SACKS AND HUME

Oliver Sacks has died at age 82. He told us how the knowledge of his death sat with him, as a man, and to some extent as a doctor. He wrote the following for the New York Times in February, pausing to quote David Hume:

"It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can. In this I am encouraged by the words of one of my favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776. He titled it “My Own Life.”

“I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution,” he wrote. “I have suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a moment’s abatement of my spirits. I possess the same ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company.”

I have been lucky enough to live past 80, and the 15 years allotted to me beyond Hume’s three score and five have been equally rich in work and love. In that time, I have published five books and completed an autobiography (rather longer than Hume’s few pages) to be published this spring; I have several other books nearly finished.

Sacks was both a doctor and writer. In his medical work, he sought to understand what made people different and the same. He struggled to awaken patients who had suffered from a sleeping sickness, and recounted that experience in his 1973 book Awakenings (later a film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro). He realized that the experience of human consciousness is both shared and unique, and regardless of what consciousness is, it is valuable. He helped to awaken in his readers a sense of the shared human experience, via stories of people suffering from neurological conditions.

Among many poignant stories Sacks related in his 1985 book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, he introduced us to "Jimmie G.," a patient who had been unable to form new memories since 1945. In that book, like his recent NYT column, Sacks returned to Hume, in this passage about Jimmie's diagnosis (emphasis added):

 ‘He is, as it were,’ I wrote in my notes, ‘isolated in a single moment of being, with a moat or lacuna of forgetting all round him ... He is man without a past (or future), stuck in a constantly changing, meaningless moment.’ And then, more prosaically, ‘The remainder of the neurological examination is entirely normal. Impression: probably Korsakov’s syndrome, due to alcoholic degeneration of the mammillary bodies.’ My note was a strange mixture of facts and observations, carefully noted and itemized, with irrepressible meditations on what such problems might ‘mean’, in regard to who and what and where this poor man was—whether, indeed, one could speak of an ‘existence’, given so absolute a privation of memory or continuity.

I kept wondering, in this and later notes—unscientifically— about ‘a lost soul’, and how one might establish some continuity, some roots, for he was a man without roots, or rooted only in the remote past. ‘Only connect’—but how could he connect, and how could we help him to connect? What was life without connection? ‘I may venture to affirm,’ Hume wrote, ‘that we are nothing but a bundle or collection of different sensations, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.’ In some sense, he had been reduced to a ‘Humean’ being—I could not help thinking how fascinated Hume would have been at seeing in Jimmie his own philosophical ‘chimaera’ incarnate, a gruesome reduction of a man to mere disconnected, incoherent flux and change.

Sacks, the fascinated neurologist, driven not only to identify disorders of the brain, but to understand the creation of the brain: the mind. What is the mind? And what do we make of it? If our experience of life is altered or reduced because a misfire of the brain, can it be understood, treated, or accommodated? Why are some patients so cheerful despite their plights? What joy is innate in humanity? 

The irreducible fact of life is that death is coming; Sacks of course realized this and celebrated what life he had left. This is logical, although it's sad for those of us who remain.
Sacks reflected on the future:

    “I rejoice when I meet gifted young people — even the one who biopsied and diagnosed my metastases. I feel the future is in good hands. I have been increasingly conscious, for the last 10 years or so, of deaths among my contemporaries. My generation is on the way out, and each death I have felt as an abruption, a tearing away of part of myself. There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate — the genetic and neural fate — of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death.

    “I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”

In the end, it's wholly appropriate that Sacks would find time to write his way through his final months, finishing up books, and sharing his thoughts as he approached the inevitable. What remains is not just a large body of his work,  but the memory of a man who recognized his own position among his fellows, who took it upon himself to heal when he could, to explain when he could, and simply to live when that was what remained as his legacy.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE

There is one inflection point between the island and sideways story arcs. People believe it is Desmond, but the real man in the middle is a background character.

This comes about in reviewing a minor detail in the series. The flight manifest contained the names of all the passengers who flew on Flight 815.  The manifest was part of the papers and materials kept by Sawyer in his stash shortly after the survivors started to build camp.

The earliest known time that the mid-section survivors were in possession of the manifest was day 5 - Sunday, September 26th, 2004, during the burning of the plane. It then went into Sawyer's possession for approximately eleven days before passing to Hurley on Day 16.

Hurley used the manifest in order to make a census of everyone on the beach and in the caves.  He asked everyone for his name, place of residence, and the reason he was in Australia to compile the census.  It was during this process, Hurley found that Ethan Rom was not a passenger on the plane, but an Other.

Lostpedia states that only a few people have actually seen the manifest:

Locke knew Hurley and Sawyer's real names (Hugo Reyes and James Ford) from the manifest.

Sawyer had access to the manifest since it was part of his stash.

Hurley used the manifest to create his census of survivors.

And co-pilot Frank Lapidus claimed he had memorialized the entire 815 manifest so he was able to identify Juliet as not being a passenger. How Frank would have received a copy of the manifest (which is created at the gate through boarding passes) is unknown, but a telling bit of information.

In the flash sideways Flight 815, pilot Seth Norris is listed instead of Frank. Which means some details of the original flight were the same. But the  manifest was slightly different, with some characters such as Desmond,  who were not on the plane originally, were on it in the flash sideways. Other passengers were seated differently or missing altogether.
 
After having some realization about this world, Desmond asked his limo driver to get him a copy of the manifest so he could show the other passengers something. Desmond was later seen seeking out various passengers of Flight 815 and manipulating their circumstances to trigger an "awakening"  though it is unclear to what extent he consulted the manifest to accomplish his goal.

What was the cosmic bridge between the island and the sideways plane manifests?

It could be the knowledge of Frank, who is the only character to leave the island more than twice, and the fact that Ajira 316 actually made it off the island with Desmond on it.

Lapidus is a Biblical name derived from the Latin word lapideus, meaning "made of stone."

So was alcoholic, depressed pilot Frank the foundation stone on which the series can be connected?

Frank, as a character, does not get a lot of credit for being independent, resourceful, dynamic, skilled and perceptive. He knew the evil intentions of the freighter crew from day one. He knew something was wrong in the whole disappearing Flight 815 scandal. In some respects, he was the one who had a clear understanding that people and events were being manipulated, so he rode the wave of the deceptions to find his answers. As a pragmatic person, he survived the various dangers on and off the island. And when he found the 815ers on his Ajira flight, he deadpanned that he was not getting to his scheduled destination.

Or was he?  In some respects, Frank represents an guardian angel for some of the 815ers. Through guilt or heavenly redemption, he literally "saves" several people, including Kate twice. He was the man in the middle of the action, but not swept away by it.

By Frank getting Desmond off the island had to have changed the alternative time line to place Desmond on sideways Flight 815. This is the most dramatic change in the sideways manifest, as it creates the path for Desmond to remember and reunite the island memories to their souls. So Desmond takes on the role of an underworld ferryman or priest, to get his charges through judgment and paradise. 

BEST ACTORS

LOST had memorable performances. But in the Mount Rushmore of LOST acting, we must narrow the field down to four individuals:

LOCKE

Terry O'Quinn had the greatest range of situations in which to perform. He did quite well. Received Emmy Award nominations in 2005, 2007, and 2010 in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of John Locke.  He won the 2007 award beating out, among other nominees, fellow Lost actor Michael Emerson.

BEN

Michael Emerson came to the series as a guest star, but his performance captured the imagination of the fans and producers to where he became a main character. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series in 2009 for his role as Ben.

DESMOND

Henry Ian Cusick was another guest star who made an impact to become a regular cast member. Cusick, after three guest starring episodes during Season 2, became a series regular at the beginning of the third season.  Cusick was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series at the 2006 Emmys for his performance as Desmond in the episode "Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1".

ELOISE

Fionnula Flanagan was an accomplished actress prior to a guest role in the series. However, her portrayal of Eloise Hawking made her a mysterious center piece to future story lines bridging the island, Dharma and the Others. As Ben was seen as evil incarnate, Eloise was a much more sinister and powerful force behind the scenes.  When she was in a scene, you could see the mental gears churning some devious plot.

One can now realize that these four characters were pivotal in the final two seasons of LOST. O'Quinn's character was reborn in the form of Flocke. Ben's power struggle with Jacob and Widmore led to the chaotic final chase to find a final island guardian. Eloise was all knowing in both worlds, and tried to keep them worlds separated so she would not lose her son, Daniel. And Desmond became the bridge between the island and the sideways realms. In some ways, these four actors pushed themselves in the prime, leading roles as the series wound down.

THE ELIZABETH

One of the mysteries that is in the background but potentially explosive was the appearance of Libby at critical times in the series.

She was seen as a mental patient in Hurley's day room, but Hurley had no memory of her when the tail section survivors made it to the beach camp.

She was also instrumental in getting Desmond on his epic sailboat journey. The Desmond coffee shop meeting was one of the more forced coincidences in the series. While Libby was in a coffeehouse in California,  she offered to pay Desmond's bill for a caffeinated drink, as he only had British currency. Desmond jokingly asked her for $42,000 to pay for a boat.  Libby asked why he needed a boat; Desmond replied that he was going to participate in a race around the world, thereby proving to Penny's father, Widmore, that he was not a coward. Libby proceeded to tell him that her husband, David, had passed away a month prior, was an avid boating fan.  David had purchased a yacht, which he named the Elizabeth after Libby herself, intending to sail in the Mediterranean. Libby encouraged Desmond to take it, saying that it was what David would have wanted. Desmond promised her that he would win the race in the name of love.

This apparently was the same time and place where Desmond met Jack running up the stadium stairs. So Libby was at the epicenter of two critical meetings.

Now, some may say that Libby's role in these chance meetings with other characters prior to the island as suspicious. Was she working for someone, like Jacob or Widmore? Was she a conduit to get people to do things, such as Hurley believing in imaginary friends like "Dave," or getting Desmond out into the Pacific to perish on the island? Or was she a guardian angel type, leading an individual to their destiny?

What if Hurley's Dave, his best friend, was the person killed when Hurley went out on the party porch that collapsed because his alleged weight? It was that traumatic event that put Hurley into a mental institution. He blamed himself for causing death and pain. And his weight gain was to remove the pain and guilt of his father leaving him as a young boy.

So if Dave was killed in the overloaded porch collapse, it could be that Dave's ghost was still around Hurley. Hurley could communicate with dead people, so that is consistent with the future story lines. Dave was probably ghosting Hurley so he could a) get Hurley to realize that it was not his fault; or b) to get revenge for dying; or c) pushing Hurley to take care of his loved one.

