SEXISM

In the past weeks, Hollywood's dirty open secret of sexual harassment by powerful men has led to a landslide of resignations and terminations. The casting couch mentality is still prevalent in the entertainment industry. It is not exclusive to the United States as many stories are surfacing in South Korea about directors abusing actresses with non-agreed sex scenes in productions.

Sexism is a prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex. This happens frequently in the choices producers make in casting and developing series.

In LOST, the character of Kate Austen was supposed to be the main focal point. She was the one with the troubled background who would become the leader of the 815 survivors. It would have been interesting to see her use her charms to manipulate the male characters to do her bidding (like she did in her flashback crime sprees). In some ways, her character could have been on a parallel track with that of Ben.

But after shooting the pilot, the producers dramatically changed direction. Jack Shephard, the good looking, caring doctor was supposed to be killed to show the "reality" and danger that the island posed to the survivors. But since Matthew Fox had a previous network series with some fan following, the producers decided to make him the lead character instead of newcomer Evangeline Lilly.

It is not that a female character could not lead a network series. For seven seasons, an actress led the crew of Star Trek Voyager on a dangerous quest to return home from the Delta Quadrant. Kate Mulgrew, a stage actress, could command the center stage of the bridge. She could be tough, decisive and kind or introspective during an episode. No viewer questioned her competency as captain because she was a woman.

The leader of a star ship or band of castaways on a remote island controls how a series can unfold its stories. It can show more growth from an underdog character such as a small town woman in Kate who has to learn on the job, balance the inequities and fight the demons of prior prejudices against her. Jack's character had already garnered respect as a talented surgeon from his colleagues and patients. He was used to being in charge of a group in the operating room. His growth as an island leader would not be as great as it would have with Kate.

LOST could have been a totally different series if the original plan of Kate was the 815 leader instead of her secondary role as being a supporter of whatever man she needed to use to continue her own personal survival.

BYE BYE CHARLIE

 

The demise of Charlie was a puzzling development.

Dominic Monaghan’s character was killed off in Season Three by drowning in what amounted to a suicide mission. He died bravely aiding his fellow castaways in their never-ending attempt to get off the bizarre island. Why was this important character killed off?

As with other actors in the series, there may have been contract issues, popularity conflicts or actor's seeking other opportunities. Or, the writers needed to create "drama" to keep viewers watching from week to week. A cull of the main characters was a necessary evil.

When LOST started, Monaghan was in a relationship with his co-star, Evangeline Lily. Lily was a model. She had little acting experience when she was cast as the principal female lead in the show. As it was told from insiders, the original premise of the show had her character, Kate, being the leader of the survivors. Jack was supposed to have been killed off at the end of the pilot episode in order to grab the audience by the throat so prove the island was a dangerous place.

But the producers found Jack's character too appealing to let go so he was given a bigger, the focal role in the show. But Kate was always hanging around Jack as the principal female lead.

During the show, Lily broke up with Monaghan. Some believe it was due to Charlie’s lessening importance as the main character; he had been receiving much less screen time in the season before his demise. It could also stem from jealousy as Lily was receiving much more attention in the press from the beginning than he was - - - and the sudden popularity of the show must have added pressure to succeed.

But how Charlie had to die was maddening plot twist. The hokey idea that the underground station's code was musical notes (which apparently Charlie figured out quickly on his own) made Charlie the main character in that episode. He had to overcome his fear of swimming to dive deep below the water to get to the station. Then he had to fight off dangerous Others to send out a rescue signal. But when he got the message out, an explosion rocked the control room flooding the compartment. Everyone saw that Charlie had time to escape, but he locked the door to prevent the station from flooding or harming Desmond. The last thing Charlie did was receive a message he wrote on his hand: NOT PENNY'S BOAT.  It was a heroic demise when the waters engulfed him at the portal.

But Charlie could have opened the door to let the water rush into the very large open space of the station. He could have made it back to the open hole and swam out of the station. Most fans believed at the time it was an unnecessary character killing. Thus, there is a level of fan suspicion that there was another reason why Charlie left the show.

The character of Charlie had hit a dead end. The relationship with Claire, while special at the start, turning a boring pull-take romance that never got off the ground. Charlie's quest of having a trustworthy family blinded him from his true friendships. He never contributed a major "eureka" moment in the story lines. He was another downtrodden character, the LOST equivalent of a Star Trek red shirt.

We will never know the real reason Charlie got written out of the show. File it under the numerous "more questions than answers" bin.

DREAM POLICE

Throughout history, literature came in standard format elements such as metaphor, symbolism, satire, exaggeration and codes. At times, the authors used those devices to criticize their leaders so as not to lose their heads. Writers use these methods to allow a reader's imagination to fill in the gaps. One of the most successful books that have been used over and over again as examples are the parables in the Bible.

As with the vagueness of LOST's premise and main plot line, many different themes and theories have arisen to explain the totality of the series. Was it purgatory? Was it a parallel universe? Was it time travel? Was it the avatar representation of players in a video game? Was it all a dream?

The latter has been a highly investigated topic. Many theorists have focused in on Jack's character as the source of the dream theory. It was Jack's eye opening to start the show's mythology that got people to thinking it was a link to the mind's eye, or subconscious state. It seemed to hold water when Jack's last island shot was him closing his eyes in the bamboo jungle after defeating MIB.

However, after recently hearing Cheap Trick's "Dream Police," there may be another suspect.

The dream police
They live inside of my head
The dream police
They come to me in my bed
The dream police
They're coming to arrest me
Oh no

You know that talk is cheap
And rumors ain't nice
And when I fall asleep
I don't think I'll survive

The night the night

'Cause they're waiting for me
Looking for me
Every single night
(They're) driving me insane
Those men inside my brain

What if the duality state of psychic responses was not in Jack's head but in Kate's?

It may make more sense because Kate's story line features all of the main character story elements. The show was supposedly all about character development more than plot.

The lyrics of the song pen a simple premise for Kate's dream state.

What was the major focus of Kate? To run away. To not accept responsibility. Not to grow up to make adult decisions toward accountability. And where do many people run to in troubled times? Into their own heads. The factually incorrect assumption through the series was that a U.S. Marshall was chasing down Kate for an Iowa state murder. The U.S. has no jurisdiction over murder, a state offense. And when she was "tried" for that murder, it was in California, another state without any jurisdiction. Those errors were so big and stupid it cast the whole series writing in doubt. 

The only real explanation for those egregious errors is that they were not real. 

If we accept the premise that Kate's story is fantasy, then a workable theory can be made from it.

When know the basic elements of her character: she was a rural child living with her working mother and lazy stepfather. She wanted attention so she caused trouble. She learned early how to manipulate young boys. She longed to get away from the chains of her family and to have adventures. But her family had no resources to send her away, and Kate seemed to have no attributes to better herself to go to school or college to make her own path.

LOST could be considered Kate's dream flight away from her boring life. Besides, Kate is the only person in the O6 story arc to have a "happy" outcome, i.e. getting her murder charges dismissed with a wrist slap. All the other O6 characters had brutal disappointments, including Jack turning into a drug/alcoholic, Sayid seeing the love of his life killed in an accident, and Locke being murdered by Ben.

And the other characters are elements of her personality, as depicted in Disney's recent movie Inside Out.

Shannon represents a vanity, a pretty but lazy girl who wants to be showered with gifts and attention. Locke represents her adventurous side. Sawyer represents her devious wants and desires. Hurley represents her shy but crazy side. Charlie represents her hidden creative talents. Ben represents her repressed anger against her parents. Jack represents conformity, the responsible person she is trying to avoid. Sayid represents the exotic problem solver. Claire represents the little girl trapped inside her head. The smoke monster was her deepest fears; reality. Mars, the marshal, represented her parents and the societal pressure to conform, behave and be accountable for your actions.

Throughout LOST, Kate was seemingly in the middle of every major event. She went on all the missions. Out of nowhere, she was an "expert" tracker. When she needed to be an expert marksman, she was. She got in and out of danger with barely a scratch. She always got what she wanted: escape and freedom. All the main story threads had Kate as a major factor: the plane crash, the O6 story arc, and the sideways world. In fact, Kate's story is exactly the same in both the island world and the sideways existence while the other characters had major differences. That is because Kate's mind was in control of both story worlds, bouncing back and forth like a pleasant dream to a nightmare. 

But as Kate got deeper and deeper into her fantasy dreams, the more dark they became. Add in "the Others," people who don't know her but want to control her. Jacob and MIB, tyrants who are trying to hurt her, kidnap her and enslave her mind - - - take away her freedom. 

