Lost - The Economist of Egg Town

I didn’t do a blog entry last week for a number of reasons. The first being I was lazy, the second being I was busy, and the third being anything I say tends to be found elsewhere in other blogs so I get kind of discouraged easily. My fault!

One thing I did want to point out about last week’s episode, “The Economist,” was a painting on the wall in the bedroom. This ‘un right here:

I’ve learned that whenever something is centered on the screen for longer than 0.5 seconds, it’s some kind of clue or easter egg. Apparently this is a map of the universe, so who knows what that could mean? It hangs in Ben’s bedroom so he’s obviously got his eyes on the cosmos. It could be that astronomy is just a personal hobby of his, or it could be something that they actually utilize. More on this in a second.

What’s really interesting here is that, since I had my Chronicles of Narnia collection sitting on my desk anyway last week, I started flipping through the chapter titles again just to see if there were any new relevancies and, wouldn’t you know it, chapter one in the book The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is called “The Picture in the Bedroom.”

Go figure.

I might have more insight if I actually read the book since last time, but I did not. Even if I did, I’m not so sure it would explain the entire Lost storyline. I just think these connections are essentially saying: watch the picture in the bedroom! It’s important!

However, if the Dawn Treader is a boat, could the freighter be a representation of that? Or, what if the island itself is the Dawn Treader? Going back to the idea that the map on the wall may be something Ben actually utilizes fits nicely with a clue from last night’s episode, also something that was on screen for 0.5 seconds (and thank god for obsessive screen capturing fans):

This book, “Valis,” which Ben has already read, but Locke gives him anyway, telling him he might catch something else the second time through.

According to Amazon, “Valis is known as science fiction only for lack of a better category.” Hmm. So it doesn’t really fit neatly into any one category but sci-fi seems to fit best? Sounds familiar. But there’s more!

“Valis is a fool’s search for God, who turns out to be a virus, a joke, and a mental hologram transmitted from an orbiting satellite.” FUN FACT: The virus sounds an awful lot like “the sickness” from season one, what with that pesky quarantine safety joke “what did one snowman say to the other?” FUNNER FACT: A satellite can orbit the Earth every 108 minutes.

“Don’t push the button, the button is bad.”

More:

“The proponent of the novel, Horselover Fat, is thrust into a theological quest when he receives communion in a burst of pink laser light.” FUN FACT: Upon imploding the hatch, the sky turned purple. FUNNER FACT: Upon finding the hatch in the first place, Locke was blasted with a burst of light that, depending on your vantage point, may have looked like a laser light.

And so the blurb continues: “From the cancer ward of a bay area hospital to the ranch of a fraudulent charismatic religious figure who turns out to have a direct com link with God…” So, Juliet’s sister was in a cancer ward, yes? And then to a fraudulent charismatic religious figure who has a direct com link with… Jacob? Jacob who looks like Christian? Jacob Christian?

Jesus Christ!

Maybe that “god satellite” really is in orbit and every 108 minutes the Swan station’s “unique properties” allowed the signal to be amplified, but now that the Swan is gone the power source is not as strong, and God/Jacob appears sporadically or not at all. I’m thinking that Jacob might have only recently gone “invisible,” because the very first time we heard his name mentioned was by Tom (Mr. Friendly), when he casually said: “They weren’t even on Jacob’s list.” Either he has an undying trust in Ben (which is probably true), or he has seen Jacob with his own eyes and takes it for granted that he’s real.

Juliet may have been on to something when she told Kate and Sawyer what they were being forced to build when they were shackled up the first part of season three: “A runway.” For what? “The aliens.” This assumes that the fake God transmission is alien in origin, of course, which is why Ben might have a map of the universe.

Also, Google tells me “Valis” is an acronym. An acronym is like ASAP meaning “as soon as possible,” or DHARMA meaning “Department of Heuristics and Research into Material Applications.” In the book, “Valis” is an acronym for “Vast Active Living Intelligent System.”

Locke has referred to the island as an entity before, as in “the island told me to,” or “the island won’t let us,” etc. And in a recent interview, the actor who plays Locke (Terry O’Quinn) came out and said it: “Locke believes that the Island has a soul, that it is a being and that he is it’s agent.” In other words, it’s a vast active living intelligent system.

Chills.

Buks wit werds in um is good.

Other thoughts!

There’s a time discrepancy between the real world and the island. Proof:

Usually I’m pretty good with keeping the paradoxes of time travel straight in my head, but I’m having difficulties with this one so I’m going to talk it out right now. Follow with me.

The boat shot off the payload (oohhh, droppin loooaddds all over yer island) which included a clock, which took only seconds to get to the island from the vantage of the boat, but 31 minutes according to Daniel on the island. The reason I’m having trouble with this is that they were able to communicate in real time. The boat people were saying, “okay, it’s landed, I just saw it,” while Daniel was saying, “no, I don’t see it anywhere…. wait, here it is, 31 minutes later.” Doesn’t make sense to me because if the island existed 31 minutes in the past, they would have already had that conversation.

So, that would mean that not everything is effected by this time displacement.

The payload was, and I think Naomi’s helicopter was and maybe even the Oceanic plane itself (since, ya know, they both crashed pretty hard). The submarine going to and from the island having a “bumpy ride” tells me something. But the fact that they can communicate with the outside world in real time via the satellite phones, the underwater hatch, and the Flame station tells me that somehow, the time displaced communication signals are syncing up.

Let’s run through it again.

Imagine I drop a load on the island. To me, it gets there instantaneously. I can watch it land. I then get on the phone to ask “do you see it?” and in doing so am essentially dropping another load: a signal. I can’t watch it, but I know it’s traveling to the island. Except, from my vantage point, it doesn’t land on the island at all. Yet a voice comes back: “No, I don’t see anything.” Then 31 minutes later: “Oh, there it is.”

So, the communication signal itself is lining up with the island-31-minutes-ago, while everything else appears to line up with real time.

Make sense? Head is hurting. Captain Janeway once said it best: “When trying to think about time travel, don’t.”

Though, this has interesting implications if true. Let’s continue with the example that I’m on the boat. I have figured out that what I’m seeing is in real time, but when I call those on the island, I’m talking to them 31 minutes ago. So, I have a pair of binoculars, and am keeping an eye on things. Now let’s say I see Jack sneaking up behind Ben with a gun. “Oh no!” I say to my fictional self. “That’s terrible. Ben can’t die! He’s rich!” So I call him, 31 minutes ago.

“Yes?” He says.

“Ben, in 31 minutes, Jack is going to sneak up behind you and kill you.”

“Thank you, kind sir. I can now alter the time line and prevent my own death. This conveniently explains how we’re always one step ahead of everyone,” but haven’t really been since their communication station (the Flame) was destroyed.

“It also explains,” Ben might say, “how I appeared like I knew Oceanic 815 was coming down in the first episode of season 3. I knew exactly where to send Ethan and Goodwin because I had 31 minutes to prepare. And when I went to see Mikhail right afterward, he was already watching the news feeds 31 minutes from the future.”

You might catch something else the second time through. Right, Locke?

The interesting thing here, though, is what exactly I’d see from the boat. If I see Ben die, then call him and prevent it from happening, if I look back through my binoculars, what would I see? A parallel universe where Ben is dead? Or will things alter and change right in front of me?

Eh, don’t think about it. Captain Janeway was right. Like always.

 ***

ADDITIONAL THOUGHT AT 6PM:  If Jacob is indeed a “projected image,” or some sort of hologram from a satellite, maybe the cabin is, too.  It would explain why Hurley saw it in more than one place within the span of seconds:  maybe the signal was getting distorted.

Ohhh, the mysteries…