Bill’s Lost Site

Great episode … one of my favorites. I won’t discuss the general plotline - you have all seen the episode. Rather, here are the items that I found interesting.

1. This is really a rehash of earlier episodes … just never thought of it before. We have a dozen or so survivors that the show focuses on. One of them is a druggie - not just any type of druggie but a heroine addict. Herione that is taken orally. Now, what are the odds that a plane smuggling heroine crashes on our mysterious island and that Charlie is one of the few people who know about it and discover the drugs?

2. When Echo hears about the statue from Claire he immediately suspects it’s his drugs. Why would he do that? Last thing he knew was that his drug plane was leaving Nigeria. Would you naturally assume that because someone has a statue of the Virgin Mary that it is the statue from Nigeria?

3. For what it’s worth - when Locke is setting the combination to the gun room we see him turn the combination to 25 and then 29. Actually, this isn’t worth much.

4. Locke makes a comment to Michael about silent movies. Michael tells Locke he doesn’t think Locke is old enough to watch silent movies. Locke then says, “I am old enough.” This may be nothing but in light of the Hanso Foundation Life Extension program (which apparently worked) I wonder if there is a connection. Is Locke “older” than we think he is.

5. Locke showing Michael how to use a gun was pretty funny. Michael manages to hit a Costco size jar of mayo from about 20 feet away. Hurray … we have a sniper on our hands. It would have been humiliating had he missed.

6. Where in the world was the drug plane going? Leaving Nigeria I can’t imagine how it ended up in the South Pacific. I’m going to research plane routes and distances in a later post. Watch for that.

7. OK - the highlight of the show. If you ever needed to justify the expense of TIVO, HD, and a Plasma here it is. Echo sees the Monster. I am now convinced more than ever it is a nano swarm (do a search on my blog for other posts on nanotechnology). What was interesting was what appeared in the swarm as Mr. Echo was looking at it. Without TIVO it would probably be impossible to see. Slowing things down to 1/16 speed here is what I saw:

A. Face - couldn’t make out who
B. Church with a cross on top
C. Another face - couldn’t tell who it was but it appeared to have a head-wrap or hat on
D. The head of the man that Echo shot as a child
E. Woman carrying a basket on her head
F. His brother’s face
G. Appeared to be a woman in a floral print … may have also been army guy in camo - hard to tell
H. Holding his brother right after the brother was shot (shows this twice)
I: Crucifix

All that happened in less than 8 seconds and again there may be stuff that I missed. It is a very fair assumption that each of these images were from Echo’s life (although one of my major theories is that these are all implanted memories that are not real). Anyway, more to come on this topic as it deserves it’s own post.

UPDATE: Click HERE to see the images blown up and brightness adjusted. I think they missed a few but at least you can see what the images look like.

8. After the monster appeared Charlie asks why Echo didn’t move - wasn’t he afraid of it. Echo’s response was “I was not afraid of it.” That begs the question why not? The thing was uprooting trees and making a very disturbing sound. The reason he wasn’t afraid … Mr. Echo had seen it before. I don’t think he could place it exactly but for some reason he knew there was no reason to be afraid. Remember Locke is the only other person to come face to face with it. He too was not afraid. In fact his quote was that he saw into the eye of the island and what he saw was beautiful.

9. Another weird thing … right after the swarm left Echo is back to hunting down the plane. Didn’t spend more than 10 seconds thinking about what he just saw. Anyone else notice that he was in a trance like state once the swarm came up to his face?

10. Michael gets his alone time on the computer. He pounds away at the keyboard to no avail. Then he asks “Where are you?”. Immediately the computer fires up with a “message” from Walt. By the way, the only other time someone has used the phrase “Where are you?” (at least that I can remember) was Jack. That was right after Jack saw his deceased dad strolling through the jungle. I think Jack’s dad’s image is very similar to Walt’s (post kidnapping).

11. For those that missed the computer chat between Father and Son here is what the chat looked like. Anytime you see “>:” that would indicate a message from Michael. If the text is not preceded with those characters then the message is coming from Walt (or someone/something posing as Walt).

Dad?
>: Are you O K?
Yes.
Are you alone?
>: Yes.
Can’t talk long. They’re coming back soon.
>: Where are you?
You need to com

There appears to be some text that Michael reads before Jack comes in. However, we don’t see it.

Why would Walt care if his dad was alone?

12. Walt is a speed typer. He manages to type “Can’t talk long. They’re coming back soon.” all in 4 seconds (7 words in 4 seconds would come out to 105 words per minute). First time I tried it took me 7 seconds. I type close to 60 words a minutes. Not too shabby for Walt, a ten year old boy, who hasn’t been near a computer for a month. Blazing speed and no typos. Hmmm.

