When the 815 survivors finally get into the Hatch, Desmond uses the opportunity to flee his bondage to the computer and The Numbers.
He instructs them what to do every 108 minutes; then tries to escape. Jack chases him through the jungle. He confronts Desmond, who remembers Jack from the stadium stair run. Desmond asks Jack about the woman Jack said he "failed," and as Jack becomes emotional while pointing a gun at Dez, Desmond says "go ahead and shoot me." When Jack does not, Desmond presses on: what ever happened to the girl? Like pulling a tooth, Jack tears up and Desmond pushes for an answer. Jack's failure is his sudden admission that he married her. The situation quickly defuses, and Desmond runs off into the jungle while Jack sulks back to the Hatch.
During the same episode, the alarm timing begins to wind down. Locke begins to input the Numbers into the computer terminal. Hurley arrives and suddenly becomes aware that Locke his repeating "his" cursed numbers. He wants him to stop. Locke continues: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 32. Hurley then changes his mind and says "go ahead." But as Locke was going to press EXECUTE, Jack returns to tell him he has the wrong number. The last one is 42, according to Desmond. Locke corrects the input, but he refuses to press execute - - - he wants Jack to do it, but Jack yells at him that he will not push the button on faith. The button is pressed and the timer is re-set, and Locke takes the first watch.
During Hurley's first "watch," he is shown in the Hatch pantry: first gorging on an Apollo candy bar; then a bag of chips, and then he opens a cardboard box and lifts out a fully cooked steak dinner on a white plate. He takes a large bite of the steak, when his dream is interrupted by Kate who shows him that it is time to re-set the computer.
In this short, condensed and emotional episode, we have three important elements explode to the surface. First, the emotional breakdown of Jack in the jungle. This is the first time we really see Jack break from his calm, cool and collected leader role. Second, we have Locke trying to impose his will on Jack - - - blindly taking on faith the importance of pushing the buttons. Jack believes nothing will happen if the alarm goes off. This is a precursor to show that infallible Jack is wrong. Third, it puts dreams of Hurley front in center into the Numbers mystery. There was no reason for Hurley to dream about food when he had access to real food in the pantry. Food had always been the trigger for Hurley's emotional and mental depression. It foreshadows more island mental illusions, including the return of Dave.
If we look at these events through the spectrum of Hurley alone, we can postulate that Desmond could represent Hurley's desire for love. Desmond was desperately trying to win back Penny. He would risk his life to get her back. Hurley on the other hand never fought for the love of a girl. Also, Jack could represent Hurley's desire to be a strong, effective and forceful leader. These are character traits that a low-end fry cook like Hurley would want some day. Hurley's career path was stuck at Mr. Cluck's. And finally, Hurley's dream at a critical time brings into play why Hurley's past experiences (whether true or not) such as the Numbers continually show up in the series. The reason could be as simple as that the Numbers are all in Hurley's head, and the events happening to Hurley then are also happening in his head.
Showing posts with label wish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wish. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
TRAGIC RESOLUTIONS
The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. — Benjamin Mays
From a point blank, black or white, yes or no answer - - - - did the main characters attain what they were seeking when their LOST saga began?
JACK. His sole goal or mission when LOST started was to bring his father "home" for his funeral.
In a roundabout way, Jack did have his father's funeral in O6 story arc and "another one" in the sideways world conclusion. It seems redundant that Jack "experiences" two funerals for his father, but we get the sense of no resolution within Jack.
KATE. Her sole goal or mission when LOST started was to get away from Marshal Mars and her criminal charges including murder.
In a sense, Kate got her wish when the marshal died with her secret, but she could not run away from it forever as in the O6 story arc, she was put on (a legally dubious) trial and received no punishment from her crimes. She re-lived her runaway nature in the sideways world when Flight 815 landed in LA.
LOCKE. His sole goal was to become independent, to take charge of his own life (beyond his disabilities).
As terrible as it sounds, Locke was crippled more by his mental fixation of abandonment and betrayal by his parents than his paralysis. The island gave him his miracle of being able to walk, and then his opportunity to become the man he never was . . . but the mental baggage of his own personality would doom him over and over again. He would get a second "miracle" in the sideways world by allowing Jack to do surgery, but we now know that was a meaningless fictional device to jump start the final reunion.
SAWYER. His sole goal in life was to avenge his parents death by killing Anthony Cooper.
Sawyer was granted the opportunity to kill Cooper when Locke's "wish" was granted by the island's "magic box." In order to become the island leader, Locke needed to kill his father in order to become worthy (whether symbolic or real ritual is unclear). Locke could not do the deed, but he got Sawyer into the same locked room with Cooper knowing that Sawyer's rage would get the better of him. In the sideways world, Sawyer did not get any revenge on Cooper, who was a feeble old man being taken care of by Locke and Helen.
SAYID. His sole goal was to change his dark evil torturer past in order to find happiness with Nadia.
In all respects, Sayid failed in his goals. He really had nothing in common with the other main characters. The closest person to him from a purely mental background was Ben. Both had embraced the dark side of the force. But with all the pining for Nadia, including the O6 story arc, Sayid winds up as a reincarnated dark minion and with Shannon in the sideways reunion.
HURLEY. His mission was to find the source of his problems, The Numbers, which he believed cursed his life by bringing him pain of people dying, people taking advantage of him (like his father in his return).
Hurley's blessing of winning the lottery added more mental pressure on his low self-esteem. He could not see anyone liking him for himself because of the fame and money. At the most basic level, Hurley failed in his mission to find out what the Numbers truly meant. Even when his secret got out on the island, most people did not believe him. In the O6 story arc, Hurley was more comfortable voluntarily committing himself in a mental institution than dealing with the real world. And that fantasy escape seems to have transfixed his final resolution by ending up with Libby, a person he only "knew" for a few weeks on the island (and never had a first date until the sideways world.)
ROSE and BERNARD. To be together, until death do part.
Bernard wanted to find a miracle to cure Rose's cancer so he could spend more time with her. Rose was stoic and resolute that her cancer could not be cured so she only wanted to live out her life in peace with her husband. The island did give them that peace after they decided to get away from all the beach politics, leadership issues and dangerous battles with strangers like the Others or Widmore's men. It is interesting to note that they did not have to be "awakened" in the sideways world. One aspect of Rose's early introduction after the crash was that she knew her cancer was gone. Many assumed the island's healing powers, but a few of us thought that Rose knew then and there her cancer was gone because she was dead. Everything was going to be alright because she accepted her fate.
JIN and SUN. Their confusion over their relationship was in part fueled by each individual's desire to run away (Jin from his poor fisherman past; and Sun from her domineering father). The open ended question was whether they had the personal resolve to run away from their past together.
Only in death on the island, did Jin and Sun truly sealed their bond (even though Jin's failure to take into consideration of their young child is a troublesome issue). They could never live "happily ever after" except in the fantasy sideways world.
