GUILT & SHAME

One of the undercurrents in LOST was the troubled back stories of the main characters. One of the most pulp fiction background relationships was between Boone and his stepsister, Shannon.

In the category, the Rich have hard lives, this relationship had a creepy guilt and shame dynamic.

Boone Carlyle was Shannon's stepbrother. Before Flight 815,  he had been used by Shannon for money and as a result of this, his love for her was revealed and they had a one-night stand.

Boone Carlyle was the son of Sabrina Carlyle, and stepson of Adam Rutherford, a man who was killed in the auto accident in which Jack "saved" Sarah. When Sabrina and Adam  married when Boone was ten, and Shannon, who was two years his junior, became his step-sister. His parents frequently left him with a nanny when he was young, and Boone, angry at being left alone, called her to his room repeatedly without cause. During one of these calls, when Boone was six, the nanny fell and broke her neck.  This may be the impetus of Boone's character trait of helping Shannon throughout her life; guilt.

By the time he had turned 20, Boone was living in New York. After flying back to Los Angeles for Adam Rutherford's  funeral, Boone comforted Shanno by giving his underage stepsister some alcohol to mollify her grief. He told Shannon she could live with him in New York if it would help get her career as a dance instructor started. After Shannon got the job, Boone was then offered a job by his mother. He accepted the job as the Chief Operating Officer of the wedding clothing subsidiary and he had to move from New York. Shannon had asked him to ask his mother for some money, but he came back empty handed. He that said his mother knew why he asked for the money. Boone then offered Shannon some of his own money to get her started in New York without him, but she refused because she wanted to prove herself. Shannon would fail in her attempts (feeble at best) to be self-sufficient and independent. She was daddy's little girl, who got anything she wanted from him, but when he was gone she was mad that her life had been so disrupted by his death. She would be seeking out other men to take care of her. She polished a devious streak to get what she wanted from men.

Although he would not openly admit it to anyone, Boone was in love with Shannon and he would do anything to help her out of her jams.  He paid men to end Shannon's abusive relationships. Shannon would take advantage of Boone's feelings. He received a phone call from Shannon pleading for him to come and help her with her boyfriend, Bryan,  in Sydney. Boone flew to Australia and, although she initially denied there was anything wrong, Shannon showed him a bruise on her forehead discreetly, as Bryan kicked Boone out of their house. He went to the police station to file a report but the Detective was unwilling to help because Boone and Shannon were not blood related, and joked, they were not the "dating police." Boone decided to take matters into his own hands.

He tried to bribe Bryan to leave Shannon. He took the money, but when Boone came to pick up Shannon, Bryan was still there - - - willing to share the loot with Shannon. In other words, Boone was conned into giving Shannon $50,000. There was a fight, and Boone lost.  Later that night, Shannon appeared at Boone's hotel room and told him that Byran had left her, taking all the money. They had drinks, and the alone Shannon seduced Boone. Afterward, Boone felt confused and dejected when Shannon suggested that they return to LA and act if nothing happened that night.

Throughout his time on the Island, Boone would spend a lot of his time with Shannon before finally getting over his love for her and letting her go. He later became Locke's apprentice when the two discovered the Hatch and they formed a close friendship.  Unable to open the Hatch, they followed a dream Locke had and found a small plane sitting on a cliff. Boone climbed up into the plane but suffered severe injuries when the plane fell to the ground. Despite Jack's  best attempts to save him, Boone realized he was going to die and told Jack to let him go. After Boone's death, Locke described him as a "sacrifice the Island demanded."

Shannon's time on the island was not one of personal growth. She kept to her spoiled trust fund persona, rarely helping out. Boone's death did affect her deeply, but it may have been slightly more shame on how she treated him that deep affection. For Shannon, being totally alone, began to seek out company of someone to support her. That person was Sayid, but their relationship was very brief, as Shannon was killed accidently by Ana Lucia.  Sayid's grief over Shannon's death was much more than Shannon had when Boone perished.

So despite the close relationship between Boone and Shannon, they were not "together" in the after life reunion. For little apparent reason, Sayid was reunited with Shannon (and not Nadia). And Boone, like his friend Locke, had no one to sit next to during the final church sequence. Why Boone, who only tried to help his step sister throughout her life, was punished with a lonely eternity, is one of those major downers in the story. And Shannon, who used men to support her, and had little moral principles in doing so, was rewarded in the after life. Life is not fair.

MOTHER

If the Island is a living supernatural being, it may have always needed one thing: a mother.

