Imagine a World
A few, unedited words on the premise of LOST…ergh
Last Tuesday, while watching the season premiere of LOST, I had my first legitimate ‘Ah-Ha’ moment of the entire series. Never being one for following LOST theory blogs I plodded along half heatedly to this abysmally confusing show. And while, at this point watching LOST is akin to any taxing task you dont really want to do, I’ve just put in too much time to turn it off in its last season. All other things aside, I know its been a week so the details have gotten a little Hazy, but here is my predictions for the the shows basic premise.
So the season opens with the newly introduced corporeal being of Jacob, the essence of the island or some other metaphysical apparition, shrouded in a gauzy white tunic and talking to a bearded Man in Black. A ship sails in the horizon, and judging by the statue’s ‘intactness’ it must have been in the …1400s… Jacob asks the MIB something along the lines of, “why are you bringing them here, you already know what is going to happen?” the Man in Black then turns to him and says, “What are you afraid you are going to lose?” — end scene
Maybe it was something about the way he phrased it, but all of a sudden I knew exactly what this show was about. While many LOST theorists have been dancing around the idea that LOST is a paradigm for heaven and hell and the purgatory that exists between them, I think that the heart of the series deals with the notion, that, Man, when left to his own devices is naturally evil, and rather than basing it on something as narrow as Christianity (unless J.J Abrams is hoping to massly convert or piss off 10 million viewers) it not only deals with the rivalry between good and evil at large, but the burden of free will.
That being said, I think that Jacob and the Man in Black are involved in a bet to see which path (the righteous or the wicked) human beings will follow, when left to their own devices. Therefore I believe Jacob to be something more complicated than just good will, perhaps he stands in for ‘the ability to walk away from evil,” or just free will in general, while I maintain that The Man in Black exists in a much more one dimensional* way. (this perhaps being his weakness) and is what keeps him exiled to the island while Jacob enjoys passing though different dimensions and Time zones.
*though perhaps, earlier on the Man in Black also shared this privilege and LOST had never showed us, maybe he had the ability to influence Charles Whitmore and others in their lives, much like Jacob interacted with the original Oceanic crew
And while I sincerely hope that LOST doesn’t bring us into the the Christian void, I’m willing to entertain the idea that Jacob and the Man in Black are Arch Angels..* While I don’t feel comfortable calling the MIB, Lucifer, because that seems a bit dramatic, I think he’s definitely allegorical to the fallen Morning Star, the voice of temptation, and all things dark and scary. I had a harder time classifying Jacob. To call him Jesus** would be absurd, and while he doesn’t seem as warrior-like as the angel Michael, he doesn’t wholly embody Gabriel… making me think he is a synthesis between the two. Jacob is obviously the counter balance to the MIB—like the angel Michael, but on the other hand, he acts as a prophet who pieces together the LOST crew on the plane. Jacob definitely has more power than the Man in Black because only after Jacob was stabbed, could the MIB manifest himself… which leads me to believe that its your standard Harry Potter situation, one cannot live without the other…or that Jacob is the Yin to the MIB’s Yang, and is therefore the reason why they are unable to kill one another. If they are balancing forces it becomes obvious that they are bringing people to the island to see which force can have more pull on human nature. The winning side would of course go on to leave the island and destroy the world or some other nonsense
*Can’t help but think about Dogma here.. two fallen angels looking for loop holes to get back into heaven. The Man in Black even said he was looking for an out, and a loop hole.. interesting…
**the only messiah like thing here that sways that argument, is the possibility of Sayid being reborn as Jacob in the christ like baptism scene…
This brings me to the idea of ‘The Bet.’ Locked together in Exile and unable to kill each other, Jacob and the MIB duel to see which is in fact the stronger force. This involves bringing a group of people (not randomly selected??!??) to the island to recreate a Lord of the Flies-esque experiment—and is something that has been happening for hundreds, possibly thousands of year. Jacob bets that they will be able to live in peace, and that people have a choice if they want to be good or evil, and the MIB thinks that people will ultimately just be evil. This bet starts the cycle of bringing people to the island to be subject to the will of these two opposites.
This leads us to the characters themselves, all of which who have vacillated between good and evil, acting both self-lessly and selfishly and therefore kind of hang in moral ambiguity…making them perfect specimens for Jacob and the MIB to play out their game. Most of the people who have come to the island have a complicated dark past. Many of them have murdered, conned, or made decisions of a questionable nature. however, no character is entirely evil. Their complicated back stories show us that the circumstances that surround their crimes blur the lines between good and bad, allowing them to be perfect candidates for this ancient contest. . And while the character’s lives all seem to interact pre flight, perhaps this is the greatest thing they share in common— they are all kind of wayward souls…
This brings me to the nature of some of the important characters who have disappeared or fallen victim to the Island. I’m trying to figure out what the significance was to the plane splitting in half, we’re the people on the tail end more evil.. I’m not really sure. But a couple characters.. Bernard and Rose, the children, Walt, Claire and Locke, seemed immune to the Island’s tricks. They either opted to stay when they had an opportunity to leave or were taken by the ‘others’ ( a posse whose allegiance to good or evil is still slightly veiled as they seem too violent and unhappy to really be the soldiers of good on this island…) But the more I thought about it, the others take the innocent, the good, and the happy. The children dont need to be part of this childish bet, Bernard and his Wife are just good happy people, and Locke see’s the island for what it can be, A CHANCE TO LIVE IN EDEN*. hence they are taken by the others before the experiment can really begin. The violence as I mentioned, perhaps exists test those in moral turpitude. So, I guess I do think that the others are good… they have their peaceful Japanese Shaman leader who has his bonsai garden inside a temple and a troupe of gun wielding hippies to defend the good people from the smoke monster with their magical fairy powder.
