LOST Notes

[Mugen910]

Subject: LOST - some research after last week's epi.

According to Michio Kaku (a popular theoretical physicist) the equations on Ms. Hawking's chalk board were probability equations and they were for determining radiation effect which could mean the wormhole was becoming unstable...70 hours may be all the time they have left before the exotic matter becomes uncontrollable and destroys the earth.
***
The pendulum that Ms. Hawkings was using to determine Ben's time window may have been a Foucault pendulum.
From Wikipedia: The Foucault pendulum (pronounced "foo-KOH"), named after the French physicist Léon Foucault, was conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.
***
When Sun and Kate met up in Sun's hotel room, why did Sun show Kate a baby picture of Ji Yeon? Ji Yeon would have been like 2 years old by that time. Just something interesting...
***
Remember when Ben asked Jill (the butcher shop lady) if Gabriel and Jeffrey were back yet? What if Gabriel and Jeffrey are the men who showed up at Kate's door for the blood sample?!
***
A refresher on Dr. Marvin Candle/ Wickmund/ Change/ Halliwax's arm (we still don't know why he used different names). Remember that we have seen him with a prosthetic left arm at times. Here is a list of the different videos we have seen him narrate, in the order that we saw them, and the status of that left arm:

The Swan Hatch film (the "push the button" hatch) - fake arm
The Pearl Hatch film (the "sit around and watch the other hatches" hatch) - real arm
The Flame Hatch film (the "Mikhail's security hatch, which Locke blew up" hatch - fake arm
The Barracks film (the Dharma living quarters) - could not see the left arm
The Orchid Hatch film (the time experiment hatch) - real arm
The Arrow Hatch film (the "gather intelligence and devise defensive strategies against the Island's hostiles" hatch) - real

In the video released last summer he talked about an "incident" and looked down at his left arm, which was real. Apparently he knew at that time that he would lose that arm in the future. I am assuming that the Swan Hatch and the Flame Hatch were installed after the "incident" since they needed the Swan Hatch button to be pushed to release some energy to prevent another incident. That would explain why they implemented the button-pushing.
So, I think when we saw him last week he was filming the Arrow Hatch orientation film and it was when the construction crew was just beginning drilling by the "energy core" which would have been before the incident.

[MikeyC]

Originally Posted by Mugen910

A refresher on Dr. Marvin Candle/ Wickmund/ Change/ Halliwax's arm (we still don't know why he used different names). Remember that we have seen him with a prosthetic left arm at times. Here is a list of the different videos we have seen him narrate, in the order that we saw them, and the status of that left arm:

I don't know how I missed that he sometimes had a prosthetic arm.

[dunng]

Bao, mind sharing where to sing up for these? Thanks!

The season opener left much to be desired, but last night's episode was excellent. It ended too prematurely.

[Mugen910]

Originally Posted by dunng

Bao, mind sharing where to sing up for these? Thanks!

Just subscribe to this thread...my friend who sends me this info does a lot of investigative work on many LOST forums to compile this.

Originally Posted by TheJ

The season opener left much to be desired, but last night's episode was excellent. It ended too prematurely.

I was confused and shocked also at the brevity of the episode.

[ActionAndy]

Hopefully Charlotte's dead, I can't stand that troll. No redeeming qualities at all. And how long can the writers stretch out this frustrating refusal to have characters answer questions? I'm talking about Juliet.

"How old is he."
"Old."

Ok, we GET IT. You're wise and mysterious.

[Mugen910]

Originally Posted by ActionAndy

Hopefully Charlotte's dead, I can't stand that troll. No redeeming qualities at all. And how long can the writers stretch out this frustrating refusal to have characters answer questions? I'm talking about Juliet.

"How old is he."
"Old."

Ok, we GET IT. You're wise and mysterious.

I agree Charlotte's not a looker but they gotta give the nerd some type of love interest...

I just attributed Juliet's answer to the reality of her not knowing the true age of Richard.

[dunng]

Originally Posted by Mugen910

Just subscribe to this thread...my friend who sends me this info does a lot of investigative work on many LOST forums to compile this.

Much appreciated, thanks!

[ActionAndy]

Originally Posted by Mugen910

I agree Charlotte's not a looker but they gotta give the nerd some type of love interest...

I just attributed Juliet's answer to the reality of her not knowing the true age of Richard.

I know, tis true. It's a hard thing to deal with as a writer, I bet. On one hand you have to make Locke realistic enough to ASK Juliet how old Richard is...But on the other you can't very well have all the questions answered so easily. Still I think Standard Others Dialogue is getting a bit old, if only for the reason that she has (supposedly) switched teams..

In the end it doesn't matter because she's a stone cold fox and I'm shallow.

[Mugen910]

Originally Posted by ActionAndy

In the end it doesn't matter because she's a stone cold fox and I'm shallow.

