http://entertainment.myway.com/celeb...16_2005_2.html

Entertainment News
New York Post November 16, 2005
'LOST' NUMBERS = ZERO


MEMO to "Lost" fanat ics: those numbers you're all so obsessed with — not even the producers know what they mean.

"I think that that question will never, ever be answered," "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof tells today's edition of TV-Guide.com, when asked about the significance of the strange numbers — 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 — that have become so central to the series.

"I couldn't possibly imagine [how we would answer that question]. We will see more ramifications of the numbers and more usage of the numbers, but it boggles my mind when people ask me, 'What do the numbers mean?,' " Lindelof says.

The numbers have become a huge part of "Lost." In various ways, they've drawn many of the castaways to the island and were even used by one character — Hurley — to win the lottery before he got on the ill-fated flight.

"Lost" co-creator Carlton Cuse tells the Web site that Shannon (Maggie Grace) was indeed shot and killed on last week's episode. Fans have been speculating all week that her death was a red herring.

"She was shot," he says.

Lindelof adds that "Lost" fans who analyze each episode may be reading a little too much into the show.

"They totally are," he says. — Don Kaplan

well, it just says she was shot, not that she's dead
:p

hey, anyone have info on Destination Lost? It was the first "episode" this year which seemed to be just a repeat of all the flashbacks. I skipped it, but now I'm wondering if there was anything new / interesting in it that I'd want to see...

Some of my worst fears that have cropped up due to the episodes I've seen this year may be true.

Huh?

That writers don't really know what the hell they're doing.

The numbers question will NEVER be answered? I'm starting to think that maybe the show just got lucky it's first year.

Did you guys know that if you use the numbers as a latitude and longitude, it comes up as a small isolated island in the south pacific, roughly in the flightpath of a Sydney-LAX flight? Try it in Google Maps:

hxxtp://maps.google.com/maps?ll=4.815000,162.342000&spn=2.724555,3.950409&t=k&hl=en

OMG, the numbers are even IN ORDER! :cool:

I think it's folly to really believe that the core elements of this show were planned out, 50+ episodes in advance, at the outset.

They knew they had something where the backstories of the people would have lots of coincidences. The numbers were a promising element of that, and it worked. Seeding in the numbers made sense to do, so they did it a lot. They may have some basic idea what, if anything it will trace to eventually... but there's no doubt in my mind at all that a lot of things are being written basically on the fly.

It's television. More clever than most, but there's never an endgame in television.

We all knew sooner or later Jack Tripper would move out and get his own restaurant.

In the first podcast they basically said that while they have some basic idea where they want the show to go a season in advance, just about everything is made up on the fly.

Televisin shows are never planned out for their full run after the first season of episodes... shows are written as they go, all the time.


Source? The guy said he doesn't know how they'll explain them, he didn't say they never would.

------------------------

Seriously I'm starting to think that people have their sights set way to high for this show, it's bound to end in disapointed if you're going to treat this show like it was somehow made by God or something.

Those of you who Tivo, don't forget to add extra time for the extended episode tonight!

Looks like, according to Yahoo! TV, that it will be the expected 10 mins. extra after all... Invasion looks to be 50 Mins, unless they are planning on delaying the local news.

I understand that. But the story on the whole should be know to them, especially with a "stranded on the island, what's going on?" theme. Yes, elements will have to be added/takena way, but the main stuff should be solid going into the project (what the number signify, what the "monster" was, and so on). As of now, it kind of seems like not even the WRITERS know why a lot of the things that have happened happened.


Same thing, in my mind. If they don't already know how the numbers "work" or tie together, then what's the point?


Or just that you aren't being yanked around by second-rate writers. I think I'll just stick to HBO series from now on.

Walt!!!!

"THEY TOOK MY SON!"

Guy has the easiest job in Hollywood. He only has two lines.

I believe he also said "Stay away from my son" to Locke a few times.

He has range.

No kidding - hell, when he was in OZ, he didn't even have to frickin' *walk*

all he had to do in the matrix was operate the stupid ship and look concerned.

Bueller? Bueller?

Fixed that for you.

Fixed it. Don't sell the man's range short.

It's still missing exclamation points.

He doesn't have that much range.

Mr Eko is a badass.

I always liked that dude from Ed, he needs to get a show, he's funny.

so yeah, i don't think shannon's really dead

Yes she is. That was a good episode.

Didn't really care for this episode.

I knew there was a reason I never trusted the Peace Corps.

Next week's preview showed Ana firing the gun....I thought there was only one bullet?

Fuck you CTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Invasion comes on CTV at the same time as ABC so when that happens ABC's signal turns into CTV's... since this episode was extended I missed and they still made the switch at the same time I missed everything after Jin washed ashore.

After Jin washed ashore they showed the new group throwing Jin, Michael and Sawyer into the pit and then up until Ana Lucia shot Shannon.

