RE: The counter:

From OneHundredEight on the ABC boards -




Looks like a match to me (except for the unknown 2nd symbol).

He says "to cause to die" means "to kill."

For me, especially with the long gaps between new episodes, I forget what questions I wanted answers for in the first place. Most of the time I can't even remember what happened to a character last, because I haven't seen them for weeks.

What was the noise after the counte went to zero? Sounded like something powering up - the magnet?

"The dingo took my baby!"

Seriously a couple of the characters are getting very annoying, but it also seems we disagree on who they are. I'm still cool with Jack and Charlie, but getting annoying with Locke and Claire. I like that they made Sawyer an asshole again, though I don't really like the plot of how they did it. And we need more Eko.

No, no, of course it can't.

But when you crash-landed in a plane thousands of miles off course, buried half your crew, are hunted alternately by an Island nano-smoke-beast, a cult-gang of baby-worshippers known only as the Others, a crazy French woman with a gun and a pack of abused, out-for-blood "Tailies," find a psychological testing facility underground with another crazed foreigner locked inside who presses a Doomsday button every certain interval to SAVE THE WORLD, have a day-in, day-out tug-of-war between ideological headcase "leaders" of the group, find out that half the remaining survivors are either killers (with hearts of gold and either an endless supply of boob-enhancing tanktops or floppy, horribly split-end afflicted Farrah-man hair and the spongey muscles of a Stretch Armstrong doll that's lost half its inner goop ), torturers (who really didn't want to do it, but those mean, mean soldier men made me), hop-heads (who sleepwalk, hallucinate and steal babies in the night), psychotics with messiah complexes (and miraculously healed legs), or just plain losers (Ranch-dippin' fat guys, utterly pointless Aussie Madonnas, serially absent fathers, ghost children with "abracadabra" magical powers, ex-Korean mob enforcers or worse yet, "red shirts" with no names), have already killed off or misplaced at least 4 of your own crew through "slap-your-forehead-Private-Pyle" Island mishaps, fight constantly about who controls a stash of weapons and drugs, threaten to raise an army, threaten to kill a cop, cycle through at minimum 3-4 love triangles a day - y'know, it's kinda hard NOT TO BE SERIOUS, DARK AND DESPONDENT most, if not ALL THE TIME.

I agree 100%, though I'd extend the criticism to the last 3 episodes. I've really wanted to like them all and have ended up really not enjoying them. Did the show get new writers or something? It's like someone who's never seen the show is writing dialogue after reading 1-paragraph descriptions of each of the characters. While the background stories, plot twists and cliffhangers drive the narrative, the show has been so compelling because the characters were so well handled and believable. They're quickly losing that spark that's made the show special and it has me a little worried.

If they have an "Other" and the other "Others" know it, they really ought to get their shit together and have an army. The lost of weapons is a "clear and present danger" to the group.

Time to surprise and overwhelm Sawyer in his sleep and send him to the cellar with Sayid to "chat" about the weapons until they are returned. After the "chat," they probably ought to kill him. He is nothing but trouble for the group. Although the rest of the group is pretty damned dysfuntional too.

I thought it sounded like the blast doors gearing up to close.

I'll add my gripe, too -- I don't think the characters are maintaining 'coherence' from episode to episode. Sawyer is originally played off as a kind of dumb con artist, and yet he can pull off a complicated con? Charlie becomes a pariah of the group, and now Sayid is trying to work with him? And, as others have noted, Jack wants an army to destroy the Others and yet wants to protect this one guy?

I can see the need to build conflict amongst the characters, but this is getting kind of tedious. Still interesting, and still better than any other show out there.

Just hoping Lost doesn't go the way of Alias.

Watch "Battlestar Galactica" and then re-evaluate.

That's all I'm sayin'.

Too bad "cause wind" didn't show up. Maybe if it was Hurley after that great meal he was having

I didn't realize that was Kate's father until I started reading this thread - usually I notice those little things as they appear on the show.

Locke changes the combo every ep now.

And I don't understand Jack - he wants to form an army to fight the Others, yet objects to Sayid interrogating a random individual that Rousseau caught in a trap.

So, did the time expire on the clock or not?

It seems like it did before it got reset.

Yeah something felt abit off with this ep. Like some outside source was interfering and cg didnt help. I still had good time, though I hope they really have some kind of five year outline if things continue as they do. Most of us need to enjoy the ride because alot of us are not going to like the destination.

