REBOOT: EPISODES 5-8

LOST REBOOT  

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).