IRL: 1X14 - "Special" [**SPOILERS WITHIN**]

Basq

-- WARNING: THIS THREAD WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET SEEN "SPECIAL" --

Episode Title: "Special"
Airdate: August 15th 2005

Synopsis (from TV.Com):

Violence ensues and a mysterious island beast makes a re-appearance when Michael and Locke clash over Walt's upbringing. Meanwhile, Charlie is tempted to read the missing Claire's diary, and Sayid enlists Shannon to help decipher the French woman's map.

Next New Episode: 1X15 - "Homecoming" - 22nd August 2005

Basq

Average

Can't say this is one of my favourite episodes of the season... quite good but nothing too "special"... pardon the pun!

tvnutz

Average

Ye it was good not excellent. Horrible pun mate

scojones

Good

This episode is pretty good so far, except that polar bear looked really really fake.

scojones

Good

Claire returns. woah!

Peace

Good

Blimey.... that was pretty fecking good!

qz

Average

Polar bear was a bit ming alright. Otherwise a good episode. Next week's is excellent.

DadaKopf

qz wrote:

Polar bear was a bit ming alright. Otherwise a good episode. Next week's is excellent.

It was soooooo symbolic.

OFDM

Good

Dodgy cgi polar bear but:
polar bears = "the monster"? If so, how do you explain the pilot being pulled from the cockpit and ending up in a tree or the tree moving in the jungle in the first episode.
Is Walt some sort of X-Men style mutant?
Did he unconciously make that bird hit the window?
Has Michael come to accept that there's something "special" about Walt?
Could the spanish comic with the polar bear have been a key to something on the island?
Has Clare had the baby?
Is Boone Locke's bitch?
What will Clare remember if anything?

Looks like Michael might let Walt hang around with Locke now.
Will they go in search of the black rock now?

Femelade

was claire pregnant when she returned , could anyone see?

scojones

Good

They made it very hard to see if she was.

qz

Average

Good method to make sure you come back next week!

herobear

it was too dark too see....

i personally thought this episode was great! great backstory, the car accident was real shocking and development on Michael's & Walts relationship.

its only really let down by a dodgy cgi polar bear

scorpy

Good

I don't know, first thing I thought when I saw her was 'hey now, she looks a bit skinny'. *then* I registered that she didn't look very pregnant.

tvnutz

Average

OFDM wrote:

Is Boone Locke's bitch?

I remember this episode a lot better now,and I remember this was the episode where I really came to hate Boone with a passion. You are right,he is just Locke's little bitch. I hate people like that,Blair to Bush if you will! I always never liked him,the only character in the whole show I don't like,and this just reaffirmed it for me!

AS for other stuff,it appears Walt is responsible for creating the polar bear with his mind,just like he did with the bird. If you notice,the book he was reading on birds,had a picture of the one that hit the window.I wonder did he cause his mother to die? That one is interesting.

Yes the CGI polar bear was pretty crap,but after a $5million pilot,Im guessing the budget for the rest of the season is a little lower.

Claire is back indeed...is she still pregnant?...I remember people capturing it,zooming in,clearing up the picture...lol...I won't give anything away.

scojones

Good

It was kind of obvious that the reason she was taken was because she was pregnant.

Matthewthebig

Average

tvnutz wrote:

it appears Walt is responsible for creating the polar bear with his mind

how do you gathere that?

tvnutz

Average

Its a guess. The episode implies he is special,or different. When he thought about the knife hitting the tree,it happened. Locke seems to know more than he lets on. When they are talking about the birds,the parents aren't listening to him and he gets angry. The bird that hits the window is the exact same bird that was in the book Walt was reading. The polar bear appeared in the pilot the same time Walt was reading the comic book,and again today he was reading the same comic book with the polar bear in it. coincidence? It would explain why a polar bear is on a tropical island.

horseflesh

Can Walt turn Vincent into a Polar Bear??? :eek:

Who wants to bet that when Vincent reappears he'll be wounded?

