JACK WAS NOT A DOCTOR

Jack was not a medical doctor. He was never a great spinal surgeon. He never saved Sarah. It was all a lie or illusion.

Jack's back story is that of an incredibly talented surgeon. In 2001, Sarah's spine was severely crushed, and Jack told her she would never walk again. This bluntness bothered Christian. Sarah's fiance responded superficially upon hearing her condition, and Jack overstepped his professional relationship with Sarah, promising "to fix" her. He initially believed he failed, but a stadium runner named Desmond  suggested he may not have. Jack tearfully informed Sarah of his failure. She then wiggled her toes, and Jack realized he'd fixed her. The problem is that medical science would not have allowed such a miracle to happen. One cannot reconnect severed nerves.

In July of 2004, a nurse observed Jack's  intoxicated father botch a surgery. She called in Jack, who failed to save the patient. Christian asked he sign a falsified death report absolving him of blame, and though Jack initially refused, he later agreed. He then saw his father console the deceased woman's husband, who was threatening legal action, and learned the woman was pregnant when she died. Jack revised his statement, blaming his father's drinking for the patients' death. This cost Christian his medical license. In reality, Jack's conduct also would have cost him his medical license due to unprofessional conduct and malpractice under strict California regulations.

So Jack's back story is highly suspect. However, he could have "believed" that this happened to him because of the inner, subconscious desire to be "better" than his father, so Christian would acknowledge him. But if Jack as a boy was driven to prove himself to his father, but failed because he lacked the talent or will, then one could assume that would lead Jack down a dark path, emotionally and psychologically.  It could have led him into depression, drugs and alcoholism.

On the island, "miracle doctor" Jack had a horrible track record. Jack could not save the Marshall, Boone, Shannon or Sayid.  He refused to help an injured Colleen, which violates his oath as a physician. Beyond basic first aid, Jack really did not perform any highly skilled medical miracles on the island.

But it was his conduct with Ben's medical problem that is a real issue. Jack's review of Ben's spinal x-ray was wrong. The tumor was diagnosed on the wrong lumbar number. He later incorrectly stated that Ben's symptoms would be in his fingers and toes. Such symptoms are generally characteristic of cervical tumors - in the neck, not lower back (which would be toes only). Then when Jack now agreed to operate on Ben,  he deliberately cut Ben's kidney sack during the surgery, which based on the state of the OR and lack of personnel and blood, would have killed Ben, especially after he woke up during the surgery!

So what about the two different "versions" of Jack? The pre-island miracle doctor vs. the ordinary man on the island.

It could be argued that the pre-island version of Jack was Jack's own ego. A dream, fantasy, a mental condition of greatness because Jack could not equal his father's accomplishments. This puts Jack as a candidate for the theories that the LOST premise was all made up in the mind of a mental patient, or at least someone trapped in their own deep fantasy world.

It would stand to reason then that the pre-island back stories could also not be true. They could be the fantasies of the characters - - - such as Kate murdering her abusive father. She never did it; but she thought about it. The same would be true for Sawyer. He never became a con man to track down his parents killer.

But that still opens the question of whether the island was "real" or part of an imaginary, collective community dream (or massive on-line game, the latter being characteristic for all the "loners" in the series). Assuming that Jack landed on the island under his own cover of being a doctor, it is odd that no one challenged him when he made medical mistakes. Was everyone else naive, scared or plain dumb? Or, again in a game setting, it really did not matter. You chose your own character.

The idea that Jack was not really a doctor is intriguing because it opens up other avenues of investigation into the unanswered mysteries. If one part of the LOST experience was not "real" in the sense of actual events (such as Jack's back story), that may help explain the massive continuity errors in island events. It could also give us a clue to the basic premise of the show.

TIME

One of the gnawing questions that remain in the LOST mythology is the concept of Time.

It is hard to understand how the writers viewed the concept of Time other than a convenient Deux Machina plot twist.

 We were almost in a real time mode for the first four seasons. We saw the daily struggles of the main characters on the island. Time was a linear constant. Events followed a cause and effect pattern. Time seemed to pass normally.

Then the unexplained time and space shifts. The island disappears and the O6 survivors make it back to the mainland in late 2004 or early 2005. However, only a selected few of the island characters are time skipped to 1974 to live with Dharma for three years, while the ones left behind, especially Claire, have to fend for themselves on the island during that time period. We know Claire goes crazy in her fight against the Others. We know Sawyer becomes the new sheriff in the barracks past, and meets a young Ben before he is corrupted.

