Readers Respond to "The Constant" and "The Other Woman" Questions

It comes as no surprise that my questions about one of the most complicated episodes in Lost's history, "The Constant," met with an abundance of interesting responses from BuddyTV readers. CamaroHeed alone has been batting around enough interesting time travel theories to make my head spin. As for "The Other Woman," our readers were dying to know the origin of the whispers, but also had some ideas on who was really trying to release the gas at the Tempest station.

Read on to see some of the best theories about these two exciting episodes.


First up, CamaroHeed thinks that Daniel Faraday's (Jeremy Davies) rocket experiment helps to explain the 48 hour time difference between the island and the freighter. "If you take the 31 minute time difference from Faraday's experiment times the 94 days the Losties have been on the island, you get 2,914 minutes, or 48.6 hours -- the assumed time difference between the island and the freighter. If this correlation is true (and not coincidence), that means that for every 24 hours that passes on the island, 24 hours and 31 minutes pass on the freighter/real world."

While the time difference is interesting, many readers spent time pondering whether the sickness on the freighter is the same sickness described by Danielle Rousseau. "Personally, I think Rousseau and her team didn't experience the same sickness," lostfreak108 wrote. "It seems that the sickness only occurs when you are traveling to or from the island, and I don't think her team got sick when they crashed, but after they had been on the island for a bit. I also don't think Rousseau's team suffered from an illness - I think she did. Maybe the illness made her kill her team?"

The wonderfully named sugarnuts finds the idea of two island related sicknesses to be unlikely. "I think Rousseau's crew experienced the exact same sickness at the one the hatch is quarantined from," he wrote. "The sickness is 'being unstuck in time.' I think the cause of the illness is the sudden jump in time. The same jump that happens coming to and from the island. There is a way to avoid this and the Others know it, that's why they come to and from the island unaffected. The key is to be unconscious. If your mind is uncomprehending, then it won't notice the sudden change. That's why Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) was given a knock out pill on her first trip to the island."

Another interesting moment in "The Constant" was when we saw Charles Widmore successfully bid for the Black Rock journal. Why would he want such an object? Drewbacca thinks that he may have some sort of connection to Alvar Hanso. "Perhaps Widmore is either a business partner of Alvar's who wants the island's secrets for himself, or he is Alvar trying to get back after the Ben-led Hostiles got rid of his team. Him wanting the BR ledger is either for information or the desire for a family heirloom."

erindreg wonders how the journal made it off the island in the first place. She wrote, "It seems odd to me that the Black Rock journal made it off the island. This would suggest (in a logical world) that the Black Rock crashed there and everyone was rescued, but I don't think this is the case. There's definitely more going on with that. Did the Black Rockies find a way to teleport off the island?"

I'm sure we could easily discuss "The Constant" for the next twenty years, but there were also intriguing questions to be found in "The Other Woman." Like me, Moparlarry doesn't believe that Ben (Michael Emerson) was responsible for releasing the gas in the Tempest station. "I still theorize that Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) and Faraday's mission wasn't to turn off the gas, but set-up the Tempest for a rapid detonation," he wrote. "Why was the place counting down when Juliet arrived? Because they screwed up while rigging the place for a fast meltdown. Since we know that the mission of the SS Widmore is to capture Ben and kill everyone else, a fast release of 'Tempest' gas is the best way. That's why they didn't want Kate (Evangeline Lilly) tagging along."

In my original article, I theorized that the island whispers may be caused by the Others teleporting around the island. However, what if they're actually the sound of trapped souls? "I'm not sure, but my theory is that the whispers may be caused by some dead people who 'live' on the island," titemoi1 wrote. "If no living soul can leave the island by a normal way, maybe the dead souls can't, too."

Another mystery brought up in the episode was who Juliet reminds Ben of. My guess was that she resembles either his mother or his childhood friend Annie, but Ouidybird2 had another idea. "I remember that Juliet once said to Jack (Matthew Fox) that she was assigned to get close to/interrogate him because she looked much like his ex-wife."

This brings up a long-held theory by Lost fans, that perhaps Ben was the man who Jack's wife moved on with after their divorce. While anything is possible in the world of Lost, would a woman ever trade in Matthew Fox for Michael Emerson? That's something I'd have to see to believe.

