IRL: 2X06 - "Abandoned" [**SPOILERS WITHIN**]

marie_85 wrote:

I'm taking a point off cos I don't like Boone, but oh my god!!! That was a great episode. Do you think that Shannon's father is the one who died in the crash with Jack's wife, the one Jack couldn't save? It'd be a nice coincidence.

Here we go again with yet another obsessive breakdown of the latest episode of Lost.

Damn fine episode, I thought, with some much-needed insight into Shannon's character and past. Shame we won't be seeing any more of her. Or will we?

- As always, we start with the credited cast in the show's titles. Malcolm David Kelley (Walt) makes a return as a regular cast member whereas Ian Somerhalder (Boone) is credited as a special guest star - Implies to me that we're going to be seeing Walt pop up a lot more. Also Kimberley Joseph (Cindy) was bumped from the credited guest stars telegraphing that this would be the last we'd see of her (at least for now) when she did show up.

- Since we've already figured out that Walt was speaking backwards, it was a lot easier to decipher what he said to Shannon last night when he appeared in her tent; I made it out to be, "They're coming and they're close". Whether he's referring to the tailies or the "others" or someone/something else entirely, I'll leave up to you to decide for yourself but my guess would be the "others".

- When Walt appears to Shannon in the tent, it looks to me like he casts a shadow, which should put paid to all those theories of holograms and astral projection, neither of which would cast a shadow.

- Just supposition on my part but could "papa" from Shannon's ballet class be the man she ends up working for in France as a nanny? Seemed a bit strange that he would use the term "au pair" and not "nanny" if he were not French.

- At one point, Ana-Lucia tells Eko that she liked him a lot better when he didn't talk and a few people I've been talking to have suggested that maybe he was mute and/or deaf at one point and went through a similar "miraculous" recovery as John. If this was the case, though, Ana-Lucia would have said "couldn't talk" rather than "didn't talk"; the way she phrases it suggests that it was Eko's choice not to talk.

- After Eko informs the remaining tailies that he & Jin saw the "others", Libby asks him if he saw "the kid" (presumably the person we saw dragging the teddy bear last week). First reaction to that would be that it's Libby's child or at least a tail section survivor but, again, language is the key here; if the child was someone Libby knew, she would have referred to him or her either by name or by something a bit more affectionate than just "the kid". My understanding of that exchange is that seeing this child with the "others" has invoked some sort of emotion in Libby (remember, she is a psychologist) and, coupled with Ana-Lucia cutting her off rather abruptly when she asks about it, that that connection has cost them somehow. UPDATE: Reading back over that, even I think it's a bit of a reach but, still, I found it a bit odd that Libby referred to it as "the kid" and that Ana-Lucia was so harsh with her when she mentioned it.

- Probably the most obvious thing in this episode and something I'm sure ye all spotted already is that Jack walks past Shannon and Sabrina when they first meet the doctor in the hospital. Nothing major in this connection, it was already established in "Man of Science, Man of Faith", Sarah (Jack's wife) and Adam (Shannon's father) were in the same crash.

- The hospital where Adam & Sarah are brought and where Jack and Christian (Jack's father) work is named after Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of arrows, athletes, homosexuals, male beauty, plague, soldiers and, unofficially, youth. He is also the patron saint of Qormi in Malta. I'm still reading up on him and any particular relevances he may have to Lost so I'll just link ye to here instead. A couple of things I've picked up on already, though, are that Saint Sebastian was a member of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (see here), 14 being the number of regular characters Lost originally began with and that he met his death when shot with plague tipped arrows, which ties him into Apollo (see my previous entry on "Everybody Hates Hugo" here), the Greek god of archery who is said to have been the deliverer of pestilence.

