Friday, March 6, 2009

S5E08 - La Fleur

Sheesh... it's about time Sawyer (aka "Jim") gets his own episode. He hasn't had one since season 3, so this one was long overdue. And what more could we ask for than a trip back to 1974 to see the Dharma Initiative in full-swing.

The Four-Toed Statue



As I mentioned, Sawyer hadn't had his own episode since season 3... but would you believe that we haven't seen the Four-Toed Statue since the end of season 2! In this past episode, it made a brief appearance. The good news is that we got to see the statue before it was reduced to a single foot. The bad news is that we only got to see the back of it. And even though we didn't see the front, I got the impression that the statue wasn't human... it looked like the Egyptian God, Anubis.



According to Wikipedia, Anubis was the god of the underworld. It was his job to protect the dead and bring them to the afterlife. It seem like the deeper we get into the history of the island, the more influence we see by ancient Egypt. The temple, smokey's door, and the clock in the hatch all had hieroglyphics on them. In fact, the hieroglyphs that appeared when the clock reached zero translated to "underworld". So, I wouldn't be surprised if the statue was of Anubis. Also, take notice of the staff in his hands having the ankh at the end of it... the same symbol that was on Paul's necklace.

The Secret Life of Paul

If all of the stuff mentioned above is true, and the statue IS of Anubis, is it just a coinsidence that Paul (a member of the Dharma Initiative) has this ankh necklace, which ties him to the island's natives? And why did the hostiles break the truce by killing him? And why does Richard want Paul's body?

Enter: Tragic Love Story.

(This, of course, is all theoretical.) Amy worked for the Dharma Initiative. Paul was a native to the island. The Dharma Initiative posed a threat to the natives, so they made a truce-- the traditional "You leave us alone, and we'll leave you alone." But one day, their paths crossed (Amy and Paul, that is). It was love at first sight. Surely you see where this is going. It's classic Romeo & Juliet. Their love was forbidden, and when Richard found out, he was banished from their group, at which point he "joined" the Dharma Initative. After a long romance, Paul decides he wants to show Amy something from his native-days (the smoke monster, perhaps? maybe the 4-toed statue?), but that requires them to bend the rules. They get caught (of course) and he is killed.

Horace is a Polygamist?

Ok... so we don't have any real evidence to suggest that he is a polygamist-- but let me ask you, what the hell happened to his wife, Olivia? When he recruited Ben's dad to the island, he was married to Olivia. But now, he's shacking up with Amy. This requires a little look at the timeline here, and let's face it... when it comes to this timeline, there are MUCH more important things to think about than the whereabouts of Olivia. How about little Ben being on the island?...

Little Ben

Any time I talk to anyone about this episode, we always end up in a long discussion about the timeline... so let's take this one thing at a time.

Benjamin Linus was born in the early 60's (we'll guess around 62). At around age 8 (to make the math easy), he was brought to the island by his father, who was recruited to the Dharma Initiative by Horace (and Olivia too). This puts us at 1970.... jump ahead 4 years to when we see Paul get shot.... jump ahead another 3 years to 1977 when Sawyer, Miles, and Jin all work for Dharma Security. Horace and Amy have a baby together, Juliet and Sawyer are a couple, but more interesting... BEN IS THERE! We didn't see him, but the timeline implies that at this time, Ben is roughly 15 years old. And now that Jack & Co. have made it back to the island, it's only a matter of time before they all realize that Ben is there. That gives them 15 years to prevent the Purge from happening. If we assume that Ben was the only "inside man" that the natives had, then killing him should at least postpone the purge.... shouldn't it? We shal see.

How Much Do They Know?

After spending 108 days on the island, the losties learned A LOT about the island, the Dharma Initiative, etc.... so how much do Sawyer, Jin, Miles and Juliet know now? Sawyer, Jin, and Miles have all been on the island for 3 years, while Juliet has been there for 6 years. They've got to know SOMETHING about the smoke monster by now. I'm sure they've got A LOT of information on the Dharma Initiative. I can't wait for them to give Jack & Co. a quick download on everything. Of course, they won't show that conversation on the show. They'll likely just start a scene where the conversation is ending, like, with Jack saying "Oh, wow... I never would've guessed that." Let's keep our fingers crossed that this doesn't happen.

