STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

kenzie · Chanel

Lost 10/5

ILoveChoo · Hermes

NylaBelle wrote:

Obviously, something has gone awry (the unexplained 'incident' from the video),... .

I am still too tried to think clearly, but when I was watching I thought he was lying about something going wrong... like it was part of the experiement- tell them something happened and they need to push this button and see how they react/if they do it/ if they are able to convince whoever their partner is to not give up on it? The whole thing just seemed too much like a huge psych. experiment (which would totally suck in terms of plot though)

Oh, the whole Anna Lucia thing confused me too- they dude threw her in the hole, but then at the end helped her out and seemed to know her? wtf? plus, she seemed surprised that there were other survivers (she has been wandering around looking for food and people), but then seemed to know that guy? was her whole story a lie? it just didn't make sense to me at all.

-- Edited by ILoveChoo at 09:29, 2005-10-06

kenzie · Chanel

ILoveChoo wrote:

NylaBelle wrote: Obviously, something has gone awry (the unexplained 'incident' from the video),... . I am still too tried to think clearly, but when I was watching I thought he was lying about something going wrong... like it was part of the experiement- tell them something happened and they need to push this button and see how they react/if they do it/ if they are able to convince whoever their partner is to not give up on it? The whole thing just seemed too much like a huge psych. experiment (which would totally suck in terms of plot though)

Right, I agree that there may not have been an incident as they were referring to in the video, but clearly something is wrong on that island (the others, the people with ana lucia, the security system..there are still alot of unanswered phenomena and questions). I think the reference to BF Skinner is realy important b/c he researched human behavior and classical conditioning. I don't think that it will boil down to simply a psych experiment, maybe that's what it started as, but the date for that video was 1980, so alot has probably happened since then and maybe some of it wasn't so good. Maybe there was something on the island that even the Dharma people didn't know about.

kenzie · Chanel

ILoveChoo wrote:

Oh, the whole Anna Lucia thing confused me too- they dude threw her in the hole, but then at the end helped her out and seemed to know her? wtf? plus, she seemed surprised that there were other survivers (she has been wandering around looking for food and people), but then seemed to know that guy? was her whole story a lie? it just didn't make sense to me at all.-- Edited by ILoveChoo at 09:29, 2005-10-06

Yeah, that's a huge question. She was definitely on the plane, but those other people...I don't know. I don't think that they are The Others, but I don't think they are tail section survivors either. They appear to have been on the island longer than Ana Lucia. Maybe she found them when she got to shore and has been with them ever since. Perhaps these people have had run-ins with The Others or have heard about The Others and were afraid that the Losties were connected to them.

And let's not forget, there is still the idea of a 'sickness' which Danielle is convinced killed her crew. So many questions still unanswered!!

I can't wait to see more about Jin!

asf · Kate Spade

i can't believe jin speaks english!

and how good does katie segal look?

i didn't think last night's episode was as good as a lot of others, but at least they're starting to explain things. jack is being an ass, and i'm not sure if i agree that it's an experiment. maybe the magnetic field is the reason the planes crash on the island? it's what draws them there?

i think the people with ana lucia are the other survivors of the crash. maybe they're working with rousseau's "others" - i don't know. but i definitely think her whole story was a lie - i didn't believe it when she said it - wandering around for 40 days by herself?

ILoveChoo · Hermes

NylaBelle wrote:

. I don't think that they are The Others, but I don't think they are tail section survivors either. They appear to have been on the island longer than Ana Lucia. Maybe she found them when she got to shore and has been with them ever since. Perhaps these people have had run-ins with The Others or have heard about The Others and were afraid that the Losties were connected to them.

I don't think they are "the Others" either- they just aren't creepy enough. I wonder if they were related to the nigerian plane somehow- maybe they were survivers of that (total pull and based soley that the guy is black, but you never now... seems like he's been there a while)

kenzie · Chanel

Wanted to add that in the video they mentioned the things the Dharma Initiative was working on. These things have all been demonstrated throughout the first season.

Zoology: this explains the polar bears

Meteorology: this could have brought the plane down, too, in conjuction with the electromagnetic force; weather is the cause for alot of plane crashes. Maybe the plane got stuck in a storm and the force is what kept it from flying above the weather. Also, it starts and stops raining very abruptly on this island.

