REBOOT - EPISODES 37-40

POSTING NOTE: Due to work changes, I may not be able to post updates on Tuesdays after Monday night marathon G4 reruns, but updates will occur later in the week.

LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 37-40 (Days 54-59 )

Charlie begins to have dreams and visions about Aaron, leading him to attempt to kidnap the baby in order to protect him.

Charlie tries to get closer to Claire, but Claire asks for some space, for now. He leaves, telling Aaron to take care of his mom.
After being an outcast, Charlie teams up with Sawyer to con Locke out of the vault guns.

Hurley asks Sawyer and Kate about the Tailies, including Libby (for which he may have a vague recollection of meeting).  Sawyer asks if Hurley has a love connection growing there. Hurley denies this and leaves, embarrassed. Kate and Sawyer both see Ana and Jack coming out of the jungle, talking to each other. Sawyer mentions it's the third time that he has seen them together. It doesn't make either of them particularly comfortable. Later, Sawyer gives Hurley a small push towards a relationship with Libby, and the two of them do laundry together in the hatch. Hurley asks if he knows her from somewhere. She distracts him by changing her shirt in his presence. She tells him that he stepped on her toe on the plane when he boarded last.

Rousseau leads the survivors to a man she has captured, who calls himself Henry Gale, a crashed balloonist from Minnesota. Rousseau warns them that he is a liar. They take him to the hatch where Sayid reverts to his torture mantra to extract information from Gale, specifically that he is an Other. Afterward, Gale begins to turn the psychological pressure on the Hatch occupants.

When Aaron has a fever, Claire is upset that something truly is wrong with her baby. When they go to the hatch for medical help, Claire believes she needs to remember what happened to her, whether the Others did something to her baby. She gives Sun her baby as she heads out with Kate and Rousseau to find the medical station. In the station, Claire finds the nursery room and examination room, where Ethan injected her with something. She then remembers a teenager helping her, and also Rousseau taking her back to the camp after her escape. But Claire is worried that they did not find “a cure” for what ails Aaron.

Science:

Dreams

Dreams are the subconscious manifestations of elements, events, people, places or things seen by a person during sleep. Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. In many ancient societies, such as those of Egypt, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled by people with certain powers. In modern times, various schools of psychology have offered theories about the meaning of dreams.

One of the earliest written examples of dream interpretation comes from the Babylonian tale, the Epic of Gilgamesh, whose story was referenced in earlier LOST analysis. In that story, Gilgamesh dreamt that an axe fell from the sky. The people gathered around it in admiration and worship. Gilgamesh threw the axe in front of his mother and then he embraced it like a wife. His mother, Ninsun, interpreted the dream. She said that someone powerful would soon appear. Gilgamesh would struggle with him and try to overpower him, but he would not succeed. Eventually they would become close friends and accomplish great things. She added, "That you embraced him like a wife means he will never forsake you. Thus your dream is solved.” While this example also shows the tendency to see dreams as mantic (as predicting the future), Ninsun's interpretation also anticipates a contemporary approach. The axe, phallic and aggressive, symbolizes for a male who will start as aggressive but turn into a friend. To embrace an axe is to transform aggression into affection and camaraderie.

 Ancient Egyptian priests also acted as dream interpreters.  Dreams have been held in considerable importance through history by most cultures. Some believe it was direct communication with the gods or deceased ancestors.

Sigmund Freud first argued that the motivation of all dream content is wish-fulfillment, and that the instigation of a dream is often to be found in the events of the day preceding the dream, which he called the "day residue." In the case of very young children, Freud claimed, this can be easily seen, as small children dream quite straightforwardly of the fulfillment of wishes that were aroused in them the previous day (the "dream day"). In adults, however, the situation is more complicated—since in Freud's submission, the dreams of adults have been subjected to distortion, with the dream's so-called "manifest content" being a heavily disguised derivative of the "latent" dream-thoughts present in the unconscious. As a result of this distortion and disguise, the dream's real significance is concealed: dreamers are no more capable of recognizing the actual meaning of their dreams than hysterics are able to understand the connection and significance of their neurotic symptoms.

