Get Ready for "The Other 48 Days"

We didn't convene the LOSTCasters this evening to watch the episode, so there's no "initial reactions" podcast this week. But "The Other 48 Days" was a great episode, so we'll have more than our fair share to talk about in the full podcast this Saturday. There are already some great conversations happening on the forums, including questions about Eko, why "the others" seem to only be taking "good" people, speculation about the items found in the second hatch, Goodwin and much more.

Make sure to send us your comments by posting them here on the site, sending us an email, or leaving an audio comment by calling 206-666-2278 and leaving a voicemail. We may include your comments in the podcast! Tell us about your reactions to the episode, questions you have, or answers and insights you have.

Stay LOST.

Comments

[Sinmeta]

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but it seems to me that from the Others' point of view, they are somehow rescuing or saving the castaways that they abduct. After all, Goodwin told Ana Lucia that maybe the castaways aren't being "attacked", he implied that the Others only take away people who are not "bad" people like Nathan, and he said the children who were abducted were better off now. Obviously the Others' focus is on children, maybe because they're innocent, or "good" people. I think the Others therefore are trying to save, or salvage, "good" people (perhaps only children) from what the Others, at least, perceive to be bad people (i.e., the remaining castaways) or a bad place (i.e., the island), or both.

[Bryan McMillan]

Anyone else disappointed by last night's Lostfest? I really think they didn't fully realize the potential of the alternate 48 days. The "shocking new format" really wasn't all that, and the "extended section" was pretty useless. (And kind of lame, IMHO - it reminded me of the beginning of a Rocky movie, when they just montage what happened before, with different music) We didn't really learn too much about any of the tailies. In particular, I felt Mr. Eko was underutilized. I know, they had to cover a lot of ground in an hour, and I suppose they did, but for my money, this was the season's most unremarkable effort thus far. I did like Goodwin, and his scene with Ana-Lucia was great. The ones taken are "good," the ones left, by proxy, are "bad." (What does this say about Claire and Charlie?)

A word about the Others: no masks, for one (verdammt but I saw the screencap that gave birth to the whole "they're wearing Michael Myers-like masks" idea, and it's easy to see where my source made that mistake), and I think the fact that they killed three of them kind of makes the surviving tailies' attitude about them thus far this season a little unbelievable. I think we were given the distinct impression that these Others were stalking them at will and generally harrassing them continually, whereas what we saw last night were two attacks, both of which involved Other fatalaties. "You have no idea what these people are capable of." Well, from what we saw last night, neither do they!

Pick pick pick. I know. I still give it a solid 'B,' but I, for one, was underwhelmed.

[Cobblepot]

Yeah the others are taking people that they do not deserve the treatment theyre receiving from the island. The island is orchestrating the remaining castaways to maybe begin a new civilization. The others are no longer at part of the dharma initiative and want to give the children an oppurtunity to grow up "free." Or maybe they have gone mad from some kind of disease and lost sight of what they were doing in the first place.

[Cobblepot]

I also do not think that the others and the voices are apart of the same. The voices seem to be more like observers and may have something to do with the accelerated remote viewing project. Maybe it is people in the past able to see whats going in the future. Maybe the world has ended and the year is 2012, and they are trying to help the castaways survive and continue civilization.

[Sinmeta]

I've heard the theory that everything we're seeing (except for the flashbacks) is taking place sometime in the future, and I've heard 2012 in particular, but I think that theory was debunked on this episode when the subtitle said "Day 48 - Today".

[BMcMolo]

I don't know how much stock we should place in the "Day 48, Today" thing. That would place the plane crash as happening precisely on September 29, 2005, and the rest of the episodes from this season and beyond would be firmly locked into that dating system. I think it was more of a within-the-episode kind of dating, i.e. "Stardate: Armageddon." Of course, they could very well be locking the crash-date down on September 29, 2005, but I am of the opinion that it was only marked "Today" to draw attention to Day 48 being the crux overlap point between the two groups.

[Cobblepot]

Today, as in where we left off. Your watching a fictional story, today would be there present day, where we left them.

[Cobblepot]

correction:their present day

[matt]

So we know from spoilerdom that Ana is a cop. How much you want to bet that there is another questionable shooting in her past.

Overall I dug the episode. But I did think the end was kind of lame. Why take me through all the crap I know. They skipped days in the episode already. Just skip ahead to day 48 eight without, as Bryan put it, the Rocky 2 flash back crap. I also expected more attacks from the others on the tailies.

Ho, an since we saw the tail section crash in the opening I guess we can ditch the whole they were teleported to the island idea.

[Blinder]

Keep talking like that Matt and ana just might throw you in the pit.

I agree with the overall sense here about the episode, Over hyped? definetely. Great new format? ehhhhhh I like the rapid but rehashing a previous episodes cliff hanger ain't nothing new. New exciting revelations and clues? Hells yeah! And that alone made the episode worth it for me. We've got a lot of intereting stuff to talk about in this Saturday's Lostcast.

[matt]

You know an interesting podcast for a future hiatus would be to talk about how many theories have been eliminated. Like Ecko was on the island before the crash, they were teleported to the island Desmonds race around the world was really a euphamisim for creating a master race and etc.

Or maybe you could just do the dead theory of the week as a segment in each podcast. Just a thought. Could be funny.

