Why The Blast Doors Came Down

[shooter]

The blast doors came down, but why? I've read through most of the threads and posts but havent found alot of discussion on this. I think they came down because dharma needed to transport something or things through the tunnells where the hatches are connected. Yes, i beleive the hatches are connected especially after seeing the map on the blast door. The warning countdown implied that the doors were coming down, (obviously), and those originally in the hatch were aware of this procedure so the counting down was to advise them of this. Its just a thought, but i'll bet dharma uses these tunnells and dropped the blast doors to keep the losties from knowing this info.

[NascarCari]

More than likely they came down because of the supply drop and it was to keep the button pusher from leaving the hatch and see what was going on - I haven't looked there yet but theres a sticky thread about the supply drop and this is probably being discussed there

[Motion]

Use the tunnels for what though? Its pretty obvious the connecting tunnel is the one cemented shut.

[Erstwhile Lurker]

Use the tunnels for what though? Its pretty obvious the connecting tunnel is the one cemented shut.
probably cemented after the "incident" and at the same time as quarantine on the hatch.

[shooter]

its a good thought, but the button pusher would know the time left on the counter and wouldnt take off to get the supplies if the counter was running down to a few minutes or so. If memory serves, I think the counter was at 47 minutes or so when the doors came down, ( i think), I think theres another reason.;)

[chiocken]

I think the blast doors were originally supposed to be down all the time. When the hatch occupant, probably only one person ("I am here" as opposed to "We are here"), needs to get out for a food delivery or whatever, he types in the numbers and has 108 minutes to get back into the hatch before it locks down again.

Thoughts?

[Cara]

I really have no guesses to why they came down. POOR LOCKE is all I've got to say!!!

[shooter]

I think the blast doors were originally supposed to be down all the time. When the hatch occupant, probably only one person ("I am here" as opposed to "We are here"), needs to get out for a food delivery or whatever, he types in the numbers and has 108 minutes to get back into the hatch before it locks down again.

Thoughts?
thats enough to drive anyone there mental, to be confined in that small space. Some made this point in a stcky that the doors came down to let the occupants know the food package had arrived, and that keeping them inside the blast doors would protect them from injury if the package "landed" on them in the jungle. If this was the case, then why would the occupants go outside if the package was falling from the sky? All dharma needed to do would send a signal like a loud alarm or something to signify the package will be landing. There must be more to the doors coming down.

[Hells_Storm]

maybe the blast doors were a sign that the food has been dropped off (like a signal) and the blacklight was to show where the food would be maybe?

also how did nobody spot anything flying over to drop it off ? i personally dont think it was dropped by plane and mybe by something on the mountain or from the hatch to give food out bit by bit so it keeps the people in side scheduled to their meals so that they do not run out?

[lost/wwe fan]

I think the blast doors came down because of the food supply drop. Dharma doesn't want the people inside to come out while they do this so that the people in the hatch won't know more then they should.

[Erstwhile Lurker]

perhaps the hatch occupants are locked in so they don't see than an airplane does not drop the supplies, that they are placed there in a way to make it seem to the hatch occupant that the supplies come by plane. My thinking is they don't want the hatch occupants to know that they there are other means of access to the island.

Of course we think Zeke is in charge and since zeke knows that desmond (last "official" hatch occupant) is not there, why would they still go thru with this exercise?

I don't know

[CinTex]

This is not making sense to me,

If the Blast Doors are for keeping the hatch people in during the food drops then how could the countdown be reset if both hatchies are in the black light room?

I do think its probable that the Doors come down when 'contaminents' are approaching the island, especially since this hatch is the quarentine one.

I just can't see how the countdown and lockdown can co-exsist.

Some one show me what I am missing here please.

[Girona]

But the computer wasn't in that room, so the point could not have been to lock people in to protect them from the food coming down. I mean, who would push the button if they were locked up?
"Henry" found a way around the doors, yes, but surely that wasn't the original idea.

Maybe you can control the doors from one of the other hatches, and maybe the Dharma-crew or The Others closed them because they needed to do something.

[lost/wwe fan]

Maybe those weren't the only blast doors. Maybe you were supposed to get locked in the room with the computer but Locke messed up when he yelled at Henry.

[DarkDragoon]

perhaps the hatch occupants are locked in so they don't see than an airplane does not drop the supplies, that they are placed there in a way to make it seem to the hatch occupant that the supplies come by plane. My thinking is they don't want the hatch occupants to know that they there are other means of access to the island.

Of course we think Zeke is in charge and since zeke knows that desmond (last "official" hatch occupant) is not there, why would they still go thru with this exercise?

I don't know
Yeah that's what I'm thinking now, that the blast doors come down to keep the occupant from knowing that the food wasn't dropped off by a plane.. so they don't know about all the other people and researchers on the island. But like you said, if the Others know that Desmond isn't there anymore.. and that there are all these people around (to witness the fact that there was no plane,) why would they still bring food?

[Erstwhile Lurker]

the time to enter the code will not always coincide with the supply drop/lockdown.
you can enter the numbers at anytime after the alarm starts beeping - so over time it varies, the numbers are not always input every 108 minutes. It was an unfortunate coincidence in this episode I think, specifically created by the writers.

[CinTex]

Maybe those weren't the only blast doors. Maybe you were supposed to get locked in the room with the computer but Locke messed up when he yelled at Henry.

I thought this at first, but then why are all the notes done on this side of the door?

Its obvious that people are in this room when those door go down. Now maybe there is writing on the other side of the door as well but we don't know that yet.

[CinTex]

the time to enter the code will not always coincide with the supply drop/lockdown.
you can enter the numbers at anytime after the alarm starts beeping - so over time it varies, the numbers are not always input every 108 minutes. It was an unfortunate coincidence in this episode I think, specifically created by the writers.

OK I can see this, this would mean though, that the lockdown should not last longer then the window in which yu can enter in the numbers right?

Because the Dharma people would have had to plan for this eventuality.

[Soy_Un_Perdido]

I have to agree with what many are saying, the blast doors came down to keep the hatch occupant inside while the food drop is being made. Once the hatch doors come up, the occupant can go and retrieve the food.

[shooter]

But the computer wasn't in that room, so the point could not have been to lock people in to protect them from the food coming down. I mean, who would push the button if they were locked up?
"Henry" found a way around the doors, yes, but surely that wasn't the original idea.

Maybe you can control the doors from one of the other hatches, and maybe the Dharma-crew or The Others closed them because they needed to do something.
right on, i agree, this makes total sense.;)

[dcsipe]

What kind of person were they trying to keep in? The Hulk? Let's think logically here people, a "blast door" would be totally unneccesary if you were only trying to contain a human.

Blast doors are for protecting inhabitants from outside forces. That's why they're called "blast doors".

Plus, like it's already been stated, if you had to enter the code every 108 minutes, that theory wouldn't work.

Something else happened on the island. It may/may not have had anything to do with the supply drop. Remember how the words "Quarantine" were written on the exits of the Swan? This was what kept the people in. Desmond thought the outside world was destroyed. Why would he think a plane would be out there? They've so far down, there's no way he would have heard the plane.

[chaz]

Why did noone hear the plane? I think it is because the island or hatches did something to everyone who was not inside the blast doors. Sawyer and Jack were playing cards during the day but when he was walking back to the hatch it was pitch black. Maybe they had an episode of "lost time". The blast doors would keep the occupants safe from this phenomenon.

[WyomingBob]

I am starting to think that Dharma is populated by a roomful of monkeys that control everything that happens on the island. :shock:

This way EVERYTHING is truly randomized. :D

[johnny_sack]

I have what I think is a really good theory - surprised no one said this.

I think the blast doors came down to CONTAIN something in the hatch while they were dropping the food so it wouldn't affect the flyover.

I.e., a plane is flying over to drop off the supplies. They drop the doors to contain something in the hatch so that the plane will not be brought down like the losties plane was when it came near the island.

Once the plane is gone the doors can go up without worrying about affecting anything.

[Beet]

I don't think the blast doors are necessarily meant to keep people locked inside that one room. There was a countdown, before the doors dropped which could give someone a chance to move to where ever they wanted before the doors dropped IF they knew the doors would be dropping.

My thought is that since there are "supposed" to be two people assigned to the hatch for button duty, that when the alarm sounds one can leave to scout the food, while the other remains inside to enter the code every 108 minutes. I think the locked doors could be a precaution to keep whoever stays behind to push the button safe.

[shamish]

I believe it was for one of 2 reasons.

Sombody has tried to gain access to the hatch and an alarm system has become activated (Or in this case probably try and escape).

Or the most likely option.

Supplies were coming in and they've put the hatch on lockdown to stop whomever is in the hatch from going outside.

[StarLighter]

Could the fact that Locke wasn't on time entering the numbers a few eps back be a clue?

[Static Universe]

Apparently blacklight/utlraviolet is used to sterilize, so the doors come down, one guy gets food, one stays in hatch, then afterwords the blacklights come on and sterilizes the disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet

[Motion]

I have what I think is a really good theory - surprised no one said this.

I think the blast doors came down to CONTAIN something in the hatch while they were dropping the food so it wouldn't affect the flyover.

I.e., a plane is flying over to drop off the supplies. They drop the doors to contain something in the hatch so that the plane will not be brought down like the losties plane was when it came near the island.

Once the plane is gone the doors can go up without worrying about affecting anything.

I don't think thats a good theory at all. We have no reason to believe anything like that was in the hatch. When was the last time we saw the black smoke inside the hatch?

[shooter]

Everyone is assuming that the food supply was dropped at the moment the blast doors came down. There is no proof whatsoever of this. For all we know, that food supply could have been there for days, or weeks. Afterall, I dont think its very often that Jack or LOcke go travelling through the jungle on the way to the hatch at night time, other wise they may have seen the white flashing light. So the food supply could have been there before, and wouldnt jack and Kate heard something of that size landing in the jungle, breaking branches and trees as it came down? of course they would have. Plus at night, sounds are much easier to distinguish and a plane would have been heard along with the supply landing. Something else is involved with the doors coming down.

[turner1220]

I have what I think is a really good theory - surprised no one said this.

I think the blast doors came down to CONTAIN something in the hatch while they were dropping the food so it wouldn't affect the flyover.

I.e., a plane is flying over to drop off the supplies. They drop the doors to contain something in the hatch so that the plane will not be brought down like the losties plane was when it came near the island.

Once the plane is gone the doors can go up without worrying about affecting anything.

I think that this is a good theory.
Who is to say that the blast doors are protecting someone inside the hatch. I think that the supply drop in made from far above the island so the plane that drops it doesn't crash into the island and that way noone can see or hear the plane. The supply drop is pulled to the island my the force of whatever is behind the concrete wall in the hatch and the blast doors come down to protect the computer from the force.

[shooter]

I think that this is a good theory.
Who is to say that the blast doors are protecting someone inside the hatch. I think that the supply drop in made from far above the island so the plane that drops it doesn't crash into the island and that way noone can see or hear the plane. The supply drop is pulled to the island my the force of whatever is behind the concrete wall in the hatch and the blast doors come down to protect the computer from the force.
i dont know man, sounds unrealistic, the force behind the concrete??? no way....

[illwill215]

I think the blast doors were originally supposed to be down all the time. When the hatch occupant, probably only one person ("I am here" as opposed to "We are here"), needs to get out for a food delivery or whatever, he types in the numbers and has 108 minutes to get back into the hatch before it locks down again.

Thoughts?


good theory

[badger7]

The fact that there was an announcement before the doors came down makes me think that the blast doors weren't part of a standard procedure like a food drop. The entering of the code isn't explained beforehand, it's just a klaxon that the occupants already know the meaning of. I think this is something that there's a procedure for, but isn't expected to happen.