What!? That doesn't sound familiar!

Glad I wasn't the only one who saw that.

What am I missing here?

she's firing a mind bullet.

I'm waiting for him to say "Fuck you, Jobu"

I noticed her firing again as well. WTF?

The other question that came to mind for me was Bernard being up in that tree strapped into a seat. Maybe I am not remembering things right, but wasn't he out of his seat using the restroom in the tail section when the tail section broke off? I thought that is was she told Jack when he talked to her early in the first season.

Did he have time to get into a seat before all hell broke lose?

The numbers were never intended to be a major part of the show--they started writing them into the stories more when people became fascinated with that aspect.

Probably yes. I'm sure he went to the bathroom and when everything went awry he grabbed the closest available seat and buckled up.

I noticed that as well. I was thinking at first maybe he's not the Bernard we think he is, but then he asked about an African-American woman.

And I agree, Mr. Ecko is a total badass. He took out two others with his bare hands (and a rock, but whatever).

It may be folly, but I have hopes that they really do have a set of events planned out over a finite, if not definite, number of seasons. There has been some evidence of that in just the second year. Namely the logos slipped into the background of scenes in the first season.

It wouldn't be the first time that kind of foresight has been seen in Television. I still remember watching season three of Babylon 5, when they revealed the other half of a story line that had unknowingly, to me at least, started back in the first season. It had always been planned. They planted the seed in the first season, and it bloomed in the third.

The first time he met Jin/Michael/Sawyer, he asked about his wife Rose.

I remember that now. :)

Did anyone else wonder how Michelle Rodriguez got him down from the tree? "Stay put, I'll get you down" and it looks like she's going to climb up there after him. There's no way he got on her back and she climbed down.

Not a big fan of the whole tail section storyline. Feels like they are really reaching to stretch this out even more than it already is.

Makes sense I guess if you have 20 million people every week watching.

Seemed like a lot of work to add five new people to the cast, but I thought that episode was pretty well done. I wish they would have progressed the overall story, as a whole, for like the last five minutes at least, though.

There was some of that in Buffy too. I always think of television writing like what I do planning out a pen & paper roleplaying campaign. I have a distinct beginning and a pretty strong idea of where I want it to end, but a lot of what goes in between is made up on the fly to adapt to how the players change. In fact, I've started thinking of campaigns in terms of 22 episode seasons...:)

I imagine the Lost writers are working similarly, adjusting on the fly. Which makes sense, considering you cant necessarily guarantee certain actors will be available for the entire run of the show, so you have to have some flexibility.

I guess they have little incentive to move it along with the continued popularity.

Part of it I think is that I'm not finding the new people all that interesting after putting so much into the backstories of last year.

When Ana Lucia shot Shannon the slide locked back on her pistol, signifying that it was indeed empty. She must get Sayid's or somebody else's gun or some bullets at least.

Did I miss her background? Is she some kind of badass? Why would she feel comfortable going alone with the peace corp dude when she suspected he was the spy?

Futurama also had a couple major storylines (that you didn't know existed) pay off 3-4 seasons down the road.

You are not the first to feel that way. I am a rabid fan, and have felt that way myself at times.

I do think, however, that the tailies were part of the plan from the very beginning, witness Rose assuring Jack in the first couple of episodes that her husband Bernard was alive. That tells me they have been planning this reunion from the outset.

Ahh, patience grasshopper. All will be revealed via flash backs in future episode fillers.

I'd just like to say I love the new thread title. That is all...

Me and the Mrs. watched the first season of Lost on DVD recently and we both really enjoyed the show. We haven't watched any of the second season yet...we decided to wait until it was released on DVD. I've been reading the thread anyway, but I'm having a hard time telling if anyone is actually enjoying the second season.

So...do you guys still like Lost? It seems, as far as I can tell, the the general consensus is that the second season hasn't been as well done as the first.

You didn't see the previous episodes where she was a boxer, dated Vin Diesel, fought the undead, was a professional surfer, or was on a SWAT team????

playing each character the exact. same. way.

So far I really like what's happening on the island but the back stories have been pretty weak; overall this has been a good season. (Although I don't think you were asking me, I haven't even posted yet in this thread).

Makes the guy playing Mike look like an Oscar-winner, eh?

One in the Clip, One in the Chamber?

Its always the one in the chamber that gets ya.

Earlier people in this thread were giving him kudos. Where'd they go? Did they change their mind? If they did change their minds...why? Also what were they watching last year, when I thought he sucked just as much.

well, yeah, except that I wouldn't sleep with Mike, but I'd love to drill Michelle Rodriguez, even if she is a mediocre actress.

Ana Lucia's backstory is coming Wednesday. I'd post a spoiler, but I guess if you're not using the yellow/white color scheme, you'd be screwed.

