Thursday, April 9, 2009

Dead is Dead - Community Call

Black Rock LOST Podcast: Season 5 Episode 12 of ABC's TV show, LOST entitled Dead is Dead. Our mix of Lost Podcasters and fans provide some early observations and analysis just after the show airs each week. Who supplied Ilana with the guns? ...and just who's side is Ms Hawking on?


MP3

22 comments:

Mikey T in Scottsdale said...

Hello, I'm the guy who complained a bit about Dan getting so upset with continuity errors. I thought I should fess up. I probably shouldn't have called Dan out by saying he was being petty, and for that I sincerely apologize. I have a good relationship with Axel on the Lost Mythos site, and I'm pretty sure he will vouch for me as being pretty fair, and usually have good analysis for his show.

Dan didn't mention...There were continuity issues this week with Ben's wigs, Widmore looking 65 instead of 55, Widmore saying he's been looking for the island for 20 years, when it's only been 14 or 15 years. See, that's the stuff I just live with, and enjoy the story. Just go with it Dan! That's the spirit!

P.S. I wasn't the other Anonymous writer of the Kate hater stuff, just so we are clear. I don't want Stephanie pissed at me, Dan on the other hand, I think I can handle. LOL.

Great podcast guys and gals. Keep up the great work. Dan...I'm just messing with you. Take care.

Curt said...

Dude, no problems. We try to respect a diversity of opinions and I personally felt that your point (in it's essence at least) was a valid one.

Anonymous said...

Ceasar was sent by Widmore... right after the crash, everyone else is trying to get their barings, figure out where they are and survive and Ceasar is in the underground office (Ben's) looking through files. Who the heck would be doing that? Who would be looking for an underground office. We know the entrances to those places were hidden!

Anonymous said...

I think Ben got the picture of himself and Alex because he needed something of her to bring to the judgement. Kind of like old time séance; bring something of hers with you....

Aaron W said...

Two things I wanted to talk about:

Does anyone else get the feeling that Ilana and her buddy maybe got "infected" by Smokie similar to Robert? They definitely seemed a lot different after Lapidus got back. I'm not sure if there is a Cerberus Vent on Hydra Island though.

The second thing is... can we please put the magic box thing to rest? No offense to anyone, but I think this gets wayyyyyy too much attention, and it seems obvious to me what happened.

The magic box is a lie/joke/con by Ben on Locke. Ben wanted to embarrass Locke in front of the others by showing that Locke was not willing to kill his father.

In order to do that, he had to get Locke's father. Ben has information on everyone, so it wouldn't have been hard to get info on Locke's father. He sends Richard to go do his car accident magic, grab Locke's dad, and bring him to the island on the sub. This was the last mission of the sub, as Locke blows it up right before meeting his father.

So to summarize, magic box = Richard brings Locke's dad to the island via submarine. Ben was just playing on Locke's obsession with the island's mysticism. More evidence of this is in TNPLH, when Locke asks Ben if the chamber in the Orchid is the magic box, and Ben looks at him like's a moron and says "No".

Mairuzu said...

@Mikey T:
Don't apologize! This is what discussion formats like radio shows and podcasts are great for! Like I told Curt--I think the arguing is what people like (to a point), people can then take a side and argue back as they listen. heheh If they're wearing headphones and yelling out loud in a public place full of people, then my job here is accomplished. :) In all seriousness, I didn't think you were insulting and that's all that matters. If you disagree or think you 'called me out', then don't apologize--throw it out there! As well, if you hadn't said that--I probably wouldn't have posted anything on the blog side of the house.. so I also have to thank you for getting me motivated. On that note...

I disagree that I was petty on that element of where kid Ben was shot--seems pretty blatant to me... but you DID note that I didn't point out this week's continuity errors--proving my own point about the overt severity of the error. If it hadn't been such a big deal, I think it would have just been overlooked by most people.

@Aaron:
As for the magic "box", I think I might agree with you. I don't think there's a magic box on the Island that magically brings or creates things. I still say that Smoke Monster brainwashes people. I have to imagine that those people who went down to confront it were probably 'judged' by the smoke entity and in so doing, were made to evaluate their lives and purposes and were brainwashed into readjusting their personalities and purpose.