If Hurley was devastated by losing his best friend in an accident, likewise Libby could have been traumatized by the death of her husband, David. If Libby's David was the same person as Hurley's Dave - - -  what a connection! Dave's haunting Hurley at the mental hospital, getting him to try to break out and leave, could have been a means of keeping Hurley away from institutionalized Libby. But that does not explain how Libby was manipulating the other characters to the island, and once on the island, keeping Hurley from following Dave off a cliff (and certain death). Maybe Dave was haunting Libby at the same time - - - unable to let go of her, to the point where she went insane. And the only way to get over him was to move on with Hurley.

But Dave does not seem the type to be rich to have a sailboat in pricey Newport Beach. So maybe there was another David for whom Libby shared her life. There is one other known David in the series, and that was Jack's son from the sideways world . . . a boy he allegedly fathered with sideways Juliet. It would be weird and bizarre if Libby's David was Jack's after life son - - - but since time does not make logical sense in the series, anything is possible. So Libby giving a boat to Desmond to push him on his quest to sail the Pacific got Desmond to the stadium to give Jack the advice that would push him to leadership on the island and fulfill his destiny by becoming a caring father in an alternative universe.

Or, it all could be an elaborate mental fiction crazy Libby created in order to end her lonely existence by finding a sweet, gentle, introverted rich man like Hurley. But another odd point is that Hurley's live for Libby was really solidified when Libby was killed by Michael. So Hurley and Libby could only find their happiness if they were dead. (Some would say that is a sad commentary on how the main characters were actually treated by the writers.)

 The Elizabeth was a vessel that carried Desmond to the island; it represented hope of escape; and it was used to ferry characters on missions around the island. But it never like the snow globe pull of the island itself. It could be symbolic of the show itself: it was an object that had great promise and purpose, but it was shipwrecked and lost at sea. It was rebuilt and served its sailors once again. But it never left the island, just like the main characters.

WAKE UP DESMOND

There has been a difficult explanation of why Desmond was the one who would shepherd the Losties to the final reunion.

One of the biggest things people seem to be questioning is how Desmond was able to “wake up” from the purgatory universe and how he had the know-how to “wake up” the other characters. 

Desmond was not an original cast member. He did not survive the plane crash. He was never really part of the beach camp. He really did not care which side to take, Jack, Locke's, or anything else except to get off the island and back to Penny. In the story progression, Desmond's character began as arc filler, to add another piece to the Widmore story (that his daughter was involved with a loser).

To our knowledge, Desmond was not "touched" by Jacob to become a candidate. He was sent on his insane quest to show-up Widmore by winning a solo sailboat race across the Pacific. How a stupid and dangerous thing would make a rich girl swoon is another matter. But that was his plan. However, since Dez had no money and no boat, he had fallen back to his comfort zone (a depressed, self doubting existence of inner pain and regret). But out of no where, widow Libby gives him her late husband's boat. Too coincidental? Of course. That is the LOST tangled ball of strings story writing.

We can assume it was Widmore who recruited Desmond to get the boat and race across the Pacific. What better way to get rid of a problem then send him into the vast ocean? But for some unknown reason, Desmond shipwrecked on the island. How he got through the barrier is unknown, but if Jacob was to be believed, only he could allow people to come to the island. Of course, Jacob could have been lying - - - a Desmond got through because there is no evidence that Jacob ever knew Desmond existed until late in Season 6. So Widmore got rid of his problem. But at the same time, Widmore's other big problem was finding the island. He was working with Eloise to do that - - - and probably had spies try to tail Ben or his people when they went to the mainland (again, why would Jacob allow free passage by the Others since Jacob had no real "work" for them to do for him.)

Some fans believe that the first true love story of the series was the Desmond-Penny affair. It was that bond that led to the concepts of having a "constant" and being a "variable" in the island's time skipping equation. But Desmond was not the only one with a constant. Everyone has a constant - - - someone they knew or bonded with such as a parent, friend, spouse or child that they love and want to protect. But somehow, the writers tilted Desmond's relationship as special. The only difference between Dez and the rest of the characters was the likely fact Desmond was never supposed to be on the island. That may have been the wild card MIB was looking for in his own "loophole" theory.

In many viewer's explanation of the sideways reunion, it is Desmond (specifically through his past connection to Penny Widmore) that is the “constant” in the show. No matter what happens, when, or where, Desmond seems somehow immune to the Island’s energy (which has electromagnetic properties) and has a sort of awareness that can transcend space and time (his consciousness shifts seen in episodes like “The Constant“). These “shifts” and Widmore’s explanation that Desmond is special because of his resistance to the Island’s energies, imply that Desmond would even be able to “shift” his consciousness back and forth between this universe and the sideways purgatory one, catalyzed by Widmore’s team placing him in that huge electromagnetic machine in the Season 6.

Based on the show's apparent reasoning, that Desmond – after having his consciousness
“shifted” to the purgatory reality – would “wake up” after encountering HIS constant, Penny. It’s another fast and loose metaphysical explanation, but one that some people think works within the framework of the show. 

 Except, in the sideways world, other characters encountered their constants - - -  like Jin and Sun. Together, they should have awakened first especially with their traumatic ending on the island.

So if the island EM "blocks" memories of the past life, then why does it fail when Desmond starts rounding up the other cast members? Sayid instanteously remembers everything when he finds Shannon? But his entire life centered around Nadia - - - even in the sideways world. The major inconsistencies with the amnesia in the sideways world is baffling when one considers the quick cascade of memories flowing from one concert setting.  Worse, is the awakening of Claire and Charlie - - - and Kate - - - only by the "re-birth" of Aaron in the sideways world. If Aaron was alive in the real world, he could not be a fetus in the sideways world. He would have lived his life on Earth then died and gone to purgatory-heaven-whereever as an adult. The Aaron rebirth sequence calls into question whether there were actually two different dimensions at play.

The writers tagging Desmond "special" so he can get everyone magically back together was too convenient. The show had labeled other characters as "special" including Walt and Locke, but they really had no role in bringing the cast back together. It is hard to believe that the writers knew Desmond would be the final key when the show began since Desmond was not even written into the show until much later. And many viewers believe that Jack should have the key to the series and its resolution.

PROJECTIONS

Astral projection is the ability to travel to places only with your consciousness and awareness. Yogis were able to achieve this ability by reaching one of the slowest frequency of their mind through meditation (the point between awake and asleep. In psychology known as Theta brainwaves). This ability can be very useful in many ways.

First, an industrial-military use of such a mental projection would be spying. To travel with just your mind to any place to retrieve information would be a huge benefit to a major corporation or a super power in developing strategy and responses to alleged threats.

Second, in a personal way, projections to spy on personal relationships would be both useful and creepy. If a person can mentally project his conscious into a private conversation with their significant other to glean information, feelings, thoughts (or infidelity), that could cause significant changes in the relationship.

Third,  the ability to know people's future actions could change the future. If one spies on Wall Street traders to get inside information, one could become extremely wealthy with no visible paper trail on mergers, acquisitions, or undisclosed information that could drastically affect stock prices.

This psychic ability seems more probable to Desmond's ability than the explanation of "mental time travel." Desmond's premonitions were mostly wrong. For example, he saw Claire being rescued by helicopter, which never happened. One thinks that there were some intervening events (such as saving Charlie) which changed those visions, but we can't be sure.

The ability to astral project into another's emotions and thoughts could be in play after Desmond was supercharged with island electromagnetic energy. With this new found power would come some confusion on how Desmond would read those emotions and thoughts. This also comes to explain why the smoke monster, or Man in Black, can re-create a human being's life and project things from their past on the island: the ability access conscious, emotions and memories of human beings.

Widmore may have tapped into this psychic ability while on the island to amass his large fortune. It was the ability to see into his competitors and crush any competition was the driving force for his return to the island.  Likewise, Eloise had some psychic ability to foretell Desmond's future, as well as the Oceanic 6.

If one can tap into the mind of another person to read it, one can also project the ability to tap into another person's mind and "reprogram it." We do it all the time in real life. In new relationships, we tend to go slow, get to know a person, gain their trust, capture their feelings in order to bond with them. With mental projection, it could be possible to avoid the hard work of interpersonal communications and just get to the end emotional bond attachment to you. This could explain the 180 degree emotional turns in relationship status during the island events, as the main characters feelings towards their closest friends would shift dramatically and without warning (the prime example was Kate's love interests).

If the main characters were manipulated by the island, the Others or Jacob and the smoke monsters, does that answer the big mysteries of the show? Not really. In the themes of free will vs. fate, the concept of mental manipulation is non-existent.

SHEPHERDING SHEEP

Jack and Christian had one thing in common: their last name, Shepherd.

Shepherd is a noun which means a person who tends and rears sheep.

It also means  a member of the clergy who provides spiritual care and guidance for a congregation.

As a verb, it means to tend to a thing or a task, or give guidance to (someone), esp. on spiritual matters.

Sheep tend to be docile, dumb, domesticated animals. Sheep is also a semi-derogatory slang for a mindless follower.

It a way, we can see both definitions in Jack and Christian.

The obvious connection is Christian to religion. In his death, as a spirit, he provides his son with care and guidance to get him to the right place (the sideways church).

Jack, on the other hand, is a de facto leader of a bunch of sheep (plane survivors) who need to tended (survival) and directed to the task (rescue).

But Jack is a reluctant leader. He does not want to make the big decisions. He is uncomfortable around people other than his ER staff. He was taught early on in his life that he did not have the emotional guts to be a real leader, the type of person who can make life and death decisions, and be able to live with the death ones. That is why Jack was delusional with his patients; that every case had hope and a miracle result. Jack could have been living in a fantasy world for a long time.

And Christian was a terrible father. As such, he was a pretty terrible angel. Angels are messengers from the after life who are sent to the realm of the living to guide people on the right path, to make the right decisions, and to change their destiny. Even in ancient times, powerful kings sought out the spirit world for guidance before battle. The righteous of the cause was as important as the army in the field.  Christian showed up on the island as a ghost to shock Jack into remembering his childhood, and the associated guilt of not making up with his father before Christian died.

We would learn that several appearances by ghost Christian were in fact the smoke monster (MIB) or possibly even Jacob, directing Jack to find the cave (for fresh water). But it does not limit the possibility that the spirit of Christian could have been on the island (if his body was in the coffin). If MIB can only transform if a body was on the island, then Christian's body would have been present. However, in the sideways after life story line, Christian's body was not on the plane.

If Jack was the shepherd in charge of getting his followers home, then he did a fairly poor job of that as well. The island wolves picked off most of the beach camp survivors. Only Kate, Sawyer and Claire (and Aaron) made it off the island in the end. That is a pretty low batting average is survival (life) was the goal.

But if Jack was the shepherd in the land of the living, Christian was not the shepherd in the land of the dead. Christian was strangely the master of ceremonies at the reunion in the church, but Christian had no part in bringing any of the people to the church. As a dead person, he had a physical form (just like everyone else). He also had complete memories of what had happened to him. But we think he must have some background on all the others, because he told Jack that "they made" this sideways world. (Again, we don't know how anyone could create a private purgatory).

