LT297: I See Dead, Half-Dead, and Never Alive People

BACK IN ACTION

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. There are a lot of new things about LOST out there, so you might find an extra post this week. For now, here is what I’ve been thinking about…

DEAD PEOPLE

Do you remember way back when to a time when we were pretty convinced that the Survivors were dead and living in some purgatory? The reasons for this were pretty obvious including statement by Henry…er, I mean, Ben…about how God can’t even see this island.

And then we saw Jack’s dad walking around. But the producers were quick to shoot down the purgatory theme. Then, in LOST-style, we get introduced to author Gary Troup whose name is an anagram for purgatory.

I wonder if the point wasn’t that we SHOULD notice the death theme, but it is not literally purgatory as some religions define it.

So I began pondering and came up with four kinds of death on LOST:

APPARITIONS - like Ben’s mother for she was never on the island

PHYSICAL – like Boone and Charlie

GHOSTS – like Christian

DREAMS – like Horace chopping down trees in Locke’s dream

I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that each one has a slightly different set of rules surrounding them.

Apparitions are close to hallucinations. Some people want to see something so bad, that they see it. I’m inclined to place Boone’s vision of Shannon in this group. Also in this group would be Locke’s vision quest. Mostly, these are drug induced situations. Young Ben was likely not high when he saw his mother at the fence, but I put this sighting in this group mainly because Richard asks Ben, “Is she on the island?”

Physical is pretty clear cut – people can die here a very real death. Ask Mr. Eko.

Dreams we can get our mind around as well. I’m a firm believer that dreams are from a person’s past experiences ONLY. In other words you can’t dream what you haven’t experienced in some part. Now some might argue that finer detail, but I would counter that SOMETHING inside your brain comes out in a dream even if is a composite of other things. Anyway, John dreaming about Horace who he never met is odd…except now we know he did meet Horace previously.

The final group is Ghosts and I wish to rename that to Angels and Demons in order to keep the unifying theme of religion. Living beings, but dead in a human-sense.

In fact, wouldn’t this explain why we felt this island was purgatory? Would being “after-life beings” also allow the producers to claim everyone was “alive”?

AFTER-LIFE BEINGS

I’m sticking with this term, after-life beings, for now. Let’s take it a step further…what if these after-life beings like Christian and Locke II are angels and demons? What if they are controlled by Smokey?

We have evidence that Smokey can look at Mr. Ecko and then manifest itself as Yemi, his brother. We have evidence he can scan Ben and then manufacture Alex in the temple basement. These “ghosts” could be angels and demons taking on the form that Smokey desires.

While you are mulling over this post about death, let me part with a final reminder: the producers claim that Jacob has NEVER appeared to the Survivors as anyone other than himself. Oh my! That either means I’m wrong about the after-life beings coming from people’s memories OR someone has met this Jacob before. For the record, only John has “seen” Jacob, right? Hmmm…


**

If you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to click on one of the ads after you finish reading. Thanks!

Enjoy,
KC

LT295: 4, 8, 15, and Now...

I'm heading out of town for the holiday weekend, but wanted to write a quick thanks to the readers of LOST TIDBITS for helping reach the 16,000 mark for hits. This works out to about 1,630 hits per month...which is 815 doubled. Now that's odd!

Look for TIDBITS to return next Wednesday.

Thanks so much for reading!

KC

LT294: Dream Walking

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE

LOST TIDBITS has been exploring a simple line of thought which begins with the tried and true concept of good versus evil. Last post we discussed the shoes and how the color might indicate who is on which team. This deserves a bit more follow-up when time permits or if someone can turn a Frozen Donkey Wheel. I’m mostly interested in the shoes John wears prior to Ajira Flight 315 because we know after that flash he is wearing black shoes.

So the shoes provide reinforcement to the good versus evil storyline. I’m then led to ponder about the people we see on the island – are they dead or alive? And are they good or evil?

There is little doubt that Christian died in a physical sense. The Bible refers to this as “giving up the spirit”. Many religions feel this spirit never dies and it just changes locations…in a place without time. Wow, that sounds like an island I know. It also helps to explain why we don’t see dead people as the producers have stated repeatedly. To put it another way, “Angels aren’t dead”.

And neither are demons.