Her Dream Police, her imagination,  were authority figures who were making demands on her. All the characters did indeed live inside her head. And when she was asleep, they tried to "arrest" her - - - take away the fantasy of adventurous freedom by putting her (and her character elements) in danger. There were times she felt she would not survive: as the plane was crashing, as she was chased into the mangrove roots by the smoke monster, when Ben held her captive, when MIB attacked the temple, when Claire lashed out at her, etc. 

So we may never really know who Kate really was. She could have been a transference of Libby, the mental patient in Hurley's group day room. As the song said, the dream police were driving her insane.

HAPPINESS TRADE-OFFS

One of the main themes of life is finding and securing happiness.

But in the quest for happiness, something usually has to give.

In LOST, various main characters were searching for happiness, but most never found it.

For example, Rose and Bernard met late in life. It was a godsend for Bernard. Rose was his world. Until she got cancer. He panicked and tried to find any cure. That led to a strain in their relationship. Rose was a realist. Bernard was an optimistic dreamer. But for Bernard to secure his happiness with Rose, they both had to "die" in a plane crash. That was the only "cure" for Rose's cancer was that she became a spiritual being on the island.

For example, Jack's sole mission in his life was to get the acknowledgement of his skills from his father. As a result, Jack was never happy. He had no friends. He was obsessed with pleasing his father, and getting out of his father's shadow, that it caused him to be paranoid and obsessive in his relationships. His first marriage failed because of an alleged jealousy between his wife and his father. And his relationship in O6 arc with Kate fell a part as well. In order for Jack to be happy, he had to do the opposite. He had to control things. He had to have the final say. He had to be right.

And then there were characters like Locke who spent their entire lives trying to find happiness, but stumbled through it as a fool. His bitterness of being abandoned as a child clouded all of his life choices. It ruined his relationship with the one woman who cared about him and his disabilities. The only way Locke found any sliver of contentment was when he "died" and was reunited with his island friends.

Sociologists have studied this apparent personal paradox. Happiness is something we assume we want, but in reality, we sometimes give it up in exchange for comfort. Unfortunately, we’re often comfortable with not getting what we want, so resign ourselves to that fate. As researchers stated:

Though happiness is of course what we all fundamentally want, for many of us, it isn’t really what we know...it isn’t what we’ve come to expect. It doesn’t feel like home...Getting what we want can make us feel unbearably risky...Self sabotage may leave us sad, but at least safely, blessedly, in control. It can be useful to keep the concept of self sabotage in mind when interpreting our and others’ odder behavior.

Beyond that, next time you’re weighing a decision and thinking about the risk involved, it might help to consider the role of comfort and control.

The concept of self-sabotage fits Locke to a tee. It also fits in Jack's grinding personality flaws of being an unloved, control freak. It also connects Kate's selfishness with her self-destructive behavior when she constantly tries to escape responsibility for her life's decisions. 

Was Jack really happy in the end? I don't think so. Being a martyr and dying in the bamboo field was unnecessary. And when he went to the sideways church reunion, he was more in his own catatonic state than being in a state of happiness. 

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

The Bear Cage passion play was the most illicit carnal scene in LOST.

After Kate was kidnapped by the Others, she was told to wash up, put on a summer dress, and meet Ben on the beach for wine and a light meal. It was at this meeting that Ben looked to charm, seduce and use Kate.

We think that Ben's first purpose was to find a new ally in Kate. He knew her background. In some ways, they were compatible: they both had father issues, broken homes, issues with authority, the need to control, highly manipulative and willing to play dirty. Many believe that this beach meeting was an awkward attempt by nerdy Ben to make a pass at Kate. In order for Ben to rule his kingdom, he needed a queen. His last attempt, his try with Juliet, ended in failure. A failure so bitter that Ben sent Juliet's lover, Goodwin, on a dangerous spy mission which would eventually lead to his death. Ben showed Juliet Goodwin's grave and cursed "you are mine." However, the only thing that came from that was an uneasy truce.

With Kate, he could literally find a new partner-in-crime. Ben possessed the one thing that Kate wanted: freedom and the lack of accountability for her actions. Ben could manipulate events in such a fashion where those dreams could come true (and perhaps he did during the O6 arc where Kate basically got no punishment for any of her crimes).

We don't know the full extent of the beach meeting, the proposed deals or what the final response was between the two parties. It seemed that Ben was rejected, and Kate thrown in an uncomfortable choice. She had feelings for Jack (who knew and kept her secrets) but was attracted to the bad boy, Sawyer. When Ben found out about her magnetic connection with Sawyer, he pounced - - - basically pitting Jack and Sawyer in a deadly love triangle.

Ben needed Jack's surgical skills to operate on his tumor. He knew that Jack would not cooperate with him. He tried to lure Jack into cooperation by having Juliet get a professional friendship started between them, then push it towards a pseudo relationship. Ben knew from the beginning that Juliet would play along with the game while at the same time try to double cross Ben. Ben wanted Juliet and Jack to bond so he can control them as a couple. If Jack fell for Juliet, Ben had the leverage to make Jack do his bidding.

Ben made Kate make a choice of who would live and die between her potential lovers. Would she choose Jack, who represented her future, or Sawyer, who represented her past?

Looks and actions can be deceiving; when Kate returned to the Bear Cages after rebuffing Ben's advances, she looked at the forlorn Sawyer in a new light. She must have realized that Ben knew Jack was more valuable to the Others than an independent troublemaker in Sawyer. Perhaps her true feelings swelled up inside her. Maybe it was a small spark of human kindness. But Kate did something she would not have done in the past without some reward - - - climbed into Sawyer's cage and made love to him.

It was a passionate, wanton display of lust that was captured by the security monitors for Jack to see.

This also fit into Ben's grand scheme - - - for if Jack had any romantic feelings for Kate, they were shattered by her shagging his obstructionist rival.

But was Kate's fling with Sawyer true love or pity sex for a condemned soul?

Afterward, Kate and Sawyer were put on a work gang building the runway. Jack began to get closer with Juliet in a way to plot against Ben. So in one respect, Ben's plan was coming together. He had separated the castaways into two groups so they would not work together. He put Juliet and Jack into one joint venture against him; something that he knew about and could out flank.

But Kate's relationship with Sawyer never went any deeper to full, complete romantic love.

In the cages on Hydra Island, Pickett asked Kate if she loves Sawyer and she responds that she does.  After the camp split, Kate went back to the Barracks for a little while, and she and Sawyer spent the night together. As Jack, Sayid, Hurley, Sawyer, and Kate leave the island on the chopper, Sawyer whispered something in Kate's ear, to her confusion. He kisses her and jumps off the chopper and into the ocean.

Prior to the Oceanic 6's return to the island, Sawyer tells Horace that he had a "thing for this girl once", but after three years, can barely remember her face. However, upon seeing Kate, he is awash with nostalgia, but it is short-lived as he reminds a worried Juliet that "nothing's changed", and that he's with her [Juliet]. After a young Ben gets shot by Sayid, Kate and Sawyer attempt to save his life by bringing Ben to the Others.

After Juliet's death, Sawyer leaves the main group, choosing to go at it alone. Kate, worried for his well-being, follows him back to the Barracks. She apologizes for Juliet's death, and starts to blame herself for the death by returning to the island.

Kate and Sawyer appear to be star-crossed lovers by their own choice. When Sawyer winds up back on shore after the helicopter escape, he drinks with Juliet on the beach. When the world goes strange (flash back in time), Sawyer becomes closer to Juliet than he ever did with Kate. So was Sawyer merely using Kate as a companion, or did he ever have true feelings for her. We could assume he did because he sacrificed himself to save her (in the helicopter).

So why did they not complete their romantic bond when both of them left the island in Frank's Ajira plane? Sawyer had lost his Juliet. Kate had lost her Jack. Both had lost their "spouses" after living with them for some time. Kate's relationship with O6 Jack fell a part before they returned to the island. Sawyer's love for Juliet was cruelly taken away from him - - - and he blamed Jack.

We don't believe Sawyer and Kate got together in the post-island mainland since they did not wind up with each other in the Sideways afterlife. So what was the Bear cage sex supposed to represent? Animal instincts? Fear released as passion? A way to make an terrible situation bearable?

One would have thought that the shared island experience, the good and the bad, would have made Sawyer and Kate a close couple in the mainland. They could have lived together happily ever after since their pre-815 personal baggage had been resolved on the island, for good and ill.

When rules of law and order breaks down, humans tend to fall back to their primitive survival modes. They tend to get selfish, self-centered and looking for instant gratification since the rules do not apply anymore. The island was a test ground for the animal tendencies of man when society's rules are suspended and there is little to no responsibility for one's actions. Kate and Sawyer thrived on that aspect of the island. So why could they have not found happiness together post-island?