Locke clearly recognises Walt's "powers".


I'm still going for some sort of time travel angle.........

OFDM

Good

tvnutz wrote:

Its a guess.

That sounds like a very good guess. If he imagines things will happen then they will happen. Like when he kept winning at backgammon or throwing the knife.

Did Walt imagine the plane crashing? How much of the island could Walt be creating with his mind?

Perhaps "the monster" is a manifestation of Walt's fears of the jungle - that would explain why the French woman didn't seem to know what Sayid was talking about when he mentioned the monster.

Is the island enhancing Walt's mysterious mind powers in some way?

And will Clare's baby end up being Walt's nemesis if it's not brought up by her?

On another note, several of the US viewers mentioned at the start of the series that things wouldn't take off until about episode 4 - for me the series didn't really take off until the last 2 or 3 episodes - I finally understand what they meant 15 weeks ago by all the intricate theories that can be developed.

Peace

Good

I dunno if Walt is simply creating the things (birds, bears etc). I mean after all he couldn't have created the first polar bear could he?

Also, what the hell was the deal with the magazine in spanish... did anyone get screenies of the mag or a translation? I think that magazine will come back later in the series. Also i didn't like the way there was some sort of alien in the magazine... if this all turns out to be some kind of alien abduction i'll be way pissed off.

Red Soup

Average

yeah and in that card his father had made for his second birthday there was a penguin with sunglasses. let's hope Walt gets angry and starts imagining penguins with sunglasses....

I reckon the island has taken Claire's kid,
and that Locke is going to disappear soon with his conscripts (Boone, Walt)

Lafortezza

I haven't seen any of the Lost series 1 except this episode which I randomly flicked onto. I hadn't a clue what was going on, but I'd like to!
Does anyone know of a website that would give a synopsis of the story (13 episodes?) up until this one? Or if any enthusiastic boardsie would like to pm me the story to date I've be very grateful. And I mean very... :eek:

bringitdown

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/

Has ALL the episodes synopsis, be wary not to pass 1x14.

Also Lost is now on Channel 4, if you manage to miss the promos and the 'Revealed' type shows you'll hopefully enjoy the series.

yom 1

Average

Really enjoyed this episode and I loved the fact that it ended with so many questions to be answered especially the cliffhanger of Claires return.

I thought the backstory was good and was glad to find out that Walt wasn't abandoned by Michael(cos i wasn't sure if i liked him or not) but actually taken by his mother. Michael getting knocked down was really unexpected and really well done. It was a pitty that the Polar Bear was so badly done but for me it is the only thing in this series so far that they have got wrong.

Boone really is Locke's bitch, but what i want to know is why can Locke play them all like puppets, he seems to have something over everyone.

Claire looked skinny which would suggest she isn't pregnant anymore so where/what happened to the baby? What happened to her? Will Ethan be forgotton about or will they go looking for him?

Basq

Average

Am suprised at the number of people who enjoyed this episode... and i'm loving how people are getting into the show now.. plenty of questions being asked in here at the end of each episode.

All will be revealed next week regarding Claire in a fantastic episode next week.

Regarding "Special", i never really liked this episode too much. While it was good, i think it was just because i never really connected with the characters of Walt and Michael. Walt just seemed spoiled while Michael just seemed a bit too harsh on Walt. But this episode did change my opinion of them with the real story between Walt and Michael.

Can remember personally loving the scene where Michael gets hammered by the car.. gave me a real shock!

People seem to be adapting a very similar stance with regards to Boone. Hatred of the fecker. I think most of us in the Lost thread adapted the same position this time last Season. I personally could never see the real problem with him. Yes.. he is Locke's little bitch but he's pretty harmless and c'mon.. you can't feel sorry for him to stick up with Shannon.

Anyways.. excellent episode due next week!

soma

Poor

Walt reading book on birds, specific bird on page appears.
Walt reading comic featuring polar bear, polar bear appears.

hmm.... hard to imagine there's zero connection there.

