THE ISLAND MAGNETISM

For the first time, physicists have observed a mysterious process called magnetic reconnection—wherein opposing magnetic field lines join up, releasing a tremendous burst of energy. The discovery, published last month in Science, may help us unlock the secrets of space weather and learn about some of the weirdest, most magnetic objects in the universe. And it could be the basis of solving a LOST mystery.

The magnetosphere, an invisible magnetic field surrounding our planet, is a critical shield for life on Earth. It protects us from all sorts of high energy particles emitted by the sun on a daily basis. When a particularly large burst of solar energy hits the edge of the magnetosphere (called the magnetopause), it can trigger space weather. This includes geomagnetic storms that light up the northern and southern skies with auroras, occasionally knocking out our satellites and power grids.

The Hatch was the underground bunker where the Numbers were put into an ancient computer every 108 minutes to avoid the destruction of the world. When the Numbers were not entered, there was a large electromagnetic explosion which may have caused time shifts via the purple sky event.

Perhaps, the explanation of the island's location corresponds with the alignment of opposing magnetic fields ("reconnecting every 108 minutes') which needs to have a controlled release of its energy or it would disrupt or destroy the magnetosphere, which would "destroy" Earth.

Likewise, one can see why the American Military-Industrial Complex from the 1950s on would want to study and harness a naturally forming magnetic energy source. It could be a source of unlimited free energy. Or it could be used as a planetary weapon (diverting the energy to orbiting satellite weapons). The person who controlled the island would control actual power.

THE BEST AND WORST ELEMENT: THE HATCH

If there was one element, set, storyline and place that showed the best LOST to offer and then the worst, it was The Hatch.


In the first season the castaways are thrown many mysteries,  but the build up was the greatest with a mysterious metal hatch found buried in the ground. While Locke and Boone tried to force the hatch open, Michael and three other survivors  attempt to leave on a raft that they have built. Locke had started off on his own vision quest that somehow his destiny was tied to the island and its secrets. Locke had been set aside in his brief power struggle with Jack over the leadership of the beach camp. Locke's desire to be acknowledged, respected and followed was answered when he found the mysterious Hatch.

Locke discovered the Hatch after an unsuccessful hunt for Ethan Rom. Returning to camp, he tossed Boone a flashlight, which fell on the steel hatch with a clunk. The two men spent the weeks excavating the hatch in secret, uncovering a large round steel tunnel leading down into the earth, topped by a steel door with a small rectangular glass window. They built a trebuchet to try to break the glass open, but it failed to damage the glass, split apart on impact and wounded Locke's leg. The next night, after taking the dying Boone to the caves, Locke banged furiously on the Hatch door, questioning the Island's demands of him until a light turned on from within, restoring his faith.

At this time, viewers were just like Locke, in the dark as to the purpose of the Hatch. Was it a shelter? Was it nothing? What was the light? Was this the Other's base camp?  What danger lied below?

Locke did not realize that he had alerted the Swan's occupant, Desmond Hume, that life continued outside the station. Desmond felt that he was a lone on the island, trapped in the Hatch, and unable to leave to return to his girlfriend, Penny. The banging on the Hatch door stopped Desmond from killing himself and convinced him to continue the station's essential protocol of entering The Numbers every 108 minutes.

Thus, the elements of the prison aspect of the island came into the story. Desmond was trapped on the island. There was no escape. The Numbers became an overwhelming clue that baffled viewers because it could not be a coincidence that the Numbers were now showing up everywhere. It led to another great mystery of why a computer control needed manual input of numbers every 108 minutes in order to avoid something bad.  Computers can be programmed to send signals at stated time intervals. Why is a man needed to run this simple task? Was it really needed or was it a psychological test of a prisoner's will? It would seem that people on the island may not control their own destiny.