CHARLIE. His pre-flight goal was to "get the band back together," but in some ways Charlie was looking for family to fill his drug induced void in his life.
Charlie never reached his goals. His overture was rejected by his brother, who suddenly had a nice family life in Australia. It was seeing that family life, and the rejection by his brother, that made Charlie "dream" of such life for himself. But he never got a chance to realize the full extent of any such relationship on the island, or really in the sideways church as he was engulfed by white light shortly after Aaron's "re-birth."
MICHAEL. His sole mission was to get his son, Walt, back into his life.
Michael never succeeded in his goal. Walt was a stranger. Walt had issues on why his father let him go as a baby. Walt was also dealing with the death of his mother, and abandonment by his stepfather. Michael's desire to protect and save Walt from the island dangers clouded Michael's judgment so much that he turned into a killer and betrayer of his fellow survivors. As a result of his actions, Walt became bitter and estranged from his father. Michael, so despondent over his personal failures, tried to commit suicide on multiple occasions. In the end, he is literally a lost soul trapped in the spirit world of the island.
A summary of the main characters and their pre-crash goals being met:
YES: Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Rose & Bernard,
NO: Locke, Sayid, Hurley, Jin & Sun, Charlie, Michael
There is no consistent story pattern from reviewing this simple pre-crash question. It is hard to pinpoint one critical pre-crash issue that was buried in the gut of each character. Maybe all the characters were looking for a way to say they were sorry to a parent. It also seems that the sideways world main unresolved issues were transfixed just before the plane crash (which gives some credence to the parallel purgatory theories). Maybe 40% of the characters attained some form of closure in their pre-island personal issues. But that means more of them did not.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
UNWANTED CHILDREN
One of the issues I had with LOST is how it treated children like Aaron, Emma and Zach. At times, the portrayal of children were mere props. This includes Walt, who was supposed to be a major character into the series until a large growth spurt wrote him out of the series.
But as adults, we did not view the series through the eyes of a child. How one reacts to an entertainment show is based upon one's own life experiences. That is why writers try to use universal themes and events to give commonality to the characters so we can glean familiar traits and conflicts to be resolved in the story.
The show could be viewed now as a series of unwanted children stories.
Locke was probably the earliest example. He was the consequence of a smooth talking con man taking advantage of a naive country girl. After his miraculous birth, his mother refused to hold him. Locke was abandoned by his parents within minutes of being born. That scar was burned deep into Locke. He called his mother "crazy." He did not fit into his foster homes. He had no relationship with his father, until he came back into his life to steal a kidney. No wonder Locke rebelled against his own nature and authority. He wanted to be in charge of his own life. He wanted to find a normal home life. It is telling that at an early age Locke transposed his feelings into artwork which included a dangerous smoke monster.
Kate also had bad childhood issues. She was raised by an army officer father, Sam Austen, and her mother. But Kate felt deeply betrayed when she found out that the man who raised her was not her "real" father. And once that secret was out, her "real" father - - - an abusive drunk - - - came back to the house, Kate lashed out. She felt abandoned by the man he thought was her father. She felt abandoned by her mother who took more time and effort to please Wayne than maintain her relationship with Kate. As such, Kate began to act up in order to regain her mother's attention. As a child, a store clerk caught Kate and her friend, Tom, stealing a lunchbox from a small convenience store. Jacob intervened and paid for the lunchbox, tapping her nose, and telling her to "be good." Later, Kate and Tom recorded a message and put it and a toy airplane and a baseball into the lunchbox and buried it under a tree as a time capsule. It is telling that Kate transposed her feelings into becoming a trouble maker to get attention. One way to do so was to runaway from home. Make her mother miss her. The toy airplane became of symbol of Kate's desire to runaway from her parents.
Jack had different childhood issues. He was raised by an upper middle class professional couple. His father was a brilliant but boastful surgeon. He was never around when Jack was growing up. And when he talked to Jack, it was usually to correct him or knock him down a peg. Jack felt isolated from his parents. And as an only child, he had the desire to succeed in order to re-gain the perceived lost affection from his parents. So he tried very hard to match his father's accomplishments. And when he succeeded and began a successful surgeon, his father did not change. He was still critical of his son. The lack of respect was crippling to Jack's ego.
James Ford a/k/a Sawyer had a traumatic childhood that scarred his psyche. He carried with him the story of how a con man came into his rural town and seduced his mother and stole all his family's money. He said that the man, Anthony Cooper or "Sawyer," claimed that he loved his mother and promised to take her out of Alabama. Sawyer realized that her mother had betrayed his father. His mother chose a stranger over the family. Sawyer's father found out and became a deranged person. He shot his wife then turned the gun on himself, while young James hid under the bed and watched. At the funeral, James began a letter to the con man, vowing to find him one day and kill him. Jacob gave him a pen when his dried out, and he finished the letter, though he promised his uncle that he would not complete it. In his bitterness and the traumatic emotional scar of a broken family, Sawyer's quest for revenge turned him into the man he hated since he was a boy.
Hurley also had abandonment issues. He was close with his mother and father. Everything seemed to be great. He was helping his dad rebuild a car, when suddenly one day, he left. All he gave him was a candy bar. That candy bar became a crutch to stay off depression. Hurley gained weight, became introverted, and began to fantasize about a better things. Hurley became a loner. As a result, he never thought that he would amount to much. He would go from dead end job to dead end job. Even his closest friend would take off and leave him alone. He blamed his loneliness on the fact that it must have been his fault that his father left the family. He had to be punished for breaking up the family. And when he suddenly found wealth and the family was reunited, Hurley was ashamed by the superficial love shown by the people around him. He felt that the money was a curse, but he really believed deep down that he was the one that was cursed so that bad things would happen to people close to him.
In these examples, we find small children trying to deal with serious adult issues: abandonment, betrayal, harsh criticism to belittlement, traumatic emotional scars and cursed loneliness. And in these early years, the characters made certain choices that appear to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Locke pushing hard to find a family but as a result pushes away the good people. Kate only knows how to run away from her problems rather than directly dealing with them. Jack gives up all aspects of his life to make sure his father would one day be proud of Jack's accomplishments. Hurley learns to blame himself for the troubles of the people around him. At some early point in time, each of the main characters felt that someone they cared about did not want them.
It is a universal fact that babies and young children cling and bond to their parents. They need the close attachment for nourishment and safety. They get upset if they think a parent is abandoning them ("don't leave me alone!") or not paying attention. They cannot care for themselves. It is the care and affection they receive as a young child which molds how they will grow up. Kate felt this deep pain of her childhood scars coming to the forefront when she took Aaron home to be raised by her. This was the same lie which she lived in her own childhood. Kate beat herself up so much that her solution was again to run away from the responsibility of caring for Aaron to find Claire in a apparent suicide mission to get back to the island. Kate abandoned Aaron much like her step-father abandoned her. Kate knew that her actions would cause Aaron deep pain later in life. But her own history repeated itself when she left Aaron.
