The Lost Quiz

Yes Lost fans, tonight's the night we've been waiting for - the premiere of season 2.   Tonight's the night when all of those questions you have will remain unanswered and newer, more frustrating questions and situations will arise.

• What's in the hatch?
• How did Locke originally lose the use of his legs?
• Will Rose find her husband?
• Will Charlie take the heroin?
• Is Sawyer even alive? Of course he is, don't be silly.
• With Sawyer somewhere in the ocean will Kate and Jack get together or will Jack hose Kate for  Ana-Lucia, the new character played by Michelle Rodriguez?
• Will Kate and Ana Lucia have a catfight?
• I've heard somewhere that Arzt will come back - is this true?  I say no way.  Classic line from season 1 - "Dude, you've got pieces of Arzt on you."
• Will we see the thing/monster?
• And many, many more.

Well, to whet your appetite, David Buckna, author of The Pop Gospel, has graciously given permission to post his "Lost Quiz."  This is a good one - it shows lots of religious/Christian themes in Lost. The answers are at the bottom of the post, but no fair peeking.

NEWS: Lost Quiz: David Buckna

September 19th, 2005

The Pop Gospel
by David Buckna

TV's hottest show, Lost, is set in the aftermath of a plane crash on a mysterious South Pacific island. Season Two premieres Sept. 21 on ABC with the episode "Man of Science, Man of Faith."

"It feels like these people have sort of sinned in their lives before, and now, they're in an environment where they can't talk to the people that they need to talk to. They can't close the doors that they need to close."--Lost co-creator, executive producer and writer Damon Lindelof, on ABC's 20/20 (May 6/05)

"The whole concept of man on an island reminds us of who we truly are.
'Three days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over,' Jack says. Who they were before the crash was their old nature. This time on the island represents their chance at redemption--if they want it."
--reviewer Maurice Broaddus, on HollywoodJesus.com

1. Season One chronicles the survivors' first days on the island. How many days?

2. What cast member is a former counsellor at Green Bay Bible Camp in Kelowna, British Columbia--Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, or Ian Somerhalder?

3. At what hospital had Jack (Matthew Fox) been a spinal surgeon?

4. What is Jack's last name?

5. Evangeline Lilly plays Kate Austen. What does the name Evangeline mean?

6. In "House of the Rising Sun," Kate runs into a cave, where she stumbles into the skeletal remains of two bodies. What nicknames are they given?

7. In a flashback, what member of Drive Shaft confesses to a priest that he's facing temptation?

8. What song by the Blind Boys of Alabama is heard as Sayid (Naveen Andrews) leaves to map the island?

9. Claire (Emilie de Ravin) wears a necklace with the Chinese character "ai." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lost-claire.jpg) What does "ai"
mean?

10. He tells Shannon (Maggie Grace): "Everyone gets a new life on this island, Shannon. Maybe it's time you start yours." Who said it?

11. What character does Mira Furlan play?

12. What six words from the 1966 Beatle song, "Strawberry Fields Forever,"
are tattooed on Charlie's left shoulder?

13. At the end of "In Translation," what song is Hurley (Jorge Garcia) listening to on a portable CD player?

14. In "Numbers," what book is Sawyer (Josh Holloway) reading?

15. In what episode does Locke (Terry O'Quinn) dream of a crashed plane, and believe if he finds it, will be able to open the mysterious hatch?

16. What name did Claire pick for her baby boy?

17. Just before the raft is attacked by "The Others" and Walt taken, Sawyer sings part of a Bob Marley song. Name it.

18. In Season Two, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays "a mysterious man whose presence on the island--and intentions--will be revealed in one of the early episodes." In August, the media reported his name would be Emeka. What does "Emeka" mean in the Igbo language?

19. Michelle Rodriguez also joins the cast as a season regular, playing Ana-Lucia Cortez, a passenger Jack first met at the airport bar.
(http://starbulletin.com/2005/09/13/features/story1.html)

What do "Ana" and "Lucia" mean?

20. Name three things described as lost by Jesus in his parables at Luke 15.

Answers

1. 40 days. In the 3-part episode, Exodus ("departure") a raft is launched.
After Noah and his sons built an ark, "rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights" (Genesis 7:12).

>From lost-tv.com: "Forty days? Was that coincidental? It does seem to
>rain a
lot for no apparent reason on the island. We asked the obvious question: was the biblical reference intentional? [Lost co-creator] Damon Lindelof's answer was immediate. 'That was NOT unintentional,' he said with a hint of glee in his voice."

