A Japanese proverb states, "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare."
Modern people are caught in a cruel dilemma. Cultures impose upon individuals a sense of what is expected of them during their lifetime. Families also impose certain structures, values and goals upon their children which may or may not be realistic. Early experiences shape future actions more than people realize, especially the psychological underpinnings of self-esteem, self-worth, shyness, openness or personal anxieties.
The biggest governor in a person's life is the hard wired defense mechanism that a person does not want to get hurt. Hurt, being physical or emotional. As we grow older, the emotional buffer grows stronger because the mental pain of rejection hits deeper.
This post will not get into whether LOST was a daydream or nightmare premise of some character(s).
It is interesting to look deeper into the proverb's claim.
The hardest thing a person has do mentally is set forth action to overcome a difficult thought.
The classic example of this is a young man getting the courage and inner strength to ask his crush for a date. The ramifications for him are huge. If she says yes, then the weight of the world melts from his shoulders. She likes him. OK. That is the start he was looking for (nervous success to follow). But if she says no, then the young man is crushed. He let himself be venerable by asking the question with the high expectation of a "yes" answer. This experience of pain can haunt him, especially the next time a similar situation happens in his life.
Everyone's mind is a set of dominoes of these types of experiences. One may set off a chain reaction of withdrawal from society. One may set off a relief valve of wayward expectations being corralled into common sense. It is how people work out and balance the fear factor to the potential reward is how one can live a meaningful and happy life.
A happy life is not necessarily what other people give you. A happy life is what you make of yourself.
But if you are leading an unfulfilled life, one may get more and more caught up in the daydream of a better life. In your mind, the perfect world can be created to insulate yourself from the pain, fear and pressures of interacting with real people. When a daydream takes over a person's focus and bleeds into their daily routine, the person becomes their own anti-social island. Within the confines of their dream island, nothing can go wrong or hurt them because they control the outcome.
But in real life, you don't control the outcome of events. It may be random chance, hard work or a factor of opportunity over latent skill that leads to variable results. You can do the same thing over and over again to get variable results. There are infinite possibilities even in finite situations.
But if the insulated daydream takes over you to the point of not being able to cope in normal, real world situations (which makes your work suffer, your family estranged, or become a shut-in without friends), you create your own island prison of self-contempt.
It is tough to reverse that course because a person builds up layers of defenses to keep from feeling any bad memory pain. The more the defenses, the more difficult it is to open up your mind to gauge reality from fiction.
Hurley is probably the best example of this daydream-nightmare dynamic. His parental abandonment led to deep seated pain and anxiety about his self-worth. He was depressed to the point of changing his appearance to keep people away. He became secretive. He became a wall flower. When he had the courage to ask the record store girl to go out with him, he was on top of the world until his one best friend turned on him - - - after he kept his lottery winnings to himself. Hurley lost the girl and his friend. He retreated more into his fantasy world (creating imaginary friend, Dave, to take the place of everyone who had hurt him). But it was actually Dave's last appearance on the island that was the path for Hurley to break free of his daydream nightmare. He had to leap off the cliff of self-delusion in order to "wake up" to the reality that he is a good, nice person who had a place in the real world. People would like him. He could find new friends. He could find a good job. He could find a girl and be happy.
But Libby, his dream girl, stopped Hurley from making that great mental leap. And that is the pull of the dream world - - - it keeps one in a safe illusion of happiness even though you are hurting your chances to find real happiness.
Hurley is symbolic of the average person caught between the expectations of others and their own personal issues or demons. You want to be accepted by your peers. You want to make your parents proud. You want to enjoy what you do. But the voice in your head keeps telling you that if you take that action, you will be sorry.
The greatest regrets in life are those "what if" moments of inaction. If you act and fail, then chalk it up to experience. If you don't act (and don't get a positive or negative result), then you are stuck in personal quicksand and that opportunity is lost.
As you can tell, many LOST themes are woven into this situation, including illusion, island, regret, depression, mental issues, and friendship. The idea of self-growth being self-directed is the base line coda of human life. You cannot wait for someone to come by to make you instantly happy. It never happens that way - - - even in the movies.
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hope. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2016
Friday, April 22, 2016
FINDING LOST CASTAWAYS
Three men left on a day boat trip between two Micronesian islands. A large wave hit their boat, overturning the 19-foot craft. They swam a few miles to the nearest land mass, an unihabited island called Fanadik, which is located a few hundred miles north of Papua New Guinea.
When the men did not arrive at their destination by the next day, relatives called the US Coast Guard. A joint Navy-Coast Guard operation to find the men was started. But there are countless tiny islands in Micronesia, and they would not have found them if the men had not used palm leaves to spell out their distress signal on the beach. A Navy plane spotted the sign early Thursday morning. A boat was dispatched from nearby Pulap, their original destination, to bring the men home.
In LOST, the series, the plane crash survivors did little, if anything to get the attention of potential rescuers.
In the beginning, there was not big attempt to light signal fires or mark the beaches with HELP signs. The only thing the passengers did was to burn the airplane debris to stop disease and wild boar attacks. It was Bernard, after several Others attacks, who decided it was time to start signal fires on the beach. But it was long after the initial crash, no one helped him.
Michael got fed up with the lack of attention of finding a way off the island to build two rafts. The first one was scuttled by his son, Walt, who did not want to leave the island and his new friends. The second raft was intercepted by the Others and sunk.
When Desmond's fixed sailboat was found, Sayid's group decided to use it to rescue Kate, Jack and Sawyer instead of trying to leave the island.
When the survivors found native long oar boats, they were only used to get to and from Hydra Island instead of trying to go deep out into the sea lanes for a possible rescue attempt.
The only time they got excited about rescue was when Widmore's freighter's shore party hit the island. Only Ben warned them about what was going to happen to them. But once Penny's boat rescued the O6, instead of trying to get the U.S. Coast Guard or UK/Australian officials to help return to the island, the O6 group decided to lie to the world - - - which doomed rescue for those left behind.
It is one of those odd plot points in the series that the survivors were not aggressive in their desire to escape the island and go back home. One would think that escape and survival would have been of paramount importance to the main characters.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
RELATIONSHIPS
There is a fine line between the strong bonds of friendship to the depth of romantic relationships.
Love is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection; a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone. It also means a great interest and pleasure in something like "his love for football" or "we share a love of music."
Because the two definitions overlap, it may cause problems between two individuals on what each perceives as their status together.
The word "love" comes from Old English "lufu," of Germanic origin; from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit "lubhyati" meaning desires and Latin "libet" for ‘it is pleasing,’ libido ‘desire.’
We attempt all the time to please our friends. It is a means to maintain and strengthen one's friendship. We do so by sharing time together, events, memories and ideas. A good friend wants to reach out to support another friend in a time of need.
When things get criss-crossed is when one so loves being around a friend of the opposite sex that deeper feelings begin to well up inside. It may stun or frighten the other friend to find out that affection for each other has turned into attraction.
Affection is an emotional state of a gentle feeling of fondness or liking that can have physical expressions of these feelings such as greetings or hugs. It's roots come from Middle English and Old French from Latin "affectio" from "afficere" to mean to influence.
Closely related (and hence confusing) is attraction. Attraction is the action or power of evoking interest, pleasure, or liking for someone or something. It is a quality or feature of something or someone that evokes interest, liking, or desire. It also comes from Middle English from Latin "attractio," from the verb "attrahere" (to attract).
Attraction is the action to cause (someone) to have a sexual or romantic interest in someone; "it was her beauty that attracted him."
The tightrope is very narrow. Friends have affection (love) to be around each other because of mutual interests, experiences and support. That is the internal emotion state. Attraction is the action of taking affection to another level (to "be in love" with another person).
It is because these two emotional states are so close together but represent two vastly different concepts that gets people into trouble. You can only try to make someone fall in love with you. Some people try too hard. Some people don't try hard enough. Some people get caught up in a moment. Some people make mistakes confusing affection with attraction, to the point of destroying a good friendship.
Many people may find attraction the first and only means of finding true love. It may be shallow, but in a subconscious, guarded way it makes sense because we one wants to test the waters you first go to the shallow end and not dive into the more dangerous the deep end. But there is no rule against doing it the other way - - - since most couples want their lover to be their best friend.
There is little to no logic in this situation. This is an emotional gambit that can end three ways: working out, breaking up or maintaining the status quo of friendship. The sad fact is that many great friendships have been lost by the mere fact that affection turns to non-mutual attraction.
Love is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection; a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone. It also means a great interest and pleasure in something like "his love for football" or "we share a love of music."
Because the two definitions overlap, it may cause problems between two individuals on what each perceives as their status together.
The word "love" comes from Old English "lufu," of Germanic origin; from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit "lubhyati" meaning desires and Latin "libet" for ‘it is pleasing,’ libido ‘desire.’
We attempt all the time to please our friends. It is a means to maintain and strengthen one's friendship. We do so by sharing time together, events, memories and ideas. A good friend wants to reach out to support another friend in a time of need.
When things get criss-crossed is when one so loves being around a friend of the opposite sex that deeper feelings begin to well up inside. It may stun or frighten the other friend to find out that affection for each other has turned into attraction.
Affection is an emotional state of a gentle feeling of fondness or liking that can have physical expressions of these feelings such as greetings or hugs. It's roots come from Middle English and Old French from Latin "affectio" from "afficere" to mean to influence.
Closely related (and hence confusing) is attraction. Attraction is the action or power of evoking interest, pleasure, or liking for someone or something. It is a quality or feature of something or someone that evokes interest, liking, or desire. It also comes from Middle English from Latin "attractio," from the verb "attrahere" (to attract).
Attraction is the action to cause (someone) to have a sexual or romantic interest in someone; "it was her beauty that attracted him."
The tightrope is very narrow. Friends have affection (love) to be around each other because of mutual interests, experiences and support. That is the internal emotion state. Attraction is the action of taking affection to another level (to "be in love" with another person).
It is because these two emotional states are so close together but represent two vastly different concepts that gets people into trouble. You can only try to make someone fall in love with you. Some people try too hard. Some people don't try hard enough. Some people get caught up in a moment. Some people make mistakes confusing affection with attraction, to the point of destroying a good friendship.
Many people may find attraction the first and only means of finding true love. It may be shallow, but in a subconscious, guarded way it makes sense because we one wants to test the waters you first go to the shallow end and not dive into the more dangerous the deep end. But there is no rule against doing it the other way - - - since most couples want their lover to be their best friend.
There is little to no logic in this situation. This is an emotional gambit that can end three ways: working out, breaking up or maintaining the status quo of friendship. The sad fact is that many great friendships have been lost by the mere fact that affection turns to non-mutual attraction.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
LIFE OR DEATH
What would you choose: life or death?
Probably 99.9 percent of us would choose life.
But what if you were so troubled that you felt that in death you would receive new life?
This is the contradiction that is the daily headlines. Suicide bombers attack innocent people under the belief that they will have a better life in afterlife. Some teens under horrible torment of bullies, self-esteem issues, too high expectations and peer pressure weigh that option.
There is also the question of faith. Individuals believe in either an afterlife or not. People hope that there time on earth has a more infinite meaning.
LOST attempted to explore those themes.
It is hard to tell whether Locke convinced himself that he was better off killing himself than trying to help the island or his friends. Recall, he basically mucked up everything in his life, including his relationship with Helen and Jack, who he considered his rival and probable best friend.
It is hard to tell when Sayid came to the conclusion that he was better off dead when he took the submarine bomb and tried to leave the ship. Recall, he had lost his Nadia, then Shannon, in tragic accidents. He was an outsider and an outcast. He may have gotten along with a few island castaways, but he never fit in.
In the big picture of LOST, the writers did dance around to the side that there is hope in death.
The sideways world has to be considered a lukewarm attempt to show the afterlife as a continuation of the human lives we all live, day to day. The sideways purgatory or weigh station to paradise/heaven mocked the same struggles of real life, but with no lasting consequences except perhaps feelings of personal regret or remorse (as with Ben who decided to "stay" on to work out some of his issues with Rousseau and Alex). But that is the odd part about LOST's vision - - - each individual is his or her own judge and jury on what sort of afterlife they will be rewarded by the unknown gods (such as Jacob, MIB, the island, or some other supernatural power).