The O6 live for three years off the island. Then in 2007, they return to the island when the Ajira plane goes through the same island net. Again, for some unexplained reason, several of the passengers get time warped to 1977 Dharma while the rest crash land on the Hydra Island in 2007.  However, is another side time realm, the ghosts of the characters created the sideways world living their lives as if it was 2004. And once the 1977 crew reunites with the 2007 island time line after the Incident, we get back to about 14 consecutive days of island events to the conclusion.

Besides the criticism that the whole time shift to the 1970s was irrelevant to the characters survival story, the 7 days that are the 2004 sideways event time line is still different than the 14 days island time line after the time shifters reunion.

Since the sideways world was an after life place for the dead, if it was created in 2004 at or about the plane crash time, why did it only move along for a week when the characters were living at least three years (1,095 days)? And since the sideways world moved along on a daily basis (we saw the events unfold in a normal order), does that really mean that the sideways world was actually created in late 2007, one week after the 1977 folks returned to the island?

So what happened on Day 7 in 2007 on the island to create the sideways world?

The main episode was called "Sundown." In it, the following events occurred:

• Sayid barges into Dogen's chamber, demanding answers. Dogen tells him that he believes him to be evil, and the discussion escalates into a fight, after which Dogen tells Sayid to leave the Temple and never come back. 
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• As Sayid is preparing to leave, Claire enters the Temple at the behest of the Man in Black, and tells Dogen to come out and speak with him. Dogen refuses, and sends Sayid instead, giving him and dagger and telling him to kill the Man in Black.
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• Sayid leaves the Temple to meet the Man in Black, and on his way encounters Kate, who intending to return to the Temple and proceeds to do so. Upon encountering the Man in Black, Sayid stabs him with the knife given to him by Dogen to no effect. After this the two talk, and the Man in Black tells him that he can resurrect Nadia and to return to the Temple and tell everyone inside that if they do not leave by sundown, they will be killed. 
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• Upon returning to the Temple, Kate learns from Miles that Claire is there, and finds her, having been captured by the Others, in a hole inside the Temple. She tells him about Aaron and the fact that she raised him, and says she is here to save her. Claire responds that she is "not the one who needs saving." 
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• Sayid returns to the Temple and delivers this message, resulting in many Others leaving the Temple, including Cindy and the children. He then goes to the spring inside the Temple, where he meets Dogen. Dogen reveals to him that in his past life off the island, he was driving drunk with his son in the car and crashed. While he was in the hospital, Jacob came to him and said he would save his son's life if he came to the island. After he tells Sayid this, Sayid throws him into the spring and holds him under, drowning him. Lennon then walks in and is killed by Sayid with the knife given to him by Dogen. 
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• Immediately after Dogen's death, the Monster enters the Temple and begins killing everyone in sight. Just as he arrives, Ilana, Ben, Sun and Frank arrive at the Temple as well. The group sans Ben, who has went to find Sayid, meets up with Miles and escapes the Temple through a hidden passageway. 
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• Ben finds Sayid sitting over the bodies of Dogen and Lennon, and Sayid refuses to come with him. Meanwhile, Kate finds Claire, and together the two of them, along with Sayid, exit the temple to meet the Man in Black, along with the Others who left the Temple before Sundown. Then, led by the Main in Black, the group leaves the Temple.

• Escaping the Temple, Ben encounters Ilana, Frank, Sun and Miles some distance outside. Miles communicates with Jacob's spirit via his ashes, which Ilana took from the statue, and learns that Ben killed Jacob. After this they leave, heading for the beach camp. 

 The Temple showdown was the main action during this time period. And the smoke monster came through after Jacob's death to wipe out all of the non-followers of MIB. Was Jacob's death or the smoke monster's ransacking of the Temple the catalyst that created the sideways world? There is a problem with that theory because at the time, Desmond and Penny were not on the island. They were living their own life with their son, Charlie. Yet, Desmond was a major player in the sideways world (without Penny or his son).

We also get a window into Jacob's capture of Dogen's soul. It seems that Dogen was placed on the island as punishment for nearly killing his son in an auto accident. It seems like Dogen made a parental bargain with the devil - - - his life for that of his son's.  So this adds a clue and a question of whether the island time was actually real, or in a different dimension like the sideways world.

The various time events do not synch up in any logical fashion.

Time, it appears, was merely used as a plot device to throw new dangers at characters or to misdirect or confuse the viewers who were seeking answers to the big questions.

MASS STUPIDITY

There were more than a few hair-pulling screams at the TV screen during LOST's run. Many commentators threw in the towel when none of the main characters would ask each other important questions. Many commentators spit out their adult beverages when characters would do 180 degree personality turns.

One explanation for these dumb character turns is mass psychology.