It was Desmond who began to awaken the 815ers in the sideways world after Charlie tried to kill him in a car accident. The hand on the underwater glass sparked Desmond to remember his island time then spark his investigation into the 815 manifest. In some ways, Desmond was the real sideways shepherd gathering the flock back together again.

 One could go off on a wild limb and say that if Desmond was the after life shepherd, he played the same role on the island. Christian could have been "lost" on his voyage across the River Styx. He wound up as Desmond on the island, an angel in disguise. This was Christian's purgatory, trapped in the vessel of Desmond. How else could have Christian learned about Jack's island life, his trials, tribulations, loves, hates and ultimate death? Christian would have needed that information in order to create a "heavenly" landing place for his son in the sideways world.

As leaders, Christian and Jack appear to be cut from the same cloth. They believe that they have the skill set to lead their followers, but they have fatal flaws in their character. Christian follows the path of the easy way out of his issues; Jack has a delusional fantasy aspect of his dealing with his issues.

It also seems like a huge bother to create a complex sideways world with layers of new back stories just to give Christian the opportunity to tell Jack that he is dead. It seems more natural in our culture to see ancestors greet us at the pearly gates than send our souls into an island boot camp of soul torture, pain and suffering. Perhaps it took all the people in the church to tug the metaphysical rope to pull an obstinate Jack into heaven. The sheep had to corral the shepherd.

IMPLODING STORY LINE

It is one point that is glossed over as being superficial. But it shows the story structure problems of the show when it comes to a consistent mythology.

It deals with the Hatch and The Incident.

As the LOST story unfolded in real broadcast time, many of us thought that the Hatch "implosion" was "The Incident" that was whispered about in the Others Dharma camp. But then we had the story tangent of Juliet being trapped in the hatch excavation pit banging a rock on an atomic bomb when the white light flashes and we next see another implosion debris field at the site.

Two separate incidents. The same results: there was a massive crater (implosion).

Normally, a massive discharge of energy will create an explosion, where the debris field would be scattered about a wide range of area. There still may be a crater at the epicenter.

When Desmond turned the fail safe key, we saw the Hatch cover land on the beach (an explosion) but also saw the effects of the station crumpled down into the crater (an implosion).  When Juliet's cliffhanger flash happened, we really only saw the end result of her being trapped in the debris of the implosion (as the construction scaffolding was twisted upon her).

That left us with various assumptions on what happened in each event. In Desmond's case, the fail safe key had to have been attached to a detention device (a bomb) for the sole purpose of stopping the runaway electromagnetic build up. Hence, the explosion and implosion as the EM field apparently "re-sealed" itself. In Juliet's case, the "incident" began as the drill hit the EM pocket. Now some people thought Juliet "set off" the a-bomb by banging on it, but that is not how atomic weapons detonate to cause a chain reaction explosion. Further, if the atomic bomb did explode, Juliet would have been vaporized; instead, we get her portfolio death scene with Sawyer.

Which is oddly consistent with Desmond's event. Dez somehow survives the explosion-implosion. He is found naked wandering the jungle. Why did Desmond survive and Juliet die? They both experienced the same EM event. And why was Desmond's clothes stripped away but Juliet's was not?

The writers often tried to set mirror events into the plot lines. But the writers never explained any distinguishing results from those mirror situations.

You cannot even argue that naked Desmond running in the jungle was symbolic of his "rebirth." Juliet's "sacrifice" was more straight forward until she said "it worked." What worked? Did she re-boot the island time clock? How would she have known that, she was buried in a debris pit.  Or did she think that she died and went to heaven (sideways world). But that makes little sense since she was the last to be "awakened" in the sideways story line. Besides, at the moment of her death she was thinking about her love, Sawyer. But in the sideways world, her fantasy life began with being married to Jack, and having his child, David, before getting divorced.  There is a major inconsistency between the cause and effects of the two Hatch location incidents.

Why was Desmond more "important" than Juliet to move the story to its climax? In retrospect, Desmond was touted as being "the secret weapon" to take down MIB but he never achieved that goal. He was immune to high EM energy. The light cave apparently had high EM energy. Someone had to "re-boot" the island so Desmond was drafted to be that worker by both MIB and Jack, the new island guardian. But Desmond failed to finish his job; Jack had to intervene. Desmond did not have the final death blow to defeat MIB. Kate shot MIB.

And what did Juliet's death do to move the story line forward? The only thing was to reinforce the will in Sawyer to leave the island. It is also a strange path to believe that it took a three year time travel work camp imprisonment with the Dharma group to teach Sawyer that there was someone who could love him in a respectable relationship. Do we then assume that Sawyer lived unhappily ever after until he died and went to the sideways purgatory to be keystone copped into an unbelievable reunion with Juliet at a candy machine?

It the incidents were merely markers for the theme of death and rebirth, the story was not well crafted to bring those points home. If you believe the island was real, then Desmond's "rebirth" is symbolic that fate will keep you on your path of destiny? Or, in Juliet's case, one's rebirth can only occur in the after life.

HUME PHILOSOPHY

Desmond Hume was also a name clue. Many people thought Desmond's character may be a reference to English philosopher David Hume (1711-1776).

Hume's position in ethics, which is based on his empiricist theory of the mind, is best known for asserting four theses: (1) Reason alone cannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the “slave of the passions”  (2) Moral distinctions are not derived from reason (3) Moral distinctions are derived from the moral sentiments: feelings of approval (esteem, praise) and disapproval (blame) felt by spectators who contemplate a character trait or action  (4) While some virtues and vices are natural  others, including justice, are artificial. There is a great debate about what Hume actually meant by these positions. He defends them within the broader context of his metaethics and his ethic of virtue and vice.

Hume worked on the issues of  ethics and political philosophy.

One is a question of moral epistemology: how do human beings become aware of, or acquire knowledge or belief about, moral good and evil, right and wrong, duty and obligation? Ethical theorists and theologians of the day held, variously, that moral good and evil are discovered: (a) by reason in some of its uses (Hobbes, Locke, Clarke), (b) by divine revelation (Filmer), (c) by conscience or reflection on one's (other) impulses (Butler), or (d) by a moral sense: an emotional responsiveness manifesting itself in approval or disapproval (Shaftesbury, Hutcheson). Hume sides with the moral sense theorists: we gain awareness of moral good and evil by experiencing the pleasure of approval and the uneasiness of disapproval when we contemplate a character trait or action from an imaginatively sensitive and unbiased point of view. Hume maintains against the rationalists that, although reason is needed to discover the facts of any concrete situation and the general social impact of a trait of character or a practice over time, reason alone is insufficient to yield a judgment that something is virtuous or vicious. In the last analysis, the facts as known must trigger a response by sentiment or “taste.”

A related but more metaphysical controversy would be stated thus today: what is the source or foundation of moral norms? In Hume's day this is the question what is the ground of moral obligation (as distinct from what is the faculty for acquiring moral knowledge or belief). Moral rationalists of the period such as Clarke (and in some moods, Hobbes and Locke) argue that moral standards or principles are requirements of reason — that is, that the very rationality of right actions is the ground of our obligation to perform them. Divine voluntarists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries such as Samuel Pufendorf claim that moral obligation or requirement, if not every sort of moral standard, is the product of God's will. The moral sense theorists (Shaftesbury and Hutcheson) and Butler see all requirements to pursue goodness and avoid evil as consequent upon human nature, which is so structured that a particular feature of our consciousness (whether moral sense or conscience) evaluates the rest. Hume sides with the moral sense theorists on this question: it is because we are the kinds of creatures we are, with the dispositions we have for pain and pleasure, the kinds of familial and friendly interdependence that make up our life together, and our approvals and disapprovals of these, that we are bound by moral requirements at all.

Hume represents the following points:
1. A person's free will is not controlled by reason but one's passions.
2. Reason does not set morality.
3. Morality is determined by feelings of approval or disapproval felt by others to one's actions.
4. Virtues, vices, ethics and justice are artificial concepts in a natural world.
5. A person gains awareness of moral good and evil by experiencing the pleasure of approval and the uneasiness of disapproval from a character trait or action formed from family and friend interdependence bind everyone to a moral requirement.

In LOST, Desmond is a literal and figurative drifter. He drifts from job to job, career to religious order. He gets involved with women for pleasure, but runs away from the moral commitment of marriage. He seems to have a chip on his shoulder, that his poor station in life is just as good as the rich and powerful elite. But in order to prove that point, he must build up his own character by completing something great (like the solo boat race).

Desmond is also a contradiction. He is deeply in love with Penny, but in order to cement that bond, he must leave her for a suicidal boat race to impress her father. Many people would call that illogical - - - nuts. His moral compass is completely off. His decision making is formed by passion and not reason or sound judgment.  Despite Penny's disapproval and anger, Desmond turns his back on any traditional moral ground to stay with Penny.

Once on the island, Desmond's life has no ethical or moral bearing. He has no free will. He classifies himself as a prisoner in a snow globe. He is filled with self-remorse, guilt, and delusion. He had lost Penny. But in all his decisions up to the island shipwreck, subconsciously, that is what Desmond wanted: his fate was not have any happiness with Penny or any other woman. His character was to be a dour nobody.

So Desmond's character really had nothing in common with David Hume's positions. Desmond was not the moral barometer for the show.

The side story of Desmond and Penny was not critical to the show's ending. Yes, Desmond became the livery driver to "awaken" the island survivors to their island memories - - - which in itself is an illogical construct - - -  but that job could have been done by Charlie, who started to think outside the box before the concert, or even Libby getting Hurley to remember. Desmond was not associated or close to any of the sideways characters. His final position in the church reunion with Penny is another one of those odd inconsistencies in the ending.

DISTRUST

 “ Self-distrust is the cause of most of our failures. In the assurance of strength, there is strength, and they are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers. ”
— Christian Bovée

Distrust was a common theme in LOST. Throughout the series, it was a common refrain, "Trust me," especially when one character was trying to get another character to agree to their position, mission or action.

Self-distrust is an interesting sidebar to this discussion. If one cannot trust herself or himself, then how can that person trust another person? In real life, the biggest trust factor is in a committed relationship like marriage. If one cannot trust one's spouse to be loyal, then the bonds between them are weak. But if one cannot trust one's self to be loyal in that relationship, there is added anxiety and stress - - - even if the other spouse is not at fault.

There were a few characters who had no faith in themselves. They could not call any inner reserve to change the course of their life. Desmond was a person who could not trust his decision making process or even his instincts, especially with his relationships with women. He calls off his engagement to join the military as a means of avoiding a commitment. But when Penny rejects him, instead of trusting himself to win her back, Desmond goes off on a crazy mission to impress her father, Widmore, instead of working on his personal relationship with Penny. He ran away instead of trusting his own feelings and strengths in order to win back Penny.