Oh and thanks to whoever it was who drew attention to 'did walt turn vincent into a polar bear?'. That gave me a 'wwwooaaaaah' moment! i.e. it looks like vincent is doing a bit of a 'clark kent' here... he's never around when the polar bear/monster is around! (altho bear in mind I missed eps 4,5,6). Wasnt he missing when the "huge" monster was tearing up the jungle and when the 1st polar bear attacked?

As for 'will vincent turn up injured', well the 1st polar bear got shot 'dead'.

Also, vincent is actually the second 'character' presented on-screen in the pilot, if I was the creator of Lost, I'd want to have something in the opening scene (i.e. jack waking up & seeing vincent) which had a really big significance further down the line (or maybe even in the 'reveal').

While it's bizarre that so many of them survived the crash with only minor scrapes, it is also very curious that an animal, who would have been locked in a cage in a seperate area on the plane, survived.

Man, I cant believe I wrote so much about a dog. *lol*

Finally, earlier in the ep (I changed my mind over the course of the ep) I thought maybe that the comic book was perhaps a kind of 'guide' to the island. i.e. it had a polar bear in it and curiously I do remember seeing a picture of what appeared to be (it was quite a quick scene and we all know how our minds like to fill in the blanks!) a dark top of a mountain (a black rock..?) with lightning in the background.

A key thing here is when did walt come into possession of the comic (remember i missed 3 eps). Did he find it in the wreckage (and subsequently created the polar bear(s) etc..) or was he reading it on the plane and, as someone suggested, then had a hand in 'shaping' the island.

dudara

I must admit that I rolled about in tears of laughter when Claire reappeared! What an original twist!

I'm in two minds about this show. On one hand, it's been great and really suspenseful, and then on the other hand, it's painfully drawn out and obvious. Having said all that, I'm still going to watch it.

beanyb

Average

I think he found it in the pilot, I could be wrong though.

I thought this episode was good, but not amazing. Except for that damn cliffhanger with Claire that made me really want to know what was going to happen next - damn those cliffhangers!!

And I hate Boone too! He's just so irritating, but that said I thought he was fine until this week.

Basq

Average

dudara wrote:

I must admit that I rolled about in tears of laughter when Claire reappeared! What an original twist!

Easily amused.. ain't ya?!

seabee

I think Claire is Sans-Sprog now the episode was good, the scene where Michael was knocked down was well done. The CGI bear looked crap, maybe it was just another illusion, like what happened to boon last week??

Beebox

Good

I thought this episode was really good, much better than the last few weeks. Did anyone else notice that Locke was visibly frightened before they found Claire. He'd seen the 'monster' before, hadn't he?

mr_angry

I agree with a lot of what soma said about Vincent, but there's a couple of things I'd like to add.

Before the whole scene with the polar bear, both Walt and Vincent hear a noise in the jungle. There's already something else there when Vincent runs off. Then, as soma points out, the first polar bear was shot dead. This really leads me to believe that Vincent does not turn into a polar bear.

There's no doubting the co-incidence between Walt looking at the polar bear in the comic, and then later one appearing in both the early episode, and "special". However, there is one thing opposing the theory that Walt creates them with his mind. In "Solitary", when the big roar goes up and Danielle grabs her gun, Sayid asks "What was that?", and Danielle replies "If we're lucky, its one of the bears". This seems to imply that Danielle has a lot of previous experience with the bears on the island, and hence they couldn't have been created by Walt. Perhaps he drew them near with his imagination (like the bird in Australia), but I don't think he created it.

joejoem

Average

I really like Locke & Boone. I think its brilliant to watch Boones Transition, in last weeks ep you saw the old him, he had no backbone and he was living off his parents money. He was managing director or somthing like that of his mothers wedding company? Well it seems Locke has given him perspective and also made him into a useful charictor. I can see alot more coming from him, I think he will mature/develop into one of the main roles.