 In waking life, Freud asserted, these so-called "resistances" altogether prevented the repressed wishes of the unconscious from entering consciousness; and though these wishes were to some extent able to emerge during the lowered state of sleep, the resistances were still strong enough to produce "a veil of disguise" sufficient to hide their true nature. Freud's view was that dreams are compromises which ensure that sleep is not interrupted: as "a disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes," they succeed in representing wishes as fulfilled which might otherwise disturb and waken the dreamer.
Freud listed the distorting operations that he claimed were applied to repressed wishes in forming the dream as recollected: it is because of these distortions (the so-called "dream-work") that the manifest content of the dream differs so greatly from the latent dream thought reached through analysis—and it is by reversing these distortions that the latent content is approached.

Freud considered that the experience of anxiety dreams and nightmares was the result of failures in the dream-work: rather than contradicting the "wish-fulfillment" theory, such phenomena demonstrated how the ego reacted to the awareness of repressed wishes that were too powerful and insufficiently disguised. Traumatic dreams (where the dream merely repeats the traumatic experience) were eventually admitted as exceptions to the theory.

Improbabilities:

A balloon piloted by a Minnesota businessman crash landing deep in the Pacific Ocean island.

The vision of the drug smuggler’s plane crashing on the Island actually being seen by Charlie in his present day.

Kate’s father and Desmond’s Hatch mate both being in the U.S. army in the first Iraq war, and having the same contact with Sayid. It would have been highly unlikely that Sayid, if he helped the American forces, to continue in the Republic Guard. He would have been killed as a traitor.

Mysteries:

Who was the real Henry Gale? A balloon crash lands on the island sometime in 2003, its pilot was a black man named Henry Gale. At some point he died of a broken neck, and Ben Linus took on his identity. Henry was buried in a grave near the balloon, although Ben claimed (in the guise of Henry as a captive in the Hatch) that his wife was buried there Sayid, after torturing him does not trust what Ben has said, so he digs up Henry's corpse, uncovering Ben's ruse. In Henry's wallet was a Minnesota driver's license and a $20 with a note to his wife written on it. The balloon was sponsored and/or manufactured by Widmore Corporation, owned by Ben’s nemesis and former Other leader, Charles Widmore . It was also sponsored byMr. Cluck’s Chicken Shack, where Hurley once worked, and Noss-A-La Cola.

Themes:

Power and control. Who is in charge, as Locke gets unnerved by Jack’s orders. He is egged on by the Others leader/spy, Ben, posing as Henry Gale. When Ana is accused of mock abduction of Sun in order to build her army and get access to the guns, Sawyer and Kate are pitted against Jack who believes the Others did it. Locke says it cannot be because they have a “truce” with the Others, so he hides the guns from Jack.

Violence. Sayid tortures Gale (Ben) in order to get information to confirm he is an Other. It is a reversion to Sayid’s former self, the thing that he has been really running away from since leaving Iraq.

Tests. When Charlie is having visions, he thinks that the Island is a personal test. And his test is to “save the baby” from unknown danger. He believes that everyone on the Island is being tested. This brings in religious and after life connotations, as Charlie believes the only way to “save” Aaron is to baptize him so he can get into heaven. And that would infer that subconsciously, Charlie has made the connection that the Island is Hell, testing their souls to make the right decisions.

Trust. When Charlie goes off and takes Aaron the second time, the entire camp turns against him. He is alone, which is his greatest fear. He is told by Locke that trust is easily lost, and that trust is hard to regain. Jack and Locke also have their trust issues with the locked gun closet, to have that trust used against them in Sawyer’s long con. Charlie “trusted” Sawyer’s plan to make Locke and Jack fools in front of their fellow campers. Further, Ben plants the seed of doubt into Locke when he asks Locke “I don’t know why you let the Doc call all the shots.”