Hurley was another character who could not trust himself. He could not trust himself in relationships with women. His shyness and abandonment issues led him to cower in asking a girl out on a date. When his best friend wound up with his first crush, then put Hurley into a distrustful hermit mode.  His continued depression which started with his father's abandonment led him to body imagine issues. Like Desmond, he ran away from his problems, but instead of a suicidal boat race, Hurley took to food. On the island, he could not trust himself to be the pantry keeper. He could not fathom rationing food when he craved the the very thing he was meant to protect.

Sawyer had a distrust of everyone. Growing up as a loner, he made sure he could only count on himself. He did not trust even his partners in crime. When he let down his guard, his partners took advantage of him with disastrous results. But Sawyer distrusted himself in regard to his own personal relationships. He saw people he met as "marks" and not friends or potential lovers (until he time traveled and became close with Juliet.) Sawyer somehow distrusted the "normalcy" that a normal relationship would have on his psyche, which was solely devoted to revenge for his parents death.

In Sawyer's case, when he began to "care" (in his own way) for his fellow castaways (when Jack, Kate and Locke were gone), this opened the door to care about other people . . . to open up to become involved in a real, adult, committed relationship.

In Hurley's case, he had to be literally dragged off the edge of insanity by Libby in order to learn that non-family could love him for himself and not for his money.

In Desmond's case, he never proved to himself that he trusted himself to be with Penny. It was blind luck that it was Penny's boat that rescued him when the island disappeared (and the O6 was created to deceive the world).  Penny's will had more to do with Desmond returning to her than anything Dez did. Further, Desmond did not trust his own inner strength because he kept himself and Penny away from them - - - hiding from the ridicule that Widmore would heap upon him for being a coward. Desmond's weakness that he would not be accepted by powerful people kept him in a state of confusion and on the run for his entire life.

POOR HENRY

Poor Henry Gale. We never got his back story on how a balloonist from Minnesota would have crashed landed in a hidden Pacific island.

The Gale sub-story was contained in the episode, "Lockdown," in which the Hatch group was at odds after finding Ben in the jungle. Some believed his story that he was not "one of them," the Others, but a fellow crash survivor. But Sayid always had his doubts about Ben's story. So he went on a mission to find the balloon crash site. When he returned to the Hatch, he told Ben and everyone that he found the balloon and the grave of Henry's wife. A relieved Ben smiled to his prison guards. But that was soon wiped away when Sayid said that he dug up the grave to find the remains of a man named Henry Gale and his identification. The cause of Gale's death was an apparent broken neck.

What we know of Gale is that a) his was from Wayzata, Minnesota; b) he was born August 11, 1964; c) he had a wife named Jennifer; he was a 6'3" 220 lb black man.  The balloon was sponsored by Widmore Corporation, Minnesota Metallurgy, Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack and Nozz-A-La Cola. Two of those sponsors have direct links to the Island.

Was there any significance to August 11, 1964 birthdate?
Historical events from August 11th include:

1. In 3114 BC, the Long Count calendar of the Mayans begins.
2. In 1332, the Scots are routed by the English in the Scottish Independence War.
3. In 1929, Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career.
4. in 1934, the first civilian prisoners arrive at Alcatraz.
5. In 1942, actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for frequency-hopping spread spectrum communications system which will become the basis for modern wireless telephone technologies including Wi-Fi.
6. In 1950, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Wozniak is born.
7. In 1964, race riots begin in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.
8. In 1972, the last U.S. ground troops leave Vietnam.

From the clues found at the crash site, the balloon crash occurred sometime in 2003. This assumes Gale didn't allow his license to expire and that Minnesota has a four-year license renewal period. The $20 bill that Gale had on him was issued on October 9, 2003, according to the serial number on the bill.

This would put Gale's solo balloon quest in late 2003. At this point in time, the Dharma folks had been purged by Ben and the Others. Desmond was locked down in the Hatch with Kelvin since 2001.

There are many theories about what Gale's appearance on the island meant, but there is more a coincidence in that Gale follows the pattern of "lost" adventurers like Desmond. Like Dez, there was an apparent connection with Widmore who had a burning desire to find the island that had banished him.

The unanswered mysteries around Gale are:

• How did Henry Gale break his neck?
• Who buried him?
• How and when did Henry and his balloon come to fly over the Island?
• Of all possible cover stories, why did Ben choose Henry Gale's identity?

One possibility is that Gale was going to be the replacement for Kelvin or Desmond. He would fit the mold of being a technical person who may have been motivated by his quest to impress his wife, so that he could be manipulated to press the buttons for the next several years.

Or that Gale followed the role of Naomi, as a Widmore agent trying to find then gather intel on the Island for Widmore. If so, the Others would have probably killed him because "he was one of the bad guys."

Gale could have been a Jacob "candidate," but his name does not appear on any list.

He could have been a dumb sap who got caught up in another "incident" that caused his balloon to unwittingly plunge onto the island. We know that he survived the crash landing because he wrote a note to his wife on the back of a $20 bill:

Jennifer,
Well you were
right. Crossing
the Pacific
isn't easy.
I owe you a
beer. I'm
hiking to one of
the beaches to
start a
signal fire, but
if you're reading
this, I guess I didn't
make it. I'm sorry,
I love you Jenny,
always have,
always will.
Yours,
Henry 

As a result, Sayid assumes Ben and the Others killed him, while Ben simply denied that he had any part in it. The only other alternative is that Rousseau or one of her traps killed Gale, then she found the note and buried him next to his balloon. But since Ben knew so much of Gale's background information (including his name), Gale's demise most likely occurred at the hands of the Others.

But Henry's note is very similar in tone to the pining Desmond kept for his Penny when Dez was trapped on the Island. There is a pattern of long separation between loved ones that keeps an island captive in an emotional state.

A charged emotional state was one of the background themes in the series. When a person is in a highly emotional situation, their mind can wander, weaken or plunge into darkness. There were clues that boost those observations:

Henry Gale is the name of Dorothy's uncle in 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. In that story, the Wizard travels from Omaha, Nebraska, to the land of Oz in a hot air balloon. The first episode where Jacob appears is called "The Man Behind the Curtain" also an allusion to the Wizard of Oz. One could make the connection that Gale's appearance on the island is in someway related to Jacob.

The Smiley face on the balloon is a nod to the WATCHMEN comic book. Nozz-A-La Cola is a reference to Stephen King's Dark Tower series. It is the soda that exists in an alternate universe in place of Coca-Cola.  These may be clues that Gale was part of an alternative reality.

We do not know much more about Gale or his background. But we also have few facts about Desmond's early life.  Desmond did not graduate from university because he had to support his three brothers after the unknown death or disappearance of their father. This leads to a question of whether the "taking" of people by Jacob to the island may be "generational," i.e. Desmond's father may have been an earlier candidate who disappeared just as his son would decades later.

One day, in late 1995 or 1996, Desmond was drinking while painting his flat. He fell off of the ladder hitting his head on the floor, and was splayed out in the red paint which pooled underneath him and splattered on the walls. Just after, Penny came home and seeing him on the floor went to help him. This fall would begin to trigger Desmond's mental flashes. In 1996 at Camp Millar (north of Glasgow, Scotland), Desmond woke up from what he thought was a dream, in which he was in a helicopter in a storm. In reality, his consciousness was time traveling to December 24, 2004. Desmond continued to uncontrollably leap back and forth between 1996 and 2004. Confused when in the future, 1996-Desmond received instructions from the 2004 Daniel Faraday to meet him at The Queen's College Department of Physics in Oxford in 1996. After Desmond convinced Daniel that he had been to the future, 1996-Daniel Faraday explained that unless Desmond found a "a constant" something familiar and meaningful in both time periods, he (Desmond) would likely have a brain aneurysm and die. Desmond decided that Penny would be his constant.

Like Gale, Desmond set off on a quest that his mate did not endorse.  Desmond then traveled to America, where Widmore's solo race was set to begin in 2001.  Desmond met Libby Smith (the same woman from Hurley's mental institution) in a café, where she insisted on buying him coffee. During their conversation, Desmond confided in her his shortcomings for joining the race. Libby then surprisingly revealed her ownership of a boat which had belonged to her late husband. Upon her insistence, Desmond eventually accepted Libby's offer of the boat, promising to win the race "for love."

This puts Libby's role in the light of being an enabler - - - much like Naomi acted as Jacob's agent to get people to the island. She could have been also acting on behalf of Widmore, who wanted to get rid of poor Dez so his daughter would not wind up with a loser. It would also mean that Libby was also present to observe, then get Hurley onto Flight 815. It could also mean that since Libby had three husbands, maybe hubby number two was an avid balloonist - - - and she donated her late husband's balloon to Gale so he could accomplish his mission for his wife.

But unlike Desmond's eventual reunion with Penny, Gale's life and time on the island was cut extremely short. But there is a pattern that new people were brought to the island by shipwreck, balloon crash and plane crash, catastrophic events which in many cases cause death. Gale's broken neck could have been upon impact, and the rest of his story may have been an illusion like Oz.

SNOWGLOBE

Ancient humans universally believed that the earth was a flat disc that was covered by a globe. The glove was the universe. The stars, planets and heavenly objects were attached to the top of the globe. These early humans believed that god or gods created this special place for them.

That human perception changed in the Middle Ages when scholars found out that the universe did not revolve around the Earth, but that the Earth revolved around a sun. It set off a fundamental change in humanity. The science of observation, experimentation and manipulation of nature would soon challenge then overtake primitive notions of man's relationship with nature and their religious beliefs.
The pure scientists believed that truth could only be measured by factual observation and repeated analysis. Those who thought to explain the unknown in the world held to the religious overtones of gods, spirits, fate and faith.

One could argue that the science versus faith theme was a major component underlying much of the LOST plot lines. One could find the hard evidence of this dynamic with the conversation Jack had with Desmond:

JACK: So, before you ran off, I guess you just forgot to mention that you still have a sailboat. Why'd you come back?

DESMOND [laughing]: Do you think I did it on purpose? I was sailing for two and half weeks, bearing due West and making 9 knots. I should have been in Fiji in less than a week. But the first piece of land I saw wasn't Fiji, was it? No. No, it was here -- this, this island. And you know why? Because this is it. This is all there is left. This ocean and this place here. We are stuck in a bloody snowglobe. There's no outside world. There's no escape. So, just go away, huh. Let me drink.


Desmond described the Island as a "snowglobe" after experiencing navigational difficulties trying to escape it. Desmond had tried to flee the Island in his boat, but he steered due west rather than the necessary bearing. As a result, he arrived back at the Island.



We are shown evidence of early man's perception of their world: a snowglobe universe. Even with the high tech science brought to bear on the Island by men throughout the centuries (including the Dharma stations), the setting of the Island still harbors the first representation of man's concept of his universe: the snowglobe.