Though we were told that the island contained the power of life, death and rebirth, the sideways world showed us that it was each individual who controlled their own destiny.
Probably 99.9 percent of us would choose life.
But what if you were so troubled that you felt that in death you would receive new life?
This is the contradiction that is the daily headlines. Suicide bombers attack innocent people under the belief that they will have a better life in afterlife. Some teens under horrible torment of bullies, self-esteem issues, too high expectations and peer pressure weigh that option.
There is also the question of faith. Individuals believe in either an afterlife or not. People hope that there time on earth has a more infinite meaning.
LOST attempted to explore those themes.
It is hard to tell whether Locke convinced himself that he was better off killing himself than trying to help the island or his friends. Recall, he basically mucked up everything in his life, including his relationship with Helen and Jack, who he considered his rival and probable best friend.
It is hard to tell when Sayid came to the conclusion that he was better off dead when he took the submarine bomb and tried to leave the ship. Recall, he had lost his Nadia, then Shannon, in tragic accidents. He was an outsider and an outcast. He may have gotten along with a few island castaways, but he never fit in.
In the big picture of LOST, the writers did dance around to the side that there is hope in death.
The sideways world has to be considered a lukewarm attempt to show the afterlife as a continuation of the human lives we all live, day to day. The sideways purgatory or weigh station to paradise/heaven mocked the same struggles of real life, but with no lasting consequences except perhaps feelings of personal regret or remorse (as with Ben who decided to "stay" on to work out some of his issues with Rousseau and Alex). But that is the odd part about LOST's vision - - - each individual is his or her own judge and jury on what sort of afterlife they will be rewarded by the unknown gods (such as Jacob, MIB, the island, or some other supernatural power).
Though we were told that the island contained the power of life, death and rebirth, the sideways world showed us that it was each individual who controlled their own destiny.
Friday, March 13, 2015
FRIDAY THE 13TH
Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. It is a superstition passed down from generation to generation, culture to culture.
The number 13 was said to be unlucky because when archeologists researched the Roman Coleseum chambers where the slave gladiators were housed, the best gladiator scratched only 13 victories before his death. Once you got to 13 wins, the next time you would die, hence 13 being an unlucky number.
Why Friday and 13 got a bad rap is probably because in the modern work week, Friday was supposed to be the start of the weekend, relaxation away from work. There is a possible dread that the boss will complicate your life by adding a ton of work on that day, ask you to work on Saturday, or make an unreasonable deadline in which upsets your plans.
In any event, numbers played a role in causing Hurley to have his own bad luck. It was not his curse, but a crutch, an excuse, to smooth over his own insecurities and faults. At times, negative thoughts can instill negative behavior and actions. Even when Hurley won the lottery, his negative thoughts appeared to manifest itself in death, destruction and bad luck all around him.
There is an old saying that a person makes their own luck.
Luck is the success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions or a chance considered as a force that causes good or bad things to happen. Many believe luck is something regarded as bringing about or portending good or bad things, a pre-state of mind.
Some lucky bastards are more lucky than good, and that ticks some people off with envy, jealousy or hatred. Why is this person wealthy, prettier, successful, stress-free, or happy? Why can't I have those things? He or she is not better than me!
You can see how a negative perception of one's self can lead to an internal circular argument that some outside influence, luck, is creating your personal state of unhappiness.
The LOST world was mostly an unhappy world. Every day seemed to be like Friday the 13th. The main characters shadows were their ever present fears, phobias, anxieties and dark behaviors. Over time, these shadows began to eat away at their mental outlook on life. For some, it took them deep in the pit of despair. For others, it took them deep into irrational behavior, like Ben.
But Hurley was the one main character who readily admitted his bad luck, that he himself created bad luck, and that people should not be around him because he was bad luck. This is the grand excuse of an introvert and loner. A hermit who built excuses to isolate himself from interacting with the real world, with real people, and to make real friends.
Locke had a similar path, except he did admit he was unlucky with family, friends, career or goals. He pretended to be an extrovert and leader, with grand ideas and hopes, but with no means to accomplish them because he could never forge true bonds with other people in order to fulfill his dreams. He built his own isolation from anger about how the world around him did not understand him, that he was smarter, better and more entitled to have the wealth, happiness and prosperity of his bosses. He was more like a hermit crab striking out at others, which reinforced a negative stereotype to others.
So Locke and Hurley created their own bad luck. And they suffered for it because they could not change their own personal outlook on life. Locke never achieved any reformation. Hurley, as best we could tell, found some peace of mind (but apparently only in the after life).
So on any Friday the 13th take heed not what is around you, but what is inside you.
The number 13 was said to be unlucky because when archeologists researched the Roman Coleseum chambers where the slave gladiators were housed, the best gladiator scratched only 13 victories before his death. Once you got to 13 wins, the next time you would die, hence 13 being an unlucky number.
Why Friday and 13 got a bad rap is probably because in the modern work week, Friday was supposed to be the start of the weekend, relaxation away from work. There is a possible dread that the boss will complicate your life by adding a ton of work on that day, ask you to work on Saturday, or make an unreasonable deadline in which upsets your plans.
In any event, numbers played a role in causing Hurley to have his own bad luck. It was not his curse, but a crutch, an excuse, to smooth over his own insecurities and faults. At times, negative thoughts can instill negative behavior and actions. Even when Hurley won the lottery, his negative thoughts appeared to manifest itself in death, destruction and bad luck all around him.
There is an old saying that a person makes their own luck.
Luck is the success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions or a chance considered as a force that causes good or bad things to happen. Many believe luck is something regarded as bringing about or portending good or bad things, a pre-state of mind.
Some lucky bastards are more lucky than good, and that ticks some people off with envy, jealousy or hatred. Why is this person wealthy, prettier, successful, stress-free, or happy? Why can't I have those things? He or she is not better than me!
You can see how a negative perception of one's self can lead to an internal circular argument that some outside influence, luck, is creating your personal state of unhappiness.
The LOST world was mostly an unhappy world. Every day seemed to be like Friday the 13th. The main characters shadows were their ever present fears, phobias, anxieties and dark behaviors. Over time, these shadows began to eat away at their mental outlook on life. For some, it took them deep in the pit of despair. For others, it took them deep into irrational behavior, like Ben.
But Hurley was the one main character who readily admitted his bad luck, that he himself created bad luck, and that people should not be around him because he was bad luck. This is the grand excuse of an introvert and loner. A hermit who built excuses to isolate himself from interacting with the real world, with real people, and to make real friends.
Locke had a similar path, except he did admit he was unlucky with family, friends, career or goals. He pretended to be an extrovert and leader, with grand ideas and hopes, but with no means to accomplish them because he could never forge true bonds with other people in order to fulfill his dreams. He built his own isolation from anger about how the world around him did not understand him, that he was smarter, better and more entitled to have the wealth, happiness and prosperity of his bosses. He was more like a hermit crab striking out at others, which reinforced a negative stereotype to others.
So Locke and Hurley created their own bad luck. And they suffered for it because they could not change their own personal outlook on life. Locke never achieved any reformation. Hurley, as best we could tell, found some peace of mind (but apparently only in the after life).
So on any Friday the 13th take heed not what is around you, but what is inside you.
Monday, May 12, 2014
GAVE UP
“ When a man says he has exhausted life one always knows life has exhausted him. ”
— Oscar Wilde
Giving up. Seems like the easy way out.
But that is how many LOST characters decided to end their lives.
Locke, frustrated and depressed that he had zero leadership skills to get the Oceanic 6 back to the island, tried to hang himself. He had given up on himself. It really should not have mattered what other people said to him. He was off the island. He had another chance to start over. But he gave up instead.
Jack, after battling Flocke to save the island, wandered off into the bamboo grove where his island journey first began, and gave up. He lied down waiting to die. Which is strange, considering we know that there were many other people left on the island that could have treated his wounds. (Including Hurley, who could give Jack apparently immortality as Jacob had given Alpert). He had another chance to start over and leave the island. But he gave up instead.
Which raises a very interesting question: why?
Jack actually did have something to go back to on the mainland. He had a medical practice. He had a widow mother who needed his support. He could have had Kate. So what exhausted Jack so much that he rather quit than go on?
Or, maybe once the island trapped his soul, his life was finite like grains of sand in an hour glass. He gave up much of his life when he gave up the guardianship as a means of trying to re-set everyone else's life timers. But there is no set answer of why Jack even believed that he had to sacrifice himself. Was it his own self-loathing - - - on par with suicidal Locke - - - that made Jack close his eyes for the final time?
That is why Jack's end rings hollow.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
DOUBTS
One thing is clear from reviewing the LOST's Writer's Guide, the creators and network executives had some doubts whether the idea of lost survivors could be a sustainable series. It is also clear that the producers of the show DID NOT have the main story line set in stone from the very beginning, including the end.
Even after the grand, cinematic pilot episode was finished, the producers still had to sell the network to green light an entire series. How could TPTB maintain the survivors' stories? How could a diverse ensemble of characters sustain the stories over several seasons? And the unanswered question: what would be the payoff to the viewers?
There were many things in the writer's guide that I found good and interesting concepts or story ideas.
Fans today have a wishy-washy opinion on Kate. We now know that Kate was supposed to be a stronger character in the series. But Kate's role changed from a co-leader to a wishy-washy secondary player/love interest. Even her revealed deep, dark secret of murder was blotched by poor writing and unbelievable plot twists. Instead of the spunky Midwest girl-next-door character, Kate turned into a loathsome cardboard figure to some fans.
The same holds true with Hurley. The original Hurley character was supposed to be an international repossession man, which means that he had well developed problem solving skills and social charm to be the top in his profession. Instead, the writers downgraded Hurley to a meek, loner with mental problems.
Also, instead of dancing around the mental issues floated during the series, the original guide had us headbutting with a more developed character of Boone, a dangerous schizophrenic off his meds. The original Boone would have been headstrong, confrontational, abusive, and paranoid, which would have immediately set him off from the other characters. It would have created a major predicament for the survivors camp unable to handle a deranged mental patient - - - what to do with him? Banish him (and lose Sawyer's stash of supplies since he was to hook up with Shannon early in the show), cage him like an animal or kill him? The latter would hark to elements of Lord of the Flies, and the harsh judgments in places where there is no civilized law and order.
Even Shannon was supposed to have a bigger role. She was going to be the "it girl," the one the island men would want to be around. She would use her good looks to play them off each other. In the pilot, Charlie was immediately enamored with her, so much so when she went on the first mission he joined in even though he had nothing to contribute. If Shannon was to hook up with Sawyer, that would have caused more tension in the beach camp - - - the means of creating splinter groups within the whole community. People having to take sides would have brought out more character development.
Even the undeveloped concepts of a new visitor no one expects to parachute into the story, or the human bite mark on Vincent's ear, or the mysterious fruit orchard and cocoons, or the Others, or the military submariners, do lead to possible interactions, clashes or alliances of the 815ers with other islanders. The guide actually points to numerous groups on the island besides the Others: the submariners, the primitive inhabitants who attacked Vincent, and a flight path for potential smugglers, drug dealers, explorers, etc.
What the guide does not extract is the supernatural elements that found their way into the series. In fact the more supernatural elements that were brought into the show, the more the show started to come off the rails because there were no plausible explanations presented to explain the diversion from original concept. In fact, the use of supernatural elements (such as time travel, immortal beings, magic, smoke monsters, shape shifting, and unique light force energy) opened the door to criticism of the entire premise of the series (including it being all in the after life, to it all in Hurley's head.)
What was really lost from the guide's original proposed story line is the sense of building a new community on the island. All the elements in regard to re-creating a new society, a potential utopia, were discounted and disregarded by the writers. It seemed that the writers fell into a format of throwing something strange at the main characters to just get a reaction. There was no practical application of action to build a better settlement, to instill a moral code or rules on their own behavior, or a sense of community to work together to solve problems. It was all individual decision making that moved the stories forward with no touchstone of community belief. So nothing that was done could truly be deemed right or wrong.
