The last of this series of reviews of theories prior to Season 6 involves time travel. The theory is that the island was a Time Machine.
Once the writers put the matter of time travel on the table, we as fans had to deal with it.
We were familiar with the general literary rules of time travel: you don't go back in time to kill a parent to create a present paradox; changes events in the past can have unintended consequences in the future, etc. In H.G. Wells' Time Machine, we know a brilliant scientist created a sled with a dial that when activated would send him to the time coordinates. But the machine did not move in space; it was stationary. Once those caveats were established, the viewer accepted the machine and its abilities.
But LOST's time travel references were more missing puzzle pieces than an actual functional machine.
The clues to the idea of an island time machine were sprinkled throughout the series.
The premise is that Oceanic 815 flew through a rift in the time/space created by the island's unique electromagnetic properties, and are now the passengers are lost somewhere in the past.
Time is an important theme, making many appearances throughout the show. Flashbacks and Flashforwards show the lives of characters during a different time other than on the Island. The Island is known to have a different concept of time, as it moves at a different pace, as seen in Daniel's experiments. Time travel, both physically and through the conscious are also concepts that have been witnessed in the later seasons.
Time has been a clue mentioned in various context during the show:
Season 1:
Sayid comes to the conclusion that the distress signal has been playing for 16 years. ("Pilot: Part 2")
Would a distress signal really play for sixteen years with no one finding it?
During the discovery of Adam and Eve, Jack claims that they have been dead for 40-50 years. ("House of the Rising Sun")
Sawyer reads A Wrinkle in Time. ("Dues Ex Machina")
Kate and her childhood sweetheart Tom bury a time capsule and open it years later. ("Born to Run")
Season 2:
There is a countdown timer in the Swan station, which is reset every 108 minutes with the numbers. ("Adrift")
Mr. Eko does not talk for 40 days after he killed an Other. ("The Other 48 Days")
Michael meets with captive Walt for three minutes, which is also the name of the episode.
A system failure occurred at 16:16 on September 22nd, the time the plane crashed.
Season 3:
Ben explains to Jack what events have happened off the Island during the 67 days he has been there. ("The Glass Ballerina")
Aldo was reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. ("Not in Portland")
Richard Alpert shows a scan of a womb that Juliet believes is of a 70 year old woman, when in fact she was 20. ("Not in Portland")
Juliet said that she has been on the Island for 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days. ("Not in Portland")
Mittelos is an anagram for "Lost Time". ("Not in Portland").
Desmond relieves part of his life after the Swan imploded. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
The clock reads 1:08 in Desmond's flat. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
Ms. Hawking has many clocks inside the jewelry store. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes")
Richard appears to not age, after young Ben encountered him in the jungle in the 1970s. ("The Man Behind the Curtain")
Ben looks at his watch when he kills his father in the Purge; the time was 4:00. ("The Man Behind the Curtain")
Ben orders to kill Sayid, Jin, and Bernard while giving Jack a minute to respond. ("Through the Looking Glass")
Season 4:
Daniel does an experiment involving time. He launches a payload from the Kahana, and waits for it to arrive. It eventually arrives, 31 minutes later than what the time is on the Island. ("The Economist")
The perspective of the time it takes for the helicopter to travel from the Island to the Kahana is different from the Island and the Kahana. ("The Constant")
Desmond, Minkowski, and Brandon suffer from their conscious traveling through time without a constant. ("The Constant")
Ray washes ashore on the Island dead, but does not die on the Kahana until a couple of days later. ("The Shape of Things to Come")
The Orchid was built to experiment time travel. Ben turns the wheel underneath the Orchid to move the Island through time. ("There's No Place Like Home: Parts 2 & 3")
Season 5:
Daniel explains that the Island is skipping in time, causing the Island to travel through different time periods erratically. ("Because You Left")
For all the time references in the series, time travel like most things had no rules.
When several characters time skipped to 1977, there were other humans on the island at the same time who did not time skip. There was never an explanation for that different treatment. The same is true when the O6 returned to the island, a few time skipped to the 1970s while Sun was left stranded in the present.
The same inconsistency holds for the change to "mental time skips." If Desmond became a mental time skipper because of the Hatch implosion, then Charlie and Eko who were also in the station would have experienced the same side effects. They did not.
Then, the concept that the freighter crew led by Minkowski only visited the island for a short time, returned to their boat to have sudden and quick mental melt downs because their brains were time skipping makes no sense considering that the 815ers who made it to the freighter had no such symptoms.
The writers did not treat Time as a key element in the story mythology, but as a plot trick to drum up new story arcs. It was not even mentioned by men like Widmore as motivation to get back to the island or to control it because it was a Time Machine. And if it was truly a time machine, when Jack suddenly gained all knowledge of the guardians, would he not have considered using the island's powers to go back and not allow 815 flight path over the island to save all those people (Jack was a healer).
But the problem is that the writers did create two different and conflicting versions of time travel in the series. The physical time travel of people into the past, and the mental brain time skips that Desmond had after the Hatch implosion. Further, a few of Desmond's mental time skips were actually wrong (such as his vision that Claire, holding Aaron, would leave the island in a helicopter.)
A few viewers believed that LOST "jumped the shark" when it introduced the time travel story lines. In retrospect, that may be true. But the writers had the opportunity to make some plausible argument why time travel was an important part of the final season's conclusions, but they did not do so.
Showing posts with label Season 6 preview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Season 6 preview. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
REVIEW: THEORIES PART 7
The military used the island to store atomic weapons.
The Dharma construction on the island was a costly, secret science station.
The military style food drops continue even after Dharma was eliminated.
The Widmore conspiracies on the fate of Flight 815 smelled like the cover-up of cover-ups.
This led many to believe before Season 6 that there was a secret or shadow government as a major actor in LOST. Our government funds a wide range of research, development, health, safety, and weapons technologies. All those aspects of research found their way to the island. L.O.S.T. could be code for "Land Of Scientific Testings."
“It’s All a Government Experiment” theory proposes that all the characters have all been brought here for a purpose, and the island is functioning as an elaborate Skinner Box to gauge their reactions. If this were true, some of the inhabitants of the island, probably the Others, know that it is an experiment, because they have information about the castaways and the outside world.
The discovery of the various hatches and the sketchy Dharma Initiative, which is still delivering food to the island, lend credence to this theory. When you look at why the castaways are on the island you will see that each of them has been told to get the flight by someone else or someone else’s influence has had them make that flight. The characters were corralled onto Flight 815.
So how can a government agency "stage" a chaotic mid-air plane crash just to get passengers to the island so they can conduct experiments on them? With the survival of a mid-air break-up nil, the idea of "drugging" the passengers and taking them to the island "sound stage" is more likely. There is precedent for this in the show itself: when Juliet was drugged then put on board a submarine.
The various Dharma stations lend credibility to the theory. The Hatch was a monitoring station for the unique EM energy field. The Pearl was a place where psychological experiments were conducted on people. There was a medical research facility where electromagnetic activity on the island may have studied as a was the cure of Jin's infertility, Rose's cancer and Locke's paralysis.
Theorists explain that in Season 3's opening episode, with the bear cages, it is hard to argue that there is not an experiment going on there. Perhaps, the project began as experimental research on animals, but when the plane crashed the islanders were finally able to have access to research subjects that would model humans better than anything else- actual humans. They may have had sporadic subjects prior to this (Henry Gale, Desmond, etc) who seem also possible subjects. The Dharma Initiative would have been the private contractor running the experiments. But then again, perhaps one experiment was how two different cultures, such as science and faith (the Others), would interact in a confined space (a litmus test for the Middle East perhaps).
Inman's involvement might also support this theory. When he was in Iraq with the US Marines, he tells Sayid his torturing skills will be useful later. He would later wind up on the island in the Hatch with Desmond. He was the last person on the island with Desmond, and he may have carefully orchestrated the cover story of the "fake" 815 plane crash so Desmond could convince the survivors that rescue was never an option.
The series could center around experiments involving the Numbers, representative of
The Valenzetti Equation which predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself.
During this Season 3 time frame, magazine interviews determined that most of the LOST actors personally thought this was the premise to the show. Harold Perrineau Jr. said, "I'd always believed the whole government conspiracy thing was great and then I heard that was the boring choice, but I thought it was really cool. But that's been my favorite one so far."
If each person was handpicked to be on the island, that’s a whole lot of planning and coincidence. If, however, each person is there by chance, the theory may hold even more weight.
What do many government funded secret projects have in common? National defense. New technologies from making better soldiers to new weapons systems. Examples of high tech include the sonic fence, the smoke monster, and even the submarine (how many private companies have submarines?)
The experiment could have been as simple as trying to determine if soldiers (Sayid) and criminals (Kate, Sawyer) could re-establish themselves in society; whether they can turn back their own selfish standards to help a group meet certain goals. It also could have been a ruse to send "dead" people through a dangerous experiment, such as the island as a time machine.
We saw that most of the research stations were closed or not functioning when 815 crashed on the island. However, that does not mean that the experiments stopped. Ben was still getting orders from a man called Jacob, his superior. Ben demanded lists, reports, information from his subordinates. He gave out deadlines. He demanded results. If the Dharma scientists were gone, why would Ben still be conducting research? The assumption is that the research never stopped.
But in the grand scheme of things, a government controlled island of human experiments did not give us any concrete results. What were the goals of the experiments? What were the results? Why were the main characters part of the experiment? If the main characters did not change their personal behavior, were the experiments a failure?
The Dharma construction on the island was a costly, secret science station.
The military style food drops continue even after Dharma was eliminated.
The Widmore conspiracies on the fate of Flight 815 smelled like the cover-up of cover-ups.
This led many to believe before Season 6 that there was a secret or shadow government as a major actor in LOST. Our government funds a wide range of research, development, health, safety, and weapons technologies. All those aspects of research found their way to the island. L.O.S.T. could be code for "Land Of Scientific Testings."
“It’s All a Government Experiment” theory proposes that all the characters have all been brought here for a purpose, and the island is functioning as an elaborate Skinner Box to gauge their reactions. If this were true, some of the inhabitants of the island, probably the Others, know that it is an experiment, because they have information about the castaways and the outside world.
The discovery of the various hatches and the sketchy Dharma Initiative, which is still delivering food to the island, lend credence to this theory. When you look at why the castaways are on the island you will see that each of them has been told to get the flight by someone else or someone else’s influence has had them make that flight. The characters were corralled onto Flight 815.
So how can a government agency "stage" a chaotic mid-air plane crash just to get passengers to the island so they can conduct experiments on them? With the survival of a mid-air break-up nil, the idea of "drugging" the passengers and taking them to the island "sound stage" is more likely. There is precedent for this in the show itself: when Juliet was drugged then put on board a submarine.
The various Dharma stations lend credibility to the theory. The Hatch was a monitoring station for the unique EM energy field. The Pearl was a place where psychological experiments were conducted on people. There was a medical research facility where electromagnetic activity on the island may have studied as a was the cure of Jin's infertility, Rose's cancer and Locke's paralysis.
Theorists explain that in Season 3's opening episode, with the bear cages, it is hard to argue that there is not an experiment going on there. Perhaps, the project began as experimental research on animals, but when the plane crashed the islanders were finally able to have access to research subjects that would model humans better than anything else- actual humans. They may have had sporadic subjects prior to this (Henry Gale, Desmond, etc) who seem also possible subjects. The Dharma Initiative would have been the private contractor running the experiments. But then again, perhaps one experiment was how two different cultures, such as science and faith (the Others), would interact in a confined space (a litmus test for the Middle East perhaps).
Inman's involvement might also support this theory. When he was in Iraq with the US Marines, he tells Sayid his torturing skills will be useful later. He would later wind up on the island in the Hatch with Desmond. He was the last person on the island with Desmond, and he may have carefully orchestrated the cover story of the "fake" 815 plane crash so Desmond could convince the survivors that rescue was never an option.
The series could center around experiments involving the Numbers, representative of
The Valenzetti Equation which predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself.
During this Season 3 time frame, magazine interviews determined that most of the LOST actors personally thought this was the premise to the show. Harold Perrineau Jr. said, "I'd always believed the whole government conspiracy thing was great and then I heard that was the boring choice, but I thought it was really cool. But that's been my favorite one so far."
If each person was handpicked to be on the island, that’s a whole lot of planning and coincidence. If, however, each person is there by chance, the theory may hold even more weight.
What do many government funded secret projects have in common? National defense. New technologies from making better soldiers to new weapons systems. Examples of high tech include the sonic fence, the smoke monster, and even the submarine (how many private companies have submarines?)
The experiment could have been as simple as trying to determine if soldiers (Sayid) and criminals (Kate, Sawyer) could re-establish themselves in society; whether they can turn back their own selfish standards to help a group meet certain goals. It also could have been a ruse to send "dead" people through a dangerous experiment, such as the island as a time machine.
We saw that most of the research stations were closed or not functioning when 815 crashed on the island. However, that does not mean that the experiments stopped. Ben was still getting orders from a man called Jacob, his superior. Ben demanded lists, reports, information from his subordinates. He gave out deadlines. He demanded results. If the Dharma scientists were gone, why would Ben still be conducting research? The assumption is that the research never stopped.
But in the grand scheme of things, a government controlled island of human experiments did not give us any concrete results. What were the goals of the experiments? What were the results? Why were the main characters part of the experiment? If the main characters did not change their personal behavior, were the experiments a failure?
Monday, October 28, 2013
REVIEW: THEORIES PART 6
This is still a popular theory/explanation for LOST: Dreams.
The whole show was an elaborate dream in the mind of one character.
The most likely candidate to be the series Dreamer would be Hurley. He had mental issues. He was a loner. He liked fantasy elements such as comic books and Star Wars. During the early seasons, ABC requested script changes because the story line was getting too clear that it was all in Hurley's head. It was around the time of the "Dave" episode, where Hurley had a "real" imaginary friend who tried to get Hurley to change, to rebel, to escape from the mental hospital. Later on, Dave re-appears on the island to try to convince Hurley that nothing he is experiencing is real; the island is fake; everything happening to him is a false - - - he is still back at the mental hospital. Dave tries to convince Hurley that he is dreaming by trying to convince him to jump off a cliff. Hurley is just about ready to jump, when Libby stops him.
Now, we learned that Libby was also a mental patient in the same day room as Hurley. However, on the island, Hurley never recognizes her. This is very strange considering that Hurley is extroverted when he is in the hospital. He feels safe and secure at Santa Rosa. This allows him to relax and let his mind wander. Why Libby does not introduce herself to Hurley as a fellow patient is mysterious. Does she have an ulterior motive to keep Hurley "on" the island? Is she a devil on one shoulder whispering in Hurley's head while Dave is on the other shoulder?
But even if Hurley was shy around women, he would have still known about Libby at Santa Rosa because the day room was small and open. And because of that fact, Libby would have been a memory, a character, in Hurley's own mind.
And Hurley's mind contains more fantasy than educational science. It appears that Hurley never went beyond high school. He was in dead end fast food career path. This would explain the "sci-fi" nature of the LOST universe, its inconsistent theories and scientific applications, because the source material is found inside Hurley's limited knowledge bank.
Hurley could have won the lottery in real life. He could have had the curse of the Numbers. He could have gone to Australia for answers. And when he got onto Flight 815 after his long trip, he would have seen all the passengers in their seats. It would have been stored in his short term memory. He had been reading a comic book about a polar bear on a tropical island. That also would have been stored in his short term memory. And when Hurley fell asleep during the long flight, he would use those elements to construct a fantasy tale about the island and his fellow passengers.
How can one cram six years of events into a 15 hour flight from Sydney to LA? It is easy because when a person dreams (REM sleep), a six minute dream may seem to last for hours. It is compressed imagery that the mind can process faster than in real life. But how can a person control his dreams to make complex stories? Researchers have found that some people can "set up" or manage their dreams by creating various stories, with or without themselves as main components. Other dreamers let their mind wander so they can experience new things or nightmares. Dream researchers believe that sleep is an important component to brain and human body functions. The rest period allows the physical body to recover from a day's work. The brain also needs time to "reboot" and organize itself. Many areas of the brain have less activity during sleep, while the creative side has an increase in activity.
Also, researchers believe that dreams play an important role in people's lives. Some believe that dreams help a person understand themselves. The dreams can be symbolic problem solving, taking real world issues and run various "solutions" that a person could remember and use in the future.
So it is possible that a person with an active imagination could dream a complex action-adventure in his sleep. And the clues that Hurley was being guided by Dave to free himself from the mental institution grasp parallel the grasp that the island had on him. Remember, Hurley is the last person on the island standing when the series ends. As such, Hurley could be considered the real man behind the curtain.
But that would be countered by the fact that the story ended in the sideways church, with Jack as the focal point. But, we do not know whether it was truly real. It could have been a reunion of Hurley's "imaginary friends" just as much as real friends.
There is a corollary to the Dream theory. I once proposed that it was not one person's dream, but a "collective, interactive" dream with all the 815 passengers. It would have been caused by the plane flying over the unique electromagnetic energy of the island, which could have altered the dream patterns of the sleeping passengers (since the human brain uses neurons and electric pulses to function). Under this theory, a person "dies" on the island (dream state) when he or she wakes up and is no longer connected to group. This also follows the unexplained concept of "awakening" in the sideways world. Awaken from what? People only awake from sleep - - - deep sleep or even day dreams where your subconscious takes over from your conscious state.