Jack decided to open the Hatch to use as a safe hiding place for the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, following a warning from Danielle Rousseau that the Others were coming, ostensibly to kill them. Jack, Locke, Dr. Arzt, Kate, and Hurley went on a dangerous mission to recover several sticks of dynamite from the shipwreck of the Black Rock to blow the Hatch open. Hurley protested at the last second, noticing that the Numbers that he considered unlucky engraved into the side of the Hatch. In the final shot of Season 1, Locke and Jack gazed down the Hatch into the long, dark, narrow vertical shaft below. 

Locke lowered Kate into the Hatch. Soon after, she was pulled down as a large beam of light came out of the shaft entrance. Desmond had used the beam to blind Kate while he captured her and brought her into the Hatch. Locke descended after her, and Jack lowered himself in soon after. In a stand-off, Desmond remembered Jack from his run at the LA stadium. Desmond took the chance to educate then abandon the station to the castaways.

But instead of using it as a safe, secure and armed place to protect everyone in the beach camp, Jack used the Swan station as a leadership command center. It never made sense not to bring everyone to the Hatch. It was also unnecessary to keep it a secret for so long since it had the supplies for survival. The idea that leaders would keep the luxuries to themselves shows human behavior corrupting them; some people are more equal than others.

While the second season dealt with the growing conflict between the survivors and the Others,  the theme of the clash between faith and science (Locke vs. Jack) continued in the operation of the Hatch.  A power struggle between Jack and John over control of the guns and medicine located in the hatch develops, resolved in "The Long Con" by Sawyer when he gains control of them. New characters are introduced, including the tail-section survivors (the "Tailies") and other island inhabitants. The hatch is finally revealed to be a research station built by the Dharma Initiative, a scientific research project that involved conducting experiments on the island decades earlier. 

The third season had the Hatch being the turned into the scene of horrible violence. In a gripping twist, Henry Gale was revealed as a spy for the Others under the brutal torture of Sayid. This guest appearance led to Michael Emerson becoming a regular cast member. The Hatch was also the scene for the senseless violence, when Michael killed Ana Lucia and Libby, then covered it up by saying Ben did it in his escape.

But the Hatch also served as the conduit for confusion. When Locke decided NOT to put in the Numbers, believing that it was all a cruel joke, it brought down the doors revealing at first the Blast Door Map, another monumental clue for fans, and later the fail safe key protocol that Desmond used to destroy the station. Now, how it worked was never explained as there was a giant explosion with the Hatch door landing on the beach, and a giant implosion which left the Swan station a crater. Despite the massive explosion-implosion, Desmond was miraculously not killed - - - but suddenly had vivid premonitions (which many turned out to be false like Claire leaving the island by helicopter).

The Hatch was also a focus in the muddled time travel story arc. When flashing through time after Ben turned the frozen wheel, the survivors hiked to the hatch crater as a reference point to determine the date. When they arrived, the hatch was still a crater, but after time shifted again, the hatch returned to how it had been before the survivors discovered it.

When the survivors found themselves in the 1970s, they got to see the Swan's construction by the DHARMA Initiative. Hurley and Miles witnessed DHARMA workers engrave the Numbers onto the Hatch, and were able to see the shaft itself being constructed. Following the Incident, where Juliet attempted to activate a bomb, but the work site imploded instead, the survivors returned to 2007, where they found themselves near the Hatch, an imploded crater once more. 

The Hatch contained some of the best moments and some of the worst story lines. For some critics, the LOST adventure veered off course in Season 3 and fell off the cliff in Season 6. Whether the Hatch itself was a missed opportunity to actually answer the big questions is a point of endless debate.

DIGESTING CLUES

When the 815 survivors finally get into the Hatch, Desmond uses the opportunity to flee his bondage to the computer and The Numbers.

He instructs them what to do every 108 minutes; then tries to escape. Jack chases him through the jungle. He confronts Desmond, who remembers Jack from the stadium stair run. Desmond asks Jack about the woman Jack said he "failed," and as Jack becomes emotional while pointing a gun at Dez, Desmond says "go ahead and shoot me." When Jack does not, Desmond presses on: what ever happened to the girl? Like pulling a tooth, Jack tears up and Desmond pushes for an answer. Jack's failure is his sudden admission that he married her. The situation quickly defuses, and Desmond runs off into the jungle while Jack sulks back to the Hatch.