Also, many of the story ideas in the guide had the group muster themselves "to action" such as salvaging a reefed submarine in the hope that it could lead to rescue. But in the story format that was in the actual show, the characters merely "reacted" to things happening around them. Initiative, questions, demands for answers, and open problem solving discussion were sparse to non-existent in the group.
Another thing that led LOST off its story rails was leaving the island. No one should have EVER LEFT the island. In retrospect, all the off-island stories were sub-par to unbelievable. If the goal of the show was to have a sense of community building along with the hope of rescue, rescue should have never been accomplished because the "returns" to the island by characters made little to no sense.
Many people had no doubts when the producers told the viewers that they had "everything" worked out to the climatic end of the series. Well, there is no evidence that is true. Instead of building a solid foundation of characters and continuity facts, the show began to meander its own course, especially in the realm of not resolving mysteries from episode to episode. The biggest failure of LOST was the fact it did not follow its original network mandate: self-contained episodes with a beginning, middle and end. By stringing along mystery upon mystery, the writers were only stringing along viewers to continue watching the show. If the writers had doubts on whether they could answer the questions or mysteries they posed in the series, then they should not have done it. But I guess the overriding concern from TPTB that LOST had to have its own edge, and constantly be "unexpected." As a result, you have a series of edgy plot points that never got resolved or at best, abandoned, contradicted or lost in continuity errors.
The recent weeks of posting the writer's guide with commentary was to further explore the show which most fans never really get to see: what the insiders themselves were thinking about at the very beginning. With that insight and with hindsight of the actual series, there is no doubt in my mind that there were several core concepts that the writers did not use that would have made the series much better.
Even after the grand, cinematic pilot episode was finished, the producers still had to sell the network to green light an entire series. How could TPTB maintain the survivors' stories? How could a diverse ensemble of characters sustain the stories over several seasons? And the unanswered question: what would be the payoff to the viewers?
There were many things in the writer's guide that I found good and interesting concepts or story ideas.
Fans today have a wishy-washy opinion on Kate. We now know that Kate was supposed to be a stronger character in the series. But Kate's role changed from a co-leader to a wishy-washy secondary player/love interest. Even her revealed deep, dark secret of murder was blotched by poor writing and unbelievable plot twists. Instead of the spunky Midwest girl-next-door character, Kate turned into a loathsome cardboard figure to some fans.
The same holds true with Hurley. The original Hurley character was supposed to be an international repossession man, which means that he had well developed problem solving skills and social charm to be the top in his profession. Instead, the writers downgraded Hurley to a meek, loner with mental problems.
Also, instead of dancing around the mental issues floated during the series, the original guide had us headbutting with a more developed character of Boone, a dangerous schizophrenic off his meds. The original Boone would have been headstrong, confrontational, abusive, and paranoid, which would have immediately set him off from the other characters. It would have created a major predicament for the survivors camp unable to handle a deranged mental patient - - - what to do with him? Banish him (and lose Sawyer's stash of supplies since he was to hook up with Shannon early in the show), cage him like an animal or kill him? The latter would hark to elements of Lord of the Flies, and the harsh judgments in places where there is no civilized law and order.
Even Shannon was supposed to have a bigger role. She was going to be the "it girl," the one the island men would want to be around. She would use her good looks to play them off each other. In the pilot, Charlie was immediately enamored with her, so much so when she went on the first mission he joined in even though he had nothing to contribute. If Shannon was to hook up with Sawyer, that would have caused more tension in the beach camp - - - the means of creating splinter groups within the whole community. People having to take sides would have brought out more character development.
Even the undeveloped concepts of a new visitor no one expects to parachute into the story, or the human bite mark on Vincent's ear, or the mysterious fruit orchard and cocoons, or the Others, or the military submariners, do lead to possible interactions, clashes or alliances of the 815ers with other islanders. The guide actually points to numerous groups on the island besides the Others: the submariners, the primitive inhabitants who attacked Vincent, and a flight path for potential smugglers, drug dealers, explorers, etc.
What the guide does not extract is the supernatural elements that found their way into the series. In fact the more supernatural elements that were brought into the show, the more the show started to come off the rails because there were no plausible explanations presented to explain the diversion from original concept. In fact, the use of supernatural elements (such as time travel, immortal beings, magic, smoke monsters, shape shifting, and unique light force energy) opened the door to criticism of the entire premise of the series (including it being all in the after life, to it all in Hurley's head.)
What was really lost from the guide's original proposed story line is the sense of building a new community on the island. All the elements in regard to re-creating a new society, a potential utopia, were discounted and disregarded by the writers. It seemed that the writers fell into a format of throwing something strange at the main characters to just get a reaction. There was no practical application of action to build a better settlement, to instill a moral code or rules on their own behavior, or a sense of community to work together to solve problems. It was all individual decision making that moved the stories forward with no touchstone of community belief. So nothing that was done could truly be deemed right or wrong.
Also, many of the story ideas in the guide had the group muster themselves "to action" such as salvaging a reefed submarine in the hope that it could lead to rescue. But in the story format that was in the actual show, the characters merely "reacted" to things happening around them. Initiative, questions, demands for answers, and open problem solving discussion were sparse to non-existent in the group.
Another thing that led LOST off its story rails was leaving the island. No one should have EVER LEFT the island. In retrospect, all the off-island stories were sub-par to unbelievable. If the goal of the show was to have a sense of community building along with the hope of rescue, rescue should have never been accomplished because the "returns" to the island by characters made little to no sense.
Many people had no doubts when the producers told the viewers that they had "everything" worked out to the climatic end of the series. Well, there is no evidence that is true. Instead of building a solid foundation of characters and continuity facts, the show began to meander its own course, especially in the realm of not resolving mysteries from episode to episode. The biggest failure of LOST was the fact it did not follow its original network mandate: self-contained episodes with a beginning, middle and end. By stringing along mystery upon mystery, the writers were only stringing along viewers to continue watching the show. If the writers had doubts on whether they could answer the questions or mysteries they posed in the series, then they should not have done it. But I guess the overriding concern from TPTB that LOST had to have its own edge, and constantly be "unexpected." As a result, you have a series of edgy plot points that never got resolved or at best, abandoned, contradicted or lost in continuity errors.
The recent weeks of posting the writer's guide with commentary was to further explore the show which most fans never really get to see: what the insiders themselves were thinking about at the very beginning. With that insight and with hindsight of the actual series, there is no doubt in my mind that there were several core concepts that the writers did not use that would have made the series much better.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
REBOOT EPISODES 57-60
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.
LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 57-60 (Days 73-79)
Desmond’s mental flashes or visions continue; he saves Claire from drowning and foresees Charlie’s death. We learn about Desmond’s mind travel, and the show introduces the Widmore story arc and Eloise Hawking.
Jack bargains with Ben to keep Juliet alive. Isabel, the “sheriff” interrogates Jack. Kate, Sawyer and Karl return to the Island. The strange tale of Jack in Thailand with the exotic, mystery woman Achara is told. Jack makes her tattoo him, even though she claims there will be "consequences." The next day Jack exits his hut, but this time the Thai boy, who usually gives him soda, runs away from him. Chet and a group of Thai men approach Jack, uncover his tattoo, and mercilessly beat him.
Karl reveals that the Others live on the main island and only work on "projects" on the Hydra Island. As for the children that were kidnapped, they "give them a better life." Kate asks "better than what?" "Better than yours," Karl responds.
Hurley confesses his fears and troubles at Libby’s grave. Hurley finds Charlie and gets him to reveal Desmond’s flashes and Charlie’s eventual demise. Hurley says it might be his fault because of his curse, but Vincent emerges from the jungle with a skeleton arm holding a key. This distraction forces Hurley chases Vincent until the dog drops the arm. Hurley takes the key which has a lucky rabbit's foot key chain attached and follows Vincent to an overturned van once used by Dharma.
At the camp, Charlie demands that Desmond tell him when he will die but Desmond informs him it doesn't work like that.
Sayid is upset with Locke’s plan to follow the “305” inscription on Eko’s prayer stick to navigate to Jack. Locke argues that it is all they have to go on. On the mission, Sayid goes to find fruit and hears a cow bell and finds the cow. Sayid is amazed to hear someone whistle for the animal. Through the bushes he spies a a small building with a communication dish, a horse and the man on the TV monitor - - - Patchy.
After circling the area, Sayid confirms to the group that the building is isolated, and that a satellite dish like that could broadcast for thousands of miles. He asks Rousseau if it is the radio tower that she had talked about, but she says she has never seen this place before. Sayid says he will approach unarmed, with the other three as backup in hiding. Danielle says that she had survived on the Island for so long by avoiding such confrontations.
Sayid, Locke, Kate and Rousseau are introduced to the Flame station, a communication outpost to the rest of the world. They confront and subdue Mikhail (“Patchy” from the Pearl TV monitor) and Klugh, the woman who made the deal with Michael to get Walt back and leave the Island.
Patchy claims when the Cold War ended, and he later replied to a newspaper advertisement that read, "Would you like to save the world?" He joined the "very secretive, rich, and smart" DHARMA Initiative and came to the island eleven years ago. He was put in this station to communicate with the outside world. He says that everyone else in the DHARMA initiative died in a foolish attack they called “the purge” on a group they called “the Hostiles,” which we believe are the Others. Mikhail survived by not getting involved and agreeing to a truce where he could stay behind as long as he did not cross a designated line around the valley so he will be safe. He says the Others weren't interested in the satellite dish because it hadn't functioned in years (which is a lie). He doesn't know who the hostiles are, but they were on the Island for a very long time before the Initiative or anyone else came.
Sayid and Kate climb down the Hatch ladder while Locke watches Mikhail's unconscious body upstairs. Locke, however, hears the computer asking for the next chess move and he goes to it, leaving his prisoner unsupervised. He finishes another game of chess and achieves a mate in 2, which the computer erroneously claims is a checkmate. A video of Marvin Candle appears and says, "Manual override achieved. For pallet drop enter 2-4. For station up-link enter 3-2. For mainland communication enter 3-8."Locke enters 3-8. A new clip is called up saying "The satellite dish is inoperable. Communications are down. For sonar access enter 5-6." Locke enters 5-6. A new clip says, "Sonar is inoperable. Has there been an incursion on this station by the Hostiles? If so, enter 7-7." Locke's finger aims hovers over the 7 key when Mikhail puts a knife to his neck from behind, stopping him from typing the second 7.
Klugh appears in the Flame basement. Sayid and Kate see the place is rigged with explosives wired throughout the entire underground room. Sayid sees a shelf lined with binders, one of which is a food drop protocol and another is an operations manual. Kate investigates a closet area and is attacked from behind by Klugh. . Sayid arrives and tells Klugh to drop her gun. Kate hits her, saying she helped kidnap them and she knows where Jack is. Sayid asks Klugh if there are any Others there, but she acts unafraid, hardly intimidated by the rifle.
They take her upstairs and outside, where Mikhail has Locke at gunpoint. Mikhail offers a hostage exchange but John claims Mikhail wouldn't kill him. Klugh talks and argues with Mikhail in Russian while Kate, Locke and Sayid shout. Finally she orders him to "do it" and Mikhail shoots her in the heart. Mikhail is knocked over and Sayid points his gun at him. Mikhail tells him to finish it, but Sayid doesn't shoot.
Later, in the evening, Sayid takes Mikhail outside and calls Danielle. Mikhail says that he was never a member of DHARMA but that everything else he said was true, and that DHARMA did really attack the Hostiles. Sayid tells Danielle that Locke and Kate are gathering anything useful from the station and that now he has their ticket to the Others' location, where they will find Rousseau’s daughter, Alex, and Jack, and perhaps a way home. Mikhail refuses to lead them, but Sayid says he has a map of the cables, which leads to an area called the Barracks which he believes is where the Others are staying. Mikhail threatens to kill them the next time they let their guard down. Danielle says that since they don't need him, they should kill him.
