DHARMA Initiative stations

[edit] Orientation video

An orientation video discovered by Locke and Eko is similar to the one they previously viewed inside The Swan. The narrator appears to be the same man in both presentations. This time, however, he introduces himself as "Dr. Mark Wickmund" and has full use of both hands.

The narrator states that the purpose of the Pearl is to monitor and record the activities of participants in DHARMA Initiative projects. He explains that a psychological experiment is taking place in another station on the island: participants therein, unaware that they are under surveillance, have been conditioned to believe their work is of grave importance. Two-person teams in the Pearl station, working eight hour shifts over a three week period, are to watch the video displays and take notes on their observations. Every action, regardless of how subtle, is to be recorded into notebooks by the Pearl's team members, both for posterity and ongoing refinement of the Initiative. He demonstrates that a completed notebook should be inserted into a cylinder and fed into the pneumatic tube delivery system. The man affirms that the notebooks will be "transported directly to us."

He instructs the team members that at the end of their eight hour shift "you are to proceed to the Pala Ferry, which will take you back to the barracks to prepare for your next - - -" At this point the video fades into snow, but resumes momentarily with the ending, containing the well-wishing of Dr. Wickmund. The end of the video shows a 1980 copyright by the Hanso Foundation, as did The Swan's orientation.

[edit] Monitor bank

Image:Lost-PearlMonitors.jpg Opposite the entrance to the room is a bank of nine monitors — three rows of three monitors — with each monitor's control panel set into the wall to the right of each monitor. Only one monitor appears to have a video feed being sent to it when Locke and Eko turn them on — real-time video from inside the Swan's main living area. However, in the Pearl Orientation video, the top left monitor is briefly shown to be working, depicting two men around the computer in the Swan. The middle monitor in the bank is connected to a U-matic player within the station. In The Cost of Living, Nikki and Locke see a man with an eyepatch in one of the monitors. The mysterious man soon covers the camera with his hand, and nothing more is seen. Immediately in front of the bank of monitors are two leather chairs on swivel mounts. Each chair appears to have a desk mounted to the right arm, a large magnifying glass mounted to the left arm (one chair is missing the magnifying glass), and a set of controls are built into the arms including a dial controlling the lighting level. <ref>Official Lost podcast May 15 2006</ref>

[edit] Computer desk

Image:Lost-PearlComputerDesk.jpg To the right of the monitor bank is a desk with a computer, a printer, message containers, and to the right of the desk is a pneumatic tube. Built into the wall over the desk is a lamp to allow ample lighting over the desk. The computer's prompt showed only one command asking if the user wanted to print a log or not. The computer appears to be continuously logging something, which is later shown to be the dates of inputs of the code in the Swan. Eko took the print out from the computer with him when he left the station.

The pneumatic tube is still in operating condition as Locke placed his drawing of the Swan's hidden map inside and it was whisked away. The Pearl's orientation film states that the pneumatic tube is to be used to send notebooks to "them" when they are filled with observations and notations about the psychological experiment. At least eleven message containers are present on the computer desk.

In Live Together, Die Alone, Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Michael and Hurley discover that the termination point of the pneumatic tube is a distant spot on the island, where piles of thousands of tubes containing journals are lying untouched in a large mound. Also found is Locke's map of the stations, which he sent through the tube in "?".

[edit] Cupboard

To the left of the monitor bank is a cupboard containing stacks of notebooks branded with the logo of the Pearl and a video cassette of an orientation film for the Pearl. These notebooks were to be used by team members to write down observations of other team members within the other stations.

[edit] Purpose

Despite what Eko and Locke originally thought about the station, it does not seem that the information tape about the station is correct. The pipeline capsules actually shoot out of a pipe in the middle of an empty field, and are apparently rarely, if ever, collected. Desmond speculated that instead of the people in the Pearl being the ones observing a psychological experiment, it was perhaps they themselves who were the subjects of the experiment. This is further evidenced by the camera observing the Pearl station itself.

[edit] The Staff

First seen/visited in: "Maternity Leave"

Name given in: "Lockdown"

Purpose: Medical FacilityImage:The staff LOST.jpg

When Claire's baby, Aaron, becomes ill, she begins having flashbacks of the time she was abducted by Ethan Rom. Convinced that her baby needs to find some of the vaccine that was injected into her pregnant stomach during her abduction, Claire leads Kate and Rousseau through the jungle to the station where she had been held. While travelling, Claire's flashbacks continue sporadically, revealing that this is where the "Others" were going to have Claire give birth, and that there was a nursery provided for the baby. Claire also remembers that there was a corridor that she tried to go down, but that she was diverted by Ethan. When the trio find the station, however, it has been abandoned. In a locker room, Kate finds costumes and theatrical makeup, including a fake beard, which is very similar in appearance to that worn by Tom. The Staff seems to be a former medical station, since it is equipped with an operating room and is adorned with the caduceus symbol, often associated with the medical profession. Claire and Kate lift the refrigerated cabinet to find that all the medicines have been removed. However, Aaron recovers as Jack predicted before Claire and the others left on their quest.

[edit] Location

Image:Lost-StaffEscapeHatch.jpg The Staff is situated by a large clearing in the jungle and is entirely underground. There are at least two entrances/exits: a main entrance and an escape hatch. The main entrance, consisting of two large doors, is built into the ground and connects to a stairwell leading deeper underground. Inside the station, a door set into one of the hallways has “ESCAPE HATCH” written above it. It is unknown where this escape hatch leads to.

