FORGIVENESS

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

 

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

 

But was the show about forgiveness?

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

PICKED ON LOCKE

No character had it as bad as John Locke.

Locke was the "walking" definition of pessimism, a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen; a lack of hope or confidence in the future.

In philosophy, it is  a belief that this world is as bad as it could be or that evil will ultimately prevail over good.


His life went from bad, to worst, to crippling bad, to really bad to sadly dead. Whether Locke was intentionally written as a punching bag character, we saw him get beat up over and over again. His life started as being abandoned by his parents. His mother was crazy, and his missing father was a rogue con man. He grew up bouncing from foster home to foster home. He had no family. He built up bitterness. He wanted to be something he was not (like a jock when he was a good student). He turned away from science, something he may have been good at, to the self-imposed exile of dead end jobs. Misery was his only companion for most of his early adulthood. He tried to find a purpose and new family like the time he joined a commune. But as often happened, Locke was played for the fool. The family was a band of drug dealers; and his position in the group was to turn to snitch. Locke was often confused by his naive take on people; he trusted others too much that he constantly got burned. Nothing more tragic than reconnecting with his father. But that turned Locke into just another sucker - - - costing him first his kidney, and then his ability to walk when he was shoved out of a skyscraper window. Now, both a physical and emotional cripple, Locke's last hope for personal success and achievement was to go on his Outback journey. But that was halted before it began. He looked stupid and weak.


And what happens to stupid and weak people? They get played for fools.

Locke had his chance to re-invent himself after the plane crash. The miracle that he could now walk meant that his dream of being an outback hunter could come true. He relished the opportunity to be the big boar hunter. He thought people would have to respect his skills and his leadership. But in reality, the rest of the survivors were taken back by his aggressiveness to the point of fear. Only Walt wanted to hang around Locke (even though Michael told Walt not to do so.) In short order, Locke's real personality began to surface and he started to retreat from the group because they had chosen Jack as their leader.


Just as before, Locke went off on a personal quest just like with the commune. He was manipulated by the island's wild charms, the mystery of the Hatch, the manipulation by Ben and Jacob, and then seized by the smoke monster. Locke came out on the wrong end of each encounter. His stubborn position led to the Hatch explosion when the Numbers were not entered in time. His stupidity in playing a computer game led to the communications station to explode.


He was shot, beat up, time skipped,  ripped away from the island by the FDW turn, re-crippled, and dismissed by all the O6 members in his quest to have everyone return to the island to "meet their destiny."  Locke could never explain what that destiny meant, to the others or even to himself. Even when he was at his lowest moment, in a seedy LA hotel room ready to end his life, Ben extracted the last bit of information from him - - - then murdered him in a staged suicide. The world would then view Locke's life as meaningless, sad end.


Why Locke's body had to return to the island was not explained. It just added to the humiliation. For the smoke monster already had the skills to shape shift so it did not need Locke's dead body to become Flocke. Smokey used Locke's appearance to manipulate the candidates in order to turn into evil minions. The only impression Locke's death made was on Jack, who finally realized that Locke may have been right about the island. But, like a virus, this notion infected Jack and turned the rest of his life into one like Locke's: meaningless with a sad ending.


But there was nothing worse to kick a down Locke more than the actual finale. He shows up at the after life church, alone. He sits alone in the front pew across from Jack. Why is Locke alone? There was no one in his life that he could share the moment? What about Helen, who predeceased him after their break-up fight? She was his companion in the sideways world so why was she not at the church? Was she a figment of Locke's fantasy mind? What about his mother? Was her abandonment of him as a child so great that he had no bonds with her? So it was very odd that  Locke was the only person in the church without a family relation or partner.

So why was Locke then even present at the church? None of the main characters such as Jack, Sawyer, Sayid, Kate, Rose or Bernard, felt any close connection with Locke. In fact, most of them turned their back on him. Many of Locke's decisions and actions caused them great pain, grief and sorrow. Locke looked out of place in the church because he was out of place. Everyone else in the sideways world had found happiness, but not Locke. It seems that the show dumped on Locke one last time in the final episode.

