REBOOT: EPISODES 9-12

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Recap: Episodes 9-12 (Days 12-22)

Sayid’s life is placed in grave danger after he stumbles upon the source of the mysterious French transmission. Sayid is captured by the crazy French woman. He tries to befriend her, but she tortures him thinking he is part of the Others on the island.

Meanwhile, Hurley has a ridiculous plan to make life on the island a little more civilized - so people don’t go crazy.  Hurley finds a golf bag in the wreckage and he decides to create an island golf course.  Claire has disturbing nightmares that her baby is in danger might be coming true to threaten her life and the life of her unborn child. A survey of the passenger list reveals that one person in camp, Ethan Rom,  was not on the plane.

Survivors wonder why Charlie and the pregnant Claire have been abducted - and by whom - and a search party ventures into the treacherous jungle to try to find and rescue the missing duo. Meanwhile, inner-demons about his father resurface for Jack while Boone and Locke discover another island mystery, The Hatch.

Kate fights over possession of a newly discovered locked metal briefcase belonging to the Marshal. Meanwhile, Sayid having escaped Rousseau’s nest with documents asks a reluctant Shannon to translate notes he took from the French woman.An abnormal rising tide threatens to engulf the fuselage and the entire beach encampment.

Science: 

Kate and Jack stumble upon Charlie hanging lifeless from tree. When he is taken down, it appears his face is black and blue; he is not breathing, no heart beat but no apparent broken neck. 

In the absence of fracture and dislocation, occlusion of blood vessels becomes the major cause of death, rather than asphyxiation.  Obstruction of venous drainage of the brain via occlusion of the internal jugular veins leads to cerebral edema and then cerebral ischemia. The face will typically become engorged and turn blue through lack of oxygen). 

Compromise of the cerebral blood flow may occur by obstruction of the carotid arteries, even though their obstruction requires far more force than the obstruction of jugular veins, since they are seated deeper and they contain blood in much higher pressure compared to the jugular veins^.  Where death has occurred through carotid artery obstruction or cervical fracture, the face will typically be pale in color. Many reports and pictures exist of actual short-drop hangings that seem to show that the person died quickly, while others indicate a slow and agonizing death by strangulation.

When cerebral circulation is severely compromised by any mechanism, arterial or venous, death occurs over four or more minutes from cerebral hypoxia, although the heart may continue to beat for some period after the brain can no longer be resuscitated. The time of death in such cases is a matter of convention. In judicial hangings, death is pronounced at cardiac arrest, which may occur at times from several minutes up to 15 minutes or longer after hanging. During suspension, once the prisoner has lapsed into unconsciousness, rippling movements of the body and limbs may occur for some time which are usually attributed to nervous and muscular reflexes. 

As for the search time lapse of more than 15 minutes, and the lack of response from Charlie during initial CPR, it is almost certain that Charlie was killed by strangulation by hanging caused by Ethan.

Improbabilities:

Ethan carrying off a fighting Charlie and a pregnant Claire through the jungle. In all the tracking dialog, there is no mention of anything but three distinct tracks - - - Claire, Charlie and Ethan. One man could not have captured and carried two grown adults across the jungle terrain. 

Mysteries:

Ethan Rom: the camp survivor who was not on the plane. We would learn that he is part of The Others, a group of people living on another part of the island in a science compound. Why Ethan was planted in the survivor’s camp would be revealed as a means of spying by the Other’s leader, Ben. Why the Others wanted pregnant Claire was that

The Sickness: Rousseau warns Sayid to watch his group carefully, referencing to the signs of infection which turned her shipwrecked science team. We will learn that her science team, including her husband, were dragged into the Temple by Smokey and transformed into sinister beings in the bodies of the men. Rousseau killed them all in order to save herself and her child, Alex.

The massive waves and high tides sweeping across the beach to take away the plane crash debris: Prior to the tide, Kate is staring off into the ocean hoping that the island “would sink.” This dramatic, abnormal change is the result of the Island “moving” as it did when Locke turned the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

Why Claire was taken: we will come to learn that The Others have had trouble with their women coming to term on the Island. The idea that the Island “kills” babies in the womb was inferred by the “infection.”  But this story arc does not have significance in The End.

Themes: 

Taste One’s Own Medicine: Sayid the torturer has role reversal when he is captured by the French woman, Rousseau. Jack also has a role reversal when he has to become a leader like his father and making the hard calls.

Religion: In a bonding moment with Rose and Charlie, Rose believes her husband will return to her. She states that there is “a fine line between denial and faith.” Rose begins the first open prayer of the series, in which she thanks the lord for bringing them together.

The Power of Suggestion: Locke has used the power of suggestion to make the castaways use their own free will and individual choices to go down his manipulative pathways. Other characters are manipulating people in order to get some form of private or personal gain (Kate, Sawyer).

