Lost Theories

Just so there is no confusion I'd like to preface this post by saying this is Dave talking. This is the third (out of probably 4) Lost installment.

First some haiku:

Is it time travel?
Or is it mirror matter?
Or is it a con?

Too many theories
Just watch and enjoy the ride
Surprises to come

Once season 4 began I started reading lots of theories on the official website. I read so many theories that I started turning into John Nash from Beautiful Mind. I almost couldn't think about anything except what Lost was about. I needed to remind myself that the show is entertainment, and not the Rosetta stone for what the universe is all about. A scripture from the Book of Mormon (a similar passage is also found in Isaiah 55:2) reminded me to take a step back, "...do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy...". Therefore I'm not going to delve into some long explanation for what is going on in the show. There's not a huge need for that in light of last week's episode which helped viewers feel like answers are finally going to come. I will mention, though, that I read 2 theories that seemed to make the most sense. One involved time travel, which seems valid after watching a few episodes of season 4. The other involved a complex use of mirror matter theory (a true but odd theoretical physics concept), that seemed to explain the smoke monster quite nicely but doesn't hold as well after watching a few episodes of season 4. I got so obsessed by these theories that I read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking hoping to gain insight into Lost. None of these satisfied me, hence the scripture. What I forgot too easily is the main reason I got hooked on Lost: they developed great, although flawed, characters that you can root for, and then placed those characters in a suspenseful environment. Time travel, mirror matter, or any other scientific/spiritual explanation of the island's power is only there to add to the suspense. So I watch for the characters, vainly hoping that they continue to use Charlie in the storyline, and believe the writers care more about the social/emotional/spiritual effects of the crash and use science as a tool to affect the characters' development. One concept that seems surface on the show is balance and the show will continue to balance the concepts of faith/science. I think one of the reasons last week's episode was so compelling was this balance. Desmond was caught in an odd time travel loop (where only his consciousness moved through space/time) that is difficult, if not impossible, to really understand; but what the show was really saying was that "all you need to survive is one person who truly loves you." (Quote from Penny in season 2). So, the story was really about love, and not simply time travel.

A quote from Desmond in season 3 also helped me to chill out. When he was asked about seeing the future he described his situation like putting together a jigsaw puzzle where he has the pieces but there isn't a box with a picture on it so he doesn't know how the pieces fit. I believe that the writers have given us lots of pieces, past, present, and future only we don't have the box with the picture on it. We can kind of know what the puzzle will display but will never be certain until the puzzle is completely assembled (by the writers/producers). The writers are keeping the picture to themselves, and I'm okay with that. If we figured everything out now we probably wouldn't have the same interest in the 3 seasons, and they'd lose viewers. For those of us who want to try to put the puzzle together anyway, I find it a lot more fun to put together a puzzle without somebody looking over my shoulder making a bunch of suggestions. That's why I don't think it's really worthwhile to go on and on about theory. I do think it might be fun to throw out some of the "pieces" that I found while re-watching the series. Feel free to assemble them as you wish, or not, I'm breezy.

I've narrowed my pieces down to three broad categories, but as you read through there is obviously some overlap.

Concepts
You make your own luck
Hurley believes the numbers are cursed but he almost misses the flight to begin with; it was his own persistence that got him on the flight. (Was Hurley being prevented from getting on the flight?)

Destiny, "the universe has a way of course correcting", verses your ability to choose your own future. At one point Jack says, “I don’t believe in destiny.” Then Locke responds with, “Yes you do, you just don’t know it yet.”

Purpose without self-sacrifice or self-restraint is tyranny? (Locke is becoming a tyrant in his unstoppable quest for his own purpose?)

Ethically speaking, how far past normal right/wrong boundaries can you go when you are committed to a cause, and/or committed to helping someone else?

You can't always trust your eyes or simply empirical evidence, at some point you have to place your faith in other people or principles

At one point Ben asks Jack, "Do you believe in God?" I think much of this show deals with this question without hitting you over the head with it. If there is a God, how does he operate in our lives? What sacrifices does he require of us? How much of what we do is predestined and how much is truly free will? (Juliette says in season 3 "Free will is all we've really got.") Does he expect us to behave beyond the basic human urge to simply survive? (Eko justifies his choices by saying "I only did what I needed to, to survive.") Are we expected to give up some of our free will for a greater good (When Jack is first imprisoned by the Others he hears the voice of his dead father through a "broken" intercom say "Let it Go.") Is the universe/God wiser than us and we eventually choose the universe’s path for us, so in the end there really isn't free will?

