YAY! It's time for MAIL BAG! [Where Amy finally gets off her tail and does the best she can to answer your questions about LOST!]
THIS EDITION OF MAIL BAG focuses on lingering questions after "The End." The finale left a lot of LOST fans scratching their heads (and/or CRYING their eyes out like ME). The good news is with the finale over, all the puzzle pieces are FINALLY in the box. The better news is: if you are one of those fans determined to figure out what happened, you are in luck! Team Rewatch here at LOSTblog is all about going BAAAAACK to the beginning and re-examining the entire show in context. Be sure to check out all our recaps, podcasts and LIVE chats each week!
This is a special edition of MAIL BAG is dedicated to answering excellent QUESTIONS from groovy LOST fan, Diane. Her questions and my answers cover similar questions many of my lovely LOST readers have been posting over the past three weeks. I'll encourage all of you to read through them!
Diane wrote:
It's me again, Amy. I've re-read your recaps and some of the other articles you've written about your theories, and they are very interesting.
Thank you very much! I'm glad you are enjoying them!
Did you come up with this on your own?
I didn't start really digging into LOST until after the Season 3 finale (first flash forward), and even then, I spent very little time debating/discussion the show with other peeps on a regular basis. I'm not the only fan (by FAR) who made a strong case that nothing on LOST taking place in a physical world well before the finale. However, I've yet to find someone who syncs up 100% with what I'm doing, esp when we start getting into the Undershow -- I'll save that one for later! Unless I specifically note it, everything I post comes from my own head (disturbing, right?). All I can say is what I always say: I only follow the evidence.
Do most of the people on this site agree with your theory? Just asking.
Always feel free to ask questions! We love it! The simplest answer is: maybe. LOSTblog was developed and set up to facilitate rewatch and post-finale activities, all based on the idea that this is supposed to be FUN. What's so very cool about rewatch, and about LOSTblog in general, is that the guess work is over. Now is the time to TEST our theories against the show as a whole. Everyone on LOSTblog is very excited and really digging in, which I LOVE! If you've explored other writers on the site and LOSTblog peeps' discussions on our podcasts, then you know there's a wide spectrum of theories about the show represented here. Right now, we are all at the "maybe" stage. For the most part what I've heard is -- okay, so I can agree it's not physically real (since the finale made that pretty darn clear), so where does that leave us? Now is the time to ask more questions. The best way to do that is to start from scratch and work together. That's what makes the show so cool in the first place!
Hopefully, you've also noticed that at LOSTblog we work very hard to keep our discussions friendly, fun and interesting without putting anyone down or making anyone feel "wrong" or "stupid" about their ideas. LOSTblog is a hater-free zone *-- ALWAYS! So feel free to ask your questions -- they are NOT stupid!
Did that answer your question? All I'll say for now is that it's become a lot easier for other peeps on this site to "see" what I'm talking about. That is way cool in itself!
*FYI for all lovely LOST readers: Hater-free zone is exactly what it implies. Any and all opinions and constructive criticisms are welcomed here with open arms. However, comments laced with insults, condescension and hurtful intent will be completely ignored and immediately deleted, regardless of subject or target (Team LOSTblog or other lovely LOST readers). [Welcome to Rewatch, jerkies!!]
O.K. Here are a few questions. Please forgive me if they seem stupid, but I'm still trying to get my non scientific mind around this.
There are NO stupid questions when it comes to LOST! And FYI: I'm an English Lit/Freshman Comp teacher! I'm right there with you!
In your theory this is an artificially constructed reality into which the Losties have been activated. Nothing is happening in the real, material world, but for these characters everything seems real and would have an effect on their psyches.
In a way, yes. Everything we see on LOST (FB, FF, FS, LA, Island) is not taking place in the PHYSICAL world, but I've always argued that lack of a physical world does not prevent it from being VERY real. Christian makes this clear to Jack in the finale ("Everything that's happened to you is real." -- That means EVERYTHING we've seen happen to Jack has been REAL, no matter where it's happened to him-flash, island or otherwise). I'd argue that not only do our losties experience this world as real, but they are aware that this "unreality" can still kill them. I'd also argue that what they are experiencing is affecting their IDENTITIES -- we see their identities healed in the finale. The trick is to think of their identities as intact consciousnesses: Even though we are not seeing their "real" bodies, we are seeing the "real" them. Their identities are tampered with and manipulated until "The Incident." Then they are "moved" to the sideways world and "repaired."