Clues:

Kate’s flashback robbery sequence and shooting up the crew all in order to get into safety deposit box 815 to retrieve a toy airplane seems extreme. But it is such a strong memory of Kate, and the results of crashing down her life (“it was from the man I loved - - - the man I killed” admission to Jack), that the Island in some respects “re-created” that trauma with the plane crash.

Rousseau’s warnings to Sayid about watching your people as a sign of the “sickness” which is the death and/or transformation by the smoke monster will come true. It is ironic that Sayid, who should have been a strong messenger of the warnings, would in the Island end, would give in and turn into the darkness.

Charlie’s discussion with Rose that the smoke monster hasn’t been seen in two weeks doesn’t mean it won’t get hungry is a clue about the nature of the Island and its native spirits. As theorized, the smoke monsters may “feed” on human emotions, as the castaways are put into highly dangerous situations or suddenly forced to re-live strong emotional moments in their lives. The question is whether a smoke being has to inhabit a body in order to get the full rush of human emotions.

Discussion:

Kate’s wish that the island would “sink” coincides with the Island movement, which may be related to a turn of the Frozen Donkey Wheel (by Ben on a trip to Tunisia?) The movement of the Island was an explanation of why the 815 wreckage was “found” thousands of miles off course. However, that wreckage contained “bodies” in an intact wreck site, which was not possible if the Island crash was true. Some theorized at the time of original episodes that the misplaced wreck was proof that all the passengers died in the original crash and their “survival” was Island manifestation.

When Claire is having her nightmares, her first vision has Locke in it. We have theorized that Locke is actually MIB who may be controlling people’s actions. Can a shape shifting smoke monster manipulate people’s dreams? When Jack tries to calm Claire down after  the attack, with an odd consoling speech about “the crash, no rescue, this place ---feels very real.” Is this Jack’s first realization that the Island is playing tricks on his own mental psyche? Or it is a repressed acknowledgement that the Island is not reality.

Claire has an epiphany moment. The psychic reader, who we know is a fraud being paid by the Others, changes his story when Claire returns after declining an adoption to say she must go to LA for an arranged adoption on Flight 815. Claire remembers that his first words that she has to raise her baby herself in order to protect it. But then she realizes that the psychic “knew” about Flight 815, the crash and the Island.

When Claire and Charlie are taken, during the search Locke and Jack are rushing through the jungle until Locke stops quickly and off their path, in the underbrush, finds Claire’s back pack. How Locke could find or sense this object is beyond normal. Jack continues the search, but Locke leaves for the caves. He returns with Kate and Boone to find Jack having gone around in circles. They break up into two tracking teams because Kate, as a child, went deer tracking with her father as a child. Locke and Boone continue on their path set by Locke which leads to the Hatch. Kate and Jack go off on their own and find Charlie’s body.

As stated above, Charlie died from hanging from the tree. Kate held Charlie’s hand tightly as Jack did frantic and angry CPR. When she told him to stop, he did but could not come to grasp of losing another patient, so he tried again begging Charlie to breathe. Kate again took Charlie’s hand, and then a miracle happened: Charlie came back to life. This hand holding and rebirth of Charlie could be symbolic. Before Jack found Charlie, he heard screams that Kate did not. Jack rushed ahead up a rooty cliff, only to fall past Kate. When he landed hard on the ground, he was beaten up by Ethan who warned him to stop following him or “one of them would die.” Kate was no where to be found or heard during that encounter, which is quite strange. When Kate returned, the search continued. Kate found the third finger patch, Jack forged ahead in that direction to find a lifeless Charlie. Just as Locke found “clues” to direct survivors along a certain path, Kate did the same thing to Jack in that scene. The question is whether Kate transferred the Island’s “life force” in dead Charlie in order to revive him?

It is possible that Locke and Kate “planned” to split up, in an almost childlike adventure game of hide and seek in plain sight. If both were smoke monsters in disguise, they would playing tricks on each other (with Boone and Jack as pawns). Locke could have created the Charlie situation in order to evoke a strong emotional response. Kate could have created the Hatch in order to get Locke’s curiosity and game plan mind spinning out of control.

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

Locke basically creating rain on the Island by telling Boone in advance of the shower. Then, Locke basked in the rain like it was something utterly new sensation.

The whispers in the jungle will be revealed near the end as lost human souls that are still trapped on the Island, such as Michael. Why these souls continue to inhabit the island without a physical manifestation is not clear. Unless Jacob or MIB or the Island refused to release their souls to “move on” or they failed in their tests in their journey of afterlife redemption, they remain in limbo.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 9:

WALT: [shaking his head] Can you teach me how to do that?

[Locke hands Walt the knife.]

[We see Sayid walking through the jungle. Sound of wind, birds wings, whispering voices.]

EP 10:

CHARLIE: Ethan, where's Jack?

[Ethan just stares at them. Claire looks terrified.]

EP 11:

LOCKE: That's what we're going to find out.

[They start "digging."]

