Get Lost 2

May 2, 2008

And now for another installment in our weekly Lost discussion. (If you don’t care about Lost, just skip to the other posts).

A central theme in Lost has been the ambiguity about whether events occur as a matter of luck or as the result of a supernatural plan.  It’s true that it would have to be incredible luck, but up until the most recent episode everything (or almost everything) could be explained without resorting to the supernatural.

Now the ambiguity is dissolving and it is becoming very clear that supernatural explanations are required.  The most obvious sign of this is the introduction of dead people as characters who talk to multiple people, carry things, etc…  In other words, we can no longer hold onto the possibility that the appearance of a dead person is simply the delusion of a single living person.  The show has largely foreclosed the possibility of psychological explanations.

I think this takes some of the fun out of the show since a central mystery is being resolved.  It’s true that we still have to discover the nature and purpose of these supernatural forces, but that’s a much less interesting puzzle.  Once we get into the supernatural, the rules could be whatever they want them to be.

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Posted by Jay P. Greene

Get Lost

April 26, 2008

Eduwonk may have his Friday Fish Porn for end of week entertainment.  This blog has “Get Lost” — an end of week comment on the latest developments in the TV show Lost.

If you haven’t been following the show, just forget about it.  There are too many details to catch up on unless you are willing to sit there and watch past episodes online or scan Lostpedia.

For the rest of you fellow nerds… The main questions raised in the most recent episode, “The Shape of Things to Come,” are 1) What are the Rules and how did the murder of Alex represent a change in those rules? 2) Why can’t Ben kill Widmore? and 3) Why did the Morse code communication from the freighter say the doctor was fine when he was found dead?

Here are my best guesses.  The Rules could either be an informal understanding, like that they won’t go after each other and family members, or a more formal restraint, like Michael being unable to die because he still has work to do.  I’m inclined to believe that it is an informal understanding, not a hard constraint.  The competition between Widmore and Ben is long-standing and they may have developed understandings of the boundaries of that competition.  If it were a hard constraint, it is not clear how it would be possible to break it.

Second, Ben probably can’t kill Widmore (or vice-versa) because they are each other’s constant.  Killing the other would destroy oneself. 

Third, the mystery of why the freighter reports that the doctor is fine is probably not a time travel issue, since the only time travel we’ve seen with the freighter is of one’s consciousness, not body.  My guess is that it is Sayid controlling the radio and who is falsely saying that the doctor is fine.  We know that he is the only one who was able to get the radio on the freighter working again.  He may have been lying to cover that he attacked the doctor.

Tune in next week.

8 Comments | Lost | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Jay P. Greene

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