Deception. There have been so many lies and deceptions from individuals that there is a shortage of truth on the Island. The atmosphere breeds assumptions and knee-jerk reactions that can be easily manipulated. Sawyer’s gun con is the prequel to the more elaborate Ben Linus con of the survivors. As we have said before, knowledge is power on the Island. But a little knowledge can be a dangerous weapon.

Clues:

The sponsors of the balloon appear to be a composite of character memories, Ben with Widmore and Hurley with Mr. Clucks.

Charlie realizing that the Island is “testing” everyone. Is it a personal test, a medical test, a psychological test or an afterlife redemption test toward judgment?

When Libby is trying to calm down an upset Claire who is starting to remember, Libby tells her that “she is combining experiences before the crash with things on the island” which upsets her. The same could be said for Libby, who was institutionalized with Hurley, that she is combining her prior mental illness experiences with her island (hospital therapy treatments) to create a vivid new fantasy.

Whether memory loss is a symptom of “the sickness?” Sayid is concerned that Jack and Locke are not on board with Rousseau’s warning about Ben being an Other. Sayid is convinced he is lying because when he demands answers about Gale burying his wife, he is not clear what he did - - - because Sayid knows how it would feel because he buried Shannon.

The tree frog taunting Sawyer. In some cultures, frogs have mythical significance. In Japan, frogs are symbols of good luck. Also they are believed to be their ancestors. The economy of ancient Egypt was centered on the Nile River, which teemed with frogs. The frog was particularly identified with Heket, a deity of fertility and childbirth. When the waters of the Nile receded, innumerable frogs would be heard croaking in the mud, the sort of event that may have influenced many myths. In one Egyptian creation myth, Heket and her ram-headed husband, Khnum, made both gods and human beings. According to another Egyptian creation myth, the original eight creatures were frogs and snakes that carried the cosmic egg. The tree frog on the Island could symbolize life, but with Sawyer crushing it - - - it could mean a place of death.

When the Hatch timer goes past zero, Egyptian symbols appear that I have translated to state "He escapes place of death."  The alarm does have meaning because without the Numbers, the alarm sounds and blast doors seal off the Hatch. The station is constructed for the purpose of containing something or someone (the Devil?) from destroying the world.

When Claire remembers Ethan at the medical station, she is given water from his canteen. But Claire says it tastes "sour."  Sour water is defined as water, usually waste, that contains sulfur compounds. Sulfur is associated with fire, brimstone and the underworld. 

Discussion:

Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how can you tell but that friend may hereafter become an enemy. And bring not all mischief you are able to upon an enemy, for he may one day become your friend.  - - - Saadi

In a dream, young Charlie comes down a flight of stairs in his slippers. It's Christmas morning and his brother Liam is already hard at work ripping open his presents. But while Liam continues to unwrap gift after gift, Charlie finds nothing at all for him. That is, until his mother leads him over to a brand new piano.. Charlie is thrilled, but before he can even begin to enjoy the gift, he learns it comes with a price, with his mother wanting him to become successful so he can “save them." Charlie, now fully grown, plays the piano, though it's now on the beach. Suddenly, he hears Aaron’s cries from inside it. Charlie tries to open it up, but can't. The incoming tide then tips the piano over onto its back and it begins to drift away, apparently carrying Aaron out to sea.  Charlie wakes up and checks to make sure Claire and Aaron are alright, and finds them with Locke.

While Charlie plays his guitar on the beach, he hears the faint cries of a baby and follows the sound to the ocean, where he sees Aaron’s cradle being tossed on the waves. He struggles to swim out and bring Aaron back to shore, where he discovers both Claire and his mother kneeling on the beach in robes, in angelic poses from a religious painting. Charlie is seeing a version of a religious painting from Charlie's childhood home. The angelic Claire and Charlie's mother repeat in unison: "The baby is in danger" and that Charlie "has to save him". A plane, Eko’s brother’s Beechcraft,  crashes in the background. A dove flies out of the sky, through the jungle, and past him out to sea. Hurley approaching him in biblical robes. Charlie wakes up standing in the ocean holding the baby, realizing it was a vivid dream. He tries to explain to Claire (and everyone else) that he was only trying to save him, but Claire slaps him across the face.

