YOU TAKE THE WORK YOU CAN

We have observed that most of the LOST actors have not had superstar or steller post-LOST acting careers. Whether they have been pigeon holed into sci-fi roles, secondary character acting parts or even given starring roles in new TV pilots, no one truly has had the success or demographics of their time on the ABC series.

Acting is a tough business. There are more actors than parts. It is a game of Hollywood politics. Producers and agents make deals with studios who sell to network distributors. There is little merit or rhyme or reason to why some actors continually get high profile parts while other more talented actors get hit or miss roles.

The most current example of this is serialization of another one of those cable news channel's overblown coverage of a murder trial.  The LOST angle is the star of this quick to film made-for-TV movie.

The Lifetime network announced “Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret” will hit the small screen in June.
The flick will star “Lost” actress Tania Raymonde as Arias. Raymonde played Alex on LOST.

On May 8, 2013 a Phoenix jury found 32-year-old Arias guilty of murder of her boyfriend. The evidence presented at trial was that Arias stabbed and slashed him nearly 30 times, slit his throat from ear to ear and shot him in the forehead in what prosecutors described as a jealous rage after the victim wanted to end their affair and planned to head off on a trip to Mexico with another woman.

The case got massive nightly cable television coverage due to its explicit sex, lies, obsessive behavior and the oddity that the attractive defendant testified in her own defense.  Badly.

This is why the general public gets a flawed view of the American legal system. The Arias trial was televised so the network had essentially months of "free" programming for their pundits to chew on. In a normal case in any other big city, a murder trial lasts less than three days. Judges and prosecutors have thousands of cases to deal with and no time to spend months on a simple preppy murder case.

CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN

Christian Shepard is an anomaly.

In the fourth episode of the series, Jack begins to see visions of his dead father. A father who he was estranged from ever since Jack squealed on his father's alcohol induced medical negligence. Christian lost his medical license and his son.  Apparently, Christian went to Australia to see his former lover, Carole Littleton, who was severely injured in an automobile accident with his illicit daughter, Claire. Jack's mother sent him to Australia to bring back his father, but Christian spoiled that reunion by dying of an alcohol induced heart attack.

Jack accused his father of embarrassing him in front of other doctors during his internship. Then Jack believed people at St. Sebastian believed Jack got his position because of nepotism and not skill. But despite their rocky relationship,  Jack did not find work at a different medical facility which probably led to the staff's view of Christian's favoritism to his son.

Jack had a cold and distant relationship with his father as he grew up. Christian reinforced negative comments, like Jack did not have the stomach to be a leader; that he could not make the "hard" life and death decisions, and that you cannot "fix" everybody. It would appear that this is a long succession of daddy issues as Christian inferred that his own father did not approve of Christian's marriage to Margo, Jack's mother.

Christian's sudden death racks Jack's mind and emotional state. Jack cannot solve the problem of not correcting his relationship with his father. One can assume that this strong emotional state and memories of his father were "used" by the island (especially MIB) to manipulate Jack.

Following the crash of Oceanic 815, the Man in Black took on the appearance of Christian and began appearing to many of the survivors:
He appeared to Vincent and told him to wake "his son," whom he claims has "work to do."
He appeared to Jack a few days after the plane crash and led him to the caves. Years later, when confronted by Jack, MIB/Flocke would admit to using "Christian's form" when leading Jack to the caves, claiming that he was trying "to help" the survivors.
He appeared to Claire in the jungle and convinced her to abandon Aaron and follow him into the jungle.
He appeared in Jacob's Cabin and instructed Locke to move the Island.
He appeared to Locke in the FDW and told Locke he needed to find everyone, bring them to Eloise, and "to die" because "that's why they call it a sacrifice."
He appeared to Michael on the the freighter just before the explosion.

Even after leaving the Island, the image of Christian appeared to Jack. Christian appeared to Jack twice after the departure from the Island. First, Jack caught a glimpse of Christian as he walked by in the hospital. The second time also occurred at the hospital, while Jack was working late hours. He heard a smoke detector go off in the lobby. Christian said Jack's name from a nearby sofa, but one of Jack's co-workers appeared and Christian vanished. Believing this to be a hallucination, Jack requested a prescription for clonazepam.


The evidence suggests that throughout the series the image of Christian was a mere illusion. Christian was not Jack's father, but a re-creation from Jack's own memories but controlled by a supernatural smoke monster. The reality of the fake Christian was enhanced by the memories of other characters, like Sawyer and Ana Lucia's interactions with Christian in Australia. Jacob and MIB used that information to construct a puppet that could guide and manipulate Jack. There was a deep seeded need in Jack to seek final approval from his dead father. The island illusionists used that emotional pit to lead Jack to serve the Island/MIB/Jacob purposes. 


Since Christian was not "real" in the sense of a reincarnated person or even an independent ghost/spirit protecting Jack from the evils of the island conflicts, we must look closely at who was fake Christian. We have an admission from MIB that he used Christian's form to lead Jack to a fresh water supply to save the survivors. Why would MIB want to keep the crash survivors alive on the island when he told Jack centuries before that humans were destructive and corrupt?  MIB's grand plan was to use the survivors (especially the candidates) to "kill" Jacob so MIB "could leave the island." However, if Christian's image was seen by Jack off the island, who was that Christian?  If MIB was truly trapped and could not leave the island, it must have been Jacob. This would be evidence that Jacob was also had smoke monster shape shifting powers. That would make sense, since two equal smoke monsters would not be able to kill each other.


But if Jacob was Christian to Jack in the off-island appearances (we were shown Jacob touching other candidates off island so he had the power to leave the island at any time), why could Jacob not pretend to be Christian on the island?  Jacob said he never interfered with the people he brought to the island, but that is a bold face lie. Even MIB told Alpert early on that Jacob was a liar.


So we have island Christian being the smoke monster illusion in a physical form. But then, we have one more grand appearance of Christian in the sideways world. Christian is the master of ceremonies at the sideways church. Why is he the only parent of the 815ers present? Was Christian's appearance needed for Jack to be awakened so everyone could move on in the after life? But was that really Christian?!  Could this sideways master of ceremonies be the mirror reflection of the island's master of ceremonies, Jacob?

In the sideways church, Jack goes into a back room where his father's coffin is placed near a stained glass window reflecting all major religions. Jack touches the coffin and, with his memories awakened. He opens the coffin only to find it empty. Christian then enters the office, and explains to Jack that he had died and that this reality had been created by Jack and his former friends in order to find each other and "move on" together.

CHRISTIAN: This is the place that you...that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most...important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you.

JACK: For what?

CHRISTIAN: To remember...and to...let go.

The two shared a hug. We are led to believe that Jack and his father have reconciled their differences. But there is one glaring hole in Christian's explanation. Christian did not create the sideways world, Jack and his island friends did. So why is Christian truly part of this sideways reconciliation or is Christian a mere "prop" like Jack's sideways son, David?

After Jack reunited with his friends at the church's nave and sat with Kate at a pew, Christian emerged and briefly patted his son on the shoulder. He then opened the church's doors, allowing a bright light to engulf all those present as they crossed over to the next stage in their afterlives.

It would seem that the ending was brought about by a supernatural power - - - one that would have been beyond a mortal soul, such as man like Christian Shepard. It leads to an open question: was the sideways Christian a final illusion, possibly Jacob in disguise, rounding up the lost souls that helped him escape from his own island purgatory?

CHARACTER OF JACOB

The character of Jacob may be the hardest nut to swallow. Was Jacob a god, a devil, a spirit, a smoke monster or an illusion? 

Jacob came to the island in his mother's womb. Claudia was a woman in the classic Roman period (27 BC to 400 AD). She was shipwrecked on the island. She was separated from her ship crew. she was befriended by an island woman, who midwived the birth of twin boys. Then the island woman (CrazyMom) killed Claudia. CrazyMom then raised Jacob and his brother.

From what we were shown, CrazyMom was the only person on the island when Claudia's ship wrecked during a storm. We do not know her back story or how long she had been the island guardian. However, she grants Jacob and his brother a form of eternal life and she set a rule that neither could harm each other. CrazyMom was like a lighthouse keeper. Isolated, alone, but with a specific important job to do, one that apparently she was either chosen or manipulated into taking.

There was a growing consensus that Crazy Mom may have been human at some point. But on the island,  enlightenment changed her being into a semi-god status. She was probably tricked into becoming the guardian. She needed to trick someone to take her place, and children are easier to manipulate. Only when she could confer her powers onto another being (like Jacob), could her job be complete and she could pass on (to next life, rebirth, etc.) So being a guardian is not all it is cracked out to be. The parallel with Desmond and the button is the best way to look at this theme. You believe you are doing something important and good - but you grow weary and tired of your obligation, so you also want to pass it on to someone else, so you can achieve your personal peace.

Crazy Mother kidnaps Jacob and MIB and raises them as her own. She sets the rules. The children cannot harm each other. But we will learn that there are no real rules on the island.

MIB grows weary of the island and goes to live with the surviving Romans, who are tapping the EM Life Force in an attempt to “go home” or leave the island. MIB has contempt for the humans, but needs their knowledge and technology to break CrazyMom's rules.