Also, this message was one that the writers kept secret from the viewers by making the tannoy malfunction - so I'd expect it to be quite helpful in explaining the function of the hatch and/or the whole Dharma operation.

Then there's the food-drop itself: It means that the island/experiment or whatever it is that's going on is still known about and being supported by someone outside of the island (single-handedly destroying 90% of the Dharma theories on this forum).

[Wolfwood78]

The only things that I know for sure is that
1) This lockdown appeared to be a known event. (Ample warning was given via loudspeaker)
2) The food drop is scheduled and meant for the swan station(the swan is all over the packaging
3) there was someone on the inside who drew the map
4) The button was still pushed even though there was a "lockdown"
5) This island is being supported by someone/something exterior.

I am sure there are other sure things.


Anyone else find it funny that Henry Gale shows up not too long before the supply drop? I think someone was craving some Dharma Corn Flakes.

[MyFav]

[QUOTE=Anyone else find it funny that Henry Gale shows up not too long before the supply drop? I think someone was craving some Dharma Corn Flakes.[/QUOTE]
That is what I said in another thread that I think that the fake Henry is the replacement for the Swan and someone dropped off some fresh supplies for him.

[lenny666]

While Locke is examining the speaker in the hatch, it emits what sounds like feedback squeal. This would seem to indicate that the source of this transmission was nearby. Perhaps the signal is emitted by whatever aircraft is making the Dharma food drop. But, what if the signal is coming from 'them' and the blast door are not related to the food drop at all? We know "they" (or at least Walt or an imposter Walt) has accessed the hatch computer in the past. What if the idea was to keep whoever was in the hatch from pressing the button? Is it possible that "they" somehow managed to hack into the computer & trigger this lockdown?

I think the UV light/decontamination idea has a lot of merit. It might explain a bit how the map ended up there, perhaps drawn by a(former) island resident who was forced to spend a long period of time in a quarantine situation. But knowing how things go w/ this show, I could be way off, too!

Also maybe it's not the correct thread for this but it occurred to me that a hot air balloon could be an ideal way to supply air drops on an island without the people below noticing. Not trying to imply that "Henry's" balloon is the one, but the thought did cross my mind. Fly over at night, set the strobe to activate after the balloon is out of sight...

[eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

For reference, is there a link or picture showing the relationship of the blast doors to the living areas in a schematic?

[ericcoaster]

While Locke is examining the speaker in the hatch, it emits what sounds like feedback squeal. This would seem to indicate that the source of this transmission was nearby. Perhaps the signal is emitted by whatever aircraft is making the Dharma food drop. But, what if the signal is coming from 'them' and the blast door are not related to the food drop at all? We know "they" (or at least Walt or an imposter Walt) has accessed the hatch computer in the past. What if the idea was to keep whoever was in the hatch from pressing the button? Is it possible that "they" somehow managed to hack into the computer & trigger this lockdown?

I think the UV light/decontamination idea has a lot of merit. It might explain a bit how the map ended up there, perhaps drawn by a(former) island resident who was forced to spend a long period of time in a quarantine situation. But knowing how things go w/ this show, I could be way off, too!

Also maybe it's not the correct thread for this but it occurred to me that a hot air balloon could be an ideal way to supply air drops on an island without the people below noticing. Not trying to imply that "Henry's" balloon is the one, but the thought did cross my mind. Fly over at night, set the strobe to activate after the balloon is out of sight...

Here are my thoughts. Dr. Candle said that there must be absolutely no contact with the outside world. The supply drops probably involve people in the vicinity of the hatch or the island, so I believe that the blast doors and the sounds that came over the speaker beforehand are directly related to the supply drop, and they are to prevent any contact with others by locking down the hatch.

[j.nc]

ductwork. If it is so important to keep someone "in" the hatch during supply drop so as to avoid contact; then don't you think they'd block off the ductwork (which Kate and Henry crawled through so easily) too?

and anyone not manning the button had plenty of warning to wonder off into the jungle before the doors closed.

Respectfully, I don't think that supply drop containment theory stands up but i like the level of thinking going on. Nice ideas.

-j

[chrismo16]

I think I have a good theory to explain this! I have been going nuts trying to understand three things. Why would the doors close when the drop was made, how the drop is "incompatible" with pressing the button and how someone could make that map on the door if it is rarely down. This has lead me to believe that the losties have been using the button incorrectly all along!

This experiment began a loooong time ago. Desmond and the losties received instructions on the hatch by word of mouth from one participant to the next as well as an edited Orientation video. I think that the instructions, like all stories passed down by story telling, have been modified and extorted. Kind of like rumors that start out as the truth but become more distorted/exaggerated with each new person that hears it. OK, now for the theory:

The original set up of the hatch was a little different. The "button" was originally in the living quarters, the blast doors were always down, and the hatch was quarantined. Every 6-8 months, the occupants would push the button and have 108 minutes to unload the food from the drop and stock the pantry. The reason they would come back before the 108 passed was: the virus is outside and the food, shower, bed, music, etc is in the hatch (possitive reinforcment ala BF Skinner). The injections were to protect them for the short period of time it took to go out side and get the food. It wasn't meant to be a long term cure/vaccine due to its limitations or the quantity of vaccine available.

Someone decided to use the vaccine and the 108 minutes to explore the island and pieced together the map after many trips. I think this is what Dr. Candle was referring to as incorrect use of the system and caused the incident.

OK. Now this theory may not be 100% accurate and may need some tweaks but I think its going in the right direction. One idea I was toying with was the room that has the computer now could have been a place the Dharma scientists observed the inhabitants of the hatch. This would throw a few things off though (hence the tweaks).

[Sugar&Spice]

I think it was done by Dharma (others, whoever) to get Henry to do something (associated with the weird blacklight stuff). I don't think it was random or an innocent thing. I think it was probably planned and had to do with Henry from the beginning. If the others/people can speak through that old computer, it's not too far of stretch to think they can make doors come down in the hatch. jmo

[ArtzPieces]

I was thinking that the doors were not for keeping things in, but it was to keep stuff out.

The broadcast was there to inform them of the drop and that they have to get out before the doors close. Since the hatch was quarantined, maybe the doors was some kind of measure to keep the virus from entering the hatch when the person opens the door to get food. The other person would then just stay in the hatch to keep watch while the ultraviolet clears the hatch of any virus that may have seeped through.


IF the lockdown has nothing to do with food, it may have just been the occasional virus spring cleaning that the hatch does and the message was just a reminder to stay clear of the doors.

[mmaja]

Did anyone notice that Locke was yelling SHUT UP to Henry, just before door closed. He yelled "SHUT up" and we could hear the doors start moving, and on the second "SHUT up", doors closed. It reminded me of "Open Sesame" from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. I know that there were some sounds coming from the speakers, but that can be connected with the food suply that came in the same time. Doors may be closed just because Locke said "shut" very loud.

[mystwoman]

If you were watching the hatch to see when people would come out, boxes dropping from the sky would be a good hint. Maybe bears and boars attacked the boxes and chutes in the past. otr worse.

If the code refreshes the security system, then somehow maybe the coincident departure of individuals from the hatch might activate the security system toward them and destroy the food. (or the individuals).

How does the security system skip the dropping chutes? What is its range?

AND WHY DONT THEY HEAR ANY PLANES? Wouldn't they feel/hear the chutes dropping if they landed like that so close to the hatch?

Maybe a chute landed on somebody, the "incident" the film speaks of. So keeping them in the lock down prevents this.

[honestjoe]

The only way that the food drop and the blast doors are connected is if indeed a plane flew over and made the drop DURING the lockdown. In that scenario some assumptions would have to be TRUE:

under typical/usual circumstances the island's "unusual magnetic fluctations" in conjunction with the computer make any kind of flight over the island impossible, so something has to be turned ON or turned OFF, to allow the cargo delivery plane to cross over the island. Whatever this special procedure might be, it requires that the computer go into a special mode, one that REQUIRES triggering the blast doors down for protection.

BUT THAT IS THE ONLY WAY THE 2 ARE CONNECTED! and even then the delivery plane could have possibly flown higher than the island's "magnetic reach" since it was just making a drop, so there would be no need for the computer's help (hence no need for the blast doors to lockdown).

Im sorry but i find these ideas:

lockdown to protect from falling cargo,
lockdown to keep people from seeing the drop,

do not fit plausibly in an actual cargo airdrop scenario.


For one thing the cargo was not "freedropped" (thrown without a chute), it was "low-velocity dropped" on to the island using 2 chutes (in what is known as an A22 Cargo Bag):

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/big_vendetti/A22cargobag2.jpg

Thus the cargo was falling at a controlled rate of descent, one that would not in any way risk injury to those below (unless they were helpless idiots trying to be hit). Not only that, but usually a drop requires two teams, one in the air, but more importantly, one in the actual dropzone (on the GROUND). Typically cargo is airdropped into a clearing (not woods) and even then it is helpful if not necessary to see its descent, especially if there is to be a good chance of recovering it.

In the case of making a night time drop in a wooded jungle, which includes lots of moutainous terrain, its impossible that anyone would ever find the cargo by anything other than dumb luck (or DAYS of searching), if they DIDNT see where it was dropped (since they would have been locked down in a underground dwelling per the existing theory).

Also, what would it matter if the operator did or did NOT see who/what dropped the cargo? What could they do about it? Nothing! Plus, if it was really such a concern that 2 people in the hatch might see "it" (that a lockdown would be needed), then what about the 40+ people running around freely on the island? How come they werent locked down? And even better yet, how come they didnt see or hear any "drop"?

And add this to the mix, how the heck is one person gonna bring all those goods back to the swan station in less than 108 minutes? That is a lot of back and forth action for one person. In order to make sure the timer doesnt run out, one person out of the two would have to always stay on timer-duty, while the other went to fetch the food. Given what looks like at least 1000 pounds of food, add to that the distance from the actual landing site to the hatch, and you have alot of work cut out for whoever it who has to retrieve all that stuff by himself.


So i think the lockdown and drop are completely UNconnected. Unless the two events did occur at the SAME TIME: inorder to allow "free" flight access over the island, the computer had to "disarm" some "device" (thats usually in "ARMED" mode). This "mode" consequently led to/triggered the doors to come down to create a buffer or safety zone for the computer operator. Its unclear wether the island is always stuck in "crash mode" so everything in its "forcefield" always crashes, or if the opposite is true.

IF the opposite were true (where flight over the island does NOT require computer intervention) then i dont see a need for the blast doors to come down, or for anything "special" to happen in the hatch in the first place. The plane could go about its business and you (in the hatch) could go about yours. All "they" would have to do is signal you AFTER the food was dropped. Why bother locking you down? Since no one above heard or saw the plane, what chance would you (in the hatch) have to know about or be concerned with it in the first place? They could drop it and simply signal you (using whatever method/device) that the drop was already done with, so go get the food, um, IF you can find it!! Though i dont know how you would, since you were (according to the airdrop-lockdown-are-connected theorists) LOCKED AWAY from seeing where it dropped.


Let's say the Swan Station was meant to be locked down while you were supposed to be out getting the food, what would be the point of locking down the living quarters? If "they" intended for you to leave during the lockdown so you could (as some suppose) go and retrieve the food, then why protect the NON-VITAL areas of the hatch? Why not lock the area around the computer instead, since thats much more worth protecting? also, HOW MUCH OF THE FOOD COULD YOU RETRIEVE IN ONE TRIP ANYWAY? Based on the lockdown for food retrieval theory, then it would be necessary to lock the hatch down MULTIPLE times, because there is NO WAY that you would be able to bring all the goods back in ONE TRIP (and in UNDER 108 minutes), NO WAY.

