Uncharted Island

We have now seen that the island’s reach extends past the boundaries of the island, past the stormy barrier that hides the island from the rest of the world. Michael heard the whispers on the freighter. And he saw Libby.

And apparently the island can control whether or not people live or die… even if they’re not on the island. Michael survived ramming his car into a dumpster. His gun malfunctioned and he couldn’t shoot himself in the head, even though the chamber was full of bullets. Jack didn’t jump off that bridge because the woman crashed her car after seeing him on the ledge.

Mikhail seems to have nine lives. He survived the sonic fence around New Otherton. He survived a stab wound. We haven’t seen him since he blew a hole in the side of the Looking Glass, so he may or may not really be dead this time.

Charlie had a lot of near misses with death. He’d been hung, stung by dozens of bees, nearly struck by lightning, nearly dashed to pieces on rocks… until he finally drowned in an act of self-sacrifice. The island must have been done with him to have let him die.

So everyone who has died on the island was supposed to die. It only makes sense. If the island can twist chance to jam a gun or provide last-moment distractions to prevent someone from committing suicide thousands of miles away, then it stands to reason that it could’ve intervened any time someone died within its boundaries.

I know the writers and producers have said all along that they wanted to stay firmly grounded in science - or at least pseudoscience - but what this points to is quite clearly supernatural.

Aside from Charlie and Mikhail, a number of people have had some extraordinary recoveries.

Jack resuscitated Rose the day they crashed. Locke survived a gunshot wound. Sawyer survived a rather nasty illness with only the antibiotics they had on hand. Naomi survived her fall from the helicopter; it was Locke’s knife that killed her.

And then there’s the little fact that the island can move through space… and time?

I can’t wait to find out more.

I’ve been thinking about it since the third season ended, and now that we’re less than a month away from the start of season four, I still don’t have any real notion.

Jack is completely obsessed with getting back to the island in the flash forward. Considering how badly he’s wanted to get off the island, so much that he went along with Ben’s wishes, it’s hard to understand why he wants so badly to go back.

My first thought was that he wants to go back for the people who got left behind when he got off the island. He was poring over maps enough to try and triangulate a position for a rescue mission. But his conversation with Kate negates that line of thinking. He was flying Oceanic flights every weekend, hoping to crash land again. He wasn’t trying to rescue anyone; he wanted to go back and stay there.

Even guilt about anything he’s done the island so far - or anything he will be doing in upcoming episodes before he leaves - doesn’t seem to be a good enough reason to want to go back to the island. He’s already punishing himself.

What would returning to the island do for him? Did he lose a part of himself when he left? Is the island like the Hotel California, where you can check out but never leave? Does Jack finally become a spiritual man, only when he discovered that his purpose was back on the island he left?

It should be interesting to follow Jack’s personal journey through the last three seasons.

Locke tells Sawyer that he kidnapped Ben and that he wants Sawyer to kill him. But in the promo, we don’t see Ben. We see a man with a bag over his head. I think that Locke has Cooper gagged with the bag over his head. He wants Sawyer to kill him because he doesn’t want the blood on his own hands.

If I’m right, this could very well go to show us whether or not Cooper is the real Sawyer. And if he is… does Locke already know?

I don’t read spoilers, so there may be people who can prove or disprove my theory right now. Please don’t.

In last night’s episode of LOST, “The Man From Tallahassee,” Ben asked John Locke to picture a magic box.  Inside of it is anything you wish.  What’s the deal with the magic box?  I’d like to examine the possbilities.

A Literal Magic Box

It’s unlikely, but there could literally be some sort of large box from which needful things appear.  Like a genie in a lamp, whatever you wish for comes out of the box.  I think most LOST fans would be a bit disappointed if this was the case.

A Metaphorical Magic Box

A more likely possibility is that Ben was using a box as a metaphor.  He had already mentioned Locke’s wasted years with Hurley’s box company, so he was having a go at him by using a box to explain whatever wish-granting power or entity exists there on the island. 

Some fans would still be unhappy if this were the case, but I don’t think it’s too far off base. Many of us had readily accepted the idea that Walt could make things happen just for wanting them.  What if it was the island’s “magic box” that made things happen for him?  And Locke can tap into that power as well. The two of them got along rather well before Walt left on the raft, only to be kidnapped by Others and then transported off the island.  Maybe they shared a special gift - being in tune with whatever entity is responsible for the magic box phenomenon.

