Miles 'gift'

[Be my Constant]

Is the possibility of Miles being able to talk to dead people by a result of him seeing himself as a baby. By my recollection he is the only one who has 'seen himself'.

[charlierocks]

I'm not sure it'sbecause he's seen himself, as I think that something more catastrophic would happen, rather than him becoming psychic. I do feel it's something to do with the island though, although I don't know what.

[Hordriss]

Could be, though my money is on it somehow being related to "The Incident", since I am assuming that has far-reaching repercussions (including, presumably, the loss of Chang's arm). The Swan was so heavily showcased in this episode, and it was made abundantly clear that Chang did in fact care about his son, so it is likely that his abandonment of them was due to far weirder circumstances.

Another possibility is that the "gift" is related to or even conferred by "Old Smokey", bearing in mind that the island's resident monster also has a talent for recording and projecting memories of the dead. However, it also has a faculty for creating apparently sentient and interactive "ghosts" when it feels the need, which is much more consistent with Hurley's "gift" (though in his case we must accept the possibility that he is simply hallucinating, lame though that would be).

[boltyyy]

It's cool that he's the only one who has seen himself which disproves the theory that one can't see his/her past self. I'm interested why it is called a "gift"... there's a lot of extrapolation that could go on there and I will try to address what I think in my commentary.

[Bass-mastaa]

My Theory's that Chang was experimenting with Dead bodies, as he's the guy who Miles delivers the body to. Maybe he was trying to research into communication with the dead or reanimation and used Baby Miles as a test subject.
BM

[charlierocks]

Interesting about Chang and the dead bodies, though I'm not sure that anything jumps to mind at the moment!!
It was odd that Miles didn't question Daniel more when the nose bleeds started the conversation about he'd allready been there.

[Cavegirl]

Perhaps it has something to do with where Pierre Chang was, and what he was doing, shortly before Miles was conceived? We already know that the island has a curiously fortifying effect on the male reproductive system. Possibly Miles has been imbued with certain properties because of the island's affect on his parents' biology prior to his birth.

Regarding seeing himself, I remember reading many years ago (perhaps I'm wrong, in which case please correct me!) that it takes about 7 years for the human body to replace all its cells. So if the same matter occupying the same place/time (that is, 2 Miles's) were problematic or catastrophic, the age difference of greater than 7 years could be a way to work around that.

[KatesFate]

Perhaps it has something to do with where Pierre Chang was, and what he was doing, shortly before Miles was conceived? We already know that the island has a curiously fortifying effect on the male reproductive system. Possibly Miles has been imbued with certain properties because of the island's affect on his parents' biology prior to his birth.

I think I like this explanation the most. I wonder if Sun's baby could possibly have the same "gift".

I am fascinated with the paranormal so Mile's little gift intrigues me. It confused me a bit that he told Hurley he can only hear a dead persons last thoughts. I seem to recall Michael getting ready to board a freighter and Miles seeming to know that his name was not Kevin Johnson. Miles had no waying of knowing this before hand and I always assumed he kind of read Michael's mind. He was also able to communicate with the dead boy whom the grandmother hired. He asked where "it" was and we were led to believe that the boy tapped the wall, leading Miles to his stash. When Miles leaves the room he also tells the ghost that it can go now.

None of this is possible if Miles only hears a persons last thoughts. So either he was lying to Hurley because he didn't want to talk about it or the writers changed their mind about what his psychic abilities would include. Personally, I would like to see his psychic abilites stretched a little further.

[LemonTella]

Some good theories there guys!

I can't understand why Chang didn't even flinch when Hurley pointed out that Miles and 'Baby Miles' have the same name... and are both Asian? You'd think with him testing time travel in The Orchid he might think - 'Whooaa, it really works!' ...or something like that!

Is it just me that thinks this?

[Mrs Sawyer]

Originally Posted by KatesFate

I am fascinated with the paranormal so Mile's little gift intrigues me. It confused me a bit that he told Hurley he can only hear a dead persons last thoughts. I seem to recall Michael getting ready to board a freighter and Miles seeming to know that his name was not Kevin Johnson. Miles had no waying of knowing this before hand and I always assumed he kind of read Michael's mind. He was also able to communicate with the dead boy whom the grandmother hired. He asked where "it" was and we were led to believe that the boy tapped the wall, leading Miles to his stash. When Miles leaves the room he also tells the ghost that it can go now.