You and I sir are on the same boat here!

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by Mugen910

You and I sir are on the same boat here!

I'm with you on this one, brothers.

And I attribute Juliet's knowledge to the same place she learned to speak Latin--Others 101.

[MikeyC]

Originally Posted by Mugen910

You and I sir are on the same boat here!

I have to say my favorite part of the episode was when we learned that we were looking at a young Charles Wittmore.

[Mugen910]

Season 5 Episode 3 "Jughead"

1. Charles Widmore was... (dun dun dun)... an Other?! He was kind of a punk back then so maybe he ends up getting kicked off the island then goes on to form the Dharma Initiative to find and study the island's paranormal properties? Then, in the future, Ben (who was a Dharma employee) turned on Dharma and killed everyone (the purge). This would explain why Widmore wants to kill Ben. Revenge for Ben killing Widmore's entire crew and their families, destroying all the work Dharma had done. See the attached photo for the polar bear painting in Widmore's office.

2. I'm really starting to think that Widmore isn't the bad guy. Sure, he's a prick, but last night he just basically told Desmond to go away with Penny and keep her safe. I think he might really be trying to protect/ preserve the island rather than exploit it like previously thought. Older Widmore seems unconcerned with keeping or holding Desmond, but maybe that's because he truly has an interest in Penny's well being. He knows that Desmond is with her and will always protect her. In a way, Desmond is a great insurance policy. He's the game-changer, meaning there's no one better when it comes to keeping bad things from happening.

3. Speaking of Widmore, we now know why Ben and Widmore can't kill each other (remember when Ben confronted Widmore during the night in his hotel room). They discussed the "rules" and acknowledged that they cannot kill each other. The Others, as we know, cannot kill each other or at least are not allowed to and anyone who does is marked (like Juliet was when she killed Pickett). The rules are not game rules, like a game of Risk. The rules are what the Others live by. Oh, maybe that's why he gets kicked off the island in the first place (if he did actually get kicked off)! Because he killed the other Other (by breaking his neck) when that Other started to reveal where the Other's camp was.

4. Desmond and Penny's baby was named Charlie (Charlie Pace)

5. We now know why Richard visited Locke as a baby (the day he was born) and again as a child and gave him the "leader test." Locke told him to!

6. Apparently Faraday used his friend/companion/ girlfriend Theresa as a guinea pig for these time experiments. Remember that Boone and Shannon had a babysitter named Theresa. In season one Shannon had a dream where Boone repeated "Theresa falls up the stairs. Theresa falls down the stairs." Creepy.

7. If you want to read more about the Jughead bomb see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_17_nuclear_bomb

8. The military clothing worn by the Others were taken from the US soldiers that they killed. The uniforms were mid-20th Century US Army or National Guard uniforms with nametape. The uniform that Widmore wore had a nametape that read "Jones."

9. Why Charlotte is sick: Remember from The Constant (Desmond episode) that it was explained why Sayid didn't fall sick and Desmond did was because Desmond was exposed to radiation when The Swan imploded. And he needed a constant to counteract it. Also remember that Daniel and Charlotte were in protective suits when they went to The Tempest to disable the nerve gas (last season). Charlotte and Juliet got into a fight and Juliet pulled off Charlotte's protective mask. Daniel hasn't gotten sick because he made contact with his constant, Desmond. But Charlotte doesn't have a constant.
Why has Juliet had these symptoms if she was exposed to the same air? Maybe because she's been on the island longer than Charlotte. Proximity to the island may help you hold off the disease longer. However, not as long as those that haven't been exposed to radiation. Not sure about this...

[Mugen910]

10. Ms. Hawking's first name was revealed to be Eloise in the enhanced version of last week's episode which played last night at 8pm. This should ring a bell!!! Faraday's rat (who he experimented on) was named Eloise! Also, the young, female Other from the island is named Ellie... as in short for Eloise. I think we just saw that both Widmore and Ms. Hawking were once Others together at the same time. This could explain why Widmore funded Faraday's research. Widmore was an Other along with Ms. Hawking who appears to be Faraday's mother.

11. Unanswered questions, there are still so many... who are the Adam and Eve skeletons from the caves, what is the Smoke Monster, who built that 4-toed statue, what is up with Christian Shepherd, why did Jack find an empty coffin on the island, why was Christian Shepherd wearing white sneakers with a suit on the island, how can Miles talk to the dead, just how old is Richard and where does he buy his eyeliner, who is Jacob, etc...

12. It seems as though Richard had no idea of the time travel abilities of the island at the time of the bomb however soon after it seems as if he's jumping around time and knows of time-travel. The suggestion that Faraday has is for them to bury the bomb.
Could it be possible that this bomb's explosion underground could be the cause of the vast amount of energy that has caused all the time travel and strange happenings on the island?
13. Remember the frozen donkey wheel that Ben turned to move the island? Doesn't it look like an old ship's wheel? Perhaps the Black Rock's?

