LOST Observations: 2.17 Lockdown

Q & A

The blast doors that play such a big role in this episode were pointed out by Michael already in What Kate Did. That much is obvious. Let’s go through some things about this episode that may not have been that clear: questions that weren’t answered directly in the episode itself.

Why the Lockdown?
- The Lockdown was meant to keep Dharma members operating the Swan inside during the supply drop happening outside the station. The scribblings on the blast door map seem to confirm this. More on that on the next page.

Why the warning?
- A message from the speakers inside the Swan notifies that an event is about to take place, but the words are hard to make out. However, a countdown can clearly be heard. Locke learns the hard way that this was probably supposed to ensure that the Swan operators would move to the computer dome, where they would be able to push the button when necessary, before the blast doors would seal off the room. Interestingly, Henry seems to be luring Locke away from the dome during the countdown, which is how he got trapped in the first place.

Why are food supplies still being sent to the island?
- This question is answered in the DVD epilogue, The New Man In Charge. Two Dharma members are still stocking and ordering new food drops from a warehouse in Guam, completely unaware that the Dharma Initiative hasn’t existed in 20 years. Whoops.

How is it possible that nobody noticed the food drop?
- As proven by Daniel Faraday’s experiment in The Economist, there’s a time discrepancy between the island and the rest of the world. A plane definitely flew over the island at some point, but not necessarily on the day the food landed.

What did Henry do when the alarm went off?
- Henry tells Locke in the next episode that he never pressed the button, but we learn in Live Together, Die Alone that that would have been catastrophic. He was, once again, lying.
- Henry may have turned on the blacklights to show Locke the blast door map. This would eventually lead Locke to the Pearl station, which would lead to him not pressing the button, which would lead to the failsafe… which would serve Ben’s goals to keep his people on the island. I never said it was plausible.
  - The LOST video game Via Domus reveals how to turn the blacklights on and off inside the Swan. The game also shows a second layer of the blast door map never seen on the show.

Who created the blast door map?
- As shown in Live Together, Die Alone, Kelvin Inman – Desmond’s former Dharma partner – was able to paint the blast door map by triggering a false Lockdown. Stuart Radzinsky first worked on the map, but decided he’d rather shoot himself in the head than finish his project. It’s unknown whether Desmond contributed to the map after Kelvin’s death.