REAL TO UNREAL

I never understood why Charlie's character wanted to die. He could have easily saved himself by getting out of the control room, even after Patchy flooded it by exploding a porthole (which is question for another day).

Charlie had much to live for:

1. He wanted very much to protect Claire and Aaron.
2. He wanted to have a family with Claire and Aaron.
3. He wanted to get his career back on track, since the island gave him a second chance at life.
4. He wanted to be a hero, so people would look upon him not as a "one hit wonder," but a real person.

His relationship with Claire was not that unusual. Claire was the damsel in distress after the crash. Who wants to deal with a pregnant woman in shock? But Charlie did - - - instinctively. But initially Charlie felt he did not have the skills to impress and keep her: Jack was the medical savior protecting her baby, while Locke was the hands on guy who could build her shelter and a crib. All Charlie could give Claire was kindness, something that apparently was lacking in her life.

And Claire did not know how to react to Charlie's affection.  She was put off by his imposition of himself into her island situation. She did not have the same feelings for him. Some would say her hormones were all out of whack, and the added stress of the Others wanting to take her child made her mad. But even as frustrated as Charlie got, he never gave up. When she was kidnapped, he went into the jungle to confront the Others - - -  and he wound up hanged by a tree. Jack had to cut him down - - - which brings us to an island tangent: did Charlie actually "die" in that encounter to be reincarnated as a smoke monster or soul seeking forgiveness of Claire for not being able to protect her like he had promised her?

If Charlie was Charlie 2.0 (soul/smoke monster/reincarnation) that would put a whole different spin on "what" the island was . . . . beyond a metaphysical dimension in time or space but a soul proving ground for redemption.

But after Desmond's purple fail safe moment (which like Charlie's hanging should have killed Desmond, who was found naked in the jungle), Claire seemed to gravitate toward Desmond rather than Charlie. It made Charlie jealous.  Then when Desmond told Charlie he could see future visions, including Claire and Aaron leaving the island on a helicopter, Charlie knew he had to make that happen. But when Desmond told him that he also saw Charlie dying - - - they connected the two visions as being a cause and effect. In order to save Claire, Charlie had to die.

There were no "rules" which made that connection true. Charlie's own weaknesses: his low self-esteem, his jealousy, his rejection, his self-pity, all contributed to his suicidal but heroic stance in the control room. In order to radio for rescue, Charlie had to recognize a musical pattern code to unlock the panel. This always seemed to contrived to be true reality. But it made Charlie the "only" person who could figure it out - - - his own supernatural power. But once he got contact established, he found out that Desmond's vision was wrong: it was not Penny's boat coming to save them. It was Widmore's freighter coming to kill them.

So instead of doing anything possible to bring that news back to the island - - - and to protect Claire from the coming harm - - - Charlie decided not to open the control room door. As Desmond pleaded with him to open it, Charlie drowned in what could be considered a senseless death.

The only thing that Charlie's death did was to cause other people, especially Desmond, pain. Dez's flashes were not reality and not true premonitions. Desmond's own personal motivation to get back to Penny clouded his judgment. It cost Charlie his life. It cost Charlie his chance to make things right with Claire.

After Charlie's death, Claire went insane when Aaron was taken away from her. Some believe that Claire may have been killed during that three year period of darkness - - - since she could see "Christian" a smoke monster, she too could have been recreated into one. She did not ask about Charlie at all when she encountered Kate. She did not miss him. Her sole focus was revenge.

So why did Claire rejoin up with Charlie in the after life? There connection was broken on the island when they were not on the best of terms. The sideways was an afterlife plane of existence, but it has the troublesome unreal aspect in which Aaron and Sun's baby have in common:

Why did the island pregnant women give birth to their children in the afterlife if they had already been born in the real world? 

Logically, an afterlife birth would mean that Claire and Sun never gave birth in their real worlds. That would mean the island was not in fact real. Their motherhoods were illusions. Their relationships and interactions with other people were merely dreams. The sideways world was the ultimate "do-over."

Charlie got his second chance with Claire, to experience the birth of Aaron. Claire got a loving partner in return. Their reconnection seems to be the most real of the final pairings, as we still have issues with how Jack and Kate wound up with each other while Locke never reconnected with Helen.

RE-BIRTH

It was a miracle when Aaron was born on the island. First, the baby survived a high altitude plane crash. Second, her mother was a stressed out bundle of emotions. Third, there were no medical facilities. Fourth, the Others "tested" and "injected" him during a kidnap of Claire. Fifth, no trained medical person helped deliver the baby in the jungle.