Charlie creates his own problems when Locke suspects Charlie is using heroin again. That breach of trust, even though Locke makes the wrong assumption, it later allows Locke to beat Charlie after his second taking of Aaron.  Locke says trust is a hard thing to win back, and Claire needs her time.
After unsuccessfully trying to enlist Locke, Charlie goes to Eko, who is marking trees because he "likes them". Eko suggests that Charlie's dreams mean something and could be a sign that he has to protect the baby. Eko suggests that the baby be baptized. Charlie goes to Claire with the idea, but is dismissed by Kate. Locke stands close by, watching Charlie, just like he did in during his first days on the Island (lie the Others observing and collecting data). In the jungle, Charlie finds his stash of heroin, but Locke appears. Charlie claims he came to finish the job and get rid of them all. But Locke doesn't believe him. He takes away all of the statues.

Claire asks Locke whether she and Aaron can sleep in the hatch but Locke offers to move his things closer to her tent for a while. She asks him about baptism and how much he knows about it. Locke tells her his view, calling it "spiritual insurance" so the baby will go to heaven. He says that there is no danger to her or the baby. In the religious context, Claire is also not baptized, so she could not be in heaven with her baby. Claire’s greatest fear is to be separated from her baby. But we do not know whether Island Aaron is a prop, like Jack’s son in the sideways world, or a real soul “reborn” in the church in The End.

Charlie starts a fire to distract Claire from Aaron's crib. While an attempt is made to put out the fire, Charlie grabs Aaron and runs with him to the ocean to baptize him. Locke and several other survivors run over after they hear Claire's cries. Locke tries to convince Charlie to hand him the baby, but Charlie refuses, saying, "Aaron's not your responsibility. Where were you when he was born? Where were you when he was taken? You're not his father. You're not his family." Locke replies that neither is he.Charlie gives Locke the baby, who hands him to Claire. Charlie tries to apologize but Locke punches him three times in the face. Charlie stumbles and falls into the water. Everyone leaves Charlie in disgust. All Charlie “wishes” is that “everything would go back to the way it was” with Claire and his island situation. But he ruined that. This problem mirrors his flashback life where he wished his brother, Liam, would get his act together in order to save the band. In that situation, Liam was kicked out of his house when his wife felt he was dangerous due to his drug addiction. On the island, Charlie has been kicked out of his “new” family because his erratic behavior from trying to kick his drug addiction. Charlie’s wish will only come true after he dies on the Island and is “reunited” with Claire in the sideways world church.

There are several scenes where Locke, observing from the jungle tree line, seems to be planning and calculating how to get people over to his side. In the Flocke theory, the opening to push Charlie away from Claire is Locke’s opportunity to make Claire dependent on him for protection and advice. We will learn that after Aaron leaves the island, Claire turns into evil darkness and Flocke is her best jungle friend.

The next day, while Jack is nursing Charlie's wounds, Eko agrees to baptize Claire and her baby, to make sure that they will always be protected together. Locke puts the seven Virgin Mary statues in the hatch gun closet and changes the lock combination again. 
Charlie sits on the beach alone and pulls his hoodie over his head. We do not know that Charlie’s addiction withdrawal from heroin, and the mistrust that his actions have had a lasting effect on his friendships, are twisted into an obsession to “save” Aaron from unknown dangers. As a result, he puts the baby into danger. As an outcast, he is any easy mark for Sawyer to regain his status as beach hoarder. Using the innocent picture of Ana and Jack together, with the paranoia that the Others will attack the campers again, Sawyer lets Kate imagination make assumptions that Ana attacked Sun in the garden in order to recruit survivors for Jack’s army. With the attack, for which Jack believes the Others were responsible, Jack is going to arm his group and goes to the Hatch to collect weapons. Sawyer gets there first and convinces Locke to hide the weapons in the jungle so Jack can’t get them. Jack’s plan violates the trust arrangement Locke had with him, so in a pre-emptive move, Locke leaves Sawyer manning the computer. An altercation happens in the beach camp that night when Jack and Locke are at each other for breaking their “truce,” when Sawyer shows up with the guns. He proclaims he is the “new sheriff in town” (which is a prequel to his role in time travel 1977 Dharma). It makes Jack and Locke look like fools, which was Charlie’s goal in this con. Afterward, Charlie asks Sawyer to make sure his role, especially him attacking Sun, is never told to anyone. So Charlie trusts the man who is the biggest liar he knows with his darkest island secret.

