HAPPINESS TRADE-OFFS

One of the main themes of life is finding and securing happiness.

But in the quest for happiness, something usually has to give.

In LOST, various main characters were searching for happiness, but most never found it.

For example, Rose and Bernard met late in life. It was a godsend for Bernard. Rose was his world. Until she got cancer. He panicked and tried to find any cure. That led to a strain in their relationship. Rose was a realist. Bernard was an optimistic dreamer. But for Bernard to secure his happiness with Rose, they both had to "die" in a plane crash. That was the only "cure" for Rose's cancer was that she became a spiritual being on the island.

For example, Jack's sole mission in his life was to get the acknowledgement of his skills from his father. As a result, Jack was never happy. He had no friends. He was obsessed with pleasing his father, and getting out of his father's shadow, that it caused him to be paranoid and obsessive in his relationships. His first marriage failed because of an alleged jealousy between his wife and his father. And his relationship in O6 arc with Kate fell a part as well. In order for Jack to be happy, he had to do the opposite. He had to control things. He had to have the final say. He had to be right.

And then there were characters like Locke who spent their entire lives trying to find happiness, but stumbled through it as a fool. His bitterness of being abandoned as a child clouded all of his life choices. It ruined his relationship with the one woman who cared about him and his disabilities. The only way Locke found any sliver of contentment was when he "died" and was reunited with his island friends.

Sociologists have studied this apparent personal paradox. Happiness is something we assume we want, but in reality, we sometimes give it up in exchange for comfort. Unfortunately, we’re often comfortable with not getting what we want, so resign ourselves to that fate. As researchers stated:

Though happiness is of course what we all fundamentally want, for many of us, it isn’t really what we know...it isn’t what we’ve come to expect. It doesn’t feel like home...Getting what we want can make us feel unbearably risky...Self sabotage may leave us sad, but at least safely, blessedly, in control. It can be useful to keep the concept of self sabotage in mind when interpreting our and others’ odder behavior.

Beyond that, next time you’re weighing a decision and thinking about the risk involved, it might help to consider the role of comfort and control.

The concept of self-sabotage fits Locke to a tee. It also fits in Jack's grinding personality flaws of being an unloved, control freak. It also connects Kate's selfishness with her self-destructive behavior when she constantly tries to escape responsibility for her life's decisions. 

Was Jack really happy in the end? I don't think so. Being a martyr and dying in the bamboo field was unnecessary. And when he went to the sideways church reunion, he was more in his own catatonic state than being in a state of happiness. 

FALLING OUT

How easy is it to fall in and out of love.

Shannon knew she was a beautiful young woman. She used to it to gain the attention of suitors, boyfriends and a lazy, carefree lifestyle. But she continually made bad choices, ran out of money and had boyfriend issues because her relationships were so superficial.

Kate knew she was cute, but never dolled herself up as a beauty queen. She used her charm to get men to do her bidding, and falling in love with her was not on her agenda. She was independent and did not need the admiration of a man to make her happy. Or so she thought, until it was too late. Her relationships were hit and miss, and the men in her life literally got caught in the cross fire and paid a heavy price trying to capture her heart.

Juliet never expressed herself as attractive since she was engrossed with her work. As a student, she fell for her smart scientific husband, but that puppy love did not equate into a meaningful, story book relationship. His work and her work did not allow the couple to work on their own personal feelings for each other. It ended in divorce. And to further to cut the ties, Ben had Juliet's ex hit by a bus in order for her to accept Alpert's invitation to join the island research.

The only woman who truly had a deep, caring and loving relationship with a man was Rose. She found her soul mate late in life. They was a strong and natural bond between them. When Rose got sick, she accepted her fate while Bernard tried in vain to find a miracle. In one regard, the island was the couple's final paradise - - - together, alone, forever.

Juliet and Sawyer's final relationship started as a matter of convenience and security, then bonded when the time travel arc ended with the Swan construction site implosion. Only in death would Juliet be happy with her Sawyer.

Shannon's true love story was much weaker. A week long affair with Sayid was somehow transformed into the epic tale of lost lovers - - -  even though Sayid had pined for 6 seasons for a woman named Nadia.

But just as improbable, Kate's relationship with Jack was also weak. In the O6 story line, they had a major falling out because of Jack's addictive jealousy personality and Kate's inner will to be independent. Kate was trapped in the suburban homemaker lifestyle of her mother which Kate detested. The "divorce" in the O6 arc was clean and absolute, as Jack spun off into his own personal darkness.  They fell out of love harder than a person jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Why Kate and Jack reunited in the after life is one of those music chair moments - - - because there was nobody us to pair up.