Was this a coincidental, off-the-cuff remark in dialog?  There were other references to snowglobes in the series:

1. A page in Hurley's Spanish comic book showed a dome covering a magical city.
2. A snowglobe was on the counter of the shop where Michael pawned his watch in Meet Kevin Johnson.
3. There was a large bluish globe on the top shelf of the bookcase in Aaron's bedroom.

If there is one constant in Hollywood is the point that nothing is totally new. The LOST writers were fans of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, which  contained a few references to snowglobes. One character dropped a snowglobe as a child in a scene similar to Sun's in "Further Instructions". The character imagined the inside of the snowglobe as a "whole world; a world inside the ball." The person references that they are inside a ball in some different sort of time. The comic also featured an tropical utopia Antarctic base shielded by massive glass hemisphere from the snow outside.

One theory is that the Island is indeed a snowglobe, on Earth but in a slightly different dimension or time. Whether it is a nexus, portal or bridge to the after life or parallel universe is open to discussion.
In this view, the characters have been transported to what would seem to them to be a magical place (like Oz) where their perceptions of their universe do not match their current surroundings.


Another theory reflects that the possibility that the snowglobe statement is a clue to the big premise of the series. In the 1980s, the TV drama St. Elsewhere  featured a Boston hospital and its staff that were revealed, in the final episode, to exist only inside a snowglobe, imagined by an autistic boy. Some viewers connected that premise when they saw the Hurley-centric episode, "Dave,"  which focus was on mental illness and hallucinations, that strongly suggested that the Island was all in Hurley's imagination.


When one tries to figure out the premise of LOST, one must consider even the smallest clues having possibly the greatest impact on our collective understanding. The simple concept of the snowglobe, from historical reference to child's toy of imagination, is emblematic of LOST.

CHARACTER OF DESMOND

One of the characters that had the greatest importance (the big build-up) for the series conclusion was our lost Scot, Desmond Hume. In the end, his role was merely a concierge. For many, this was a great disappointment.

Desmond first appeared on the radar in Season 2. In order to stretch out the character tree, TPTB needed to craft a more "epic" and sympathic love story. So Desmond and Penny romance was born.

Very little is known about Desmond's background. His time line during flash backs do not have the continuity to be considered full truths. Some of  Desmond's life seems to be disjointed concurrent events. We are led to believe that he was set designer for a theatre company, a banished military corporal, a failed monk, a failed copier salesman, and a lost sailor. In 1988, he broke off his engagement with a woman named Ruth because he feared a committed relationship. Afterward, at the monastary run by Eloise Hawking's friend, Brother Campbell, Desmond meets Widmore's daughter, Penny. He has a relationship with her that her father disapproves (which is probably why Penny liked Desmond). But Desmond runs away from Penny when things got too serious. Then, he flip flopped mentally to get her back by "proving" something to her father (by winning a solo trans Pacific boat race). It seems all far fetched and a lame excuse to avoid marriage.

It is the failure as a monk that "tags" Desmond into Eloise's scheme to get Desmond onto the Pacific Ocean to be trapped on the island pressing a stupid button forever. Eloise, as Widmore's spouse (as depicted in the sideways world), had to be working in concert with Widmore under some guise to "protect" and/or "reclaim" the island from Ben and the Others. Eloise told Desmond that he was destined to "save the world."  And that is the HUGE mystery item for the series - - - a noble goal, a epic struggle, a great solution. So we are left guessing what was attacking the world, and how Desmond was destined to save it.

Desmond is also the character that starts the flood gate of "inconsequential" meetings with the other main characters. This script entanglements in retrospect only gave the series catch phrases but not plot momentum. Desmond meets Libby in a coffee shop. In less than five minutes, she gives a stranger her husband's boat. Yes, that is crazy. Desmond then meets Jack running stadium stairs. Both men have burning woman problems. Desmond tells him that he will see Jack "in another life." Desmond then crash lands on the island. He meets Kelvin, who just happened to be part of the American forces in Iraq who converted Sayid. Desmond was tricked into pushing a computer button every 108 minutes. Three years later, Desmond confronts Kelvin about the station. In the fight, Desmond kills Kelvin and misses the deadline to push the button. He believes the release of the EM energy from the Swan station caused Flight 815 to crash on the island.  (Except, the counter supernatural explanation is that only Jacob can bring people to the island.)

When Locke finds the Hatch, Desmond finds his way to escape his prison. Locke and the survivors then take his place on pure faith that pushing the button was important. But when Locke decides that this is a farce and destroys the terminal, causing an incident, Desmond takes the fail safe key and the entire station "blows up then implodes" into a large crater. By any standard, the force of such a blast would kill a human being. But Desmond awakes naked in the jungle. (Some believe that this may not have been Mr. Hume but a recreation. Or he had cat lives like Patchy.)  Afterward, TPTB created another strange plot twist of Desmond having "flashes" in time - - - which he believed he could see into the future. Some of his illusions turned out to be true, but some like the vision of Claire on the rescue helicopter, were false.

So if Desmond's sole purpose in "saving" the world was to press the hatch button, then he failed. He set into motion the MIB escape plan.

But then we were told that after Desmond left the island, found Penny and had a child, that he returned to the island to save his friends. There was no rational basis for this 180 degree turn. Desmond vowed never to return to the island because he knew it was a prison. He had everything he wanted off the island: Penny and his son. So what if the world would end - - - it would end with his family. So it puts that whole family dynamic in dispute when Desmond agrees to return to the island, as some sort of "weaponized" human being to destroy MIB. When the tech gets fried by the EM coils, any normal human being would also be fried. But not Desmond. He passes the test with flying colors. But for what purpose?

The only thing Desmond does is lift the stone cork in the Light Cave. Apparently, there is some EM radiation present (as with the remains of other people), but human Jack later goes into that cave to save Desmond without dying or turning into a smoke monster. So from the story itself, Desmond was not a key player at all. His island role was really overblown and found to be insignificant since Desmond does not kill Flocke, but Kate does (or so we are led to believe.)

So we have the super-fried Scot returning to the island to accomplish . . . . ? Nothing. MIB was created by the disruption of the light cave source so another disruption would not cause any change in MIB's existence. Did Desmond gain Widmore's respect by being a EM conduit? No. Did Desmond actually save anyone on the island? No. Did Desmond ever reunite with Penny? We don't know, but probably not if one gives any credence to the sideways arc.

In the sideways world, Desmond is the mirror opposite of his former self. He is Widmore's friend and confident employee. He is successful. He is trusted. He is in control. Then he meets a crazy musician named Charlie, who tries to kill him. By attempting his murder, Desmond begins to have strange thoughts - - - back to Flight 815. He investigates the passenger list and he begins to "awaken" the characters about their death-existence in the sideways world.

Now, if Desmond's island relationships were the "most important people in his life" since that is why he was in the church at the end, well, that is hard to believe. The "best" part of Desmond's non-sideways life was escaping the island and living with Penny and his son. So, if Christian statement was true, then Desmond's off-island life with Penny is false. This cannot be reconciled. Even if Desmond "awoke" himself in the sideways arc, there was no need to awaken anyone else - - - all he had to do was re-connect with Penny (who barely had any contact with O6). It would have been Penny, Dez and his son Charlie in their own after life church. But that leads to a crushing theory that Desmond's life with Penny was a pure fantasy - - - there was no blissful reunion, no child, nothing. That the sideways fantasy was a mere post-death continuation of a life fantasy.

Desmond's role was sold to viewers as being a lynch pin solution to the island mysteries. But he may have been just another rat in Daniel's Oxford lab maze. After Desmond awoke in the sideways world, he was confronted by Eloise at the pre-concert garden. She warned Desmond not to go any further. She did not want him to "take away" her son. Desmond said he was not there for Daniel. In Eloise's theory, this entire magical island drama was a scam to keep her external fantasy relationship with Daniel. Which means that at some point, possibly in the sideways arc, Eloise sent Desmond to the island just to avoid any memories of Penny in the after life. It seems like a huge effort for Eloise to tear a part time and space to exile one man to a hidden island just to shelter her son from leaving her (after) life. But that seems what happens in the end: Eloise's relationship with her son remains the same. Her "world" is saved, but not by Desmond "saving" it but "leaving it."

The Lost saga could have been told without the Desmond-Penny-Widmore triangle. As a second season character who lasted to the end, Desmond really had no significance except for being a literal lightning rod for plot twists and run up to faux danger.

For all the troubles, personal pain, physical damage, did Desmond's journey through Lost change his character? Not really. He was still used as a pawn in either alternative dimension. He was at the mercy of stronger leaders. He always kept trying to prove his worth. He was easily manipulated. If his only focus was to live happily ever after with Penny, then in a small way he succeeded in the end. (As said in previous posts, we do not know whether the white light ending in the finale meant a trip to heaven, or a trip to final judgment.)

One would have thought that if Desmond has super hero powers he would have had a more heroic role in the island conflict. He would have been able to take down both Widmore and MIB. But he did neither. He was a footnote in the main characters journey to the sideways church.

REBOOT EPISODES 45-48

POSTING NOTE: Due to work changes, I may not be able to post updates on Tuesdays after Monday night marathon G4 reruns, but updates will occur later in the week.

LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 45-48 (Days 63-66)

The second season begins to wind down with the build up of the confrontation with the Others.

Michael reveals secrets about the Others' camp to the survivors;  Hurley and Libby plan their first date. When Ana  is attacked by Ben, she begins to contemplate taking matters into her own hands. Meanwhile, Michael is reunited with his friends and tells them he wants to go back for Walt, which Ben said the Others would never give up. Michael takes matters into his own hands, and as a result he shoots Ana and Libby.

After Eko experiences unusual dreams, he asks Locke to take him to the “?” from the blast door map. They go out and find the Pearl Station. Michael must maintain his cool as he watches Libby die slowly. In the Hatch, the rest of the survivors  must come to terms with what just transpired and try to ease the suffering of a mortally wounded Libby.

As the survivors mourn the losses  Ana and Libby, Michael  continues to badger the 815ers to launch a rescue mission for Walt, an assault against the Others who are to blame for their current situation. Michael convinces Hurley, Jack, Kate and Sawyer  to ambush the Others.

Events come to a head as Michael  leads his friends across the Island to confront the Others. Meanwhile, Desmond returns to the Island on his sailboat, and he and Locke make a decision to see what happens if the Hatch countdown timer goes beyond zero.

Michael’s ambush party is seen by the Others; Michael is confronted by Jack. Sayid, Jin and Sun use Desmond’s boat to counterattack and to meet up Jack's crew. Locke and Desmond trick Eko from leaving the station during a Lockdown, in order to test whether something happens if one does not press the Hatch button.

Science:

Brain washing is a technique to make people do something against their natural will.
Scientific studies began in the 1950s including the spheres of cults, marketing, influence, thought reform, torture and reeducation.