Psychology: the hatch (very much like the Skinner Box and his rat experiments)

Parapsychology: Walt

I think there were a few more, but my tape stopped recording halfway through, so I can't rewatch the video. Grrr.

Also, the shark with the Dharma logo was from a different station (not The Swan) as it's logo was slightly different.

ILoveChoo · Hermes

I also just need to say that I think Desmond is incredibly hot. *drool*

flknight24 · Dooney & Bourke

Wait, I think I missed something!?! Jin speaks English? I totally didn't catch onto that. I mean, I know he was saying a few words but I just thought those were words he had "learned". Did something happen which indicates that he really knows English?

Bastet - good call from last week about the experiment theory.

kenzie · Chanel

flknight24 wrote:

Wait, I think I missed something!?! Jin speaks English? I totally didn't catch onto that. I mean, I know he was saying a few words but I just thought those were words he had "learned". Did something happen which indicates that he really knows English? Bastet - good call from last week about the experiment theory.

It was in the previews for next week, so we don't really know the circumstances surrounding it, but he says (with no accent), "Everything is going to change."

kenzie · Chanel

ILoveChoo wrote:

I also just need to say that I think Desmond is incredibly hot. *drool*

Yes, he is. I thought he was skeevy at first, but now I think he's pretty tasty. He's no Sawyer, though.

flknight24 · Dooney & Bourke

NylaBelle wrote:

flknight24 wrote: Wait, I think I missed something!?! Jin speaks English? I totally didn't catch onto that. I mean, I know he was saying a few words but I just thought those were words he had "learned". Did something happen which indicates that he really knows English? Bastet - good call from last week about the experiment theory. It was in the previews for next week, so we don't really know the circumstances surrounding it, but he says (with no accent), "Everything is going to change."

Ok, that would explain it. I don't watch the previews because I like to be surprised.

blink · Coach

rats! I missed it last night because I had to take a test and now I read the recap on the abc site and it really lacks the detail that they used to provide in episode recaps. I wish I had a tivo!!!

atlgirl · Gucci

FWIW, I Googled "Dharma" and here is what I found:

"Dharma" means "protection". By practising Buddha's teachings we protect ourself from suffering and problems. All the problems we experience during daily life originate in ignorance, and the method for eliminating ignorance is to practise Dharma.

Practising Dharma is the supreme method for improving the quality of our human life. The quality of life depends not upon external development or material progress, but upon the inner development of peace and happiness. For example, in the past many Buddhists lived in poor and underdeveloped countries, but they were able to find pure, lasting happiness by practising what Buddha had taught.

If we integrate Buddha's teachings into our daily life, we will be able to solve all our inner problems and attain a truly peaceful mind. Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. If we first establish peace within our minds by training in spiritual paths, outer peace will come naturally; but if we do not, world peace will never be achieved, no matter how many people campaign for it.

source:

Buddhism Site

Interesting...

bumblebee · Coach

i thought this was a little bit of a boring episode. i didn't understand why jack and locke freaked out and got so melodramatic about pushing the button--it's a button--it doesn't know who pushed it. why does jack have to push the button? why can't locke do it if he's the one who cares?

and also, where does desmond think he is going to escape to?

i have to say that the show kind of derailed for me a little bit last night--i find myself not as intrigued as i was. and didn't we already know/suspect that jin also speaks english? i feel like that spoiler was leaked last season.

kenzie · Chanel

bumblebee wrote:

and didn't we already know/suspect that jin also speaks english? i feel like that spoiler was leaked last season.

Hmmm...I've heard alot of spoilers, but this wasn't one of them. I think that it was suspected by viewers, but never confirmed or leaked by producers/writers or anything. I could be wrong, though, but I'd be surprised since I've been keeping tabs on this and the spoilers since the show started.

And yeah, this episode wasn't as suspensful as some of the others, but I think it explained alot of things and let's face it, those things had to be explained at some point or the show would just spin off into a suspenseful oblivion. I think the fight about the button was symbolic. Locke wants Jack to just believe and Jack has been resisting. By Jack pushing the button, that symbolizes the first thoughts of belief in Jack.

But yeah, I don't know where Desmond is running to. But I guess if you were trapped in that thing for three years and thought it would destroy everything in it's path (biologically, physically, whatever) if the button doesn't get pushed, you'd probably be running, too.

atlgirl, I believe that there was something in the orientation video about the reason for the studies being to obtain a utopian environment and protection from suffering, etc. The name Dharma is most definitely significant.