None of this is possible if Miles only hears a persons last thoughts. So either he was lying to Hurley because he didn't want to talk about it or the writers changed their mind about what his psychic abilities would include. Personally, I would like to see his psychic abilites stretched a little further.

I totally agree with you KsF, i am also intrigued by his "gift" and i really do hope that the writers do explain how he got this and why! This is a very good point about the conversation with Miles and Hurley, i think its more likely that Miles lied to Hurley because he didnt want Hurley asking loads of questions, rather than the writers just changing their minds.

Originally Posted by LemonTella

I can't understand why Chang didn't even flinch when Hurley pointed out that Miles and 'Baby Miles' have the same name... and are both Asian? You'd think with him testing time travel in The Orchid he might think - 'Whooaa, it really works!' ...or something like that!

Is it just me that thinks this?

I thought this as well, i mean Miles is not exactly a common name, and like you say they are both Asian and he is experimenting with time travel. Although, maybe he has realised it but just hasnt said anything yet, maybe that is all to do with Miles "gift", maybe he realises that Miles is baby Miles and wants to "experiment" on him!!!!

[charlierocks]

I feel that you maybe onto something. Also I don't think his Mum would have told him about his Dad and the island if she really didn't want him to go back, so maybe the deal was that she'd explain to him in later life.
What do you think about them leaving?? Originally I thought Chang had kicked them off the island, but after seeing him with the baby now I'm not so sure.
Do we know for definate that Chang is dead in 2007?? I don't remember hearing anything, but I miss a lot of things as there's so many.

[Cavegirl]

Originally Posted by LemonTella

I can't understand why Chang didn't even flinch when Hurley pointed out that Miles and 'Baby Miles' have the same name... and are both Asian? You'd think with him testing time travel in The Orchid he might think - 'Whooaa, it really works!' ...or something like that!

I don't think Chang is yet ready to face the reality of human time travel, so it wouldn't even occur to him Miles is from the future. He probably expects his son to grow up to be a bigshot like him and would be horrified to find he's a security dogsbody! We don't know yet (do we? ) if this is before or after the time travelling rabbit experiments, but even if it is after, as Ben said:

"it's one thing to believe it... It's another thing to see it."

[LemonTella]

I assume that Chang is using the 'packages' as test subjects? Maybe tesing time travel..?

But hang on, now I think about it, Is The Orchid built in this episode?

Were they working on The Hatch in this episode?

[Gazman]

Originally Posted by Bass-mastaa

Maybe he was trying to research into communication with the dead or reanimation and used Baby Miles as a test subject.
BM

This isn't bad, but after seeing Chang and baby Miles, I would like to think that Chang wouldn't risk his own son - unless he was certain that it would work, or if someone else tested Miles - but who?

Originally Posted by charlierocks

It was odd that Miles didn't question Daniel more when the nose bleeds started the conversation about he'd allready been there.

Miles was only a baby, he probaly didn't know at that point that he had been on the island, or indeed that that was where his dad was. He only went to the island for the money (so far as we know), not to find his dad.

Originally Posted by Cavegirl

Perhaps it has something to do with where Pierre Chang was, and what he was doing, shortly before Miles was conceived? We already know that the island has a curiously fortifying effect on the male reproductive system. Possibly Miles has been imbued with certain properties because of the island's affect on his parents' biology prior to his birth.

For me that's the best explanation. though I do like the Miles test subject theory, but after seeing Chang and baby Miles, I don't see him testing his own son!

Originally Posted by charlierocks

What do you think about them leaving?? Originally I thought Chang had kicked them off the island, but after seeing him with the baby now I'm not so sure.

Yeah, I don't think they were kicked off - but why didn't his mum tell him the truth. Hopefully after seeing himself with his dad, Miles might form a relationship with him.

Originally Posted by LemonTella

But hang on, now I think about it, Is The Orchid built in this episode?

Were they working on The Hatch in this episode?

They were building The Hatch (The Swan Station), and it looked as though they were still building The Orchid as well.

[charlierocks]

As Hurley seems to be the voice of the viewer maybe he'll try to stop the hatch been built so they don't crash.
They've allready gone through the Ben thing when by not saving him ultimately turned him into an other, so as Hurley and Miles(who seems to understand more than most about the whatever happened happened theory) have seen the hatch, maybe with Miles knowledge/gift and Hurley's luck they'll decide to do something about. Maybe this could be the thing that causes the incident and gives Miles his abilities at the same time.