Crazy Mother is upset with MIB, and kills all the Others, which makes MIB mad with rage so he kills her. In his own rage over the death of his alleged mother, Jacob kills MIB (or destroys his soul) by throwing him into the Light Cave where MIB is transformed or released into the smoke monster. This transformation apparently binds Jacob and MIB to eternity on the island, together.

Jacob views the island as home and needs to be protected; while MIB views the island as a prison. As the protector, the leader, Jacob sets “the rules” between themselves.  In order to ease his mind, he creates a "game" to play with MIB/Smokey which is the manipulation and destruction of lost human souls.

CrazyMom called the shipwreck survivors "people," like it was a derogatory term. MIB also called the people brought to the island in derogatory terms: people always "fight, destroy and corrupt." But Jacob, who was the only person allowed to bring people to the island. Jacob  remarked it all was "progress" in some grand plan between Jacob and MIB. But it appeared that for hundreds of years, people brought to the island "served" some vague purpose.

Which leads to the strange behavior of Jacob. If it is true that he continues to bring people to the island (like CrazyMom did to find her successor by shipwrecks?), as a demi-god why did he need people to build temples or Dharma stations? Likewise, why would he need to leave the island to recruit in order to protect it? Besides, that would prove MIB was right: there was something "across the sea."  But maybe bringing people to the island for centuries was all Jacob's cruel, new game with his brother, that "lowly people" are bad and their CrazyMom was right. However, "across the sea" could have used as a metaphor. It could mean across the galaxy, the plane of existence, the after life or dimensions.



Jacob had the ability to leave the island and "touch" candidates and manipulate man or nature to get them to the island, so there was no logical reason why Jacob needed an elaborate  plan was to find a successor: he could have kidnapped a person, made him guardian, then flee the island. There was no need for an elaborate, centuries long, twisted tale of treachery, worship and murder.


The only conclusion is that Jacob never "left" the island, per se.  If he could not physically leave the island, then he would need "help" from the people he brought to the island. Help him to do what?

We assume that when MIB killed CrazyMom and Jacob killed MIB, Jacob's soul was "imprisoned" on the island forever. But after his guardianship was secure, Jacob did leave the island so the concept of Jacob being trapped on the island would be incorrect. We also assume that MIB is also trapped on the island by being a smoke monster, but we don't know if that is true.

One interesting discussion point was why Jacob or other demi-god on the island need people to build huge monuments or temples.  Or why MIB/Smokey needs a dead body in order to take human form.
The island powers do not enable the guardian to create mass - he simply can influence people. Jacob seemingly can't just blink, and presto - we have a lighthouse. So proponents of "the Genie theory" that island guardians could create anything with a blink of an eye surrendered with this explanation. If Jacob, MIB or smoke monsters cannot create objects or things out of thin air (or in nature with fundamental elements), then that could mean that they themselves have no cohesive mass - - - that they are truly spirits seeking a material world.

And even after Jacob's "death" he created himself as a man and as a young boy to interact with people still left on the island. So if Jacob could re-create his spirit into various forms, then one could assume that he could have done that before Ben stabbed in the statue. And we know that MIB is the smoke monster who can create various human forms, including Flocke.

We have been told that Jacob was the one who has been bringing people to the island. Was it was not for MIB's sake?  One explanation is that Jacob accepted the fact that he caused a cascade of events that led to both his CrazyMom's and brother's death. His world had ended. He was left with a substitute brother, the smoke monster. He was looking for a candidate so he could die (his punishment) and rejoin his real brother in death, but he had not found one person who would "accept" the position as guardian. So there had been a complex con-artist adventure story under the guise of emotional brainwashing to beat down Jack to accept the guardianship.

But is the real island conflict simply that MIB's ghost does not want Jacob to scheme his way off the island by death; he wants to continually punish Jacob for what he did to MIB by keeping Jacob on the island for eternity? Except, MIB's "loophole" was a means to actually "kill" Jacob - - - to break down the barrier of god-like status with the lowly human beings brought to serve him. The means of leaving the island was an act of betrayal, just as MIB's death was caused by an act of betrayal.

In one respect, the island also served as a prison for the 815 characters. Part of them were trapped in the island drama for no apparent reason except to free Jacob and MIB from their servitude to some unknown higher deity. Perhaps, with Jacob and MIB's island deaths, they would be awakened in their own parallel sideways world that their real mother created for them.

 But what was Jacob supposed to represent in the series?

The boogie-man? The man in the shadows? The puppet master? The means to the end?

If one looks at the full storyline, the Jacob character is the most important element to the island conclusion - - - but at the same time the most irrelevant character in the 815ers after life reunion.

In one respect, Jacob was a psychopath. He kidnapped, cajoled, manipulated and killed people he tricked into coming to the island. He stalked his candidates from a young age. From the light house wheel, at least 340 people were brought to the island and did not "pass" his test to become the next guardian. If one did not become the guardian, MIB/Smokey disposed of them. There is a tag team mass murder dynamic.

Why would someone he vowed to protect the life force extinguish so many people who contained the life force?  It makes little sense. As MIB told Alpert, Jacob was "the devil." In certain respects, that is the truth. Jacob's island and Jacob's rules created hell for the people brought within its sphere. Whether this hell made the characters better people is debatable. Most never changed or were redeemed in the sense of valor, heroic actions or moral absolution.

Jacob is not mentioned in the sideways world. He is not seen. He is not referenced. He is not part of anyone's consciousness. He is a nullity.

Then we get to the unanswered question: was Jacob "real" in the first place?  A human being that lives for thousands of years is not a normal human. An entity that grants immortal life to Alpert, but cannot reincarnate his dead wife, but create her image is a cruel master.

It may be that CrazyMom was the psyche of a messed up individual or the personification of an evil soul reaper. Jacob could be that supernatural grim reaper.

But the series did not dwell upon the religious overtones of right, wrong or ultimate judgment. Jacob did not judge people, per se. He merely drafted them as candidates, players in this island game of chess with MIB, and let them find their own way to life or death. The idea of a guardian with no guidance is strange. One with ultimate power who refuses to use it to better mankind is not a hero.

Jacob's death did not seem to be a heroic gesture. It seemed like a slow suicide pact coming to bear. Jacob's death did not seem to change anything on the island. Flocke was still Flocke. The faux crisis of Widmore's attack was still present. The characters running through the jungle without a clue what to do continued on endlessly. It took five and three-quarter seasons to get four candidates around a campfire with Jacob's spirit to have one person, Jack, accept the guardian position. It seems like the worst goose chase or snipe hunt in history. And with Jack taking over for Jacob, how does that transform a smoke monster into a mortal being? Jacob's brother was already dead. Jacob himself was already dead. The people on the island had no real means to leave so the island would protect itself by sinking to the ocean floor.

Jacob as a character has little value in trying to figure out what was the big premise of Lost. In order to get to a quick wrap up, the Jacob-MIB conflict was thrown together as some focal resolution point. But even that conflict was erased by the meaning of the sideways after life. So what if the Lost characters were already dead? Did Jacob, in any way, help them on their after life journey?  One could only argue that Jacob brought together people on the island not for his benefit, but to allow a host of lonely people to "die together" in the after life. If that is the takeaway point of the series, it seems 99 percent of the stories were hollow and shallow.

CHARACTER OF ELOISE

If there was ever a title of the most mysterious woman on Lost, Eloise Hawking would probably take the crown. Even though she did not appear until Season 3, her presence and manipulations are fully interconnected in the character story arcs to conclude that she was an important pivot point to the entire series.

As I have indicated in previous posts (check the archive keyword under Eloise), Eloise Hawking has an unexplained puppet master role.

We know very little about her except she knows a lot about everyone.

We know she was a young woman on the island in the 1950s. During a time flash, she meets Daniel in a time skip. We know that in 1977 she was at odds with Charles Widmore over leadership of the Others. It would seem that the strong personalities of Eloise and Charles pushed Alpert's role into the background. It is during that time skip that she kills her own son, Daniel, in the episode, The Variable. As Daniel fell, he realized that he had been shot by Eloise, and whispered to her that she had "known it the whole time." Confused, she asked him who he was, and he revealed that he was her son, leaving her standing over him, shocked.

We can assume that as an Other, Eloise was fully informed about the Island's properties and the need for its protection. She also knew about its power. And it seems that she did not shy away from gaining power and control over other people. We must conclude that the 1977 time skip had a profound affect on Eloise and her relationship with her son. She forced him into advanced science including electromagnetism and theories of space time.

We know that Daniel Faraday was her son (by blood with Charles Widmore). We do not know why Daniel's surname is not Widmore (could it be Eloise's maiden name?) But we do know that Widmore was banished from the island because he had an off-island affair which led to the birth of Daniel's half sister, Penny Milton, who herself must have kept her mother's maiden name. It is an unusual convex of names: Faraday, a scientist renown for electromagnetic studies, and Milton, whose great work Paradise Lost about the story of the Fall of Man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Milton's purpose, stated in Book I, is to "justify the ways of God to men" is one of the main themes of the entire series.

