THE ESSENTIALS If you are just now getting into LOST, you might find yourself... well, a bit lost. Below you will find some of the essential information you need to know to make sense out of LOST. Format of the Show LOST has a very specific format that only varies during the season openers and closers. During the regular season, each episode focuses on a character - though not exclusively so. Each episode goes back and forth between ´real time´ events transpiring on the island, and flashbacks from the featured characters past. Sometimes, we see some of the survivors pop up in another person´s flashback, unbeknownst to them (they might be in the background, or they might be linked through a third person). Flight 815 Flight 815 departed from Sydney enroute to LA in what is estimated to be September 2004. The exact date of the flight has not been provided through the show itself. A few hours into the flight, the plane lost radio contact and was forced to turn around. It then hit severe turbulence and broke into three pieces in mid-air. The plane crashed on a mysterious island, 1,000 miles off course. Initiialy, about 50 people survived the plane crash - miraculously, with little more than scratches and bruises. The Island The island the survivors have landed on is chock-full of mystery. There is a strange magnetic field that causes compasses to point to a false north (the source of which appears to be inside the hatch). In addition, there are strange patterns of sudden rain, strong rip currents, and a tide that rose to sweep away remains of the plane. There is also some kind of monster on the island, which killed the pilot and has chased many of the survivors through the jungle in fits of panic. Locke and Boone discovered a mysterious concrete hatch buried in the jungle and spent most of Season 1 uncovering it and trying to open it. The hatch has hinges, but no way to open it from the outside. The survivors finally open it using dynamite from the Black Rock. The Survivors About 50 people survived the initial crash. You can find out more about these people in the CENSUS, PROFILES and BODY COUNT sections. In season 1, there were 14 main characters in the survivor group. There are several minor characters whose names we know, and several we don´t. Of the 14 main characters, only one died in the first season, Boone Carlyle. Danielle Rousseau (aka French Chick) Sayid left the group after torturing Sawyer, something he had promised himself he would never do again. He found a cable running from the ocean, into the jungle, and followed it. He was soon caught in a trap, and taken to Danielle´s hideout. Danielle has been on the island for 16 years. She was part of a science team on an expedition, when they heard the numbers being transmitted and stopped to check it out. After two months, her team became sick, and she was forced to kill them. She also gave birth to a daughter, named Alex, who was kidnapped by The Others. Danielle has helped the survivors by showing them where to get dynamite for blowing open the hatch, but she also kidnapped Claire´s baby, Aaron, in an attempt to trade it in exchange for her daughter with The Others. This effort failed, and Sayid and Charlie recovered Aaron, returning him to Claire. Ethan Rom Ethan is still somewhat a mystery. It isn´t clear if he is one of The Others, or if he is associated with Danielle, or if he is acting on his own. He was not on the plane, but integrated himself into the survivors pretty soon after the crash. It wasn´t discovered he wasn´t on the plane until Hurley took a census and compared it with the flight manifest. By then, it was too late. Ethan kidnapped Claire and Charlie (who have a close friendship). He hung Charlie and left him for dead, but Jack and Kate were able to revive Charlie using CPR. Claire eventually was able to escape on her own, and make her way back to the survivors, but she lost all memory of events after the crash. Meanwhile, Ethan threatened Charlie that he would kill one survivor every day until Claire was returned. The next day, Scott was dead and the survivors went after Ethan. When they caught him, Charlie shot him several times, killing him. Charlie buried Ethan with the help of Hurley. The Others We don´t know much about The Others. Supposedly, they are the whispers we hear in the jungle. They are responsible for kidnapping Alex sixteen years ago. In addition, they kidnapped Walt at the end of Season 1. We don´t know how many Others there are, but we´ve seen at least five on the boat that intercepts the raft. The Monster Danielle describes the monster as a security system meant