However, Sayid says Mikhail is his prisoner and he will not kill him. Locke and Kate join them and Locke says he knows why Mikhail didn't want him playing with the computer. Suddenly the station explodes. Sayid demands to know what Locke has done, and Locke tells him that the computer said if there was an incursion to enter 7-7, so he did. Sayid yells at Locke that he may have destroyed their only chance of communication with the outside world.
Science:
Mainstream science has not put any credence in the human’s mind’s ability to foretell the future. However, some on the spirituality scale of research believe that premonitions can have a scientific basis.
In a laboratory at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Northern California, psychologist Dean Radin approaches human experience with an open mind and experimental rigor. In a series of experiments that Radin describes as “presentiment,” participants are invited to see and feel into the future.
Sitting in a quiet, electromagnetically shielded room, Radin first measures the participants’ physiology. Using electrodes on their hands to study their autonomic nervous system, the scientist records how the experimental participants respond to emotional and calm pictures that are presented on a computer monitor in a random sequence. After each picture, the computer screen goes blank before the next picture is presented. As predicted, when participants see an emotional picture, their physiology shows more arousal than after the calm pictures. This is standard science. But more interesting to Radin and his colleagues is what happens to the physiology of the participants before they see the pictures. According to Radin, their physiology actually appears to anticipate the emotional stimuli up to five seconds before they see the emotional pictures. These researchers believe those subjective findings are the basis for their thesis on mental visions of the future.
However, critics believe that such conclusions lack objective and reliable controls to have any scientific merit. In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Daryl Bem, a social psychologist from Cornell University, reported nine experiments involving more than 1,000 participants. The major goal of Bem’s research was to design precognition experiments to be as simple and transparent as possible, allowing others to easily replicate his results.
In these studies, Bem explores “time-reversing,” in which the cause-and-effect sequence in standard psychological experiments is reversed. In his recent paper, Bem reports evidence for precognition in eight of the nine experiments. In one study, for example, Bem used a conventional psychological paradigm referred to as “priming.” In these studies, participants are shown a picture so briefly that it is not perceived at the conscious level. Later, participants typically favor this picture over other control images because they had subconsciously seen the picture before actually “seeing” it. Then, he changed the usual order of events, and he observed that the participants actually preferred certain pictures before the participants were exposed to the subconscious priming.
Of course, the results of these experiments are not without criticism. Some debunkers question whether a paper on precognition should be published in a major scientific journal at all. Others argue that the results simply can’t be true because they imply that the established model of causality is not accurate or complete.
History is repeat with oracles and seers who claimed to have knowledge of future events. They were prized in some cultures by kings or priests, especially in predictions of matters of upcoming military battles. It may be as simple as a person being adept and extrapolating “new” information from a series of facts and observations to lead to a logical “conclusion” to a future event.
Improbabilities:
Time travel. Desmond’s physics professor tells Desmond that there is no such thing. That Desmond “dreamed” a future of saving the world. That he is making up grand illusions to avoid the commitment of marriage to Penny. It is all in his head.
Jack spending more than one month in Thailand, “recovering from his divorce.” It makes no sense that an alleged dedicated doctor would give up his practice and fly to Thailand, to be marked by a woman whose name and ability is linked to “life.”
Mysteries:
Why the Others who purged the Dharma science teams are paranoid about maintaining the science stations and certain experimental projects?
Themes:
Life and multiple lives. Karl tells Kate that the kidnapped children have “better lives.” Is this an objective or subjective purgative? There is a level of reworking or replaying one’s life (memories) in new, but similar situations (like upgrading in various game modes).
Hope. Hurley tries to start the van. He does so because he believes his fellow survivors “need a little hope.”
Clues:
When Jack ends an episode by saying, “That's what they say. It's not what they mean,” it is a reference to Isabel’s translation of his tattoo. But it is a clue to the audience that the LOST dialogue does not sync with what the characters are plotting; misstatements and misdirection is standard operating procedure.
Achara claims to have the gift of sight to see someone's inner identity. She is able to "see who people are" and "mark them". According to Achara, Jack is "a leader, a great man" but this makes him lonely, frightened, and angry. He forces her to give him a tattoo, despite her protests that he is an outsider and she will get in trouble if she does. Her brother’s gang of Thai locals later batter Jack over the tattoo and demand he leave the country.
Isabel’s translates his Thai tattoo as "He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us." Jack replies, "That's what they say. That's not what they mean." Although the translation given by Isabel matches the impact of the tattoo during the episode's flashback, Isabel's translation is far too long for any combination of four characters and is inaccurate. The characters actually represent an eagle (hawk), strike beat or attack, long and sky. A correct interpretation according to lostpedia is "Eagles strike the wide sky" or, more simply, "The eagles fly upon the sky." A eagle is a symbol of freedom, and the sky could be representative of heaven.
A young girl unknown to Jack, Emma from the tail section, approaches the cage and has Cindy ask Jack how Ana Lucia is doing, Jack get angry and yells at Cindy to go. She and the Others leave, including a young boy, Zach, who hands his teddy bear to his sister Emma. This teddy bear reference is mirrored by Karl in his memories of staring up to the sky to name “stars” with Alex. Emma and Zach appear to “replace” young Karl and Alex in the Island story engine.
In Hinduism, “Achara” and “Dharma” are synonymous and mean "the regulation of daily life." Indeed Achara is often referred to as the Supreme Dharma.
Discussion:
“ Hope never tells us tomorrow will be better. ”
— Tibullus
LOST entered Season 3 with high hopes. Viewers were looking for answers, but instead we got more questions. The 815ers have all but given up hope of rescue since the Others have begun to terrorize them (for no apparent reason except for the unarticulated reason that “it’s their island.”) If the Others want no one on “their” island, then why don’t they let the 815ers leave? Unless, of course, the Others can’t make anyone leave the Island.
Hope is “ a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” In some ways, hope is a dream state. It also can mean “a person or thing that may help or save someone.” Ben hoped to find a surgery for his back tumor. Jack was that hope for recovery. Hope is also “grounds for believing something good may happen.” Hope is like faith which is like religion or future circumstances. Hope is also “a feeling of trust.” Characters are now constantly asking each other if “they trust them.”
There was one hope that was never answered on the series. One of the real issues that plagued the series was its treatment of children. During the initial run, commentators and blog posters continually asked “where are the children?” And why there were no children in the barracks (the empty play ground)? But there was a small hint in the “Other 48 Days,” that a band of children (recall the teddy bear) roamed the jungle which scared the tail section survivors. It is not that children were not allowed or could not be born on the Island. Jacob and MIB’s mother gave birth to them after the Roman shipwreck; and Crazy Mother raised the boys to adulthood so there appears to be some linear aging on the Island. But at some moment, it stops; Jacob and MIB are immortal. How does that change take place, or is it merely a matter of knowledge that Crazy Mother kept from them? The latter is probably more true than false.
When Karl tells Kate that the children have “a better life” than hers (on the Island), what does that mean? Walt was scolded by Klugh when he tried to get Michael to help him. Klugh threatened to take Walt “back to the room,” which infers Room 23, the brain wash room where Karl was hooked up to an IV, and watching video flashes to loud audio. Karl is a teen. Is he being treated well by the Others? Alex was kidnapped from Rousseau. Is she being treated well by her adopted father Ben? It is like children are being robbed of their childhood.
What is life? It is the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. But there is another definition: either of the two states of a person's existence separated by death (as in Christianity and some other religious traditions). It can also mean any of a number of successive existences in which a soul is held to be reincarnated (as in Hinduism and some other religious traditions).
The idea of successive existences is strong in the episode repeats: the reality of the flashbacks, Island existence and sideways world are lumped together by Christian as equal parts, but that would be impossible unless there is another life after death. The flashback world is test number one of a soul (possibly a dead child’s who never had a chance to live a full life), to test number two, a soul on the Island trying to find true meaning of life by trials between right and wrong, good and evil, confession and repentance, and finally test three, a soul leaving the church to the next life.
We will also find children as mere set pieces in the sideways world, where Jack allegedly has a “son” but it must be pure fiction since the sideways world is a purgatory wait station. Who or why would have a clone Jack have a child in the afterlife waiting room, only to be disregarded at the church?
Finally, the mountain of lies continues in the stories. Patchy gives nothing but lies to Sayid at the Flame station; he really works for Ben. We will see a flashback where Ben ordered him to get information on the plane’s manifest list. Patchy was part of the Hostiles or recruited by Ben after the purge to protect the Island. He would be a man who we will see literally die several times on the Island, only to come back to life and attack the 815ers. The tables begin to slowly turn when Sayid realizes that he must not rely upon the words he hears, but on what his eyes see in front of him as the Truth.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
Eloise’s ability to “see” future events, especially the death of people like the man in the red shoes.
Desmond’s “mind flashes” to see future events.
Last lines in episodes:
EP 57:
DESMOND: When I saw the lightning hit the roof you were electrocuted. And when you heard Claire was in the water you -- you drowned trying to save her. I dove in myself so you never went in. I've tried, brother. I've tried twice to save you, but the universe has a way of course correcting and -- and I can't stop it forever. I'm sorry. I'm sorry because no matter what I try to do you're going to die, Charlie.
EP 58:
JACK: That's what they say. It's not what they mean.
EP 59:
KATE: Because they had me, and they would have never let me go -- probably would have killed me if I hadn't escaped. And the girl who helped me escape -- she was about 16 years old and her name was Alex. I'm pretty sure that she's your daughter.
EP 60:
SAYID: We should go. If anyone is around this explosion's going to attract their attention.
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
Locke is lured into playing the Chess game at the Flame station. It is part of his personality that “games” are diversions, even as an adult at the box company, to escape his measly life. Instead of doing his job, watching prisoner Patchy, he sits down for a second game of chess with the computer. A computer station that is monitored by a small camera (so he is being watched). When Locke wins the game, a Candle video pops up with codes to enter to communicate (all are disabled). The final one states that if the station is being overrun by Hostiles, “enter 7-7.” There is no reason on earth why Locke would need or want to enter 7-7. What would happen? The Others would swarm the facility with weapons and kill him? After the conflict standoff with Patchy ends with Klugh being killed, Locke’s “non-foraging” the station led to a third game of chess - - - and entering 7-7, which blows up the station to Sayid’s ire: “one hope of communicating with the outside world” was destroyed by Locke’s incompetence.
Locke’s continued stupidity has to shed some light on the story premise. He went from outback hunter, to default leader, to horrible decision maker. His “ideas” with the Hatch and the Flame station led to their destruction. And with the destruction, potential loss of rescue.
So it leads to the question: why? A) Locke did it on purpose - - - he does not want to leave the Island so he is sabotaging everyone’s chance. Except, he was quite surprised and stunned when the Flame station blew up. B) Locke’s macho facade has eroded over time in the jungle and he is being to crawl back into his introverted shell. As such his character flaws of bad decision making have returned with dire consequences. C) Locke and the castaways are truly lab rats in a large island maze. The vast amount of monitoring stations watching their movements, behavior, conversations, plans are all recorded by someone. The purpose could be to elicit reaction, poke people’s mind’s with a stick, or put them through torturous circumstances (the strongest fears from personal memories) to see how a human can emotionally break down.
Sayid’s flashback story after Desmond’s gives more clues as the premise. Why is Nadia’s gray cat in the restaurant flashback and at the Flame station? That element had to be harvested and re-planted into Sayid’s consciousness as a trigger for an emotional experiment. If he was a torturer in Iraq, what grief could be imposed on him by one of his victim’s? Revenge is a generational way of life in the Middle East. Perhaps, someone seeks to observe all the manifestations of human life. The restaurant torture seems out of place since during the Saddam’s brutal regime, enemies of the state were never let go - - - they were killed. So, this leads to the possibility that Sayid is “haunted” by ghosts of his past.