This is definitely a constructed world (or worlds) because it uses a limited pool of elements to create it. That's why so many things repeat over and over again. However, I still can't say exactly HOW this world is created. I think our losties have varying degrees of (mental) control over the world/events happening around them, so I tend to think of this world as more organic and dynamic -- like lucid dream state. I also --and this will be a theme for me as we go through rewatch-- think that our losties were SENT into this world. They didn't just end up here because it's THE after life (cuz it's NOT), or because they're "dead." They were sent there for a "reason," i.e. they were sent on a MISSION with specific objectives.
Question 1-why are these people in this experiment or therapy or whatever it is in the first place? To me, this would be important to know at least sometime in the story so I could know what succeeded or not.
There's a really complex and REALLY out there theory I'm working on, but the simple hypothesis I'm starting with is stated above: Our losties were SENT IN to this "system" for a reason -- I think they volunteered (for various personal reasons) for this mission. I think they were successful in their mission: They "woke" Jacob up, fixed his "mistake," whatever he did to break the island, eliminated the threat (Locke), saved everyone who was trapped (like Michael) and reset/rescued/preserved the island so it could still be used "to help people" (under Hurley's guidance). Then they all safely exited the "system" with their identities intact.
Question 2- Who is the guy or guys behind the curtain (running the show)? In most stories where some kind of artificial reality is created, the viewer gets a pretty clear feeling of the people running it in the outside or real world. Here we get hints, at best (Jacob, MIB, Christian, Widmore?) but nothing really concrete (at least not to me).
That's an excellent question! I think that the "man behind the curtain" is never someone specifically, hands on running the entire show because the island (and the flashes it facilitates) is not a 100% mechanical system. It's really tempting to think that there's a "puppetmaster" or group of peeps watching on monitors and punching buttons to mess with our losties, but there's not much evidence of that from what I can tell. By the end, HURLEY is "the man behind the curtain." Hurley's still in the system, yes? And we're to assume from Hugo's and Ben's conversation outside the church that Hurley did a good job being "the man behind the curtain," at least that's what I thought when I heard it. That precludes the puppetmaster idea to me. After Jack enters Scooby Doo Cave, it's fairly clear that Hurley will be a facilitator -- using the island as he thinks best (remember Ben tells him he doesn't have to do things the way Jacob did) to help people (as opposed to LOCKE who is a manipulator, using the island to get what he wants) . I think we have an excellent picture of what the island was originally used for in "Lighthouse," when Jacob, Hurley and Dogen work a flash for Jack that "heals" his identity AND sends him a MESSAGE.
Remember what Mother says in "Across the Sea?" She "got here" by accident. Then Dogen says, "I was brought here just like you were." That tells me that this "technology," whatever it is or however it works was DISCOVERED and then put to use. Hurley's use of the "fixed" island tells the rest of the story. Whatever Jacob did, for whatever reason, he broke it. [Good to remember here that "Across the Sea" is an ALLEGORY. The entire explanation for what the island is and how it works and WHY our losties have been SENT on a mission is explained in allegorical terms in that episode.]
All that being said, there's LOTS and LOTS of evidence that our losties, through SOUND, are in contact with someone/something on the "outside." However, from what I can tell, that contact is mainly acquiring information.
3- I get that the characters are experiencing everything as we see it happen (so flashbacks are not the characters remembering something that happened earlier, they are experiencing them for the first time). Are these memories completely fabricated, or are the Losties (or manipulators) creating these memories to bring out specific reactions in the characters?
Both. The trick is that the island was originally used for YOU (as participant) to take control/responsibility of what happens to you and/or the choices you make. You are given a guide and a watcher to help you make the most of the the island experience to "heal yourself," which from a psychological point of view makes total sense. I can't force you to forgive yourself for causing your father's death (John in Sideways), can I? You have to choose to do it yourself, or it's worthless.
The most useful trick to decipher this flash business is to think of the flashsideways versions of our losties as the "corrected" baseline versions of our losties (for the most part). We see how "memories"/"identities" in the sideways are used to "heal" Jack in "Lighthouse." That only happens in the sideways world after the influence of the island (aka Mock Locke) is eliminated (after The Incident/Jacob's Death).
John Locke is the perfect example. When (sideways) John tells Jack he's ready to "get out of this chair," it's symbolic of his "awakening" and/or "healing" -- forgive himself and letting go of his guilt over what happened to his dad -- this guilt is "paralyzing" him. See how that works? However, in the flashback world, John Locke has the memory of his father tossing him out a window in an attempt to kill him. Maybe that memory belongs to someone on the island, maybe someone fabricated it, but wherever that memory comes from, we see in the flashsideways that it's completely false. So why was John put through that memory? Best answer: to manipulate him. Locke (the bad guy) needed John to 1) leave the island, 2) die and 3) come back wearing Christian's shoes in order to be "free" to use his identity as his own - autonomous from John.
