I've only seen the episode once, but from what i gathered, Minkowski was suffering from the same disorder Desmond was. And Farradey explainded it could happen either by radiation or ELECTRMAGNETISM. Did Minkowski become effected by the Anomolie or some other event?

I may be wrong, but it was the combination of the prior exposure and going through the "barrier" around the island. Minkowski was stationed in the elaborate radio room of the ship, so perhaps he was exposed to a sufficient dose of electromagnetic/whatever energy. Then he and another crew member took out the ship's tender to see the island, presumably coming in contact with the barrier. That's my assumption at this point.

I Also believe it to be from him being in the radio room. I liked the line, ' all radio transmssions came THROUGH ME' maybe giving us a hint as to what had caused him to suffer from the sickness.

Yep, What they said.

Minkowski and Brandon took out the tender to go see the island for themselves. That's when they hit the barrier.

But 80 miles is kind of a long way to row in a tiny boat.

bad teeth?

Minkowski and Brandon took out the tender to go see the island for themselves. That's when they hit the barrier.

But 80 miles is kind of a long way to row in a tiny boat.

I doubt the tender was a row boat. It was probably a small power boat. If the freighter can land 2 helicopters, they can carry a large powered tender, imho.

I may be wrong, but it was the combination of the prior exposure and going through the "barrier" around the island. Minkowski was stationed in the elaborate radio room of the ship, so perhaps he was exposed to a sufficient dose of electromagnetic/whatever energy. Then he and another crew member took out the ship's tender to see the island, presumably coming in contact with the barrier. That's my assumption at this point.
Works for me, I would think you'd probably get exposed to quite a bit of electromagnatism and whatnot working in a ship's communications room, and we don't even know how much exposure you'd need.

Minkowski and Brandon took out the tender to go see the island for themselves. That's when they hit the barrier.

But 80 miles is kind of a long way to row in a tiny boat.
Yeah, but I doubt they went all the way to The Island, they probably just went far enough to get a look at it.
This actually brings up another question for me: How far away from The Island is The Barrier? I'm assuming it's probably a pretty good distance away since the boat is staying so far away.

So i just thought of this. What if he was the partner of the dude that brought Desmond into the Hatch! The long lost partner we never heard about. I bet thats how he got exposed, he was on the island, and since time hadn't corrected itself for him he had no way of getting back, thus why he didn't remember anything about the island jsut like Desmond.

This actually brings up another question for me: How far away from The Island is The Barrier? I'm assuming it's probably a pretty good distance away since the boat is staying so far away.

Also, remember how the Rafties around the end of season 1/beginning of season 2 went quite a long way until they didn't see the island anymore before they were intercepted by Tom Friendly and his goons.

I doubt they ever crossed the barrier.

I've only seen the episode once, but from what i gathered, Minkowski was suffering from the same disorder Desmond was. And Farradey explainded it could happen either by radiation or ELECTRMAGNETISM. Did Minkowski become effected by the Anomolie or some other event?

Minkowski said he and his partner went closer than they should have had. They wanted to see the Island, but had to turn back. That's how they got their exposure.

Eric

my theory: Minkowski is Ben's man on the boat. And was exposed when they did not push the button in the hatch and it created the pulse - end of season 2? and he was near the hatch.

So, Minkowski's going crazy because he tried to go out to the island with his buddy. His buddy is now dead. According to Faraday, both of them must have been exposed to a potent source of electromagnetism or radiation. What could that possibly be? Minkowski was the communications officer, but perhaps that wasn't his real function on the ship. I'm thinking that Minkowski and his buddy were in charge of arming a nuclear device on the ship. After getting radioed by Jack, they found out the coordinates, sent 4 people out to investigate, armed the bomb, and were waiting for word to deploy it. When Desmond and Sayid arrived, they didn't want Sayid anywhere near Minkowski because they were afraid he'd tell him how he got exposed and alert him to the threat. Hence the need to sedate him.

