Season 4, Episode 9- The Shape of Things To Come

Hi- sorry I am just getting to this now. Was at Portishead on Thursday and then at Coachella so this is the first chance I've FINALLY been able to watch Lost!

Here goes:

- colors- the team with ben had on green/those on the island were wearing blue

- stomach bug/my gut tells me elsewhere- foreshadowing of jack's addiction and his longing to be somewhere else. also- so is "what happened to the doctor"

- there are a lot of first names going around - Hugo, James, Benjamin- more so than usual but Claire is not referenced by her name so much.

- Game of Risk- Australia is the key to this whole game. sawyer roles a 15. hurley says we're all gonna die. sawyer calls him chicken little.

- Ben playing Prelude in C Sharp Minor. Ben is playing this piece from Sergei Rachmaninoff on the piano, right before the phone call. Some British publications include the title The Burning of Moscow or The Day of Judgemen

- Fence Code- 1623 - both numbers

- there are many references to 5 in this episode- alex captured by 5 mercenaries, number of shots sayid fired, code 14J (1+4), it took them 5 minutes to debate telling ben about the phone, phone ran 5 times, book on the shelf that fell over was called "Fifties", Nadia was killed 5 days ago, 3.2MM dollars, sayid killed the guy with 5 bullets

- Tozeur, Tansinia- famous Tansian poem wrote:

To the lovers of the darkness
To the enemies of life...
You ridiculed the pain of the frail people
Your hands covered in their blood
You deformed the charm of existence
And you've grown but seeds of sadness in their land

Wait, don't let the spring, the clearness of the sky and
the shine of the morning light fool you
Because the darkness, the thunder rumble and the blowing of the wind are coming toward you from the horizon
Beware because there is a fire underneath the ash
Who grows thorns will reap wounds
You've taken off heads of people and the flowers of hope; and watered the sand with blood until it's drunk
The blood's river will take you away and you will be burned by the fiery storm.

- name on Ben's jacket is Halliwax:


- 10/24/05- check out some interesting history for October 24
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_24

- Shock & Awe- war term

- People are murdered to make sawyer angry

- Dean Moriarty is the name of the "hero" of Jack Kerouac's novel On The Road, which was written in the 50s. Moriarty is also the surname of Professor James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes' best known antagonist and mathematical genius. In the story "The Final Problem", Moriarty pays a surprise visit to Holmes to confront him and both issue ultimatums to the other regarding their continued pursuit of each other in much the same way Ben visits Widmore and they issue threats about their respective searches


- Your Friend Desmond's boat (Elizabeth- libby's boat)

- La Brea & Santa Monica- 3 blocks from where Nadia was killed (3)- close to the tar pits.

- Martin Keaney- served 1996-2001 (5 yrs)- mercenary in Uganda- In Mayan Astrology, the sign CIMI, pronounced the same way as Martin's last name, means DEATH.

- pawn (game playing reference)

- 8 years searching for Nadia

- Ben smiles as he tells Sayid he'll be in touch- now we know how Sayid started working for Ben

- Eyes - locke had white dots in his while talking to Sawyer about who was staying/going. Ben's eyes were black when he went to visit widmore, widmore says to ben he has horrible eyes,

- License Plate numbers- car behind Ben's- 4L04BAV, Ben's car- R838VLW - 4 and 8 numbers

- Kendrick- 4E (#)

- scotch by the bed- reference

- shadows by Ben & Widmore's faces- they used the same shadow techniques as in Star Wars when Luke confronts The Emperor in Return of the Jedi

- and last but certainly not least- a very special appearance by the smoke monster!! so what is the smoke monster?

The Lost producers posted a question to Yahoo! Answers asking people what their theories were of what the Monster was. The winning answer suggested that the Monster was a security system designed to separate the participants in DHARMA Initiative experiments, although the producers stated that "The answer we selected might be somewhat right, totally right -- or completely off-base". here is the winning answer:

I think the monster was originally a highly advanced security system designed to separate participants in the experimental Dharma hatches. I think it was an effect that was designed to frighten people (smoke, noise) if they strayed too far from their experiment location. (A bit Wizard of Oz like) However, the electromagnetic force has mutated it - in the same sense as Desmond experienced time travel and can now see the future after exposure - and made it malevolent and able to physically grab things in its force (Eko, the Pilot, Locke). So in theory it may be able to be deactivated, if they can find the control room for it (which would be another hatch somewhere yet undetected)

til thursday!!