Desmond’s flashback with Eloise is the strongest point of mental manipulation or alternative lives. In this one, Desmond does not join the military as done previously; he buys the ring which he was not supposed to do; he “remembers” future events such as soccer game results and incidents on the Island. So Desmond’s mind is racing through flashback one, island pre Hatch explosion, island post explosion, and flashback two with different events. But is it Desmond’s mind, or it is his soul? Many religions believe that a person lives many lives; their soul travels through various stages of human afterlife through forms of reincarnation and judgment tests for past sins. Desmond’s various time lines appear to be fragments of multiple, separate existences - - - which tests his mental facilities, and could drive him crazy. In essence, Desmond is mirroring the film It’s a Wonderful Life, the Frank Capra classic about a man’s wish that he was never born has great consequences to those around him. But Desmond’s story is It’s a Horrible Death, consumed by darkness and personal torment. It could be concluded that the changed flashback is in the future, as Desmond’s third afterlife.
There is also a huge clue in the Eloise character’s appearance and conversation with Desmond. She tells him that things must go as she commands or there will be great consequences. He must not marry Penny, he must get on the boat race in a few years, he must push the Island button for 3 years, because if he does not do those things, she states “every single one of US is dead!”
Us?! It sounds like Eloise are “different beings.” There were a few old theories in the blogsphere during the show that the premise was alien beings were sent to earth to observe and test humanity, and the Island was their master space ship. But “US” could also mean a level of existence in the afterlife - - - where “awakening to one’s own death” destroys the fictional reality of a secondary existence of a sideways realm. Recall, Eloise is hellbent in The End that Desmond NOT awaken her son because she would lose him (possibly to the white light).
But one of the problems with Desmond’s supernatural abilities is that in the end, his visions are false. We do no “see” what he says happened: Charlie drowning saving Claire or the lightning strike killing Charlie in Claire’s tent. He just says that. He may actually “wish” the events as a way of belonging to the beach camp. But the one vision we actually see later in the series, Claire with Aaron being rescued aboard a helicopter, never happens. Were those future flashes “programmed” into Desmond to see how he will react? How long he could continue to try to “save” Charlie? If so, he is the ultimate mental lab rat experiment.
The realization of this fantasy-horror situation may be a key to unlocking one’s own mind for the captivity of “the Island” (whatever it is). Sayid is more aware of the lies and treachery of the Others. He begins to see clues (such as the horse saddle) to determine quickly and correctly that Klugh was hidden in the station. Sayid also knew Patchy was lying to him about his backstory - - - that he was an Other and not Dharma. It may be a turning point in Sayid’s Island existence, because once you see the Island for what it really is - - - then the darkness of the human spirit can engulf you (as it will in the final season).
LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 57-60 (Days 73-79)
Desmond’s mental flashes or visions continue; he saves Claire from drowning and foresees Charlie’s death. We learn about Desmond’s mind travel, and the show introduces the Widmore story arc and Eloise Hawking.
Jack bargains with Ben to keep Juliet alive. Isabel, the “sheriff” interrogates Jack. Kate, Sawyer and Karl return to the Island. The strange tale of Jack in Thailand with the exotic, mystery woman Achara is told. Jack makes her tattoo him, even though she claims there will be "consequences." The next day Jack exits his hut, but this time the Thai boy, who usually gives him soda, runs away from him. Chet and a group of Thai men approach Jack, uncover his tattoo, and mercilessly beat him.
Karl reveals that the Others live on the main island and only work on "projects" on the Hydra Island. As for the children that were kidnapped, they "give them a better life." Kate asks "better than what?" "Better than yours," Karl responds.
Hurley confesses his fears and troubles at Libby’s grave. Hurley finds Charlie and gets him to reveal Desmond’s flashes and Charlie’s eventual demise. Hurley says it might be his fault because of his curse, but Vincent emerges from the jungle with a skeleton arm holding a key. This distraction forces Hurley chases Vincent until the dog drops the arm. Hurley takes the key which has a lucky rabbit's foot key chain attached and follows Vincent to an overturned van once used by Dharma.
At the camp, Charlie demands that Desmond tell him when he will die but Desmond informs him it doesn't work like that.
Sayid is upset with Locke’s plan to follow the “305” inscription on Eko’s prayer stick to navigate to Jack. Locke argues that it is all they have to go on. On the mission, Sayid goes to find fruit and hears a cow bell and finds the cow. Sayid is amazed to hear someone whistle for the animal. Through the bushes he spies a a small building with a communication dish, a horse and the man on the TV monitor - - - Patchy.
After circling the area, Sayid confirms to the group that the building is isolated, and that a satellite dish like that could broadcast for thousands of miles. He asks Rousseau if it is the radio tower that she had talked about, but she says she has never seen this place before. Sayid says he will approach unarmed, with the other three as backup in hiding. Danielle says that she had survived on the Island for so long by avoiding such confrontations.
Sayid, Locke, Kate and Rousseau are introduced to the Flame station, a communication outpost to the rest of the world. They confront and subdue Mikhail (“Patchy” from the Pearl TV monitor) and Klugh, the woman who made the deal with Michael to get Walt back and leave the Island.
Patchy claims when the Cold War ended, and he later replied to a newspaper advertisement that read, "Would you like to save the world?" He joined the "very secretive, rich, and smart" DHARMA Initiative and came to the island eleven years ago. He was put in this station to communicate with the outside world. He says that everyone else in the DHARMA initiative died in a foolish attack they called “the purge” on a group they called “the Hostiles,” which we believe are the Others. Mikhail survived by not getting involved and agreeing to a truce where he could stay behind as long as he did not cross a designated line around the valley so he will be safe. He says the Others weren't interested in the satellite dish because it hadn't functioned in years (which is a lie). He doesn't know who the hostiles are, but they were on the Island for a very long time before the Initiative or anyone else came.
Sayid and Kate climb down the Hatch ladder while Locke watches Mikhail's unconscious body upstairs. Locke, however, hears the computer asking for the next chess move and he goes to it, leaving his prisoner unsupervised. He finishes another game of chess and achieves a mate in 2, which the computer erroneously claims is a checkmate. A video of Marvin Candle appears and says, "Manual override achieved. For pallet drop enter 2-4. For station up-link enter 3-2. For mainland communication enter 3-8."Locke enters 3-8. A new clip is called up saying "The satellite dish is inoperable. Communications are down. For sonar access enter 5-6." Locke enters 5-6. A new clip says, "Sonar is inoperable. Has there been an incursion on this station by the Hostiles? If so, enter 7-7." Locke's finger aims hovers over the 7 key when Mikhail puts a knife to his neck from behind, stopping him from typing the second 7.
Klugh appears in the Flame basement. Sayid and Kate see the place is rigged with explosives wired throughout the entire underground room. Sayid sees a shelf lined with binders, one of which is a food drop protocol and another is an operations manual. Kate investigates a closet area and is attacked from behind by Klugh. . Sayid arrives and tells Klugh to drop her gun. Kate hits her, saying she helped kidnap them and she knows where Jack is. Sayid asks Klugh if there are any Others there, but she acts unafraid, hardly intimidated by the rifle.
They take her upstairs and outside, where Mikhail has Locke at gunpoint. Mikhail offers a hostage exchange but John claims Mikhail wouldn't kill him. Klugh talks and argues with Mikhail in Russian while Kate, Locke and Sayid shout. Finally she orders him to "do it" and Mikhail shoots her in the heart. Mikhail is knocked over and Sayid points his gun at him. Mikhail tells him to finish it, but Sayid doesn't shoot.
Later, in the evening, Sayid takes Mikhail outside and calls Danielle. Mikhail says that he was never a member of DHARMA but that everything else he said was true, and that DHARMA did really attack the Hostiles. Sayid tells Danielle that Locke and Kate are gathering anything useful from the station and that now he has their ticket to the Others' location, where they will find Rousseau’s daughter, Alex, and Jack, and perhaps a way home. Mikhail refuses to lead them, but Sayid says he has a map of the cables, which leads to an area called the Barracks which he believes is where the Others are staying. Mikhail threatens to kill them the next time they let their guard down. Danielle says that since they don't need him, they should kill him.
However, Sayid says Mikhail is his prisoner and he will not kill him. Locke and Kate join them and Locke says he knows why Mikhail didn't want him playing with the computer. Suddenly the station explodes. Sayid demands to know what Locke has done, and Locke tells him that the computer said if there was an incursion to enter 7-7, so he did. Sayid yells at Locke that he may have destroyed their only chance of communication with the outside world.
Science:
Mainstream science has not put any credence in the human’s mind’s ability to foretell the future. However, some on the spirituality scale of research believe that premonitions can have a scientific basis.
In a laboratory at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Northern California, psychologist Dean Radin approaches human experience with an open mind and experimental rigor. In a series of experiments that Radin describes as “presentiment,” participants are invited to see and feel into the future.
Sitting in a quiet, electromagnetically shielded room, Radin first measures the participants’ physiology. Using electrodes on their hands to study their autonomic nervous system, the scientist records how the experimental participants respond to emotional and calm pictures that are presented on a computer monitor in a random sequence. After each picture, the computer screen goes blank before the next picture is presented. As predicted, when participants see an emotional picture, their physiology shows more arousal than after the calm pictures. This is standard science. But more interesting to Radin and his colleagues is what happens to the physiology of the participants before they see the pictures. According to Radin, their physiology actually appears to anticipate the emotional stimuli up to five seconds before they see the emotional pictures. These researchers believe those subjective findings are the basis for their thesis on mental visions of the future.
However, critics believe that such conclusions lack objective and reliable controls to have any scientific merit. In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Daryl Bem, a social psychologist from Cornell University, reported nine experiments involving more than 1,000 participants. The major goal of Bem’s research was to design precognition experiments to be as simple and transparent as possible, allowing others to easily replicate his results.
In these studies, Bem explores “time-reversing,” in which the cause-and-effect sequence in standard psychological experiments is reversed. In his recent paper, Bem reports evidence for precognition in eight of the nine experiments. In one study, for example, Bem used a conventional psychological paradigm referred to as “priming.” In these studies, participants are shown a picture so briefly that it is not perceived at the conscious level. Later, participants typically favor this picture over other control images because they had subconsciously seen the picture before actually “seeing” it. Then, he changed the usual order of events, and he observed that the participants actually preferred certain pictures before the participants were exposed to the subconscious priming.
Of course, the results of these experiments are not without criticism. Some debunkers question whether a paper on precognition should be published in a major scientific journal at all. Others argue that the results simply can’t be true because they imply that the established model of causality is not accurate or complete.
History is repeat with oracles and seers who claimed to have knowledge of future events. They were prized in some cultures by kings or priests, especially in predictions of matters of upcoming military battles. It may be as simple as a person being adept and extrapolating “new” information from a series of facts and observations to lead to a logical “conclusion” to a future event.
Improbabilities:
Time travel. Desmond’s physics professor tells Desmond that there is no such thing. That Desmond “dreamed” a future of saving the world. That he is making up grand illusions to avoid the commitment of marriage to Penny. It is all in his head.
Jack spending more than one month in Thailand, “recovering from his divorce.” It makes no sense that an alleged dedicated doctor would give up his practice and fly to Thailand, to be marked by a woman whose name and ability is linked to “life.”
Mysteries:
Why the Others who purged the Dharma science teams are paranoid about maintaining the science stations and certain experimental projects?
Themes:
Life and multiple lives. Karl tells Kate that the kidnapped children have “better lives.” Is this an objective or subjective purgative? There is a level of reworking or replaying one’s life (memories) in new, but similar situations (like upgrading in various game modes).
Hope. Hurley tries to start the van. He does so because he believes his fellow survivors “need a little hope.”
Clues:
When Jack ends an episode by saying, “That's what they say. It's not what they mean,” it is a reference to Isabel’s translation of his tattoo. But it is a clue to the audience that the LOST dialogue does not sync with what the characters are plotting; misstatements and misdirection is standard operating procedure.
Achara claims to have the gift of sight to see someone's inner identity. She is able to "see who people are" and "mark them". According to Achara, Jack is "a leader, a great man" but this makes him lonely, frightened, and angry. He forces her to give him a tattoo, despite her protests that he is an outsider and she will get in trouble if she does. Her brother’s gang of Thai locals later batter Jack over the tattoo and demand he leave the country.
