WHAT WE KNOW

Diagrams are useful tools to express ideas and alternatively, to try to find answers to complex problems.

One of the great mysteries of the series was the island. We know a lot about the island, but we really don't know a lot of important information about the island.

Using Jacob as the focal point, I began to draw the above diagram. We know that Jacob was the central authority on the island during the 815 era. We know that he was brought to the island by Roman shipwreck. He was kidnapped by Crazy Mother, who at the time was the central authority on the island. Jacob and his brother lived together with Crazy Mother on the island.

One thing we do know is that the island is hard to find, even with the most advanced technologies. Therefore, the island is a "closed" system. It has a special barrier that limits who can ingress or egress its boundaries.

During the family feud, Jacob's brother killed Crazy Mother, and then Jacob killed his brother (which was strictly forbidden). As a result, a smoke monster took the form of his dead brother (MIB). It appears that they were to live alone on the island forever. Jacob was given the role of island guardian, and MIB was given the role of island security dog. But if no one could find the island, their existence would have been futile. Without MIB presence, Jacob probably would have gone mad in isolation (which was probably what happened to Crazy Mother).

We know that the unique energy of the island is contained in the heart of the island, which equates to some kind of "life force." The light source was described as "life, death and rebirth." The context of this description is that the heart of the island is the heart of the universe - - - the creator of all life and the religious recycler of all death into new life.

So we know the importance of the island as it houses the power to create life, destroy life and re-create life.

To save his own sanity, Jacob decided to bring "candidates" to the island in order to a) play a game or b) experiment with human behavior to prove a point to MIB. We know that deep inside MIB's memories is the strong desire to "escape" the island (as Jacob's brother did), so MIB played along with Jacob's work. MIB's support of Jacob bringing people to the island was a mere ploy to learn how to get off the island. If MIB could not directly kill Jacob (as was the rule with his brother), then MIB would use trickery to get one of Jacob's candidates to do it. MIB frustration with the people brought to the island was clear: they would get her, settle in, then devolve into "corruption." From MIB's perspective, corruption could have been worship of Jacob and not plotting his demise. From Jacob's perspective, the people brought to the island did not get the result he secretly wanted: death and release of his responsibilities as Crazy Mother had lured Jacob into thousands of years ago. Even though they did not know it, both Jacob and MIB were looking for the same result but took their own different paths to try to achieve it. This caused a frustrating stalemate.

Since the candidates were brought to the island, they were under the sphere of influence of the heart of the island. We do not observe any intelligent behavior of the light source itself. We do not observe it changing or killing either Desmond or Jack when they went into the light cave to reboot the island. Whether Dez and Jack were marked with immortality earlier by the island is unclear, but whatever they did together did set the stage for the final time of Jacob and MIB.

The light source had to transform the candidates into one of the three categories: giving life, giving death or giving rebirth. We know that all of the candidates and their closest friends were reincarnated in the sideways church world, a place in the after life. The exact process of that reincarnation is unknown. It appears not automatic, as there were several candidates who were either trapped on the island as spirits or never made it to the sideways world.

As a machine diagram, the island looks like it takes through its barrier human souls, experiments with them in order to either remold or change their behavior, then releases them back to their lives, or kills them directly, or gives them rebirth either on or off the island.

PASSAGES

There are numerous passages during one's life. There is the physical passage to birth. Then there is the passage from dependent baby to exploring child. Then there is the transition from child to adult. And the final transformation from adult to old age.

Literature is filled with symbolic passages marking life's key events.

The journey through life is depicted as travel, a voyage, a quest, a road to hoe.

At death, is it symbolized in various forms but takes on the elements of travel to the next level existence, heaven. In ancient times, there was the story of the dead being ferried across the River Styx to hell for judgment. In modern times, in movies like Defending Your Life, souls are sorted by various passenger trains. Some evidence suggests that in near death experiences, people see a bright, white light in a tunnel. They get a sense of wanting to follow the light.

Once one reaches the travel sorting station, there is usually a test or continuation of the journey. A weighing of the heart. A defense of good versus evil behavior. Sins judged against moral achievements.

