LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 17-20 (Days 32-42)
When the raft the survivors have been building mysteriously burns down, Michael is convinced that Jin is responsible for the sabotage, which only further escalates their rivalry. Boone gives Sayid a warning about Shannon.
When Hurley becomes obsessed with the French woman and heads into the jungle to find her, Jack, Sayid and Charlie have no choice but to follow. Meanwhile, Locke asks Claire to help build a mysterious item.
Locke begins to suffer physical difficulties as he and Boone try to find a way into the Hatch; Jack is reluctant to offer assistance when Sawyer begins to experience excruciating headaches.
Claire goes into labor while a helpless Charlie goes into panic mode. Meanwhile Locke is missing, Jack tends to a critically injured Boone as Sayid begins a romance with Shannon.
Science:
1. Infection & Headaches: Causes
Headaches may be caused by virus infections, stress, fatigue, influenza or common colds and respiratory ailments.
Mayo Clinic literature defines the primary causes for headaches:
A primary headache is caused by dysfunction or overactivity of pain-sensitive features in your head. A primary headache isn't a symptom of an underlying disease. Chemical activity in your brain, the nerves or blood vessels of your head outside your skull, or muscles of your head and neck — or some combination of these factors — may play a role in primary headaches. Some people may carry genes that make them more likely to develop such headaches. Other headache patterns that are generally considered types of primary headache but are less common. These headaches have distinct features, such as an unusual duration or pain associated with a certain activity. Although these headaches are generally considered primary, each of them could be a symptom of an underlying disease. These headaches include chronic daily headaches, cough headaches, exercise headaches and hypnic headaches (that awaken a person at night).
A secondary headache is a symptom of a disease that can activate the pain-sensitive nerves of the head. Any number of conditions — varying greatly in severity — may cause secondary headaches. Sources of secondary headaches include Arterial tears (carotid or vertebral dissections), blood clots in the brain, aneurysms, tumors, carbon monoxide poisoning, concussion, encephalitis, inflammation of lining of arteries, glaucoma, hangovers, influenza, hemotoma, side effects from medications, meningitis, sinus infection, trauma or stroke.
Medical dictionary definition of “infection”
1. invasion and multiplication of microorganisms in body tissues, especially that causing local cellular injury due to competitive metabolism, toxins, intracellular replication, or antigen-antibody response.
2. an infectious disease.
An airborne infection one that is contracted by inhalation of microorganisms or spores suspended in air on water droplets or dust particles. Droplet infection infection due to inhalation of respiratory pathogens suspended on liquid particles exhaled by someone already infected (droplet nuclei) .
Endogenous infection that due to reactivation of organisms present in a dormant focus, as occurs in tuberculosis, etc. Tunnel infection subcutaneous infection of an artificial passage into the body that has been kept patent. Opportunistic infection infection by an organism that does not ordinarily cause disease but becomes pathogenic under certain circumstances (e.g., impaired immune responses).
2. Schizophrenia.
A person diagnosed with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations (most reported are hearing voices) delusions, (often bizarre in nature), and disorganized thinking and speech. The latter may range from loss of train of thought, to sentences only loosely connected in meaning, to incoherence. Social withdrawal, sloppiness of dress and hygiene, and loss of motivation and judgment are all common in schizophrenia. There is often an observable pattern of emotional difficulty, for example lack of responsiveness. Symptoms include social impairment, paranoia, social isolation. Difficulties in working, long term memory, attention, executive functioning and speed of processing information can occur.
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, debilitating mental illness that affects about 1% of the population, more than 2 million people in the United States alone. With the sudden onset of severe psychotic symptoms, the individual is said to be experiencing acute schizophrenia. Psychotic means out of touch with reality or unable to separate real from unreal experiences. There is no known single cause of schizophrenia. Genetic factors produce a vulnerability to schizophrenia, with environmental factors contributing to different degrees in different individuals.
Schizophrenia is one of the psychotic mental disorders and is characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems. Symptoms of schizophrenia may include delusions, hallucinations, catatonia, negative symptoms, and disorganized speech or behavior. There are five types of schizophrenia based on the kind of symptoms the person has at the time of assessment: paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, undifferentiated, and residual. Schizophrenia is considered to be the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors.
Improbabilities:
It is highly unlikely that Rousseau, after 16 years of lonely, paranoid existence, would learn the skills of a trained Army ranger to booby trap her camp with explosives. It is similar experience that wheelchair bound Locke fantasized being the great hunter-Outback survivalist coming to reality on the Island.