There ain’t no steenkeen’ magic box, even a metaphorical one

Or maybe Ben was just manipulating Locke yet again.  Knowing Locke’s history, he knew very well that “the man from Tallahassee” was his father.  He admitted that he doesn’t want anyone to leave the island.  Whether Anthony Cooper was recruited by Mittelos like Juliet was, or if he ended up on the island some other way - that’s for another theory entry - Ben knew that Locke would love to be able to confront him.  And if he could plant the thought in his head - what would he want to find on the island more than anything else in the world? - his father would make the top of a very short list, even though Locke blew up the submarine so that his father could never hurt him again.  Ben is able to see what people really want - deep down, so deep they don’t even realize it.  So he led Locke to believe that the island can give him anything he wants.

*cue Darth Vader breathing here*

Giving Locke his father - who may have already been on the island for months or years - was a powerful tool.  Locke is a far better recruit than Jack - for turning to the Other side.  Although I’d have to wonder whether or not it would be in Ben’s best interest to get Locke on his side.  Locke seems positioned to take over.  I don’t think the not-so-subtle point of Ben being in the one in the wheelchair was beaten over our heads for nothing.

Wrapping up the magic box

So what do you think?  Is the a magic box, real or metaphorical?  Or was it just another mind game Ben used to manipulate Locke?

I’ve been brewing this theory since watching “Enter 77″ last week, and it’s just starting to come together now.  Though I’m more used to calling them the Others, this theory will refer to them almost exclusively as the Hostiles.

DHARMA versus the Hostiles: The Showdown

Mikhail Bakunin, while still lying under the cover of being the last living member of DHARMA, told Sayid that every other member of DHARMA was killed in The Purge.  The capital letters were audible.  Kelvin had warned Desmond about the Hostiles as well.  And it seems that Marvin Candle was aware of the presence of Hostiles, having made an allowance in his instructions to enter 77 on the computer keyboard in the Flame if there was an incursion.

So at some point in the island’s recent history, The Purge was a reality.  Who really started it?  Mikhail’s version of the story cannot be trusted, as he was lying about his identity in the first place.  The Hostiles could have gone after the DHARMA crew, finding them an unwelcome presence to their previously peaceful (?) existence.  Or the DHARMA crew may have had experiences similar to those of the Flight 815 survivors, where individuals were summarily abducted, and decided to strike back before they could experience more losses.

Either way, we know the result.  The Hostiles won. DHARMA was completely (?) annihilated, and the Hostiles now control the former DHARMA stations.

But the Hostiles didn’t control the Swan, right?

The Swan poses a small problem here.  If the Hostiles won, why didn’t they control the Swan station?  When Ben was captured and masquerading as Henry Gale, he appeared to have no knowledge of the Swan station.  But that means little, as he lied about quite a bit.  I would like to suggest that the Hostiles did indeed control the Swan station… until the day Flight 815 crashed.

There is a debate as to whether or not Kelvin’s former hatch buddy Radzinsky could be Mikhail.  The Hostiles have no problem using assumed names or creating elaborate backstories for themselves.  Ben created quite a history as Henry Gale, and Mikhail seemed ot have taken notes to memorize his own backstory as the last living member of DHARMA.  Was Mikhail his real name?  Was Radzinsky?  For this theory, his identity does not actually matter.  Whether or not Mikhail was Radzinsky, I think both Radzinsky and Kelvin were Hostiles.

It’s just as likely that everything Kelvin told Desmond about Radzinsky was an elaborate backstory as well.  Some of it could’ve been true; the Hostiles’ modus operandi seems to consist of intertwining truth with falsehoods so it’s impossible to determine which is which.  Radzinsky, if he is not Mikhail, could’ve certainly killed himself the way Kelvin described.  Bea Klugh begged for Mikhail to kill her.  Mikhail repeatedly asked to be killed by his captors, finally thanking Locke when he threw him into the sonic fence.

Why would two of the Hostiles control the Swan station?  After The Purge, the Hostiles may not have completely understood what was going on at the Swan - or maybe they did - but they at least knew enough to keep two men pushing the button the way the DHARMA orientation films instructed.  Perhaps they were aware of the consequences of the Incident that made the button-pushing necessary and realized they needed to continue for the safety of themselves and the rest of the world.  Whatever the case, I think that Kelvin and Radzinsky may have drawn the short straw and were sent away from their home village either as penance or honor-bound duty.  I don’t think either of them were content with their new assignments as button-pushers, whatever the reason they were chosen.  Perhaps returning to the village meant the penalty of death; Radzinsky chose death on his own terms, and Kelvin found his own escape by repairing Desmond’s  sailboat.