These passages represent a purification of one's spirit. This cleansing is to be done so only "worthy" souls can join in external paradise. Most people believe that one will have a second or third chance to become "worthy" of everlasting life.

All major religions have some teachings about the passage of a person's life force after death. It may be the foundation for hope in the present and the future. The cynical believe that it is merely a means to control unruly populations. There gets to a point throughout history that people would rather take the unknown passage of death than live in the poverty, war, disease or pain of their culture or society.

There is no question that the main characters of LOST had many passages to make during the series. There is a question of whether the whole LOST series was merely a dress rehearsal for the real passage in the sideways after life. Whether the characters were in a island purgatory or human beings transported to a spiritual world, they were given the opportunity to change, make amends, release regrets, and cleanse their sins. Whether they made good on their second chances is highly questionable.

SMOKING SOMETHING

The Smoke Monster a/k/a Smokey was a fascinating character.

We really do not know how it was created; what it is made of; how it manifests itself in time and space; or why it is the island's "security system."  We know it is capable of being a shape shifting pillar of smoke with the memories of dead people.

The earliest we see the smoke monster (in island time) is after Jacob kills his brother and the body is thrown into the stream to float into the light cave. A howling smoke monster flies out of the cave opening. Now, do we believe that the fact that Jacob's brother's body "awakened" the smoke monster and its ire, or that Jacob's brother turned into a smoke monster? Well, the latter is probably not true because Jacob buried his brother in a cave with Crazy Mother (whom Locke called Adam and Eve.) So Jacob's brother's body was not transformed into a smoke monster.

We believe that Crazy Mother was a smoke monster. We saw that she destroyed the Roman camp in the same after math as the smoke monster destroying the Barracks when Widmore's soldiers returned to the island. And there are ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs at the temple depicting the smoke monster. So the evidence shows that a smoke monster was on the island prior to Jacob's brother's death.

Since Crazy Mother was a smoke monster, we know that she was killed only after she passed on her "guardianship" of the island to Jacob in a ceremony near the light cave. Once she did that, Jacob's brother stabbed her with a special knife. It is unclear whether she allowed the fatal blow or was defenseless, considering that Sayid's attempt to kill MIB was thwarted by mere words with Flocke.

And was Crazy Mother's ceremony to grant Jacob the knowledge of the island also a transformation of Jacob himself into a smoke monster? It is possible since Jacob did not know about the island's properties - - - just as Jacob transferred his authority to Jack at the last camp fire. But then, Jack would have become a smoke monster. And if Crazy Mother's rules were correct, that smoke beings could not kill each other, then Jack's turning over the guardianship to Hurley (unknown to Flocke) plus Kate's bullet could have killed Flocke.

If one sees the evidence that a smoke monster's shape shifting and memory stealing abilities is tied to engulfing a dead body, then there are more issues to explain. The series does point to the abilities to talk to the dead or read their last memories (Hurley and Miles). The smoke monster must have those same abilities in order to transform itself into dead people.

But there is one problem with the first incarnation. Christian's body was not on Flight 815. The coffin was empty. In the sideways arc, the body arrives weeks later. So if Christian's body was not deposited on the island, then where did the smoke monster get the information to create a Christian body double?  The only logical means would be to read Jack's mind.

But this leads to an uncomfortable detour for some fans. If the smoke monster can only shape shift based upon reading the memories of the dead, then that would mean that Jack was dead on the island. He did not survive the plane crash. Jack was not the only example of a memory swipe to create an illusion on the island. Kate saw her horse in the jungle, but her horse was not on the plane. Then we have Hurley interacting physically with Dave, his imaginary friend. Was Dave on the island another smoke monster manifestation, urging Hurley to kill himself (because he was a candidate)?

We also have the situation of Mr. Eko talking directly to his dead brother Yemi. Yemi was the priest who was captured by the drug smugglers at the airport during a firefight with police. Eko assumed his brother's life. On the island, the smuggler's plane was found - - - with the body of Yemi. Now, it impossible for a small plane to fly from Africa to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Most people believe that the plane crash and Yemi's body were manufactured by the smoke monster. If that is true, then the smoke monster would have had to read Eko's memories - - - again, meaning that Eko died in the plane crash.