During the same episode, the alarm timing begins to wind down. Locke begins to input the Numbers into the computer terminal. Hurley arrives and suddenly becomes aware that Locke his repeating "his" cursed numbers. He wants him to stop. Locke continues: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 32. Hurley then changes his mind and says "go ahead." But as Locke was going to press EXECUTE, Jack returns to tell him he has the wrong number. The last one is 42, according to Desmond. Locke corrects the input, but he refuses to press execute - - -  he wants Jack to do it, but Jack yells at him that he will not push the button on faith. The button is pressed and the timer is re-set, and Locke takes the first watch.

During Hurley's first "watch," he is shown in the Hatch pantry: first gorging on an Apollo candy bar; then a bag of chips, and then he opens a cardboard box and lifts out a fully cooked steak dinner on a white plate. He takes a large bite of the steak, when his dream is interrupted by Kate who shows him that it is time to re-set the computer.

In this short, condensed and emotional episode, we have three important elements explode to the surface. First, the emotional breakdown of Jack in the jungle. This is the first time we really see Jack break from his calm, cool and collected leader role. Second, we have Locke trying to impose his will on Jack - - - blindly taking on faith the importance of pushing the buttons. Jack believes nothing will happen if the alarm goes off. This is a precursor to show that infallible Jack is wrong. Third, it puts dreams of Hurley front in center into the Numbers mystery. There was no reason for Hurley to dream about food when he had access to real food in the pantry. Food had always been the trigger for Hurley's emotional and mental depression. It foreshadows more island mental illusions, including the return of Dave.

If we look at these events through the spectrum of Hurley alone, we can postulate that Desmond could represent Hurley's desire for love. Desmond was desperately trying to win back Penny. He would risk his life to get her back. Hurley on the other hand never fought for the love of a girl. Also, Jack could represent Hurley's desire to be a strong, effective and forceful leader. These are character traits that a low-end fry cook like Hurley would want some day. Hurley's career path was stuck at Mr. Cluck's. And finally, Hurley's dream at a critical time brings into play why Hurley's past experiences (whether true or not) such as the Numbers continually show up in the series. The reason could be as simple as that the Numbers are all in Hurley's head, and the events happening to Hurley then are also happening in his head.

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.

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 25-28

LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 25-28 (Days  44-46)

Danielle kidnaps Aaron in hopes of making a trade with the Others who took her child.
When she is found, Charlie accuses her of setting the smoke pillar fire; that the are no Others. Locke blows open the Hatch. Jack reminds him it is a possible shelter for the survivors. The raft party makes contact with a not-so-friendly boat crew.

Jack and Locke argue over whether or not to enter the Hatch, especially when the Hatch door is labeled “quarantine.”  While looking for Vincent, Shannon sees a dripping wet walt Walt mouthing a potential warning.

When Kate does down the Hatch opening and is lost, Locke lowers himself to find out what happened; he is captured by Desmond, the station operator. Jack changes his mind and returns to the Hatch to have a stand-off with Desmond, but when Kate escapes and hits Desmond from behind, his gun discharges and a bullet hits the computer console creating a panic in Desmond. Locke and Jack watch the orientation film about the station. 

Jin, Michael and Sawyer all make it back to shore, but are taken prisoner whom they believe are the Others. They are thrown into a pit prison cell. Ana Lucia joins them, and is surprised with their story of the plane crash; and steals Sawyer’s gun and leaves them in the pit.

Science:

Jack believes that Desmond’s station duties were all just “mind games” because no one on the surface has gotten sick and pushing the button every 108 minutes was just a cruel experiment. Desmond was told he was “saving the world.”