Mysteries:
The “illness” or “infection” that Rousseau told Sayid about. We will learn about it from the Others as a byproduct of Claire’s abduction and Juliet’s research in why babies don’t come to term on the Island. The “illness” is an unspoken change in a person; the Temple dwellers believe that it is the transformation of a person (Sayid) into evil. Apparently, there is no cure.
What is the Island? We have more information that the Numbers may have been coordinates or the "magic box" that the Numbers opened when Hurley played them in the lottery. It is clear that the Island is a supernatural place which may or may not be in reality. Whether the Island is a place or a supernatural being is still open to debate.
Themes:
Both Locke and Jack yell “you can’t tell me what to do” when faced with an adverse situation. This sets up the duality of faith vs. science theme (Locke vs. Jack).
Separation is also a theme. There appears to be two types of survivors now: those who desperately want rescue or to get off the island (Jin, Michael, Sawyer) and those who do not want to leave (Locke, Walt).
Parental issues go beyond par with Locke’s backstory that his father paid his crazy mother to help with his con to get a kidney from him. But even with Jack’s pending marriage to Sara, a woman he miraculous saved from a life of paralysis, Christian tells Jack that it is that commitment is his strength, but “letting go” is his personal demon.
Clues:
The biggest clues were the the references to games.
When Locke was working at a toy store, he tells a young boy about the game, Mouse Trap. He says the object of the game is to put your game pieces on the board and then have your opponent land on a certain square to set off the trap.
When Hurley visits Leonard at the mental institution, Leonard (who knows about the Numbers) is playing Connect Four.
Discussion:
“ Imagination is more important than knowledge. ”
— Albert Einstein
There are two significant plot arcs in these episodes. First, is Rousseau warning Hurley about the “sickness” when he seeks her out about why she wrote down the Numbers. She wrote down the numbers because that is the signal she heard with her science crew, who changed course and crashed. When the “sickness” took all of her people, she went to the radio tower and changed the message to the distress call. In talking with Hurley, who believes the numbers are cursed, Rousseau (who Sayid believes is crazy) agrees with Hurley because it was the Numbers who brought them both to the island. Hurley is relieved that someone finally agrees with him (that he is not thinking crazy talk) and hugs her.
The “sickness” or “infection” that was a part of the show never clearly manifests itself, except when we see Sayid becomes overtly evil at the Temple. We may see the beginning of the sickness in Sawyer, as his headaches now appear daily. Jack diagnoses his situation as being farsighted (all of a sudden?) but headaches may be caused by infections, viruses or disease.
The sickness may manifest itself in the brain. It alters perception or reality, as Rousseau says the sickness changed her crew to the point where she killed them all in self defense. In that situation, we know her crew members were dragged into the Temple outer wall by Smokey, and returned “changed” and plotting against her.
Second, and possible corollary to the sickness is the issue of mental illness. There is a series of references to mental instability in these episodes: Locke’s mother was institutionalized (at the same place as Leonard and Hurley); Jacob and MIB’s adoptive murderous guardian was called Crazy Mother by show viewers. John Locke begins to talk crazy to Boone when they cannot open the Hatch, proclaiming that “the Island” was telling him what to do or what he needed to do.
Who is Locke begging to? Jacob? His Crazy Mother? The island itself?
There is another magic box cause and effect - - - as he is begging for an answer, the light goes on inside the Hatch.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
The process of thinking of something deeply coming to come to pass on the island (“the magic box”) is forefront in these episodes. As Locke needs to find a sign, the island scans the memories of other people on the island to create the memory on the island (Eko’s brother’s Beechcraft plane crashing into the island). Hurley’s crazy friend, Leonard, screams that the Numbers Hurley used to win the lottery “opened the box!”
Last lines in episodes:
EP 17:
HURLEY: Son of a bitch.
[He takes his headphones off and throws them on the sand.]
EP 18:
CHARLIE: I bare my soul, and all I get is bloody jokes!
[Shot of the hatch and the container it's attached to. The camera pushes in to reveal the numbers etched in to the side: 4 8 15 16 23 42.]
EP 19:
LOCKE: I've done everything you wanted me to do, so why did you do this to me?!
[A light goes on inside the hatch.]
EP 20:
JACK: To find John Locke.
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
The Numbers were firmly planted into the conscious mysteries of the show with Hurley’s “unlucky” back story. And they were firmly put in the forefront when the Numbers appear on the mysterious Hatch cover.
We know that the Numbers represent Jacob’s candidates (Locke, Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack and Jin.) All are socially awkward with father issues. We were told that only Jacob can bring people to the Island. And these were his “candidates,” but that may be a misdirection. Candidates may mean “game pieces” between Jacob and MIB. In Jacob’s lighthouse, people’s names and numbers are kept. But the names and candidate numbers were also kept in MIB’s cave. So it is clear that both Jacob and MIB were on the same page in regard to castaways.