Then there is a third dream theory which seems strange. Instead of the whole story being in the mind of Hurley, it was all in the mind of the one survivor of the plane crash, Vincent. Vincent was the first "character" to move the story line forward in the pilot, and he was the last actor moving into position at the end.
Researchers believe that some animals do have dreams. Most land mammals experience the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep where dreams mainly occur, but since they don’t keep dream journals, scientists tested rats to see what was going on in their brains when they slept. According to a 2001 report, MIT researchers Daniel Bedore and Matt Wilson placed trained rats on a track and monitored their brain activity while they moved towards their edible reward. They then monitored the rats’ brain activity while they were in a REM cycle. After examining the data, they saw that some activity in a sleeping rat’s brain matched some of its waking activity. The identical patterns led the scientists to believe that not only were the rats dreaming, they were dreaming about running on the track.
Dr. Stanley Coren, a psychology professor and neuropsychological researcher, writes in his book How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind, that dogs also dream. Like rats, dogs dream about common scenes they have experienced in their waking lives. Dr. Coren also notes that the smaller a dog is, the more it will dream: a small dog, such as a toy poodle, may dream once every ten minutes, while a dog as large as a mastiff or an Irish wolfhound may spend an hour and a half between each dream.
So, Vincent's laying down next to Jack at the end may have actually been the beginning after Vincent had surveyed the debris. Man's best friend trying to keep the dead passengers alive, at least in spirit.
The whole show was an elaborate dream in the mind of one character.
The most likely candidate to be the series Dreamer would be Hurley. He had mental issues. He was a loner. He liked fantasy elements such as comic books and Star Wars. During the early seasons, ABC requested script changes because the story line was getting too clear that it was all in Hurley's head. It was around the time of the "Dave" episode, where Hurley had a "real" imaginary friend who tried to get Hurley to change, to rebel, to escape from the mental hospital. Later on, Dave re-appears on the island to try to convince Hurley that nothing he is experiencing is real; the island is fake; everything happening to him is a false - - - he is still back at the mental hospital. Dave tries to convince Hurley that he is dreaming by trying to convince him to jump off a cliff. Hurley is just about ready to jump, when Libby stops him.
Now, we learned that Libby was also a mental patient in the same day room as Hurley. However, on the island, Hurley never recognizes her. This is very strange considering that Hurley is extroverted when he is in the hospital. He feels safe and secure at Santa Rosa. This allows him to relax and let his mind wander. Why Libby does not introduce herself to Hurley as a fellow patient is mysterious. Does she have an ulterior motive to keep Hurley "on" the island? Is she a devil on one shoulder whispering in Hurley's head while Dave is on the other shoulder?
But even if Hurley was shy around women, he would have still known about Libby at Santa Rosa because the day room was small and open. And because of that fact, Libby would have been a memory, a character, in Hurley's own mind.
And Hurley's mind contains more fantasy than educational science. It appears that Hurley never went beyond high school. He was in dead end fast food career path. This would explain the "sci-fi" nature of the LOST universe, its inconsistent theories and scientific applications, because the source material is found inside Hurley's limited knowledge bank.
Hurley could have won the lottery in real life. He could have had the curse of the Numbers. He could have gone to Australia for answers. And when he got onto Flight 815 after his long trip, he would have seen all the passengers in their seats. It would have been stored in his short term memory. He had been reading a comic book about a polar bear on a tropical island. That also would have been stored in his short term memory. And when Hurley fell asleep during the long flight, he would use those elements to construct a fantasy tale about the island and his fellow passengers.
How can one cram six years of events into a 15 hour flight from Sydney to LA? It is easy because when a person dreams (REM sleep), a six minute dream may seem to last for hours. It is compressed imagery that the mind can process faster than in real life. But how can a person control his dreams to make complex stories? Researchers have found that some people can "set up" or manage their dreams by creating various stories, with or without themselves as main components. Other dreamers let their mind wander so they can experience new things or nightmares. Dream researchers believe that sleep is an important component to brain and human body functions. The rest period allows the physical body to recover from a day's work. The brain also needs time to "reboot" and organize itself. Many areas of the brain have less activity during sleep, while the creative side has an increase in activity.
Also, researchers believe that dreams play an important role in people's lives. Some believe that dreams help a person understand themselves. The dreams can be symbolic problem solving, taking real world issues and run various "solutions" that a person could remember and use in the future.
So it is possible that a person with an active imagination could dream a complex action-adventure in his sleep. And the clues that Hurley was being guided by Dave to free himself from the mental institution grasp parallel the grasp that the island had on him. Remember, Hurley is the last person on the island standing when the series ends. As such, Hurley could be considered the real man behind the curtain.
But that would be countered by the fact that the story ended in the sideways church, with Jack as the focal point. But, we do not know whether it was truly real. It could have been a reunion of Hurley's "imaginary friends" just as much as real friends.
There is a corollary to the Dream theory. I once proposed that it was not one person's dream, but a "collective, interactive" dream with all the 815 passengers. It would have been caused by the plane flying over the unique electromagnetic energy of the island, which could have altered the dream patterns of the sleeping passengers (since the human brain uses neurons and electric pulses to function). Under this theory, a person "dies" on the island (dream state) when he or she wakes up and is no longer connected to group. This also follows the unexplained concept of "awakening" in the sideways world. Awaken from what? People only awake from sleep - - - deep sleep or even day dreams where your subconscious takes over from your conscious state.
Then there is a third dream theory which seems strange. Instead of the whole story being in the mind of Hurley, it was all in the mind of the one survivor of the plane crash, Vincent. Vincent was the first "character" to move the story line forward in the pilot, and he was the last actor moving into position at the end.
Researchers believe that some animals do have dreams. Most land mammals experience the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep where dreams mainly occur, but since they don’t keep dream journals, scientists tested rats to see what was going on in their brains when they slept. According to a 2001 report, MIT researchers Daniel Bedore and Matt Wilson placed trained rats on a track and monitored their brain activity while they moved towards their edible reward. They then monitored the rats’ brain activity while they were in a REM cycle. After examining the data, they saw that some activity in a sleeping rat’s brain matched some of its waking activity. The identical patterns led the scientists to believe that not only were the rats dreaming, they were dreaming about running on the track.
Dr. Stanley Coren, a psychology professor and neuropsychological researcher, writes in his book How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind, that dogs also dream. Like rats, dogs dream about common scenes they have experienced in their waking lives. Dr. Coren also notes that the smaller a dog is, the more it will dream: a small dog, such as a toy poodle, may dream once every ten minutes, while a dog as large as a mastiff or an Irish wolfhound may spend an hour and a half between each dream.
So, Vincent's laying down next to Jack at the end may have actually been the beginning after Vincent had surveyed the debris. Man's best friend trying to keep the dead passengers alive, at least in spirit.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
REVIEW: THEORIES PART 5
The producers were adamant that the characters were not dead, they were not in purgatory, and that the events on the island were real. That is what they said outside the context of the actual show. They never explained within the show those alleged facts. They have only painted a large canvas with gray mud.
But many people believed that the characters "Had to Be on the Island for a Reason." Otherwise, what would be the point.
Supporters of this point of view try to connect the pre-island dots or interactions between the characters. Their conclusion is that all the survivors were fated, as John Locke has said, to be on the Flight 815, and to end up on the island. In other words, the island chose them to do something important.
No one has pieced together The Six Separations of Jack Shepherd but it would probably not be too difficult. Those with connections to Jack through his father included Ana Lucia as Christian's bodyguard and Sawyer as Christian's drinking buddy. The pre-island connections between castaways keep adding up. And incidents like Claire’s psychic convincing her to take the fatal flight (and playing a part in Eko getting on), Hurley making the flight despite all odds, Jack talking his way (or, his dad's body's way) on board and Sawyer getting deported lend a lot of support. But then again, it gets weak with characters like Sayid who had no connections to the US until he was deported from Australia after a botched CIA mission against his childhood friend.
The strong assumption is that every character we see seems to have had a reason for being on Flight 815 instead of other flights. But the reason why everyone had to be on the island was never stated to us.
First, we were led to believe that this was a mere survival story. "Lie together or die alone."
Then, we were led to believe that this was a rescue story with Michael's raft.
Then, we were led to believe that this was a story of conflict between the survivors and the Others, who claimed the island for themselves.
Then, we were led to believe that this was a story about human redemption in the face of cruel behavior, manipulation, threats and pain such as the conflicted decision of Jack to sacrifice himself to save others in exchange to heal Ben's condition.
Then, we were led to believe that the characters were needed to save the island from destruction, especially when it began to time skip.
Finally, we were led to believe that the characters were needed to save the world from MIB escaping the island.
Looking back, the main characters never really accomplished any of those story lines. The characters ran around the island like rats in a laboratory maze. Any accomplishments were minor and short lived. Some leaders became followers, some followers became leaders, and many ended up as mere pawns.
The producers had said "there’s a rational, scientific explanation for everything that’s happened so far," was received with a lot of skepticism when the story lines turned toward new themes such as the faith and mysticism. The reason why the characters had to be on the island is still unknown. Statements such as to "fulfill their destiny" or "redeem themselves" don't make sense in the isolation of the island. The main characters on the island did not change their behavior much. Sayid came to the island as a torturer and died a tortured man. Kate came to the island as a escapee and escaped the island as a runaway from responsibility.
Evangeline Lilly once said, "Lost is a very big metaphor for every single character's mental state of being, psychological, and emotional state of being and we're on this island to be mentally, psychologically, and emotionally found. We were all chosen specifically because we will facilitate that for one another."
If the reason the characters were brought together for "group therapy," I think that reasoning would irk fans more than the purgatory theory.
Reason is a cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event. There has to be good or obvious cause to do something: to survive, to get rescued, to work together to make a new society. The last season did not give our characters any reason to fight for or against Jacob and MIB. There was no goal or tangible reward for any character that was directly related to defeating MIB.
No logical presumptions support LOST's final conclusion. There needs to be a close connection between reason and emotion; what is right, practical, or possible. Common sense dictates that we think, understand, and then form judgments by a process of analysis entirely from facts. The fact is that we still do not know what MIB/Flocke is/was. We still do not know why MIB could be "killed" when he was never human in the first place. And the finale "gotcha!" moment with Kate shooting MIB and Jack kicking him over the cliff did not resolve any emotional attachment between Jack and Kate. She left him to die alone.
But many people believed that the characters "Had to Be on the Island for a Reason." Otherwise, what would be the point.
Supporters of this point of view try to connect the pre-island dots or interactions between the characters. Their conclusion is that all the survivors were fated, as John Locke has said, to be on the Flight 815, and to end up on the island. In other words, the island chose them to do something important.
No one has pieced together The Six Separations of Jack Shepherd but it would probably not be too difficult. Those with connections to Jack through his father included Ana Lucia as Christian's bodyguard and Sawyer as Christian's drinking buddy. The pre-island connections between castaways keep adding up. And incidents like Claire’s psychic convincing her to take the fatal flight (and playing a part in Eko getting on), Hurley making the flight despite all odds, Jack talking his way (or, his dad's body's way) on board and Sawyer getting deported lend a lot of support. But then again, it gets weak with characters like Sayid who had no connections to the US until he was deported from Australia after a botched CIA mission against his childhood friend.
The strong assumption is that every character we see seems to have had a reason for being on Flight 815 instead of other flights. But the reason why everyone had to be on the island was never stated to us.
First, we were led to believe that this was a mere survival story. "Lie together or die alone."
Then, we were led to believe that this was a rescue story with Michael's raft.
Then, we were led to believe that this was a story of conflict between the survivors and the Others, who claimed the island for themselves.
Then, we were led to believe that this was a story about human redemption in the face of cruel behavior, manipulation, threats and pain such as the conflicted decision of Jack to sacrifice himself to save others in exchange to heal Ben's condition.
Then, we were led to believe that the characters were needed to save the island from destruction, especially when it began to time skip.
Finally, we were led to believe that the characters were needed to save the world from MIB escaping the island.
Looking back, the main characters never really accomplished any of those story lines. The characters ran around the island like rats in a laboratory maze. Any accomplishments were minor and short lived. Some leaders became followers, some followers became leaders, and many ended up as mere pawns.
The producers had said "there’s a rational, scientific explanation for everything that’s happened so far," was received with a lot of skepticism when the story lines turned toward new themes such as the faith and mysticism. The reason why the characters had to be on the island is still unknown. Statements such as to "fulfill their destiny" or "redeem themselves" don't make sense in the isolation of the island. The main characters on the island did not change their behavior much. Sayid came to the island as a torturer and died a tortured man. Kate came to the island as a escapee and escaped the island as a runaway from responsibility.
Evangeline Lilly once said, "Lost is a very big metaphor for every single character's mental state of being, psychological, and emotional state of being and we're on this island to be mentally, psychologically, and emotionally found. We were all chosen specifically because we will facilitate that for one another."
If the reason the characters were brought together for "group therapy," I think that reasoning would irk fans more than the purgatory theory.
Reason is a cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event. There has to be good or obvious cause to do something: to survive, to get rescued, to work together to make a new society. The last season did not give our characters any reason to fight for or against Jacob and MIB. There was no goal or tangible reward for any character that was directly related to defeating MIB.
No logical presumptions support LOST's final conclusion. There needs to be a close connection between reason and emotion; what is right, practical, or possible. Common sense dictates that we think, understand, and then form judgments by a process of analysis entirely from facts. The fact is that we still do not know what MIB/Flocke is/was. We still do not know why MIB could be "killed" when he was never human in the first place. And the finale "gotcha!" moment with Kate shooting MIB and Jack kicking him over the cliff did not resolve any emotional attachment between Jack and Kate. She left him to die alone.
Saturday, October 26, 2013
REVIEW: THEORIES PART 4
A lesser known theory about LOST was we could call today "Children at Play."
It is based upon fragmentary observations throughout the series about how children were used and perceived in the story lines. Overall, children were not well received or well established. Which was very odd considering one the key mid-point story lines centered around the infertility problem.
After the plane crash, there are only four new children to the island: Emma and Zach in the tail section group and Walt with unborn Aaron with Claire on the main beach camp. Of these four children, only Walt, the eldest, was called "special." He was the only one allowed to voluntarily leave the island.
Juliet was manipulated, coerced, kidnapped and taken to the island because she was a fertility expert. She had miraculously given her cancer patient sister a chance to conceive and give birth. Ben seemed to be obsessed with this problem, even though Alpert would remark to Locke that this was a waste of time and not part of the Others mission.
But one of the shortest and most disturbing scenes from the tail section arc was the adult survivors hiding in fear in the brush when a group of ill-clad, bare foot "Others" walked by who looked like a band of children. This led me to speculate that there actually could be two sets of Others - - - an adult band and a splinter tribe of children. This could be the reason why the adult Others like Ben were obsessed in finding a new source of children.
A band of children roaming the island brings to mind the classic story of The Lord of the Flies. That story has several similar themes to LOST, including power struggles, corruption, greed and the collapse of a loose island society.
But how the adults on the island acted was also very childlike. Locke had the naivety of a small child when he interacted with others in his group. Ben had the petty anger of a school yard bully. The love triangle story between Jack-Kate-Sawyer was very high school soap opera.
By the end of Season 5, we still did not know who were The Others, the original inhabitants of the island. We did not know if they had any real purpose except to kill off strangers on their island. But the Others had two factions: the post-Dharma Ben group who embraced the technology brought to the island, and the Alpert group who lived in nomadic tents in the fields. Again, it appears to be two school clicks.
The question raised is why if children were so important in the mission statement of the Others, why were they treated so badly by the Others. One reason could be that children treat other children badly because of their own immaturity.
Which leads to the premise that despite appearances, the island is made up of children "playing" castaway survivor. The clues are the common behaviors: in-fighting, control, temper, tantrums, and playing games. The original island inhabitants, being children, never wanted any more children to ruin their island. And when they mentally grew into young adults, and their attitude towards their themselves began to change, they were eliminated by rebellious children.
But how can children look like adults? That could be answered by the fact that the island's unique magnetic properties coupled with its time distortions could physically age children into bodies of adults, but their mental intelligence would lag far behind in development.
One could look at it that Dharma represented the parental figures on the island while the Others were the wild, undisciplined children. Such symbolism would be in step with a major theme of the series: the daddy issues that many of the main characters had in their own backgrounds.
The structure of the series had the feel of kids in the backyard. There was a whole past generation of children who played outdoors instead of becoming video TV couch potatoes. Kids used to play with other kids in games like War, combat, capture the flag, baseball, football - - - using both imagination and athletic strength. The island would be a wonderful playground for imaginative children.
It would explain all the inconsistencies in science and story continuity during the series. Children may have no knowledge how the real world or real science works. But their imagination can conjure up anything to "fix" a situation or opponent like the sonic fence, or the creation of the smoke monster. The island would give the children supernatural abilities to act out their own fantasies as adults. It may be why a few children, like Emma and Zach, did not want to play with the others. There are always wallflowers, loners and quiet children in the background of any group.