We saw the main characters as adults with childlike issues. And perhaps, that is how the main characters saw themselves. The characters had similar traits of being sentimental, emotional, bitter and feeling unwanted by their parents. Where do unwanted children wind up? An orphanage.
One small pebble of doubt in a young child's mind can snow ball into a huge emotional problem as an adult. How does a young child perceive his or her being put in an orphanage? A prison to punish them for something they did wrong to break up their family? A place where useless people are thrown away?
The seeds of the entire LOST island story could have been established in the imaginations of the orphans who dreamed of what their lives would become if they could control them. Each of the children could bring an element to their group storybook tale of woe to the schoolyard: Locke the dangerous island monster; Kate the airplane to run away from their problems; Hurley the curse of crashing the plane; Sawyer the lies that turn matters into life and death actions; and Jack trying to prove that he is worthy of a parent's praise.
What if the basis of LOST is the group imagination of orphans acting out their psychological issues in their own Wizard of Oz fantasy play time. Children have vivid imaginations. They can recreate battles in the back yard; Star Wars space fights in the basement with paper towel tubes as light sabers; they can dream of tropical paradises; they can create monsters in the closet or boogie men under the bed; they can transform themselves into doctors, pilots, hunters, assassins, soldiers, beauty queens, witches and kings, and all with the lack of moral right or wrong since to them it is all mere "play."
As normal adults, we have forgotten more childhood memories than we realize. It may be the clutter of the modern day multitasking, but at some time in the future the mental clouds will part and those forgotten memories will resurface like they happened just yesterday. An example of this is in elderly patients with various forms of dementia: they may not know the names of their family members, but they can tell vivid stories from the childhood. How or why people suddenly "awaken" or focus in on lost childhood memories is unknown. But that same mystery is apparent in the sideways world when the characters have to remember in order to move on. In LOST, it may have been to remember the fantasy stories of abandoned orphans in order to obtain peace of mind.
But as adults, we did not view the series through the eyes of a child. How one reacts to an entertainment show is based upon one's own life experiences. That is why writers try to use universal themes and events to give commonality to the characters so we can glean familiar traits and conflicts to be resolved in the story.
The show could be viewed now as a series of unwanted children stories.
Locke was probably the earliest example. He was the consequence of a smooth talking con man taking advantage of a naive country girl. After his miraculous birth, his mother refused to hold him. Locke was abandoned by his parents within minutes of being born. That scar was burned deep into Locke. He called his mother "crazy." He did not fit into his foster homes. He had no relationship with his father, until he came back into his life to steal a kidney. No wonder Locke rebelled against his own nature and authority. He wanted to be in charge of his own life. He wanted to find a normal home life. It is telling that at an early age Locke transposed his feelings into artwork which included a dangerous smoke monster.
Kate also had bad childhood issues. She was raised by an army officer father, Sam Austen, and her mother. But Kate felt deeply betrayed when she found out that the man who raised her was not her "real" father. And once that secret was out, her "real" father - - - an abusive drunk - - - came back to the house, Kate lashed out. She felt abandoned by the man he thought was her father. She felt abandoned by her mother who took more time and effort to please Wayne than maintain her relationship with Kate. As such, Kate began to act up in order to regain her mother's attention. As a child, a store clerk caught Kate and her friend, Tom, stealing a lunchbox from a small convenience store. Jacob intervened and paid for the lunchbox, tapping her nose, and telling her to "be good." Later, Kate and Tom recorded a message and put it and a toy airplane and a baseball into the lunchbox and buried it under a tree as a time capsule. It is telling that Kate transposed her feelings into becoming a trouble maker to get attention. One way to do so was to runaway from home. Make her mother miss her. The toy airplane became of symbol of Kate's desire to runaway from her parents.
Jack had different childhood issues. He was raised by an upper middle class professional couple. His father was a brilliant but boastful surgeon. He was never around when Jack was growing up. And when he talked to Jack, it was usually to correct him or knock him down a peg. Jack felt isolated from his parents. And as an only child, he had the desire to succeed in order to re-gain the perceived lost affection from his parents. So he tried very hard to match his father's accomplishments. And when he succeeded and began a successful surgeon, his father did not change. He was still critical of his son. The lack of respect was crippling to Jack's ego.
James Ford a/k/a Sawyer had a traumatic childhood that scarred his psyche. He carried with him the story of how a con man came into his rural town and seduced his mother and stole all his family's money. He said that the man, Anthony Cooper or "Sawyer," claimed that he loved his mother and promised to take her out of Alabama. Sawyer realized that her mother had betrayed his father. His mother chose a stranger over the family. Sawyer's father found out and became a deranged person. He shot his wife then turned the gun on himself, while young James hid under the bed and watched. At the funeral, James began a letter to the con man, vowing to find him one day and kill him. Jacob gave him a pen when his dried out, and he finished the letter, though he promised his uncle that he would not complete it. In his bitterness and the traumatic emotional scar of a broken family, Sawyer's quest for revenge turned him into the man he hated since he was a boy.
Hurley also had abandonment issues. He was close with his mother and father. Everything seemed to be great. He was helping his dad rebuild a car, when suddenly one day, he left. All he gave him was a candy bar. That candy bar became a crutch to stay off depression. Hurley gained weight, became introverted, and began to fantasize about a better things. Hurley became a loner. As a result, he never thought that he would amount to much. He would go from dead end job to dead end job. Even his closest friend would take off and leave him alone. He blamed his loneliness on the fact that it must have been his fault that his father left the family. He had to be punished for breaking up the family. And when he suddenly found wealth and the family was reunited, Hurley was ashamed by the superficial love shown by the people around him. He felt that the money was a curse, but he really believed deep down that he was the one that was cursed so that bad things would happen to people close to him.
In these examples, we find small children trying to deal with serious adult issues: abandonment, betrayal, harsh criticism to belittlement, traumatic emotional scars and cursed loneliness. And in these early years, the characters made certain choices that appear to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Locke pushing hard to find a family but as a result pushes away the good people. Kate only knows how to run away from her problems rather than directly dealing with them. Jack gives up all aspects of his life to make sure his father would one day be proud of Jack's accomplishments. Hurley learns to blame himself for the troubles of the people around him. At some early point in time, each of the main characters felt that someone they cared about did not want them.
It is a universal fact that babies and young children cling and bond to their parents. They need the close attachment for nourishment and safety. They get upset if they think a parent is abandoning them ("don't leave me alone!") or not paying attention. They cannot care for themselves. It is the care and affection they receive as a young child which molds how they will grow up. Kate felt this deep pain of her childhood scars coming to the forefront when she took Aaron home to be raised by her. This was the same lie which she lived in her own childhood. Kate beat herself up so much that her solution was again to run away from the responsibility of caring for Aaron to find Claire in a apparent suicide mission to get back to the island. Kate abandoned Aaron much like her step-father abandoned her. Kate knew that her actions would cause Aaron deep pain later in life. But her own history repeated itself when she left Aaron.
