Saturday 2 February 2008

Chapter Five Summary - That sinking feeling.

Sam's Story

  • Sam has decided to take affirmative action and speak to Ockham. He tells him that he found the co-ordinates in Talbot's cabin and mentions that they are currently within range of the co-ordinates and it's the only chance they'll get for the next three weeks to check it out. He points out that Ockham gets paid for three months regardless of when they find “Black Rock”.

  • Ockham agrees and they come up with a plan to reprogram the coordinates without Talbot finding out. Unfortunately this doesn't quite work out as planned and Talbot realizes something is amiss.

  • Talbot argues that his search grid is based off of coordinates from Magnus Hanso's journal which his “employers” have access to. He question what makes Sam think that they will find something at those specific coordinates and demands their course is reset.

  • Sam comes clean about how he acquired the coordinates, but that fails to help his argument, especially as Talbot claims the Maxwell Group makes no mention of him. Sam thinks Ockham is about ready to throw him overboard. However luckily for Sam the navigation equipment starts bleeping. “Mr. Talbot, I think we've found Black Rock," says Ockham.

  • While Ockham sets things up, Sam retreats to his cabin to get away from Talbot's angry glares. He finds a voicemail from Tracy. She is worried about him and wants to remind him that he is, “not alone”.

  • He also receives an email from Austral Air offering him a job with them. However Sam is not in a state of mind to think about this and writes a quick, polite reply rejecting their offer.

  • Sam checks out a weather forecast for the area of the Sunda Trench. Rough Seas are reported.

  • Finally he receives a final mystery email. This time, simply with the numbers 411151057. They are keeping it simple this time. It is hacker speak (Leet/l337) and says “ALL IS LOST”.

  • Having had enough of the emails, he heads up to the top deck. It may be his mind playing tricks on him, but he hears Sonya's voice calling him, “Sam...Sam...” He looks over the side and is sure he can see Sonya's face saying, “Love you madly.” Ockham comes up behind him to give him an update on the situation. He tells Sam, “This place can get to you”. Ockham tells him as soon as the weather clears Sam will get to drive one of the ROV's down to get a look at the Black Rock.

  • Sam takes the time to reflect in his video diary. He talks about his anniversary with Sonya and how he met her on the island “Tanna” in the Pacific.

  • Finally the weather clears and Sam takes control of an ROV. They appear to be at a depth of 480 feet (according to the numbers Ockham counts out as they lower the ROV).

  • After some maneuvering around the sea bed Sam spots something... “That's no ship,” says Ockham. Sam knows what it is right away. It is the wreckage of Flight 815. He is distraught. Talbot however just looks smug.

Epilogue

  • Back at home Sam watches a news broadcast about his discovery. According to the report sympathies are flooding in for Sam. They even interview Oscar Talbot who plays things up for the media saying, “ Sam had studied every aspect of the plane and in an extraordinary twist of fate, he had his answer.” Sam looks a wreck.

  • The Maxwell Group website put up a press release/interview with Oscar Talbot. Seems Oscar is going all out to put a PR spin on this. He explains that it is impossible to salvage the wreckage given the depth of it. He also claims that the whole thing helped to put Sam at peace.

  • Oceanic Air have been advertising for a new promotion/competition for a “Golden Pass”. The winner apparently will be able to fly anywhere, anytime as much as they want, for free (Like Jack from last seasons flash forward). It seems Sam isn't as peace as Talbot claimed as he is still hacking their commercials. This time with the message, “Don't trust these people”.

  • Shortly after this, the Maxwell Group website went down and was replaced by a flashier looking version with a new look logo. The log in is still there however and at this time we do not know of a user name and password that gives us access.

Behind The Scenes

  • This final clue hunt passwords are “Southfields” and “Red Sox” and the season four clue itself is a crate with the words “property of Queens College Dept of Physics”.
  • As well as the usual array of various visual glitches in the final video diary there is also some reverse speaking. This turned out to be from the press release interview with Oscar Talbot that was posted up on the Maxwell group.
  • The MP3 of the Maxwell Group press release contains the following in the "comments" area. So far we have found no meaning in it.

