In a move that shows Lost is learning from past mistakes, the second episode of season 4 introduced us to all the new characters, as opposed to last season’s tactic of pretending they’ve been a part of it all along. This isn’t to say they don’t have any connection to the mythology of the island, because eagle-eyed viewers and literary connoisseurs may have spotted several key connections to past Lost mythology.
Last week’s Easter Egg hunt was a mixed bag, mostly because my egg-hunting abilities have largely evaporated since childhood. This week, hopefully we’ve found some plastic eggs filled with the good stuff, and not breath mints and pennies.
First up is a little something for the Internet fans. If you followed along with the recent Find815 online experience game, then right away you noticed something special. In the news report about the discovery of Oceanic Flight 815, the reporter mentions it was found by the Christiane I, which was on a salvage mission for old trade ships. While it was a bit vague to casual viewers at home, the online community knows full well that the Christiane I was, more specifically, looking for the Black Rock. The Find815 game was all about a man trying to get on board the Christiane I to tag along and see how it might connect to Flight 815. The man is Sam Thomas, and he was sent by the Maxwell Group, a division of Widmore Industries.
It’s unlikely that this connection will be made on the show, and this is simply one of those things for the Internet community. The name of the ship itself also raises some questions about how important faith really is to this show. Christian Shepherd, the Christiane I, it’s everywhere. Part of me thinks the final season is gonna go all John from Cincinnati on us and get incomprehensibly religious.
#2 People and Places
Introducing us to four new characters provided a whole new series of names and places to connect to literature and history. We all know that a name is not just a name on Lost, given the overwhelming number of philosophers (John Locke, Rousseau, Desmond David Hume).
Of course there’s physicist Daniel Faraday, namesake of Michael Faraday, a chemistry and physicist from the 19th century whose focus was on electromagnetism. That’s a little bit too on the nose, I think. Charlotte Staples Lewis is of course a close enough match to Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C.S. Lewis. In the first Easter Egg I talked about Lost’s obsession with religion, and I’m guessing naming a character after an author whose most famous work features a Jesus Christ allegory helps my cause. I suppose it’s slightly more mysterious than calling her Carroll Lewis.
And it’s not worth much, but thanks to the rich, dense Lostpedia.com, we see that one of the names on the Expose script Hurley found in Nikki’s things was Rick Lapidus. Could it be that the man who was supposed to fly Flight 815 is related to a TV actor? Lostpedia also points out that a character named Lapidus was struck by lightning in the movie Sleeper.
Speaking of Frank Lapidus, we first saw him in Eleuthera, The Bahamas. That is a strange sounding place to be, but when you study the word, it makes perfect sense. Eleuthera is from Greek Eleutheria, and it means liberty, as in a sense of freeing yourself from society. In recent times, such as a play called Eleutheria by Samuel Beckett, it can refer to the notion of a man exiling himself from society. It makes sense, since that’s apparently what Frank did, leaving a life of an airline pilot to waste away on an island. Similarly, the castaways on the island, particularly John Locke and Ben Linus, are living a life of eleutheria, content to be isolated on their own private island, afraid of contact with the outside world.
#3 The Numbers
We will never be done with these numbers. By this point, it’s pretty obvious there will never be a decent explanation for why the numbers keep appearing. As much as I hate to admit it, we’re just gonna have to chalk it all up to coincidence.
On last night’s episode, Miles Straum did an exorcism in some kids bedroom. We’re still not sure who this kid is, though the camera lingered on his photos for so long that it’s a near certainty this drug dealer named Gardner will show up later. For now, we can enjoy this number 15 on a football poster in his room.
Second, of course, was the helicopter the new team used to get to the island. Serial number N842M. If you want to debate what it all means, go ahead. But I’m done, because there’s so much awesome stuff going on right now on Lost, the significance of the numbers means very little anymore.
#4 Continuity Error
This is not an Easter Egg per se, but it’s so amusing, we can’t help but share. One of the biggest mysteries out of last night’s Lost episode was the identity of the dead drug dealer Miles spoke to. The camera provided close-ups of the kid in photos several times, which heavily implies that, since he isn’t someone we already know, that he’s someone who will play an important role somewhere down the line. Maybe he sold Charlie drugs once upon a time. Maybe he’s connected to Mr. Eko or Michael.
But most importantly, what’s the deal with the picture frames? When Miles first walks in, we see this photo of the young black kid.
Based on the rail and the photo above, we’re fairly certain this is the same part of the wall, but why are there two different picture frames? Is this just a continuity oversight by the production team? Given the prominence of these photos, it seems unlikely that the Lost team would miss such a glaring error. The other explanation is they’re different parts of the wall, but then, why would Mrs. Gardner hang up two identical pictures in different frames?
-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Images courtesy of ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
