I really wish I had read more Charles Dickens and Henry James to understand the literary allusions.

I mentioned in another venue that I thought they turned the not-making-sense switch up to eleven for this ep.

Big jet aircraft have very little iron in them. They're mostly made of aluminum, titanium, and composites, none of which are attracted to big honkin' magnets.

It's a shame we'll probably never find out how Libby went from grieving widow to mental patient to castaway.

Also, the main Griddle page says there's already a comment here, but I can't see it. That's happened a few times that I can recall.

And now I can see your comment.

Not just the literary allusions, but the philosphical ones, as well (Locke, Rousseau, etc.). Me, I just realized how appropriate it is to have someone named Lady Penelope associated with a secret island base.

From EW.com:

Ah, but then there's the coda: Somewhere off the island (Antarctica, maybe?), two foreign guys (was that Russian?) are playing chess in a monitoring station. An alarm goes off. A computer announces, ''Electromagnetic anomaly detected.'' One man picks up the phone. On the other end of the line is Penny Widmore. She's been looking for her man. And somehow, it seems she knew where he'd be: atop a giant magnet. Inside intel from her dad's shady operation? Signs point to yes. Or maybe she sent old Des there in the first place. Who knows? Who knows if there's any Des left to love?

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,1197920_3_0_,00.html

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I didn't see this at all. How did I miss this?

It was the last bit of the episode, and really looked like a cheesy commercial at first, so that may be why you missed it. The only reason I paid attention was because I noticed that the network bug was still down in the corner.

It's been pointed out to me that Penelope was Odysseus's wife, who remained faithful to him all the time he was away on his long ocean voyage.

I figured there had to be something in store for Peneleope because they put the actress's name in the opening sequence and those are reserved for people with substantial roles.

I don't think Desmond caused the crash by not pushing the button. Then again, Desmond speculated that the people watching him were the ones in the experiment, and not him and all of the reports those people had sent off over the years had never been read.

"I don't know what is more diquieting. The fact the rest of the statue is missing or that it only has four toes."

"I don't know what is more diquieting. The fact the rest of the statue is missing or that it only has four toes."

Clearly it's Atlantis, drifting around the world and somehow the Atlanteans were genetic mutants with only four toes. :)

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"Big jet aircraft have very little iron in them. They're mostly made of aluminum, titanium, and composites, none of which are attracted to big honkin' magnets."

However, a strong EM pulse will completely fry modern electronics, so the plane could simply have crashed due to that.

I have a strong urge to append "brother" to the end of all my sentences when I'm speaking to people.

How come I don't get women who look like Sonia Walger (Penelope) trying to track me all over the globe?

The opening titles listed Michelle Rodriguez's name, but I don't believe she appeared. Was her name still there as a contractual thing?

9 Yeah, it would be.

Was that in reponse to my opening rhetorical question or in response to my second information-seeking question?

The latter. :)

So Sonya Walger isn't tracking me throughout the globe?

Having three light-sleeping children has made me dependent on closed captions. Thankfully, said captions can resolve a couple issues:

1. The "Russian" dudes were speaking Portuguese.

2. "Ms. Clue" is named Mrs. Bea Klugh

It seems the Lostaways aren't in Purgatory and they aren't the last people on the earth, but if John and Eko were killed off then my viewership will be "Lost".

14 Yeah, I think the two viewers in our household both thought "Russians" because of the snow and the headgear, but then heard what sounded like "Que?" and "Por Favor," which certainly isn't Russian (I can say that with absolute assuredness, having studied Russian for two years back in my sordid past).

The New York Times has a wrapup story for "Lost" with the subhead:

Goal of 'Lost' Finale Was to Keep Customers Guessing Not Annoy Them

Michael Emerson who plays the "Artist Formerly Known as Henry Gale" will be a regular cast member next year. Which I applaud as I thought he was tremendous in his role.

We have a Portugese channel on our cable system, and I was always surprised at how much the language sounds (to this untrained ear, anyway) like Russian.

I'm surprised I didn't pick out the Portuguese because I've been to Portugal and I like the sound of Portuguese, but mostly when it's sung.

I think we thought the men were speaking Russian because:
1) it was snowy
2) they were playing chess

I don't think Portugal ever gets much snow and you don't associate the country with chess either.

I wouldn't be surprised if Michael Emerson got an Emmy nomination (or even a win) -- he's been utterly fantastic and one of the highlights of season 2.

I guess "why Portuguese?" is another question to be added to the list.

18 "I like the sound of Portuguese, but mostly when it's sung."

Every day we learn more about Bob; now we know he's a fado fan.

I did fado singing to pay my way through college.

Fortunately, UCLA's fees were pretty low back then.

Russian and Portuguese both use the "zh" sound, which makes them sound sort of alike to those of us who don't speak either language.

I assumed (for no particular reason) that the two guys were at a research station at the south pole.

21 Ooh! I want an .mp3!

22 That's (Antarctica) the prevailing theory over at the Hawai'i message boards, too.

You have to figure that the guys at the research station were in some place where it was both sunny and snowy while it was dark in England.

Oceanic 815 crashed in September and according to the timeline, it's around December 2004. That would mean someone in Antarctica would be in sunlight all the time. And it would be quite likely someone in England would be in the dark. It was sunny when Desmond turned the fail-safe key. I believe The Island is in the Southern Hemisphere too, but I wouldn't even pretend to know what time zone it is in.

Something I've gathere from talking to a friend of mine from Brazil, is that the Portugese being spoken is normally heard in Brazil. Since Oceanic 815 was travelling from Sydney to Los Angeles, one might expect the flight to be somewhere reasonably close to South America - the flight had gone off-course, true, but there's only so much distance one might expect. Additionally, if the plane went too far to the east it would have traveled over land which would have ostensibly given the pilots a frame of reference.

So I think it's safe to say the plane is somewhere in the Pacific, and quite possibly closest to somewhere in South America (though I wouldn't rule out the possibility of an Antarctica-based research facility)

http://andfound.com/

play Jimmy Kimmel video on 4th comment. I would guess the most serious fake interview Kimmel has ever done. Very strange.

I came across that last night when I was done watching as it just happened to be on as I was done with the recording.

Lindelof and Cuse are insisting now that the Hanso Foundation is legitimate, but they don't sound very serious.

6 Another interesting note about that a friend passed along about Penelope's fidelity: Apparently she had 108 suitors during the time Odysseus was away and resisted all of their advances. 108 is the sum of the numbers. 4+8+15+16+23+42=108

This is exactly why I enjoy this show so much. I appreciate how meticulous the writers have been in their work and how they incorporate so many small details that mostly will go unnoticed/unrecognized. They clearly want to produce something extraordinary.