THE TURN

In the first Act of "LAX, Part One," this happens:

[The Previously on Lost ends with the detonation of the bomb - then cuts to the clouds, as the view zooms out to Jack. Jack is then interrupted by Cindy.]
CINDY: So how's the drink?
JACK: Uh... it's good.
CINDY: That's not a very strong reaction.
JACK: Well, it's--it's not a very strong drink.
[She hands Jack a single Vodka bottle.]
CINDY: Don't tell anyone.
JACK: It'll be our secret.
[As Jack pours the Vodka into his drink, the plane shakes causing him to spill a little. Jack buckles his seatbelt.]
CINDY: [Over P.A.] Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the "fasten seat belts" sign.
[Rattling stops.]
CINDY: [Over P.A.] Please return to your seats and keep your seat belts fastened.
ROSE: It's normal. My husband said the planes want to stay in the air.
[Jack chuckles.]
JACK: Sounds like a smart man.
ROSE: You be sure and tell him that when he gets back from the bathroom.
JACK: Well, I'll keep you company until he does. Don't worry--
[The plane starts to shake again, this time more violently. Luggage falls from the overhead compartment and Jack grips his seat, almost in anticipation. The turbulance ends and Jack breaths a sigh of relief.]
ROSE: You can let go now.
[Passengers murmuring.]
ROSE: It's okay. You--you can let go.
[Jack let's go and sighs.]
JACK: Looks like we made it.
ROSE: Yeah. We sure did.
[Bell dings.]

In the previous story, the plane does not survive the turbulence and it crashes on the island.

But in this scene, the plane does not crash. It lead to many viewers thinking that LOST was a) jumping the shark; b) introducing another sci-fi element in parallel universes; or c) giving us clues that the what we had previously seen was not true (like reworking a dream over and over again) or d) that the atomic bomb somehow re-set the time line so the plane would not crash.

But in retrospect, there are several key elements in this short scene that have great import in trying to understand the big premise.

What does Cindy represent?
What does Rose represent?
Why are they comforting Jack, who is a man used to pressure situations?

We know that Rose has terminal cancer. She has come to terms with her fate, that she was going to die.

We know that Cindy represents as a flight attendant, a kind person who works in the sky, which could symbolize a guardian angel.

We would learn later that Jack would have his inner demons tear a part his soul in fits of rage, addiction and regret. Perhaps, this is the point in time where Jack actually dies.

Instead of walking into a tunnel of light, Jack is rocked and jolted into "letting go" by a kind and wise older woman who herself is on the ride to the other side.

And so this flight is merely symbolic of Jack and the other soul's journey into the after life (as represented by the sideways world). The transition period of not truly understanding one's own death is the key to inner peace that is required in the sideways world in order to "awaken" one's spirit to move on to heaven.

TO HIS OWN DRUMBEAT

"If a man does not keep pace with his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer"? - - - Henry David Thoreau

Companionship is the keystone to the foundation of human relationships.

It is often taken for granted by couples.

One's compassion and passion are the mortar that sets companionship to the solid foundation of the relationship.

In all of the LOST relationships, only one truly met the requirement for a lasting love affair: Rose and Bernard.  All the rest of the main characters were missing some real compassion or passion for their partner. For example, Sayid may have felt sympathy for Shannon after losing Boone, and had a passionate spark for her, but Shannon's M.O. was to find a man, anyone, who would support her. Her only asset was her good looks. That was not a solid relationship in any sense of the term.

The same goes for Jack and Kate. Kate used her charm to bounce around from man to man in order to get something from him: protection, money, a hideout, or escape. Jack did not seem to have the passion to hold on to Kate, and Kate was never head over heels in love with Jack during their island time. If she was, she would have never left a bleeding Jack after they defeated MIB/Flocke.

Besides Rose and Bernard, the main characters of the show walked to their own drummers because they were loners, lost in their own fears, self-esteem issues and social awkwardness that stunts human growth.

HURLEY'S ISLAND

Fifty years ago, American television debuted a new show called Gilligan's Island. The premise was simple: several passengers get on a charter boat for a three hour cruise. But the ship gets caught up in a violent storm. It is shipwrecked on an uncharted island. The survivors have to learn to make do with coconuts, palm leaves and goofy comedy.

