Lost: Cabin Fever
By fred | May 9, 2008
(S04E11) Alright, so I watched the latest episode, and I’m still trying to process everything that happened and, you know, try to understand some of it at least. And when you think about it, there’s one thing that is just really exciting about Lost right now, it is that ever since the writers know exactly when the show will end, how many episodes they have left, they clearly have been able to put down a complete map for the show, that was the best thing that could ever happened to the show, and the first result of it is this season, season four, the best season of Lost to this date. And given how things are moving, I’d say chances are this might not even be the best season the show will ever have !
Okay, so back on the actual episode. Last week was an episode to set things in place, to get us all ready for the big event that we’ve only heard of so far, the season finale. This week was still about that, except things are already starting to move, we’ve not just getting there, we’re there already and it is starting. Which only makes sense, because next week is the first hour of the three-hour season finale (the two last hours airing three weeks from now, back to back).
There’s no way to turn back now. Not so long ago Jack made a phone call, despite Ben’s warning that this was the beginning of the end, despite Lock’s desperate attempt to stop him, he did make the call. And now, as a direct consequence of that phone call, an helicopter full of overly-armed men is flying in, and they have one clear objective : kill everyone on the Island, just as Ben predicted.
So many things happened this week, as always with this show it’s hard to know where to begin. So I’ll start with what’s the most confusing to me. Or, you know, one of the very highly confusing things… the whole “time” issue.
We’ve already talked about it when Daniel contacted the boat asking about the doctor, and was told he was fine, despite the fact that they were looking at his dead body lying on the beach. Now that was confusing, and today we just got a confirmation that, well, yes, it is confusing as Hell. Because it looks like the Island is in the future, compared to the rest of the World, starting with the Freighter.
It is in the future, which is why they already have the dead body, even though I still have a hard time understanding how they can have the body of a guy who hasn’t been killed yet, hence his body not thrown into the ocean. Of course, that’s just because the Island is in the future, but then how can they have real-time conversation from two different point in time ??
Even more confusing : it took a while but it got there, but Keamy killed the doc, and thrown him out. Then, a few days before, the body was on the Island. But, when they all got into the helicopter and left the boat, which happened only minutes after throwing the doc into the ocean, they then reached the Island a few minutes after leaving, so days and days after the dead body showed up.
In other words : two events happen around the same time on the boat, and their direct results (dead body in the water, helicopter in the sky) took place days apart on the Island. Not only that, but one of those consequences clearly happens in the Island before the event from the beginning, which no, doesn’t make any sense. I know. I just just get it. Do you ?
At some point I thought this was because the helicopter, all those men, that’s a lot. So they’re somehow not affected by time weirdness, or a lot less than just one single body. But then, the problem is that Sayid is pretty much the same : one single body, and a pretty small and light boat, so if that was an explanation, he should have showed up on the Island a few days ago, before actually leaving the Freighter, which doesn’t make any sense either, obviously.
Interesting theories, though some of them seem a little bit out there for me. But there are two things I really had a different take on.
The first was the test Alpert gave to young Locke. Everyone keeps talking as if it was some sort of personality test. A lot of people seem to think that Alpert was asking him to choose what destiny that he wanted to pursue and then walked out because he didn’t like the choice he made. That doesn’t make any sense to me. Alpert made it VERY clear that he wasn’t supposed to choose which ones he wants; he was supposed to choose which ones were already his. To me that screams a resurrection test, ala the ones they supposedly give the Dalai Lama to see if he is the resurrection of the soul of the previous Dalai Lama. If Locke knew which items the soul in question owned prior to dying then Alpert would know that Locke is his reincarnation. I think the real question is who Alpert was hoping Locke was a resurrection of. Hanso? Jacob?
The other item is Claire. She was just too hyper-protective of Aaron to suddenly leave him and start acting so loopy. Personally, I think she’s dead. It always seemed to me that the explosion that she got caught in was indulgently huge and a bit too directed. Why did only her house explode? To me, it feels like the writers were trying to emphasize how huge the explosion was to make it clear that a person was likely to die in such an explosion. Perhaps they did it so that later, when we find out she really is dead, we’d have a Sixth Sense moment and say “Ah yeah, she was pretty undamaged for someone who was in the middle of an explosion that huge. We should have known she was dead!”
If that’s the way it goes down, I think it could be a very revealing fact. It would mean that not only can some of the characters actually be dead, but they can continue to manipulate the world physically. Claire was still able to carry her baby after that point, and Sawyer was able to carry her. That would mean Lost ghosts don’t have to be Caspar-like and anybody could be dead and we wouldn’t know the difference.
