Wednesday, May 26, 2010

LOST: The End - Wuzzon with the afterlife...

* This is a re-write/edit of a post from the night of the finale. Not sure if it's clearer, but it includes a few more examples from the show of my ideas.

I'm gonna try to boil down the essence of the fate of the Losties here and ramble out a theory that fits. I know it's a bit foolish, the end, their end, is moving and kind and respectful (the show didn't delete/negate/overwrite our characters' experiences since the crash) and open to all kinds of interpretation, but I want to try and get an interpretation that works with my goofy LOST-gummed-up gears, y'know?

I won't address the endgame action on the Island at all, only the LOST2-as-limbo/afterlife aspect.

THE WHAT | THE STORY.

The Island and everything that happens/happened there is real. The Island exists in a reality-adjacent snowglobe pocket dimension, and is visited and populated by real, living people. The Island is NOT a purgatory.

What I've been calling LOST2 *is* a kind of purgatory, a zone of dreamlike pseudo-reality, created in the limbo of afterlife by the souls of those with a relationship/connection to the Island, and populated by those souls and the souls of those important to them.

LOST2 happens outside of time. If you absolutely need to force a temporal relationship between its events and real world events, you could say it happens at the end of everything. All the people who populate LOST2 have died in the real world. Jack dies in the bamboo forest in 2007, but those in the plane who leave the Island, along with Protector Hurley and Number Two Ben, die years later. Once they die, each of them arrives in LOST2 essentially "at the same time."

THE HOW/WHY | MY INTERPRETATION/THEORY.

When someone connected to the Island dies in the real world believing they deserved a different life, they become a Whisper, a soul apparently "confined" to the Island. These Whispers wish to "move on." Once one of these souls is able to come to terms with the deeds and misdeeds of their life, s/he is ready to move on. For some, arriving at an existence as a Whisper is what they think they deserve, and many remain as such, possibly for eternity. For others, being a Whisper is just a first stop. They have an inkling that they can actually work out the issues that tether them to the Island and in that instant begin an afterlife.

A certain group of these souls, clustered around the 815ers we've come to know and love, through an accretion of wills, memories, and shared experiences, have managed to construct a shared reality out of the ether, an island, if you will, of virtual reality, in the sea of the afterlife, to inhabit together. In this constructed glitchy MATRIX reality of LOST2, they are living virtual lives that they think they deserve, but instead of living them solo, as most souls in whispering limbo likely do, they connect and interconnect with the afterlives of friends and individuals who were important to them during the most important and intensely lived times in their real lives—their time on the Island. Until they can remember and come to terms with their real lives—the relationships made and broken, words said and unspoken, the choices they made and their consequences, good and bad—they cannot move on.

They conjure up lives that they believe they *deserve*, not necessarily heavenly ones. There may have been choices that they regret, wrongs both by and against them that went unpunished, and opportunities missed. These can be undone and redone in their afterlives. Virtually realized karma.

  • Jack has a son who allows him to have the father-son relationship he could never have with his own father. He also seems to be more comfortable with his gift for healing, easily delivering a very empathetic bedside manner.

  • Locke is paralyzed again, but this time by his own accidental doing. In that same accident, he is responsible for nearly killing his father, which weighs so heavily on him that he feels he doesn't deserve to regain the use of his legs. I believe that this is guilt that Locke feels for his part in the death of his father on the Island. Yes, Cooper had it coming, but remember, Locke felt enough for the man that he couldn't do it himself. On the afterlife-affirming side, he succeeds at letting go of his fear of and anger at the world and allows himself to be happy and in love with Helen.

  • Sawyer develops the same shady skill set, but uses them in the service of the law as Detective Ford, living an afterlife with the same goal as his real life, but on the side of the (Los) Angel(es).

  • On the other hand, Sayid creates an afterlife of quiet torment, punishing himself for his acts of torture and murder, placing him near his true love, but forever apart from her. Remember his concern for what he would face after he died?

  • Charlie lives a reckless life similar to his actual one, perhaps believing that he isn't deserving of true love and happiness. Or, maybe he wishes to take his brother's place, so that Liam could go on and afterlive a good and straight family afterlife.

  • I have to say, it's a sign of her moral fiber (or is it her lack of imagination? =) that Kate's afterlife puts her in the same place as her living life. In her case, everything about her life before Oceanic 815 really does fall under the category "I'd do it again if I had the chance." At least, that's my take. The one big karma-altering difference is in regards to Claire and Aaron. She helps save her baby and ultimately keep them together.

  • Even Island "bit players" populate this after-world with their own mundane afterlives. Other foreman Shocky McShockington unloads Christian's coffin. Jacob's secret service agent Ilana helps unite Christian's half-siblings. Freighter communications officer George Minkowski works as Widmore's driver.

  • It's interesting to note Anthony Cooper's fate, perhaps an amalgam of his own guilt (he completely believes that he has arrived in Hell when he's brought to the Island by Ben's Others) and some wish-fulfillment on the part of Locke and Sawyer.

  • The souls of those who never visited the Island are drawn into this after-reality as well, most notably the loves of two important Losties' lives, Penny and Helen. (Someone told me that Helen wasn't in the church. I honestly can't remember. If that's the case, no frickin fair!)

In any case, these afterlives are a denial of their real lives, and a distraction from the goal of moving on. By setting all of these afterlives in the same, shared, stitched-together DARK CITY reality of LOST2, the Losties can all eventually help one another to remember and accept their real lives, and accepting them, move on. This is what we've seen happening in LOST2 all this season.

Some souls do manage enlightenment on their own, and end up playing parts in LOST2 as guides and cluegivers to help the others on their way. I suspect that Rose, Bernard, and Christian are such souls. Bernard is well aware of the 815 connection between Jack and John, and produces Anthony Cooper's name instantly. Rose is the perfect person to block and parry Locke's shoulder chip rage and redirect him to an ideal job as substitute teacher. And on the plane in the season premiere, Rose tells Jack, "You can let go now." Christian's MIA status brings John and Jack together at the LAX lost and found. Ultimately, the recovery of Christian's coffin triggers Jack's reconnection to his real life.

VISIONS OF THE AFTERLIFE.

I believe that Desmond's time travelling ability allows him to visit LOST2. Until season 6, we saw how his power allows him to visit other moments in his life. In season 6, we discover that it allows him to visit moments in his afterlife as well. Of course, he doesn't KNOW this when it happens, and his interpretation of that visit is a little off, just the way most of ours were.

I think that Juliet, caught at the heart of the 1977 Incident discharge, was blasted the way Desmond was in the Hatch implosion, and ended up shunted forward in her own timeline into the afterlife. Her words, "It worked," were an echo from her conversation with Detective Ford. THAT, I'll say, was pretty frickin clever. Maybe a stretch, but connecting it to a "reboot" of the candy machine was another nice bit of resonance.

AFTERLIFE: MEMBERS ONLY.

I believe that this "moving on" that the Losties and their loved ones experience is a post-life process that only those with a connection to the Island and its Heart can undergo. When someone who's never known anything about the Island dies, they may just turn to dust, or they may be reincarnated, or they may be sent to some kind of astral realm of reward or punishment. They do not get what Jack and friends get. For those with a history with the Island, well, the Island is *never* finished with them. The Island takes care of its own in its own way. And, I suspect that the place or state or plane that they "move on" to is the Heart itself, cuz, hey—why not?

In the church (did it HAVE to be a church?), we see that...
  • Kate and Jack are in love, and seem like each other's one-and-only. Jack dies in 2007. Kate lives on, and never loves again? Maybe...

  • Sawyer and Juliet are in love, and seem like each other's one-and-only. Juliet dies in 2007. Sawyer lives on, and never loves again? Maybe...

  • Shannon is more vital somehow to Sayid than Nadia? That's a tough blond pill to swallow.

These enlightened hook-ups tell me that this purgatory is truly Island-centric. These afterlives are only made possible by the Island, and within them, people MATTER and MEAN more the stronger their relationship is with the Island. Perhaps the experience of love itself is stronger on the Island. Charlie talks about Claire as the face, or essence of love, a "spectacular, consciousness-altering love."

I think that the Island and its Heart are selfish in a way, or territorial. Only those connected to it, and those important to them, get to experience an afterlife, for better or worse. If you buy my explanation so far, it makes a certain sense. The Island isn't for everyone, and in life, one can only be changed and affected by it thru a couple of degrees of contact, sometimes physical, sometimes emotional, sometimes genetic, sometimes psychic, sometimes even memetic (i.e. the Numbers).

There are also some clues to this in warnings from Island old-timers, two beings with intimate connections to the Island and its Heart. They are conspicuously specific about whose happiness and lives are at stake when it comes to the conflict over the Island.
RICHARD: You don't understand what you're dealing with! He doesn't just want you dead... he wants everyone dead! Everyone you care about! All of them! And he won't stop—

JACOB: I brought all of you here because I made a mistake. A mistake I made a very long time ago, and now, because of that there’s a very good chance that every single one of you and everyone you’ve ever cared about is going to die.
OK, extrapolating from those particular words and word choice the idea that the Island will reward its friends and their friends with an afterlife... that's pretty thin. But I have to say, those warnings, and others I can't recall now, always seemed carefully, particularly, worded, and immediately came to mind when considering the idea of the Island playing favorites when giving out afterlives.