Isabel’s translates his Thai tattoo as "He walks amongst us, but he is not one of us." Jack replies, "That's what they say. That's not what they mean." Although the translation given by Isabel matches the impact of the tattoo during the episode's flashback, Isabel's translation is far too long for any combination of four characters and is inaccurate. The characters actually represent an eagle (hawk), strike beat or attack, long and sky. A correct interpretation according to lostpedia is "Eagles strike the wide sky" or, more simply, "The eagles fly upon the sky." A eagle is a symbol of freedom, and the sky could be representative of heaven.
A young girl unknown to Jack, Emma from the tail section, approaches the cage and has Cindy ask Jack how Ana Lucia is doing, Jack get angry and yells at Cindy to go. She and the Others leave, including a young boy, Zach, who hands his teddy bear to his sister Emma. This teddy bear reference is mirrored by Karl in his memories of staring up to the sky to name “stars” with Alex. Emma and Zach appear to “replace” young Karl and Alex in the Island story engine.
In Hinduism, “Achara” and “Dharma” are synonymous and mean "the regulation of daily life." Indeed Achara is often referred to as the Supreme Dharma.
Discussion:
“ Hope never tells us tomorrow will be better. ”
— Tibullus
LOST entered Season 3 with high hopes. Viewers were looking for answers, but instead we got more questions. The 815ers have all but given up hope of rescue since the Others have begun to terrorize them (for no apparent reason except for the unarticulated reason that “it’s their island.”) If the Others want no one on “their” island, then why don’t they let the 815ers leave? Unless, of course, the Others can’t make anyone leave the Island.
Hope is “ a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” In some ways, hope is a dream state. It also can mean “a person or thing that may help or save someone.” Ben hoped to find a surgery for his back tumor. Jack was that hope for recovery. Hope is also “grounds for believing something good may happen.” Hope is like faith which is like religion or future circumstances. Hope is also “a feeling of trust.” Characters are now constantly asking each other if “they trust them.”
There was one hope that was never answered on the series. One of the real issues that plagued the series was its treatment of children. During the initial run, commentators and blog posters continually asked “where are the children?” And why there were no children in the barracks (the empty play ground)? But there was a small hint in the “Other 48 Days,” that a band of children (recall the teddy bear) roamed the jungle which scared the tail section survivors. It is not that children were not allowed or could not be born on the Island. Jacob and MIB’s mother gave birth to them after the Roman shipwreck; and Crazy Mother raised the boys to adulthood so there appears to be some linear aging on the Island. But at some moment, it stops; Jacob and MIB are immortal. How does that change take place, or is it merely a matter of knowledge that Crazy Mother kept from them? The latter is probably more true than false.
When Karl tells Kate that the children have “a better life” than hers (on the Island), what does that mean? Walt was scolded by Klugh when he tried to get Michael to help him. Klugh threatened to take Walt “back to the room,” which infers Room 23, the brain wash room where Karl was hooked up to an IV, and watching video flashes to loud audio. Karl is a teen. Is he being treated well by the Others? Alex was kidnapped from Rousseau. Is she being treated well by her adopted father Ben? It is like children are being robbed of their childhood.
What is life? It is the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death. But there is another definition: either of the two states of a person's existence separated by death (as in Christianity and some other religious traditions). It can also mean any of a number of successive existences in which a soul is held to be reincarnated (as in Hinduism and some other religious traditions).
The idea of successive existences is strong in the episode repeats: the reality of the flashbacks, Island existence and sideways world are lumped together by Christian as equal parts, but that would be impossible unless there is another life after death. The flashback world is test number one of a soul (possibly a dead child’s who never had a chance to live a full life), to test number two, a soul on the Island trying to find true meaning of life by trials between right and wrong, good and evil, confession and repentance, and finally test three, a soul leaving the church to the next life.
We will also find children as mere set pieces in the sideways world, where Jack allegedly has a “son” but it must be pure fiction since the sideways world is a purgatory wait station. Who or why would have a clone Jack have a child in the afterlife waiting room, only to be disregarded at the church?
Finally, the mountain of lies continues in the stories. Patchy gives nothing but lies to Sayid at the Flame station; he really works for Ben. We will see a flashback where Ben ordered him to get information on the plane’s manifest list. Patchy was part of the Hostiles or recruited by Ben after the purge to protect the Island. He would be a man who we will see literally die several times on the Island, only to come back to life and attack the 815ers. The tables begin to slowly turn when Sayid realizes that he must not rely upon the words he hears, but on what his eyes see in front of him as the Truth.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
Eloise’s ability to “see” future events, especially the death of people like the man in the red shoes.
Desmond’s “mind flashes” to see future events.
Last lines in episodes:
EP 57:
DESMOND: When I saw the lightning hit the roof you were electrocuted. And when you heard Claire was in the water you -- you drowned trying to save her. I dove in myself so you never went in. I've tried, brother. I've tried twice to save you, but the universe has a way of course correcting and -- and I can't stop it forever. I'm sorry. I'm sorry because no matter what I try to do you're going to die, Charlie.
EP 58:
JACK: That's what they say. It's not what they mean.
EP 59:
KATE: Because they had me, and they would have never let me go -- probably would have killed me if I hadn't escaped. And the girl who helped me escape -- she was about 16 years old and her name was Alex. I'm pretty sure that she's your daughter.
EP 60:
SAYID: We should go. If anyone is around this explosion's going to attract their attention.
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
Locke is lured into playing the Chess game at the Flame station. It is part of his personality that “games” are diversions, even as an adult at the box company, to escape his measly life. Instead of doing his job, watching prisoner Patchy, he sits down for a second game of chess with the computer. A computer station that is monitored by a small camera (so he is being watched). When Locke wins the game, a Candle video pops up with codes to enter to communicate (all are disabled). The final one states that if the station is being overrun by Hostiles, “enter 7-7.” There is no reason on earth why Locke would need or want to enter 7-7. What would happen? The Others would swarm the facility with weapons and kill him? After the conflict standoff with Patchy ends with Klugh being killed, Locke’s “non-foraging” the station led to a third game of chess - - - and entering 7-7, which blows up the station to Sayid’s ire: “one hope of communicating with the outside world” was destroyed by Locke’s incompetence.
Locke’s continued stupidity has to shed some light on the story premise. He went from outback hunter, to default leader, to horrible decision maker. His “ideas” with the Hatch and the Flame station led to their destruction. And with the destruction, potential loss of rescue.
So it leads to the question: why? A) Locke did it on purpose - - - he does not want to leave the Island so he is sabotaging everyone’s chance. Except, he was quite surprised and stunned when the Flame station blew up. B) Locke’s macho facade has eroded over time in the jungle and he is being to crawl back into his introverted shell. As such his character flaws of bad decision making have returned with dire consequences. C) Locke and the castaways are truly lab rats in a large island maze. The vast amount of monitoring stations watching their movements, behavior, conversations, plans are all recorded by someone. The purpose could be to elicit reaction, poke people’s mind’s with a stick, or put them through torturous circumstances (the strongest fears from personal memories) to see how a human can emotionally break down.
Sayid’s flashback story after Desmond’s gives more clues as the premise. Why is Nadia’s gray cat in the restaurant flashback and at the Flame station? That element had to be harvested and re-planted into Sayid’s consciousness as a trigger for an emotional experiment. If he was a torturer in Iraq, what grief could be imposed on him by one of his victim’s? Revenge is a generational way of life in the Middle East. Perhaps, someone seeks to observe all the manifestations of human life. The restaurant torture seems out of place since during the Saddam’s brutal regime, enemies of the state were never let go - - - they were killed. So, this leads to the possibility that Sayid is “haunted” by ghosts of his past.
Desmond’s flashback with Eloise is the strongest point of mental manipulation or alternative lives. In this one, Desmond does not join the military as done previously; he buys the ring which he was not supposed to do; he “remembers” future events such as soccer game results and incidents on the Island. So Desmond’s mind is racing through flashback one, island pre Hatch explosion, island post explosion, and flashback two with different events. But is it Desmond’s mind, or it is his soul? Many religions believe that a person lives many lives; their soul travels through various stages of human afterlife through forms of reincarnation and judgment tests for past sins. Desmond’s various time lines appear to be fragments of multiple, separate existences - - - which tests his mental facilities, and could drive him crazy. In essence, Desmond is mirroring the film It’s a Wonderful Life, the Frank Capra classic about a man’s wish that he was never born has great consequences to those around him. But Desmond’s story is It’s a Horrible Death, consumed by darkness and personal torment. It could be concluded that the changed flashback is in the future, as Desmond’s third afterlife.
There is also a huge clue in the Eloise character’s appearance and conversation with Desmond. She tells him that things must go as she commands or there will be great consequences. He must not marry Penny, he must get on the boat race in a few years, he must push the Island button for 3 years, because if he does not do those things, she states “every single one of US is dead!”
Us?! It sounds like Eloise are “different beings.” There were a few old theories in the blogsphere during the show that the premise was alien beings were sent to earth to observe and test humanity, and the Island was their master space ship. But “US” could also mean a level of existence in the afterlife - - - where “awakening to one’s own death” destroys the fictional reality of a secondary existence of a sideways realm. Recall, Eloise is hellbent in The End that Desmond NOT awaken her son because she would lose him (possibly to the white light).
But one of the problems with Desmond’s supernatural abilities is that in the end, his visions are false. We do no “see” what he says happened: Charlie drowning saving Claire or the lightning strike killing Charlie in Claire’s tent. He just says that. He may actually “wish” the events as a way of belonging to the beach camp. But the one vision we actually see later in the series, Claire with Aaron being rescued aboard a helicopter, never happens. Were those future flashes “programmed” into Desmond to see how he will react? How long he could continue to try to “save” Charlie? If so, he is the ultimate mental lab rat experiment.
The realization of this fantasy-horror situation may be a key to unlocking one’s own mind for the captivity of “the Island” (whatever it is). Sayid is more aware of the lies and treachery of the Others. He begins to see clues (such as the horse saddle) to determine quickly and correctly that Klugh was hidden in the station. Sayid also knew Patchy was lying to him about his backstory - - - that he was an Other and not Dharma. It may be a turning point in Sayid’s Island existence, because once you see the Island for what it really is - - - then the darkness of the human spirit can engulf you (as it will in the final season).
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
REBOOT: EPISODES 21-24
LOST REBOOT
Recap: Episodes 21-24 (Days 42-44)
After burying Boone, tempers flare as the castaways' suspicions of each other grow -- and Shannon vows revenge. Locke shows up at Boone’s funeral, and is blamed for his death by Jack and Shannon. Locke takes Sayid to the light plane crash. Later, Shannon tries to kill Locke, but Sayid intervenes and the bullet grazes Locke’s skull.
With the second raft complete, Sawyer and Kate fight over a seat on the raft. After Michael is poisoned, Sawyer tells Kate’s secret to sabotage her escape plans. The mysterious Hatch is shown to a few of the survivors, and Walt gives Locke a warning not to open it.
The French woman shocks the survivors by showing up with a dire warning about "the Others." Rousseau reluctantly leads a party to the Black Rock to get dynamite to blow open the Hatch, which Jack believes holds equipment or could be a shelter. Sayid thinks otherwise. The second raft leaves the island with Jin, Sawyer, Michael and Walt.
As the castaways brace themselves for an attack, Claire’s baby is kidnapped by Rousseau, who in Claire’s mental flashback of the scratches on her arm, knows Rousseau (not Ethan?) attacked her before causing her amnesia. Charlie and Sayid try to find Aaron on a dangerous chase into the jungle. While the threat of the Others bears down on the castaways, the raft crew continues their flight from the island - and almost lose hope when the rudder falls off the raft; but Sawyer swims to save it before it sinks.
Science:
Dynamite:
Dynamite is an explosive based on nitroglycerin with an earth like absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued. Dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel in 1867.