(I suppose the Island could have simply said Claire can’t die like it does with Michael, but her change in behavior and abandoning Aaron makes me feel otherwise.)
Hey BobDob!
* Alpert’s test : well, I hadn’t thought of the idea of reincarnation of anything like that, and to tell you the truth I still don’t believe it. I’m not sure why, but it just seems too far off of everything else, which is why I guess I favor the idea of time travel, or simply fate, as in Locke would be destined to become the new leader of the Others, or the new voice of the Island/Jacob.
I think a big question in this whole battle remains to know exactly how many sides are there, and who’s (with) who ? Between Ben, Locke, Alpert, the Others, Widmore, Abaddon, Jacob, Hanso, Smokey, and the Island, we still don’t know for sure who is working for who/with who, and how many sides there really are…
* Claire : Well, I’m guessing in a few weeks we might know who was right, but I’m still thinking she’s not dead. I agree she was really not her usual self, and playing with the idea of “something” after death, if she did die in the explosion then it’s not hard to imagine she would have then seen Charlie, hence why she said his name as first. But, somehow, I don’t like that idea that much. Also, if she died on the explosion, where is her body ? I mean the actual one, of the “real” Claire ?
But when you say it would mean that people can both be dead and “continue to manipulate the world physically”, I’m pretty sure this is the case already : Charlie was seen by other people when he visited Hurley in the future, Christian (who is definitely dead) was able to carry Aaron around, clearly the “ghosts” (or whatever they are) of dead people can “really” be there, physically, and interact with the world.
But he specifically told Locke not to choose the items he wants, but to choose the items that were already his. As a personality test, it would mean nearly nothing. (”Hmm, kid likes knife. Not likely a scientist.”) As a resurrection test, it’s absolutely conclusive; if the kid chose the wrong thing, the tester would immediately leave with certainty and frustration, which is exactly what happened.
This is a bit weaker piece of evidence, but it does seem a bit more consistent with Alpert checking out Locke’s actual birth, which would be a very pivotal moment for reincarnation.
What I like about this reincarnation theory is that it might actually have bearing on why women could not survive childbirth on the island, which I have never heard any plausible explanation for. But, if the rules with ghosts and after-life are different on the island as recent episodes suggest, the inability to have a child on the island might be explained by those altered rules interfering with the process of reincarnation.
Yes, but if some of these things came, like Alpert, from the future, a future where they belonged to John already, then it could work. Of course there are different ways to look at this, but I feel that it makes as much sense both with the reincarnation and the time travel theory. In fact, given how fate in such an important theme on the show, and how there seem to be things that must happen, and no matter how hard some try they will happen, it could also work if John’s fate was to end up on the Island, having some of those items as his.
But I’m still not sure about that last one, if only because Desmond was told that he would always end up pushing the buttons. If that was the case, Mrs Hawkins wouldn’t have had to worry and push Des not to marry Penny, so I’m unsure on that one.
Still, I think the test works fine with all those theories, and so does the outcome : either way, Richard wanted Locke to pick the items that “already” belonged to him, and somehow John knew how to pick those. He did, except that he also couldn’t resist taking the knife, because he wanted the knife, he wanted to be someone he’s not. Alpert was disappointed by that, because it meant John wasn’t ready to just accept his fate, and who he is, so he left frustrated.
But he knew John was special, that’s why he tried to recruit him later, and why he talked to him on the Island, too. I would include Abaddon on here as well, but I’m not sure he’s part of the same group…
I’m not saying the reincarnation theory doesn’t work, it really does, but I don’t think it works better than others.
About the childbirth problem on the Island, it’s an interesting idea, but it would mean that the “reincarnation process” comes in effect when a baby is conceived, since like others Claire could have her child and survive it without problem while on the Island. It would be that the reincarnation occurs very early on, and it would mean that it (needs to) occurs every time, since when on the Island and it can’t happen, people die. So it’s not only that people get reincarnated, but also that everyone without exception is the reincarnation of someone else…
I don’t know, I’m not sold. I also believe there are/could be reasons to “explain” this issue otherwise, relating to time and the fact that time goes by differently on the Island than in the rest of the world. If the Island is constantly moving through time, such a thing could have an effect and prevent a baby to grow as it should.
I’m also open to the idea that if “the Island” does have a conscience or something, so it can do things, like prevent Michael from dying, or talk to Locke in dreams, it could prevent babies from being born. We don’t know what the Island wants, but it could be to eventually be left alone, in peace, and therefore it wouldn’t want any new life to be brought here. Not sure that one make sense, though.
Okay I’m stopping there cause that’s a lot already, and the more I think about it the less I dislike that reincarnation theory, and I’m not sure I like that! ;)