One explanation would be that Kate never cared for Sawyer. That her "deal" with Ben was to become Sawyer's lover to control him. Kate would be the "double agent" that Ben needed in order to get inside the 815 camp and isolate its power-leaders. Kate stayed with Sawyer for a short time in order to get something she wanted - - - freedom and escape from the island. But Ben would not grant (or could not it seems due to Jacob's candidate power) Kate her freedom while the 815ers posed a threat to his dictatorship. So if you believe Kate was just acting with Sawyer in order to con him into submission, well played Kate. But in the heat of conflict, danger and near death experience - - - we think that Kate really did have true feelings for Sawyer, and his shelter puppy dog looks, to give Kate's heart a jolt of compassion and passion.

For unwritten in her back story is one of abuse. If it was sexual in nature, it could show why Kate's attitude towards sex was more for the manipulation of men than finding romance and stability in her life. She fled Florida when she felt her husband would find out about her past. She fled the island instead of going after Sawyer after he jumped from the helicopter. She got rid of Jack after she got a wrist slap from the court system in the O6 story arc. She never saw men as being a necessary part of her being. She never connected a physical relationship with love, but with power or self-preservation. So Kate's animal instinct for survival difficult situations encompassed much of her relationships with the men in her life. So much so that it clouded her feelings and ability to find and nurture true love.

Kate's passion for Sawyer was real, but it was lost. It may have been the first time that she took charge of her sexual desires and threw herself on a man she thought would be soon dead. She may have thought Sawyer was the one chance for survival and escape. But Kate never saw far enough ahead in a traditional viewpoint of marriage, home and family to have the bond that true soul mates find in their relationships.

Likewise, Sawyer had no basis for truly caring about any woman. His entire pattern was to love them and leave them. He feared stability because that meant he would lose his freedom. It would cramp his style. He could no longer run wild. He would be trapped in his old man's life - - - a dreadful, suicidal life. So Sawyer consciously kept all the women in his life at bay. He would use them, then throw them away. He needed to be constantly in motion, like a shark in the ocean. It was only when he was trapped with Juliet that he found some comfort in a "normal" relationship in a "normal" home life. At that point, Sawyer believed that he would never return to his past. The 1970s Dharma was going to be his life, forever. And Juliet was the best part of it.

How three years with Juliet changed Sawyer to the extent that he was a new man is not out of the question. Animal instincts can be tamed by the right woman and under the right circumstances. In Kate's situation, she also had a three year window of normalcy with Jack and Aaron - - - the suburban housewife, that she would learn to abhor. So it is possible that deep down, in the same comfortable situations of a classic American home life, Sawyer and Kate would not have been compatible.

So the Bear Cage may have been just what it seemed: instinctive animal passion brought upon by the stressful circumstances of captivity, danger and possibility of impending death.

KATE AND BEN'S DEAL

We know Kate was supposed to be the lead character in the original manuscripts for the series. But in the rush of the pilot and early screenings, Jack emerged from an early dramatic death candidate to the leader of the survivors.

A pivotal plot point was contained in the episode "A Tale of Two Cities."

Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been captured by the Others. Unknown to them, they have been taken to a secondary island, Hydra, and held in cells (Jack inside the facility and Kate & Sawyer in outside polar bear cages).

Jack wakes up in a holding cell. He sees chains across the ceiling. He seems to be on some kind of table. He looks at the inside of his elbow, which has a band-aid on it where something had been injected or blood given. He tries to open some kind of hatch/door but it is locked. Some kind of electronic device used to "communicate" is on the wall, but it does not seem to work. Jack sees another door on the opposite side of the room, but when he walks toward it he collides with a glass wall blocking his way. Water is dripping from the ceiling. Jack tries to break the glass, unsuccessfully. He shouts for Kate, but there is no reply. 

Kate wakes up in a bathroom with "Mr. Friendly," Tom,  standing over her. He indicates a clean towel, a new bottle of shampoo and an unwrapped bar of soap, and tells her to take "a nice hot shower." She refuses to shower in his presence, but Tom laughs and tells her she's not his type; he then leaves. Kate sees that she too has a band-aid on her arm. 

Sawyer wakes in an outdoor  zoo cage. He looks around and sees speakers and a big tube with an unknown DHARMA logo. Also, he notices other nearby structures, including a cage similar to his, with Karl inside it. Sawyer tries to get answers from him, but the man does not respond. Sawyer looks around his cage some more and sees a strange contraption/button inside that has a large "button" with a knife and fork painted on it. He tries to figure it out, and pushes the button. A "Warning" sound goes off. Sawyer pushes the button again, the same sound goes off. As he is about to push the button for a third time, the prisoner in the cell opposite warns him not to. Sawyer pushes the button anyway, and receives a painful electric shock. 

We learn fairly quickly that Hydra station was for animal experimentation. It is also away from the main island, which adds another level of security and therefore danger to the castaways. Each castaway had been apparently "injected" with something in their arm. We would later learn that Sawyer has a chest scar, as Ben shows him that he is trapped on the island, that contains an explosive device set to go off with high blood pressure. Most people believe Ben was bluffing the con man, but Sawyer believed him enough to cooperate and control his anger and rage to escape.

It is clear that this episode shows the brilliance of Ben's evil mind. He has taken three strong willed survivors and put them into a situation where he can play each their fears, desires and self-interest off each other.

But the key plot point was the beach scene.

After Kate's encounter with Tom, she takes a shower. When she emerges, she finds that someone has taken her clothes and left her a dress instead. She puts it on, reluctantly. Tom and three Others bring her to a beach, where "Henry" is waiting at a covered table with chairs, freshly cooked food, utensils, and coffee, with a pair of handcuffs on the side. He tells her to handcuff herself or she gets no coffee. 

She asks "what did you do with Sawyer and Jack?" But "Henry" notices that she started the question with Sawyer and not Jack. Kate asks for her clothes, "Henry" tells her they burned them. When she asks why he's doing all this, "Henry" responds that he gave her a dress to make her feel "like a lady," fresh food to make her feel at home, allowed her a view of the beach because her friends are seeing the same beach, and utensils to make her feel civilized. He tells Kate that he gave all those things to her so she'll have something to hold on to, because "the next two weeks will be very unpleasant."

After some experimentation, and with the help of a large rock Sawyer found outside the cell, he soon figures out the mechanism that delivers food and water. The water streams out a pipe into a trough, kibble falls on the ground as well as a large fish biscuit -- animal food. As Sawyer drinks the water, Tom returns and he puts Kate into the cell that Karl had occupied. He takes off her cuffs. She also has visible cuts from the handcuffs and Tom remarks "cut you up pretty bad, didn't they." Tom, noticing that Sawyer was able to obtain food, first congratulates him, and then mocks him by telling him that the bears figured it out in two hours.  Kate is in the cell across from Sawyer's, and he tries to make her feel better by joking around. She seems distraught, so Sawyer asks if she wants something to eat. Kate says yes, so Sawyer throws her a biscuit which she eats pitifully.

And the unsaid aspects of the beach scene hover over the rest of this story arc.

Apparently, if Kate was still hungry upon her return to the cage, then she must have not eaten with Ben on the beach. That would mean that Kate decided not to cooperate with Ben. But what was the proposal(s)?

We know that Ben had risen to power by being brutal and controlling of the Others. But as king, he wanted to solidify his kingdom with a queen. Juliet had refused his romantic overtures, so Ben killed her lover and vowed to keep her a prisoner on "his" island. We could assume that in the beach conversation, Ben made a similar demand: Kate would work with him (or be his consort) or one of her loves would die.  When Ben picked up "Sawyer's" name first in Kate's concern, Sawyer got the chest bomb. (Some could argue that was the plan all along since Ben really needed Jack to do spinal surgery on him.)

Ben had all the intel on Kate's past, so he probably used it against her. Criminal minds think a like, and Ben was a master of leverage. He could have used Kate's secrets to claim that he could turn her over to the authorities and receive maximum punishment if she did not cooperate. Kate was always a runner; a person who never wanted to face her responsibility or accountability for her actions. She also had in the past used then discarded her lovers when she needed to keep running from the law. Kate could have decided to cut a deal to "stay" on the island, i.e. to be Ben's double agent.

It would then make sense why Kate demanded to go on ALL the remaining missions. If she was Ben's inside spy, she could tell the Others exactly what the castaways were planning to do. Juliet was a later obvious choice as a triple spy, using Jack's affection for her to get herself into camp leadership and trust roles (as a medical professional helping Claire), but also to balance or confirm Kate's potential spy activities. 