Unfortunately for Locke he was got caught on the wrong side (stuck in instead of out). Locke had a 50/50 chance of being on one side or the other, so the lock down would NOT necessarily mean that you are supposed to be locked in. It could just as easily leave you locked "out" as opposed to locked "in".

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/big_vendetti/lockedownsyndrome.jpg

Since a warning and countdown on the amplifier preceeded the lockdown, chances are it was intended to be the initiation of a certain procedure by the operator who heard it, so long as he/she was familiar with what they were supposed to do next in the scenario. I believe what they (hatch operator) were supposed to do during lockdown is to be in the computer room (with blast doors down to protect them from the "magnetic" side of things) and await further instructions, VIA the computer. But we were stuck with Locke in the middle the whole time, so we have no idea if those instructions ever came, and what they may have been. Henry on the other hand, was there and could have received such instructions.


the "Other" possibility:
the only other thing the blast doors could have been doing is providing "Henry Gale" with an opportunity to be communicated with. Clearly the others are aware he has been missing. If the others do have control over the hatch and are aware the LOSTIES have captured him, then they could have triggered it (the entire lockdown scenario) to buy him some sort of chance to be alone at the computer (i.e. communicate). Henry had time and opportunity to leave Locke and the hatch behind, but didnt, so i dont think he was meant to or even cared to escape. So i think his mission is to gather intelligence on the LOSTIES, otherwise he would have taken off. But his being "trapped" doesnt serve any purpose (to Dharma or the Others) if he cant relay any of his gathered intelligence back to his superiors. So the lock down scenario bought him enough time to get to the computer and send them (Others) whatever info it was that he sent them.


Think about the blacklight diagram and "I AM HERE" statement. I am 99% sure Gale wrote that there to show his people EXACTLY where he was, and by exact i mean literally where he must have been standing when he wrote it because the drawing is pointing with a sharp point of an arrow to a very specific spot.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/big_vendetti/iamhereduh.jpg

If this was STAR TREK i would even guess that Gale was attempting to be "beamed up" and thats why he pointed towards his EXACT location (j/k). Anyway, it does NOT make sense to point out to yourself where you are (unless you suffer from BIG TIME AMNESIA). The "I AM HERE" designation only makes sense if you were pointing it out to somebody else, as in: "this is where i am, please come and get me" or "this is where i am, its safe to turn on the blacklight" or "this is where iam, and HE (locke) is NOT" or whatever actually did happen during the weird sequence of events (after Henry disappeared from our view).


Anyway, my belief is that the drop was NOT made for the hatch operators but for the LOSTIES themselves. Though we dont yet officially know how Dharma brought the plane down, we do know that they did. So if they went through the trouble of bringing all of these specific people here, then they need them to be alive. The first things that all humans need is protein (after water-which the 1st most important). So i wouldnt be surprised if the food is a necessary part of the plan. To keep people alive you have to feed them so boom! you drop in some Dharma Initiative Maccaroni and Cheese. Plus everyone watching the show has been asking "the food question" constantly for a few episodes now. They had to do something to help squelch our skepticism. Well now we can finally shut up (for awhile at least) about why Hurley is still fat or why no one has lost any weight, and why the show isnt more realistic about food (like "Survivor").

Keep in mind BTW that we have NO idea how long the food has been there. So how we can guess that it arrived during that LOCKDOWN hour is beyond me. There is not one single direct piece of evidence to officially link the two events. Yes they are both anomalies and they happened during the same episode. But they dont seem related (except for what i said in the first paragraph about the computer and planes and the island). Otherwise, i think it was done to intentionally to make us think the two are related and confuse our focus as to why the lockdown really occured.



SOME LINKS TO info about CARGO DROPS:

EXACT PROCEDURES of DROP ZONES (includes math and numbers): http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/57-38/Ch6.htm

PRECISE types/methods of AIRDROP (where i identified the A22 Cargo Bag): http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/4-20-41/fm4-20-41.pdf

history of procedure (plus some good specifics):
http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/WWII/aerial_supplies.htm

I highly recommend you take a look at all 3 links, but definitely the first 2, they are as complete a guide as you are gonna find anywhere on the topic, guaranteed.



BTW- i say plane cuz after some research i found that the kind of package we see dropped could not have been dropped out of anything else -except a helicopter. Actually, a helicopter is a more realistic possibility, and maybe even be more likely to have been used in the LOST airdrop scenario, since we only see one pallet, and since apparently no one heard anything.

The problem with both planes and choppers is noise. But from what i could gather (and info is limited about the covert abilities of planes and choppers in general), the helicopter makes significantly less noise than a cargo plane. Examples i found of Helicopter's stealth (for attack not cargo delivery) were some of the Apache Missions from Desert Storm (http://www.afa.org/magazine/perspectives/desert_storm/1091apache.html) and their ability to surprise the enemy because of their quieter approach, and also the V22-Osprey Helicopter (http://www.special-operations-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=1132)came up. The trade off is that cargo helicopters can not go anywhere near as far as cargo planes. So various pros and cons of plane vs. helicopter method of cargo delivery depend on the logistics as well as the overall size of operation thats involved.



SOME ALREADY EXISTING METHODS OF SILENT AND DISTANT CARGO DELIVERY THAT COULD WORK (QUIETLY) REGARDLESS OF WHAT FORM OF DEPLOYMENT WAS USED (PLANE, HELICOPTER, ETC.):

hi-tech gps:
http://www.gpsworld.com/gpsworld/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=119570

hi-tech new method:
http://www.strongparachutes.com/military/ScreamerPrecision.html

hi-tech new method:
http://www.army-technology.com/contractors/logistics/capewell/press8.html

military's latest versions:
http://www.special-operations-technology.com/print_article.cfm?DocID=394


+some other helpful relevant sites:

http://www.qmfound.com/riggers.htm

http://www.qmfound.com/aerial_delivery.htm

http://www.airbornesystems-na.com/cargo.html

http://nsc.natick.army.mil/about/airdrop/content.htm

http://www.butlerparachutes.com/smart.htm



2 GLOSSARIES with relevant terminology:

http://www.bragg.army.mil/aas/ASOP/APP. B-GLOSSARY.doc
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/documents/panama/glossary.htm





In closing i wanted to say that yes i know this is the "Why the blast doors came down" thread, but the cargo drop and the blast doors seem incestuously linked in everyone's minds and theories, so i could not address one without having to attempt to completely dispel the other. Plus i like the less hysterical/frenzied and more mellow vibe of this "alternative" (not so mainstream) thread so far, so i trusted that my unabridged theory would be better understood/responded to here (versus the cargo drop thread- where btw -no one heard any of my points though i tried very early on to convey them).

thanx shooter.
;)

[mystwoman]

if the magnetic force is so strong it makes people's fillings hurt maybe it becomes stronger during the drop to signal location for the chutes.

Maybe the blast doors shield the computers from extra massive heightened electromagnetics. That makes sense.

But let's say somebody is shlepping food while someone remains behind the blast doors. How can the dharma-droppig powers that be not know there are "others"?

If the others grabbed the food-gatherer and forced him to the hatch, they still couldn;t penetrate the blast doors. The operator inside could notify the Lhasa Apso powers that be that a monkey wrench was in the spoke.

Maybe that's how Kelvin died, if "henry Gale" isn't kelvin.

[treegorn]

I'm thinking the whole blast doors coming down is a test for locke. He was to late pushing the button a few episodes ago so now he gets punished for that.
As a result the button couldn't be pushed at all (if henry wasn't there) and we saw the map on the blast doors. It can not be a coincidence that the blast doors come down on the excact moment the button can't be pushed.

[mystwoman]

Treegorn, picture this:

If Locke wants to see more of that map, he'll have to engineer getting someone inside the main chamber and have them NOT punch the numbers.

Only KATE could snuggle through the airways to get into the main room if the blast doors close. I bet Locke engineers a "lockdown" (do you remember how the place heaves and the metal clashed when he almost didn't make it?)

I bet if he effects a lockdown with maybe kate there to climb thru, he can read the map again and kate would never know.

I think the security systems noises are a cover for the noises of the hatch. You mean nobody ever heard the music or the sirens or the vibrations from the blast doors shuddering?

if I was a polar bear and I smelled human stuff i would circle the hatch until I found human kebab hiding inside.

[maeve71]

WHY does everyone think the others are working for Dharma??

I don't get that, it makes NO SENSE.

If anything, the others are Dharma SUBJECTS, people who were experimented on by Dharma and have now gone "feral" I don't see how they could possibly be the ones supplying the hatch. That is ridiculous, IMO

I also don't see why everyone thinks the blast doors come down to lock people into the living quarters. The annoucement said "Proceed to Terminal" It was locking them OUT of the living quarters.

Is the UV light there for decontamination purposes?

[chrismo16]

Anyway, my belief is that the drop was NOT made for the hatch operators but for the LOSTIES themselves. Though we dont yet officially know how Dharma brought the plane down, we do know that they did. So if they went through the trouble of bringing all of these specific people here, then they need them to be alive.

Remember this thing has been going on for 20+ years. We have only seen 60 days of it and i don't think this specific cast of island inhabitants fit the usual parameters of the original experiment. I don't think everything that happens is tailer made for the Losties. Things may have been rearranged for them but thats it. Couldn't Dharma have created this place a long time ago and abandoned it and someone else has taken over (Widmore??).

I don't think this experiment has gone on unchanged for that long. I still stand by my theory. (not that I feel u were trying to debunk it)

Im sorry but i find these ideas:

lockdown to protect from falling cargo,
lockdown to keep people from seeing the drop,

do not fit plausibly in an actual cargo airdrop scenario.

Agreed.


And add this to the mix, how the heck is one person gonna bring all those goods back to the swan station in less than 108 minutes? That is a lot of back and forth action for one person. In order to make sure the timer doesnt run out, one person out of the two would have to always stay on timer-duty, while the other went to fetch the food. Given what looks like at least 1000 pounds of food, add to that the distance from the actual landing site to the hatch, and you have alot of work cut out for whoever it who has to retrieve all that stuff by himself.

According to my theory, both would get the food.

Your layout of the hatch posted above leads me to question my theory. If they are always locked in then why would the bed area be cut off?


One more thing. If you watch the Orientation vid (sorry no screen caps) you can see a section of the hatch's dome missing. This reminds me of all the movies/shows/cartoons that have a structure like this with a telescope or weapon that retracts into the dome. Could this have been a magnetic device that directed the drop (and possibly other things) to the hatch? Maybe this was dismantled after the incident? Just a guess.

[Kadonnut]

To honestjoe...

I think the lockdown and the food drop are related.

I think there are two groups (one in the air and one on the ground near the hatch) in normal circumstances. And when talking about normal circumstances I mean people in the hatch are following orders and there aren't "outsiders" (losties) on the island.

We didn't hear what woman said when he was warning about upcoming lockdown. Maybe she told they have to stay in living quarters so they will be locked down (and that's what happens if they follow orders).

And the food drop is scheduled but because losties captured the hatch there wasn't the ground team. So they couldn't unpack the food drop and move packages into the hatch (so it's not button pushers' work).

So while blast doors are down they are supposed to just wait until food is inside the hatch.

[Remus Lupin]

WHY does everyone think the others are working for Dharma??

I don't get that, it makes NO SENSE.

If anything, the others are Dharma SUBJECTS, people who were experimented on by Dharma and have now gone "feral" I don't see how they could possibly be the ones supplying the hatch. That is ridiculous, IMO

I also don't see why everyone thinks the blast doors come down to lock people into the living quarters. The annoucement said "Proceed to Terminal" It was locking them OUT of the living quarters.