During the Show’s initial run, there were a few theories about the premise being one giant, interactive video game (with the characters being avatars). The reason for this theory was that over time, the characters kept on going on “missions” into the jungle for little rhyme or reason (just like in many video games) in order to “level up” to get more information, more weapons or more power. The clear references to games (mouse trap and Connect 4) add a foundation to this theory.
But what type of game is Jacob and MIB playing? The first early reference was to backgammon (white and black, like the stones found in the cave). Then there was the idea of the ancient Egyptian version, Senet, where the object is to take your pieces off the board first to win. Now, with the reference to Mouse Trap, the game may be to set up “traps” and situations to “capture” humans in such a way as to “win” the contest. In the last season, MIB is clearly disturbed by the fact that Jacob continues to bring humans to the island and things “never change.” What is becoming clear is that both Jacob and MIB are trying to curry favor with the castaways. It appears that the Others worship Jacob. MIB is trying to get the 815 survivors on "his team" to fight the Others. Locke continually tells the plane survivors that they are not alone and must get ready to fight the Others.
But it may be a combination of all the games. The final six candidates are the game pieces that MIB and Jacob play with. They both are allowed to set traps or illusions based upon the memories of the people brought to the island. The goal: to have four (connect four) candidates come to your side. In the End, we can see Jacob winning not by Flocke’s “death,” but in the tally of people who sided with Jacob. MIB “captured” Locke and Sayid in the Island darkness (his color) and Jacob “captured” the souls of Hurley, Sawyer, Jin and Jack, with the latter two seeing the light of personal sacrifice.
There is also a tangent of alchemy that pops to the surface in these episodes. The basic principle of “equivalent exchange” means that in order to gain something, you must give something of equal value up. In the case of the birth of Aaron, to give new life, Boone had to die. Boone’s death was a senseless lie of Locke’s cover-up of his secret, the Hatch.
The new theory that Locke is really MIB from the beginning was challenged by Locke losing control of his ability to walk. However, when the trebuchet fails and huge spear chards go into his leg, Locke feels no pain. It freaks out Boone. Locke takes out several inches of bloody wood without a grimace. But he begins to lose his grip as Boone challenges his obsession with the Hatch and his mental stability of talking about the Island as a person. In an alchemy twist, in order to open the Hatch (what Locke wants), he must give up his best friend on the Island, Boone.
One has to take Boone’s “accident” into context. Jack leaps to the conclusion that it was murder because Locke suddenly “vanished” in an instant (like a puff of smoke?) when bloody Boone was delivered to the caves. And Jack may be right. For the Beechcraft was allegedly fixed in place for more than a decade, and only lost its balance after Boone got a connection on the plane’s radio. Locke’s facial expression was that he had to “stop” Boone mayday and potential rescue - - - resulting in the plane tumbling down the cliffside. The mixed motivation of Locke is apparent after what happens to Boone in the plane.
In the context that the MIB may still “inhabit” Locke as a player in Jacob’s game of Mouse Trap, MIB may take on the schizophrenia in Locke’s genetic profile. Can MIB co-exist in the mentally unstable mind of John Locke? If not, does this mean that MIB can “change” players during the course of the game itself (as a signal - - - Locke reverting to his old body dynamics). It is more probable that MIB takes the illusion of Locke than Locke himself.
The Island, as its own person, may be the cruel gamekeeper. It may have given Locke the miracle “healing” of his legs that he had dreamed of, but at the cost of his sanity. Locke has always been a pawn in other people’s games. It is no different on the Island.
In regard to the Numbers as a combination Lock tumblers, Leonard’s outrage that Hurley used the Numbers “opened the Box” infers that the numbers were a lock to keep Jacob and MIB from bringing souls to the Island for their games. If the Island itself is the magic box, it is creating matter from memories, reality from illusions. We don’t know if the Island is benevolent or cruel.
What is apparent in a tumbler context, is that in each realm Jack had a similar situation in which to find a solution. In the flashback world, he “fixes” Sara by miraculous surgery skills. In the Island world, he “can’t fix” Boone who asks Jack to “let him go.” In the sideways world, he tries to “fix” a paralyzed Locke. He succeeds in the FB and SW tests, but fails on the Island - - - but that failure is the key to unlocking his deep rooted personal flaw: the inability to let go.
The Island may be the second round in a series of tests of the character’s deepest flaws in order to determine if they truly change their deep seeded personal issues toward personal enlightenment in the sideways world. But in order to find that true understanding, the Island must bring them to brink of their own humanity.