The deal could have also been that Kate had to choose between Jack or Sawyer. Ben probably pressed her to choose Sawyer, since he needed Jack to turn his back his feelings on her. And it worked. Out of character, Kate made a move on Sawyer which Jack "conveniently" saw on the bear cage monitors. With Kate choosing Sawyer as her island lover, Jack was heartbroken - - - and fell in line to help Ben.

It would not have been out of character for Kate to sell out Jack by pretending to bond with Sawyer. But like all Kate's decisions, she did not follow through very long with Sawyer (only enough to escape from the Hydra station.) There was conflict in Kate's mind since she immediately started to plan a rescue mission, but it was Jack who told her to NEVER return. When she did try a rescue mission, we saw the shock on her face when she saw Jack playing toss with Tom in the Barracks yard. Jack was suddenly integrated into the enemy camp - - -  and he looked happy and content. Kate was shocked - - - and she was taken away with the impression that Jack was lost to her.

At that moment, Kate's "bad" decision in choosing Sawyer over Jack was apparent. It was a decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life. She would only "remember" the pain and deep love for Jack when she awoke her soul in the sideways afterlife. This is the only rational explanation of why Kate would be so clingy to Jack in the sideways church at the End. She got her one second chance to be forever in love with Jack - - - something that would have not happened if not for her "deal" with Ben on the Hydra beach.

THE TRUE RELATIONSHIP

Relationships are tricky.  We all have been through the complex, irrational, emotional and rewarding roller coaster of life that is partnering with a special person to share experiences and memories. Relationships are like fires: some burn hot and bright then cool to embers while others are slow and steady rich and smokey affairs of the heart.

There are a few key components that bring men and women together.

Attraction tops the key element list. Physical attraction is the first cue because it is the first thing a person sees in another person. The outward appearance of a potential mate is an evolutionary mental instinct that overrides logic or intelligence. It can be the unspoken bond - - - the initial deep eye contact which some writers call the gateway to another person's soul.

Compatibility is another element. One can be physically attracted to another person, but if the couple does not share mutual interests, have similar morals, have similar goals in life - - - or nothing of substance to talk about - - - their relationship will have a weak foundation. There are some people who get together just for the sexual passion of being with another person with no long term commitment or expectations.

Respect and trust is another element that comes with time. A couple needs to have sufficient time to get to know each other. At a certain point, a person will let down their personal "guard," the space or barrier that keeps outsiders away from that person's inner secrets and desires. Once a person has the respect and trust of another, there is an inherit measure of safety and security that helps cement a true bond of friendship.

Friendship is another key element. Friendship is defined as the the emotions or conduct of friends; a closeness between friends; and  a state of mutual trust and support between people.  There is an odd split when it comes to friendship. Some believe experience teaches us that lovers can become friends while there is a barrier that friends cannot become lovers. Whether that concept was placed in small human villages as a means of stopping fights between males is better left to an anthropologist's thesis. But in our modern world, there is no reason why men and women who have a true bond of friendship could bloom into lovers.

For the happiest couples often say that their mate is "their best friend."  The person who supports them, helps them make decisions, shares life experiences, and is there for the good times and the bad times.

Perhaps that is why many viewers could not see Kate winding up with Jack at the end of LOST. The traditional means of love were backward in their relationship.

The male audience was smitten with Kate when she first appeared on camera. She was the perky, cute, American girl-next-door icon. She was feisty, reckless, witty, and fun. Men were immediately attracted to her. And Kate knew this; she used her charms to her advantage to control men - - - from getting them close to pushing them away.

When she had her quick affair with Sawyer, it was animal lust as they were caged at the Dharma research facility. Both of them never had had a lasting relationship; they used people to their advantage in a cold, con-artist manner. Some believe Kate's actions with Sawyer was only to get Jack to save Ben (the deal she made on the beach) by forsaking any feelings towards her (such as protecting her against the Others). But Kate's relationship continued with Sawyer in the beach camp until she got to close to his secrets (the letter he wrote as a child). As such, Sawyer and Kate split.

Throughout the jungle missions, Kate was always in the background supporting Jack. There were only a few times she sided with some one else, like Locke, but overall Jack could "count" on her. But there was always a hint of trust issues. Jack knew her criminal secret, but he did not care since he believed (rightly so) that the island was a chance for everyone to start fresh with a new beginning.

Relationships are new beginnings. It is an opportunity to discard the past, learn from one's mistakes, and look for the traits that will bring out the best traits in yourself and in your partner.

So when you look at Kate sitting next to Jack in the sideways church, one could think they were never meant for each other but on the other hand their island experience and friendship was so intense and strong that deserved to wind up together.

LEADERS

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. - - Walter Lippman

If leadership was a central theme to the drama of the show, how did the characters pass "the final test?"

Jack did leave Hurley in charge of the island. A very, very, very reluctant Hurley in charge of the island. But it is inferred that Ben was very "beneficial" in Hurley's island reign, so much so that Hurley was rewarded with heavenly reunion with Libby. (In the succession plan, that would leave Ben in charge of the island and sideways view, with the dual knowledge that only Eloise had).

Locke was only briefly in charge of the group when the time skips happened after Ben screwed things up in the FDW. However, Locke was a pawn in Christian smoke monster's plot to get Jack back to the island in order to thwart, kill Jacob to find MIB's alleged loophole (which may be the same as everyone else on the island - - - get to the sideways plane of existence, the after life, from the way station island).

Flocke was a more successful faux leader, who ruled like Ben and Widmore  did the Others, by an iron fist and no mercy. But Flocke was not a real human being, and he wanted to leave no one behind (as his mental state, if any, was to destroy all human candidates in order to escape his prison.)

Sayid was only briefly in charge of his Iraqi torture unit. But when push came to shove, he betrayed his uniform, killed a superior, let a prisoner escape, then became a U.S, CIA operative. On the island, Sayid refused a full leadership role (except on a few rescue missions) because he could not trust himself.

Sawyer was in charge of the beach castaways ("by default," as Hurley said) but that time Sawyer tried to "act" like a leader, but as a lone wolf con-man it was impossible for him to adapt. However, in the time warp arc, Sawyer did become a leader of his castway time travelers by becoming the sheriff of the barracks, waiting for the time skip to send them back. It was during this three year period that Juliet apparently tamed the wild Sawyer beast.

Kate led a few rescue missions, but tried to avoid becoming the leader of either the beach castaways or the candidates forum. She always put her own self-interests above other people. Even when she claimed to have "saved" Claire in the end by getting her on the plane, Kate could have stayed and gone back to try to save Jack, but she did not. She only wanted to get off the island. There were no tears in her decision.

Jacob was the leader who hid in the statue. He commanded through his liaison, Alpert, who in turn, gave instructions to Ben (who would twist things so he had the power.)  Alpert led the quiet Other near revolt against Ben, when he gave the file to Locke to make Locke the leader (by killing Cooper, his father, by Sawyer's hand.) Jacob assumed the leadership of the island at the request of his Crazy Mother, and regretted his actions that led to his own brother's demise (by the hands of the smoke monster). A leader with such guilt, shame and regret was never a good leader.

Widmore was a born bully of a leader. He was exiled from the island, and made his sole mission in life to return to recapture it. He used his inner strength to gather a vast fortune to fund his quest. In a certain respect, he succeeded at the task as he returned to the island, and indirectly defeated Flocke. But as a leader, he got blindsided by the vengeful rage of Ben, who killed Widmore for killing Alex. Many leaders find it appropriate to lead with "an eye for an eye" mission statement.

In their own way, and collectively, no one person was a great leader. Each had terrible personal faults and lacked command of their people and circumstances (which led to many lives lost.)

FALLING OUT

How easy is it to fall in and out of love.

Shannon knew she was a beautiful young woman. She used to it to gain the attention of suitors, boyfriends and a lazy, carefree lifestyle. But she continually made bad choices, ran out of money and had boyfriend issues because her relationships were so superficial.

Kate knew she was cute, but never dolled herself up as a beauty queen. She used her charm to get men to do her bidding, and falling in love with her was not on her agenda. She was independent and did not need the admiration of a man to make her happy. Or so she thought, until it was too late. Her relationships were hit and miss, and the men in her life literally got caught in the cross fire and paid a heavy price trying to capture her heart.

Juliet never expressed herself as attractive since she was engrossed with her work. As a student, she fell for her smart scientific husband, but that puppy love did not equate into a meaningful, story book relationship. His work and her work did not allow the couple to work on their own personal feelings for each other. It ended in divorce. And to further to cut the ties, Ben had Juliet's ex hit by a bus in order for her to accept Alpert's invitation to join the island research.

The only woman who truly had a deep, caring and loving relationship with a man was Rose. She found her soul mate late in life. They was a strong and natural bond between them. When Rose got sick, she accepted her fate while Bernard tried in vain to find a miracle. In one regard, the island was the couple's final paradise - - - together, alone, forever.