14. Anyone remember the scene from The Other 48 Days, where Ana Lucia talks to Goodwin about that US Army knife she found? This episode answered how it got there.

15. It appears that Neil (Frogurt) was not on the Zodiak when Faraday was headed to the freighter, but that he was on it when they were returning to the island.... see the attached photos. Could just be a production error, but thought I'd mention it.

16. Taken from a message board: Going WAY back to the very first episode of LOST: "the captain of flight 815 wears WWII pilot's wings. This alone could be chalked up to nostalgia, but then so do the flight attendants, and so does that rotten traitorous flight-attendant Cindy. These wings were issued to airmen only during the WWII era, and were changed just afterward. There's no logical reason for everyone on board to have a pair. In that pilot episode, the camera focuses specifically on the wings when Kate finds them in the jungle."

17. And now take the librarian (see attached photo Libarian 2) from this week, who happens to be the very same woman who Hurley hugs right before he gets on flight 815 (see attached photo Librarian 1). The library screencaps are hard to see but she was played by the same actress. Remember back when Hurley was getting on flight 815. She actually uses the phone and checks with someone named Hunter before letting Hurley on the flight, telling him that it's his lucky day. Was Hurley supposed to make the flight? The woman at the other counter didn't seem to think so. But Jenna helps get him on the plane, even after the jetway closed. I'm guessing that these repeatedly used characters have been implanting themselves at various points throughout time, showing up at the right moment(s) to help the main characters accomplish certain necessary tasks.

18. Someone is claiming...Behind Richard is what appears to be the Geiger counter... and I say "the" because we've already seen it with Desmond in the Swan hatch. What doesn't make sense is why the Geiger counter shows up in Locke's apartment during his flashback in Season 1. Hmmm. [I can't find screencaps to support this claim]

19. "Jughead" could very well be what's behind the Swan Hatch's concrete wall that Sayid found way back in season 2. The Others took Faraday's advice and buried it in concrete.

[Mugen910]

[Cigargal]

Is the baby named Charlie after Grandpa Widmore or his friend Charlie from the island who drowned trying to help them all get off the island?

[Mugen910]

Originally Posted by Cigargal

Is the baby named Charlie after Grandpa Widmore or his friend Charlie from the island who drowned trying to help them all get off the island?

I will assume they tell Grandpa one thing but everyone else another.

[Cigargal]

Since he didn't even tell grandpa about the boy I am going to go with Charlie from the island. Which on an interesting note...in the preview before the season opener and in any of the flashbacks Charlie doesn't appear. Even when they focus on Claire and her baby-no Charlie. It is like he never was in the show.

[Mugen910]

Originally Posted by Cigargal

Since he didn't even tell grandpa about the boy I am going to go with Charlie from the island. Which on an interesting note...in the preview before the season opener and in any of the flashbacks Charlie doesn't appear. Even when they focus on Claire and her baby-no Charlie. It is like he never was in the show.

I didn't notice that...strange indeed.

[Mugen910]

Good stuff from popular mechanics. Read just the last 2 paragraphs if you are short on time...
***

Last night's episode of Lost, "Jughead," had its fair share of "Holy cow, what did he just say!?" moments. Like when we learned that uber-rich (and uber-mysterious) businessman Charles Widmore was funding physicist Daniel Faraday's time travel research. Or that Widmore himself was once a Latin-speaking Other on the very island he's spent the last 20 years trying to find. And then there's that little fact that, oh my, there's a nuclear bomb on the island!

It's that newest introduction of the island's itinerary of strange objects that we're looking at today (we can only hope an explanation for that four-toed statue is still to come). While being held captive with Charlotte and Miles, Faraday decides the key to their survival is to let the Others continue to assume that their motley, multi-ethnic crew is a part of the American military-but they're not just standard troops, they're scientists, sent there to recover their hydrogen bomb. We asked nuclear bomb expert Ivan Oelrich, vice president for the strategic security program at the Federation of American Scientists, to give us a primer on the workings of hydrogen bombs and to weigh in on whether last night's plot was as realistic as Widmore sinking a plane in waters too deep for recovery or if it's as unlikely as Hurley throwing out a jug of Dharma ranch dressing.

Before we begin, here's a little nuclear weapon history: The bombs the US dropped on Japan during WWII, "Little Boy" and "Fat Man," were not hydrogen bombs; those were atom bombs, a different kind of nuclear weapon. An atom bomb relies on nuclear fission to create its explosion, while a hydrogen bomb relies on fusion (though much of the explosive energy is also created through fission), and is many times more powerful. No H-bomb has ever been detonated against an enemy, but the US has tested them. A series of thermonuclear weapon tests that took place on the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific in the 1950s was called "Operation Castle." The first attempt at a dry-fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device, an operation called "Castle Bravo," was successfully detonated on March 1, 1954 at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Because of Castle Bravo's early success, a second type of nuclear weapon, a cryogenic hydrogen bomb, was not tested. That group included a cryogenic h-bomb nicknamed, that's right, "Jughead."