In the sideways world (after life), Eloise is in complete control of her situation. She is married to a rich man (Widmore), and has a dolting musical son, Daniel. She has Widmore keeping Desmond occupied with global business meetings. In The End, Eloise met Desmond once again during the concert, aware that he had awakened several people to their former lives. She believed that if her son Daniel remembered his life, he would be able to finally move on, possibly departing from her. At Eloise's request, Desmond agreed not to awaken Daniel.

It is then have the full revelation that Eloise Hawking is the woman behind the LOST curtain.

She is the mastermind behind getting the 815ers “back” to the Island. She is the person who pushed her son, Daniel, into the complex physics of time travel. She convinced Widmore, her ex-husband, to fund the research and expedition back to the Island. She cajoled people to get back to the island to “save the world” or to complete their destiny. Was Jack’s destiny to replace her insane son’s plan to blow up the Swan station before the Incident (which, in theory would have killed Eloise before giving birth to him) in order to re-boot the time line of events where Daniel does not die by Eloise’s hand in 1977? It seems quite convoluted and complex.

Daniel’s Rube Goldberg trap explanation of how is is going to change the future by blowing up the past with members of the future at the event in the past fails to consider Ben’s terse statement “dead is dead” on the island. Daniel believes he can “fix things” and save Charlotte by stopping the Swan incident (massive EM release which would later be contained by the Hatch) by blowing up the pocket of energy with a hydrogen bomb. A bomb that would destroy the island and kill everyone on it - - - including himself, his mother and all the people who should have been on Flight 815. If the characters were truly “time traveling” in space time, they would only have one “life.”  If they are killed in 1977, would they be erased from the future itself? Or is this plan really the ultimate “course correction” of the paradox of time travelers meeting their parents and changing events that had already happened?

The real method to stop the release of energy that downed Flight 815 is found in the fact that Eloise pushed Desmond to the Island, “to save (her) world” meaning that she found a patsy in Desmond to push the button. If he had done his job, Flight 815 would have never crashed; the freighter would have never been launched to the Island; Daniel would have never been time shifted by the FDW, and she would have never killed him in 1977.

So which came first? Eloise’s plan or Daniel’s plan?

There was always a question of whether Eloise’s killing of her time traveling son, Daniel, on the Island in 1977, caused the Island to kill all pregnant women. It is also unclear as to the paternity of both Daniel and Penny. Was Penny a secondary dream to replace Daniel in Eloise’s own mental visions of her future? Was the imprisonment of Desmond on the Island the mental visions of Eloise to “save (her) world” i.e. Daniel from the fate of death at her own hands?

There is another aspect to consider: Lost in Reverse. Sideways is a purgatory wait station. The Island is the hell to test souls fears, sins through relationships, quests, tests, judgment or redemption. The flashbacks are not true memories, but the dream feedstock of the characters main fears and nightmares, because those mental conditions are repeated in Island events to see if the character can change, come to grip with those issues, in order to “move on.” Christian tells Jack that everything that has happened to him was “real.” But reality is a moving target concept. One can dream themselves into sweat filled horror which seems absolutely real. A psychopath can have “real illusions” and act them out in real life, like stabbing an individual who he thinks is a werewolf or zombie. The sideways world was “created” by Jack’s friends in order to wait for Jack’s death. How can you “interconnect” the minds, thoughts, memories and personality of a dozen people to create a whole new world. It sounds like a game platform. It sounds like an MMO. It sounds - - - like a crazy construct.  We know the sideways world is not real, but it had to be created by the memories or dreams of the characters, which differ from their flashback stories. An alternative dream world was created for Jack to return to the group who shared Island based adventures and breakthroughs like group therapy.

Or it could be a layered effect of interlocking Time. The ancient Mayans had three interlocking calendars to keep Time. One was a 9 month “human” cycle. One was the 12 month “harvest” cycle. One was the “cosmic” cycle. High priests could interlock all three calendars to predict future star events or predict the meaning of births.

Lost could represent a layered of “after time” calendars. A character may be “living” in several different “realities” which may or may not overlap. More likely, one parallel life feeds off the memories of an alternative past “after time” cycle. Take Eloise as the prime example of this theory:

Those layered clocks on human consciousness can overlap. It could explain Desmond’s mind flashes to future events. It could explain how Eloise knows the future, and knows how the after life gears of time work. It is why Eloise was so upset that Desmond was "awakening" other Island people in the sideways world. Eloise feared that Daniel would wake up - - - realize what his mother did to him in alternative time lines - - -  and leave her forever.

The critical points in the End can be summarized as follows:

At the Sideways benefit concert, Eloise Widmore joins Desmond, saying that she thought she made it clear that Desmond should stop what he's been doing. Desmond says she did, but that he ignored her. She asks, "And once they know, what then?" and Desmond answers, "Then, we're leaving." With concern she asks if they are going to take her son. Desmond assures her, "Not with me, no."

Jack arrives at the concert after it has ended. Kate is there and he says he is looking for his son. He recognizes Kate and asks where he remembers her from. She tells him that she stole his pen on Oceanic 815. Jack is confused, he says "and that's how I know you?" Kate says that is not how he knows her. She goes up to him and takes his face in her hands telling him how much she has missed him. Jack flashes, seeing images of himself and Kate on the Island, but still resists. She tells him that if he comes with her he will understand.

She takes him to the church, the place Jack was going to have his father’s funeral. This is the same church that the O6 got their instructions from Eloise on how to "return to the Island." It would appear that the church is a nexus point between the sideways and island realms.

When sideways Kate says they are waiting for him “once he is ready.” Jack asks, “ready for what?” Kate responds, “to leave.”

At the sideways reunion with his dead father, Jack comes to the realization that he is dead. Everyone is dead. Christian explains to Jack that they aren't leaving; they're moving on. Jack asks where to, and his father tells him, "Let's go find out."


Once these Island visitors, including Desmond, leave the sideways existence, Eloise's long plan to safeguard her son from "remembering" or "leaving her" comes to her happy ending. It would appear that Eloise would have her son for all eternity so long as he does not remember his non-sideways past. The one element that could have dislodged those hidden memories was Desmond, who is now engulfed in the white light from the church.

If one objectively looks at the dynamic of the End as the solution of Six Seasons of LOST mysteries, only one key plot point was revealed and resolved: Eloise's demands to Desmond to stop what he was doing so Daniel would not be taken away from her. This puts Eloise in the position of the one person who had a major controlling influence on all the other main characters. She was the one pulling all the strings. She was the one that was truly manipulating the characters to reach not their goals, but her one objective: to be with her son in the sideways after life.

Eloise Hawking is the only character that had "full knowledge" of the Island events and the Sideways world consequences. It is quite the simple but straight forward explanation lacking in the convoluted plot twists of the series that everything could truly be explained through the actions, manipulations and motivations of Eloise. The only issue truly resolved in the End was that Eloise did not "lose" her son, Daniel, to the 815ers who were "moving on" into the light at the conclusion of church meeting.

Now some may complain that the show was really all about Jack. But did Jack finally resolve his father issues in the End? No. Did other characters resolve their issues? Sayid and Nadia: the opposite happened. Locke, who was abused in the island world, left without anyone. Michael did not get over his issues with Walt, so he is apparently left with the guilt of an island ghost. The island events were themed by significant "daddy issue" subplots. But in the mirror realm of the sideways world, there is only one clear "mommy issue" plot: Eloise and Daniel.

The simple bridge between the Island and the Sideways world was a simple, personal, introspective "awakening." In the End, the only thing the 815ers did was realize that they were dead and accepting their deaths. Knowing that someone would attempt to "awaken" Daniel (most likely Desmond since Daniel considered him his metaphysical "constant"), Eloise attempted to keep that knowledge from all the characters in the Island realm.

As previously posted, the story premise has to be the Island and Sideways worlds are spiritual planes of existence. After death, one has a reincarnated new life. And in this new life, you may not realize that your human existence is gone because everything seems so "real." Using the concepts of the split between the ba and ka from ancient Egyptian mythology, Eloise could craft or control two separate spiritual planes to stop the characters' ba and ka from reuniting ("awakening") and moving on to a different plane of existence in the after life.

Eloise's role in both realms could be considered the puppet master, a gatekeeper of souls, the wizard behind the curtain, the high priestess of death. Only she knew knew the awakening rule. She confused the lost souls into believing that they were still alive. They were told that their survival depended upon running through a maze of dangerous missions. The Island was really a place that Eloise created to contain any person who could lead Daniel to his awakening in the Sideways realm. Eloise was motivated by the fear that she would lose her son forever.

Eloise was close to Brother Campbell. She used that relationship to get Desmond into a monastery so he could be locked away from Penny, a connection to Daniel. But that plan was ruined when Penny came to pick up wine at the same time Desmond was being kicked out for ill behavior. Eloise used Widmore to continually throw a wrench into Desmond's relationship with Penny. She used Libby to get Desmond the boat that he thought he could use to win a sailing race to "prove" to Widmore he was worthy of Penny.

After Sarah's surgery, and after promising her a "miracle," Jack takes a jog in a stadium. He notices Desmond who is jogging up the staircase next to him. Jack races to catch up to him but rolls his ankle and falls. Desmond comes to Jack's aid. After Desmond asks why Jack was "running like the devil was chasing him," he discusses Sarah's procedure and how he made a promise he couldn't keep. Desmond wonders out loud whether he actually did save her, but Jack tells him it would be a miracle. Desmond also leaves with the foreshadowing quip, "See you in another life."