-- Edited by NylaBelle at 13:52, 2005-10-06

NCshopper · Hermes

bumblebee wrote:

i thought this was a little bit of a boring episode. i didn't understand why jack and locke freaked out and got so melodramatic about pushing the button--it's a button--it doesn't know who pushed it. why does jack have to push the button? why can't locke do it if he's the one who cares? and also, where does desmond think he is going to escape to? i have to say that the show kind of derailed for me a little bit last night--i find myself not as intrigued as i was. and didn't we already know/suspect that jin also speaks english? i feel like that spoiler was leaked last season.

The tension between Locke and Jack about pushing the button was based on principle. Locke is the one who believes in destiny, and he truly believes he was sent to the island for a reason and that it is his destiny to save the world by pushing the button. Jack is the "scientist" who doesn't believe in fate and didn't believe that pushing the button did anything. When he pushed the button he caved, essentially, and admitted that at some level he thinks that the button might actually do something.

I'm not really sure if the others really were "The Others" or if they're another group. They also could be descendents of the slave ship or the Nigerian drug plane. Also, when they were dragging Jin and Sawyer and Michael, did anyone else notice a blonde girl with them? I swear there was a girl with vibrantly blonde hair with that group.

I liked last night's episode, but it didn't leave me pondering it all day like it usually does, probably because I have hardly any time to think right now, but still. I like that they answered some questions, but then created more questions.

halleybird · Hermes

OK -- so was I the only one having major Lord of the Flies flashbacks last night? The civilized tribe and the wild tribe, and all that?

Re: Ana Lucia & The Others -- I think the jungley-looking people are from the tail section, or at least some of them are. I don't think A.L. was alone in the jungle all this time. My husband thinks the guy who hit Sawyer & Michael was Rose's husband, but I think he's too young. I think they threw her down there as a ruse, to get information. You could tell, because she yelled some kind of signal to them to pull her up.

Re: Skinner -- that was a huge red flag for me when I heard it, since I took several psych classes in college. Some of Skinner's work:

B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of “operating” on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around it world, doing what it does. During this “operating,” the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant -- that is, the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant conditioning: “the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future.”

Imagine a rat in a cage. This is a special cage (called, in fact, a “Skinner box”) that has a bar or pedal on one wall that, when pressed, causes a little mechanism to release a foot pellet into the cage. The rat is bouncing around the cage, doing whatever it is rats do, when he accidentally presses the bar and -- hey, presto! -- a food pellet falls into the cage! The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer, which is the food pellet, of course. In no time at all, the rat is furiously peddling away at the bar, hoarding his pile of pellets in the corner of the cage.

A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.

Schedules of reinforcement

The fixed interval schedule uses a timing device of some sort. If the rat presses the bar at least once during a particular stretch of time (say 20 seconds), then he gets a goodie. If he fails to do so, he doesn’t get a goodie. But even if he hits that bar a hundred times during that 20 seconds, he still only gets one goodie! One strange thing that happens is that the rats tend to “pace” themselves: They slow down the rate of their behavior right after the reinforcer, and speed up when the time for it gets close.

Walden II

Skinner started his career as an English major, writing poems and short stories. He has, of course, written a large number of papers and books on behaviorism. But he will probably be most remembered by the general run of readers for his book Walden II, wherein he describes a utopia-like commune run on his operant principles.

more: http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/skinner.html

Alegria · Kate Spade

Is it possible that Ana Lucia made the plane come down??? Perhaps she got on the plane with that purpose in mind. Is she behind some of this? If so, maybe that is why she doesn't look quite as jungly as the other people she was with. She just got there 40 days ago and they have been there much longer than her. If so, they must be communicating somehow with the outside world in order for them to know that she was coming.

Ok-wait, I just rewatched the scene where they are dragging the guys and everyone else other than the big black guy look like they are in "normal" just dirty clothes. I think he looks that jungly because of the rope around his neck and the no-shirt thing. And yes there is a blond lady with them.

-- Edited by shpgqueenet at 21:49, 2005-10-06

cat · Marc Jacobs

I missed it last night and have a few questions. where did this orientation video from?who showed it ?was it in a flashback?

What Happend to Kate?

Is this Dharma Initiative conected with The I-ching symbol that was on the shark last week?