00000062 00000073 00002140 00001429 000000B6
000138F5 00007DB1 00006151 000000D0 000138DB

Left Over Questions and Clues

sam is a muppet

  • Obviously the biggest question of this whole experience is how can Oceanic 815 be in the Sunda Trench when we know that it crashed on the island. Is this an elaborate set up or is it something stranger then that?
  • What is Talbot's Agenda and what exactly are the links between Maxwell, Widmore (and with it the Hanso Foundation), Oceanic and the current events on the Island?
  • Were the video glitches in game and if so what does that mean? They seemed to be coming from the future in many cases. Add that to the ghostly images of Sonya and the unusual electro magnetic disturbances, and we have a very curious puzzle. Especially as the electro magnetic stuff seemed to hint at “The Island”. Was that co-incidence (for the sake of teasing us the viewer) or is it more significant?
  • A huge amount of clues from this game pointed us towards the works of James Clerk Maxwell, his equations and works on “Lines of Force”. We know Magnetism and the Island are linked, but what does this tell us specifically? It can't be a coincidence that the name of Talbot's group was also “Maxwell”.
  • Was it really just amateur radio enthusiasts broadcasting the Amelia Earhart report?
  • We still have no meaning or significance for the SHIMMR clue. Was there ever one? It seemed to relate to that complex Walt Whitman stegosaurus clue. There must be something to it all.
  • Was there ever anything to the weird thing with the changing numbers on Sam's chest and his verbal hints about that?
  • What's the deal with this code in the Maxwell press release MP3?
  • Is there more significance to the L337 email and the words “All is lost”?
  • What is the significance of the billboard locations, the phrases written on them and the pictures contained within?
  • Things that seemed to lead nowhere: Sam's Mum, Sam's investment in a box company and the whole deal with Austral Air.
  • A.M. Mullins, the apparent owner of the briefcase Talbot has in his possession. Also Talbot had various names on his phone. Could any of this have some meaning?

All the Season 4 “Clues” from the Clue Hunt

Okay, that's all for the five chapters of Find 815 and their immediate aftermath. What will happen next and when, I couldn't tell you. But we'll certainly be back here as and when (and even IF) it happens! In the meantime you can find all of us over at The Lost Community joining in the discussion as always of our favourite series and of course I myself will be posting my theories and analysis of Season Four over at The Lost Bullet Points. Also, don't forget to check the TLC Podcast this week as it features our very own Ange giving her opinions on the experience and it's possible direction.

In the meantime I'd just like to thank everyone involved here, all of you that have commented and emailed. We have a great think tank here. I'd especially like to thank Ange and Jess for their hard work getting the daily updates up. Without them we wouldn't have a site!

Namaste

~Fenris

48 comments:

Unknown said...

OMG - First?!?

Great recap Fenris!

I'd like to believe that all of our unanswered questions are yet to be answered and that the game is not over.

Fenris said...

Me too. Although I remember how many loose ends we had after the first ARG.

Personally I think we'll get more, but maybe not until after season 4.

Fenris said...

Oh and thanks :)

Capcom said...

Wow, fantastic summary Mr.Fenris! And thanks so much for including the section on open-ended questions, which is very helpful for knowing whether or not we(I) have missed something, or if we have been left in the dark in some areas by TPTB. :-)

oodles said...

Super summary, Fenris, as usual!

Re shimmr: I think that was simply a hint at the Aurora australis (which I think was manufactured, just like the image of Sonya, with the aid of the Dept. of Physics equipment to peak and hold Sam's attention).

maven said...

One more time: Big thanks for a great re-cap, Fenris. The open-ended questions section will give hope for those who want the game to continue...or we're just left hanging!

Carol Dunstan said...

ah Fenris - another great summary :) Thanks also to Ange and Jess for all their work on this blog too. I'd also like to thank you Fenris for putting all those unanswered questions in one spot - much easier to refer to now :)

Sam's chest - I think that may have just been us getting a little carried away. I really didn't think his shirt changed that much, it was nice to get a full frontal of it when he saw the Sonya apparition over the water though.

As for the new Maxwell site, put me down as another vote for a model ship in the background. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same one we saw in one of the clue hunts. The new logo reminded me of the Aum/Om symbol but none of the written forms are like it. It also has me flashing back to glyph hunts!

Scoutpost said...

I know everybody is saying it, but I wanted to put my own personal thanks to you guys: Fenris, Ange and Jess for doing such a great job on the blog. It was a great way to follow and keep track of what was going on, not to mention fun to hang out in discussions. Thanks for the final summary and the loose ends part. I hope it's not the end, but I can't wait for the day when all of these puzzle pieces start fitting together. What an OMG moment that will be!

Scoutpost said...