HERE'S the other VERY, VERY tricky thing about the flashbacks and flash forwards (and the flashes we see on the island and in the plane) -- they are NOT ONLY being used to inform our losties' identity/manipulate them. They are ALSO being used to send our losties INFORMATION. Just like when Eko and Locke have "dreams" with messages in them, these flashes have messages in them as well. The best example I can give you is Jack in "White Rabbit." The message he gets is: your father's been killed. We are tricked into believing he is remembering HIS part in and guilt about his father's death, but this is NOT a memory. If we consider Jack is experiencing his flash for the first time, then what we are actually seeing is his him searching for his father, ["Where are you?!"] and then learning he's dead/been killed. If you look at Jack's journey to the caves in "White Rabbit," we also see that Jack KNOWS something's missing, and that the missing thing, the thing that will "heal" him and get him home ["I need this to be over."], is in Christian's possession or related to his finding Christian. [We'll go over more of this in my recap/analysis of "White Rabbit," which should be up NLT Sunday.]
In "The Last Recruit," Locke admits that HE was pretending to be "our father." He was manipulating Jack from the beginning. Think about it: JOHN had the overwhelming guilt and self-hatred over his father's death. In his flash, Jack has it. It's not hard to think MLocke has the same ability as Jacob does. He's just using it to get what he wants - to get off the island. This is his endgame. His problem is, our losties have an endgame too.
4-If these are not real memories, do we ever get an idea of who these people were before the show started? Or are they like the dolls in Dollhouse, where identities are just uploaded into them? It's a bit confusing because Sun and Jin seemed to know each other before we had any flashes about them.
So do Kate and Jack. And Kate and Sawyer. Very interesting to see how the information works in these first few episodes. If you're looking for something specific, I think your best bet at getting an idea of who these people were/are is in the sideways world. In "The End" we see their personalities/identities "restored" within the correct parameters. So Sawyer/James is still Sawyer/James, for all intensive purposes, even though he's a cop instead of an ex-con. He becomes the "real" Sawyer/James when he and Juliet trigger each other's memories. I think it's fair to say that the final version we see of our losties is as "real" as it gets.
As to what our losties knew or didn't know before we see their flashes, that is a VERY good question. I think it depends on the lostie. Remember when Ethan snatches Claire and Charlie, and Jack tells Kate, "Just give me something real"? She tells him about tracking deer with her dad. Our losties are NOT the usual customers on the island AND THEY KNOW IT. It's good to notice that each of our losties is different -- they have different "abilities" within the system. Ever notice how if you want to FIND anything, if you tell Kate about it or if she's with you, she quickly finds whatever it is you're looking for? Jack is much the same way: Jack can "bring peeps with him" from world to world. Think of how often we see Jack first, and then see everyone else around him ("LA X" is a great example). I think that's why it's so important that Jack is "fixed" before everyone can move on. They can't move on without him because he's the one who can get them through "the door."
[I'm so excited to get to "House of the Rising Sun" (next week), because Jin and Sun are fascinating!]
5-I buy the idea that this was never about good and evil, but maybe more about something being out of balance (and killing MIB then recorking the Light seemed to fix everything), but WHAT was out of balance? Of course, the characters were portrayed as being very lost souls, and if this is some kind of therapy to help them out, you could say that's what happened. It feels right on one level...Jacob did tell them that he brought them to the Island because they were lost and alone. And this would also explain the character driven aspect to the show, especially the ending...am I getting close? But it's never explained clearly. I mean, are they all patients in a mental hospital? Subjects in an experiment? Why did they have to go through such an elaborate story to reach their goal?
All excellent questions! I can only answer in theory for now, but it's a theory based on as much evidence as I can find. I think the island is a kind of "technology" that can be (and had been) used to "help" people. However, for some reason, Jacob made a "mistake" and broke it. Our losties were sent in on a covert mission to fix the problem. However, in order to do that, they had enter this world "blank" and submit to the technology/program of the island. The monkey wrench in the works is MLocke. I don't think they were prepared for him, which is why he ends up getting what he wants. The other monkey wrenches in the works are the OTHERS and JACOB. I think Jacob is actually "asleep" or lost in an illusion JUST LIKE DESMOND was in the hatch. It's not until "Across the Sea" that Jacob UNDERSTANDS what's going on and what HE needs to do - accept responsibility for his mistake and enable our losties (the TEAM he RECRUITED) to fix it.