@Anonymous:
I actually had turned to my mom after rewatching the show a second time that evening after it aired and said, "I'll bet those other passengers with the weapons were sent by Widmore." Where did they "find" those weapons? Were they on the plane for them to use once they got there? Widmore failed once--maybe he tried again to get his people on the island. Charles Widmore did point out that he WANTED Locke to bring everyone back to the island and he clearly made it known that he was keeping a close eye on all of them. My guess is that he watched them all to see which plane they would board and made sure HIS people were on that plane as well, as passengers, with a bunch of weapons in the cargo for them to "find" later after the crash.

Anonymous said...

Whispers.... There was lots of talk about Smokey... You talked about him taking many shapes/forms and possibly representing different things… What if Smokey has to have some type of physical manifestation... if the theory is that he takes the form of a person (Echo’s brother, Christian/Alex, etc) or a cloud or black smoke, or roar in the distance… then why can't it be invisible at times.... If so, maybe Smokey manifests as whispers????

Anonymous said...

Aaron- Ditto on the black box. I think the producers were telling us to let it go also and that it was just a joke. Frankly I'm more interested in who's driving the famed Gold Pontiac. I wonder whose garage it's setting in when it's not mowing down characters?

Dan-Hey Japanese Miles! I have been wondering for so long what it would take to get an A+ rating from you and now I know. I LOVED this ep too. And while I am at it I was most pleased with the Penney scenes. Everything turned out the way I hoped and all the explanations were there. Well all except how they could possibly have sailed all the way from England in less than 70 hrs. They would have had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope or through the Panama canal to get to L.A. But alas that would be a continuity issue which brings me to..

Mikey T.-No worries, man. I am starting to consider writing in as an anonymous to see what kind of trouble I can stir up. lol I recognized your name right away a beloved contributer to another podcast. I just couldn't remember which one. Now I know. But you are so right to not want to incur my wrath. You should know I have driven Nancy Drew to drink. And poor Curt cringes everytime he opens the blog page. He never knows how many posts I will make in the course of a day. Count this as number one...

Mairuzu said...

@StefanyMac:
Ironically, I'm not Japanese--I think Curt pointed that out. I just have a particular interest in Japanese culture, food, etc. :) So it was the first thing I thought of when TalkShoe and other places kept telling me that 'Miles' was already taken. I've gone by the name 'Miles' as an online handle since around 1995 when I first drew my cartoony avatar I ended up naming Miles. So.. since almost nobody on English-language boards goes by 'Mairuzu'... that's what I go with. I weirded out when Miles and Dan both suddenly showed up on the show. Weird coincidence for me, anyway. :)

Anyway, as for my rating on this episode, I admit that I tend to be pretty critical but I think that it's only fair and if you see that I liked it, you're probably more likely to agree. I think it's misleading to keep rating things highly; you can never tell which are the best episodes that way.

Ultimately, isn't this supposed to be theater? I should feel entertained. Other elements can sometimes be sacrificed in the name of entertainment, like say continuity. :) But if there is too much sacrifice of any element, like say continuity, then it CAN ruin entertainment because it can rudely jerk the viewer out of the show and ruins the experience of entertainment. I'll agree that the continuity was probably ruined with the boat ending up in LA from England, but that one doesn't rip you out of the experience in the moment. (Not to mention, there's probably a few unlikely but plausible explanations.)

Anonymous said...

Dan,

I was just teasing you about your username. If you go back to a previous show's blog you'll see I figured out that Dan and Mairuzu were the same. I heard the whole exchange with Curt in this last show. I also remember him being confused about you being Mairuzu in the chatroom in other shows as well. I am glad that you explained it all on this show. On a side note, were you also weirded out by the listening station of Portugese men? At least I haven't had to worry about any Stefanys right?

Anonymous said...

I would like to hear your opinions on:
Ben's house has a secret door that looks like it is right out of the temple. Did Dharma build over the temple or did Ben have that built later? Lot's of questions about that....
It may be a very old conversation so, sorry for the repeat but how does the sub get back and forth? Is there an underwater gateway like with the wheel? or do they just "keep the baring" like the freighter did?
I thought there were a bunch of losties that headed to the temple when the rescue happened. Where are they?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, one more thing.... I thought the title was going to have more to do with the plot and Ben getting judged. Now, I don't see the connection. It seems as though dead isn't dead on this island...or is it.
Who ever came up with the "land of the living" reference to the celtic lore is really on to something too.....