Well I just listened to the press release by Talbot for the first time. Oh if I were Sam I'd want to deck him -he's so smug.

I'm pretty sure this has been said before but:
It is VERY unbelievable that the media and family would not be all over this story like white on rice since the plane was found so off course. This would be just the type of scandal that the media would eat up. And surely people are not taking Sam's presence on the boat and finding the wreckage as mere coincidence- there would just be no way in our world that people would not be screaming conspiracy.

So it does make me wonder if the story won't continue at some point.

oodles said...

Carol, the Om symbol is a good find. Actually to have N pointing North and W pointing West on the compass one has to mirror the image and then tilt it 30 degrees. Then the symbol resembles the left part of the Om symbol (the Pluri 3) except for the diagonal line through the top.
But why did they change the symbol from the ouroborus to this symbol, whatever it is supposed to depict? It's all very strange.

I'm also in the model boat camp. Indeed I think it may be a nod towards Charles Widmore as he had a model ship in his office (in "Flashes before your eyes").

2costa said...

seems to me that the place they found the intact oceanic plane is where the island appears when the swan clock isnt pushed, when that happened a cashamir effect happened and two planes were there like the 2 number 15 bunnies, i think the stegasuarus clue relates to time travel and the islands weird time, because we are just finding the wreckage now or last year or whatever but cooper and naomi told the storys about the plane 90 days after the crash, which ties into why walt it so old and richard is so young???

memphish said...

Great job again Fenris. I laughed at your inclusion of the "changing" shirt numbers. We all have our clues we cling to, don't we?

A person that at the time Flight 815 left Australia worked at the box company showed up in this week's episode with a new job, so maybe it was indeed Hurley's box company that burned, though why an Aussie IT guy would invest in a Tustin, CA box company is beyond me.

I went to see National Treasure 2 today, and I have to say playing this game and TLE ruined it for me. The puzzles they had to solve were way to easy compared to some of the work over here. :D

Scoutpost said...

Don't we know from Season 1 or 2 that Locke's box company burned down? Didn't Hurley's accountant tell him that, wasn't that part of the curse that Hurley felt? But I agree memphish, how in the world an Aussie IT guy would be invested in a Tustin box co. is somewhat hard to swallow.

re: National Treasure 2- I liked it, but I would agree, Nick Cage's character would've had his answers much faster if he'd asked us. ;)

memphish said...

Scoutpost, it was actually Hurley's Canadian sneaker factory that burned. I went back and checked the transcripts at the time.

Patch said...

Well, seeing The Maxwell Group site back up again was the last thing I expected this morning!

Fenris, I'm going to miss reading your summaries, they are so well written, precise and entertaining! I will be checking out Lost Bullet Points when we catch up here.

So now we're back to finding a password and user name again are we?

jess4ua said...

2costa said - seems to me that the place they found the intact oceanic plane is where the island appears when the swan clock isnt pushed

Good thought. It would kinda make sense. However, if that were the case, wouldn't they find Desmond's boat and the Black Rock, and every other vessel that has crashed on the island?

The whole "side" thing that went on with openstego still doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand if the clue is SHIMMR, why not spell it correctly? Are we still missing something there?

oodles said...

I don't understand if the clue is SHIMMR, why not spell it correctly?
Because with the wrong spelling it hinted at FLICKR which contained our mutualfriend42's photos which sort of contained instructions on how to solve the pill bottle clue which yielded the "campmillar bonusclue"... phew!

jess4ua said...

oodles - From the POST at darkufo, I was under the impression that someone in their chat names Lostforever helped them find the Camp Miller clue from the pill bottle.
Also, from reading the comments at Darkufo lately, I got the impression that they are trying to still related the Flickr OMF42 pics to finding a password for TMG.

Did I miss something? Maybe I am not making the connections.

jess4ua said...

Not sure that link works....Try HERE

Ange said...

I think your favorite clue has been the Flickr page Oodles...I am so happy that you found that!

That was a "sidebar" game to the find 815 page. I wish I knew if Maxwell was "sidebar" or if we will actually get some guidance here.

Personally, I reeeeeally think there might be another commercial in Lost this week that might shed some light on what we're supposed to do with Maxwell if anything.

I mean they have sunk huge amounts of money into the promotion of this game (vans (which were just spotted this week), commercials, billboards, etc.) why not drag it out until the end of the 8 episodes, give more people time to play, then have a Maxwell payoff?

oodles said...