Stimpyone

Average

FYI....RTE are showing the next 2 episodes back to back next week starting at 9pm.

Did anybody manage to get a translation to Walts comic booK? esp. the few spoken lines?

Basq

Average

Stimpyone wrote:

FYI....RTE are showing the next 2 episodes back to back next week starting at 9pm.

Cheers for that info! Can confirm this as it's on the listings on TheCustard.TV.

Homecoming and Outlaws are on Monday. Outlaws being significantly weaker than Homecoming, in my opinion.

nachos

i think the whole segment with polar bear was just a variation of what Locke, Boone and Jack have all gone through, but this time for Michael and Walt. They've both found what they want i.e. Michael wants to have a closer relationship with Walt and Walt wants to have a parent/guardian he can trust.

Got this in an email from RTE when i was enquiring about repeats:

Week 33 (Mon. 15th Aug.) episode 14 is a Special and
will not be repeated. Time: 22.00.
Week 34 (Mon. 22nd Aug.); 2 episodes (15 and 16)
Time: 21.00 and 22.00. These will both be repeated on
the Friday at 23.55 and 24.45.
Week 35 (Mon. 29 Aug.); 2 episodes (17 and 18)
Times:21.00 and 22.00;
Friday (2nd Sept.); repeat of episode 17 only; Time:
19.00.

Lots of double episodes coming up, me likey!

horseflesh

Stimpyone wrote:

FYI....RTE are showing the next 2 episodes back to back next week starting at 9pm.

jaysus, I don't believe it, I'm in work next Monday until 9.30; ten o'clock is the perfect start time for me!!

monkeyfudge

Average

Stimpyone wrote:

Did anybody manage to get a translation to Walts comic booK? esp. the few spoken lines?

It's a comic book featuring the Flash and the Green Lantern if I remember correctly. If you do a search you'll find out all about it. The story was about an evil alien called Alien X who was experimented on for years and now wants revenge.

soma

Poor

horseflesh wrote:

jaysus, I don't believe it, I'm in work next Monday until 9.30; ten o'clock is the perfect start time for me!!

gah! me too - get home from training @9.30

sky2150ie

i was reading in tv mag but this might be a spoiler next week on rte2 claire says that some monster took her baby but at the end of lasts nights claire still looked pregent was she cos i looked at the end of last nights 3 times but still cant make out if she is or not

Stimpyone

Average

monkeyfudge wrote:

It's a comic book featuring the Flash and the Green Lantern if I remember correctly. If you do a search you'll find out all about it. The story was about an evil alien called Alien X who was experimented on for years and now wants revenge.

Found a synopsis here

http://ctvbb.insinc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67


the comic walt was reading is:
Green Lantern/Flash: Faster Friends Part I - About fifty years ago an alien spacecraft fell to Earth and in the interests of "national security" the Flash (Jay Garrick) and the Green Lantern (Alan Scott) were called in to eliminate the threat. In they're absolute trust of the government (yes there was a time when people trusted the government, hard to believe isn't it?), they never thought that the alien might be peaceful, and attacked unquestioningly. Having defeated it, Flash and GL were pushed to the background, not even thanked. Realizing the mistake they had made, they hid the space ship in a place where no one would find it. Fifty years later, the alien escapes from the government lab that held it prisoner for so long, and he's dusted. Not only was he locked up for fifty years, but the tests run on him gave him an incurable cancerous disease. The first thing he does is kill the man in charge of his incarceration, then finds Jay and Alan in order to retrieve the ship. When the two disappear, their wives contact the most recent Flash and Green Lantern and tell them the story. The boys aren't happy to be working together, but concede that it's necessary to save Jay and Alan. Using his ring, Kyle is able to pinpoint Alan's signature and find the buried space ship. The alien apparently has some pretty powerful psionic abilities and forces Alan and Jay to protect him while he sends out a signal and sets the ship for self-destruct. Kyle and Wally manage to save Jay and Alan, but don't stop the ship from exploding. The boys seem to have saved the day, but the alien's final words hang heavy in their minds, something about it being "too late for all of us."
Cover: http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/obiwan/92/glf1.gif
Pages: http://www.livejournal.com/communit...624.html#cutid1

Interesting stuff

OFDM

Good

Beebox wrote:

Did anyone else notice that Locke was visibly frightened before they found Claire. He'd seen the 'monster' before, hadn't he?