Combining my thoughts of late then we have Christian as a living angel in white tennis shoes and Locke II (pronounced Locke the Second) in black shoes as our island demon.

Of course not everyone on Mysterious Island is a heavenly being. If our little piece of real estate is odd in any way it is in the way the two planes of existence can co-exist. That might be strange, but again we turn to religious text of various views and most include at least a few stories about humans interacting directly with angels and demons. Dan Brown should write a book about this!


STRING PULLING

So who is calling the shots? Religion again provides us an answer of good or evil, Jesus or Satan, etc. I believe the humans are the pawns in this game with Jacob and Man in Black doing what they can to harvest souls for their side.

In the next TIDBITS we will dive a bit deeper into this aspect. I have a theory that begins to incorporate another LOST theme we have overlooked lately: dogs. There won't be a post this Sunday with the holiday, but we will be back no later than the following Wednesday.


**

If you enjoyed this post, please take a second to click on one of the ads.

Thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC

LT293: Tying Things Together

THE WAR

We have been informed by Ilena, Widmore and others that a war is coming. Season 6 will likely reveal this war.

Over the next few TIDBITS, I’m going to try to tie a few prevalent LOST themes into a prediction of what we will observe in Season 6. Not really a theory, but a fitting together of the pieces we have seen already.

I think we have to begin with the sides…


PICK A SIDE

It is not a reach to suggest that there are two sides in general. You are either with us or against us. This does not mean that we can’t have a few splinter groups, but at the end of the day I suspect we are faced with two choices: good or evil.

I realize “good or evil” brings up connotations of morality, but name one story, one book, one movie that doesn’t deal with this? There is a growing trend towards the view that things are amoral, but I sense this is sort of like the person which chooses not to vote for alternative A or B…they still have voted in a sense.

Let’s avoid the nasty cyclical logic of the lack of any morals, and stick with the premises that we have good and evil as our two choices.

LOST has really been about picking sides.

The writers have done a masterful job of concealing who is on which side. I would propose that Charlie has made the greatest sacrifice for the greatest number of people and yet we first met him as a drug addict. We have changed our opinions on Eko and Sawyer to great degrees. You get the point…the sides are not clear; which is has made the show enjoyable as we attempt to figure it out.

I think there have been hints…


SHOES

Yes, I’ve beaten this drum over the seasons, but they do seem to provide a clue. The obvious is this one…




When Jack first “sees” Christian he is dressed in his suit and wearing white tennis shoes. I suggest that this tells us that Christian is on the Good Side.

We then later notice John is wearing Christian’s black shoes aboard Ajira Flight 316 (also in a coffin). This suggests that Locke is on the Evil Side.

If we took the sum of comments about shoes, it would be reasonable to say that footwear is getting above average air time. I’m reminded of when Mr. Friendly has a few Survivors surrounded by the ring of fire and comments about, “Would a man enter another man’s house without taking his shoes off?” Tell me that strike you as a little out of place. It is true that in some cultures, the shoe-wearing in a home is sort of a big deal, but come on! And even if it a reference to other cultures, the point is still made: showing respect by removing your shoes.

My point is that shoes have been spotlighted in the opening scene with Jack running to the beach. A main character, John Locke, is shown with his shoes next to his now functioning toes. Kate is observed pulling the shoes off a dead body. On and on and on we have been “told” by the writers that shoes are important. I merely propose that they tell which side the wearer is on.


NEXT ON TIDBITS

The fact that both Christian and Locke were in coffins wearing either white or black shoes is interesting. It leads us to consider why we see dead people on this island.

That is next post where it will lead us to Jacob and Black Shirt Man, for they are the leaders of the two Sides.


**

If you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to click on one of the ads after you finish reading. Thanks!

Enjoy,
KC

LT292: Island of Misfits

JOHN IN A BOX

I’ll admit up front that this isn’t thought completely through so here are some loose thoughts…

Isn’t it supposed to be “Jack in a Box”?

Wasn’t there a toy stuck on an island of misfits called “Charlie in a Box”?

So we have John in a box while another John is walking around. How in the world did the Dead John get into the metal box?

Isn’t it supposed to be Dear John instead?

Would this make the new group and keepers of the metal box sort of like timeline protectors as much as Ben and Mrs. Hawking think they are timeline protectors?