The next miracle was that Aaron survived on the island. There would have been pests, disease and malnutrition factors. The Others should have kidnapped him because the Others were obsessed with children. Claire would go through some crazy mom postpartum depression.

The next miracle was Aaron's escape from the island. He survived a helicopter crash into the ocean. He survived the blazing sun in the open seas without his mother. Once on the mainland, he survived under the care of the anti-Mother, Kate.

Aaron was one lucky kid. Luckier than even Hurley.

But does this all add up?

Since Claire left the island with Kate, to fulfill her own self-anointed destiny to reunite Aaron with his mother, one must assume that Claire did re-bond with Aaron.  We were led to believe that Claire's mother, Carol, was in an irreversible coma. Christian came to Australia to help pay for the extended care, when Claire berated her father with blame. But Claire was to blame for her mother's condition (the traffic accident). So after the escape from the island, a fully recovered Carol shows up at Christian's memorial service. Is this also a miracle? Or a bad plot device to get Kate thinking about doing something right and noble in her life?

Carol's reappearance does give us the undertone that something is not quite right in the LOST time lines. If she did not make it and her hospital care cut short and she died after Christian's demise (a likely possibility), then the O6 arc is not real but a surreal bridge to the sideways after life realm.

Because if Claire left the island and she was reunited with Aaron, then there was no reason why Aaron would have needed to be "reborn" at the sideways world concert. How can a living human being be reborn in the afterlife? Or was the whole island Claire story a tale of a dramatic false pregnancy? Or a delusion that masked the fact that Aaron died in the plane crash or at birth?

For if Aaron was born on the island, and lived a normal life off the island, he would have been an adult with his own family and not a prop in the sideways conclusion. He was not needed in order to reunite Claire and Charlie at the concert.

But since the pregnant Claire was in the afterlife in that state of unwed, the question is then asked whether the after life is merely a dream state. And if it is a dream state, would re-living a traumatic time in one's life (like emergency child birth) rekindle the "best" time of your life?

The re-birth of Aaron in the sideways world has always been a troublesome plot point. It makes him more a prop than an actual human being.

Or, an alternative explanation: hysterical pregnancy. Though rare in the United States, pregnancies rooted in the mind but entirely absent from the body do happen. Victorian-era doctors referred to them as "hysterical pregnancies." Today, the favored terms are "delusional pregnancy," "false pregnancy" or "phantom pregnancy." When a patient suffers from some or all the symptoms of pregnancy— stomach growth, cramps, loss of period, morning sickness—without a fetus actually being present, it's known as pseudocyesis.

The division between the physiological and psychological aspects of this syndrome isn't always clear. Essentially, the word 'delusional' means the person is ill with a psychiatric disorder of some kind. But pseudocyesis can occur without any psychiatric illness: you can believe that you're pregnant and have signs of pregnancy for any number of reasons. Certain drugs will do it. There have been cases reported where a woman gains weight, starts having other signs like nausea and she starts believing she's pregnant—but she's not mentally ill and she never has been, other than this one area. And so she'll have some trouble being convinced she's not pregnant. 

If Aaron's "double" births were merely vivid hysterical pregnancies of a delusional woman, was the whole series then a collective delusion?

CLAIRE'S DIARY

In all the professionals, people used to documenting their days, only one person actually wrote down their narrative - - -  Claire. Claire had a diary in which she recorded the events in her life.

Claire kept a diary, in which she wrote frequently. She wrote down her dreams in it, including the one in which her baby was stolen. After Claire was kidnapped by Ethan, Sawyer made fun of Charlie by mockingly reading an entry that claimed Claire was getting tired of "that has-been rock star." When Charlie read the diary, he saw a packing list for her trip and that she wrote: 

"I realized I really like Charlie. There's something about him that's just so adorable and sweet."

He also saw that she had written down her recurring dreams of a "black rock" (though it appeared to be of an actual black rock, not the ship). After she returned to the survivors' camp, she tried to use it to recover her memories by writing them down, but ultimately got help from Libby to remember what happened to her at the Staff medical station. 

On the page Charlie views before the one that reveals Claire's feelings towards him, the words "I HATE HIM" are mysteriously written on their own, under what appears to be a list of things Claire misses from the outside world. Also on this page is a word or short sentence that is blurred out. 