Maybe he thought it was another polar bear?

da_deadman

Average

Ah crap, I wont be here next week and now I find out RTE are showing 2 episodes... And I was looking forward to next weeks episode already...

The good thing with Boone is that it's so easy to dislike him and he often gets a few thumps (usually in the head)... so far Sawyer, Boone, Shannons boyfriend and now Michael have all belted him one.
But at least he is not Shannon's lap dog after last weeks epiphany.

Last nights episode was very good because there are so many questions that it has raised concerning Walt being different, is Claire pregnant and what happened her, what/where is the black rock and what is its' significance, how did Locke recognise Walts' specialness, and last but not least Why does Locke put up Boone?

In the future will we see another backstory for Locke? I really enjoyed his story but he is just such an interesting and intriguing character. I'd like to see another story about him...

sky2150ie

i found out what the magazine says but the translater, translated it weird unless i took it down of the tv wrong but on the front of the magazine it says "linterna verda flash the quick friends but divides one" i no its weird buts its wat the translater said and then the second part of the mag where the alien is lying in bed it says on that page "oh! no the monkey this is it favourite and is going to give of shouts" and then just after that it says "of minsuna mahera sere to the one that him of the news" if anyone can read it better of the tv and you can get it translated on google for free please tell me wat it says for you

Basq

Average

da_deadman wrote:

In the future will we see another backstory for Locke? I really enjoyed his story but he is just such an interesting and intriguing character. I'd like to see another story about him...

Deux Ex Machina is planned to air September 5th - excellent Locke episode!

fightin irish

Good

dam, dam and dam. I couldnt resist, i had to go googling after last nights episode...so many questions and i found alot of answers. If you havnt done this...dont do it at all. Im really pissed at myself but couldn't resist :rolleyes:

doh.ie

sky2150ie wrote:

i found out what the magazine says but the translater, translated it weird unless i took it down of the tv wrong but on the front of the magazine it says "linterna verda flash the quick friends but divides one"

Not sure about the other bits - I have the English version of that comic at home, but I'll have to check which panels match that dialogue.

The bit above though is certainly just the title, "Green Lantern/The Flash - "Faster Friends, Part I".

As for the content of those panels, I think the wider connection to the show (beyond the polar bear showing up in *both* episodes where Walt was reading the comic) is in the theme of the comic's story. (In part, how we treat each other and reacting badly to what we don't understand). See the synopsis posted by Stimpyone below. The comic itself regularly shows up on eBay if you want a real copy.

steveland?

Poor

OFDM wrote:

polar bears = "the monster"?

In episode 2 Kate said to Sawyer something along the lines of "that's not what we saw in the jungle" when he shot the polar bear... it's fairly much been discounted that the thing in the woods could have been the polar bear...

It's funny I didn't notice the bit when Walt "made the rain stop" in the first episode until I saw that bit after this episode... Seems most other people didn't notice it first time either

doh.ie

steveland? wrote:

It's funny I didn't notice the bit when Walt "made the rain stop" in the first episode until I saw that bit after this episode... Seems most other people didn't notice it first time either

True. I think at that point we were all more inclined to think the 'island' was responsible for any unusual things that were going on. First instinct I got that something about Walt wasn't right was when he was playing backgammon with Hurley and kept rolling the numbers he wanted on the dice. But had never suspected him before that.

Also, in ep 11, Locke is in the jungle with Boone and predicts when the rain will start, and it does... He may share in Walt's abilities, or be more tuned into the island's schedule.