Juliet and Sawyer's final relationship started as a matter of convenience and security, then bonded when the time travel arc ended with the Swan construction site implosion. Only in death would Juliet be happy with her Sawyer.

Shannon's true love story was much weaker. A week long affair with Sayid was somehow transformed into the epic tale of lost lovers - - -  even though Sayid had pined for 6 seasons for a woman named Nadia.

But just as improbable, Kate's relationship with Jack was also weak. In the O6 story line, they had a major falling out because of Jack's addictive jealousy personality and Kate's inner will to be independent. Kate was trapped in the suburban homemaker lifestyle of her mother which Kate detested. The "divorce" in the O6 arc was clean and absolute, as Jack spun off into his own personal darkness.  They fell out of love harder than a person jumping out of a plane without a parachute. Why Kate and Jack reunited in the after life is one of those music chair moments - - - because there was nobody us to pair up.

HOW PATHS ARE RARELY STRAIGHT

Everyone's life path is filled with twists and turns. Opportunities, forks in the road, pitfalls, etc.

So it is no surprise that Evangeline Lilly's path to stardom was one of those curves from her initial career road. She was a model who was coaxed into auditioning for a role in a TV pilot. Since it was going to be filmed in Hawaii, it probably was a no brainer. A diversion. A lark. Because she says her real dream, she said, has always been to be a writer. 

She has acting as a means to pay her bills, but her passion is still writing. 

Lilly, 35, who landed her breakout role on the ABC series "Lost" in 2004, said that at the time, she wasn't even sure she wanted to act professionally. A few years later, she decided she "really hated working as an actress." 

"I was like, 'Well, then, what do I want to do if I don’t want to be an actress?' Because I didn’t really mean to become an actress. I was sort of an accidental actress," she said. "I wound up deciding that I wanted to make a go of a career as a writer." 

Ultimately, however, dream roles kept finding her. Lilly's childhood passion for J.R.R. Tolkien was the catalyst for accepting her role in "The Hobbit" film franchise, as was her desire to play a strong female lead. She then accepted a role in the upcoming Marvel film, "Ant-Man," because of her desire to work with its star, Paul Rudd. 

However, Lilly, who recently wrote a children's book, "The Squickerwonkers," isn't planning on doing any other acting projects at the moment -- not that she minds. 

“There are so many reasons why, for me, writing is superior to acting,” she said. “One of them is anonymity. Writers can live relatively normal lives. Most [working] actors can’t. Writers can work from home and be near their family most of the time. Actors usually can’t. Writers expend a lot of intellectual energy, but not so much emotional energy. And I have intellectual energy coming out of my yin-yang, but emotional energy — I am so lazy. I just don’t have a lot of emotional energy to give. I don’t like drama in my life, and I don’t like having to pretend [to have drama].”

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

Kate is one of those polarizing characters.  And there may be a reason for that.  She could have been born under the sign of Leo even though it is believed she was born in mid May to mid-June (a Cancer).

There is one thing that most of the Leo women never falls short of - male attention. She will most probably be the center of attention everywhere and if you are trying to woo her, be ready to get lots of competition. She will be the leader of her group and the other members will always accept her out of choice. The typical characteristics profile of a Leo woman includes qualities like liveliness, ingenuity, elegance, beauty, and sensuality. She is one of those who love, respect and care for their partners, but don't expect her to worship you.

She wouldn't be dominated; rather she has to be restrained. She is a complete woman and she expects you to be a real man. If you meet a Leo girl who comes across as very gentle, mellowed and completely harmless, don't get fooled. Inside, she is as passionate as any other Leo woman. If you are planning to give her a gift; better make sure that it is classy and as per her superior taste. Please be properly dressed while giving the gift. If you are trying to win the heart of a Leo female, give her genuine, decent and original compliments.

While courting her, never forget that she likes class and style. Don't even think of going to the roadside hamburger stall after watching the movie. She is not after money, but shabby surroundings make her pretty uncomfortable. In return, she will also shower you expensive gifts. The lioness may become a little arrogant and proud at times, but these are some of her basic personality traits. She cannot help thinking of herself above the normal masses and please don't tell her she's not.

You will break her big, warm heart. A Leo woman who is respected, loved and cherished will become one of the most agreeable as well as the kindest person on this earth. She will care for the children and help the needy. The lioness is a combination of intelligence, wit, strength and talent, mixed with generous amounts of feminine charm. This is what makes her irresistible. The best way to make her do anything is flatter her and she will even do the tiniest of chores for you. Never stop her from having a career after marriage.

The Leo profile seems to fit Kate's character.

A Cancer woman's profile is significantly different. Men will be a little confused as to what she really is - chirpy, somber or distant? She is all of these and still, she is none of these. Even more confused? A Cancerian woman has mood swings every now and then and these are only a few of her mood swings. However, her basic personality traits remain the same. She is very sensitive, emotional, kind and caring. Now's the catch! Most of her traits will be hidden behind a shell of indifference and aloofness, breaking which will require quite a lot of effort.

You will have to gently coerce a Cancerian girl to get out of her shell and come into the big bad world without it. The best time to do this is in the moonlight, when there are maximum chances of catching her in her true emotions. When in love, she will be tender, womanly, timid and modest. She dislikes criticisms, can't stand rejection and gets deeply hurt by harsh words. Too much aggressiveness on your part may make her a little hesitant. She loves her mother, so you better learn to love as well as respect her too.

A Cancer woman will never make the first moves in a relationship; she only knows how to move backwards or sideways. This is because of two reasons, her shyness and her fear of being rejected. This female has some secrets and she won't like you prying around her personal diary. She is very insecure and will need your constant reassurance. It doesn't matter if she is the current 'Miss Universe' or has men drooling over her all the time, it is your attention and appreciation she would be the most concerned about.

You will have to learn to live with a Cancerian woman’s mood swings, which is not so difficult since she is so good in every other way. She is extremely loyal and will keep you happy with her warm and rich humor. Once she is committed to you, she will remain yours forever and ever. Adultery is not one of her traits. With a Cancerian woman, you will always have to be careful with words. She is very sentimental and can get hurt very easily. Then, she can cry like a 2-year old baby and you will be expected to console her and wipe her tears.

A Cancer female is a great cook and makes better food than a 5-star hotel chef. She is quite careful with money as well. Neither will she be stingy, nor totally extravagant. She has a habit of saving everything that is usable, be it money, old buttons or empty jars. She also saves things that have a sentimental value attached to them, like the sweater grandmother knitted on her fifth birthday. A Cancer female fiercely guards what is hers and that includes you too! However, she is not too possessive or jealous. But, she does not like sharing her love too.

Kate never showed any traits of being a homebody (cooking, domestic chores). She was shown as being out in the wild, on the hunt, on missions, being in the center of the action (which also means the center of attention in the male dominated hierarchy.) Kate was really the classic spunky, cute American girl-next-door. She was part tomboy, part siren. She knew how to charm and how to hurt.
That is part of the confusion of the ending when she winds up back with Jack. Many viewers don't know why that would have happened since Jack had let her go to be free.

But perhaps male viewers of the series got the vibe and frustration of the Kate character because she has the Leo-type personality. It is difficult to figure out such a personality, especially when you are trying to get close to her.  However, it is said that if a man breaks through he will be greatly rewarded with a true, loyal soul mate.

MINIMALISM

Minimalism was a trend in sculpture and painting that arose in the 1950s and used simple, typically massive, forms. It is also an avant-garde movement in music characterized by the repetition of very short phrases that change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect.

Is it possible to strip away all the tangents, subplots, tangents and secondary characters to find a Minimalistic LOST? 

By looking to simple, large story elements, can LOST be condensed into a more focused driven drama?

I think you could condense the entire series into five characters trapped on the island. You don't have to change the characters personalities or motivations. You just have five large puzzle pieces to focus the action and interactions. If LOST was about relationships, then a concentrated, intense story between these characters living through in untenable situations would be epic.

I think you can start with the starting point of a single person living on the island (like Crazy Mother when Claudia's Roman ship wrecked off the island's shore): Ben.

Then, like in that back story, only four new characters need to wind up floating ashore (from a plane crash, ship wreck, booze cruise disaster-fight going overboard into the ocean, etc.): Sawyer, the con man; Locke, the bitter dreamer; Kate, the fugitive muse; and Jack, the miracle doctor.

The island, through Ben, is a dark and dangerous place. Ben's back story is simple. He was brought to the island by his bitter, alcoholic father (who blames him for his mother's death). Ben is extremely unhappy being a peon in the Dharma labor camp, so he seeks revenge against everyone because no one acknowledges him. He kills them all. And once he is alone on the island, he goes a little crazy.
(There is no need for guardians, magic, time travel or any other twisty tropes.) Just a young boy who turns himself into a serial madman.