Sensory deprivation was employed in parapsychology experiments during the 70's and 80's, especially with those involving clairvoyance and telepathy. Supposedly, if the subject's brain was not receiving input from the normal five senses, he or she could then tune into the psychic senses. The man in the contraption in the film may be in such a sensory deprivation test. Since the footage appears when the word, "Parapsychology" is spoken, this is quite likely.

A ganzfeld experiment (means “entire field”) is a technique used in the field of parapsychology to test individuals for extrasensory perception (ESP). It uses homogeneous and unpatterned sensory stimulation to produce an effect similar to sensory deprivation. The deprivation of patterned sensory input is said to be conducive to inwardly generated impressions.

Whether the Hatch (Swan station) and  Room 23 video are part of parapsychology experiments from Dharma to being weaponized by the Others is subject to debate.  Room 23 was a locked room in a facility within in the Hydra station where Karl and Walt were held captive by the Others  and Karl was subjected to a brainwashing video. It is believed that Dharma used the video room to brainwash the natives to trigger amnesia after capturing them for information, so as hide a violation of the Truce. Claire’s amnesia may have also been triggered by the video, but that is unknown.

Improbabilities:

Walt being in two places at once (the jungle with Shannon and on the raft with Michael)

Sawyer taking out a bullet in his shoulder while bobbing on raft debris in the middle of the ocean.

Ana Lucia surviving the plane crash. Ana Lucia told her captives that she was in the tail section of the plane. When it broke a part, she was knocked out and landed in the ocean. She was unconscious under the water, then awoke and swam ashore.

Sayid fixing a bullet shattered 20 year old computer in less than 15 minutes. The genius staff at the Apple store could not put in that type of customer service with today’s advanced technology.

Mysteries:

The Orientation Film and Dharma
The HATCH station and Number Input
The Others attacking the Raft and taking Walt
Desmond
Quarantine on Hatch door


Themes:

Deception and Manipulation. The Others are not DHARMA mad scientists controlling the Island, but “Hostiles” who purged the Initiative by a coup led by Benjamin Linus.

Reality and Illusion. If Jacob can only bring people to the Island, the DHARMA compound and plans were created by the dreams of the DeGroots and their followers,
who must have been shipwrecked or tricked on coming to the Island (Jacob as Hanso).

Self fulfilling prophecies. Viewers believed that the  “incident” in the orientation video is a time travel atomic bomb situation which the 815 survivors themselves created where Juliet tries to set off the bomb to stop construction of the Swan station. But the film said that after the station was running (meaning Juliet never detonated the bomb or re-set the time line), the “incident” had to do with something else since the orientation film (spliced) as seen by Locke and Jack was created three years after the atomic bomb scene. The “incident” most likely refers to the “lockdown incident” when the Numbers are not put into the computer, setting off the alarm and defense mechanisms start by sealing off the living quarters and computer room from the rest of the Swan station. After a short period of time, the doors retracted back into the ceiling automatically. This event has become known as the lockdown incident. Locke learns of this during his time in the station. The station's power was then disrupted as the lights flickered. Later, a different set of ultraviolet 'black' lights that ran vertically along the corners of the living area activated, revealing a previously hidden map of the Island on one of the doors. A short time later, the blast doors retracted into the ceiling.
 
The argument between Jack and Locke; science versus faith. Part of the problem of both men is the inability to “let go” and move on with their lives after an important event. Locke could never let go of being conned by his father. Jack could never come to gripes with Sarah’s miracle recovery when in fact he admitted he could not fix her crushed spine. His greatest success (her recovery) turned into his biggest failure (his marriage).
But in reality, Locke is following B.F. Skinner’s platform of consequential based behavior.


Clues:

Vincent as Jacob, watching the survivors from inside the camp, as Shannon sees impossible Walt image in jungle while searching for the dog.

The Numbers mark Jacob’s pieces in the game. Hurley again curses the Numbers as the code is inputed into the computer by Locke. When Locke misses the last number, Hurley says go ahead - - - but Jack corrects him with “42.” As the alarm clock ticks down to one second, Jack pushes “execute” to re-start the cycle.