With Jack back from the Hatch, Claire argues with him that something could be terribly wrong with Aaron's health. Though she tells Jack she's OK, she still seems extremely worried. The next morning, Claire seeks Libby. As a psychologist, she believes Libby can help cause some kind of memory regression, allowing her to remember what happened in the jungle after Ethan abducted her. As the two women sit meditating, flashes of memory once more overcome Claire's psyche, causing her to scream, shouting that she remembers Ethan.  Ordering Libby to do the technique again, she is warned that her memory could simply be combining experiences of other memories in the past blended together, but is adamant that what she saw was real, and that she was drugged and given something. Now fully convinced that Aaron is sick, Claire proclaims that she needs to find the room in her flashback. She asks that Kate help her.

This abduction quest leads Claire and Kate to Rousseau. In turn, they find the Dharma medical station. Claire remembers the examination room, the needles in her stomach to protect the baby, the nursery, and her knitting while drugged by Ethan. As they leave, Claire remembers that Rousseau did not attack her, but tried “to save her.”  Claire may have lost some memories, but Rousseau has still lost her daughter.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 37:
EKO: Not if I baptize you both.

EP 38:
SAWYER: I'm not a good person, Charlie. Never did a good thing in my life.

EP 39:
SAYID: That you were strung up by your neck and left for dead. That Claire was taken and kept for days during which god only know what happened to her. That these people -- these Others -- are merciless, and can take any one of us whenever they choose. So tell me, Charlie, have you forgotten?

EP 40:
GALE: Right, okay. -- My mistake.
[Locke leaves the armory, starts to do the dishes, and then loses his temper, swiping all the dishes on the counter to the ground. Gale in the armory is smiling.]

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

It has always been bothersome that the 815 survivors never moved to the safety of the Hatch, or that the communication/computer savvy Sayid would not have used the Hatch computer’s communication to send an SOS or at the very least, gather intel on the Others. It appears that the survivors “do what they are told” like children, more easily than adults. If you believe in the “mental institution” theories on the premise of the show, young children are often berated to follow certain behavior, and operate in lock-step with their peers. There is a sense in the show that undercurrent is present in the actions or more importantly non-actions of the survivors.

When Hurley talked about transference, it could also relate to the concept of the show’s mental institution theories. When Walt looks at a bird book and then a bird appears at his window, he is called special. When Locke is born, he is called special because of his miracle birth. Is it their thoughts that create actions in their fantasy worlds.  When we talk about transference in the setting of a hospital mental institution, with its floors and “stations,” one could argue that there are similar pieces on the island. When you have institutional group sessions and group rooms, the island also has their own “groups.” If these groups have vivid fantasies, then they could create the island dynamic as it pits them against authority. In the first instance, it was the Others against the scientific Dharma (doctors and institutional authority of the island). Now, it is the survivors against the Others who have displaced (in their own minds) the higher authority (which still resides in Jacob).

The PBS science show, NOVA, had a recent special on dreams. Some scientists believe that dreams are simulated threats that prepares a person for them in their waking existence. It goes back to primordial survival techniques that help individuals cope with real life dangerous situations if they have some “experience” with them in their dreams. In modern humans, the idea of being attacked by wild animals (a real possibility in stone age tribes) is replaced by real stressful situations like events in school or at work. In dreams, fearful visions have a basis in reality and may be used as coping mechanism when a person has to face that reality. In essence, dreams are a subconscious brain tool to help control life events in reality.