Five Questions about "The Other Woman"

"The Other Woman" was looked down upon by many Lost fans, possibly because it followed "The Constant," which was one mind-blowing hour of television. Juliet's on-island flashbacks couldn't quite live up to Desmond's time tripping, and the episode also didn't give us much in the way of new mythology. That aside, I was happy to see some gaps in Juliet's past filled in, and any episode that gives Elizabeth Mitchell and Michael Emerson a chance to shine is alright by me.

For an episode that didn't bury us in new mythology, it certainly did raise a lot of questions. Read on to see the five that I'm dying to have answered.

1) What's with the whispers?

This is a question that we've been asking for seasons, but we were once again reminded of the mysterious jungle whispers in "The Other Woman." The whispers can be heard when Harper appears and disappears to Juliet in the jungle, but why?

In this article, my colleague John Kubicek theorizes that the whispers happen when someone is being transported through space and time. It's long been theorized that the Orchid station is being used for teleportation experiments, and this would certainly explain how the Others manage to appear so randomly in the jungle. The whispers may be a kind of residue that happens whenever someone is temporarily unstuck in time. It sounds plausible to me, especially now that Lost is truly delving into the nature of time travel.

2) Will we learn more about Harper?

Sometimes Others appear on Lost and are never seen again, like that Isabel character from "Stranger in a Strange Land" who nobody remembers. Will Harper go the same route, or is there more to her story that we've yet to see?

It feels like there's still so much about Harper we've yet to learn. First up, is she alive or dead? While she may be alive and teleporting as I mentioned above, she could also be a ghost or a manifestation of the smoke monster. I'd also like to know how she managed to contact Ben while he was in captivity, and why she had a Hanso logo on the diploma in her office. I'm not asking for her to have her own flashback episode, but I do think there's more to her character that we may learn in the future.

3) Who planned to release the poisonous gas?

According to Charlotte (Rebecca Mader), Ben was the one attempting to release poisonous gas on to the island. I normally wouldn't question his involvement, but this is one time when blaming Ben seems a bit fishy to me. Considering that he's been in captivity for a while, when would he have found time to go to the Tempest station to set that up? And why would he plan to wipe out everyone on the island while he's still on it? If Ben and all the Others died, who would protect the island from Widmore and his men?

If we can assume that Harper was in contact with Ben, I guess it's possible that she followed his orders and set the gas to release. However, I'm not blaming this one on Ben until I see some solid proof.

4) Who does Juliet remind Ben of?

While Juliet is in therapy with Harper, the therapist tells her that Ben likes her because she looks like someone from his past. Who? It could be his childhood friend Annie, who we saw in "The Man Behind the Curtain," or it could be Ben's mother, who did bear a strong resemblance to Juliet. Are there other possibilities?

5) Who was Charles Widmore assaulting in the video?

In Ben's safe, there was a video showing Widmore beating up a man that Ben claimed was one of the Others. Who could it be? My best guess is that it was Mikhail, who may have lost his eye due to this extreme beating. I may be biased by the fact that I really want Mikhail to make another appearance on the show, but it seems plausible. In reality, we don't have enough information about this mangled Other to do anything but guess.

Next week I'll wrap up this series of questions by revisiting "Ji Yeon" and "Meet Kevin Johnson."

Season 4 May Have One Additional Episode

When the plan for Lost's final three years was initially announced, each season was supposed to have 16 episodes. However, the writers' strike soon came along and derailed this nice little idea. The Lost producers were only able to complete eight episodes before the strike, and after it wrapped up they announced that five additional installments would be produced. While the show's fourth season would be somewhat truncated, the writers would at least have enough time to tie up certain story threads.

It's a lucky day for fans who were bemoaning the shortened schedule, as TV Guide's Michael Ausiello has announced that one more episode may be added to the show's fourth season. If the deal is worked out, that would bring the episode total to 14 for this year.

According to Ausiello, this deal is not yet confirmed, so Lost fans shouldn't do a dance of joy just yet. If ABC does decide to produce an additional episode, it may run into some bothersome scheduling hurdles. Currently, the climax to Lost's fourth season is set to air on May 22 at 10pm, following the finales of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy. If another installment were to be produced, it's unknown if it would air the following Thursday, on another night altogether, or if it'd possibly be packaged with episode 13 to make for a two-hour extravaganza.

There's also no telling what the new finale would consist of. Would it simply be an extension of episode 13? Would it contain elements that executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse weren't able to fit into the original finale? Would this additional hour be more along the lines of what the producers originally intended, or would they be stretching things out beyond what was planned after the writers' strike?