Walt is playing a video game on the plane, but he acknowledges Hurley as he gets on the plane late. Hurley then opens up his polar bear comic. It seems that Hurley and Walt have a hidden connection during that scene.

Desmond telling Jack twice, “see you in another life,” is a tell that they are not “alive” on the Island, but reincarnated souls being tested in the afterlife.

Jack telling Desmond and Locke it is “all a mind game.” That the Hatch is a bunch of lies to make you do something meaningless. Flashbacks show more characters with mental issues, like Locke in group therapy, susceptible to suggestion or brain washing.

Discussion:

“ Temper, if ungoverned, governs the whole man. ”
— Lord Shaftesbury

In an effort to find the Big Premise of LOST, much effort was used to dissect the relationships between The Others, the stations, the other survivors of past shipwrecks and the roaming monsters on the island.  As Jack told Locke, “you said all paths led here (to the Hatch).” Both Jack and Locke have short fuses at this point of the series; Jack now assumed the leadership role and fears he will have “a Locke problem” if his judgment is questioned. Locke has blind obsessive faith that the answers to all his questions (or problems) are destined to be found inside the Hatch.

The Orientation Film found in the Hatch was the biggest clue as Season 2 started to unfold. Many viewers believed that it contained all the answers to the big mysteries of the Island. A transcript from lostpedia:


The DHARMA Initiative
3 of 6 
Orientation

Screen transition fade.

The DHARMA Initiative Swan Logo appears. 
Orientation - Station 3 - The Swan
(Screen transition to show a man in a lab coat.

)

Welcome. I am Dr. Marvin Candle, and this is the orientation film for station 3 of the *DHARMA* Initiative.
In a moment you will be given (a?) simple set of instructions for how you and your partner will fulfill the responsibilities associated with the station. But first, a little history:



(Screen transition to show activity on a university campus.)



The DHARMA Initiative was created in 1970, and is the brainchild of Gerald and Karen DeGroot, two doctoral candidates at the University of Michigan. Following in the footsteps of visionaries such as B.F. Skinner,  they imagined a large-scale communal research compound where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism and utopian social... * ...(re)clusive Danish industrialist and munitions magnate, Alvar Hanso,  whose financial backing made their dream of a multi-purpose, social-science research facility a reality.



(Screen transition back to man in the lab coat.)



You and your partner are currently located in station three, or The Swan, and will be for the next 540 days. The station 3 was originally constructed as a laboratory, where scientists could work to understand the unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the Island. Not long after the experiments began, however, there was... an “incident” ... and since that time, the following protocol has been observed:

(That?) every 108 minutes, the button must be pushed. From the moment the alarm sounds, you will have 4  minutes to enter the code into the microcomputer processor... * ...duction into the program. When the alarm sounds, either you or your partner must input the code. It is highly recommended that you and your partner take alternating shifts. In this manner you will both stay as fresh and alert... * (it is of the ut)most importance, that when the alarm sounds, the code be entered correctly and in a timely fashion.

Now do not attempt to use the computer... * ...for anything...
*


...for anything else other than the entering of the code. This is its only function.
The isolation that attends the duties associated with Station 3 may tempt you to try and utilize the computer for communication with the outside world. This is strictly forbidden. Attempting to use the computer in this manner will compromise the integrity of the project and worse, could lead to another incident. I repeat, do not use the computer for anything other than entering the code.




Congratulations! Until your replacements arrive, the future of the project is in your hands.
On behalf of the DeGroots,  Alvar Hanso, and all of us at the DHARMA Initiative, thank you, namaste, and... good luck.



(Screen transition fade.

)
© The Hanso Foundation  1980 All Rights Reserved

The orientation film reference to B.F. Skinner may also be a foundational premise to the series. Skinner was a psychologist and researcher with some radical ideas on human behavior. Skinner called his particular brand of behaviorism "Radical" behaviorism,  the philosophy of the science of behavior.

