'Lost': What's in a name?

Now that is what we were all waiting for! Those people who continue to watch "Lost" and complain about its lack of resolution and immediate answers were surely wailing and gnashing their teeth after "Confirmed Dead," the second new "Lost" episode of the season, but the first one to really kick the storyline into overdrive. More questions were raised than answered (as is usual) but when the questions are as tantalizing as they were in this episode, who really cares? Those of us who love to pick apart the clues were riveted.

After yet another beating at the hands of the Losties, (I think actor Michael Emerson has had a total of five or so episodes when he hasn't had to wear bruise makeup) Ben revealed the true objective of those mysterious rescuers -- the capture of Ben himself. And how did he know this? He's got a mole on the rescuers' boat (smart money seems to be on that man being Michael).

But that wasn’t the night’s real mind-blower. That came in the episode’s very first scene, when we witnessed the discovery of the remains of Oceanic 815 resting at the bottom of the ocean. Wait a minute, didn’t we just see the wreckage of the airplane on the beach? And if everyone on board is confirmed dead, who are the characters we’ve come to know and love over the past three seasons? Hence, the mind-blowing.

That opening moment, combined with the later revelation of the Dharma polar bear skeleton in the Tunisian desert served to take the entire “Lost” story to an epic level. The mysterious events this show revels in are no longer confined to that mysterious island. This is happening on a global scale. What does it all mean? Time travel is a popular theory. Perhaps the island is somewhere back in the beginning of time. Daniel Faraday's line about how the light is odd on the island and “doesn’t scatter quite right” seems to be a big clue -- is there no pollution in this pre-historic island? And don’t forget the shriveled male and female bodies discovered in the first season – Adam and Eve?

In a bit of nostalgia, the producers decided to give us some old-fashioned flashbacks. This time we looked at the recent past of those sinister rescuers –- a physicist, a ghostbuster, an anthropologist and a pilot. Their backgrounds don’t seem to be as important as the man who brought them all together -– Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick). What exactly does he want with Ben? We don't know yet. The clues we do have come in the names of our new “Lost” friends.

Whether the "Lost" producers are just having fun with us or are actually signaling their overall plan remains to be seen, but until we know for sure, let's look at what we do know about these new characters.

Daniel Faraday: Played by the-always-reliable Jeremy Davies -- in what's quickly becoming a signature twitchy Davies performance -- this character claims to be a physicist, has a wife or girlfriend whose identity remains oddly unclear (we were never shown her face in the episode) and appears to be the most sensitive or conflicted of the rescuers. A quick trip to the Wikipedia reveals that Faraday is an "obsolete unit of electrical charge" Sort of like that massive discharge of electrical energy off the island in Season Two? I think this is just a little joke, and not anything that signals the character's true nature. Moving on...

Charlotte Lewis: British actress Rebecca Mader makes this anthropologist both exuberant like a school girl, but with hints of a Tracy Flick-like ambition. Her full name is Charlotte Staples Lewis. C.S. Lewis, anyone? Perhaps Oceanic 815 flew through the giant sky-bound equivalent of a wardrobe. Perhaps this island is their Narnia? Lewis was also a noted author of religious texts, perhaps a signal to the ongoing theme of religion in the series. I think this character and her name have many, many more layers than what we were shown in this episode. She's one to keep an eye on.

Miles Straume: Played by Ken Leung, who played Uncle Junior's crazy rest-home mate on "The Sopranos," this ghostbuster is a troubled soul. The name is a play on "maelstrom," although there are several towns in Norway called Straume. Is the island really in Norway? I doubt it.

Frank Lapidus: Sci-fi fans can probably barely recognize "Lawnmower Man" Jeff Fahey underneath that beard and those eyebrows. But that's him, looking grizzled and haunted all at once. He's the original pilot for Oceanic 815, and since his name is in the guest-starring credits as opposed to the main cast, I have my doubts he'll be around for much longer. As for his name, it appears to be an anagram for "Farads link up." Does he have a special connection with Faraday? Maybe. The "Lost" producers are big fans of anagram names, it seems.

-- Patrick Day

Comments

[eric]

you should have kept going with the faraday wikipedia entry. michael farady was apparently a very important chemist/physicist that did key work in the area of electricity and magnetism. Obviously magnets and EM play a huge role in the show. A farad (named after Faraday) is a unit of capacitance (stored electric charge). Farads linked up seem like it could refer to many capacitors. A stored electric charge seems very much like what happened when the clock ran out in the station. Maybe there are a number of places around the world with weird EM events that are linked in some way? Lots of interesting stuff to chew on.

[June Lee]

The time-travel aspect is really intriguing to me - particularly the possibility of time jumps on the island itself. The male-female corpses - Adam & Eve is a fine idea, but I find the overall "Lost" philosophy to be more science-friendly (IE: evolutionist-friendly) than fundamentally religious. The creators and writers of the show ARE fans of biblical and religious references (Dharma is an Eastern philosophy of harmony that trumps Karma, which is actually a cycle of up and down, right and wrong, mistakes and reckoning; Dharma is an evolutionarily higher plane than Karma...but I digress). What about those two grift-y/hotties that were buried under paralysis in "Expose" last season after fighting over diamonds and getting bitten by poisonous spiders? (or was that in Season 2? I get confused)

Maybe the inhabitants of the Island are time-jumping within their time-jump. Maybe they leave the island (upon rescue), ultimately, during the wrong time-jump and, hence, the problems that ensue on the mainland that are hinted at the recent flash-forwards -- did anyone else pick up on Jack mentioning his drunken father in his own drunken rant after he saves that woman and child in the car accident he may have caused on the bridge? His father should be dead! Yeah, it could have been his own confusion caused by his own narcotic/drunken influences or it could be that they get off the island and go home at the 'wrong time' - or they 'wrong' time with the timing of their rescue on the global scale, mixing the universe up...okay...okay, that's a bit much...I don't know exactly where I'm going with that...

But this time-jumping thing...there's something to it. Maybe it's how Ghostbuster Miles knows where to look for cash and stuff...maybe it's the cornerstone of all of Ben Linus' work...maybe it's why Locke isn't wheel-chair bound -- he's living pre-window-fall...I could go on...and that's the fun of "Lost."

PS - SIDEBAR FROM SEASON 2: Did anyone else catch that weird, fatigued face that Libby made right after she convinces Hurley not to, ahem, hurl himself off the cliff? She says a whole bunch of lovely things to him, kisses him and they set off back for the beach...but not before the camera catches her face going 'dark' -- it's worth the rewind and pause on DVD or online or itunes or whereever - particularly because it comes after we've discovered Libby getting meds as a fellow patient in Hurley's psych ward in flashback...or was that, for her, a flashforward?? Yes, I know, she's now dead...hence the problems these inhabitants are causing in their 'real time' rescue...

Again, I don't quite have the answer here, but the time travel thing is pretty lush with possibilities...THANK YOU, PATRICK DAY!