Talk: The Pearl

Spoilers Below

As a sidenote it may prove somewhat relevant that when fishing Jin told Bernard that there were no pearls in the area.

Orientation Film

I added some brief information on the film, along with my own transcription of the video (thanks tivo).

It's interesting because he distinctly says 'another station' not 'other stations', which suggests only the Swan was meant to be monitored from the Pearl (which makes sense - one camera per station wouldn't be enough, you'd need several cameras to track movements and tracking several people in several different stations would be near impossible).

But my reason for writing it down is because I'm sure he says "at the end of your 8 hour shift proceed to the parlour fairy which will take you to the barracks".

I think it's pretty accurate, but please correct any mistakes if you see them. My own computer is broken and my net time is cut down, so I haven't been able to format it very well either. My comments are in brackets.

--Rayne 15:44, 14 May 2006 (PDT)

Ummm, nevermind, I just found the Pearl Orientation video page. I should've known someone else had already done it!

--Rayne 15:47, 14 May 2006 (PDT)

Please add a better looking Pearl logo when time permits. I only used MS paint for mine. :P ~dissonance

Weren't there some words beneathe the circle? i wasn't paying enough attention

talk contribs 19:13, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

where did all this pearl info come from? I don't remember seeing a pearl orientation video Ernest 17:32, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

From the new episode, "?". It just ended. Did you miss it? ~dissonance

It's not on here on the us east coast for another 20 minutes. GREAT NOW THE EPISODE IS RUINED FOR ME. That's what I get for reading lostpedia so close to airtime :). Where are you that it's on already? - Ernest 17:44, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

Canada! CTV plays Lost at 7:00 PM. I guess down in the USA you guys get it at 9:00 PM, huh? :P ~dissonance

I'm jealous - Ernest 17:59, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

Luckily I don't remember much else from the episode but Pearl-related stuff, or you'd REALLY get a spoiler. :P ~dissonance

On the Orientation film it said "Dharma" in small letters right under the white circle. Eridani 21:53 10 May 2006 (EST)

Guys, im not sure about this... this may not be the ? of the blast door map but rather C IV (C4) on the map... Go here to find out: http://www.lost-forum.com/showpost.php?p=1252610&postcount=76 (Scroll down to the bottom of the post and reveal the spoiler Nusentinsaino talk contribs email

sadly, registration has been temporarly disabled by the administrator PanSavant 20:48, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

Posted a screenie of the post... found here Nusentinsaino talk contribs email

Thanks again Nusent. I am trying to remember, but how the Pearl Orientation Video make reference to the other stations again? PanSavant 21:04, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

I think he only referred to The Swan... Nusentinsaino talk contribs email

No, he did refer to all the other stations, but as a total numerical count. I'll find out tomorrow when I can watch it again online. The other issue with The Door being the ? station, don't the photos show the Door as being on the coast of the island, not the center? PanSavant 21:10, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

True that is what i was thinking too... we should wait until further notice. Nusentinsaino talk contribs email

Video Camera

Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that Locke shined the flashlight on a video camera mounted in the corner of the room? If so, who is watching Pearl station, while they are watching everyone else? PanSavant 20:46, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

I noticed that too, and it seemed that Eko or Locke were not surprised, just concerned about it. Also, see the bold text above... this could mean that the Pearl is actually not the center of the blast door map... I think The Door is actually the center where it monitors everything. Nusentinsaino talk contribs email

During The Pearl scene, the angle of the camera viewing The Swan changes:

Unknown if this is just a continuity error, or if it means that someone is moving the camera. The camera that is actually in The Pearl did not appear to be very movable.--Zolointo 01:51, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

More than likely there are multiple cameras in each station, probably selectable manually or, by default, on some kind of rotation schedule.--Stew Erickson 05:15, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Is angle 2 a reverse image of angle 1? Looks like Jack from the back, same head tilt as in angle 1. LOSTonthisdarnisland 18:18, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

No, different points of time. Plus, you can see different items in the scene. Advance 06:12, 13 May 2006 (PDT)

I'm not sure where to put this, so anyone can add this where it needs to go. If you label the video screens 1-9, starting with the top left and going across, then the live video feed(s) of 'The Swan', is(are) screen 3. In the 'Orientation' video, all 9 screens start with the 'Pearl' logo, but later on screen 1 switches to a view of the computer located in the Swan. I was wondering if anyone else noticed this. MrEkitten 01:22, 14 May 2006 (PDT)