He thought behavior was a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences. Such a functional analysis makes it capable of producing technologies of behavior (see Applied Behavior Analysis). He did not accept private events such as thinking, perceptions, and unobservable emotions in a causal account of an organism's behavior.

Skinner’s theory is that what is felt or introspectively observed is not some nonphysical world of consciousness, mind, or mental life but the observer's own body.  He felt an organism behaves as it does because of its current structure, but most of this is out of reach of introspection.
Skinner believed that behavior is maintained from one condition to another through similar or same consequences across these situations. In short, behaviors are causal factors that are influenced by the consequences. His contribution to the understanding of behavior influenced many other scientists to explain social behavior and contingencies. Example, reinforcement is a central concept and was seen as a central mechanism in the shaping and control of behavior. He thought negative reinforcement as synonymous with punishment was a misconception. He acknowledged that positive reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the application of some event (e.g., praise after some behavior is performed), negative reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the removal or avoidance of some aversive event (e.g., opening and raising an umbrella over your head on a rainy day is reinforced by the cessation of rain falling on you).

By taking out mental qualifiers in the study of behaviors through exterior factors, Skinner’s philosophy seems to part of the fabric of the Island creed. Right or wrong are mental judgments which the Island does not seem to care about; it is the consequences of events that reinforce behavior of the characters to create more consequences (the “mouse trap” game analogy).

A main character turning point in the layered story arcs of the series occurs in  this flashback exchange with Jack and Desmond running sections at a stadium.  Desmond appears to be an agent of change in Jack’s life, setting the ground work for Sarah’s miracle and foreshadowing the Island “being chased by the devil,” racing through the jungle to “fix things,” and keeping promises of saving people without miracles. Desmond claims he was “almost” a doctor, but in reality was never a doctor, or even close. Transcript from lostpedia:

(Flashback - Jack running the steps at a stadium. Another person comes into view running faster than Jack. Jack tries to keep pace but hurts his ankle.)
JACK: Ow, damn it.
DESMOND: You alright, brother?
JACK: I'm fine. I'm fine.
DESMOND: Take it easy. Keep the weight off. Here, let me have a look. Does this hurt? [Jack shakes his head.] You haven't sprained it then. I don't fancy your chances of catching up with me tonight, though.
JACK: I wasn't trying to catch up.
DESMOND: Aye, of course you weren't.
JACK: What do you know about sprains, anyway?
DESMOND: I was almost a doctor once.
JACK: Small world.
DESMOND: You a doctor then? [Jack nods. Desmond offers Jack his water bottle.] So what's your excuse?
JACK: Excuse?
DESMOND: For running like the devil's chasing you. My excuse - I'm training.
JACK: Training for what?
DESMOND: For a race around the world. Impressive, I know. So your excuse better be good, brother.
JACK: Just trying to work a few things out.
DESMOND: Ah, a girl, right?
JACK: A patient.
DESMOND: Ah, but a girl patient. What's her name?
JACK: Her name's Sarah.
DESMOND: What'd you do to her then?
JACK: Do to her?
DESMOND: You must have done something worthy of this self-flagellation.
JACK: I told her -- I made a promise I couldn't keep -- I told her I'd fix her and I couldn't. I failed.
DESMOND: Well, right. Just one thing -- what if you did fix her?
JACK: I didn't.
DESMOND: But what if you did?
JACK: You don't know what you're talking about, man.
DESMOND: I don't? Why not?
JACK: Because with her situation that would be a miracle, brother.
DESMOND: Oh, and you don't believe in miracles? [Jack chuckles and shakes his head.] Right. Well then, I'm going to give you some advice anyway. You have to lift it up. (He may be saying "lift her up".)
JACK: Lift it up?
DESMOND: Your ankle. You've got to keep it elevated. It's been nice chatting.
JACK: Jack.
DESMOND: Jack, I'm Desmond. Good luck, brother. See you in another life, yeah?

