In the "previously" segment they give us a nice close-up of Naomi's satellite phone, where it clearly shows that it's connecting with somewhere in the US - in the Northwestern US in fact, perhaps even Portland?

You wouldn't even need a satellite phone to connect with a freighter located just offshore - a normal VHF radio would do. So, not only is Minkowski clearly not on any freighter, but this supports the idea that there is no freighter in the first place, and the helicopters are coming through "the portal' whatever that might be.

Note that Faraday is surprised by the light - it doesn't scatter properly....

holy crap, you are right. its not penny's boat because there is no boat. And every helicopter loses control because they are traveling through some type of portal.

Remember, though, Ben has someone on the boat. I think I know who it is from the actors listed in the credits as well.

Remember, though, Ben has someone on the boat. I think I know who it is from the actors listed in the credits as well.

Ben said he has someone on the boat - but he knows Locke's people think there's a freighter offshore, he's not going to give away the information that there's no boat (if that's the case) until he's forced to.

Also, maybe Ben isn't that precise so this doesn't mean anything, but a freighter isn't a boat it's a ship. He might be referring to a completely different boat - perhaps one back in the northwestern US, or in Miami.

Finally, even if there is a freighter just off the island, that doesn't mean Minkowski's on it. Note that no one's actually said Minkowski's on the freighter, they're just letting us jump to that conclusion.

Also, maybe Ben isn't that precise so this doesn't mean anything, but a freighter isn't a boat it's a ship. He might be referring to a completely different boat - perhaps one back in the northwestern US, or in Miami.



I could actually see Ben saying, "well, you said ship..." Then Sawyer starts punching him again...
LOL

That would also explain how the DHARMA food drops got there without planes flying overhead.

That would also explain how the DHARMA food drops got there without planes flying overhead.

Yes, exactly - I was thinking that too. Sure seems like there's some sort of air-accessible portal through which you can drop things, like food, Naomi, etc.

My guess - there is a boat (or ship) off the coast of Oregon, near the Mittelos Bioscience ("not quite in Portland...") facilities - the same place the submarine was docked at when Richard and Ethan ran errands. There is a portal (or portals - air & water) nearby that is used for the food drops and the helicopter. The submarine was the preferred transit because of what the magnetic affects do to the chopper controls. Perhaps Minkowsky went ashore to see Abbadon...?

Cool find, Rufus...the concentric circles on the phone display are centered exactly on the coast of southern Oregon!

Remember, though, Ben has someone on the boat. I think I know who it is from the actors listed in the credits as well.

If you are referring to Michael then don't be tricked, he is a regular cast member rather than a guest, so he is on the credits regardless of whether he appears in each show or not, though that's not to say he won't appear again, and not to say that he couldn't be the man on the boat, I just mean don't use that as a clue.

Intersting theory on the 'no boat' though, or at least the boat not being as close as suggested, given that the pilot said that he was nearly out of fuel, even though they had only travelled 80 nautical miles....

If you are referring to Michael then don't be tricked, he is a regular cast member rather than a guest, so he is on the credits regardless of whether he appears in each show or not, though that's not to say he won't appear again, and not to say that he couldn't be the man on the boat, I just mean don't use that as a clue.

Intersting theory on the 'no boat' though, or at least the boat not being as close as suggested, given that the pilot said that he was nearly out of fuel, even though they had only travelled 80 nautical miles....

I wasn't referring to Michael. I was referring to the character Fisher Stevens plays, Minkowski. I doubt they'll have an actor like Fisher Stevens on the show and only use his voice. Sooner or later we'll see Minkowski and he's my bet on Ben's mole. It could be Zoe Bell(Regina) though. I'll put my money on Minkowski and wait to see.

PEOPLE! casting info for characters that have not shown up in an episode yet is a SPOILER. seeing someone's name in the credits even if they did not show up in the eppy...still makes it a spoiler. any discussion about said person MUST be spoiler fonted. discussing what someone said about a character in an interview when that character hasn't been shown yet is a spoiler.

unless you saw it in the aired eppy (not counting the credits) you may not talk about it without spoiler font.

PEOPLE! casting info for characters that have not shown up in an episode yet is a SPOILER. seeing someone's name in the credits even if they did not show up in the eppy...still makes it a spoiler. any discussion about said person MUST be spoiler fonted. discussing what someone said about a character in an interview when that character hasn't been shown yet is a spoiler.

unless you saw it in the aired eppy (not counting the credits) you may not talk about it without spoiler font.

Sorry. Both the actors I mentioned did appear in the episode, but only their voices. I didn't think it was a spoiler since their names were in the credits and their voices were heard over the radio. Sorry. :frown:

Sorry. Both the actors I mentioned did appear in the episode, but only their voices. I didn't think it was a spoiler since their names were in the credits and their voices were heard over the radio. Sorry. :frown:

I think it was my post that was being referred to. Apologies, I thought the name I mentioned was in the credits for the epi discussed.

Can anyone confirm that the world map on the phone shows the location? I vaguely remember this being discussed when Hurley first used it, and people thought that the phone always shows that map. Northerners might not notice this, but we here in the Southern Hemisphere are used to seeing all maps centred or focused on the USA or Europe.