2. Evangeline Lilly, who plays Kate. As a teenager Nicole Evangeline Lilly did missionary work in the Philippines and came to Kelowna for summers in the late '90s to work as a counsellor.
(www.kelownadailycourier.ca/archive/2004/12/08/stories/7026_full.php4)

3. St. Sebastian Hospital. St. Sebastian was a martyr (286) in Roman Emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians.

Matthew Fox said of his character in Season Two: "Jack will have a very different journey, a philosophical journey...The whole man of faith vs. the man of science and the struggle going on between him and Locke. Jack'll have to let go of some really strict science dogma, given the situation in which he's living." Regarding the true nature of the island, Fox's favorite theory is that it is purgatory."Based on what's happened so far, 'Lost' is about us finding redemption so we can move on emotionally, individually and spiritually to a better place. We had just better not be dead." (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Aug. 22/05)

Fox commented on ABC's 20/20 (May 6/05): "I'm a huge fan of redemption stories. I'm very much into the idea that all of these characters are trying to escape a past version of themselves that you know, they've all made mistakes and harbored secrets and told lies."

4. Shepard. One of the recurring numbers on the show is 23. Psalm 23 begins "The Lord is my shepherd..." Jack and his fellow passengers board Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 (8 + 15 = 23) at gate 23, and was assigned seat 23B.

5. Evangeline (feminine) and Evangel (masculine) mean "good news" in Greek, and is the New Testament word for "gospel".

"Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people." (Matthew 4:23)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline (1847) was inspired by the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755.

6. Adam and Eve. According to Genesis 5:5, Adam lived to 930; Eve's age isn't mentioned.

7. Charlie (Dominic Monaghan).

Priest: "Well, we all have our temptations, but giving in to them, that's your choice. As we live our lives it's really nothing but a series of choices, isn't it?"

Charlie: "Well, then, I've made my choice. I have to quit the band."

*

On the island, Rose (L. Scott Caldwell) prays with a grieving Charlie over Claire's baffling disappearance:

Charlie: "Your husband was in the tail section of the plane."

Rose: "Yes, he was. But he'll be back."

Charlie: "You think he's still alive?"

Rose: "I know he is."

Charlie: "How?"

Rose: "I just do. It's a fine line between denial and faith. It's much better on my side."

Charlie: (crying) "Help me."

Rose: "Baby, I'm not the one that can help you....Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for bringing us together tonight, and we ask that you show Charlie the path..."

Monaghan told the Sunday Herald Sun (Aug. 22/05):"Charlie's a drug addict, but he's also a man of faith...The question is: Did he take the statue [of the Virgin Mary] as a symbol of his faith or for the drugs that might be inside?...I love the way his faith and addictions are moulded together. The heroin is inside the statue of the Virgin Mary, so his weakness is trapped inside his strength...I love the symbolism--he's going to have to break what he believes to get into his weakness."

In a TV promo for Lost, Charlie says in voice-over: "How long will it take for redemption? Like the chance to put the past behind me. To start over.
Maybe that's what this is. A second chance. An opportunity to earn forgiveness. They say that everything happens for a reason. I wish I could believe that."

8. "I Shall Not Walk Alone." From the song: "When my legs no longer carry/ And the warm wind chills my bones/ I reach for mother Mary/ And I shall not walk alone"

9. love. "Ai" resembles the sound "eye".

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." (1 John 4:8)

10. John Locke (Terry O'Quinn). John Locke was a 17th century philosopher whose ideas later influenced American law and government.

In his Two Treatises of Government (1690), Locke writes: "The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions: for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by his order, and about his business; they are his property, whose workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another's pleasure..."

Keith Green's song, "If You Love The Lord" (1980) includes the line: "We are His workmanship, created for good works in Christ", echoing Ephesians 2:10.

11. Danielle Rousseau, the Frenchwoman stranded on the island for 16 years, responsible for the distress call. She is named for 18th century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued that man is noble but society corrupts him.

This is paralleled by the characters on Lost: Locke embraces both nature and the need for organization, while Rousseau prefers nature and refuses to join the survivors in their village.

12. "Living is easy with eyes closed". The 1966 song written by John Lennon started out as a nostalgic view of a Salvation Army orphanage, where he and childhood friends Pete and Ivan played in the trees.

