Link?
Given the multiple timeline evidence shown so far and the fact that they keep coming back to Jack’s dad (he was in the cabin on the island when Hurley found it), it just seems to me like that line had to be something more than just a throw-away or basic confusion.
nabeel
3242
I’d love if it were some mindfuckery like this. I guess it’ll just be Michael though.
JD
3243
And there’s also this mini-episode. Of course, maybe the dog has some alcohol problems, too.
-Julian
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Fans have been analyzing this Jack line from the flash-forward: ‘‘You get my father down here… And if I’m drunker than he is, you can fire me.’’ Given that his dad is dead, what was your take on that?
MATTHEW FOX: He was so loaded and emotionally distraught that he talks about his father as if he’s still alive. I called Damon on it, and he gave me a couple stories — actual accounts of people whose very close relative [died], and in a moment of being really f—ed up, talked about them as if they did not know they were not alive. In that moment, Jack is losing track of any concept of time. I knew that there was a way to look at it and go, ‘‘Well, that’s kind of manipulative.’’ But when you [realize], ‘‘Oh, it’s in the future,’’ you can believe that the man — years after his father has actually passed away — says that about his father in that moment. I totally buy it.
Well okay so I guess they can still welsh on it.
— Alan
Yeah, for now I’m going to stick with my theory and assume Matthew Fox was either misled for “need to know” purposes or is complicit in a cover-up. I just don’t see that line as being necessary for the purpose of showing how drunk/fucked up he was, it was already crystal clear by that point. Further, if that line’s intent was to show his state of distress, I think they may have changed their mind when Matthew Fox called them on it, figuring if he didn’t make the connection right away, a lot of viewers wouldn’t either and it would be better to cut it. IMO, it makes way more sense to be there as an “A-ha!” moment when revisited after something else is revealed.
Well, it’s also a very illicit link to the past, which makes the flash-forward concept much more jarring.
— Alan
That’s true, but I don’t think you need it for that either. Just the fact that we’d never seen a flash-forward before on the show, coupled with no over-the-top hints that it takes place after the island would be enough for the reveal to be shocking as-is, I certainly didn’t think to myself “oh this must be a flash back because Jack’s dad is alive” upon hearing the line.
There are plenty of ways to explain away the comment that don’t involve his dad still being alive in the off-island flashbacks and I’m not saying they don’t make sense, just that the comment still kind of sticks out there like a sore thumb given all the other hints they have been dropping recently, plus the various sightings of Christian Shepard, which are just too random to mean much but kind of point in the direction of his story not being over by a long shot.
DT1
3248
Well, okay. More specifically I meant the first time that they have explicitly shown us that time on the island moves more slowly than time off of the island. They’ve inferred it with Richard’s character, in particular, seeming not to age. (Ben cracking wise to him, asking him if he remembered birthdays.)
That doesn’t preclude, as you say, the space/time shitfuckery possibility. Desmond obviously appeared to travel back in time in his flashback, but they could still write that as dream.
I just wish they would give the alternate universe doppelgangers goatees so we could easily distinguish them at a glance.
Warning
3249
I’m waiting for the inevitable character appearing in a flash-forward who turns out to have died on the island.
Done. Charlie showed up in Hurley’s flash forwards
Warning
3251
One of my future incarnations predicted that would happen.
I really don’t buy the Ben in the coffin theory. It makes no sense even for Lost. First off, the guy has a ton of cash and probably someone is funding him. He always finds a way to manipulate people into doing what he wants. There’s no way Ben, international man of mystery and con man extreme, ends up dead in a pine box in the ghetto. That’s beyond retarded.
I guess I’m assuming that in the future story six people have got off the island but the rest are still back there and may be in trouble. That’s why Charlie wants Hugo to go back and eventually why Jack wants to go back, and also maybe what Ben meant about Sayid protecting his friends. I kind of expect the future story to be the one that brings them back to the island at the end of this season and I can’t imagine that’s going to happen without Ben. But maybe I’m way off.
nabeel
3253
How about this. What if there was noone in the coffin, and that obituary and funeral announcement meant something special for certain people only?
bloo
3254
Have you watched the Orchid Station orientation video? You need to.
The Orchid Station orientation video is cool, but what is the reasoning for “needing” to see it?
In other words, they lifted their metaphysics directly from Donnie Darko. Airplane accident, past and present are contiguous, the “dead” don’t leave but visit those who are sensitive to their prescence, persons of destiny gain abilities (Locke), etc.
Machfive
3257
I hope to god this movie doesn’t go the Darko route.
I also hope they don’t go the “multiple universes/dimensions/timelines” route. I’d like to see one timeline.
If the island exists in sort of a space-time cubby-hole, that would be fine and dandy.
Why wasn’t I informed of this earlier?!? That’s pretty awesome. Thanks for the heads-up!
Hang on, my sarcasm sense is failing, and I’m feeling denser than usual. I thought you meant that because they showed Charlie talking to Hurley, that means they can do that again with a different character.
Because that hadn’t occurred to me, and it’s got me really excited about the rest of the season. They can have an entire flash-forward sequence with a character who’s already died; there’s no guarantee that any character you see is “safe.” That’s unspeakably cool.
Re: Jack’s Dad being alive- I believe this exchange was from a Lost Podcast around the time of the S3 finale:
Lindelof: Number three, please confirm again that Christian Shephard is dead. I’m so tired of people who believe the opposite.
Cuse: Well, you know, for those of you who believe the opposite, you’re wrong. For those of you who believe Christian Shephard is dead, you’re vindicated.
Lindelof: How about that, another definitive answer.
Cuse: I’m not messing around today.
nabeel
3260
