LOST: claimed

Just a mess of thoughts on this notion of being claimed...

WHAT DOES "CLAIMED" MEAN?

I'm looking to existing models of supernatural infection for some possibilities. We've got Zombies, Vampires, MATRIX Agents, Aliens, and maybe Eclipsos. I think Zombies and Agents are out. I like Vampires for the classic (Bram Stoker?) three-bite program. Before the third bite, someone claimed by a vampire can retain his identity, but be susceptible to his master's call or used as an extension of the master's senses or will. I like part of the Alien model, too. When someone has been impregnated by a facehugger, that person still has his will and identity until the chestburster is fully incubated and during that time, is considered by other Aliens to be off-limits. This can turn the properly motivated Alien victim into the perfect temporary soldier to fight other Aliens. The incubating Alien also boosts its host's strength and health to better the odds of its maturation. I might've picked that up from an ALIEN comic book series and not the movies. Or maybe that's the Brood? Anyhow, I'd dig seeing that as an infection side effect, too. From Eclipso, I like the idea that the infected ultimately becomes a dark version of himself, not necessarily a servant of anyone else. Well, y'know, depending on who's writing.

The pacing of the show leads you to think that the claim is being made by the Monster/Esau. However, I'm liking the idea that the infection does not lead to subservience to him specifically, but to a more general force of chaos or evil, which, given Island politics, would naturally be aligned more often than not with Esau's goals.

HOW IS ONE CLAIMED?

I don't think we have enough info to guess how it happens, but of course, I have a couple of ideas...

Maybe a person contracts infection, or the spore or seed of infection, while he's alive, but the infection can only spread once he dies or approaches near death. The host dies, the seed begins to grow and the first thing it does is reboots its host's system, reviving him. It preserves its host as best as it can while it spreading thru its body, heart, and mind.

Maybe it seeks out any dead or near-dead body, and if it's in decent enough condition, it takes root, reboots, and grows.

I've got no clue how a person becomes a host. Maybe "spores" are everywhere, and everyone is exposed to them, but some indivduals are more susceptible. Maybe its spiritual weakness, maybe its physical/immunological, due to emotional trauma or an actual wound or injury.

Remember, the Others have a ritual for their dead—fire and water. We see it once, I think it's in the aftermath of the Others' assault on the Elizabeth (Sun shoots Trixie), and we know that in 1974, Richard demands to know where the bodies of his murdered people are. I believed this was about keeping "the Island" from turning them into its puppets. Now I get that it was more specifically the Monster/Esau that they were concerned about. However, it may have been as a measure to protect against infection/being claimed as well.

WHO'S BEEN CLAIMED?

Two definitely, Sayid and Claire. And to my thinking, at least one maybe, Ben. Let's run thru how they were injured, identify some karmic highs and lows in their lives, remember if any exotic measures were taken to save their lives, and difference in behavior before and after their death/near-death and revival.

Sayid. Shot in 1974 by Uncle Rico. Jack claims that it's his fault that Sayid was wounded. He died in the Temple, drowned by the Others in the unclear waters of the spring. In life, before infection, he was a torturer, assassin, and sometime protector. He shot young Ben in the chest. He loved his wife, the love of his life, Nadia, who was killed, apparently by an agent of Widmore.

Claire. Caught in the blast of a mercenary's RPG while in a bungalow in New Otherton in 2004. Sawyer finds her unconscious in the debris. That night (I think), she wanders away from her friends in the company of her father. The next time we see her is in 2007 and she's apparently taken up Island residence as the new noble savage, following in Rousseau's feral footsteps, setting traps in the jungle and taking shots at the Others. In life, before infection, she was ready to give her baby up for adoption, but changed her mind on the Island, and seemed to be ready to begin a relationship with Charlie, who died while trying to save them all. She felt responsible for putting her mother in a coma as a result of a car accident in which she was driving.

Ben? I'd like for Ben to have been infected, for big Ben to be a dark version of little Ben, y'know? But besides that interpretation/observation itself, I don't have the info to back that up, y'know?

Anyhow... shot in 1974 by Sayid. Earlier in his life, he was visited by the ghost of his mother on the Island. He'd always felt a terrible loss at the mother he never knew. She convinced him that his future lay with the Hostiles, and Richard believed it, too. When he's brought to Richard to be saved, he takes him to the Temple, where I assume he underwent the same process that Sayid did, only in clear spring waters. He was immersed and then healed. Healed, NOT resurrected, cuz, if we can take Richard at his word, he told Lockesau that he'd seen a lot of amazing things on the Island, but he'd never seen someone return from the dead. Liar Ben himself says something similar to Sun, "Dead is dead."

When Widmore confronts Richard about why he saved Ben, Richard claims that Jacob wished it and that the Island chooses who the Island chooses. Bullstuff? Or a legit interpretation of Ben's visions of his deceased mother. Visions engineered by Esau? Her body would have to be on the Island for that to have been the Monster, so, another Monster ability? Or an actual Island or Jacob intervention?

Was Ben infected? When and how? Is infection actually the key to resurrection on the Island? Perhaps Ben was infected, but the Others didn't recognize infection for what it was at that time? When Jack asks Dogen how he knows what will happen to Sayid, he only mentions that it happend to Claire. That makes sense because he's speaking to Jack so it's y'know, emotionally relevant, but, it could also be because she's the only other case that they've observed.

Keep on keepin on~