 The rest of the characters could have been plane crash victims, a charter plane that goes off-course from Fiji, and ditches in a storm. The minimalistic background for each person on that plane:

Kate: still running away from the authorities for murdering her father;
Sawyer: searching for his parents' killer;
Locke: having quit his job, he is seeking adventure and purpose in his life; and
Jack: having a Thailand-like booze vacation to forget about his father's sudden passing.

Each of these passengers realize that surviving the plane crash was their second chance to live their lives the way they thought they would have if not sidetracked by the events in the back stories.

The plot lines are also fairly simple.

Kate, being the lone woman, would use her charms to get the men to protect and serve her.
Sawyer, also being a charmer, but a territorial possessive person, would push back to get what he would want.
Jack, being the lone professional, would seek compromise, balance and common sense to survive their ordeals.
Locke, being mindless and reckless, would seek to claim the island as its new demi-god.
Ben, who for all purposes, the current island god, would seek to enslave, manipulate and control the new arrivals until he tired of them or found them of no use.

Ben could start off as a sympathetic figure: a long, lost survivor of a different "tragedy." He can help the new castaways with food and shelter as a means of gaining their trust. A trust that his mental condition will twist over time into betrayal.

Kate could also have the initial upper hand. Men are drawn to her magnetic, gregarious personality. She is a little of "the girl next door" and a little tomboy. She is clever, witty and flirty. It is possible that she could see the benefit of getting close to all the men on the island. In fact, her charms would be the catalyst to learn the backgrounds of the other characters.

Sawyer is an anti-social element. He is a loner. He can find a person's weakness in order to exploit it to his own advantage. He had seduce women to steal their money. He seeks a challenge, and on the island that turns to Kate. He would find conflict in following other people's orders or directions. He could easily be labeled a saboteur by evil Ben, as he starts to divide and conquer this group.

Locke has the arrogance of self-delusion of greatness. He believes himself to be the great outback hunter trapped in a shipping clerk's body.  His lack of leadership skills (and results) will put him at the bottom rung in the new island order. The others will not take him seriously. He will become resentful, cold, and at times, lash out verbally and physically. This could parallel the madness that engulfed Ben during his long time on the island.

Jack is not only trapped on the island, but trapped in his own ethics of "saving" people. He will do anything to save his fellow islanders, to the point of being blindsided by their manipulations of him. He may be an initial figurehead leaders, but the people around him are trying to be the puppet masters behind the facade. He will be challenged first by Locke, then by Sawyer. He will be betrayed by Ben (and Kate, who uses Sawyer's physical desires to her advantage.). The love triangle turns into a Bermuda Triangle of hate, suspicion, arguments, and shuffling of alliances.

Things would get to the tightrope stage when Ben makes his move on Kate (like the beach scene when she was kidnapped with Sawyer and Jack and taken to the Barracks). When Kate is repulsed by Ben's advances (and his "deal" to make her queen of his island paradise), Ben turns into a raging smoke monster of hate and revenge. This would pit two hot blooded avengers (Ben and Sawyer) against each other. This conflict would appease both Jack and Locke, for they have positioned themselves in a faith vs. science resolve for survival, with each believing their position will lead to safety, rescue or most of all, winning Kate's heart.

But at a certain point, Kate realizes that all her flirtations, manipulations, promises and passions have turned the other characters into cavemen. She can see their personalities change, and she become afraid at what she has done. The more she attempts to withdraw from their conflicts, the more the anger and resentment levels increase.

The close quarters of just a few strong characters could lead to excellent drama, action and plot twists without using the ruse of magic, time travel, supernatural elements or invading mercenaries.

THE ONE

Kate was The One.

Kate was the first character with a complex back story.
She was the first character guys immediately attached to: the cute, girl next door.
Kate was the most troubled character.
She had done horrific things in her past; she was a classic woman on the run.

And Kate was the One who really got everything she wanted, on her own terms.

For those looking for an alternative solution to the many tangled plots, Kate may be your answer.

She was in the center of most of the action, but she never got hurt.
If she wanted something, men jumped to her aid (no matter the consequences, which ran the gambit to sex to death). She was never accountable for her desperate actions. Other people took the brunt of the punishment that should have been directed toward her way.

Women envied her freedom. Men adored her spunky tomboy appeal.

If there was a series puppet master, it would be Kate.

We were told that Jacob was the island guardian, whose "touch" brought the candidates to the island. Jacob was manipulating people to replace him. Kate was a candidate, but somehow conveniently taken out of the equation because she became "a mother." But that was not true. She took Aaron off the island, and "pretended" to be his mother, but gave him back to his grandmother to return to the island. Jacob should have known that - - - but maybe he was also being manipulated by Kate.

Since it is best to be hidden in plain sight, Kate walked among all the interests and conflict groups. She got the adrenaline rush of the missions, but none of the dire consequences of being killed by the Others or the smoke monster. Everything seemed to fall her way. She was the luckiest person ever, or her thoughts and dreams manipulated and controlled island events.

The dream is the only way to explain the laughable, implausible and totally wrong legal resolution of her murder case. The whole O6 story arc was fraught with childish story lines and illogical conclusions. Why would Sun abandon her daughter to go back to find Jin, who everyone believed is already dead? Why would Jack turn into a madman after leaving Kate alone with Aaron? Why did not her Florida husband come to her side when her trial-of-the-century was being broadcast to the nation?  None of those items makes any common sense. They are more the delusional thoughts of a classic spoiled adult who turns away responsibility for personal adventure.

LOST was an adventure story, but it was Kate's adventure. She was used to gathering "red shirts" like the bank robbery gang who would die for her. She gathered up enough "red shirt" survivors to keep the blood pumping and tension high. She was an adrenaline junkie. That is why she volunteered for all the dangerous missions, knowing that she would get the rush but not bad consequences. The island was her own haunted house, a dirty trick she made for her new friends to experience.

Who is not to say Kate was not a supernatural being like Jacob or MIB? If past island history was true, then the real guardian of supernatural world would have been a woman. The gods who ruled life and the bounty of life were women, like Taweret, the goddess of Birth, Rebirth and the Sky. Sound familiar? That was close to the definition of the "life force." The island was the creation and re-creation of a woman-god. Kate is the only character who meets the criteria of being able to rule the island in plain sight. She is the one who gets off the island, but returns to re-connect her bonds to Jack - - - her only hope is that they can overcome the greatest obstacle, together, which would be defeating MIB. Once that happens, Kate does not stay - - - she leaves the island and Jack dies alone. A normal caring person in love with Jack would have stayed by his side to the bitter end. But this moment was a trap, set by Kate, to capture Jack's soul in the after life. For what is a few more moments on Earth compared to an eternity together in the stars.

A highly charged, highly complex series of events that one can consider one long blind date?

If a smoke monster can manipulate both matter and energy, why can it manipulate human emotions such as love?

When Christian states that everyone in the afterlife church is there because the island was the most important thing in their collective lives, one still has to question that viewpoint. Under normal circumstances, the most important things in one's life is family (parents) and loved ones (children and spouse). Is this the lonely losers club?

Kate was the most estranged from her loved ones: she killed her father, dismissed her mother, abandoned her Florida husband (and as a runaway committed various acts of adultery). Her character would have been the most likely to have been "alone" at the pearly gates (or the opening of hell's fire pit).

For example, Hurley was extremely close to his mother. As a momma's boy, don't you think she'd be in the final scene to comfort Hurley in the afterlife? Jack had his estranged father, but not his mother. He got along with her fine, so there is another disconnect to the church ending.

To alone Kate, Jack needed to see, speak and reconcile with his father in order to be with her. So one could argue that the church reunion was only stage dressing for Kate's spirit to get what she wanted: Jack, so you would not be alone forever. In some respects, the island was Kate's best life moment, not anyone else's. She needed friends and lovers in order to create some self-esteem, some self-worth. But at the same time, she was an unaccountable spoiled brat in how she dealt with people and problems. The church ending was her solution to her eternity problems. How interesting that she could have choreographed the events on the island (remember we never got the full beach deal conversation between Ben and Kate) in order to increase her status and control of her own immortality. If she was the puppetmaster, she put herself into the action, in a secondary role, to help guide the character developments and affection for her. She needed friends in order to survive the pit of damnation. The island could have been her cosmic con. She had the most to gain by the final union. Perhaps, this explanation will help smooth out the bitterness of why Kate wound up with Jack.

THE FOUR

The Four Fates: luck, miracle, chance and shrewd opportunity.