EP 12:

SHANNON: [singing] La mer. Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs. A des reflets d'argent. La mer. Des reflets changeants. Sous la pluie. La mer. Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs...

[Boone stares at Sayid and Shannon from behind a tree with a weird look on his face. Jack walks by Kate and looks at her. Kate just stares at her toy airplane.]

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Locke continues to be an “observer” of the other characters. He has put them down paths to create emotional and dangerous situations. He was the first person to be seen with Ethan in the jungle. He was the one to set Kate and Jack on the path to Charlie during the search. But what is really strange in this series of episodes, that after Charlie returns to camp, no one is concerned with finding Claire, including Charlie. Later on in the show during its original run, commentators were frustrated with the collective cast not asking the right questions or communicating with other to share important information. Is this the event/time period where the survivors “give up” and begin to surrender to the Island and their fates?

The idea that the Island inhabitants, the smoke monster clan, are tricksters and shape shifters like Satan in the Garden of Eden in filtrating a group of human souls is one context to try to explain the show’s premise. Considering there is an continuing theme of “enemies among us” throughout the series, it is a plausible diversion from the initial run where we all thought that all the survivors were human beings trapped on supernatural island.

REBOOT: EPISODES 5-8

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Recap: Episodes 5-8 (Day 7 -10)

Jack repeatedly sees the image of his dead father in the jungle. The water supply runs low, survivors turn to violence when the last water bottles are stolen. Jack’s search for his father leads him to a source of fresh water, the caves.

Jin assaults Michael because of his apparent relationship with Sun. Sayid handcuffs Sayid to the wreckage, and Sun is torn about revealing her secret to the group. Jack’s plan to move the survivors meets resistance from half the group. 

Charlie goes into heroin withdraw after Locke takes away his last drug stash. Sayid tries again to try to find the power source for the French transmission, but his plan is thwarted by a mysterious attack. Jack is trapped in a cave-in which requires cooperation to rescue him.

Shannon has an asthma attack and Boone believes Sawyer is the one who stole her inhalers. Jack and Sayid have to decide whether to resort to violence and torture  in order to get the medicine from Sawyer.  Also, Sayid tries to learn who attacked him in the jungle by leaving the group as a result of only being able to trust himself.

Science: 

Each of the main LOST characters are loners. They come from backgrounds of no real friendships. As such, many have problems communicating, space issues, introverted personalities and trust issues. In medical science, a “loner” is a label for a person who shuns human interaction for a variety of reasons. These reasons can range from a lack of certain social skills (such as people with Asperger's Syndrome), misanthropy, excessive rejection from others, or just for a desire to be with oneself. A common psychological term used to describe the personality of loners is introversion.

Some individuals refuse to interact with others because of perceived or accurate superiority. They wish to only relate to individuals they consider worthy of their time and attention. Therefore, a loner will have very few intimate relationships. Many feel anxious in their presence because they perceive the loner's disdain towards them. It is also common for people to believe them to be arrogant and egotistical.

Loners can dig themselves into deep psychological holes. Misuse of drugs as a form of escape from the real world. People who never leave their homes for fear of interacting with strangers. Deep introversion can lead to alienation which can create paranoia and anger issues leading to violence.

Jack fails to realize that there is a natural method to help Shannon with her asthma attack. It is Sun who uses eucalyptus leaves to alleviate Shannon’s symptoms. This Australian plant does have medical properties to treat respiratory illness such as pharyngitis (inflammation of the pharynx), bronchitis (inflammation of bronchial tubes) and pneumonia (inflammation of the lung parenchyma). Eucalyptus leaves come in pills and liquids. It can also be taken with tea or tincture. The semisolid preparation of eucalyptus leaves (called ointment) is applied externally as a remedy for pain of rheumatism (any painful disorder of the joints or muscles), neuralgia (acute spasmodic pain along the course of one or more nerves) and stiffness. The ointment is also applied topically for soothing an irritation. Inhaling the vapors coming out of boiled eucalyptus leaves is a familiar herbal remedy for asthma (respiratory disorder characterized by wheezing), congestion (excessive accumulation of blood in a body part) and other respiratory disorders.

Improbabilities:

When Sayid claims he needs to launch three antenna to triangulate the power signal transmission, he is incorrect. It takes only two antenna to coordinate with the actual power source for triangulation. 

When Michael inspects the cave for structural integrity because he was in the “construction business” for eight years is hard to grasp how he is a geologic engineer or can see inside rock to determine whether it is stable or not.

When Sawyer’s artery is severed by Sayid, Jack tells him to go to the caves to get his medical bag. Under normal circumstances, a severed artery will bleed out in a matter of minutes causing death. Treatment is by a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. But such an amount of blood loss and time, Sawyer would have been in shock and most likely dead before Sayid returns for Jack to stitch up the artery.

Mysteries: 
The Island is explained by Locke to Charlie as "The Magic Box" Ben would later show us, in the way that the Island will grant wishes to a person if that person gives up something in return. But the Island operates in blur of illusion: is it real or not real? 

