IMPLODING STORY LINE

It is one point that is glossed over as being superficial. But it shows the story structure problems of the show when it comes to a consistent mythology.

It deals with the Hatch and The Incident.

As the LOST story unfolded in real broadcast time, many of us thought that the Hatch "implosion" was "The Incident" that was whispered about in the Others Dharma camp. But then we had the story tangent of Juliet being trapped in the hatch excavation pit banging a rock on an atomic bomb when the white light flashes and we next see another implosion debris field at the site.

Two separate incidents. The same results: there was a massive crater (implosion).

Normally, a massive discharge of energy will create an explosion, where the debris field would be scattered about a wide range of area. There still may be a crater at the epicenter.

When Desmond turned the fail safe key, we saw the Hatch cover land on the beach (an explosion) but also saw the effects of the station crumpled down into the crater (an implosion).  When Juliet's cliffhanger flash happened, we really only saw the end result of her being trapped in the debris of the implosion (as the construction scaffolding was twisted upon her).

That left us with various assumptions on what happened in each event. In Desmond's case, the fail safe key had to have been attached to a detention device (a bomb) for the sole purpose of stopping the runaway electromagnetic build up. Hence, the explosion and implosion as the EM field apparently "re-sealed" itself. In Juliet's case, the "incident" began as the drill hit the EM pocket. Now some people thought Juliet "set off" the a-bomb by banging on it, but that is not how atomic weapons detonate to cause a chain reaction explosion. Further, if the atomic bomb did explode, Juliet would have been vaporized; instead, we get her portfolio death scene with Sawyer.

Which is oddly consistent with Desmond's event. Dez somehow survives the explosion-implosion. He is found naked wandering the jungle. Why did Desmond survive and Juliet die? They both experienced the same EM event. And why was Desmond's clothes stripped away but Juliet's was not?

The writers often tried to set mirror events into the plot lines. But the writers never explained any distinguishing results from those mirror situations.

You cannot even argue that naked Desmond running in the jungle was symbolic of his "rebirth." Juliet's "sacrifice" was more straight forward until she said "it worked." What worked? Did she re-boot the island time clock? How would she have known that, she was buried in a debris pit.  Or did she think that she died and went to heaven (sideways world). But that makes little sense since she was the last to be "awakened" in the sideways story line. Besides, at the moment of her death she was thinking about her love, Sawyer. But in the sideways world, her fantasy life began with being married to Jack, and having his child, David, before getting divorced.  There is a major inconsistency between the cause and effects of the two Hatch location incidents.

Why was Desmond more "important" than Juliet to move the story to its climax? In retrospect, Desmond was touted as being "the secret weapon" to take down MIB but he never achieved that goal. He was immune to high EM energy. The light cave apparently had high EM energy. Someone had to "re-boot" the island so Desmond was drafted to be that worker by both MIB and Jack, the new island guardian. But Desmond failed to finish his job; Jack had to intervene. Desmond did not have the final death blow to defeat MIB. Kate shot MIB.

And what did Juliet's death do to move the story line forward? The only thing was to reinforce the will in Sawyer to leave the island. It is also a strange path to believe that it took a three year time travel work camp imprisonment with the Dharma group to teach Sawyer that there was someone who could love him in a respectable relationship. Do we then assume that Sawyer lived unhappily ever after until he died and went to the sideways purgatory to be keystone copped into an unbelievable reunion with Juliet at a candy machine?

It the incidents were merely markers for the theme of death and rebirth, the story was not well crafted to bring those points home. If you believe the island was real, then Desmond's "rebirth" is symbolic that fate will keep you on your path of destiny? Or, in Juliet's case, one's rebirth can only occur in the after life.