Anonymous said...

In episode 5x8 Lefluer, one of the hostiles shot at Sawyer... he looked like he was surprised not to be hit...Looked like he should have taken one in the chest...
Faraday told Desmond that he was special... Is this the same thing that happened to Desmond when Ben shot him??

Anonymous said...

I had to leave Wednesday's show early and I didn't get these thoughts out. I hope to get them in here before Monday's show.

1)Ceasar being shot was quite a shock but I think it answered a burning question we all had. I think this clearly explains the outrigger that was shooting at the flashies. After Ben shot Ceasar in cold blood and then took off in an outrigger, it seems obvious that when Ilan's Army catches up to another outrigger, they will assume it is holding Ben and Locke and they shoot out of revenge. (Jacob's Cabin podcast had a good idea about why Ben shot Ceasar-When hesaw C's gun, he realized it was from Ben's office. Knowing that C had been in his office made Ben want to kill him out of fear of what else Ceasar might have come across in that office.)

2)Why did Widmore want Rousseau and baby Alex dead? The only idea I can come up with is a theory. Widmore has a premonition or dream that Alex will lead to his downfall. I think he couldn't have the details on this or he wouldn't have sent Ben to do the deed. Ben failed to carry out Widmore's orders. Alex grew up loved by Ben. When Widmore sent his mercenaries that ended up killing Alex, this sent Ben on a path of vengeance that I think will eventually lead to Widmore's downfall. It's a kind of greek tradgedy turns self-fullfilling prophesy. I think that fits in very well with Lost right now.

and
3)As Easter week has passed I have been musing over the discussion from the chatroom about the posibility of Smokey/Island/Jacob being some kind of Trinity. As I wondered about this I thought of the comparison of Locke to the resurrection of Christ. I chuckled to myself that it was too bad he didn't rise on the 3rd day. And then I started thinking... He may have!! Ben went to Eloise shortly after he killed Locke. She then told him you have less than 70hrs to make the event window. 3 days=72 hrs. It's entirely possible...

Mairuzu said...

@StefanyMac:
Yes, I had reacted in some fashion like, 'What the hell? I can understand these guys!' After so much time with Korean being the only non-English on the show up to that point. :) ANd then I quickly broken down to, 'Darn.. they're Brazilian.' heheh Darn, they weren't mainland Portuguese. But at least it was something I could understand fluently.

Also, anyone else think it's 'convenient' and hard to understand the explanation that if Ben was healed, he would forget everything that's happened.. but he DOES remember his father (and presumably DHARMA and everything else) but still not remember the Oceanic 815 people (like Sayid) into the future.

Lastly, I suppose most people might agree with my comment from the last show that it seems to me that the people finding the cargo full of weapons on the beach are probably Widmore's people.

Nancy Drew said...

All those that want Stefany to write another article for Lostaholics say AYE!

AYE!!
(And I count for at least 10 votes :) )

Anonymous said...

Nancipedia,

Ask and ye shall receive. I live to serve.

Curt said...

Would that be for us one of the myriad other sites she frequents? Word on the net girl is that you get around, just saying...

Anonymous said...

?????
sorry to keep posting and running up the numbers here... which forums are the best/most frequented? I really like the podcast but this obviously is not where your regulars share their ideas....
thanks

Curt said...

We're big fans of the Lostaholics.com forums

Anonymous said...

Thank you...

Anonymous said...

Curt,
You have always known you weren't my only, just my first... But never fear I always come back home. BTW don't look to me to replace Nancipedia in the ways of research, especially Egyptology and other cultural studies. When I was listening to that part of the podcast I was mostly saying 'huh', 'duh' and 'that's over my head'. Pray for her perserverance cause that stuff is way outta my league. And I wouldn't call myself a John Locke to her Ben. I'm more of a Boone to her Locke. I guess I'd better stay away from small planes.