Lost Time

Ok, so apparently ABC's Lost is gearing up for something big involving time.

Time has always been a significant factor on the show, but until now it has been very subtle. How long has the island been there? How long has it been inhabited? Hints of answers can be found in the mysterious skeletons of "Adam and Eve" found in an inland cave by Jack and Kate in the shows first season.



Or the giant four-toed partial statue seen by Sun and Sayid at the end of season two.




More recently however we have gotten some major clues that there will be a reveal regarding time on the island and how it moves in relation to time in the rest of the world. In the February 7th, 2007 episode "Not in Portland" our first clue arrived in the form of an anagram. Early in the episode, newcomer Juliet interviews for a research position with a firm by the name of Mittleos Bioscience. The name Mittleos anagrams to "lost time". Intriguing.

Later in the same episode as Kate and Sawyer help Alex to rescue her boyfriend Karl from captivity by the Others, they encounter a guard, Aldo, reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.





More specifically, he was reading the chapter of the book that describes black holes and their possible effects on time and space.




(Click for larger versions)

Intriguing still.

Once inside the building to rescue Karl, the trio find him strapped to a chair with his eyes forced open, watching a video that is obviously intended to brainwash him, a la A Clockwork Orange (clockwork....time....well played guys).

The video contained messages like "Plant a good seed and you will joyfully gather fruit", "Everything changes", "We are the causes of our own suffering", "God loves you as He loved Jacob", and "Think about your life". Check the video here:



Some eager Lost fans determined that if the scene is played backwards however, it provides an even more interesting clue. There is a low level recording played backwards along with the audio in the video. When the entire thing is viewed backwards, a voice can be heard saying over and over "Only fools are enslaved by time and space."



One final clue was given just before the episodes conclusion. When Jack asked Juliet what Ben said to her which convinced her to help Kate and Sawyer escape, she said that Ben would let her go home if she made sure that he survived. She then told Jack that she had been on the island for three years, two months and 28 days. According the to time line of the show, that would mean she arrived on the island on September 6, 2001, the day that cosmologists and astronomers announced compelling evidence that the center of our galaxy was a super massive black-hole. The mystery grows.

Pictures courtesy of Lost-Media, Lostpedia, and The Tail Section