So how did all these children arrive at the island? If we look to the final season for a clue, we would find that they were probably kidnapped or captured by the island guardian. And what would happen to lost children over time? Children without guidance will have self-doubts about their worth. They would sting with rejection. They would "fight, destroy and corrupt." And this cycle appeared to last for centuries.
The one thing that this theory has that may help explain the sideways church reunion, where the souls reunited after people died long before and long after Jack, was nostalgia. If life is a full circle, the adult in most people find nostalgic memories of their childhood in their advanced old age. Why these good memories surface in elderly patients is not known. But many adults regret that the vast majority of their lives were spent working hard, problem solving, juggling financial and family issues to the point of simple romantic notion of the freedom and carefree times spent as children with their friends. If the main characters were in fact children, in a fantasy world of their own creation, they possibly could reunite in the after life if those innocent times were the best memories of their lives.
It is based upon fragmentary observations throughout the series about how children were used and perceived in the story lines. Overall, children were not well received or well established. Which was very odd considering one the key mid-point story lines centered around the infertility problem.
After the plane crash, there are only four new children to the island: Emma and Zach in the tail section group and Walt with unborn Aaron with Claire on the main beach camp. Of these four children, only Walt, the eldest, was called "special." He was the only one allowed to voluntarily leave the island.
Juliet was manipulated, coerced, kidnapped and taken to the island because she was a fertility expert. She had miraculously given her cancer patient sister a chance to conceive and give birth. Ben seemed to be obsessed with this problem, even though Alpert would remark to Locke that this was a waste of time and not part of the Others mission.
But one of the shortest and most disturbing scenes from the tail section arc was the adult survivors hiding in fear in the brush when a group of ill-clad, bare foot "Others" walked by who looked like a band of children. This led me to speculate that there actually could be two sets of Others - - - an adult band and a splinter tribe of children. This could be the reason why the adult Others like Ben were obsessed in finding a new source of children.
A band of children roaming the island brings to mind the classic story of The Lord of the Flies. That story has several similar themes to LOST, including power struggles, corruption, greed and the collapse of a loose island society.
But how the adults on the island acted was also very childlike. Locke had the naivety of a small child when he interacted with others in his group. Ben had the petty anger of a school yard bully. The love triangle story between Jack-Kate-Sawyer was very high school soap opera.
By the end of Season 5, we still did not know who were The Others, the original inhabitants of the island. We did not know if they had any real purpose except to kill off strangers on their island. But the Others had two factions: the post-Dharma Ben group who embraced the technology brought to the island, and the Alpert group who lived in nomadic tents in the fields. Again, it appears to be two school clicks.
The question raised is why if children were so important in the mission statement of the Others, why were they treated so badly by the Others. One reason could be that children treat other children badly because of their own immaturity.
Which leads to the premise that despite appearances, the island is made up of children "playing" castaway survivor. The clues are the common behaviors: in-fighting, control, temper, tantrums, and playing games. The original island inhabitants, being children, never wanted any more children to ruin their island. And when they mentally grew into young adults, and their attitude towards their themselves began to change, they were eliminated by rebellious children.
But how can children look like adults? That could be answered by the fact that the island's unique magnetic properties coupled with its time distortions could physically age children into bodies of adults, but their mental intelligence would lag far behind in development.
One could look at it that Dharma represented the parental figures on the island while the Others were the wild, undisciplined children. Such symbolism would be in step with a major theme of the series: the daddy issues that many of the main characters had in their own backgrounds.
The structure of the series had the feel of kids in the backyard. There was a whole past generation of children who played outdoors instead of becoming video TV couch potatoes. Kids used to play with other kids in games like War, combat, capture the flag, baseball, football - - - using both imagination and athletic strength. The island would be a wonderful playground for imaginative children.
It would explain all the inconsistencies in science and story continuity during the series. Children may have no knowledge how the real world or real science works. But their imagination can conjure up anything to "fix" a situation or opponent like the sonic fence, or the creation of the smoke monster. The island would give the children supernatural abilities to act out their own fantasies as adults. It may be why a few children, like Emma and Zach, did not want to play with the others. There are always wallflowers, loners and quiet children in the background of any group.
So how did all these children arrive at the island? If we look to the final season for a clue, we would find that they were probably kidnapped or captured by the island guardian. And what would happen to lost children over time? Children without guidance will have self-doubts about their worth. They would sting with rejection. They would "fight, destroy and corrupt." And this cycle appeared to last for centuries.
The one thing that this theory has that may help explain the sideways church reunion, where the souls reunited after people died long before and long after Jack, was nostalgia. If life is a full circle, the adult in most people find nostalgic memories of their childhood in their advanced old age. Why these good memories surface in elderly patients is not known. But many adults regret that the vast majority of their lives were spent working hard, problem solving, juggling financial and family issues to the point of simple romantic notion of the freedom and carefree times spent as children with their friends. If the main characters were in fact children, in a fantasy world of their own creation, they possibly could reunite in the after life if those innocent times were the best memories of their lives.
Friday, October 25, 2013
REVIEW: THEORIES PART 3
In the next examination of the popular theories prior to Season 6, a lesser viewed notion that the series was about the Island as a mothership.
This theory ties in with the deep American notion that the Rosewell UFO story was true. And plays into the conspiracy theories that surround most government dark projects.
This theory speculates that the island is not an island. We know that the island does not act like a Pacific land mass: it moves, it cannot be seen from the air, it can disappear without displacing a gallon of ocean water, it moves through both time and space at different rates than Earth.
It was called a "snow globe" by Desmond because those on the island could not go through its outer invisible barrier.
Further, the high tech science experiments conducted on the island further bolstered the notion that the supernatural elements inferred that a supernatural race of beings were controlling everything from behind the curtain. In Star Trek, the episode called "The Cage" explored a superior intellectual race viewing human behavior by capturing several star ship crew members to observe human behavior. Likewise, some speculate that the "coincidence" that all the 815 passengers had past connections and/or common personal issues too good to be not forced together by a third party.
As a result, the main characters were “Abducted by Aliens.” The island is not part of Earth. It could be cloaked in a stealth mode between our time and the alien's time. The survivors may no longer on Planet Earth, as the island is a space ship that re-creates Earth like a holodeck, so the aliens can take back these human beings as examples for further experimentation, or be part of an alien collection such as a zoo exhibit.
The smoke monster, as a high tech alien security system to keep the exhibit pieces on the island, is an explanation for the strange events on the island. It would appear that all the Dharma stations could have been set up to keep the human captives "busy" and pre-occupied so they don't realize that they have left their own solar system.
Early in the series run, Damon Lindelof shot down this theory. “There are no spaceships. There isn't any time travel,” he told Sci-FiWire.com. However, he also indicated that there was no purgatory, but the cast wound up in purgatory in the end. The series also featured both mental and physical time travel by various characters. The showrunners have always been inconsistent with their defense of the series against fan speculation to the point of being obstructionist. Again, there would have been nothing wrong with a premise that the 815 survivors were "captured" by aliens as the plane was about to crash into the ocean and teleported to their island cage for human behavioral experimentation. In fact, such a premise would actually lead the characters to rebel against a "real" foe instead of the illusory Jacob-MIB stand-off.
This theory ties in with the deep American notion that the Rosewell UFO story was true. And plays into the conspiracy theories that surround most government dark projects.
This theory speculates that the island is not an island. We know that the island does not act like a Pacific land mass: it moves, it cannot be seen from the air, it can disappear without displacing a gallon of ocean water, it moves through both time and space at different rates than Earth.
It was called a "snow globe" by Desmond because those on the island could not go through its outer invisible barrier.
Further, the high tech science experiments conducted on the island further bolstered the notion that the supernatural elements inferred that a supernatural race of beings were controlling everything from behind the curtain. In Star Trek, the episode called "The Cage" explored a superior intellectual race viewing human behavior by capturing several star ship crew members to observe human behavior. Likewise, some speculate that the "coincidence" that all the 815 passengers had past connections and/or common personal issues too good to be not forced together by a third party.
As a result, the main characters were “Abducted by Aliens.” The island is not part of Earth. It could be cloaked in a stealth mode between our time and the alien's time. The survivors may no longer on Planet Earth, as the island is a space ship that re-creates Earth like a holodeck, so the aliens can take back these human beings as examples for further experimentation, or be part of an alien collection such as a zoo exhibit.
The smoke monster, as a high tech alien security system to keep the exhibit pieces on the island, is an explanation for the strange events on the island. It would appear that all the Dharma stations could have been set up to keep the human captives "busy" and pre-occupied so they don't realize that they have left their own solar system.
Early in the series run, Damon Lindelof shot down this theory. “There are no spaceships. There isn't any time travel,” he told Sci-FiWire.com. However, he also indicated that there was no purgatory, but the cast wound up in purgatory in the end. The series also featured both mental and physical time travel by various characters. The showrunners have always been inconsistent with their defense of the series against fan speculation to the point of being obstructionist. Again, there would have been nothing wrong with a premise that the 815 survivors were "captured" by aliens as the plane was about to crash into the ocean and teleported to their island cage for human behavioral experimentation. In fact, such a premise would actually lead the characters to rebel against a "real" foe instead of the illusory Jacob-MIB stand-off.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
REVIEW: THEORIES PART 2
In the next installment of popular pre-Season 6 theories includes the collective notion that the characters have fallen by accident into a time rift.
There are many clues which supported this theory: the fact the island's time was different than the freighter's; that the light refracted differently on the island than on the sea; that the rocket experiment showed a major difference in both space and time (as the results indicated that the island was moving away from the freighter, perhaps going faster than the rotation of the earth because of a time shift); that several characters began to time skip while on the island; that Ben traveled off the island by turning the FDW but to arrive at a different date in the Arab desert; and that the island was "difficult" or impossible to find.
A few commentators tried to establish a purpose for this Earth bound time anomaly. Why was the island so important that powerful men would kill in order to control it? And why was the military and science community (Dharma) so eager to set up stations on the island?
When viewers realized that the Numbers may represent the The Valenzetti Equation which is the mathematical equation developed by the reclusive Princeton University mathematician Enzo Valenzetti. It was created following the Cuban Missile Crisis by the United States and the Soviet Union to find a solution to the hostility and danger of imminent global disaster created by the Cold War. The equation was secretly commissioned through the UN Security Council and is used to predict the time of human extinction.
According to the 1975 orientation film, the Valenzetti Equation "predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself."
Some propose that the island was the receiver for messages from mankind's future. The island had to straddle the time continuum of the present and the future in order to send/receive information.
As such, some speculate that some major disaster has happened in the future, and those in the future have managed to alert some people in the past by sending messages back in an attempt to prevent it. These futurists were attempting to alter the island present in tiny ways hoping that it will cause a chain reaction that will eventually lead to the prevention of the disaster. The theory believes that everyone on the island has a part, big or small, to play in eventually stopping this future disaster.
Because the island has a strange magnetic field, futurists are able to focus their messages to the island so they can be understood by a less advanced human race. As such, they may have used symbolic meaning for complex subject matter, which may have led to a series strange things happening, such as the creation of the smoke monster from the messages or memories of those human receivers in the past. The power to hear what could only be perceived as messages from the heavens may have been discovered by Dharma, or possibly the original Others.
To some these future messages are just images, random things like the numbers appearing on objects. Other people can understand the messages better, such as the Others on the Island and possibly those on Jacob's List. To the chosen ones, the messages may be clearer. The chosen ones may be in a position to decode the messages in order to the disaster.
Ramping up to Season 6, the issue of past and present and time have become quite important, especially with Desmond's developing story arc of having time flashes into the future. Sub-conscious messages from the future could also explain how certain characters and supporting characters seem to know what is going to happen, or why everyone in the show appears to be some how connected.
The future disaster may have something to do with fertility. The Others have always seemed interested in children, especially Claire's baby. In Season 3, we were shown a scan of a 27 year old woman with the womb of a 70 year old.
The Others keep saying they are "the good guys," which could mean that they God's chosen people to receive his messages to save mankind. They at least believe that they are doing good work. The List they have might be warning about who is useful in preventing the disaster, or who might cause the disaster. It opens the spiritual context to the show.
The concept that LOST could have been centered around alien messages (as opposed to aliens themselves) is a good sci-fi basis in which to develop a complex story line. However, we are never told what the future "disaster" is that our heroes need to prevent. No one in the series explains to us the messages other than the vague excuse "this is what Jacob wants." We will learn that the immortal Jacob is the island's guardian, but he does not divulge anything about the future to the island inhabitants. He is only concerned about finding his successor. It is sort of like a lonely light house keeper trying to trick another individual to take his place on a cold rock so he could escape his island prison. It may be noble work; but it is not rewarding to the light house keeper.
If the future messages were sent to create change for the planet, none of the main characters had the ability to make any global impact. Yes, a few were wealthy like Sun or Widmore, but they did not show any humanitarian purpose in their actions surrounding the island. And as Season 6 would unfold, the time angle of the series became moot. There was no great cry to save the human race from destruction. It was a temperate plea not to let Flocke escape the island, for some unexplained reason. Even if Flocke represented the devil who would be unleashed on mankind, there was plenty of back story evil in the world that that event would not make much of a difference one way or the other.
It is clear this sci-fi theory did have roots in the early plot lines of the series, but in the end science fiction was cast to the curb and not a factor in the main characters personal story endings.
There are many clues which supported this theory: the fact the island's time was different than the freighter's; that the light refracted differently on the island than on the sea; that the rocket experiment showed a major difference in both space and time (as the results indicated that the island was moving away from the freighter, perhaps going faster than the rotation of the earth because of a time shift); that several characters began to time skip while on the island; that Ben traveled off the island by turning the FDW but to arrive at a different date in the Arab desert; and that the island was "difficult" or impossible to find.
A few commentators tried to establish a purpose for this Earth bound time anomaly. Why was the island so important that powerful men would kill in order to control it? And why was the military and science community (Dharma) so eager to set up stations on the island?
When viewers realized that the Numbers may represent the The Valenzetti Equation which is the mathematical equation developed by the reclusive Princeton University mathematician Enzo Valenzetti. It was created following the Cuban Missile Crisis by the United States and the Soviet Union to find a solution to the hostility and danger of imminent global disaster created by the Cold War. The equation was secretly commissioned through the UN Security Council and is used to predict the time of human extinction.
According to the 1975 orientation film, the Valenzetti Equation "predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself."
Some propose that the island was the receiver for messages from mankind's future. The island had to straddle the time continuum of the present and the future in order to send/receive information.
As such, some speculate that some major disaster has happened in the future, and those in the future have managed to alert some people in the past by sending messages back in an attempt to prevent it. These futurists were attempting to alter the island present in tiny ways hoping that it will cause a chain reaction that will eventually lead to the prevention of the disaster. The theory believes that everyone on the island has a part, big or small, to play in eventually stopping this future disaster.
Because the island has a strange magnetic field, futurists are able to focus their messages to the island so they can be understood by a less advanced human race. As such, they may have used symbolic meaning for complex subject matter, which may have led to a series strange things happening, such as the creation of the smoke monster from the messages or memories of those human receivers in the past. The power to hear what could only be perceived as messages from the heavens may have been discovered by Dharma, or possibly the original Others.
To some these future messages are just images, random things like the numbers appearing on objects. Other people can understand the messages better, such as the Others on the Island and possibly those on Jacob's List. To the chosen ones, the messages may be clearer. The chosen ones may be in a position to decode the messages in order to the disaster.
Ramping up to Season 6, the issue of past and present and time have become quite important, especially with Desmond's developing story arc of having time flashes into the future. Sub-conscious messages from the future could also explain how certain characters and supporting characters seem to know what is going to happen, or why everyone in the show appears to be some how connected.
The future disaster may have something to do with fertility. The Others have always seemed interested in children, especially Claire's baby. In Season 3, we were shown a scan of a 27 year old woman with the womb of a 70 year old.
The Others keep saying they are "the good guys," which could mean that they God's chosen people to receive his messages to save mankind. They at least believe that they are doing good work. The List they have might be warning about who is useful in preventing the disaster, or who might cause the disaster. It opens the spiritual context to the show.
The concept that LOST could have been centered around alien messages (as opposed to aliens themselves) is a good sci-fi basis in which to develop a complex story line. However, we are never told what the future "disaster" is that our heroes need to prevent. No one in the series explains to us the messages other than the vague excuse "this is what Jacob wants." We will learn that the immortal Jacob is the island's guardian, but he does not divulge anything about the future to the island inhabitants. He is only concerned about finding his successor. It is sort of like a lonely light house keeper trying to trick another individual to take his place on a cold rock so he could escape his island prison. It may be noble work; but it is not rewarding to the light house keeper.
If the future messages were sent to create change for the planet, none of the main characters had the ability to make any global impact. Yes, a few were wealthy like Sun or Widmore, but they did not show any humanitarian purpose in their actions surrounding the island. And as Season 6 would unfold, the time angle of the series became moot. There was no great cry to save the human race from destruction. It was a temperate plea not to let Flocke escape the island, for some unexplained reason. Even if Flocke represented the devil who would be unleashed on mankind, there was plenty of back story evil in the world that that event would not make much of a difference one way or the other.