Themes: 

Relationships.  Kate flashed a lot of skin in these episodes. We prospectively know her family issues and bad girl behavior which is her inner conflict. She wants to be liked by the good boys (Jack) but is drawn to the bad boys (Sawyer). But she realizes that when she is close to a good boy, he gets hurt (badly, as in friend Tom car crash while running away from trouble).

Sun also has back issues with her father. She wants to get away from him and wants to elope with someone totally different, Jin, a working class fisherman’s son. But after marriage, she finds out that she has married a monster, someone just like her father. She plans to runaway from Jin at the Sydney Airport, but at the last moment thinks about his simple flower gift when they first dated; sealing her fate on the Island.

Illusion. More and more evidence is shown that a Smoke monster, such as Flocke, can create illusions or matter from memories on the Island. Charlie standing on a bee hive because he is afraid of bees; or Charlie using the illusion of peanut butter to get Claire to the caves.

Savior/Hero.

Jack is called a “savior.” He does not want any leadership decisions, because in his background his father told him he does not have what it takes to make hard life-death decisions or live with the consequences. When Jack finds his father’s empty coffin, he destroys it - - - releases that mental baggage that allows him to return to the group with a plan to move to the caves and fresh water. He gives the “Live Together, or Die Alone” speech.

Charlie also sheds his brother’s broken promises and his non-existence as a band member to find self-worth by saving Jack by digging out of the cave collapse by following the moth (the metaphor which Locke created previously to tell Charlie that “the struggle is what makes you strong.”) Charlie gets his drug stash back from Locke, but does not use it but throws it into the fire. Locke says he is proud of him, which is the first re-affirmation Charlie has received that gives him confidence to get out of his shell and get closer to Claire.

Clues:

We begin to get more of The Numbers, for which the creators claim had no real significance in the series except for their repeated use. 

When Sun is at the Sydney Airport, her escape is timed to 11:15. Now this is the first time that we have a key number that is negative (11= 15 minus 4). It could be said that derivative numbers, especially ones created by subtraction, are omens for bad luck.

When Kate and Sayid are in the jungle on another antenna mission, Sayid remarks that the plane’s tail section broke up mid air and the middle section cartwheeled across the jungle. But they survived with no harmful effects, just a bruise or cut. He believed it was impossible. Kate’s response: “something happened.”  That something is the Island, and its “transformational” effect on these characters/souls. And when Kate and Sayid meet at the end when Sayid is leaving camp for good, he says to her “I hope we meet again.” Is this foreshadowing of Sayid leaving the community of loners because he can trust no one, realizing that he is already dead; that his words are his last humanity before the island “infects” him with darkness to create another smoke monster?

Discussion:

Throughout these episodes, it is becoming clear that Locke is really not John Locke, wheelchair loner, but Jacob’s brother in disguise. Locke is patiently manipulating the other survivors to create situations of fear, anxiety, pain or emotional release. Locke is around when Jack sees his father’s illusion. Locke is there to “save” Jack from the cliff. Locke is around when Jack is lead to the caves and water. Locke manipulates Sayid to attack and torture Sawyer. Locke uses Charlie to explain what the Island is: The Magic Box - - -  the island can grant you a wish (your guitar) but you have to give something in return (his drugs). Locke creates personal fearful situations like Charlie standing on a bee hive in order to push the characters into other emotional situations (pushing Kate and Jack into the cave to find Adam and Eve, which Locke names - - - but we know are Crazy Mother and Jacob’s brother) as a way of telling them there is no rescue off the island.  Locke is orchestrating all of the action on the island during these episodes, directly or indirectly. We know this because when Charlie races for help and tells Locke that Jack is trapped in a cave-in, Locke shows no emotion; he does nothing to help.

The Island is re-creating strong memories and emotional situations in each character. Sun gives up her secret (English) to Michael in order to save Jin from painful imprisonment, just as she gave up her own freedom to be with Jin at the Sydney Airport.

Sawyer prefers death than being saved by Jack. For a doctor, Jack’s medical oath has been further compromised by allowing Sayid to torture Sawyer in order to get medicine for Shannon, especially when there were alternatives that he failed to realize. 


Part of the reactions of the characters is from their personalities shaped by their childhoods and environments. In Life, there are three strong factors which shapes a person (for good or ill): family, friends and community. With most of the main characters, they have family issues, most have no real friends, and are loners who don't seek out community (and in return don't have community support system). In the chart below, the Family-Friends-Community intersecting circles could be labeled as "faith, hope and charity" subgroups.

The main characters come to the Island with little religion, little hope and some charity to their fellow man (Jack healing the wounded, but most survivors kept to themselves, including Jack who cussed at himself for not talking to the woman who would drown in the ocean).