The neurological basis for reasoning and cognition in the brain, and brings the point across that the self is changeable. The physiology behind neurological pathways which include webs of neurons containing dendrites, axons and synapses; and this explains that certain brains with more rigid pathways will be less susceptible to new information or creative stimuli. Neurological science to show that brainwashed individuals have more rigid pathways, and that rigidity can make it unlikely that the individual will rethink situations or be able to later reorganize these pathways.

Certain techniques in influencing and brainwashing others, including a restriction of individual freedoms, deception, and methods that conflict with one's decision-making processes. the techniques used by cults to influence others are similar to those used by other social groups, and compares similar totalitarian aspects of cults and communist societies. These techniques include isolating the individual and controlling their access to information, challenging their belief structure and creating doubt, and repeating messages in a pressurized environment.  cults emphasize positive aspects of the group over negative aspects of outsiders, endlessly repeat simple ideas in "highly reductive, definitive - sounding phrases", and refer to "abstract and ambiguous" ideas associated with "huge emotional baggage” according to neuroscientist Kathleen Taylor.

Improbabilities:

Inman, the American soldier in Iraq with Sayid, is now pushing button in Hatch with Desmond.

In the 13 day Island flashback, why would Jack and/or Locke trust anything Michael would say after Michael knocked out Locke and pulled a gun on Jack in the Hatch? Michael’s violence against his friends under the guise of finding his son would get more paranoid after his return when he wants to organize a small ambush party that Jack agrees Michael has a right to lead.

Mysteries:

How can Ben and the Others leave the Island, and Desmond in his boat could not?

Is the vaccine actually the sickness or merely another fake element to get people to do something that does not matter?

What is the four toe foot statue base represent? We will learn that it is the remains of the statue of Tawaret, an ancient Egyptian god of fertility and death.

Themes:

Life and Death. There is a fine line between life and death. To what ends will a father do to save the life of his son? Is it rational for Michael to murder two people under the anger that his group is not helping him enough to find his son?  At this point in the story, it is the plane survivors who act more like savages - - - killing three others and a few of their own people by gross negligence. But later on, we will be told that pales in comparison with Ben’s purge of Dharma.

Missions and Quests. The main characters are often viewed, from even within the secondary characters, as going off into the jungle on dangerous missions. Those roles are similar to those of characters in massive on-line games like Worlds of Warcraft.

Clues:

When Desmond returns on his sailboat, which floated back to the Island, he states "we are stuck in a bloody snow globe! There's no outside world, there's no escape."

Desmond finally asks Jack if they are "still pushing" to which Jack replies with a smile, "Yeah, we're still pushing it."  Locke later remarks that the “world’s still here,” for which Desmond responds “not so sure.”

Ben tells Ana, “you are the killers!” And when confronted with his lies, Ben knows his fate with the survivors or his own group by saying “I’m dead anyway.”

Desmond won’t read Dickens “Our Mutual Friend” until just before his death; but his copy is tattered and worn like it has been read a lot.

When Michael asks Eko if he is a priest, Michael says next that he must believe in Hell.

Eko tells the story of a boy who kills a dog to protect his sister. The boy wonders if he can go to heaven for his action, and Eko tells him he will be forgiven so long as he is sorry. But the boy is still afraid that he will to Hell and find the dog waiting there for him.

Eko pieces together the impossible facts to conclude the Island is a magical place because his brother’s plane crashes halfway around the world, his plane crashes in the same place, and that he and John have vivid dreams of his brother telling them what to do.

Eko sees the vision of bleeding/dead Ana, who tells Eko to help Jack, and to help Locke find the question mark.

Discussion:

“ Business demands faith, compels earnestness, requires courage, is honestly selfish, is penalized for mistakes, and is the essence of life. ”
— William Feather

“Equal opportunity means everyone will have a fair chance at being incompetent.”
--- Laurence J. Peter

“Love must not touch the marrow of the soul. Our affections must be breakable chains that we can cast them off or tighten them.”
---- Louise Erdrich

As the second season winds down, there was a huge event that should have answered several burning questions about the Island and the Hatch. When Desmond returns, he tells the survivors that they are never going back to their old life; that there is no escape from the Island. Desmond then begins to drink himself to death.

The other element of these episodes is Michael’s dissent into his personal hell. His incompetence as a father transforms him into an incompetent killer. He compounds his mistakes by blaming Ben for the shootings, and covers up the truth while his friends watch innocent Libby die. As a result of his misguided love for his son, Michael will forever chain his soul to the Island seeking answers to his misery, as a trapped whisper in the jungle, which in some respects is his purgatory.

We also begin to get clear understanding of the fears and motivations of the characters.

We also see continuing repetition of themes and situations between characters.
Christian and Ana “run away” from their problems to go to Australia much in the same way that Kate is running away from her past decisions. We see characters like Desmond having to prove himself but fails just like Hurley believes he failed Libby on his organization of their first date.

Desmond is called a coward by Widmore. In order to restore his honor, he decides to win a round the world boat race sponsored by Widmore in order to win Penny back. How that makes any sense when Penny is engaged to another man, and upset with Dez for not writing her while he was “away.” (It is noteworthy that she does not acknowledge his “prison,” but uses the word “away” which has one meaning of “to go toward nonexistence.”) So Desmond’s fate is to do something incredibly brave in order to restore his honor so he can reconnect with his love, Penny. As in the Wizard of Oz, courage can only be obtained by the tests along the way to the end.

We see Michael as a father who allowed his son to be adopted and taken away by another person be racked by guilt of his selfish decision to compound his mistakes in order to get Walt back. Michael’s incompetence continues in his role as a murderer, because he could not do that right when he shot Libby, who suffered an agonizing death in front of her friends.

Charlie has his own personal demon, drugs. It tears a part his personal relationships. It leaves him alone; he fears being alone. So in order to restore his friendship with Claire, he must break free from the hold that drugs has on his soul. He does so when Vincent shows him Sawyer’s stash. Charlie throws all the statues out to sea. Later, at the funeral of Ana and Libby, Claire holds his hand, re-connecting their bond.

Bonds appear to be an important element of Island survival. Sawyer admits to Jack that Jack is the closest thing he has to a friend. Friendship could be equated to Faraday’s concept of having “a Constant” to keep you mind frying during the time travel elements of the future story arc. The bonds of friendship are important facets of human life, of social order and social behavior. When Jack repeats his mantra, “Live Together, Die Alone,” he means that their group bonds are more important than self-centered, selfish goals. We will find that those who go it alone, such as Michael, will wind up with damnation as a trapped island whisper, believed to be a lost soul that has not or cannot be redeemed.

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

Desmond sailing “due west” for three weeks and not finding Fiji, but the only land is his return to the Island, which he considers “a large snow globe.”

Dead people showing up on the island, like Eko’s brother and Ana, telling Eko what to do next. Spirits are guiding individuals along the path of Island existence, in the same way one could say angels may guide souls through the after life.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 45:
LIBBY: [appearing] Michael?!
[Michael, surprised, turns and shoots her twice. He opens the armory door. He and Gale stare at each other for a long moment. Michael shoots himself in the arm.]

EP 46:
JACK: Michael. He's okay. He made it, Libby. It's okay. It's alright.
[Libby gasps for air and dies. Jack closes her eyelids. Hurley cries. Kate cries and Sawyer comforts her. We hear the timer alarm start sounding. We see Eko and Locke walking through the jungle. We see Michael standing by himself in the armory. We see a close up of the prompt at the computer monitor.]

EP 47:
SUN: Boat. Boat!
[We see a sailboat coming in to shore.]

EP 48:
SAYID: We’re here.


New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

If one looks to what is actually said within the show as the answers and theories to the Island mysteries, this is what we have so far:

1. Dave’s explanation to Hurley that Hurley is still in the hospital, in a catatonic state, and that he has created all these characters and events in his own mind.

2. Desmond believes that they are no longer in “their world” after sailing for three weeks in a “bloody snow globe.”  The concept as the Island in a different dimension or realm is a compelling premise, even if the characters survived the plane crash and transported to a spirit world interacting with dead souls seeking redemption.

3. Sawyer believes satirically that the Others are aliens. This would infer that the survivors are alien abductees on a ship or other planet as test subjects, like the Star Trek episode The Cage.

4. Many characters have referenced the Island being Hell or the after life. Rose and Locke acknowledge their secret “miracles” after the plane crash, a crash a normal person would not have survived. Radinzky, Inman’s partner in the Hatch, puts on the blast door map reference to Cerberus, the guardian dogs of Hell. Through Michael’s guilt and cover up, he references a belief in Hell to Eko.

5. That the survivors are unfortunate castaways who have landed on a crazy island controlled by dangerous psychopaths who have built several scientific stations to monitor and test human behavior in a series of cruel lies.

6. Likewise, there is evidence that the inhabitants of the Island all have mental illness symptoms or traits, including parenting and social issues, criminal behavior and paranoia. The Island may be a symbolic view point of insane people receiving treatment in a mental institution in order to “change” their behavior. The ability to “change” one’s path is an important element in each person’s back story. When Ben yells at Ana that her group “are the killers,” there could be truth in that statement that everyone on the island is criminally insane, and being treated in an unconventional manner as part of their sentence on an isolated penal colony. All the 815ers came from Australia, which began its existence as a penal colony.

7. After Walt is captured and sees Michael briefly, he warns him that it is all “pretend.” The Others are pretending to be a band of shoddy hillbillies. But it is a lie. But to pretend in a child’s world is to dream and act out adventure stories with other children. The idea that there are no children around could infer that the children are present, but in the form of adults, acting out their own interconnected dramas. This could all be as simple as a game of pretend. It could be an on-line game, it could be a virtual world, or it could be a fantasy dream of a “special” child. Any form of dream state could explain away all of the inconsistencies, continuity, legal errors, medical errors and supernatural elements of the show. For in a dream you can do anything you want, including reviving the dead.


These episodes dynamically reinforce the science that mind control is at the heart of the Island characters survival.  Is it about mental illness in a person(s) that creates a fantasy world that the characters are trying to get through, via quests, religious ritual or missions of survival? Or is characters in a hospital setting getting treatment from real doctors for whom the patients turn into villains? The whole idea that Dharma, the Others, Widmore or any other group is using brain washing techniques to “change” a person’s behavior or beliefs is compelling when viewed from the point of the last eight episodes. Ben and Klug use spies, interviews, and data collection of the survivors, including capturing subjects, isolating individuals from their group, controlling their access to information, challenging their belief structure; creating doubt, and repeating messages in a pressurized environment of confinement or supernatural dangers. It seems that the Island structures are all available means to re-train a person’s mind or brain wash them to change.  It seems that some characters must reach their personal “rock bottom” in order to change, and in turn, in order to be saved from their personal demons.