In the Talk-page of the Pearl Orientation Video is is mentioned and there is a screenshot.--Porter 01:32, 14 May 2006 (PDT)

numbers on the computer printout

when locke holds up the log file of whats being printed from the computer, there are sets of numbers. these numbers are a unix timestamp. all the ones on the sheet they do the closeup on translate to a date of 4/27/1971, with a time around 12:05 to 12:10. i think that pretty much clinches the theory of being the times when the code was entered and accepted on the computer at swan. --firesign 21:31, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

Well, maybe. Unix counts time based on the number of seconds since 1 Jan 1970 GMT -- so, yes, the values given do seem to work out to 27 April 1971. But the numbers on the printout are eight-digit values followed by a comma and two more digits -- Unix timestamps are rarely if ever written that way. (If you're looking at fractions of a second, you might see something like 41602086.12, with a decimal, but not a colon.) --User:cdevers

it is possible that the number after the colon is related to the timestamp, but not actually part of it. --firesign 22:22, 10 May 2006 (PDT)

Now there are a few things I don't really understand:

If these numbers are unix timestamps (which was my first impression, too) and they translate to a date of April 27 1971, how can the video be from 1980?
Since they start around that date, I assume this is either the first print of the log-file ever or the last one was just that day (April 27 1971). How come nobody printed it again till now?
Between the timestamps, there are only a few seconds. Not 104 to 108 minutes. Can not be the moment one of the numbers or a digit was entered either.
If there is an entry every few seconds, that makes a couple hundred million entries till now, doesn't it? The printer will run a couple of years untill it finied printing. ;-)

--Porter 06:21, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

While it's likely that the numbers on the sheet are timestamps, they do not need to be Unix timestamps. They could be following a different standard which has a different start date. Also, if you have computers sitting their processing things for years, which apparantly little or no maintanance from anybody. It would surprise me that the computers clocks are still set properly. --Uth 10:32, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

The article says the numbers increase, which is correct but misleading. The numbers increase, but are repeated several times down the page (in the shot the audience sees); therefore, the whole page is not a page of steadily increasing numbers, but repeated series of increasing numbers. LOSTonthisdarnisland 10:56, 11 May 2006 (PDT) Never mind LOSTonthisdarnisland 11:02, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

As a UNIX administrator, I assure you, the numbers are not a Unix timestamp. The numbers appear in the following format (taken directly from a screenshot):

41602050:29 accepted 41602052:17 accepted 41602054:05 accepted 41602055:53 accepted

Now, if we assume that the number prior to the colon represents an hour and the number after the colon represents a minute, we find that there are precisely 108 minutes between each number.

Because of this, I believe it is correct that these represent the time that the numbers are entered at the computer in The Swan. --Xsg 11:24, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

This brings up a curious point, however. The numbers entered at The Swan aren't necessarily entered every 108 minutes! They could be entered at any time during the four minutes prior to the timer hitting zero. The likelihood that any of the survivors will simply wait for the timer to hit the last minute and just deal with three minutes of an annoying klaxon are slim, I believe. Therefore, I'm going to chalk this up to continuity error. --Xsg 11:31, 11 May 2006 (PDT)
- This assumes that the system reports the numbers being entered exactly when "Execute" is pressed. It is entirely possible that it runs a check at the end of each 108 minute cycle and reports whether or not the numbers were entered.

One other important note:
If the number to the left of the colon represents an hour and the hour starts counting from 0 and is now up to 41602050, that would mean that 1,733,419 days have passed since hour 0. This would mean that 4745 years have passed since hour 0, which leads me to believe that there's more to this number than appears. --Xsg 11:41, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

What if the first 5 digits are a date stamp (4-16-2002) and the last XXX:XX are a time stamp? Desmond was in the Swan for 3 years, correct? Just a theory...

The theory doesn't hold, unfortunately. The numbers we can see increase from 41602052:17 to 41602113:29. Using your method, MDDYYhhh:mm, we would expect to only see two digits for the hour, and that number would increase by at most twenty-four before incrementing the day and re-cycling the hour. --Xsg 12:06, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

One point to all of this discussion. While I will concede that these numbers are a timestamp of some sort, we cannot make any type of assumption as to what they are a timestamp of/for. We do not know if it is even relevant to Swan Station. Maybe it is the time between a series of injections in The Staff or maybe the interval of sampling the count of fleas on the Polar Bear at Arrow Station (just kidding). My point is we just don't know (which sadly rules out a continuity error until we know more.) PanSavant 12:49, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