Is the UV light there for decontamination purposes?

NOBODY thinks that the Others work for Dharma, because the Others ARE Dharma, if you haven't got that already! Ever watched 2x15: Maternity Leave?

[sucko]

WHY does everyone think the others are working for Dharma??

I don't get that, it makes NO SENSE.

If anything, the others are Dharma SUBJECTS, people who were experimented on by Dharma and have now gone "feral" I don't see how they could possibly be the ones supplying the hatch. That is ridiculous, IMO

I also don't see why everyone thinks the blast doors come down to lock people into the living quarters. The annoucement said "Proceed to Terminal" It was locking them OUT of the living quarters.

Is the UV light there for decontamination purposes?

i don't think they're dharma subjects gone ferrel. if that were the case, then the costumes that the "bearded man" and the others use don't make much sense to me. also, the "bearded man" quotes alvar hanso after they warn the losties not to go beyond a certain point.

as for why the doors came down, i still have no idea. most of the theories that i've heard are inconsistent with the vents not being blocked off. it's not a very good quarantine procedure if you leave vents open to the other room. of all the people who potentially drew on the blast door wall, if they were stuck there, that means none of them ever thought about using an air vent to get out (or they were all too big to fit through).

if they were locking them out of the living quarters, i also can't make sense of that. who would be the ones locked in that drew on the walls? and why protect the non-vital parts of the hatch?

honestly, i haven't heard a theory about the blast doors i find plausible yet.

[DonVon]

i think the doors came down because the plan flew overhead. it was time for a food drop off and wenever a plane flies over the island the hatch goes into lockdown. the lockdown is to ensure that no attempt to contact the outside world is made (such as trying to wave down the plane). i think desmond experienced a lockdown in his days as a button pusher because when he first met locke and kate, they told him the plane crashed 44 days ago. he seemed like he rememberd something 44 days earlier...a lockdown. so wen he left the hatch for good he was probably on his way to something that he had seen on the map on the blast door.

[Noetic]

i think the doors came down because the plan flew overhead. it was time for a food drop off and wenever a plane flies over the island the hatch goes into lockdown. the lockdown is to ensure that no attempt to contact the outside world is made
Either that, or the lockdown stops the magnetic stuff from crashing the plane...

[shooter]

Everyone is assuming that the food supply was dropped at the moment the blast doors came down. There is no proof whatsoever of this. For all we know, that food supply could have been there for days, or weeks. Afterall, I dont think its very often that Jack or LOcke go travelling through the jungle on the way to the hatch at night time, other wise they may have seen the white flashing light. So the food supply could have been there before, and wouldnt jack and Kate heard something of that size landing in the jungle, breaking branches and trees as it came down? of course they would have. Plus at night, sounds are much easier to distinguish and a plane would have been heard along with the supply landing. Something else is involved with the doors coming down.
i hate quoting myself, sorry everyone, i dont want it to seem that i like the sound of my own ideas, but I didnt read anyones response to this point and im hoping im not alone when i spoke about the blast doors and food drop possibly being unrelated. I beleve what i wrote above in this quote makes sense, and i still beleive that the blast doors coming down have opened up a passage way connecting the swan hatch to either the other hatches, or a central controll station. any thoughts?????
By the way, HONEST JOE, you kick some serious ass man, good research in quote #46, good work!!!:D :D :D

[Kadonnut]

Well there's a hole in this plastic covering the food drop and when Jack and Kate comes to drop Kate shows a cardboard package what contains macaroni & cheese supper. If the food drop has been here for days those packages should be wet. But this package is dry so it hasn't been here for days or weeks.

[shooter]

Well there's a hole in this plastic covering the food drop and when Jack and Kate comes to drop Kate shows a cardboard package what contains macaroni & cheese supper. If the food drop has been here for days those packages should be wet. But this package is dry so it hasn't been here for days or weeks.
thats a good point, but maybe it hasnt rained in that area for a few days, and if it did, then maybe the food just dried quicky, after all its like 104 degrees in the shade on that island.:)

[FeelLikeANut]

My theory for the lockdown:

http://www.lost-forum.com/showpost.php?p=1073538&postcount=100

[kintax]

This is not making sense to me,

If the Blast Doors are for keeping the hatch people in during the food drops then how could the countdown be reset if both hatchies are in the black light room?

I do think its probable that the Doors come down when 'contaminents' are approaching the island, especially since this hatch is the quarentine one.

I just can't see how the countdown and lockdown can co-exsist.

Some one show me what I am missing here please.

I agree with you. The countdown and the lockdown do NOT coexist. At least... not purposely.

I've never posted here before, but this episode was incredible and complex, and I have been trying to piece things together for days now. This is going to be very long and detailed, so skip it if you don't want to invest the time, skip to the end.

Here's my take.

Blast doors like that are not cheap, and there'd be no reason to lock up the library/rec room if the idea was to keep outsiders away from the hatch, or insiders inside the hatch. They would only be needed on the entrances/exits to the hatch. Also, if the idea was to lock people inside the hatch for some reason, there would not be a countdown, because this would give them time to get out.

So, if the doors don't come down to keep people in, and they don't come down to keep people out, what the hell are they for? Well, clearly I have something in mind so... let's get to it.

When Locke checks the timer, it reads 47 minutes.
He hears a loud ping over the speakers, and a few seconds later a voice says:

garbled... (but possibly 'seconds to')
lockdown

The time from the ping until the scene cut is 17 seconds.
When we come back to scene, the lady's voice continues:

please proceed to the....
garbled... (possibly 'front')

This takes 24 seconds, then she counts down from 10, at which times the blast doors come down, trapping Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie in the trash compactor (what a wonderful smell you've discovered!) So that's 17+24+10 (51) seconds, with a commercial break... This leads me to believe that the voice was announcing that the blast doors were going down in 60 seconds.

Now the blast doors are down, Gale seems legitimately scared, and the lights are flickering. Some people have suggested that this flickering is morse code, but I think that's ridiculous, as it continues for the next 46 minutes or so, until the doors eventually open.

Outside, seemingly at the same time this is going on, it is very bright, although a bit overcast, and a poker game is going on. The show cuts to the poker game often, which means we lose track of the exact timing of the events going on in the hatch, but because we know everything happens within about 46 minutes, we can piece things together pretty well I think.

Now Gale and Locke chat it up a bit, they try and open the door, Locke gets trapped underneath. I think about 30 minutes pass between the doors coming down and Locke being trapped. It doesn't seem nearly this long when you're watching, but outside at the poker game, Jack has played quite a number of poker hands, enough to get Kate and Hurley to want to pick up the 'let's see who's bigger' vibe, and Jack has just busted Sawyer, who was the chip leader, or papaya leader as the case may be. That takes a decent amout of time. Plus, Locke was futzing around a bit trying to lift the blast door himself, was talking to Gale a lot, etc.

When we come back from commercial, I think its about 10 minutes after Locke becomes trapped, leaving about 6 minutes until the counter expires. Locke tells Gale about the numbers, and tells him to go reset the counter. Gale begins to climb into the shaft when he slips and appears to lose consciousness, or at the least, f himself up pretty bad, because he ain't moving. 2 seconds after he falls, the 4-minute warning alarm goes off.

Cut to the poker game, Jack wins the meds, it's bright out still, clearly daytime. More on why this matters later.

Cut back to hatch, in the next 45 seconds, Locke yells for Gale to wake up, Gale miraculously does so, and begins to stand up.

The next thing we see, Gale's head is poking through through the grate and he climbs into it. This takes 15 seconds. At the end of the 15 second span, the 1-minute super warning alarm goes off.

So in the span of 3 minutes, Gale knocks himself out, wakes up, climbs into a grate in the middle of a 10' high ceiling which he had previously nearly killed himself atttempting, and begins to make his way down a shaft. I have a major problem with this. But whatever. Let's assume he's Spiderman. And Wolverine too, judging by his healing ability.

Locke yells after Henry for the next 27 seconds (33 seconds til counter expires), then there's a flashback, then we return to Locke, and the extra super fast 10-second alarm is going off. 11 seconds later we hear the flickers of the counter begin to expire/reset, and the mechanical "jet-engine warmup" sound. 5 seconds later the lights go out. 5 seconds later the flickers and the sound stop, and the blacklight comes on. 35 seconds later the lights come back on. 5 seconds later the doors begin to open, and 10 seconds later they are all open. Locke pushes away from the door and yells for Gale for 15 seconds.

Now we cut to Locke dragging himself into the PC room. It's a safe bet that Locke went directly into this room as fast as he could, to check on the timer. As Locke enters, Gale is nowhere to be found, and the timer clicks on 107. This means that 60 seconds ago the timer was at 108. Gale comes in the room and helps Locke to his feet.

Let's backtrack. If we figure it took Locke 25- 30 seconds to crawl into the pc room (its only a few feet from the library), the the timer reset to 108 the moment either a. the lights come back on b. the blast doors begin to open. However, we didn't hear any flicking noise when these events occurred. The answer? Read on.

When we come back from commercial, it's pitch black out, Jack and Kate find the supplies, and Sayid etc come in with the news about Gale.
We cut to the hatch where Gale has just put Locke down after helping him to a couch. Shortly thereafter, Jack etc come down and confront Gale. The end.

Now, I'm almost ready to answer the question, why do the blast doors come down, but first, a slight tangent.

If it was daylight when the 4-minute timer sounded, which seems to be the case from the poker scenes, how, a short time later when Gale carried Locke to the couch, was it pitch black outside as Jack talked to Kate, torches in hand? This is very problematic, as the only explanation is A. the poker game happened at a different time than the events in the hatch B. the island goes from super bright to pitch black in 10 minutes, but no one's ever mentioned it C. It took Gale 2-3 hours to put Locke on the couch D. the producers/writers did not expect us notice this E. The producers/writers screwed up. I believe D or E to be the most likely, and I'll get into why shortly

Ok, now. What the hell happened?

-It is unlikely that the supplies have been on the island for very long, because A. people take that route (beach to hatch) a lot B. the stuff looked new and untouched by rain, animals, bugs, etc.
-The supplies came out of nowhere by air with a parachute, which means that a. a plane dropped them b. somehow they were "shot" onto the island from someplace, kinda like a cannonball or something. I think B is unlikely.
-No one saw or heard the deliverer of the supplies, nor did they notice the huge parachute on its way down.

I think the writers needed it to be dark when the supplies were found, to explain why no Losties saw the supplies on the way down. The only problem with this theory is... the supplies also had a strobe light on it. You might say, at night, this would be a huge blinking bulb quickly moving dropping through the sky - so day or night, the supply drop would be hard to miss. But maybe the light was set to turn on when the package touched down - sounds possible. I suppose another, simpler explanation is that, regardless of whether it was dropped in daylight or night, no one was looking up. Either way, the fact that it went from day to night in the course of 5 minutes is, from what I can tell, a major continuity error.

I believe that the woman in the recording was announcing the arrival of the supplies. I believe that the blast doors came down not to shield anyone on the island from the supplies deliverer, but to shield the deliverer from the island. Everything that approaches this island crashes, be it boat, baloon, or plane. I believe that this is due to a magnetic/electric/other field that the island emits, the power/cause of which is located in the center of the 6 bunkers. Putting down the blast doors shields this field enough that it does not screw up transportation vehicles, thus giving the deliverer time to fly over the island and drop its payload of supplies. I believe that there were dozens of blast doors that went down throughout the island - we just saw the ones in Swan. Actually, there were probably more that went down in Swan that we didn't see.