Have you noticed how often somebody says, "Trust me" or "I give you my word"? Have you also noticed how often somebody is conned? Characters are frequently calling other characters "liars" (sometimes they're right and sometimes they're not). There has been so much conning, for a while I thought the whole show was going to turn into one long con. I thought the writers/producers were just throwing out a bunch of ambiguous hints at time travel and mystical power, and letting us the viewers craft some elaborate story in our minds. I no longer believe this, of course, but I wouldn't put it past Ben to be conning everybody about saving/protecting the world just to keep the island to himself. Anyways, trust as a concept keeps coming up, and under what circumstances is it okay to deceive. Can you be justified in deceiving someone when there's a greater good at stake?

Also, the phrase "don't tell me what I can/can't do" is repeated often.

There are certain "special" individuals. Locke is healed on the island, Mikhail appears to be immortal, and Walt seems capable of altering his environment and moving through space/time. Walt saw the hatch when Locke touched his arm well before Locke let anybody know about the hatch. Ben wasn't too broken up about giving Walt back to Michael and even tells him “We got more than we bargained for with Walt”.

The Others had some mysterious list (I think made by Jacob) with "good" people on it (neither Jack nor Kate appear on this list). Goodwin says that “Nathan was not a good person.” That’s one of the reasons he killed him. Ben says they’re the good guys. What does “good” mean? Kate kills her dad because he was a "bad guy". What does "bad" mean? Especially in light of the fact that it appears each character gets a shot at redemption while on the island.

Each character seems to be obsessed with one thing from the past and/or have a character flaw. Jack: His wife/fixing things or people
Kate: the toy plane/can't stop running
Sawyer: the con man/commitment to people
Locke: gaining his father’s love/wandering through life/too trusting?
Hurley: the numbers/self-esteem?
Charlie: his band and music/selfishness (drug addiction)
Sayid: Nadia/compromising his ethics to serve others
Sun: maybe no obsession/she struggles with honesty

It also appears to me that each character needs to overcome their obsession in some way

Jack: hasn't yet
Kate: It appears she tries to settle down with Aaron
Sawyer: He kills the con man and now wants to commit to Kate
Locke: He stops trying to get his dad's love and has him killed, and found his purpose on the island
Hurley: not sure he's overcome his obsession with the numbers but Libby helped him gain more confidence
Charlie: he sacrifices his own life to help Claire get off the island and earlier overcomes a heroin addiction
Sayid: hasn't yet
Sun: hasn't yet


Eko is told by his brother that he has no soul. Sayid and Ana Lucia say that they are already dead. Our perceptions of ourself becomes reality.


Christian Shephard tells Clair "There is hope and there’s guilt.” Do we hope for a better future when really we need to face and accept our current reality?


Questions
Why does Dharma keep dropping in food when Ben had them wiped out? If it's Ben's people dropping in the food why is it still labeled Dharma?


Who was Razinski (I think this is how you spell it)? We know he was Calvin's partner in the hatch before Desmond, and Calvin tells Desmond that Razinski killed himself, but I'm not sure I believe Calvin completely. Razinski is the person who painted, in some sort of black paint, the map on the hatch wall that Locke finds when the alarm sounds. I think he might yet play a role.
The tail end survivors find the Russian’s (Mikhail) glass eye and the missing piece of the orientation video in the Dharma station that they used for shelter. (Did the Russian cut the tape?) Calvin says it was his partner Razinski. Are they one and the same?

When did Calvin join the Dharma initiative? How did he survive the war or get into the hatch if he joined after the Gulf War? If he entered the hatch before the war started why did Ben allow Calvin/Razinski to continue living in the hatch? Was the button so important that Ben didn’t care who was down there pushing it? Was Calvin planted there only to change his mind and decide to escape?

Locke’s father outside his home after stealing Locke’s kidney: “You’re not wanted.” “There is no why.” Paraphrasing, “You’re not the first to be conned.” Are we as an audience being conned into believing something mystical or important is happening on the island? Could the crash just be a crash, and the survivors crazy? (The show has proven that it is not just a big con, but I still wonder how much the island really matters to the survival of mankind.)

If the island does make time travel possible do the Others send agents back in time to ensure that the right people get on Oceanic Flight 815? (Kate’s horse is an example. She escapes because a horse causes a crash, and then she sees what appears to be the same horse on the island.)


Juliette’s ex gets hit by the bus the day after she jokes about it, so did the Others time travel to make this happen or do certain people have some kind of energy that allows their thoughts to become reality (like Walt with the dead bird)? Juliet created life where life wasn’t supposed to be. Is Juliette special? Claire told her mom that she wished she were dead, and then she gets in the crash. Does Claire have similar ability to Walt?


I thought I heard the monster sound while watching the episode about Sayid in Iraq, but found out that it was handcuffs/chains rubbing against metal. Are the survivors all prisoners, who need to be interrogated/tried/proved by some supernatural power?

Eko and Ana Lucia get some degree of redemption before they came to the island; is that why they die on the island? (Eko because his brother says he was a good priest, Ana Lucia because she agrees to come home and face her mistakes.)