We know that Kelvin had been a U.S. military man before finding his way to the island.  He may have been recruited the same was Juliet was, with very few specifics provided up front.  Like Juliet, he wanted out.  He couldn’t tell Desmond the truth about the Hostiles; he may not have liked his duties for them, but he maintained the code of secrecy.  Plus, fear of the Hostiles would help indoctrinate Desmond to the solitude of button-pushing.  How could he convince Desmond to follow the DHARMA button-pushing protocol if he admitted to not being from DHARMA?  This was not what he had in mind when he was recruited, so he opted out by duping Desmond.  The Hostiles must have thought Desmond capable, since they must’ve known he was alone now - considering their video network and their omniscience - and they didn’t send backup.

Was Desmond recruited without his knowledge?

We don’t know what the Hostiles want yet.  But whatever their goal, it didn’t matter if Kelvin or Desmond or an endless parade of plane crash survivors pushed the button, so long as it was pushed.  Until Ben decided otherwise.

Back to Mikhail and the Flame

Mikhail was likely exiled to the Flame station the same way Radzinsky (if not the same person) and Kelvin were exiled to the Swan.  If Mikhail is Radzinsky, perhaps it was a self-sentenced exile.  Radzinsky had made his way around the island to plot the blast door map and deposit both his glass eye and the Swan film splices in a hollowed out Bible in the Arrow.  He could’ve just as easily taken up residence in the Flame, knowing he could never go back to the village. If Mikhail is not Radzinsky, his residence at the Flame was probably a recent thing.  Whatever communication system they had previously used to maintain contact with the mainland was disabled with the EMP when Desmond turned the failsafe key.  Mikhail’s job was to attempt to restore communications capabilities from the old DHARMA station - or die trying.

Final thoughts and loose ends

Was poor Roger, the work man, ambushed by Hostiles on his beer run, and that’s why his van was overturned in the jungle?  A casualty of The Purge?

The Purge has nothing to do with the sickness.  I’ve seen this thrown around on the theory boards.  The sickness was a hoax, another layer of mind control.  Not a theory, just another piece of the puzzle.

There is no good way to wrap up this theory of mine. So I won’t.

Apparently not everyone was as convinced as I was that Desmond did not travel back in time in the ”Flashes Before Your Eyes” episode.

Some people have gone to great lengths discussing the physics and metaphysics of time travel, the paradox of time travel, the possibility of alternate or parallel universes, and other such things. 

I’m quite partial to anything mentioning the similiarities between Desmond’s encounter with the knowing jewelry store lady and Neo’s encounter with the Oracle in The Matrix Reloaded.  Both pairs were sitting on a bench having their metaphysical discussions.  The Oracle offered Neo candy.  Desmond was offered roasted nuts.  I don’t buy into the theory that the LOST island is a false reality like the matrix; I just like that I wasn’t the only person who immediately thought of the Oracle when I watched the scene.

The theory that interested me the most, since I don’t buy into this whole time travel thing, is that the old woman was Smokey.  We already know that Smokey pulled Mr. Eko into a vision where he thought he was talking to Yemi, but it was not Yemi, and it told him so.  If Desmond was having some sort of coma dream, which I still believe, then Smokey could’ve insinuated itself as the old woman.  Why?  I didn’t come up with this part myself.  Maybe Smokey wants Charlie dead, as it wanted Mr. Eko dead, and it tried to convince Desmond about the universe’s tendency to “course correct” so that he would stop trying to save Charlie.  I think this is plausible.  Given the island mythology as we’ve seen it, it seems more plausible to me than any of the time travel theories.  This is more about psychology and parapsychology.

Of course, I don’t think Desmond is the type of person who will be able to just sit back and stop trying to save Charlie just because the universe (in this case, the island, or Smokey) will find a way to try again.  If he sees a future where Charlie is going to die, he will continue to try and save him.

I know this debate is going to be going on for some time.  (Pun not initially intended.)  The writers like to mess with us by adding in Stephen Hawking’s books and anagrams (Mittelos = lost time) to imply that something is going on.  I think time travel is a red herring.  Time will tell if I’m right.

Apparently, Jack wasn’t on Jacob’s list.

So who is this Jacob? And are we to assume that Jacob’s list was the one that Bea Klugh gave to Michael? And if Jack’s name wasn’t originally on that list, then what exactly is the point of keeping Kate and Sawyer in bear cages if Danny Pickett’s just going to haul off and kill Sawyer?

In my brief stint of perusing the LOST forums today, I’ve seen a few theories. One is that Ethan is Jacob, since he was supposed to make a list of the survivors near the fuselage. Whether they think Ethan’s alias is Jacob or his last name is Jacob, I don’t think this is very plausible. Jack would’ve been on Ethan’s list, because Ethan’s list was just a tally of the survivors.

Another theory is that Jacob was sent to the beach after Ethan because Ben knew Ethan would screw up somehow. I don’t think this was a serious suggestion, and I’m not taking it seriously.