There are several ways to view the diary. First, it could just be a diary. A memory book of events, feelings, emotions and thoughts by an individual. Second, it could be part of the story engine. Either Claire herself (and her memories) or those words are feeding smoke monsters/island to re-create those events in her life in order to experiment or experience her raw emotions. Some could argue that Claire's own thoughts in her diary are the active island dreams that played out in the series as real life events. Third, the diary could be planted "new" memories to replace her real world experience. She was kidnapped and had severe memory loss (which was convenient plot point). The diary would be a natural way to try to remember her own past. But it could have been a false past. Recall, she went to the same psychic that Eko wandered into researching his miracle woman.  It could have been an elaborate plot or conspiracy to implant suggestions into a person's subconscious then unleash it in a controlled, stressful laboratory environment (the island).

The island was filled with science stations doing research into mind control, mental suggestion and stress observation. Using Claire as a test subject to determine if false diary memories could replace forgotten real ones seems to be on par with the military-industrial background of the Dharma mission.

Did Claire's diary notations have any impact in the series story? She was searching for a new family after her car crash that injured her mother and alienated her sister. Then, in an unlikely scenerio, she found a respected half-brother, Jack, who cared for her and her baby. She also found an unlikely sister in Kate, who helped save Aaron from the island dangers.

Claire's diary could have been the foundation, the heart of the LOST story lines. But there was not enough meat on the bone to carry all the various tangents to make it a credible theory.

THE CHARACTER SUMMATION OF CLAIRE

Claire was the character in immediate peril. Her situation was to rope right away  the mothers in the viewing audience. She was the most fragile, the most venerable, and most in need of help. People could instantly put themselves on the beach thinking of what was needed to help this poor girl.

But the writers guide had a different perspective on Claire.

When wild-child Claire found herself in a family way, her immediate instinct to get rid of the baby was overcome by an even greater instinct- to make a sizeable chunk of cash. Taking advantage of the massive market for newborn babies in the States, Claire reached out to a Beverly Hills adoption agency and instantly found a couple willing to pay forty thousand dollars for her unborn child. Denying herself any emotional connection for fear of building a bond she has broken in advance, the last thing Claire wants to be is a mother. Now, she is forced to confront that inevitability as the baby inside her creates a unique connection to the island's MYSTERIES (illustrated by terrifying nightmares)- a connection she is too frightened to share with the others. 

A pregnant woman surviving a plane crash was certainly a unique situation (if we suspend belief and agree that people did survive a mid-air plane break up). But the writer's hint that Claire's womb would be the portal to tell the island's mysteries to the viewers.

Now, that is a sci-fi Rosemary's Baby moment of character development. The guide states that Claire's unborn baby "creates a unique connection" to the island - - - which terrorizes Claire to the point where she can't share her nightmares with anyone. Again, this revelation that the island has a supernatural hold over the people on it was going to be the series story engine. It would seem the most venerable would have the hardest time coping with the island's mental pulls and manipulation. Her mental state could collapse if she believed that she was carrying a monster in her womb.

TPTB are coy about what are the mysteries of the island, or how the characters are supposed to interact with the island (if it is a conscious supernatural being).  But there is clearly a sinister aspect of the island which could harm people.

It is also interesting to note that Claire was not thought of as the helpless, confused unwed mother as show in Season 1, but a clumsy wild child whose unwanted pregnancy was a means to a large pay day in the new born adoption market. Claire would have had no personal attachment or conflict in giving up her baby in LA. Now, crash landing on the island may not have changed her perception that this child would not be a burden to her - - - she did not want it. She could still give it away (perhaps to a barren Sun).  

Now, who can force Claire to become a mother? The island. How? We don't know. Peer pressure from strangers on the beach would not readily change her mind. The guide does not state that any of the male characters, such as Charlie, would step up to the plate to become a surrogate father to raise the child. It is just as likely that after Aaron's birth, Claire would have attempted to abandon the baby so she could return to her party ways, seducing the other male outcasts. Once a tramp, always a tramp. She could have been the temptation to mess with the minds of a Jin, or a guide book Sayid.

The guide does propose that dreams and nightmares are going to be an important aspect of the series. Are those activities fantasy or foretelling of island truths? Does it create madness or bring out madness already instilled in people? 

This idea that the island is speaking through the unborn child to Claire adds a level of spirituality and potential clue to the premise. Since the guide does not say who the father of the child is, it could be the bad seed - - - Satan's child or the next savior of the world. Aaron could be the bridge between good and evil, earth and heaven, or the destructive influence to destroy mankind (which was a later theme during the Ben-Widmore arc).  Having a spiritual equivalent of an atomic bomb in the form of a baby on an unknown island would be a difficult mystery to solve by the castaways.