In the same manner, a pattern is developing on how to explain the interaction between the Island elements, the off-island elements (flashbacks and flash forwards to come) and the Sideways (purgatory) realm. Where all three distinct places intersect is LOST. When Kate realizes that "something happened" to them when they survived an unsurvivable plane crash, the characters have been somehow "saved" or "transformed" into a spirit world of the Island, which intersects with their memories (off-island events) and the sideways world (what the characters created "together" in order to wait to move on together according to Christian). Just as the smoke monsters are manipulating the human souls memories to re-create their emotional moments on the Island, the human souls themselves may be subconsciously creating their own "fantasy" world in the sideways plane (as a vessel for their spirits when they are ready to re-unite with their bodies to continue the journey through the afterlife, as somewhat described in ancient Egyptian religious themes).


The intersection point of LOST means that a human soul can be at three places at once, but separate and independent until joined by an "awakening" event that pulls them fully into the Sideways/Afterlife existence. As said when the series was first shown, I believed "knowledge is power," and as soon as people realized that they were dead or in the afterlife, they had the power to control events (example, Eloise knew about all three spheres of existence and tried to stop Desmond from awakening her son, Daniel).


The interlocking spheres of existence can explain the premise of the show without having an absolute answer to whether the characters are alive or dead in any place or at any time; for in a spirit world of magic, illusion, memory and emotion, almost anything goes.


Themes:

“Time doesn’t matter on this damn island,” said Michael to Sun about the expensive watch. Time has no bearing for those who have no schedule in the real world.  However, Kate realizes that Sawyer wrote his secret letter in 1976 - - - as a child, which pins a point in the time line when the survivors have their time travel arc. 

Separation is another subtext when Jack’s decision splits the group into two: the cave people (survivors who must adapt to new life on island) and the Beach people (who still tend the signal fire in hope of rescue). But it is also symbolic of their new relationships and separation by choice. The song lyrics are telling: “is this where you want to be?” when Kate is alone on the beach. And “these are your friends, but are they REAL friends?”

Religion. 

“I did not take you as a religious man,” Jack says to Charlie. But Jack admits “I'm no saint.”  Charlie confesses his sins of temptation, but is told by the priest that he chooses the temptations. Right or wrong is a personal choice. People have to live with the choices they make; and people must be accountable for the choices they make. The religious concepts of right and wrong (or black and white as symbolized by the stones found by Jack in the cave with Adam and Eve) are present in the background of the character’s decision making process, and hampered to some extent by their personal histories (flashbacks).

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

“I looked into the eye of the Island . . . what I saw was beautiful.” Locke told that to Jack, but in context of the entire series, this must be a reference to the Man in Black being tossed into the Light Source Cave and being killed/transformed into a Smoke Monster. The Light Source is the key element of the Island that none of the 815ers have found.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 5:

JACK: Yeah. I'm sorry, too.

EP 6:

WALT: When's your birthday?

[Sawyer, Sayid, Kate are all sitting together at the beach.]

[Locke, Hurley, Jack sitting together at the caves. Sun pulls out a night gown in front of Jin. Charlie plays guitar, looking sweaty. Jack looks to the sky. We fade to Kate, looking into the fire at the beach.]

EP 7:

LOCKE: I'm proud of you, Charlie. Always knew you could do it.

[Charlie looks up and sees a moth.]

EP 8:

SAYID: Someone has to walk the shore and map the Island, see what else there is. I can't think of a better person to do it than the only one I trust. I hope we meet again.

[He kisses her hand and leaves. A montage follows with "I Shall Not Walk Alone" playing. Charlie and Claire walk to the caves. Boone gives Shannon a bottle of water. Sawyer holds a lighter to his letter but changes his mind. Sayid walks down the beach into the sunset.]

New Ideas/Tests of Theories

More evidence points to Locke as being Flocke from the very beginning; MIB taking John Locke’s body and memories to manipulate the characters into stressful situations evoking emotions. Perhaps, Smoke monsters feed on human emotions. 

This raises another question: where is Jacob?  Is it possible that Jacob also inhabits one of the survivors.  A possibility could be Boone, because as a “lifeguard,” he improperly did CPR on Rose (for which Jack came in and saved her life) and Boone failed to save a drowning woman in the surf (for which Jack saved him). For what better way to learn about human behavior but to inhabit a human soul?  It would make some symmetry in the End, because in the Church the only two people who do not have a “Constant” or pairing are Locke and Boone.  This was strange when it happened that neither one had any other person to travel to the next level of existence, unless, of course, they are the Island Brothers.

Production Note: 

This is around the time when the LOST series was renewed by ABC for another season. Originally, Jack was was supposed to die in order to create horror and emotional response to the viewers. I wonder if the cave-in was written as the means of Jack’s original death, but he was spared by a network renewal and the creators needed to complete his story (and add filler arcs).

REBOOT: EPISODES 1-4

A four hour G4-TV block of LOST viewing is more daunting than first realized; plot information overload happens as bits and pieces of the character’s backstories are jumbled together with island mysteries in the context of knowledge of the series conclusion. However, it has led to some new observations, new clues and a new theoretical understanding of the show which makes a new dynamic storyline for the series.

