Saturday, February 09, 2008

Whose Side Is The Island On?













After watching Episode 4.2, Confirmed Dead and seeing what may or may not be Matthew Abaddon's nefarious plan to infiltrate the Island and acquire the primary objective Ben Linus I got to wondering why the Island would permit these people at least the opportunity to carry out their plans. Naomi who it seems has been lying since Day 1 with her hired by Penny, looking for Desmond story has the clouds part for her, isn't killed in her crash landing and what's more is healed by the Island. Desmond is given a flash which sets in motion the things necessary for Naomi to be able to contact the rest of the Freighter 4, plus at least 2 on the boat. The Freighter 4 land on Island with only minor injuries. The helicopter is even workable. Smokey is no where to be found in any of this.

So here's the question -- does the Island want to get rid of Ben? Does it want these 4 people? Does it want to get rid of the Oceanic 6? Why is the Island being so accommodating at the moment?

7 comments:

maven said...

Morning, Memphish. Well, the island seems to be a little pissed off at Ben (giving him a tumor, letting his control of his people slip and bringing in Locke as a possible replacement). Maybe, the island wants the Freighter 4 to come in and get finally get Ben off the island and set things right again.

Capcom said...

I guess that the answer might rest with Jacob, if he and the island are "One". The Island/Jacob might be letting just enough people in, for just long enough, to get rid of Ben and put a new guru in charge. Then It/He will purge everyone left that is brought in for the mission. Maybe it's a kind of pattern with Jacob...allow visitors, then purge the unwanted.

memphish said...

Good comments. Both of you. It does seem to me that all forces are currently conspiring to bring Ben to dare I say it justice. Yet so far Ben has managed to stay even one step ahead of that what with finding Jack to cure his tumor problem and his mole on the boat to at least put him one step ahead of the Freighties. I guess we know now why Ben said "every living person on this Island will be killed," and that the Island was under its greatest threat in a long time. The mole must have told him so.

I'm very interested to see how this plays out.

lost2010 said...

You've got me thinking.

What if the island knows that people who have been here before can't be prevented from coming back?

Could that be why it won't let the women have babies? It has sensed a threat from what may turn out to be Dharma babies and it's put its foot down. No more babies.

Capcom said...

Memphish, what you said about Ben trying to run from island justice reminds me of that old margarine commercail from the '70s...Ben better not try anymore tricks because, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature!" Or the Island/Jacob!

Interesting Lost2010.

andrew. said...

in the past i've been a firm believer in the island as a sentient entity making life interesting for our Losties, but recent episodes and posts like Memphis's latest have me rethinking it a bit.

What if the island doesn't have a side? what if it doesn't want anything? what if the island is just a land mass?

Sure, a lot of crazy stuff happens on Lost Island. Certainly some of it can be categorized as supernatural, but we're starting to discover that the supernatural in Lost isn't restricted to the island. Hurley was paling around with imaginary people and feeling the curse of the numbers long before he got to the island. The Australian psychic may or may not have told Claire her fortune but his daughter did sit up on an autopsy table. Walt was already calling birds and freaking out his stepdad when he was living in Australia. Juliet's ex-husband got creamed by her magic bus, and now we have Miles the ghostwhisperer. IF we begin to accept slightly paranormal events & coincidences off the island, then we begin to see that the island itself might not be so extraordinairy. In the Lost universe, the unexplainable happens more frequently.

Is is Zeus clapping whenever it thunders? or is the sun really Apollo racing his chariot across the sky? When we build up and focus on a mythology, we stop looking for real explanations. We begin to accept that it's the Island carrying out it's plan when it heals Locke, Rose, or Naomi. We begin to accept that the Island is holding a grudge when it leaves Ecko, Libby, Shannon, Boone... to die, temporarily takes away Locke's ability to walk, or leaves Ben to contend with a tumor.

We could begin to explore the posibility that strong electromagnetic activity on the island is doing things like raising sperm counts or super-activating white blood cells & platelets. Perhaps there are hot spots & dead spots on the island that are effected more or less strongly. Or we can continue to antrhopomorphize a floating rock, try to second guess it's intentions and offer it 'sacrifices'.

I'm really starting to believe that Locke & Ben and others that worship the island are misguided. (when has Locke ever been right?) They're so busy trying to divine meaning from every rainstorm & chance encounter, that they lose sight of the mystery of life and the messy way it unfolds. Every moment is the culmination of a lot of chance encounters and events.

i think we'll see that extraordinairy things can happen on LOST, things that are sci-fi or fantasy, but they don't necessarily need a grandmaster's guiding hand coordinating it all. and a lot of the mumbo jumbo coming from Locke is simple misdirection from more logic-based explanations.

Capcom said...

I sure agree about the Locko-mumbo-jumbo! :o)

I've never felt that the island is sentient, or has a consciousness, but it confuses me in the way that that old Star Trek episode with the tanned natives with big foreheads and white hair who worshipped the volcano god still confuses me. I never quite understood how the volcano mouth knew if they brought the correct sacrifice; or how it spoke to the natives; or how it could hear what everyone was saying. It's a lot like our Lost island.

In other words, I have no clue. :-D