WHO'S MISSING?

Granted, there are real-world logistical reasons for certain characters not appearing in the finale, most notably, Mr. Eko and Walt. If I had to write LOSTiverse reasons for them...

Well, we know Mr. Eko's final testimony to the Monster. He asks no forgiveness for anything he did. He had made peace with his actions and decisions before dying. As a Whisper, he would have been ready to move on immediately upon arrival.

As for Walt. Well, maybe he never dies. =)

As for Michael. Maybe under Hurley's administration as Protector, he'll realize that he's already paid his dues, or he'll get the opportunity to do so by helping during the next crisis on the Island, allowing him to move on without after-living thru a virtual life. Or Perhaps Walt will return to the Island to free him with his own abilities.

I imagine Ricardo experienced a loving and happy afterlife with Isabella and many zombie children and grandchildren on a lush and lively farm in a virtual Tenerife, and then, moved on together.

Would've been fun to see a glowing Jacob and Momster appear outside the church to Hurley, then have Esau fade in next to them, RETURN OF THE JEDI style. =)

NOT READY YET?

Anna Lucia's not ready. Her afterlife has her accepting bribes to free prisoners. Not exactly a redemptive scenario. She'll get it right in a subsequent iteration, maybe with a little help from one of the now-moved-on LOST angel/guides.

I think that Eloise has been aware of their state the "longest" within LOST2. If I had to explain this, I'd say that her gift of sussing out fate and destiny gave her a clue either while she was still alive, or once she arrived in LOST2. In any case, Eloise chooses to stay a while, to enjoy the experience of raising her son without being doomed to kill him.

Desmond kindly reassures her that he isn't taking Daniel with him. I'm thinking that although Daniel is awakened by Charlotte, he will remain until he can enlighten Charlotte as well, or perhaps win her love in LOST2 without triggering her awakening.

Ben chooses to stay a while as well, feeling that he still has things to work out. Once you're awakened in this virtual afterlife, you can choose when to exit, and until then, continue the simulation. In LOST2 Ben hopes to be a better father to Alex, as well as make up for the pain he caused Danielle, perhaps by building the family that he could never have in his lifetime, and ultimately, moving on together with all of them.

WHAT'S KINDA F'D UP.

A couple of odd artifacts in LOST2...

David is a soulless construct, as are Nadia's kids. Juliet and Jack never had a kid, and Nadia never married Sayid's brother.

The just-born-in-the-afterlife Aaron and not-yet-born-in-the-afterlife Ji Yeon likely lived for decades after 2007 in reality, and died as adults (after telekinetically duking it out at the heart of an apocalypse?), but in LOST2 have been reverted to ages at which they don't even know who they are.

What about all the Losties that have visited and helped out Hurley since they died. Charlie and Ana Lucia's visits in particular demonstrated that they were very aware of his situation in the real world and also their livingly-challenged status. Did these interactions happen after their deaths but "before" the afterlife and LOST2?

Thanks for reading any and hopefully all of this.

Namaste.

Keep on keepin on~

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

BTIES: WAT IS LIFE?

(Click to read!)
Thanks to Steven for the deep deep thoughts, and to PJ for pointing me to the lamebook goodness. =)

Keep on keepin on~

Monday, May 24, 2010

BTIES: Attractive Women Give Men Heart Disease

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
ThreatDown - Military Food Police, Jazz Robots & Pretty Girls
www.colbertnation.com

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: The End

6.17 & 6.18: "The End"


About a half hour after the end credits, while decompressing outside the Brattle w sis, JB, KP, and JP, I described it something like this...

It's like I ordered this one thing, they brought me a different thing, and I ended up liking it anyway.

Later I added...

I don't think I'd order the different thing again, tho.

I'm gonna try to boil down the essence of the fate of the Losties here and ramble out a theory that fits. I know it's a bit foolish, the end, their end, is moving and kind and respectful and open to all kinds of interpretation, but I want to try and get an interpretation that works with my goofy gears, y'know?

I won't address the endgame action on the Island at all, only the LOST2-as-limbo/afterlife aspect.

* May 25, 2010. I've built a bit on this ramble and posted a new, even wordier, version! Enjoy!

THE WHAT | THE STORY.

The Island and everything that happens/happened there is real. The Island exists in a reality-adjacent snowglobe pocket dimension, and is visited and populated by real, living people. The Island is NOT a purgatory.

What I've been calling LOST2 *is* a kind of purgatory, a zone of dreamlike pseudo-reality, created in the limbo of afterlife by the souls of those with a relationship/connection to the Island.

LOST2 happens outside of time. If you absolutely need to force a temporal relationship between its events and real world events, you could say it happens at the end of everything. All the people who populate LOST2 have died in the real world. Jack dies in the bamboo forest in 2007, but those in the plane who leave the Island, along with Protector Hurley and Number Two Ben, die years later. Once they die, each of them arrives in LOST2 at the "same" time.

THE HOW/WHY | MY INTERPRETATION/THEORY.

When someone who has a connection to the Island dies in the real world believing they deserved a different life, they become a Whisper, a soul, apparently "confined" to the Island, who wish to, but for some reason, are unable to "move on." Once one of these souls is able to face and come to terms with what they did, they are ready to move on. For some, arriving at an existence as a Whisper is what they think they deserve, and many remain as such, possibly for eternity.

A certain group of these souls, clustered around the 815ers we've come to know and love, through an accretion of wills, memories, and shared experiences, have managed to construct a shared reality out of the ether, an island, if you will, of virtual reality, in the sea of the afterlife, to inhabit together. In this constructed reality of LOST2, they are living virtual lives that they think they deserve as afterlives, but instead of living them solo, as most souls in limbo likely do, they connect and interconnect with the afterlives of friends and individuals who were important to them during the most important and intensely lived times in their real lives, their time on the Island. Until they can come to terms with their real lives, the relationships made and broken, words said and unspoken, the choices they made and their consequences, good abd bad, they cannot move on.

They conjure up lives that they believe they deserve, not necessarily heavenly ones. Jack has a son who allows him to have the father-son relationship he could never have with his own father. Sawyer develops the same shady skill set, but uses them in the service of the law, living an afterlife with the same goal as his real life, but on the side of the (Los) Angel(es). On the other hand, Sayid creates an afterlife that punishes him for his acts of torture and murder, placing him near his true love, but forever apart from her. Charlie lives a reckless life similar to his actual one, perhaps believing that he isn't deserving of true love and happiness. Or, maybe he wishes to take his brother's place, so that Liam could go on and afterlive a good and straight family afterlife. In any case, these afterlives are a denial of their real lives, and a distraction from the goal of moving on.

However, by setting them all in the same, shared, stitched-together reality of LOST2, the Losties can all eventually help one another to remember and accept their real lives, and accepting them, move on. This is what we've seen happening in LOST2 all this season.

Some souls have managed on their own, and end up playing parts in LOST2 as guides and cluegivers to help the others on their way. I suspect that Rose, Bernard, and Christian are such souls. Bernard is well aware of the 815 connection between Jack and John. Rose is the perfect person to block and parry Locke's shoulder chip rage and redirect him to an ideal job as substitute teacher. On the plane in the season premiere, Rose tells Jack, "You can let go now." Christian's MIA status brings John and Jack together at the LAX lost and found. Ultimately, the recovery of Christian's coffin triggers Jack's reconnection to his real life.

Desmond's time travelling ability is what allows him his visit to LOST2. Until season 6, we got to see how his power/side effect allows him to visit other moments in his life. In season 6, we discover that it allows him to visit moments in his afterlife as well. Of course, he doesn't KNOW this when it happens, and his interpretation of his visit is a little off, tho, as he seems to believe that it is another dimension or reality, just the way must of us did.

NOT READY YET?

Anna Lucia's not ready. Her afterlife has her accepting bribes to free prisoners. Not exactly a redemptive scenario. She'll get it right in a subsequent iteration, maybe with a little help from one of the now-moved-on LOST angel/guides.

I think that Eloise has been aware of their state the "longest" within LOST2. If I had to explain this, I'd say that her gift of sussing out fate and destiny gave her a clue either while she was still alive, or once she arrived in LOST2. In any case, Eloise chooses to stay a while, to enjoy the experience of raising her son and not being doomed to kill him.

Desmond kindly reassures her that he isn't taking Daniel with him. I'm thinking that although Daniel is awakened by Charlotte, he will remain until he can enlighten Charlotte as well, or perhaps win her over in LOST2 without triggering her awakening.