Desmond takes Libby's boat, but then becomes shipwrecked on the Island. He is put to work pressing the Numbers in order "to save the world." Eloise tells him that his fate is to press the Numbers. But in reality, Eloise sole purpose is to imprison Desmond so he stays out of the life of Penny which could cause the sideways Desmond to awaken and take Daniel to the next level of the after life. That Desmond was told that his sole destiny is to stay in the Hatch "to save the world" (which really meant save Eloise's fantasy world) and forget any notion of being with Penny was the biggest con of the entire series.  For three years, Desmond accepts that role. It is only after he begins to be aware that he is "being conned" by Kelvin, that he fails in pressing the buttons. In that moment, he is aware that he can leave the island and return to Penny. But what stops him? The sudden arrival of new characters, the Others and the 815 survivors, who again, occupy Desmond with obstacles on leaving the Island (and returning to Penny).

It is an elaborate "con" that Eloise attempts to maintain; the only problem is that Desmond and the other characters retain their personalities and "free will" to make choices. The critical choice for Desmond was to use the fail safe key to "die." Even with that sacrifice in his mind, Desmond really did not want to "die," but get back to Penny. The island realm does not "kill" spirits such as Desmond. They continue to live until they accept their death in the real world.

The events then lead Desmond to Penny in the Island world. In order to stop the bridge from forming, Desmond is still "pursued" by Widmore in an alleged attempt to keep Desmond and Penny a part. But Eloise knows where Dez is. She allows him the fantasy of a life with Penny and his "son" in order for him to keep the illusion of living forefront in his mind. By doing so, she risks flashes of the other realm and concepts of death to overwhelm Desmond so that he could awaken and spoil the critical balance Eloise is trying to maintain in the Sideways world.

In the Sideways world, Eloise is queen of the land. She has a doting son, totally under her control. She has got the wealth, status and privilege of society. Charles Widmore is a corralled provider of all her needs, including keeping SW Desmond in check as Widmore's respected, trusted number two man (which is the mirror opposite of Island Desmond whose focus was trying to get the respect and trust of evil Widmore.) She has to keep Penny away from Desmond in the Sideways world. It is too dangerous if they have a relationship in both planes. That is why Widmore has Desmond putting out corporate fires all over the world. It is unintended consequences that lead to Desmond to be in LA at the same time Charlie meets Daniel for the benefit concert.

Look at the constant from both ends of the spectrum: the flashbacks (pre 815) and the sideways world - - - Eloise. In Desmond's back story, she was the one who told Desmond about "course correction" that people cannot change what will occur to them. She also told Desmond that he should not be with Penny. Fans knew that Eloise had special powers and knowledge beyond normal comprehension. In the sideways world, Eloise scolds Desmond not to contact Penny. Why? Because she knows that if Desmond is awakened to his past purgatory cycle with Penny, he would awaken the others, including her son, Daniel and Widmore, which could lead to Daniel leaving her. The whole Eloise story arc could be considered as an after life guardian over-protecting her son for her own selfish purposes (maybe penance for killing him on the island during a time flash.)

If you believe that the show was all about lost souls from the very beginning, LOST makes more sense and all of the blatant inconsistencies, dead end story lines, continuity errors, and open ended questions fade away. Dharma, Jacob, the Smoke Monster, time travel and all the other prop story lines were all mere fantasy tools and props from the characters own imaginations and narcissistic view of themselves of how they thought their lives would be if they were not "dead." In the after life, their collective memories were used to create situations, interact with strangers, overcome adversity and personal fears, with the goal of individual enlightenment.

Eloise's master plan was to stop Daniel from remembering his past. She did everything in her power to make sure that Daniel's after life was a narrow, non-scientific focus that centered around herself. And in the end, Eloise's plan worked: Daniel did not go away with the other Lost characters. So, Eloise was the only character who truly got all she wanted in the end.

CHARACTER OF BEN

If one needs to find a poster child for the illogic of Lost, Benjamin Linus would be a finalist. When Michael Emerson was hired to do a guest shot as an Other late in Season 2, it was supposed to be a one-two episode filler showing the brutality seeping into the 815ers (Ben as Henry Gale being tortured in the Hatch). It was part of a tie-in to Sayid's flashback story as a torturer. But Ben's bug-eyed evil and calm manipulation that burst upon the scene as a perfect villain.

Ben was born prematurely in a forest on December 19, 1964 to Roger and Emily Linus. Ben was another one of the premature or miracle babies ("special"). His mother died in child birth. His distraught father was found by Dharma leader Horace, which led to Ben coming to the island.

As a young child, Ben had a lonely childhood. He had both mother (who was not there for him) and father (who blamed him for his mother's death) issues. Even at Dharma, he would have had a semi-normal childhood. But for some unknown reason, Ben snapped - - - and turned into a mass murder control freak. By the time 815 crashed on September 22, 2004, Ben had purged the Dharma group, killed his father, and became the de facto leader of the Others. He had manipulated a doctor, Juliet, to come to the island to deal with pregnancy issues, but made her a prisoner. When she rebuffed his advances, he made her suffer. He put Juliet's lover, Goodwin, on a dangerous mission to infiltrate the tail section survivors. He did, and died as a result. Ben made a point of showing Juliet his corpse in order to belittle her - - - and make her life hopeless.

Ben's character was dripping with inherit evil. He was the omnibus threat to the main characters. He was the man who killed without hesitation. It was this sense of danger, and Emerson's fine acting, that led to Ben staying on in the series.

For being the man in charge of the island, Ben directed the Others on their missions. He sent Ethan and Alpert off the island to recruit new members. He did not people to speak to the man behind the curtain, Jacob. Ben was all about following "his" rules. He was a dictator. People feared his wrath. He manipulated other people to commit horrible acts of cruelty. He took devilish pride when his schemes worked out well.

If the island was a symbolic hell, then why was Ben allowed to rule it like a king? Was he really the henchman of the Devil himself (Jacob)? Was his sole purpose to punish the souls who crashed on the island? It would seem indiscriminate and confusing role because in the case of Juliet, she did nothing we are aware of to be so brutally punished by Ben.

As the seasons wore on, Ben's command over the island weakened as the 815ers proved to be a bothersome lot. They were not the timid sheep of Horace's Dharma group. They had evil sinners in their midst on par with Ben's warped personality (like Sayid). After Sayid tortured Ben in the Hatch, Ben thought he gave the perfect cover story on Henry Gale - - - which everyone believed when Sayid returned saying he found the balloon and the grave. His story confirmation would give him the trust with the survivors. But Sayid did not trust him, and opened the grave to find a man and not a woman. This plot arc would have probably ended with Sayid killing Ben to put in the morality of the survivors into dramatic question. But moral themes of the series faded away quickly after Season 2.

Because there were people now on the island who would not trust him, Ben got angry. Because there were people now on the island who would challenge him, Ben got vengeful. In some ways he became the human smoke monster. One of the long story arcs was the battle to control the island - - - Ben verus Locke. But in reality, the real battle to control the island was the Others against Widmore's return. But that was not the truth, since in the end, the battle for the island was the supernatural sibling feud of Jacob and his brother, in the form of Flocke. Ben's role was diminished in island history as apparent authority. Jacob apparently wielded sole power. Jacob manipulated Ben better than Ben manipulated the others. Ben's downfall was letting his emotions be manipulated by Flocke to kill Jacob.

Ben's "life" ended with Jacob's death. Ben became a follower. He became an outcast. He lacked a purpose. He was lost. It was Jacob's confident soldier, Ilana, that gave Ben a glimmer of hope. It was Hurley that gave Ben his last island job as his second in command. But these moves gave Ben no redemptive epiphany. He was never truly sorry for his actions. He only felt sorry that he lost control over "his" island kingdom.

The sideways world view of Ben is one of tortured logic. How can a mass murderer go to heaven and not be punished for his crimes?  Why does Ben get to "choose" to stay in the sideways fantasy in order to work things out with Rousseau and Alex?  It is not crazy to assume if Rousseau "awakes" to the real Ben that she would not strangle him for the hell he put her through on the island. Why should Ben be rewarded for all the evil deeds he did in the non-sideways stories? Why should he be in control of his own after life destiny? It makes no sense.

This is a constant problem with trying to find meaning and structure with the sideways story mechanics. The sideways world has no moral compass. It does not punish souls for bad behavior. Apparently, it rewards some over others. And there is no reason why Ben would wind up with Rousseau in any alternative universe.

Can a child who grows up to kill his father, mass murder his Dharma colleagues, and direct kidnappings, torture and executions, fit for a heavenly reward in the after life? From what we are shown, yes. Ben's only punishment was his "loss" of island power. His only sideways punishment was one beat down by Desmond (unless you consider being a high school teacher a form of punishment). So Ben's invite to the church, with its multi-religious undertone, is systemic with the story flaws of the final season. There is no justification to put Ben in the same moral standing as a Hurley or a Penny.