- Probably a throwaway reference to the fact that she's lost but James' nickname for Ana-Lucia this week was "Ponce de Leon". Juan Ponce de Leon is widely considered to be the first European to have set foot in America when he happened across what we now know as Florida in 1513. At the time he was looking to achieve a "spiritual rebirth with new glory, honor, and personal enrichment" by claiming and governing Bimini, an island rich in gold deposits located to the north of Spain in the Bahamas. Although incorrect, it is also commonly stated that he was, in fact, looking for the fountain of youth at the time which may tie into Saint Sebastian's unofficial patronage of youth (see above). Read more about him here. You can also read more about Bimini and its mysteries here.

- Anyone get a good look at the man walking across the beach with a cane in the background at the start of John's and Claire's scene? The way it was shot, we were forced to notice him, something which doesn't usually happen by accident in Lost.

- In the same scene, John seems to be looking at something green/turquoise which he promptly hides when Claire approaches - anyone see what it was or know what it might be? I also noticed a shot where we see Eko in the distance, before zooming in on him, and there is a tree to the right of the frame with a mark on it that is of a similar colour. Maybe the thing John hides from Claire is a piece of chalk that Charlie has using to mark his way back to the drug plane should he need another fix and John has spotted these markings on his wanders through the jungle.

- According to my count, there are 5 tailies unaccounted for. In "Orientation", we find out from Libby that there was originally 23 of them. Last week, we find out Goodwin is dead and, this week, Ana-Lucia informs us that 3 of them were kidnapped on their first night there and a further 9 two weeks later. Add that to the five tailies we've met and you have 18, 5 less than the 23 Libby mentioned. Yes, it could be that Ana-Lucia just didn't mention what happened to them but she was out to make a point to Michael about how dangerous the "others" are so you would think she'd tell him everything relevant.

- Speaking of the tailies, rewatching "Adrift" and "Orientation" over the weekend, when we first see them follow Jin out onto the beach, I definitely counted 6 of them yet now they are only 5 (4, less Cindy). What happened to the sixth? My guess is that that was Goodwin, meaning he was killed after James, Jin & Michael were captured by the tailies.

- Also, in that same scene, Ana-Lucia tells Michael that the "others" took a lot of things when Michael states that they took his son - note the use of the word "things" rather than "people".

- Found it a bit difficult to hear, meself, so, just in case ye missed it, when James collapses and Michael tends to him, James says, "I woulda left you behind. I did leave you behind." to which Michael replies, "Good thing I'm not you, then.".

- Also in that scene, whose voice was that that shouted "Sawyer"? It didn't sound like either Jin or Michael. From the lack of reaction from anybody, it may have just been a crappy overdub.

- Anyone else find it a bit odd that Sayid, who was on his way to Los Angeles to meet the love of his life that he's been searching for for 7 years, professes his undying love for a woman he's known only a month and a half, a woman who reported him to airport security as a potential terrorist?

- Those bastarding whispers are annoying me again! Can't figure out what the majority of them are saying but 2 things I definitely heard in the whispers Shannon and Sayid hear were "Hi, sis" and "Death/Dying sucks", something Boone says to Shannon during her flashbacks. After hearing Boone in both sets of whispers Shannon has heard and Frank Duckett in the whispers James heard, I've come up with the theory that the whispers are not, in fact, the "others" as many people seem to think, but rather the amplification of the thoughts and memories of the person hearing them. I'd need to know exactly what the rest f the whispers are saying before being able to fully convince myself of that, though.

- Anyone else think Walt was telling Sayid to "Shh", not Shannon? I.E., telling him not to tell Shannon he was there because he knew she would chase him to her death. Although, why then would he run in the direction he did which ultimately led Shannon straight to her assailant.

- Why did Walt run away from Shannon forwards, shouldn't he have been running backwards?

- Look closely at what Sayid trips over when running after Shannon and Walt, it didn't look very organic to me, more like a metal pipe or tube or, maybe, the handle of a door to another hatch.

MeTV wrote:

Sayid looking up at the killer, who has their back to us; their weapon is longer than a pistol, held in the left hand and lowered to their side whereas Ana-Lucia has the pistol in her right hand, supported by her left, and has it raised, having just fired it.

"That's one magic loogie!"