Gilligan's Island represents the basic shipwreck story, but in a comedy as the first mate, Gilligan, is a hapless buffoon who keeps getting the group in trouble. In some ways, the success of this episodic series showed that this premise could work on prime time television.

It was never suggested that LOST should have been a reboot of Gilligan's Island. Until now.

The original cast featured the ship's captain, first mate Gilligan, a professor, a model Ginger, a farm girl Mary Ann and a rich couple, the Howells. We can re-cast the main characters of LOST into these roles.

There was only one married couple on the island. Rose and Bernard would be the Howells. However, they would not be the flamboyant multimillionaires, but a quiet retired couple searching for peace.

The farm girl would be played by Kate because she grew up in rural Iowa, and acts like a tomboy. She would probably be more aggressive than Mary Ann.

The model would be played by Shannon, because she grew up as a spoiled, jet set brat. She would probably be more snooty than Ginger.

The professor would be played by Sayid, since he had the encyclopedic knowledge of all things electrical and mechanical. He would mirror the professor's role of finding impossible ways to make machines out of nothing.

The goofy guy that always gets in trouble would fall to Charlie. Charlie never fit in with any group except with his best bud, Hurley. Charlie was never that strong, he never led on missions, and he had personal demons he needed to keep secret. He was insecure and lonely. He tried too hard to be a part of a group.

So this leads the heavyset skipper role to Hurley, which in some ways fits into LOST because Hurley winds up as the island guardian. As the skipper, Hurley would be a reluctant leader with a sense of humor. Like on the LOST island, Hurley would be the glue that keeps the group together because of his even demeanor and kind outlook.

Taking parts of LOST's cast to re-imagine Gilligan's Island is not that hard.

THE UNDER-RATED

With an ensemble cast, many characters get lost in the story lines.

These characters get under-used and under-rated.

Perhaps the most under-rated character in the series was Rose.

She was one of the older castways. She was married to dentist, Bernard, who found happiness at a very late age in life. Bernard adored his wife, and would do anything to make her happy and safe.

But when Rose came down with terminal cancer, Bernard could not let go. Rose, through her own intelligence and faith, came to terms with her condition. Bernard could not; so he kept going to out to find miracle cures.

Since Rose had both the intelligence and faith to deal with life and death, she was the real crossroads between those themes in the series. Science vs. Faith. Life vs. Death. How do people cope with terrible news? Rose could have been the perfect sounding board for the other characters to gather keen advice.

Besides the one beach scene with Jack, where Rose was alone but content that she would find her husband again (to Jack's dismay), Rose was not used as a strong character. She was a worker bee at the camp site, taking on a distant motherly presence but without deep interaction with the other female characters.

In early theories, the Jack and Rose discussion where Rose was at peace with herself was a telling, important clue. In the purgatory theories, this was the moment where the viewers saw Rose being cancer free, no longer in pain (which is impossible). They believed that Rose was at peace because she knew that she had died - - - death frees the human body from its mortal pain - - - so she knew in her faith that she knew Bernard would be okay (even if he died, too). Knowledge was power on the island, and Rose's awareness of the situation of the other passengers souls could have given the writers the opportunity to create a duality. Rose never worried or cared about what the others were doing because she knew it did not matter - - - they were all dead. The other characters were unaware or refused to accept their demise. (Which is confirmed in the last season with the sideways universe arc).

Rose could have given sage advice throughout the series, but was placed in a secondary, background role. She did not get involved in missions because that would be out of character. She did not push herself into leadership roles because she knew that each person had to find out for themselves what has happened to them.

Rose was a strong enough character to carry a secondary story line (about lost souls in purgatory) against the background of personality clashes between Jack, Locke and the Others.  She could have been the beach camp's Alpert.

THE GOOD ONES

Ben often made the statement that he was one "of the good guys."

The fuzzy line between good and evil was very gray. Everyone had issues. Everyone had secrets. But was any character truly "good?"

Most of the main characters, including Bernard and Jin, reaped violence on other people, including killing. The Others, as a group, endorsed kidnapping, murder and destruction of property. Jacob and MIB allowed all the criminal behavior to flourish on the island. Even the temple priests and followers were not persuaded not to kill someone.  Evil was everywhere.

Desmond killed Inman; Locke led Boone to his death; Walt burned the first life raft; Ben was a mass murderer; and Juliet played roles in the kidnapping of Claire. Sayid continued to torture people; Charlie did drugs and lied about it; Eko was a fraud.

So the list of good people is fairly small.

The children appear to be the innocent in the series. Emma and Zach, the tail section survivors, were kidnapped by the Others. They stayed with Cindy, the flight attendant, who was probably also an Other.