I've been amazed at just how nonthreatening the people from the freighters have been, but maybe the real threat, the bomb, has yet to arrive. This would certainly fit with what Ben said about every living person on this island dying.

Any other thoughts on how he could have gotten exposed?

He tried to get out to the island with another person, dont remember the name.
He 'passed' the 'barrier' of the island, where the time difference takes place and returned to the boat. When you pass this 'ring' (barrier), you can have side effects, like Desmond and Minkowski.

He tried to get out to the island with another person, dont remember the name.
He 'passed' the 'barrier' of the island, where the time difference takes place and returned to the boat. When you pass this 'ring' (barrier), you can have side effects, like Desmond and Minkowski.

That is if you were exposed to radiation or electromagnetism. They were exposed, then went out to the island, then got sick.

1. He could have been on the island as an other or with Dharma at some point.
2. He could have been a test subject for Daniel.

Nuclear.....wha?

I may be wrong, but it was the combination of the prior exposure and going through the "barrier" around the island. Minkowski was stationed in the elaborate radio room of the ship, so perhaps he was exposed to a sufficient dose of electromagnetic/whatever energy. Then he and another crew member took out the ship's tender to see the island, presumably coming in contact with the barrier. That's my assumption at this point.


Yep or maybe he was close to the Hatch when it exploded like off shore in a boat. He did mention that he and his friend wanted to check out the Island

Minkowski said he and his partner went closer than they should have had. They wanted to see the Island, but had to turn back. That's how they got their exposure.

Eric

But from what has been said by Daniel, they need to have received either a high dose of EM/radiation, or a regular dose of it, prior to passing through the barrier. Simply getting close to the island wouldn't be enough, otherwise Sayid and Frank would have time jumped. They didn't. Minkowski and Brandond have to have had exposure prior to leaving for their little trip to the island, either on the boat or before they got on the freighter.

Just thought of something. If they do have a nuclear device on board and armed it once they recieved confirmation from Naomi that they found the island, then everybody on the freighter would have been exposed to the radiation and would end up getting sick if they tried to go back to the island. Minkowski said that it would happen to every one of us if they go back, so, whatever it was that affected Minkowski and his buddy also affected the entire crew. Frank and the other 3 were not exposed to it since they left prior to the arming of the bomb. But now that he is back, along with Sayid, he's been exposed and will get sick if he goes back to the island. I've been wondering why Sayid would just leave with people he doesn't trust. Maybe it's because he's been exposed to radiation on the ship and can't go back to the island. If he does, he'll die.

A tender is not necessarily a small boat. Google "ship tender" and you will see.

The nuclear bomb is an interesting point. In Childhood's End by A.C. Clarke, an island community is established under the name "New Athens" as a reaction to a totalitarian regime that has come to govern the Earth. In the end the leaders of New Athens detonate a nuclear bomb on the island and destroy it. That is a very basic outline, but I have always seen many links between that book and this show.

It's certainly a reasonable possibility as to how Minkowski came to be susceptible to the barrier side effects.

M

Maybe it’s not a nuclear bomb but radiation emitting GAS - the freighties had this box of gas masks for their protection and I just remembered the way poor Work Man Roger kicked the bucket - he suffered from a killer nosebleed …

The gas that killed Roger was, presumably, the same gas that killed the rest of the Dharma people in the purge. If it were radioactive, then I doubt that Ben, Richard and Co could have walked into the Dharma village so soon after the purge without being affected. Richard made a clear nod to Ben that it was okay for him to remove his mask, and I can't see Richard doing that if he felt that there was a risk of Ben suffering radiation poisining of some kind.

Minkowski and Brandon took out the tender to go see the island for themselves. That's when they hit the barrier.

But 80 miles is kind of a long way to row in a tiny boat.

The boat is 80 km from shore, not 80 miles. The barrier/portal is 40 miles from shore, and 7 kilometers from the boat. (Don't ask me why Daniel uses both miles and kilometers in the same diagram.)