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The Smoke Monster dragging Locke through the jungle and almost down a hole. The mechanical clanking sounds and loud percussion thuds in the brush all create fear in Jack, Kate and Hurley. But Locke wants to be let go and dragged under (which is very strange - - - either he knows what the smoke monster is and can’t kill him, or he is insane). Locke has blind faith in the Island without any fear of the consequences. Jack knows he is wrong in that belief because he has seen the monster and its evil intentions.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 25:
MICHAEL: Waaaaaaaaaaalt! Waaaahahahaaalt! No! Walt!

EP 26:
JACK: [recognizing that it's Desmond] You.

EP 27:
JIN:[obviously scared] Others. Others. [Jin sees the Others.] Others.

[Sawyer and Michael turn to look and we see a group coming of people coming toward them carrying crude club/mace type weapons.]

EP 28:
LOCKE: I'll take the first shift.
[The timer shows 107:00.]


New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Mind games and altered reality are clear themes and clues in these episodes. In the jungle, Locke explains to Jack that a series of events have led them to the big event (blowing up the Hatch cover). He is really describing a series of stages in the game of Mouse Trap. Locke also says that Boone was a sacrifice the Island required to get them to his point. Throughout human history, mankind has given their gods sacrifices in exchange for rewards or blessings. Jacob, as the alleged ultimate power on the island, is not immune to the vanity of immortality or power, or to manipulate people to do his bidding.

When Hurley gets on Flight 815, the exchange with Walt is a brick in the theory that the entire premise of the series is a video mind game with Walt and Hurley’s overactive but child-like behavior controlling the collective dreams of the passengers. The Lost is a Video Game theory did not have many followers when the series first ran. But as an explanation after the series ended, it is entitled to a second look. The elements contained in the minds of Walt (father issues, video games, ESP powers) and Hurley (cursed Numbers, comic fantasies with science fiction and polar bear dangers) are the foundation for an interactive mental adventure. With the strong EM, when passengers fall asleep on the long flight their minds are transplanted into the Walt-Hurley story engine - - - and when they “die” on the island, it means that they have woken up on the plane (disconnecting from their dream state). In a child’s fantasy, anything can happen including Locke being able to walk again.

The idea that Jacob and MIB hiding in the skins of the characters continues to create new spins on character motivations and actions.

Jacob said he had “non-involved” in the process of determining whether humans are good or evil on their own, but the idea of Jacob hiding as Vincent the dog to observe the human souls from within their camp is growing stronger.  When Shannon goes looking for “lost” Vincent, a soaking wet Walt (ghost?) appears before her and can’t speak a warning to her.  One could argue that Vincent is a transforming smoke monster, changing from observational dog form into a Walt to give information to Shannon about the danger of the Others (who had captured Walt and destroyed the raft and rescue).

Jacob and MIB are immortals living on the Island. Jacob is the alleged protector. But as Rousseau states, the smoke monster is the security system that protects the Island. Smoke monster is Jacob? Or in these episodes, the idea of trying to kill Locke because of his faith that his answers are within the Hatch the way for MIB to keep the 815 survivors in danger and set up the conflict with the Others?

And Rousseau’s obsession with Aaron is like Crazy Mother’s obsession with Jacob and MIB, stealing them from their natural mother when her ship was wrecked on the Island (which mirrors Rousseau’s tale to Sayid). This is a concept during the first run of potential “transference” of old characters being transformed or projected upon new characters. 

We can see the rotation of characters taking over other character’s roles. Rousseau has taken over the Crazy Mother role in stealing a child, Aaron.  The Others took dominance and replaced the Dharma scientists as the Island’s overlords.  Locke takes over Desmond’s role in the station. Ana Lucia takes over a Jack leadership role with the Tail section survivors, which has a mirror image of characters with the beach camp. Eko is like Locke, a man of faith. Libby is the mental institution patient and comforter like Hurley is with the front section.

