A quick thanks for all the positive feedback for yesterday's entry. You might assume I'm an aloof critic, but I've spent the better part of the day reenacting Sally Field's "You really like me!" speech in front of the monitor. Hey, it gets lonely writing a Lost blog sometimes. I'll be sure to revisit this topic in future entries (brush up on your knowledge of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series as a primer) but for now, let's get to this week's edition of "Letters to the Flame."

As always, these are questions posed by Zap2It readers concerning the latest, greatest, and most perplexing issues in the Lost universe. On with your thoughts and questions!

First up, reader "A-Rob" wants to know the following:

I'm sure sometime you'll tackle Ben/Widmore's rules, but I've been thinking of something too. Ben told him that he'll never find the island. But really, Widmore did find the island, with the freighter folks already there. If Widmore's true focus was getting back to the island, why wouldn't he go on the freighter with them? Or was this just an exploratory mission.

Or, could this power struggle between Ben and Widmore be a whole, this island isn't big enough for the both of us, kind of thing. The only way Widmore can be on the island is if Ben isn't there, and vice versa.

Obviously, the relationship between these two titans will form a bulk of the remaining story of Lost, with specifics doled out at a rate to be determined. I could see the basic struggle outlined by the end of this season, and I could also seeing the true, central conflict revealed during Season 6. Either is possible.

Let's tackle the issues in the order you present them. As far as Widmore unable to find the Island by the time of their London encounter, clearly the Island is inaccessible via the methods used by the freighter folk. The freighter discovered the Island, so near as I can tell, by an event long planned/anticipated by Widmore: the turning of the failsafe key by Desmond Hume. This single action allowed for a level of precision in identifying the Island previously lacking.

But, clearly, this window is discreet, in terms of both time and space. If it were simply a matter of retracing the steps of the freighter, Widmore would have no problem whatsoever. But that's not the case, for reasons I could guess but with little certainty. Perhaps the Island's electromagnetic field changes to the point where access is no longer possible. Perhaps the precarious timeshift between the real world and Island world is too dangerous to cross. Maybe the Island's a mirror moon. Lot of possibilities that are fun to consider, but not extensively at this time.

As far as Widmore not being onboard the Kahana: let's take yesterday's Risk metaphor and extend it a bit. Would a king ever stand at the front lines of a battle? Of course not, he'd send in foot soldiers to the slaughter and collect his prize only when the threat of harm to himself is zero. So long as Ben Linus is in play, Widmore's not safe.

"But," you say, quite astutely, "Ben says he can't kill Widmore! So what doth Widmore haveth to feareth?" Your weird, faux Elizabethan omits one fact: we only know Ben can't kill Widmore in London. On the Island? All bets are ostensibly off. Remember what Widmore said at the end of "The Shape of Things To Come":

Widmore: That island's mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again.

I'm standing by my theory that Widmore and Linus once physically coexisted on the Island, and due to a type of cosmic conservation of energy (as describe in my recap), the conflict that started on the Island can only be solved on the Island. Think of it like Miyagi and Sato in The Karate Kid II: it would be really weird to have them solve their decades-old conflict in downtown Des Moines. They need to throw down in Okinawa, baby. And the Linus/Widmore conflict needs to end on the Island, plain and simple.

How will Widmore get BACK? There's the $4,815,162,342 question, and, ironically, the amount of money in Widmore's checking account. (OK, I made that up.)

OK, that was a long, convoluted answer to a meaningful question. Let's try to follow that up with something equally important and philosophical. With that in mind, Brian of the North has a vital observation:

This may have been covered, and I just watched last week's ep on my computer, but did anyone notice the red-shirts slipping on a certain viscous, sticky, sweet fluid as they came out of the cabins to greet Sawyer. Easily one of the (un?)-intentionally funny moments of the series.

I'm going to go with "unintentionally" on this one, but yes, the fact that I nearly fell on floor laughing took a bit away from the drama of the scene. My take was that the night before, Camp Locke had Game Night, and one of the redshirts simply forgot to put away the Slip N' Slide. Tragic, really. (As for the "certain viscous, sticky, sweet fluid"...we have something special planned for you all very soon.)

Let's see what reader "Adslinger" has knockin' about his noggin:

Does the island need some kind of conflict in order to thrive? Ben knows he can't kill Charles and, I'm guessing, Charles can't kill Ben. Michael can't die; apparently neither can Jack or Locke (although we don't know that for sure yet) because they apparently all have work to do. So, if one side is trying to control the island for good and the other side is trying to control the island for self-serving reasons like money and profit, why does the Island need each side alive?