The blast doors opened when the countdown timer expired. But if the countdown timer and the lockdown aren't related, why would the countdown timer make the doors open? I believe the timer expiration causes a "network reboot" (past occurances of "intranet failures" are mentioned on the hidden map on the blast door). Thus, the timer runs out, some sort of shutdown process runs (the jet engine sound), the lights go off (system shut down entirely), blacklights (which use much less power I believe) go on (initiation of reboot), 35 seconds later the doors open and the lights go on as the network reboot is completed, power is restored, and everything is reset. The timer, which had been set to 108 after the hieroglyphs came out but did not run because the network was rebooting, now begins to run, explaining why we didn't hear the timer reset after the lights came on, and why it was just getting to 107 when Locke arrived, rather than 106.

Had the timer not run out, the blast doors would have opened after a set period of time, perhaps an hour, enough time to give the supply deliverer ample time to get over the island without crashing.

-eric
ClickProtector
Detect and Deter Online Click Fraud (http://www.clickprotector.com)

[The Cube]

The only problem with this theory is... the supplies also had a strobe light on it. This could be missed in the daylight as it fell from the sky, but probably not at night, where it would be a huge blinking bulb quickly moving dropping through the sky. But heck, maybe I'm reading into it too much, I suppose another possible explanation is that, at whatever time it dropped be it day or night, no one was looking up. If that's the case, then the fact that it went from day to night in the course of 5 minutes is simply a continuity error.

-No one saw or heard the deliverer of the supplies, nor did they notice the huge parachute on its way down.


Who's saying that no one saw the parachute? Why do you think Sayid, Charlie and Ana Lucia showed up there? Coincidence that they were close enough to the strobe just like Jack and Kate? Or the more likely explanation that they saw it drop out of the sky and went in that direction?

As for the blast doors, too much of a coincidence with the timing of the drop. Maybe something to do with neutralizing the effect of whatever is was that crashed the plane at the start of the series, so that this plane could make its drop without crashing.

[shooter]

Who's saying that no one saw the parachute? Why do you think Sayid, Charlie and Ana Lucia showed up there? Coincidence that they were close enough to the strobe just like Jack and Kate? Or the more likely explanation that they saw it drop out of the sky and went in that direction?

As for the blast doors, too much of a coincidence with the timing of the drop. Maybe something to do with neutralizing the effect of whatever is was that crashed the plane at the start of the series, so that this plane could make its drop without crashing.
interesting thought, but you think the writers would have one of the characters say that "we saw this thing coming down and wow, here it is!" Charlie would have probably said it best, but i think we definatley would have known by the writers if the three did see it.:)

[The Cube]

interesting thought, but you think the writers would have one of the characters say that "we saw this thing coming down and wow, here it is!" Charlie would have probably said it best, but i think we definatley would have known by the writers if the three did see it.:)

What? And answer all the questions for us and not keep us guessing?;)

[songohan]

Let´s make a game:

Supply plane is near the dropping point. Signals the "hatch" for his dropping. The hatch needs to answer. Countdown stops and the computer is waiting for a confirmation. Probably another code. Locke stopped in front of the screen, with 47 minutes to go... to soon for pinching the code... Henry was arrested... and locke is still on the nerve that henry was/not was one of the others.... he couldn't talk about it.
Probably when the doors gone down, henry was doing is job. If he got to the shaft on is first try, locke wouldn't watched the map. Henry was late to pinch the code to the lockdown being desactivated and normal activities resume... he has to shut down everything to reboot the countdown without any problem. That was what he has done in the 60 seconds that locke crushed to the room... rebooting the system back to normal operation, without any "accident".

[Puzzled]

For reference, is there a link or picture showing the relationship of the blast doors to the living areas in a schematic?

http://lost-forum.com/showthread.php?t=14883 This might be what your looking for

[redemptionX]

I am a fan of the "Henry is Kelvin" idea. Or at least in the know, but not an other. I think he was headed to the hatch when captured by the french lady. He's plan was to simply, enter the code to accept the food drop. The blast doors block the Mag field from disrupting the plane with supplies as well as protect the "data entry" guy from "the sickness" as one of the two assigned hatchers must brave the quaritined outdoors to bring in the goods. The UV lights then cleans the food retriever.

[mbutterfly14]

I think that they are all in a snowglobe and some kid is shaking things up!!! or WAIT, it's the island where Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer are. That's why we haven't seen any of them.

ok, ok. Here's something. Maybe, just maybe there are two people in the hatch and one person is locked in the living area while the other is monitoring them from the outside. The doors are down the whole time, then when the food comes they open the doors and restock the supply closet that has all the food in it.

Just a thought. I really hate guessing 'cause you just get really disappointed when you find out what really happened.

(hey shooter man how's it goin'? How's your hot model wife??:D :D :D )

[Mr.Guybrush]

I think we need to go back and try and work a few things out here.

When this bunker was first made, it was designed to have the blast doors come down. It was created to close people into the bunker, to make sure they didn't go outside. The map on the blast door also implies that the blast doors would come down for large periods of time. Not something that was a quick 5minute job.

Why would that be? If it was a simple food recon exercise for the bunkerites. Then you would imagine it would take alot less time. Ultimatly, the map could have been written as the years went by. But its interesting to spot that all the hand writing is similiar. Therefore it could not have been Desmond who drew the map. It could well have been Kelvin who drew the map. However looking at that map again, the handwriting (imo) is writen by 3 people. We have one person who like to underline their notes, we have someone who writes the letter E like a backwards 3, and we have a very natural free flowing font that appears to be someone well edcuated (writing in lots of latin).

Therefore we must consider that this map has been left down the ages of bunkerites. Allowing them to add notes as they went along. Interestingly i don't think Desmond ever knew about it, if you think about it. When this lockdown would occur, he would ALWAYS be in with the computer, so he would never have seen it.

The lockdown and the airdrop obviousally coincide. The blast doors are meant to quartine the living section, allowing the computer to continue being pressed, while allowing the other bunkerite to go outside and seek out the food. What i'm confused about, is if Desmond never went outside to retrieve this food, how was he restocked? Perhaps, the food was actually brought to them? That would join a few dots, as the blast doors would be lowered, perhaps the 'loaders' were the ones who drew the map?

[FeelLikeANut]

It [the blast doors] was created to close people into the bunkerWe don't actually know that. That's just how it happened this time. Depending on where Locke was at the time, he could have been closed inside the computer room, or outside of the hatch entirely. He was locked inside the living area because that's just where he happened to be when the doors came down.When this lockdown would occur, he [Desmond] would ALWAYS be in with the computer ...Why? There was still plenty of time before the button needed to be pushed. Desmond could have been eating, sleeping, excercising, doing laundry, etc.The blast doors are meant to quartine the living sectionHow do we know that? Maybe there are more doors that close off other areas. We could not see any other room in the hatch during the lockdown so we don't know what might have happened elsewhere.



We need to be careful not to assume too much, because we actually know very little.

[DamRho]

OK, here's my two cents on the blast doors...

They came down to prevent whoever was operating the hatch to leave while the food drop was being made. Not to hide the food drop from them but to prevent them from trying to escape. If you're left alone in a hatch you will eventually get tired of pushing a button and you will want to just get away from it (hell, Desmond sure got away the first chance he got). If they have some plane/helicopter/something dropping food maybe they perceived it as a chance for the hatch operator to escape so they close the blast doors to keep him there in his button-pushing duties instead of thinking of ways to escape.

[#Ash]

OK, here's my two cents on the blast doors...

They came down to prevent whoever was operating the hatch to leave while the food drop was being made. Not to hide the food drop from them but to prevent them from trying to escape. If you're left alone in a hatch you will eventually get tired of pushing a button and you will want to just get away from it (hell, Desmond sure got away the first chance he got). If they have some plane/helicopter/something dropping food maybe they perceived it as a chance for the hatch operator to escape so they close the blast doors to keep him there in his button-pushing duties instead of thinking of ways to escape.I don't think so as they could escape anywhen, and why would a blast door be nessacary to keep them in?

[DamRho]

I don't think so as they could escape anywhen, and why would a blast door be nessacary to keep them in?

If they escaped any other ocasion they wouldn't leave the island and they were probably scared of what would happen if they didn't push the button. Desmond at least was.

[shooter]

I think that they are all in a snowglobe and some kid is shaking things up!!! or WAIT, it's the island where Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer are. That's why we haven't seen any of them.

ok, ok. Here's something. Maybe, just maybe there are two people in the hatch and one person is locked in the living area while the other is monitoring them from the outside. The doors are down the whole time, then when the food comes they open the doors and restock the supply closet that has all the food in it.

Just a thought. I really hate guessing 'cause you just get really disappointed when you find out what really happened.

(hey shooter man how's it goin'? How's your hot model wife??:D :D :D )
i must warn the mods that mbutterfly is off her medication again:shock: :shock: , which ultimately means the world is in grave danger!!!!!!!! JUST KIDDING, BUT NOT REALLY!!:D I still smell smoke, you must really have been thinkin hard on that theory!!:D but it is interesting. my wife is fine thanx, welcome to the forum!:D

[sucko]

first of all, i love this post. very objective, very fact based, as logical as possible with regards to this show.

my only question is how blast doors effect an electromagnetic field? i was under the impression that the metal blast doors won't dampen one in any way.

also people were clearly locked in there for long periods of time or very frequently. most people are assuming supply drops come every 6-8 months, and if they're only locked in there for the amount of time necessary to not screw up the airplane, im surprised that anyone would feel the need to write detailed maps of the island during a few hours twice a year. so at some point there were major power outages that left people inside the blast doors for long periods of time.

and why did they need to write these maps just during these times? why no other maps or other work indicating the investigation of the island? is this the only time that they feel they're not being spied on (by who or whatever would spy on them)?





I agree with you. The countdown and the lockdown do NOT coexist. At least... not purposely.

I've never posted here before, but this episode was incredible and complex, and I have been trying to piece things together for days now. This is going to be very long and detailed, so skip it if you don't want to invest the time, skip to the end.

Here's my take.

Blast doors like that are not cheap, and there'd be no reason to lock up the library/rec room if the idea was to keep outsiders away from the hatch, or insiders inside the hatch. They would only be needed on the entrances/exits to the hatch. Also, if the idea was to lock people inside the hatch for some reason, there would not be a countdown, because this would give them time to get out.

So, if the doors don't come down to keep people in, and they don't come down to keep people out, what the hell are they for? Well, clearly I have something in mind so... let's get to it.

When Locke checks the timer, it reads 47 minutes.
He hears a loud ping over the speakers, and a few seconds later a voice says:

garbled... (but possibly 'seconds to')
lockdown

The time from the ping until the scene cut is 17 seconds.
When we come back to scene, the lady's voice continues:

please proceed to the....
garbled... (possibly 'front')

This takes 24 seconds, then she counts down from 10, at which times the blast doors come down, trapping Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie in the trash compactor (what a wonderful smell you've discovered!) So that's 17+24+10 (51) seconds, with a commercial break... This leads me to believe that the voice was announcing that the blast doors were going down in 60 seconds.

Now the blast doors are down, Gale seems legitimately scared, and the lights are flickering. Some people have suggested that this flickering is morse code, but I think that's ridiculous, as it continues for the next 46 minutes or so, until the doors eventually open.

Outside, seemingly at the same time this is going on, it is very bright, although a bit overcast, and a poker game is going on. The show cuts to the poker game often, which means we lose track of the exact timing of the events going on in the hatch, but because we know everything happens within about 46 minutes, we can piece things together pretty well I think.