AMENDMENT: OH SNAP!! I just thought, the reason why the others seemed so hostile at first is because they weren’t sure if the new people who crashed on the island (the oceanic crew) where on Jacob’s side or the MIB’s side… !!!!??!!@$%%^&
Cue Charles Whitmore… is he the devil…for he is certainly the puppeteer he requested that Ben bring Lockes body to the island so he could unbeknowingly be used as a vessel for the smoke monster/MIB. The group of people he hired to come to the island all died (except miles who also happens to have an extraordinary ability) and could therefore never reach the eden state… and if he is behind the Dharma initiative, all of those people died as well. HMMM
* I just thought now… what if everyone actually did die on the first plane crash, and the island is indeed purgatory, where the characters are faced with the choice to do good or evil… to live in eden, or to face judgement at the hands of the MIB. instead of being immediately doomed to hell as they would have been had it not been for the opportunity of choice the island presented.
I have to admit once again that I am very uncomfortable using a purely christian archetype to frame my lost arguments. I feel as though the show tries very hard to incorporate all faiths… Egyptian, Christian, and eastern religions into one conglomerate of their basic truths. There are temples that have been destroyed, the presence of Mister Echo, virgin mary statues containing heroine, and multi denominational crosses that are used as metaphors. Is LOST saying that not even religion can persuade or dissuade people from making the right choices in life, and argues that once again, being religious does not necessarily make you a good person. So therefore does this make LOST ultimately an anti-religious show? Perhaps. Perhaps the only religion it preaches is that of the self, and the power we have to either follow a morally righteous path, or give in to those temptations that destroy us. Yin and Yang.
My own credo of science vs spirituality is just as complex I suppose which brings me to my next point. And while I must admitt I have missed a couple pivatol episodes and keeping the details straight is very challenging, it would seem here that we have also engaged in a battle between religion/ human nature and science. The Dharma initiative with all of their experiments and hatches personifies the scientific method, and exists in contrast to the smoke monsters and mysterious forces of the island. They try and explore/ contain the mystical forces of the island and die trying. An occurrence that is a heavy handed notion by J.J Abbrams that says, trying to quantify religion or spirituality, and those ineffable things that cannot be fully understood, is a waste of time and should not be meddled with. I actually really like this idea, and hope that it is indeed a cenral notion of the LOST. I just don’t know how many of the ‘others’ were in the Dharma initiative as kind of secret spies.. possibly bringing it down from the inside/ keeping tabs on the scientific invaders. Then there is also the mystical pocket of energy inside the island vs. the H-bomb the Dharma people are holding… literally bringing these two life changing forces head to head.
AMENDMENT: on tonight’s episode Jack fought so hard against the leaders of the others, saying he would not give Sayid the pill unless he knew what was in it. Lost has been all about asking questions and not receiving answers to them. Is this also a theme throughout the series…is not having faith one of our biggest weaknesses. Should we be more comfortable with just believing in something, as opposed into needing physical proof of its existence … Does simply believing in something enough make it real…Jack, the self appointed leader, also has the trust of everyone on the island who will do anything he tells them to do, yet he is so unwilling to trust another human being…his pride perhaps being his biggest fault.
And while we are on the topic of science.. one can’t help but wonder if Abbrams is employing basic elements of string Theory as the info-structure to his multi-dimensional playground. As LOST started employing its flash forwards and flashbackswards.. what was to stop him from Flashing sideways and exploring the idea of multiple dimensions not existing at different times… but at the same time, side by side…the idea of multiple realities is something physics believe can happen as a side effect of splitting atoms on the sub atomic level. Cue- scene of Jack in the plane’s bathroom with the cut on his neck.. that we only see in the mirror… THE MIRROR. a clue of an alternate dimension happening at the same time. So its not that there are two jacks, one on the island, and one whose landed at LAX , but they are the same jack living in parallel universes Sliding Doors style. But what does this mean. Are the characters going to be faced with the choice to either carry out their meaningless lives in the real world, or stay on the island. The characters on the plane have all been slightly augmented in the LAX reality, though some of theme seem to be harboring secrets that make one believe that they are in on some cosmic joke the original oceanic 6 are perhaps not aware of… Rose, Bernard and Charlie mostly. It makes comes full circle to the underlying plot of predeterminism and destiny that has also run amok throughout the Series… for instance, Charlie’s knowledge of his own death and the use of visions, etc.
It also makes you wonder why these characters are fighting so hard to return to a world that holds nothing for them. (see- why do we fight so ahrd against the promise of eden?) Even as the oceanic crew is inside the temple, they plot ways of escaping and act hostily torwards The Others because they offer up no answers. I’m wondering now if Abbrams is just trying to, as realistically as he can, recreate what blind panic in a world where you cant trust anyone. Not sure…
I think that’s all I have left in me to type…
more soon.