Ben was a great villain. He was a great foil to judge the other characters. He was a great facilitator for plot twists. But in the grand finale of things, he was a minor, insignificant player. So was he truly a main focal point in the evolution of the 815 characters journey to the after life, or was he merely a prop in a delusional mind? Ben's character is easy to identify but hard to categorize. He was loved as a evil manipulator, but hated as a meek inconsistency in the end.

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 41-44

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 41-44 (Days 60-63 )

These four episodes bring out the one in-story explanation of the Big Premise of the series, the Hurley-Dave relationship and the question of the Island being part of a complex mental episode or condition.

Sun discovers she is pregnant; Ana is recruited to help interrogate the Other in the Hatch.  Ana, Charlie and Sayid journey into the jungle to confirm if Gale's crash story and the burial of his wife is the truth.

Locke’s obsession with his father’s betrayal causes great changes in his life, including the loss of his girlfriend, Helen. When the Hatch goes into Lockdown mode, Locke asks Ben to help him.

Ben’s deception is confirmed when Ana, Charlie and Sayid return from investigating Henry's balloon. Ben would have been killed by Sayid, except for Ana’s intervention at the last second.

Hurley is shaken to the core when he sees his imaginary friend from his days at the mental hospital, “Dave” on the island.

Bernard and Rose’s backstory is revealed. Bernard attempts to assemble an enormous SOS SIGN  on the beach; Kate and Jack go into the jungle to propose a Henry Gale-for-Walt swap with the Others; but they find a dehydrated and crying Michael instead.

Science:

Group psychosis.

Psychosis is an abnormal condition or derangement of the mind, and is a generic medical term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality.”  People suffering from psychosis are described as psychotic. Psychosis is given to the more severe forms of psychiatric disorder, during which hallucinations, delusions and impaired insight may occur.
Hallucinations are different from illusions or perceptual distortions, which are the misperception of external stimuli. Hallucinations may occur in any of the five senses and take on almost any form, which may include simple sensations (such as lights, colors, tastes, and smells) to experiences such as seeing and interacting with fully formed animals and people, hearing voices, and having complex tactile sensations.

Auditory hallucinations particularly experiences of hearing voices, are a common and often prominent feature of psychosis. Hallucinated voices may talk about, or to, the person, and may involve several speakers with distinct personas. Auditory hallucinations tend to be particularly distressing when they are derogatory, commanding or preoccupying.

Primary delusions are defined as arising suddenly and not being comprehensible in terms of normal mental processes, whereas secondary delusions may be understood as being influenced by the person's background or current situation (e.g., ethnicity, religious beliefs, superstitious belief).

Hurley was diagnosed in a catatonic state after his “accident.”  An abnormal condition variously characterized by stupor, stereotypy, mania, and either rigidity or extreme flexibility of the limbs. It is most often associated with schizophrenia. One of various forms of schizophrenia characterized by stupor, sometimes alternating with excited behavior and mechanical, repetitive behavior, accompanied by muscular rigidity. A variety of symptoms are associated with catatonia. Among the more common are echopraxia (imitation of the gestures of others) and echolalia (parrot-like repetition of words spoken by others). Other signs and symptoms include violence directed toward him/herself, the assumption of inappropriate posture, selective mutism, negativism, facial grimaces, and animal-like noises. Apparently, Hurley was treated with a a class of benzodiazepines which are medicines that help relieve nervousness, tension, and other symptoms by slowing the central nervous system.

Improbabilities:

Libby and Hurley being in the same institution, being on the same plane from Australia, and surviving a high altitude break up over the Island.

In the flashback, John Locke as a home inspector for a single Nadia, who most likely did not survive in first Iraq war as a traitor.

Locke going into his father’s safety deposit box. Unless he was on the signature card, he would never get legal access to the box.


Mysteries:

What is the goal of the Others spying on the survivors? When Ben takes the role of Henry Gale in order to infiltrate the survivors camp, was he doing it to gain information, or to set the seeds of internal dissent and distrust?

Who created the Blast Door Map? We would learn that it was Desmond’s prior Hatch watchers who created it during forced Lockdown food drops.

What were the food drops? Apparently, the destroyed Dharma Island facility continued to receive periodic food drops from a Dharma warehouse in America. We do not know how or why these food drops “find” the moving Island. However, was it truly the Lockdown event cycle, or as a subconscious reaction from Hurley after he destroyed his secret food stash?


Themes:

Trust and Change. How can Hurley trust Libby when Libby is also being medicated in mental institution? How can Hurley trust Dr. Brooks when Dave tells him he is not helping him?  Sun is told she can’t have children, but that is a lie by her doctor because he is afraid of her father and Jin’s reaction if Jin was the known cause of infertility. When Sun becomes aware that she is pregnant on the island, she knows it is not Jin’s baby. But Jin believes “it is a miracle.”

Likewise, John Locke in his flashback cannot change. He destroys his relationship with Helen because she concludes John needs his father’s love more than her love. If anything, Locke can never change - - - he is a bad judge of character. He believes Henry Gale’s story in the Hatch Lockdown incident, and trusts him to help him. But it is quickly revealed that Henry is a liar and one of the Others.

Also, Bernard needs “to do something,” to fix Rose’s cancer, but Rose knows he just has to let go and let things pass. This is the same issue Jack has in “fixing” all his patients.

Clues:

The Long Con. Locke’s ability to give up his father’s betrayal causes him to lose the one good thing in his life, Helen. In future episodes we will find Locke “rebooting” his relationship with Helen after his father again takes something away from him, his ability to walk. That whole re-boot in retrospect is wrong; it can only be the imagination of Locke.

Mental fantasy. Hurley meets and talks to his imaginary friend, Dave, in the jungle, who tells him “none of this is real.”  With the revelation that Libby is also a mental patient who intervenes when Hurley is at the edge of the Truth, puts clear evidence of mental disorder as a premise to the show.

In Bernard’s back story, he states he “dreamed of a woman” like Rose, and Rose appears randomly in his life. She only has a year to live, so he proposes anyway.

The same is true with Hurley, who believes a woman like Libby would never be interested in him. Libby is he fantasy girl, the one he could get in his own Island world.

When Ben asks Jack what is the difference between a martyr and a prophet, Jack tells him they both wind up dead. “That’s the spirit,” Ben replies. There were many more references to the dead in these episodes, including fake death of Anthony Cooper.

When Ben is being tortured, he yells out that he does not care because “I’m dead already!”

Ben also tells Locke that God cannot see or find this place. One could infer that God can see all matters on earth, and send messengers to help people. But God would not need to see or care about Hell.

The Blast Door Map. The fan frenzy of a huge clue with intense writing on it was one the biggest Easter eggs in the series. From the configuration of the Hatches, it could considered as a layout of prison cellblocks, or to hospital wards. The mention of Cerberus as guarding the place, the place being Hell.

Rose’s knowledge that Locke’s paralysis and her cancer have been “healed” by the Island. This shows that Rose understands that she is no longer connected to the Earth,
that she made her blessing and peace with her life before going to the outback. All she needs to have a content (after)life is to change Bernard from a man needing to “fix things” (just like Jack) to a man who can let things go.

When Bernard tries to recruit Eko to build his SOS so he can save the survivors, Bernard is upset that the people had “given up their lives” to settle in to this existence. Eko tells him that “people are saved in different ways,” meaning spiritually and not physically.

If Hurley has been on the Island two months without his medications, he would have gone back into a catatonic or dream state, as Dave tells him. Dave tells him that the only way he can get out of the hospital (the island is all made up in his head and subconscious) is to throw himself off the cliff and “wake up.” In the End, people in the sideways world need to “be awakened” in order to move on in the after life. Or it could still be a Hurley dream state because in The End, Hurley is one left on the Island as the guardian, since it was the world he created in the first place.


Discussion:

“ I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and that its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set in night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere. ”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Many fans uses Hurley’s character as their substitute for what was going on the Island; Hurley was their proxy. So when the story arc of “Dave” appears in the island narrative,
all hell breaks loose on message boards because it creates an impression that “this is all a dream” premise like the Bobby Ewing “death” on Dallas.

However, Dave’s appearance gives the most detailed analysis of what is happening to Hurley on the island. It is not a fan theory, but an explanation within the actual story. It merits detail reconstruction.

The flashbacks show Dave as Hurley’s imaginary friend at Santa Rose Mental Health Institute. Dave is a friendly guy who keeps on egging on Hurley to do things that are probably not in his best interest like eating snacks to avoid is diet restrictions. Hurley believes Dave is real. When his doctor, Dr. Brooks, takes a picture of Dave and Hurley, only Hurley appears in the photograph. It is supposed to be a revelation to Hurley to help him cope with his mental illness, but Dave continues to pop up at the institution and later, on the island.

Dr. Brooks tells Hurley that Dave was a bad influence who tried to keep Hurley from losing weight or changing. Dave may also be a “transference” of the traits of his missing father as a coping mechanism. Dave appears Hurley, offering him more food and encouraging him to break out of the facility. Hurley refused, and his later refusals to listen to Dave led to a “breakthrough” in his therapy and his eventual release.