We saw the main characters as adults with childlike issues. And perhaps, that is how the main characters saw themselves. The characters had similar traits of being sentimental, emotional, bitter and feeling unwanted by their parents. Where do unwanted children wind up? An orphanage.
One small pebble of doubt in a young child's mind can snow ball into a huge emotional problem as an adult. How does a young child perceive his or her being put in an orphanage? A prison to punish them for something they did wrong to break up their family? A place where useless people are thrown away?
The seeds of the entire LOST island story could have been established in the imaginations of the orphans who dreamed of what their lives would become if they could control them. Each of the children could bring an element to their group storybook tale of woe to the schoolyard: Locke the dangerous island monster; Kate the airplane to run away from their problems; Hurley the curse of crashing the plane; Sawyer the lies that turn matters into life and death actions; and Jack trying to prove that he is worthy of a parent's praise.
What if the basis of LOST is the group imagination of orphans acting out their psychological issues in their own Wizard of Oz fantasy play time. Children have vivid imaginations. They can recreate battles in the back yard; Star Wars space fights in the basement with paper towel tubes as light sabers; they can dream of tropical paradises; they can create monsters in the closet or boogie men under the bed; they can transform themselves into doctors, pilots, hunters, assassins, soldiers, beauty queens, witches and kings, and all with the lack of moral right or wrong since to them it is all mere "play."
As normal adults, we have forgotten more childhood memories than we realize. It may be the clutter of the modern day multitasking, but at some time in the future the mental clouds will part and those forgotten memories will resurface like they happened just yesterday. An example of this is in elderly patients with various forms of dementia: they may not know the names of their family members, but they can tell vivid stories from the childhood. How or why people suddenly "awaken" or focus in on lost childhood memories is unknown. But that same mystery is apparent in the sideways world when the characters have to remember in order to move on. In LOST, it may have been to remember the fantasy stories of abandoned orphans in order to obtain peace of mind.
Monday, July 8, 2013
HURLEY'S REGRETS
As with the earlier post on Jack's regrets, what about the other island guardian?
“ Hope is a waking dream. ”
— Aristotle
The major life decisions Hugo made come down to the earliest crisis. The profound effect of his father leaving him created a void which Hugo filled with candy bars and shyness. He was helping his father restore a classic car, but when he left Hugo lost the drive to do much of anything. We have no evidence that he excelled in school, or that he liked anything interest except music and entertainment like Star Wars.
The second major life event was the incident where two people were killed in a porch collapse. Hugo was attending this party. When he stepped on the overcrowded balcony, it fell. Hugo blamed himself. As a result, he voluntarily committed himself to a mental institution. It would seem that Hugo was quite content within the facility. There was little stress on his life. There were no pressures from his mother to do things or go on dates. The dark side of this situation was that Hugo apparently created an imaginary friend, Dave, who controlled much of Hugo's decision making process.
It would appear that Hugo did the minimum in his life: his appearance, his fast food job, his personal time - - - all were loosely pieced together not to better himself but to blend into the background.
Outside of the mental institution, Hurley did not have many friends. His best friend was his chicken restaurant buddy Johnny, who also hated his job and their boss, Randy. It was the slight encouragement by Johnny that got Hugo to make the giant leap to ask former schoolmate and record store clerk Starla out on a date. But Hugo was betrayed by Johnny, who took Starla away after he learned of Hugo's secret lottery millions.
The next major event in Hugo's life was the winning Numbers. The Numbers were his curse. It created bad luck, including death. He hated the fame and fortune. He really hated that his father returned to the family only AFTER Hugo became wealthy. It is why he went to Australia to find out why the Numbers, which he learned from Leonard at the mental hospital, were cursed. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, the search for the Numbers cursed Hugo again by crashing Flight 815 onto the island.
The next life event of note was Hugo's short lived relationship with Libby. It lasted about two weeks before she was killed by Michael. But before that time, it was Libby who stopped Hugo from following Dave off a cliff. It was Libby who made it known that she was interested in Hugo. It gave Hugo enough courage to ask her out on a date, a date that never happened. The cruel aspect of this event was that Hurley was on the verge of personal happiness but it was taken away (until the after life reunion).
Did Hurley have any regrets on any of his prior 815 decisions? Possibly only one: keeping his lottery winnings secret from his best friend, Johnny, destroyed that friendship. But it was not a great anchor on his soul because Johnny was not part of his sideways reunion.
But what about his decision to take Jack's place as guardian? The circumstantial evidence from Ben was that Hurley did a good job (whatever that means). But it also shows that decision froze Hurley in time; he had no "other" life after the 815 crash. He had no other post-island relationships even though he was a young man with great wealth. We do not know whether he ever returned to his mother and father (or why they were not part of his sideways reunion in the church).
Hurley never really made any life changing decisions. He took the cards that he was dealt. In certain respects, Hurley's life was one of walking through independent events. He may have hoped for a good outcome, but he never seized the moment to try to directly influence its outcome. As a result, he probably had few regrets because it was not in his nature to put himself on the line. He may have wished for a girlfriend, but did very little to make it happen. He may have wished for a better job, but he did very little to improve himself to get better work. He left things literally to chance to change his lot in life so he really had no need to have true regrets.
And maybe that was the point. One theory is that the entire series was Hurley's dream. A dream that worked out quite well for him in the end (a girlfriend and many loyal, close friends which he did not have in his real life).
“ Hope is a waking dream. ”
— Aristotle
The major life decisions Hugo made come down to the earliest crisis. The profound effect of his father leaving him created a void which Hugo filled with candy bars and shyness. He was helping his father restore a classic car, but when he left Hugo lost the drive to do much of anything. We have no evidence that he excelled in school, or that he liked anything interest except music and entertainment like Star Wars.
The second major life event was the incident where two people were killed in a porch collapse. Hugo was attending this party. When he stepped on the overcrowded balcony, it fell. Hugo blamed himself. As a result, he voluntarily committed himself to a mental institution. It would seem that Hugo was quite content within the facility. There was little stress on his life. There were no pressures from his mother to do things or go on dates. The dark side of this situation was that Hugo apparently created an imaginary friend, Dave, who controlled much of Hugo's decision making process.
It would appear that Hugo did the minimum in his life: his appearance, his fast food job, his personal time - - - all were loosely pieced together not to better himself but to blend into the background.
Outside of the mental institution, Hurley did not have many friends. His best friend was his chicken restaurant buddy Johnny, who also hated his job and their boss, Randy. It was the slight encouragement by Johnny that got Hugo to make the giant leap to ask former schoolmate and record store clerk Starla out on a date. But Hugo was betrayed by Johnny, who took Starla away after he learned of Hugo's secret lottery millions.