Radiation Burns from Proximity to a Hydrogen Bomb
Faraday is able to deduce that there's a bomb on the island by glancing at the bandaged hands of one of the Others, which he tells Alpert are radiation burns, indicating that the housing has been compromised. However, getting radiation burns from simply being near a hydrogen bomb-compromised or not-isn't possible. "People think that the fuel that drives an atomic bomb must be intensely radioactive, but in fact it's not," Oelrich says. "It becomes radioactive after the reaction." Basically, if the bomb was emitting the kind and quantity of radiation that would burn someone, more than this gentleman would be affected. "Part of the problem of detecting nuclear weapons is that they don't emit much radiation," Oerlrich says, "It would be kind of nice if they emitted a lot of radiation because then you could just hold a Geiger counter over it and say 'Ah ha! Someone is trying to get a nuclear bomb into the country!' But it's not like that." Of course, there's always the chance that those burns were incurred through exposure to a different source of radioactive material.

Leaky Housing
When Faraday is first brought to the bomb, he climbs the tower housing it with the caution one would expect when near a nuclear weapon, but he's not particularly worried. It's not until he spots the foamy material leaking through a seam in the casing that he starts to freak. "It's unsafe, we need to move," he says to Ellie, the Other assigned to watch him, and tells her to back up. If you're unversed in the workings of hydrogen bombs, you'd assume that any leakage is bad news. And that's correct, to a certain extent. "It is not as if there are quantities of liquids in a nuclear weapon that would corrode out," explains Oelrich. "If I saw that coming out, I would assume that some battery had corroded, acid had escaped, and corroded some other material, like a plastic, and leaked out." While he personally thinks it's not likely, Oelrich admits that it is possible. But if this "Jughead" is indeed supposed to be the cyrogenic "Jughead" that was part of Operation Castle, it would be most likely that this seepage was some of the foam insulation that somehow dissolved, Oelrich says.

From here, there are two ways this bomb could be dangerous: First, it might be leaking plutonium, which can be dangerous if you inhale or ingest it. Oelrich speculates that if it is indeed a battery that is leaking, plutonium leakage is more likely. "If acid from a battery leaked, then it might dissolve the plutonium into a form that could leak out," he speculates. Secondly, as Oelrich puts it, "it's a bomb-it's also dangerous if it blows up!" In the most basic terms, here's how a nuclear bomb works: Surrounding a ball of plutonium is another ball of very carefully arranged explosives. When those first explosives go off in a perfectly timed synch-designing this first explosion is the most difficult part of building a bomb-it squeezes the plutonium down, making it super dense and thus setting off the nuclear explosion. If just part of the conventional detonator was to be set off-say by a stray bullet fired by trigger-happy Other Ellie-the high explosive might be set off, but a nuclear explosion would probably not happen. "Worst case is that you would scatter plutonium around, which would still be dangerous, but it would be a lot better that the alternative," explains Oelrich.

Rendering a Hydrogen Bomb Inert
Faraday gets the Others to lead him to the bomb by saying that he can "render it inert." The first step would be to disable the detonator. "It depends on the particular design of the bomb," explains Oelrich, "but in the 1950s you would be able to see the detonator wires. The first thing to do would be to cut them so it wouldn't set the bomb off symmetrically." Then, says Oelrich, to quell any worry of the device accidentally exploding somehow, you'd ruin the explosives. "If it were me, I would soak the high explosive in water or dissolve it with alcohol. I'm just worried that explosives can accidentally go off. There's not a big chance of it, but if it's attached to a hydrogen bomb, well, that would ruin your whole day." Once the explosives are taken care of, you have to take care of all that radioactive material? That's where the lead and concrete come in. As Faraday suggested, burying the disabled bomb underground in a lead or cement housing would contain any radiation the bomb might be emitting now or in the future. Eventually, however, the plutonium could leak into the ground water, and since it will be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years and concrete might last hundreds, burying the bomb would not be a permanent solution.

Of course, the Lost-aways left for another place in time before we found out if they actually buried Jughead-but not before John Locke urged Richard Alpert to visit him when he is born, two years in the future, to prove that Locke actually is the leader of the Others (cue gasps, goosebumps and "Cabin Fever" flashbacks here)-so the bomb could still be out there, somewhere. Uncontained, there are a couple of things radiation can do: Cause radiation sickness, cure cancer, maybe even have ill effects on pregnant women. We'll let you connect the dots from here.