It is clear this sci-fi theory did have roots in the early plot lines of the series, but in the end science fiction was cast to the curb and not a factor in the main characters personal story endings.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
REVIEW: THEORIES PART 1
For the next few posts, we will review the popular theories that the LOST community thought were important as the final season was about to begin for our island castaways.
The first, and probably least popular theory was Purgatory.
The barrier to acceptance of the theory by a vast majority of viewers was a) the people looked alive and so they survived the plane crash; b) they were alive because people "died" on the island; and c) viewers wanted to vicariously "live" through their favorite characters.
This fourth wall in television may have led to some viewer confusion and bitterness when the series ended in the sideways world church.
The purgatory theme was what many people immediately thought of when the pilot episode ended. It was based upon several critical observations. First, it was highly unlikely that the passengers would have survived a plane break up at 35,000 feet. Second, there were inconsistent injury patterns such as the lack of broken bones on impact. Third, the plane's engine which was disconnected from its wing (and fuel) source continued to run. Fourth, John Locke miraculously could walk again. Fifth, Rose's cancer pain was cured. One can only release the physical pain and constrictions of injury or disease in the after life.
Further clues include the dramatic demise of passenger Gary Troup who was sucked into the mysterious still active jet turbine. His name was an anagram for "purgatory."
Throughout the series, there were many clues that the main characters were actually dead. When Naomi arrived on the island and was told that the survivors of Flight 815 were present, she was in shock. She told them they found the plane wreckage, and they were "all dead."
Purgatory, which is a different realm than life on earth, would explain why women cannot give birth to children conceived on the island.
Further, the appearance of the smoke monster, a dark nebulous mass of evil, is a statement on where the characters are located, in an after life state.
Also in the episode “The Brig” when Sawyer asks John’s father, Anthony Cooper, how he got to the island, he explains that he was in a car accident and the next thing he knew, he was tied to a chair and gagged and looking at his “dead son," John Locke. Sawyer asks if he thought Locke was dead because he threw him out of a window and Cooper replies: “He’s dead because a plane he was flying on crashed in the Pacific.” Sawyer doesn’t believe him, then Cooper says: “If this isn’t hell, friend…then where are we?”
In “A Man Behind The Curtain”, there are a few things that support the purgatory theory. One is when Young Ben sees his mother, who died when he was born, on the island. Another is that when we see Richard in Ben’s flashbacks, he appears to be the same age. We would learn that Richard crashed on the island, was attacked by the smoke monster and became "immortal" which could be a synonym for "dead." Also, Jack sees his dead father and Kate sees her dead horse on the island.
Many people do not believe that the sideways world was "confirmation" of the island purgatory. They point to the position that people left the island and returned to their old pre-crash lives. However, as the clue in the marina stated, all the post-island events could have been illusions. Besides, it is clear that the sideways world ALL of the characters were dead. When they all died is open to interpretation.
In the the purgatory theory, everyone on the island is actually dead and their actions on the “island” determine where they end up: heaven or hell. In order to help in the "soul sorting" process, people on the island have a serious set of common issues in which they have to figure out both alone and in the group dynamic. The island gives the souls a proving ground for redemption. Now, some religious students disagree that the island would function as a purgatory since teachings indicate souls in leave Purgatory will leave for heaven - no one in Purgatory goes to hell it is a period of purgation of sin before facing God not an in between place with an option for heaven or hell.
But in the context that the sideways church represents all facets of religions, there is a hybrid or literary reasoning behind the purgatory theory.
In Dante Alighieri's, The Divine Comedy, the author describes heaven (paradiso), hell (the inferno), and purgatory (purgatorio). He provides a diagram of purgatory. The first thing you enter when you come to purgatory is called "The Island." Perhaps this is where the survivors are. The ones who have died (Boone, Shannon, etc.) have moved on to the other levels of purgatory after being "purified" on the Island. Dante had to wash the stains of hell from his face and the film of hell's vapors form his eyes. This could be all of the bad things that the survivors have done. It seemed that whenever a character had redeemed themselves, they "died." This could have been because they had cleansed themselves and were moving on to the next level.
For example, according to Dante, greedy people go to the fifth terrace of purgatory where they are forced to lay face down on the ground and are unable to move. Nikki & Paulo (done in by their own greed) end up being buried alive while paralyzed.
So it is possible to view the Island has a series of hellish levels of post-life existence for the main characters to traverse (which is similar to the ancient Egyptian ritual writings that a soul must pass through a dangerous journey in the underworld in order to be judged then reach paradise.)
Many people, including the writers and producers of the show, are adamant that the show was not set in purgatory. But where did the show actually end up in the Finale? There is nothing to say that when the characters "died" on the island, they were "created" in the sideways holding realm until their souls could work out their moral issues and "remember" their own demise and judgment.
There is also no rule against having a show about souls running the gauntlet of the underworld seeking personal salvation. See, Dante's master work above. But since TPTB said this was not purgatory after Season 1, people believed them. But the entire show was about lies, deceit, betrayal, misdirection and mistrust. Why believe the TPTB who had a vested interest in keeping the audience for Season 2?
Based upon the show's ending, the purgatory theory continues to be the most plausible explanation for the supernatural elements of the island events and location.
The first, and probably least popular theory was Purgatory.
The barrier to acceptance of the theory by a vast majority of viewers was a) the people looked alive and so they survived the plane crash; b) they were alive because people "died" on the island; and c) viewers wanted to vicariously "live" through their favorite characters.
This fourth wall in television may have led to some viewer confusion and bitterness when the series ended in the sideways world church.
The purgatory theme was what many people immediately thought of when the pilot episode ended. It was based upon several critical observations. First, it was highly unlikely that the passengers would have survived a plane break up at 35,000 feet. Second, there were inconsistent injury patterns such as the lack of broken bones on impact. Third, the plane's engine which was disconnected from its wing (and fuel) source continued to run. Fourth, John Locke miraculously could walk again. Fifth, Rose's cancer pain was cured. One can only release the physical pain and constrictions of injury or disease in the after life.
Further clues include the dramatic demise of passenger Gary Troup who was sucked into the mysterious still active jet turbine. His name was an anagram for "purgatory."
Throughout the series, there were many clues that the main characters were actually dead. When Naomi arrived on the island and was told that the survivors of Flight 815 were present, she was in shock. She told them they found the plane wreckage, and they were "all dead."
Purgatory, which is a different realm than life on earth, would explain why women cannot give birth to children conceived on the island.
Further, the appearance of the smoke monster, a dark nebulous mass of evil, is a statement on where the characters are located, in an after life state.
Also in the episode “The Brig” when Sawyer asks John’s father, Anthony Cooper, how he got to the island, he explains that he was in a car accident and the next thing he knew, he was tied to a chair and gagged and looking at his “dead son," John Locke. Sawyer asks if he thought Locke was dead because he threw him out of a window and Cooper replies: “He’s dead because a plane he was flying on crashed in the Pacific.” Sawyer doesn’t believe him, then Cooper says: “If this isn’t hell, friend…then where are we?”
In “A Man Behind The Curtain”, there are a few things that support the purgatory theory. One is when Young Ben sees his mother, who died when he was born, on the island. Another is that when we see Richard in Ben’s flashbacks, he appears to be the same age. We would learn that Richard crashed on the island, was attacked by the smoke monster and became "immortal" which could be a synonym for "dead." Also, Jack sees his dead father and Kate sees her dead horse on the island.
Many people do not believe that the sideways world was "confirmation" of the island purgatory. They point to the position that people left the island and returned to their old pre-crash lives. However, as the clue in the marina stated, all the post-island events could have been illusions. Besides, it is clear that the sideways world ALL of the characters were dead. When they all died is open to interpretation.
In the the purgatory theory, everyone on the island is actually dead and their actions on the “island” determine where they end up: heaven or hell. In order to help in the "soul sorting" process, people on the island have a serious set of common issues in which they have to figure out both alone and in the group dynamic. The island gives the souls a proving ground for redemption. Now, some religious students disagree that the island would function as a purgatory since teachings indicate souls in leave Purgatory will leave for heaven - no one in Purgatory goes to hell it is a period of purgation of sin before facing God not an in between place with an option for heaven or hell.
But in the context that the sideways church represents all facets of religions, there is a hybrid or literary reasoning behind the purgatory theory.
In Dante Alighieri's, The Divine Comedy, the author describes heaven (paradiso), hell (the inferno), and purgatory (purgatorio). He provides a diagram of purgatory. The first thing you enter when you come to purgatory is called "The Island." Perhaps this is where the survivors are. The ones who have died (Boone, Shannon, etc.) have moved on to the other levels of purgatory after being "purified" on the Island. Dante had to wash the stains of hell from his face and the film of hell's vapors form his eyes. This could be all of the bad things that the survivors have done. It seemed that whenever a character had redeemed themselves, they "died." This could have been because they had cleansed themselves and were moving on to the next level.
For example, according to Dante, greedy people go to the fifth terrace of purgatory where they are forced to lay face down on the ground and are unable to move. Nikki & Paulo (done in by their own greed) end up being buried alive while paralyzed.
So it is possible to view the Island has a series of hellish levels of post-life existence for the main characters to traverse (which is similar to the ancient Egyptian ritual writings that a soul must pass through a dangerous journey in the underworld in order to be judged then reach paradise.)
Many people, including the writers and producers of the show, are adamant that the show was not set in purgatory. But where did the show actually end up in the Finale? There is nothing to say that when the characters "died" on the island, they were "created" in the sideways holding realm until their souls could work out their moral issues and "remember" their own demise and judgment.
There is also no rule against having a show about souls running the gauntlet of the underworld seeking personal salvation. See, Dante's master work above. But since TPTB said this was not purgatory after Season 1, people believed them. But the entire show was about lies, deceit, betrayal, misdirection and mistrust. Why believe the TPTB who had a vested interest in keeping the audience for Season 2?
Based upon the show's ending, the purgatory theory continues to be the most plausible explanation for the supernatural elements of the island events and location.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
DESTINY
Confucius said "It doesn't matter how slowly you go, as long as you don't stop."
Season 6 of LOST was slow.
It was heralded as a return to the fast paced Season 1.
Season 5 ended with a cliffhanger when Juliet was sucked into the hole and woke up with the bomb near her. She hit the bomb with a rock and it was the end of the episode. To keep fans in excitement, ABC has posted a very short sneak peek of the 6th Season where an aye opens up in shock. No clue to who the green eye belongs to.
Also in the Season 6 preview, it is revealed that the big idea is "Destiny Found" and it could as well be the ultimate reason why they are all stranded on the island in the first place, not the kind of destiny that each of the characters thought. At the time, Michael Emerson told reporters that Ben's work is not done in the Season 5 finale but he is also still crossing fingers for it because nothing is set in stone in "Lost." Juliet's comeback was teased by EW with no other details while Claire's involvement was suggested by Carlton Cuse. "Claire is a wonderful part of the show and the audience can rest assured that they will see (her) again on Lost," Cuse said. TPTB promised that with the LOST story would come back to full circle. "Season six will feel a lot like season one," Damon Lindelof teased. "The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began. We've been winnowing away everyone else who came along. The Tailies are gone, only Miles is left of the Freighter Folk and only Juliet is left of The Others. We're getting down to the end now."
So the whole set up for the final season was to double back to the beginning to focus on the first main characters and to reveal their Destiny.
Destiny is the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. It is a hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate.
What were the current events at the end of Season 5 which would set into motion the conclusive destiny of the main characters? It was the apparent Jughead explosion by Juliet - - - her death was to make things "work." But nothing worked out as expected. The island did return to his normal time frame, but the main characters were no better off than before the time skips. They had less answers to their own questions than ever before.
And even the random fan had a few concerns going into the final season.
The Others made their importance known in Season 3 but the viewers had not been told really anything about them except their fertility problems. The Others overall purpose and connection to the Island had not been to be revealed. They seem to have people recruited around the world and they seem to have a limitless amount of resources. Is it all in the name of protecting the island or do they have other work to do?
After two seasons of hearing about Jacob, viewers finally got a look at him in the Seasons 5 finale. Then there is the twist that Jacob and a mysterious Man in Black may have been controlling the LOST story this entire time. The big question is what has been the purpose of the power struggle between these two. Is it just a game between the two or do they have a higher purpose to their actions?
Just as the dynamic between Jacob and MIB remains a mystery, Widmore and Ben's relationship is obvious based upon hate. Widmore obsessed with getting back to the island and reclaiming his place as the leader of the Others. But what is so important about a tiny hidden island that would make a billionaire crazy? But, like Jacob and MIB , there seems to be an unwritten rule that prevent these two from harming each other directly. What are the Rules? Have they been controlling and manipulating people along the way for their own game?
Lastly, we learned very little about the Smoke Monster. We don't what it is or how it manifests itself. Is it organic, spiritual, nanotechnology? And the island inhabitants, the Others, seem to ignore the Smoke Monster's origin and purpose. The open question is that is the Smoke Monster the actual controlling being on the island, and the various personal conflicts (Jacob-MIB, Ben-Widmore) are somehow to appease it.
The main characters literally fell into the Jacob-MIB saga. The main characters also literally fell into the Ben-Widmore Dharma remains story line. The 815 survivors continue to look out of place and serve no purpose in resolving these pre-existing conflicts.
So those were some of the major question marks going into the last season. It was teased as a series of events for the main characters to find their destiny. But the side stories soon consumed Season 6. Then the addition of the sideways parallel story arc created more confusion than answers. Instead of running around one circle for clues and answers, we had to run around two circles.
The only destiny found at the end of the series that viewers were destined never to find out what were the foundational theories (science fiction or otherwise) explanations for the various connections, island events, and rules of the series as applied to the characters.
Season 6 of LOST was slow.
It was heralded as a return to the fast paced Season 1.
Season 5 ended with a cliffhanger when Juliet was sucked into the hole and woke up with the bomb near her. She hit the bomb with a rock and it was the end of the episode. To keep fans in excitement, ABC has posted a very short sneak peek of the 6th Season where an aye opens up in shock. No clue to who the green eye belongs to.
Also in the Season 6 preview, it is revealed that the big idea is "Destiny Found" and it could as well be the ultimate reason why they are all stranded on the island in the first place, not the kind of destiny that each of the characters thought. At the time, Michael Emerson told reporters that Ben's work is not done in the Season 5 finale but he is also still crossing fingers for it because nothing is set in stone in "Lost." Juliet's comeback was teased by EW with no other details while Claire's involvement was suggested by Carlton Cuse. "Claire is a wonderful part of the show and the audience can rest assured that they will see (her) again on Lost," Cuse said. TPTB promised that with the LOST story would come back to full circle. "Season six will feel a lot like season one," Damon Lindelof teased. "The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began. We've been winnowing away everyone else who came along. The Tailies are gone, only Miles is left of the Freighter Folk and only Juliet is left of The Others. We're getting down to the end now."
So the whole set up for the final season was to double back to the beginning to focus on the first main characters and to reveal their Destiny.
Destiny is the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. It is a hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate.
What were the current events at the end of Season 5 which would set into motion the conclusive destiny of the main characters? It was the apparent Jughead explosion by Juliet - - - her death was to make things "work." But nothing worked out as expected. The island did return to his normal time frame, but the main characters were no better off than before the time skips. They had less answers to their own questions than ever before.
And even the random fan had a few concerns going into the final season.
The Others made their importance known in Season 3 but the viewers had not been told really anything about them except their fertility problems. The Others overall purpose and connection to the Island had not been to be revealed. They seem to have people recruited around the world and they seem to have a limitless amount of resources. Is it all in the name of protecting the island or do they have other work to do?
After two seasons of hearing about Jacob, viewers finally got a look at him in the Seasons 5 finale. Then there is the twist that Jacob and a mysterious Man in Black may have been controlling the LOST story this entire time. The big question is what has been the purpose of the power struggle between these two. Is it just a game between the two or do they have a higher purpose to their actions?
Just as the dynamic between Jacob and MIB remains a mystery, Widmore and Ben's relationship is obvious based upon hate. Widmore obsessed with getting back to the island and reclaiming his place as the leader of the Others. But what is so important about a tiny hidden island that would make a billionaire crazy? But, like Jacob and MIB , there seems to be an unwritten rule that prevent these two from harming each other directly. What are the Rules? Have they been controlling and manipulating people along the way for their own game?
Lastly, we learned very little about the Smoke Monster. We don't what it is or how it manifests itself. Is it organic, spiritual, nanotechnology? And the island inhabitants, the Others, seem to ignore the Smoke Monster's origin and purpose. The open question is that is the Smoke Monster the actual controlling being on the island, and the various personal conflicts (Jacob-MIB, Ben-Widmore) are somehow to appease it.
The main characters literally fell into the Jacob-MIB saga. The main characters also literally fell into the Ben-Widmore Dharma remains story line. The 815 survivors continue to look out of place and serve no purpose in resolving these pre-existing conflicts.