Like many Lost fans, I'll be crossing my fingers that this extra episode becomes a reality. Hopefully we'll have confirmation on this story within the next day or two.

Five Questions about "The Constant"

Though the return of Lost's fourth season is slowly getting closer, we still have a couple of boring Thursdays ahead of us before April 24. Today it's time to take a look back at one of Lost's most mind-blowing, brain-melting, time-tripping episodes of all time: "The Constant." Most Lost fans agree that this was the most impressive episode of season 4, and a lot of that has to do with the emotional impact of Desmond's (Henry Ian Cusick) story. Looking back on this installment, I was struck with a few questions that are still boggling my mind, such as: Why did Widmore buy the Black Rock journal? Is Daniel Faraday time traveling? And just how do those satellite phones work anyway?


1) Was George Minkowski suffering from "the sickness"?

Way back in season 1, Danielle Rousseau mentioned that she had to kill her fellow crew members due to a sickness that made them go crazy after arriving on the island. As we saw in "The Constant," Minkowski and many other members of the freighter have also been suffering from a sickness, presumably due to their proximity to the island. Are these illnesses one and the same?

I would say yes, as I doubt the writers would introduce two separate sicknesses caused by the island. However, many questions remain about what causes this illness, and why only certain people are affected by it. Could it be a by-product of time travel? Perhaps the people who don't find their constants are the only ones who go crazy, which means that Rousseau would have found hers while the rest of her crew did not. It's one possibility, but there are many others.

2) What's the difference in time on and off the island?

In "The Economist," Faraday (Jeremy Davies) set up his rocket experiment on the island, and the rocket seemed to arrive 31 minutes later than it was supposed to. In "The Constant," Sayid (Naveen Andrews) mentions that they took off in the helicopter at dusk and didn't land on the boat until the afternoon . What is going on here?

According to the calendar on the freighter, the date is Christmas Eve, 2004, which would mark 94 days since the Losties crashed on the island. However, the castaways are experiencing their 96th day, indicating that their perception of time is moving more slowly than actual time. Are the mainland and the island only two days off, or is there more to this mystery that we've yet to discover?

3) How do the phones work?

This is a question that the producers have promised will be answered before the end of the season, but I'm still curious. How do the freighter people have satellite phones that can call through time? How could Penny manage to contact the Looking Glass station if the island is in some kind of time anomaly? I can barely get reception on my cell phone throughout my apartment, so I'm dying to know how any communications manage to get to and from the island.

4) Why did Charles Widmore want the Black Rock diary?

That Widmore fellow is becoming more mysterious than ever as the show goes on, isn't he? In this episode, we saw him purchase the diary from the Black Rock, which we all know as the big ship that's in the middle of the island. It seems obvious that Widmore wanted the diary to help him find the island, but we still don't know why the island is so important to him. If Ben (Michael Emerson) is to be believed, he wants to kill everyone and exploit the island's natural powers, but we all know not to take anything Ben says at face value.

5) Is Daniel Faraday a time traveler?

All signs point to yes. Daniel's noggin was exposed to high amounts of radiation due to his experiments with Eloise, and he did write in his journal, "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." He also appears to be suffering from some sort of memory loss, and is playing out scenes that are quite similar to the time tripping novel Slaughterhouse-Five, which I mentioned here. If he's not bouncing through time, then he must be mentally ill or suffering from a brain tumor.

What do you feel is the biggest question remaining from "The Constant"?

An Ode to the 'Lost' Phenomenon

In the beginning, I was not a believer. I remember being inundated with promos, seeing that dude who had cancer on Party of Five wearing a suit on an island and the mousy-hot chick wearing a bra and watching the tide roll in. I remember the big explosions and the roar of the monster. I remember being intrigued by the prospect of a new series from the guy who created Alias. But, all this paled in comparison to the lame concept: people stranded on a desert island. Cast Away had come out a few years earlier and, to my mind, played that concept out. Nonetheless, I watched the first twenty or minutes or so of the Lost pilot from my college apartment (because, really, It's not like I was doing anything else) and then gave up. Beer, or the gym, or video games were calling. It wasn't until a year later that I finally caved and rented the first season DVD. This was not an atypical path to Lost fandom. Like countless others, once those DVDs were in my possession, it was game over. I was hooked.

