Darlton confirm on the April 23, 2009 official audio podcast that the reason Miles demanded that Ben pay him $3.2 million last season was because it was double Widmore’s $1.6 million fee.
Mystery solved.
(And I was so sure there was more to it!)
Case Closed stamp graphic (c) Internet Detective
Kate demanding answers from Miles
We just saw, in Some Like it Hoth, that Naomi offered Miles $1.6 million to join Widmore’s expedition to kill Ben. Then Miles told Bram he wouldn’t go to the Island if Bram paid him $3.2 million, which Bram declined to do.
We’ve heard the number $3.2 million before. Remember? Back in Season 4? Miles told Ben that for $3.2 million, he would lie to Widmore and tell him that Ben was already dead.
The scene contains this classic exchange:
— Ben, in a shocked tone: “You’ve arranged this meeting so you could blackmail me?
— Miles: “It’s extortion, if you want to get technical.”
Ben goes on to ask, “3.2? Why not 3.3 or 3.4?”
Which is exactly the question that I have. What is the significance of 3.2?
We know that $3.2 million is double what Widmore was paying Miles, and we know that $1.6 million contains the number “16,” which is one of the numbers. But there has to be more to it than that.
Miles never answers Ben’s question about why it’s 3.2. Miles just looks at him. His not answering gives the question even more significance. So does the echo of the number, over a year later, in Some Like it Hoth. 3.2 means something — but what?
The scene where Miles confronts Ben starts at 4:12 in the video below. I’ll think you’ll enjoy seeing it again. I found it interesting to go back to the time when the Losties still thought of Miles as their enemy. And he does seem a bit menacing here, not yet the cuddly wise-cracker that we’ve come to know and love (even though he does get off a couple of very funny lines):
Editing to add 4/27/09: This mystery has now been solved!
In this clip from earlier this week (the evening before LOST Episode 5×13 aired), Jorge is funny, talking about time travel, buying toilet paper at the grocery store with coupons, not going surfing, and spotting a stranger in his back yard.
For more Jorge, check out his blog.
Screencap of Jorge Garcia from Jimmy Kimmel Live, April 14, 2009 (c) ABC
Would you believe I still haven’t finished my taxes? (Do I get some kind of procrastination award?) Well, here’s the Lost Untangled video which I’m just going to plop down for the moment… I’ll come back later, post-taxes, to add on some comments ….
Editing to add: Now I’m back.
What I learned from the video is that Bram, the kidnapper in the van who asks Miles if he knows what’s in the shadow of the statue, is the same guy who was with Ilana on the beach when she was posing the same question to Lapidus!
Ilana and Bram
The narrator also confirms that Baby Miles is, indeed, the same person as Big Miles. (I had been wondering if perhaps Chang, after deserting one family, had started another, and gave the new baby the same name as his first, deserted son. Another theory bites the dust!) So time really is folding in on itself!
Posted in 5x13 Some Like it Hoth, Lost Untangled
Planet Hoth from Star Wars
Writing my first impressions during the show’s commercials …
9:07 Starts with a powerful scene showing Miles, as a boy, already having the ability to communicate with the dead. Back in Dharma time, Horace sends Miles on an errand, welcoming him to “The Circle of Trust.” Miles picks up a dead body (Hostile?) from Radzinsky, then opens the body bag and asks the corpse, “So … what really happened?”
I’m liking this episode very much so far.
9:15 Multiply-pierced Miles, in flashback, visiting his dying mother. He wants to know why he is the way he is, and he wants to know about his father. His mother says that his father is dead, that he left them, and that he never cared about Miles. (Daddy issues!!) Miles wants to know where the body is. His mother says that it’s somewhere he could never go. (Like on a remote Island, perhaps?)
Miles has to take the body to the Orchid. Hurley comes along, with a funny line about how global warming hasn’t happened yet. Meanwhile, Roger, Ben’s dad, freaks out when he finds Ben is missing. He storms off. Juliet to Kate: “Well. Here we go.”
I am still really liking this episode!
9:28 Hurley finds the body. Says to Miles: “You can talk to dead people!” Says his secret his safe, cause he talks to dead people too.
Flashback: Miles conducts seances for hire. Tells a Dad that his son always knew he loved him. Is this a real message, or is he making it up for the money?
Naomi!!
Back in Dharma: Roger, drinking. Kate tries to comfort him. Roger senses that she knows what happened.
Hurley and Miles have a wonderful dialogue. Hurley tells how he talks to dead people. Miles says “That’s not how it works!” Hilarious. They are arguing about how communicating with the dead really works! Hurley: “You’re just jealous because my power is better than yours.” So funny!
Hurley says that Dr. Chang is a douche. Miles: “That douche is my Dad.”
Wow.
I am loving this episode!
9:40 Flashback to Miles and Naomi. Miles “reads” body, gets offered job for 1.6 million dollars. (This number came up in an earlier season. (Editing to add: Actually it was the 3.2 million dollars that came up before.)
Jack and Roger have an encounter. Then back to Hurley, Miles, and now also Chang in the WV. Chang’s 3-month old baby (the one we saw in the opening scene of the first episode of this season) is named Miles!! Wow.
Secret construction site — cool! They’re building the hatch! With the numbers on the cover!
I am totally loving this episode!
9:51 Flashback. Miles kidnapped by guys in a van. They say they want to talk him out of working for Widmore. One asks, “Do you know what lies in the shadow of the statue?” Ooooh!
Who are these guys? They tell Miles that they can tell him about his powers and about his Dad — the things he had asked his mother about on her deathbed — but Miles says he no longer cares, he only cares about money. They toss him out, tell him he’s “playing for the wrong team.”
Back in the van in Dharmaville, Miles grabs Hurley’s notebook. He’s writing the sequel to Star Wars — ha ha! — which hasn’t come out yet, and which he hopes to sell to Lucas! (There’s the tie-in with the title.)
Underling Phil tells Sawyer he knows Sawyer took Little Ben. Sawyer punches him, tells Juliet to get the rope.
I’m still totally loving this episode!
10:01 Miles goes back to see his client, says he wants to give him his money back. So he was faking after all! I’m thinking it is his conscience prompting him to return the money because he didn’t do the job he was hired for but, instead, Miles says “If you needed your son to know you loved him, you should have told him when he was alive.”
More Daddy issues!
Back in Dharmaville, Hurley talks about how he gave his Dad a second chance. Then he makes an elaborate Star Wars analogy, which goes way over my head, as I’m not a big Star Wars geek, but the gist of it is that he is trying to tell Miles that he should talk to his Dad.
Big Miles watches his Dad and Baby Miles!
Then Chang and Big Miles go out to meet the sub. And Faraday gets out!! And says, “Long time no see.”
Love, love, love this episode. It has so many of my favorite things — flashbacks, humor, Hurley and Miles riffing off each other, Daddy issues, and even the Hatch and the numbers!
Screenshot from The Empire Strikes Back (c) Lucasfilm, via Wikipedia
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