So, if I read this correctly, you're asking if the Island's like a character on The Hills, needing conflict to justify its existence? That's a provocative theory, man. Ben's eyes ARE as scary as Spencer's teeth. You might be onto something here.

In all seriousness, I think it's a mistake to think of only one sole "force" at play here. A few months ago I looked at Jacob/Smokey as two sides of a split coin: a yin and yang of opposing forces that exist in order to balance the other, sort of like Neo and Mr. Smith in The Matrix. For every Island impulse, there's an equal and opposite impulse steering things in another direction.

This binary opposition might be a crude construction, but it still hopefully serves to show that there's not simply the Island's will at work here. Just as Widmore and Linus fashion themselves the ruling players over a Risk board of their design, I'm willing to wager there are two unseen sides looking down at them the same way Linus and Widmore look down at their pawns.

Why do you never pick up when I call? Are you eating well? Do you need a blanket? You look cold. And I brought you some brownies. You're too thin, eat something already.

Mom! I told you never to write me here! I'm like, working and stuff! Using that English degree you paid for, aren't you proud? I'll call you later, promise. What? This? This is a "blog." No, it's not like a diary. Know what? I'll just call you later. Yes, I promise. Fine, stay if you want. You can learn what reader "sin laden" wants to know.

I would really like to know how Widmore knew the location of the island (whether he knew through Penny or the Brazilians in the ice cave) and why the hell Ben was so sick after landing in the Sahara, presumably via The Orchid.

As mentioned before, the sky turning purple gave Widmore a great bearing, but remember: this was simply one (albeit incredibly important) piece in a chain of events stretching back decades, ostensibly all the way back to The Purge itself. We've seen a few steps along the way, such as the purchase of the journal, Henry Gale's balloon, and the race around the world...all part of a master plan to triangulate the location of this Island.

But you bring up a good point about Penny and Her Peeps. At the time, their insertion into the narrative represented the first time something the "real world" was shown concurrent to events happening on the Island. So it was seismic, it was revelatory, and it was promptly ignored until roughly 2/3rds of the way through Season 3. Awesome.

I've held onto the following backstory for some time now, but take it with a silo of salt. After Desmond's disappearance, Penny did a bit of investigating of her own, behind her father's back. Or so she thought, as Charles Widmore was in fact counting on his daughter using her love for Desmond and extensive financial resources in order to find him, essentially doing Widmore's work for him. He tapped into her networks, learned of the location via the transmission from the "ice cave" (on Hoth, maybe?) as you call it, already had a freighter on hold in the nearish vicinity, and therefore could immediately pounce upon the location discovered by the men inside the listening station.

Essentially, under this scenario, Widmore's privy to certain future events and merely seeks to facilitate them. This is how I justify his seemingly schizophrenic attitude towards Desmond: in "Live Together, Die Alone," he's downright hostile to him, but in "The Constant," he's basically paternal. He's whatever he needs to be to actualize the necessary steps needed to lead Desmond towards turning the key and Penelope discovering the Island via this action.

Or, you know, not. I mean, I could be wrong. Like I said, that's my working backstory, and I'm sticking with it until proven wrong, which should be soon enough.

Finally, let's end this edition of "Letters" with two men with lunch meat on their minds.

Have you seen this "Earth as a sandwich" website? Essentially it shows that if the earth were squashed down like a sandwich and you stuck a toothpick through Tunisia, it would come out in the middle of the South Pacific. There is no chance that this could just be a coincidence, right? --- "John"

Concerning the 'Earth Sandwich' theory, and the fact that it depends on where you do the smooshing or where the ends are. The sample could be manipulated to make all sorts of different results. However, it still brings up an interesting theory of how he might travel through the center of the Earth somehow to reach his destination. It may be boiling hot in the middle but in between I'm sure it can get mighty cold without sunlight. Hence, the Dharma Parka or Dharka. --- Shaggysteve

First of all, can I just say how much I want a Dharka? I'd pay a good deal of monthly income towards the purchase of one. Living as I do in the Northeast, it would come in handy. And be a hit with da ladies. But enough about the jacket and onto this theory.

I'm fine with a less literal version of this theory, which is to say that there are certain "hot spots" harmonically connected via the electromagnetic elements based in the center of the Earth. (Then again, given the Dharka, maybe I should call these "cold spots.") The appearance of the polar bear in Tunisia brandishing a Hydra collar neither confirms nor denies Shaggysteve's assertion that extreme cold is a necessary component of such teleportation, but clearly there's a connection between Tunisia and the Island.