Did the flash on Ajira Flight 316 cause a “split” from Dead John to Walking John?
I believe that the John in a Coffin had to be the Walking John, because how (and why) else would Ilena and her group move John from a coffin to a metal box? Does this mean the metal box was on board the plane? Would that be a flashback and a half to see two bodies of John being wheeled into the cargo bay?

Like I said…loose thoughts…


PROMO SEASON 6 VIDEO

This video is circulating and I’m not sure what to make of it. Check it out here:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid6555681001?bctid=30721316001

First, it is very interesting from the perspective of how everyone looks at each other while first boarding Oceanic Flight 815 (man, have we come a long way or what?).

Second, the idea of another plane crash is intriguing.

Third, unsupported rumors are that this video was shown at Comic Con at the LOST panel.

Fourth, the final seconds of footage is actually from the movie, “Knowing”.

For now, it best to view this with a lot of doubt.


REWINDING THE TAPE

Remember when Boone was going to die from his fall from the Beechcraft airplane? At the time Jack was asking everyone for blood donations to do the transfusions on Boone. I’m re-watching some old episodes and this fact jumps out at me differently then when I first saw it.

In a few seasons Kate is going to offer her blood in a transfusion to save young Ben because as she states it, “I’m a universal donor”.

So where was this helpful attitude when Boone was dying? Maybe Kate wanted or needed Boone to die and kept quiet. Hmmm…

**

Well, this got me thinking about other characters and how their words and actions might take on a different meaning knowing what we know now. I’m starting on Danielle because there are tons of changes with her now that we know her flashbacks. For example, did she really light the fire to cause the black smoke? There was no black smoke when Alex was taken as she claimed.

You get the idea…I’ll share more as these oddities jump out at me.



**

If you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to click on one of the ads after you finish reading. Thanks!

Enjoy,
KC

LT291: Lost Footage…Now Found

THE DOCUMENTARY

ABC was doing some cleaning up in their video vault when they discovered a handful of episodes of an old documentary. The subject of the documentary was the Dharma Initiative Group. It seems the documentary was never aired for various reasons.

ABC will air the four episodes on-line at :http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/lost/lost-mysteries Each part will be released about a month apart.

The show’s official title is, “Mysteries of the Universe: The Dharma Initiative”.


MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE – EPISODE 2

A college student near Las Vegas is making plans to attend a costume party in 1978. He goes to a thrift store and picks out a jumpsuit so he can be a janitor. The only thing outstanding about the jumpsuit is that it contains a non-descript Dharma patch. He is photographed in costume at the party which in turn shows up in local newspapers. A few days later, two men appear and question the student.

Nevada is known as a hotbed of extraterrestrial activities. It is the host of the famed Area 51. The military members of Area 51 are known to where similar jumpsuits of various colors denoting their rank. It seems commonplace for staff at the installation to be called away for extended periods of time.

Could Area 51 be linked to this Dharma Group? A Nevada man claims his neighbor, known only as “Phil”, was interviewing for a job out in Michigan with the Dharma Initiative and then suddenly went missing.

Research by the documenter reveals similar missing stories involving the Dharma Initiative can be found in the Portland, Oregon area. Parents of a school teacher named Olivia said their daughter also went through several interviews and strange tests for the Dharma Initiative then one day she just vanished. The parents have never heard from her since.

Olivia’s parents had kept copies of some of the paperwork related to the job interview. On it were question like these:

-- What three words describe you?
-- What animal do you indentify with?
-- Describe your first kiss in three words?
-- Who is your constant?
-- What would you sacrifice to stay alive?
-- What makes you cry?
-- You just stole a sick child’s toy. Why?

What type of organization would use interview techniques often reserved for psychological tests for the criminally insane? Why the secrecy?

**

The next episode will be aired on September 8.

I enjoyed the expose on the Dharma Initiative for if you recall, their original purpose and mission is probably nothing like what we found in 2004. It never occurred to me to label the Dharma Group as a “secret society”, but it does fit…maybe even the word cult should be used?

LOST TIDBITS will keep you posted of future episodes.



**

If you enjoyed this post, please take a moment to click on one of the ads after you finish reading.

Thanks!

Enjoy,
KC