Ben chooses to stay a while as well, feeling that he still has things to work out. I guess once you're awakened in this virtual afterlife, you can choose when to exit, and until then, continue the simulation. Perhaps in LOST2 Ben hopes to be a better father to Alex, as well as make up for the pain he caused Danielle, perhaps building the family that he could never have in his lifetime, and ultimately, moving on together with all of them.

WHAT'S KINDA F'D UP.

A couple of odd artifacts in LOST2...

David is a soulless construct. Juliet and Jack never had a kid.

The just born Aaron and not yet born Ji Yeon likely lived for years after 2007, and died as adults (after telekinetically duking it out at the heart of an apocalypse?), but in LOST2 have been reverted to ages at which they don't even know who they are.

Afraid that's all I've got in me just now. I reserve the right to take any and all of this back when I'm something closer to awake, but it feels like it fits together pretty nicely right now.

Namaste.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: @the Brattle

Pictures now. Words brewing...








LOVED the experience of the darkened theater screening—THANK YOU, BRATTLE! The finale itself was short on scifi and "answers" and long on spirituality, not my personal ideal ratio for this, but the LAX stories didn't negate or overwrite everything they lived and did in the real world, and that was probably the most important item on my unwritten finale checklist.

ANd the show was built to be a fun farewell ride. Here's a possible television first—these guys managed to make a "clip show" MEAN something!

I felt like the show was "warning" us, or training us, for this finale with "Across The Sea." Pushing the mystical over the (pseudo-) scientific in an attempt to get us to adjust, or even replace the bar in anticipation of the finale. And I'll probably like the finale the way I like that episode—not so much right now, but more as time goes by.


THANKS to the Brattle, Ivy, Ned, Brandon, Nancy, and Brian!

Sing your own special song~

Keep on keepin on~

Sunday, May 23, 2010

LOST: the last dance...?

Some songs I'd be happy to hear playing at the close of the show. Perhaps over some graves, or a burning benefit pavilion, or maybe from a high-orbit image of the world being consumed by black smoke... =)

"Moonlight Serenade"

"Is That All There Is? (To A Fire?)"

"Make Your Own Kind Of Music"

"The Halls Of Shamballa"

"Beyond The Sea" (how prefect would that be?)

"Daydream Believer" (thought of that in line for concessions with JB tonight at the Brattle =)

Crazy wish. I'd love to have some part of the endgame involve a crazy Island energy event that ends up discharging part of itself backwards thru time, to appear above the Island as some vision to a young Charles and Eloise walking thru the jungle. Inspiring them to kiss for the first time. Or maybe appears in the sky on the night that Daniel is conceived.

Or... Reaches so far back in time that it causes the storm that shipwrecks Claudia and her people, delivering Jacob and Esau to the Island in the first place.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: You should get your friends; we’re very close to the end...

6.16: "What They Died For"

With only hours to go (boohoo), in this post, I'm gonna rattle off some high points and oddness from the goings-on in LOST1 in this penultimate episode. Click here for some LOST2 commentary.

Locke-ness needs a better buffer. He promises Ben the vacated Island as reward for helping him kill a few people, but at the well, when he discovers that failsafe Desmond has been set free, he tells Ben that he's going to use him to do what he never could before—destroy the Island. Wheee!~

So, Ben, here's your new kingdom. Psych!

I don't believe that Ben's in with Esau for that anyhow. Maybe that means Esau doesn't believe it either...? Nah. Esau's a liar and a schemer, but he just had his guard down right then. Classic Terry O'Quinn STEPFATHER, actually. =)

Even tho the next day I was toying with the idea of Ben and Widmore somehow staging that shooting, in the moment, I was really impressed, first, by Ben, and then, by the writing and set-up. It really worked for me because Ben had just visited Alex's grave outside. This season, Ben's been somewhat impotent, three steps behind everyone. It was kind of fun for an episode or two, seeing him out of his element, but Michael Emerson's Ben is just the best when he's running a game, his game. It was great to see that determination return. I think his shooting Widmore was meant to serve several purposes. First, to keep Widmore from revealing Locke-ness's exhaust port vulnerability. Second, to demonstrate his willingness to off Locke-ness's targets. Third, to feel really awesome.

I wonder if this is covered by the apology he asked Sun to pass on to Desmond?

Oh, how would Ben and Charles have staged his death? Maybe Ben loaded a gun with rubber bullets, or knew that Widmore had a vest on (with a layer of his actual blood, perhaps?), or shot him three times in the ego, and not anywhere fatal. The trick of course would be for the event to be convincing enough to fool Locke-ness in the process.

Yeah, not bloody likely, eh? Still, I didn't see Locke-ness needing to wipe blood off of himself, only Zoe's blood from his knife...

Man, Jacob is a total sad sack, isn't he? A far cry from the enigmatic mastermind we meet in "The Incident." Kind of disappointing.

Only after I checked that the ep was recorded on my DVR did I see the title, "What They Died For." That really annoyed me. I really don't think we got that explanation, or at least, not one sufficient enough to even start to justify the deaths of Sun, Jin, Sayid, and Lapidus (c'mon, Lapidus!). Is THIS really what they died for...?
JACOB: I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.
And if so, is that good enough? Frickin Jacob.

Jacob tells them all that they're like him. In a certain light, his light, OK, I guess I buy that. He calls them flawed. I would like for him to tell me how Hurley is flawed. By being sympathetic and feeling guilt, first over the accident that sends him to Santa Rosa's, and then over the bad luckifying power of the Numbers?

Jacob's explanation doesn't come close to covering the fact that so many of the 815 Losties (and Candidates) were responsible, or felt responsible, for taking the life of another. It may not have been a prerequisite, but it would've been nice to mention. I think that that point is a powerful motivation for any of the Losties to agree to be Protector and never have to return to the outside world.

Jacob does the Protector ritual. I like how they shot it. Jack VISIBLY seems enlightened! I had this flicker of hope that in that moment, he saw something in the Rules and the situation that Jacob didn't or couldn't, being Esau's brother. Possibly a way to kill Esau, but perhaps a way to free Esau without compromising the Heart, the Island, and the snowglobe. Yeah, a heckuva flicker from one look, but I like it.

I also wondered if he was made aware of LOST2 somehow. No one in LOST1 except Desmond and deceased Juliet has knowledge of LOST2. Maybe Locke-ness and Jacob do, but they've never mentioned it to anyone else. Of course, if my "Island Matrix" theory is correct (ha!) then LOST2 hasn't yet happened, so there's nothing to be aware of.

I really like how Sawyer tried to snark up the Protector initiation moment—And I thought he had a god complex before!—but knows to hush when he's hushed.

The weight of his guilt about the deaths in the sub is good, but somehow, his physical body language and expression of it seems a little cartoony. Nothing I could put my finger on without another viewing, and I can't say it was negative, just... odd, different. I like that that weight is there. He's more ready to go all out. If he'd been less confrontational with Jacob around the campfire, I could see him volunteering out of that guilt, seeking to atone and somehow make things right.

Is there anything in the Rules that says There Can Be Only One? Protector, I mean?

If Sawyer has even a little bit of a handle on what's at stake, I want for him to have dipped his canteen in that same Jacob-blessed stream to get himself a jolt of Protector-shine. Maybe enough to share with Kate and Hurley, too. I mean, if all of the Candidates qualify, why not hire all of them? It's a big Island.

That's all I've got. Gotta crash and be up for some pre-finale vballin'!~

Keep on keepin on~

Saturday, May 22, 2010

LOST: Jacob = the Shaggy Protector?

I couldn't find a screencap from "What They Died For" to show you, but in SO many scenes with Jacob this week, the word "hangdog" jumped to mind, and I realized that thru some kind of reincarnation process short-circuited by a zany time travel mishap Vincent travels back in time to be born as Jacob and become the faithful furry wet-nosed Protector of the Island! The painting in the cabin that (supposedly) belongs to him is a self portrait, see? =)


Keep on keepin on~

Friday, May 21, 2010

LOST: no alternate reality—they're plugged into an Island Matrix...

OK. I don't love this, but I think it's a real possibility. An explanation of the nature of LOST2 as a shared hallucination.

OUT OF SYNC TIME TROUBLE IN LOST2.

There have been discrepencies in the meshing and sync of individual character storylines in LOST2. I've been working/thinking around them, believing them to be reconcilable, but this concert business in "What They Died For" is just too much. We're meant to believe that the concert that David and Miles and Desmond refer to is the same benefit arranged by Eloise and Daniel Widmore on the day that 815 landed. Of course, they might have rescheduled and we just haven't been privy to it, but added to a list of other confusing and inconsistent synchronicities, it's all just too much. I cannot believe that the meticulous story weavers who have been at the helm for five seasons have made so many chronological offenses within the supposedly consistent reality of LOST2.

What am I talking about?

How many days pass for Jin and Sun after LAX when they are abducted by Keamy and Mikhail and taken to Keamy's restaurant? They check into their hotel the same day as they land, right? They spend the night together. Then Keamy shows up looking for his money. Jin gets taken to the restaurant, Sun is escorted to the bank. That's the day after they land.