But we can try. ;-)
416 might be the number of the team that is supposed to be in there. A team stays 30 days. 30x416=12480 days. That means 34 years (1970 - 2004). --Porter 12:53, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Are you sure about the time a team is supposed to stay ? I understood a team stays 3 weeks in The Pearl, that means 21 days. If I follow your steps with the theory of 416 numbers associated with a team count we have 21x416 = 8736 days (24 years minus about 20 days). So if we assume that the tape, dated from 1980, was made just before the start of this experience, we will be near year 2004. --Akhenaton 13:21, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Ouh you are right. It's 3 weeks. Hmm don't know the 30 days came on my mind... But the 24 years fit even better, just as you said as well. ;-) But actually the Log should beginn with a timestamp lying far in the past, judging from what it looks like in there... --Porter 13:45, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

You're right too, a 3 weeks crew shift should take about 504 hours (3 weeks x 7 days a week x 24 hours a day), so it should take only the 3 right digits before the colon :( At this point we're pretty sure that at least these 3 digits, the colon and the last 2 digits can be included in a timestamp. As I observed closely, I can say that :

- One log page represents 99 hours
     (22 lines/page, 5 sequences each 2 lines : 11 x 5 x 108' = 99 hours).
- The first code seen is 41602046:53 and the last one (seen) is 41602127:53.
- The difference appears to always be 108 ...

But how old is this log ? We don't know. --Akhenaton 14:34, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Guys, just google for "day 4160" and check out the top result: http://www.spirit-of-yggdrasil.com/page372.aspx . Dharma, 108 mentioned on the same page... co-incidence? Probably not. --Brookshoal 20:50, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

There are 10,000 hours in a "day" and we're seeing a log from around hour 2100?! Co-incidence?! Quite likely. --Xsg 09:19, 12 May 2006 (PDT)

I've been checking the numbers and found something, if you sort the numbers based on the :?? you will get 5 different "groups", and each number in that specific group is incremented by 9 every time.

for example, for the ":05" group you get:

41602054:05
41602063:05
41602072:05
41602081:05
41602090:05

if you decrement the number by 9 until you reach the closest to zero you will get the following values:

05 -> 4 17 -> 2 29 -> 0 41 -> 7 58 -> 5

which means that the 5 timers didn't start at 0 (not all of them) and that there have been aproximatly 4622450 "ticks" --Shodan 17:56 12 May 2006 (GMT)

The reason that these numbers increment by 9 every time is that 108 minute intervals will fit evenly into nine-hour intervals (five times, to be exact). There are 540 minutes in nine hours. 540 divided by 108 = 5. There is only one timer, not five timers. I agree, however, that the timer couldn't possibly increment every 108 minutes and still have started at zero. --Xsg 23:33, 12 May 2006 (PDT)

That's very intressting, in deed. The minutes (number after the colon) are always odd numbers. The timer was already startet 5 minutes before the first code was entered:

000:05

001:53

003:41

and so on

e.g.:

41602 052:17 --> 52 hours and 17 minutes

52 x 60 + 17 = 3137 minutes

3137 - 5 (offset) = 3132 mintes

3132 : 108 = 29

Porter 06:18, 13 May 2006 (PDT)

Or if its not 52 hours but 02052 hours, it startet 17 minutes befor the code was entered the first time:

2052 * 60 + 17 = 123137 minutes

123137 / 108 = 1140,15740740740...

(1140,15740740740 - 1140) * 108 = 17

Porter 06:30, 13 May 2006 (PDT)

Locke + Map + Tube = STUPID!

Why did John just toss the map into the tube? I know he was really bummed about everything down there, but why? Obviously it worked enough to find the place. Now somebody is going to find it and start raising hell.

It seemed pointless to send his only self drawn map in to the tube. I scratched my head over the point of John doing that. --Phil 04:49, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

I think that was the whole point. He doesn't feel like he has a purpose again since he feels "pushing the button" doesn't have any real purpose. He is caving in on himself and doesn't care about anything. He doesn't care if "someone else" finds his map because he needs answers.

The most likely reason to me is that he feels he has no more need of it and wanted to test the tube. I mean, Sayid, Charlie, Eko, and Locke (at the least) all know how to get back to the crash site if they need to. Absalom 06:01, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Right. It was something he had handy that was small enough to fit in the tube, without removing anything from the room that might have been helpful/a clue. Also, this doesn't appear to be the main map that he was working on, but a smaller and less detailed version. LOSTonthisdarnisland 11:04, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Well, he does have a memory of the map... its not hard to draw where the 7 stations are around the center. lol. Nusentinsaino talk contribs email

Besides, who needs a map? The movie said there was a ferry that runs every three weeks, and that might still happen if they're still dropping food. Not to mention someone was in there smoking a cigarette just before he got there! So, again, I ask, "Who needs a Map?" They can get off the island now! --Beardog4314 09:06, 17 May 2006 (PDT)

Only monitoring the swan? Or all stations?

did the orientation video seem to indicate that the inhabitants of The Pearl were to monitor all of the other stations? or just the swan? only one monitor showed a picture, and that was of the swan... would the other monitors simply show more monitors from the swan, or would they show the other stations. thoughts? --Dotsam 01:04, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Since the monitors were numbered and match the number of stations it's almost certain there are cameras in each station. It could be that the missing signals from all the other stations indicate they are currently not "active."