Transference theory also ties into the aspect of the interconnected mental game of the island storyline. If one is trapped or lost in a complex, multiplayer game, one’s dreams (which can be used to mold your fantasy character) can “level” up your skill sets, ambitions, and testosterone risk tolerance that you cannot have in real life. Locke’s meager physical existence is transformed in the Island game field into an Outback hunter, a jungle king with unbelievable survival skills. Desmond, a Republican guard soldier, is suddenly an electronics genius on par with the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, who made a radio out of coconuts. The big premise of the series goes from science fiction to a fantasy world to explain the inconsistent elements of the story lines.

And those inconsistent story lines may be the collective memories of all Jacob’s visitors. All of the technological ruins on the Island have had to come from the conversion of memories of humans brought to the Island, and re-created by Jacob and his followers. For the temple, the weapons, the DHARMA stations, all are basic raw materials to decide whether humanity can take something good and turn it into evil applications.

And is it possible that Rousseau survived 16 years from being “infected” or taken down by the smoke monster? Probably not.  The term “infection” could have a non-medical meaning, too - - - like one’s memories downloaded into the Island event engine. Rousseau’s motivations could have concentrated into a narrow band of commands or functions: as she said to the survivors: you can run, you can hide or you can die.

We will learn that Hatch door will confirm what Rousseau said about the smoke monster being a security system. In lockdown mode, the Hatch door drops and a map is shown which contains the reference to Cerberus, the three headed monster dog of Hell. The three “heads” or three smoke monsters of the Island could be Jacob, MIB and Crazy Mother, all in their own way guarding the Island from outsiders. MIB wants to leave the island but cannot; Crazy Mother had a habit of killing everyone who came to the Island; and Jacob is the guardian who brings people to the Island to play a game of human soul searching with MIB to kill the boredom of immortality. Who are the teams in this cosmic hide and seek game of war? Could Mother be the Others? MIB, who was fascinated by the Roman technology of the FDW be Dharma? New people and technology theories brought to the Island to test Jacob’s notion that human beings can avoid corruption?

Our previous new theory that Locke did not survive the crash, but was taken over by MIB as his way of observing the survivors and manipulating their actions, could be put into doubt by the Hatch obsession. Locke’s obsession to open the Hatch to find its answers seems very human curiosity gone mad. But if Jacob and MIB are playing an elaborate game, MIB may want to get inside to see what Jacob has set for him. But MIB would have already known about Dharma, the Hatch, the construction, the Incident(s), Desmond and the Others. But on the other hand, Locke’s expressions during his conflicts with Jack are more cold and calculating than Locke’s flashback emotional inability to stand his ground.  If MIB was part of Locke, he may have disembodied himself from Locke’s mind and/or body (as shown by Locke’s paralysis returning at the Beechcraft with Boone). Or MIB may spiritually influence survivors throughout their time on the Island by telepathic manipulation through emotional outbursts (which lets down a person’s subconscious guard). We will learn that MIB does not need a physical body to create a Locke form when he marches Ben and the Others to the base of the statue to confront Jacob.



The Hatch was supposed to be the key to unraveling the Island mysteries. Or viewers assumed as Season 2 began in earnest. But for some, the Hatch and the Dharma back story were merely "filler" and not important to the resolution of the 815 survivors stories. Partial information are like "white lies," which are falsehoods covered by some truth. We are led to believe the Others are mad Dharma scientists experimenting on any person who makes it to their Island. But by the time 815 crashes, Dharma is long gone, purged from existence by Benjamin Linus and the older, "native" Hostiles for whom their back story is never fully explained but it assumed that some of them may have worked for Dharma or Hanso in order to control the Island power and fund its operations against a former leader now enemy, Widmore. The Hatch introduces us to Desmond, and the strange electromagnetic properties of the Island which is supposed to explain the Island magic. But it will not. What we take from the Hatch story arc is that it is most likely what Jack observed, a "mind game" on the station operators, which may be a metaphor for the viewers.  As Locke's father told Locke, do you believe you were the first person conned by someone?  The Hatch was a diversion that did not lead directly to the Season 6 reveal of the Jacob-MIB dynamic.