TVSquad

Since the newest episode of Lost aired, blogs, fansites, and message boards have been buzzing with Easter egg discoveries. For those of you lacking the time or resources to delve through countless websites, here's a rundown of the major clues found during the last week:

• The Numbers: As with any Lost episode, "Not in Portland" contained a few references to everyone's favorite numbers. The most obvious use was found during the brainwashing scene, in which Karl was being kept in Room 23. During Juliet's flashback an observant viewer could see that her security card had "A-4" printed on it.

• 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days. There has been some dispute over the relevance of this length of time, and the date to which it refers. Some fans have connected it to the Boxing Day Tsunami, and others to September 11. Perhaps the most creative interpretation comes from The Tailsection, which refers readers to September 6, 2001, in which scientists supposedly offered evidence that a black hole is at the center of the galaxy. Given the Easter egg below, that theory doesn't sound far off...
• Aldo's Book: Anyone who took a closer look at the book that Aldo (the Other guard) was reading could see that it was Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time. The section Aldo was examining just happened to discuss black holes. Speaking of books, Stephen King's Carrie made another appearance, this time at Juliet's sister's bedside (DarkUFO). You'll recall that Juliet said that Carrie was her favorite book in the Season Three premiere.
• Product Placement: The plane during the episode's opening scene was, in fact, an Oceanic aircraft. The Widmore brand name appeared in the form of a pregnancy test for the second time (Sun used one as well). Finally, TV Squad's Brigitte Dale noticed that the bus that finished off Juliet's ex-husband had an ad for Apollo bars on its side.
• The Brainwashing Video: As posted earlier, there was an especially creepy backwards message in the video being shown to Karl in Room 23: "Only fools are enslaved by time and space." Eagle-eyed fans may have also noticed brief shots of Alvar Hanso and Gerald DeGroot.
• The Name Game: We can add yet another name to the list of philosopher shout-outs featured in Lost: Burke, Juliet's last name. Writers completed the reference by naming her ex-husband Edmund. Grey's Anatomy fans can tell you that Jack and Juliet are not the first pair of doctors named Shephard and Burke; we can only hope that these two get along better. And what about Dr. Richard Alpert of Mittelos Bioscience? For starters, Mittelos is an anagram of "lost time." Richard Alpert, better known as Baba Ram Dass, is a spiritual teacher, former Harvard professor, and associate of Timothy Leary (no, not the guy from Rescue Me).

If there were any clues that I missed, feel free to post them in the comments.