REFLECTIONS ON "LOST"

On April 2nd, Joe Oesterle in the Mania website wrote about something that's been bothering me this season:

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Here’s something I know; Way back in Season Three I remember thinking, during the season’s finale, “Through the Looking Glass,” how strange it was that a good Catholic boy like Charlie would make the sign of the cross with his left hand. Being a former Catholic school kid myself, I noticed this right away. My bet is had Charlie ever made a faux pas like that in school he would have experienced the swift and stinging fury of Sister Mary Castigation’s well-worn wooden ruler upon his tender knuckles. I even posted my findings on a number of LOST related message boards, and felt certain, based on the mirror-image title of the episode itself someone else would also find it suspicious, but most of the comments were along the lines of, “they probably flipped the picture, just a continuity flub.” I wasn’t assuaged then, and the shooting of Ben Linus has further convinced me the left-handed blessing wasn’t a production error.

When last we left Lil Ben, Sayid, a world-class assassin, just took aim at his trusting teenage heart, pulled the trigger, ran through the woods, leaving his young victim for dead. This is even recapped, with bullet hole very clearly to my eyes just below juvenile Linus’ ticker. When Jin turns the boy’s body over however, the same wound appears to have switched sides. There’s no way this is a blunder on the part of the continuity crew, as it’s more than possible these scenes were all shot during the same day. For some reason we are seeing mirror images at times. Now all we have to do is figure out why.

I had forgotten about the sign of the cross made by Charlie, but did notice it at the time (being an old altar boy m'self). And in the confusion and darkness of those scenes out in the woods, I didn't pick up on the shifting bullet wound at all.

These pictures back up what Joe Oesterle claims:
Later, during "Whatever Happened, Happened", we get further proof that bullet entered Ben's chest on the right side as Juliet operates on him:

One would think that a trained assassin like Sayid would have made sure he popped a cap in the little creep's heart. (He should have also delivered a coup de grace to the back of the head as he ran by. Having not done so, I would have to say that Sayid was sloppy at that point.)

Here's one last frame grab that shows the bullet wound was now on Ben's right side:

I have been noticing another series of reversed imagery during this season - that of the mystical "Numbers". Here are two examples:
First, from "He's Our You", Sayid is seen exiting a Russian building, #23. But as seen from inside the building, the glass shows it as the reverse: a badly written "32".

And then in "Whatever Happened, Happened", Kate is searching the supermarket for Aaron, who's wandered away. The aisles are all numbered but apparently only for those coming from one direction:
If we saw them from Kate's angle, they'd be "2-3-4"... or "23" & "4" from "the Numbers".

I don't even know if this will eventually mean anything or not in the grand scale of things for the show. But I'm thinking that somehow, it's a sign that alternate timelines are being created and we're seeing what happens in these "mirror" universes.

And then again, I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.....

BCnU!
Toby O'B