How many days pass for Sayid after LAX when he is abducted by Keamy's men and taken to his restaurant. He shows up at Omar's home the day he lands. That night Omar asks Sayid to "talk" to his loan shark and his enforcers. The next day, Omar is "mugged." That night, Nadia gets Sayid to play nice and watch the kids. The next day, after seeing the kids off, Sayid gets picked up by Keamy's men and taken to the restaurant. That's two days after he lands.

Now, how many days pass for John Locke after LAX when he gets hit by Desmond? He goes home. The next day he gets fired from BoxCo. The next day he meets Rose at Hurley's placement agency. He apparently makes an effort to fake going to work for a day or two so that Helen doesn't know he was fired. He gets placed as a substitute teacher and works at least one full day before Desmond hits him. So, even if everything went as quickly as possible, he gets hit three or four days after landing.

And... How many days pass for Desmond after LAX when he goes turbo on John Locke? He reports directly to Charles, who sends him on his Charlie babysitting assignment, which leads to Charlie triggering the "Not Penny's Boat" flashover, which lands them both in the hospital, and ultimately sends Desmond looking for Penny. He confronts Eloise and meets Daniel Widmore on the day of their benefit concert, which, rescheduled (and relocated?), I suppose is the one mentioned this week. That evening, with Daniel's help, Desmond tracks Penny down at the stadium. That is all on the same day that he lands. Between that evening and the day he Hot Wheels Locke, he does the whole cupid thing and the Hurley and Libby story unfolds. That's a night for Hurley's award ceremony, that's a day for Hurley's blind date, that's a day to each chicken and run into Desmond, that's MAYbe the same day to track Libby down at the hospital, and a day for their first date at the beach. That gets us to at least the fourth day after landing, right?

The thing is, Sayid frees Jin and Sun gets shot on the same day that Sun is taken to the hospital and arrives just as Locke arrives. The days don't add up.

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM.

I KNOW that part of the point of following the safely landed 815ers in LOST2 is to demonstrate that they were all destined to become parts of each others' lives, but there is a quality to the uncanny, serendipitous crossovers, and their timing, that I could only describe, suspiciously, as "dream-like."

Early this season, I turned over the idea that LOST2 was not an Incident-created divergent reality, but rather, a MATRIX-like simulation based on that idea, a virtual world created by someone, perhaps Esau, perhaps Jacob, perhaps Widmore, into which our Losties have been plugged. At the time, this annoyed the frickin heck out of me. It seemed to involve way too much tech and resources that we'd never had a clue about. I could imagine that the DI might have had another station dedicated to a much more sophisticated version of Room 23's b-mod technology, advanced enough to create a shared programmed experience. But, I figured that that was a huge reach, even for LOST, in the final short season. So, I rejected it, honestly, as much out of spite as out of LOST illogic.

WHAT IS THE MATRIX?

Now, tho, a dozen episodes later, I believe that we've met entities or devices capable of just that. Able to engineer a MATRIX-like scenario where our players are plugged into the same fabricated reality, living in it for days or months or years or lifetimes, or if not that actual experienced time, then with implanted memories of that time. I'm now willing to say that a smoke monster would be capable. And if not a smoke monster, then the Heart of the Island. And, if not the Heart, then maybe thru the pooled concerted effort and power of the Island's Whispers, perhaps in a gambit supporting the Candidates in the eleventh hour against Esau.

SMOKEY. Locke-ness can't kill the Candidates, but I'll bet he can still scan and read them. We've seen him do some funky stuff once he's read a person. There's Eko's confrontation with Yemi; Ben's "judgement" by Alex; and perhaps Isabella's clunky ghost appearance to Ricardo on the Blackrock.

MAYbe, in a last ditch attempt to keep the remaining Candidates from killing him, or preventing his escape, he rushes them, swallows them up in his smokey self, and uses a variation on his scanning ability to create this shared hallucination for all of them. Not to kill them, but to stall them from doing or completing something they were just about to do that would have defeated Locke-ness on the Island.

Yeah. That sounds kinda lame, I know, but I hafta say, it no longer seems impossible, or even unlikely. In any case, I ask that you roll with the idea that our Losties are plugged into an Island Matrix, and that's what we're experiencing when we see their apparently alternate selves living life in LOST2. The Non-Player Characters within the shared virtual reality are constructed from the Losties' memories of them as well as the actual memories and experiences of anyone who's dead on the Island. The Monster has access to that. It doesn't seem like a stretch to me to say that the Heart of the Island, the spark of life, the source of all life, could draw on all of that as well to conjure up a seamless constructed and believable reality.

Given that, Desmond's zap in the generator shed was not a reality-jump, but another time-jump, a jump forward to when he's swallowed by the smoke monster.

And Juliet, caught at the heart of the Incident, also experiences a flash forward into her virtual NPC self in the Island Matrix. What she sees in that flash leads her to believe that, "It worked." Unfortunately, before she can describe her flash, she dies from the trauma of her physical injuries and perhaps exposure to the EM energies without Desmond's resistance.

THE HEART. Okay. If that's way too much power to give the Locke-ness smoke monster, it might be a vision conjured up by a dip into the Heart of the Island, but whose? Could it be all the surviving Candidates together? And why and how would Eloise set herself up as the nemesis in a bogus dream world? Perhaps because that's what you get when you use everyone's combined memories of her to construct her virtually, from scratch. She could be constructed based on her interactions with Charles, Desmond, Ben, the Losties who went to the Lamppost, and sadly, Daniel, whose body expired on the Island in 1977.

SMOKEY x THE HEART. Or maybe, when hardened-against-EM Desmond rassles Locke-ness into the Heart of the Island, the collision of a smoke monster with the energy that spawned it triggers the spontaneous creation of this what-if world that everyone on the Island experiences, subjectively, for their entire lives, but objectively, for just a moment. A moment in which Esau enters that world and lives a normal happy life as Claire's baby Aaron, leaving behind a vacant Locke-shaped vessel, ready for a John Locke Island Whisper to move into!

Yeah, a bit of crazier crazy talk at the end there, but I really am seeing this MATRIX-life scenario as a serious possibility now. It's not the awesomest thing, but after "Across The Sea" I think it's possible.

Oh, I forgot to address the Whispers as a possible engine for the Island Matrix.

WHISPERS. Magic. Done. =)

Tell me the unfolding of events and crossovers in LOST2 don't seem dreamlike and unreal. I dare you.

Ninja torturer-killer Sayid, tripped up by a garden hose? C'mon!

GLITCHES IN THE MATRIX.

That cut on Jack's neck that keeps bleeding. That's a virtual manifestation of an actual injury. He's been seriously wounded in that spot and nis body's nervous system is breaking thru the hallucination of the Island Matrix to try and snap him out of it, to let him know that he is hurt.

Reflections of oneself within the Island Matrix are psychologically confusing. On some very fundamental level, each Lostie expects to see his or her real self looking back at them, but instead, they see this other version, like themselves, but as a costume. The reactions within the Island Matrix range from confusion to enlightenment.

The Island Matrix also seems to take steps to distract the immersed Losties from such inconsistencies and glitches, using NPCs (many constructs, but perhaps also actual Whispers) and coincidental events to do it. For instance, Miles is trying on his suit at the police station. Not unheard of, but a little conspicuous, enough certainly to prompt Detective Ford to ask if someone's died (aww... poor Sawyer), and Miles tells him about the concert, and is very insistent about how he's mentioned it all week. I guess those mentions were just edited out of our experience, eh? And when Jack wakes up and becomes preoccupied by his bleeding cut, his son David seems to make a point of getting in his face and space about making breakfast.

Keep on keepin on~

Thursday, May 20, 2010

LOST: someecard =)


Thanks to Zorky for the ecard!

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: I’m not here to hurt him, I’m here to help him let go

6.16: "What They Died For"

In this post, I'm gonna tackle a breakdown of what happens in LOST2 this episode. Will try to get to the LOST1 events in a next post. Click here for wuzzon in LOST1.

Jack wakes up to find that neck injury bleeding again. He seems to catch himself in the mirror again as well. What's that about? There's a significance to wounds and mirrors across the realities, but I can't get a solid lock on it. I feel like the mirror images give everyone a hint of their LOST1 life. The cuts, well, Sun2 seemed to feel the pain in her hand from a cut Sun1 experienced in her Island garden. Hrmm... Or perhaps it was the absence of a wedding ring she was reacting to? I'd hafta review that moment in the hotel mirror again to be sure. Jack... I can't definitively say there's a cross-reality correspondence to a similarly located LOST1 injury. His confusion over his appendectomy is fun, tho. If LOST2 is FALSE, then I can see how reflections and discrepancies in one's body would lead to a crack in the facade, an inkling of wrongness, a glimpse behind the curtain.

Jack's planning on going to David's concert that night. His mom is as well.

Desmond calls Jack to tell him that his father's coffin (and presumably, body) will arrive in LA by the end of the day. Where does THAT thread lead?