Good episode, though the cocktease with the numbers was slightly annoying. I wish they'd just let it run down and that's that (even if they didn't show what, if anything, happened for a while). That punching numbers every hour shit is getting tired.

Another so-so episode. The last great episode (reminiscent of Season 1) was Eko's backstory.

My biggest complaint with the countdown tease is that the number 4+8+15+16+23+42 add up to 108. There's a reason the timer restarts at 108:00, not 108:05 or anything like that. There should be no grace period especially with a 4-minute warning. Once that hits zero, there should be no going back.

I think we are forgetting a few very important things:
Jack - Is a Doctor - "1st do no harm". They have shown him many times trying to deal with the conflict of letting something happen to someone or helping them. He patched up Sawyer no question - its what he was trained to do. He put a stop to Sayid torturing Sawyer - he knew it needed to be done, but as a doctor, his oath and guilt eat away at him. His dealing with uilt has been a strong overtone throughout both seasons.

Sawyer - the ONLY weakness we have ever seen in him was for kids. Remember he gave up the con because they had one. He also jumped to save Walt on the boat. He was never portrayed as some kinda of dimwit.

Kate - Actions are based on emotions. Even killing her father, and the rescuing of the toy plane (hey, what ever happened to that thing anyway...). She puts trust in people and they betray her (Mom, Sawyer, Farmer Joe - or whatever his name was)

Charlie - has always wanted to be liked. Even back to the first episode, he quickly jumped in to go find the cockpit. He is extrememly needy and will do whatever he can to fit in. Even the drugs were because his brother was doing them.

Locke - This character has always irritated me and continues to do so. He needs people to depend on him whether in his mind or in reality. He hunted. He found the hatch and decided to open it. He changes the combination. Nothing in his past shows him with the opportunity to take charge like this. The island is a new beginning for him.


Finally, to address the revelation of questions. I have said this before; but... you have to think about the amount of time that is going by. Unlike 24 where they set up when they are going to reveal something (ie. ""the bomb is set to go off in 2 hours". In Lost, everything is not set up so cleanly. Last week was the first time they actually gave you an idea of how much time had gone by between 2 episodes - you could figure it out, but Kate actually said they met the others a few days ago. It has been less than a week since they met with the others at this point. OK, yes, I want to know where Desmond is; but it has only been like 2 weeks since he ran off. In reality, since he was trying to get away from them; it is unlikely they would have seen him in the last 2 weeks.
Why did Anna Lucha take orders from Sahyid (SP), uh, how about because last week she shot his girlfriend and is still terrified of him getting revenge.

It is irritating as a TV show that things are not revealed fast enough for us. The show is set up to be a weekly serial of sorts without the in between episode escapes that classic serials always had. That is why everyone enjoys watching the box sets. questions are answered relatively quickly. Maybe the producers should start putting "Day 67" at the bottom of the screen at the start of each episode to help people grasp this.

Oh, and how the hell, with a rolling number system (which is what the counter is) could all of those symbols be there? The only time the numbers flip quickly enough not to follow is in the resetting. The far left number cycles through approximately every 10 seconds...

Just wanted to point out that Charlie didn't go to the cockpit to be liked. He went because his drugs were still in the forward lav. He hoped to find them.

I pretty much agree with everything else.

Put Sayid and Jack Bauer in a show together....now that is something that I will pay to watch

Between Jack and Sayid cutting up terrorists, pulling their eyeballs out and using pliers to snip off fingers.....that would be a kick-ass show

You're right, my bad. He did follow Kate and Jack around alot besides that though. He really only bonded with Claire and Hurley. I think the look he was giving to Sayhid last night was part, "Oh my god, someone else rembers" and part "holy crap, sayhid has never spoken privately to ME before"

I think the numers are more of a Rolodex style, and that they flip through the numbers ONLY during the normal countdown cycle. This way you would never see any of the other red symbols that would come up if the timer expired.

I agree with everything you said in your long post (with the exception of Charlie/cockpit search, as someone else pointed out).

The thing that had me scratching my head the most in this episode, was Sawyer and the guns. He hid the guns, and the last time we saw him, he was hanging on to one rifle, where was that rifle in the episode? He left his tent for a good amount of time to search for a frog. Unless he hid that gun somewhere else, then it would be foolish for someone else to have not searched his tent while he was gone.

Related to that, when he first awoke, and approached Jin to ask him about the noise, I could have sworn I saw someone in the background that had already begun to dig through his tent.

Jack Baeur would OWN sayid

Yeah, sorry bout that. Its just one of those things I think about all the time and never really voice...