As we have discussed in many prior posts, the Aaron story line was quickly delegated to an after-thought as the series went forward.  Many thought Aaron's presence would be the key to understanding what the island was and what its connection was to the real world. But the writers did not develop the Aaron story line. In fact, they confused it totally in the sideways world re-birth sequence. How can you be born when you are dead?

Claire fell into the category of a secondary character. Her closest connection with the main characters was the superficial connection with Kate, who also did not want to be tied down or be a mother, but assumed that role during the freighter rescue. But that tangent was more about Kate than Claire.

The writer's guide makes no mention that Claire is somehow related to Jack. It appears that back story element was added much later to raise a connective mystery between the characters.  A connection which did not have any impact in the actual story. 

Claire's LOST story could have easily erased in a difficult child birth sequence (with Jack being unable to save her like with Boone). But once the writers kept her on the island, her role of being fragile pregnant girl was gone once Aaron was born. Then she became basically a background character on the beach since the guide's claimed island connection with Aaron never came to the forefront. 

CONNECT FOUR TO SHEPARD

Many people believe the LOST saga was the story of Jack. Jack coming to terms with his father issues, especially life and death leadership decisions. It seems to be a roundabout away of getting to that point, especially where all the characters wound up in the End.

But what if the story was not about Jack but Christian. Christian was the master of ceremonies at the End. Was it his connections that brought Jack to the End?

Christian had three significant encounters during the latter stages of his life.

First, he hired Ana Lucia to be his bodyguard to go to Australia to confront is daughter, Claire. It was through that short relationship with Ana Lucia where Christian began to deal with his own family issues as a wayward parent.

Second, when Christian tries to tell Claire that she is keeping her vegetative mother alive "for the wrong reasons" (guilt over causing the traffic accident), Claire is hostile towards Christian, severing any possible relationship with him.

Third, after a bad encounter and argument with Ana Lucia, Christian winds up in a bar where he meets Sawyer. They discuss Christian's strained relationship with his son. This is the last point where we see Christian alive. Later he is found dead of a heart attack/alcohol abuse.

We are led to believe that Christian was the first person out of these encounters to die. But what if that was not true. In the back stories of Ana, Claire and Sawyer, there were deadly encounters which could have caused their demise. Ana was shot in the stomach (while pregnant) as a police officer. She could have died from those wounds. Claire was in a serious traffic accident (while pregnant). She could have died from those wounds (as her mother did). Sawyer's father was distraught over financial ruin caused by a con man. He committed a family murder suicide (which in today's news often includes the entire family, including children). In the alternative, Sawyer's con artist past could have caught up with him via the double cross and he could have been killed by fellow criminals.

The idea that Ana, Claire and Sawyer predeceased Christian is important if you can fathom an angel theory. Just like Clarence in the film, It's a Wonderful Life, the angel had to come to earth to save someone in order "to get his wings." Since Hollywood rarely has a unique idea, it is possible that at one point Christian was the George Baily character, at his wit's end. Ana, Claire and Sawyer all had experience in broken families so they could understand Christian's issues with his son.

Christian's "reward" in the end of the series was to be reunited with Jack, and to go into the church and open the doors to cast the Light upon everyone in the church. Was this where Christian and the others "got their wings?"

There is a corollary to the angel angle; Ana, Claire and Sawyer were not devote moral role models. As such, they had insight and personal experience on the dark side which could be used to get straight forward Jack to see Christian's faults and understand them.  It is the devil that knows you.

It is possible that Christian's "Australian" trip was much like the 815 flight: a passage into the underworld. He met people who were going to help him through the various levels of eternity (Ana, Claire and Sawyer). In turn, Christian's connections with those people allowed them to get back onto their own passage through the underworld. As a result, the lost souls of Ana, Claire and Sawyer got on Flight 815 to help Jack and the other departed souls. As Locke (possibly as MIB) told Shannon  in the jungle that "everyone got a new life on the Island,"  and advised her to start hers, this is what Christian's connections began for Jack.

Each of the character connections helped Jack become a complete person. Ana brought in street toughness. Claire brought in venerability. Sawyer had cunning. Libby brought charity. Charlie brought sacrifice. Kate brought adventure. Hurley brought friendship. Locke brought faith. Bernard and Rose brought trust. Boone brought enthusiasm. Ben brought evil manipulation. Sayid brought punishment. Juliet brought caring. Shannon brought selfishness. Walt brought childhood wonder. Vincent brought comfort. Without all those elements, Jack could never become a complete person. Likewise, all the other characters needed to experience and understand those same elements in order to find their acceptance of fate, duty and their own deaths.