So those were some of the major question marks going into the last season. It was teased as a series of events for the main characters to find their destiny. But the side stories soon consumed Season 6. Then the addition of the sideways parallel story arc created more confusion than answers. Instead of running around one circle for clues and answers, we had to run around two circles.
The only destiny found at the end of the series that viewers were destined never to find out what were the foundational theories (science fiction or otherwise) explanations for the various connections, island events, and rules of the series as applied to the characters.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
REBOOT EPISODES 101-104
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.
This post is going to focus more on the fan base’s reaction to the Season 5 cliffhanger and where the Lost series was just prior to Season 6 than a normal recap of the four episode arc.
LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 101-104 (Days ????- - ????)
After the death of Daniel in 1977, Jack and Sayid work with Eloise and Alpert to follow through with Daniel's plan to detonate the hydrogen bomb. In present time, Flocke finally takes his place as leader of the Others and begins his new mission, with Alpert's help.
Jack’s decision to put a plan in action in order to set things right on the Island is met with some strong resistance by those close to him, and Flocke assigns Ben a difficult task.
In 1867, before the crash of the Black Rock and the arrival of Alpert, Jacob and the Man in Black (MIB) talk at the statue of Tawaret, an Egyptian goddess.
In 2007, within the statue ruins, the MIB (in form form of John Locke), tells Ben to kill Jacob. In a psychological emotional release, Ben submits and stabs Jacob twice. Jacob's last words are "they're coming", and then the Flocke kicks him onto the fire.
The aftermath from Juliet’s alleged detonation of the fisson core is revealed as the introduction to the sideways world. Meanwhile Flocke reveals his true intentions of leaving the island. MIB was once a normal man with dark hair and steely eyes, but an encounter with the Light Cave (the heart of the island’s life force) brought on by his brother and enemy, changed him into the Smoke Monster, a living cloud of black smoke. As the smoke, he could manifest himself as deceased individuals, most frequently as his former self. Eventually, and permanently after the death of Jacob, he took the form of John Locke to manipulate the Others to his final goal.
Science:
Detonation of an H-bomb is by fuse is way to start chain reaction; pounding outer case with rock is not going to detonate bomb. An atomic device needs an explosive charge to set off a chain reaction in order to accelerate the release of fusion material.
Improbabilities:
Juliet’s hitting the bomb explodes it; more likely the actual “incident” which Daniel predicted (as referenced in bluish white light of EM release) occurred, sending the 815ers (alive) back to their present time line.
A dead human being being reincarnated by electromagnetic energy pocket into living black smoke creature able to shift into various characters and use their lost memories to physically interact with other people.
Clues:
Fans believed that the Incident at the Swan construction site would “reboot” the characters time lines just as a person re-boots a crashed computer hard drive. It would seem that Daniel’s prediction was true when Flight 815 actually lands at LAX as Season 6 starts - - - as an alternative dream or parallel universe concept.
Discussion:
“ The good resolutions start too late and end too soon. ”
— Arnold Glasow
Season 5 ended with a mountain slide of viewer speculation and theories for the final season. I culled my comments from the old Lost blog I used to frequent to give you feel of what was being discussed at the time. It shows a vast array of imaginative speculation with the long shadow of doubt that the series could deliver on the Season 5 cliffhanger:
Part of the problem of unraveling the mysteries is that there are too many conflicting concepts that have been mashed together. There may not be one mythology to explain what is going on to the characters. I still believe the minority view that the characters are dead, in the Egyptian afterlife realm of the underworld, struggling through ordeals prior to their final judgment. Many have been "tapped" by the gods to be soldiers in their nightly battle for power.
I believe a big clue to LOST's story line is woven in Jacob's tapestry: At the top, sun rays flow from the symbol for the Eye of Horus (Ra). However, that mural contains non-Egyptian themes including Greek letters.
Eye of Horus represents the right eye of the Egyptian Falcon God Horus. It represented the sun, and was associated with the Sun God Ra. The mirror image, or left eye, represented the moon, and the God Thoth.
According to legend, the left eye was torn from Horus by his murderous brother Seth, and magically restored by Thoth, the God of magic. After the restoration, some stories state, Horus made a gift of the eye to Osiris, which allowed this solar deity to rule the underworld. The story of this injury is probably an allusion to the phases of the moon as the eye which is "torn out" every month.
Together, the eyes represent the whole of the universe. Spiritually, the right eye reflects solar, masculine energy, as well as reason and mathematics. The left eye reflects fluid, feminine, lunar energy, and rules intuition and magic. Together, they represent the combined,transcendent power of Horus.
The never ending cycle that Jacob and (Seth) discuss at the beginning of the Incident is the solar cycle: in the Egyptian myth, when Ra would journey through the underworld each night, defeat monsters and enemies, in order to rise to power as the sun each morning upon the Earth.
Part of the conflicting noise of the LOST themes is that Jacob-Seth know that their ancient world's rules (which to them are black and white) have been under assault by new religions (created by modern man). They continue to bring the dead to the underworld cycle to maintain their balance of power in the universe and control of humans on earth. In certain ways, the deceased are used as pawns both in their life, immediate afterlife, and prior to their final judgment (rebirth or destruction). Example, Locke did die in the fall . . . Jacob touched him to set his afterlife path: pain, mental anguish, preparation then journey to the island.
There is another legend which puts some context in Jacob-Seth’s meeting on the beach. The Book of the Heavenly Cow refers to mankind's rebellion against the elder sun god, Ra, resulting in the punishment of humans by the fiery "eye" of Ra in the form of the goddess Hathor. It takes place after Ra's long rule on earth. The royal sun god is specifically given devine power over both the deities and the humans. Prior to the rebellion, the deities, gods and humans lived together on Earth. There had been a golden age where the various deities and humans were both under the sovereignty of the sun god.
During this previous age, the sun god had not yet begun his daily course through the sky and the netherworld. Hence, there was no cycle of day and night, nor was there a netherworld and death did not exist.
After the human rebellion, a complete reordering of the world had to take place. When mankind's rebellion took place, the sun god first consulted with the primeval deities, including Shu, Tefnut and Geb but particularly the goddess Nun and Hathor. These gods were to come to Ra in secrecy, as not to alert mankind about their meeting. Ra asked them what men were doing, for they whom he had created were murmuring against him. The gods replied, that he should destroy those who blasphemed him.
Afterwards, Hathor was sent to inflict her punishment. For three nights the goddess Hathor waded about in the blood of men. She as about to destroy all mankind, but Ra took pity on those humans who were left and saved them. But as a result of the rebellion, humans now have a life cycle which includes death and a journey through the afterlife (represented in some respects by the island).
The never ending cycle of human life set against the background Egyptian mythology is what Jacob and Seth were discussing on the beach when the ship arrived off shore. Every day it seems, more people are brought to the realm of the dead, throughout the different eras of mankind beliefs (pagans, Egyptians, Greek, Judeo-Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc). Religion is what Jacob referred to as meaningless "progress" in man (good or evil) for he knows the same result occurs: he defeats evil and the human variables every night to rise to power each dawn.
Jacob (Ra) is only vulnerable in the underworld, at night. His confrontation with Locke (which may be a magical trick by Seth) and Ben occurs at night. The down fall of Jacob comes solely through the choice of Alpert (Thoth's representation?) who was a follower and protector of Ra but who was tricked into following too many “leaders” (Jack 77, Locke 07) to allow Seth to confront Jacob at night with an assassin. Before this moment, there had been nightly battles to destroy the sun god which have failed; but even Jacob knew that the only way to end this daily cycle was his death.
The concept of the end of the world would be no sun; we would be thrown into constant darkness. “They are coming” may mean that all the manifestations of evil (Satan, Seth, Apep, etc) have no barrier to destroy mankind if the sun god is defeated. The remaining characters on the island are stuck with the realization that they have been deceived and tricked into their actions which ultimately lead to the destruction of everything.
"Re Smokey, I've noted that we've never seen Smokey in ANY pre-Incident timeframe. By my recollection, Smokey's first appearance is with Rousseau's crew."
There is circumstantial evidence of Smokey prior to the Incident: above the grate/alter there is the Egyptian hieroglyphs depicting Smokey and Anubis.
Since the Hatch's purpose to enter numbers to stop "he escapes place of death" (the glyph warning sign), one could assume that failure to do so would allow Smokey to escape his prison and roam the island. S6 could deal with the prospect of attempting to re-imprison Smokey under the Hatch (which the 06 helps construct). However, we have yet to see any of the 06 with snake charming or monster taming skills.
As background for those who wonder why-how spirits of the dead like New Locke or Jacob would eat and drink:
In Egyptian culture, Man was regarded as a complex being that could exist both before and after death in different manifestations, known as kheperu. The physical body was one of these modes of existence, as were also the heart, the shadow and the name, which embodied a person's distinct identity.
Over the centuries the Egyptians evolved several different concepts of human survival after death. These ideas were first formulated to ensure safe passage for the dead king into the hereafter, but over time people of lower status were able to share in the same destiny. Common to all of the concepts was the idea that resurrection was achieved through integrating the deceased into the natural processes of the cosmos.
During life, the body was known as "khet" meaning form or appearance. At the time of death the corpse was known as "khat". When the corpse was transformed into a mummy, it was known as "sah". Mummification was considered the transfiguration of the corpse into a new body which was "filled with magic."
The Egyptians believed that a person's essence or soul was composed of several elements that at the point of death would become separate entities:
The "ka"
The "ka" was considered to be the essential ingredient or dimension that differentiated a living person from a dead one; considered to be the "life force" or "sustenance."
Each individual's "ka" would come into existence at the moment of birth, subsequently serving as their "double."
Although every individual would eventually die, their "ka" would continue to live on after their death, and as such it would require exactly the same sort of sustenance as the living person would have enjoyed during their life. The "ka" would be provided with genuine food offerings, to be absorbed into their life preserving force.
After death, the "ka" would be at rest while the body was prepared and transformed into a mummy. The "ka" then needed to be reactivated so that the spiritual transformation of rebirth could take place. The deceased could then travel to join their "ka," and the link to the land of living through their tomb would then be established. It would be the person's "ba" that would make this journey.
" The "ba" is considered to be an individual's distinctive manifestation, similar to our concept of personality which make each human unique. It was necessary for the deceased to journey from their tomb to rejoin their "ka" if they were to be transformed into an "akh." As the physical body could not do this, it was the job of the individual's "ba" to do so.
In order for the physical bodies of the deceased to survive the afterlife, they had to be reunited with their "ba" every night.
Closely linked to the physical body, the "ba" was considered to have the same physical needs as the living body. These needs included earthly pleasures such as food and drink.
The journey of the "ba" was still only a part of the final transformation of the deceased. Another journey followed, to the sky, sunlight and stars, and it was in these celestial realms that the deceased hoped to reach higher status, second only to a god, and resurrection as an "akh."
The "Akh"
The "akh" is the fully resurrected and glorified form of the deceased in the Afterlife. An "akh" comes close to our concept of a ghost or spirit, as it was believed that the "akh" could reach beyond the limits of the tomb to have both positive and negative effects on the realm of earthly life. The deceased was now free to roam on and over the earth. After the successful union of the "ba" with its "ka." the deceased was considered enduring and unchanged for eternity.
Egyptian life/death/life theory does seem to fit and I think is connected to why Richard wanted the corpse of Amy's husband and possibly how Ben survived the gunshot, as opposed to the dead who were buried or burned. They will remain dead. And if I recall my Mummification 101 class, the heart is left in the body when the rest of the innards are removed because the Egyptians believe the heart is essentially a person's consciousness.
My composite translation/interpretation of Jacob's Tapestry (from various sources); from top to bottom:
Greek text: "May the gods grant you all your heart (soul) desires."
Next: the Eye of Ra with 17 sun rays (with hands) to 17 Egyptians flanked by two thrones. The sun rays with hands is a symbol used by the Cult of Aten, thought to be the first "single deity" religious belief. The two thrones may represent the split kingdoms, Upper and Lower Egypt.
Next: 8 dancers giving offerings to the heavens.
Next: Greek text "May the gods grant you happiness."
Next: 5 people toiling in the fields. The representation looks like a depiction of the shabtis, a deceased pharoah's servants in the afterlife who toil in the eternal fields of the gods.
Next: 3 Egyptian ships crossing the waters. The tapestry found in Jacob's cabin would appear to be from the lower right corner, towards where the ships are sailing. A soul crossing the river is symbolic of the journey to the Maat for final judgment.
Bottom: Greek text "Only the dead have seen the end of war."
Tawaret mythology changed during the various Egyptian kingdoms. She was once an evil god which combined all early Egyptian fears (crocodiles, hippos and lions). She became a less evil, motherly figure when it was shown that aggressive Nile hippos were usually female, protecting their young. Even then, it was said that she consorted with a crocodile god. Then in the latter kingdoms, she was seen as the wife of Apep, the serpent god of the underworld. So if you mash-up the stories, she is both evil and protective.
I also found it odd that with all the Egyptian mythology, there is only one character with an Egyptian name: Horus. Richard(us) implies a Roman name. Oliva, Eloise: English. Jacob: Hebrew. It is like all the island names corrolate to all the nations who once conquered North Africa.
Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, was called "Horus who rules with two eyes." His right eye was white representing the sun while his left eye was black representing the moon.
According to Egyptian legend Horus lost his left eye during a fight with his murderous uncle, Seth. Horus was fighting to avenge his father's death. Seth tore out his nephew's eye but lost the fight because the assembly of the gods declared Horus the victor. One of the most prominent myths concerning the moon relates its cycle to the battle between Horus and Seth. During this famous battle over the inheritance of Osiris, Seth steals the (left) eye of Horus, damages it, and divides it into six parts. Thoth, with his magic (and with the help of other gods) reassembles the eye. Then Horus gave the eye to Osiris who experiences rebirth in the underworld.
There is a different Eye story: the Eye of Ra, in which the supreme sun god sends a god to wipe out the humans who stopped properly worshipping Ra. Just as the human race is about to be wiped out, Ra intervenes and saves mankind from total destruction. The Eye of Ra is depicted as the right Egyptian eye, and in various cultures is it considered "the Evil Eye."
Since LOST likes to use close up of eyes for dramatic effect, I researched whether there was some pattern. I could not find whether there is no left eye vs. right eye pattern (teams). Both right and left eyes have been used, including different ones for the same character (Jack). I also found the oddity that at one point Locke's eye color changed from brown to blue. I don't know the significance of that change.
The good vs. evil comparison is never simple. Everyone has both good and evil within them; it is a person's values that determines how they live their life. Turn the other cheek or an eye for an eye.
And speaking of eyes, I have stumbled upon another odd Egyptian tangent. In the Ancient Egyptian measurement system, the Eye Of Horus was used a form of fractional notation, each of the parts of the eye representing a different fraction. The parts of the eye were divided as follows:
* 1/2 was represented by smell,
* 1/4 was represented by sight or the sensation of light,
* 1/8 was represented by thought,
* 1/16 was represented by hearing,
* 1/32 was represented by taste,
* 1/64 was represented by touch.
These fractions were used as the basis of all medicine and prescriptions. In math, they add up to 63/64; so it was said the last 1/64th was Thoth's magic.
I also found that these numbers (2,4,8,16, 32, 64) are the same numbers on the Doubling Cube in the game of backgammon (Locke and Walt's early white/dark story of possible good vs. evil).
I also thought that Jacob touching six people may be a clue that he was hiding one his six traits in them, to be re-combined like Osiris' body parts when the "touched" 815ers are all reunited in the same time and place.
If that is the case, it would be a perfect example of Sawyer's creed, "what's in it for me?" In Jacob's case, he has devised a way to be reincarnated (again?)
I just realized that after reading all the reviews and posts, no one has commented or concluded what specifically was "The Incident" in the finale. Was the Incident:
a) the drill hitting the EM pocket (as Chang would suggest);
b) the stabbing of Jacob by Ben (as the term "incident" usually refers to a hostile or violent event);
c) the 316ers showing the Others that their "new" leader is Dead; or
d) something else.
Why MIB tells Jacob on the beach "You know how much I want to kill Jacob". Why doesn't he say "You know how much I want to kill you"? What if these two characters are actually on this island for ages and they are just entertaining themselves by playing games with each other. They are like actors playing a play script written by themselves. In a previous game, maybe they played god. In another, pharaohs and build statues. Maybe their play now is titled "Mankind and Progress". And they can still be friends, right? Because nothing is real, is just a script they write all along. In the meantime, they can share food and can still be friends after MIB declares how badly he wants to kill Jacob. And Jacob doesn't mind a bit. Come on, how much would you be upset on your friend if he would declare how badly he wants to kill your king in in a chess game?!
For those who are looking at Jacob/MIB in a "game" context:
The Eye of Horus math gives us the numbers 2,4, 8, 16, 32, 64. Those are the same numbers on the Doubling Cube in the game of backgammon (which Locke taught Walt).