During the Hatch Lockdown event, the Island experiences “a food drop” where a pallet of supplies miraculously falls to the island on a parachute. As the survivors rush to gather the food, Hurley sees Dave on the Island. He chases Dave into the jungle. Dave loses a slipper and Hurley picks it up. But LIbby, who is watching him for a distance, sees no slipper. This was meant to tell the audience that Hurley’s “imaginary” friend does not exist because survivor Libby, a clinical psychologist who helped Claire remember her abduction, cannot confirm it for the viewers. However, we later learn that Libby is not a doctor, but a mental patient with Hurley at Santa Rosa. Her eyes are not credible for the truth in the interaction between Hurley and Dave.

Dave tries to convince convincing Hurley that he'd never left Santa Rosa and was currently hallucinating his experiences on the Island. Dave gives Hurley evidence of his position by saying the Numbers in Hatch countdown computer are based on the numbers he got from Leonard Simms, that after two months on the island he has not lost any weight and that he is hallucinating Libby, a woman too attractive to actually be interested in a person like Hurley. Hurley resists those notions.

To prove his point, Dave jumps off a cliff, telling Hurley that doing the same would WAKE HIM from his hallucination. Hurley nearly follows suit, but Libby arrived and talked him out of it. If Libby, a possible another hallucination under the guise of a primal defense mechanism in Hurley’s mind, stops him from the Truth, the series would have come to a crashing halt at the cliff. But the Truth of Dave’s statements cannot be ignored when one tries to make a rational connection between the contradictions of the flashbacks, the Island events and the sideways world reveal.

As with last week’s clues, when Libby is trying to calm down an upset Claire who is starting to remember, Libby tells her that “she is combining experiences before the crash with things on the island” which upsets her. The same could be said now for Hurley, who was institutionalized with Libby, that he is combining her prior mental illness experiences with her island (hospital therapy treatments) to create a vivid new fantasy.

The Dave-Hurley interaction was the longest narrative in the series that actually sets forth a plausible explanation of the Big Premise of LOST. It is so important from an understanding of what may be happening to the characters on the island, a detailed examination of the actual words used by the writers is in order so you can review for yourself the significance of these episodes. From lostpedia.com, the key transcripts from these episodes:

[We see Hurley walking through the jungle carrying the slipper. He suddenly sees a box of DHARMA "fish crackers" on the ground and after a moment's hesitation he opens it and starts shoving them in his mouth. He looks up and sees Dave standing there in pajamas and a bathrobe.]
HURLEY: You're not here!
[Dave picks up a coconut and throws it at Hurley, hitting him in the stomach and making him spit out fish crackers. Dave picks up another coconut and looks like he's going to throw it, but he turns and runs. Hurley follows.]
HURLEY: Hey, wait!
[We see Hurley running after Dave through the jungle.]
HURLEY: Wait, Dave!
[Dave disappears and Hurley runs out onto the beach where Eko and Charlie are working.]
CHARLIE: Are you okay, Hurley?
HURLEY: Did either of you see a guy run through here -- in a bathrobe, with a coconut?
CHARLIE: No. Saw a polar bear on roller blades with a mango.
EKO: I did not see anything, Hurley.
HURLEY: [exiting] Yeah, me either.
--------
[Flashback - We see Hurley playing Connect 4 with Lenny.]
LENNY: 4, 8, 15... [He repeats the Numbers over and over throughout the scene.]
HURLEY: Uh, dude.
DAVE: Pretty sneaky, Leonard. [Lenny wins and gathers the red pieces to his side.] You're using those magic numbers of yours as a psyche-out, are you man? Oh, yeah, that's right, you just play dumb. I'm on to your juju, man.
HURLEY: [eating some celery] They're just numbers, man.
DAVE: [referring to the celery] Hey. What the hell is that?
HURLEY: It's my mid-afternoon snack.
DAVE: Dude, that's celery. Celery is not a snack. Leonard's got graham crackers, man. You should snag one. He won't notice. What's he going to do -- call you a 23? [mocking Lenny] 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, hike!
[Hurley and Dave laugh. Hurley grabs a graham from Lenny's plate.]
NURSE: Here, Hugo. Here's your meds.
HURLEY: Thank you, nurse Lazenby.
[Hurley starts to swallow his pills.]
DAVE: Dude, you want to get out of here with me? Don't take the horse tranquilizer.
HURLEY: What do mean, get out of here?
DAVE: I mean escape, man. Me and you, A-S-A-P. They're getting to you, dude. We've got to split.
HURLEY: Dr. Brooks says...
DAVE: Dr. Brooks does not care about you, man. He's the one prescribing that crap. What the hell is it, anyway?
HURLEY: Clonazepam.
DR. BROOKS: [entering] Hugo, something wrong with your meds, there?
HURLEY: No, me and Dave were just, you know, talking about stuff.
DR. BROOKS: Right, well, sorry to interrupt. Hello there, Dave.
DAVE: Hello there, Dr. Brooks.
DR. BROOKS: And how are you today?
DAVE: Never been saner.
DR. BROOKS: I've been taking some pictures for the bulletin board. I've got everyone except you 2. Would you guys mind?
HURLEY: Okay.
[Hurley moves his chair over next to Dave.]
DR. BROOKS: Okay. Why don't you two get a little bit closer.
DAVE: Are you going to make us look at the ducky, too?
[Hurley puts his arm around Dave and poses.]
DR. BROOKS: [taking a Polaroid] Say cheese.
HURLEY: Cheese.
DAVE: Queso.
DR. BROOKS: Great. Okay, you -- you need a little water with that?
HURLEY: Nope, I'm good.
[Hurley tilts the pills into his mouth.]
DR. BROOKS: Okay, well fine. See you later guys, thanks for the photo op.
[Brooks exits. Hurley turns to Dave and sticks his tongue out, showing that he didn't take the pills.]
DAVE: Dude.
HURLEY: Dude.
DAVE: The revolution has begun, man. Lay low -- when the time is right we fly.
--------
[Hurley is walking in the jungle. Suddenly his pack rips open and the peanut butter jar is split open on the ground. Hurley uses a leaf to scoop some up and eat it. He hears footsteps and sees Dave's feet with one slipper.]
HURLEY: You're not here. You were in the hospital. You can't be here.
DAVE: Sorry, dude. I am here.
----------
[Flashback - We see Hurley in Dr. Brooks' office. He's reading from a list.]
HURLEY: I like that I have a good relationship with my mom. I like making my grandpa, Tito, laugh. I like chicken.
DR. BROOKS: Well, that last one wasn't about you, Hugo.
HURLEY: I like that I like chicken?
DR. BROOKS: So, tell me, how did it feel writing that? Was that difficult?
HURLEY: Kind of -- I think I messed up some spelling.
DR. BROOKS: I notice that you didn't say anything about the way you look. Are you comfortable with your appearance?
HURLEY: It's not like... I can't really do anything about it, right? [Dr. Brooks just stares at him.] If I, uh -- if I w -- wasn't so fat, they never would have died.
DR. BROOKS: There were 23 people on that deck. It was built to hold 8. And it would have collapsed whether you went out there or not.
HURLEY: Yeah, but I did walk out there. And it did collapse. I killed them.
DR. BROOKS: It was an accident.
HURLEY: That was my fault.
DR. BROOKS: Look, after those people died, you were in a practically catatonic state. You stopped talking, you stopped going out, you stopped sleeping. But you never stopped eating because that's how you punish yourself.
HURLEY: Dave's right about you. You know, you're nothing but a quack.
DR. BROOKS: Dave doesn't want you to lose weight, does he?
HURLEY: You know, Dave cares about me. He's my friend.
DR. BROOKS: Let me show you something.
[Brooks gets the Polaroid out of Hurley's file.]
DR. BROOKS: It may upset you. This is the photo I took for the bulletin board.
[Hurley looks at the picture with surprise and shock.]
DR. BROOKS: Dave isn't your friend, Hugo, because Dave doesn't exist.
[We see the photo is a picture of Hurley sitting next to an empty chair with his arm around nothing.]
--------
[We see Hurley in bed sleeping. Dave enters.]
DAVE: Psst. Hey, wake up, dude. Finally, you could sleep through a damn NASCAR race, man.
HURLEY: Wait, you're not -- you're a hallucination. [Dave slaps him.] Ow.
DAVE: Was that a hallucination?
HURLEY: Maybe I just imagined you slapped me? [Dave slaps him again.] Ow! Damn it.
DAVE: We can do this all night.
HURLEY: Dr. Brooks showed me a picture from the rec room. My arm was around, like, nothingness.
DAVE: Uh, Kinko's, Photoshop? What, you think they really blew up the Death Star?
HURLEY: No.
DAVE: Then stop talking crazy, man. Come on, we're on a clock here.
[Dave starts to leave, but Hurley doesn't follow.]
DAVE: Hey, you in or you out, dude?
[Hurley follows Dave into the hall.]
DAVE: Okay, come on, come on. [They see a plate of food on a cart.] Yo, check it out, Marcus didn't finish his lasagna. That is a waste, man. One for the road?
[Hurley picks up the plate and starts eating. They stop at an area where they can see a guard below them.]
DAVE: Shhh. Wait for it -- wait.
[The guard leaves, and they continue on.]
DAVE: Tippy-toes, big guy. Vamanos.
[They make their way into the rec room, and go to the window which is padlocked.]
DAVE: Okay, man. You've got the keys, hombre. You took them off Brooks' desk earlier.
[Hurley looks surprised when he finds them in his pocket.]
DAVE: [giggles] Come on, man. Open it, open it.
[Hurley unlocks and opens the window.]
DAVE: Oh, oh, oh -- can you taste that? That is freedom, baby. You know what tastes even better than freedom? Cheeseburgers.
[Dave jumps down out of the window.]
DAVE: [laughs] Come on, man, chili-fries on me. [giggles]
HURLEY: I don't think I can do this. I'm sorry.
DAVE: Sorry? What, are you kidding me?
HURLEY: You're not real. You're trying to get me to run away and get cheeseburgers because I want cheeseburgers.
DAVE: Did you take those pills, man?
HURLEY: No, man. I'm just not coming. Look, you don't want me to get better. You don't want me to change.
DAVE: You don't need to change, man. You are fine. You're great.
HURLEY: No, I'm not. You just want me to stay fat. You don't want me to get better. You wouldn't care if I ate myself to death.
DAVE: Do not do this, man. If you don't come with me right now, you will never get out of here.
HURLEY: Bye, Dave.
[Hurley closes the window.]
---------
[On-Island - We see Hurley with his eyes closed. He opens them and sees Dave. He closes them again, but Dave is still there when he opens them.]
DAVE: You wouldn't happen to have my slipper, would you?
[Hurley hands him his slipper.]
DAVE: Thank you. Oh, man, you got peanut butter on it. Okay, look, I know you're freaking out right now, and I'm, I'm sorry. But it's going to get a little worse before it gets better.
HURLEY: Worse?
DAVE: Yeah, kind of. You ready, dude? [Hurley nods.] You remember that night you closed that window on me? [Hurley nods.] You remember what you did after that night?
HURLEY: Yeah, I realized you were imaginary.
DAVE: Mmmmhmmm.
HURLEY: And that was a breakthrough. And a little while later Brooks let me out, and I went home to live with my mom, and I got my job at Mr. Clucks back. And I got better.
DAVE: Okay, good, great, yeah -- except see, here's the thing -- uh -- none of that ever happened.
HURLEY: What?
DAVE: You're still at Santa Rosa, man. You never left the hospital.
HURLEY: That's -- not possible.
DAVE: It's hard, I know, but I mean -- all this? You, me, this island, that peanut butter -- none of it's real, man. None of it's happening. It's all in your head, my friend. The second you closed that window your brain popped a gasket. You went back into your little coma thing. And that's where you are right this very second. In your own private Idaho, inside Santa Rosa.
HURLEY: No. I had my mom, my friend Johnny -- I won the lottery.
DAVE: Whoa, wow, awesome, dude! What numbers did you play? Leonard's numbers, right -- from the hospital? What a coincidence. You, uh, seen them around anywhere else?
HURLEY: The Hatch?
DAVE: Bingo! The Hatch -- with the button that you've got to push every 108 minutes or the world ends. Oh, oh, oh, and what's the code for the button? Oh yeah, the Numbers.
HURLEY: But I got better. I changed.
DAVE: Changed? What, are you kidding me? Take a look at yourself. You've been on a deserted island for over 2 months and you haven't dropped 10 pounds. How is that even possible, man?
HURLEY: I just destroyed my stash, and I've been exercising. Libby says it won't happen over night.
DAVE: Oh, right, right, right, Libby -- the mega cute blonde chick who magically appeared from the other side of the Island. Oh, oh, oh, yeah -- and who just happens to have the hots for you. Come on, man, let's take a walk.
----------
[We see Dave and Hurley walking through the jungle.]
HURLEY: So this is all in my brain?
DAVE: Every rock, every tree. Every tree frog. Even me. The real me -- the one they told you was imaginary? He went out the window, man. Right now he's probably bouncing from hot chick to hot chick, unlike me, who's really you, who's got more important things to do.
HURLEY: So I'm making you up?
DAVE: Well, sort of. I'm part of your subconscious, man. All the people on this island are.
HURLEY: What part of me are you?
DAVE: I'm the part of you that wants to wake up, man. Follow me.
[We see them arrive at a high cliff above the ocean.]
DAVE: This is it, dude.
HURLEY: It?
DAVE: The big finale. The answer to all your problems. A way for you to wake up, snap out of it.
HURLEY: I don't want to kill myself.
DAVE: Who said anything about killing yourself, man? This is going to bring you back to life. The only way for you to bust out is to tell your mind that you don't believe any of this.
HURLEY: So, if I -- all this will be gone? I'll just wake up?
DAVE: That's right. And when you do wake up, come find me. I'm sure I miss you. See you in another life, Hurley.
[Dave backs up to the edge of the cliff and lets himself fall backwards, laughing all the way down.]
HURLEY: Dave!!
------
[Back at the cliff, we see Hurley looking down into the surf.]
HURLEY: Dave!
LIBBY: [appearing] Who's Dave?
HURLEY: What are you doing here?
LIBBY: What are you doing here?
HURLEY: How'd you know where I was?
LIBBY: Jin saw you while he was fishing.
HURLEY: Hah! Jin doesn't speak English!
LIBBY: Sun was with him. She translated. Hurley, what is going on?
HURLEY: No! You're just a part of me that's scared. You don't want me to wake up. Well, guess what? I'm not scared.
[Hurley takes a couple steps back toward the edge of the cliff.]
LIBBY: Okay, okay, Hurley, you're having some sort of panic attack. I get that. But this isn't like you.
HURLEY: Like me? You don't know me.
LIBBY: I was starting to.
HURLEY: Yeah, well did you know I'm so fat that I killed 2 people? And that I have an imaginary friend?
LIBBY: Hurley, please, you're going to hurt yourself.
HURLEY: No, I'm not, because this isn't happening! None of it! I'm just imagining it! This isn't real life!
LIBBY: Why would you say that?
HURLEY: Because in real life -- no girl like you would ever like me. Remember when I said I knew you from somewhere? Well, maybe it's because I made you up?
LIBBY: What was the man's name who broke his leg? The day of the crash on the other side of the Island, Eko brought a man with a broken leg to me for help. What was his name?
HURLEY: I don't know.
LIBBY: You don't know. You know why? Because it happened to me. His name was Donald, and I buried him. I buried a lot of people, Hurley. So don't tell me that that wasn't real. And don't tell me you made me up. It's insulting.
HURLEY: When you saw me on the beach this morning was I holding a slipper?
LIBBY: Not that I can remember, no. [She holds Hurley's face in her hands.] Hurley, look at me. I am real. You're real. The way I feel about you -- that's real.
[She kisses him.]
LIBBY: And that was real.
HURLEY: Maybe you should do it one more time just to be sure.
LIBBY: Ready to go back?
[They start walking back.]
HURLEY: Do you really think I can, you know, change?
LIBBY: Yeah, yeah I do.
[Flashback - The scene when Dr. Brooks takes the picture of Hurley and Dave repeats with some changes.]
DR. BROOKS: Why don't you get a little closer together.
[We see Hurley put his arm around nothing.]
DR. BROOKS: Say cheese.
HURLEY: Cheese.
DR. BROOKS: Great. So, you need some water to go with that?
HURLEY: Nope. I'm good.
[We see a woman patient's profile, apparently watching Hurley.]
DR. BROOKS: See you later, guys. Thanks for the photo op.
[The camera pans around and we see that woman is very disheveled, out-of-it, Libby.]
NURSE: Here's your pill, Libby.
----
That final reveal of the “true” Libby leads one to believe that the Island could be a layered multi-person group delusion and/or Hurley combining his memories of other people in the hospital and his life into a vivid mental illusion of the Island events.

The statement Dave makes that rings true is the idea that for Hurley to get out his mental fantasy world of the Island, he has to “wake up” and kill himself - - - and in the End, the characters need to be “awakened” in the sideways world in order to reunite and move on in the after life. Not being “awake” has a direct connection to the mechanics of the Island and the sideways world concepts.

The fantasy loop centers around Hurley’s inability to change. He has hidden himself in a shell because of the guilt of deck accident. And it is Hurley “just making” the plane as the starting point for his “journey” is the polar bear comic in Spanish that Walt would later find to the end point where Hurley must “stay” on the Island as its new guardian. Why? It is a mental bridge in order to Hurley himself to “wake up.”

Hurley will wind up as the guardian of Island. Why? Because he made up everything about the Island. Remember, it is Hurley who knows all the campers names (he has to correct Bernard several times in his quest to recruit people for the SOS sign). Hurley as the last main character standing on the Island, to put in his own “rules” and to basically shut it down is like a patient finally working through his issues, having a breakthrough, such as to go back to reality. But in Hurley’s world, his post-Island time frame is the sideways world, which Christian says is the afterlife. But is it? Or is it a continuation of Hurley’s Island delusions but now in time-space or heaven?

When he talks for the last time to Ben outside the church, he remarks that Ben was a good number two man, but Ben has things to “work out” before leaving that existence. This could also be a clue to a layered effect of multiple mental patients possibly tied to group therapy or a connected brainwave network (Dharma Institute was trying experimental investigations, including mental procedures and mind games). It is possible that Dharma hooked up catatonic patients into a neuro-network and allowed them to have some “virtual life” in their delusional states. It would play with the characters showing many signs of psychosis or possible group psychosis.