LOST was all about accepting one's ultimate fate: dying. The church in the End after death was the ultimate goal for all of the assembled characters. They were ready at that point to accept their deaths and move on into the after life, together.

Just as Christian's Australian trip was his "island journey," Christian returned the favor for Jack by creating key connections in the after life to allow Jack to awaken to his fate and join him in the church at the End. The benefit was that as a result, Jack was able to bring along many of these connections with him toward eternal happiness as complete beings.

THE AARON PROBLEM

If The End had a major flaw, it would have to center upon the awakening of Kate and Claire at the concert. Many in the Lost community called it "The Aaron Problem."

Now, many posters felt that children were treated on the whole badly throughout the Lost series. For example, plane survivors Emma and Zach were kidnapped by the Others and had no resolution of their plight at the end of the series. The whole story arc with Walt being "special" but having no consequence in the show's conclusion has left many viewers with a bad taste.

So, yes, everyone is in agreement that everyone in the church in The End are dead. Dead dead.

But what about Aaron?

The pro-enders believe that the "re-birth" of Aaron in the sideways world was necessary for Claire "to remember" her island life and her bond with now Egyptian eyeliner Charlie Pace. Except, Aaron was already "born" on the island. It makes no sense to have Aaron born in the dead realm to Claire unless:

a) Aaron, like the other children including sideways David (Jack's son) are just mere illusions or props;

b) Aaron was never truly "born" on the island;

c) the sideways world characters are separate entities living in a parallel dimension from that of the island world, meaning that events in one place had no effect on the other; or

d)  it was a major writing error in the finale.

We were told that Aaron was "alive" in Los Angeles, raised by Kate for three years. Then when Kate returned to the island, Aaron was given to his grandmother. So based upon that information, Aaron is no different than anyone else in the church - - - he was already born, living and breathing in the island world. We do not know when he "died" in the island world - - - whether he lived a brief, or a long life; with his own family, friends, children, grandchildren, etc.

But the sideways world pre-supposes the opposite. For if Christian's statement was true, these people were the most important people in their collective lives (including Aaron's) during their time on the island, which lasted initially about 100 days, then time split for three years, to re-converge for approximately 12 days after Ajira 316 landed on the Hydra Island. The 12 days also seems to coincide with the time line for the sideways events. Christian tied both worlds together so there is no evidence of parallel universes. There is no evidence that the sideways world was an "alternative" place in time or space, but merely a holding fantasy, for souls to remember and re-connect to people that allegedly meant the most to them in their previous existence.

In order to reconcile the condition of the island characters to their sideways doppelgangers, in order to be truly consistent and logical, if he truly lived a "real" life,  Aaron should have arrived at the church either as a three year old boy or an old man when his life ended in the non-sideways world. Everyone else in the church had their same island time line appearances.

Many people do not want to hear this explanation: that Aaron was "reincarnated" in the sideways world. If he was reincarnated as a new born in the sideways world, it means he had a horrible, non-existent "real world" life.

But most believe Aaron did have a life before dying. So how can he be in "two" places at once. (The Christian explanation of the sideways world having no time does not hold water if one believes that a person only has one soul, whether it be living or dead.) So if Aaron went through adulthood, his reward for living was becoming a new born infant in purgatory? Again, that makes no sense. And further, why would Aaron return to his mother as an infant, if she returned to him as a crazy person when Ajira left the island? It would seem Aaron's expected life would be just like poor John Locke's.

Then again, one could argue that this part of the sideways fantasy world was Claire's dream to be with Aaron always so she made him return as a fetus - - - but why, if she did leave the island and was reunited with her three year old son and her mother?

And if Aaron was reincarnated at the sideways concert, what about the rest of the characters? They were somehow also reincarnated into the sideways world.  And if the characters were reincarnated in one place (sideways), then it is just as logical that they could have been reincarnated in the other place (the island). Many fans abhor the idea that the characters were somehow "dead" from the beginning of the pilot episode and throughout the series. But why then, are those fans content with the same reasoning fashioned in the sideways world finale?

How Aaron was depicted in the series is a real series paradox.

Was he just a literary prop to add some tangent drama to a secondary character's story as part of a four season filler arc?

From the after life theorists, for Aaron to be "reborn" in the sideways finale, he would have had to have been killed on or before Flight 815 crashed on the island. One life; one soul.

