I dare you to follow me on an excursion thru the LOST subway in my head. We'll start at a station/topic/detail that I've wondered about for a long while but just ended up dismissing when other events pushed it farther and farther into background. Where we'll end up, I don't know. Enjoy! =)
STAFFING THE SWAN.
On seeing the sunken Island in LOST2, aka reality outside the snowglobe, I got to wondering about Kelvin's fate in this reality, and then about his timeline in the first one, inside the snowglobe. He signed up for the DI after a tour in Iraq (crossover w Sayid), which means the 90s. When he arrived, whom did he relieve? To whom did he reply "Smells like carrots?" Pretty sad and impressive that Radzinsky chooses to "own" the Swan from the time of the Incident thru Kelvin's arrival.
What happened to the DI and Ann Arbor? Why didn't they send someone to replace Kelvin and/or Radzinsky? Were they shut down? Taken over/infiltrated by the Others. What about the pallet drops? Were the Others requesting pallet drops to resupply themselves? And was the DI knowingly letting them have them? Remember, drops could be requested via beating the computer at chess at the Flame...
THE FLAME / ENTER 77.
Does the instruction "ENTER 77" (in case of incursion by hostiles) have more significance now that we've seen that the Jack, Hurley, Sayid, and Kate get bumped out of Ajira 316 back to 1977 by the last donkey wheel flash?
TURNING THE DONKEY WHEEL.
How many times do we know or believe the Island has been moved?
1. We saw Ben turn it, crappily, sending the Island skipping thru time.
2. We saw Locke turn it, pureheartedly, ending the time skips and pinning the Island to a new location in the Ocean between Los Angeles and Guam.
3. We saw evidence of a turn during the DI's era on the Island. Charlotte discovers the DI-collared polar bear in the desert of Tunisia, the exit point for Island wheel turners.
THE EXIT.
Charlotte was likely funded by Widmore, so that's probably how he learned about the exit point. His Other leadership apparently didn't prep him with that knowledge before his exile, or I'd wager he would've been using his resources to monitor it much earlier than he does. It continues to bug me that his actual timing is a bit hinky, because Charlotte discovers the bear before arriving on the Island, soon after Widmore's fake 815 is discovered, but Widmore only gets cameras in place in time to observe Locke's exit, and not Ben's. What up with that?
Why Tunisia? I say it's because it's the original location/manifestation of the Island, as a mysterious Brigadoon-like sometimes-there-sometimes-not real mirage of a desert oasis.
EXILED FOREVER? NOT SO MUCH.
Other leaders seem to know about the wheel as a last-ditch strategy for protecting the Island, and they know that that protection supposedly comes at a cost. Being exiled from the Island forever.
Of course, we discover that there are special cases or loopholes to this rule. Ben manages to return by hitching a ride on the re-creation of Oceanic 815. Locke's body manages to return as part of the re-creation, but maybe the dead bodies of exiles wouldn't have been prevented anyhow. But what is it that enforces rules such as this? The short and vague answer is: the Island. But for some of these rules, we can be a little more specific...
JACOB'S LIFE FORCE.
Widmore is actively banished from the Island, and is unable to return to the Island until after Jacob dies. I believe that Jacob's life force/energy/will powered and enabled the enforcement of many rules that traditionally applied to the Others and other Island players. With his death, certain restrictions have been lifted (exiled leaders/Others can return freely to the Island) while other abilities have been disabled (the spring no longer heals and baptizes Others, Esau can only take the human form of Locke).
When speaking of powers and plans and wants, I don't think that Jacob and the Island are always interchangeable.
WHO GETS TO WALK AROUND WEARING DEAD BODIES?
Esau, aka the Monster. He is able to assume the form of any person whose fire- and water- unmolested corpse (remember the Others' funeral rites?) is present on the Island, in the snowglobe. We've seen him take the physically interactive forms, AND personalities and memories, of Eko's brother (and Eko's gunmen?) to Eko, Alex Rousseau to Ben, cabin-building Horace Goodspeed to Locke, and Christian Shephard to Claire, Locke, and Michael (altho the fact that we haven't seen his body on the Island is a bit of a mystery that has me wanting to believe that at least some of his appearances may be Something Else).
Christian's appearance to Michael is strange, but maybe that's OK. It happens on the freighter, just within the realm of the Island snowglobe, I'd wager, when Michael runs out of coolant to spray on the bomb. He tells Michael something like, "You can go now," right? And then the C4 detonates. Esau doesn't need a form that means something to Michael to fire him, right? But when he does, he uses one, cuz remember, Michael is also visited by Libby, which computes for Esau because she's known to be buried on the Island and is the ideal choice to play on Michael's guilt.