Rose seems to be the only beach camp survivor who did not sin on the island. She was never engaged in the mission plans. She kept to herself. She hated the leadership politics of the group. She was the lone adult on the beach. She gave advice only to people who asked for it.

In the entire whirlwind of conflict, drama and danger, Rose was the eye inside that hurricane. Interesting analogy. The one person who found peace of mind after the crash was Rose. She did not need to involve herself in the emotional issues of her fellow passengers. The island could not manipulate her because she probably knew that if her terminal cancer was gone, she was dead. And with that realization, she knew she would be alright. She was not worried that Bernard was lost on the island. She knew he would be joining her. Perhaps the island's control over the characters was solely based on the illusion that the characters had that they were still alive.

And perhaps this explains the simultaneous creation of the sideways purgatory world. Everyone created it subconsciously until their conscious would awaken with the realization that they had died.

ANGER MANAGEMENT

"Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in cage!" Smashing Pumpkins

If there was one universal trait in the LOST main characters it was "pent up rage."

Jack had a burning pit of anger about his father's treatment of him. Christian refused to acknowledge his accomplishments; failed to treat him as an equal; belittled his leadership qualities.

Sawyer had an active volcano of rage in his sole life goal to avenge his parents deaths. That rage changed an innocent young boy into an adult murderer.

Kate had a sea of troubled emotions. It seems that she felt smothered by her rural upbringing. She became quite upset with her stepfather's treatment of her mother. Her emotions turned to psychotic rage when she blew up the house in order to "save" her mother from future abuse. But when her mother rejected Kate and Kate's reasoning, Kate seethed inside.

Hurley also had a mountain of bitterness induced by chocolate candy bars as a substitute for his father abandoning him as a child. Without his father's influence and direction, Hurley never finished anything in his life. He was angry about it, but so depressed by his fate he did nothing about it. Instead he developed the excuse that he was cursed.

Locke was angry at the world. He also had abandonment issues. He never fit into the foster homes. He never fit into his school teacher's vision of his career path. As a result, Locke had no path. He wandered from meaningless job to meaningless job. His anger made him a loner because he could not keep friends or girlfriends, which made him even more upset. His anger led him to become selfish - - - believing his only self-worth was to get his own way (no matter how crazy it seemed, such as being wheelchair bound in the outback desert.)

Even Bernard was an angry man. He was upset that after a very long time, he found a woman, Rose, who loved him. But soon after, fate gave Rose cancer. Bernard was angry that the cancer was terminal and he would in a short time lose her forever. At some point, Rose herself, was mad about her medical condition. She took all the treatments, but nothing worked. It was after the plane crash, when she was sitting alone on the beach, that she came to terms with her plight.

And this may be the symbolic or allegory of the series.

The plane crash was a symbolic mental crash inside the characters to get them to focus in on more important things - - - like survival, their fellow man, people who need them. The island was symbolic of a treatment plan, alternative therapy or mental reconditioning protocols which gave the characters the tools in which to deal with their rage issues. As the series wound down, the characters were not self-absorbed with the issues that caused their internal rage, but they were focused on helping each defeat their collective demons and get off the island.

There is a corollary to this anger management resolution.  As I have written in the past, I always thought that when Rose was sitting alone on the beach, she came to terms with her plight and knew everything would be alright because the pain of her cancer was gone. Rose at that moment knew the only release for that pain was her death. She came to terms with her death immediately. She then knew that the others around her had to deal with their issues in order to come to terms with their deaths, in their own way. So with that knowledge, she went along in the background knowing that she would be okay in the end.

THE HUMAN EQUATION

I stumbled across an interesting quotation:

"To solve the human equation, we need to add love, subtract hate, multiply good, and divide between truth and error." Janet Coleman

In a formula:

Human = ( Love - Hate) x Good/ (Truth + Error)

So the factors to quantify are:

Love
Hate
Good
Truth
Errors

Truth and errors are objective facts that could be proven by research into the character actions.
Love and Hate are emotional observations that could be analyzed by a character's actions.
Good is a subjective determination of a person's personality and deeds.

To test the hypothesis, let us use a standard zero to ten scale for the variables. Zero would be none and ten would be absolute positive.

Let us take a simple character like Rose. She had the devotion to her husband, Bernard. They were totally in love with each other. She loved her life, but hated her cancer. But she accepted its truth that it was terminal and she would die. She would make mistakes and follow the wrong people on the island. She cared for other people and worked well at the beach camp. But in the end, she decided that it was best for her to leave the group and go off with Bernard to live in their own camp. Rose never actually hurt anyone during her stay on the island.