I bring this up because I just got off the phone with my brother, who is studying abroad in Europe, and he told me that he's been keeping up with this season of Lost. This struck me as amazing for a couple of reasons: 1) The addictive powers of Lost are more intense than any other series, ever. Period. 2) Lost inspires an obsessive need to not fall behind. Those two points may seem similar, but they're not. Let me explain: I'm also a big fan of 24, but have never felt left out, if you will, if I fall behind a week or two. That series is as addictive as anything else (my friends and I called watching 24 on DVD “hitting the ol' crack pipe,” for instance). But, the difference is that discussing 24 isn't very interesting. Besides saying things like, “Yeah, when Jack Bauer bit that guy's neck off, that was awesome,” there's nothing to converse about. Nor can different opinions be formed. This goes for pretty much every one of my other favorite TV shows. Once they're over, they're over, and I can set them aside and look forward to next week. With Lost, falling behind is inexcusable.

I can't tell you how many times I've struck up conversations about the weekly events of Lost with total strangers. Even with my friends, there's always a weekly impromptu discussion about whatever went down on the island. This is all well and good, but I've been trying to grasp its significance. After all, it's only a TV show.

Maybe not, though. To inspire such maniacal fandom out of a normally apathetic television audience is an epic achievement. People who don't like TV like Lost. People who are too busy too watch TV every night actively find time to catch Lost. To me, if I attempt to step back and look at Lost compared to the rest of the television landscape, only one conclusion can be made: there is nothing like it, and there has never been anything like it. Now, I'm not discussing quality, not really. Of course, to acquire such a rapt audience requires the show to be good. And Lost isn't just good, it's great. But it's not, like, The Beatles of TV series or anything – it has its flaws. With Lost, though, its overwhelming uniqueness comes from how it's ingested by the audience. The communal nature of the series, the online fan response, the theories, the Easter Eggs, the philosophy – it's overwhelming in its vastness.

For now, I can only say this: we need to appreciate Lost while its still around. While the replay value of the show is quite high, once its gone we're not likely to see another series like it. If a study abroad student in Prague, who can sometimes be described as “highly unmotivated,” felt the need to keep up with a TV show that he could easily catch up with in the summer, something special is going on. If I, like many of you out there, are already itching for new episodes when it's only been off for a couple of weeks, something special is going on.

Five 'Lost' Characters I Want to See Again

For the most part, Lost has better continuity than nearly any other show. The show is constantly referencing past episodes down to the most minor detail, usually in the form of Easter eggs. Sayid’s love Nadia owned a house inspected by John Locke. Everyone from young Ben Linus to Hurley loves Apollo Bars. And twice now we’ve seen characters watching “Expose” on TV.

So I doubt that the writers have completely forgotten about some of the minor characters who have played a role in several episodes. We all have our favorites, characters we obsessively would love to see again (much the same way I constantly pine for more Rose and Bernard). I have combed my knowledge of Lost and come up with a solid list of five characters I would love to see at least once more, in any way, shape or form.

Scott and/or Steve

In what can only be described as a brilliant ode to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Scott and Steve are two of the most fascinating redshirts ever to be on TV. In the first season one of them died. Scott was eulogized, but technically, Christian Bowman, the actor who played Steve, portrayed the corpse they buried. To date, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof have yet to present any clear indication as to who’s really who and who’s really dead, but that’s kind of the whole point.

Perhaps Nikki and Paulo stole their thunder, because undoubtedly a Scott and Steve flashback episode would play out very similarly to “Expose.” However, I’m still curious, as I’m sure many of you are, about who these two are or were.


Kelvin Inman

During the Gulf War, Kelvin trained Sayid to torture people. Somehow he later ended up working for the DHARMA Initiative pushing the button in the Swan station every 108 minutes. While it would be nice to discover more about how Kelvin came to be on the island, and who his mysterious partner Radzinsky was, that’s not the main reason I’d like to see more of him.

The plain and simple truth is that Kelvin was played by Clancy Brown, one of the most awesomely intimidating actors ever. Heck, just looking at that picture of him gives me the willies. Everything he does and everything he says is full of menace, and it’s just such a joy to watch him that I’d love for some more Kelvin, even if it didn’t provide any answers.


Cindy Chandler

With Alex heading to the Temple, I suspect we will actually be seeing Cindy again. The Oceanic Flight 815 flight attendant mysteriously vanished as the Tailies made their way to join the rest of the survivors and resurfaced when Jack, Kate and Sawyer were taken by the Others. She somehow became one of them, and joined them on Ben’s pilgrimage. How did Cindy become one of the Others? While she’s a relatively minor character, I suspect an episode featuring her would answer a whole lot of questions.