Reboot: Episodes 1-4: Days 1-6 on the Island

Recap: Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to LA is 1,000 miles off course when it breaks a part in a mid-air disaster, crashing to earth on a mysterious deserted Pacific Island. The 48 survivors gather around the destruction on the beach, in shock, and many are horrified by the dying and death around them.

The survivors of a plane crash have to get over the accident and collaborate to stay alive in a dangerous, mysterious island in South Pacific. They quickly encounter an unseen but destructive creature in the jungle (Smoke Monster).  On a hike to try to transmit a distress call, Kate, Charlie, Sawyer, Sayid, Boone and Shannon agree to keep the French transmission that jams all other frequencies secret from the other castaways. Locke organizes a hunting party with Kate and Michael. Locke’s background story reveal he came to Australia for a spiritual retreat.

Science: Can a human free fall from 40,000 feet and survive? A human being reaches terminal velocity of 122 mph in 1880 feet. The 815 passengers and crew would be plummeting to the island at a great rate of speed. In 1972, a stewardess survived a 33,000 plane explosion because she was wedged between a seat, trolley and another person, and she landed on a snowy Czech hillside and slid into a stop, effectively diminishing the impact forces of the free fall. It is the impact that counts. Popular Mechanics stated the only way to remotely survive a free fall from high altitude is “debris riding,” meaning that if you are in or on plane debris, it will decelerate your fall and take some of the impact. It is the de-acceleration that kills; water is the worst substance to land on because it has the density of concrete. The statistics show survival from falls to be extremely remote. Fifty percent of children die from 5 story falls or less. In recent history, plane accidents over the open ocean have left zero survivors. In later episodes, we get the plane crash from The Others perspective, which shows a “different” plane crash scenario than in the first episode; the plane seems much closer to the ground upon mid-plane separation and at a level flight path than original in-cabin viewpoint, and the separation appears in the middle and not in three pieces. (Whether this new shot was somehow made to lessen the first criticisms of the that all the passengers would not have survived a plane crash at 40,000 is unknown.) In all recent mid-air break ups of airplanes, there have been no survivors.

In other plane flashbacks, we can observe that the turbulence rocks the plane down at near 45 degree angle. Approximately 50 seconds later, the plane. A descent at 340 feet/second for a plane at 500 mph would mean the plane could have dropped 17,000 feet. As a result, the break up would have happened at approximately 23,000. However, this still means the passengers would be falling to the ground at speeds of more than 120 mph. Survival of even one passenger is remote - - - but 48 is not realistic.

Improbabilities: On the beach, a jet engine separated from the plane wing continues to run at full throttle. This is impossible as the fuel and power supply was already been severed from the engine. The impact on the actual engine should have exploded the engine and fan blades into shards. The idea of the running engine was purely a fiction to support the horror of a ‘survivor” being sucked through the turbines to a create a dramatic, gruesome death. It is one thing to suspend “disbelief” and accept the survivors of a plane crash, it is another to defy basic mechanical engineering to create a explosive action scene.

This leads to the early conclusion that the series is science fiction based drama. The early mysteries and show themes set the stage for future episodes:

Mysteries:

1. The Island
2. The Smoke Monster
3. The Signal
4. Dead Father in the Jungle

Themes:

1. Personal egos; people think they know more than they really do.
2. Overcoming Fear
3. Games people Play; Black and White sides
4. Manipulation of People, Souls
5. “Miracles”
6. Lies, Secrets and Trust Issues
7. Main characters really have no true friendships; loners

Clues:

When Jack tells Kate that it does not matter what they did before the plane crash (“I don't want to know. It doesn't matter, Kate, who we were - what we did before this, before the crash. It doesn't really... 3 days ago we all died. We should all be able to start over.”) was this the series’ Big Tell: that the characters are dead in reality but somehow alive on the island? As we know, only people Jacob wants come to the Island (usually by some horrible accident like the Black Rock’s monumental ship wreck, Rousseau’s party’s ship wreck or Desmond being lost at sea).

Discussion:

Since Jacob is the gatekeeper for anyone who arrives at the Island (to the dismay of his brother, The Man in Black), why the 815 souls were brought to the Island is the core question that needs to be rationally answered. It is not really if or why they survived the crash, because in certain respects it is irrelevant (Christian’s circular explanation to Jack in Eloise’s church in The End that their dead-sideways world and the Island time were “both real” is humanly impossible).  As with numerous future references to Time, our understanding of Life itself is a linear construct: one is conceived, one is born, one lives and then one dies. The circle of life. But in some ancient cultures (including the Egyptians who would later come to dominate religious symbolism in the series) believed that Life did not end on Earth, but each person’s soul began a long journey through the afterlife (including possibility several layers of the underworld; to be worked, tested and then judged before passing on to the next level of existence).