In the "previously" segment they give us a nice close-up of Naomi's satellite phone, where it clearly shows that it's connecting with somewhere in the US - in the Northwestern US in fact, perhaps even Portland?

I went back and compared the different views of the sat phone. The bottom half of the display is constantly showing concentric circles emitting from around LA, even when the signal was blocked. But before the channel was open, the upper display showed a rotating globe. When the channel was opened, the globe stopped rotating at the Americas. And when the connection was established, the display put a marker in Central America, somewhere in the region of Panama. (Maybe it just happened to be in the middle of the screen and didn't mean anything, or maybe it did.)

Regardless, I think the idea that there is no boat, but they are flying through a portal is a very interesting one. There is also something said in the sneak peak of the next episode, which tends to back that up...

Sayid: "I can bring Charlotte back safely. And if I do, will you take me to your ship?
Pilot: "You bring Charlette back safe... and I will take you off this island."
I thought that was more than a little significant, why he would change the wording like that when making his promise.

One could argue that it can't be sat-phone communication with the America's because that would require an additional one or two second delay in the conversations, but I don't think they would include that level of realism. ...just as when naomi's helicopter crashed into the ocean a couple miles out, there wasn't a 10-second delay before we heard the splash.

One could argue that it can't be sat-phone communication with the America's because that would require an additional one or two second delay in the conversations, but I don't think they would include that level of realism. ...just as when naomi's helicopter crashed into the ocean a couple miles out, there wasn't a 10-second delay before we heard the splash.

Well, where I work I regularly talk with engineers in Afghanistan and Iraq and when they use a sat-phone sometimes there is a 2-3second delay and sometimes there is nothing...as if you are speaking to someone right here in the US. I dont know what changes the factors in what the delay is but usually it is pretty fast. And, anyway....we dont know where the island is so how would anyone know that there would be a delay to the Americas.

Cool find, Rufus...the concentric circles on the phone display are centered exactly on the coast of southern Oregon!
I carefully checked the origin of the concentric circles. Oregon is out of the question. The are centered somewhere between Eureka and San Fransisco, CA. The one Lost location that we know of in this region is the Santa Rosa Mental Institution.
100%
Well, where I work I regularly talk with engineers in Afghanistan and Iraq and when they use a sat-phone sometimes there is a 2-3second delay and sometimes there is nothing...as if you are speaking to someone right here in the US. I dont know what changes the factors in what the delay is but usually it is pretty fast. And, anyway....we dont know where the island is so how would anyone know that there would be a delay to the Americas.

I did the math, and if you only need to bounce of a single satellite in geosynchronous orbit, the only delay that physics requires to be added is about a quarter of a second. That's less than I thought. From Fiji, I'd guess you'd need to use two satellites, so it would be more like a half a second. Still pretty hard to notice in a conversation.

I know people hold various theories as to the location of the island (such as the north pole :rolleyes:), but I don't see much reason not to believe the location as dictated by the only solid evidence we have, which is 1) where Danielle's ship was before it crashed there, 2) where Desmond's boat was before it crashed there, 3) where Oceanic 815 was before it crashed there. Things like the Black Rock, and Yemi's plane, we simply don't know the story of. All 3 of the above say it's midway between Tahiti and Fiji, and the climate agrees.

I went back and compared the different views of the sat phone. The bottom half of the display is constantly showing concentric circles emitting from around LA, even when the signal was blocked. But before the channel was open, the upper display showed a rotating globe. When the channel was opened, the globe stopped rotating at the Americas. And when the connection was established, the display put a marker in Central America, somewhere in the region of Panama. (Maybe it just happened to be in the middle of the screen and didn't mean anything, or maybe it did.)


Interesting. I think we're definitely on to something here.

Circles could simply be the user's home area code, the location of the phone company, or a land-based relay tower/station. Unless it is some sort of GPS involved, the freighter wouldn't have a specific location for the phone to recognize (they're roaming!! Haha)

Circles could simply be the user's home area code, the location of the phone company, or a land-based relay tower/station. Unless it is some sort of GPS involved, the freighter wouldn't have a specific location for the phone to recognize (they're roaming!! Haha)

Ah, but there IS some sort of GPS-like system involved. Remember the freighties called Minkowski, who arranged to have some sort of tracking system enabled on each handset.

Not sure why they'd waste a whole LCD screen to display the location of the phone company -- and why they'd do that without the phone company's logo. So I think that's out.

If it's a land-based relay tower/station -- that's possible, that the Freighties are initiating a signal on the island, bouncing it off a satellite to a relay station in the northwestern US, where it is then bounced back off the satellite right back to the Island (well, 80 miles offshore, anyway) but that seems a bit unwieldy.

Simplest answer is the top LCD is your location (unknown until the channel is open) and the bottom LCD is the location of whoever you're calling (known because it's pre-programmed). That could by why Miles objects to Jack wanting to call someone else -- hm, that's probably for another thread....

talking about Fisher Stevens is not a spoiler because he was seen in the previous episode. Yes thats right. We got a glimpse of his eye ball when Hurley looks into Jacobs cabin. Seriously compare the screen capture of the eye and look at recent pics of Fisher on IMDB. The eye, the nose, the mustache, the wrinkles, they all match up. By the way, this is purely speculation but I believe I am right on this.