Now Gale and Locke chat it up a bit, they try and open the door, Locke gets trapped underneath. I think about 30 minutes pass between the doors coming down and Locke being trapped. It doesn't seem nearly this long when you're watching, but outside at the poker game, Jack has played quite a number of poker hands, enough to get Kate and Hurley to want to pick up the 'let's see who's bigger' vibe, and Jack has just busted Sawyer, who was the chip leader, or papaya leader as the case may be. That takes a decent amout of time. Plus, Locke was futzing around a bit trying to lift the blast door himself, was talking to Gale a lot, etc.

When we come back from commercial, I think its about 10 minutes after Locke becomes trapped, leaving about 6 minutes until the counter expires. Locke tells Gale about the numbers, and tells him to go reset the counter. Gale begins to climb into the shaft when he slips and appears to lose consciousness, or at the least, f himself up pretty bad, because he ain't moving. 2 seconds after he falls, the 4-minute warning alarm goes off.

Cut to the poker game, Jack wins the meds, it's bright out still, clearly daytime. More on why this matters later.

Cut back to hatch, in the next 45 seconds, Locke yells for Gale to wake up, Gale miraculously does so, and begins to stand up.

The next thing we see, Gale's head is poking through through the grate and he climbs into it. This takes 15 seconds. At the end of the 15 second span, the 1-minute super warning alarm goes off.

So in the span of 3 minutes, Gale knocks himself out, wakes up, climbs into a grate in the middle of a 10' high ceiling which he had previously nearly killed himself atttempting, and begins to make his way down a shaft. I have a major problem with this. But whatever. Let's assume he's Spiderman. And Wolverine too, judging by his healing ability.

Locke yells after Henry for the next 27 seconds (33 seconds til counter expires), then there's a flashback, then we return to Locke, and the extra super fast 10-second alarm is going off. 11 seconds later we hear the flickers of the counter begin to expire/reset, and the mechanical "jet-engine warmup" sound. 5 seconds later the lights go out. 5 seconds later the flickers and the sound stop, and the blacklight comes on. 35 seconds later the lights come back on. 5 seconds later the doors begin to open, and 10 seconds later they are all open. Locke pushes away from the door and yells for Gale for 15 seconds.

Now we cut to Locke dragging himself into the PC room. It's a safe bet that Locke went directly into this room as fast as he could, to check on the timer. As Locke enters, Gale is nowhere to be found, and the timer clicks on 107. This means that 60 seconds ago the timer was at 108. Gale comes in the room and helps Locke to his feet.

Let's backtrack. If we figure it took Locke 25- 30 seconds to crawl into the pc room (its only a few feet from the library), the the timer reset to 108 the moment either a. the lights come back on b. the blast doors begin to open. However, we didn't hear any flicking noise when these events occurred. The answer? Read on.

When we come back from commercial, it's pitch black out, Jack and Kate find the supplies, and Sayid etc come in with the news about Gale.
We cut to the hatch where Gale has just put Locke down after helping him to a couch. Shortly thereafter, Jack etc come down and confront Gale. The end.

Now, I'm almost ready to answer the question, why do the blast doors come down, but first, a slight tangent.

If it was daylight when the 4-minute timer sounded, which seems to be the case from the poker scenes, how, a short time later when Gale carried Locke to the couch, was it pitch black outside as Jack talked to Kate, torches in hand? This is very problematic, as the only explanation is A. the poker game happened at a different time than the events in the hatch B. the island goes from super bright to pitch black in 10 minutes, but no one's ever mentioned it C. It took Gale 2-3 hours to put Locke on the couch D. the producers/writers did not expect us notice this E. The producers/writers screwed up. I believe D or E to be the most likely, and I'll get into why shortly

Ok, now. What the hell happened?

-It is unlikely that the supplies have been on the island for very long, because A. people take that route (beach to hatch) a lot B. the stuff looked new and untouched by rain, animals, bugs, etc.
-The supplies came out of nowhere by air with a parachute, which means that a. a plane dropped them b. somehow they were "shot" onto the island from someplace, kinda like a cannonball or something. I think B is unlikely.
-No one saw or heard the deliverer of the supplies, nor did they notice the huge parachute on its way down.

I think the writers needed it to be dark when the supplies were found, to explain why no Losties saw the supplies on the way down. The only problem with this theory is... the supplies also had a strobe light on it. You might say, at night, this would be a huge blinking bulb quickly moving dropping through the sky - so day or night, the supply drop would be hard to miss. But maybe the light was set to turn on when the package touched down - sounds possible. I suppose another, simpler explanation is that, regardless of whether it was dropped in daylight or night, no one was looking up. Either way, the fact that it went from day to night in the course of 5 minutes is, from what I can tell, a major continuity error.

I believe that the woman in the recording was announcing the arrival of the supplies. I believe that the blast doors came down not to shield anyone on the island from the supplies deliverer, but to shield the deliverer from the island. Everything that approaches this island crashes, be it boat, baloon, or plane. I believe that this is due to a magnetic/electric/other field that the island emits, the power/cause of which is located in the center of the 6 bunkers. Putting down the blast doors shields this field enough that it does not screw up transportation vehicles, thus giving the deliverer time to fly over the island and drop its payload of supplies. I believe that there were dozens of blast doors that went down throughout the island - we just saw the ones in Swan. Actually, there were probably more that went down in Swan that we didn't see.

The blast doors opened when the countdown timer expired. But if the countdown timer and the lockdown aren't related, why would the countdown timer make the doors open? I believe the timer expiration causes a "network reboot" (past occurances of "intranet failures" are mentioned on the hidden map on the blast door). Thus, the timer runs out, some sort of shutdown process runs (the jet engine sound), the lights go off (system shut down entirely), blacklights (which use much less power I believe) go on (initiation of reboot), 35 seconds later the doors open and the lights go on as the network reboot is completed, power is restored, and everything is reset. The timer, which had been set to 108 after the hieroglyphs came out but did not run because the network was rebooting, now begins to run, explaining why we didn't hear the timer reset after the lights came on, and why it was just getting to 107 when Locke arrived, rather than 106.

Had the timer not run out, the blast doors would have opened after a set period of time, perhaps an hour, enough time to give the supply deliverer ample time to get over the island without crashing.

-eric
ClickProtector
Detect and Deter Online Click Fraud (http://www.clickprotector.com)

[mbutterfly14]

Hey thanks for the welcome. It's amazing the amount of theories that are out there

[bubbajo]

I think that the blast doors coming down and the food are totally unrelated. the others know everything about the losties, so i think they are watching them and have been since the beginning. they know that 'henry' is being locked up and want a way to get him out of there. they may have waited till jack had left- thinking he was going to follow Anna and he would be a while, and then knowing there would only be locke in the hatch, try to get him out. so they set up the whole blast doors coming down to trap locke and to help 'henry' either escape or earn lockes trust so he could intergrate into thier society like ethan. who knows what he was doing when he left locke lying there to go push the button. he was probably communicating with the others on the computer.

[beantotherescue]

I really thought that the balst doors came down to punish Locke because he messed up when entering the numbers that one time and whoever is controlling the hatch wanted to wit till Locke was alone and trap him there. Thats what I thought before but I think the food drop makes more sense now.

[kintax]

first of all, i love this post. very objective, very fact based, as logical as possible with regards to this show.

my only question is how blast doors effect an electromagnetic field? i was under the impression that the metal blast doors won't dampen one in any way.

also people were clearly locked in there for long periods of time or very frequently. most people are assuming supply drops come every 6-8 months, and if they're only locked in there for the amount of time necessary to not screw up the airplane, im surprised that anyone would feel the need to write detailed maps of the island during a few hours twice a year. so at some point there were major power outages that left people inside the blast doors for long periods of time.

and why did they need to write these maps just during these times? why no other maps or other work indicating the investigation of the island? is this the only time that they feel they're not being spied on (by who or whatever would spy on them)?


First off, thanks for the kind words! Judging from the posts after mine, few read mine, but that's fine, it was LONG. :)

You're right, Sayid et al may very well have seen the plane, the parachute/light in midair, or the light after landing. But that doesn't change any of my theories. My real issue with the parachute was that it was found in pitch black darkness, when the entire episode had been bright daylight and only 50 minutes or so had passed.

Now, on to the good stuff. You raise interesting questions. From the evidence we have, nothing can approach the island without crashing if "the Force" is active. Thus, in order for any plane to come make a supply drop, the Force would have to be "off", or at least, "on but not strong enough to hurt the plane"

Metal doors do in fact hinder EMF. I'm no physicist, so please don't rip me apart too badly if I make some technical mistakes, but from what I could find, EMF is directed to metal kinda like the way a lightning rod works. The EMF continues around the metal until it finds an outlet, at which point it continues on its merry way. Thus, if there are a few metal walls on the island, it would not protect anyone very much, except perhaps things that are directly behind the wall. But if there is a metal SPHERE, the EMF will continue to traverse the sphere rather than permeate it. See this link for more info (http://www.lessemf.com/faq-shie.html#Lead-Copper)

Jack and Sayid found some 8-10' thick concrete walls around the bunker. Hey guess what? Concrete is also used as EMF shielding. See (Conductive Concrete (http://home.earthlink.net/~hallmark_cl/id5.html)). We see from the map that the bunkers surround the core. When these blast walls come down, are they not actually meant as walls, but rather puzzle pieces, completing the concrete-metal sphere that contains the Force eminating from the core?

Now, let's think about this a bit, because there's a flaw in my logic. The people in the hatch do not get sick or go crazy. So the Force does not run into the hatch, presumably because of the concrete shielding. So why would the metal doors need to come down to stop the EMF from escaping, if the EMF isn't there in the first place? I really don't have an answer for this, I do have a theory though. The 6 bunkers all appear to have led to the core at one time. In this situation, the only way to stop the EMF from escaping through the bunkers would be to drop the doors. Perhaps they are relics from when the core/bunkers were being built, after which time, the corridors leading to the core were collapsed. Removing the blast doors even though they were no longer required would be a waste of time and money, and besides, an extra layer of protection couldn't hurt, so they'd be left in place.

I admit, it isn't the strongest theory. But it works.

Oh yeah, one other thing. In researching EMF, I came across some CRAZY stuff (see this link (http://www.angelfire.com/or/mctrl/) for example). As it turns out, EMF is used not only to disable electronics, but also as a weapon to "slow-kill" people a la lead poisoning (explains the sickness), and... hold your breath... for mind control experimentation (explains the smoke, the whispering, and possibly why they were brought to the island). Maybe everyone knew this already, but I didn't.

Good questions about the map. I don't yet have a solution I'm happy with yet to the "why the hell would they write secret messages in invisible ink on the back of a metal door that comes down once every few months?" issue. I've been thinking about it though and will post when and if I come up with something.

Eric
Detect and Deter Click Fraud (http://www.clickprotector.com)

[shooter]

awsome research, i like your ideas , everything flows together nicely.;)

[TechTabs.com]

The reason I think that the hatch went into lockdown is that it sensed an aircraft near by and it was a protection thing.

I think when Flight 815 crashed a lockdown accoured too. And when the real Gale crashed it happened too.

[beeker]

I cant get my head round this whole lockdown is to stop the hatch occupants from going out and seeing the plane and heres why.

Why would u warn the people in the hatch that a drop is arriving? That makes no sense at all. Why not just do the drop and then tell them.

My opinion is that the blast doors are to protect and isolate the hatch itself. There has always been something on the island (probably the X in the middle of the map) that is a destrcutive force of somekind. The blast doors come down automatically if the destructive froce is activated. My feeling is that the "plane" making the drop set it off and deactivated it as it was an "official" plane.

The big question is which cam first the button pushing or the blast doors. i would suggest the blast doors if we belive there was an indcident.

From the map its looks like all the stations were linked up together. They had dangerous animals and possibly were conducting other dangerous activities so the blast doors were there to isolate the the stations if anything went wrong.