Now, the ancient Egyptians had a game similar to backgammon called Senet. I bring this up before for the last several episodes, the producers have been stressing "30 years" in the past or future. Why "30" may be a clue is in the rules of the game, as well as other symbols (drowning, good-bad, black-white, and the afterlife):
Senet: Rules of the Game
The board: The board consists of thirty squares in three rows of ten. The pieces will move in an S-shaped pattern from the upper left to the lower right passing through all rows. There are two 'good' squares to land on in this type of Senet and one 'bad' square. The good squares, presented in the recreations as golden, are different in purpose. The square in the second row, located four from the right and five from the left, is a safety square, protecting the occupant from being bumped or taken over by the opponent. The square in the third row, located in the same vertical position, is a chance to toss the sticks again. The bad square, represented by blue, symbolizes drowning in the great waters of Nun, the primordial ocean that will one day again consume the world. It is located three from the right and six from the left. Upon landing on the drowning square, the piece is moved back to before it ever entered the board.
Instead of dice, Senet uses sticks which are nearly flat, and have one black side and one white side. The white sides count up as numbers. One white side is one, two two and so on until four. However, if all sides come up as black, it will count as a six. To enter the board, one must either throw a four or a six, the hardest things to come up with in the game. If a four is thrown, the piece enters in the fourth square of the first row from the left. If a six is thrown, the piece enters the sixth square of that row. Anytime a six is thrown, the player immediately throws the sticks again. To exit the board, an exact number must be thrown that is the numbers of squares left before the end of the board plus one. This is called 'bearing off'. Anytime a player bears off a piece, they immediately throw the sticks again. This piece has reached the afterlife and is not dealt with again.
The pieces : One player is represented by five cones or triangles - usually green. The other player is represented by five round pieces, sometimes called reels, usually red.
Bumping or Overtaking : Whenever a player makes a throw that would cause them to land in a square occupied by the opponent, the opponent's piece is moved back to before it ever entered the board. This causes the opponent to use their fours and/or sixes to get these pieces back on the board, and it is a goal of either player to do this. A piece occupying the safety or protection square cannot be bumped. The player must move another piece. If another piece cannot be moved (there are no more maybe) the other player wins for causing a stalemate.
Winning the Game : When all five pieces owned by a player have bore off, they have won. Then all pieces advance to the end of the game and it is declared that all have entered the Afterlife successfully.
>>>> If Jacob and MIB are gods playing a real life game of Senet, using the Losties souls as game pieces -- with one group or character (piece) bumping off another as time goes on -- the only possible change to upset the game would be if or when the characters (pieces) become aware of their circumstances and rebel against both Jacob and MIB. That is why the game always ends the same; the souls never ask the right questions or understand their purgatory existence. Knowledge is power. That is the loophole MIB fears.
The theory of our two beach gods playing Senet harked back to a viewer theory in Season 2...
If those two beachies are playing cosmic chess with our Losties as the pieces, then that might could maybe explain a small part of The Rules.
For those unfamiliar with chess, a king cannot capture (directly) the opposing king. Similarly, Ben and Widmore could not kill each other, and Jacob and MIB cannot kill each other. The lesser pieces do the dirty work, i.e., killing and dying. One could easily describe our Losties as chess pieces (pawns, knights, rooks, etc.).
Another Lost/game similarity is in checkers when your piece reaches your opponent's front rank they get "kinged" or "crowned" and "come back to life" more powerful than before.
I'm getting a bad feeling about all this...
The problem lies in the show's road map to date:
first it was a survival drama where we could just ride along with the action;
then it turned into science to explain the supernatural events we were seeing;
then it veered toward science fiction and quantum theories to explain things;
then it zoomed toward fantasy when the science and science fiction did not add up; and now the next road sign says: NEXT EXIT: SURREAL.
worst case scenario-
we are left no wiser when the show reaches the climax of season 6.
i don’t want to start thinking that way, although i had enjoyed british tv show "the prisoner" until the very last episode.
I thought that Season 6 would open with a close-up of Jacob's eye, with flames reflecting in it, as he whispers while being stabbed, "They're coming . . ."
Outside, the Others are shaken by the rumbling of the mountain above the statue area. The top ridge explodes, and lava begins to run down the side through a gray cloud of sulfur ash.
Then, through the gray ash appears the black silhouette of a man. Then another. Then another.
New Locke emerges from the statue to see his followers looking fearful as they gaze at the mountain top. He turns and looks at the volcanic ridge: there are a dozen silhouettes on the smoking ridge, with flames lapping at their feet. Suddenly, from these black shadows, they screech a call like a million sets of claws across a chalkboard. Then, during their call, they sprout huge sets of satanic wings.
Quick close up of New Locke wincing; "Damn, they are coming."
Cut: to LOST logo.
If you believe that the smoke monster can manifest itself into anyone (Christian, Yemi, Vincent, et al), or multiples as Christian and Claire were in the cabin together, then the island is merely an illusion. Then as a projection of reality, the writers can merely sweep the mysteries under the rug with a Star Trek "The Cage" type reveal at the end. That would be disappointing.
And so the end of Season 5 thread concluded; with clear fan reservations as to the final direction of the show.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
The island being able to return the 1977 lost souls back to the present with the remaining Others and 815 survivors.
Flocke being the smoke monster, recreated from the thoughts and memories of John Locke.
Key lines in episodes:
EP 101:
LOCKE: So I can kill him.
[Ben, stunned, stops in his tracks and falls behind as the rest of the column passes him by.]
EP 103:
JULIET: [Groans] Come on! Come on! [Sobbing] Come on! Go! Come on! Come on! Come on, you son of a bitch!
[After the eighth strike, there is a loud explosion and a bright white light fills the world.]
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
Idea Number One:
The Incident at the Swan station, whether it was the bomb going off (realistically not possible) or the massive energy release that Daniel warned about (most likely), basically destroyed all human life on the island - - - and then creating the sideways world of the dead souls. Just as Jacob’s disposal of his brother’s dead body into the EM Light Cave created MIB/the smoke monster; the Incident killed all humans on the island and created an entire smoke monster world. That is why Christian told Jack in The End that the sideways world is a place “all his friends created” not literally, but as a direct result of the Incident. In a stretched logic way, TPTB are trying to say that the sideways world was created at the Incident, but had to “wait” until the time skippers got brought back up to the present and died in the island time string. Except, that logic does not work or explain the disconnect.
If time is a string that is inflexible (what happens happened), then Daniel’s death in 1977 would have negated his appearance on the island via the freighter in 2007. If a person has one “present” and that is lost in 1977, he is effectively erased in history going forward. The flawed attempted explanation with Daniel is his alleged memory loss from his time travel experiments.
If time is nonlinear, like grooves in a circular record player, one’s “present” being the needle can bounce around from song to song in independent blocks of time. Once the person dies, the needle is broken and the record of his time is gone and cannot be played or replayed. So Daniel dying before he is born could happen, but his entire being would be wiped out so he should not be able to exist after the island reboot with the Incident.
In retrospect, the Incident was not caused by the bomb detonation; it was caused by the EM burst since the end result is the 1977 time travelers to re-appear in their normal time period “on the island.” For sealing the EM pocket would have sealed the characters in 1977 which did not occur, as the characters return to find Ajira 316 and Widmore’s men returning to the island in 2007.
So how does one try to reconcile the problems with the Incident? It all depends on one’s basic view of the series. If you believe that characters all died in the plane crash (that the island itself is forehell or purgatory for souls to seek redemptive moments in order to move on in the afterlife), then the concept of space-time is irrelevant because the underworld of souls does not conform to living earth physics or natural rules. If you want to look to a structure for this underworld, it is clear that the Egyptian ritual concepts of the splitting of a person’s soul into two parts would explain the parallel worlds of the island and the sideways dimension.
In retrospect, LOST as a series probably should have ended with the Season 5 finale. It would have not lead to the disjointed filler of Season 6 and the Scooby Do ending that the sideways world was the collective of dead souls waiting to be “awakened” by Desmond. It would have been a Sopranos ending that would have drawn some ire.
Idea Number Two:
If one has to determine what the true crux of the Lost saga was, then one must digest the Jacob-MIB conflict as recapped by lostpedia:
Inside the statue, MIB (as Locke) picks up the bloodied knife Ben had used to stab Jacob. He cleans the knife. He tells a visibly disturbed Ben that he can stop staring at the fire and that Jacob is gone. Ben asks why Jacob didn't fight back. MIB replies that Jacob must have known he was beaten and asks Ben to go outside and tell Alpert that he needs to talk to him. Meanwhile, outside, Ilana and Bram (who are part of Jacob’s team) discuss entering the statue with Alpert. Alpert tells them firmly that they cannot go in and that only those summoned by Jacob may enter. Ilana replies that she and Bram were summoned to the island by Jacob, and thus should be allowed inside. Ben comes out of the statue and is immediately questioned by Ilana and Richard. When he informs Richard that Locke wants to speak with him, Alpert becomes furious with Ben, and shoves him onto the beach next to Locke's corpse, revealing to Ben for the first time that Locke is indeed dead. Shortly after, Bram grabs Ben and hauls him back into the statue with him, despite Alpert's protest.
Inside the statue, four men including Bram enter Jacob's chamber and point their guns at the Man in Black. Bram asks him where Jacob is, to which MIB responds that Jacob is dead, and as such, they are all now "free." Upon hearing this, Bram and his men become enraged and fire several shots at the MIB. One shot appears to strike him, after which he disappears behind a column. As Bram investigates the room, he finds the bullet that was thought to have hit MIB lying on the ground. Confused, he turns around, just as the Smoke Monster enters the room.
There is a brief firefight, but Smokey quickly overpowers three of the four men, killing them. Bram produces a container of ash which he proceeds to hurriedly spread around himself in a circle. This circle protects Bram from the smoke monster's direct advances towards him, so the Monster dislodges a chunk of rock from the statue interior, which knocks Bram out of the circle of ash. Bram, now vulnerable, is grabbed by Smokey and thrown through Jacob's loom, where he is impaled on a piece of wood, and killed. During the entirety of the fight, Ben cowers in a corner, looking on in shock. At the conclusion of the fight, MIB (once again as Locke) reappears behind Ben and states: "Sorry that you had to see me like that," thus definitively revealing the link between the smoke monster, the Man in Black, and Flocke.
Ben, noticeably shocked, finally manages to ask MIB, "what are you?" He only answers that he's not a "what" but a "who." MIB then tells Ben that John Locke was very confused when Ben kills him and his last thought was "I don't understand." As Ben grapples with these revelations, the Man in Black goes on explaining how sad and pathetic Locke's life was. He continues that Locke's only redeeming virtue was to have been the only one of the Oceanic 815 survivors not to want to go back to their worthless pre-Island life, but rather to stay on the Island. He finishes his speech to Ben by reflecting on the irony of this situation, because unlike Locke, he wants to go "home."
When Jacob died and proclaimed “they’re coming,” we don’t know what that really means. It could be his people, Ilana and Bram who had recruited to off-set the Widmore gang. Or it could mean that the 1977 survivors are time traveling back to the present to take Jacob’s place to defeat MIB. But the real problem later on is that Jacob is not really “dead.” He appears to Sayid and Hurley. And his Crazy Mother gave him immortality. So what is the real deal between Jacob and MIB?
At the time, the idea of two demigods playing human chess with human souls seemed to be far fetched and a demeaning premise for the show. But the whole conflict seems to center around the Season 6 resolution of the island dynamic of Jacob and MIB, who are both “dead” in observer’s reality.
The basic tenet of their “game” was this: Jacob brought humans to the island. MIB’s premise is that all humans corrupt the island. Jacob does not interfere with the humans on the island (until he recruits Alpert to be his liaison). MIB is allowed to play mischief, test and judge the humans on the island - - - to the point of killing them as the smoke monster without any accountability or retaliation by Jacob. This game of humanity has gone on for thousands of years. And apparently, the end is that none of the humans ever survive and leave the island. Now the apparent roles of Jacob as guardian and MIB as prisoner is shown by MIB’s willingness to kill Jacob in order to get off the island to go “home.” But what is “home” to an immortal spirit? If MIB’s soul was captured by the island’s life force as the smoke monster (much like the whispers in the jungle are dead souls that cannot move on in the afterlife), “home” has to be heaven or peace to MIB. So why would Jacob not allow his brother to “pass on?” Because Jacob would be then trapped alone on the island, forever. So, who then, is the real “prisoner” of the island? Jacob. The only “rule” was that they could not harm each other (which was broken by Jacob in his rage). MIB “won” by having Ben “kill” Jacob, then Jacob “won” by having Kate “kill” the mortal Flocke when Jack replaced the cap on the life force fountain. So is the cap of the EM life force which suffocates both Jacob and MIB’s immortal life force so they cease to exist after they are physically, mortally wounded? The timing is off on that explanation. Jacob “dies” before Jack’s final quest.
One must wonder that Miles power to read the last thoughts of the dead is just a weaker power of a smoke monster to fuse a dead body into an island existence. One could also wonder that Hurley’s more special power of actually interacting and having conversations with the dead in physical form is a pure form of the smoke monster’s properties of reconstructing matter and memories on the island. Who ever can tap the power of the island can control all the elements within the sphere of the island: people, actions, events.
The island itself has been called the silent character in the series. The island is not a real place; it is not on a map. It is a collection point for lost souls. It takes their thoughts and memories and creates a vast, complex, interactive realm of humanity pit against their own worst fears, phobias, superstitions and desires. It does sound like the basis of explanation for ancient concepts of the underworld.
However, if it is not, does it downgrade the show characters if they are truly just made up “characters” in the mind of an intelligent being represented symbolically by an island? A supernatural being whose only life is recreating the memories and emotions of dead human souls.
This post is going to focus more on the fan base’s reaction to the Season 5 cliffhanger and where the Lost series was just prior to Season 6 than a normal recap of the four episode arc.
LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 101-104 (Days ????- - ????)
After the death of Daniel in 1977, Jack and Sayid work with Eloise and Alpert to follow through with Daniel's plan to detonate the hydrogen bomb. In present time, Flocke finally takes his place as leader of the Others and begins his new mission, with Alpert's help.
Jack’s decision to put a plan in action in order to set things right on the Island is met with some strong resistance by those close to him, and Flocke assigns Ben a difficult task.
In 1867, before the crash of the Black Rock and the arrival of Alpert, Jacob and the Man in Black (MIB) talk at the statue of Tawaret, an Egyptian goddess.
In 2007, within the statue ruins, the MIB (in form form of John Locke), tells Ben to kill Jacob. In a psychological emotional release, Ben submits and stabs Jacob twice. Jacob's last words are "they're coming", and then the Flocke kicks him onto the fire.
The aftermath from Juliet’s alleged detonation of the fisson core is revealed as the introduction to the sideways world. Meanwhile Flocke reveals his true intentions of leaving the island. MIB was once a normal man with dark hair and steely eyes, but an encounter with the Light Cave (the heart of the island’s life force) brought on by his brother and enemy, changed him into the Smoke Monster, a living cloud of black smoke. As the smoke, he could manifest himself as deceased individuals, most frequently as his former self. Eventually, and permanently after the death of Jacob, he took the form of John Locke to manipulate the Others to his final goal.
Science:
Detonation of an H-bomb is by fuse is way to start chain reaction; pounding outer case with rock is not going to detonate bomb. An atomic device needs an explosive charge to set off a chain reaction in order to accelerate the release of fusion material.
Improbabilities:
Juliet’s hitting the bomb explodes it; more likely the actual “incident” which Daniel predicted (as referenced in bluish white light of EM release) occurred, sending the 815ers (alive) back to their present time line.
A dead human being being reincarnated by electromagnetic energy pocket into living black smoke creature able to shift into various characters and use their lost memories to physically interact with other people.
Clues:
Fans believed that the Incident at the Swan construction site would “reboot” the characters time lines just as a person re-boots a crashed computer hard drive. It would seem that Daniel’s prediction was true when Flight 815 actually lands at LAX as Season 6 starts - - - as an alternative dream or parallel universe concept.
Discussion:
“ The good resolutions start too late and end too soon. ”
— Arnold Glasow
Season 5 ended with a mountain slide of viewer speculation and theories for the final season. I culled my comments from the old Lost blog I used to frequent to give you feel of what was being discussed at the time. It shows a vast array of imaginative speculation with the long shadow of doubt that the series could deliver on the Season 5 cliffhanger:
Part of the problem of unraveling the mysteries is that there are too many conflicting concepts that have been mashed together. There may not be one mythology to explain what is going on to the characters. I still believe the minority view that the characters are dead, in the Egyptian afterlife realm of the underworld, struggling through ordeals prior to their final judgment. Many have been "tapped" by the gods to be soldiers in their nightly battle for power.
I believe a big clue to LOST's story line is woven in Jacob's tapestry: At the top, sun rays flow from the symbol for the Eye of Horus (Ra). However, that mural contains non-Egyptian themes including Greek letters.
Eye of Horus represents the right eye of the Egyptian Falcon God Horus. It represented the sun, and was associated with the Sun God Ra. The mirror image, or left eye, represented the moon, and the God Thoth.
According to legend, the left eye was torn from Horus by his murderous brother Seth, and magically restored by Thoth, the God of magic. After the restoration, some stories state, Horus made a gift of the eye to Osiris, which allowed this solar deity to rule the underworld. The story of this injury is probably an allusion to the phases of the moon as the eye which is "torn out" every month.
