Theories and Questions about the Big Ideas behind Lost

The night before the premiere!  Now there are some people out in Hawaii who have already seen the first episode (lucky), but I don’t know anything about it except the two minute preview that ABC has on their website.  So based on that and my ideas from the end of last season, here’s what I think this show is about and then the questions this leads to.  I had a hard time putting everything into words …but I tried.

I think we received the biggest clue to what’s happening in the first season when John explains to Walt the game of backgammon.  “Two players.  Two Sides. One light.  One dark.”  Now, after watching season 5, we know those two sides are Jacob, in white, and the Man in Black.  But the key here is the idea of a game.  We’ve seen the backgammon, we’ve seen a chessboard pop up every so often, there are several Alice in Wonderland references which also takes place on a chessboard, and I think that’s what’s going on here.  There’s a kind of game being played between these two god-like figures.  And the basic moves in this game are as follows:  Jacob brings people to the island, the Man in Black tries to destroy them. (I’m thinking he has some kind of connection to the Smoke Monster.)    

Here’s the thing though—it’s not a simple dichotomy of good and evil.  The man in black isn’t necessarily evil.  At least I don’t think so.  He just has a different view of mankind and what the world of the island should be like.  It’s all in the short, cryptic conversation they have at the beginning of “The Incident”: 

MIB:  You’re still trying to prove me wrong aren’t you?

Jacob:  You are wrong. (said with immediate conviction)

MIB:  Am I? They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt.  It always ends the same.

Jacob:  It only ends once. Everything else before that is just progress.

Taking a close look at that conversation, the first question we ask is what is Jacob trying to prove to the Man in Black?  I think it’s that mankind can be redeemed.  That imperfect people (as all of our wonderful main characters are) can change for the better.  The Man in Black doesn’t believe that.  He believes we’re hopeless, and so as to not spoil the paradise that is the Island, he protects it by killing various people. Kind of like the angel that guards the Garden of Eden in Genesis.  Their philosophies actually remind me very much of a conversation in Raisin in the Sun.  I’m sure it’s actually part of a philosopher’s theory—but I don’t know much more than the basics about philosophy.  (Although I’m pretty sure Locke and Hume, two of our characters’ namesakes, were of the same school of thought to that of Jacob.)  I do know Raisin though.  An argument between Beneatha and Asagai proceeds as follows:

Beneatha: An end to misery! To stupidity! ... Don’t you see there isn’t any real progress, Asagai, there is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture in front of us – our own little mirage that we think is the future. (3.1.26-8)

Asagai: What you just said about the circle. ... It isn’t a circle – it is simply a long line – as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end – we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd but those who see the changes – who dream, who will not give up – are called idealists…and those who see only the circle we call them the "realists."

According to Asagai’s terms, the Man in Black, is a realist and Jacob is an idealist.  The Man in Black believes that things will never change, Jacob believes that they can, even if it is only little by little.  And so he brings people to the island, to try to prove this to The Man in Black and to also give people like Locke, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley and crew another chance at life.  A chance to be better than they are.  He has faith in humankind.  Man in Black on the other hand looks at things realistically, logically.  Interesting how you can flip the tables.  Jack and Locke look at faith and logic in reference to a higher power or in terms of whatever is guiding things to happen on the Island.  These higher powers, in the form of Jacob and Man in Black, can apply the same perspectives to mankind. 

Jacob has the ability to influence people’s actions, like bringing people to the Island, but he cannot completely control them.  When he interacts with someone, he says you are now a part of the game.  But unlike pawns on a chess board—these characters have minds of their own, they can make choices.  And so while Jacob may have a “destiny” intended for them, it is up to them whether they’re going to fulfill it.  I’m not sure what his touching does though.  Does Jacob know that time is going to be reset?  Does this give these characters some kind of special power when time is reset?  Judging from the small snippet that plays on ABC.com, time has moved back to 2004, and this time the plane doesn’t crash.  I’m wondering what this means for all the characters that have died as a consequence of what has happened on the island.  Are they not dead anymore?

Anyway, I think this last season is another chance for this cast of characters to get it right.  To fulfill their destinies.  To redeem themselves from their past actions and failures.  While I think there is this element of a destiny, I also think free will and choice play a big part here.  I think that Jacob purposely allowed himself to be killed by Ben in order to set some kind of events in motion (maybe a kind of Christ-figure).  When he says, “They’re coming” at the end of last year’s season finale, I think it’s Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Hurley, etc. who are going to get another chance to change things.  But it’s their choice.  And possibly, in a weird way, I think we’re going to see Jack and Locke’s perspectives now reversed.  Jack having faith, while fake-Locke, being possibly possessed by the Man in Black does not.

 

Now I’m not sure how a few people fit into this.  Charles Widmore, Eloise Hawking, Desmond.  What are Charles Widmore’s intentions—doesn’t he seem to be more on the side of the Man in Black than Jacob?  Or maybe his actions just reinforce The Man in Black’s ideas (fighting, destroying, corrupting).  Same thing with Ben.  The Others/Hostiles seem to be ruled by Jacob, but why would he want the Dharma Initiative exterminated?  Desmond has a very weird ability to be able to exist in various times.  Why?  And what role does he play in all of this philosophy? 

The other weird thing is—if the plane didn’t crash, what does that mean for the people currently on the Island?  Sun and dead Locke who were on that original plane.  Do they exist in two times at once?  That would be strange.

Anyway, I could spend three more hours trying to piece everything together, so I’m going to stop here.  Feel free to comment, criticize, disagree, agree.