13. "Delicate" by Damien Rice: "So why d¹ya fill my sorrow/ With the words you've borrowed/ From the only place you've known/ Why d¹ya sing hallelujah/ If it means nothin¹ to ya/ Why d¹ya sing with me at all?"

The CD player stops playing just as "hallelujah" was to be heard a second
time: "Why d¹ya sing h---".

The Hebrew "hallelujah" combines "hallelu" and "yah," and translates as "Praise God". The phrase is found in the book of Psalms (such as 113:1) and four times in the book of Revelation (such as 19:1)

14. Madeline L'Engle's sci-fi classic, A Wrinkle in Time (1962), about three children who travel through time to rescue a father from an impending evil force. Prior to the 2004 broadcast of the film version on ABC, the 85-year-old L'Engle was interviewed by Newsweek:

Newsweek: "So to you, faith is not a comfort?"

L'Engle: "Good heavens, no. It¹s a challenge: I dare you to believe in God.
I dare you to think [our existence] wasn¹t an accident."

Newsweek: "Many people see faith as anti-intellectual."

L'Engle: "Then they¹re not very bright. It takes a lot of intellect to have faith, which is why so many people only have religiosity."

15."Deus ex machina"--Latin for "god from the machine". The term originated with Greek and Roman theatre, when a mechane would lower a god or gods onstage to resolve a seemingly hopeless situation. In short, a deus ex machina is a quick fix in a story.

Locke and Boone do find a plane hanging in the trees. Flown by drug smugglers disguised as Nigerian missionaries, it contains heroin-filled statuettes of the Virgin Mary.

In The Simpsons episode "Thank God, It's Doomsday", after the rapture occurs and Homer is taken to heaven, he asks God to reverse what's happened. God agrees, then proclaims "Deus ex machina" and normality is restored.

16. Aaron. The book of Exodus identifies Aaron as the older brother of Moses (Exodus 7:7). When the time came for the deliverance of the Hebrews out of Egypt, God sent Aaron to meet his long-absent brother in the desert (Exodus 4:27).

17. Redemption Song, which opens with the lyrics:
"Old pirates, yes, they rob I/ Sold I to the merchant ships/ Minutes after they took I/ From the bottomless pit".

Meanwhile, on the island, Jack, Locke, Hurley, and Kate blow open the hatch to reveal an extremely deep shaft, a seemingly "bottomless pit".

"The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss (bottomless pit)."
(Revelation 9:1)

18. Emeka is the abbreviated form of Chiemeka, meaning: "God has done something wonderful". Igbo is spoken in eastern Nigeria.

On August 31, Michael Ausiello of tvguide.com reported: "His name is no longer Emeka. Producers are keeping the new, mysterious moniker top-secret."
Stay tuned.

19. Ana or Anna are forms of Hannah, meaning "grace" or "favor"; Lucia is the feminine form of Lucius, meaning "light".

20. The lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), lost coin (15:8-10) and lost son (15:11-32).

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." (Luke 19:10)

Scoring:

1-7 Fair

8-14 Good

15-19 Excellent

20 As wise as Solomon.

Links:

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/show.html

http://www.lostlinks.net

http://www.oceanicflight815.com

http://thelostnumbers.blogspot.com

http://www.damaris.org/content/content.php?type=1&id=282

http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/?latest_date=2004/12/08

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_(2004_television_series)

Reference:

"The Lost Chronicles: The Official Companion Book" by Mark Cotta Vaz (Hyperion Books, Sept. 2005).

Copyright 2005 by David Buckna. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Buckna is the author of "The Pop Gospel," a quiz feature that has appeared in publications including The Calgary Herald, ChristianWeek and Baptist Press. Buckna reads email at (solomann@look.ca)

David Buckna

Comments

[Vail Reese, MD]

Here's another question: What does the number 3 signify? For the skinny on new "Lost" strandee Michelle Rodriguez, check out the dermatology in the media blog. Her tendency to three distinct skin conditions does not detract from her poise and talent. Check it out at:

http://skinema.blogs.com/skinema_dermatology_in_th/2005/09/michelle_rodrig.html

Keep up the great work...

--Vail Reese, MD

[The Dane]

Yeah but it wasn't just "Dude, you've got pieces of Arzt on you," but even better: "Dude, you've got pieces of Arnzt on you."