Desmond returns to the scene of the crime, the high school where John Locke teaches. Dr. Linus spots him and confronts him and is rewarded for his attempt at a citizen's arrest with a sound staccato pummeling.

I LOVED the flashover to Desmond1's beating of Ben1 at the marina. And the LOST2 punches were delivered with the intention of triggering that, as Desmond's answer...
BEN: Who are you?
DESMOND: You wanna know who I am?
Frickin sweet. =)

Later, in the nurse's office, Dr. Linus catches himself in a slightly carnival-like mirror, arm in a sling, much like his LOST1 self appeared, post-beating-from-Desmond. I feel like in that moment, he knows that in another life, he's capable of Great and Terrible Things. Just before this, when the nurse tells him, "This will sting, Mr. Linus," he snips," It's Doctor Linus, actually." Just a hint of entitlement, no?

Ben explains to Locke what happened and he passes along that Desmond's intent was not to hurt Locke, but to help him to let go. That clicks in Locke's mind with Jack's words about his guilt over his father's fate, ultimately leading John to visit Jack at his office. This conversation is pretty fun for having John list all of the coincidences connecting them since LAX and having Jack Lostify, "I think you're mistaking coincidence... for fate." Classic. Whatever the reason behind their repeated intersections, John has decided that he's ready to get out of his wheelchair. He'll dance at his wedding! =)

In the meantime, Desmond has turned himself in for the hit-and-run and the wack-a-Ben. He knows that it'll land him the cages with Kate and Sayid. Heh, that's different, at least. =)

Later on, the three of them are escorted out to an paddy wagon for transfer to county lock-up. On the ride, Desmond invites the others to join him in his escape. They're disbelieving, but agree to do as he asks if he can actually free them. Of course, Desmond delivers, with Ana Lucia's $125,000 (did I hear that right?) help. Funny how Hurley recognizes her but not vice versa. Desmond explains, enigmatically, "She's not ready yet." Where have we heard that before?

Desmond and Hurley are hitting their marks here as part of a larger plan. Desmond checks with Hurley—"You know where you're taking them, yeah?"—and leaves Sayid with him. So Hurley and Sayid will be picking up some friends. Hurley's wearing a jacket, so MAYbe he's dressed for the concert, but I wonder that he and his eventual carpool buds are meant to rendezvous with Desmond somewhere that's not the concert. If it was the concert, I feel like Desmond wouldn't need to confirm that Hurley knows where to go (he was just there to accept his T-Rex award =).

Desmond and Kate are heading to the concert in Hurley's Camaro.

THE CONCERT.

I'm assuming this is a benefit concert for and at the museum that Chang runs, arranged by the Widmores, starring Daniel and Charlie. I'm not clear on HOW it's the same event that was scheduled the day that 815 landed. It seems like a pretty serious oversight to have no mention of this in any of the episodes and storylines since "Happily Ever After."

Who's definitely expected, Losties...

David (I assumed performing, but maybe as a fan/student of Daniel Widmore?)
Jack
Claire (since she's staying w them)
David's mother (I'm thinking Juliet, fits the timing)
Daniel Widmore (performing)
Charlie Pace (performing)
Charles & Eloise Widmore (sponsoring)
Hurley (sponsoring) & Libby?
Pierre Chang (museum bigwig)
Miles (+ girlfriend?)
Charlotte
Desmond
Kate

815ers who need a little help...

Sayid (easy, if Hurley has a suit for him in the HMV)
Sawyer (disinclined cuz Charlotte will be there, but perhaps on the trail of the escaped prisoners)
Locke (if David is performing, Jack might have some tix to give him)
Sun and Jin (Sun's recovering at the hospital)

815ers and their Facebook friends who may not be needed, but need a little help...

Alex (was she planning on going, a friend of David's?)
Ben (Danielle might hafta work, so she asks Ben to go in her place)
Bernard and Rose (they're allowed to grab a bit of culture, right?)

Hurley might have sent tickets to any and all of these people as well. Sun and Jin seem like they might be some of the "them" that Desmond asks Hurley about taking. Gotta keep all the non-whites together, just like on the sub, right?

Bastards.

=)

Keep on keepin on~

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Join the Brattle, See the (End of the) World (aka the LOST series finale =) !

If the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 don't mean anything to you...
If you don't care why people can't have babies on the Island...
If the first thing you think of when you hear the names Locke, Rousseau, and Bentham is "dead philosophers"... (NERD!)
If you aren't familiar w the sensation of getting lost in Desmond's dreamy hazel eyes...

... please feel free to stop reading now.

This Sunday night the Brattle Theater will be screening the series finale of LOST!

The screening is free to Brattle members (with a +1), so JOIN already! I know it seems a bit lopsided, paying in for a year membership for two-and-a-half hours of television... Granted, it's the most important two-and-a-half hours of television entertainment since "Donna Martin Graduates!"

But hey, check out the basic membership offer...

For $75, you get an invite to the LOST finale screening, 12 free passes and discounts on tickets to the programming of the Unofficial Film School of Boston, a couple hits of free concessions, and discounts at participating partner businesses. Not a bad frickin deal!

Just sayin'~

Namaste.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: a tale of two timelines (and two brothers)...

I'm just gonna go for it here, draw a (story)line from "Across The Sea" to "The Candidate." I'll throw in everything I can that seems to fit, but will try not to get too specific, cuz I always get bogged in details, story cul-de-sacs, y'know? and I'll name only a few characters, and paint the broad strokes of what's come before and what's yet to come...

Here we go.

A ridiculously long time ago, Jacob and Esau are born on the Island to Claudia, who survived the wreck of a ship from Atlantis. Crazy Mother, the Protector of the Island at the time, who is also a smoke monster, kills Claudia and raises the brothers as her own.

The ghost of Claudia appears to Esau and tells him where he comes from, beyond the sea. He's always been restless and once he hears this truth, he learns why—he wants to go where he belongs, his home, beyond the sea, among other people.

This drives Esau to leave Momster and Jacob and join the other people on the Island.

Jacob becomes Momster's successor, the Protector of the Island.

To punish Esau for killing their Momster, Jacob unwittingly turns his brother into a new smoke monster.

Both are subject to Rules created by the Momster as Protector and possibly the Protectors before her, ostensibly all designed to protect the Island and its Heart.

Some of these Rules...

Esau cannot leave the Island (unless there is no other life on the Island).

Jacob and Esau cannot kill one another.

Esau cannot harm those Jacob protects, Jacob's people, aka the Others.

Esau cannot harm those who have been touched by Jacob, some of whom are Candidates for Protector.

Jacob can be killed by one of his people who sincerely desires it.

Jacob is content to carry out his duties as Protector of the Island, but at the same time, entertains a growing anthropological hobby on the side: choosing and bringing outsiders to the Island to see if and how they can live with the gifts that it offers.

Esau considers the Island to be his prison. He still wants what he wanted before he was monstered up—to go home. One of his gifts is an understanding of how things work. With this, he's learned that killing all life on the Island will effectively "tilt the game," with the likely result of shorting out the Rules, freeing him from the Island, possibly destroying the snowglobe, and maybe freeing a great evil that quietly waits, expressing itself in the form of Infection.

Events orchestrated by Jacob lead to the time travelling misadventures of some of our Losties and the Incident in 1977. The Incident creates the divergent reality of LOST2. From that moment on, there are two versions of every person, place, and thing, each living their slightly different lives in either LOST1 or LOST2. Two versions of everything except for the Island's Heart and those directly connected to it, Jacob and Esau.

Meanwhile, single-minded Esau sets in motion events that lead to the execution of his loophole—the murder of brother Jacob by Other Ben. So sad, because all the while, Jacob's been trying to grant Esau his smoking heart's desire, to get him off the Island and home. Well, *A* home—LOST2.

Esau doesn't believe that there is an embodiment of evil imprisoned with them in the snowglobe. What he does believe in is the petty evils of mankind, the weaknesses and flaws of human nature, which are universal. So, he barrels on in pursuit of his emancipation, not thinking twice about how his prison break would leave an escape route for this nonexistent capital-E evil.

Jacob knows better—or at least, he believes better—that there IS a slumbering evil, waiting patiently for release, and it manifests itself on the Island thru Infection. In any case, Jacob comes to the realization that he cannot kill Esau and he cannot let him succeed in leaving the Island the way he plans to, so he arranges for Esau to leave without creating an escape tunnel.

Jacob has seen Esau's loophole play coming and brought to the Island a number of Candidates, groomed over years and possibly even generations. Candidates who can take his place as Protector once he's gone. Esau sees their arrival as Jacob's contingency plan, a threat to his escape, essentially, obstacles to be overcome, removed, killed. Jacob anticipates Esau's conflict with his Candidates, their companions, and Island deputies and in fact, counts on them.