I think your favorite clue has been the Flickr page Oodles...I am so happy that you found that!
oh absolutely not, and I did not find that myself, I was also following folks at Darkufo. I did spot the code on the belt but could not correctly decipher two letters on it and did not work out the backwards reading "use head" and Caesar cipher shift 8. Lostforever probably came up with it, following the same clues. Stuff bounces back and forth between boards and eventually someone figures it out.
But the convoluted way that came about does not give me much hope for finding the Maxwell log in.

However, I think I figured out the compass logo. If you look really closely you can see that the vertical slash continues right through (or rather under) the compass. The main symbol resembles an E; the vertical one could be an l (small L): El and a compass is based on magnetism = "Electromagnetism".

oodles said...

Fenris, are you still up?
Sound reversal may be needed...
There is an interesting comment regarding the weird little Youtube video found yesterday at the bottom of this page.
http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Talk:The_Maxwell_Group
The video of course may be fake. But as short of options as we are it might be worth investigating?

jess4ua said...

oodles - I still don't see how the flickr pic played into finding the solution to the pill bottle.

It would be nice if we got a user name and password for TMG. Even if there is nothing there LOL! Why leave us with an open ended site. Perhaps it is true that TPTB messed up, or somewhere there is the username and password that no one found, and the Talbot Audio was what we were supposed to find after logging in instead of finding it on the front page.

maven said...

Jess: That's what I think. The Maxwell site was just for a place to put the press release. It wouldn't go on the find815 site, IMO. The un/pw could have been a evil ploy to drive us crazy and keep us occupied in down times....LOL

Still doesn't explain why they changed it, or why the press release is still there. If ABC is promoting the game again to draw more people in it and, consequently, the show, then why have something on a in-game site that basically gives away the ending to new people.

Ange said...

Oodles:
From Fenris...
reversed

not reversed

Fenris said...

Thanks everyone for the praise. :)

On that audio: It cleaned up very well. The noise reduction process works better with more uniform sound. In my opinion as an audiophile the background seaside sound is likely a public domain sample, possibly even looped as it reduced so well.

If there is words there I think they are chopped up and pasted into the seaside sound.

However in my opinion this is not legit and just a fan trying to stir something.

As for the Lost Bullets, I have watched episode 1 a couple of times now, but with the amount of time it takes to do the summary I don't know when I'll have the first one up. Hopefully there will be something new there soon though! I haven't even had time to catch up on everyones theories at TLC yet. Lol. I am behind. I'll be back in the flow soon enough though!

oodles said...

oodles - I still don't see how the flickr pic played into finding the solution to the pill bottle.
ok, once again:
On omf42's belt you can (just about) see
D B O P W DB +8
which translates (letters to numbers) to
4 8 15 16 23 42 +8

The pill bottle clue is solved in the reverse way (numbers to letters; note omf42's colour reversed and mirrored pics).
So you translate numbers to letters, than read backwards. Some of it makes sense ("use head") the rest does not. This is where the Caesat cipher comes in: shift by 8 (+8 clue). Bingo: campmillar bonusclue.
[I did see OMFs pics and the letters on the belt but I did not work this out myself though; only read how it had been done in the end].
Since OMF42s pics were up several hours before the pill bottle came into the game it must have been legit (i.e. not done after the fact).

oodles said...

Fenris,
Thanks Brother (he he).
Unfortunately I can't listen to it now as hubby has gone asleep in the loft above me. Will listen to it in the morning. Snooze time anyway - 1 a.m.
Pity it does not seem legit.
Night everyone.

Carol Dunstan said...

here is the clue hunt where I think they got the boat for the new Maxwell logo

I've "corrected" the Maxwell logo (I think it was in the last comments this was described, rotate 30 degrees clockwise and horizontally flip) and it does resemble Aum/Om more but still not right. Working from that I looked into Devanagari but there's nothing that's really like it there either. It's not DHARMA either ;-) It's probably not important, but you know... curiosity... meow

AS6 said...

Cheers for all the hard work, guys and gals. I'll be keeping an eye on this blog and DarkUFO to see if anything comes of the Maxwell site.

maven said...

Here's the latest on the strike from the LA Times. Looks like good news! Everyone is holding their breath, but some major hurdles have been agreed on. Hope everyone gets back to work soon!

Anonymous said...

One more KUDO for you Fenris!! Your summary is awesome! Thanks!