If we look back at the disjointed time line of the Island, we find that a mother figure is prominent. First, we have the Tawawet statue which was probably created more than 4,500 years ago. It was probably created for an Egyptian goddess who was the Island guardian. Second, we have Crazy Mother from the Roman era. She is the one who was alone on the island until she kidnapped Jacob and his brother. Jumping to near the end of the linear time line before the Flight 815 crash, there was another motherly presence, and Other named Amelia.

On the day of the crash, Amelia arrived early to Juliet's for the book club meeting. Seeing Ethan working outside on her way in, she jokingly chastised him for taking so long to fix Juliet's plumbing. Inside, Amelia noticed that Juliet was upset about something, and pressed her to know what it was about. Juliet then requested that Amelia not tell anyone what she was about to show her. As Juliet was about to reveal Ben's X-rays, they were interrupted by the doorbell; presumably other book club members had arrived. 

During the book club meeting, Amelia seemed amused with Juliet's argument against Adam, regarding her book choice, Carrie.  The meeting was interrupted by the commotion of Flight 815 crashing on the Island, an event that Amelia was present to witness.

Why should any importance be given to such a minor background character.

There are several clues which fans have stitched together to form a theory. 

Amelia is of German origin, and its meaning is "work of the lord." For those who tend to believe the purgatory premise to the show, she could represent an authoritative or guiding presence for any island visitor, such as Juliet.

She shares a first name with famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart, whose plane vanished over the Pacific Ocean in July 1937. In 1937 she engaged in an attempt to fly across the world, but on July 2 of that year, she and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared in the Pacific. Her remains have never been officially confirmed to have been found, but she was officially declared dead on January 5 of 1939.

There is another connection to the LOST story line and this event. As with the 815 wreckage being discovered, in 1937 a pilot searching for Earhart  was lost near the Sunda Trench off coast of Sumatra.

Further, he name of the airport that is shown to be used by Mittelos Bioscience in "One of Us" was Herarat Aviation; "Herarat" is an anagram of "Earhart."

Theorists speculate that Amelia could be Annie's mother. On the very last page in the book Carrie that they are reading in the book-club, there is an excerpt from a letter sent by a woman named Amelia to her sister. She explains that her daughter, Annie, seems to have telekinetic powers. However, it is more likely that Annie could have been her granddaughter. The person from the island past and present with the most "knowledge" of the Island and other people's thoughts or actions was Eloise Hawking. Young Eloise in the 1950s flash would have been in her late teens if she was born on the island in 1940.

It is possible that Amelia was Amelia Earhart, who was lost over the Pacific just like the survivors of Flight 815. It is possible that Amelia herself, could have been the cause of the Oceanic plane crash. If Earhart crashed on the Island, she and her co-pilot could have been the second Adam and Eve. Earnhart would have 107 years old in 2004. The Island's healing powers and alternative time dynamics would make her age irrelevant. 

So if Amelia was Amelia Earhart, the lost aviator, what does that mean to the LOST universe?

The balance of the island needs to have a motherly temperament in order to balance out the mood swings of children. The one thing that Jacob truly regretted was the death of Crazy Mother. Ever since that moment, the Island was put into a long, grueling pitched battle of "corrupt" humans trying to fill that void. There was a long stretch of peace during the Amelia time frame, such that the Dharma Institute built huge improvements and stations. But that all changed when Ben, who had no mother, possessed the anger to purge the Dharma members and put the Island back into a state of chaos. 


At that point, change may only come through the magic box. If one had strong enough feelings and experience to create their wish to materialize, who else could know about and survive a plane crash than Amelia Earhart. She could tell from the book club that Juliet had terrible news (the Island was no longer healing people) and that the Others themselves were turning on each other with their arguments over trivial matters like books. At that moment, Amelia thought of drastic change - - - and her subconscious experience brought down Flight 815 to set off a chain reaction toward a new island peace with the removal of Jacob and his game of human pawns with MIB.

Until that happened, Amelia's motherly feeling that children should not be born on an island in turmoil led to the infertility problems.  We do not see her again in the series. We do not see her perish. We do not see her at the Temple. We do not see her as a Flocke follower. This means that she may have been more independent and above the politics of the island groups which shows that she is older, wiser and more cunning than those who believed they were in charge. If so, she would have been the power behind the curtain, not Jacob. 


There is nothing more powerful than a mother's love; she will fight for, defend or give up her own life to save her children. The maternal instinct is strong. It is a calming influence for those who are scared, upset, hurt or lost.
 

