Besides being one of the best Lost episodes in a long time, "The Man From Tallahassee" had a major helping of Easter eggs. The objects in Ben's house were a significant source of clues about the Others. As usual, the eggs provide more questions than answers, but that's what makes Lost so complex, right? Here's what the vast community of bloggers, fans, and critics has noticed so far:
The Numbers: Many viewers noticed the presence of the numbers in Locke's flashback. Ben mentioned that Locke had spent four years in a wheelchair before the plane crash. In what was probably the coolest use of the numbers ever, Locke was paralyzed after an eight-story fall.
The Ben Linus Library: The Others either have very similar taste in books, or they only have so many books to pass around. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time was visible on a table in Ben's house. We last saw Aldo reading that book in "Not in Portland." The work of Stephen King also made another appearance. Ben had a copy of The Gunslinger next to his bed. An interesting choice, since J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof have signed on to adapt the Dark Tower series.
MacCutcheon: As I mentioned in the episode's recap, Cooper poured himself some MacCutcheon Scotch right before giving Locke the old heave-ho. He and Charles Widmore have something in common now, besides being terrible fathers. One fan believes this might be a sign that Cooper was on Oceanic 815, since a bottle of MacCutcheon was recovered from the crash.
The Hamster Portrait: It cannot have been a coincidence that Ben joked about giant hamsters while a portrait of a woman holding a hamster hung on his wall. There has been some dispute as to the identity of the blonde woman in the painting. Some fans think it's Juliet, but others believe the woman resembles Karen DeGroot, one of the original DHARMA scientists.
The Great Falling Man Debate: Quite a few of you were convinced that Locke was the man falling in the background of a Hurley flashback, but this week's episode contradicted that theory. Locke was clearly not the same man who fell in the "Numbers" episode. Check out this video if you're not convinced.
Happy hunting for next week's episode!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-25-2007 @ 6:35PM
RedStarRevolution said...
Anthony Cooper - Not on Flight 815, he is not even on the Island, nothing more than another manifestation of the Smoke Monster, along the lines of Jack seeing his father, Kate seeing the horse, Hurley seeing Dave, and Eko seeing Yemi.
The Painting - so Juliet, so totally Juliet. The hamster is there mainly because I believe, as Juliet is a fertility doctor, they were studying hamsters and their reproductive traits, as hamsters are well known to do the dirty round the clock. They are studying this because those on the Island already, as in before the crash, cannot reproduce (just a theory, but it ties in to the fact we see no kids in Otherville and the Others have kidnapped more than a few kids.)
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3-25-2007 @ 7:29PM
Bash said...
The number-hunting is really starting to piss me off. There is also a way to make everyting correspond to "23" and I don't really know how it can be a representation of a SEQUENCE of numbers when every time a number is used it is one ONE part of that sequence. So this episode we have FOUR and EIGHT. That's just great. Where's the rest of the numbers? I would be slightly interested IF they'd manage to get ALL the numbers into one episode. It would be really fun to find out where they have been mentioned during the episode and it would be fun to be the person who finds the last number left in the puzzle. But this is just a six part puzzle where we find TWO parts used. *yawn*
I guess all those easter-egg-hunters should try and find the PLOT in an episode of "Grey's". That's significantly harder :-)
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3-26-2007 @ 6:16PM
silky said...
Wow! I see our easter egg hunting has gotten really lame. I mean, I like a good easter egg find just like the next person but when we have to reach to this level it really isn't worth it.
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3-25-2007 @ 9:47PM
Chuck said...
Am I the only one who doesn't buy the "smoke monster" theory to explain the hallucinations? It doesn't make sense. The smoke monster has been hostile on more than one occasion. Why would it be hostile sometimes and helpful on others? And to say that Locke's dad is a hallucination? It's one thing to say the horse is not real--that makes sense. But Locke's dad is TIED UP in a room right in front of him. Situation's a little different. And none of the other hallucinations ever showed emotions or did anything, but Locke's dad clearly showed fear when that door opened. Next week, I guess we'll find out. If he talks back, then the hallucination theory probably goes out the window (although Hurley's hallucination disproves that a little, even though it wasn't the smoke monster)
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3-26-2007 @ 12:15AM
Mel said...
The producers have already said the numbers don't mean anything.
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3-26-2007 @ 4:06AM
joe said...
the timing of the fall in hurley's episode isn't right for it to be locke anyway. locke had been in the wheelchair for 3 years by the time hurley won the lottery.
i think what's more interesting about ben reading 'the gunslinger' is that juliet purposefully chose 'carrie' for the book club, knowing ben would think it was trash and no longer be part of the club.. so why is ben suddenly reading stephen king?
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3-26-2007 @ 8:34AM
Jack said...
I'm not buying that Cooper is the smoke monster. "Get the man from Tallahassee." Who is that? Is that code for "smoke monster"? Do the others control the smoke monster? Clearly not, because the others were not involved in Eko's death. Why would the smoke monster manifest himself as a tied up, scared looking version of Cooper? And why would the others be completely fine with this happening?
Not buying it.
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3-26-2007 @ 1:49PM
jstueve said...
the comment: Get the man from Tallahassee.
is code for 'there is a man in the closet with a gun to my daughter's head'
geez doesn't anyone watch the show! ;) (tease)
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3-26-2007 @ 12:24PM
Roshrober said...
Does anyone else think that Cooper is the real Sawyer? He's a con man from the south? If he was on the plane, he was coming back from Australia where our Sawyer went to find him? Maybe?
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3-26-2007 @ 12:40PM
Gordy said...
I think we're starting to take the term 'easter egg' too liberal.
Just think about it: The term is reserved for items that are not quickly found or discerened. The bottle of McCutcheon: maybe. Hampster portrait: No. Falling Man: No. Numbers: hell no. Th term is cheapened when every cool thing is called an easter egg. Sometimes it's just set design or the script.
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3-26-2007 @ 7:46PM
Andy said...
I am the man from Tallahassee. Do you think the "man" from Tallahassee is Bobby Bowden? Bobby is the man here.
I find it funny that this small town that I live in ends up in so much dialog in TV and movies. West Wing always had references to Tally. Maybe cause the producer was married to an FSU grad Christine Lahti
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3-27-2007 @ 2:09PM
Scott said...
Surely the man from Tallahassee is just Lockes dad?
So Ben said go get him so they can show him to Locke
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