What i dont understand though is why were the blast doors not removed after the units were X'ed out or seperated.

My opinion is that the map was all written at one time during the incidant as the occupants of the swan hatch tried to work out what had happened from the information they would of recieved over the Pa system (which i feel is either one way or they were unable to get to due to a lockdown)

From what i can gather it would not be possible for the occupants of the swan hatch to gather the information on the map in the 108mins between the button needing to be pushed. Someone may want to confirm this but alot of the info on the map seems to be at least 1 days walk away not 50mins. Remember how long it took the tailies to get to the base camp. So i dont think that they went for an adventure i believe the info on the map was given to them and then recorded in one large block (even weeks) to create a sort of accident report.

I also think that we can assume that the drop was found sometime after the lockdown because it was dark.

If someone could be bothered to work our when Sayid and that found the grave where this was in the episode as that would confirm when they returned (it was around 1 days walk for them. This may be usefull to gather when the drop was found

[kintax]

>Why would u warn the people in the hatch that a drop is arriving?
>That makes no sense at all. Why not just do the drop and then tell them.

The warning is to tell them that the blast doors are coming down. If they don't get warned, then they won't have time to do whatever it is they are supposed to do before the doors come down, which is a. get inside the doors b. get outside of the doors c. whichever, just make sure you dont get trapped under a door.

>My opinion is that the blast doors are to protect and isolate the hatch itself.
>The blast doors come down automatically if the destructive froce is activated.

This is an interesting slant on my theory. Perhaps rather than the doors coming down to protect the plane from the core, maybe they came down to protect the hatch inhabitants from the core, which had to release some hardcore radiation/anti-EMF to counteract the island's natural EMF that causes everything to crash.

>The big question is which cam first the button pushing or the blast doors.

The button was not pushed, it expired.

>What i dont understand though is why were the blast doors not removed

Why bother? Cheaper just to leave them. This isn't a house that has to look nice or anything. It's a research project.

>From what i can gather it would not be possible for the occupants of the swan
>hatch to gather the information on the map in the 108mins between the button
>needing to be pushed.

You only need 1 person to push a button. For all but the last 3 years, there were 2 people in the hatch. So the other guy could be out exploring.

>If someone could be bothered to work our when Sayid and that found the
>grave where this was in the episode as that would confirm when they
>returned (it was around 1 days walk for them.

Sayid was a day's walk from the camp, if not more. Let's say 8-16 hours away. When they find the grave, it's pouring out, so it's hard to tell for sure, but it does look like it's very early morning, like 6am kinda early. When Jack starts playing poker, and the sh*t starts going down inside the hatch, it is bright daylight. As we near the end of the episode, it's about 45-50 minutes later, and the sky is still bright at the poker game as Jack walks off after winning the medical supplies.

Then in the final scenes (after the final commercial break) it's pitch black out as Kate finds Jack and the supplies, and then Sayid appears. With the knowledge of Henry Gale being a phoney, they probably would have hauled ass back to camp, so I have no problem with him making it back fast enough to have met up with Jack and the supplies.

What makes no sense is this: they walk to the hatch and arrive just after Gale sits Locke down on the couch and Locke asks him about the countdown timer. So even if we assume that the poker game ends just before it starts getting dark, either Locke waited at LEAST an hour (until it got pitch black dark) before asking Gale "What did you do to make the doors go up?", or there's a production error. The former seems very unlikely. I think the producers needed it to be dark because they need to explain why no one saw the supplies on the way down (if they had, they would have rushed to them)

[ehsteve]

this week's podcast pretty much confirmed htat hte lockdown and the food drop were related.

i think the reason for the lockdown could be really simple. basically the lockdown might not have been to keep people in, but to keep them out. we know that the hatch gave them about 20 minutes warning, so if it were designed to keep people in, then it's not done it's job well, it gave them warning, they can get out easily.

there are meant to be 2 people in the hatch. that could be one to do the computer and one to guard. maybe the Dharma scientists fear something or someone else on the islad who they don't want to get into the hatch, hense the quarantine.

so when there's a food drop, one of the guys is locked in the dome, safe and sound, and one is given time ot leave the hatch during hte lockdown (which is 20-30 minutes) which is enough time to get the supplies and return to the hatch, ready to guard again

well, it's just a theory, and it can have holes poked the hell out of it, but it make sense to me!:p

[FeelLikeANut]

From the evidence we have, nothing can approach the island without crashing if "the Force" is active.There is no such evidence. If a plane flys past the island without incident, we simply wouldn't hear about it. Also, we know that Desmond's fillings hurt when he came close to the magnetic field. His fillings did not, however, get pulled out of his mouth. If you need to be in very close proximity just to feel a mild effect then it certainly would not affect a plane that is thousands of feet away.

So the Force does not run into the hatch, presumably because of the concrete shielding.The concrete wall is only a small part that is within the hatch; it does not surround the entire hatch itself. This "Force" that you keep referring to is also an unknown, yet you make many blind assumtions about what it is, how strong it is, and how it works.

and ... for mind control experimentation (explains the smoke, the whispering, and possibly why they were brought to the island).How does mind control explain black smoke? How does mind control explain the selection of this specific group of people?

[beeker]

What i meant is that it seems like to many passages for nothing

action 1 alert the inhabitants to the fact that the supply is coming

action 2 advise inhabitants to get "inside"

action 3 activate lockdown

action 4 drop supply

what go to all that hassle when the inhabitants are advised not to leave the hatch unless required ie supply drops. Why not just do the food drop then alert the inhabitants. Thats what leads me to beilive that it is all totally automated when anything approaches the fact that it was a dharma drop meant that no further action was required by the island.

What i meant by which came first the button pressing or the balst doors was were the blast doors installed before the incident as it was the incident that requred the subsiquent button pushing.

there is no way of knowing that the hatch has only been inhabited by 1 person for only the last 3 years no evidence at all.

[FeelLikeANut]

there is no way of knowing that the hatch has only been inhabited by 1 person for only the last 3 years no evidence at all.Well... we have Desmond's word. So it depends on whether you think he was lying.

[beeker]

Well... we have Desmond's word. So it depends on whether you think he was lying.

we have desmonds word and the word of the person desmond was with and the person before them etc etc etc. Desmond was not really able to tell them much really was he so i think its safe to assume nothing

[shooter]

after reading everyones posts, and theres some great ideas out there, this thought just hit me. Like many other mechanical devices, when not in use for some time the device may have some minor problems or glitches that need to be corrected. In most cases, a routine "check" or inspection of the mechanical device assures the controllers that things are working smoothly and running well. If there is any problems, then is the time for repairs or maintenance. MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, the whole blast door activation was simply an annual or bi-annual event to confirm that everything is working well and functioning as it should. So that in the event the doors have to come down for the purpose they serve, they will work according to plan. Keep in mind, there is still no proof that the food drop is related to the blast doors, personally i dont beleive there is either, but like i mentioned, this could simply be a routine check, having them down for a short period of time may support this case. If there was some threat or danger, they likey would stay down for much longer. any thoughts????

[FeelLikeANut]

we have desmonds word and the word of the person desmond was with and the person before them etc etc etc.The question was whether there was only one person in the hatch for the past three years. Desmond first got to the hatch three years ago, so we don't need the word of anyone past Desmond.

[beeker]

The question was whether there was only one person in the hatch for the past three years. Desmond first got to the hatch three years ago, so we don't need the word of anyone past Desmond.


Ok then can you show me a time line starting from when the losties met Desmond going back to the first person or persons inhabitting the hatch. Chances are that you cant so we have no way of knowing

1. Who has oocupied the hatch

2. How many people have occupied it at one time

3. How long anyone has spent in the hatch


Because we dont know these things we cant just assume that one guy could go out and one can stay and do what ever.

[FeelLikeANut]

Ok then can you show me a time line starting from when the losties met Desmond going back to the first person or persons inhabitting the hatch.Why are you talking about looking back to the first person inhabiting the hatch?! Both my post (#90) and yours (#86) was talking about only the past three years.

[Natstar1983]

but I was wondering that maybe the blast doors came down cuz the supply drop was coming. Probably the supply drop is done every 6 months or so and then that happens because it just a warning the system doesnt know its a supply drop. I dunno I can be wrong...

[kintax]

There is no such evidence. If a plane flys past the island without incident, we simply wouldn't hear about it. Also, we know that Desmond's fillings hurt when he came close to the magnetic field. His fillings did not, however, get pulled out of his mouth. If you need to be in very close proximity just to feel a mild effect then it certainly would not affect a plane that is thousands of feet away.

The concrete wall is only a small part that is within the hatch; it does not surround the entire hatch itself. This "Force" that you keep referring to is also an unknown, yet you make many blind assumtions about what it is, how strong it is, and how it works.

How does mind control explain black smoke? How does mind control explain the selection of this specific group of people?

Well, everything that gets near the island crashes. 3 boats, a couple of planes, even a balloon. I don't know the history of every small island in the world, but I'd venture a bet that none of them has had 6 things crash into them while magically becoming unable to communicate by radio/radar/etc (or Danielle, Desmond, etc. surely would have been rescued). We don't know for certain that everything near the island crashes, but it seems a heck of a lot of things do. But hey, maybe I'm wrong, maybe these crashed vessels are specifically targeted by someone on the island, or by Dharma from the safety of San Fran or whatever. But as far as your statements... I think if a plane flew over the island without incident, we would DEFINITELY hear about it, as the islanders would be flipping out trying to contact it. And Desmond's filling are irrelevant. I'm not suggesting that the core produces a tractor beam (although it's quite possible that something on the island does). EMF doesn't pull people's fillings out, it drives them insane, causes severe joint and muscle stiffness, headaches and dizziness, rashes, etc. As far as its effects on electronic devices - well, you saw The matrix I'm sure. What the EMF hit the Moprpheus' ship it didn't tear the ship to pieces, it simply knocked out all the electronics.

How do you know that the concrete wall doesn't surround the entire hatch?

Inside the black smoke, we saw flashes from Eko's life. If there's no parapsychological or other-worldly explaunation for this, which the writers say is the case, then I think mind control explains it, or something along those lines. The smoke is some sort of... thing, which can read people's thoughts, especially those which are emotional/stressful.

I do not believe these people were chosen on purpose. I believe the plane was chosen on purpose, someone decided flight 815 was going down, but I do not think it is feasible that any outside force could somehow put any particular 300 people on a plane together and then ensure that a particular 70 or so of them survived a plane crash.

[beeker]

Why are you talking about looking back to the first person inhabiting the hatch?! Both my post (#90) and yours (#86) was talking about only the past three years.

What i am trying to get at is that the station may of been inhabited by only one person on more than one occasion throughout its existance. This would mean that it could easily of beeen written by someone other than desmond. Just because we know that he has been there for the last 3 years alone does not mean that he MUST of wrote it.

[ehsteve]

there is still no proof that the food drop is related to the blast doors, personally i dont beleive there is either

in this week's podcast they pretty much confirmed the 2 events were related

[beeker]

in this week's podcast they pretty much confirmed the 2 events were related


What this podcast and where is it? Is this where people seem to be able to ask the writers and stuff questions? it would be no use to me anyeay because i am in the UK and see the episodes roughly about 12 hours after aired in the US but it would still be interesting to know.

[shooter]

but I was wondering that maybe the blast doors came down cuz the supply drop was coming. Probably the supply drop is done every 6 months or so and then that happens because it just a warning the system doesnt know its a supply drop. I dunno I can be wrong...
if you read this entire post you will notice that this point seems to be the bone of contention among everyone.;)

[shooter]

if you read this entire post you will notice that this point seems to be the bone of contention among everyone.;)
sorry, i meant if you read the entire thread, apologies for that and for double posting:)

[FeelLikeANut]

Beeker, I misread what you wrote in your original post. You're right.

