I finally got around to reading the Q&A transcript with Darlton from the the Comic-Con - which was fascinating, BTW - and I started thinking about what I would ask them if I ever had the opportunity.
There are some questions you should never ask - like "what's the monster?" - because you know they're never going to answer it. I think the best questions are the middling ones which ask a specific unresolved plot point but whose answer won't give too much of the overall plot away. The question about Henry Gale that Memphish pointed out to me in my previous post that some enterprising young fan asked was an excellent one, I thought. It addresses a previously unresolved plot point and gets a definitive answer. Thinkin dude!
After giving it some thought, I think my question would be "What year did the Purge occur?" Why?
Well, I still have trouble putting all of the major island happenings in order. It seems to me that it must have been:
The Incident (1985)
The Purge (mid/late 80's)
DI funding cut by Hanso (1987)
Danielle arrives (1988)
Kelvin joins DHARMA (early-mid 90's)
Desmond arrives (2001)
Henry Gale arrives (late 2003 - early 2004)
Flight 815 crashes (September 2004)
I've included links to where I took most of my dates from. The thing that bothers me is Kelvin. It seems that he must have joined DHARMA well after the Purge and well after Hanso cut DI funding because we know he was in Iraq with Sayid around the time of the Gulf War (1990-1991) and he joined DHARMA afterwards.
Now since the Food Drops were still going on all the way up to 2004, we know the DI was still at least sending food to whomever was in the Swan. So it's possible that all of DHARMA was gone, but they were still afraid of what would happen if the button wasn't pushed, so they kept one or two people secretly in the Swan just to push the button.
If the Purge occurred after Kelvin joined in the mid-90's, it seems Danielle would have met at least some of the DI in her first seven or eight years on the island. Furthermore, at the time of the Purge, Ben did not yet have Alex, further suggesting the Purge occurred before Danielle arrived. Make sense? Asking what year the Purge occurred simply seems to me to be a question they could, and would, answer definitively.
So what would you ask Darlton? Do you think they'd answer it? :)
11 comments:
I agree that Kelvin is true Dharma and that he was put on the Island post-Purge to keep pushing the button. I think after that time whatever mechanism allows you to plan an arrival such as the one made by Juliet in 2001 fell into the hands of Ben's people and that's why Kelvin never got a replacement.
As for what question I'd ask, I'll think about that one.
Ralph who does the Dharmalars podcast wanted to ask prior to Through the Looking Glass has there been a flash forward. If the answer is no, I think they'd answer that. If the answer is yes, I think they would have rung the bell.
I agree with that timeline of Kelvin. After Rad blew his brains out, Kelvin seems to have been left thinking that everything was copacetic and still waiting for the relief to come. Poor guy.
I think that I would like to ask TPTB some questions that begin with, "Will we find out...[[insert: what, why, how, when, who..]]...suchandsuch a thing happened?" You are right that it is ridiculous to ask direct answers for direct mysteries. I would be happy just to find out that some of my biggest Qs will eventually get addressed in time. For instance as to what Memphish asks this week, I would ask, "Will we ever find out what all of Walt's messages meant?", or "Will we find out who wrote that note to Kate?" If the answer is no, I cry. If the answer is yes, I am happy to patiently wait for the answer. :-)
Thanks for spurring my memory Capcom. I'd ask who wrote that letter to Kate in Born to Run.
Other questions - Was Yurt village part of Ben's Others' stage craft or did it already exist?
Where do the Others keep the boat they moved from Falcatraz back to Island A on?
Why haven't the Others tried to take Aaron since he was born? (I doubt I'd get an answer to that one.)
When will we learn what the Others are really up to?
Were none of the 40+ Fuselage survivors "good" when 1/2 of the Tailie survivors apparently were or did something else prevent Ben's group from taking more Fusies than Claire and Charlie?
Logistically, how did Ethan take both Claire and Charlie? (I predict this will be one of those unanswered mysteries.)
Fun topic!
Good questions!
I'd love to know where the Others keep their boat, not to mention the Elizabeth! We haven't seen it since Ben had Pickett's wife steal it away from Sun and Sayid.
I actually do think there's a reason the Others didn't come to the Losties beach: The Monster. If you look at the Blast Door Map, the majority of the Cerberus Vents were mainly in the area surrounding the Swan on the Losties side of the island. I think the Others were scared of the Monster and generally stayed away from there for that reason. Of course, this didn't prevent Ethan and Juliet from heading over or Ben desperately sending a strike force in the finale.
The letter's a genuine curiosity. Cassidy, perhaps? Maybe she and Kate stayed in touch.
I like this topic. I like the question about so many tailes being on the list. I often wondered that myself.
My question would be, why didn't The Others stop the Dharma food drops? Obviously Dharma still knows how to get to the island, and if so why didn't they send more people there instead of just Kelvin to try and retake control?
Is Dharma trying to retake control of the island or are they history? (I don't think that if one were to ask is Naomi part of Dharma they would answer that, but maybe this way??) Did Dharma find out that the Swan Hatch blew up?
My thought always was that Kate's stepfather sent her money and told her about her mom since he still loved her like his own daughter.
I don't think the letter and money are from Kate's stepdad because he said he would turn her in to the Marshal too, though he gave her a head start.
But Memphish, don't you think that he did that because he had to? I mean he was a General in the Army, he can't get caught helping a fugitive and everyone saw her there at the recruiting place so he had to turn her in. I thought he had given her money at that time too, although he told everyone she took it from him. And he would know what was going on with her mom and would want to tell Kate her mom was in the hospital. Well it has to be either him or Cassidy in my book ! :)
I think Cassidy is more likely. For one thing it's a girl's handwriting and no self-respecting male war veteran would send a letter on that stationery. :)
I have another question for Darlton -- The sickness, any chance we'll find out what the heck is up with that? Is it related to those shots Desmond was taking? And that they were shooting Claire up with in the medical hatch? Why don't the Others seem to take the shots?
I was think of asking about the Sickness, but I really don't know how to phrase it to get a straight answer.
The DHARMA sickness seems to be a hoax, evidenced by Kelvin's torn suit and the fact no one has gotten sick (not to mention the fact the Others can implant things in you to make you sick that the "vaccine" will cure).
But whether Danielle's team was really sick or not is another question. Did her team go crazy or was Danielle the one who was nuts. Hopefully (this season) we'll get an answer to this one in Danielle's flashback.
Jay, I agree that the Dharma shots taken by Desmond are probably mere placebos designed to keep the Swan inhabitants in the Hatch. So the injections we saw being made in Claire by Ethan were the device that was triggered when Juliet was left behind? But we see Ethan take serum from a bottle marked the same? as Desmond's bottle. Maybe the Others can trigger something in Desmond too? The sickness is making me dizzy. :D
1. I think Kelvin was definitely sent post-Purge, as the Swan was pretty much a barebones DHARMA operation. The button needed to be pushed, which is why all of the instructions for the Swan are centered on keeping the station isolated.
2. I would ask Darlton if the info from the Lost Experience ARG will ever be directly incorporated into the series, particularly the Valenzetti Equation and the origin of the DHARMA Initiative.
3. I think the Sickness results from exposure to some of technology (i.e., the implant). The DHARMA vaccine seemed to cure Claire. I'm betting the vaccine is a preventative measure against some type of contamination from a particular technology we're unaware of.
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