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Written by versed4every1
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Friday, 18 May 2007 |
On Thursday night, the producers of ABC’s Lost, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse decided to trade in their podcast forum for a televised one and provide a basic type of "catch-up" episode for average viewer who is still scratching his head and wondering why Flight 815 really did crash. How would you even attempt to explain the mysteries of Lost now that we are nearing its zenith? Lindelof and Cuse chose to begin, well, at the beginning, where they proceed to "shed some light and provide the final word" on some of Lost’s biggest mysteries. Welcome to Lost: The_Answers!
A plane crashes on a seemingly deserted tropical island. There are survivors, but those survivors know virtually nothing about each other. The mysteries of the characters are developed and explored in addition to the mysteries that surround the island. Through the use of flashbacks, we have found out a great deal about these characters. We learned what Kate did to put her in the hands of a Federal Marshal. We saw Jack's relationships with both his father and his wife fall apart. We learned how Sayid's past has affected the man he is today. Slowly but surely, the many layers of these characters are being unveiled to us. Who are these people? What were they doing on the plane? The mystery surrounding any particular character, however, is dwarfed by the mysteries of the island itself.
Charlie asks early in the first season, "Guys, where are we?" The biggest mystery in Lost, the location of the island and why no one can find it will most likely be the very last mystery revealed. Was the crash of Flight 815 a random event - coincidence versus Fate? John Locke has a very good reason to believe in the mystical power of the island from the very second that he opened his eyes there. He can walk. We already knew that Locke was in a wheelchair before the crash of Flight 815, but this season we learned how it was that he became paralyzed. Having been essentially orphaned by a mother who was in a mental institution and a father who abandoned them both, Locke was ecstatic to meet what seemed to be a contrite and remorseful Anthony Cooper.
Locke was thrilled that his father wanted to have a relationship with him. So much so that he willingly gave up a kidney for him; until it all turned out to be nothing more that a long con. Later in his life, when he meets up with his kidney stealing father and threatens to turn him in, Cooper pushes Locke out of an eight story window, fracturing his spine and causing his paralysis. The mere fact that Locke survived leads to one of Locke’s signature lines, "Don’t tell me what I can't do." We are already aware that Locke does not want to leave the island. Cuse and Lindelof state that Locke is methodically picking off every mode of rescue off the island. Locke's recovery from his paralysis on the island has allowed him to become everything he ever dreamed of being, the hunter instead of the farmer. We are just now beginning to learn how truly special Locke actually is.
Nine days after the crash, Sayid manipulates a radio and picks up a distress signal in French that he says has been playing in a loop for 16 years. When Sayid finds a cable on the beach and follows it inland he is captured by Danielle Rousseau, the origin of the signal. She tells Sayid that there are Others on the island and that they are not alone. Cuse and Linelof tell us that Danielle was indeed stranded there on a research vessel that crashed on the island. So for anyone who thinks that Rousseau is an Other or even Annie with a fake French accent; this goes a long way toward debunking that theory.
During the first season, John Locke was led to a hatch buried in the ground, one that we now know as the Swan. The season ending cliffhanger was, "What’s in the hatch?" Now we know that among other things, Desmond was in the hatch. Desmond was stranded on the island during a solo race around the world. Desmond has been in the Swan for three years pushing a button every 108 minutes because he was told he had to do this in order to save the world. Desmond presents the Losties with their first exposure to "The Dharma Initiative," a mysterious group of people who "built a series of hatches around the island in the late 1970’s through early 1980’s." Desmond left the hatch one day and he failed to return in time to enter the code into the computer. The resulting electromagnetic pulse disrupted the instrumentation on Flight 815 and the plane crashed onto the island. According to Cuse, that is the "definitive answer on why the plane crashed." For those of us still holding out hope that there was some kind of conspiracy involved in the crash itself, apparently that is one mystery they consider solved.
The very first night that they spent on the island, one of the most talked about mysteries appeared, or rather didn’t appear. The Losties heard the crashing through the jungle and saw the trees being uprooted, but were unable to see what was causing this cacophony. We have since seen the 'monster' as a column of black smoke, or Smokie as it has been affectionately named, many times. Cuse and Lindelof talk about the monster. Is it man made? They don’t know, or won’t say. Does it have the ability to judge you? Lindelof states, "Locke passed it the first time he saw it, but then later on the monster grabbed him and tried to pull him into a hole. And then what does it do with that judgment is a very sort of interesting question as we move forward on with the show."
This to me sounds like they feel that Smokie does indeed judge you in some capacity. They go on to discuss the flashes that were present when Smokie came across Juliet and Kate in the Banyan Tree. They will not go as far as to say that Smokie is a manifestation of the island but they do say that when it "looks at you it seems to be able to process certain memories that you may have had." The narrator goes on to say that that some memories can become quite real. Cuse says that the island is capable of "apparitions" using Jack’s seeing of Christian, and Shannon and Sayid’s vision of Walt and Kate’s horse as examples of those apparitions. Cuse also states that all these characters are seeking redemption for something they have done in their past. Could that mean that only those seeking that redemption see these apparitions?