The same holds true for Richard Alpert, when he sees his dead wife, Isabella on the island. The first time was when he was in the hold of the Black Rock, as the smoke monster was killing the survivors. The second time was near the end, when he saw her with Hurley near Alpert's special spot (where he buried her jewelry).

If the smoke monster was re-creating persons from the island inhabitants past, what was the reason?

The simple answer is that the smoke monster wanted the people to do something. Ghost Walt stood over the purge grave telling a bleeding Locke to get up because he still "had work to do." Ghost Alex confronted Ben in the temple, scolding him with guilt, to follow everything Flocke (MIB) told him to do (which led to the killing of Jacob.) Ghost Horace told Locke about Jacob's cabin and foreshadowed the danger that island leaders encounter on the island.

The one oddity is that in all the creations of dead people, the smoke monster had the most freedom, interaction and interpretation as Jacob's brother, MIB. In that form, MIB seemed to be an equal with Jacob. MIB called Jacob "the devil." However, in MIB's form, the smoke monster must have fused in Jacob's brother's last strong emotions: to leave the island. MIB's quest for centuries thereafter was to leave the island.  But for no apparent reason, MIB or the smoke monster could not.

Which leads to another problem. When Jack returned to the mainland as an O6 survivor, he found Ghost Christian in the lobby of the medical building. The smoke detector went off, and Jack went to investigate. If this was a shape shifting smoke monster, but not MIB (who could not leave the island), then it had to be Jacob. That would mean Jacob himself was a smoke monster.

The grant of immortality to people on the island by Jacob may have been a ruse of a truth. With Alpert, being dead was itself being immortal. But Alpert did not know his fate so he could be conned into the service of Jacob.

So in all the smoke monsters manifestations, it is not perfectly clear who or what the smoke monster was in every situation. In one sense, the smoke monster was an information gathering machine. In another sense, it was an angry amalgamation of dead souls trapped in an island purgatory. No one can say for sure whether the smoke monster was good, evil or merely confused. It killed both good people, bad people, sinners and followers.

What we can say is that the smoke monster by definition is the visible suspension of carbon or other particles in air, typically one emitted from a burning substance, which some theorists minds would represent carbon (the basis of human life) being burnt in hell.


It could also mean to fumigate, cleanse, or purify by exposure to smoke, which also fits into the underworld judgment theme. It could also mean to  force someone to make something known: as the press smokes him out on other human rights issues, he will be revealed as a social conservative. If this is a character study, then putting the characters under stressful situations to make them change would be a story alternative.

A monster is an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening. This would fit into the illusion themes of the series. It can also be used to describe an inhumanly cruel or wicked person. There were many cruel and evil characters on the show who did not repress their cruelty onto others.

If you put both definitions together, smoke is an description of the main word. One could say the smoke monster is a purifying imaginary creature forcing characters to make something known to themselves. Whether that something is overcoming an inner fear, regrets about relationships or acknowledging their own demise, that could have been the smoke monster's role.

THE BEN PROBLEM

There are many documented problems with the LOST story. These problems deal with story structure and the events viewers saw during the series. These go beyond continuity issues or shooting errors, but to major plot point questions.

One of the least discussed problems is with Ben.

And it deals with the traditional paradox of time travel.

A paradox a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory. As Issac Asimov explained the classic literary example is “What if you go back into the past and kill your grandfather when he was still a little boy?” This event would change the person's world so dramatically, that the killer would not be born. So complex and hopeless are the paradoxes…that the easiest way out of the irrational chaos that results is to suppose that true time-travel is, and forever will be, impossible, Asimov said.

The grandfather paradox is from time travel literature which states that a person who goes back in time can massively alter future events.