I know your pain! It would be nice to have clear and distinct answers to what the island is and where our losties go after "The End." However, I really do think 1) we're on the right track and 2) the answer is actually in there somewhere. The question for us is: Are we willing to go down the rabbit hole to find it?
Well, you know I AM! So here's my official down the rabbit hole GUESS. Keep that "GUESS" thing in mind because I'm not even ready to call it a theory yet. Ready? I think what was "broken" was JACOB. I think JACOB was divided and sucked in to this world somehow. Think about it: two babies, but only one name. Two bodies with NO names: Mother and Brother. Two sides: black and white. The plane splits in two. "A Tale of Two Cities." I'm not too clear on exactly what's divided or how, but it makes sense that MLocke can't leave the island. If your mind (for example) is split into two distinct halves and one half "leaves," your chance of recovery or even staying alive are about zero. It also makes sense that he would WANT to leave the island and still be unable to comprehend why he can't. He doesn't see himself as part of Jacob -- Jacob is the enemy, and MLocke is the "old friend who grew tired of my company."
This is why I think "Across the Sea" is THE MOST IMPORTANT episode in Season 6 -- it explains HOW Jacob became divided and then stranded without guidance (Mother) or balance (Brother). [Remember ALLEGORY = NOT LITERAL].
Don't panic! Remember I'm guessing, and I'm happy to admit I'm guessing! But I'm happy to leave you all with a mind-blowing teaser. Just DON'T PANIC! Okay?
I wasn't planning on spilling this now [I was waiting for "House of the Rising Sun" to do it]. However, poor Diane has patiently waited WEEKS for me to get to her questions! I feel bad! So a little extra somethin' somethin' seems appropriate here. Keep in mind that this is the bare bones of what I'm still trying to put together. A more detailed explanation will come later. Ready?
[caption id="attachment_641" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Lookit -- I found stones."]
[/caption]I'm sure some of ya'll have heard Amy's crazy idea about the Undershow [That's where you turn off the sound and read lips and GASP! discover there's ANOTHER level -- another STORY to this show. If the Undershow bothers you, I highly recommend you just pretend I never mentioned it and concentrate on the other things I'm working with. They'll be strange enough as it is! ]. Anyway -- you'll notice the I keep coming back to "Across the Sea" even though I still haven't done a recap on it. Blame Darlton. I read that when Jack finds the STONES in that little bag in the caves, Darlton claim it proves without a shadow of a doubt that they knew the ending the entire time. I know. I know. LOTS of LOST fans were so frustrated by that point, they never took it very seriously. But not your old pal Amy. In six years, I've NEVER heard them make a claim like that -- not even close! That tells me, it's time to look a little bit closer. And since looking a little bit closer means staring at Matthew Fox's Shirtless Bod over and over again, I didn't find it a difficult task at ALL!! :)
[caption id="attachment_651" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Whoa! What's up with that scar!"]
[/caption]Remember, I'm not pretending to explain everything here, but I guarantee, if you look at that ONE scene, where Jack finds the bag and holds the stones, you'll see something you missed before -- don't feel bad. The original episode was so dark, you really had to LOOK look for it. When Jack first pulls out that bag, he holds it in his hands. Then he does a very odd look down -- not at the BAG -- at his BELLY. Specifically, at the SCAR on his belly that WASN'T there before he picked up that bag. After he holds the two stones in his hand, Locke shows up. He quickly tucks the stones away -- as he does it, we see the scar is HUGE, like it is in "Lighthouse," but after he tucks those stones away, that scar fades away -- then barely in and out of existence. It continues to fade in and out of existence every time we see Jack shirtless (NOT ENOUGH TIMES in my opinion), until we see him check it out and ask about it in "Lighthouse."
Ya'll ponder that for a week or two. Keep in mind three very important questions: Why didn't we SEE Jacob until the FIRST SCENE of the incident? Why is Jacob "remembering" Jack finding the stones? [Check the other memory flashes in "The End" and you'll see what I mean. Jacob is REMEMBERING the event we see -- and because we've seen it actually happen in Season 1, and the memory is ALMOST the same (the ORDER of events is different in Jacob's flash) -- we know it's not a false memory.]
[caption id="attachment_648" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Quick! Hide the stones from Locke!"]