Together, the eyes represent the whole of the universe. Spiritually, the right eye reflects solar, masculine energy, as well as reason and mathematics. The left eye reflects fluid, feminine, lunar energy, and rules intuition and magic. Together, they represent the combined,transcendent power of Horus.
The never ending cycle that Jacob and (Seth) discuss at the beginning of the Incident is the solar cycle: in the Egyptian myth, when Ra would journey through the underworld each night, defeat monsters and enemies, in order to rise to power as the sun each morning upon the Earth.
Part of the conflicting noise of the LOST themes is that Jacob-Seth know that their ancient world's rules (which to them are black and white) have been under assault by new religions (created by modern man). They continue to bring the dead to the underworld cycle to maintain their balance of power in the universe and control of humans on earth. In certain ways, the deceased are used as pawns both in their life, immediate afterlife, and prior to their final judgment (rebirth or destruction). Example, Locke did die in the fall . . . Jacob touched him to set his afterlife path: pain, mental anguish, preparation then journey to the island.
There is another legend which puts some context in Jacob-Seth’s meeting on the beach. The Book of the Heavenly Cow refers to mankind's rebellion against the elder sun god, Ra, resulting in the punishment of humans by the fiery "eye" of Ra in the form of the goddess Hathor. It takes place after Ra's long rule on earth. The royal sun god is specifically given devine power over both the deities and the humans. Prior to the rebellion, the deities, gods and humans lived together on Earth. There had been a golden age where the various deities and humans were both under the sovereignty of the sun god.
During this previous age, the sun god had not yet begun his daily course through the sky and the netherworld. Hence, there was no cycle of day and night, nor was there a netherworld and death did not exist.
After the human rebellion, a complete reordering of the world had to take place. When mankind's rebellion took place, the sun god first consulted with the primeval deities, including Shu, Tefnut and Geb but particularly the goddess Nun and Hathor. These gods were to come to Ra in secrecy, as not to alert mankind about their meeting. Ra asked them what men were doing, for they whom he had created were murmuring against him. The gods replied, that he should destroy those who blasphemed him.
Afterwards, Hathor was sent to inflict her punishment. For three nights the goddess Hathor waded about in the blood of men. She as about to destroy all mankind, but Ra took pity on those humans who were left and saved them. But as a result of the rebellion, humans now have a life cycle which includes death and a journey through the afterlife (represented in some respects by the island).
The never ending cycle of human life set against the background Egyptian mythology is what Jacob and Seth were discussing on the beach when the ship arrived off shore. Every day it seems, more people are brought to the realm of the dead, throughout the different eras of mankind beliefs (pagans, Egyptians, Greek, Judeo-Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc). Religion is what Jacob referred to as meaningless "progress" in man (good or evil) for he knows the same result occurs: he defeats evil and the human variables every night to rise to power each dawn.
Jacob (Ra) is only vulnerable in the underworld, at night. His confrontation with Locke (which may be a magical trick by Seth) and Ben occurs at night. The down fall of Jacob comes solely through the choice of Alpert (Thoth's representation?) who was a follower and protector of Ra but who was tricked into following too many “leaders” (Jack 77, Locke 07) to allow Seth to confront Jacob at night with an assassin. Before this moment, there had been nightly battles to destroy the sun god which have failed; but even Jacob knew that the only way to end this daily cycle was his death.
The concept of the end of the world would be no sun; we would be thrown into constant darkness. “They are coming” may mean that all the manifestations of evil (Satan, Seth, Apep, etc) have no barrier to destroy mankind if the sun god is defeated. The remaining characters on the island are stuck with the realization that they have been deceived and tricked into their actions which ultimately lead to the destruction of everything.
"Re Smokey, I've noted that we've never seen Smokey in ANY pre-Incident timeframe. By my recollection, Smokey's first appearance is with Rousseau's crew."
There is circumstantial evidence of Smokey prior to the Incident: above the grate/alter there is the Egyptian hieroglyphs depicting Smokey and Anubis.
Since the Hatch's purpose to enter numbers to stop "he escapes place of death" (the glyph warning sign), one could assume that failure to do so would allow Smokey to escape his prison and roam the island. S6 could deal with the prospect of attempting to re-imprison Smokey under the Hatch (which the 06 helps construct). However, we have yet to see any of the 06 with snake charming or monster taming skills.
As background for those who wonder why-how spirits of the dead like New Locke or Jacob would eat and drink:
In Egyptian culture, Man was regarded as a complex being that could exist both before and after death in different manifestations, known as kheperu. The physical body was one of these modes of existence, as were also the heart, the shadow and the name, which embodied a person's distinct identity.
Over the centuries the Egyptians evolved several different concepts of human survival after death. These ideas were first formulated to ensure safe passage for the dead king into the hereafter, but over time people of lower status were able to share in the same destiny. Common to all of the concepts was the idea that resurrection was achieved through integrating the deceased into the natural processes of the cosmos.
During life, the body was known as "khet" meaning form or appearance. At the time of death the corpse was known as "khat". When the corpse was transformed into a mummy, it was known as "sah". Mummification was considered the transfiguration of the corpse into a new body which was "filled with magic."
The Egyptians believed that a person's essence or soul was composed of several elements that at the point of death would become separate entities:
The "ka"
The "ka" was considered to be the essential ingredient or dimension that differentiated a living person from a dead one; considered to be the "life force" or "sustenance."
Each individual's "ka" would come into existence at the moment of birth, subsequently serving as their "double."
Although every individual would eventually die, their "ka" would continue to live on after their death, and as such it would require exactly the same sort of sustenance as the living person would have enjoyed during their life. The "ka" would be provided with genuine food offerings, to be absorbed into their life preserving force.
After death, the "ka" would be at rest while the body was prepared and transformed into a mummy. The "ka" then needed to be reactivated so that the spiritual transformation of rebirth could take place. The deceased could then travel to join their "ka," and the link to the land of living through their tomb would then be established. It would be the person's "ba" that would make this journey.
" The "ba" is considered to be an individual's distinctive manifestation, similar to our concept of personality which make each human unique. It was necessary for the deceased to journey from their tomb to rejoin their "ka" if they were to be transformed into an "akh." As the physical body could not do this, it was the job of the individual's "ba" to do so.
In order for the physical bodies of the deceased to survive the afterlife, they had to be reunited with their "ba" every night.
Closely linked to the physical body, the "ba" was considered to have the same physical needs as the living body. These needs included earthly pleasures such as food and drink.
The journey of the "ba" was still only a part of the final transformation of the deceased. Another journey followed, to the sky, sunlight and stars, and it was in these celestial realms that the deceased hoped to reach higher status, second only to a god, and resurrection as an "akh."
The "Akh"
The "akh" is the fully resurrected and glorified form of the deceased in the Afterlife. An "akh" comes close to our concept of a ghost or spirit, as it was believed that the "akh" could reach beyond the limits of the tomb to have both positive and negative effects on the realm of earthly life. The deceased was now free to roam on and over the earth. After the successful union of the "ba" with its "ka." the deceased was considered enduring and unchanged for eternity.
Egyptian life/death/life theory does seem to fit and I think is connected to why Richard wanted the corpse of Amy's husband and possibly how Ben survived the gunshot, as opposed to the dead who were buried or burned. They will remain dead. And if I recall my Mummification 101 class, the heart is left in the body when the rest of the innards are removed because the Egyptians believe the heart is essentially a person's consciousness.
My composite translation/interpretation of Jacob's Tapestry (from various sources); from top to bottom:
Greek text: "May the gods grant you all your heart (soul) desires."
Next: the Eye of Ra with 17 sun rays (with hands) to 17 Egyptians flanked by two thrones. The sun rays with hands is a symbol used by the Cult of Aten, thought to be the first "single deity" religious belief. The two thrones may represent the split kingdoms, Upper and Lower Egypt.
Next: 8 dancers giving offerings to the heavens.
Next: Greek text "May the gods grant you happiness."
Next: 5 people toiling in the fields. The representation looks like a depiction of the shabtis, a deceased pharoah's servants in the afterlife who toil in the eternal fields of the gods.
Next: 3 Egyptian ships crossing the waters. The tapestry found in Jacob's cabin would appear to be from the lower right corner, towards where the ships are sailing. A soul crossing the river is symbolic of the journey to the Maat for final judgment.
Bottom: Greek text "Only the dead have seen the end of war."
Tawaret mythology changed during the various Egyptian kingdoms. She was once an evil god which combined all early Egyptian fears (crocodiles, hippos and lions). She became a less evil, motherly figure when it was shown that aggressive Nile hippos were usually female, protecting their young. Even then, it was said that she consorted with a crocodile god. Then in the latter kingdoms, she was seen as the wife of Apep, the serpent god of the underworld. So if you mash-up the stories, she is both evil and protective.
I also found it odd that with all the Egyptian mythology, there is only one character with an Egyptian name: Horus. Richard(us) implies a Roman name. Oliva, Eloise: English. Jacob: Hebrew. It is like all the island names corrolate to all the nations who once conquered North Africa.
Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, was called "Horus who rules with two eyes." His right eye was white representing the sun while his left eye was black representing the moon.
According to Egyptian legend Horus lost his left eye during a fight with his murderous uncle, Seth. Horus was fighting to avenge his father's death. Seth tore out his nephew's eye but lost the fight because the assembly of the gods declared Horus the victor. One of the most prominent myths concerning the moon relates its cycle to the battle between Horus and Seth. During this famous battle over the inheritance of Osiris, Seth steals the (left) eye of Horus, damages it, and divides it into six parts. Thoth, with his magic (and with the help of other gods) reassembles the eye. Then Horus gave the eye to Osiris who experiences rebirth in the underworld.
There is a different Eye story: the Eye of Ra, in which the supreme sun god sends a god to wipe out the humans who stopped properly worshipping Ra. Just as the human race is about to be wiped out, Ra intervenes and saves mankind from total destruction. The Eye of Ra is depicted as the right Egyptian eye, and in various cultures is it considered "the Evil Eye."
Since LOST likes to use close up of eyes for dramatic effect, I researched whether there was some pattern. I could not find whether there is no left eye vs. right eye pattern (teams). Both right and left eyes have been used, including different ones for the same character (Jack). I also found the oddity that at one point Locke's eye color changed from brown to blue. I don't know the significance of that change.
The good vs. evil comparison is never simple. Everyone has both good and evil within them; it is a person's values that determines how they live their life. Turn the other cheek or an eye for an eye.
And speaking of eyes, I have stumbled upon another odd Egyptian tangent. In the Ancient Egyptian measurement system, the Eye Of Horus was used a form of fractional notation, each of the parts of the eye representing a different fraction. The parts of the eye were divided as follows:
* 1/2 was represented by smell,
* 1/4 was represented by sight or the sensation of light,
* 1/8 was represented by thought,
* 1/16 was represented by hearing,
* 1/32 was represented by taste,
* 1/64 was represented by touch.
These fractions were used as the basis of all medicine and prescriptions. In math, they add up to 63/64; so it was said the last 1/64th was Thoth's magic.
I also found that these numbers (2,4,8,16, 32, 64) are the same numbers on the Doubling Cube in the game of backgammon (Locke and Walt's early white/dark story of possible good vs. evil).
I also thought that Jacob touching six people may be a clue that he was hiding one his six traits in them, to be re-combined like Osiris' body parts when the "touched" 815ers are all reunited in the same time and place.
If that is the case, it would be a perfect example of Sawyer's creed, "what's in it for me?" In Jacob's case, he has devised a way to be reincarnated (again?)
I just realized that after reading all the reviews and posts, no one has commented or concluded what specifically was "The Incident" in the finale. Was the Incident:
a) the drill hitting the EM pocket (as Chang would suggest);
b) the stabbing of Jacob by Ben (as the term "incident" usually refers to a hostile or violent event);
c) the 316ers showing the Others that their "new" leader is Dead; or
d) something else.
Why MIB tells Jacob on the beach "You know how much I want to kill Jacob". Why doesn't he say "You know how much I want to kill you"? What if these two characters are actually on this island for ages and they are just entertaining themselves by playing games with each other. They are like actors playing a play script written by themselves. In a previous game, maybe they played god. In another, pharaohs and build statues. Maybe their play now is titled "Mankind and Progress". And they can still be friends, right? Because nothing is real, is just a script they write all along. In the meantime, they can share food and can still be friends after MIB declares how badly he wants to kill Jacob. And Jacob doesn't mind a bit. Come on, how much would you be upset on your friend if he would declare how badly he wants to kill your king in in a chess game?!
For those who are looking at Jacob/MIB in a "game" context:
The Eye of Horus math gives us the numbers 2,4, 8, 16, 32, 64. Those are the same numbers on the Doubling Cube in the game of backgammon (which Locke taught Walt).
Now, the ancient Egyptians had a game similar to backgammon called Senet. I bring this up before for the last several episodes, the producers have been stressing "30 years" in the past or future. Why "30" may be a clue is in the rules of the game, as well as other symbols (drowning, good-bad, black-white, and the afterlife):
Senet: Rules of the Game
The board: The board consists of thirty squares in three rows of ten. The pieces will move in an S-shaped pattern from the upper left to the lower right passing through all rows. There are two 'good' squares to land on in this type of Senet and one 'bad' square. The good squares, presented in the recreations as golden, are different in purpose. The square in the second row, located four from the right and five from the left, is a safety square, protecting the occupant from being bumped or taken over by the opponent. The square in the third row, located in the same vertical position, is a chance to toss the sticks again. The bad square, represented by blue, symbolizes drowning in the great waters of Nun, the primordial ocean that will one day again consume the world. It is located three from the right and six from the left. Upon landing on the drowning square, the piece is moved back to before it ever entered the board.
Instead of dice, Senet uses sticks which are nearly flat, and have one black side and one white side. The white sides count up as numbers. One white side is one, two two and so on until four. However, if all sides come up as black, it will count as a six. To enter the board, one must either throw a four or a six, the hardest things to come up with in the game. If a four is thrown, the piece enters in the fourth square of the first row from the left. If a six is thrown, the piece enters the sixth square of that row. Anytime a six is thrown, the player immediately throws the sticks again. To exit the board, an exact number must be thrown that is the numbers of squares left before the end of the board plus one. This is called 'bearing off'. Anytime a player bears off a piece, they immediately throw the sticks again. This piece has reached the afterlife and is not dealt with again.
The pieces : One player is represented by five cones or triangles - usually green. The other player is represented by five round pieces, sometimes called reels, usually red.
Bumping or Overtaking : Whenever a player makes a throw that would cause them to land in a square occupied by the opponent, the opponent's piece is moved back to before it ever entered the board. This causes the opponent to use their fours and/or sixes to get these pieces back on the board, and it is a goal of either player to do this. A piece occupying the safety or protection square cannot be bumped. The player must move another piece. If another piece cannot be moved (there are no more maybe) the other player wins for causing a stalemate.
Winning the Game : When all five pieces owned by a player have bore off, they have won. Then all pieces advance to the end of the game and it is declared that all have entered the Afterlife successfully.
>>>> If Jacob and MIB are gods playing a real life game of Senet, using the Losties souls as game pieces -- with one group or character (piece) bumping off another as time goes on -- the only possible change to upset the game would be if or when the characters (pieces) become aware of their circumstances and rebel against both Jacob and MIB. That is why the game always ends the same; the souls never ask the right questions or understand their purgatory existence. Knowledge is power. That is the loophole MIB fears.
The theory of our two beach gods playing Senet harked back to a viewer theory in Season 2...
If those two beachies are playing cosmic chess with our Losties as the pieces, then that might could maybe explain a small part of The Rules.
For those unfamiliar with chess, a king cannot capture (directly) the opposing king. Similarly, Ben and Widmore could not kill each other, and Jacob and MIB cannot kill each other. The lesser pieces do the dirty work, i.e., killing and dying. One could easily describe our Losties as chess pieces (pawns, knights, rooks, etc.).
Another Lost/game similarity is in checkers when your piece reaches your opponent's front rank they get "kinged" or "crowned" and "come back to life" more powerful than before.
I'm getting a bad feeling about all this...
The problem lies in the show's road map to date:
first it was a survival drama where we could just ride along with the action;
then it turned into science to explain the supernatural events we were seeing;
then it veered toward science fiction and quantum theories to explain things;
then it zoomed toward fantasy when the science and science fiction did not add up; and now the next road sign says: NEXT EXIT: SURREAL.
worst case scenario-
we are left no wiser when the show reaches the climax of season 6.
i don’t want to start thinking that way, although i had enjoyed british tv show "the prisoner" until the very last episode.
I thought that Season 6 would open with a close-up of Jacob's eye, with flames reflecting in it, as he whispers while being stabbed, "They're coming . . ."
Outside, the Others are shaken by the rumbling of the mountain above the statue area. The top ridge explodes, and lava begins to run down the side through a gray cloud of sulfur ash.
Then, through the gray ash appears the black silhouette of a man. Then another. Then another.
