Thanks to Druid for finding this.
Some of this stuff might be helpful to know. Emphasis on MIGHT.
Gravity's Rainbow
''A screaming came across the sky.'' Just might be the greatest opening line in postmodern literature — and an apt way to describe what happened after Desmond turned the failsafe key, no? Honestly, I could never get past, like, page 300. I recall psychic characters and a desperate attempt to divine future German rocket attacks, kinda like how the Dharma Initiative concocted that Valenzetti equation (i.e., the Numbers) to figure out the end of the world. Also, I remember lots of funny weird character names. I think I like the idea of a Thomas Pynchon book more than Thomas Pynchon books themselves. But The Crying of Lot 49 does rank No. 67 on Doc Jensen's 100 Favorite Pop Culture Things of All Time.
Mobile homes
See: Jacob's Shack. How's the mailman ever supposed to find a place that keeps moving around all the time?
The Dharma barracks
Also known as ''New Otherton.'' Locke and his anti-freighter dissident league are currently en route there to set up shop. Remember that painting in Ben's house of a woman holding a hamster or something? I want an explanation for that! And maybe Locke can look for Ben's metaphorical big black box while he's there, too.
Nadia
Has Sayid forgotten all about his off-Island lady love — or did that dead hussy Shannon make him all Samantha Who-ish? A question for all the lovers out there on this Valentine's Day.
Mittelos Bioscience
The Others' off-Island front company, which presumably finances Ben's interesting lifestyle choices. I wonder what Island wonders the Others have been exploiting to keep their company afloat. Or was Mittelos just a big lie concocted to recruit Juliet to the Island? And aren't you hoping Cane gets canceled so Richard Alpert can come back to Lost? Am I evil for hoping that?
The Sub
I bet you 20 bucks that Locke not only didn't blow it up, but he's keeping it in his back pocket for a rainy day (i.e., submerged off the coast of the Island) — like, say, an end-of-season rescue mission to bust his friends out of the freighter.
Maxwell's Demon
A disputable thought experiment contrived by bigwig scientist James Clerk Maxwell, who used to hang out with freighter guy Daniel Faraday's egghead namesake, Michael Faraday. ''Maxwell's Demon'' is a hypothetical molecule possessing unique knowledge and power. Its function is to organize large groups of other molecules into separate, smaller groups in order to produce useful energy and predictable outcomes instead of chaos and entropy. I don't claim to totally understand it. And neither do some of the brightest minds in physics. Indeed, many of them have dismissed the notion of ''Maxwell's Demon'' because it violates the laws of thermodynamics. But it might not violate the storytelling mechanics of Lost. This season, the larger body of castaways has been divided into separate groups, based on the conviction held by Locke (and Ben) that the Freighter will only bring destruction (or entropy) to the Island. Who gave Locke (and Ben) that idea? Entities that, based on available info, apparently defy the laws of nature. (For Locke, it's Ghost Walt; for Ben, it's the Island/Jacob). But another ''Maxwell's Demon'' could be Matthew Abbaddon, the spooky suit who tasked Naomi to lead the Freighter Four in their apparent Ben-extraction mission. One of the functions of ''Maxwell's Demon'' is packaging individual atoms — like the way Abbaddon packaged the Freighter Four (or Five, if you count Naomi). Also note how he told Naomi that each of the Freighter Four was chosen for a unique reason and purpose. Clearly, Abbaddon is sorting his people per knowledge only he knows; one might call it ''insider trading.'' But this is another aspect of ''Maxwell's Demon,'' one that riles its detractors: These entities possess information that they can't — or shouldn't — have.
Which leads me to my Big Theory of the Week: There's a secret war raging in the larger Lost world — a war over reality itself. The war is being fought by two rival groups that have knowledge of future events. Each group is leveraging this knowledge to facilitate different, self-serving outcomes. The castaways — and possibly the Freighter Four, too — are pawns in this quantum chess match. They are being moved around the board of the Island — and the larger world — in order to create certain events that generate certain consequences (or useful energies) that are either advantageous to their cause...or disadvantageous to their rival's cause. On one side of the board is Ben. On the other side, Matthew Abbaddon, who, I believe, works for a company that was introduced in the recent online tie-in game ''Find 815'', a group whose name was inspired by James Clerk Maxwell, a group called...the Maxwell Group.
The Economist
Title of tonight's episode; also title of famous English newsweekly. But do I really have to read this magazine in order to understand tonight's episode of Lost? Because I already have enough Lost reading to do...
Source: EW
