Thursday, February 4, 2010

Link Dump 2/4/2010

Few more things of interest, some of which may be old hat to many of you:

* This Darlton chat on EW is interesting, talks about the alternate timeline a lot. Some highlights:

That said, are you saying definitively that detonating Jughead was the event that created this new timeline? Or is that a mystery which the season 6 story will reveal?

LINDELOF: It’s a mystery. A big one.
CUSE: We did have some concern that it might be confusing kind of going into the season. To clear that up a little bit: The archetypes of the characters are the same and that’s the most significant thing. Kate is still a fugitive. If you were to look at the Comic-Con video, for instance, that now comes into play. There was a different scenario in that story. She basically blew up an apprentice plumber as opposed to killing her biological father/stepfather. Those kind of differences exist, but who the characters fundamentally are is the same. If it becomes too confusing for you, you can just follow the flash sideways for what they are. It’s not as though there’s narrative that hangs on the fact that you need to know that this event was different in that world, in the flashback world versus the sideways world. That’s not critical for being able to process the narrative this season.

Is there a relationship between Island reality and sideways reality? Will they run parallel for the remainder of the season? Will they fuse together? Might one fade away?

LINDELOF: For us, the big risk that we’re taking in the final season of the show is basically this very question.

I wonder if some of the characters will have to choose between the timelines - after all, choice and free will are two of the central themes of the show. But what if you have two characters who have completely different outcomes in the two timelines, i.e. in one timeline one character is miserable or dead and in the other they're alive and happy, while it's vice versa for the other character? One of those two characters would have to make a sacrifice (presumably for the good of mankind) by the end of the show. That would be really cool to see. Sad, perhaps, but cool.

* Good ratings for the premiere! Nice to see the show get some of its mojo back!

* Cynthia Watros to also guest star on House as... well, a pretty important someone character-wise. Click the link to find out.

* Memphish has some other minor questions of her own.

* Back when I was in crazy baby mode, I know a couple people e-mailed me for a link exchange, but I can't seem to find the e-mails. If you want one, send me another request or just post in the comments.

2 comments:

Theresa said...

This confuses me: "If it becomes too confusing for you, you can just follow the flash sideways for what they are. It’s not as though there’s narrative that hangs on the fact that you need to know that this event was different in that world, in the flashback world versus the sideways world. That’s not critical for being able to process the narrative this season."

On Jimmy Kimmel they said that some differences (Michael, Walt and Shannon not being on the plane) were significant to the mystery. So which is it, do they matter or don't they?

Another question I had was how Hurley won the lottery without the numbers. Assumedly the numbers would not have been repeating for the guy in the mental institution to hear them, so Hurley wouldn't have gotten them from there. So it's fate then?

And if the differences aren't important, then why put them there at all?

Unknown said...

As far as the Numbers go, we don't know for sure when the Island was destroyed. It might have been the bomb, it might not have. The Numbers were being broadcast up until Danielle changed the message sometime around 1988 and had been put in place decades before that (when DHARMA first came to the Island). So it's certainly possible Hurley was still able to hear the Numbers from Leonard in the alt timeline.

But as far as the alt timeline itself goes, I think what Darlton's saying is that both timelines are now proceeding in parallel without one affecting the other. Eventually I imagine one or the other is probably going to have to go and that's the big plot decision, not the differences between them (which are just fun to spot for die-hard fans). The thing about Shannon, Walt and Michael though is that because they're central to the overall mystery of the show (i.e. everyone in the original timeline was supposed to be on Flight 815 for a reason) the fact they're not on there is important to that mystery.

Does that make sense at all? I haven't eaten lunch yet so it may all be gibberish. :)