And Maven, thanks for the update on the strike...definately sounds like good news...I have a feeling they are trying to push things through before the Oscars. However, I understand it will still take a while to get new shows written and produced...so who knows, LOST might have a fall season after all ;)

Alisomniac said...

Jorge said in a recent interview that yes, only 8 eps have been produced, but its still feasable to get new episodes ready to continue the season, if I remember correctly, it takes them one week to film then about three weeks to edit, which means that if hte strike is resolved by episode 5, we can still get a full season.

Alisomniac said...

arg--- how come I still see the same old Maxwell page.... Ive cleared my cookies! I smell a Dharma consipriacy (Or is it ConspiraSPY).

oodles said...

alisomniac, you need to clear your cache or right click on the page and then choose "This frame" and "reload this frame".

TakesaVillage said...

Fenris, Ange,Jess and Co;
Thanks for all you've done.
That's a wrap. Or is it?
Is there still more work ahead for The Fenris Group? Stay tuned.

Mavin;
Srike almost over???
Be still my smokin'heart.

Ange said...

TLC Podcast
The interview about Oceanic Conspiracies/Find 815 is right after the intro.

jess4ua said...

Oh Goodie! I get to be the first to applaud Ange on doing such a GREAT job on the podcast. I know from experience how difficult podcasts are. If you haven't heard it, I suggest you listen in, especially if you are new to the game and are not sure how everything ties together.
Thanks Ange, for being the OC voice.

maven said...

See, I knew you could do it, Ange! You sounded great, and you were a great representative for the OC! You summed up everything perfectly. Mucho kudos!

maven said...

And, you sounded very natural...not nervous at all!

Ange said...

I don't know if I'm nuts for still looking at this but, on the podcast they asked me about UCLA and I started thing, WHY did they use UCLA to host that Oscar Talbot thing. I mean Hoodlum is out of Australia, as a company that would make no sense.

So I looked a little at UCLARadio Talbot Link. There's a picture there whose link is http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/neemo9-rov2.jpg. It takes you to the larger version of the ocean picture with the press release.

It backtracks to The Canadian Space Agency? Howevere the picture is in their directory but no longer appears in their image gallery per alternate text in the jpeg file...The image “http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/img/neemo9-rov2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors..

I do see the letters TXF4 or TXFY in the picture itself, but I also may be just grasping at straws...but WHY did they host this podcast at UCLA and use a Canadian Space Program picture?

And Thanks Maven and Jess!

oodles said...

Hi Ange,
sorry, haven't heard the postcast yet, some problem with my sound. Will figure it out later, but I'm sure it's great!

If you are nuts, so am I, he he...
Still haven't given up on TMG. Maybe we are not supposed to have the UN/PW yet but why then redesign the website?
I have also wondered, like many other, "why UCLA"? And there was that other post on the site, encouraging us to keep searching, or so it seems. What sticks out at the Canadian Space Agency site is the bit on
Mysterious Objects and Extraordinary Phenomena
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/sciences/solar_storms.asp
but I can't see anything obvious staring us in the face on that page.
In my quest for the UN/PW I have continued 'looking at the stars' in combination with the Ch5 clues, Walt Whitman (Carpe Diem, O Captain, my captain etc.), and with what appears like a constellation in the Clue Hunt picture (ceiling lights) but it's so hard to know whether you have found the right password or not if you don't even have a definitive username!
My only consolation is that S4-1 is on tonight, so I can finally catch up with you guys!

Tess315 said...

Hey gang
I see there stiil isn't a pw id found for Maxwell Group yet.
Do we have to register again to play find815. I didn't finish the find black rock game. I figured I would have plenty of time to do it. But it won't except my password. If I have to start all over I'll never make throught those games again. I got lucky on that plotter one.

thewonderllama said...

okay, maybe i'm reading way to much into it, but if you align the compass flat, swap east and west (but leave compass arrow pointing in the same direction) the bearing is a rather lot like the direction from the freckage to the island at 4.815, 162.342. okay...too much, too much...just really want to make sense of this maxwell group stuff!

memphish said...

Great job on the podcast Ange!

oodles said...

Second that, Ange! Just got to hear it.

Anonymous said...

I just watched a preview of this week's episode and it sounds and looks like they might be bringing a piece of the game into the episode. Have a listen on the main ABC LOST site.

Ange said...

Maven e-mailed us about a new e-mail on Sam's laptop. It says "error" but you can decide for yourself.

New Post!