The next major event in Hugo's life was the winning Numbers. The Numbers were his curse. It created bad luck, including death. He hated the fame and fortune. He really hated that his father returned to the family only AFTER Hugo became wealthy. It is why he went to Australia to find out why the Numbers, which he learned from Leonard at the mental hospital, were cursed. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, the search for the Numbers cursed Hugo again by crashing Flight 815 onto the island.
The next life event of note was Hugo's short lived relationship with Libby. It lasted about two weeks before she was killed by Michael. But before that time, it was Libby who stopped Hugo from following Dave off a cliff. It was Libby who made it known that she was interested in Hugo. It gave Hugo enough courage to ask her out on a date, a date that never happened. The cruel aspect of this event was that Hurley was on the verge of personal happiness but it was taken away (until the after life reunion).
Did Hurley have any regrets on any of his prior 815 decisions? Possibly only one: keeping his lottery winnings secret from his best friend, Johnny, destroyed that friendship. But it was not a great anchor on his soul because Johnny was not part of his sideways reunion.
But what about his decision to take Jack's place as guardian? The circumstantial evidence from Ben was that Hurley did a good job (whatever that means). But it also shows that decision froze Hurley in time; he had no "other" life after the 815 crash. He had no other post-island relationships even though he was a young man with great wealth. We do not know whether he ever returned to his mother and father (or why they were not part of his sideways reunion in the church).
Hurley never really made any life changing decisions. He took the cards that he was dealt. In certain respects, Hurley's life was one of walking through independent events. He may have hoped for a good outcome, but he never seized the moment to try to directly influence its outcome. As a result, he probably had few regrets because it was not in his nature to put himself on the line. He may have wished for a girlfriend, but did very little to make it happen. He may have wished for a better job, but he did very little to improve himself to get better work. He left things literally to chance to change his lot in life so he really had no need to have true regrets.
And maybe that was the point. One theory is that the entire series was Hurley's dream. A dream that worked out quite well for him in the end (a girlfriend and many loyal, close friends which he did not have in his real life).
JACK'S REGRETS
It is a simple observation.
Will you look back on life and say, 'I wish I had,' or 'I'm glad I did'? — Zig Ziglar
In the linear progression of events, everyone has regrets. For every decision, there are consequences. Some paths open while others close forever. The mental game is "what would have happened" if I did X instead of Y.
Let us examine Jack's life.
First major life decision was following in his father's career path: medical school. Was this something that he truly wanted to do, or was the need of his father's approval clouded Jack's judgment? Was there even an alternative (like music which was the secret for his fantasy son, David)?
But without medical school and a staff position at his father's hospital, Jack would have never met Sarah, the critically injured spinal patient. It was this miracle that cemented Jack's mindset that he could cure anybody. It was also a major milestone because Jack's stubbornness against his father's opinion of the patient's condition led to Jack's miracle. As a result, Jack merged his professional achievement with his affection toward Sarah, who was abandoned by her boyfriend right after the accident. Did he feel sorry for her, or did he really fall for her?
His second major life decision was to marry Sarah. But he got cold feet before the wedding. Then Jack became paranoid about her feelings toward him. Jack self destructed his interpersonal relationships. Was it because he could not handle his own success?
The third major life decision Jack made was to turn in his father for medical malpractice. Jack first covered up for his drunken father's negligence which killed at patient. But at the very last moment, Jack told the truth. His father's career was ruined. But, in reality, Jack's career would have also been ruined. California has a harsh licensing board - - - to cover up for malpractice is just as bad as the malpractice itself. Jack's behavior cost the hospital millions of dollars in a wrongful death claim. As a result, Jack would have lost his staff privileges and probably his medical license. (This is one of the major plot inconsistencies in the medical-legal issues of the show's scripts which leads some to believe that many of the background elements of the characters were dreams, nightmares or mental fantasies).
So what were Jack's life regrets?
His relationship with his father was strained at best. He never felt that his father acknowledged his accomplishments. His father was always critical.
His relationship with women was rocky as well. We have no evidence that Jack dated in school or when he was on hospital staff. Was he a shy introvert? Or did he have his job consume all his waking hours? Did he make the conscious decision to fore go personal happiness for the better good of being a surgeon?
Did Jack wish he could change his life?
If the island was the magic box that made wishes come true, it is hard to tell. He did like helping others. He did like being a surgeon. He did not like losing patients (he became emotional at the end like the last gasp of air by Boone). He could not accept losing patients. Against all hope, he was used to prevailing against all odds. Maybe his ego would not allow him to change.
The escape from the island did change Jack. His time as an O6 survivor led him into a drunken, suicidal depression. There really no reason for this except the Big Lie he concocted in order to "save" the people he had left behind. (Logically, by telling the truth could have launched a real rescue party to save his friends trapped on the island.) Perhaps, it was the perception that Jack on the mainland was not in charge in the way that he was on the island. The 815ers looked to him for leadership. Back in the real world, he could not get the same type of loyalty, even from Kate.
If the show was about a retrospective a character's life, choices and regrets, did we have any "gotcha" monumental climax with the central character of Jack? Not really. He got to speak to his father one last time in a non-substantial fashion. He got no resolution of his prior feelings - - - because once he realized that he was dead, nothing mattered anymore.
And maybe that was the key to Jack's lost soul: nothing matters after you die.
Will you look back on life and say, 'I wish I had,' or 'I'm glad I did'? — Zig Ziglar
In the linear progression of events, everyone has regrets. For every decision, there are consequences. Some paths open while others close forever. The mental game is "what would have happened" if I did X instead of Y.
Let us examine Jack's life.
First major life decision was following in his father's career path: medical school. Was this something that he truly wanted to do, or was the need of his father's approval clouded Jack's judgment? Was there even an alternative (like music which was the secret for his fantasy son, David)?
But without medical school and a staff position at his father's hospital, Jack would have never met Sarah, the critically injured spinal patient. It was this miracle that cemented Jack's mindset that he could cure anybody. It was also a major milestone because Jack's stubbornness against his father's opinion of the patient's condition led to Jack's miracle. As a result, Jack merged his professional achievement with his affection toward Sarah, who was abandoned by her boyfriend right after the accident. Did he feel sorry for her, or did he really fall for her?
His second major life decision was to marry Sarah. But he got cold feet before the wedding. Then Jack became paranoid about her feelings toward him. Jack self destructed his interpersonal relationships. Was it because he could not handle his own success?
The third major life decision Jack made was to turn in his father for medical malpractice. Jack first covered up for his drunken father's negligence which killed at patient. But at the very last moment, Jack told the truth. His father's career was ruined. But, in reality, Jack's career would have also been ruined. California has a harsh licensing board - - - to cover up for malpractice is just as bad as the malpractice itself. Jack's behavior cost the hospital millions of dollars in a wrongful death claim. As a result, Jack would have lost his staff privileges and probably his medical license. (This is one of the major plot inconsistencies in the medical-legal issues of the show's scripts which leads some to believe that many of the background elements of the characters were dreams, nightmares or mental fantasies).
