I know I’ve been slacking on my Lost posts, so instead of doing an episode post for the previous episode (and I’ll really try to take those up again starting this week), I’m going to assess where we are at the middle of the season. While we have been presented with a few more glaring questions this season, last week’s episode, “Ab Aeterno” was instrumental in giving the season and the series purpose.
From what we saw in that episode, I believe the MIB is a devil-like figure, but not necessarily with the purpose to tempt people to do wrong—he tempts people to do his bidding, so he can get off the Island . The Island is Hell in the sense that it is a holding place for the devil, but not in the sense that being there is a punishment. In fact, as we’ve seen for many of the characters, being there was actually a blessing. It gave them a chance to be better people, and most of them did—Jack, Sawyer, Sun and Jin, Charlie, even Ben (eventually).
Jacob vs. MIB
We know Jacob and the MIB, have been engaged in a battle (maybe “Ab Aeterno”—from eternity) on a couple of different levels.
Jacob has two main objectives: 1. Keep Smokey on the island. If he is let off the island, then darkness will be let out into the world. 2. To prove to Smokey that the human race when given the chance can prove to be inherently good and not inherently sinful. He brings people to the island with this purpose—to show that they can be good when left to their own devices—that it won’t turn into Lord of the Flies. As mentioned before, Jacob has succeeded with certain characters however on the whole, I don’t know how successful he’s been—there have been many negative human actions on this island as well.Smokey has one main objective: Get off the island. It seems like he could care less about the people on the island and the state of their souls—whether they’re good or evil. He doesn’t want anything proved to him. He is simply using the people he wants to help him get off. In order to do that he has to: 1. Kill the guardian of the Island (who has been Jacob, but now must be one of the candidates) 2. Get the people to take him off the Island . It seems as if he can’t get off this island himself. He needs people to come with him…not sure why.
The interesting thing about the MIB is why does he choose to kill certain characters and not others. Like when he killed everyone on Richard’s ship, but then didn’t kill Richard. What’s the deal? He’s done that in previous seasons too—he did it with Locke in the first season. Also, there is some speculation that Jacob is the one lying and Smokey is the one telling the truth, but I don’t think so. Like I mentioned in a previous post, he is way to much like Milton
Another nagging question that might have been answered two episodes ago is Aaron’s purpose. Fake-Locke had that interesting conversation with Kate when he said that he is the way he is because he had a crazy mother. Now so far Aaron has been raised by Kate who we assume has done a very good job raising him—there haven’t been any problems. Now that Kate is on the Island , Claire’s mother is raising him. She also seems like a very capable woman. No problems there. Remember that psychic in Season 1 who warned Claire that she has to raise her son. That no one else should raise her son (he was pretty emphatic about it). Maybe we were reading that wrong—maybe that’s not because of what would happen to Aaron but because of what would happen to Claire. She didn’t raise her son, and she turned psycho. So maybe Aaron’s purpose is really connected to Claire and not Aaron himself. Locke made Kate think that Aaron was in trouble because of Claire, but I never trust anything he says. I think Claire’s the one that’s in trouble because she lost Aaron.
The Alternate Timeline
The major question that has been raised this season is what is the purpose of this alternate timeline. We know that it has shown our Lost characters with some of the same faults, but instead of being defined by those faults they are defined by their ability to rise above them (this idea of "rising" is important). They all have the inclination towards the flawed people they have been throughout the series, however they almost all are able to make a key choice in their alternate timeline towards good. It’s almost as if they are acting with the knowledge and experience they gained from their time on the island. There are lots of theories going around as to what this timeline is going to be. Some say it’s an epilogue for the season replacing the timeline that we know to be real, which I completely disagree with. That would mean that everything that happened in Seasons 1-4 was meaningless, and I have too much faith in these writers to believe they would do that to us.
I think that in some way, our characters are going to be united in this alternate timeline and somehow that timeline, is going to converge with our current timeline. How does that happen? Don’t know. We’ve already seen many of our characters interacting in the alternate timeline and judging from the ends of several of the episodes, there is more to come from these interactions. The idea of convergence comes from the title of the book Jacob was reading at the end of last season, Flannery O’Connor’s collection of short stories, Everything that Rises Must Converge. The story which the title is taken from (although I love it) doesn’t seem to have too much of a connection with Lost plot (Flannery O’Connor’s themes in general, however, do), but I did some research, and she actually took her title from the work of a French philosopher. The quotation is very much applicable to Lost: “Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge." We’ve seen our characters “rising” this season, especially in the alternate timeline—so does this mean that all of them will be brought together?Despite the fact that this might be one of the most confusing seasons of Lost (yes, for me, even more than last season), I’m enjoying it more and more, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get the ending we’ve been waiting for.
Favorite Episode of the Season so far: Dr. Linus (with Ab Aeterno coming in a close second)
Worst Episode of the Season so far: What Kate Does (although I’m thinking more and more that it was a key set-up episode)
I believe the alternative timeline will replace the one from seasons 1-4. I'm not sure if it renders seasons 1-4 meaningless. If the purpose of the alternative timeline is to show us how these characters' non-island lives changed as a result of what happened on the island then we'd have to know what it was like without the island's effects.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what happens I think we're going to find storytelling flaws in the first 4 seasons. I remember reading one of those Syd Field screenwriting books and one of his most important rules is to know what the resolution is going to be before you actually begin writing your script. This way there is a focus and the plot doesn't just meander. It may be too early to officially say this, but I think Field's advice would have helped the show.