When a few of the 815 survivors time travel to Dharmaville in 1974, a young boy is already present on the island. His name was Ben Linus. He was an unhappy boy. His father was a drunk janitor who blamed his wife death on Ben. (She died during child birth). As a result, Ben and his father were never close. Ben was brought to the island by his father because he needed work. Ben became an introvert and apparently only had one friend in the island school. At some time, Ben began to see visions of his dead mother in the jungle. Ben became rebellious over the the Dharma rules, and he sought out to join the Others. He met Richard Alpert in the jungle, but Ben was told it was not time yet.

But whatever time line was supposed to happen, changed when the 815ers time traveled to 1974. During the encounter with Sayid in 1977, Ben was mortally wounded in the chest. Juliet could not do anything to save Ben. Jack refused to help, knowing what adult Ben would do to them after Flight 815 crashed on the island. So Juliet and Kate take it upon themselves to deliver bleeding Ben to Alpert. Alpert takes Ben, but tells them he would be "forever changed."  Ben is taken to the temple to be saved.

And here is begins the problem. Juliet, a medical doctor, could not save Ben from dying of his wounds. If Ben was taken to the temple, we have to assume that the same ceremony would have been performed by Dogen as he did on mortally wounded Sayid after the time skips stopped. When Sayid was treated in the temple pool, he died. But much later, he was reincarnated as a soul less Sayid who recognized his own internal darkness.

One has to assume that Ben also "died" in the temple, because medical science could not save him.  And if he died and then was "reincarnated," he also became evil. Now, some people will say that assumption is false. Ben was "saved" by the Others so he grew up as he normally did prior to the time skips. However, if as a boy being shot in 1977, Ben would have had to change his personality and outlook on life.

But another problem with the major time event is that Ben did not remember Sayid when Flight 815 crashed on the island. Would you not remember who shot you at point blank range? Now, some may argue that Ben would have not known of Sayid because the shooting did not take place until later in the series. But we are not talking about seasonal episode air dates as being relevant. The story stated Ben was shot in 1977. Then 30 years later, his killer returns to his island.

Ben knows just about everything about the island, so his boyhood memories would not have been erased. He began the Other's spy within the Dharma group. He rose up to take command of the Others by purging the Dharma people with poison gas. He should have known about Sayid.

Further, if Ben died in 1977, there would have been no Ben led Dharma group bent on kidnapping and terrorizing the 815 survivors.

Another problem is what did Ben become after the temple ritual. Clearly, if he followed Sayid's path, Ben was a soul less being - - - which could have been manipulated by Jacob or MIB. But then again, why did Ben get a second chance at life when the other people on the island did not? Or did the temple waters actually create a new smoke monster in the form of Ben?

It set into motion the same type of mass destruction we have seen other smoke monsters, like Crazy Mother, do to inhabitants on the island.

The writers cannot give us a grandfather paradox moment and not explain why there was no consequences in the future.

MUSICAL CLUES

Music that was played on the series was speculated by some viewers to be hidden clues.

For example, in the Season 2 episode, "The Hunting Party" Jack faces a major problem as he wakes to find a gun wielding Michael, who leaves to find Walt, who kidnapped by the Others. With the help of Locke and Sawyer,  Jack heads out to bring Michael back before he is killed by the natives.

During this episode, the music playing in the Hatch was "Fall on Me", by Pousette-Dar Band.

The lyrics may be the clues:

Fall, fall on me

If you're gonna fall
fall on me
and if you're go'in down
hold on to me

I can see the sorrow in you're eyes
I can feel you're heart wondering why

If you're gonna fall,
fall on me
and if you're go'in down
hold on to me

Now you feel
you've lost all reason
can't face another day
when it's despair
it's just a season
that comes and goes away

If you're gonna fall
fall on me
and if you're go'in down
hold on to me

If you're go'in down
hold on to me
when you got a soul
that shines on
so much love can't help but turn mine on,

If you're gonna fall,
fall on me
and if you're go'in down
hold on to me

Fall, fall on me

Two things come to mind in reading the lyrics:

1) when a castaway like Michael loses all reason (his anger to get back his son), it is just another seasonal plot point that "comes and goes away."
2) the reference to "a soul" prequels death, but in Michael's case even Walt's love for him cannot turn his soul from a trapped whisper to the sideways world reunion.

