Category — Personal

I finished the second season of Lost just a few days ago. Here’s my analysis of Season 2’s major events:

Solved Mysteries

The Tail Section, Locke’s Legs, and The Smugglers

My theory that the tail section people were alive and on the island was correct. I was also close to the truth when I said that the island may have special healing powers, and that’s what made Locke able to walk again. I had no theory about the smugglers and their plane, but the explanation turned out to be rather mundane anyway.

New Mysteries

The Others

They obviously are not who they are pretending to be. Their costumes, the medical station, and Walt’s warning to Michael all seem to indicate a hidden level of sophistication. My first guess is that they have actually been on the island for a while and are connected with DHARMA in some fashion. Perhaps they are former employees? They could also be former experiment subjects who discovered their situation and rebelled.

Desmond and Penelope

When the listening station detected a “magnetic anomaly,” it was implied that Desmond caused it by blowing up the hatch with the fail-safe key. The dudes then called Penelope. I have no idea what this means, but it might get really interesting. After all, Penelope did say something like: “With enough money and determination, you can find anyone.” Maybe Desmond gets rescued somehow?

DHARMA

What exactly is the DHARMA Initiative? Are they trying to create some sort of engineered Utopian society on the island, or are they simply experimenting with the island’s powers? And who is Alvar Hanso, their mysterious founder?

“Good” People

“Henry” seems to know who is and who isn’t good, but what does “good” mean? Good enough to have a role in DHARMA’s utopia? My guess is that this has something to do with DHARMA and whatever they were trying to accomplish on the island.

The Four-Toed Statue

I saved this one for last because I am, as one of my friends likes to say, “knowledgeable”. I believe the statue is a reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”. The essential theme of the poem is the fleeting nature of power and civilization, and how humanity and our arrogant institutions cannot withstand the passing of time. As such, I cannot help but hypothesize that a form of “civilization” was once attempted on the island, no doubt by DHARMA, but it ultimately failed in some sort of dramatic and/or violent way. So now the question becomes: were the Others on the island before DHARMA, or maybe some DHARMA people “defected” and became the Others?

Motifs

Rebirth / Reincarnation

Locke is the most obvious example of this. He has been “born again” with the use of his legs, and is no longer a slave to his bottled-up emotions like he used to be. Instead, he has now assumed a leadership role and is instrumental in the continued survival of the group. Shannon was also a good example. At first, she didn’t care about anything or anyone, but as time went by, she was “reborn” as an important member of the survivors. She helped Sayid translate Rousseau’s maps and even tried to chase Walt (or her hallucination of Walt) through the jungle.

Economic Systems

Jack often allocates scarce resources with a small group of leaders (the “A-team”). This exemplifies the economic philosophy of socialism. In such an economy, the state decides (for the benefit of the whole society) who gets what and when. That is, resources are doled out according to Jack, the leader, whose judgement is largely trusted by the survivors. Even his last name, “Shephard”, testifies to his leadership role. On the other hand, Sawyer represents a free-market capitalist. In his case, goods such as guns and medicine are privately owned and can be exchanged for a profit. Thus, he hoards and collects anything that could potentially be of a marginal value in some exchange. The problem with this approach is that, without a form of currency, the survivors are stuck with bartering, which has many problems.

For at least 2 years now, Niko has been bugging me to watch Lost. I’ve always resisted though, because I knew what would happen. I knew it would be so mind-blowingly mysterious and engrossing that I would not be able to stop watching and theorizing until I knew all the answers. And for someone like me, with a strong propensity to tie up loose ends, it’s basically mental torture.

But it finally happened, I succumbed. I started watching from the first episode, the pilot, about a week ago. I have since watched all of the first season. With that in mind, I think I might as well have some fun and put my theories, meek and uninformed though they may be, out there for the public record in case I’m right (or horribly, horribly wrong) later on. Of course, I could be cheating and looking all of this up online, but that wouldn’t be quite as fun, so you’ll just have to trust me.

Big Mysteries

The Island

It’s obvious that the island is “special” somehow, and that it isn’t just a regular island. Locke seems to understand this, and so he tends to personify the island a lot. On numerous occasions, he says that the island tells him things and gives him signs. Also, Locke explains Boone’s death as “a sacrifice the island demanded.” This is too weird to be unimportant, which leads me to think there’s something very odd about the island itself, and not just what happens on or around it.

The Black Rock

Apparently, TBR was a slave ship from Africa that was headed for a mining colony somewhere. But the survivors actually find it miles inland. I don’t buy Arzt’s “tidal wave” explanation, because he explodes himself right after he suggests it. In my mind, the wave would’ve demolished the ship anyhow. So maybe the ship actually did shipwreck on the island a long time ago, and volcanic activity had simply extended the shoreline. But that seems too simple. Maybe the ship was put there? I don’t know.

