EVOLUTION

Harville Hendrix wrote, "Nature doesn't care that you are comfortable, only that you evolve."

LOST's creators continually stated that the show was more about character development than solving the myriad of  mysteries the writers threw at viewers.

In a typical character development, a person is put into an unfamiliar, often dangerous situation. The person then has to reflect on what is happening around him. He must determine based upon internal conflicts (experience, dreams, goals, etc) on how to proceed. It begins a journey of discovery, enlightenment, change and growth. Throughout the journey, he is tested, choices made, doubts created, strengths pushed to the limit to reach a final realization of one's self.

Weaved in this journey are themes we call life lessons. They can be coupled with moral tones, vices, bad choices, blind spots, naive behavior or self-destructive tendencies. But in the end, the character has to change, for better or worse, of the journey itself was meaningless. And the reader is left with a bitter taste of wasting time investing in a story with no true end.

Did LOST's main character have great personal development?

That remains an open question.

If we start with Locke as a young boy, we find that his life was a journey of mistakes, bad choices, social awkwardness and inability to find his place in society.

He was a miracle premature baby who survived his mother's car collision in rural, 1950s America. He was abandoned by his birth parents to grow up in foster homes as an outsider. He was smart, but wanted to be a jock. But he was not good enough so he fit into neither group. He became a loner. The more he grew up, the more sullen he became since he was missing the one thing other kids had: a family. So he spent much of his time trying to find a family unit. He would bounce from entry level job to job trying to find a permanent connection. But his deep seeded fears of abandonment and mistrust sabotaged most of his relationships. His fears were realized when he re-connected with his parents only to have his father steal his kidney and cripple him for life by pushing him through a high rise window.

So Locke's past contained so much baggage that he was a prime candidate for a character's "hero journey" of evolution. But did he did a hero's ending?

Sadly, no. Locke's sad life turned into a sad death.

The island "magic" apparently "cured" Locke's paralysis when he crash landed with the other survivors. He took it personally as a sign, a "miracle," a chance to be the person he dreamed he was going to be as a boy. Locke wanted to be a respected, swashbuckling, Outback, adventure-loving leader of men and lover of women.

Everyone on the island had an opportunity to shed their past and create a new self image.

In Locke's case, he started strong as being a hunter-food provider. But when the majority of the castaways gravitated toward the charismatic doctor, Jack, for survival, Locke became upset. He retreated to become a gregarious loner. Sure, he got along with many of the characters but most merely tolerated his ramblings. He never received the respect or admiration he thought he deserved.

He had an opportunity to become the leader of the 815 survivors, but Jack and Sawyer were chosen over him. He had an opportunity to become the true leader of the Others, but he could not bring it upon himself to kill his own father. 

Even when he "sacrificed" himself at ghost Shepherd's suggestion, only then did Sawyer give him faint praise after Locke turned the FDW to reset the island time skips.

When he returned to the States, Locke had several choices. He could have turned his back on the island and its harsh surreality. Or he could find himself back living a lonely existence in his new wheelchair. Instead, he was manipulated by Widmore like he had been manipulated by Ben to do someone's else's bidding. But Locke failed in his quest to get everyone back to the island.

In a seedy hotel room, Locke decided to commit suicide, a coward's not a hero's way out. Before he was about to do the deed, he was interrupted by Ben. Ben convinced him that his life still had value. That he was needed on the island. That he had to go back with him to make everything right. He had to go back to save his "friends." But after Locke slipped with the information on how he could get back to the island, through Mrs. Hawking, Ben strangled Locke whose last thoughts according to Flocke was "I don't understand."

Most viewers did not understand why MIB, the smoke monster, needed to inhabit Locke's corpse or assume his identity in order to overthrown Jacob. MIB did take Locke's memories to begin to manipulate the survivors, including those who let live after the Temple massacre. But if there was still a part of Locke in MIB's use of his memories, image or character - - - Locke failed to fight back or control MIB.

In the end, Locke winds up in the sideways church. He seems happy at the reunion, but how could he be? He sat in a pew alone. There was no one special present for him. Not his late girlfriend. Not his mother. No one. Throughout his life, Locke failed to make a special bond with any one person in order to "move on" in the after life. Locke's journey did not end in a hero's quest or salvation but as a sad footnote.

BUGS IN THE SYSTEM

What is the meaning of Life?

It is a question that humans have contemplated since they became aware of their own existence, and then their own mortality.

From a purely objective standpoint, what are the roles of humans on this planet.

Basically, we all gather energy, consume energy, store energy, and use energy. The byproduct of all these biochemical factors is the create of waste. Waste that is then used as food/energy source by the smallest microbes. Some scientists have compared the human body to that of a complex industrial factory. Instead of an actual product at the end of the production line, the final discharge is human waste.

Evolutionists believe that from the primordial muck, bits of chemical molecules began to bond together to create more complex life forms like microbes and bacteria. Over time, these single cell creatures evolved into multi-cell beings to the current highly complex animal species. But throughout this entire evolutionary chain, the same basic tenet applies: life needs to find, consume, store and use energy in order to live. The microbe level breaks down chemicals and materials from higher life forms or found in nature. But if nature is a matter of creating efficiencies, in closed ecosystems of mutual cooperation (such as trees releasing oxygen for humans and humans releasing carbon dioxide needed for tree growth), then it makes sense to see that humans are the greatest microbe factory to feed microbes their favorite food sources - - - waste.

The microbe theory can be applied to LOST in the sense that the smoke monster appears to be a complex form of nanobots or microbes that have evolved into an intelligent being. The smoke monster preyed upon human beings - - - but not in the normal biochemical consumption sense, but a different form of energy - - - emotional.

Though never discussed by TPTB, one could tangentially say that one good theory for the show's "big theme" could be the evolutionary process on mankind is really the continuation of micro-biology finding bigger and better ways to support the smallest life forms on the planet. People are the sheep created by then herded by the microbes. Mankind's own self-importance and arrogance would erase any concept that they are food factories for the unseen bugs that populate every surface on the planet.

EVOLUTION OF THE SPECIES

In the past decade, there has been some scientific debate in regard to potential changes in the human species. In studying the genes of X and Y chromosomes, it appears that there is less genetic material in the Y or male chromosomes. And when compared to other mammals, there seems to be a pattern of the genes in the Y turning off over time. The Y component produces male testes and the male form of the species. But if it slowly fades away through an evolutionary process, that would mean that humans are moving toward a woman dominated society. At that point, scientists wonder how human beings would be able to reproduce.

In nature, mutations occur to solve such problems. Some animals can actually change gender in order to procreate. Others could possibly fold their genetic strands upon themselves to create a pregnancy with complete XX genetic material.

In any such transition period, the female population would statistically grow larger than the male population. Females would become the dominate society leaders. Females would then set the standards for procreation including identifying their attributes for their mates. In advanced cultures, this can take technology to the new level to remove the male element from the procreation process all together.

In the background of LOST, we see hints of this evolutionary process taking shape.

In the Others camp, Ben was the sadistic leader who had the power, but females like Juliet are smarter, shrewder and have more common sense to survive.

In the beach camp, Jack was the reluctant leader, but Kate seemed to have more common sense survival skills on their missions. She also had the skills to manipulate men to do what she wanted them to do for her. Also, Rose was a more dominate character than her husband, Bernard. Sun had a much more global perspective than Jin.

And the idea that Sun became pregnant on the island when she and Jin were infertile couple touches upon the end of the evolutionary cycle where females are self-producing their own offspring. Interestingly, her offspring was a girl.

The female characters in the series were reserved but had deeper strengths than most of their male counterparts.