Put them together, LOST's island adventure was serendipity.

Serendipity means an the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. It was originally coined by Horace Walpole, suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.”

Sounds LOST-like.

The four characters each made strange discoveries, by accident and some shrewd bets, but often their main focus was skewed away from their central quest: rescue.

Hurley's quest was to find the source of his curse, The Numbers. Instead, he found friendship and love of his after life, which is kind of sad when put in that context.

Jack's quest was to get his father's approval. Instead, he had to go collect the remains of his lost father, knowing that he could never reconcile the past until after he died, which is kind of sad when put into that context.

Kate's quest was to run away from her problems and not get caught in being accountable for her actions. Instead, she found the one person, Jack, who could ground her in normal society, but could not be with him until after they were dead, which is kind of sad when you put in that context.

Sawyer's quest was to track down and kill the con man who caused his parents deaths. Sawyer actually fulfilled his quest by killing Cooper on the island. And he was rewarded with three years of time traveling happiness with Juliet in the Others camp. And he was reunited with her in the after life. So things actually worked out for Sawyer. Huh.

Of these main characters, Sawyer got it. Only a shrewd opportunist like Sawyer got what he was after on the island. He conned, manipulated, badgered, stole, and fought just about everyone around him. He was his own island on the island. Perhaps his narrow focus was his actual strength of powerful will, stronger than the other characters. Something that the island could not break through and seize control over.

And Sawyer was one who left the island on the Ajira plane without any lingering baggage. One could say of all the main characters, except for Rose and Bernard, Sawyer got the best island deal.

HURLEY'S ISLAND

Fifty years ago, American television debuted a new show called Gilligan's Island. The premise was simple: several passengers get on a charter boat for a three hour cruise. But the ship gets caught up in a violent storm. It is shipwrecked on an uncharted island. The survivors have to learn to make do with coconuts, palm leaves and goofy comedy.

Gilligan's Island represents the basic shipwreck story, but in a comedy as the first mate, Gilligan, is a hapless buffoon who keeps getting the group in trouble. In some ways, the success of this episodic series showed that this premise could work on prime time television.

It was never suggested that LOST should have been a reboot of Gilligan's Island. Until now.

The original cast featured the ship's captain, first mate Gilligan, a professor, a model Ginger, a farm girl Mary Ann and a rich couple, the Howells. We can re-cast the main characters of LOST into these roles.

There was only one married couple on the island. Rose and Bernard would be the Howells. However, they would not be the flamboyant multimillionaires, but a quiet retired couple searching for peace.

The farm girl would be played by Kate because she grew up in rural Iowa, and acts like a tomboy. She would probably be more aggressive than Mary Ann.

The model would be played by Shannon, because she grew up as a spoiled, jet set brat. She would probably be more snooty than Ginger.

The professor would be played by Sayid, since he had the encyclopedic knowledge of all things electrical and mechanical. He would mirror the professor's role of finding impossible ways to make machines out of nothing.

The goofy guy that always gets in trouble would fall to Charlie. Charlie never fit in with any group except with his best bud, Hurley. Charlie was never that strong, he never led on missions, and he had personal demons he needed to keep secret. He was insecure and lonely. He tried too hard to be a part of a group.

So this leads the heavyset skipper role to Hurley, which in some ways fits into LOST because Hurley winds up as the island guardian. As the skipper, Hurley would be a reluctant leader with a sense of humor. Like on the LOST island, Hurley would be the glue that keeps the group together because of his even demeanor and kind outlook.

Taking parts of LOST's cast to re-imagine Gilligan's Island is not that hard.

MODERN ROMANCE

For some viewers, LOST was a romantic adventure series.

If we examine this theme, there are many nontraditional points played out between the main characters.

First, we have the typical "girl next door" stereotype, Kate. She is from rural Iowa. She is part tomboy, part charmer. She learns early on that her feminine wilds can make men do crazy things for her. She is the last person in the world who wants to settle down with her high school sweetheart, live in a white picket fence house, and raise of bundle of kids. She starts early in criminal misbehavior by trying to steal from a local store. She implicates a boy in her deeds, learning the lesson that he can control boys.

To add to her issues, Kate did not have an ideal childhood parental structure. The man, Sam Austen,  she thought was her father was not; and the abusive alcoholic mother's boyfriend Wayne was her biological parent. This confusion led her to not trust men. In an alleged abusive relationship where Kate never learned about nurturing love, Kate let her primal dark instincts destroy her home and father as a means of running away from the societal norms of family life. Her situation was not a Rockwell family painting, but a Manson family wall scrawl.

But at one point she did stop running and opted for a "traditional" marriage to a Florida policeman, Kevin Callis. We must believe that she was in love with him otherwise she would not have married him. But for her past being unraveled by Kevin's affection and rewards, Kate thought she found her perfect hideout. She had a new name, new provider and a new life. She started to live the suburban life as Monica, but after a pregnancy scare and Kevin wanting to have a foreign honeymoon (she could not get a passport), Kate fled without a word. She abandoned her future to run away from the past. She never spoke of Kevin again. One could argue that love to Kate was a mere commodity; a means to get to an end.

And on the island there was evidence that she used her female charm to get men to do her bidding; the deal with Ben, the affair with Sawyer, and her relationship with Jack in order to take the pressure off her past problems. These men cared for her, but she cared less about them. In some ways, Kate was a modern independent woman, who got what she wanted from men: security, comfort, affection without the cultural handcuffs of being a proper woman.

Second, we have the more modern woman stereotype, Shannon. She is a rich girl who was brought up to become a spoiled brat. She was daddy's little girl until daddy suddenly passed away leaving her stepmother in charge. Shannon only had one asset to get by in this world: her body. She used her charms to seduce boyfriend after boyfriend to be with her, to support her, to love her. But in the end, none of these relationships worked out. The men who were attracted to her lacked commitment. Shannon expressed herself as being needy, wanting and selfish. It was very difficult for her to find a person who could put up with her faults.

Trust fund children often have an aura of entitlement. Life was easy for them. Money took care of problems and buried the emotional pain of having real relationships. From what we saw of Shannon, her self-centered nature repelled against the notion of having a normal family life, raising children or having a single man in her life. She liked living on the drunken edge as a party girl. Her excitement was causing trouble. But like all stale acts, men grew tiresome of her.

On the island, she tried to use her past charms but she found a limited audience. The other beach survivors were more concerned about their individual welfare and rescue than fawning over a little rich girl who did nothing to help them in camp. We cannot say for certain that her very short hook-up with Sayid was meaningful in any way because at the time she was alone after Boone's death.

Kate and Shannon started off at opposite ends of the spectrum but basically wound up in the same place with men the initially never cared for, and attempted to use for their own benefit. Many viewers still question why Kate wound up with Jack and Shannon wound up with Sayid. If modern romance tells us anything, there are no clear rules.

So it is hard to tell whether LOST has enough classic elements to be considered an adventure-romance series since the main characters relationships were more like ships passing in the night.

ABOUT KATE

Kate was a main character who divides opinion to far ends of the spectrum. Evangeline Lilly is a pretty, nice and spunky person in interviews and podcasts. On LOST, she was thrust into a lead position but with tentative traits. I wish that Lilly could have played herself more in the character.

Kate went from girl next door cute, sassy tomboy into a runaway loner criminal to a forced cheerleader love interest to a Mother Teresa peace corp worker on her return to the island.

In some ways, Kate being written into and out of corners mirrored the writers overall plot construction issues.

Her back story was confusing and incomplete to almost a stereotypical gangster babe like Bonnie. Perhaps the false, unbelievable and horrible legal writing on her character events ruined the character even before she would literally get away with murder in the wrong court and jurisdiction.

Many fans disliked Kate because she became so wishy-washy. First she was Jack's number one. Then, she went to bad boy Sawyer. Then she tried to get back with Jack, but there were trust issues. Then, out of the blue she got a bolt of motherly protection with Aaron. Then she abandoned the boy to return on a nonsensical journey to find his mother, Claire, not knowing whether she was still alive. And despite all of the inconsistencies in her back story and her treatment of the men in her life, Kate winds up with confused Jack in the church.

In the end, we really don't know who Kate really was as a person.

I suspect that if she was a feisty, independent woman from the very beginning of the series (a leader), then she may have been more liked as a character.  Instead, she was used more as bait to get another love triangle started or wedge between people like Jack and Sawyer.

THE LILLY THEORY

Another fan based theory was allegedly attributed to a cast member. It basically states that the series is all about the characters, and their collective fate to meet and interact on the island.

Fan Theory: All the survivors were fated, as John Locke has said, to be on the flight, and to end up on the island. In other words, the island chose them.