Example, when Klug is interviewing Michael in the Other’s camp, she is asking questions like a physician would to a new patient. She gives Michael a list of names, similar to what Dr. Brooks did with Hurley at the mental institution. When Walt is given three minutes with Michael, Klug threatens Walt with “the room,” which is Room 23 at a station that was used by Dharma and the Others for brain washing individuals. But Walt warns Michael that “this is all PRETEND!!”  The whole scene leaves Michael an emotional wreck, willing to do anything asked of him to get his son back, including murder. The question is whether Klug is helping Michael “change” his maniac personality disorder, re-channel his emotional guilt of not being a good father to his son, or feeding Michael’s fragile emotional state to act on impulses of pure evil.

REBOOT EPISODES 25-28

LOST REBOOT 
Recap: Episodes 25-28 (Days  44-46)

Danielle kidnaps Aaron in hopes of making a trade with the Others who took her child.
When she is found, Charlie accuses her of setting the smoke pillar fire; that the are no Others. Locke blows open the Hatch. Jack reminds him it is a possible shelter for the survivors. The raft party makes contact with a not-so-friendly boat crew.

Jack and Locke argue over whether or not to enter the Hatch, especially when the Hatch door is labeled “quarantine.”  While looking for Vincent, Shannon sees a dripping wet walt Walt mouthing a potential warning.

When Kate does down the Hatch opening and is lost, Locke lowers himself to find out what happened; he is captured by Desmond, the station operator. Jack changes his mind and returns to the Hatch to have a stand-off with Desmond, but when Kate escapes and hits Desmond from behind, his gun discharges and a bullet hits the computer console creating a panic in Desmond. Locke and Jack watch the orientation film about the station. 

Jin, Michael and Sawyer all make it back to shore, but are taken prisoner whom they believe are the Others. They are thrown into a pit prison cell. Ana Lucia joins them, and is surprised with their story of the plane crash; and steals Sawyer’s gun and leaves them in the pit.

Science:

Jack believes that Desmond’s station duties were all just “mind games” because no one on the surface has gotten sick and pushing the button every 108 minutes was just a cruel experiment. Desmond was told he was “saving the world.”

Sensory deprivation was employed in parapsychology experiments during the 70's and 80's, especially with those involving clairvoyance and telepathy. Supposedly, if the subject's brain was not receiving input from the normal five senses, he or she could then tune into the psychic senses. The man in the contraption in the film may be in such a sensory deprivation test. Since the footage appears when the word, "Parapsychology" is spoken, this is quite likely.

A ganzfeld experiment (means “entire field”) is a technique used in the field of parapsychology to test individuals for extrasensory perception (ESP). It uses homogeneous and unpatterned sensory stimulation to produce an effect similar to sensory deprivation. The deprivation of patterned sensory input is said to be conducive to inwardly generated impressions.

Whether the Hatch (Swan station) and  Room 23 video are part of parapsychology experiments from Dharma to being weaponized by the Others is subject to debate.  Room 23 was a locked room in a facility within in the Hydra station where Karl and Walt were held captive by the Others  and Karl was subjected to a brainwashing video. It is believed that Dharma used the video room to brainwash the natives to trigger amnesia after capturing them for information, so as hide a violation of the Truce. Claire’s amnesia may have also been triggered by the video, but that is unknown.

Improbabilities:

Walt being in two places at once (the jungle with Shannon and on the raft with Michael)

Sawyer taking out a bullet in his shoulder while bobbing on raft debris in the middle of the ocean.

Ana Lucia surviving the plane crash. Ana Lucia told her captives that she was in the tail section of the plane. When it broke a part, she was knocked out and landed in the ocean. She was unconscious under the water, then awoke and swam ashore.

Sayid fixing a bullet shattered 20 year old computer in less than 15 minutes. The genius staff at the Apple store could not put in that type of customer service with today’s advanced technology.

Mysteries:

The Orientation Film and Dharma
The HATCH station and Number Input
The Others attacking the Raft and taking Walt
Desmond
Quarantine on Hatch door


Themes:

Deception and Manipulation. The Others are not DHARMA mad scientists controlling the Island, but “Hostiles” who purged the Initiative by a coup led by Benjamin Linus.

Reality and Illusion. If Jacob can only bring people to the Island, the DHARMA compound and plans were created by the dreams of the DeGroots and their followers,
who must have been shipwrecked or tricked on coming to the Island (Jacob as Hanso).

Self fulfilling prophecies. Viewers believed that the  “incident” in the orientation video is a time travel atomic bomb situation which the 815 survivors themselves created where Juliet tries to set off the bomb to stop construction of the Swan station. But the film said that after the station was running (meaning Juliet never detonated the bomb or re-set the time line), the “incident” had to do with something else since the orientation film (spliced) as seen by Locke and Jack was created three years after the atomic bomb scene. The “incident” most likely refers to the “lockdown incident” when the Numbers are not put into the computer, setting off the alarm and defense mechanisms start by sealing off the living quarters and computer room from the rest of the Swan station. After a short period of time, the doors retracted back into the ceiling automatically. This event has become known as the lockdown incident. Locke learns of this during his time in the station. The station's power was then disrupted as the lights flickered. Later, a different set of ultraviolet 'black' lights that ran vertically along the corners of the living area activated, revealing a previously hidden map of the Island on one of the doors. A short time later, the blast doors retracted into the ceiling.
 
The argument between Jack and Locke; science versus faith. Part of the problem of both men is the inability to “let go” and move on with their lives after an important event. Locke could never let go of being conned by his father. Jack could never come to gripes with Sarah’s miracle recovery when in fact he admitted he could not fix her crushed spine. His greatest success (her recovery) turned into his biggest failure (his marriage).
But in reality, Locke is following B.F. Skinner’s platform of consequential based behavior.


Clues:

Vincent as Jacob, watching the survivors from inside the camp, as Shannon sees impossible Walt image in jungle while searching for the dog.

The Numbers mark Jacob’s pieces in the game. Hurley again curses the Numbers as the code is inputed into the computer by Locke. When Locke misses the last number, Hurley says go ahead - - - but Jack corrects him with “42.” As the alarm clock ticks down to one second, Jack pushes “execute” to re-start the cycle.

Walt is playing a video game on the plane, but he acknowledges Hurley as he gets on the plane late. Hurley then opens up his polar bear comic. It seems that Hurley and Walt have a hidden connection during that scene.

Desmond telling Jack twice, “see you in another life,” is a tell that they are not “alive” on the Island, but reincarnated souls being tested in the afterlife.

Jack telling Desmond and Locke it is “all a mind game.” That the Hatch is a bunch of lies to make you do something meaningless. Flashbacks show more characters with mental issues, like Locke in group therapy, susceptible to suggestion or brain washing.

Discussion:

“ Temper, if ungoverned, governs the whole man. ”
— Lord Shaftesbury

In an effort to find the Big Premise of LOST, much effort was used to dissect the relationships between The Others, the stations, the other survivors of past shipwrecks and the roaming monsters on the island.  As Jack told Locke, “you said all paths led here (to the Hatch).” Both Jack and Locke have short fuses at this point of the series; Jack now assumed the leadership role and fears he will have “a Locke problem” if his judgment is questioned. Locke has blind obsessive faith that the answers to all his questions (or problems) are destined to be found inside the Hatch.

The Orientation Film found in the Hatch was the biggest clue as Season 2 started to unfold. Many viewers believed that it contained all the answers to the big mysteries of the Island. A transcript from lostpedia:


The DHARMA Initiative
3 of 6 
Orientation

Screen transition fade.

The DHARMA Initiative Swan Logo appears. 
Orientation - Station 3 - The Swan
(Screen transition to show a man in a lab coat.

)

Welcome. I am Dr. Marvin Candle, and this is the orientation film for station 3 of the *DHARMA* Initiative.
In a moment you will be given (a?) simple set of instructions for how you and your partner will fulfill the responsibilities associated with the station. But first, a little history:



(Screen transition to show activity on a university campus.)



The DHARMA Initiative was created in 1970, and is the brainchild of Gerald and Karen DeGroot, two doctoral candidates at the University of Michigan. Following in the footsteps of visionaries such as B.F. Skinner,  they imagined a large-scale communal research compound where scientists and free-thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism and utopian social... * ...(re)clusive Danish industrialist and munitions magnate, Alvar Hanso,  whose financial backing made their dream of a multi-purpose, social-science research facility a reality.



(Screen transition back to man in the lab coat.)



You and your partner are currently located in station three, or The Swan, and will be for the next 540 days. The station 3 was originally constructed as a laboratory, where scientists could work to understand the unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the Island. Not long after the experiments began, however, there was... an “incident” ... and since that time, the following protocol has been observed:

(That?) every 108 minutes, the button must be pushed. From the moment the alarm sounds, you will have 4  minutes to enter the code into the microcomputer processor... * ...duction into the program. When the alarm sounds, either you or your partner must input the code. It is highly recommended that you and your partner take alternating shifts. In this manner you will both stay as fresh and alert... * (it is of the ut)most importance, that when the alarm sounds, the code be entered correctly and in a timely fashion.

Now do not attempt to use the computer... * ...for anything...
*


...for anything else other than the entering of the code. This is its only function.
The isolation that attends the duties associated with Station 3 may tempt you to try and utilize the computer for communication with the outside world. This is strictly forbidden. Attempting to use the computer in this manner will compromise the integrity of the project and worse, could lead to another incident. I repeat, do not use the computer for anything other than entering the code.




Congratulations! Until your replacements arrive, the future of the project is in your hands.
On behalf of the DeGroots,  Alvar Hanso, and all of us at the DHARMA Initiative, thank you, namaste, and... good luck.



(Screen transition fade.

)
© The Hanso Foundation  1980 All Rights Reserved

The orientation film reference to B.F. Skinner may also be a foundational premise to the series. Skinner was a psychologist and researcher with some radical ideas on human behavior. Skinner called his particular brand of behaviorism "Radical" behaviorism,  the philosophy of the science of behavior.

He thought behavior was a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences. Such a functional analysis makes it capable of producing technologies of behavior (see Applied Behavior Analysis). He did not accept private events such as thinking, perceptions, and unobservable emotions in a causal account of an organism's behavior.

Skinner’s theory is that what is felt or introspectively observed is not some nonphysical world of consciousness, mind, or mental life but the observer's own body.  He felt an organism behaves as it does because of its current structure, but most of this is out of reach of introspection.
Skinner believed that behavior is maintained from one condition to another through similar or same consequences across these situations. In short, behaviors are causal factors that are influenced by the consequences. His contribution to the understanding of behavior influenced many other scientists to explain social behavior and contingencies. Example, reinforcement is a central concept and was seen as a central mechanism in the shaping and control of behavior. He thought negative reinforcement as synonymous with punishment was a misconception. He acknowledged that positive reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the application of some event (e.g., praise after some behavior is performed), negative reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the removal or avoidance of some aversive event (e.g., opening and raising an umbrella over your head on a rainy day is reinforced by the cessation of rain falling on you).