The Big Premise Revisited:

The original premise of LOST was 48 plane crash survivors trapped on a mysterious and dangerous Pacific Island. How the characters were survive this Robinson Caruso-Survivor reality show meets Jurassic Park sci-fi setting would be the main story engine for the show. But if we downplay the survivor elements, we are left with fantasy elements as the foundation for the show. 

If we put LOST in the context of a maze, things may be more plausible in the end. A maze is a puzzle with dead ends. It tests a person’s mind, logic and spirit. Corn mazes are still popular in rural areas. Ancient people have used natural deception to fool their enemies. Pagan Britons build Maiden Castle with a series of ramparts and mounds to create a maze to guard their hill fort. Their enemies would be confused by the winding paths and unable to find the main gates of the fort. If we apply the context of a maze to Jacob’s motivations for the Island characters, do we find clearer meaning of the action in the first four hours of LOST?

Magic/Supernatural/Elements:

The wheelchair bound Locke now has regained full use of his legs as a result of the crash while being rebuffed on his Australian spiritual retreat.  We will learn later that Rose believes her cancer has been cured by the Island. How can that happen? Some postulate that the unique electromagnetic field could act upon human tissues to regenerate nerves or destroy cancer cells. Others postulate that “carbon copies” of the survivors were created by the magic of the Island for the amusement of its guardians, Jacob and his brother, The Man in Black. Purgatory theorists believed that combined with Egyptian themes, the characters died in the plane crash, but their bodies and souls were separated into different forms (or realms including the sideways) in order to travel in the afterlife paths of redemption). Themes emerge in regard to life and death; personal miracles, second chances;  and trust issues.

Last Lines from each episode:

EP 1: CHARLIE: [pointing up to the pilot in the tree] Guys? How does something like that happen?

EP 2: CHARLIE: Guys. Where are we?

EP 3: JACK: Okay.

[Hurley listening to his headphones. Jin looking at a sleeping Sun, touching her hair. Boone gives sunglasses to Shannon. Sayid tosses Sawyer an apple. Charlie writing "late" on his finger tapes. Claire sitting on the beach. Michael bringing Vincent to Walt with Locke looking on—nice song fades to creepy music.]

EP 4: CLAIRE: Millicent Louise D'Agostino. Teaneck, New Jersey.

[Shot of fuselage on fire. Locke looks over at the wheelchair and smiles.]

The endings of each episode tell us something important about the current path of the series: what is the monster?; what is the Island?; even bad human relationships can show kindness; and evil can hide in plain sight.

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

When watching the first four hours of LOST, I was struck by several small points that could easily be glossed over as trivial but may have real substance in trying to find a universal theory to explain Everything. When the series first started, we are led to believe that the Island is merely a deserted Pacific Island. Later in the series, we are told that the Island is a “snow globe,” that is is moving, that it is hard to find, with strange light properties, and that Time itself can be altered by turning the Frozen Donkey Wheel. 

We also were told that the Island contains a Life Force that is a part of everyone and everything. We learn that the Life Force was being guarded first by the Crazy Mother (who was not the first guardian), and then by Jacob. But what is the Island itself? Clearly, is the Land of the Smoke Monsters. Monster(s) because the idea of immortality and ability to shape shift matter (MIB turning into Evil Locke) is the key component to how the Island operates.

And it appears that the Smoke Monster(s) can inhabit, possess, or reincarnate a human body (Evil Locke) and also change appearance (from smoke to humanoid form). A new theory emerges from the first four hours: the Island is the home of a small group of Smoke Monsters. As with any species, they need to feed and breed. They bring doomed souls to the Island, to manipulate events in order to feed off their emotions and fears. They possibly take over the souls by a slow “infection” until a soul surrenders and is transformed into a new smoke being (like Crazy Mother taking Jacob and MIB from their real mother and transforming them into smoke beings). From this context, we suddenly have a new perspective on the series: a new LOST, from the perspective of the supernatural beings.

There appears to be four main smoke beings on the Island. The first is spying on the survivors from the jungle. It is either Jacob or Crazy Mother (who did the same when the Romans arrived) as Vincent. How else can one find out information about the captives but to infiltrate the camp in a way as not to draw suspicion. Information contained from the collective memories of all the souls who have been brought to the Island creates the Island elements. For thousands of years the smoke beings have learned about human emotion, intelligence, egos and manipulation. The guardians own character could be that of tricksters, immortal child like super-beings in a setting of The Lord of the Flies. They see their life as a series of games between themselves with the lost souls as their game pieces.

The other smoke being is Jacob’s brother, MIB, who I now believe inhabited Locke’s body when he awoke on the beach. This is a major revelation while re-watching the first four episodes of the series.