The first comment reinforces that retrospective feeling for some that LOST had no continuity from season to season; there was no clearly defined plot structure; it was a free form series with more story arc dead ends than well constructed story telling of an epic tale.

The second comment reinforces that the characters were not whom they seem to represent, either in human form or as lost spirits trapped in a transitional world of the living and the dead. Many of the main characters brutally failed in their actions on the island, but still received a happy reunion in the after life sideways church. It would seem that failing together was better than failing alone.

HUMAN EXPERIMENT

In all civilized societies, there are limits which set acceptable behavior.

In LOST, those social governors were stripped away once individuals reached the island. There were no rules. People either tried to hold on to the moral compass, or fell deep into the darkness of instinctive savagery.

In a land where there is no accountability or responsibility, how would a average human being operate?  LOST could be seen as a window into human behavior if all controls were turned off.

It is not a theory, but a new way to look at the show.

Early on, many of the passengers came to the conclusion that their past did not matter anymore. They could start fresh, a new, without the baggage of their past mistakes or daunting secrets. It is quite the gift to eliminate one's past and create your own new future.

So this may be the human experiment that MIB loathed for centuries. Human beings were brought to the island but they all wound up corrupting it. The Flight 815 arc was no different. Ben turned mass murderer with his purge of the Dharma folks. The survivors ambushed the Others at the beach camp. Widmore's people on the Hydra Island allegedly wiped out the people on board the Ajira plane.

It would seem that individuals who gain or seize power tend to allow it to consume their souls in the quest for more power.  That is the basic grease that spins the wheel of corruption.

If you would view the series as a space alien, could you actually analyze the data (the show and its events) in any way other than being a series of barbaric episodes with no social redeeming qualities?

Human beings have done bad things under the cause of being just (i.e. The Great Wars). But in the LOST island environment, there was never even a cause identified to justify the brutality that human beings inflicted upon each other. How did the brain washing of Karl in Room 23 have any greater good?

If the characters were symbolic lab rats wandering the island maze of missed opportunities, broken dreams, deep rooted fears, childhood fantasy and low moral self esteem, how did the human race do?

YOUTH

I read in a magazine that "the wonder of youth" is a prerequisite for all that is possible in life.

What are the main attributes of youth?

Learning. The absorption of knowledge of one's surroundings begins immediately after birth. The ability to begin to move around in one's environment is the next step. Then the acquisition of knowledge becomes standardized in each person's own culture. Trial and error is acceptable as a child.

Rebellion. Perhaps based on the lack of knowledge of how things really work, youth often rebels against the constraints of their parents or society norms. Many parents wait for their wild children to get their rebellious tendencies out of their system before they leave the nest.

Experimentation. Youth have less inhibitors when it comes to social norms, vices, alcohol, drugs, etc. Some scientifically inclined will just throw things together just to see what happens. Many times, they don't believe things cannot be done.

Dreamers. Youth more often than not have dreams about the paths they want their life to follow. A young child can dream to be a fireman or an astronaut. Through child's play, imagination is developed which later on can be formed into applied knowledge to solve problems.

Fear. Until a child grows up to see the world as it is, he or she can become trapped in the simplest of fears such as the dark, being left alone, etc. There is an emotional development to growing up and experiencing life which parallels the intellectual development in people.

A child can view the wide open world with wonder.

As people grow into adulthood, these attributes are reformed.
Learning becomes adult skill sets for one's employment or profession.
Rebellion becomes the desire to improve oneself's lot in life.
Experimentation gives way to standardized habits and behavior.
Dreams become more nostaglic as a daily routine becomes the norm.
Fear gives way to anxiety and emotional bouts triggered by certain stressful events, such as
marriage, a new job, a death in the family, an accident, or the birth of a child.

In some ways, the main characters in LOST held more true to the attributes of youth than the reformed ways of adulthood. This can reinforce the notion that the characters were actually children in the guise of "acting as adults" in a dream world.