So what were Jack's life regrets?
His relationship with his father was strained at best. He never felt that his father acknowledged his accomplishments. His father was always critical.
His relationship with women was rocky as well. We have no evidence that Jack dated in school or when he was on hospital staff. Was he a shy introvert? Or did he have his job consume all his waking hours? Did he make the conscious decision to fore go personal happiness for the better good of being a surgeon?
Did Jack wish he could change his life?
If the island was the magic box that made wishes come true, it is hard to tell. He did like helping others. He did like being a surgeon. He did not like losing patients (he became emotional at the end like the last gasp of air by Boone). He could not accept losing patients. Against all hope, he was used to prevailing against all odds. Maybe his ego would not allow him to change.
The escape from the island did change Jack. His time as an O6 survivor led him into a drunken, suicidal depression. There really no reason for this except the Big Lie he concocted in order to "save" the people he had left behind. (Logically, by telling the truth could have launched a real rescue party to save his friends trapped on the island.) Perhaps, it was the perception that Jack on the mainland was not in charge in the way that he was on the island. The 815ers looked to him for leadership. Back in the real world, he could not get the same type of loyalty, even from Kate.
If the show was about a retrospective a character's life, choices and regrets, did we have any "gotcha" monumental climax with the central character of Jack? Not really. He got to speak to his father one last time in a non-substantial fashion. He got no resolution of his prior feelings - - - because once he realized that he was dead, nothing mattered anymore.
And maybe that was the key to Jack's lost soul: nothing matters after you die.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
MAGIC BOX
One of the great unexplained aspects of the series was The Magic Box.
“Let me put it so you'll understand. Picture a box. You know something about boxes, don't you John? What if I told you that, somewhere on this island, there is a very large box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it when you opened that box, there it would be? What would you say about that, John?” --- Ben to Locke.
Ben then went on to show Locke a bound and gagged Anthony Cooper who Ben claimed came out of the magic box.
When Locke pressed Ben for more about the box, Ben snapped back that "the box is a metaphor, John." Despite this, he continues to maintain that by some agency things that people on the island want or need show up. Later, when Ben and Locke entered the Orchid, Locke marveled at the mysterious technology and asked if this was the magic box. Ben retorted that it was not.
J.J. Abrams often explained his love of "the unseen mystery," using the metaphor of a mystery box. TPTB admitted that the "the magic box" was symbolic; stating that "the entire island is a magic box."
It would appear that the creative team drew upon the 1967 novel, The Third Policeman for the concept of their magic box.
In the novel, an unnamed protagonist and narrator is orphaned as a child (though he only states that his parents have more than "left" later on), and is sent to boarding school where he first becomes acquainted with the work of the bizarre philosopher, De Selby.
De Selby is a natural skeptic of all known laws of physics, who casually dismisses the evidence of human experience. He contends, for example, that "the permanent hallucination known conventionally as 'life' is an effect of constantly walking in a particular direction around a sausage-shaped earth, and that night results from 'accumulations of black air."
Obsessed by the philosopher's somewhat odd theories, the protagonist sets out on a catastrophic quest to publish a definitive commentary on the philosopher. He shares some of his writings on De Selby with John Divney, an unsavory man who has served as reluctant caretaker to the narrator's parents' farm and public house since their death. Divney devises a plan to murder and rob a local rich man, which he convinces the narrator into going along with, because Divney explains it is his responsibility to publish the works on De Selby - with fair backing or not.
The narrator and Divney murder their chosen victim, but Divney hides the money box. The narrator then begins spending every moment with Divney in order to discover the box's whereabouts.
The protagonist finally gets hold of the money box only to discover that the box does not contain money, but “omnium," a substance described as the essential inherent interior essence which is hidden in the root of the kernel of everything, and which is literally everything one desires. The substance called omnium therefore can create anything the beholder desires.
After finding out about the power of the magic box, the narrator has grand visions of his future omnipotence, but begins to experience strange and hallucinatory events involving a bicycle, a robber, two policemen and a strangely elastic sense of space and time. However, the narrator learns that things created by his will and the omnium cannot be removed from the labyrinth and taken back to the outside world.
The parallels to LOST are quite clear. The Island is isolated from the outside world. It contains a supernatural energy in the light cave. It is a force that is never understood or explained by the people guarding it. The people who arrive on the island experience strange and hallucination events, many based upon their past lives. Some people seem to be re-living aspects of their lives hoping for a different result. But the infinite power of the island force creates and corrupts human beings into murder, deception, kidnapping and mind control.
If anyone could tap into the island's magic box, it could create a chaotic world.
If the power of the magic box was true, it would help explain why the children were taken by the Others, why Walt was abducted, and why children are so seldom seen at the Barracks. Assuming the Island works like a genie: if you want something bad enough, the island will create it for you. If that is the case, then island protectors don't want children running around all the time, imagining things like dragons, giant robots, fairies, unicorns, and even polar bears.
Walt was reading a comic book which contained a polar bear before the crash. He was "special" which may mean he had an active imagination. This would explain Ms. Klugh's comment to Walt about going back into" the room," which is believed to be the mind control Room 23 where Karl was brain washed by Ben to stay away from Alex. If Walt had a particularly active imagination that made him even more dangerous, that may be why the Others let him go off the island with Michael instead of trying to be contain or control his thoughts in Room 23. The reason that children are not seen around the Barracks could be simple: their imaginations are a threat and danger to everyone on the island.
The concept that life itself is one large hallucination was also referenced in LOST. The prime example was when Ben was trying to get the O6 cast back to the island. In the marina, there was a boat called Illusion. The O6 had desired to leave the island, to be rescued, to get back to their lives in the mainland, only to find that their lives hollow or meaningless. The theory that the Island would draw them back could be true but it could also be that the O6 never actually left the Island itself if everyone was part of a layered and complex group hallucination.
We still don't know how the magic box actually works. What would trigger Cooper being in a car crash then suddenly transported to the island? Cooper believed he died and was sent to Hell. Locke's deep emotional desire to confront his father? To kill his father, or make him suffer? If the trigger is such raw emotion, why did Kate in a melancholy state imagine her horse? Or were all the Dharma food drops really caused by hunger pains by the Hatch crews? And how did Alpert arrive at the island when he was headed to the gallows? It is hard to believe that Jacob knew about him and desired him to be transported to the island like the Cooper situation.
The whole magic box theory does not explain Jacob's need to bring anyone to the island in the first place. If he was all-knowing, he could create anything he wanted by using the island's power. Perhaps, everything about the LOST experience was created in Jacob's mind. He is the lonely, alien, godlike being trapped protecting a supernatural element in order to keep the universe in balance. However, as a child, he had an imagination and need for friendship, adventure and sense of purpose. He created all the conflicts, all the characters, and all the events in order to occupy his mind so he would not go totally mad. Over time, he imagined a crazy mother and a brother. He imagined a conflict with them. He killed his brother but in his guilt created a smoke monster who sought revenge and escape. (If MIB was real, it could have tapped the magic box and easily "escaped" the island at any time without the help of the candidates). But it seems that the island as a child's playroom was a self-contained, padded cell metaphysically isolated from the rest of the universe.
