Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Variable - Community Call

Black Rock LOST Podcast: Season 5 Episode 14 of ABC's TV show, LOST entitled The Variable. The purported 100th episode as it were and our 100th hour of podcasting about those 100 episodes. Our mix of Lost Podcasters and fans provide some early observations and analysis just after the show airs each week. So Dan's got a plan but Mom saw it coming?


MP3

12 comments:

Nancy Drew said...

Tons of listeners have left me "Get Well" messagaes on different pages and sites, and I just wanted to leave a big "Thank You" in here. This community is just the best!! Thanks for thinking of me!

whimsymoon said...

Nancy Drew! Glad to hear you on the podcast! You're the best!!! Hope your feeling 110% soon!

Aaron W said...

Hey guys, great podcast as usual.

I was thinking more about Hawking and Widmore, and about how they both had to "sacrifice" things. You guys were talking about how the island must be very mystical/powerful for Eloise to send Faraday to his death, etc.

I actually interpreted this a different way. I think Eloise and Widmore both must act as "timecops" because of what they saw in their pasts.

Eloise knows that Daniel is going to die if she sends him to the island but she HAS to, because if she doesn't, it would be a paradox and that would destroy existence. I am assuming that someone (Jacob?) will tell her and Widmore that a paradox would destroy existence.

Similarly, I think at some point in Widmore's past (possibly 1977), Desmond comes to the island and does certain things. So Widmore has to do all the things he can to get Desmond to go to the island, despite its effect on his relationship with his daughter, Penny.

I now have a great amount of sympathy for both Ms. Hawking and Widmore because they had to sacrifice their own happiness and parenthood in order to ensure that existence wasn't destroyed because of a paradox.

Think about if any of us had to facilitate certain things or all of existence would be destroyed. Wouldn't you sacrifice anything and anyone to do that? The alternative is that everything would be destroyed anyway.

Eric Weissen said...

Excellent podcast as usual.

Great reveals concerning the truth about the plane and who commissioned it. Ben didn't lie and my money is on Ben being the good guy. Despite his flaws he's still my favourite character and my money is on him to be a key driver in getting this show to a conclussion.

Anonymous said...

i was actually disappointed 'cause i read the spoiler on eloise killing daniel, and normally don't read spoilers
i agree that this time travel it's messing up a bit a great tv show, but we're hooked anyway...
if they mess up with the hydrogen bomb causing the 815 to avoid the accident, that means there's no need for a 6th season i guess.
and what about locke, ben, sun and the new losties what are they up to 30 years later only two episodes to go?
to much confusion
mario

thanks for the mention of european listeners on the podcast

Anonymous said...

eric
i totally agree on ben
he's n.1
but I have feeling he's gonna be sacrificed like darth vader and gollum...sooner or later

mario

Eric Weissen said...

Widmore & his plane and body docs

27 minutes in there is a discussion on the information being delivered to Widmore.

Widmore strikes me as a man that would delegate a job then say I want proof once done.

Miles 'probed' dead Felix who was on his way to deliver documents. My thoughts are that Felix was intercepted by 'Mr Friendly' and assassinated to obtain the documents. This is when Tom meets up with Michael he has the same documents.

I also feel that as avid viewers that pay attention to details we will at times be somewhat unstimulated by the reveals as they seem to be systematically going through closing every mystery even the basics.

Anonymous said...

Eric- Unfortunately I have to agree with about all of what you said about the plane. I say unfortunately because I don't like the way they did it. I argued on the show that it wouldn't make sense for W to ask for photos. It's like Curt said that he wouldn't ask someone to do a job, oh and then bring him the paper trail. I'll have to give up the argument now, I guess between the clip show and 'Variable' both stating that W was responsible. I just didn't like the way that part was written.
Curt - thanks for making one last argument in favor of our shared opinion of that plane theory. I guess like so many crushed theory experiences, we have to just let it go and move on. Dead all along/Widmore didn't plant the plane! lol Oh one last time for old time's sake, huh. Maybe we can move on to Daniel Faraday was dead all along now. lol

Anonymous said...

Curt
Speaking as one of the women of the show who let you down... I will now offer my thoughts about the scene where James called Kate, freckles. You caught me off guard. I wasn't sure what you meant until I went back and listened to the show. I assumed you were talking about some deeper meaning than just the shipper of it all. I just want to point out for the record that it was you, Curt, that wanted to talk about quadrangle shipper crap.lol Oh, when I think of all the men you have threatened to mute when they bring that up, I crack up! Ok, so anyway I think we read that scene about the same. Sawyer got all soft and called Kate freckles. Juliet felt threatened and immediately ponied up with the fence code. I don't know if it was to get Kate the H out of Dodge or just to defy her man, who was possibly humiliating her to her face. Probably a little of both. I think Juliet is stinging from the whole situation. It's not just that one moment with "Freckles". It's all of them coming back and threatening the life she and Sawyer have made together. She has sacrificed her whole life since the moment she came to this God forsaken island. All her love matches have failed. She is finally, truly happy with a man that is just as finally, truly happy to be with her. I can imagine how defensive she must feel about now. Even having said that, I could see that she was struggling to stay mature and positive as they were trying to pack there belongings and having the "you got my back" talk. She's a lot more grown up than Kate would have been in those kinds of situations. I have a feeling that they are going to weather this storm just fine. You once asked if any other podcasts were using Nancy's near-patented "mirror image" tag line. I was catching up on some old Jay and Jack eps and a caller called in about the whole quadrangle bit and pointed out that Juliet/Sawyer and Kate/Jack were a mirror image of each other. Both pairs contain a 'doctor' and a 'criminal'. I will add one more part to that. The blond pair are light and the brunette are dark. Black and White.

Oh, I just don't know if I can live in a world where Curt is dwelling on shipper issues. It's Bizzaro-Curt... If it happens again we might have to call up an intervention. ;)

Eric Weissen said...

Curt!

Thanks for mentioning that there could be scope to get the European listeners involved. I thank that it is really thoughtful of you and accommodating given the substantial time difference.

If only we were all on the same time line...

The show has gone from strength to strength this season and I am happy to see that alot of the theories that you guys were putting put there are coming together.

Many thanks,

Anonymous said...

I caught a couple things on a re watch that I haven't heard anyone talk about on any of the podcasts this week. One thing was something that Ms. Hawking said to Penney at the hospital. Hawking was looking at Charlie and said, "He has his father's hair." That caught my attention. Des does have wavy hair, but it's not blond. She could have said he has his father's wavy hair and that would have been accurate. But that's not what she said. The way she phrased it sounds to me like his hair completely resembled Des' hair as a child. Some people's hair changes from fair to dark as they age, but how would she know that? Does that mean Hawking saw Des as a child? Did she time travel to check up on him like Richard checked on Locke periodically? Or has she been watching him all throughout his life"?

Also it seemed to me that the D.I. worker that told Dan he had to wear a hard hat in the Orchid was the same Other man that held a gun to Sayid's head in "The Looking Glass" http://gallery.lost-media.com/displayimage-1300-315.html I couldn't find a screencap from Variable but it looks like the same actor to me.

These both may be too nit-picky, but with this show details count.

Anonymous said...

I watched the scenes again after checking the screencap from "Through the Looking Glass". It's definitely the same actor. I'd stake Greg Nations life on it. :)