Why was Bernard strapped into his seat, I thought he was in the bathroom at the time of the crash? Did he simply find an empty seat when turbulence hit?


Are electromagnetic forces building up once again and if so how will they release the energy?


Eko tells Locke in season 3, “You can protect them, you can save them.” Who and when? Is Locke off the reservation, or is he really following a divine mandate and only appears "crazy" to people without faith?


Why would Ben develop a tumor and Rose be healed from cancer?


Why is the flight attendant now part of the Others?


Is it okay to take a life if you are trying to save a life or lives?


Is Ben trying to perfect time travel to save his mother, who died in pregnancy? Is that why he is so focused on the pregnancy question rather than the bigger issues that Richard alludes to? Why did Richard tell Locke inside secrets? What work is more important than the pregnancy question?


It is clear after last week's episode that Mr. Widmore knows quite a bit about the island. Did he manipulate Desmond into entering the boat race so he would crash on the island? Is Widmore a subsidiary or contributor to Dharma? Is Widmore "good" or "bad"?


The mysterious jewelry lady tells Desmond “You don’t do it because you choose to you do it because you’re supposed to.” The it being push the button. Is this line B.S.? The show may prove the opposite when it’s all over?


At what point did the man from Tallahassee, aka Locke's dad, appear in the magic box?


There is a painting of a woman in Ben's home. Who is the woman? Is it Annie or his mother? Will one of these characters resurface?


How did Locke get all wet when he detonated the sub? The episode only showed him go inside of the sub to set the charges.


What happened to Sayid in Basra?


What does Sun's dad do? Is he part of Dharma, or the current group of people looking for the island?


Does Naomi know Mikhail, she seems to recognize and fear him?


Ben sees his dead mom, Jack his dead dad: both lead them to something valuable. Hurley sees dead Charlie, who tells Hurley that they (those remaining on the island) need his help. Did they see the real people or some hallucination brought on by the mystical powers of the island?


Did Ben instruct Juliet to reveal their plan to abduct the women, leading to the deaths of several of his team members? (He sacrifices his team for the greater good.) Does Ben really want a confrontation with the freighter people so he can neutralize the threat?


Random stuff
When Hurley is in the jungle at the end of season 2 the jungle whispers "Elizabeth", and when Hurley is outside Jacob's cabin in season 4 he hears "the first time I met Desmond". For some reason I can discern the whispers with Hurley and not so much for other characters.


The voice in Jacob's cabin that tells Locke "Help me" sounded an awful lot like Christian Shephard.

If you watch closely in the episode where Locke goes to Jacob's cabin while the cabin is shaking you can see someone sitting in the chair. Jacob appears to be a real being, and looks a little like John Locke.

While out on a hike Sawyer suggests, in jest, that the Others are aliens. Hmmmmm?

Locke looks stunned that the monster comes for him in the finale in season 1, which is quite a different reaction from when he first sees the monster. I believe he even calls the monster beautiful. What did he see? As a side note the mirror matter theory has an interesting and simple explanation for the smoke monster; but it doesn't seem that the mirror matter theory holds for any other part of the show. The monster sounds like gears working when it comes to get Locke in the finale. Juliet seems legitimately scared of the monster and it sounded like electricity, or maybe a camera taking photographs. At other times it sounds like heavy machinery.

Phrases Carl is forced to see while imprisoned: “Everything changes” “Plant a good seed and you will joyfully gather fruit” “We are the causes of our own suffering” “God loves you as he loved Jacob” “Think about your life”

The diary that Widmore buys in last week's episode came from the Hanso family; the Hanso Group is a major contributor to Dharma.

The priest at the monastery has a photograph of him and the mysterious jewelry lady on his desk. (Is the priest also in on the plot to get Desmond on the island? The priest introduces Desmond to Penny after all.)

During the episode when Locke breaks his back he's watching the news and I heard the reporter say “Bolivian coal deposit stolen.” Will this have meaning? Am I completely nuts for remembering specific background noise from a TV show?

The wine from the monastery is called Moriah Vineyards, which once again highlights the value of sacrifice.

Naomi speaks English, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Russian; what else?

Conclusion
As you can see I have plenty of thoughts about the show, but few real answers. Again, I think the show is so fun because of the surprises they drop on you. The show becomes an exercise in delayed gratification because you typically are required to wait a while for each new surprise. There are 43 more episodes, and therefore plenty of opportunities to get some or all of the answers to our questions. I think part of the point of the show is a reminder that we only see what we want to see; and I think that’s why there are thousands of theories or possible theories. Each viewer can create their own show within the show. Remember the writers have seen the picture on the box (since they created it) and I'm sure will bring the show to a satisfying conclusion (although I'm sure not every question of every viewer will get the same amount of attention).