How Aaron was used in the finale is one of massive contradiction. It raised more questions about the disregard of the first five season plot lines in favor of a final half season white wash sideways explanation to the conclude the characters lives. But Aaron's birth to his dead mother has no explanation in either the island or sideways time frames. It is really one of those plot points that still gnaws some viewers. Claire could have "awakened" in another fashion than using Aaron as a prop doll.

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.

REBOOT EPISODES 13-16

LOST REBOOT 

Recap: Episodes 13-16 (Days 24-31)

When Boone gets frustrated with Locke’s obsession to get into the Hatch,Locke ties him up and drugs him.  When Locke learns that Boone wants to tell their "secret" to Shannon, Shannon’s life is placed in sudden peril (showing a clue that Locke has secret powers of evil like Flocke), and the shocking truth about her past with Boone is revealed. Meanwhile, Kate is puzzled by Sun’s mysterious behavior, and a hungry Hurley must repay a debt to Jin.

Michael starts to build a raft to get his son rescued. Locke and Michael’s animosity is put aside when both of them must save Walt from a polar bear. Violence ensues and the smoke monsters re-appears when Michael and Locke clash over Walt’s upbringing. (Did Locke call upon his pet Cerebus to attack Michael for interfering with his new friendship?) Meanwhile, Charlie is tempted to read the missing Claire’s diary.

Locke and Boone find Claire in the jungle. She is suffering from amnesia. A survivor is killed, and Jack, Sayid and Locke plan a way to capture Ethan. Ethan returns and threatens to kill off the other survivors unless Claire is returned to him.

Kate and Sawyer’s outcast relationship continues to blossom while they are boar hunting. Kate and Sawyer divulge dark secrets to each other while tracking a renegade boar that Sawyer swears is purposely harassing him. (more smoke monster manipulation of matter to evoke human reaction?)  Meanwhile, Hurley and Sayid worry that Charlie is losing it after his brush with death, and a shocking, prior connection between Sawyer and Jack is revealed (Sawyer met Jack’s father just before his death).

Science:

Compass works on magnetic field, a magnetized piece of metal suspended in air will point to true magnet north. However, some electromagnetic surges or anomalies can adversely affect compass readings. It is said that the Bermuda Triangle area has unusual EM properties that disrupts electronics and compass readings in airplanes (leading to mysteries of missing boats and planes).

Improbabilities:

Claire escaping Ethan after two weeks in the jungle.

Also, Ethan asking for her return when he infiltrated the camp and is stronger than any of the survivors.

Mysteries:

The “defective” compass that does not point North.

Sections of Rousseau’s maps that form a triangle, which may not even be part of this island, or the location of the “Black Rock.” We will learn that the Black Rock was an old slave ship that was shipwrecked on the Island, with all occupants killed except for one, Richard, who is spared by the smoke monster (MIB) but later becomes Jacob's immortal right hand man.

Themes:

Fate. Christian believes it is his fate to die an alcoholic in Hell, estranged from his son because he does not have the courage to pick up the phone and make things right.

Revenge. How difficult events tell what kind of man you really are. Sawyer is conned into killing the wrong man out of revenge. Charlie kills Ethan out of revenge for kidnapping Claire, the only person in his mind he can care for.

Christian tells Sawyer in the Sydney bar, “we’re in Hell.” Sawyer replies, “you’re here too.” Australia was founded as a penal colony. We don’t know if Christian is already “dead” in the bar when he has the discussion with Sawyer, or is about to die regretting that he never had the courage to pick up the phone and call his son to make things right. (In one way, Christian’s Sydney trip was his “island” journey; then his appearances on the island itself is like his own “sideways” world holding pattern until Jack’s soul catches up with his.)

Clues:

The compass malfunction and the map with a triangle can be considered a clue that the island is like the Bermuda or Devils triangles . . . areas of danger and mystery. Speculative science believes they may contain portals to other dimensions.

Locke tells a story about his family. He says a sibling dies, and his mother goes crazy in grief. Then a wandering dog comes into their house and sits by his mother for five years to her death. Locke says the dog was quiet; it was like her sister telling his mother that it was not her fault. The idea that Locke has a crazy mother is a clue to the future Island first family: MIB and Jacob's mother was crazy, too. It may point to Locke being possessed by MIB from the beginning. It also gives us a clue on Vincent, who may be the spirit of Walt's dead mother, looking after him.