It will be through their confrontations that Esau will end up visiting the Heart once again. Remember, the energies of the Heart do not kill, but they do transform. When Desmond, who has proven himself essentially impervious to massive EM radiation, forces Locke-ness into the energies of the Heart, Esau's consciousness, perhaps with a boost or redirection from Desmond's own absorbed energies, will be blasted out of Locke-ness's body in LOST1 2007, and into the cells of Claire's unborn child in LOST2 2004.

This will leave behind an empty vessel, Locke-ness's form, which, thanks to the decayed body of Momster in the cave, we know to be indistinguishable from the original, and so, a perfect fit for a John Locke-shaped Whispering ghost sulking about on the Island.

Maybe in time ghost Jacob will have the Lighthouse rebuilt, so that he can visit it, use the mirros to watch his brother grow up and live his life in LOST2. Maybe on one of those visits, he will see Esau-Aaron looking back at him, smiling.

This is the HAPPY HAPPY ENDING.

The NOT-SO-HAPPY HAPPY ENDING involves Infection completely overtaking Esau, pushing him from resentful and pissed-off to evil. This Esau is released into LOST2 as baby Aaron. Then, thru the concerted effort of the enlightened LOST2 815ers and the Islander Illuminati (Chang, Eloise, Widmore, maybe Richard?), collapsing the reality of LOST2 so that Esau-Aaron is born into a world that is moments from deletion. The collapse reboots (and/or restores) reality from 1977 on to LOST1, preserving the lives, loves, and histories of the Losties on the Island.

-------------------------

A few things this story does not explain or involve...

The deal with Ghost Jacob, who's visible only to Esau and the Candidates.

A crisis in LOST2. Would the focus of it be Aaron's birth in LOST2? Doesn't seem like reason enough for all of the LOST2 815ers to get their LOST1 memories downloaded. I think that Locke2 will have to step up to accept his Locke1 life and somehow engage Esau across realities, within Locke-ness's body.

The identity of the new Protector. I could see it being Jack, Desmond, or a refreshed John Locke. With Ghost Jacob stomping about the jungle right now, I think he might have an Aslan-on-the-Stone-Table chance at a comeback shot at the title, too.

What Kate will do, cuz as a Kandidate, I know she WILL do Something Important.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: "The Other Brother?" (an awful theory)

I've got a kinda mean and awful theory... But tell me it doesn't fit the data...?

Is Jacob developmentally challenged or arrested, or perhaps autistic?

It's almost a STAR TREK original series concept. A child's mentality with the powers of Protector, plucking people out of the outside world for use almost literally as game pieces, a game governed by rules that he creates, to carry out his mother's last wishes and also to prove a philosophical point about humanity.

Listen to some of his dialogue carefully. I seem to recall some striking mid-convo-stream almost-non-sequiturs. Like a kid rambling off some related topics in that very kid-like way. One conversational track jump that's always stuck out...
JACOB: That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptable because it's in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove him wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn't matter.
I've written it off as a sign of the creators' need for crowbarring in certain exposition into season 6 episodes, but it could be a sign of his not-typically-mature-adult thought process as well.

And if he is something like autistic, maybe he sees a big plan, but doesn't KNOW it.

Esau would then be a once-loving but now incredibly resentful brother's keeper, drawn into this game as Jacob's opponent.

Or, it could just be nerdy social skills due to being raised to be a Mama's Boy and not hanging out with any other people. Esau, of course, grows to be quite the charmer, eh?

This scenario could be the twist to a single episode of something, or maybe part of an ending to a 1-season arc or a feature film, but no way it could be for the epic that is LOST, right?

Right?

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: Why no Other babies?

(This is a slightly edited version of "LOST: baby talk", that I posted at theoriesonblogspot.)

Some ramble-theorizing on the Island's no-babies-on-board policy...

THE PROBLEM WITH BABIES ON THE ISLAND.

It isn't really about fertility, right? On the Island you can certainly MAKE babies, but you can't HAVE babies. The sad problem is that mothers and babies do not come to full term and survive labor.

IT'S NOT EVERYONE'S PROBLEM, THO.

Consider this: the pregnancy issues on the Island only affect the Others. Conception is unimpeded, but delivery while on the Island is.

When you become an Other, you get baptized in the Temple spring. This automatically enrolls you in the Island health plan, gets you a place in the Other community, possibly grants you a specialty talent/gift, and infuses you with protection against monsters, courtesy of the Protector's life force/powers. In return for these benefits, at least one of which is basically an absolute requirement for long-term peaceful survival on the (Monster) Island, you must give up the possibility of siring a child and remaining on the Island. You can have and raise your child, but only as an Other/Island exile.

We really have only one test case to examine (Eloise Hawking and Daniel Faraday), so this notion of exile could go a lot of ways. Here's my reading...

THE RULES ABOUT BABIES (and some of their possible effects/reasons).

Parental leave exile (Eloise) is similar to taboo/violation exile (Charles) and wheel-turning exile (Ben)—the power of the Island will prevent you from returning. Of course, we've seen that there are exceptions to this, perhaps explicit in the Rules, perhaps loopholes to be exploited. Ben returns to the Island as part of a proxy re-creation (Ajira 316) of a previous snowglobe incursion (Oceanic 815), and Charles returns when the Island is Protector-less.

The child of an exile is welcome on the Island, just not the parent.

I believe that this Rule, this contract, has been in effect for centuries, since before Claudia's arrival.

On one hand, it's a pretty effective way to limit the exposure to the outside world of the Island's existence, its gifts, and its gift-giving. Those who become Others and enjoy the benefits of a simple life on a tropical island would have to think hard about giving it up for any reason. It's also a built-in population control measure, somewhat harsh, but not a bad notion given that we're talking about an Island in its own pocket dimension.

On the other hand, once people are capable of leaving the Island, this policy can create emissaries, or witnesses, who can testify to its wonders should they choose to. Of course, the question is, who would believe them, and how would they ever find the Island again as exiles?

Another effect of these exiles on the outside world would be to seed the general human population with potential for Island-gifted individuals over generations, by chance, or maybe by Island insiders (Jacob's agents, perhaps) on the outside working some kind of breeding program, to create the next Island "players" and Candidates. Chance may be behind the likes of Walt, while strategy might lead to an Aaron, each of whom proves to be an enigma before they have a clue about the Island.

In a big picture way, perhaps this would serve as an engine for the next chapter in human evolutionary development.

WHAT ABOUT THE BABIES?

I'd say that the DI must have observed that the Hostiles' population suffered from this pregnancy phenomenon, but never received details about the Rules and Otherness from the mouth of a Hostile. So, erring on the side of baby- and mother-saving, they instituted their policy of subbing pregnant women off-Island before they go into labor, to safely deliver their children. However, we see that Amy delivers Ethan in 1977, so they may never have needed to set up that protocol.

Island baby roll call...

Jacob and Esau. Claudia's not an Other when she delivers.

Ethan. Amy is not an Other when she delivers.

Daniel. Eloise is likely off-Island when she delivers Daniel, and stays off-Island to raise Daniel on her own. This is the case for parental leave exile as a Rule. Of course, she's got Daniel's future memories in her hand, and her own gift tells her that Charles will stray ("Love can be complicated," remember?).

Alex. Danielle is not an Other when she delivers.

Aaron. Claire is not an Other when she delivers.

Am I missing any Island babies?

I'm not sure how this theory and the mystery itself will contribute to events to come. Its significance may remain completely on what's already passed in that the inability to (pro)create new Others on the Island necessitated that Protectors and players be brought to the Island by luck and design. Who knows? Maybe regime change on the Island will lead to a revision of the Rule/s that govern this.

Whaddyathink?

--------------------------------

P.S. LOST GENERATIONS (some bonus round rambling).

In early seasons I've believed that an outsiders' cabal was steering events and people to get just the right players groomed and ready to be placed on the Island for a final conflict. First I thought that they all agreed to sacrifice a child to the Island (or their search or project for the Island) as part of their strategy and to demonstrate their commitment. When I got a clue that Widmore had a history ON the Island, I realized that they're all more insiders than outsiders. They are group of those who left the Island, exiled because of the Rules explained above, and their children may have been part of a plan older than themselves.

Ray Shephard. Charles Widmore. Patriarch Paik. I believe that all were once on the Island and had to leave it in order to start their families and continue their bloodlines. The Shephard line was meant to produce Jack, a likely Candidate. I suspect that Claire, and then Aaron, are a secret "side project" of Christian's, an unscripted branch of the family tree. Widmore sires Daniel and Penny. Daniel's gifts of genius and understanding prove to be vital to Widmore's rediscovery of the Island, while Penny's gift manifests in her relationship with the one man who could be the key to thwarting Locke-ness. Paik's line produces Sun, who joins their blood to a Kwon (another Candidate line). Each on their own play important parts in the drama-puzzle of the Island in two eras, and together produce Ji Yeon, whose gifts have yet to be expressed as far as we know.

I feel like Ray Shephard is waiting for regime change on the Island for his chance to return, like Captain Pike in STAR TREK's "The Menagerie."