 By taking over Locke’s body, MIB had access to all Locke’s memories and his dreams/fantasies of being an Outback Hunter. MIB had not been in a human body for so long, he is amazed by its function, including the ability to walk. We think it is just Locke sensing his "miracle," but it can be also MIB finally being able to get back into a human form. In human form, MIB gets to experience the human frailties of the physical human condition (like adrenaline) but also wrestle with the mental aspects of decedent’s personality and free will.  When we see Locke’s face, it contains the scar over the eye; in ancient Egyptian culture, The Eye of Ra was part of the ancient rituals of the afterlife. We see the mood of Locke centric episodes turn to a evil pallor as he stands off to the side “watching” the survivors in camp. He has the same expression will we see later on in the series as Evil Locke in Season 6.  And how better to feed off their survivors panic like from the boar attack than experiencing it with them by being right in the middle of their camp. We also see a tell on MIB’s shape shifting ability, as he creates a vision of Jack’s dead father at the tree line. As Jack comes to investigate, he runs into Locke dragging a dead boar back to camp. Too coincidental not to be an MIB manipulation.

Remember, Kate returned with an injured Michael believing Locke was dead because the monster was heading straight for him. We saw that Locke merely stood his ground and looked up at it. Later in the show, Locke says he looked at the monster and “saw the Island.”  What we could theorize is that Locke looked up and saw one of his own kind; as Crazy Mother had ruled thousands of years earlier, the brothers could not kill each other. It may be true than no smoke being can destroy another. It also brings into consideration that the smoke beings may be able to divide into several different forms at the same Island time frame (one human being, one smoke being). For if they can manipulate matter at will, in reality or by illusion, then they could literally be in two places at once.

On another hike, Kate and her group are chased by a monster. A familiar theme of a survivor running desperately through the underbrush away from the monster clearly creates an emotionally charged situation. When Kate hides inside the banyan tree roots, she breaks down and cries out for Jack. But Jack had gone back to save Charlie. In some ancient cultures, the banyan tree and its roots were a sanctuary that could ward off evil spirits. By running into the tree roots, Kate was safe. (This repeated itself later when Juliet and Kate hid from the monster in tree roots). It may also explain why the smoke monster destroys trees. The "rules" of the Island may have clear boundaries or safe zones.

After Kate returned to camp, there was one line that really rang out as odd but telling: Kate said in explaining the encounter with the Smoke Monster, “he” got Locke. How would Kate know the Smoke Monster was a “he?” Shouldn’t she have said “it” got Locke? Then with the fact that Kate returned the broken antenna to Sayid, really in the form of sabotage, we learn that Kate really does not want to leave the Island. Yes, we know that Kate is a fugitive, but she was a born "runner." However, could it be possible that Kate in this form “cannot” leave the Island (as MIB would state later in the show). The Island may be a preserve or a prison for the smoke creatures. They may be able to create vast complex sets (like Star Trek episode “The Cage.”) After this mission, Kate no longer seems emotional; but more cunning and even manipulative as she gets Sawyer to attempt to kill the Marshal. So the question becomes, was Kate “infected” or is she really another smoke being - - - perhaps Crazy Mother? It fits one personality flaw that both characters had: mother issues and the repulsion on how to be a mother. I am not certain, but it would be a plot twist of sinister complexity since Kate is on all the missions and secrets of the castaways, and later pits Jack against Sawyer in order to experience their emotional roller coaster.

Then, there is one more possible Smoke Monster inhabiting the body of a survivor. Who else could immediately stop the rain when Michael said that when the rain stopped, he’d go out and look for his dog? Walt, who throughout the show were are told is “special,” clearly had the ability to manipulate the environment in order to get Michael into the jungle. And once in the jungle, a creature chased him into small clearing where Sun was partially naked. This chase scene will create personal danger and tension between Michael and Sun’s husband, Jin, who is a over-bearing and jealous man. Did Walt set up Michael in order to kill him off? We also saw Walt reading a comic that contained a menacing polar bear. Later, we see a polar bear attack a group on a mission hike. Walt clearly wants to stay on the Island (or again, cannot leave it) so he will later sabotage the escape raft. The evidence is strong that Walt is possessed or is a smoke being. Who has the power to create such “magic?” Jacob.

The symmetry of Locke (MIB) and Walt (Jacob) playing backgammon on the beach is a mirror image of later seasons of the two playing Senet on the beach thousands of years earlier. Senet is one of the oldest board games known to man. In ancient Egypt, Senet had become a kind of talisman for the journey of the dead. Because of the element of luck in the game and the Egyptian belief in determinism, it was believed that a successful player was under the protection of the major gods of the national pantheon: Ra, Thoth and Osiris.  Consequently, Senet boards were often placed in the grave alongside other useful objects for the dangerous journey through the afterlife. And this symmetry and afterlife gamesmanship sets the tone for the real, underlying premise of LOST.

Viewing the show from the theory perspective that Jacob, MIB and their Crazy Mother are existing characters inhabiting major roles from the beginning of series is something I never thought of until yesterday. It makes sense. Why else would you bring human souls to the Island unless you planned on interacting with them. A child plays with his toys when the package is opened, just as Jacob and his fellow beings are playing with the 815 survivors.