TIME NUMBER

What is the most important Number in Time?

That question popped into my head while I was looking at a large public wall clock.

I saw the line between 12 and the 6 and started doing simple math: 12 minus 6 equals 6.

Then I mentally drew lines around the clock face:

11 -5 = 6
10-4 = 6
9-3 = 6
8 -2 = 6
7-1 = 6.

I concluded that 6 was a key number in time.

A minute is 60 seconds; an hour 60 minutes and a tenth (our current counting system) of an minute is .6.

Time was a major theme in LOST. In one aspect, Time had trapped Jacob and his brother on the island. Time was frozen for thousands of years based upon the people brought to the island. Jacob and his brother were then also brought to the island as candidates by Crazy Mother.

Who was the Number 6 candidate in the Lighthouse?

Jensen.

But his name was stricken.

What does Jensen mean?

The name Jensen is a Scandinavian baby name. Its meaning is from: Hebrew John 'Jehovah has been gracious; has shown favor.

In Numerology, the name Jensen is tied to these attributes: 

SOUL: 

People with this name have a deep inner desire to use their abilities in leadership, and to have personal independence. They would rather focus on large, important issues, and delegate the details. 

EXPRESSION: People with this name tend to be a powerful force to all whose lives they touch. They are capable, charismatic leaders who often undertake large endeavors with great success. They value truth, justice, and discipline, and may be quick-tempered with those who do not. If they fail to develop their potential, they may become impractical and rigid. 

There was a character who showed leadership ability with a strong sense of personal independence to leave his brother and his mother. He had a single focus on a large concept that there was something bigger and better away from the island; home. He helped the survivors try to harness the energy of the island to find a way home. He was quick tempered when his plans were thwarted, because he was rigid in his mission and ideals. 

That man was Jacob's brother.

We were never told his name. But it could have been Jensen based upon the attributes of the Number 6, the number tied to Time itself, something that MIB was desperately trying to release so he could become mortal and go home.

RETROSPECTIVE

The one entertainment writer who got caught up in the LOST madness the most was EW's Jeff Jenson. He wrote elaborate discussions and theory articles after each episode, which took fanboy to the mainstream. (He also became a cult celebrity writer, so much so, that he later left to help write a film with the LOST showrunners). 

In his ten year anniversary article, Jensen laments on his show experience.

He wrote:

Pop culture anniversaries can often be “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative” affairs. Lost requires a more complex remembrance. You can’t recall how it hooked all of us without also recalling how it dissatisfied so many. Waxing nostalgic about that seductive, sublime first season—the simplicity of the macro narrative; the artful intricacy of the flashback storytelling structure; the poignancy of its gracious humanism; the adventure, the humor, all those glittering mysteries! —reminds those ultimately unfulfilled by Lost of their misplaced faith, and what the show had become by the sixth and final season.
 
Lost‘s treatment of its core themes—redemption, community, survival—started earthy and existential and finished esoteric and mystic. A show that originally seemed to embrace (and question) all worldviews appeared to pick favorites, choosing the “man of faith” over the “man of science.”
In the aftermath, we are left with Losties who feel certain that they were loved, Losties who feel jilted, and an enduring conflict between the two parties that boils with the rancor of a bitter custody battle: How do we remember Lost? Was it a success or failure? Who decides? Who gets to be the caretaker of its memory? If there is one thing I hate about Lost—and it is probably the only thing I, an ardent, gonzo acolyte of Lost, truly hate about the show–is how its evolving vision (unintentionally) fractured the show’s vibrant fan community, and how its well-meaning wont for never-ending, friendly debate over the show’s finale has resulted in never-ending, unfriendly fighting over the show’s merit and meaning. 

What is certain is that Lost helped change the way we watch and talk about television. A once-passive experience processed the next day around the water cooler is now an interactive experience parsed immediately via social media, recaps, and blogs. Of course, Lost reminds us that this kind of cultural interaction can also be a messy, flawed affair. Case in point: Me. I wrestle with the value of my contribution to the conversation. The overthinking. The projections. The emotional enmeshment. My constant theorizing—sometimes cheeky, more often sincere—cultivated the notion that Lost was a puzzle to be solved, not a story to be enjoyed. What I regret the most is season 6. Those frustrated by the show’s oblique, confounding story needed clear-eyed, common sense analysis—not one last hurrah of my absurd shtick. I am sorry. 