Keep on keepin on~

Sunday, May 16, 2010

LOST: baby talk (aka "What's the deal with not having babies on the Island?")

THE PROBLEM WITH BABIES ON THE ISLAND.

It isn't really about fertility, right? On the Island you can certainly MAKE babies, but you can't HAVE babies. The sad problem is that mothers and babies do not survive labor.

IT'S NOT EVERYONE'S PROBLEM, THO.

Consider this: the pregnancy issues on the Island only affect the Others. Conception is unimpeded, but delivery while on the Island is.

When you become an Other, you get baptized in the Temple spring. This automatically enrolls you in the Island health plan, gets you a place in the Other community, possibly grants you a specialty talent/gift, and infuses you with protection against monsters, courtesy of the Protector's life force/powers. In return for these benefits, at least one of which is basically an absolute requirement for long-term peaceful survival on the (Monster) Island, you must give up the opportunity to reproduce and remain on the Island. You can have and raise your child, but only as an Other/Island exile.

We really have only one test case to examine (Eloise Hawking and Daniel Faraday), so this notion of exile could go a lot of ways. Here's my reading...

THE RULES ABOUT BABIES (and some of their possible effects/reasons).

Parental leave exile (Eloise) is similar to taboo/violation exile (Charles) and wheel-turning exile (Ben)—the power of the Island will prevent you from returning. Of course, we've seen that there are exceptions to this, perhaps explicit in the Rules, perhaps loopholes to be exploited. Ben returns to the Island as part of a proxy re-creation (Ajira 316) of a previous snowglobe incursion (Oceanic 815), and Charles returns when the Island is Protector-less.

The child of an exile is welcome on the Island, just not the parent.

I believe that this Rule, this contract, has been in effect for centuries, since before Claudia's arrival.

On one hand, it's a pretty effective way to limit the exposure to the outside world of the Island's existence, its gifts, and its gift-giving. Those who become Others and enjoy the benefits of a simple life on a tropical island would have to think hard about giving it up for any reason. It's also a built-in population control measure, somewhat harsh, but not a bad notion given that we're talking about an Island in its own pocket dimension.

On the other hand, once people are capable of leaving the Island, this policy can create emissaries, or witnesses, who can testify to its wonders should they choose to. Of course, the question is, who would believe them, and how would they ever find the Island again as exiles?

Another effect of these exiles on the outside world would be to seed the general human population with potential for Island-gifted individuals over generations. In a big picture way, perhaps this would serve as an engine for the latest chapter in evolution.

WHAT ABOUT THE BABIES?

I'd say that the DI must have observed that the Hostiles' population suffered from this pregnancy phenomenon, but never received details about the Rules and Otherness from the mouth of a Hostile. So, erring on the side of baby- and mother-saving, they instituted their policy of subbing pregnant women off-Island before they go into labor, to safely deliver their children. However, we see that Amy delivers Ethan in 1977, so they may never have needed to set up that protocol.

Anyhow...

Claudia's not an Other when she delivers Jacob and Esau.

Amy is not an Other when she delivers Ethan.

Eloise is likely off-Island when she delivers Daniel, and stays off-Island to raise Daniel on her own, realizing that Charles has got an outsider on the side ("Love can be complicated," remember?).

Danielle is not an Other when she delivers Alex.

Claire is not an Other when she delivers Aaron.

Am I missing any Island babies?

Keep on keepin on~

Saturday, May 15, 2010

LOST: George Lucas sends fan mail to LOST creators...

Dear LOST,

You rock!
Especially when that guy was in the hatch!

P.S. Do you know FLASHFORWARD?
I try to avoid any media or news connected to LOST outside of the viewing or dicussion with friends of the episodes themselves, but this little nugget is too much in my geeky pop cultural wheelhouse to ignore. A copy/paste of the GeeksOfDoom report follows...

In the letter, Lucas speaks about how he didn’t exactly know where he was heading with Star Wars and how impressive it is to create such a complex show yet still keep track of everything they had done since day one. He even shares the secret to this success as it worked on Lost and Star Wars, explaining that you just really need some “father issues” and homages to previous stories.
Congratulations on pulling off an amazing show.

Don’t tell anyone … but when ‘Star Wars’ first came out, I didn’t know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you’ve planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories — let’s call them homages — and you’ve got a series.

In six seasons, you’ve managed to span both time and space, and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I never saw what was around the corner. Now that it’s all coming to an end, it’s impressive to see how much was planned out in advance and how neatly you’ve wrapped up everything. You’ve created something really special. I’m sad that the series is ending, but I look forward to seeing what you two are going to do next.
And what did producer Damon Lindelof have to say about the kind words from Lucas? What any one of us would say if such a man complimented us so emphatically: “I just want to apologize to Mr. George Lucas for everything I said about the prequels.”

"Let's call them homages..." (So that my smoke monster legal team won't rip out your throats. =) I wonder who in the creative team is a STAR WARS fanboy. Or maybe no one is and they just did good writers' research? In any case, I really do think there have been some scenes in the show, particularly in finales, that are directly lifted from the original trilogy, too. Sometimes it'll be like deja vu, other times it's more about the flow or pace of an episode. Frack. I can't pick a specific scene out now, but I seem to remember the deja vu hitting me several times in the season 5 finale.

Heh. All of those Sawyer references to STAR WARS. "Some Like It Hoth." And "Who the hell's Anakin?" Too frickin funny. =)

Keep on keepin on~

Friday, May 14, 2010

LOST: John Locke is dead! Long live John Locke!

John Locke in LOST2 has seen his LOST1 life. Maybe only in bits and pieces while asleep or unconscious, but he's seen it. He mutters his LOST1 lines in his sleep. He recognizes Jin in the hospital. He recognizes the words from his suicide note when Jack speaks them to him. I think he's made an explicit decision that he needs to go on with his life in LOST1 out of a mix of guilt and devotion to his father, Anthony Cooper.

I feel like the story needs to get Locke2 on board with whatever Desmond's LOST2 strategy ends up being, even if it's nothing more complex or developed than opening everyone's eyes to their other lives and loves. I realize there's not a lot of show time left, but I'd love for the finale to take place in LOST2's October and feature John and Helen's wedding.

This event, or possible the time leading up to it, would offer us the opportunity to have Detective Ford track Anthony Cooper down. In the process, he would confront Locke2 with Cooper's criminal activities, and maybe, maybe his investigation would reveal that at the time of the airplane crash, Cooper was likely "working" John to get him to give up a kidney for a transplant. Medically, of course, I'm clueless as to what kind of shape he'd be in as a crash survivor with a bad kidney, but I like this revelation. Locke would deny it at first, but Ford would leave him with a dossier (much like the one on Sawyer that Richard gave to Locke1) to review and the facts would eventually sink in.

Locke2 would realize that his guilt and devotion are founded on Anthony Cooper's lies. Freed from this weight, he could reconsider Dr. Jack's offer to "fix" him. If it's within his power, he might choose to discontinue life-preserving measures for his father. Heck, in a sweet reflection of LOST1, maybe he'd let Ford literally pull the plug on him.

But what this would turn him onto is the possibility of embracing his LOST1 life and the safety and protection of the Island, his Island people, and his 815 survivor companions and friends. I can't suss out the details, but I can imagine a crisis point where Locke2 is offered the opportunity to save the Island and his friends by agreeing to "return" to LOST1. Send his active consciousness and will across realities and into his living body.

Remember, Crazy Mother the Momster left a physical corpse, so these monster doppelgangers are indistinguishable from the original. If a disembodied—for lack of a better word—SOUL is seeking its home, and there is a dead and buried one and a perfect living copy, I say that it will arrive at that perfect copy, and the first order of business would be to kick out any squatters, namely, Esau!

This would be a pretty sweet part of the endgame, an internal struggle between Locke2 and Locke-ness, rendering Esau vulnerable in LOST1 on the Island, perhaps to an EM assault launched by Desmond.

And in the aftermath, when the *ahem* smoke clears... We see John Locke open his eye. We pull back and find ourselves in LOST2, looking down at Locke2, coming to after fainting at the alter at his wedding. Locke smiles as Jack and Desmond help him back up.

Then, we see John Locke open his eye. We pull back and find ourselves in LOST1, looking down at Locke-ness's body on the Island, and as Desmond and Jack approach him cautiously, he smiles and says, "I'm glad you believed me." When Locke2 returns to LOST2, the Locke-ness vessel is empty, but living. Locke1, one of the Island "whispers" since Ben killed him, fills the vessel and *BAM* The miraculous return of John Locke! If Jack accepts the Protector gig, then perhaps Locke becomes his Richard, or takes his rightful place as Leader. Of course, they're gonna need some people for him to lead, but whatev. They've got time.

Keep on keepin on~

LOST: Like crazy mother, like son... Monster.

Some rambling theorizing, riffing on revelations in "Across The Sea" in four parts: (1) Crazy Mother was a monster, (2) Crazy Mother is killed by Esau, (3) Given #2, who can kill Esau, and how?, and (4) Luchador Desmond!