What's more interesting, to me, is Ben's uncertainty of the time in which he's spit out. We've seen several Others in the "real world" before, with Ethan once telling Juliet that the trip to the Island would be "pretty intense." Ethan wasn't playing around, I guess. While we've seen Others after being in the real world for a little bit, we've never seen them at the moment they "arrive," as it were. It's mere speculation to say Ben arrived differently than Richard, Tom, or Ethan, but it's worth noting that those three were sent to specific places and, ostensibly, to specific times as well. This suggests that the effort involved in landing in the Sahara involved risks Ben had previously never worried about.

Perhaps this is connected to the Widmore's inability to find the Island. Perhaps Ben's trip via the Orchid (aka, the "Sandwich Maker") was one-way. Impossible to say with any certainty at this point. In any case, there's value to be had in looking at teleportation in Lost through this metaphor, but at the end, it works more as a thought exercise than actual material application to the show itself.

Thanks to everyone for your questions, and make sure to head over to It Happened Last Night Thursday night for the recap of "Something Nice Back Home," this season's 10th episode.

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.

Comments

We know that time is a 'relative' thing on the Island. It just seems to me that Ben leaving at that point after Nadia's death may have been intentional. Perhaps that was his target date, and he was just trying to confirm it. It also seems that he may have already had that traffic light photo before-hand. I don't think that he would have had time to make any stops between Tunisia and Iraq.

Shaggysteve | Apr 30, 2008 6:18:54 PM | #

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Great answer to that first question!

Also, shouldn't that bank account number be, 4,815,162,342?

A-Rob | Apr 30, 2008 8:29:29 PM | #

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Sigh, yes.

Ryan | Apr 30, 2008 8:32:39 PM | #

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Nice answers, Ryan. I have one of the shallowest observations ever to add to the mix about time travel or whatever it is: In Back to the Future, the Delorian is freezing, or as Doc Brown puts it, "It's COLD. DAMN COLD". Also, in the original Stargate movie, the travelers were freezing when they emerged from the wormhole. does this add weight to the time travel theory?

Also, totally unrelated, being slow as I am, I just noticed something about the dude in the orientation videos. His names are: Mark WICKman, Marvin CANDLE, and Edgar HalliWAX. Do the candleish names mean anything to you? I've been thinking about this for a week and I've yet to come up with anything.

About the mirror moon theory, as awesome as it is, I can't conceive of it being behind the island. I think it's too 'outthere' of a theory for the writers to try to sell it to the lesser sci-fi fans of the show. I lean more towards the island being wrapped in a huge electromagnetic force field of some kind that gets holes in it from time to time and also has navigatable 'doors'.

Keep up the good stuff, Ryan. I never miss your articles.

Joe Cool | May 1, 2008 5:37:00 AM | #

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I was just reading the possible translations to the hyeroglyphics on ben's door, and they suggest that it may need a life to summon smokey. Maybe that is why ben made kimmy kill alex, so he could summon it. I'm obviously overlooking the 3 nameless losties that died in front of sawyer, but I don't think those count as lifes lost on the show.

Here's the site, spoiler free:

http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

sin laden | May 1, 2008 6:37:35 AM | #

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Ryan,

Great blog yesterday, BTW and thanks for the Letters today however, you never answer MY questions. If you have no answer yet or are still pondering, wondering how or if hyou can answer, I would love to know. Thanks.

That being said, Joe Cool, I wanted so badly to bring up the freezing Delorian from "Back to the Future" I'm glad someone else finally made the comparison too.

I too wonder about, what I call, the parafin related names of Dr. Marvin Candle and why all his aliases revolve around wax.

Chris | May 1, 2008 7:15:53 AM | #

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I meant to email this question and forgot.....I am confused by what Sayid said about it took him 8 years to find Nadia again and now she's gone. He must have meant before the plane crash??? He couldn't have been back for 8 years if it was 2005.

Lindsay | May 1, 2008 7:28:45 AM | #

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I'd like to think that Ben's wearing the Dharka to keep himself warm during the jump. For whatever reason, transporting across time and space requires extremely low temeratures and as a result the subject needs to insulate himself against the cold.

sin laden, I can't see that Ben would make Keamy kill Alex. Ben would do that to his child. Perhaps if Smokie requires a sacrifice, Alex's death allowed for the chance to be called. But no father would ever intentionally sacrifice his daughter.

Jeff | May 1, 2008 7:33:48 AM | #

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Lindsay, yes, he mean from before the crash until he got rescued and then probably a little bit after, I think.

Jeff | May 1, 2008 7:37:05 AM | #

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Correction to my previous comment:

"Ben wouldn't do that to his child."

