The Sci Fi Guy

For those of you who haven’t been, Paul Levinson has a great blog and podcast that he’s titled Infinite Regress. His latest few posts have been on the topic of unanswered questions from Season 3, and more specifically from the season finale. I figured I’d take a stab at some of his questions and see what theories I like right now.

Question Number 1: How far in the future?

Let’s begin with this - how far in the future was the action with Jack and Kate in Los Angeles?

It’s clear that it’s at very least not just a few days or even weeks since Jack and Kate (and whoever else) got off the island. Kate had a lot of make-up on, which did make her look older than her fresh-faced frecked self on the island, and in the flashbacks… (Read the full post at Paul’s Blog…)

Well, I have to say, in regards to this question, I think the Lost producers flashed us forward to present time. There weren’t any hints that were were in any sort of advanced future. Jack’s cell phone was a current model, the airplane was normal, there weren’t any noticeable modern improvements in the hospital or on the roads… Not only that, but some very keen observers pointed out that this paper was actually a modified re-creation of a paper from April 5th of 2007. So, I think with all the pieces of evidence, the Flash Forward is actually a flash to April of 2007. That includes being on the airplane, the several days later that Jack was in the hospital and trying to get doped up, and leading up to his meeting with Kate.

Also, Jack mentions that he’s using his “Golden Pass” every Friday trying to find the Island again - hoping that the plane will crash and he’ll be back on the island. The fact that he had a place to live, a current job, a car, and that statement make it clear that Jack’s been back for at least a few weeks, if not more like a few months (6 months maybe?)

Question Number 2: Who’s in the Coffin?

Well, in true Sherlock Holmes fashion, let’s start with the obvious which can’t be the answer. And once we remove it, we’ll see what’s left.

It can’t be Jack or Kate in the box, unless we’re dealing with time travel or alternate intersecting (not parallel) universes. But let’s assume for the sake of this post we’re not… (Read More from the original…)

In many respects, I’m less interested in who is in the coffin as I am in the reasons Jack would be the only one to visit it. Later in the episode, we learn that Kate also knew the person that was in the coffin, and she had no desire to go to the funeral. So… Here’s what we know about the person in the coffin itself…

The person has to be of enough import to warrant a front page obituary note in the LA Times. That alone is no small feat. Even more notable, is that it profoundly impacted Jack - but who else would be interested in the news if there was only 1 person in the world that cared that this person is dead. Even infamous people have others attend their funerals out of anger - in this case it seemed like Kate (and presumably other survivors) found this person detestible yet they didn’t have to vent any further frustration on their passage.

The name itself may be completely meaningless, because anyone coming back from the island might change their name (or we may not even know their real name or residency as it stands). Lots of Lost survivors have pasts and backgrounds that they may want altered. Even Kate is driving a new Volvo - but she would presumably be in prison if she’d come back to “the real world” as a plane crash survivor. (I’ll get more in to this factor in just a second…)

Question Number 3: Who’s waiting for Kate?

One of Infinite Regress’s readers - muneeb - brought this up in a comment he made to Question 2, and it’s certainly something I - and I’m sure most of you - have been thinking about:

Who is Kate talking about, when she tells Jack that “he’s gonna be wondering where I am,” in the very last, heart-rending scene of the finale? (Read more from Paul’s blog…)

Okay, this is where I go ahead and extrapolate some information and make my own choice about what goes down… Honestly, I think Kate returned from the island either unknown to the rest of the world, or under a false name. Just because that one marshall was dead on the island doesn’t mean that her arrest warrant for murder wasn’t valid. Yet… Jack mentioned to her that he used his “Golden Pass” in a way that implied that she too had this golden pass. Just because you crash in an airplane and survive doesn’t mean you can avoid serving prison for murder.  Well, that’s kind of a tangent, but I think Kate may be operating under an alias… Yet even Kate, the queen of false identities, would have a hard time not getting caught during a presumably public and very media-heavy return.

