13 replies on “Lost Discussion: “Orientation””

  1. Whee!
    Well, that certainly was informative! Now we know who built the complex and their version of why.

    And the hor girl from row 42 is back! Jack’s gonna like that ;-)

  2. Big revelations?
    They really know how to make you feel like you’ve learned some important piece of information while at the same time feeling like it probably isn’t that big of a piece after all. The good old, “Answering one question poses a dozen more questions”.

    • Re: Big revelations?

      They really know how to make you feel like you’ve learned some important piece of information while at the same time feeling like it probably isn’t that big of a piece after all. The good old, “Answering one question poses a dozen more questions”.

      No kidding. I remember going into the season premiere thinking “Ok, I have a relatively good handle on what’s going on now.” Then after the season premiere, I quickly devolved back into a blubbering mess of “wtf”.

      This show really gives me a headache :)

      • My filings hurt.

        They really know how to make you feel like you’ve learned some important piece of information while at the same time feeling like it probably isn’t that big of a piece after all. The good old, “Answering one question poses a dozen more questions”.

        No kidding. I remember going into the season premiere thinking “Ok, I have a relatively good handle on what’s going on now.” Then after the season premiere, I quickly devolved back into a blubbering mess of “wtf”.

        This show really gives me a headache :)

        The whole show is nothing but a social experiment! They just want to see how long we’ll keep watching!

        • Re: My filings hurt.

          The whole show is nothing but a social experiment! They just want to see how long we’ll keep watching!

          ;-) I’m definitely with the doc — that “orientation film” screamed SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. I’d have headed for the far side of the island “just in case” and let the thing expire. I’m disappointed he caved.

          Of course, another hot button is that they wouldn’t have had a choice — you don’t just patch up a bullet hole in a computer like that… though if they *could* fix it, I probably would have been willing to go along for a little bit to try to figure out where the wires went and what it does, but then I’m a geek…

          • Re: My filings hurt.

            The whole show is nothing but a social experiment! They just want to see how long we’ll keep watching!

            ;-) I’m definitely with the doc — that “orientation film” screamed SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. I’d have headed for the far side of the island “just in case” and let the thing expire. I’m disappointed he caved.

            I can’t wait to see how Hurley will deal with the situation. The numbers are bad… but they come with a full pantry. He’s stuck between a rock and a delicious place! :P

            What’s weird is why no one else wanted to press the button. Hurley I can understand, but the rest of the gang doesn’t care about the numbers. I’d have pressed the thing just to be on the safe side/shut everyone up.

            On the plus side, we now have a whack-job face off: Rousseau, with her 16 years isolation and loss of her child and all, VS the contender Desmond, with only 3 years on the island, but a really unhealthy sleeping habit. Who’ll rub soup in someone’s hair first? Wait and see!

            • Re: My filings hurt.

              I can’t wait to see how Hurley will deal with the situation. The numbers are bad… but they come with a full pantry. He’s stuck between a rock and a delicious place! :P

              Food is quite obviously Hurley’s vice, and judging by his reaction to the pantry I don’t think anyone else is going to get any of it.

              What’s weird is why no one else wanted to press the button. Hurley I can understand, but the rest of the gang doesn’t care about the numbers. I’d have pressed the thing just to be on the safe side/shut everyone up.

              With 1:40 left, Sayid says "This argument is irrelevent" and reaches down to press it, which I thought was exactly for the purpose of shutting everyone up.

              One thing that is quite interesting is that our crazy french woman had no clue about the bunker; with a "front door" that big, why didn’t anyone see the huge door from the outside?

              Last thing: If it’s just a social experiment, why is there such a lethal security system on the island?

              • Re: My filings hurt.

                One thing that is quite interesting is that our crazy french woman had no clue about the bunker; with a “front door” that big, why didn’t anyone see the huge door from the outside?

                I don’t recall actually seeing much beyond the immediate outside of the door, so it’s possible that the door opens into a “porch” area with a much more discreet exit. It is a big island after all, and a small overgrown nook would be quite easy to miss.

                • Re: My filings hurt.

                  One thing that is quite interesting is that our crazy french woman had no clue about the bunker; with a “front door” that big, why didn’t anyone see the huge door from the outside?

                  I don’t recall actually seeing much beyond the immediate outside of the door, so it’s possible that the door opens into a “porch” area with a much more discreet exit. It is a big island after all, and a small overgrown nook would be quite easy to miss.

                  Yeah, I was hoping they would show what that exit door looked like from the outside. But it obviously didn’t just open up to open space.

  3. incidents?
    they made reference in the training video to the button being installed due to “several..(pause for emphasis)..incidents”
    I’m thinking that the button is there to keep a security system (either the one we’ve seen or something more…direct) from going off and wiping out the entire island. I think it’s to protect the rest of the world from the island. But what happened? the only other times in fiction that sort of thing has been done with this tone, there’s been either a portal to another dimension (i.e. Doom) or zombies. so…which? or something else?

    (also…did anyone catch the question the other night…”what did one sawyer say to the other sawyer?” – are we getting back to the twin theory? or the sawyer con taking the sawyer name? or did I mis-hear?)

    • Re: incidents?

      they made reference in the training video to the button being installed due to “several..(pause for emphasis)..incidents”
      I’m thinking that the button is there to keep a security system (either the one we’ve seen or something more…direct) from going off and wiping out the entire island.

      Or they’re just messing with their heads… You put in a big magnet, you say “magnetic anomaly”, the people see that you didn’t lie about the magnetism, so maybe you aren’t lying about the danger either.

      Interrestingly, the sequence of numbers must be entered every 108 minutes, and they add up to 108. Not meaningfull, but, interresting : )

  4. cliche
    This episode reminded me of two genre cliches.

    The first part comes from The New Twilight Zone episode "The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon", in which a man’s machine held the world together. Everyone thought him crazy for the relentless care he gave the machine, until he was committed and catastrophe struck.

    The other is from the New Outer Limits episode "Quality of Mercy", where a prisoner is sent in to let the other captors betray themselves.

    I also agree on both accounts that repairs to a computer hit by a bullet might be outside the scope of even Sayid’s ability, and that Hurley was the only one with reason not to push the button.

    With those four points combined, this was a very weak episode. It dipped too heavily into genre staples, and strained our willingness to suspend disbelief.

    • Re: cliche

      …that repairs to a computer hit by a bullet might be outside the scope of even Sayid’s ability…

      Not to sure about that. I remember Sayid say’n that Desmond had already replaced the entire motherboard, and from the sounds of it, Sayid just replaced the power supply, he was talking about transformers and such, which leads me to believe that it was just buzz words for power supply. It doesn’t seem too far out to me that they would supply the place with whole sale replacement parts, when something breaks, why worry about if someone can fix something when you can just replace it?

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