Discussion:

“ Life is a system of half-truths and lies. Opportunistic, convenient evasion. ”

— Langston Hughes

It is clear that Locke is orchestrating events on the island. He is leading characters into dangerous events and experiences. He is the puppet master manipulating their souls. We also see for the first time the expressed idea that somehow the characters are going to be divided into teams. Locke stops Boone from confronting Sayid by telling Boone “we want him on our side.”  In the End, Sayid has gone completely to the dark side of MIB’s team. Flocke is already recruiting players for his game with Jacob. Locke has Boone clearly on his side after “giving him the experience” of the smoke monster killing Shannon (quite possibly near the site of the Light cave, where MIB himself was killed by his sibling). Here, illusion becomes reality and changes Boone’s path away from Shannon and becoming a pawn of Locke. 

We will learn that Jacob and MIB played the game of Senet, two sides, one black and one white; and the object of that game is to get your pieces off the board first.

In another situation, Locke leads Michael in the search for Walt. But this is after Walt has come to Locke to learn about knives. Locke tells him to “see it before you do it,” which is like the magic box principle Ben will speak of; Walt does and throws the knife perfectly. Michael interrupts and threatens to kill Locke if he has any contact with them again. Michael burns the comic with the polar bear and the “moving” island that Walt has kept from the crash; they are about to grow irreversibly a part until Walt wanders off with Vincent. He is attacked by a polar bear, but finds shelter in the banyan roots. Locke and Michael do a aerial rescue of Walt, with Michael giving Walt a knife to protect himself. Afterward, Walt and Michael bond; but also there is a truce between the Locke-Michael feud.

Walt’s “talent” of seeing things first then making them happen is foreshadowed in a flashback where Walt reads about a bird, then kills one on the patio in order to get attention from his parents. This spooks out his adoptive father, Brian, who after his mother’s death, in 1 day he is in NYC giving Michael plane tickets from Sydney for Walt and himself. Of course the legal ramifications of this guardianship are all wrong in reality but maybe not in a child's world.

When Claire returns on her own from her ordeal, she is beat up and cannot remember anything. She is upset with Charlie that he kept the Ethan warnings from her. “I am already in the dark,” she scolds him. The question raised here is whether Claire has already met her demise by Ethan’s capture. Has Claire’s memory erase part of the “infection” or soul re-boot that the smoke monsters take over a human soul? We know in the final season, Claire turns feral and crazy in the jungle, as a member of Flocke’s team. Is this the point where Claire is recruited? Recall, Ethan was hanging out with Locke in jungle before the kidnapping. If he infiltrated the 815 camp, Ethan could have also infiltrated “Jacob’s camp” run by Ben.

The other interesting reveal that feeds some evidence in a theory about multiple island realms is the “I Never” game Kate and Sawyer play. It is clear that both had troubled childhoods. Kate never went to Disneyland. In the Sawyer memories, we see his father kill his mother and himself after being conned out of their savings. One theory during the original airing of the show was that Sawyer has “blocked” part of that reality, being killed by his own father, so as to be moved by Jacob into the next level of existence (alternative reality) at the “funeral.” We can also say the same about Kate, who runs out of a store stealing an item, and may have been hit by a car driven by Locke’s father. The theory was that all the characters died in their childhood, and the afterlife is giving them all second chances to “live” and “experience” a faux life in order to mature into fully developed human souls.

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

A boar that harasses one man, Sawyer, is a comic relief element but also puts light on the idea that all the things on the island have magical properties. The boar may be a symbolic illusion for another person (memories into matter and events).

The Asian cultural idea that good spirits live in banyan tree roots which provide safe harbor from evil is also seen twice in these episodes: in Boone’s illusion of Shannon being attacked by Smokey and Walt being trapped inside while the polar bear attacked him.

Also, the Whispers now are heard by Sawyer. We know the Whispers are the voices of the trapped souls on the island, apparently giving the characters warnings. It may also be that when people begin to hear the whispers, they are slowly becoming spell bound by the Island or its guardians. Mental fatigue can lead to one’s personal defenses going down.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 13:

LOCKE: Yes. Time to let go. [Locke gets up and grabs his pack.] Follow me.

[Boone follows.]

EP 14:

[Claire emerges from the bushes looking awful.]

LOCKE: Claire?

EP 15:

CHARLIE: Goodnight, Claire.

EP 16:

SAWYER: No reason.

[Sawyer leaves. Jack snaps a log of wood with his foot.]

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Original fans always hoped that the Numbers would mean something special in the mythology of the series. The Numbers would up to be the designation of 815 characters Locke, Hurley, Sawyer, Sayid, Jack, and Jin. No special formula like the Vanzetti equation that re-sets and saves the world from mass destruction. The Numbers were a planted red herring. An empty Easter egg found throughout the scripts.

