Some thoughts on Lost before the season 6 premiere

Right well my internet has slowed and I've literally had one of the WORST days imagineable. Abso-bloody-lutely nothing to fill my day. Woke up, finished off the South Park DVDs I had, noodled around for a bit, played Solitaire, then rewatched Love Actually. After this I played more Solitaire and played a bit of BioShock (so frickin' scary), then watched thw worst Chinese movie ever made with my parents and had dinner and here I am now.

With nothing noteworthy to write about I suppose this is as good a chance as any to write some Lost'ian thoughts. Especially with the final season looking next week, I may not get the opportunity to write about it.

Malkin + Claire + Eko
Last week I read a pretty kickass theory regarding the three mentioned above. If you'll recall, Malkin is the psychic who "sees" a vision where Claire must be the one to raise the child and is also the man whose daughter drowns and is reanimated during her autopsy, which Eko goes to investigate. It never occured to me how these two separate stories, separated by a season and a half actually occur simultaneously. So basically, as I see it, here's what the theory posits:

1. Claire visits Malkin - whether or not he's a fraud is irrelevant for this time (maybe for the first time) he sees an actual vision.
2. Malkin's daughter drowns. He is mortified by her death.
3. Some entity approaches Malkin and tells him that if he convinces Claire to go on Oceanic 815, his daughter will be revived. He agrees and the entity brings his daughter back to life, right in the middle of her autopsy, hence the tape. It's a genuine miracle.
4. Malkin's wife calls the church with the miracle. Eko travels to Sydney to check it out.
5. Malkin holds up his end of the bargin and tells Claire to get on that flight.
6. He then proceeds to get rid of Eko, who is poking around (perhaps part of his deal was to get Eko on the flight as well, who knows) by telling him he's a fraud.
7. Malkin's daughter, who was actually dead, runs to see Eko at Sydney airport and namedrops Yemi.

What I love about this theory is that it's not exactly completely farfetched. It really is just an interpretation of events without overly inventing aspects. It also explains how Malkin's daughter knew about Yemi AND retains the integrity of the importance that Claire raise the child. I'd like to think Aaron in particular is an important plot point.

Now, moving beyond the realm of this theory, I'd like to examine who I think the entity who made this pact with Malkin was. I'm going to propose that it's Jacob. Junnily, it seems any theory these days revolves around the Man in Black (MIB) and Jacob :P I suggest it's Jacob because I think in the season 5 finale, when Jacob was at the bottom of the tower from which Locke fell, it really seemed indicative that Locke died and Jacob brought him back to life.

If this is true then it seems clear that Jacob wants Aaron on the Island, to what end we can only speculate. If Ben was truthful about Jacob being able to give ailments and heal people (like Juliet's sister Rachel and her cancer), then it would seem that Jacob works in physical way, he is able to alter reality. In Claire's first centric episode and she tries to sign the documents giving Aaron away, remember how her pen wouldn't work? That, I submit, is a 'physical' influence and falls under the sphere of Jacob AND it also helped achieve the end of Claire bringing Aaron to the Island.

But if Jacob wants Aaron on the Island, it can't be that far of a stretch to suppose that MIB wants Aaron off the Island? If Jacob works in the realm of the physical then I suggest that MIB works in the realm of illusion and trickery. (Is he Smokey? Perhaps, I personally think not, but I have trouble reconciling that with this paragraph.) He can't kill Jacob directly, but he is able to fool Ben into doing it. He is able to assume the form of Locke and trick everyone into doing his bidding.

And when you examine the events that would have lead to Claire not bringing Aaron to the Island then it becomes clear all these are illusions/trickery, rather than physical. Perhaps most obvious would be Malkin's vision. I suggest that MIB gave Malkin a vision to the end that Malkin  would be adamant that Claire raise the child herself. That she not wish to give it up for adoption and therefore will never have a reason to be on flight 815.

The other is the dream that Kate has whilst she is off Island, when Claire appears to her and tells her not to bring Aaron back. This could count as an illusion. If Christian is also a manifestation of MIB/Smokey then when he appears to Claire that entire scene transforms into an act not to get Claire, but to get rid of Aaron. Perhaps one could even read a morbid interpretation into Charlie's dreams in season 3 when he nearly puts Aaron is mortal danger several times.

So really the basic theory suggested that some entity was willing to bring someone back from the dead to get Aaron to the Island. I've merely extended it and added it to the current Jacob/MIB framework. I'm sure when Claire reappears (and I strongly suspect she will) then some answers can be given ... perhaps a flashback to the scene of Christian on the Island and seeing precisely what was said.

What makes Aaron so special? I have no frickin' clue. It could be to do with Jacobian reincarnation ... or maybe he is Jacob and travels back in time at some point, but that would be kinda lame. Perhaps Aaron serves as some kind of indeterminate entity, on Island he develops into Jacob whilst off Island he develops into a MIB. In this case it would suggest that MIB and Jacob really are the one person ... An idea I kinda like.