What is psychosis?

Psychosis is usually a symptom of a mental disorder. Psychosis means there is a loss of contact with reality. One important and puzzling feature of psychosis is usually an accompanying lack of insight into the unusual, strange or bizarre nature of the person's experience or behavior. Even in the case of an acute psychosis, sufferers may seem completely unaware that their vivid hallucinations and impossible delusions are in any way unrealistic. This is not an absolute; however, insight can vary between individuals and throughout the duration of the psychotic episode. Affected persons may show pressure of speech (speaking incessantly and quickly), derailment or flight of ideas (switching topic mid-sentence or inappropriately), thought blocking, and rhyming or punning.

Sawyer use of puns and cut-downs such as “deep dish” or “Jabba” to Hurley, could be pure meanness or could be a symptom of psychosis.

How does it occur?

The exact cause of psychosis is not known. It may be caused by something physical. This is called organic psychosis. Organic psychosis can be brought on by brain tumors, epilepsy, head injuries, a severe lack of sleep, or infections such as meningitis. Too much or too little of certain brain chemicals called neurotransmitters may lead to psychosis.

Psychosis may also be the result of a mental disorder such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or severe depression.

All the characters have back stories of injuries, being beaten up or involved in major crash crashes.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms are:
Hallucinations: People may hear voices that no one else can hear, see people or objects that are not there, or feel something that is not there. Hearing voices is usually a sign of a psychiatric problem. Hallucinations that involve seeing, feeling, smelling, or tasting are more likely to be a sign of a medical problem.

Delusions: People with psychosis have false beliefs or ideas that are not true. For example, they might believe there is a plot against them by powerful people, or that they have special powers no one else has.

Changed feelings: People may feel strange and cut off from the world, with everything moving in slow motion. Mood swings are common, so they may feel very excited or depressed. Or people may feel less emotion or show less emotion to those around them.

Changed behavior: People with psychosis behave differently than the way they usually do. They may be very active, or just sit around all day. They may get angry without apparent cause.

Disorganized thinking: Everyday thoughts become confused. Sentences don't make sense. A person may have trouble concentrating, following a conversation or remembering things. Thoughts may seem to speed up or slow down.

More and more characters see visions of their pasts in the jungle, including Kate’s horse, Hurley’s Numbers, Jack’s dead father, etc. The survivors seem content on the beach knowing that they are in danger; but are quick to violence.

How is it treated?

The treatment of a psychosis depends on the cause. Medicines are usually the most important part of the treatment. Many medicines are available. These medicines can cause some side effects, but you and your healthcare provider will watch for them closely. Peer support can be very helpful in the healing process. A  group facilitator can  use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people cope with the negative thoughts and symptoms of psychosis. Group therapy could be helpful in certain circumstances. Human beings are essentially social. If the individual is the basic biological unit, the basic psychological unit is the small group. In our culture the family provides this primary role. This widens to the extended family, the community and then into society as a whole. We arrive at a sense of ourselves through our interaction with others. We also derive meaning and significance from personal and social relationships. The notion of someone having a sense of themselves in isolation from others is ultimately untenable. The individual must be placed within the context of his or her natural group.

Loners worst fear is being alone. Many episodes conclude with bonding moments between two people, or the isolation of one person like Charlie on the beach after kidnapping Aaron, or Sawyer after Hurley beats him up alone in his tent until Vincent comes by.

There has always been a question of whether Ben knew about the Hatch. You would think that if he grew up in the Dharma collective, he would have been aware of the various stations. But maybe not. The Hatch was in the territory of the Others. Ben will be surprised to learn about Desmond, the man who manned the Hatch prior to the 815 survivors. But during the Lockdown event, it appears Ben knows about the Numbers and the computer interface. We don’t see him actually input the Numbers and stop the event - - - which calls into question, what is really the event: the imaginary perils of Locke or a real dangerous event cycle?

Ben devious smile happens only when Locke goes nearly mad, needing to know whether Ben actually pushed the button during the Lockdown event.

There was also a question of why as the leader of the Others, Ben allowed himself to get captured by Rousseau in the first place and then taken to the survivors camp. It is possible that the Others in the Barracks were upset that Ben’s two spies got killed by plane crash survivors. He had to “man up” and do his own recon. He may have also wanted to start baiting the mental traps in each of the main characters - - - the distrust issues, the power issues, the secrets - - - in order to weaken the group as a whole.

He certainly put paranoia and confusion in the mind of Locke. He also stirred the conflict between Locke and Jack on who is in charge of their group. Those conflicts will continue to effect the group decision making process, leading to more splintering of loyalties.

Magical/Supernatural/Elements:

The appearance of Dave, an alleged “imaginary friend” on the Island, who can physically interact with Hurley. Example, throwing a coconut at him or Hurley picking up his slipper.

Last lines in episodes:

EP 41:
GALE: Wow, you guys have some real trust issues, don't you? Guess it makes sense she didn't tell you. I mean, with the two of you fighting all the time. Of course, if I was one of them -- these people that you seem to think are your enemies -- what would I do? Well, there'd be no balloon, so I'd draw a map to a real secluded place like a cave or some underbrush -- good place for a trap -- an ambush. And when your friends got there a bunch of my people would be waiting for them. Then they'd use them to trade for me. I guess it's a good thing I'm not one of them, huh? You guys got any milk?

EP 42:
SAYID: We did find your balloon, Henry Gale, exactly how you described it. We also found the grave you described -- your wife's grave. The grave you said you dug with your own bare hands. It was all there. Your whole story -- your alibi -- it was true. But still I did not believe it to be true. So I dug up that grave and found that there was not a woman inside. There was a man. [Sayid shows him a driver's license] A man named Henry Gale.

EP 43:
[The camera pans around and we see that woman is very disheveled, out-of-it, Libby.]
NURSE: Here's your pill, Libby.

EP 44:
[Suddenly they hear movement and see a torch coming through the jungle. Someone is running toward them making frightened gasping sounds. He falls almost at their feet and they turn him over.]
KATE: Michael?

New Ideas/Tests of Theories:
Hurley was deemed by many fans as the viewer's surrogate on the Island. The one character who would ask the right questions and observe the tension and events of the other characters. He was the one character to bring some light moments to an otherwise dark situation. Many people could relate to Hurley's character.

When Hurley talked about transference, it could also relate to the concept of the show’s mental institution theories.  When we talk about transference in the setting of a hospital mental institution, with its floors and “stations,” one could argue that there are similar pieces on the island. When you have institutional group sessions and group rooms, the island also has their own “groups.” If these groups have vivid fantasies, then they could create the island dynamic as it pits them against authority. Dave is Hurley’s alter-ego against such authority. When Dr. Brooks asks Hurley to make LISTs, that idea is transferred through to the Others who also demand “lists” or work off “lists of names.” The idea of the Numbers, lists, food - -  neurotic triggers of Hurleys mind - - - being of importance and repeating on the Island is because those elements are repeated because Hurley’s subconscious continues to repeat them in his fantasy world.

This leads to the possibility that the big premise of Lost is contained in Hurley’s dream world. Dave’s explanation to Hurley that all of this is in his mind is the most detailed character driven rationale in the entire series. Where else can the surreal nature of the smoke monsters, polar bears in the jungle, whispers in the brush, and hostile natives all function except in the vivid fantasy world in someone’s creative mind.  People have said that their night visions are so “real” that they wake up in a panic, thinking the events are happening to them in real time. What if they are so real, a catatonic patient cannot wake up from his nightmares? Dave’s solution is that you need to kill yourself in your nightmare in order to wake up in the real world.

Hurley has an opportunity to end his mental trap, but some part of him does not want to deal with reality. In his reality, he blames himself for the death of two people in a deck collapse, because of his weight. In an Albert Brooks movie tangent, the idea that Hurley was in an accident that killed two people, one of those people may have been himself. Like in Defending Your Life, a dead Hurley boards a plane to the afterlife with fellow souls, except for some reason, these people don’t believe they are dead. The plane crash was a fiction for these lost souls to work out their sins, issues and character flaws in order to pass on to the next level of existence.

Hurley choses to continue his fantasy over a chance at getting back at reality. If you believe that the flashbacks are “real,” then Hurley would have known about Libby at the mental institution: they shared the same day room. Her photograph would have been on the bulletin board. She was only a few feet away from him when Leonard is playing Connect Four. Hurley’s memories of people we know he saw or who he could have saw if it is a criminal mental institution create all of his Island “characters.” That makes sense on all the backstory “coincidences” of the Island characters, such as Desmond telling Jack at the stadium, “see you in another life,” just as Dave tells Hurley he will “see him in another life.” How would Hurley know Desmond’s line to Jack unless Hurley himself had a memory or subconscious use of it.

These episodes dynamically reinforce the theories about mental illness creating a fantasy world that the characters are trying to get through, via quests, religious ritual or missions of survival. It seems that some characters must reach their personal “rock bottom” in order to change, in order to be saved.

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.