The legacy of Lost is seen in shows that try to cultivate following and fervor not so much by replicating its strategies, but by modulating them to minimize their risk. Few, if any, have produced Lost-level results. Heroes—hatched as Lost was beginning to exasperate viewers—attracted eyeballs with high-speed plotting, then realized it wasn’t sustainable, then flailed for better solutions. Fringe launched running scared of serialization and mythology; it stumbled. The precedent of Lost seeded, or at least surely makes appealing, binge media like Netflix and the anthology format represented by True Detective and American Horror Story—single season blasts of weird fiction. Big saga TV thrives in the form of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, whose viewers don’t have the same “Do you have a master plan?” angst that Lost fans had: the series bibles are available at a book store near you. These are shows for a culture that frets bold, demanding storytelling as much as it craves and celebrates it.

NEW CONFLICTS IN LOST

Entertainment Weekly announced the following:

"Disney has tapped Brad Bird to direct 1952, a sci-fi project written by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and Entertainment Weekly writer Jeff “Doc” Jensen. Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) is coming off the huge success of last year’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, his first live-action film, which grossed nearly $700 million worldwide.

The plot for 1952 is being kept under wraps. The movie is understood to be a major tentpole for Disney.

Doc Jensen, EW’s point person on all things Lost, began his relationship with Lindelof after the series ended in May 2010.

Per Time Inc. policy, Jensen continues to report and write about TV series and films, excluding those produced by Disney and its affiliates."

What struck me as odd was the fact that EW's LOST guru, Jensen, is now in partnership with TPTB from LOST to create a new movie franchise. Disney's business model is not to make one-off movies; let the independent filmmaker do the art films. Disney wants to build "franchises," movies that are big enough to spin off sequels, television shows and money making merchandise. The idea that Jensen began his relationship with Lindelof "after" the series is as unbelievable as The Ending.

Jensen had enormous access as the TV writer to lost, its creators, writers and cast. Jensen was once called the "Cheerleader in Chief" for his wild devotion to the series. He got caught up in all the mysteries, the tangents, the literary references like many of us. For years he wanted Answers like the rest of us; and he was willing to go on the line with his predictions and ideas. But in the end, his final muted columns did not care about Answers but the acceptance of the show's writers to give the characters their happy ending.
Never mind that conclusion puts the entire series story arcs in total irrational chaos.

This latest news may explain why Jensen was less harsh with his final reviews than his fellow critics. It takes years of development before a movie idea is scripted, edited and then green lit for production. Was Jensen in discussions with Lindelof for 1952 prior to the End of LOST? We will never truly know. But if true, and it was undisclosed, that is conflict of interest to his readership.

Also, it is odd that EW did not put Jensen on a sabbatical to write or develop a screenplay in Hollywood. Instead, he continues to cover the industry that he is now an active participant. That is also a potential conflict of interest.

Now, no one in today's economy and media doomsday predictions would fault anyone from trying to score some extra income through their intellectual property, ideas or work. So long is it is fair and square.

As for 1952, a closely guarded plot secret? That year appears to be a possible run off point for various script ideas. First, it is post World War II where a huge male labor force re-enters an exploding manufacturing sector. It was also the early age of commercial aviation builders in California. Second, you had the emergence of celebrity tycoons like Howard Hughes, who flew between business and Hollywood. Third, you had the beginning of the explosion of suburbia, the Happy Days of a nice house, a white picket fence and two cars in every garage. Fourth, you had the Korean conflict and the frigid relations at the start of the Cold War. As a result of American forces taking German scientists after the European conflict ended, great advancements in nuclear technology and space technology happened in the U.S.

If this new project is going to be a franchise for Disney, is this first film part of a series? Star Wars is the classic model for how to build a mega-successful franchise. Will this project throw in the elements that writers appear locked in in the past: science fiction mysteries?  And more importantly, will the plot have a better sci-fi platform for believability and actual answers to any mysteries?

1952 could be a combination of Happy Days meets Mad Men, with a mysterious Howard Hughes type tycoon making huge leaps in technology for no apparent reason, leading to X-Files type investigations, cover-ups and conflicts among the main character.