The Whispers

I’m not sure if the whispers and “the others” are a single phenomenon or not. I don’t think so, because Rousseau talks about “the others” as if they are people, but the whispers have an obvious supernatural quality to them. My best guess is that they’re a part of the security system, like the monster, but that’s just a guess. I could probably find clips of the whispers on YouTube and try to figure out what it is that they’re saying, but I’m not that into it.

Christian Shepard’s Body

What the hell happened to it?! And why is he appearing to Jack as a living person?! We’re made to think he is dead, but after all, Locke’s legs were healed. So somehow I think it will turn out that he is actually alive. The show hasn’t really referenced this a lot, so I don’t have very much to go on as of now.

The Monster

This is the weirdest thing about the show so far. It tears up trees and kills people, but we haven’t seen it yet, unless the black smoke thing that Jack and Kate saw was it, or at least a part of it. Rousseau said it was a security system that’s protecting something, and it makes mechanical noises too, which is just crazy. But even more of a mind-blower is Rose’s comment: “There was something familiar about it.” Whatever it is, it appears that the survivors can at least surprise it or hurt it with the dynamite.

The Numbers

They’re probably cursed or something, as Hurley seems to think. I don’t know what the deal is here, so anything I say is just a stab in the dark, but they could be some sort of code. That seems a bit too cliché though, so maybe they make up some sort of pattern that is about to become important?

The Tail Section

This is just obvious, so I’m gonna go ahead and call it right now: they are alive and on the island. After all, why would the show introduce us to Ana Lucia if she (and others?) were not going to be brought up later? Could these be the people that Rousseau calls “the others”? Also, when Boone tried to send out a distress call, someone replied and said that they were the survivors of Oceanic 815. That would dovetail with my hunch that some survivors from the back of the plane are on the island too.

Lesser Mysteries

Locke’s Legs

We still do not have an answer for why Locke is suddenly able to walk. Maybe the island has some sort of magical healing voodoo stuff going on, or maybe “a miracle happened”, as Locke seems to believe.

Adam and Eve

Who are they? People from TBR? People from a totally separate group that I don’t know about yet? They haven’t been referenced a lot except for the one episode where the survivors find the caves.

The Smugglers

I don’t know what the deal is here. They have heroin and a gun, so they’re smugglers, but why smuggle stuff to this island in the first place? Maybe they went off course too? As Sayid pointed out to Jack, the electromagnetic force on the island is all screwed up, so they could have crash landed.

Polar Bears

Why are polar bears on a tropical island? Was the island some sort of biological experiment by whoever made the hatch? Maybe Rousseau’s science team brought them, but I doubt that.

Walt

Brian said: “There’s something about him. Sometimes, when he’s around, things happen. He’s different somehow.” Also, it appears Walt could read Locke’s mind when Locke touched him, because Walt told him not to open the hatch despite the fact that he had no way of knowing about it. So we know that he’s “special” somehow, and that he is the one who “the others” were trying to kidnap all along, not Aaron. The significance of this is yet to be revealed.

The Cable

What kind of cable is this? Power? Communications of some sort? Where does in come from, some sort of underwater power station, or the mainland? And more importantly, where does it lead?

The Radio Tower

Rousseau mentioned that a radio tower was previously broadcasting the numbers, but she changed it to a distress call. Where is the tower and can they use it to be rescued?

The Psychic Dude

He told Claire that “danger surrounds” Aaron and gave her tickets to take Oceanic 815. Why? To sort of quarantine the baby on the island, far away from anyone? To kill Claire and the baby?

Motifs

Rebellion

Walt rebels against Michael, Kate rebels against the law, Jack rebels against his father, and so on and so forth. Rebellion against authority of all sorts seems play a large role in Lost. I’ll have to see where this goes in the upcoming seasons.

Duality

Locke teaches Walt about backgammon and makes a point of showing him that the pieces are white and black. Later, Jack finds two white and black rocks on the bodies of “Adam and Eve” in the cave. Also, the weather oscillates sharply from sunshine to rain at certain times. More noticeably, Locke’s philosophy about destiny and fate repeatedly clashes against Jack’s more scientific approach to situations. All of these incidents establish a subtext of duality that is hard not to notice.

School has started again, but I’ll still be trying to write here somewhat regularly. In the meantime, here are some photos of my sweet new apartment, 308 Logan in Heritage Commons:

You can also peep my class schedule over on Google Docs.