Jeff | May 1, 2008 7:38:19 AM | #

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People are misinterpreting the "sandwich" website, it has nothing to do with smooshing or folding the globe. (if you actually read the site, the term "sandwich" comes from the idea that if you put a piece of bread at both points, you'd have an "earth sandwich" - nothing about flattening the planet)

The tool simply shows the point exactly opposite any point you select. The point you'd reach if you went straight through the center of the earth and came out the other side.

So, the point opposite Tunisia is in the south pacific east of New Zealand, a possible location for the island.

milo | May 1, 2008 7:46:47 AM | #

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That's just like me, to draw conclusions without knowing all the facts. I never read the actual 'earth sandwich' theory', just someone talking about it. I just assumed what it was, and drew my own conclusions. My bad.

It would seem the Dharka would be needed for a number of reasons, regardless of which way he traveled. I think most of us are in agreement that it was some sort of teleportation or time jump. It appears whichever way it was, extreme cold is involved.

I do not believe Ben would sacrifice Alex for Smokey. He summoned Smokey because they killed Alex.

Shaggysteve | May 1, 2008 8:45:03 AM | #

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I gotta say, of all the various props and costumes ever featured on the show, the Dharka is my all-time favorite so far. I want one so bad, it's surpassed my desire for a DHARMA jumpsuit.

Jeff | May 1, 2008 8:57:41 AM | #

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Jeff-

Me too. However, it wouldn't do much good here in Florida.

Shaggysteve | May 1, 2008 9:09:51 AM | #

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Thanks for the slip n slide comment, Ryan. I had a picture of a buddy of mine actually having to shove the extra "red-shirts" out of the cabin during the shoot-em-up scene with Sawyer. On another note, I think the question of Ben's daughter being shot becomes a question of the "Rules". Don't think that the "Rules" aren't going to be a central part of all time-traveling theories posted here. In fact, your going to find out that the "Rules" as Ben perceives them, are a driving motivation for all of Ben's scheming and control. Shooting Alex, somehow violated how things were supposed to play out. Remember, Ben was very confident that things were "under control" right up until she was shot. Why would that be? He knew he was dealing with a trained killer. He knew how high the stakes were, and he knew that the commandos weren't just going to turn around and leave. I submit to you, dear reader, that he had a special forsight into how things were supposed to play out, however (I think I posted this previously.) Whidmores soldier changed the "Rules".

Brian of the North (in NY today) | May 1, 2008 9:16:12 AM | #

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BOTN-

So, you're saying that because Ben is either re-living this or has foreseen the outcome, that Widmore has 'changed the RULES' because this is NOT what Ben saw?

If that's what you're implying, then that is very interesting.

Shaggysteve | May 1, 2008 9:27:14 AM | #

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Shaggy, that's exactly what I'm implying. I'm not under the impression that Ben and Whidmore sat down to a game of Island Risk and said; "OK let's agree that these are the rules.", but I do think that there may be some "prime directive" at play here. (Sorry for bringing up Star Trek again, but at least this time I worked in TNG.)

Brian of the North | May 1, 2008 9:44:23 AM | #

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Perhaps only certain people are allowed to do the course-correcting. Maybe Jack and Locke are the ones selected (reason brought to the Island) by Ben(or Jacob) and Widmore to play their parts. The 'rules' state only the chosen ones can change the outcome.

Shaggysteve | May 1, 2008 10:01:31 AM | #

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Hence, they have 'work to do'.

Shaggysteve | May 1, 2008 10:03:20 AM | #

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Shaggy...agreed, however, I think I used the term "prime directive" wrong. That term had something to do with not interfering with a societies evolution. This would be kind of a "time prime directive" or a hands-off rule for certain key playas.

Brian of the North | May 1, 2008 10:15:25 AM | #

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Of course I think that for every broken rule, a price must be paid, a nail must be hammered, some syrup must be spilled.

Brian of the North | May 1, 2008 10:42:29 AM | #

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Michael Emerson's been giving interviews left and right about the "price to be paid" concerning certain actions. Which can mean only one thing: Jacob is Bob Barker.

Ryan | May 1, 2008 10:52:13 AM | #

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So mayhap they're going to be playing Plinko at some point in the future?

Brian of the North | May 1, 2008 11:01:31 AM | #

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Just thought I'd advise you guys to brace yourself for some serious Shipping in tonight's episode.

I'm definitely not anti-shipping, but it's not my personaly passion either.

Jeff | May 1, 2008 11:05:10 AM | #

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Hey Jeff, please no spoilers, even super light ones, OK? Much thanks.

Ryan | May 1, 2008 11:10:56 AM | #

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That's a spoiler?