The main entrance stairwell terminates at a circular doorway within the Staff. A box is mounted on the wall near the doorway and contains several DHARMA-branded flashlights. Connected to this doorway are two hallways on either side, giving the station the shape of a “V”. From the circular doorway, the hallway to the right terminates at an operating room. The door to the escape hatch and three other doors are located along the walls of this hallway. The hallway to the left of the circular doorway was not shown. However, Kate ventured down this hallway and was able to restore power to the station somewhere in that hallway. A locker room and a nursery are attached to this hallway.

The previous occupants of the Staff were Ethan Rom and Tom, among others. Just before her escape, Claire saw six individuals dressed in white surgical scrubs inside the operating room. A teenage girl, (Alex Rousseau, the French woman's daughter), helped Claire get out of the Staff.

[edit] Operating room

Image:Lost-StaffOperatingRoom.jpg At the end of the right hallway is the operating room. The room has built-in cabinets with a shelf and overhead cabinets along one wall, a large array of surgical lights mounted to the ceiling, and the walls of the room are painted with a subdued color palette. When discovered by Kate, Claire, and Rousseau, the room contains a metal basin, a lockable refrigerator, and a couple of cardboard boxes.

Claire’s flashbacks of her stay in the Staff show a more fully stocked operating room. It supposedly contained an examination table, an ultrasonography machine, a floor lamp, and medical supplies.

[edit] Nursery

Image:Lost-StaffNursery.jpg A nursery is located in the Staff and doorways leading into both hallways of the station. The walls of the nursery are painted baby blue. When Claire and Rousseau found the nursery, it was barren with only a wooden rocking chair and several boxes strewn about. Imprints of hanging decorations were on the walls, but the objects were not in the room.

Claire’s flashbacks of her stay in the Staff show a fully-furnished nursery. It contained a bed, a storage chest, drawers, shelves with books, and several lamps. Children’s paintings and ornaments adorned the walls of the room. Numerous toys and stuffed animals were placed about the nursery. In addition, the nursery contained a crib with a mobile featuring four Oceanic airliners. Because Claire was drugged during her stay at the Staff, the actual furnishings of the nursery shown in her flashbacks may be exaggerations or entirely fabricated in her mind.

[edit] Locker room

The locker room is located in the left hallway of the Staff. The room contains at least two rows of double-tier and one row of single-tier lockers with the Staff logo emblazoned on the locker doors. Inside one of the single-tier lockers, Kate discovered ragged clothes and a ragged wool cap. At the bottom of the locker was a wooden case containing a fake beard and DHARMA-branded theatrical glue, among other items - the same items with which the "Other" known as Tom disguises himself for an undisclosed reason.

[edit] The Hydra

Image:HydraFromCage.jpg

First seen in: "A Tale of Two Cities"

First visited in: "A Tale of Two Cities"

Name given in: "A Tale of Two Cities"

Area of study: Zoology

The third season premiere of Lost introduced a new station called "the Hydra". Its exact layout has not yet been revealed. It definitely has a section above ground on the coast, and another section underwater. The Hydra facility has cages outside the station in the jungle and aquariums underwater. In "Every Man for Himself", Ben claims that the Hydra is on a smaller island near the island the rest of the survivors are on. Dialogue in "The Glass Ballerina" reveals that the Others have a functional submarine.

[edit] Island complex

The above ground complex for the Hydra is unknown except for a collection of various cages. The cage used to imprison Sawyer is equipped with a feeding mechanism which Tom says was figured out by the bears in two hours. Output is food as a reward: a fish biscuit, water, and peanuts. Near Sawyer's and Kate's cages is the Hydra station interior. It does not appear that the Others' Suburb is located on this small island.

[edit] Underwater complex

The underwater complex, as Juliet claims, was once used as an aquarium, which housed sharks and dolphins. Jack is kept in one room on lockdown. In a nearby room, Juliet and Ben Linus are monitoring Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Dialog in "Every Man for Himself" indicates that the medical facilities in the Hydra are substandard (presumably intended for treating aquatic animals rather than people), and that their infirmary lacks a working defibrillator or "Crash cart." The submarine is apparently incapable of docking with the underwater complex, as they had to physically carry a wounded Other across the island to get to it from the sub. Whether this is normal, or yet another example of the deteriorated nature of the Others' equipment is unknown.

[edit] The Others' station (Mock-up)

First seen in: "Three Minutes"

First visited in: "Live Together, Die Alone"

A station door appears at the Others' camp, which is described as being on the north side of the island, near a rock formation with a hole in it. The entrance is guarded by two Others with rifles. The logo on the door appears to be a rectangle, which is partially covered by the word "DHARMA". Michael claimed that this was where the Others kept the people that they captured. In the finale of Season 2, it was revealed that there is nothing behind the station's door. When Sayid sneaks into the Others' camp, he finds that the door to this hatch leads only to a wall of solid rock.

[edit] Eyepatch Man's Station

First Seen in: "The Cost of Living"

Area of study: Unknown

This station is seen from the Pearl when Sayid is able to establish a live video feed connection with another station. At first, all that is seen appears to be a computer mainframe. The camera slowly panned right, revealing a man wearing an eyepatch and a DHARMA suit staring directly into the camera. Soon after, the man shut down the camera on his end. While everyone is stunned by what has happened, Locke says that the man "will be expecting [them]".

[edit] References