[FeelLikeANut]

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

[beeker]

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


Cheers this looks like something new and fun:w00t:

[antera309]

I found a few points interesting:

1) There was a blast door on the fake window behind the dining table. Why should there be a blast door there? All that's back there is an electric lamp that gives the "illusion" of daylight and a solid wall. Unless there's some sort of secret passage we don't know about....

2) Why do the blast doors only surround the living area? why not leave the living area and the computer room open to each other and seal off the two rooms together? It seems strange that the DI would want to deny the occupants of the Swan station the ability to press the button, regardless of whether it really does prevent something from hapenning or whether it's just a mind game. In either case, you would want them to keep pushing that button..

3) Why would the DI make the occupants of the Swan leave the facility to pick up the airdropped food? Leaving the facility violates the "Quarantine" and endangers the button pushing.

[elpaw]

2) Why do the blast doors only surround the living area? why not leave the living area and the computer room open to each other and seal off the two rooms together? It seems strange that the DI would want to deny the occupants of the Swan station the ability to press the button, regardless of whether it really does prevent something from hapenning or whether it's just a mind game. In either case, you would want them to keep pushing that button..
Maybe the blast door protocol was in use before the 108 minute button pressing "incident" protocol?

[redemptionX]

Henry=Kelvin
They lowered because of the food drop. But, He raised them ( from the comp room) to help Locke.
He'd come back to add info he'd gathered (since leaving Desmond) to his map.

[ItsABomb]

Personally, i think the Blast doors came down because the Hatch is old and glitchy, but there's why I think they are there...

they were put in after the incident, because DHARMA wants the button pushed. If the hatch is "compromised", it seals the button off with the button pusher inside, allowing them to continue their function until the situation has resolved itself. Perhaps if any sort of plane comes near the island, these blast doors drop, just in case the plane is a hostile force or something.

For this food drop, I can't see any reason why they'd want to keep the button pusher AWAY from the food. Wouldn't they be worried about 1) animals grabbing stuff, 2) the people in the hatch not finding the food and starving to death? I mean, I see the points about the button pusher leaving to get the food and forgetting about the button, but considering there were teams of two, it would seem likely they would just send whoever's NOT on shift to get it.

[shooter]

adding blast doors to an already existing structure is an engineering nightmare, not to mentiion a timely project. Those of us with an engineering background know what im talking about. Adding these doors to a structure like the hatch would involve an enormous task, in fact building a new hatch with the doors would probably be easier, you need to take into account the stress loads on the ceiling already and basically have a new "top" of the hatch engineered and built to accomodate these doors. I know theres more to it from a design standpoint but thiat is the jist of it. Im sure those doors have always been there from day one.

[AX10G]

Sorry I'm not going to read eight pages so I'll say what I gotta say now.

What were those weird signals before the doors came down (before the count down) And are we sure Henry didn't put in the code? I mean what if he let those symbols come up like Locke once did? Maybe this was just part of some sequence but it never completed till you decided not to put the numbers in? Anyways I hear tomorrow's episode will feature Henry revealing weird shit about the hatch so I can't wait maybe we will find out.

[FeelLikeANut]

And are we sure Henry didn't put in the code? I mean what if he let those symbols come up like Locke once did?Actually, I think Henry not putting in the code is just someone's pet theory. From the sounds we heard, it seems much more logical that he did put in the code. We hear the same sounds that Locke witnessed earlier: the timer runs out, the timer flips to hieroglyphics, some engine starts, presumably the code is entered, we hear the engine slow and stop, and we heard the timer once again flipping back to 108. The only difference this time is the black light being on for several seconds followed by the blast doors opening.

[shooter]

Actually, I think Henry not putting in the code is just someone's pet theory. From the sounds we heard, it seems much more logical that he did put in the code. We hear the same sounds that Locke witnessed earlier: the timer runs out, the timer flips to hieroglyphics, some engine starts, presumably the code is entered, we hear the engine slow and stop, and we heard the timer once again flipping back to 108. The only difference this time is the black light being on for several seconds followed by the blast doors opening.
i agree, and personally , along with a few others i noticed, i dont feel the blast doors and the timer/countdown are related.:)

[kintax]

I found a few points interesting:

2) Why do the blast doors only surround the living area? why not leave the living area and the computer room open to each other and seal off the two rooms together? It seems strange that the DI would want to deny the occupants of the Swan station the ability to press the button, regardless of whether it really does prevent something from hapenning or whether it's just a mind game. In either case, you would want them to keep pushing that button..

3) Why would the DI make the occupants of the Swan leave the facility to pick up the airdropped food? Leaving the facility violates the "Quarantine" and endangers the button pushing.

Who says the only went down around the living area? For all we know they went down all over the hatch.

Who says the supply drop was for the Swan inhabitants? Could be for the Others, the Losties (doubtful) or for someone else entirely.

[Cl1mh4224rd]

Some somewhat random thoughts...

- It makes no sense to me that the blast doors would separate the living area from the computer room. This would, at some point (like last week's episode) almost guarantee failure to enter the code.

Also, if the blast doors remained down for any significant length of time, yet giving someone enough warning to take up position in the computer room, it doesn't make sense to me that this person would be entirely cut off from food, drink, and the freakin' bathroom...

Then again, it makes no sense to me to have blast doors and yet not seal off the vents.

- The bunker already has to be naturally protected from whatever electromagnetic weirdness is going on, or else the computer would be severly screwed up. The tape machines in the background would be worthless as the EM field, if it could bring down airplanes, would wipe out any data on those tapes.

Also, if the blast doors are some kind of added protection from the outside, then there's really no need to seal off the individual rooms.

- Radio communication to and from the island is possible. Sam Toomey(sp?) and Leonard(?) heard "the numbers" that were broadcast from the island, and Hurley and Sayid picked up a radio station recently.

- One of theories about the black light, mentioned a few times already, also doesn't make any sense to me. If the black light was meant to be used as a sterilizer for people or things coming in from outside, then why the heck would it be in living area, rather than at each entrance? By the time you get to the living area, you've already contaminated half the bunker.

[satanna]

Some somewhat random thoughts...

- It makes no sense to me that the blast doors would separate the living area from the computer room. This would, at some point (like last week's episode) almost guarantee failure to enter the code.

Also, if the blast doors remained down for any significant length of time, yet giving someone enough warning to take up position in the computer room, it doesn't make sense to me that this person would be entirely cut off from food, drink, and the freakin' bathroom...

Then again, it makes no sense to me to have blast doors and yet not seal off the vents.

- The bunker already has to be naturally protected from whatever electromagnetic weirdness is going on, or else the computer would be severly screwed up. The tape machines in the background would be worthless as the EM field, if it could bring down airplanes, would wipe out any data on those tapes.

Also, if the blast doors are some kind of added protection from the outside, then there's really no need to seal off the individual rooms.

- Radio communication to and from the island is possible. Sam Toomey(sp?) and Leonard(?) heard "the numbers" that were broadcast from the island, and Hurley and Sayid picked up a radio station recently.

- One of theories about the black light, mentioned a few times already, also doesn't make any sense to me. If the black light was meant to be used as a sterilizer for people or things coming in from outside, then why the heck would it be in living area, rather than at each entrance? By the time you get to the living area, you've already contaminated half the bunker.


The doors only came down for about 50 mins im sure whoever would have been meant to be near the computer would have been able to hang on an hr without food and as for the toilet ... well its less than an hr so i guess theyd just have to wait! :)
the rest i think your right about. also the black light as a sterilizer? nah im sure that wouldnt work coz of the positioning you said about unless we just didnt see it near the main doors, i dunno the whole idea seems a little off to me! :D

[flicka8563]

i think that the garbled message coming out over the speakers is the most significant thing. it was attempting to give instructions to the inhabitants. but we have no idea what it was telling them to do or where to go. what if it told them to stay OUT of the living area? who says the walls were to keep someone IN? what if they chose not to go in at all???

[Vashner]

Think about it this way...

If the island has a self defense system.. it sees a plane and something drops out.

Maybe it's a bomb? so shields up.. BOOM. .no bomb.. shields down.

[flicka8563]

definitely possible, but i dont think the walls having all that stuff on them in the blacklight was just a coincidence... theyve got to have something to do w/ each other - hopefully not just a distraction or something

[Vashner]

That was Fake Henry flipping on the switch... :)

He loves to mess with Locke.

They need to have a meeting. Now everyone has these little secrets that are part of the puzzle :)

[shooter]

That was Fake Henry flipping on the switch... :)

He loves to mess with Locke.

They need to have a meeting. Now everyone has these little secrets that are part of the puzzle :)
vashner, i thinks your on to something:bowdown: maybe henry flicked a swithch to turn on the blacklight because there was information in the hatch that he was to gather for dharma, maybe codes or vital info. that could only be read by the black light, and then send it back to some main facility via the computer. interesting................

[tequila mama]

thats a good thought shooter, i will bet henry is communicating with dharma or his others and the black light was used to help read some codes or something.

[filostlover]

I think i'm almost having to agree with the people saying the doors are always shut and then they open when the food arrives, simply because the map drawn on the blastdoors would of taken quite awhile to draw, they certainly wouldnt of been able to do it all in the time locke was stuck under the doors. but then that means the blacklight would of been on all time for them to be able to draw the map...i don't know!

[DamRho]

I think i'm almost having to agree with the people saying the doors are always shut and then they open when the food arrives, simply because the map drawn on the blastdoors would of taken quite awhile to draw, they certainly wouldnt of been able to do it all in the time locke was stuck under the doors. but then that means the blacklight would of been on all time for them to be able to draw the map...i don't know!

What about the site with the whisper transcripts?! If that has some credibility then it's funny to see that someone remotely controlled those blast doors somehow to allow Fenry to escape...

[filostlover]

there's a site with whisper transcripts?!

[DamRho]

there's a site with whisper transcripts?!


Oh yeah. With MP3 to accompany them.
http://www.lostlinks.net/whispers.htm

Very interesting stuff in there. Some whispers seem to be guiding Fenry's answers during the interrogation as well.

[Vashner]

There is some spoilerage in them audio lol.. just FYI.

[filostlover]

sorry if theres a thread on this already, but where are these whispers from? is it like what sayid heard that time on his way back to the camp?

[shooter]

sorry if theres a thread on this already, but where are these whispers from? is it like what sayid heard that time on his way back to the camp?
yes pretty much. The whispers seem to accompany alot of scenes expecially when there is a scene in the jungle. If anyone has read the "collective consiousness" theory it might explain things a little better. This theory was @ the website www.4815162342.com by Andrew Smith, an AMAZING theory, but dont read it if you dont like spoilers:D Getting back on track, why were the blast doors closed again?

[drewster]

about the island magnatisem theory. I think it's true, and the reason why the plane came into the island and the key didn't even brake the hook is becuase i think the magnet turns on only when you don't push the exacut button. I think Henry Gail* or the baloon man, did hit it, and the huge rumble noise was the magnet starting up. the doors are to prevent everything metal from coming in and killing you.

This is just a theory though.

[drewster]

about the island magnatisem theory. I think it's true, and the reason why the plane came into the island and the key didn't even brake the hook is becuase i think the magnet turns on only when you don't push the exacut button. I think Henry Gail* or the baloon man, did hit it, and the huge rumble noise was the magnet starting up. the doors are to prevent everything metal from coming in and killing you.

This is just a theory though.

[fieryphoenix2501]

My thoughts:
Blast doors are blast doors. to stop an explosion from injuring people inside the hatch. Perhaps the geotheromal generator malfunctioned who knows.. ...yet.