By taking out mental qualifiers in the study of behaviors through exterior factors, Skinner’s philosophy seems to part of the fabric of the Island creed. Right or wrong are mental judgments which the Island does not seem to care about; it is the consequences of events that reinforce behavior of the characters to create more consequences (the “mouse trap” game analogy).

A main character turning point in the layered story arcs of the series occurs in  this flashback exchange with Jack and Desmond running sections at a stadium.  Desmond appears to be an agent of change in Jack’s life, setting the ground work for Sarah’s miracle and foreshadowing the Island “being chased by the devil,” racing through the jungle to “fix things,” and keeping promises of saving people without miracles. Desmond claims he was “almost” a doctor, but in reality was never a doctor, or even close. Transcript from lostpedia:

(Flashback - Jack running the steps at a stadium. Another person comes into view running faster than Jack. Jack tries to keep pace but hurts his ankle.)
JACK: Ow, damn it.
DESMOND: You alright, brother?
JACK: I'm fine. I'm fine.
DESMOND: Take it easy. Keep the weight off. Here, let me have a look. Does this hurt? [Jack shakes his head.] You haven't sprained it then. I don't fancy your chances of catching up with me tonight, though.
JACK: I wasn't trying to catch up.
DESMOND: Aye, of course you weren't.
JACK: What do you know about sprains, anyway?
DESMOND: I was almost a doctor once.
JACK: Small world.
DESMOND: You a doctor then? [Jack nods. Desmond offers Jack his water bottle.] So what's your excuse?
JACK: Excuse?
DESMOND: For running like the devil's chasing you. My excuse - I'm training.
JACK: Training for what?
DESMOND: For a race around the world. Impressive, I know. So your excuse better be good, brother.
JACK: Just trying to work a few things out.
DESMOND: Ah, a girl, right?
JACK: A patient.
DESMOND: Ah, but a girl patient. What's her name?
JACK: Her name's Sarah.
DESMOND: What'd you do to her then?
JACK: Do to her?
DESMOND: You must have done something worthy of this self-flagellation.
JACK: I told her -- I made a promise I couldn't keep -- I told her I'd fix her and I couldn't. I failed.
DESMOND: Well, right. Just one thing -- what if you did fix her?
JACK: I didn't.
DESMOND: But what if you did?
JACK: You don't know what you're talking about, man.
DESMOND: I don't? Why not?
JACK: Because with her situation that would be a miracle, brother.
DESMOND: Oh, and you don't believe in miracles? [Jack chuckles and shakes his head.] Right. Well then, I'm going to give you some advice anyway. You have to lift it up. (He may be saying "lift her up".)
JACK: Lift it up?
DESMOND: Your ankle. You've got to keep it elevated. It's been nice chatting.
JACK: Jack.
DESMOND: Jack, I'm Desmond. Good luck, brother. See you in another life, yeah?

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The Smoke Monster dragging Locke through the jungle and almost down a hole. The mechanical clanking sounds and loud percussion thuds in the brush all create fear in Jack, Kate and Hurley. But Locke wants to be let go and dragged under (which is very strange - - - either he knows what the smoke monster is and can’t kill him, or he is insane). Locke has blind faith in the Island without any fear of the consequences. Jack knows he is wrong in that belief because he has seen the monster and its evil intentions.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 25:
MICHAEL: Waaaaaaaaaaalt! Waaaahahahaaalt! No! Walt!

EP 26:
JACK: [recognizing that it's Desmond] You.

EP 27:
JIN:[obviously scared] Others. Others. [Jin sees the Others.] Others.

[Sawyer and Michael turn to look and we see a group coming of people coming toward them carrying crude club/mace type weapons.]

EP 28:
LOCKE: I'll take the first shift.
[The timer shows 107:00.]


New Ideas/Tests of Theories:

Mind games and altered reality are clear themes and clues in these episodes. In the jungle, Locke explains to Jack that a series of events have led them to the big event (blowing up the Hatch cover). He is really describing a series of stages in the game of Mouse Trap. Locke also says that Boone was a sacrifice the Island required to get them to his point. Throughout human history, mankind has given their gods sacrifices in exchange for rewards or blessings. Jacob, as the alleged ultimate power on the island, is not immune to the vanity of immortality or power, or to manipulate people to do his bidding.

When Hurley gets on Flight 815, the exchange with Walt is a brick in the theory that the entire premise of the series is a video mind game with Walt and Hurley’s overactive but child-like behavior controlling the collective dreams of the passengers. The Lost is a Video Game theory did not have many followers when the series first ran. But as an explanation after the series ended, it is entitled to a second look. The elements contained in the minds of Walt (father issues, video games, ESP powers) and Hurley (cursed Numbers, comic fantasies with science fiction and polar bear dangers) are the foundation for an interactive mental adventure. With the strong EM, when passengers fall asleep on the long flight their minds are transplanted into the Walt-Hurley story engine - - - and when they “die” on the island, it means that they have woken up on the plane (disconnecting from their dream state). In a child’s fantasy, anything can happen including Locke being able to walk again.

The idea that Jacob and MIB hiding in the skins of the characters continues to create new spins on character motivations and actions.

Jacob said he had “non-involved” in the process of determining whether humans are good or evil on their own, but the idea of Jacob hiding as Vincent the dog to observe the human souls from within their camp is growing stronger.  When Shannon goes looking for “lost” Vincent, a soaking wet Walt (ghost?) appears before her and can’t speak a warning to her.  One could argue that Vincent is a transforming smoke monster, changing from observational dog form into a Walt to give information to Shannon about the danger of the Others (who had captured Walt and destroyed the raft and rescue).

Jacob and MIB are immortals living on the Island. Jacob is the alleged protector. But as Rousseau states, the smoke monster is the security system that protects the Island. Smoke monster is Jacob? Or in these episodes, the idea of trying to kill Locke because of his faith that his answers are within the Hatch the way for MIB to keep the 815 survivors in danger and set up the conflict with the Others?

And Rousseau’s obsession with Aaron is like Crazy Mother’s obsession with Jacob and MIB, stealing them from their natural mother when her ship was wrecked on the Island (which mirrors Rousseau’s tale to Sayid). This is a concept during the first run of potential “transference” of old characters being transformed or projected upon new characters. 

We can see the rotation of characters taking over other character’s roles. Rousseau has taken over the Crazy Mother role in stealing a child, Aaron.  The Others took dominance and replaced the Dharma scientists as the Island’s overlords.  Locke takes over Desmond’s role in the station. Ana Lucia takes over a Jack leadership role with the Tail section survivors, which has a mirror image of characters with the beach camp. Eko is like Locke, a man of faith. Libby is the mental institution patient and comforter like Hurley is with the front section.

Transference theory also ties into the aspect of the interconnected mental game of the island storyline. If one is trapped or lost in a complex, multiplayer game, one’s dreams (which can be used to mold your fantasy character) can “level” up your skill sets, ambitions, and testosterone risk tolerance that you cannot have in real life. Locke’s meager physical existence is transformed in the Island game field into an Outback hunter, a jungle king with unbelievable survival skills. Desmond, a Republican guard soldier, is suddenly an electronics genius on par with the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, who made a radio out of coconuts. The big premise of the series goes from science fiction to a fantasy world to explain the inconsistent elements of the story lines.

And those inconsistent story lines may be the collective memories of all Jacob’s visitors. All of the technological ruins on the Island have had to come from the conversion of memories of humans brought to the Island, and re-created by Jacob and his followers. For the temple, the weapons, the DHARMA stations, all are basic raw materials to decide whether humanity can take something good and turn it into evil applications.

And is it possible that Rousseau survived 16 years from being “infected” or taken down by the smoke monster? Probably not.  The term “infection” could have a non-medical meaning, too - - - like one’s memories downloaded into the Island event engine. Rousseau’s motivations could have concentrated into a narrow band of commands or functions: as she said to the survivors: you can run, you can hide or you can die.

We will learn that Hatch door will confirm what Rousseau said about the smoke monster being a security system. In lockdown mode, the Hatch door drops and a map is shown which contains the reference to Cerberus, the three headed monster dog of Hell. The three “heads” or three smoke monsters of the Island could be Jacob, MIB and Crazy Mother, all in their own way guarding the Island from outsiders. MIB wants to leave the island but cannot; Crazy Mother had a habit of killing everyone who came to the Island; and Jacob is the guardian who brings people to the Island to play a game of human soul searching with MIB to kill the boredom of immortality. Who are the teams in this cosmic hide and seek game of war? Could Mother be the Others? MIB, who was fascinated by the Roman technology of the FDW be Dharma? New people and technology theories brought to the Island to test Jacob’s notion that human beings can avoid corruption?

Our previous new theory that Locke did not survive the crash, but was taken over by MIB as his way of observing the survivors and manipulating their actions, could be put into doubt by the Hatch obsession. Locke’s obsession to open the Hatch to find its answers seems very human curiosity gone mad. But if Jacob and MIB are playing an elaborate game, MIB may want to get inside to see what Jacob has set for him. But MIB would have already known about Dharma, the Hatch, the construction, the Incident(s), Desmond and the Others. But on the other hand, Locke’s expressions during his conflicts with Jack are more cold and calculating than Locke’s flashback emotional inability to stand his ground.  If MIB was part of Locke, he may have disembodied himself from Locke’s mind and/or body (as shown by Locke’s paralysis returning at the Beechcraft with Boone). Or MIB may spiritually influence survivors throughout their time on the Island by telepathic manipulation through emotional outbursts (which lets down a person’s subconscious guard). We will learn that MIB does not need a physical body to create a Locke form when he marches Ben and the Others to the base of the statue to confront Jacob.



The Hatch was supposed to be the key to unraveling the Island mysteries. Or viewers assumed as Season 2 began in earnest. But for some, the Hatch and the Dharma back story were merely "filler" and not important to the resolution of the 815 survivors stories. Partial information are like "white lies," which are falsehoods covered by some truth. We are led to believe the Others are mad Dharma scientists experimenting on any person who makes it to their Island. But by the time 815 crashes, Dharma is long gone, purged from existence by Benjamin Linus and the older, "native" Hostiles for whom their back story is never fully explained but it assumed that some of them may have worked for Dharma or Hanso in order to control the Island power and fund its operations against a former leader now enemy, Widmore. The Hatch introduces us to Desmond, and the strange electromagnetic properties of the Island which is supposed to explain the Island magic. But it will not. What we take from the Hatch story arc is that it is most likely what Jack observed, a "mind game" on the station operators, which may be a metaphor for the viewers.  As Locke's father told Locke, do you believe you were the first person conned by someone?  The Hatch was a diversion that did not lead directly to the Season 6 reveal of the Jacob-MIB dynamic.