Actually there are nine monitors, three rows of three. Wonder what the extra two are for.--Tricksterson 07:58, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

There are two monitors numbered 3. Bottom one in the first row, and the center monitor. And no number 5 monitor --Techiedavid 11:23, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Station 5 of 6?

Now, that we know 2 Orientation-films, can we say there are 6 stations?

The Orientation-film of The Swan was labled "3 of 6" - sure, this could mean there are 6 movies and one of them is Orientation - but The Swan is stations 3 - ok, could be just coincidence
The Orientation-video of The Pearl was labled "5 of 6" AND The Pearl is stations 5
If there are 6 videos per station, how come they only find the Orientation-films?
Why isn't Orientation #3 everytime?
Wouldn't it make more sense, if Orientation was the first (or the only one) of the videos?

So, to me it looks like there are 6 videos, 1 for each station.
--Porter 08:34, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

We don't know for sure that it is station five of six. It could just be five of six in a series of orientation films. Until we know it as fact, it's only a theory that there are only six stations.
Jabberwock talk contribs email - 11:18, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Yeah, one video for each station. All stations should not have the same videos. Each video has the instruction of what you are suppose to do in that particular hatch. If they share the same video, it will 'interfere' with the experiments conducted in different hatches. This is how real life science and psyc experiements are conducted. Limit the interferences of bad data and isolate the variables. -- Chatake 11:24, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Actually, we do know that it is Station 5. The video clearly says Station 5 on the intro, just after the 5 of 6 frames. LOSTonthisdarnisland 18:11, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

The films imply that there are six stations (and one film for each), but that may or may not be true. We already know that the orientation films don't tell the whole truth (at the very least). It's possible that there are films and stations numbered from one to six, but there's also a "super secret" seventh station.

Beta vs. 16mm?

I may be mistaken on this, but wasn't the Swan training film on 16mm with a projector? Now the pearl has a betadeck... Did anyone see a large stack of tapes in the Pearl anywhere? They certainly wouldn't fit up the tube. I'm curious if the images on the screens are being taped, or if they're just a live feed.--Beardog4314 12:39, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Probably just a live feed, thus the reason of having someone watching continuously for 8 hours a day taking copious notes - and possibly heroin on the table top to relieve the boredom (RE: Substance on the table theory - A plane loaded with a quite a bit of heroin crash landed right above their heads. I am sure some may have spilled out when it finally came to a rest.) It would be harder to explain the need for notes (and thus the need to watch the monitors, not the VCRs) if tapes were evident. Just a thought. PanSavant 12:57, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

I think this can't be the heroïn from the crashed plane as John and Eko had to move it before opening the door. --Akhenaton 15:08, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

The crashed plane wasn't over the hatch initially. It later fell to that location, from the top of the cliff, when Boone climbed into it. PanSavant 16:53, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

just to be nitpicky, and maybe its relevant and maybe not, but that was not a beta vcr. it was a sony u-matic which is from the 1970s, and predate both beta and vhs. they used bigger cassettes because they used a wider tape than beta and vhs machines. i worked in a consumer electronics store back in the early 70s, and even though these were not exactly consumer units we had one in the store and i actually sold a couple. a u-matic deck would be more in line age-wise with the apple // computer, the dot matrix printer, and the types of monitors that they found in the pearl station. --firesign 15:39, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

Wisp of smoke

Did anyone else see the wisp of smoke coming from the left arm of the right chair (or right arm of the left chair, depending on point of view) while they were watching the video? It was rising from something white on the arm of the chair. It looked like cigarette smoke. --GeorgePBurdell 13:04, 11 May 2006 (PDT)

I saw the cigarette smoke in the Orientation video. You can also see a cigarette on the chair, seemingly where John and Eko saw the cigarette remains when they enterred... Advance 06:27, 13 May 2006 (PDT)

According to Cuse/Lindelof on the ABC podcast the cigarette is still burning, I made this change but someone changed it almost immediately afterwards from burning to burnt. I will undo this change and make a comment referring them to the discussion. Marcusbm 19:58, 15 May 2006 (PDT)