Until the C4 goes off, Michael is unable to die, or at least, unable to kill himself. Whether someone else could kill him, we'll never know, because we never see an explicit attempt on his life after he leaves the Island. Tom Friendly asks Michael about how his suicide attempts have gone wrong, and ultimately tells Michael something like, "The Island won't let you." No mention of Jacob. Is the Island *aware* of Michael and tweaking the cosmos as needed to keep him alive? Or is this something that Michael has been imbued with, via Jacob's touch, sometime in his past? This would have made him a Candidate, subject to the rule that governs all of those touched by Jacob. And as a Candidate, as Richard spelled out for us on the Black Rock, you can't do yourself in.
There are other apparitions, tho, on the Island and off. Ana Lucia's ghost appears to Eko soon after she dies, telling him to help John. A less interactive and more phantom-like Christian appears to Jack, both on the Island (ultimately leading him to the caves), and off (haunting him for some time before Locke finds him). Maybe when you die on the Island, if you are special, maybe a Candidate, your spirit is required to serve the Island once before being set completely free. The Island gets to use a person's ghost once, maybe in accordance with the will or wish of the deceased, y'know, nothing that the individual wouldn't agree to. Given what we've seen the apparitions do and say, even in Locke's spirit walks, I like that explanation. Hrmm... Would that explain Claire's non-feral appearance to Kate in Aaron's bedroom, demanding that she not bring Aaron back to the Island...? The Island may have saved Claire's messenger card for three years to play at that moment. If that's the case, then the Island may have a Sayid and a Charlie messenger card each yet to be played.
BEN'S MOTHER.
I think I've solved a mystery that's been bugging me for a long time...
I'm certain that Esau wears Ben's mother's form to draw him out of Dharmaville and into Other-dom back in the 70s, but given the body-must-be-on-the-Island rule, I couldn't figure out the logistics. It makes sense that Esau would pose as Ben's mother, first to lure him into the Island jungle and Other territory, but then, more importanly, as anecdotal proof to any Other he encountered that Ben is Special. When Richard comes upon Ben in the jungle, he is impressed by Ben's story about being contacted by his dead mother, who never set foot on the Island. It is, for lack of a better term, a demonstration of a very Walt-y ESP ability, and for the Others a telling sign of Island potential. This is how Esau begins fashioning his loophole.
But... How does Ben's mother's body get to the Island?
Horace. He was there wen Ben was born, after all. Helped get Uncle Rico and Ben's mom to the hospital. Maybe Horace had to make a deal with Esau, as well as the Others, for the DI to move in onto the Island? Esau knew that Ben would be born, that Horace would encounter his parents, and charge Horace with transporting the mother's body to the Island in exchange for limited immunity from Monster attacks. Or maybe certian info or even Monster samples that led to the creation of the sonic fence technology?
I like that. And perhaps Horace builds his cabin as a place to meet with Esau for negotiations or even direction. Maybe he ultimately uses it to trap him, at least for a time.
I have a feeling that the key to Esau's foreknowledge of Ben lies in the slip of information from one or more of the time-skipping Losties, from their lips to the Monster's smokey ears. Or... Charlotte's body. Lost in a time skip on the Island and thus, at whatver time that was, fair game for possession by Esau.
Speaking of Ben's mother...
BEN & JULIET.
I forget who makes the remark—maybe it's the Other therapist, the crazy RESCUE ME wife and wife of Goodwin?—but when Juliet settles in on the Island as part of Ben's neo-Other collective, and it becomes obvious that Ben dotes on her, someone says something like, "Well, of course, she's the spitting image." I take that sentence to end with a silent "of his dead mother."
And we all see how Ben shamelessly checks Juliet out, right? Creepy.
Well, his obsession with her leads him to punish both Juliet and Goodwin in his own loving way. This history with Ben causes Juliet to want to push Jack away, because by getting close to him, she makes him the primary target of Ben's deadly jealous wrath. She really believes that that is a factor.
Now, I know it's been three years since then—well, two years and a few months for Ben thanks to the time shove of the donkey wheel—but I want to believe that Ben's obsession still lingers, even in the wake of his devastation over Alex.
I know Ben seems to be on a good path now, but how do you think Ben will react to the news of his Juliet being wooed and won by con-neanderthal Sawyer? And then that Juliet died because of Jack's insane plan? I would love for that news to break during some crucial moment and send Ben off the rails, maybe a wild card that Sawyer will play when he needs a distraction?