PESSIMISM

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. — Helen Keller

Pessimism is a a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen; a lack of hope or confidence in the future, for example, a dispute could cast an air of deep pessimism over the future of something.  In philosophy, it is a belief that this world is as bad as it could be or that evil will ultimately prevail over good.

There was a lot of pessimism in LOST, both on the surface, in the characters and in the final meaning of the series.

Hurley was a pessimist. He believed that the worst was going to happen to him; he was cursed and people around him would get hurt. From his father leaving him as a boy, to the deadly porch collapse that sent him to the mental institution, to the learning of the Numbers which cursed him with wealth and resulting bad luck and misfortune.

That was the island view of Hurley. The sideways world had Hurley as a more confident man of the community. His only problem was that he was lonely; he was too shy around women. There was a feeling that women would only be interested him for his money, and not the real Hugo Reyes. So in that respect, he was a man trapped on his own relationship island.

Kate was also a pessimist. Unlike Hurley who sat around for something bad to happen to him, Kate tried to run away from the worst aspects of her personality and actions. Kate lacked any hope or vision for her future. She doomed herself at an early age to be a runaway. She let the excitement of evil entice her to do bad things. She never felt that she could change, especially after time and time again, hurting the people she cared about.

That view of Kate carried forward into the sideways world. She was not confident that she would ever have a bright future. She was going to jail for her crimes. She would amount to nothing in the grand scheme of things. She would never find happiness. Her fate was sealed at an early age.

Certain aspects of Jack's life were based on internal pessimism. He inability to get his father's approval led Jack to make huge missteps in his life. He saw the worst aspects of himself translate into relationship issues with his wife, Sarah. He saw the worst aspects of his father translate into alcoholism, addiction and depression after he changed his story on his father's negligent surgery. The lack of his father's acknowledgement of his own abilities led Jack to the darkness of a bitter, lonely existence.

In an odd twist, those characters who had the worst of it - - - the poorest, the weakest, and the most disillusioned  - - -  found the secrets of the stars, sailed into uncharted waters, and opened a new heaven for their human spirit. For no apparent reason, Desmond became the main characters guardian gatekeeper from the island world to the sideways heaven. Desmond apparently became supernatural after he turned the fail safe key. Part of him made it beyond the island and triggered a response in the sideways world. He just needed someone less pessimistic than himself to open the gate to allow the sideways characters to awaken. 

Charlie was the key to unlock Desmond's gate. It was Charlie's crazy optimism bouncing off his dark self loathing before Daniel's special concert that brought full knowledge of the situation to Desmond's spirit.  He realized that he could bring all the island friends and associates "back" if he could somehow put them into situations that could create a memory bridge to the past. Strong emotional pulls would pull the characters through to the end. In an ironic twist, it was Charlie who was the last islander to awake in the sideways world after he witnessed Aaron's birth.

Desmond's sole outlook in life was to win Penny back from his stupid lack of commitment and his self-loathing about being able to cope in a middle class world of work and responsibility. He decided that he had to overcome Widmore's oppressive personality and will to gain favor in Penny's soul. So Desmond took off to prove himself to Widmore and therefore Penny by solo sailing across the Pacific. He would use the stars to navigate. He would be in uncharted waters. He would place himself in danger. He would put everything on the line to win Penny. He would prevail or he would perish. He was optimistic that he would win Penny back. 

Whether this was a self-wager with the devil with the prize being Penny is a question of debate. Some could consider Desmond's plan as being asinine and self-destructive. The excuse was to win Penny back, but in reality it was a means of leaving her forever as he would never survive the perils at sea. It was a suicide mission to avoid his fears of commitment and settling down. In one respect, Desmond had to die in order to get Penny back in the sideways world. If the island realm was a grand test of Desmond's love and commitment, it could only manifest itself when he awakened in the sideways world and reclaimed Penny and her feelings/memories of him at the concert.

It was like the sideways purgatory was a place where souls milled about stewing about the regrets of their lives. Those who could not fix those regrets were doomed to stay in purgatory. But those who decided to fashion a "test" to bring their past decisions into the present of the after life would be rewarded in the end. The test was the island, a proving ground for pessimists to erase their past regrets.