Taking in the series a second time, and knowing what we know of the characters fates, one tries again to put a new “spin” on the Numbers. It would seem promising that the first number, 4, Locke, would be engulfed into the Island first. Whether Locke is possessed by the island or is actually Flocke from the crash forward (MIB in human cosplay), this may be the first turn in a combination to open the secrets of the Island safe. Hurley is next, but in the first season he is a background character. But in the end he takes the guardian “role” of the Island from Jack, like winning the silver medal. Sawyer makes the most dramatic change when he is sent time traveling in reverse, and finding new responsibilities and commitment with Juliet. Sayid is a character that makes the least change from his torture soldier roots. He is taken over by the darkness and follows Flocke in his evil plan against his friends. But in an odd, out of place, resolution, Sayid winds up in the church with Shannon (not Nadia). Jack learns to take leadership and responsibility of making tough decisions to save his friends, including “dying” in the process. The consensus is that Jack had to sacrifice himself in order to save everyone else; but in the sideway world he had constructed a better life than in his flashback memories. Jin was a secondary character, almost a Sayid-light. Jin was a self-centered individual whose entire life, in the end, resolved around Sun. The six named Number characters really have nothing in common; no common redemption moments; no final grand judgment on how their lives turned out.

But the Numbers (people) as a combination lock got me to rethink an earlier theory that the Island itself was the safe, and the movement in time and space were tumblers that the Numbers were supposed to release change upon its spirit world. What we know is that Crazy Mother shipwrecked Jacob and MIB’s mother on the Island. Crazy Mother then stole the children and killed their real mother, trapping Jacob and MIB on the Island for eternity: Jacob as the Life Force guardian and MIB as a smoke monster. It is the freedom from the Island (rescue) is what was an underlying motivation for both Jacob and MIB. Jacob was looking to retire from being a guardian, and MIB was tired of the humanity games of any castaways brought to the Island by Jacob. MIB wanted to leave the island as badly as Michael did (which is ironic, since Michael remains trapped on the island as Whisper).

After one month on the Island, it is apparent that the Island inhabitants (Jacob, MIB and Crazy Mother) are dividing up the survivors into teams. I include Crazy Mother because it is not certain that killing a guardian actually ends their existence. Jacob was stabbed and burned by Ben and Flocke, but later showed up to talk to Hurley and a dying Sayid. Jacob’s brother was “killed” by Jacob and tossed into the Light cave, only to fly out as the smoke monster. The assumption was that Jacob’s brother was transformed into the smoke monster, but it may be they were all immortal smoke monsters (spirits). For afterward, Jacob and MIB sit on the beach discussing all the humans Jacob brings to the Island to prove some unknown point in their ageless argument. We know that MIB can shape shift and transform memories into matter (Flocke, even without his actual body).

One telling situation was when Sawyer is eye to eye with his harassing boar. Kate is observing off in the brush. She is clearly waiting for Sawyer to kill his nemesis. But when Sawyer does not shoot, Kate is clearly disappointed that it did not play out. One wonders if the intelligent boar was another manifestation of Locke (or Flocke himself) and Kate is or being controlled by Crazy Mother, who was killed by MIB in the past and may hate the loss of her past human form. The other observation about the boar incident was that even beyond revenge motivation in Sawyer, the beach camp still needs food and there has been no boar meat in almost a month. Shouldn't Sawyer shot the boar just for survival?

The diverse paths of the characters that wind up on 815, the Island, in flashbacks and flash-forwards, while at the same time “creating” a sideways purgatory soul holding life until Jack “awakens” from the Island realm are hard to explain. In the Olympic spirit of fair play, a diagram is in order to explain the possibility that the Island precursor to the afterlife may have just been one stop in a chain of “island” lives (like tumblers in a safe lock; each separate but connected to one final goal: opening the final door).

The characters may move through the various worlds, seemingly "living normal lives" even though it is one long journey through multiple layers of an afterlife existence. Each circle is a reboot or continuation of a soul's journey of experiences. As they move through them, they start to be sorted into like human characteristics and gathered together for a grand group "experience" on the Island. Their experiences and memories are the information feed stock in order for the next circle of existence to re-create events in order to determine whether each soul has any redemptive qualities or can change their behavior.

It is clear that the Island is not part of real Earth. The supernatural elements of the island cannot be explained away by science and normal human experience. It is understood now that the Island brought these people together in order to break them a part (into "teams") for a final showdown between the Island's two forces, Jacob and MIB.

REBOOT: EPISODES 9-12

LOST REBOOT  
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.