Where Are They Now?

The last time we saw Rose and Bernard, it was the beginning of the season, and the islanders were just starting to jump through time. So, we know that Rose and Bernard were moving with them. Unfortunately, by the time they made it to the Barracks, Rose and Bernie were nowhere to be found. So, where are they now? Is it possible that they've been out in the jungle by themselves for the past 3 years? Maybe they ended up back in the caves, and we'll find out that they are the "Adam and Eve" skeletons that Jack found in the caves.

30 Years Apart

Well, it's confirmed that Jack, Kate, and Hurley are officially in the 70's. What's very interesting about this is that Locke & Co. are in (I think) 2008. Their plane landed on the smaller "Alcatraz" island, and we saw Caeser going through Ben's maps at an abandoned Hydra station. While I can't confirm that it's exactly 2008, they're definitely in a different time period than the rest of the losties. The same goes for Frank Lapidus and possibly Sun.

It's a Boy!

Horace and Amy's baby boy seemed very important in this episode... and I can't figure out WHY he's important. Was this just brought up so that we'd know that as of 1977, babies can still be born on the island? That way, we know that if Kate's pregnant with Jack's baby, they'll be able to give birth on the island. Or is it possible that the baby himself is important? Maybe he'll grow up to be someone we know. Keep in mind, the baby was born in 1977... and Flight 815 crashed in 2004. So, is there anyone we know that is around 27 years old at the time of the crash? My initial thought was Karl, but I don't know that he could be 27. Maybe Ethan? Desmond? Faraday? No-- They're all too old. But how about... Jacob? What if Jacob is just a child? What if he died at a young age and has been guiding the natives from "the other side"?

I know what you're thinking-- Richard seemed to know who Jacob was back in 1954 when Locke claimed to have been sent from Jacob, but here's my explination:

My Richard Theory

The biggest mystery about Richard is simply, why doesn't he age? My theory begins in the not-so-distant future-- let's say 2015. Richard was on a plane flying over the island when his plane crashed in the jungle. After spending 100 days on the island, something happened, causing the island to begin jumping in time. Does this sound familiar? Richard ended up stuck in the year 1623. Lucky for him, there is a very important rule when it comes to time travel-- He will not begin aging again until his timeline reaches 2015 again. So, it's not that he's immortal-- it's that his body has to wait until he gets back to his original timeline before it gets back on track.

No theory is perfect (especially any of mine), which is why I still can't explain why Richard is immune to the sonic fence. What's with THAT?! I realize that it probably wasn't set to a lethal level, but he wasn't even phased when he walked through it. Maybe he's dead? He may be a manifestation of the island, similar to Christian Shephard or Yemi (Eko's brother). This is what I think of as a Season 6 Mystery-- something that won't be answered until we're at the end of the series.

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The Poll

The obvious question this week-- what happens now with Sawyer and his ladies? Will Kate stay with Jack? Will Sawyer leave Juliet for Kate?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really like the Richard theory - he is from the future and won't begin aging until he reaches "his time" again. That would be awesome. But I guess that wouldn't explain being immune to the sonic defenses. When he came to the camp, did he say it couldn't keep "him" out or "us" out? Also, if Ben tricked Widmore into leaving the island than Widmore is still on the island as well. And when does that happen? It seems like Ben didn't have any contact with the Others until after he killed everyone. So maybe it happened after the purge. I'm still very curious when and why their feud began.

drew said...

I'm not 100% sure, but I think he used the word "us". And you bring up a good point-- Widmore MUST be on the island too. (He said that he ran it for 30 years... and we saw him there in 1954 (not as a leader), so we know he was there until at least 1984.