Fixed

Dude, That's former President David Palmer

I thought it was pretty cheesy how the writers set up that guy Nathan.


Where have you been for the past 2 hours? "I was going to the bathroom".
later on....
Why didn't I see you on the plane? "I was in the bathroom".

Obviously they did that so we'd naturally assume Nathan was the spy. But I thought it was lame for the writers to give him those answers.

There was clearly no bullet in the clip nor chamber.

Also she asked him where he was from and he was like "What? Uh... Uh... Canada!" I'm pretty sure Ethan also claimed to be from Canada.

SOMEONE BETTER KILL ANNA LUCIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps Eko will slap some sense into her.

Great episode IMO... next week looks good as well.

dola,

Eko is now one my favourite characters...

Great, we're treated to another character's complete douchebag behavior explained away to a tragic past. :rolleyes:

Anyway, did anyone else notice that "Gilgamesh" didn't work in that crossword at all?

Yeah. It was pretty easy to see that one coming. Something had to explain how deeply irritating she is. I see where she would have some serious "trust" issues after that, but she's still freaking annoying, retarded, and boring.

Nice to see the Jin/Sun and Bernard/Rose reunions.

Ecko and Locke are the seemingly only reasonable people around.

You could tell from the preview that Annyoning-Lucia was going to give Sayid the "Chop of Freedom" and not the "Chop of Death."

Michelle Rodriguez is playing a former cop who has anger issues? That's a stretch for her, but I think she's making it work.

That said, I did find it somewhat strange that when she got the gun from Sawyer in the pit, she handled it like a cop (i.e. the shooting stance). I thought it was strange then but attributed it to her being a lazy actress. Now I see that it was for a reason.

She is annoying and beautiful. No wonder I like her.

Annoying I agree. Beautiful, ack. I go with the premise that Hollywood adds about +5 on the hotness scale of 1 to 10, so if she's a 6, then she's a 1 without make-up, etc.

By the time the makeup was off, I'd have long since fled out the door.

One thing that's bothered me is that Ethan took Claire, but not Walt. He certainly didn't follow the plan Goodwin had with the tailsection survivors. Ethan could have easily had taken out the stronger members in the first few days, in my opinion.

Perhaps part of the problem is that maybe he was with Goodwin originally, and then was sent out to look for other survivors. Even still, I think he could have staged a similar plan and taken Claire and Walt without much conflict.

I just have to wonder why he didn't.

Well, Goodwin seemed to have a "team" of Others working with him. Ethan appeared to operating solo on his mission. That said, he would have been better served taking out Locke, Jack, Sayid, or Sawyer other than whatever random dude he killed.

Lost season 1 is only 29.99 at Target this whole week. Sale ends Saturday night.

Dude, Ethan couldn't even kill Charlie, much less Locke or Jack. :)

His flair for the dramatic was certainly his downfall...

Im not a fan of the new trend of ending every episode with 2+ minutes of slow-motion.

i thought it worked in this episode.

especially when bernard and rose reunited. what dialogue could they have written that would have been as or more powerful?

"i missed you."
"ditto."

Me neither.

While I think this season hasn't been bad, I think it's lacking in something.

I think the something is a mystery...or maybe some plotlines being tied up.

Right now there are so many questions out there, it's impossible to tell which direction the show is going in. Is it a confrontation with the others? Is it a revelation with the numbers/hatch? Who will die?

If there were a main mystery that we knew the story was heading to I think we would look forward to the progression of the storyline. We don't know where the show is going so that's what's lacking right now.

Dola,

Also last week's story of the tailies bogged down things a bit as well as about 1/2 an hour passing this week. So in three weeks of "new" episodes we have progressed the story very little.

We're not getting anywhere, that's the problem. The last 5 weeks have been soap opera type stuff while all the interesting story elements have been MIA. We haven't heard a peep about Hanso, Dharma, the weird shit on the island, etc since episode 3.

The others?

Finally watched the last two episodes and I thought they were very well done. Can't wait to see what happens next week.

I'm just glad that there have been no sightings of the weird animal-like thing in the forest for weeks. It's really timely, as they've spent a lot of time moving through said forest at all hours of the day. Phew!

Yeh, the things that go bump in the forest are forgotten about whenever the story calls for it. Ana Lucia was so worried about the others that she just freakin shot someone, then she decides just to hang out at that spot for hours.

Looks like tonight is the last episode until Jan 11th

Weak.

This is actually my first time watching the show live. Watched season 1 on DVD and recorded this season so far as I've had to work.

Yeah, 6 week vacation, that fucking sucks. Gives me time to rewatch all the episodes from last year and this year.

would someone mind giving me a recap of the opening segment? I missed the first 5 minutes and only started watching as Kate was entering the diner.

Kate's dad (stepdad?) is a drunk hick. She blows up the house with him in it.