[John]

You just have something against teleportation, don't you Matt? Ever think that maybe they were teleported just a few feet out of harms way at the exact nanosecond the tail end hit the surface of the water?????

In all seriousness, that idea just comes out of the fact that it's a little weird that soo many of them survived this crash.

So how do you explain that?

[Cobblepot]

I agree, tbat tail end crashed with rediculous force. I dont know who anyone could survive considering the plane didn't. Also just because you see the plane crashing doesnt mean there wasnt some sort of teleportation of some kind, or maybe caught into some wormhole, that entire plane that is.

[Cobblepot]

forgive my typing

[chele]

I was only underwhelmed because once again ABC's media promotion department is shooting the show in the foot. Why not keep the creepy ads from before and kill the voice over guys overhyped taglines for each episode? Last week - this is the one people will be talking about all year - um - NO - because we know who did it! This week - like nothing you've ever seen - um - well yeah but quick clips that look like they took two minutes to film isn't that hypeworthy.

I blame the promotion of the show and not the episode itself. Had I not seen the darn commercials I would have been much more impressed by it especcially where I can see this episode in the grand scheme of the season arc. Many little tidbits to chew on.

My favorite moment of the epsidoe: Ana-Lucia by the water and Ecko finally spoke and when she commented on it I thought his response was beauitfully written and played. "It took you this long to cry."

That is the kind of storytelling and character development I am glad to have on tv. I dare say - Damon might just get the "I hate Ana" fans to calm down if she gets a few more moments like this week. Me, I like her because she's a leader but a leader of action - I mean Jack is a little white bread for such a harsh rhelm - should make for great dynamics once they merge and this shooting thing dies down.

Thank goodness next week we are back to the plot at hand and with new details to take in with us....now if they can just get the network not to screw up the hype.

[Blinder]

I believe a lot of those promo voice overs and commercials are done by the local stations and not by the shoe makers. at the very least they're done by people that have little to no connection to the show and they jsut want you to watch. Screw those guys.

[BMcMolo]

Speaking of hype...

Just reviewing some things for my segmnt and came across this from the official Lost newsletter:

>

LIES!!!!

[BMcMolo]

I don't think what i tried to quote showed up. Ah well. It was just in line with what we're talking about here, re: hype and unfulfilled promise. I'm sure we all get the newsletter, right? You can probably figure out the relevant part.

Another post! I'm post-tastic this week!

[D. Morris]

Hi,
I'm following Lost and the Lostcasts (great work) from out of Belgium. The good thing is that I can't watch the promotion films here so my disappointment wasn't that big :-). I believe we learned some new stuff out of this episode. A remark about the theory making in the lostcasts: A lot of the discussed theories are farfetched I believe. Lost it is a TV show that should appeal to a broad scope of people so I think it can't be too complicated (uhm). I mean teleporting stuff and so on.
I know the show makers denied it but I stick by a sort of 'purgatory' context/theory. The people from the plane are in a stage between life and dead. Those who were guilty (bad) need to suffer some time (or go to a sort of hell). The others (good ones)are picked to go to heaven...:-) It's easy to describe this in catholic terms but off course the show will use a different terminology...

[Cobblepot]

I think the creaters/writers and fans try to avoid that because its too easy. There is too much going on in this show to write it off as 'purgatory'. The one thing that gets me is if they were infact dead. They wouldnt be able to grow older, gain weight, itd be as they were before. In which case babies wouldnt be able to born. There are too many subplots and discoveries for 'purgatory' to be an authoritative theory any longer.

[DarkPiranha]

And I haven't seen it posted anywhere else, but when the Others snatched the kids, and they showed closueps of the hands grabbing them, they were the gnarled claw-type appendages we saw messing with Claire in her dream last season. The hands definitely had some sort of latex special effect gloves on or something. Kinda looked like Yoda hands.

This makes me wonder if the Others look different when they are using their powers or whatever and when they were killed, they reverted to the younger faces we saw.

This would tie in to the idea rumors of Michael Myers type faces/masks.

Just an observation. Go check it out.

[animalita]

i just wrote this long thing and lost it. so here is the abridged version of my theories after listening to last night's podcast re: 48 days.
1. i think there is something to be said about ekko giving bananas to nathan. is he compassionate or is he working with him? was he pulling the people out of the water because he's a good guy, or because he was looking for child survivors? (ie that little girl they saved via CPR)
2. i think Locke is a lollipop kid who was raised in this Walden 2 like commune on the island, then was taken to America and raised by foster parents, where he was a mental cripple and then a physical cripple. recall the conversation his mom had w/him in the diner" you're special, john. you're part of a design." now that he's back on the island (a homecoming for him) the island has rewarded him with his legs. whenever he was pushing someone closer to rescue (eg boone and the radio in the plane) the island punishes him by taking away his legs.
3. locke and walt share a connection that they are ripe for becoming Others. but locke, as an older former Other tries to tell Walt that he will have to choose between the good and the bad Others: recall the conversation about the black and white pieces of the backgammon-like game they play on the island. i can't remembe rthe language but wasn't it something loosely about a civil war or something? what if he's talking about the Good Others v the Bad Others?
4. also, can we talk about why there are so many instances of prosthetics? the glass eye, the fake leg of that woman who spoke to hurley about the curse of the numbers, the fake arm of the farmer that turned kate in.