The pre-island connections between castaways keep adding up as the seasons went by and the flashbacks were interconnected at times. Incidents like Claire’s psychic convincing her to take the fatal flight (and playing a part in Eko getting on), Hurley making the flight despite all odds, Jack talking his way (or, his dad's body's way) on board and Sawyer getting deported lend a lot of credence. Every character we see seems to have had a reason for being on that flight of all flights.
Fans also use the following quote as evidence of this theory:  "Lost is a very big metaphor for every single character's mental state of being, psychological, and emotional state of being and we're on this island to be mentally, psychologically, and emotionally found. We were all chosen specifically because we will facilitate that for one another," said Evangeline Lilly.

Even though the producers  said early in the series that there’s a rational, scientific explanation for everything that’s happened on the show, that statement created skepticism with each passing season as the faith and mysticism have been become major themes.

In the post-ending conversations, the producers did say that the show was "character driven" and that the focus was truly on the characters. They also indicated that the final season was to raise the big questions about life, its meaning and people in one's life, but leaving those answers to the viewers to decide.

Since there was no rational, scientific explanation for the sideways universe or the parallel lives of the characters themselves, if LOST was merely a disjointed "character study" many people would find that a poor bait and switch.

There is no problem to have the story "hook" that a diverse group of characters were somehow "fated" to come together to do something important.

Fate is the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. It is the course of someone's life, or the outcome of a particular situation for someone or something, seen as beyond their control. At times, individuals come to the conclusion that the outcome of a situation was "destined to happen,"  turn out, or act in a particular way.

In Greek & Roman Mythology, it is  the three goddesses who preside over the birth and life of humans. Each person's destiny was thought of as a thread spun, measured, and cut by the three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos.

"A fate worse than death" is a very old saying which foretells that something unpleasant will happen to someone. Perhaps, the characters being sent to the island was a fate worse than death, because they could not die until they redeemed their past - - - something that was holding them back. The fate theory is a subset of the theories that believe that characters were "tested" by supernatural beings. The reason for the tests is unclear, and the reward apparently was the ability to "move on" in the after life.

COMPASS POINTS

A compass is a tool to guide someone to a destination.

A candidate is a person who wants to be a leader to guide others.

A guardian is a person who is a leader who protects others.

A light is symbolic of knowledge, direction, energy and life.

A person who has both the compass and the light is truly powerful.

When we review which LOST characters had the most traits of a compass and a light (which apparently were the embodiment of the heart of the island), the top four people are Locke, Jack, Sawyer and Kate.

Locke had the compass. He knew how to use it. He was aware of the island's special powers. He wanted it to guide him to his destination (destiny). Just as magnetic north is a constant direction, the island pushed Locke towards his fateful demise.

Kate was a natural runaway, a wanderer with a keen sense of direction and tracking skills. She was a survivor throughout her troubled life. She used her internal compass not to find a destination but to flee from one. Just as our forefathers took chances and headed west into the wild unknown, Kate embraced that wild west spirit.

Sawyer also had a focal bearing in his life: to find the person who killed his family. His life's direction was formed by his own promise for revenge. He honed his own tracking skills with the southern charm of a con artist to find the man who ruined his life.

Jack was following a trail for most of his life. The trail that his father had made through the jungles of childhood. Jack was always trying to find a way to get ahead of his father's accomplishments so his father would respect his achievements. He would symbolically look to the East, where the dawn would rise on each new day, to find some hope that the light would empower him to reach his goal.

Locke's direction was north, toward the magnetism of the island's mysterious power to give his life meaning.
Kate's direction was west, to the open opportunities and freedom to run away her past.
Sawyer's direction was south, toward the slow, simmering pace of the long, cruel road of honor and revenge to release his personal demon.
Jack's direction was east, toward the dawn of a new day where he could release himself from the shadow of his own father.

Each character had their own direction. They were set to their own paths. As a result, they did not work well together because their compass points would never align. And perhaps, that was the governor that protected the light cave - - - the candidates needed each other in order to obtain both the full compass points and the light. For in the end, none of these four candidates took the place of Jacob, the island guardian, to put their own rules upon the universe.

HUCK

“ All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. ”
— Ernest Hemingway 

There is something to be said of a great writer giving us insight into his craft.

Huck Finn was once called the prototypical "American novel" because it brought forth the striking detail of real life America, with rich but folksy characters, in a time like the nation was still in its global innocence. It is set in rural America in the mid 1800s, when the young nation was on the cusp of breaking a part due to the issue of slavery.

Huck was a secondary character in Twain's Tom Sawyer's novels, but when put into the lead role Twain could embellish the stereotypical characters of his era.

Even to this day, the novel incites wide debate among critics, academics and teachers. Many believe that the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn explores notions of race and identity. An obvious complexity exists concerning the runaway Negro slave character called Jim. While some scholars point out that Jim is good-hearted, moral, and not unintelligent, others have criticized the novel as racist, citing the repeated  use of the "N" word  and emphasizing the stereotypically "comic" treatment of Jim's superstition and ignorance. But one cannot ignore that Twain was a ruthless satirist. He had the gift of using a person's own words and actions as the literary sword of their own discomfort or demise.

The novel is a precursor to all our current culture's "road pictures." The format is simple: put the main character on the road away from the familiar security of his home and have him interact with new strange people and dangerous situations. It is how the character deals with these new stressful situations that brings out the true inner character of the person. 

Huck struggles not only with the challenges of his strenuous journey, but also with the 19th century social climate and the role it forces on him regarding Jim. Throughout the story, Huck is in moral conflict with the received values of the society in which he lives, and while he is unable to consciously refute those values even in his thoughts, he makes a moral choice based on his own valuation of Jim's friendship and human worth, a decision in direct opposition to the things he has been taught. Mark Twain, in his lecture notes, proposes that "a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience" and goes on to describe the novel as "...a book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat." To highlight the hypocrisy required to condone slavery within an ostensibly moral system, Twain has Huck's father enslave his son, isolate him, and beat him. When Huck escapes – which anyone would agree was the right thing to do – he then immediately encounters Jim "illegally" doing the same thing. 

But the entire novel is not seen through the clarity of black and white morality. Huck has to navigate a minefield of criminals, deadbeats, drunks, highwaymen, murderers, thieves, con men and phonies who may make good arguments for their behavior as it being their own lot in life. It shows that American life at the time was as murky as the Muddy Mississippi.

The color of men and women of the lower classes, digging out a living on the edge of civilized society, made Twain's characters come more alive to the educated East Coast readers who was his audience. Twain wanted to transport his readers to a world so different, dark, wild and dangerous that it would make the small hairs on their neck bounce to attention. For many Americans had become their own gentry, wealthy enough to have estates and leisure time. The stark contrast between the American classes is what Twain's novels shed light upon.

Huck was not the brightest kid, but he did have what we would call "street smarts." He had enough gut instincts to get himself out of trouble. Likewise, he could be influenced to get himself into trouble. For in Huck's world, it was a self-sufficient time. He knew he had to take care of himself. He had to refine his natural skills in order to survive in the cruel world that was the river.

Wikipedia discusses that some scholars believe Huck's own character, and the novel itself, in the context of its relation to African-American culture as a whole. John Alberti quotes Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who writes in her 1990s book Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African-American Voices, "by limiting their field of inquiry to the periphery," white scholars "have missed the ways in which African-American voices shaped Twain's creative imagination at its core." It was suggested that the character of Huckleberry Finn illustrates the correlation, and even interrelatedness, between white and black culture in the United States.

But it could be simpler. Twain used the wild west simpleton culture of the Mississippi River basin to take and stretch the small people who lived and died in the country into bigger than life characters. Twain's stories were about America and how the American spirit was one of independence, freedom and self-reliance.

In the LOST story, the closest person to the Huck Finn character was Kate. She was from rural America. She grew up in the country. She got herself into trouble at a young age, but had the wits to charm herself out of punishment. She had the wild seed to runaway from home. She was not afraid to mix it up with the boys, to do crime in order to get what she wanted. She was a free spirit looking for adventure, while looking over her shoulder trying to avoid authority.

LOST came upon the American culture as we had turned the corner on the next century of progress. We were to accelerate the technology age that would rise all boats and continue to keep the U.S. the wealthiest nation on Earth. Just as Twain would have seen in his East Coast veranda party set, there was a laziness in comfortable surroundings that lacked the social responsibility of his peers. Freedom and independence has the cost of respect and accountability for one's fellow man and woman. It would be a hard sell to establish those mid 1800s themes into the LOST story line, except for the notion that many of the LOST characters refused to accept accountability or responsibility for their actions. The current American society is filled more with selfish children than in Twain's world of wild children lost in the coming moral calamity that would be the Civil War.