[/caption]Third question: If we look back in "Walkabout," we can see how Locke/MIB "jumped" into John at the beginning of that episode (like a stowaway -- a consciousness "hiding" in John's consciousness -- Locke is John's OTHER). The similarities between his waking up on the beach and Jack waking up in the bamboo are WAY to similar to ignore. Take into consideration that we KNOW Smokey's in/connected to John in some way from "Walkabout" on. Also take into consideration our discussion of the SPLIT -- Jacob as split into TWO -- Jacob and No Name Other Brother.
Don't panic.
Now ask yourself. If Locke can "jump" into John, and Jacob can REMEMBER Jack finding the stones (they are a CONSTANT - like Kate's plane, Charlie's guitar, etc. They connect the owner with specific memories in his/her flash -- memories specifically attached to the constant), then it's not very difficult to connect the dots here. JACOB is JACK'S OTHER -- (for at least the first two seasons).
I'm serious -- don't panic!
Last thought: You wanna know why I'm pretty darn sure I'm right given the evidence? From the pilot, in the UNDERSHOW, EVERYBODY calls Jack "JACOB." That's his "other" name. Don't believe me, well, then you'll just have to look. Start by watching Jack and Kate introduce themselves for the first time -- turn OFF the sound and check out what Jack says. He says: JACOB.
[Ahhhh -- I feel so much better now! I've been sitting on that Jacob is Jack's Other info for three 3 years! I didn't have any proof whatsoever until "Across the Sea!"]
That's all for now. Ya'll chew on that and come up with some good answers -- FYI: Because it's impossible for them to create something like an "Undershow" won't cut it. JUST LOOK. We'll come back to that in a coupla weeks and peel it down even further!
Doesn't this show rock?!
6-Final one. For now. When you look back on the whole series and your theories about what was happening, were you surprised, or did everything pan out according to your theory?
Dang, Diane! There's no good way to answer this question! Okay, well, the God's honest truth is -- nope. However, I'm NOT saying that I "knew everything" in the end. In fact, I was SHOCKED when Jack said: "I died, too" because I was ABSOLUTELY certain Team LOST was gonna leave the "Is it or isn't it a physical world?" question completely ambiguous. I was so frickin' happy to hear Jack say that, I was too fried with joy to "feel" the final scene! I had to go back and watch it again to actually experience it like I was supposed to. [Then I cried for 3 days! Like a complete MORON! Ugh!]
And I confess, after three years of being picked on and bullied and harassed online, I was "Little Miss I-told-you-so" in my heart -- but only for about 24 hours. That's how long it took me to realize how many of my online LOST pals were taking "dead" literally, saying that the sideways world was purgatory/THE afterlife, saying that those two "facts" proved that the island WAS a physically real world that DID take place in the past, and that I was just as wrong as I was before the finale -- except NOW I was wrong because I LOVED every minute of the finale!! I was delusional in my "completely psychotic and deranged" theories, I had made up an entirely different show from the one I was watching -- that's why I liked it so much!! The finale totally sucked, the writers cheated and never knew what they were doing, and I was completely retarded. Again.
*forehead THUMPS on table*
I had one jerky, a pretty cool pal too, [who will remain nameless and gender unspecified] actually tweet: "The best thing about the finale was that aohora was wrong. The sideways isn't real, but the island is." No kidding! Naturally, I said, "Um -- then prove it. I'm all ears." No go. One cool pal down the drain! Oh well. (I'm not bitter, just disappointed.) Man, I can't wait to see how many unpleasant comments turn up on this post! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
In the end, Amy's final word is: "Whatever." I knew that there was NO way LOST would end in this neat little bow that demystified the entire show -- if for no other reason than it would cost ABC/Disney MONEY in DVD sales [buyer beware: they're not gonna clear up everything on the DVD either -- NOT a CHANCE]. I was totally happy anyway.
Just because you've sorted out all the edge pieces doesn't mean you've solved the puzzle, and I knew that's what LOST was -- a puzzle, a riddle -- right from the beginning. That's what makes it so awesome!! The only way I'll know if my "crazy" theories pan out will be after rewatch, which is why I'm SO excited to be a part of LOSTblog's Rewatch team!! The clues are THERE. The answers are IN THERE. We just have to let go of our assumptions and examine all the evidence! That's also why, in nearly every recap, you'll see me ask YOU to find the evidence to help me test my theories! Bring it! Let's do this!
After all, who cares if I'm wrong as long as I KNOW one way or the other!!! ACK!
Many thanks to Diane for her most excellent questions! Keep it coming, lovely LOST readers! The more the merrier!