The magic box may be the only explanation for the sideways world. When Christian said to Jack that the sideways world was created by his friends, we could not conceive how mortal human beings could create a purgatory waiting room in another dimension of time or space. If those characters truly believed and desired to "die together" and move on in the after life as a group, then the island could have their sideways world. But it would seem that it was the characters subconscious that desired the sideways world since the characters did not know about it until they were "awakened." The whole concept of the sideways awakening still does not make much sense. If you can control your after life by not knowing you are dead, why can't you continue to live out in the fantasy purgatory instead of going into the unknown white light?
If the entire LOST experience was the fantasy world of Jacob, then the sideways world becomes even more problematic. Can an imaginary person have a fantasy life such as to create a sideways world existence?
Then what of Jacob? Did he really die by Ben's hand and MIB's cremation? Apparently not, since Jacob continued to roam the island in physical form as an adult and as a child. This gets us to the possibility that Jacob was never real. It was the Island that created Jacob. The Island itself is a intelligent being that receives the thoughts, desires, and dreams of people. As the key to "life, death and rebirth," the Island could channel those strong emotional waves back into the world. For example, if a couple is infertile they could wish and dream hard for a miracle, which may in turn be granted by the Island. The Island could also be thought of a "prayer collector," where people ask their god for intervention, forgiveness or guidance. As a supernatural being, the Island could grant those prayers. These ideas would fit into the theory that the Island was one large metaphoric magic box.
When Christian said everything was "real," in the context of a pure fantasy world that could be correct. If the Island pooled similar desires of people and gathered them in one place to interact and find what they most desired (ex., friendship), then the fulfillment of those wishes would absolutely seem real whether the person was alive, dead or a spirit seeking closure on life's regrets.
This is all well and good, but if true, the magic box execution was inconsistent and possibly flawed. With the main characters, did they actually have their dreams fulfilled by their Island experiences? Was Jack's sole wish in life to prove his father wrong about Jack not being a leader? Was Locke's sole wish in life to kill his father? Or being a outback adventurer? Was Kate's sole wish in life to stop running away from her problems and settle down? In the end, we cannot conclude that either Jack, Locke or Kate got what they truly desired; Jack was reunited with his father but the slate was cleaned, Locke's life did not end well and he was broken in the fantasy sideways world, and Kate wound up with Jack but we don't know what happened to them next. In some ways, the sideways world was what the main characters truly desired in their miserable real lives. If that was the case, then none of them would have wanted to "move on" in the church. It would be counter-intuitive to end what you truly wished for or what the Island's magic box gave you.
There is another explanation of the "magic box" situation. Magic box could be code for hypnotic control. Room 23 was devised to alter the thoughts of individuals, apparently to love Jacob. In any cult, the control of the followers is key to the leader's power. Brain washing can occur in many forms. It could be the filter to find out who was "good" (as in easily manipulated to the island cause) or "bad" (unworthy of Jacob's good graces). That is why the Others always called themselves the "good guys." They truly believed it.
By manipulating the minds of their subjects, leaders like Ben or Widmore could get people to do criminal things in the guise of a higher calling. For example, Ben's minions could have caused Cooper's car crash and drugged him in the ambulance to transport him to the Island so Ben could "shock" Locke into becoming a loyal Other. That would not be "magic," but a complex criminal scheme of kidnapping, drugs, brain conditioning, and forced loyalty. The same plan was used to get Juliet to the Island. She was literally kidnapped, drugged on the sub, conditioned to believe her work on the Island was so important, and that she could never leave the island.
Of course, the last option is the least favorable explanation. The magic box could have been a literary trick to put in unexplainable plot twists into the story line in order to fill time from season to season. Who did not think WTH? when Ben revealed to Locke "his gift" of a bound and gagged Cooper, the man that had caused Locke so much physical and mental pain?!
The Magic Box, whether it was real, symbolic of the leader's power or authority, or the will of a supernatural being, will never be fully known.
“Let me put it so you'll understand. Picture a box. You know something about boxes, don't you John? What if I told you that, somewhere on this island, there is a very large box and whatever you imagined, whatever you wanted to be in it when you opened that box, there it would be? What would you say about that, John?” --- Ben to Locke.
Ben then went on to show Locke a bound and gagged Anthony Cooper who Ben claimed came out of the magic box.
When Locke pressed Ben for more about the box, Ben snapped back that "the box is a metaphor, John." Despite this, he continues to maintain that by some agency things that people on the island want or need show up. Later, when Ben and Locke entered the Orchid, Locke marveled at the mysterious technology and asked if this was the magic box. Ben retorted that it was not.
J.J. Abrams often explained his love of "the unseen mystery," using the metaphor of a mystery box. TPTB admitted that the "the magic box" was symbolic; stating that "the entire island is a magic box."
It would appear that the creative team drew upon the 1967 novel, The Third Policeman for the concept of their magic box.
In the novel, an unnamed protagonist and narrator is orphaned as a child (though he only states that his parents have more than "left" later on), and is sent to boarding school where he first becomes acquainted with the work of the bizarre philosopher, De Selby.
De Selby is a natural skeptic of all known laws of physics, who casually dismisses the evidence of human experience. He contends, for example, that "the permanent hallucination known conventionally as 'life' is an effect of constantly walking in a particular direction around a sausage-shaped earth, and that night results from 'accumulations of black air."
Obsessed by the philosopher's somewhat odd theories, the protagonist sets out on a catastrophic quest to publish a definitive commentary on the philosopher. He shares some of his writings on De Selby with John Divney, an unsavory man who has served as reluctant caretaker to the narrator's parents' farm and public house since their death. Divney devises a plan to murder and rob a local rich man, which he convinces the narrator into going along with, because Divney explains it is his responsibility to publish the works on De Selby - with fair backing or not.
The narrator and Divney murder their chosen victim, but Divney hides the money box. The narrator then begins spending every moment with Divney in order to discover the box's whereabouts.
The protagonist finally gets hold of the money box only to discover that the box does not contain money, but “omnium," a substance described as the essential inherent interior essence which is hidden in the root of the kernel of everything, and which is literally everything one desires. The substance called omnium therefore can create anything the beholder desires.
After finding out about the power of the magic box, the narrator has grand visions of his future omnipotence, but begins to experience strange and hallucinatory events involving a bicycle, a robber, two policemen and a strangely elastic sense of space and time. However, the narrator learns that things created by his will and the omnium cannot be removed from the labyrinth and taken back to the outside world.