Yet another theory is that Jacob is Him, the guy Ben and everyone else answers to. I like this idea. Even better yet, I read this by utterly_butterflies at LOST-TV:

Jacob has a pretty big role in the Old Testament, and considering there have been many religious references throughout the show, thought I would mention it… Also, just as an interesting aside to that, Benjamin was one of Jacob’s sons - his last born at that.

Ben said he’s lived on the island his whole life, so it would make sense that his parents were there. Is his father an important person? We shall see. Having had the religious reference pointed out to me, I’m trying very hard not to sing “Benjamin Calypso” from Joseph and the Amanzing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Which reminds me of another part of the Biblical story… has Ben been set up as the bad guy, when he’s really not?

Are there any other Jacob theories I’ve missed?

Now we know. Before we knew who Juliet was, we saw her burn muffins in the oven and have a little crying jag before the book club started. Many people were wondering why she cried, though it didn’t seem the most important part of that episode. Ben spelled it out for us last night.

Juliet was crying because she knew Ben was dying.

Ben said he found out he was dying from his tumor two days before a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky. The book club scene was the day of the crash. Two days sounds about right for letting news like that get to you before breaking down crying.

I think Juliet and Ben were romantically involved. Not at the time of the crash, but sometime prior to that. She still cared for him, though, which is why the news upset her. But she didn’t want anyone else to know how upset she was, either. The news kinda reframes the whole book club sequence now.

Things have obviously changed now. Ben’s inhumane treatment of the plane crash survivors has altered Juliet’s feelings about his impending death. Perhaps there was some minor resentment over his apparent leadership before the crash, but the way he’s chosen to handle things with secrecy and torture has made it a much more palpable aura of mutiny now.

And now it’s all up to Jack, who must find it a little odd that Ben’s plan to make him not view them as the enemy was to imprison and torture him until he broke.

Juliet sure knew a lot about Jack when she opened up that gigantic file and began telling him about his college days, his career, and his marriage.

It’s been postulated that she could’ve gotten this information from Ethan, who lived among the survivors for a while, or from Ben when he was imprisoned in the Swan hatch. Or from Jack himself as a side effect of whatever drug he was given when he was first captured. Or maybe, just maybe, the Others have contact with the outside world via the internet or satellite or something.

I think it was the smoke monster. You know, we haven’t seen Smokey since he faced off with Mr. Eko in the jungle in “The 23rd Psalm.” When Mr. Eko faced off with Smokey, there were little electrical flashes of his memories in the smoke. What if the Others control Smokey, or can at least communicate with it? I also think that Smokey changes form and appearance, so just because Jack didn’t come face to face with a big black smoke monster doesn’t mean he hasn’t encountered Smokey. Smokey could’ve grabbed some of his memories to be “read” by the Others.

Perhaps it’s a little more “out there” than the other suggestions, but it does help tie things together a little better from earlier episodes.

Thanks to “A Tale of Two Cities,” there are a few more defunct LOST theories.

Following the tremors that interrupted the book club in the opening sequence, we got to see Flight 815 blow apart in mid-air. The Others saw it happen. We saw the smoke trails to where the fuselage and the tail section landed. The crash actually happened. It was not staged. The plane did crash. No more arguing. We had third party confirmation.

I never thought otherwise, but Kate is definitely not an Other. I’ve read some wacky theories that Kate was “in” on whatever strangeness was happening on the island. Someone had suggested that she knew the crash was staged; she was the only person still aware when the plane went down because she didn’t put her face mask on - supposedly, the face masks were supposed to sedate everyone so the crash could be faked. Someone else suggested she was one of the Others - a more successful mole than either Ethan or Goodwin. But poor Kate… She had creepy Tom leering at her before and after her shower, even though she’s “not his type.” She had to endure a creepy beach breakfast with Ben in handcuffs. And who knows what happened between breakfast and her fish biscuit date with Sawyer? Had her two weeks of unpleasantness started? Her wrists were pretty messed up.

And for the record, Jack is not an Other either. Not that I ever thought it, but I’ve read theories. Sure, there’s something a little odd about him. His memory is impeccable. He’s a fantastic shot. He can perform miracle surgeries. But he’s being tortured by the Others, and he seems to be easier to break than either Kate or Sawyer. So not currently an Other… but I do wonder if he’ll defect to the “other” side.

Just in case people weren’t convinced by the season two finale “Live Together, Die Alone,” the button actually did something. There was quite an earthquake before Flight 815 crashed. That would coincide quite nicely with Desmond not pushing the button on time. So it did more than make metallic objects fly around the hatch; it disturbed the island’s geography. Makes me wonder what consequences there will be for activating the fail-safe.

What theories will be debunked later this season?