Dynamite is usually sold in the form of sticks. The maximum shelf life of nitroglycerin-based dynamite is recommended as one year from the date of manufacture under good storage conditions. Nitroglycerin by itself is a very strong explosive, and in its pure form it is extremely shock-sensitive (that is, physical shock can cause it to explode), and degrades over time to even more unstable forms. This makes it highly dangerous to transport or use in its pure form. Absorbed into diatomaceous earth or more commonly sawdust, nitroglycerin is less shock-sensitive. Over time, the dynamite will "weep" or "sweat" its nitroglycerin, which can then pool in the bottom of the box or storage area. (For that reason, explosive manuals recommend the repeated turning over boxes of dynamite in storage.) Crystals will form on the outside of the sticks causing them to be even more shock, friction or temperature sensitive. This creates a very dangerous situation. While the actual possibility of explosion without a blasting cap is minimal, old dynamite is still dangerous.
Improbabilities:
The Black Rock ship found deep in the jungle.
Dynamite in Black Rock still good after more than 100 years in a tropical climate.
Mysteries:
The Black Rock was a fully-rigged 19th century British trading ship that was found shipwrecked deep inside the Island and overgrown by the jungle. The ship carried a cargo of slaves, dynamite, and other equipment intended for mining. In the midst of a large storm at sea, a massive wave swept the vessel inland, causing it to crash violently into the Taweret statue, thus toppling the structure, leaving only the foot of the statue intact. This wave carried the ship far into the interior of the Island where it finally came to rest in an area known as the Dark Territory. The Black Rock brought the third oldest inhabitant, Richard Alpert, to the Island. Richard survived because the smoke monster, who killed all the other crew, used his mind to show him his long lost wife.
The Hatch
The Hatch was a large steel entrance to DHARMA Station 3, called The Swan. The Swan was an underground facility built during the late 1970's. It was located somewhere in the southwest region of the Island, about a mile inland from the survivor’s camp.
The DHARMA Initiative had originally designed the station to be a laboratory to study and manipulate the "unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the Island," as described by Dr. Change in the Swan orientation video. However, after the “Incident,” a 1977 drilling accident at the Swan construction site that unleashed a large amount of electromagnetic energy, they enacted a special protocol to prevent a potential global catastrophe. Two individuals manning the station took shifts entering The Numbers in a computer console every 108 minutes, apparently to release any EM build up at the site. On November 27, 2004, the Swan exploded and imploded on activation of the fail safe key by Desmond, a previous castaway.
The Others
The Others, referred to by DHARMA as the Hostiles or the Natives, and also by the tail section survivors of Flight 815 as “Them,” are a group of people living on the Island who predate visitors and who were followers of Jacob. Jacob never showed himself to his people, but used Richard Alpert as his intermediary. The Others took orders from a succession of leaders including Eloise Hawking, Charles Widmore, Benjamin Linus and briefly John Locke.
The background Others.
Jacob and his brother, MIB were born on the Island. Their real mother was killed by a Crazy Woman, who adopted them. Crazy Mother was the Island guardian for the Life Force. After her death at the hands of MIB, and Jacob throwing MIB into the light cave (and roaring out as a smoke monster), Jacob assumed the guardian role for the Island and its secrets. But Jacob had long been bringing people to the Island to prove his brother (MIB) wrong about his view of human nature. According to Jacob, it is the Man in Black's belief that all people are inherently corruptible, whereas Jacob wished to show him that people could know the difference between right and wrong without his interference. For some time, the people Jacob brought to the Island were simply killed by the Man in Black or each other, without Jacob stepping in. That rule changed in 1867 when Richard arrived to the Island on the Black Rock and, in exchange for the gift of immortality, he agreed to act as an intermediary between Jacob and the people he would bring to the Island. This was essentially the beginning of the Others.
Themes:
You can’t trust secrets to anyone on the Island. When Kate tries to get herself on the raft, Sawyer uses her secret (a convict) to turn the camp against her when it is found that Michael was poisoned by someone. The survivors begin to manipulate each other to get what they want; which is what the Others will do to them.
Atonement. Reparation for a wrong, injury or a sin. In early 15th century medieval Latin, it was meant to mean “unity” as unification with God. The Island and its tests of the survivors has been equated to Hell. Jin recognizes that he is being punished for his past deeds; that he needs to make amends by leaving the island to save his wife.
Hope. The raft is the last hope for rescue. That is why everyone in camp pitches in to get it launched before the monsoon season. Locke also answers Jack's question of what is inside the Hatch is "hope."
Clues:
“Special” people prior to the Island. Locke was called “special” by his mother. Walt was called “special” by his stepfather. Hurley was once called special by his mother, who was trying to boost his confidence to be more social. Locke, Walt and Hurley all slowly appear to have a special connection with the Island, able to sense strange things or make things happen.
Discussion:
“ Genius is eternal patience. ”
— Michelangelo
Jin tells Sun that he has to leave the island in order to save her. He believes that they are on the island to be punished. He tells Sun: “No, don't you understand, Sun. I'm in this place because I'm being punished. I made you suffer. You don't deserve any of this.”
Later, in the caves, after Aaron is kidnapped and Shannon is still despondent over Boone’s death:
SUN: [to Shannon] He died bravely.
SHANNON: What?
SUN: Your brother.
SHANNON: Yeah. Thanks.
SUN: Do you think all this -- all we've been through -- do you think we're being punished?
SHANNON: Punished for what?
SUN: Things we did before -- the secrets we kept, the lies we told.
SHANNON: Who do you think is punishing us?
SUN: Fate.
CLAIRE: No one's punishing us. There's no such thing as fate.
Fate is defined as the development of events beyond a person’s control because of the determination of a supernatural power.
Here is the basic fan viewpoint of the series. Were the characters dead and trapped in Hell (the Island) looking for redemption of their souls, or were they trapped, alive, in a supernatural place, being toyed with like the Greek gods did with their human subjects?
After Boone’s death, Walt's opinions of his friend John changed and he stopped talking to him. Instead, he focused his attentions on his father and building the raft. However, when Michael fell ill just before the raft was supposed to be launched, Jack suspected foul play. Walt, however, wanted Locke to know that he didn't poison Michael (thinking Locke may suspect it after he burned the first raft). When Locke grabbed his arm, Walt ominously told him to not "open that thing” - despite having no previous knowledge of the discovery of the hatch. After Michael recovered from his poisoning, Walt finally told him that he burned the raft. Michael asked if he wanted to stay on the Island but a changed Walt said that they "need to go.”
Did Walt’s “special” insight foreshadowed the future (time travel consciousness)? Or did his “touch” of Locke give him knowledge of the Island, the Hatch and future events?
The day that the raft was intended the launch, Walt, having woken first and gone into the woods to relieve himself, spotted Rousseau arriving in the camp, and bringing with her a dire warning of the Others imminent attack on the camp and recalled that the day her own child was kidnapped, she saw a pillar of black smoke. (a fire or the smoke monster?) Despite much skepticism about Rousseau's warning, it was Walt who noticed a pillar of smoke in the distance, implying some truth in the French woman's warning.
We get the short story of Leslie Arzt, the high school science teacher who is smarter than “the cool group” of castaways. He forces himself into the dynamite expedition, but chickens out at the dark territory. But he is flushed back to the group as he is being chased by the mechanical sounding smoke monster. During that attack, Rousseau takes part of the team under the banyan roots (where some cultures believe protects one against evil spirits). Rousseau tells them that the monster is a “security system” that protects the Island. Meanwhile, Locke tells Hurley to stand still as the monster approaches/chases the group. It is the opposite of human behavior to stand still in the midst of danger (further evidence that Locke may not be human at all). Arzt returns muddy and shaken. Then he takes over the removal of the dynamite. In a script formula of knowledge plus arrogance equals disaster, Arzt blows himself up. Instead of taking that as a sign that the dynamite won’t work - - - Locke and Jack pack up 6 sticks and head back to the Hatch.
After the raft launch, Charlie tells Claire his picture of their rescue, by helicopter. This is the premonition that Desmond would have latter in the show, when he gets Charlie to go on the underwater mission to his demise. Desmond’s vision was not the future but a hope Charlie put in his mind. It may show that the Island pieces together conscious memories in order to test individual souls, since we will learn that Jacob and MIB have been playing a game throughout their time of determining whether humans brought to the island are corrupt.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
Suspension of normal chemical properties and time (dynamite inert in tropical conditions after 100 years).
The Others and Whispers. We will know that the whispers are trapped dead souls on the island. Rousseau says that the whispers are the Others, which infers that the Others, as a group may be trapped spirits taking human form.
A bird comes flying through the jungle during the trek to the Black Rock, calling out the name “Hurley” as its screeching call. Some believe that it may have been a Dharma experiment; others believe it may have been a phoenix, sent to warn Hurley about danger. In some cultures, people have the concept spirit animals to guide them on the right path.
Last lines in episodes:
EP 21:
SAYID: John, no more lies.
EP 22:
KATE: Yeah, me too.
EP 23:
WALT: We did it!
[More waving and whooping. Jin and Sun share a long goodbye look. Long shot of the boat moving out toward sea.]
[Shot of the pillar of black smoke.]
EP 24:
HURLEY: Whoever named this place Dark Territory? Genius.
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
What could be the darkest territory? Hell. It is a concept that TPTB attempted to quash in Season 1 fan posts, saying the show was not about purgatory. But in The End, the sideways world turned out to be a purgatory waiting room and the unanswered questions left viewers feeling a bit puzzled and taken for a ride.
There is nothing wrong with a show about human souls trying to find redemption and hope in Hell’s test of character and moral values. Dante’s Inferno is classic literature on the subject matter.
There may be many layers of this “fate” or punishment. When Sawyer tells Jack about his encounter with Christian at the Sydney bar, one could say that acknowledgement of Christian that his son was right, he was wrong and that he could not even pick up the telephone to tell Jack - - - his personal hell.
And we can see characters being moved into the Island realm to pay penance for their past sins, like Sayid. He was in Sydney trying to find Nadia, he claimed girlfriend that he tortured in Iraq (but they were only childhood acquaintances - - - now as an adult, Sayid turns obsessive stalker to find her), but is sidetracked into working for the CIA to betray his college friend in a terrorist cell. When his friend commits suicide over Sayid selling out his principles for a girl he wants, Sayid changes his plane ticket to the next day (Flight 815) and the fate of the Island punishment.
Jin is the first to openly say that the Island is a place of punishment. He tells Sun just before he leaves on the raft. As a result that Jin realizes that the place is Hell, and he must find a way out, he basically takes himself out of the game of candidates. That is why in the End, Jin is not a factor to replace Jacob.
Through the first season of LOST, references to Hell in the language used by the writers is clear. It is not a premise that many fans wanted to believe, but in the overall supernatural elements and dead end story arcs, it is still the most plausible answer to all the mysteries.
The idea that the whispers are dead souls trapped on the Island and the Others are also trapped on the island brings to mind the fact that MIB used to kill new arrivals, steal their memories, then create “humanoid” representations to haunt any survivors. Can the Others just be ghosts of people brought to the island? Avatars of Jacobs and/or MIB? If Jacob and MIB are supernatural beings, these avatars could be like children playing toy soldiers in a sandbox. It would also explain later on how Michael, “Patchy,” could be killed multiple times but not die. It is a show paradox: what is real is not real, and what is not real is real.
Recap: Episodes 21-24 (Days 42-44)
After burying Boone, tempers flare as the castaways' suspicions of each other grow -- and Shannon vows revenge. Locke shows up at Boone’s funeral, and is blamed for his death by Jack and Shannon. Locke takes Sayid to the light plane crash. Later, Shannon tries to kill Locke, but Sayid intervenes and the bullet grazes Locke’s skull.
With the second raft complete, Sawyer and Kate fight over a seat on the raft. After Michael is poisoned, Sawyer tells Kate’s secret to sabotage her escape plans. The mysterious Hatch is shown to a few of the survivors, and Walt gives Locke a warning not to open it.
The French woman shocks the survivors by showing up with a dire warning about "the Others." Rousseau reluctantly leads a party to the Black Rock to get dynamite to blow open the Hatch, which Jack believes holds equipment or could be a shelter. Sayid thinks otherwise. The second raft leaves the island with Jin, Sawyer, Michael and Walt.