Flashsideways
I'm already quite convinced that flashsideways are what these season will be about. TPTB have suggested numerous times that they're going to be employing a different narratological technique and I'm certain this is it. There won't be a complete and total reset, of that I am sure.

The question, therefore is whether or not this alternate reality we are flashing to will ultimately end up being meaningful to the mythology, or whether it's just a chance to see "what if" and to add more character exploration. I see this as a really neat way of resolving and giving closure to characters' stories.

If it is going to be meaningful, then the only way I see it happening, which I've suggested before, would be for the Island to have a self-preservation mechanism, where when Jughead detonated it refused to let itself be destroyed, so whilst the rest of the universe experienced a total change in the past, the Island dislodged itself from the causal realm and kept itself alive. If this is the case then I'm sure it would use up a lot, if not all, of that energy it has stored up and maybe this will figure in as a plot point.

Honestly in my opinion, I think for a very long time they're gonna make us think that it's a total what is scenario. But halfway, 3/4 of the way through it will be revealed that they both exist in the same universe and the two will collapse together.

On Flocke
I've said before that my personal pet theory on Locke is that he always was (or has been for a long time, ie from the first season, or maybe when he fell and broke his spine) MIB, he just wasn't aware of it. But his true form was awakened. Again, the flaw in this is Locke's body but that could be a double-bluff. Whatever the case, I'd like to see the real Locke revived, so if my theory is true then Locke will "take over" MIB's will OR if I'm wrong Locke will reanimate his body.

However I read a really neat theory yesterday. It basically took a Tibetan concept and applied it, and if I could remember it's name I would provide a link to it and research it a bit more.  But the basic premise is that Jacob created MIB and he was created as a non-real being. Something that doesn't truly exist. In a sense it would take the collective unconscious and/or will of people on the Island (or maybe the Others or something) and is able to use that energy. Essentially it works on faith, it is a being on faith.

The idea this theorist is that MIB (maybe Smokey in this theory too, I dunno) took advantage of its source of energy and created a patsy in John Locke. He used John Locke to fool the others, to make them give faith, by giving Locke all manner of "special" properties. Once the Others knew how special he was, faith would begin to cluster around him. Eventually, the con of killing him and then having him ressurected was the clincher, the ultimate Messiaic notion and sealed the faith of everyone. With this, MIB was able to in a sense come the closest to becoming real he's ever been and then when he was able to kill off his creator, ie Jacob, he was created real.

So that's the overarching plot. But really it gives no sense of direction as to what his character will do now. That's the only problem. So he's become real and killed off Jacob. Now what? Why would there be a war??

Ben and Walt
This is a really short theory and just something I cooked up in my rewatch. It's not going to have any long term impact on the final game of the show, but something I thought would be interesting.

Baiscally it latches on to the indication that Walt is special. And the Others interest with him was because he displayed such special qualities. Richard indicates somewhere in the show that their leaders are all special in one way or another. Indeed, his fascination with Ben was because Ben saw his mother (and interesting his major concern was where she died. He seemed most piqued when Ben said his mother died off the Island. So sometimes dies off the Island and you see a vision of them on the Island, that's indicative of something ... So Jack ... Arguable Eko (with Yemi, though Yemi would've survived until he reached the Island)).

Because Walt was so special, Ben became threatened by him and needed a way to get him off the Island. Once he learnt that Michael was en route to the Others' camp or maybe soon after he was captured, Ben hatched his plan. He needed to get rid of Walt and do it in such a way that people wouldn't be able to see through his ruse and begrudge him to denying them a potential future leader.

He would get himself captured by the Survivors. He knows that Richard and the Others cannot risk a full out invasion of the camp, as that would give away their numbers and potentially how well equipped they are. He knows they would have to send Michael to rescue him, the only way to retain the status quo. But how would they convince Michael to do it? They had to let Walt go off the Island. Michael would do just about anything to get him and his son off that Island, even setting one of the Others free from his people and betraying the Survivors.

This accomplishes two things. Firstly he gets rid of his threat in Walt. Secondly it would be to Richard and the other Others that it's their idea. Ben has successfully gotten rid of his opponent and no one can even point a finger at him for it. Which seems right up his ally, no?

Of course it was a giants risk. He might've gotten killed. But then it wouldn't be a TV show :P What this addresses, I think, is what Ben was doing out in the jungle in the first place, and how he, as a leader of these supposed kings of the jungle, could get caught in one of Rousseau's crappy traps.

I have no idea how they would reveal this in the show without a bunch of basic lengthy exposition. I suppose if Walt were to make a return there's opportunity for it. I suppose at some point that was the story they wanted to tell, but as things happened they had to drop this part of it. So maybe we'll never know if I was or wasn't right :D

Not a game changing theory, just an interesting one ;)