Mass psychology isn't a new science. In 1895 a French social psychologist named Gustav LeBon wrote a book called The Crowd: a Study of the Popular Mind.   The author basically concludes that people tend to do stupid things when operating as a group.

Well, that is a concise statement of fact.

In LOST, the "group think" was always in play. And many dumb things happened as a result. It was always odd that the group split in half when Jack wanted to move the camp to the safety of the caves (and a fresh water supply). That seemed to be the most logical and sound plan. But the group division was made when most of the survivors preferred to stay on the beach in the hope of rescue. But that same group did nothing to help the cause of rescue (such as a signal fire, an SOS, or building a raft until much later).

One of the strangest group think missions was journey to the radio tower. Why the entire group had to go on a long, dangerous jungle trek to a malfunctioning radio tower made no sense. In the past, a few survivors would trek into the jungle on a mission to find dynamite, a kidnapped person like Walt or Claire, or to hunt for food. But having the entire camp march up the mountain to see the tower and listen to a signal wasted time and resources. The dumbness was revealed when after reaching the group goal, the entire group then turned around and marched back down to the beach.

Then there were the oddest group decision. When Jack's gang is rescued by Penny's boat, he made the suggestion that they all "lie" about the events in order to "protect" the people left behind. This was dumb for many reasons, the first and foremost was that they all saw the island vanish - - - so there was no evidence there was anyone left alive to protect. Then the group decision to create an elaborate back story of survival to throw rescuers from the island also made no sense since the group had no idea where the island was in the first place. If the O6 really wanted to save their friends, they would have told the authorities the truth and led their own mercenary force to liberate the island.

Another strange decision was the group cult status of the Others. They followed Ben, but did not trust him. They worshipped Jacob, but Jacob really did not care about them. They lived like gypsies in the wild while their leaders took over the Barracks. Alpert said that the Others had a different mission than Ben's, especially on the pregnant women dying issue. So why did the Others remain loyal to an outsider like Ben? Out of fear, tradition or just dumb group think?

One explanation of the dumb group think is that all of the people coming to the island have some traumatic events in their lives, including surviving shipwrecks, plane crashes and kidnapping. It is also possible that the "infection" affects the mind to numb the primal instincts and curiosity as a means of controlling people on the island. Likewise, the unique electromagnetic energy source could affect mental abilities.  Or it could be sloppy writing and a lack of continuity.

Whatever the cause, there was a mass psychology event playing out in the series. Whether the final phase of this was the characters "creating" a false after life in the sideways world is unclear.

FORGIVENESS

To err is human, to forgive divine - - - Alexander Pope

 

The main characters often said "I'm sorry" to each other, usually after misreading another's intentions.

 

But was the show about forgiveness?

 

Forgiveness is a pardon, absolution, exoneration, remission, dispensation, indulgence, clemency, mercy; reprieve, or amnesty.

The one person who was given the greatest pardon or reprieve was Ben, when he was spared his own death after killing Jacob. Ben had a megalomaniac history of horrible deeds, finishing with killing his own demigod, Jacob. But he was forgiven. And apparently it changed him (at least in the sideways world as a geeky school teacher who wants to make up for his island past by helping Alex and Danielle in their memory erased after life.)

The one person who had the most personal demons was Kate. Her criminal behavior rooted in a delusion of helping to free her mother from an abusive relationship did not result in punishment but clemency. She did not go to jail for murder. She did not go to jail for bank robbery or thefts. She got an unbelievable gift of freedom for a person whose entire life on the run was freedom from responsibility.

The one person who needed the most dispensation was Jack. His life turned into a downward spiral after his father's death because he could not cope with the fact he could not be his equal in his father's own eyes. (It was only after death when that reconciliation happened). Jack had built a quality life for himself: a miracle medical practice, professional respect, a loving first wife - - - that all crumbed through his mental paranoia and drug addictions. But the viewers (and island characters, especially Kate) would forgive his transgressions because deep down, Jack was an honest and good soul.

The one person who lucked out and did not stand for any of his crimes was Sawyer. He got amnesty by falling to earth via the plane crash. And his time on the island fulfilled his one vengeful desire to kill the man who indirectly killed his parents, Cooper. But Sawyer did not go to hell for his bad deeds. Instead, his sideways after life had him in a responsible position as a police detective.

The one character who was granted an indulgence was Hurley. He was self-conscious about his appearance, his intelligence, his personality that his life was going to captured in a career grease monkey at fast food franchises. He had no drive after his father left his family. He blamed himself for other people's misfortunes. He became so self-conscious that he had admitted mental problems, including imaginary friends. When his life derailed with the plane crash, it was a break from his mainland pressures. He could find the things that were missing in his life: real friends and a woman who would truly care for him.