This leads to the possibility that the big premise of Lost is contained in a dream world. The surreal nature of the smoke monster is consistent with monsters and wild animal attacks in nightmares. People have said that their night visions are so “real” that they wake up in a panic, thinking the events are happening to them in real time.

The keystone factor that puts the dream theory into play is that at the End of Season 6, we are told constantly that characters need to be “awakened” in the sideways world, to remember their Island time, in order to “move on” in the afterlife since everyone in the sideways realm are dead. To become awake means to stop deep REM and subconscious dreaming, to end the events in one’s mind. This leads to a curious question: can dead souls dream?

What are the series flashbacks? Old dreams of the characters or real world events?
Is the Island setting a “dream world” where each character can create their own vision of their path - - - such as Locke being able to walk and be the Outback hunter?
Is the sideways world the purgatory waiting area for the souls to wake up from their island dream state? And what happens to a person living in one of these dreamscapes - - - when they “die?” Is that a reference to them “waking up” in another reality? Or is the solution to one’s fears in real life in the dream world enough to effectively release one’s soul to move on (such as Jack’s defeat of Flocke and saving his friends).

And whether is this a collective dream or a collective nightmare is unknown. But the idea that the island with his science stations mimics a hospital setting is clear. If the characters are patients, and the island is the mental hospital to study their various mental illnesses through tests, therapy, group interaction, and drugs, that could explain the hallucinations, the visions, the dreams and the delusions that come up again and again with various characters on the Island.

A layered dream existence for the characters is a mirror to the Egyptian theory that the characters souls are on a journey through the underworld. Ancient Egyptians believed that man’s soul is divided at death into various elements, and travel separate paths to be reunited after judgment.

This phase of the story line contains the guest actor turned into major character transformation. Michael Emerson’s performance as Henry Gale was so good that TPTB kept his character on as the super-evil Others leader, Ben Linus. Since the series first season renewal and critical acclaim, TPTB needed something to string alone the characters for the remaining four seasons. Emerson provided an opportunity to flesh out the enemy. It also lead to some mild criticism because it also clouded the initial storyline with filler and another rash of secondary red-shirt characters. For if one looks backward from the End, all the story lines surrounding the Others are not material to the alleged resolutions of the main characters in the church.

One of the dynamics in the forefront is a good versus evil conflict. Sawyer, after taking back his sheriff-hoarder crown, tells Charlie “I am not a good person - - - never done a good thing in my life.”  After Claire remembers the examination room, she recalls Ethan telling her that “we’re (the Others) are good people.” But Sayid tells outcast Charlie, “have you forgotten?” what the Others did to Claire and himself. Sayid explains that he knows Gale (Ben) is lying because “I know because I feel no guilt” about beating him up to get answers.  And Ben knew what was coming, because he did not have any fearful expression. He was more afraid when Eko took out his long knife during their Eko’s “confession” about killing two Others (in order to keep on “his righteous path”). In Ben’s expressions, we know he knows much about the 815 survivors, including Sayid being a torturer, but there are things that he does not know - - - for example, the Hatch and its last occupant, Desmond. Ben’s trip to Jack was done on purpose; he ran across Rousseau’s path so she would shoot him with the arrow. And he knew they would take him to their doctor because they are “good people.”  Ben would then get information on Jack, as a prelude to capturing him so Jack could do spinal surgery on Ben to save his life. In a way, Ben’s early story arc was a mirror of Sawyer’s con to get the guns. People think that they are doing what they believe is right, but those decisions have already been made by a puppet master to get the results he wants from them.

These episodes continue to reinforce the theories about mental illness creating a fantasy world that the characters are trying to get through, via quests, religious ritual or missions of survival. It seems that some characters must reach their personal “rock bottom” in order to change, in order to be saved.