceanic would of course be quick to hand them Golden Passes and everything. It's also possible that Oceanic is associated with the freighter people.) And Ben, we now know, can come and go. Maddy mentioned another thing: Abaddon could just be playing games with Hurley. Who knows.

4. Coming Full Circle

As Ben pointed out, he is once again being held captive, LOCKEd in a room by Locke. But there’s more. Just like the Hostiles/Others wiped out Dharma and began living in their houses, the Losties have now driven away the Others and are living in their houses. Ben referenced this natural cycle of conflict, purge, and rebirth in the Season 3 finale. It would be interesting to know whether anyone came before the Others & Dharma. Also: the Others clearly survived the Losties’ mini-purge. Of the Dharma Initiative, Ben, at least, survived the Hostiles’ purge (because he defected, akin to how some Others have survived by defecting to the Losties). What about others? Specifically, what about Annie? We still haven’t seen the Others this season. Last we heard they were heading to “the temple.” I’m going to guess three things: Mikhail survived, Richard is leading the Others, and Annie is at the temple. Remember, there’s a ton to the island that we still haven’t seen. Roger Linus even mentioned an airplane in a way that makes it sound like there could be a little airport somewhere. It’ll be interesting to watch.

5. On Parenthood

Parenthood seems to be a big theme. All the characters seem to have problems with their parents. And sometimes, parents who died off-island show up on the island. (Note that Richard was careful to ask Ben whether his mother had died on- or off-island.) So the island likes old parents, but—since mothers-to-be always die—not new parents. Weird.

Ben, who never knew his mother and who may feel responsible for her death, seems to have somewhat of an obsession with this. Being reunited with his mother was his goal from the start. And Richard mentioned to Locke that Ben was getting distracted by the fertility stuff, to the point of ignoring what the island is really about. Obsessions tend to be bad. Obsessions tend to lead to bad decisionmaking. Again, we’ll see.

6. Faction Overload

On Day 1, there was one faction: the survivors. That quickly began to grow, thanks to the others, stragglers on the island, separate plane sections, flashbacks, flashforwards, and more. Who are they all? Let’s think.

1. The Losties (with stragglers, e.g. Desmond and Juliet)—our heroes. Once new to the island, but now they’re practically veterans, and the freighter crew are the newbies. The Losties are now split between Jack & John, although the line between them is thin.
   


2. Penny & Widmore—OK, so it wasn’t Penny’s boat. But she’s out there, and she does have people searching. Not only that, but why did the Looking Glass immediately pick up her signal? She even asked where Charlie had gotten that frequency. Had she already been in contact?
   


3. The Hostiles / Others—This group is more or less shattered now. Ben is a hostage, many of their people are dead, and they’ve been forced out of the barracks, which are now occupied by Locke. On their way to the temple; haven’t been seen yet in Season 4.
   


4. The Dharma Initiative—purged from the island by the Hostiles in league with one of their own, Ben (and possibly two of their own, counting Annie). Could have research stations elsewhere, as evidenced by polar bear in the desert. Could be trying to retake the island.
   


5. Matthew Abbadon—leader of the freighter team. Creepy. Seems to be associated with those little bracelets that Sayid collects: “N, I'll always be with you. R.G.” Could be in league with Dharma, Oceanic, or someone else.
   


6. Oceanic Airlines—gave the Oceanic 6 a nice settlement and lifetime free passes. Is almost certainly in on the decoy ship found in the ocean, the one that implied no one survived. Could be in league with someone else.
   


7. Danielle Rousseau's scientific expedition—bet you forgot about them, eh? It may be safe to. They’ve been out of the picture for 16 years. But Abbadon’s people seem like a scientific expedition, too. What if they’re connected? Could almost sort of explain why Ben wanted Danielle to take Alex (daughter of Danielle and another member of the expedition) far away.
   


8. Michael and Walt—haven’t heard from these guys in a while, unless you count visions of Walt. But chances are they’re not gone forever.
   


9. Cerberus (the smoke monster)—even Ben supposedly doesn’t know what it is. But it could have an agenda of its own. Or maybe it’s just a mindless beast.
   


10. Jacob—seems to represent the will of the island itself (or at least, Ben thinks so). Appears only to certain people, in certain places, at certain times. Is in need of help from Locke, but doesn’t feel like making it too easy for him. Jack’s dad, Christian Shepherd, appeared in Jacob’s cabin to Hurley.

Will some of the above turn out to be the same thing? Who knows…

UPDATE 23 Feb. 08: MR. CAMPANALE (fac.)

I originally thought that last night's episode, though good, was a bit pedestrian (except for the great zinger at the end!)...meaning it was a solid episode but it just walked us through some things that we needed to know. Yet, as it has sunk in, I've become more cognizant that it really had a lot of cool things going on.

*First, check out Lostpedia on the episode: the part about why the episode is named "Eggtown" is awesome and filled with depth in all the meanings of "egg" and its references. As you know, I love connections and deep references!

*Also, the "unanswered questions" section on the episode page is interesting, too.

*Locke's leadership proved to have a lot of layers (THINK Prospero, Rochester, and Lord of the Flies in how it played out in many ways): his weakness when flipping out after meeting with Ben which is exactly what happened in the hatch; him asking Ben for help is a preposterously dumb move by a leader; his calling it "not a democracy"; Kate calling it a "dictatorship"; Locke calling himself "not Jack"; Locke getting easily duped by Sawyer for Kate; then Locke deciding that he has to rule with an iron fist and punish people; yet, Kate still fears him enough to leave the barracks in the morning.

*Weird scene with Daniel and the cards: I always thought he was a little strange, but his memory loss thing is odd. Not sure what's going on with that.

*Jack's story on the stand: we should really be wondering, now, about 8, not 6 people. Obviously only 6 make it back, yet for some reason they had to say that 8 survived. The fact that their whole hero status is wrapped around all THREE TYPES of LYING is very interesting.

*Aaron: I'm kicking myself for not realizing there was a reason that the episode focused on Kate and Claire (and also Jin and Sun at the beginning!) and realizing that something was going to happen because of that. Very, very, very cool twist to the story. (sidebar: my mom called me today and asked who the father was of Kate's baby. I said, "What?!" She said, "Yeah, her baby 'Eric." After I finished laughing over the phone, I had to break it to her that Kate didn't say 'Eric'......)

*Miles: I loved it when Ben said to him, "Why not 3.3 or 3.4 million?" because that's what I was thinking. Wonder why 3.2??

*Next week's episode: It should be filled with a lot of action based on the previews and the fact that we didn't see the helicopter the whole time. The previews showed the picture of Desmond and Penny, so we may get some answer as to why Naomi had that picture. [ed. note: see the preview here.]

There's more swirling around, but that's a chunk.