As the castaways brace themselves for an attack, Claire’s baby is kidnapped by Rousseau, who in Claire’s mental flashback of the scratches on her arm, knows Rousseau (not Ethan?) attacked her before causing her amnesia. Charlie and Sayid try to find Aaron on a dangerous chase into the jungle. While the threat of the Others bears down on the castaways, the raft crew continues their flight from the island - and almost lose hope when the rudder falls off the raft; but Sawyer swims to save it before it sinks.
Science:
Dynamite:
Dynamite is an explosive based on nitroglycerin with an earth like absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued. Dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel in 1867.
Dynamite is usually sold in the form of sticks. The maximum shelf life of nitroglycerin-based dynamite is recommended as one year from the date of manufacture under good storage conditions. Nitroglycerin by itself is a very strong explosive, and in its pure form it is extremely shock-sensitive (that is, physical shock can cause it to explode), and degrades over time to even more unstable forms. This makes it highly dangerous to transport or use in its pure form. Absorbed into diatomaceous earth or more commonly sawdust, nitroglycerin is less shock-sensitive. Over time, the dynamite will "weep" or "sweat" its nitroglycerin, which can then pool in the bottom of the box or storage area. (For that reason, explosive manuals recommend the repeated turning over boxes of dynamite in storage.) Crystals will form on the outside of the sticks causing them to be even more shock, friction or temperature sensitive. This creates a very dangerous situation. While the actual possibility of explosion without a blasting cap is minimal, old dynamite is still dangerous.
Improbabilities:
The Black Rock ship found deep in the jungle.
Dynamite in Black Rock still good after more than 100 years in a tropical climate.
Mysteries:
The Black Rock was a fully-rigged 19th century British trading ship that was found shipwrecked deep inside the Island and overgrown by the jungle. The ship carried a cargo of slaves, dynamite, and other equipment intended for mining. In the midst of a large storm at sea, a massive wave swept the vessel inland, causing it to crash violently into the Taweret statue, thus toppling the structure, leaving only the foot of the statue intact. This wave carried the ship far into the interior of the Island where it finally came to rest in an area known as the Dark Territory. The Black Rock brought the third oldest inhabitant, Richard Alpert, to the Island. Richard survived because the smoke monster, who killed all the other crew, used his mind to show him his long lost wife.
The Hatch
The Hatch was a large steel entrance to DHARMA Station 3, called The Swan. The Swan was an underground facility built during the late 1970's. It was located somewhere in the southwest region of the Island, about a mile inland from the survivor’s camp.
The DHARMA Initiative had originally designed the station to be a laboratory to study and manipulate the "unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the Island," as described by Dr. Change in the Swan orientation video. However, after the “Incident,” a 1977 drilling accident at the Swan construction site that unleashed a large amount of electromagnetic energy, they enacted a special protocol to prevent a potential global catastrophe. Two individuals manning the station took shifts entering The Numbers in a computer console every 108 minutes, apparently to release any EM build up at the site. On November 27, 2004, the Swan exploded and imploded on activation of the fail safe key by Desmond, a previous castaway.
The Others
The Others, referred to by DHARMA as the Hostiles or the Natives, and also by the tail section survivors of Flight 815 as “Them,” are a group of people living on the Island who predate visitors and who were followers of Jacob. Jacob never showed himself to his people, but used Richard Alpert as his intermediary. The Others took orders from a succession of leaders including Eloise Hawking, Charles Widmore, Benjamin Linus and briefly John Locke.
The background Others.
Jacob and his brother, MIB were born on the Island. Their real mother was killed by a Crazy Woman, who adopted them. Crazy Mother was the Island guardian for the Life Force. After her death at the hands of MIB, and Jacob throwing MIB into the light cave (and roaring out as a smoke monster), Jacob assumed the guardian role for the Island and its secrets. But Jacob had long been bringing people to the Island to prove his brother (MIB) wrong about his view of human nature. According to Jacob, it is the Man in Black's belief that all people are inherently corruptible, whereas Jacob wished to show him that people could know the difference between right and wrong without his interference. For some time, the people Jacob brought to the Island were simply killed by the Man in Black or each other, without Jacob stepping in. That rule changed in 1867 when Richard arrived to the Island on the Black Rock and, in exchange for the gift of immortality, he agreed to act as an intermediary between Jacob and the people he would bring to the Island. This was essentially the beginning of the Others.
Themes:
You can’t trust secrets to anyone on the Island. When Kate tries to get herself on the raft, Sawyer uses her secret (a convict) to turn the camp against her when it is found that Michael was poisoned by someone. The survivors begin to manipulate each other to get what they want; which is what the Others will do to them.
Atonement. Reparation for a wrong, injury or a sin. In early 15th century medieval Latin, it was meant to mean “unity” as unification with God. The Island and its tests of the survivors has been equated to Hell. Jin recognizes that he is being punished for his past deeds; that he needs to make amends by leaving the island to save his wife.
Hope. The raft is the last hope for rescue. That is why everyone in camp pitches in to get it launched before the monsoon season. Locke also answers Jack's question of what is inside the Hatch is "hope."
Clues:
“Special” people prior to the Island. Locke was called “special” by his mother. Walt was called “special” by his stepfather. Hurley was once called special by his mother, who was trying to boost his confidence to be more social. Locke, Walt and Hurley all slowly appear to have a special connection with the Island, able to sense strange things or make things happen.
Discussion:
“ Genius is eternal patience. ”
— Michelangelo
Jin tells Sun that he has to leave the island in order to save her. He believes that they are on the island to be punished. He tells Sun: “No, don't you understand, Sun. I'm in this place because I'm being punished. I made you suffer. You don't deserve any of this.”
Later, in the caves, after Aaron is kidnapped and Shannon is still despondent over Boone’s death:
SUN: [to Shannon] He died bravely.
SHANNON: What?
SUN: Your brother.
SHANNON: Yeah. Thanks.
SUN: Do you think all this -- all we've been through -- do you think we're being punished?
SHANNON: Punished for what?
SUN: Things we did before -- the secrets we kept, the lies we told.
SHANNON: Who do you think is punishing us?
SUN: Fate.
CLAIRE: No one's punishing us. There's no such thing as fate.
Fate is defined as the development of events beyond a person’s control because of the determination of a supernatural power.
Here is the basic fan viewpoint of the series. Were the characters dead and trapped in Hell (the Island) looking for redemption of their souls, or were they trapped, alive, in a supernatural place, being toyed with like the Greek gods did with their human subjects?
After Boone’s death, Walt's opinions of his friend John changed and he stopped talking to him. Instead, he focused his attentions on his father and building the raft. However, when Michael fell ill just before the raft was supposed to be launched, Jack suspected foul play. Walt, however, wanted Locke to know that he didn't poison Michael (thinking Locke may suspect it after he burned the first raft). When Locke grabbed his arm, Walt ominously told him to not "open that thing” - despite having no previous knowledge of the discovery of the hatch. After Michael recovered from his poisoning, Walt finally told him that he burned the raft. Michael asked if he wanted to stay on the Island but a changed Walt said that they "need to go.”
Did Walt’s “special” insight foreshadowed the future (time travel consciousness)? Or did his “touch” of Locke give him knowledge of the Island, the Hatch and future events?
The day that the raft was intended the launch, Walt, having woken first and gone into the woods to relieve himself, spotted Rousseau arriving in the camp, and bringing with her a dire warning of the Others imminent attack on the camp and recalled that the day her own child was kidnapped, she saw a pillar of black smoke. (a fire or the smoke monster?) Despite much skepticism about Rousseau's warning, it was Walt who noticed a pillar of smoke in the distance, implying some truth in the French woman's warning.
We get the short story of Leslie Arzt, the high school science teacher who is smarter than “the cool group” of castaways. He forces himself into the dynamite expedition, but chickens out at the dark territory. But he is flushed back to the group as he is being chased by the mechanical sounding smoke monster. During that attack, Rousseau takes part of the team under the banyan roots (where some cultures believe protects one against evil spirits). Rousseau tells them that the monster is a “security system” that protects the Island. Meanwhile, Locke tells Hurley to stand still as the monster approaches/chases the group. It is the opposite of human behavior to stand still in the midst of danger (further evidence that Locke may not be human at all). Arzt returns muddy and shaken. Then he takes over the removal of the dynamite. In a script formula of knowledge plus arrogance equals disaster, Arzt blows himself up. Instead of taking that as a sign that the dynamite won’t work - - - Locke and Jack pack up 6 sticks and head back to the Hatch.
After the raft launch, Charlie tells Claire his picture of their rescue, by helicopter. This is the premonition that Desmond would have latter in the show, when he gets Charlie to go on the underwater mission to his demise. Desmond’s vision was not the future but a hope Charlie put in his mind. It may show that the Island pieces together conscious memories in order to test individual souls, since we will learn that Jacob and MIB have been playing a game throughout their time of determining whether humans brought to the island are corrupt.
Magical/Supernatural/Elements:
Suspension of normal chemical properties and time (dynamite inert in tropical conditions after 100 years).
The Others and Whispers. We will know that the whispers are trapped dead souls on the island. Rousseau says that the whispers are the Others, which infers that the Others, as a group may be trapped spirits taking human form.
A bird comes flying through the jungle during the trek to the Black Rock, calling out the name “Hurley” as its screeching call. Some believe that it may have been a Dharma experiment; others believe it may have been a phoenix, sent to warn Hurley about danger. In some cultures, people have the concept spirit animals to guide them on the right path.
Last lines in episodes:
EP 21:
SAYID: John, no more lies.
EP 22:
KATE: Yeah, me too.
EP 23:
WALT: We did it!
[More waving and whooping. Jin and Sun share a long goodbye look. Long shot of the boat moving out toward sea.]
[Shot of the pillar of black smoke.]
EP 24:
HURLEY: Whoever named this place Dark Territory? Genius.
New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
What could be the darkest territory? Hell. It is a concept that TPTB attempted to quash in Season 1 fan posts, saying the show was not about purgatory. But in The End, the sideways world turned out to be a purgatory waiting room and the unanswered questions left viewers feeling a bit puzzled and taken for a ride.
There is nothing wrong with a show about human souls trying to find redemption and hope in Hell’s test of character and moral values. Dante’s Inferno is classic literature on the subject matter.
There may be many layers of this “fate” or punishment. When Sawyer tells Jack about his encounter with Christian at the Sydney bar, one could say that acknowledgement of Christian that his son was right, he was wrong and that he could not even pick up the telephone to tell Jack - - - his personal hell.
And we can see characters being moved into the Island realm to pay penance for their past sins, like Sayid. He was in Sydney trying to find Nadia, he claimed girlfriend that he tortured in Iraq (but they were only childhood acquaintances - - - now as an adult, Sayid turns obsessive stalker to find her), but is sidetracked into working for the CIA to betray his college friend in a terrorist cell. When his friend commits suicide over Sayid selling out his principles for a girl he wants, Sayid changes his plane ticket to the next day (Flight 815) and the fate of the Island punishment.
Jin is the first to openly say that the Island is a place of punishment. He tells Sun just before he leaves on the raft. As a result that Jin realizes that the place is Hell, and he must find a way out, he basically takes himself out of the game of candidates. That is why in the End, Jin is not a factor to replace Jacob.
Through the first season of LOST, references to Hell in the language used by the writers is clear. It is not a premise that many fans wanted to believe, but in the overall supernatural elements and dead end story arcs, it is still the most plausible answer to all the mysteries.
The idea that the whispers are dead souls trapped on the Island and the Others are also trapped on the island brings to mind the fact that MIB used to kill new arrivals, steal their memories, then create “humanoid” representations to haunt any survivors. Can the Others just be ghosts of people brought to the island? Avatars of Jacobs and/or MIB? If Jacob and MIB are supernatural beings, these avatars could be like children playing toy soldiers in a sandbox. It would also explain later on how Michael, “Patchy,” could be killed multiple times but not die. It is a show paradox: what is real is not real, and what is not real is real.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
