Saturday, February 21, 2009

Eloise Hawking gives Jack Locke's suicide note, further instructions

Jack goes with Eloise Hawking to her office where she tells him that what she has to say doesn't concern the others. She looks under papers on her desk and pulls out an envelope with Jack's name on it. She tells him that it is Locke's suicide note and that he hung himself. She says that there are probably a lot reasons why Locke would kill himself but that Locke is going to help Jack get back to the island. Locke's body will serve as a proxy for Christian Shephard's body. She tells Jack that he needs to recreate the conditions of the original flight and that he needs to give Locke something that belonged to Christian. At this point, Jack is still playing the role of the "man of science" and fights Ms. Hawking's instructions saying they're "ridiculous." She tells him to stop thinking about how ridiculous it seems but to ask himself "whether or not you believe it's going to work." She continues by saying "That's why it's called a leap of faith Jack."

In this scene, we see Jack's hardlined lack of faith become even more maleable as Eloise Hawking breaks things down for him. You can tell at this point that he's still not completely convinced yet though.

So how did Eloise Hawking end up with Locke's suicide note for Jack? There's also still the question of how she knows and understands what steps need to be taken to get back to the island? She is indeed a mysterious character.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Eloise Hawking explains The Lamp Post Station, how to get back to the island

Eloise Hawking takes Sun, Jack, Ben and Desmond through a door marked "Caution - High Voltage - Do Not Enter This Enclosure." This is another oddly disguised room much like Daniel's old lab at Oxford that Desmond found. The group travels down the stairs and through a tunnel to a door with a Dharma Initiative logo. It is for the first off-island station we have seen called The Lamp Post (which is a reference from The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe from The Chronicles of Narnia).

Once they get inside the station, we get a better look at the room which we first saw in "The Lie." There is some dated looking computer gear, much like the gear seen in the stations on the island. There is a board on the wall that flips through longitude and latitude numbers. What do these mean? Is this where the island currently is or where it is going or something else? We see the pendulum swinging from an opening above as well as the blackboard with equations written out. There is also the picture of the island that's marked "September 23, 1954 - U.S. Army - OP 264 - Top Secret - Eyes Only." We can also get a better look of the map of the earth that is below the pendulum. I'll try to do another post specifically about some of the points on the map later.

Jack asks Ben if he knew about the station and Ben answers "No. No I didn't." Jack asks Eloise if Ben is telling the truth and she says "Probably not." She begins her lecture about the station. She says the room they're in was constructed years ago over "a unique pocket of electro-magnetic energy" which connects to similar pockets all over the world. She says that the people who built the station were only interested in the island. They knew that the island was out there somewhere, but they couldn't find it. She says "a very clever fellow" built the pendulum on the theoretical notion that they should look for where the island is going to be, not where it is supposed to be. She says that the fellow correctly presumed that the island was always moving which is why the flight 815 survivors were never rescued. The same man created a series of equations that determine with a high degree of probability, where the island is going to be at a certain point in time. She continues saying that "Windows, while open, can provide a route back," but the windows do not stay open long. The group's window at this point, was closing in 36 hours.

At this point, Desmond interjects asking whether they're going back to the island willingly. Desmond tells Eloise Hawking that he's there to deliver a message from her son Daniel Faraday. This doesn't seem to surprise or phase Eloise at all. He tells her that Daniel and the other people on the island need her help. She tells him that she is helping, implying that getting the group back to the island will help. Desmond begins to walk away but Eloise tells him that "the island isn't done with you yet." He then reveals to the room that Eloise cost him four year of his life. He warns Jack that he thinks Ben and Eloise are using him and the others in a game in which they are the pieces. He then tells Jack to ignore what Eloise says. He turns to her and says "You say the island's not done with me, well I'm done with the island. He then storms out of the room.

Eloise then moves on and explains that the binder she handed Jack earlier is of all of the air routes that will fly over the coordinates were the island will be in a little more than a day. She tells him that there is a flight from Los Angeles to Guam that will go through the window. The flight is Ajira Airways flight 316. She says that flight is the only hope for going back to the island. She then tells everyone that they all need to be on the flight and they need to recreate the circumstances that took them to the island in the first place. She tells them they need as many of the people as they can get who were on the original flight (815) need to go with them. Jack, as always, can't seem to let go and have faith that it will work. Eloise tells him that he specifically has additional work to do that others do not have to do. More on that in the next post, because this one is long enough.