The episode aired on Wed. and at first my excuse was that I was tired. Here it is SUNDAY and I am still obsessing and reading about various ideas and observations. I have formally decided that I cannot possibly find everything about The Other 48 Days. So here are some of my thoughts…

1. I found it interesting that the producers labeled the days for us. Why? They have been evasive so far about creating ANY type of timeline, why give us one now? Are they trying to create a parallel for us between the ways the two groups organized themselves during this time? I just don’t see the point in doing this now.
2. Libby says on day one that she went through a year of med school. Why tell us this? Because the producers know that we are out there going, “Hey, we already know she is a psychologist, how does she know how to dress a wound?” Or are we going to see a possible crossover with Jack?
3. Remember the guy who Libby fixes his leg? His RIGHT leg? (Recurring theme, for those of you who haven’t been in all of my other threads).
4. Where did the chicken come from? We have seen boar (makes sense on an island), polar bears (exotic, possible talk of a circus plane crashing on island), but a chicken? A domestic animal? Cluckety Cluck!
5. Poor Canada … getting such a bad rap on this show. Ethan said he was Canadian. Nathan says he was too. Libby says something about being in Canada for a company retreat.
6. We still don’t know who gave Nathan the banana when he was in the hole. We are led to believe it was Eko because he doesn’t want to see him starve, but we don’t know. And where did the banana come from? This was on day 23 so wouldn’t a banana on the flight be looking pretty brown by now? If you left bananas on your counter just sitting there for 23 days they would be brown, let alone through a plane crash and tossed around on an island.
7. I am sure everyone saw the door to the tailies hatch said “Quarantine.”
8. The box they find in the hatch. Seems like the items in the box were more military-esque than what we saw in Desmond’s compound. Blankets, a bible, a glass eye (HUH?), and a radio. Why a radio? Desmond didn’t have one (that we know of). Is this where the Army knife came in? I don’t suspect much about the knife right now because anyone can go to Army surplus stores.
9. The glass eye. The only theory I have, and I found this on thefuselage.com, is that it belongs to Marvin Crandle. BUT, we have seen many episodes start with an eye so maybe it is just a token to those on the island from whoever has put them there. Much like some people would carry a cross, a Buddha, a troll doll. Just kidding. Plus, speaking of eyes, there is much speculation out there that Eko was blind before the crash. Much like Locke, he found something mystical and healing on the island.
10. I have seen SO FREAKING much out there on all of the religious symbolism of 40. Here are a few: God gave Moses a staff and he was on an exodus through the desert for 40 years. Mr. Eko carries a staff, he did not speak for 40 days, Eko (or I have seen EK) is the biblical abbreviation for Exodus. The 40 days of Lent are a significant period. Noah floated in his ark for 40 days and nights; the chosen people wandered in the desert for 40 years, Jonah led the citizens of Nineveh through 40 days of penance. In the Eastern Orthodox Church when someone dies you mourn for 40 days also. Was Eko not speaking in honor of those that died? 40 days is also when it used to be considered that a soul enters a fetus in pagan religions…. Moses fasted for 40 days before receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness in preparation for his ministry. Allah, the Most Exalted, the Most Glorified, has stated this fact in the Qur’aan: During the first 40 days of gestation, all the body parts and organs are completely, though consecutively, formed.
11. The magic bullet theory. JFK conspirators take note! We have witnessed another instance of a single magic bullet! How could Ana Lucia POSSIBLY have shot Shannon? MAYBE you could have convinced me at the end of last weeks show, but now that I have seen the previews for next week, I cannot accept that one bullet shoots Shannon and then goes on to shoot a warning shot at Sayid. Do we see the shot actually come from Ana Lucia? We DO when she shoots at Sayid in the preview but never when Shannon is “shot.” Maybe Sawyer comes out of his near death state to tell everyone that there was only one bullet, in essence saving her from being an outcast from the group, even as much as he seems to hate her. But, Michael did know that there was only one bullet because he and Sawyer have the discussion on the raft and again when they are in the hole.
12. Also, on this note, if you pause the scene where she supposedly shoots Shannon you can see a bloody knife stuck in a tree. Could Shannon have been stabbed first?
13. Black and White. We see this theme again. Bernard and Rose. Locke and Eko (who, from reading about upcoming episodes, befriend one another).
14. I need to go back and watch this, but it is being said that when the tailies find their hatch you can see the radio tower behind the hatch.
15. Why didn’t the tailies hear any whispers before they went to the other side of the island? Why didn’t they see the smoke? What about the “monster” and the rain? They didn’t know that the whispers meant the others were near, but Sayid did because he has heard them before (remember his quest when he found Danielle?). Could it be much like we have two groups from Flight 815 that there are two groups of “others?” Yes, the “others” did attack our group, much like they did to the tailies. But the “others” killed the original group members because they wanted Claire back. The “others” that attacked the tailies did not kill, they just took the people.
The conversation with Goodwin and Ana Lucia was also very interesting. When she asks him why the “others” would keep attacking them if they were good, he states that maybe they aren’t attacking them. I wondered last season if when they took Walt they were taking him somewhere to “protect him” from the sickness, perhaps? Goodwin also states that they are choosing whom to take because they are Good. Does that mean that our original group is not good, except for Claire and Walt?
16. I saw the way the tailies landed on the island as a type of baptism in the water. Just symbolism.
17. It makes sense that Bernard strapped himself in when he was going to the restroom. But, how did he end up in tact, still strapped in, in his seat after the crash? The rest were thrown and in the water.
18. If Nathan was not an Other, what WAS he doing out in the woods for 2 hours? WAS he an Other? Maybe Goodwin knew that Nathan would have hurt Ana Lucia and he was in some weird way protecting her? He did seem to be a little flirty with her. Or, maybe Goodwin was worried that if Ana Lucia cut off his finger that Nathan would rat him out as well as tell all of their secrets, including where the children were?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 20th, 2005 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Eko, Libby, Shannon, The Others. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.