to protect the island. The monster has very mechanical, as well as organic sounds. It tries to drag Locke into a large hole in the ground, and appears - at least partially - as a cloud of black smoke. The monster killed the pilot, ripping him from the cockpit. The Beechcraft/Drug Smugglers On the island, Locke has a vision of a plane crashing. He sets out with Boone to find the plane. They discover the Beechcraft, which crashed a long time ago, in the canopies of some trees near a cliff. Locke temporarily lost the use of his legs, and therefore Boone climbs up to the plane by himself to see if there is anything useful inside. Boone discovers the radio is still working, and makes a mayday call. As a reply is coming back in, the plane falls off the cliff, and Boone is fatally injured. As it turns out, the Beechcraft was a drug running plane from Nigeria being used by drug traffikers disguised as priests and is full of heroin. Boone´s Death Boone sustained fatal injuries when the Beechcraft fell off the cliff with him in the cockpit. Locke carried him back to Jack, and told Jack that Boone simply fell. Jack tried his best, but wasn´t able to save Boone. He had already transfused his own blood into Boone, and was about to amputate one of Boone´s legs when Boone told him to stop. Jack and Shannon both blamed Locke for Boone´s death. Shannon attempted to shoot Locke, but missed when Sayid tackled her at the last second. The Hatch Locke and Boone discover a mysterious hatch buried in the ground while searching for Claire. They keep it secret, and spent a lot of time digging up the hatch and figuring out a way to open it. After Boone is fatally injured, Locke pounds his fist on the hatch and asks "why?" Seemingly in response, a light shines from the hatch. At the end of Season 1, Danielle approaches the survivors and tells them they need to hide because the others are coming. Jack and Locke decide to blow open the hatch using dynamite from the Black Rock in order to hide the survivors inside. The Black Rock The Black Rock is an old wooden ship from the 19th century. It´s home port is Portsmouth, and it was heading to a mining colony in Mozambique carrying slaves. Danielle uses it as a source for dynamite for her traps, and leads the survivors to the ship when they need dynamite to blow the hatch open. The ship is located far inland, unusual due to its size and weight. The Numbers We first learn about ´the numbers´ during Episode 18 of season one, a Hurley centric episode entitled ´Numbers´. Hurley notices a series of numbers repeated on a piece of Danielle´s maps: 4 8 15 16 23 42. In a flashback, we see that Hurley used the exact same set of numbers to win a lottery. After winning, Hurley falls under what he believes to be a curse. Under the curse, he continues to have good luck, but those around him have extremely bad luck and suffer injury and death. Hurley becomes driven to find out more about the numbers, which he believes are responsible for all the bad things happening around him. He visits Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute, where he was formerly a patient. While he is there, he talks to a patient named Leonard Simms, whom Hurley got the numbers from. Lenny tells Hurley that the numbers are bad, that he shouldn´t have used them, and that Sam Toomey heard the numbers in Kalgoorie. So, Hurley travels to Australia to see Sam Toomey. Instead, he finds Toomey´s wife, Martha. Martha tells Hurley that Sam and Lenny were serving together on a Navy listening mission in the Pacific when Sam heard the numbers on the radio. Sam used the numbers to win a bean (or bead) guessing game that had been going on for forty years without a winner. Like Hurley, Sam then fell under a curse where he had good luck, but those around him suffered. Eventually, Sam broke the curse by committing suicide. On the island, Hurley decides to track Danielle down to find out why the numbers are on her map. She tells him that the numbers were being broadcast from the radio tower before she changed the transmission, but that she doesn´t know what the numbers mean. When Jack, Locke, Kate and Hurley prepare to blow the hatch open with dynamite, Hurley notices the numbers are imprinted on the side of the hatch. Feeling the numbers are a bad omen, he tries to stop the team from opening the hatch, but Locke lights the fuse despite Hurley´s warnings. The numbers have also popped up in some ways throughout flashbacks in the show. For example, Flight 815 is a combination of the numbers 8 and 15. Kate had a 23 thousand dollar bounty. Post by : on [ 2006-02-06 14:56:00 ] 86.134.55.40