All of the characters in Lost were running from mistakes in their past. As Cuse has stated before, they were metaphorically lost in their lives and became physically lost on the island. From Sun's estrangement from Jin and her affair to Charlie's battle with addiction, all of these characters are on a journey to transcend what they once were. Desmond's issue involves cowardice. Before coming to the island, Desmond was confronted by both Penny and Ruth about his lack of courage and conviction. But it is Desmond’s heroic act of turning the key under the Swan station even though he was under the impression that it would cost him his life, which might lead to their rescue. At the end of the second season, we learned that Penny Widmore is still looking for Desmond and after the key is turned the electromagnetic pulse suddenly and briefly made the island visible to the outside world. On the island, Desmond does survive the implosion of the Swan, but with a remarkable new ability. He sees flashes of the future; although most of them seem to predict the death of Charlie Pace.
What about the connections between the characters? Is it too all just coincidence or is it something more. The producers state that they feel that the linkages between the characters are a metaphor for the way we are all intertwined in the journeys of our lives. That is pretty, but what does it mean? Lindelof goes on to explain that these are all the events that led up to the characters boarding the plane. Everything had to happen the way that it did for them all to be there. Some of the characters are only there because of the actions of another person.
This season of Lost could be best described as the 'Season of the Others.' We have learned a great deal about the Others this year. According to Lindelof, there is a group of thirty to forty, Others, "we think," who live in this little community of yellow houses in a valley surrounded by a mountain ridge and a neat little sonic fence. They do not want anyone from the outside world to find them. Ethan Rom was the first Other we met. He kidnapped Claire, held her prisoner in the Staff Station and injected her very pregnant abdomen with some kind of serum. Ethan was later killed by Charlie in his interpretation of Dirty Harry's, "Go ahead. Make my day."
Tom aka "Mr. Friendly" is also one of the Others that we met early on. Tom was responsible to the kidnapping of Walt and the "this is our island" speech that set up a line in the sand, so to speak, that the Losties were never to cross. From his take charge kind of attitude, many of us assumed he was their leader until we learned that even Tom answered to "Him." Recently, we have met Juliet Burke and Richard Alpert, both of whom seem to have a much larger part to play in this drama, especially the latter.
The "Him" that Tom referred to has turned out to be Benjamin Linus. Cuse calls Ben the leader of the Other’s on the island. Lindelof describes Ben as "very smart, very creepy and very dangerous." I think that pretty much sums him up. We are aware that Hurley felt that he is cursed. In "Tricia Tanaka is Dead," Hurley believed that getting an old Dharma van running was a manifestation of hope. Of course, we learn later that is not the only symbolism in the van. Sawyer and Jin are actually drinking Dharma Beer with Ben's father’s corpse. Roger "Work Man" Linus' relationship with his son Ben was strained at best, as Roger blames Ben for his mother's death. This causes an adult Ben to lead a mass extermination of The Dharma Initiative, including his father whom he gases inside of the Dharma van later found by Hurley. By doing so, he becomes the leader of the Others – formerly known as Hostiles. That is until John Locke shows up.
After Anthony Cooper appears on the island, Ben, knowing that Locke can not kill his father, uses Cooper to try and make a fool out of Locke. However, Richard provides Locke with the answer to his dilemma - Sawyer. We learn that Cooper is the original Tom Sawyer, the man who was responsible for the death of James "Sawyer" Ford’s parents. For whom Sawyer has been carrying a letter and sworn to kill for over 20 years. John locks them in the brig of the Black Rock together until Sawyer learns exactly who Anthony Cooper is, and fulfills his promise of bringing about the real Sawyer’s demise. Cuse and Lindelof go on to say that if it were not for this man, Anthony Cooper, neither James Ford, nor John Locke would have been on Flight 815.
After Locke brings the body of Anthony Cooper back and lays it at Ben's feet in front of the camp, Ben is forced to take Locke to see Jacob. Cuse and Lindelof describe going to see Jacob as a kind of litmus test to see if Locke really is special. When he realizes that Locke can indeed hear Jacob, he knows that Locke is a threat to his power over the Others. This results in Locke ending up gut shot on the top of a mass Dharma grave.
The final mystery of this season is a woman named Naomi who parachutes onto the island with a picture of Desmond. She tells them that they can't be the survivors of Flight 815 as the plane was found, four miles deep in an ocean trench off Bali, with all of them dead inside of it. How can this be? Lindelof and Cuse reiterate that they are not dead and not in purgatory, but very much alive somewhere in the space time continuum.
The conflict between these two groups, the Losties and the Others has been brewing since the first episode and with the pending season finale that conflict takes on a very physical reality. Last Wednesday, we found that there is indeed an underwater station called "The Looking Glass." Charlie, who has been told by Desmond that if he does not sacrifice his own life Claire and Aaron will never get off the island, agrees to dive to down to what he believes is a flooded station and turn off the jamming signal. This is a level of heroism that seems to arise in all of the Losties as they stop thinking of themselves and focus more on their community.
Many viewers of this show may have never heard of Lindelof and Cuse. Or to them they might have just been names that flashed by at the end of an episode. So I believe that their choice to bring their particular type of humorous discussion from the podcast to the TV screen was a good one. They have given a face to the Lost production team and this allows the average viewer to connect with them and to know that there is indeed someone at the helm of this ship steering with a definite goal in mind. With a grand mosaic of who these characters were, who they are now and who they will become firmly in place, Lost has never been lost.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 August 2007 )
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