So, returning to the question at hand- who is waiting for Kate? The obvious first choice is Sawyer. Jack, Kate, and Sawyer have had a love triangle of intrigue since day one, and I can’t imagine that it ends with Jack telling Kate he loves her, right after he finishes kissing Juliet. Sawyer, however, would probably understand why Kate and Jack would need to see each other, and so I’m not convinced that Kate would keep that from him. They’ve survived thus far on the island in awkward sexual and romantic tension. Not only that, but like I commented on Paul’s blog, I just can’t see Sawyer and Kate going out Volvo shopping.

To me, it seems like Kate is off running a new life post-island, and Jack is just off his rocker enough that she can’t be near him anymore.

Question Number 4: Who is Naomi’s Boss?

This is another way of asking, where did Naomi get that picture of Desmond and Penny? It may not be as fundamental as some of the other questions, but it’s still fun and important to consider.

Let’s begin by assuming that Penny is not playing some kind of game and lying to Charlie when she tells him she doesn’t know Naomi … (although I wouldn’t rule that out completely). (keep on reading…)

Okay, here’s where we’re getting to the meat of the upcoming season, I think. At first Ben explains to Jack that Naomi works for someone that will kill “…every living person on this island…” We, the audience, are left to believe that Ben is doing what Ben does - lie about things, or twist the truth to his own benefit.

However, in the final moments of the episode, when Penny appears, it becomes clear that not only does she not know who Penny is (which, could simply be explained by the fact that not every boss knows the people they hire), but more importantly she remarks that she doesn’t know anything about a boat.

So. That leaves us with wondering whether or not the boat is an enemy of everyone on the island, an enemy of Ben’s (… which might also imply that it’s an enemy of Jacob’s), or nobody’s enemy: Ben would rather just keep the island and its powers safe from outside knowledge. Paul seems to be leaning towards the idea that Penny’s father is somehow involved in the whole ordeal, including whatever brought Desmond to the island, and that Penny and her father are reaching towards the same thing but for vastly different reasons.

One thing worth noting was that the voice on the radio that Jack had contacted seemed enthusiastic - not menacing or threatening. But it also loops back to question number one - if Jack and the rest of the survivors get rescued, how do they lose the island again? Wouldn’t someone, somewhere, keep a record of the location of the island?

Question Number 5: Is Mikhail (and Locke) Immortal?

Desmond killed him with a dart to the chest - or badly wounded him - right before our very eyes in the Season 3 finale. This about a few weeks or whatever after Locke shoved him through the perimeter fence, and Mikhail received a massive jolt that left him smokin’, literally, not in a good way.

And yet Mikhail came back from that, almost as good as new, with a story about the voltage not being set on kill. And in the finale he’s out there leering in front of Charlie’s hatch window, grenade in hand, as if the dart that had just been in his chest were no more than a sticky paper star. (Read more of the original here…)

Paul has 3 theories… The island’s healing powers continue to heal Mikhail and Locke faster than anyone else, Mikhail somehow has access to time travel, or Mikhail is actually a clone of himself. Since cloning has never been an issue brought up before, I too am going to sort that in the “not exactly likely” category. That leaves really two possible options - Mikhail is immortal similarly to Locke, or Mikhail has some sort of premenition or time travel powers, perhaps similar to Desmond’s preminitions.

Honestly, I think it has something to do with Jacob. Don’t ask me what gives me that specific sense, but it seems like Mikhail and Locke, along with Ben, are working to serve another purpose - something that I think revolves around the mystery of Jacob. Perhaps Mikhail is visited by a mysterious being that shouldn’t be there same as Locke sees Walt and Jack sees his dad (from Season 1) and Hurley sees his nut-house friend with the numbers (Season 2, I believe).

Obviously, Des did enough damage to throw Mikhail off for a while, but perhaps Mikhail had a premenition that he’d be hit and so was wearing some sort of armor or protection from the spear that Desmond shot him with. When we see Mikhail in the water later, as he is about to detonate the grenade, it appears that he’s uninjured - he smiles and there’s no pool of blood following him around. Another question worth noting is - does Mikhail survive the grenade explosion? Any explosive set underwater causes a violent pressure differential - even if you can swim away from it. That sort of intense pressure would at least have to knock a guys’ eardrums off - if not do some serious damage to his body.

Oh well. Lots of time to keep considering questions about Lost. I’ll look forward to the season premier next year - keeping my fingers crossed there will be lots of answers!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Science Fiction Television, Lost. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.