Sarah

Julie Bowen is amazing. Breaking out as Carol Vessey on Ed, she’s been a reliable, charming, girl-next-door love interest ever since. But more importantly, she seems vital to Jack’s emotional stability. We know she’s still around in the future, pregnant, which raises one big question: who’s the daddy? That has the potential to be a huge pay-off, and I can’t wait to see her again.


Libby

Technically we just saw her in “Meet Kevin Johnson,” but I don’t accept that. She was (I assume) just a ghost, a manifestation of Michael’s guilt over murdering her. What we do know about Libby is that she gave Desmond her boat and she was in Hurley’s mental institution. As the only series regular never to have a flashback episode, viewers probably have more questions about her than any other character. The Lost producers have promised that Libby’s story will be told, and I just keep hoping they weren’t lying to us.

Five Questions about "The Economist"

Not only was the third episode of Lost's fourth season a great showcase for Sayid, but it also played out like a Hitchcock film crossed with an hour of Alias. We got the chance to see Sayid trotting the globe as a suave undercover agent, but the big twist at the end was that he was taking orders from Ben. What drove the former Iraqi soldier to start working for one of his worst enemies? It's a big question, and one that we probably won't get an answer to in the five remaining installments of the current season.

Looking back on the episode, we've managed to come up with five burning questions about "The Economist." Read on for crazy theories involving such topics as teleportation and Billy Dee Williams.



1) What did "RG" stand for on Naomi's bracelet?

Poor, dead Naomi. Her bracelet was inscribed with the message "N, I'll always be with you. RG," but who is this RG person? Many people think these initials belong to Regina, who, shortly after finding out about Naomi's death, wrapped herself in chains and jumped into the ocean. This seems like the most probable explanation to me, though we've yet to learn Regina's last name.

2) Why does Jacob's cabin mysteriously disappear?

There are many strange mysteries on Lost that, even if I don't know the answers to them, I can at least imagine some possible explanations for. Jacob may be a ghost or unstuck in time. That makes sense. Theories of quantum entanglement may explain how the island can control Michael's (Harold Perrineau) actions from thousands of miles away. Polar bears may be able to teleport to Tunisia. Of course, why not?

However, the one thing I cannot even begin to figure out is how, and why, Jacob's cabin keeps bouncing all around the island. Does it only appear when it wants to be found by people like Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Ben? Is it just an island manifestation? Any help with this one would be appreciated.

3) How is Ben leaving the island?

Sayid found oodles of passports in Ben's (Michael Emerson) secret hideaway in this episode, and in "Meet Kevin Johnson" we learned that Mr. Friendly also took jaunts to the mainland. The question is, how do they do it? Perhaps they were using the submarine that Locke (Terry O'Quinn) blew sky high, or maybe there's another way. I seem to be in love with ideas of teleportation lately, so maybe it's possible that the Others have access to such a device. From what we've seen in the Orchid station orientation video, it's not completely far-fetched.

Actually, after thinking about it, the submarine is more likely. Not everything has to have some outlandish scientific explanation.

4) Who is the economist?

I was rewatching the fantastic Nikki and Paulo opus, "Exposé," last week, and I still think that the events involving the Cobra must have some deeper meaning. If you're a little rusty on the episode, there's a moment in the show within a show where it's revealed that good guy Mr. LaShade, played by Billy Dee Williams, was really the evil, mysterious Cobra for four seasons. According to Hurley, this reveal was a shocking twist for Exposé fans.

This clever moment has to be a meta reference to something that will actually happen on Lost, possibly at the end of this fourth season. Before "The Economist," I figured that it might be the identity of Jacob that was the big, shocking reveal. However, maybe the shocker will be the man Elsa was working for in Sayid's flash forward. We may think it's Charles Widmore, but what if it's actually one of the good guys plotting against his former friends? Anything is possible.

5) Why is Sayid working for Ben?

Sometime in the future, Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is working as a hired gun for Ben, knocking people off in order to protect his friends. All we know is that something terrible happened when Sayid followed his heart. Somebody likely ended up dead due to a mistake that he made, and Ben is using Sayid's guilt to his advantage.

My guess is that the economist and his gang are knocking off the Losties in an attempt to keep the Oceanic conspiracy alive. I don't believe that Sayid would ever work for Ben unless his friends were truly in danger, so somebody must be after the castaways. As always, my theories could be completely incorrect, but being proven wrong is all part of the Lost experience.