The parallels to LOST are quite clear. The Island is isolated from the outside world. It contains a supernatural energy in the light cave. It is a force that is never understood or explained by the people guarding it. The people who arrive on the island experience strange and hallucination events, many based upon their past lives. Some people seem to be re-living aspects of their lives hoping for a different result. But the infinite power of the island force creates and corrupts human beings into murder, deception, kidnapping and mind control.
If anyone could tap into the island's magic box, it could create a chaotic world.
If the power of the magic box was true, it would help explain why the children were taken by the Others, why Walt was abducted, and why children are so seldom seen at the Barracks. Assuming the Island works like a genie: if you want something bad enough, the island will create it for you. If that is the case, then island protectors don't want children running around all the time, imagining things like dragons, giant robots, fairies, unicorns, and even polar bears.
Walt was reading a comic book which contained a polar bear before the crash. He was "special" which may mean he had an active imagination. This would explain Ms. Klugh's comment to Walt about going back into" the room," which is believed to be the mind control Room 23 where Karl was brain washed by Ben to stay away from Alex. If Walt had a particularly active imagination that made him even more dangerous, that may be why the Others let him go off the island with Michael instead of trying to be contain or control his thoughts in Room 23. The reason that children are not seen around the Barracks could be simple: their imaginations are a threat and danger to everyone on the island.
The concept that life itself is one large hallucination was also referenced in LOST. The prime example was when Ben was trying to get the O6 cast back to the island. In the marina, there was a boat called Illusion. The O6 had desired to leave the island, to be rescued, to get back to their lives in the mainland, only to find that their lives hollow or meaningless. The theory that the Island would draw them back could be true but it could also be that the O6 never actually left the Island itself if everyone was part of a layered and complex group hallucination.
We still don't know how the magic box actually works. What would trigger Cooper being in a car crash then suddenly transported to the island? Cooper believed he died and was sent to Hell. Locke's deep emotional desire to confront his father? To kill his father, or make him suffer? If the trigger is such raw emotion, why did Kate in a melancholy state imagine her horse? Or were all the Dharma food drops really caused by hunger pains by the Hatch crews? And how did Alpert arrive at the island when he was headed to the gallows? It is hard to believe that Jacob knew about him and desired him to be transported to the island like the Cooper situation.
The whole magic box theory does not explain Jacob's need to bring anyone to the island in the first place. If he was all-knowing, he could create anything he wanted by using the island's power. Perhaps, everything about the LOST experience was created in Jacob's mind. He is the lonely, alien, godlike being trapped protecting a supernatural element in order to keep the universe in balance. However, as a child, he had an imagination and need for friendship, adventure and sense of purpose. He created all the conflicts, all the characters, and all the events in order to occupy his mind so he would not go totally mad. Over time, he imagined a crazy mother and a brother. He imagined a conflict with them. He killed his brother but in his guilt created a smoke monster who sought revenge and escape. (If MIB was real, it could have tapped the magic box and easily "escaped" the island at any time without the help of the candidates). But it seems that the island as a child's playroom was a self-contained, padded cell metaphysically isolated from the rest of the universe.
The magic box may be the only explanation for the sideways world. When Christian said to Jack that the sideways world was created by his friends, we could not conceive how mortal human beings could create a purgatory waiting room in another dimension of time or space. If those characters truly believed and desired to "die together" and move on in the after life as a group, then the island could have their sideways world. But it would seem that it was the characters subconscious that desired the sideways world since the characters did not know about it until they were "awakened." The whole concept of the sideways awakening still does not make much sense. If you can control your after life by not knowing you are dead, why can't you continue to live out in the fantasy purgatory instead of going into the unknown white light?
If the entire LOST experience was the fantasy world of Jacob, then the sideways world becomes even more problematic. Can an imaginary person have a fantasy life such as to create a sideways world existence?
Then what of Jacob? Did he really die by Ben's hand and MIB's cremation? Apparently not, since Jacob continued to roam the island in physical form as an adult and as a child. This gets us to the possibility that Jacob was never real. It was the Island that created Jacob. The Island itself is a intelligent being that receives the thoughts, desires, and dreams of people. As the key to "life, death and rebirth," the Island could channel those strong emotional waves back into the world. For example, if a couple is infertile they could wish and dream hard for a miracle, which may in turn be granted by the Island. The Island could also be thought of a "prayer collector," where people ask their god for intervention, forgiveness or guidance. As a supernatural being, the Island could grant those prayers. These ideas would fit into the theory that the Island was one large metaphoric magic box.
When Christian said everything was "real," in the context of a pure fantasy world that could be correct. If the Island pooled similar desires of people and gathered them in one place to interact and find what they most desired (ex., friendship), then the fulfillment of those wishes would absolutely seem real whether the person was alive, dead or a spirit seeking closure on life's regrets.
This is all well and good, but if true, the magic box execution was inconsistent and possibly flawed. With the main characters, did they actually have their dreams fulfilled by their Island experiences? Was Jack's sole wish in life to prove his father wrong about Jack not being a leader? Was Locke's sole wish in life to kill his father? Or being a outback adventurer? Was Kate's sole wish in life to stop running away from her problems and settle down? In the end, we cannot conclude that either Jack, Locke or Kate got what they truly desired; Jack was reunited with his father but the slate was cleaned, Locke's life did not end well and he was broken in the fantasy sideways world, and Kate wound up with Jack but we don't know what happened to them next. In some ways, the sideways world was what the main characters truly desired in their miserable real lives. If that was the case, then none of them would have wanted to "move on" in the church. It would be counter-intuitive to end what you truly wished for or what the Island's magic box gave you.
There is another explanation of the "magic box" situation. Magic box could be code for hypnotic control. Room 23 was devised to alter the thoughts of individuals, apparently to love Jacob. In any cult, the control of the followers is key to the leader's power. Brain washing can occur in many forms. It could be the filter to find out who was "good" (as in easily manipulated to the island cause) or "bad" (unworthy of Jacob's good graces). That is why the Others always called themselves the "good guys." They truly believed it.
By manipulating the minds of their subjects, leaders like Ben or Widmore could get people to do criminal things in the guise of a higher calling. For example, Ben's minions could have caused Cooper's car crash and drugged him in the ambulance to transport him to the Island so Ben could "shock" Locke into becoming a loyal Other. That would not be "magic," but a complex criminal scheme of kidnapping, drugs, brain conditioning, and forced loyalty. The same plan was used to get Juliet to the Island. She was literally kidnapped, drugged on the sub, conditioned to believe her work on the Island was so important, and that she could never leave the island.
Of course, the last option is the least favorable explanation. The magic box could have been a literary trick to put in unexplainable plot twists into the story line in order to fill time from season to season. Who did not think WTH? when Ben revealed to Locke "his gift" of a bound and gagged Cooper, the man that had caused Locke so much physical and mental pain?!
The Magic Box, whether it was real, symbolic of the leader's power or authority, or the will of a supernatural being, will never be fully known.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