I wonder if Sawyer or Juliet might have had some fun scratching some unflattering graffiti into the walls or furniture of Ben's future bungalow in New Otherton? "Ben Linus sucks!" "Richard Rules!" "Locke #1!" "Ben's a nerd!" "KISS ROCKS!" =)
Speaking of fun with time travel...
AJIRA 316.
Who knew that Ajira 316 would need a runway to land on (and take off from) Hydra island? Ben must have ordered the project begun, right? On his own, like the fertility research? Or by Jacob's orders, via Richard. How would Jacob know? The same way he knew that Locke, Sawyer, Jack, Hurley, Kate, Jin, Miles, and Faraday would be important. By paying attention to what's going on on the Island at all times. The dial on the Lighthouse might have helped him choose these Candidates while still children, but their appearance on the Island in the 70s certainly singled them out as special. Richard would no doubt relay all of his encounters with the Losties throughout his long life, including the stories of their various arrivals, equipping Jacob with the knowledge and foreknowledge to plan for events in the 21st century that would effect events in the 20th, like the construction of a runway for a crash-landing commercial jet.
WAS CHARLIE INFECTED?
How many times did Charlie die?
Following Ethan's abduction of Claire, Ethan lynched Charlie. He was dead when Jack and Kate found him. Jack attempted to resuscitate him but failed. In denial or hope, Jack went at it again one last time, and pounded on Charlie's chest until he came back. Minutes had passed since they found him hanging. I think it's fair to say that Charlie went pretty dark after that. Agreeing to help Sawyer "abduct" Sun, and in the end, taking revenge on Ethan with righteous extreme prejudice. After that, he seemed to find a happier place for himself by Claire and Aaron's side.
Later, after bouncing between gurus Locke and Eko, this Charlie survived the massively violent Swan implosion, basically unscathed except for a ringing in his ears. I swear his pixie-like attitude was darker again after the purpling of the skies. I was convinced that the Charlie that walked away from the implosion was a tainted version of Charlie, inhabited by, or even an incarnation of, the Monster, and I looked forward to someone finding Charlie's real body among some Hatch debris, beside a pile of smashed Geronimo Jackon LPs. Alas, not to be.
This Charlie finally died after multiple near-death saves by the Amazing Desmond. Charlie drowned in the Looking Glass after disabling the jamming signal and discovering that the freighter was not Penny's boat.
Was Charlie repeatedly reanimated by Infection, but then somehow cured? Perhaps his body's experience with drug addiction and rehabilitation allowed him to fight the advancing darkness of Infection in a way that other Claimed individuals cannot. Or maybe, more smarmily, having Claire and Aaron in his life to fight for helped him beat the darkness back, away from his heart and out of his body.
Kinda weak, I know, but I feel like Charlie's beating of the Infection could prove important to a turning of the tide when it comes to one of the new crop of Infected—Sayid and Claire—even if it's only for a brief, crucial, moment of empathy and clarity (a la Vader chucking the Emperor down the Death Star shaft in ROTJ). If it IS as hokey as love being the antidote, there's Nadia and Aaron to draw on. Or maybe Charlie's ring, now in Sun's hands. But those are just the desires that Esau's playing on to use them for his ends right now. It's got to be something more. Something else about Charlie, that he did, that he was exposed to. The implosion energies? But that was after Ethan's attack...
In any case, we know that Charlie IS dead now. He's appeared to Hurley as one of his dead visitors. There's been no mention of Infection by Charlie or thru Hurley, but that's not surprising. If his system managed to fight off Infection, Charlie might not even be aware that he was ever Claimed.
SOME BODIES TO LOVE...
Off the top of my head, some bodies that might be available for manipulation by the Island. Maybe they were used by Esau before Jacob's death, but for now, are unavailable to him, "stuck" as he is, with Locke-ness. I wonder if Esau's got a surplus DI freezer somewhere stocked of w the bodies of his favorite skins on ice? Next door to the wheel chamber would be perfect, actually, eh?
Hurley seems to communicate only with those friendly and known to him already, but Miles might chance upon one of these bodies for a reading. Anyhow...
Kelvin (Sayid and Desmond know him)
Radzinsky
Charlotte (somewhere in time)
Faraday (since 1977)
Juliet
Libby (important to Hugo and Desmond)
Ana Lucia
Eko
Christian
Locke
Charlie
I have a feeling that the rules say that Esau can't use the bodies of Jacob's followers, but they do have those funeral rites, so maybe if they haven't been given those rites, they're fair Monster game...? In that case.
Mikhail
the women in the Looking Glass
That's all I've got tonight.
Keep on keepin on~
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