It may be debatable and subjective to assign points to Rose's character, but let us try:
Love 8, Hate 3, Truth 8, Errors 5, Good 9  

Rose = (8-3) x 9 / 8 + 5
Rose = 5 x 9 /13
Rose = 1.0769
  
Let us now take a more complex character like Sayid. He was raised in a poor dictatorship of Iraq. At an early age, he learned to kill. He accepted it with cool detachment, He garnered favor with his father as a result. He went into the military which drew out the dark side of Sayid. He never had a true love growing up. His relationship with Nadia was at first as torturer, then as a crush. He let her go and killed a soldier to cover up his treason. He further went to work for the U.S. military, abandoning his family. His decision led him down the path of being a pawn, a hired killer and mercenary. He was given a new opportunity to change when he crashed on the island. He had more street savvy than the others; he could tell when people were lying to him. He could find the truth in their actions, or by torturing them. He worked to protect the beach camp from the Others. He risked his life to save his colleagues when they were captured and held hostage. He killed may people while he was on the island. He hated himself and the life that he led. When he was shot and re-born, it was as a dark ("infected')  person. He would side with Flocke in the final team alignment.

To assign numbers to Sayid is also debatable and subjective:
 Love 2, Hate 8, Truth 7, Errors 6, Good 3 

Sayid = (2 - 8) x 3 / (7 + 6)
Sayid = (-6) x 3/ 13
Sayid =  - 1.3846  

Rose had a positive number. She was a positive person. 
Sayid has a negative number. He was a troubled soul who landed on the evil ledger of life.

If you look at the equation, the tipping point comes down to two true variables.
If Hate is more than Love, you will be a negative human being.
If you have more Errors than Truths in life, you will be a negative human being.

A final example of the most complex of characters, Locke.   Locke was a miracle baby born premature in a rural town after his mother was hit by a car. He grew up in foster homes. He was a loner. He rejected his intelligence (he was good at science in school) because he wanted to be with the cool kids. He was awkward in social settings. As a result, he dealt with his problems by fantasy (games, imagination).  He was too trusting and got burned by co-workers and his father (who stole his kidney). He was bitter and resentful of his life. He could not accept his paralysis. His hate pushed away the only person in his life that truly cared for him, his girlfriend Helen. That mistake made Helen die alone. On the island, Locke was given another miracle, the ability to walk again. He tried to be a different person, a leader of the camp. But he made error after error in judgment. Those mistakes caused the island to time skip, and his friends to get hurt. He killed many people on the island. He was at first obsessive about the Hatch, which killed Boone. He then gave up on the Numbers thinking nothing would happen: it imploded and began the island path to destruction. He was a failure since he could not in life convince any of the O6 to return to the island. He trusted Ben, but in an instant Ben murdered him. Locke's life was terribly sad and meaningless. He remained a bitter man. He could not understand his past mistakes; he was a poor judge of character. He wanted to be good and be accepted in a group of friends. But he was easily manipulated and used for other purposes. It made him shameful and resentful. His social history was his personal down fall.

Locke's assigned factors:
Love 3, Hate 6, Truth 3, Errors 8, Good 5 

Human = ( Love - Hate) x Good/ (Truth + Error) 

Locke = (3 - 6) x 5 / ( 3 - 8)
Locke = (-9) x 5 / (-11)
Locke = 4.0909

Rose had a positive number, 1.0769.  We concluded she was a positive, good person. 
Sayid has a negative number, - 1.3846.  We concluded he was a negative, bad soul.
Locke has a higher positive number, 4.0909. Was Locke four times more positive than Rose? Was he happier, more content or more human than Rose?

Locke's role in the series was larger than Rose's, but not that much different than Sayid's. 

Locke had more hate and made more errors than most of the characters in the series. Those two negatives somehow created a large positive final human value. Was it his pain and misery that allowed his final friends to reach the sideways church? Locke himself was not present or a factor upon the O6's return to the island to fight MIB. The only aspect of Locke's off-island death was that it motivated Jack to return to the island. Jack's return allowed Jacob to give the island guardianship to Jack. Jack accepted the guardianship, reset the light stone, and helped defeat MIB. Jack then died giving his remaining survivors a chance for a new life by taking off on the Ajira plane. 

