Okay clearly I haven't been visiting MR enough. How did I miss this thread? I am a huge fan of Lost. I've been TiVo-ing it since the pilot. I watch it every weekend (I work weeknights) with the wife, and it's great. I think it has the most richly developed, interesting characters on network television. And I don't get offended by supernatural storylines.
clayjohanson said:
In the Pilot episode (2nd hour), Walt's reading a comic book in Spanish, and on the pages a polar bear is seen. Almost right away, Sawyer and company encounter the polar bear in the jungle as they're heading toward higher ground, to see if they can pick up anything on the transceiver.
There are other examples in the show of characters "wishing" for something to happen shortly before it happens: Walt always rolls the dice that he needs when playing backgammon, Walt wants it to stop raining (so his dad Michael can go look for the dog) and it stops raining, Locke predicts that it's about to START raining and it does, etc. There's a theory that something on the island is manifesting the hopes, fears, etc. of those on the island.
This reminds me of something -- hopefully someone can confirm it for me. Early on, Locke tells Walt a secret. Do we ever find out what the secret is? I don't recall any scene in which someone says what it is. But clearly you've hit it on the nail. It explains why Walt was able to whip Hurley at backgammon, even though Hurley fancies himself a pro at it. Now the episode where Jack sees his father makes more sense. Interesting to note that the teaser for next week includes a scene with a polar bear -- and Walt.
A few other thoughts, having just read the whole thread:
* With respect to the tide suddenly rising higher than before... What a bunch of landlubbers you all are. I'm no mariner myself, but I believe tides are seasonal, higher at certain times of year than others. But of course, it probably has a mystical, deeper meaning than something so trivial. I frequently forget that they have only been on the island, supposedly, for about two or three weeks. Probably not enough to experience a new season.
Actually, my first thought was maybe the story had been rewritten slightly to account for the tsunami, and they were experiencing a low grade version of it way out in the Pacific. But obviously that's not it.
* Am I the only one deeply bothered by the fact that the rest of the survivors are just milling about the island doing trivial things while Claire is still in the jungle with that psycho doing God-only-knows-what with her and her baby? I can't believe they'd just give up like that. For the most part, I think the writing has been excellent, but this part doesn't add up for me.
* This is a pretty big island. Easily ten miles across, probably more. Islands that big and lush in the Pacific don't get so completely overlooked. Why is it virtually uninhabited? There would at least be a native tribe or something.
My theory has been that it's used for military purposes. Perhaps the weirdness is all part of a military experiment gone awry? That would explain the hatch. On the other hand, this week's episode with the bit about the compass being off, makes me wonder if it's more of a Bermuda Triangle type of anomaly, and the island could be in another dimension or time or something.