MOMSTER!

Crazy Mother is a smoke monster. The Momster.

She is the Protector of the Island and its Heart, and when Claudia meets her, she's a monster. She never shows her smokey self to her adopted sons, but we certainly see the evidence of her monster-ous powers, in the filling of the well and the destruction of the settlement of XENA extras. She also speaks with authority about the outcome for anyone who enters the Heart of the Island—basically, a fate worse than death. Granted, it's easy to believe that that authority is built on delusion—Esau's story about his crazy mother is designed to tilt us that way—but let's take her at her word. How would she know? To my mind, there are two possibilities:

1. She entered the Heart herself and experienced the consequences herself.

2. She knew/observed someone else who entered the Heart and witnessed the consequences.

I believe that possibility 1 is what actually happened.

When a human being enters the Heart of the Island, his or her consciousness is forced out of its body and implanted in a smoke monster host body, somehow conjured or manufactured by the Heart. This process leaves behind the human's corpse. This is what happens when Jacob sends the unconscious Esau floating into the Heart.

Things we know about a smoke monster, courtesy of Esau's exploits and words.

1. A smoke monster can take the form and assimilate the experiences, memories, and personality of the life of any dead body present on the Island.

2. A smoke monster in either human or smoke form is impervious to conventional physical attacks.

3. A smoke monster can be blocked or contained by a line of special ash spread on the ground of the Island.

4. A smoke monster can be blocked or contained by powerful sonics as well.

5. A smoke monster can only manifest in its smokey form on solid ground, and not over water. (SAWYER: What do you need a boat for? Can't you just turn into smoke and fly your ass over the water?)

6. Contact with water may interfere with the ability of a monster in human form to change into its smoke form. (Jack shoves Locke-ness into the water on the dock and he doesn't go smokey on them. This could be because all was going to plan anyway, but I'm going to assume that Sawyer's gambit—he told Jack to get Locke-ness into the water—had the desired effect.)

ESAU KILLS THE MOMSTER.

Now, since the Momster is a monster herself, thru her story, we've learned that a monster can be killed. What made Esau's attack special...? I'm gonna try to identify significant factors.

1. Esau was born on the Island.

2. Esau may have died and been resuscitated by Infection. (Meaning that Crazy Mother's head-cracking move on Esau actually killed him.)

3. Esau used a steel/iron knife. (We saw his knife attracted by the electromagnetic field of the well and I'm assuming it's the same knife.)

4. Esau loved the Momster.

5. The Momster loved Esau.

6. The Momster WANTED to die. (She tells Esau, "Thank you.")

7. Esau catches the Momster by surprise. (While she is distracted by his game and game pieces, he stabs her in the back.)

7a. The Momster doesn't get to speak to Esau until after he delivers his killing blow. Of course, she's been speaking to him since he was born, but maybe the Rules reset the speaks-first counter every time a monster meets someone...? I feel it's worth mentioning because much has been made of individuals losing their advantage and/or nerve (Dogen tells Sayid to strike and kill Locke-ness before he says a word to him) and submitting to Esau's will as soon as they hear him speak to them (Claire explains to Jack that he's joined Locke-ness, even if he doesn't think he has, because he spoke to him).

I'm not saying all of the above factors are required to hurt or kill a monster, but I'm guessing that at least one of them is. Anyone got any more to add?

SO, WHO CAN KILL THE LOCKE-NESS MONSTER?

So, who of the remaining Losties on the Island in 2007 meets most if not all of the above qualifications...?

1. Born on the Island? It was DI policy in 1974 that mothers should give birth off-Island, but with Amy's successful delivery of Ethan, perhaps that changed by 1977, and Miles Straume could have been born on the Island.

2. Infected? Claire.

3. Steel/iron as a weapon? Shouldn't be too hard to manage. Where's that fancy old Roman dagger got to?

4/5. Love? If a loving relationship between Esau and his killer is necessary, well, that narrows it down considerably. A resurrected Jacob. A resurrected Crazy Mother. Perhaps Claire, at just the right moment.

What if being "stuck" for so long as Locke-ness is imprinting the original Locke's experiences and emotions upon Esau's consciousness in a completely new and different way, compared to Esau's usual doppelganging. Perhaps the original Locke's feelings of love might affect Esau as Locke-ness? If that's the case... and allowing for apparitions and resurrections as well as those drawing genuine breath, Locke might feel a strong connection to Jack, to Boone, to Aaron, to Helen, of course, and maybe Eko.

Yeah. I'm hoping that Love isn't a factor.

6. A deathwish? It's hard to see Esau getting himself into a situation where he would WANT to die, after all of his patience over the centuries, engineering his loophole, and now, apparently only a few steps away from his goal. Singleminded little monster brat, ain't he?

Still, maybe Esau dying will end up being part of the process of "leaving the Island." In which case, someone killing Esau will end up helping him reach his goal.

Maybe the writers can conjure up a scenario in which Esau would genuinely wish to sacrifice himself and wish for someone to kill him. Perhaps a vision of the Momster and BioMom together?

7. Surprise attack/no talking? Y'know what? I'm pretty sure that Miles is the only living Lostie on the Island in 2007 who hasn't had a conversation with Locke-ness. He was one of the returned time travellers. He escaped the Temple during Esau's massacre. He left with Richard instead of joining Hurley and Jack at Locke-ness's camp.

Wow. Miles! Miles the Monster killer! =)

Hrmm... I wonder if he would get a reading off of Esau in his presence...?

PLAN D (FOR DESMOND =).

Of course, and I've said it before, killing Esau may not be the best way of dealing with him.

Consider the origin of Esau's life as a Monster—his visit to the Heart of the Island. The Heart is apparently the greatest concentration of exotic EM energy in or on the Island. The wells that the settlers dig seem to access secondary pools of the Heart's energized water. Two of the largest of these reservoirs end up being the focus of the DI Swan and Orchid stations.

What would happen if Esau were to be returned to the Heart? A human becomes a monster. What becomes of a monster?

The wheel chamber DOES eventually get built, and it does exactly what Esau's curious alchemists design it to do—sends an individual who turns the wheel off the Island. I'm unclear as to whether Esau and these wise men understood that the process would also move the Island. We know it works, tho. Esau must know as well. He was ready to turn the wheel when he was a living, breathing man, but since he's become a monster, he hasn't turned it. Given his desire to leave, that could only be the case because he CANNOT turn it. As a monster, he's unable to.

That tells me that concentrations of the Island's exotic energy are anethema to a monster. An extreme electromagnetic field or event is painful or destructive or deadly to a monster. Or, perhaps its fatally attractive or repelling? Maybe a monster would be unable to escape a massively potent EM field, or, on the other hand, its matter would be scattered to the winds if dragged to the center of one.

Now... Who do we know who could walk into the heart of an EM bonanza and get settle in with a good book, say, Charles Dickens, hrm? DESMOND!

Could the defeat of Esau lie in something as low-tech and down and dirty as Desmond putting Locke-ness in a headLocke and dragging him with him over the Heart's falls? Desmond's sacrifice?

I'd buy it, assuming the rassling would be just one of several theaters of the final war in both LOST realities.

ONE LAST THING.

Assuming that Crazy Mother is a Momster, it's interesting that her doppelganger body dies and decays just like a real human one. It's a *copy* of the original, but biologically, physically, it's a human body. Is it fair game for monster doppelganging? Could Esau wear Crazy Mother's form to mess with Jacob every once in a while? Was Momster "stuck" in that form for some reason, perhaps because she was a monster *and* Protector?

For a monster to take someone's form, must the original body of its dupe be in a particular condition?

Of course, if you're of a mind to reject the notion that Crazy M is a Momster, that she's just a crazy woman who believes she's in communion with the Island, then you'd probably view her apparently human remains as proof of that.

I'm gonna run with the Momster notion. It's way more fun.

ONE LAST LAST THING.

Interesting how Esau adopts Momster's opinion of mankind while Jacob takes an opposing, hopeful, stance.
MOTHER: They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt... and it always ends the same.

ESAU: They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.
JACOB: It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.
Keep on keepin on~

Thursday, May 13, 2010

LOST: cuz it hangs them up to see someone like you...

Nobody can tell you there's only one song worth singing. They may try and sell you, because it hangs them up to see someone like you. But you've got to make your own kind of music. Sing your own special song. Make your own kind of music, even if nobody else sings along.

You're going to be nowhere, the loneliest kind of lonely. It may be rough-going. Just to do your thing is the hardest thing to do. But you've got to make your own kind of music. Sing your own special song. Make your own kind of music, even if nobody else sings along.

So, if you cannot take my hand; and, if you must be going, I will understand. You've got to make your own kind of music. Sing your own special song. Make your own kind of music. Even if nobody else sings along.

You've got to make your own kind of music. Sing your own special song. Make your own kind of music. Even if nobody else sings along.

=)

Thanks to Mama Cass and Desmond Hume.

Keep on keepin on~