FAITH WITHOUT RELIGION

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do. — Johann Von Goethe

One of the main plot themes was the apparent conflict between faith and science. However, science was never explained and faith had no true religious context.

Locke was a drawn as a man of faith, but he did not practice any organized religion. He wanted or desired to be a different person. As a boy he did not want to be a student scientist but a jock. It was not his faith in any particular thing that moved along his life. It was more fate, a predetermined pathway which one has no control over. Destiny is a meaningful end to a journey involving fate, but Locke's end was not heroic or meaningful. As in life, as in his death at the hands of Ben, he was a pawn, a follower, an anti-hero.

Even those who expressed beliefs were not true believers. Eko was posing a priest because it was a means to save his own hide from the authorities. He may have been despondent that his criminal actions caused his brother's death, but he did not have a conversion to a religious man to make amends for his sins. It was a cover that could not contain his anger.  He had no qualms about killing the Others who attacked the Tailies camp. 

If there is a lesson, it is that people really do not change. Sayid may have said his morning prayers but he did not bow to commandments of his religion. He used the aspects of his religion not for faith but as a means to try to keep his own Iranian identity that had been taken away after the war. His desire to be an independent person was lost when the U.S. military turned him into a spy. He was not independent on the island either; he turned into Ben's henchman, then later when darkness consumed him, a follower of MIB/Flocke.

After the crash, Rose knew things would be okay. Some would think it was faith, a wish, a hope. Others would think that she knew because she knew herself - - - when the pains of her cancer left her body, she knew she did too. It was not a religious revelation, but an acknowledgement or realization that she had passed on.

This may be the context of character beliefs in the series.

Instead of the back stories (the flashbacks) being about each character's past, they may have been actual flash forwards of what each person's life "could have been" if they had not died at a young age. The unbelievable coincidence that the main characters would wind up all together in Sydney is more palatable if they were being sorted into groups at some cosmic soul factory.

We have discussed previously the idea that the main characters were dead souls making a harsh journey through the afterlife. We also have discussed previously the concept that the main characters "died" before Flight 815 took off. For example, when Jack was severely beaten by the school yard bully and hit his head, at that moment, Jack could have died (there have been numerous examples of punching deaths in Chicago area in the last few years). Or, when premature Locke was born at a rural hospital in 1950s, he was not a "miracle" baby but actually died because medical science could not save his life. Kate could have been hit by a car when she was fleeing the dime store with the stolen lunchbox (or even blown up in the house explosion). Sawyer's father could have killed his entire family (which is also a current trend in even quiet suburban homes today). And Hurley could have been one of the two people who died in the porch collapse.

What happens when a person's life is cut short?  Maybe certain souls get a chance to "live" a fantasy life before crossing over. For example, Hurley dies in the porch collapse. His life is cut short with serious issues left unresolved, including the abandonment by his father. As a result, his one true wish to have his family back together again can only been done if he magically "wins" the lottery. In his fantasy back story, he wins the lottery but such joy is tempered by unintended consequences (probably brought on by his deep emotional childhood issues). Even with money, his father's return, Hurley's second life is not fulfilling because he is still shy, naive and without self confidence. At this point, the cosmic sorting machine brings together other lost souls with unresolved issues and places them together in the final act of the second lives, the island world.

So what happens when these lost young souls come to the island as the final leg of their underworld journey? Some find their own answers, like Hurley, who experiences love with Libby. Some need some form of reformation or acknowledgement like Jack by his father. Others, like Michael, are not ready to move on because they have compounded their spiritual issues or in some ways want or need to be further punished (Michael being imprisoned on the island for killing Anna Lucia and Libby) in their own mind. In this way, there is no religious context to any character's journey. It is one of self discovery and self-fulfillment. In Michael's case, he wanted, desired and demanded that he be punished for his actions. In Sawyer's case, he wanted, desired and worked to change his con artist ways into a normal family situation with Juliet. The island gave them the means to put their desires into action so they could learn what it takes to become who they wanted to be in their lost real lives.

So what about Locke? His resolution in the church was a lonely one. He had no one to cross over with - - - except if one looks at what was missing from Locke's death at an early age, he had it in the church: friends. Locke had found friends, some as close as siblings, so in the end he had what was missing in his life: a family. 

In one respect, everyone in the sideways church embodied the concept of family. An extended family created by the extended second life in the spirit world for lost souls who died early, without the opportunity to experience the ups and downs of being a part of a family unit.