New Locke emerges from the statue to see his followers looking fearful as they gaze at the mountain top. He turns and looks at the volcanic ridge: there are a dozen silhouettes on the smoking ridge, with flames lapping at their feet. Suddenly, from these black shadows, they screech a call like a million sets of claws across a chalkboard. Then, during their call, they sprout huge sets of satanic wings.
Quick close up of New Locke wincing; "Damn, they are coming."
Cut: to LOST logo.
If you believe that the smoke monster can manifest itself into anyone (Christian, Yemi, Vincent, et al), or multiples as Christian and Claire were in the cabin together, then the island is merely an illusion. Then as a projection of reality, the writers can merely sweep the mysteries under the rug with a Star Trek "The Cage" type reveal at the end. That would be disappointing.
And so the end of Season 5 thread concluded; with clear fan reservations as to the final direction of the show.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
The island being able to return the 1977 lost souls back to the present with the remaining Others and 815 survivors.
Flocke being the smoke monster, recreated from the thoughts and memories of John Locke.
Key lines in episodes:
EP 101:
LOCKE: So I can kill him.
[Ben, stunned, stops in his tracks and falls behind as the rest of the column passes him by.]
EP 103:
JULIET: [Groans] Come on! Come on! [Sobbing] Come on! Go! Come on! Come on! Come on, you son of a bitch!
[After the eighth strike, there is a loud explosion and a bright white light fills the world.]
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
Idea Number One:
The Incident at the Swan station, whether it was the bomb going off (realistically not possible) or the massive energy release that Daniel warned about (most likely), basically destroyed all human life on the island - - - and then creating the sideways world of the dead souls. Just as Jacob’s disposal of his brother’s dead body into the EM Light Cave created MIB/the smoke monster; the Incident killed all humans on the island and created an entire smoke monster world. That is why Christian told Jack in The End that the sideways world is a place “all his friends created” not literally, but as a direct result of the Incident. In a stretched logic way, TPTB are trying to say that the sideways world was created at the Incident, but had to “wait” until the time skippers got brought back up to the present and died in the island time string. Except, that logic does not work or explain the disconnect.
If time is a string that is inflexible (what happens happened), then Daniel’s death in 1977 would have negated his appearance on the island via the freighter in 2007. If a person has one “present” and that is lost in 1977, he is effectively erased in history going forward. The flawed attempted explanation with Daniel is his alleged memory loss from his time travel experiments.
If time is nonlinear, like grooves in a circular record player, one’s “present” being the needle can bounce around from song to song in independent blocks of time. Once the person dies, the needle is broken and the record of his time is gone and cannot be played or replayed. So Daniel dying before he is born could happen, but his entire being would be wiped out so he should not be able to exist after the island reboot with the Incident.
In retrospect, the Incident was not caused by the bomb detonation; it was caused by the EM burst since the end result is the 1977 time travelers to re-appear in their normal time period “on the island.” For sealing the EM pocket would have sealed the characters in 1977 which did not occur, as the characters return to find Ajira 316 and Widmore’s men returning to the island in 2007.
So how does one try to reconcile the problems with the Incident? It all depends on one’s basic view of the series. If you believe that characters all died in the plane crash (that the island itself is forehell or purgatory for souls to seek redemptive moments in order to move on in the afterlife), then the concept of space-time is irrelevant because the underworld of souls does not conform to living earth physics or natural rules. If you want to look to a structure for this underworld, it is clear that the Egyptian ritual concepts of the splitting of a person’s soul into two parts would explain the parallel worlds of the island and the sideways dimension.
In retrospect, LOST as a series probably should have ended with the Season 5 finale. It would have not lead to the disjointed filler of Season 6 and the Scooby Do ending that the sideways world was the collective of dead souls waiting to be “awakened” by Desmond. It would have been a Sopranos ending that would have drawn some ire.
Idea Number Two:
If one has to determine what the true crux of the Lost saga was, then one must digest the Jacob-MIB conflict as recapped by lostpedia:
Inside the statue, MIB (as Locke) picks up the bloodied knife Ben had used to stab Jacob. He cleans the knife. He tells a visibly disturbed Ben that he can stop staring at the fire and that Jacob is gone. Ben asks why Jacob didn't fight back. MIB replies that Jacob must have known he was beaten and asks Ben to go outside and tell Alpert that he needs to talk to him. Meanwhile, outside, Ilana and Bram (who are part of Jacob’s team) discuss entering the statue with Alpert. Alpert tells them firmly that they cannot go in and that only those summoned by Jacob may enter. Ilana replies that she and Bram were summoned to the island by Jacob, and thus should be allowed inside. Ben comes out of the statue and is immediately questioned by Ilana and Richard. When he informs Richard that Locke wants to speak with him, Alpert becomes furious with Ben, and shoves him onto the beach next to Locke's corpse, revealing to Ben for the first time that Locke is indeed dead. Shortly after, Bram grabs Ben and hauls him back into the statue with him, despite Alpert's protest.
Inside the statue, four men including Bram enter Jacob's chamber and point their guns at the Man in Black. Bram asks him where Jacob is, to which MIB responds that Jacob is dead, and as such, they are all now "free." Upon hearing this, Bram and his men become enraged and fire several shots at the MIB. One shot appears to strike him, after which he disappears behind a column. As Bram investigates the room, he finds the bullet that was thought to have hit MIB lying on the ground. Confused, he turns around, just as the Smoke Monster enters the room.
There is a brief firefight, but Smokey quickly overpowers three of the four men, killing them. Bram produces a container of ash which he proceeds to hurriedly spread around himself in a circle. This circle protects Bram from the smoke monster's direct advances towards him, so the Monster dislodges a chunk of rock from the statue interior, which knocks Bram out of the circle of ash. Bram, now vulnerable, is grabbed by Smokey and thrown through Jacob's loom, where he is impaled on a piece of wood, and killed. During the entirety of the fight, Ben cowers in a corner, looking on in shock. At the conclusion of the fight, MIB (once again as Locke) reappears behind Ben and states: "Sorry that you had to see me like that," thus definitively revealing the link between the smoke monster, the Man in Black, and Flocke.
Ben, noticeably shocked, finally manages to ask MIB, "what are you?" He only answers that he's not a "what" but a "who." MIB then tells Ben that John Locke was very confused when Ben kills him and his last thought was "I don't understand." As Ben grapples with these revelations, the Man in Black goes on explaining how sad and pathetic Locke's life was. He continues that Locke's only redeeming virtue was to have been the only one of the Oceanic 815 survivors not to want to go back to their worthless pre-Island life, but rather to stay on the Island. He finishes his speech to Ben by reflecting on the irony of this situation, because unlike Locke, he wants to go "home."
When Jacob died and proclaimed “they’re coming,” we don’t know what that really means. It could be his people, Ilana and Bram who had recruited to off-set the Widmore gang. Or it could mean that the 1977 survivors are time traveling back to the present to take Jacob’s place to defeat MIB. But the real problem later on is that Jacob is not really “dead.” He appears to Sayid and Hurley. And his Crazy Mother gave him immortality. So what is the real deal between Jacob and MIB?
At the time, the idea of two demigods playing human chess with human souls seemed to be far fetched and a demeaning premise for the show. But the whole conflict seems to center around the Season 6 resolution of the island dynamic of Jacob and MIB, who are both “dead” in observer’s reality.
The basic tenet of their “game” was this: Jacob brought humans to the island. MIB’s premise is that all humans corrupt the island. Jacob does not interfere with the humans on the island (until he recruits Alpert to be his liaison). MIB is allowed to play mischief, test and judge the humans on the island - - - to the point of killing them as the smoke monster without any accountability or retaliation by Jacob. This game of humanity has gone on for thousands of years. And apparently, the end is that none of the humans ever survive and leave the island. Now the apparent roles of Jacob as guardian and MIB as prisoner is shown by MIB’s willingness to kill Jacob in order to get off the island to go “home.” But what is “home” to an immortal spirit? If MIB’s soul was captured by the island’s life force as the smoke monster (much like the whispers in the jungle are dead souls that cannot move on in the afterlife), “home” has to be heaven or peace to MIB. So why would Jacob not allow his brother to “pass on?” Because Jacob would be then trapped alone on the island, forever. So, who then, is the real “prisoner” of the island? Jacob. The only “rule” was that they could not harm each other (which was broken by Jacob in his rage). MIB “won” by having Ben “kill” Jacob, then Jacob “won” by having Kate “kill” the mortal Flocke when Jack replaced the cap on the life force fountain. So is the cap of the EM life force which suffocates both Jacob and MIB’s immortal life force so they cease to exist after they are physically, mortally wounded? The timing is off on that explanation. Jacob “dies” before Jack’s final quest.
One must wonder that Miles power to read the last thoughts of the dead is just a weaker power of a smoke monster to fuse a dead body into an island existence. One could also wonder that Hurley’s more special power of actually interacting and having conversations with the dead in physical form is a pure form of the smoke monster’s properties of reconstructing matter and memories on the island. Who ever can tap the power of the island can control all the elements within the sphere of the island: people, actions, events.
The island itself has been called the silent character in the series. The island is not a real place; it is not on a map. It is a collection point for lost souls. It takes their thoughts and memories and creates a vast, complex, interactive realm of humanity pit against their own worst fears, phobias, superstitions and desires. It does sound like the basis of explanation for ancient concepts of the underworld.
However, if it is not, does it downgrade the show characters if they are truly just made up “characters” in the mind of an intelligent being represented symbolically by an island? A supernatural being whose only life is recreating the memories and emotions of dead human souls.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
DEJA VU: SEASON 6 PREVIEW
To further clean out the archives of LOST notes and blog posts, the following are random theories, speculations and possible outcomes as the show was just about to start its final, climatic season:
This would have been a mind-blowing ending to the show, based upon the strange passage of time on the island and past events:
I was one in the minority of viewers who believed the whole LOST island construct had to be about the after life. In trying to put together the elements, I proposed a complex solution.
This would have been a mind-blowing ending to the show, based upon the strange passage of time on the island and past events:
Tale of Two Cities, S3E1
The fake Henry Gale tells Ethan Rom and Goodwin to each go to one of the crash sites, that Goodwin can make the shore in an hour. They are both instructed to act as survivors in shock. They must come up with an adequate story if they are asked, but stay quiet if they aren't. He tells them: "Listen, learn. Don't get involved." They also must provide him with "a list" in three days. They both run.
My speculated end of show:
Mid air plane crash over island. Locke peers up to the sky. Then he yells, “Jack and Sawyer, there may be survivors.” He then instructs them to go to each crash site and fit in. Listen. Learn. Don’t get involved. “I want a list in three days.” Then Jack and Sawyer run into the jungle.
I was one in the minority of viewers who believed the whole LOST island construct had to be about the after life. In trying to put together the elements, I proposed a complex solution.
Nexus-Buffer Theory:
D.O.C. = Dead on Crash
The passengers are not in purgatory but Hell. Ben, a minion for the Devil, needs to create “new life” in Hell to form an army to go back through the Gates of Earth to battle Angels from Heaven on Judgment Day. He uses grim reapers like Alpert and Ethan to collect the scientific talent he needs to create his Hellspawn army. However, good and righteous people that have core values rebel against him. In the end, those who sacrifice and battle for good would be rewarded in the end by god (like a new life). The idea of the characters being dead has been reinforced by new characters coming to the island and saying that the 815ers were killed, or they themselves had been killed (Locke’s father was in a car crash.)
Naomi's statement to Hurley is too big to be a red herring. It makes sense that all the passengers died in the crash. But then what happened to them? Many cultures believe that when you die on earth you are re-materialized in either Heaven or Hell. Some cultures believe that you are re-materialized with the possessions around you when you die. Just before a person dies, it is said that that their life "flashes" before their eyes. This could be data collection from a person's memories for the re-materialization in the next realm.
What if the 815ers landed in Hell but don't know it? Hell is supposed to be fire and brimstone. But what if it is an island of psychological fears and tedious eternity is one's penance? (punching in numbers every 108 minutes, staring a TV monitors, watching patients die in OR, running away from Smokey).
In hell, a pregnant woman who dies can come to term; but a woman in hell can't come to term to create a "new" life.
But this little corner of Hell is special because Satan's minions (Ben's business card) are on a special mission: to create new life to go back through the Gate to Earth as the Devil's Hell Spawn army for the Rapture/Judgement Day. Juliet's research is all about creating new life where it should not occur naturally. That is why Ben will never allow her to leave.
So once the 815ers realize that they are "dead," and the evil purpose of the island Others, the epic battle between Good and Evil will occur.
(During the season, I speculated that when Jacob was confronted by Dead Locke at the Tarawet statue, to answer the plea, "they are coming," the cliffs would suddenly be filled with black winged devils ready to begin battle for control of the Island, which was the portal to heaven's gate).
And with various mythologies about the after life, and the LOST characters seemingly in endless missions, quests or tests, more background reasons for this theory:
Hell has seven Lodges, matching the seven Levels of Heaven. Medieval scholars worked out the different kinds sinners allocated to each Lodge, and each sub-section of each Lodge. Satan, naturally, is at the very bottom.
Although many parts of Hell are ablaze with fire, Satan himself dwells in a frozen lake of ice -- at least, according to the poet Dante.
Holy angels may also be found in Hell, dealing out punishments, controlling operations and keeping Satan and his minions in check. One such angel is Abaddon, known as the Angel of the Abyss, who keeps the keys of Hell.
In Season 3, Sayid and Kate ascended to the upper level of the Flame with Beatrice as a hostage. They came upon Mikhail, who was holding Locke as a hostage and during the confrontation, Beatrice and Mikhail began shouting to each other in Russian.
(Lostpedia Translation from Russian)
--Beatrice: "We can't risk it, you know the rules."
--Mikhail: "There's still a way out."
--Beatrice: "We won't let them into the territory. You know what to do. It is an order."
--Beatrice: "(English) Just do it, Mikhail!"
(Mikhail takes aim at Beatrice)
--Mikhail: "(English) Forgive me"
(Mikhail shoots Beatrice)
Since nothing in Hollywood is never truly unique, I thought the premise of LOST could be a modern adaptation of Paradise Lost (with elements of Dante's Inferno):
In Milton’s world view, the universe was represented just like the mobile above Aaron’s crib. The universe of planets, sun and stars was encapsulated by waters which fed the Earth and kept the raging forces of Chaos at bay. Outside the Universe sphere are the separate spheres of Heaven and Hell. In Dante’s work, after the rebellion in heaven, Satan and his devils were cast into Hell in the midst of Chaos. God then created a new universe which housed a new creature, Man, on Earth. Satan built a bridge to Earth through Chaos and brought evil to mankind, which lead to the banishment of man from Eden to the mortality of Earth.
In religion context, man has both a body and soul. Upon death on earth, one’s soul travels to another plane of existence. Some religions base that upon the sins of the past; others various stages of enlightenment and reincarnation; hell (punishment), purgatory (penance), limbo (pagan paradise) or heaven (resurrection, eternal paradise). In the afterlife, souls have new bodies (vessels). Various stages of the afterlife may be present in the ether of the after world, as the soul is cleansed of its mortal sins toward a path of enlightenment on final judgment. The mind would control afterlife matter.
What was left in Milton and Dante’s works was the revenge of Satan against God. There is an inference that Satan at some time would rise up to fight another battle for heaven. As Satan had found a path to invade his spiritual form to Earth, it would probably be much harder to breach the gates of heaven.
Thus, we get to the island. The island is a way station, a nexus point between the gates of heaven and the afterlife universe. The Hatch and the Numbers were the mechanism to maintain an electromagnetic barrier between the nexus bridge and the gates of heaven so Satan’s minions could not invade. When the numbers were not imputed to vent the EM, an alarm would sound, an internal barrier would drop and symbols would appear. I translated those Egyptian symbols to say “He escapes place of death.” Once the EM force field was down, the nexus point (island) was exposed - - and other souls (devils) could arrive through either Chaos or through a gate to Earth to take control of this strategic place.
The passengers on 815 were already in their afterlives. In the flashbacks, there are clues that these characters died: examples -- Hurley: deck collapse; Kate: car accidents; Sayid: Iraq war casualty; Rose: terminal cancer; Rousseau: shipwreck; Desmond: lost at sea in small boat. How everyone got on the plane is like the comment from Defending Your Life, how one imagines their demise is how they are transported to the next level of existence.
Three characters are special. They were either stillborn, or died shortly after birth. This would mean that they had no mortal sins. Ben (premature and born on roadside), Locke (mother hit by car, premature), and Alex (mother shipwrecked or died of the sickness). When Ben stated that he was born on the island, it was a reference that he was actually arrived in the afterlife as a rarity, a human soul without mortal sin. This would imply that he would have angelic powers. But those powers could be corrupted by other, fallen angels or Satan’s minions.
Stranger in Strange Land,
Thai Jack
The tattoo that Achara designed on Jack's arm translates to "He walks among us, but is not one of us."
I was still struck by this unexplained clue. Was Jack to become a religious symbol in the grand final battle between Heaven and Hell, as the "son of Christian?" In the end, some believe it was a much simpler statement: that Jack was the only one who truly "sacrificed" himself so that his friends could "live," i.e. leave their island prison. But there is no context for this explanation, even today, as we don't know if any of the survivors truly had a post-Island life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