Was Locke's sacrifice, as foretold by Christian (smoke monster or possibly Jacob in disguise) at the FDW, the key to resolving Locke's pitiful life by changing Jack's?

CHARACTER OF ROSE

There was only one true "adult" in LOST and that person was Rose.

She was clearly a secondary main character (if one defines main characters as those who wind up inside the after life church). She stayed in the background, but when she made her presence felt in asserting questions to the other cast members or had a calming influence when times of stress. She was one of the few people brought to the island who immediately felt at peace.

Rose Nadler is a 50 year old woman, married to a dentist, Bernard. Rose was diagnosed with terminal cancer; no chance of recovery. Bernard arranges for an Australian honeymoon, but he has the alternative motive to take Rose to a special "healer." Bernard appears to be "lost" without Rose in his life. So he is desperate to save her so they can live a long life together.

But Rose is pragmatic and stoic. She is aware of her condition and she accepts her fate. She just wants to live the remaining days of her life in peace.

Immediately after the 815 plane crash, Jack finds Boone standing over Rose. Her heart had stopped beating, and Jack takes over administering CPR because he says Boone was doing it incorrectly. Boone suggested they make a hole in Rose's trachea and insert a pen to help her breathe to which Jack agreed only to get Boone would be out of his way. Jack managed to revive Rose but ran off to help other survivors while Rose struggled to breathe.

She is later seen by a campfire kissing Bernard's ring. That night, Rose was present when the survivors heard the sound of the "Monster" in the jungle for the first time. The next morning Rose notably mentioned, it sounded "awfully familiar."

Sometime later, Jack invited Rose to the memorial service taking place that night, expressing his belief that everyone who was in the tail section was killed. Rose told Jack her husband was in fact alive, saying "they're probably thinking the same thing about us." Her statement that Bernard and other tail section passengers were still alive turned out to be correct. Some may consider Rose's "faith" in the outcome of reuniting with her husband to be natural, or a mere hope. But one must consider that if Rose was aware of her own demise (the only way to eliminate the pain of her cancer was to die) then she possessed special knowledge of everyone's existence that everyone else had failed to recognize.

Rose was quickly aware that her cancer is gone. In her back story, the outback healer tells Bernard that the special "energy" in Australia could not cure Rose, but maybe a different kind somewhere else could help her. There is no medical basis for electromagnetic energy in curing terminal cancer.  So when Rose becomes aware of her cancer free state, she does not rejoice or proclaim it a miracle. Her subdued perspective is a key clue to one main theory: that Rose was the first 815 "survivor" to realize that she died in the plane crash and that the island was part of the after life.

When she sits alone staring out into the ocean, Jack tries to comfort her but she actually comforts him. She "knows" that her husband is "alive" and they will meet again. She knows this because she believes Bernard is also dead. Whether the island was heaven, purgatory or hell, it did not matter to Rose. Her one focus was to be reunited with Bernard. She considered the rest of camp drama as a nuisance. She does not concern herself with rescue, getting off the island or even fitting in to a faction within the larger group.

Rose's acceptance of the logical conclusion about her cancer being extinguished is the mirror opposite of John Locke's illogical conclusion that a plane crash "healed" his paralysis. If there were any wishful thinking, it was with Locke. Rose continued to have an independent and distant view of the island world. And once reunited with her husband after 50 days, she had no real use for anyone else. So it was natural that Rose and Bernard would head off and make their own jungle cottage when the island characters flashed to 1974.

When the 815 Dharma people stumbled upon them in the jungle in 1977,  Rose and Bernard showed them the small cabin in which they had been living with Vincent for the past three years. They expressed that they were happy living peacefully on their own, away from the violence and drama that the other survivors had always been involved with. Rose showed no signs of concern about a nuclear weapon on the island, and promptly directed the group towards the Barracks, saying farewell. Again, this was another clue that Rose realized that a weapon of mass destruction was irrelevant to their safety because she knew they were already dead. She had settled down into her little patch of heaven in a hellish conflict between self-absorbed lost souls.

There is one bothersome aspect to the Rose and Bernard story line. They were happiest being away from the other 815 survivors. So why did they wind up in the church with them?  Would they have been more content to stay on the island forever?

Rose was symbolic of the common sense attitude that was severely lacking in most of the characters and story arcs of the series. She had more motherly instincts than actual mothers on the island. She had more influence in her quiet resolve than the boisterous leaders trying to convince people to follow them.

If one is trying to find answers to the mysteries, one must look to the background for answers. Rose, as a key background character, gave us more clues to the premise of the series than the more active main characters.