13. From my wife … she doesn’t think there is anything on the computer screen. Her opinion - Michael is imagining the conversations. Remember when Jack comes around there is nothing on the monitor. Michael could have turned off the monitor - but we don’t see him do it. That would also explain why the chatting starts right away when Michael gets at the computer and why no one else has seen the chatting. Previews for next week appear to show Michael losing it taking out Locke and forcing an armed manhunt to bring Michael back.

14. The next few are more trivial and have nothing to do with advancing the plot line. However, I thought they were funny. Starting with Echo hugging a decomposed corpse. I know it’s his brother and all but seriously … I broke the news to my wife that if I had the chance I would not hug her decomposed body.

15. Why torch the plane? Last check starting a fire surrounded by jungle appears to be a recipe for disaster. Along the same line - isn’t there anything in that plane that was worth salvaging? Sayid is like an A-Team member - he can make a toaster out of scrap metal. There had to be something on that plane worthy of saving.

16. Anyone wonder where all the tarps come from? Seems like everyone has one for their shelter (or multiple tarps for each shelter). I travel by plane all of the time and I can honestly say I have never packed a tarp. I have never seen anyone else pack a tarp. Maybe airplanes are filled with tarps in the baggage area in the event of plane crash on a deserted island in the South Pacific?

That’s it for now. Additional posts on topics from the episode will include:
Mr. Echo’s experience with the swarm - What do we know about the monster?
Beechcrafts - how far they can go
Air travel routes to likely drug drop-off destinations
Is that really Walt talking to Michael

Not sure how this impacts the story but there is a problem …

In the 2nd episode Sayid is able to pick up Danielle’s distress call which has been running on a loop (or in iterations). There were 7,294,531 iterations. Sayid does the math and says that the recording plays for about 30 seconds - that translates to 16 years and 5 months. Here is the transcript

The problem is Sayid’s math and stopwatch are both wrong. At 30 seconds there would actually be 17.6 years that have passed. However, the bigger issue is that the recording was not 30 seconds long. I counted 20 seconds. That would put Danielle on the island for 11.7 years. Also, we are assuming the counter started at 0. I don’t know anything about distress calls but I do know that in databases, model numbers, series numbers, etc you often don’t start with the number 0. If the counter started at 1million (as an example) then Danielle was only on the island for a little over 10 years.

Anyway, the point is that our time estimate for Danielle is off - by about 5 years at least. Did Sayid make the mistake? Did the writers? Or, is it really important to know that it hasn’t been 16 years? Only time will tell.

Pretty simple question … right?

Episode 10 from Season 1: Hurley is taking a census after Claire was attacked. In speaking with Shannon he asks for some basic information. Her response is:

“You want my information. Name: Shannon Rutherford, Age: 20, Address: Craphole Island.” Transcript

OK - easy enough- Shannon is 20. But …

Shannon’s dad died in Jack’s ER room. He was 57 at the time. Transcript
It was at that time when Jack bumped into Desmond running the stairs. Desmond was training for “A race around the world. Impressive, I know.” –same transcript

So far so good. Now we just need to know how old Shannon was when her dad died in that accident. That text for that comes in the episode titled “Abandoned” Transcript
Here is the answer when Boone pours Shannon a drink of alcohol after the funeral. She says, “I’m 18, Boone. Your mom’s going to freak.”

So, it looks like 2 years (and maybe a few months) have passed between Shannon’s father’s death and her being stranded on the island. But then there is this …

We go back to Desmond. Desmond is being quizzed by Jack as to how Desmond ended up in the hatch. Desmond’s answer was, “It was 3 years ago. I was on a solo race around the world, and my boat crashed into the reef, and then Kelvin came.” Transcript

So, Desmond places the death of Shannon’s dad some time further back than 3 years ago.

Either Shannan lied about her age or … Desmond lost track of time or … they all are being experimented upon by having memories implanted. Those memories sometimes cause inconsistencies.

A few more points about this two year period.

Between the time when Shannon was 18 and 20 Jack had operated on his future wife. She had gone through her extensive rehab. She and Jack became engaged. Then they were married. Finally, something else happened to where Jack and his wife are no longer together (divorce/death?). That’s a lot to happen in 2 years.

On Shannon’s side she was living in the states at 18 with no money. Yet, in the next two years she has moved to France for at least 1 year and has had 3 boyfriends that Boone has paid off in order to have them break-up with his sister. Oh, and she was married somewhere in there as well. We just don’t know for how long.

Finally, for Desmond he must have concluded his training, started his solo race, and traveled as far as the mystery island. All of that was supposed to have concluded prior to his crash on the island 3 years ago.

My bet is that at least 4 years have passed between Shannon’s dad dying and our Lostie’s ending up on the island.