Lost - “Confirmed Dead”

Damn you, Lost. I get on here Friday afternoon with thoughts quick in my head and the intention to make a simple recap post, then… I’m still here, 3 hours later. You’ll see why in a minute.

The most important question from yesterday’s episode, I think, should be this: what’s up with the polar bear skeleton? They were digging it out like it was a dinosaur fossil. It’s not just like it showed up in the middle of the desert recently and died. No, it had been there for a loooong time, and the fact that Charlotte knew to look for a Dharma marking tells us something. I like to think that she works for Dharma, after all, and was secretly researching the results of a time travel experiment.

And hey, speaking of wacko-theories, I think it’s important to put out there what we now know about the Lost universe as a whole: time travel is possible (Desmond) and ghosts are real (Miles, from last night’s episode). So when postulating theories, those topics should be given as much credibility as anything else. I say that not only because of the polar bear in the desert, but because what it might mean for Jacob, who seems like he might be some kind of spirit himself. I think the ghost thing will matter a lot when it comes to solving his mystery. If Ben, Locke, and now Hurley can only kind of talk with Jacob, maybe Miles will be able to have serious, coherent conversations with him?

Objectively, though, I have to be honest: this was not the best hour of television. I’m not saying that Lost has to be great every second of every episode, and it’s totally fine that an occasional episode is sub-par — this episode was just one of those. The pacing was goofy, the suspense just wasn’t that tight, and the stories seemed rushed, which is disappointing to me because one of my fav’s, Brian K Vaughan, co-wrote the thing (the other co-writer was the guy who did Cloverfield). Then again, it could have been the fact that I watched it at 3am.

I did, however, like the development between Sawyer and Hurley… did anyone else catch the nod Hurley gave Sawyer when he was about to hurt Ben, like Sawyer was checking in with Hurley? There’s a new bond there.

I also liked “the wink” that Kate totally missed, and the fact that Jack’s team kind of turned the tables in that now they are the ones calling the shots for the newcomers. Remember in season two, when Jack led an expedition through the jungle, and he was warned not to cross the line, and the bearded Mr. Friendly showed up and told Jack he had snipers in the jungle and they all lit up their flares? Kind of similar.

Another interesting clue was Charlotte’s full name, Charlotte Staples Lewis. That’s C.S. Lewis, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. Further research tells me that C.S. Lewis’ middle name is also Staples… so it’s no coincidence. I have the complete Chronicles in one book (Now a Major Motion Picture!), so out of curiosity this morning I started flipping through it. I’ve never read the thing, but have seen the movie and heard the stories throughout elementary school, so I was reminded of Aslan’s resurrection (how very J.C. of him) and the Adam & Eve theme, but in looking at the chapter titles in the table of contents I noticed something that caught my eye. The first chapter in the book “Prince Caspian” is called “The Island.” Here’s the first paragraph, painstakingly-yet-hastily-because-I-have-other-things-to-do-soon typed by me:

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, and it has been told in another book called The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe how they had a remarkable adventure. They had opened the door of a magic wardrobe and found themselves in a quite different world from ours, and in that different world they had become Kings and Queens in a country called Narnia. While they were in Narnia they seemed to reign for years and years; but when they came back through the door and found themselves in England again, it all seemed to have taken no time at all. At any rate, no one noticed that they had never been away, and they never told anyone except one very wise grown-up.

When I read this, friends, I am not ashamed to say that I got chills and shivers and all kinds of excited. I feel like I’ve stumbled on a clue, not just an easter egg. You see, this remarkable adventure to another land all sounds really familiar. Going through a magic door neatly explains the “bumpy ride” to the island, the island where some rose up to be leaders and, if the time-shift theory is true, maybe a lot more time has passed in the outside world than it has on the island — seemingly taking no time at all? The most important line though, to me, is the last one: at any rate, no one noticed that they had never been away, and they never told anyone except one very wise grown-up.

“I’m sick of lying,” Jack said. The Oceanic Six seem to be hiding the fact that they were on the island, so, in other words, no one noticed that they were away, and they never told anyone except one very wise grown-up.

The man in the casket? Methinks.

But there’s more, friends! And here’s where I wasted away my Friday afternoon. Again, I have not read the book (yet), but just the table of contents alone is enough to get thrills. Among some of the chapter titles in Prince Caspian:

• The People That Lived in Hiding. The Others, right? Maybe even Locke’s camp of survivors not wanting to get rescued. Or the whispers?
• Old Narnia in Danger. “The people on that boat will kill every living thing on this island,” said Ben.
• How They Left the Island. Ooo. I think this season is shaping up to reveal that, yes?
• The Return of the Lion. More symbolism is required here, but if a lion is thought of as being mean, nasty, and vicious, might that be Michael, who killed two people to get off the island? If so — if the Lion is indeed Michael — the next chapter in the book sounds kind of ominous…
• The Lion Roars. Michael’s coming back, who knows what he’ll be like? Maybe he’s even Ben’s inside man on the freighter.

There’s other chapters in the other books in the series that also caught my eye.  For example:

• The End of this Story and the Beginning of All Others, from the “Magician’s Nephew.”  Remonescent of the title of last week’s episode, “The Beginning of the End,” but not more than…
• The Beginning of the End of the World, from “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”
• The Island of the Voices, also from “Dawn Treader,” reminds me of the whispers.

Maybe there’s more. I’ll eagerly be reading Prince Caspian this weekend, in any case. If anyone has read it, can you offer any insight, or am I on what grown-ups like to call a “wild goose chase?”

Even if I am, it’s a fun connection, and the worse that’ll happen is that I’ll read a book in the Chronicles of Narnia.

So what did ya’ll think of last night’s episode?  They’re after Ben, it turns out, so does that mean they’re the bad guys to the Others but not necessarily our castaways?  And howzabout Locke’s revelation that since he has no kidney, the bullet did no damage (and therefore everything really does happen for a reason)?  What the hell was Miles’ little ghost-buster device — and could the money he took be an Eko (clever pun) of one of our dead castaway’s drug dealing pasts?

Even though the episode as it stood alone wasn’t one of my favorites, it still did a lot to advance the storyline and, I think, introduced four new characters in the span of 42 minutes quite well.  And we still have 6 episodes left this year!

:-/

Until later… stay outta Narnia.