Jeff | May 1, 2008 11:25:22 AM | #

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Apologies, nonetheless!

Jeff | May 1, 2008 11:28:15 AM | #

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Your comment above heavily suggests you've seen clips the lot of us haven't, so I am trying to nip it in the bud across the board here. This isn't meant to single you out in any way at all.

Given how many spoilerific sites are out there, we try to keep this as spoiler-free and speculative as possible. I'm not mad, just trying to be preventative.

And on a personal note, if I read any spoilers via comments here, I'd pull my hair out. If, you know, I had any hair to pull out. Darn premature baldness.

Ryan | May 1, 2008 11:43:19 AM | #

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BOTN and Shaggy, are you guys implying some "Groundhog Day" stuff going on there? I really hope not as I think I would lose track of what happened on which "Day" and which was on another day etc.

Rishi | May 1, 2008 11:46:17 AM | #

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Fair enough Ryan. I certainly don't want to spoil the show for anyone and always try to avoid talking about anything that hasn't been officially released by ABC.

Jeff | May 1, 2008 12:03:04 PM | #

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Rishi, I'm thinking the only Groundhog Day moneyshot is going to be happening at the very end of the series (with a close-up of Jacks eyeball). What I'm talking about is more of skilled time-slipping that Ben and possibly Widmore have been privy to. Go back to Desmonds first time skipping adventure and you'll remember a certain Mrs. Hawking almost slapping Desmond across the face when he suggests changing his destiny with the island or "we'll all die". Ergo, you've got some rules to follow.

Brian of the North | May 1, 2008 12:09:40 PM | #

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Aaron destroys Keamy with super-baby mind powers. You heard it here first.

Oops, that was a spoiler.

Other Sean | May 1, 2008 12:27:45 PM | #

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Although, as Other Sean shows, FAKE spoilers are fairly encouraged.

Ryan | May 1, 2008 12:32:42 PM | #

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Ryan-

I was wondering, with your theorizing expertise, why is it that you do not do the recaps for 'Hereos' as well? It seems to be a show worthy of your in-depth analysis. I know you are a busy man and surely I do not want to take away from your attention to LOST. I would just think that with LOST's long hiatus, writing about 'Heroes' would be right up your alley.

Shaggysteve | May 1, 2008 2:21:53 PM | #

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Zap2It already has an excellent recapper in place here, Shaggy, although I did do recaps over on my other site.

http://boobtubedude.com/index.php/category/heroes/

Ryan | May 1, 2008 2:45:19 PM | #

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For me, Heroes showed a lot of promise in season 1, up until the finale. It's been all downhill since then.

Jeff | May 1, 2008 5:28:54 PM | #

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Jeff, I'm sure a lot of people (likely not participating in this blog) felt that way about Lost in S2 also. Hopefully, Heroes can make a Lost like recovery in S3.

Rishi | May 1, 2008 7:35:19 PM | #

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"...Jacob is Bob Barker."

So make sure you spay or neuter your Smoke Monster.

Beast! | May 1, 2008 10:03:59 PM | #

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By the way, I don't think the "rules" work the way you guys are assuming.

In other words, while they probably were mutually agreed-upon by Linus and Widmore, they aren't just verbal rules, so much as actual physical laws.

Through whatever technology/necromancy, etc. that they're working with, L&W actually had a way to set it up so that they COULDN'T kill each other.

By this I mean that, just like the island somehow "prevents" certain people from dying (Michael, Locke, etc.), Ben and Chaz, were able to actually make it PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to kill each other (and, presumably, their immediate families) - thus the "can't kill"-comment at the close of last week's ep.

So, ben's shock at Alex's death may not have been that Charles WOULD kill Alex (via his flunky), but shock that she actually COULD be killed by the other team. As in, I wonder if if he actually expected that if Keamy DID shoot Alex, that she would remain physically unharmed, a la Michael trying to shoot himself. So by "changing the rules", maybe he didn't mean only that Widmore simply broke his word, but that he actually disabled the technological/temporal safeguards that prevented certain pre-agreed-to players from being killed. And Ben's realizing that Widmore had done this opened the door to his potentially being able to harm Penny.

Does that make sense to anyone? 'Cause I think I hurt my brain...

Beast | May 1, 2008 10:28:54 PM | #

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So, what did people think of last night's episode?

Jeff | May 2, 2008 7:37:19 AM | #

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Jeff-

Do you not read the recap in "It Happened Last Night"?

I know they should also list it in the regular LOST section.

Or do you just not like all the non-regulars posting over there? It can get a bit congested I know.

Shaggysteve | May 3, 2008 9:16:10 AM | #

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